Cruise, Day Seven--Castaway Cay

So, these are the only two pictures I have from our last day. I'm sure you've already noticed that the pictures lessened over the course of the week. I got tired of toting the camera and I'm pretty sure my family got tired of me taking pictures. So, the only pictures I have from our last day are from dinner. The kids finally got the smoothie they had talked about getting all weekend and the waiters all did a little show where they walked out holding flags representing all the countries they came from.
The reason I have no pictures is because I spent most of the day alone. Alone. I know. I couldn't believe it either, it was glorious! I was supposed to meet a group to do an Island Walk but no one showed up so I did my own island walk. I walked and walked and walked for about an hour and a half--from one end of the island to the other. Then I sat on the beach for a little while and then had some lunch and some ice cream and then went back to the room and watched tv and slept. It was fabulous. Billy wasn't feeling well so he and H had a quiet day, Hannah met her Edge group on the island and they did a scavenger hunt and then she and a friend came back to the ship and had some ice cream and just hung out and I later joined them for trivia in the Promenade Lounge. I'm proud to say that out of 4 other adults and 2 other kids--Hannah and I tied for first place. This trivia wasn't just Disney trivia either. We both won a medal. Who knew we were so smart. To be fair though, one of the other adults and one of the kids were from Australia and quite a few of the questions were geared towards Americans. Anyway, you're probably wondering where Ollie, Grace, and Joe were doing all of this--they spent the day on the beach and they all had a ball although the water was pretty cold. They tried out the water slide, played some basketball, and played in the sand. That night was a farewell show and featured a ventriloquist/ comedian who had Grace, Joe, and I laughing our butts off. Hannah didn't go, she was having a farewell party at Edge where they played some games and gave all of the kids address books to pass around and fill in. Oh, and I forgot--before the evening show the kids and I all went to a High School Musical Dance Party which was quite funny but I was forbidden to take pictures or videos so you'll have to imagine how fun it was. One of the cruise staff lead the kids in the dances and in singing and they had a great time. After the show we went back to the room and finished packing--we had to have all of our checked luggage in the hall by 10:30. Grace went to bed but Ollie, Joe, and I (Hannah was still at Edge) capped off our amazing week by going to Family Karaoke. That was pretty interesting--one father/daughter duo were kind of annoying but mostly it was fun. Ollie sang one song but Joe and I just watched. Hannah met us in there and watched too but didn't sing. We all got to bed about midnight and had to be at breakfast at 7 the next morning and then we were off the ship by 8 and on the way home by about 8:45. It was such, such a wonderful week. I hope you've enjoyed the pictures and commentary. Now back to our normal blogcasting. :0)

Cruise, Day Six--A Day at Sea

We really loved having another day at sea, we had more time to do more things on the ship. First off after breakfast we had a gingerbread house decorating class. There was a Disney chef there to teach us but to be honest, he didn't teach us much and the kids were disappointed that the only candy they got was gumdrops. It was still fun though and I think everyone had a good time.




Later in the afternoon Grace and I went to a towel folding workshop. As you have seen, towel art is a big deal on cruise ships and Grace was especially interested in learning. She and I worked together and she learned to make a "relaxing dog," a swan, a monkey, and an elephant. She did really well as you can see in the poorly lit pictures below. When we got back to the room she made a towel monkey and left a note for Wemfi, our stateroom host. He was most impressed and was touched by her little note.




That night the dress for dinner was semi-formal and it was Prince/Princess night. Lots of little girls dressed as princesses. We were in a relaxed zone and decided not to participate and just went to dinner dressed casually. That night after dinner the kids went to the show, "Disney Dreams," by themselves and Ollie and I went to the movie and saw "Step Up" in 3D. My review of that movie is great dancing, crummy plot. After the show and movie, most of us went to the room to get ready for bed but Hannah's group, "Edge" had a pool party at 10:00 and she went to that. I spied on her (of course) and it looked like she was having a great time in spite of some really chilly weather.

Cruise, Day Five--Cozumel

I had some pictures in the wrong folder and so forgot to include them with day four and also gave some misinformation. First of all though--December 26 is Aunt Harriet's birthday and we decorated her door and showed her pictures of gifts that she had waiting for her at home and then at dinner she got a big piece of cake and the waiters sang happy birthday to her. She was mortified but she got over it. :0) At the end of dinner Grace told me that she had a really big knot in her hair and about two seconds later our waiter, Munir, asked if we needed anything else and I jokingly asked him to take care of Grace's knot in her hair and he did! Now, it was Grace's turn to be mortified and we all had a good laugh and Munir got the knot out of her hair.

We started our day on Cozumel with a bus trip to a Mayan ruin site and an excellent tour by our guide, Patti. She was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot and saw some interesting things. If you look closely on the wall below you can still see handprints from the Mayans.



