Vacation-The Final Chapter

...Are you still with me on this long documentary of our vacation? It really was such a wonderful trip... and writing all this out will help keep my brain fresh for scrapbooking! I'm going to order pictures soon so I can get started on it.

Thursday, May 7th, we were at Nassau. We've been to Nassau before via DCL in 2007 and we didn't really like it much- so we weren't overly thrilled to be going back but I didn't want another day at sea either. This time, having watched a little on the stateroom tv about shopping in the ports, and because Sarah actually went to the shopping presentation, I knew that it would at least be worth it to get off the boat for a few minutes to go get those gemstone-earring freebies, etc. This time, we actually looked at the map; found that an extra block or two away from the port and the dread "straw market" was where some of the better shopping was. So we went ahead, got off the boat, did about an hour of shopping, and went back to the boat.

I love hanging out on the ship when we're at port and everyone gets off. We had a quiet lunch up on deck 9, then took the girls swimming. Brooke swam in the Mickey pool for awhile, and Hannah spent a lot of time in the (non-potty-trained people's) splash zone. She loved it. Matt and I are wondering if we could put something like this in our backyard? Safer than a pool, but just as fun to our kiddos! We had a great time chillin up there.

Before dinner we got in a few character pictures:




That evening was the show at Animator's Palate for our dining rotation. It was a rough night at dinner. I had discovered earlier that day that since we had gotten on the ship, Hannah had popped thru two more teeth! Yikes. Well Animator's is a great dining room, and it is so pretty to watch the walls turn from black and white sketches to full color pictures, etc...but that night it seemed to all be taking a long time. Found out later that Mickey was making an apperance and that put things a little behind. Due to a number of little things thru dinner (kids not feeling well, kids being tired, all that fun stuff), all that was left by the time dinner was thru was Sarah, Tyler (her 3yr old) and I! Kind of a bummer! After Dinner, Matt and I took Brooke to Disney Dreams--- another wonderful stage show.

My dessert that night:

sunset leaving nassau


SO that's all I'm writing about Thursday; it was a relaxing day overall. Now onto Friday- My FAVORITE DAY because it was at one of my FAVORITE PLACES!!! We were at Disney's Castaway Cay--their private island. It is heaven on earth- GORGEOUS island...only people there are the people on the ship. It's great! We got off the ship early and headed to the beach to get a good spot with an umbrella. Matt and his dad took off to go parasailing and the girls, grandma and I spent a lot of time playing at the beach. The water was warm, the sun was shining, it was gorgeous! I love the beach. Love it love it love it. Hannah loved it. Brooke loves it. It was great. Anne took Hannah for a walk in the stroller because she was needing some rest time, and she cat-napped in the stroller for about 45 minutes.

Around 11 they were starting to serve food up at Cookie's, the boys were back from their fun parasailing adventure, and everyone was hungry. So we filled up on a yummy lunch of burgers, grilled mahi-mahi sandwiches, potato salad, fruit, cookies, etc. Followed by SOFT SERVE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH ICE CREAM! I've never had this anywhere but on Castaway and man is it yummy! After lunch, we did some more playing on the beach. Matt's parents went off to snorkel, and the four of us played in the sand and surf for awhile. Hannah was getting pretty toasty and tired, so I took her back to the room, got the sand out of places where sand should not be, and got her down for a nap. Then I sat on the balcony and stared at my favorite place. Man I love it there.

Once Hannah woke up, I started doing our packing. We have to have all our suitcases put out in the hallway that last night by 11p.m. so they can get them off the ship, checked with the airlines, etc. It is always crazy trying to get this done in an organized fashion, plan for what you'll need the next morning, etc.

That evening was our farewell dinner. It always makes me teary to say goodbye to our waitstaff that has taken such incredible care of us. They brought out a cake for Matt and I's birthday (though he had left the dining room by the time it arrived because Brooke was being difficult and wanting to go back to the room). I picked up some more pictures from the cruise-photographers, went back to the room to get the rest of the packing done, and spent our last evening relaxing on the ship with our family. It was a great day, I was sad that it was almost over-- but what a great trip it had been!

Saturday morning we had to be off the ship by about 9a.m., out of our stateroom by 8a.m. We went up for breakfast, then boarded the bus to the airport. This happened to also be my birthday. A bummer way to spend my birthday, but a great week building up to it, right? We rented a room for the day at the Orlando Airport Hyatt since our flight wasn't till 3, which was great because I ended up with a migraine. So we dumped our luggage in the hotel room, then I laid down while everyone went to eat lunch. We had ontime flights on the way home, the kids did pretty good, and we all were happy to get back to Wichita into our own beds, our own ROOM, etc.
Ah this sign makes me so sad because it means the trip is over!!!

Brooke thought I should take a picture of the clouds on the way home:

So there's the scoop. It was great. I highly recommend a Disney Cruise to anyone with kids. I highly recommend a Disney cruise to anyone without kids. They know how to take care of you and they are awesome. What a fabulous trip! Thanks for hanging in there thru the looonnnng updates! Thanks for coming along on my adventure via the blog.... Many more adventures to come since we're now DVC members!