Bahama Birthday

Happy birthday Mom!  Today was Mom's birthday, and here's the pin and certificate to prove it!  This is Mom's birthday cruise, and today was bound to be a special one!

We had all kinds of gifts in the pockets hanging from the door, and even some new magnets some special fellow passengers put on our door.  And then there were the birthday cards - here's one from Uncle George...

And look what Maddie smuggled on board to give Mom for her birthday: these three gnome friends and another nice butterfly card.  

To be clear, the butterfly theme wasn't coordinated!  Mom loved the cards, and it was a pleasant start to the day.  I got her a nice hot cuppa tea, and we sat for a while there on the veranda, looking over the island of Eleuthera.

Here's another look at those gnomes, and after a bit of resting this morning, watching the waves, we decided to head out to breakfast at the Royal Table.  Time for a Royal Breakfast for Mom's birthday!

They had churro Mickey Waffles - and gluten-free Mickey Waffles for Mom too!  Yummy!

Maddie, Uncle George and Thip went over to the island via that big bridge you see in the picture below.  

You can also see the towel folding there, a pirate riding on a crocodile.  But yeah, Maddie, Uncle George and Thip went over that bridge there and rode over to the island to spend some time at the beach.  We'll see some pictures from them in a bit, but in the meantime, what were Mom and I doing?

Funnel Vision!  Okay, so this has been on my to-do list for a while, just sitting up there and watching a movie on Funnel Vision.  The movie this morning was "The Princess and the Frog," one of our favorites.  Mom and I found a nice spot in the shade, and just sat there, relaxing as the movie played.

You can't tell it so much from the photos, but Buzz Lightyear and Woody were there, doing some photo shoots and video spots while we sat there.  But how great this was for us.  Pretty much ninety percent of the passengers were on the island, but Mom and I were just fine staying on the boat this time.  We got to see a lot of the beach last year.  

So let's check in with Maddie, Uncle George and Thip... and Joey the Porg...

And others too!  You can see that long walkway there, a leisurely seventeen minute walk along the concrete there in blazing heat.  

But after the ride in the tram, they made it to the beautiful blue water there, shimmering and just gorgeous.

It was a nice relaxing day at the beach, one that Maddie enjoyed quite a bit.  She came back to the boat around lunchtime, while Mom and I were down at La Piazza, a nice lounge area with a European theme.

There's a little motorcycle and side car along the wall inside, so of course it's a great photo op.

And the bar itself is pretty awesome.  Just look though at how empty this place is.  Everyone's on the island except a few of us, enjoying this massive boat all to ourselves essentially.  

We came down this way for a few activities, starting with fun little thing we did:  make buttons!

That was fun!  You can see the birthday buttons, and a pirate button for pirate night too!  That was fun, and we hung around there to do the next activity:  sidekick trivia!  So how did we do?

We came in first place!  Of course... we also came in last place...!  We were the only ones there for sidekick trivia, and the hostess said that she could just give us the medals or do the trivia anyway.  We decided to earn our medals, by gum!  I think in the end we got about seventeen of the questions right - but there was no way we could remember what Ramirez's tires were named in "Cars 3."  What?  What kind of question is that!?  Wow!  Still, it was fun, and we got our first medals of the cruise.

And Maddie joined us for lunch at Cabana's, and just look at that view.  Beautiful blue water out there on a crystal clear day.

Not too many people here, as everyone was eating on the island mostly.  It was nice, and with a lot of great things to choose from to eat.

Once again we were at the Cove Cafe upstairs, and it's really nice atmosphere up there.  The travel pictures and props really set you back in time, and of course the coffee drinks are good too.  We got our coffee card stamped so many time on this trip - we actually got a couple free coffees because we kept getting the stamps.  We get the card to keep afterwards, and it'll be good on our next cruise too.

Look how empty the ship is right now!  Everyone is still on that island, and that meant we could enjoy a lot of the different areas on the ship pretty much all to ourselves.  One thing we did was the Midship Detective Agency.  We haven't done this in a long time, maybe 2017?  It was a lot of fun.  You could choose different themes, and of course we had to go with the Muppets!

Fun fact!  If you go to the stateroom and actually call that phone number, you'll get one of several different messages from Pepe.  It's hilarious!

That's Pepe's door there, and it's pretty fun.  The whole game was fun, with us going up and down the floors to chase after clues.  Maddie was narrowing down the list of suspects.  We had it down to Camilla, Rowlf and Fozzie there.  We even had a chance to interrogate Rowlf.

My favorite Muppet ever.  Anyway, we spent a good bit of time on this one, and eventually figured out whodunnit.

It was Camilla, the chicken!  And in celebration, Mom got to light all the fuses for some fireworks that of course set off all kinds of mishaps!

Next, we were doing piratey things.  People were coming back on the boat by this point in larger numbers, and we joined a pirate trivia game, not doing too bad there.  I forgot a fathom is six feet, but otherwise we did pretty good!  We also joined the "A Pirate's Life for Me" game, where two teams of pirates battled one another for pirate dominance.  We've done this one a few times now, and it's pretty fun.  

And then we split up for a bit.  I got in line super, super early to hold a place in line to meet Captain Jack Sparrow!  Mom and Maddie went to do a little shopping in the stores nearby, picking up a few things - including Cogsworth, our new clock!  Cogsworth is amazing.  Anyway, Mom and Maddie got back just in time to meet Captain Jack himself on Pirate Night!

And we weren't done doing pirate pictures.  We went over to the other backdrops for some other pirate pictures too!

And just for good measure, there was a Disney Cruise backdrop there that the five of us posed in front of.

And here are a few pictures of us in front of a porthole window.  We ran into a photographer who was taking pictures there, and thought it would be nice.

Okay, so now on to the pirate festivities!  Firstly, Mickey's Pirate Deck Party was a blast!  We were sitting up there to the side and in the very front, and we could see really, really well.  This might be the closest we've seen this event, and it was a great one.  The sun was setting opposite of us, and it was just a perfect night for a pirate party.

And now on to dinner!  We went to the Animator's Palate, and there were all kinds of Disney pirate images on the screens, and of course all the waiters were dressed as pirates, and the food was themed to the event as well.  It was a really great meal, and so much fun too!

And remember... it was Mom's birthday today, so as you might suspect, the servers had something planned for her tonight.

Okay, we ordered a Captain Jack meal here with jumbo shrimp in there and this waiter is coming around and shelling our shrimp for us.  And adding cheese.

We enjoyed that meal tonight, and then went off towards our room for a bit of a freshening up. 

We got all kinds of goodies in our door hanger, and also some extra folded towel animals too!

There's creepy towel head again, just like last year!  After heading back to the room for a small bit, it was time to head back out again just one more time.  

We went up to the deck once more for a final Pirates Rockin' Parlay Party!  This show was a lot of fun, with pirate improv artists making up sea shanties about kids in the crowd, and of course there's always Jack Sparrow coming down from the top of the funnel there.

Rather than have any battle with pirates or that sort thing, Captain Jack gets straight to the point after a bit of humorous dialogue.

The point is, it's time for the fireworks!  He cues those, and right off the starboard side, all the fireworks start to go off, all set to the music of "Pirates of the Caribbean," all in the middle of the ocean there.  I often wonder what some distant sailing vessel would make of this, particularly the grand finale.  It's Disney fireworks, so it's always above and beyond.  

 

And thus our Bahama birthday came to a close, and it was a nice one.  What's made nicer is that this is not a three-day cruise, and we have an extra day at sea tomorrow.  We read from our latest Discworld book, and we said our prayers.  We have a  lot to be thankful for this cruise, and Mom has had a very nice birthday.