Castaway Cay 5K!

Well, that was interesting.  I had heard about the Castaway Cay 5k run via pinterest way back in the winter.  I told Mike that he should totally do it since he was already an avid runner.  I would go on the occasional run, but nowhere near 5k, and I figured I would have to watch the kids anyway.  Well I discovered that there is a kids club on the island that all runners check their kids into before beginning the run.  I thought about it for a few minutes and figured, "ok great! Sign me up! This way I can train all summer to run a 5k on September 2! No problem!"

Well, as life goes on, I only ever make it up to running just over 3k in the summer.  I run with Scout, it's boiling hot in southern ontario, and I have 3 kids at home.  Not super conducive to training all summer long.  I'm not a great runner, and 3k is an amazing accomplishment for me.  But anyway, Mike says not to worry it'll be ok and you can just run really slow.  I already run at snail pace, but I figure I can just take a walking break half way and just use the crowd and Mike as a motivation to keep going.  

In the morning we have a good breakfast to charge us up and then go get our numbers.  You can tell there are clearly some serious runners in this crowd.  Not to mention they don't even advertise the run on the cruise at all.  You just have to know about it through word of mouth, or through the RunDisney website.  As soon as the boat is docked the runners get to get off the ship first.  This actually worked out super awesome because on route to the starting line we dropped off our stuff in a prime location on the beach in the shade.  But I'm getting ahead of myself--first we step off the ship and are hit with a blast of intense heat and humidity.  It couldn't have been any cooler than 40 degrees celsius.  "This was a big mistake", I say.  As we make our way to the starting line after dropping the kids off (at what looked like a super awesome kids club with a splash park in it), I couldn't stop thinking about the route the lady had told us about when they prepped us for the run. Two laps though the bike path and down the full blazing sun air strip.  ie. no shade at all.  

So we start running.  I have my Cruise playlist which is actually quite motivating, but after running about 100 meters I was dying.  To make a long and painful story short, it took us 45 minutes.  This was my estimate, and it was spot on.  Crazy freakish runners were lapping us.  I can't even say I ran half of it.  After lap 1 I totally wanted to give up (plus I had to go to the washroom so badly....not sure how i didn't just sweat out all the water I was consuming), but I so desperately wanted to get my first ever medal of my entire life so I kept going.  Poor mike could have ran the whole thing but I held him back big time!! 

The funny thing is that as we finished the race I was thinking about how I would never do that again in my entire life!! But as time passed and I got hydrated and in my bathing suit in the ocean, the runner's high kicked in, and I started thinking, "As long as we go in the winter when it's cooler, I'd totally do that again!".  So next time I'm aiming for a better time!! And to run more vs. walking! Well, I say that now, but maybe I'll chicken out... I mean I already have a medal.  

Last sea day!

I was confused when I tried to compile this day of photos.  I guess we didn't take too many photos this day as it was a pretty chilled out day.  A lot of this day was spent with me trying to rebook our next Disney Cruise (typical me).  Well not really spent TRYING to rebook it.  More like THINKING of rebooking it.  The rebooking special was just to good to pass up.  So while the girls were playing a detective game and running all over the ship I just told them I would be casually waiting by the vacation desk, and I happened to line up and talk to the man at the same time.  So I decided to stop thinking about it and just do it so I could get on with my day.  He gave me a form to sign and drop in a box.  That was it. Easy peasy, Disney Cruise 2018 here we come!

Henry gazing down lovingly at Tiana and yelling "TIANA!! TIANA!!"

One of the times we went to drop off kids at the kids club and had a drink at the bar mid afternoon.  The kids were never asking to go to the club so we always had to force them, even though they seemed to have fun.  Next time we'll use the kids club more.  Henry absolutely had to nap this time to make it up to 10:00 every night.  That sometimes limited us from the club as we were also trying to do the family activities.

As sad as it was we started to pack up some of our stuff (sniff) since the next day was a really early morning and long day on Castaway Cay.

Ciao, the maitre D took this photo after our last meal at Enchanted Garden.

