Day 5

Okay, before I get to Day 5 I need to share that on Valentine's Day we got to go see Cirque Du Soleil Crystal and it was great. 

Okay, Day 5! Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. Disney's new private resort. 

The first thing you should know is that there's about a 10-minute walk from the ship down the pier. I thought this was going to be annoying but the water was the most beautiful color and it was hard to be too upset by the walk.

The sand was so soft and white. The kids LOVED LOVED LOVED this beach and it was really cool. I admit, mostly I was just tired and knew I did not want to swim. I did enjoy a nice beach chair though.

Actually, when we were on board everyone decided to stay dry and that lasted about 6 minutes on Lookout Cay. Good thing I packed the swimsuits anyway isn't it? 

We stayed at the beach until lunch and then we headed back to the ship. It was a more leisurely paced day and I am glad we scoped it out. Our next cruise we will plan for Lookout Cay better--perhaps a shorter Castaway day so we are better prepared for Lookout. The photo spots are darling and the character's Bahamian costumes are so cute!! 

We got back to the ship right about 1:00 and C and Husband went to ride the AquaMouse right as it opened for the day and they brought back food from the pool deck for lunch. We got everyone showered and dressed and then got ready for Pirate Night! 

I booked both kids' Pirate League makeovers and it was a HOOT! M just did the makeup and C did the whole shebang. He was the funniest and wouldn't talk in case he messed up his beard. He got a lot of compliments all night and it was nice to let him have an experience like this. 

We took a lot of pictures on Pirate Night. We were like 3rd in line to meet Captain Hook and I was delighted. 

The Pirate Night menu was delicious but this dessert was SO good. Coconut ice cream with pineapple sauce and Roman our waiter tried to talk me out of it but I loved every single bit. No regrets! 

Last year M was overtired on the Pirate night this year our goal was to not do that so the two of us took it easy and then we all made it to the fireworks with gusto! Fireworks at sea doesn't get old. 

It was the only point of the entire cruise where I was almost a little chilly! 

I will tell you that the pirate league did not give makeup remover wipes like they do for BBB makeovers and as I am not a makeup wearer getting the kid's makeup off was quite the challenge. 

But finally, we accomplished this and were able to go to sleep. 

I swear these past two days seem like they were really boring but they definitely were not! We took so many pictures decked out as pirates and C and Husband went to both Pirate shows. M and I onlyly went to the the fireworks show. There's only so many times you can say "and then we went and got ice cream on deck 11" before it seems like that's all we did. 

Day 4! (And Happy Valentine's Day!)

Happy Valentine's Day! Here are my 2 favorite Valentines heading off to school this morning. (From the conference room at my office.)

If you've been here before you know that I love Valentines more than most people. Now that C is in middle school they don't do an exchange, just a big ice cream sundae party. But M still gets to exchange! This is what she brought in: 

And yesterday they had prayer buddies and made these adorable crafts. I am a big fan! 

Anyway... back to the cruise. Day 4 was Castaway Cay Day! That's Disney's private island. I had one goal: do not get sunburnt. Okay, and I wanted to relax. And we had the most perfect day! 

M has always wanted a coconut drink. So I got her the non-alcoholic drink of the day in a coconut cup to make all her dreams come true. 

Disney doesn't offer any drink packages the way most cruise lines do. Pop, coffee, tea, milk, etc. are all included as long as you get them yourself. Everyone pays ala cart for fancy lattes, alcohol, and specialty drinks. 

We had learned from last cruise to NOT bring your food to the beach since the seagulls are intense and I do not do birds. So we had our lunch in the shaded shelters on the island, which was a good call. 

Other things that were a good call: I bought a collapsable sand bucket set and brought it with, the kids really enjoyed that. We tried out Pelican Plunge for the first time. (Never made it that far last cruise.) M saw the bikes and lamented that we should have gone for a bike ride, which was in fact my plan B if it was too cold to swim. (The weather was PERFECT clearly, but it had been so cold just the week before that I was making all kinds of back up plans.) 

Somehow even though I spent all day in the shade I got sunburnt and so did M! Boo. After a long day on the beach we headed back to the ship and everyone showered and got ready for the evening. It was Frozen night! So we were all excited about that!

Our dinner was in Animator's Palate which was the restaurant we were looking forward to the most and it turned out to be a total letdown. (The food was great, we had just read about the experience of the restaurant and it wasn't as cool as we were expecting.) 

But the Frozen show MORE than made up for it. 

I realize this is a really short recap of Day 4. But truly... we just were beach bums for most of it. :) 

Day 3!

Day 3 was our day in Nassau! Last trip when we were in Nassau we didn't get off the ship. This time we planned a port adventure. 

It also turned out that our ship was the only ship in port that day. This was crazy to me because the last time there were ships everywhere and when we were on the pool deck we could wave at multiple other ships. So it made for a really great chill day! 

We had breakfast at this really great table where we watched our ship pull into the port! That was actually really neat. As you can see, it was a BEAUTIFUL day. 

We had some time for some activities before we met up for our Port Adventure so we went to family craft time! It was so nice and chill, there really is something for everyone on a Disney Cruise. 

M and I colored. I didn't take a picture of our coloring sheets however... seems weird. Oh well. 

Then we met up in the Walt Disney Theatre where the cartoon featured both a walrus and a panda. How nice of them to think of my kids like that! 

It wasn't long before we disembarked. A short walk and a short bus ride later we were at the Chocolate Factory. 

We got a short lesson on the history of chocolate and how chocolate is made. Got to see how it was made. Sample all the liquid chocolate and then make our own chocolate bars! It was really fun. And very chocolatey. 

After our chocolate we headed back on board and straight up to the pool deck. Where we had lunch and swam and relaxed all afternoon. I myself, read my book! 

Then we showered and dressed for dinner. 

That evening was the Aladdin show. M went to the kid's club, the rest of us went and enjoyed ourselves. 

C loved this Tweedle picture. He is going to be Tweedledee in Alice in Wonderland in a few weeks. 

This was one of my most magical moments on the cruise. C, my awkward hard to break out of his shell, struggles to make friends guy, just walked up to Snow White, said hello, and had a whole conversation with her. This is the same kid who refused to take pictures with princesses in 2017. It wasn't for a photo opp, there's no proof it happened at all in fact besides this truly terrible photo. It was just pure magic. 

That night we had a penguin blanket waiting for us and ShuShu was also just hanging around. 

And we all sleep very well that night! A big, fun, relaxing, and exciting day!