May 30, 2016

After a good night's sleep, we woke up early to the ship pulling in to port at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.  We stood on the balcony (or whatever it is technically called) for a few minutes, and enjoyed the beautiful morning.

Just some of the pictures we took from our balcony that morning.

The girls had tickets to go and see the princesses and Elsa and Ana.  I wanted to be early and be some of the first ones in line, because I knew as quickly as we could get through, that we could get off the ship and enjoy Castaway Cay.

So we got dressed and went down to breakfast.  It was delicious as usual.  Then the girls and I hurried off to get in line for the princesses.  Our friends came right after us, so it worked out that we were all in line together.  Meanwhile, My Prince, the Young Prince and our friends that don't have girls, had gotten off the ship as quickly as possible to save us spots on Castaway Cay.

The Princesses that we got to see were Cinderella, Belle, Rapunzel, and Snow White.  Unfortunately, it was the same Belle, and she was still not a good Belle.  Fortunately, it was the same Rapunzel, and she was still a great Rapunzel.  She asked the Youngest Princess what her plans were for the day, and the Youngest Princess told her that we were going to snorkel.  Rapunzel replied, "Oh!  That is wonderful!  You know, Pascal really wants to go snorkeling, but we haven't quite figured that out yet. His face is just too small!"  So cute!!  Because we were all together in line, we asked if we could have a group picture made with Snow White, who was the last princess in the line.  They told us we could, so we did.  I am glad it worked out where we could.

The princesses waiting to meet the princesses

Being silly while we waited

She still was not feeling great, but I loved the princess dress with the flip flops fashion statement

Cinderella

Belle

Cinderella again

Belle again

Rapunzel

I love the pose!

Snow White

Snow White again

All of our girls with Snow White

 After getting through that line, and seeing the princesses, we had to go to a different location to meet Elsa and Ana.  So we went straight there.  We were earlier than the time on our tickets, but the line was really short, so they allowed us to go on through.  Again, we asked for a group photo if possible, and again, they were wonderful to allow us our request.  Elsa and Ana were great.  They talked to and interacted with the girls.  It was a fun experience for everyone.

The gang with Elsa and Ana

The youngest princess said, "You know, to be Elsa, her hands were really warm!"

The Adopted Princess and Ana and Elsa

The Oldest Princess and Ana and Elsa

The Youngest Princess next to a drawing of Cinderella outside of the Animated Palate

Then, we were off to join My Prince and the Young Prince on Castaway Cay.  As we were getting off of the Ship, they told me that because the Youngest Princess and I were listed in different staterooms, that I could not take her off the ship.  I needed to go to the Guest Services desk and that they could help me.  Ugh!  And we were so close (our family had two staterooms, because the Oldest Princess brought her friend, so when the travel agent set us up, she put My Prince in one room and myself in another, for price sake.  Which we really appreciated, but it turned out to be a little bit of an inconvenience from time to time, like right then)!  So, everyone else got off, and the Youngest Princess and I went back up the stairs to the Guest Services desk.  She knew what I needed before I even got my whole story out.  She gave me a form to fill out and had the problem fixed before I had the form completely filled out.  And off we went again.  This time we disembarked with no problems at all.

When we got off of the ship, the Oldest Princess and the Adopted Princess had waited for us.  We also met up with one of my friends and her two girls.  As we were walking to the tram, we saw Captain Jack Sparrow.  The older girls of course wanted to take a picture with him.  So we stood in line for just a few minutes and let them.  The youngest girl did not want to (and I don't blame her, he is kind of creepy).  He did wave at her and say, "Hello!  Tiny princess!"  It was cute.  She gave him a very small wiggle of her fingers as she turned away from him.  He was good to talk and interact with the girls as well.  When it was the big girl's turn, they asked him to take a selfie with them.  He told them that he did not know what that was, but that he would.  Then when they finished he said, "Oh, so that is like a magic mirror of sorts!" referring to the Adopted Princess's cell phone.  It was funny.

The Youngest Princess and her friend with Cap'n Jack Sparrow

The older girls with Cap'n Jack Sparrow

My view of the selfie 

What the selfie actually looked like

My view of the silly selfie

What the silly selfie actually looked like

We walked on around and caught the tram.  We were able to find My Prince fairly easily.  He gave us pretty good instructions.  As opposed to my friend's husband who told us to look for the big wooden life guard chair out in the water.  That made us laugh.  But we finally all made it to the same location.  My Prince and our friends did a great job staking us out a spot.