After our Mayan ruin tour we went to a Mexican Cultural Center and watched a video, saw some art, and toured a garden with replicas of Mayan pyramids and other buildings. In the photo above, I am pointing to Cozumel on a really big map/drawing of Mexico.


After we went through the cultural center we had a big mexican feast complete with a pinata at the end. The food was great and the kids had a good time.


That night on the ship was pirate night. Now the kids were ready to cooperate for a picture and I got a pretty cute one--unique but cute.


The wait staff were dressed up and there were bandanas on the table that became doo-rags for the kids to wear to add to their costumes.


I was wrong when I said that we saw Tron on Sunday, we actually saw it on Pirate Night. The night before the kids saw Toy Story, the Musical with H and B and Ollie and I watched, "Eat, Pray, Love" in the room. After Tron we went on deck for a big pirate party complete with fireworks and then a huge dessert bar.



Ollie and Joe didn't stay for dessert and Grace barely made it--she was so tired but wasn't about to miss dessert!! And so ends day five...

Cruise, Day Four--Grand Cayman

On the 26th we were in Grand Cayman. The ship couldn't actually dock so we had to take tenders (boats) to the island. I couldn't believe how blue the water was. I tried to capture it and the best I have is the picture below. It was just beautiful.

Ollie and the girls were supposed to go snorkeling but their excursion got cancelled so they just went to the beach for the day. I don't have pictures of that because I wasn't there--I'll have to get some pics from Ollie. H, B, Joe, and I walked around Grand Cayman before our excursion. This picture above was really funny--lots of chickens raising a ruckus right outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken. They seemed to be launching their own protest.

We went shopping and bought some awesome tie dye shirts, Joe put his on right away. In the picture below I am wearing the amazing tie dye shirt that Hannah gave me for Christmas. The one I bought in Grand Cayman is pretty great too--it's green and says, "Smile, Mon" and has a smiley face on it with dreads. Grace got one just like it but it was pink.

Our excursion turned into a real adventure and an almost shipwreck. We were supposed to go down in a submarine to see the reef and lots of tropical sea life. Well, the seas were really rough but our guys were determined to take us out on this sub, even with one motor not in working order on the boat. Things got pretty crazy and the submarine trip was cancelled. The boat and sub were rocking so much that it was unsafe to try to get off the boat and down the hatch of the sub. Then the other motor went out and we had to just sit there (rocking and rocking) while a guy swam down and used a knife to cut a rope(that had gotten stuck) off the propeller. Oh, and while all this was happening we were watching a storm rapidly approaching and ended up with some rain. We were thrilled when we made it back to the cruise ship. Amazingly, no one got sick. I would have but I had taken Dramamine before leaving.
This last pic is a picture of a "pirate" ship that was docked at the pier. These are the only pictures I have from this day. That night after dinner we saw "Tron, The Legacy" in the big theatre. It was an okay movie--I'm not much of a sci-fi fan but I still enjoyed it.

Cruise, Day Three--Christmas!

We got up Christmas morning and the kids opened the gifts in their stockings and they could also pick two other gifts to open before breakfast. Then we got dressed and went to breakfast and then went straight to the theatre to see the 9:30 showing of "Tangled." What a great movie, we all loved it!
The rooms are not very big so I got a picture of Grace by taking a picture of the mirror. She had the top bunk.
The kids all gave each other DSI games so they got started playing right away.
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After the movie we came back to the room and opened the rest of the gifts. Joe as thrilled with his Mr. Happy shirt and Grace and Hannah both got the robes they've been wanting.

Our gift to Uncle Billy--it says, "Genius By Birth, Grumpy By Choice." :0)

We spent a pretty quiet day playing with gifts, watching tv, and the girls got hair wraps. I don't have a good picture of Hannah's.
Christmas night was formal night and I was really excited and was eager to get a family photo. Every night they have photographers set up in the lobby and usually they have a great white background and that's where I wanted to have our picture taken. Well, for this special night they only had the lighted up cruise ship--classy, right? Joe wasn't into this at all and we barely got the pictures we did so I took what I could get. Above and below are some of those pictures. Not too bad considering how grumpy we all were.

Dinner was pretty fancy--above is Billy's appetizer, it's actually wine sorbet.

Since we were having such fits about our clothes (that we refers to Joe) that catapulted me into the grumpies, I didn't end up with hardly any pictures of us all dressed up aside from the photographer's pics and the few you see here. I wish I had thought to have H and B just take a family picture with my camera. Didn't even occur to any of us that night though. Oh well. On a side note--is Joe cute in his suit or what? I need someone to get married or something so he has a good reason to wear it again soon.


The show that night was my favorite, "The Golden Mickeys," here's a really bad picture. And, that night we had a Santa monkey waiting for us when we got back to our room. :0)