Disney Days 7 & 8: Nassau and Castaway Cay

Our first full day on the ship we were docked at Nassau. Since this was our very first cruise ever, and we had heard that most of the tourism in Nassau is shopping, we elected to stay onboard the ship. It was very relaxing – I got to swim for a bit by myself in the adult pool while Katie and Alex spent some time in the kids clubs and DH checked out the sports area. It was heavenly. I don’t think I’ve been swimming by myself without having to watch out for one of my children in the 11 ½ years since Alex was born. The pool was not very big, but there weren’t that many people in it, so it was big enough. There was an area around the pool that also had water in it, about six inches deep, so you could also just sit in the water without swimming too if you wanted.

At lunch time we decided to try eating at Tritons since we were scheduled to eat there on our last night of the cruise and Sean and I had made reservations at Palo for that night instead. Katie was a bit fussy at lunch, and one of the waiter’s brought her a paper rose made out of one of the children’s menus – so sweet and Katie really liked it. It kept her busy enough to get through lunch and the food was very good. I had a chicken dish that I really liked – don’t remember what everyone else had. After lunch I decided to take Katie and Alex to “Meet the Robinsons” which was playing in the onboard theater. I was worried Katie would not make it through the show because she has never been to a theater before, but she did really well and enjoyed the movie.

The rest of the day was filled with more swimming in Mickey’s pool and Goofy’s pool with both kids, and watching Sean and Alex play ping pong on deck. We also had more than one helping of the free soft serve ice cream bar up there! At dinner time, we went to Parrot Cay, our assigned restaurant for the night and discovered that it was Pirate night! Our waiter insisted we wear the pirate scarves on our heads and silly me forgot to bring the camera to dinner. I did manage to snap a quick photo of Katie though back in our stateroom with hers on. I had the Flounder and mashed potatos and it was very delicious. One of our better meals on the whole trip! The waiter brought Alex three desserts, an ice cream sundae in the center with two bowls of pudding for mickey mouse ears on each side. He was so stuffed he only managed to eat a bit of the sundae – mom and dad helped with the pudding I’m afraid!

Later that night there was a pirate night party on the pool deck with a ton more food and desserts – I don’t know how anyone could have any room for that though and with the large crowds we skipped this too. We went to one of the live shows onboard instead “The Golden Mickey’s” which was pretty entertaining. Katie really liked seeing all the Disney characters all in one show. Alex was in the club playing various games, so he skipped it. A very relaxing, yet entertaining day!

The next day we woke a little early in an effort to get to Castaway Cay as we’d heard so many good things about it. It was beautiful and we had a great time playing in the sand and sun and collected a few sea shells too. Luckily we had enough room in Katie’s suitcase to include a few blow up toys and a few sand toys. This way we didn’t have to pay the outrageous prices they charge for them on the island. For those of you POTC fans, the Flying Dutchman is currently docked there, and although you can’t walk or swim right up to it, it is still a pretty grand sight to see! I really like how my pic of it turned out. Well, I took about 4 or 5 pics – this is the one that came out the best and will actually make it to the photo album. There was a big picnic style lunch served on the island with hamburgers, hot dogs, soda, chips, cookie dough ice cream, potato salad, and a ton of other stuff I’m forgetting to mention right now. Even though it was only about 75 degrees, we started to feel like we might be burning by about 2pm (even though we were wearing sunscreen!). I guess the sun is a lot more direct when you are closer to the equator like that. We decided to head back in because of the sunburned feeling and also we all were starting to feel the sand in all the uncomfortable spots.

Once back in our stateroom we all took showers/baths to remove the last of the sand and to relax a bit before dinner. We watched Disney movies as one of the channels is dedicated to just playing Disney classics. I think we say Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin as well as parts of Little Mermaid and Toy Story all sometime during our trip. There was also a channel showing movies that had just come out on DVD and we saw parts of “Pursuit of Happiness” and “Dream Girls” too, but didn’t have a chance to see all of them. This night was our date night – so Alex and Katie both headed off to their clubs at about 5:45p and Sean and I got all gussied up and went to the adults only Italian restaurant on the ships highest deck overlooking the ocean – Palo. The food and the service were really divine. Now, we are no foodies – but we really enjoyed this meal. I don’t remember what Sean ordered, but I had a seafood and rice dish that had shrimp and a creamy marinara cheese type sauce to it. It was heavenly and much better than I though it would be from the description. We also had a chocolate soufflé that was heavenly. YUM! A very nice capper for our cruise! We returned to our stateroom and there was a plate of fresh chocolate covered strawberries and a Magical Moment certificate! Those were really yummy too! We spent the rest of the night on our balcony eating our strawberries and enjoying the nighttime view as we headed back to our home port at Port Canaveral. We were so sorry that our vacation was ending, but it was a fabulous time and both Sean and Alex talk about when we might be able to afford to do Disney again. Sean was really resistant before the trip and was only going because he felt like he should be willing to do some things for the rest of the family to have fun – but he wasn’t really looking forward to it. It is a huge victory for me that he actually enjoyed going and would like to go again. If we can afford to go again, we definitely will, and there will be no resistence!