My view

More of my view

My first order of business was to go snorkeling.  I was really excited about it.  I have wanted to snorkel my whole life, and I was finally going to get the chance.  We got all our gear ready and put on the little inflatable life vest things and headed out into the water.  We saw a few fish before we even got neck deep.  We made it out to where the water was about up to our necks, and I tried to put my face in the water.  Honestly.  I panicked.  I am not one to panic.  I do not have anxiety attacks, or unreasonable fears.  But when it was go time, and I actually had to put my face down in that water, I had to force myself to do it.  And then I breathed like I was going to hyperventilate.  It was not good. I really wanted to snorkel.  So, I stood there and tried it several times, with it never really getting any better.

About to go snorkeling

The little girls ready to snorkel

About that time, our friend and the Young Prince came  back from the deeper waters.  The Young Prince was all excited because they had seen a lionfish.  Lionfish are venomous.  Yes they are.  And that bothered My Prince, more than putting my face in the water and breathing bothered me.  My Prince declared that he was done.  There was no way I was going out there without My Prince, so I headed back to shore myself.

I went the much more relaxing route, and sat in the chairs at the edge of the water with my friends and watched the Youngest Princess and her friends play.  We relaxed until it was time for lunch.

Me and My Prince - looking' good after a day on the beach - lol!

The little girls with our ship in the background

One of our friends stuck in his earbuds and slept away to the tunes of Greater Vision.

One of our friends messing with the volume on our sleeping friend's earbuds.  Hey, what are friends for?

Lunch on the island was wonderful.  It was a buffet with barbecue chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, and cajun mahi.  They also had fruit and desserts.  It was wonderful!  We ate our fill while dodging the seagulls that flew in under the pavilion from time to time.

After lunch, the Youngest Princess and her friend wanted to get their hair braided like the Oldest Princess and the Adopted Princess.  So, we took them over to the ladies who were braiding hair.  The Youngest Princess went first.  She was making faces like it was painful.  My friend who works in deaf education taught her the sign for pain.  So she sat there and signed pain several times.  She ended up with 7 braids in her hair.  Then it was her friend's turn.  The friend found it painful as well.  The lady did make them very tight.  The friend ended up with 7 braids as well.  They liked the braids at first, but it didn't take long for the Youngest Princess to get tired of hers.

The Youngest Princess getting hair braids

Looks a little painful

The girls with their matching braids

And a side view of the matching braids

After that, the friend's dad (the one who had taken the Young Prince out) told the girls that he would take them snorkeling out in the deeper water.  The Youngest Princess was all excited.  She didn't get far though.  A big fish swam by her and then the loose end of her life vest belt touched her leg, and she was squealing and ready to get out of the water.  She came back to the side where I was, and played in the shallow water.

Our friend and his daughter went on out.  He had snagged some fish from lunch and put it in his pocket.  When they got out into the deeper water, he would pinch off a little of the fish and crumble it in the water.  Fish were coming from all around to eat the fish from his pocket.  His daughter looked around and said, "Daddy, look at that big fish over there!"  It was a barracuda.  They decided that they had snorkeled enough, and headed on back to the beach.

The big kids explored the island a little and played some beach volleyball.  Girls against guys.  Which was not really fair, because there were more boys than girls.  But the boys gave up one of their own to play with the girls and make it fair.  The Oldest Princess said at one point that she turned around and the boy that was playing with them had his hat on his head, and the front of his shirt pulled up over his hat and his head.  She said he told her that he could still see that way.  She said he did get one good solid hit in.  Oh my!  When I went over to take pictures, only the Oldest Princess and the Adopted Princess were still playing.  Everyone else had given up and sat down in the shade.

A little beach volleyball

A little shade for after the beach volleyball

Pretty soon, it was getting to be time to head back to the ship.  One set of parents were still snorkeling, and the Oldest Princess said she would watch the girls until their parents came back.  My Prince said he would stay as well, so the Youngest Princess could stay and play with her friends until their parents came back.  The Young Prince had to stay, because he could not get back on the ship with me (the two room thing again).  So the Adopted Princess and I headed back to the ship with everyone else, to begin to get ready for dinner.  We waited for them tram and got on.  I happened to think about the fact that I still had the Youngest Princess's ship issued id card, and that she could not get back on the ship without it.  So I got off the tram and went back to the beach to give My Prince her card.  Our friends had come back from snorkeling at this point, so the rest of us left were packing up to head back to the ship.

