The Long awaited Day 7

Sorry this took so long. I was waiting for some pictures i took and then just got lazy ha ha

Day 7 & 8

Castaway Cay, Castaway Cay Castaway Cay (If you watch the Disney video on this you’ll know why I say that. They say Castaway Cay about a million times in the video for you to remember).

Ahhhh, got to sleep in finally. Susan and I got up around 11 (she had no clue what time it was since it was dark in the room). It was so weird when we got off of the boat to go onto the island, the boat was DEAD QUIET! We barely heard anyone moving or talking. The only people we ran across were ship employees so we were practically the only people on the boat!

Even though this is a private island that only Disney cruise customers can go to, they still checked IDs and stuff when we got on and off of the boat. We walked about 2 blocks to the main area of the island where the beaches and food and stuff were. We had lunch of burgers and hot dogs and the like at the restaurant set up on the island for boat guests. After lunch we rented some snorkeling gear and went swimming.

NOT

Susan can’t swim so she just stayed by the shore. I went way out to take a picture of the submerged Mickey Mouse (pictures in process as I had to buy a waterproof camera and, GASP do something archaic like develop film (haven’t done that in years). I was out swimming for a good hour or so and it was fun. The beaches were white sand, the water so crystal clear (about 60 feet out since the shore was cloudy from all the people walking on the sand) and the water was very calm. It was really neat. I can’t even remember if I’ve been to a beach like this before.

After about 3 hours on the island, we headed back to the boat. We decided to go swimming in the pool on the boat (I wanted to try the waterslide but it was closed!). So we decided to go to the adult pool (least amount of people in it). But the water was warm! It was like being in a lukewarm tub. We didn’t stay in it long and I STILL hadn’t been to the gym yet so we went there to take a look at it. The gym was at the front of the ship (the other 2 I’d been on had the gym in the back). Also you could look right into the bridge of the ship from the gym so that was interesting. We asked if they had a sauna and stuff and one of the staff members showed us a room that could be used for $15 each for hot, cold, and relaxing treatments. So we paid that went on our way in the room.

Ooooooooh man it was so relaxing in there. They had an aromatherapy room, a mild sauna, a hot sauna (and it was hot), 2 cooling showers, and these weird seats that looked like they were made out of tile or porcelain that were heated so they were relaxing to sit in. We spent over 2 hours in there and my sore throat was completely gone! Susan didn’t believe me that relaxing in a sauna and steam room would help her throat out (ancient Chinese secret ha ha). We even skipped going to the broadway like show of that evening since we wanted to relax here. Word to the wise if any of you go on this cruise. I think you can just sneak into the aromatherapy room as we were in there for two hours and no one ever bothered us or anything. The $15 we paid was for the locker and the robe (and the room supposedly) but there were people just walking in there and using it so make note if you go on this cruise!)

We finally only decided to leave because it was getting close to dinner time and it was time to eat at the Animator’s Palette! There are some cool pics in my yahoo photo album

HERE

It was so cool how the room changed colors throughout the meal. I think only Disney or Warner Bros (possibly Dreamworks) could do something like that still looks cool (you need those childhood animated heros!)

After dinner it was off to bed and HOLY HELL it was rocky! I think around 1 or 2 am they stopped the boat (it would only take us about 6 hours to get back to Florida and we had about 10) and it was pretty choppy in the water. Things were falling over in the room and it was hard to sleep with all the noise (and we had an inside cabin too!) .

Day 8

OUCH! I got sunburned yesterday (3rd time ever). I paid for forgetting the sunscrean on the boat.

Well the vacation is over. We got back promtly a 7am and were off the boat by 8:30 and to the airport by 9:45. The only problem was, my flight wasn't till 2. As luck would have it (as i type this), there is free wirless internet access at the airport here so problem solved.

Overall the trip was SUPER FUN. I'd love to do this again soon (assuming Susan can keep up).

The Pluses:

1. Disney really has their act together on transport and logistics. Be it from hotel to park, park to park, park to hotel, hotel to airport, hotel to cruise, etc. they were on the ball almost the entire time (the exception is when they forgot to tell us the cruise shuttle was gonna be late but we were late too so it didn't matter ha ha).
2. The ticket to the World pass. This is your park pass, your ID, room key, charge key, and basically your life at disney. It's so convenient so you don't need 2 or 3 seperate keys or ID or tickets.
3. Service with a Smile. I've worked customer service and i know it sucks. But these people were nice to the point of almost making me nauseous. the smile can make all the difference sometimes
4. Almost no lines! Go in Sept (which is why i planned the vacation for exactly when we went as most kids are just back in school so the parks are almost empty and the vacation packages are cheaper!)

the Minuses:

1. I almost drank gasoline since it was cheaper than the food or drinks at the parks
2. It rained almost everyday (well that can't be helped but what can you do)
3. The parks closed fairly early (7:30 or 8pm at night? what gives?)
4. Did i mention the food was extremely expensive?
5. The park food wasn't that great
6. the cruise food was decent to good (the snack food is exactly the same as in the parks down to the napkins)
7. No lobster or crab for dinner on the cruises
8. only 24 hours in a day! My Lord never enough time to get stuff done (plus the 3 hour jet lag!)

The things that i regret on this trip are:

1. We never got to ride the boat from our hotel to Downtown Disney
2. We never got to ride the boat that crosses through Epcot
3. We never got to ride the Monorail (that is THE Disney way to ride)