Castaway Cay

This was easily the best and worst day of our entire vacation. Best because Castaway Cay is Disney's private island in the Bahamas- and of course, is utterly perfect. Worst...I'll get to that in a bit.

We started the morning off with a very nice sit down breakfast at Triton's (the only restaurant we hadn't eaten at yet), and then we were off to the island. Since it was Disney's own private port, they had character greetings- we met several, including my favorite, Captain Jack Sparrow, who posed in front of the actual Flying Dutchmen from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. (The girls really didn't want to be photographed with him...but I insisted :) ).

First stop was snorkeling. I had only been once when I was 16, and Andrew and the girls had never been. They had a shop where you could rent gear, and a dedicated snorkel area. So we got set up...and the kids snorkeled for about 1-2 minutes. Between the fins being uncomfortable and the mask being uncomfortable, and not liking the salt water when some of it got under the masks...it didn't last long. I held out a little longer...but the fins WERE a bit uncomfortable, and the salt water DID sting the eyes...and swallowing about 3 mouthfuls of it were about as much as I could stand. Andrew loved it though. The rest of us got a bit crabby waiting for him to finish, but spirits were raised with some refreshment from the bar (water and Sprite for the girls, Strawberry Daquiri for me :) ). After Andrew got back we all went to play in the sand and the water. The girls had fun making a mermaid out of Andrew (hee hee) and we all really enjoyed the water which was perfect temperature. Soon it was time for lunch at the island barbeque (had to have a cheeseburger in paradise :)).

After lunch, we decided to rent a paddle boat- it was pretty cool, we got really close to our ship and the Dutchman (of course, the camera was back on the beach). But, it was really hot, so we didn't end up staying out for long. We were close to the store, so we bought postcards and addressed them while enjoying more island hospitality (Andrew and I split Planter's Punch and a Conch Kooler). Then we decided to go back into the water for a bit before going back to the ship (which, in hindsight, was a big mistake- we'd all already had way too much sun! We didn't realize until dinner that the temperature had been up to 112, actual temperature). Finally, we got back...and realized how horribly sunburned we were (the kids not so badly, since they already had good color from being out playing daily at daycare). We decided to go down to dinner, even though we weren't that hungry, since it was pirate night.

The themeing was really fun- the wait staff dressed like pirates of course, and the menus were rolled up treasure maps. At the end of the dinner, the waiters gathered up some of the guests (including Isabelle and Rebecca) to do the limbo. It was a long continous line, and they never dropped it very low (Isabelle actually is very limber- comes from years of gymnastics- and was a little disappointed, but they had fun). And at the end of the meal (I had Blackbeards Jumbo Crabcake, and the Treasure of the Seas Grilled Shrimp and Seared Salmon, Andrew had the Sunken Vegetable Treasure- we split White Chocolate Cheesecake and Rum Barbossa for dessert- but a lot of the meal was uneaten, since we were feeling pretty bad at that point), Putu made an origami tulip for Rebecca!

I was really glad to have my shawl with me that evening- I was freezing, and felt like I had the flu (Andrew started feeling that way soon, as well). We decided to skip UP which was the special program at Walt Disney Theater that evening (and we'd been really looking forward to) in favor of a nap, hoping we'd feel up to the Pirate Party that evening. Unfortunately, we weren't feeling any better, and the kids were feeling really tired, and not in a party mood. We needed to get the beds turned down though, so we all went out to deck to sit for about 15 minutes while things were set up for us (no towel animal for us, though, since we missed the usual turndown by our cabin steward). I actually did catch some of the fireworks through our porthole, and it was pretty cool- sorry we missed the real thing.