We walked back to the tram stop.  Some of the kids needed to go back and wash the sand off of their feet.  We sent them back but told them to hurry, because we did not want to miss the next tram and have to wait for another one.  We were hot, tired and ready to get back on the ship and cleaned up.  The next tram came.  We yelled for the kids to hurry up.  They all catch up with us.  But My Prince is nowhere to be found.  I figured he had stayed back to help some of our friends pack up.  I told the Young Prince that he could not get on the ship with me, so he needed to go back and come with his Dad.

Meanwhile, unknown to me, My Prince took a wrong turn walking to the tram stop, and had pretty much walked back to the ship by this point.  We ride the tram back to the ship.  My Prince is standing there.  The Young Prince is back at the beach looking for him.  It was crazy!  My Prince gets back on a tram going back to the beach to find our son.  I stayed there in case the Young Prince decided to get on a tram and come back by himself.  My friend stayed with me, because she is a mother and knew the fear I was feeling.  Her support meant a lot to me.

Three trams came back without My Prince or the Young Prince.  Finally, they were on the fourth tram that came back.  The Young Prince said that he could not find his Dad, so he had decided to get on a tram and go back to the ship and try to find us there, and the next tram to come was the one My Prince was on.  We were just glad to know where everyone was and to have us all back together.  And I was VERY glad to have us all back on the ship.

There were tears from the Youngest Princess before dinner.  She was absolutely exhausted.  But I told her that this night's dinner was sure to be the very best, and I had her onboard pretty quickly.

The Youngest Princess is all tuckered out

I was correct.  That night's dinner was definitely the best.  Best food, best service, best atmosphere.  It was wonderful all the way around.  The Youngest Princess and her friend ordered steak off of the adult menu.  They both finished their first steak and asked for another one!  And they both came close to finishing up the second ones.  Their day in the sun really made them hungry!  The older kids continued to play games and riddles with their server.

One of our friends told them that the Oldest Princess and the Adopted Princess were celebrating graduating from high school, so they brought them each a special dessert, and a pin that said "I'm celebrating" on it, and they sang to them.  Then of course, we had to get pictures with our wonderful servers.  Fun times!

My Prince sitting at the little girls' table, because he wanted a kid's dessert

The big kids' table

The little girls

The adults, minus a few

Crush stopped by the big kids' table to say hello and chat for a minute

Our server cutting up the second steak for our little girls

The special dessert for the graduates

A picture with the kids' favorite server

A picture with all of our servers

A table selfie

As My Prince would say, "Those ears are every where!"  He even took a picture for proof!  LOL!

The last night we discovered a glass that let you see the ocean below you.  So, we took a family picture :).

After dinner, we went to the Captain's Pin Trading night.  We were late, because we were having so much fun at dinner, so all of the really cool pins had already been traded, but we did trade for  a few that we liked.

Then it was time for the show.  I think it was called "Believe".  I went in expecting to relax and really enjoy it.  And it was very good.  But.  But the storyline.  It was about a dad who was really busy doing his own thing, and his daughter who just wanted his attention.  In the end, he comes around and realizes what is most important.  But.  But the song.  The song at the end.  It was about how we have very little time with our kids and how fast they grow.  Wow.  Yes.  I am there.  And before I knew it, I was "having trouble with my allergies" as My Prince likes to say.  And my eyes were watering.  Big time.  And it was about all I could do to pull myself together and stop my eyes from watering before the show ended!  You know, cause I didn't want to walk out of there crying like a momma whose baby is about to go off to college or anything.  Of all things!  Who knew the Disney show would get me.  But get me it did.  I did manage to pull myself together before it totally ended.

After the show, the Oldest Princess wanted to go shopping, so I went with her to look around and to buy a few things.  When she was done, we went back up on deck and met up with everyone else.  They were all ready to call it a night, and get some sleep, because we had a really early morning the next morning.  We were to eat breakfast at 6:45 and then, our "Dream" vacation would be over.

We went back and packed up as much as we could before getting some sleep.

And that was day three of our Disney Cruise.

Until I blog again...