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Cruise Day 2

Monday morning we arrived at Castaway Cay in the Bahamas. After breakfast at Cabanas, the buffet restaurant on the 11th deck, we left Lizzy to take a nap in the room while Annie and I disembarked to check out the island. I've never been on a cruise that takes you to actual port cities, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but Castaway Cay was pretty great! There is a nice beach, a few shops, some bars, a place to rent bikes, over 3 miles of trails, and lots of other recreation activities like snorkeling, para sailing and jet skiing. Annie and I played it safe and just went to the splash pad. We then ate a barbecue lunch and for some reason I think the food on the island is much better than the food on the boat. They had a ton of traditional bbq offerings like hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, ribs, salads, corn on the cob, chips and cookies. They also had soft serve machines! I think Annie ate an average of 2 ice cream cones a day on the trip.

After lunch we boarded the ship again and brought the girls to the "It's a Small World Nursery." I was really impressed with the childcare on the cruise and the childcare workers were extremely nice and friendly. I felt really comfortable leaving the girls there, and I think they had a good time, too. The nursery had a play area in the front with a ton of toys and then a separate room in the back with dimmed lights, cribs and rockers. While the girls played at the nursery I went and worked out at the gym and took a shower. I know that is a lame way to use up the babysitting time, but Joe had to work and it was nice to have a little break! Later on in the evening we ended up putting Lizzy back in the nursery while we went to dinner because she didn't get a good afternoon nap that day and there was no way she would have made it through dinner. We had dinner at the Royal Palace again that night and I really wish I would have taken a picture of the menu or written down what we ate for dinner...sorry, Diz!  But again, it was less than spectacular. On the bright side, one of the desserts on the children's menu was a Mickey ice cream bar so that is what Joe and Annie got every night for dessert. Amazing!

Some "friends" were visiting the nursery when I picked Lizzy up after dinner. She was less than thrilled

True or false - Peter Pan is the creepiest Disney character in person

After picking Lizzy up there was a really fun "pirate party" on the pool deck and a very impressive fireworks show. It was neat to think about the fact that we were watching a huge fireworks show out in the middle of the ocean!

There was a special gift waiting for us in our room every night after dinner. I can't tell you what they all were in case they are re-gifted during this year's White Elephant

Cruise Day 3

The next day (Tuesday) we were at sea. After eating at the breakfast buffet (decent), Annie and I went swimming while Lizzy took her morning nap.  It was so fun getting to spend all that time with Annie, she is at such a good age for this kind of stuff! We alternated between swimming in the Mickey shaped pool and Nemo's splash pad, and then Annie dined on a lunch of chicken nuggets while watching Cinderella on the big screen at the pool. Toddler heaven!

Eating Mickey Waffles for breakfast! Not a bad view

Doing a little golfing after breakfast

Speaking of toddler heaven, later in the day we stumbled onto a "character dance party" and I really have to imagine that it was the best 20 minutes of Annie's life thus far. Pictures don't do it justice!

Wow, these posts take way longer than expected to complete. Almost halfway through the cruise - more coming soon!