Cruise Day #24: Castaway Cay

Alright folks....it's finally here....the final full day of our cruise. I figured I shouldn't procrastinate writing & posting it any longer....so here goes....our day at Castaway Cay.......

Jason made our magnet for the day with a Lilo & Stitch surfing theme....which is, of course, Hawaii and not the Bahamas....but they're both tropical and both beautiful...so hey---we thought it worked!!

For those of you who have never cruised with Disney before----Castaway Cay is Disney's private island in the Bahamas.  Every Disney cruise that sails in the Caribbean makes at least one stop at Castaway (weather permitting).  The only ships that ever get to dock there are the Disney ships...and there is only ever (to my knowledge, at least) one there at a time.....so you basically have this very private experience on a tropical paradise.  The island has beautiful beaches, a snorkeling lagoon, a marina with water sports rentals (parasailing, paddle boats, jet skis, etc.), game areas, a family beach, an adults only beach, a large BBQ buffet restaurant, little shops, bike and float rentals, walking trails, spa massage cabins---it's like a beautiful tropical land extension of the ship itself--basically, it's heaven......DISNEY STYLE!!!

Cruise Day #23: FINAL Day at Sea

Well, while we were trying our very best to be in complete denial about it....our FINAL sea day had arrived.  Because it was our last day to enjoy the ship, we decided that is exactly what we were going to----we basically didn't even LOOK at our personal navigator for the day....just skimmed it to make sure there was nothing really super exciting that we'd miss (there was not)...and made the decision that we would just E-N-J-O-Y!!

(Note:  I know I've put this disclaimer in here several times for sea days...but why stray from my pattern now, right? LOL  Anyway...don't expect a lot of pictures...because there won't be many!  While we were actually both really, REALLY happy with our decision to not do too much "planned" activity...and just be lazy...that also meant not a lot to photograph...so you'll have to just create pictures in your mind from my fantabulous descriptions! LOL)

The End Is Coming....I swear!!

So a number of people have asked me why the blog ends with Tortola---when they know there were at least two more days in the trip after that.....and the simple answer is this: 

The blog doesn't actually end there---I just haven't posted the rest yet! LOL

So why am I so tardy with the last two days?  There are two answers to that question:

Cruise Day #22: Tortola

Welcome to Tortola!! Well it's another port day....and it was a bittersweet day because it was our last port (except for Disney's private Bahamian island, Castaway Cay) before the end of the trip....which means that we're headed home soon....AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!  Honestly, where does 24 days on the boat go?!?!  It really does seem like we JUST got on and even though I know when I go back and read all these posts it will be clear to me just HOW MUCH we did and saw....it feels like this vacation shouldn't be even close to over yet! :(

OK...before I make myself cry thinking about it being over....let's dive right into our experience in Tortola today...and to probably one of the excursions I was most looking forward to:  DOLPHINS!!!  Remember.....I love anything to do with animals...especially aquatic animals and/or exotic birds!  I'm getting ahead of myself, though....

....before I describe our day in Tortola, please note our fabulous magnet for the day...with our "signature characters," Tigger & Roo....so cute!

Cruise Day #21: St. Maarten

(Note:  Sorry there has been a delay in posts.  For the last couple days on the ship, the internet was just awful---and I couldn't even get emails to send to Hadley with the new content to post...and then Hadley went out of town to spend time with her family (Hope you're having a great time, Hadley!!)....so we decided that I would just wait and post the rest of our trip blogs once we got back into the USA---which means that, yes, sadly we are off the ship and have begun the process of getting home....but I don't want to talk about that...just yet!! LOL)
----------------------------

LAND HO!!!  Yep, we arrived at land, on the 21st day of our cruise, at the island of St. Maarten----a Caribbean island that is split nearly evenly with half of it being Dutch and the other half French.  It is, apparently, the smallest island nation on earth that is split between two separate countries.

Our magnet here shows an image of one of the main buildings in the port area in St. Maarten....and Jason cut and paste the character Stitch (one of Disney's most tropical characters) into the shot to welcome us to the islands!  (Later in this post you'll see a picture of me and Jason sitting basically exactly where he placed Stitch on our magnet----once again it was fun to see our magnets coming to life! LOL)

Cruise Day #20: Day at Sea

Well, Day 20 arrived and it was our last day at sea before we would see land again.  All around the ship there were lots of people who were vocally anxious to get their feet on dry land once more....but not me and Jason.  We wanted the boat to turn around and head back to sea for another 5 (or 10 or 20) days!! LOL

Jason rounded out a series of fun "Day at Sea" magnets with this magnet depicting one of the underwater scenes from Pinnochio....this is one of my favorite magnets from this trip, I think, because it's so cute!

This day at sea started out a little differently than our other days because after a very quick stop to the rainforest room in the spa, we had to get back to our room, shower and get changed so that we could.....