We went to see a family variety show straight after dinner.  The man was juggling, and for some reason he had M & M's in his act.  All of the kids were sitting on the floor in the front and Henry was saying something very loudly about wanting them so the man asked what Henry's name was and talked to him for a second.  Henry wandered back to me a little bit later and was telling me how the man wasn't giving him any M & M's.  I was quietly trying to tell him to not worry about it.  Meanwhile the man was looking for volunteers for the next part if the show.  Henry decided at this time to wander back to sit with Paige and Rose just as the man was asking for a "very small volunteer".  "Henry!!" the man says as Henry is literally passing right in front of the stage.  So he got in the show.  He was there for part of the reason he was on the stage but then left after saying "I need my mommy".

And it's pretty hard to see in this photo, but Mike and Rose are in the picture (mike with the camera bag and Rose in the white dress), and in front of the them are a mother and daughter in matching Lily outfits just like Rose and I had worn the night before! The girl is in the exact same dress as Rose had, and the mom is wearing the dress version of the top I had.  I had to stop and tell the mom.

St. Thomas day

Because everyone was keen to have a go on the aqua duck again (Paige had only been twice, and Rose had only been once!), we thought it would be a great idea to have breakfast and go for a swim before going onto the island.  So that is what we did...although because it was a port day they didn't open the aqua duck until 12:00! Now we know! That aqua duck is super hard to fit in when both girls need an adult to ride with, but Henry can't go on at all.  That means we had to go separately and it was always a half hour wait at least. So, we had to wait until the next day! The 2 times I rode it, it was a blast! So fun.  Anyway, it was really nice to leisurely eat and go to the pool without worrying about rushing off the ship.  

Our "port adventure" was a sky ride (gondola) to "Paradise Point".  All of us were kind of scared on the way up. At the top we had some yummy nachos, and everyone had a frozen beverage of some type or another.  A great view.  Afterwords we shopped for some souvenirs as the girls still had some money they were itching to spend.  

Although Mike and I had pigged out on the nachos, the kids had only picked away at the dry pieces and still needed lunch, which we got back on the ship.  Can't beat these views!

In the evening it was time to bust out Rose and my matching ensemble! This night's dinner was at the animator's palate again--and was the night where our drawings came to life on the screen.  So fun.  

I had to take a picture of this kids appetizer, as well as a half eaten plate of food.  The reason for that one is the mickey face ketchup that Henry and Rose had every night with their meals.

After the main course it was a decorate your own (3) cupcakes! Yikes! So much sugar.

And it was on this night that Henry had a super long dance with Tiana to "Shake it Off".  What a little guy.  He was ecstatic! I think she picked him because she could see he was just staring at her in awe.

About the spa....

During all of my research I heard of a 1 day spa pass.  It was for part of the spa called the Rainforest Room, which sounded really amazing.  I was super set on getting my hands on one of these so I made sure to get to the spa ASAP to sign up.  Well, it turned out that they didn't offer one day passes, just 1 week passes.  I had my heart set on this place so much that I decided to spring for it anyway, even though that was a bit expensive.  Oh well.  

The Rainforest room had 2 main sections, a sort of self-guided spa, and a relaxation room.

I first checked out the different showers.  Each one had different lights, temperatures, and scents.  Within each one you could also choose one of three options.  For example, you could choose "southern storm" in the "tropical thunder" shower.  In that there were lightening flashes and some red lights.  In the rainforest shower I could smell a distinct eucalyptus scent.  Very cool.

After the showers, I tried the "hamam", which was a steamroom where you could also apply a body scrub and rinse it off with a big wooden ladle.   In the subsequent visits I did this first before the showers, so I could rinse off the oils better.  There was also a hotter steam room, as well as a dry sauna.  

After the spa portion of the room you could visit this other room which had these unique tiled loungers that didn't feel hot, but were just the perfect temperature to relax.  just outside the room were 2 small hot tubs, but also a superb view of the ocean, or a port if you happened to be at one! In this room I read my book, or just lay there and enjoyed the fact that I didn't have any chores to do.

An unexpected bonus of the spa were the shower facilities.  Although our room was fine in terms of space, there were several times where I went to the spa later in the day, and showered there and fully dried my hair in the change room.  Plus the change room had higher end shampoos and soaps, as well as an extremely amazing smelling body lotion.  Oh, and a massive shower! I would leave the spa feeling like a million bucks and pretty much ready for dinner.  I would definitely do this whole thing again.  Mike either ran or went to the gym every day, but I didn't feel like doing that on the cruise, and going to sit somewhere with a book would have been ok, but this was better!