Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

Kylee and I parted ways with Ben and Chris in front of Mount Rustmore.  As the sun began to lower behind our friends. Kylee cried for a minute or two when she realized Ben and Chris wouldn't be at the cabana the remainder of the afternoon. Then she realized that meant she got a whole cabana almost entirely to herself. Yes, Chris went back to the ship without his sneakers. Boys. I told her she could play in the sand for a bit while I gathered up the remainder of our sandals and scooped them into our beach bag. Everything ready for our last minute departure of the cabana, with the exception of our IDs in the room safe. I laid out our dry clothes and towels so that once we were good and dry we could take the time to get redressed to go back to the ship. I decided to pop out on the porch, let Kylee swim and I could snap some pictures.  So peaceful. See how they are drilling with the lifeboat at midship? Unfortunately this is when everything fell apart. Almos...

Predawn running and a little room service breakfast out of the way, the kids sat and watched as the Fantasy backed into Castaway Cay. I tried to slather sunscreen onto the kids, packed the swim bag and wished Ben the best of luck as he ducked out to go join the other runners preparing for the 5K. What do you get for Fish Extender gifts? Here's our gifts for the week! Kylee and Chris dug through all of their FE gifts, amazed at all of the perfect and thoughtful gifts. (Chris still loves the Star Wars book!) All ashore called, we headed down to the forward gangway to debark. Pre-race selfie! Ben enjoyed nearly perfect racing weather for his first Castaway Cay 5K, while Kylee and Chris squinted into the sun ready to run off on the beautiful island. It is really bright out on this island. We rode two tram stops into the island to hop off right next to the Cabana Check-In desk.  Is all of this ours? After checking our names and that we ...

As we went forth from Rizzo's room to solve who stole the Muppet Show, we were glad to discover that there are different villains and clues, so if you see someone else solve the mystery, you can still enjoy the thrill of the game. Our view for most of the afternoon. After solving the caper and staying tuned for the grand finale, we headed back to our room, our free drinks, the view and some quality time reading my Kindle. On a trip back in to grab some bottled waters, I noticed that the concierge left us a present. Little Paper Cabana A perfect little replica of our cabana! A map of the locations of the new family beach cabanas? How helpful. Ben and I headed off to the Cove Café, since we had neglected to visit it so far. It was oddly empty for mid-afternoon. After poking back into the clubs to retrieve our kiddos for the concierge reception, we popped back into the lounge. I can see my room from here! With fruity beverages (and a non-dairy hot cocoa with ...

On fetching our cereal boxes and fruit from the lounge, Julia mentioned that they happened to recently complete the cabanas at the end of the family beach if we happened to be interested. The Lounge Hallway Intrigued, I let her know I'd check with Ben and get back to her. We ate breakfast. Thought it over. Looked at the bill for the cruise so far (it had been delivered either the night before or early that morning and was still well within our budget) and decided to go for it. Kylee takes Jazz. Not that you can tell or anything. Since we had gone back a time zone, (back to eastern from Atlantic) we were up very early. After wandering around the ship, we decided to drop off the last of the Fish Extender gifts. Ben joined us for handing out gifts, usually he sits out and we both remarked how the halls jagged to the right and left as you walked up the passenger decks. At the Art of Animation tour, the cast member had explained this was to avoid the endless hallway effe...

After a lovely whole family morning hiking to and from the fort with the whole family, Chris  decided to retreat to the club. Kylee hung out with Julia coloring in the concierge lounge while Tracy called up the future cruises desk to book us a " dummy date " for 2016. (We hope to float this spring date to a September Eastbound Panama Canal cruise when dates are released.) Our own little family café. Kylee talked her way into another non-dairy hot cocoa with Mickey sprinkles. Julia also gave her a coloring book of all of her favorite princesses just for her very own. Settled into coloring and cartoons, we finished rebooking onboard before Kylee finished her cocoa. We sat and watched the new Mickey cartoons while she sipped. I thought that they were a bit of a combination of cool retro Mickey with the gross out factor common to many modern cartoons. Not my favorite, but I sure like them better than Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Kylee, finished with her cocoa, ...