The Last day of the Cruise

I'm not sure I had ever looked so boiling hot in my entire life as when I finished the race.  As Mike was not rough like me, I sent him to get the kids from the kids club as it was probably a kilometre away.  It took them quite a while to make it back, so I just rested on a beach chair and people watched. I was also taking in the sights of the extremely choppy waters breaking at the edge of the reef (hurricanes on route but did not interrupt our trip!).  All excursions were cancelled for the day, but luckily we didn't have anything booked.  There is more than enough to do there anyway.  Once the kids got there we went for some swimming and lunch.  They had a huge buffet on the island, including some chewy mouth watering cookies.  Afterwards we put 2 and 2 together--the restaurant was called "Cookies", and further down the island was "Cookies 2".  Now it all makes sense.  We had a great lunch and fun swimming.  Although with the stormy seas the water clarity was really reduced.  The girls and Mike tried to snorkel but couldn't see much.  I'm sure the water is usually crystal clear. I spent a long time hoping that Henry would have a nap on the beach chair, and he did lie there quietly for a long time, but unfortunately didn't sleep! Had it not been so boiling  hot it would have been fun to check out the shops and take the kids to the water slide.  I think we were all happy to just stay in one spot though! 

You can see Henry with his tongue sticking out in the one photo.  All of the kids had their first experience with salt water on this trip.  Having a pool at home means they are in the water constantly, so the salt was a bit of a shock! (One amazing thing though--the salt water completely cured the girls of their green hair problem! Although when we got home and everyone started swimming in the pool again, it was green again.)

Castaway Cay is really great though.  You just walk right off the ship onto the beach, which you can't do anywhere else.  Its a good thing it's the last port though--it was super easy to bring the kids here and probably the best port day for them.   I should also mention that Castaway Cay is a private Disney island that they lease from the Bahamas...so that's the general direction that it's in.