Vacation Days 8,9,10

July 27: Here are B1 and B2 at the send-off party on the ship, just before we embarked.

July 27: Checking out the ocean before dinner on night #1. I think that is a picture on the wall behind them reflecting in the window.

July 28: B2 loved the slide at the kids' pool. See the big Mickey hand holding it up?

July 28: Dinner on night #2 at Parrot Cay. It was Pirate Night. These are our servers, Vesko, Candice, and Kerry.

July 29: The ship docked in Nassau alongside 2 other cruise ships. Ours is the one on the right.

July 29: They got to interact with a dolphin while at Nassau. We bought the professional portrait of this photo.

July 29: The staff celebrated our 15th anniversary (which was actually July 24) while onboard. We were served this cake on night #3 at dinner. That is a chocolate ship on top!

July 27, 2008: We slept a little later today and Bruce went to get breakfast from the food court around 10am. We left Caribbean Beach by 10:30am to head to Port Canaveral. We stopped for gas and a few little items we needed and then were on our way. The check-in process was easy since I had taken care of a lot of it online and earlier in the week at our hotel. We were walking onto the ship by 12:30pm. They announced our family’s name as we entered, which was cool! We looked around a little bit and then headed to the lunch buffet. After, we were able to get into our stateroom, which is pretty neat. The girls have bunk beds, the bottom of which turns into a couch during the daytime. The top bunk somehow slides into the ceiling but we are unsure how it works. The staff comes and takes care of everything while we eat dinner! Pretty cool. Anyway, Bruce and I have a queen bed. We also have 2 small bathrooms. Both have a sink and one has a toilet while the other has a shower. We went to the send-off party, which was hot but cool and then we came back to get ready for our 5:45 dinner. Tonight we were scheduled to eat at Animator’s Palate. At the beginning of the meal, the walls and pictures were all black and white as well as the vests on the servers. During the meal, the pictures on the wall change colors and eventually, by the dessert course, the vests on the servers are colorful. Our server’s name is Vesko and he is from Bulgaria. Candice is the assistant server and she is from England. Kerry is the head server (there are two of them in the entire dining room) and he is from Jamaica. They were all very nice. The food was awesome too. I took pictures of my appetizer, salad, and main course. I forgot to take one of the dessert. Oh well. After dinner, the girls and I went to play bingo but we didn’t win. It was a fun experience though. Bruce had a massage in the spa. We checked the girls into the kids’ activity area and we then went to a couples trivia show, which was hilarious! The girls didn’t want to leave the kid area so we waited until close to midnight to check them out. Now, it is almost 12:30 and B2 is hungry so we just ordered room service pizza! It is free so what the heck?!? I am going to bed. I get to parasail tomorrow!!!!

July 28, 2008: We woke up this morning about 9:00am and got ready to get off the ship. My parasailing appointment was for 10:00. We got off onto Castaway Cay and thankfully, the parasailing place was very close to the ship. I was the first one in the group to go up and it was awesome! Very quiet and peaceful up there and you can see the whole island. The boat ride while everyone else took their turn was good too. I met Bruce and the girls afterwards on the beach (they weren’t allowed to ride along in the boat). We swam in the ocean for a little while and then went to watch some crab races! Our family was drawn to cheer for one of the crabs and our crab won the first race! He didn’t win the grand champion however, but we had fun cheering for him! Then we went to Cookie’s BBQ for lunch. They were serving BBQ ribs, chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, and several side dishes. There was also a large fresh fruit bar which was awesome! After lunch, we rented a paddle boat for a little while and then rented some lounge floats. The girls enjoyed finding many small shells. We swam in the ocean for awhile. Bruce and B1 went back to the ship to play bingo while B2 and I stayed and swam some more. Once we went back to the ship, we went to the kids’ pool and she swam with several other little girls for over an hour. I sat in a lounge chair and read a magazine and then napped a little! She loved going down the slide too. We all met back at the room to get changed for dinner, which tonight we ate in Parrot Cay. It was a pirate theme and we all got bandanas to wear on our heads. Once again, the food was different and good. After dinner, we checked the girls into the kids’ area again (on their request) and Bruce and I went to the Buena Vista Theatre to watch the movie “Step Up.” I was not impressed with it. We then headed up to deck 9 and watched the Pirates of the Caribbean deck party for awhile. There were several characters there and fireworks. At 10:30, there were two buffets on deck! They were HUGE too. One was a Mexican type of buffet with tacos, nachos, fajitas, etc. and also ham. The other was a dessert buffet and was fantastic. I wasn’t hungry at all but still ate a few things there just because it all looked soooo good! I went to get the girls out of the kid area and they were not ready to leave yet! B2 greeted me with “Mom, we both signed up for a bowling tournament (on Wii)” and B1 announced that she was building her own theme park on the computer while B2 was drawing all the characters. Wow. So I left and made arrangements for them to check themselves out when they were ready. I also made sure they understood that we have to get up and be ready to go by 9:15 in the morning. Anyway, they got back to the room by midnight and now we are all heading for bed! Beautiful weather and a great day today!

July 29, 2008: We got up today and gathered with a group of people, all of which were going on a dolphin encounter in Nassau. We got instructions in Studio Sea on the cruise ship and then headed out. We walked off of the pier and eventually boarded a boat that would take us to an island called Blue Lagoon. The boat ride itself was about 40 minutes long. Once there, Bruce, B1 and B2 got to get into the water with many other people but most importantly, with the dolphins. They got their picture taken, they each got to dance with the dolphin, feed him, hug him, and kiss him. They also got to watch while the other people did the same. I stayed on the deck and tried to take as many good pictures as I could. They enjoyed the experience and we purchased a picture of them with the dolphin. Then we headed back to Nassau via the same boat. Once back, the four of us went to about four stores and by that time, the girls and I were done with shopping and we were hungry. So we headed back to the ship while Bruce stayed to do some more shopping. I swear, he is worse than a woman! Back at the ship, we headed for the kids’ pool again and grabbed a snack at Pluto’s snack bar adjacent the pool. Hubby arrived by 4:15pm. I headed up to the shower to get ready for dinner and a little while later, everyone else came up to the room as well. Our dinner tonight was in Parrot Cay again and tonight it had an island theme. The food was once again wonderful. I took some more picture of what I ate! After dinner, we went to a family game show right outside the restaurant. B2 and I participated to see how well we knew each other. We didn’t win but we had fun! Then we took the girls to the kids’ area and Bruce and I went to see “Toy Story – the Musical” in the Walt Disney Theater and it was really good. Next, we went to the WaveBands night club for an adult scavenger hunt of sorts followed by country music night. We got some cowboy hats (for free) to wear and did some line dancing. It was fun! Eventually, we gathered up the girls and then headed up to decks 9 and 10 to try to see the ship at night from the very front and the very back. It was really too dark to see anything and since it was past midnight, no one was really around. The girls went back to the room while Bruce and I went to Diversions (an internet café) to check our e-mails. We finally came back to the room after 1am and let me tell you, I told Bruce that you can certainly tell this is a family cruise ship because everything by that time was DEAD. No one around except a crew member or two. So now I need to go to bed because I am tired. We get to sleep a little later tomorrow. Yippeeeee!