Day 4, Castaway Cay

We were awakened to the speaker informing us that we could go ashore, sometime around 8:30am, I believe. We walked out on the verandah, and Castaway Cay was quite a sight - just like in the brochures. We got ready to go, and then had a nice breakfast at Topsiders before finally getting off the boat near 10am.

First, I have to say the time at Castaway Cay was way too short. By the time we got off the boat until the time we got back on was about 5 hours (there were major storm clouds close by at 3pm). We attempted to find a chair on the family beach, and then decided to try the adult beach. We did not realize there was a tram to the adult beach - this is a big-ass walk, so TAKE THE TRAM. Or rent a bike. The airline runway seems to go on forever. By the time we got to the adult beach and figured out there wasn't a seat to be had (plus my ankle would not take walking on that sand) and took the tram back, it was just about time for lunch. We did look in the couple of little shops on the island - they really are pitiful, nothing much of interest to buy.

We did find seats on the family beach, there were plenty once you walked a bit further down it. I wrote out a few postcards, while Jan hit the water. After he returned, we left our towels and spare clothes on the seats and headed for lunch.

Lunch was wonderful and plentiful - hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken (I believe), and side dishes and desserts. The lines seemed long, but moved very quickly and seating was easily available.

After lunch, I decided to finish writing out and send the postcards. We had bought some postcards in Nassau, and I also had plenty of free postcards from the cabin room (we asked Julia for extras). I went to the post office, and sat on the little bench outside. Unfortunately, I did not realize until all the postcards were stamped that there were offical Castaway Cay stamps available. They are lovely - more expensive than the postcard stamps, but I would have bought them. I used one on a letter, which is the only reason I found out that they existed. The postcards take FOREVER to arrive. I was told at the post office 3-5 days (this was from 10/8) and it is now 10/23 and I am not sure any have arrived. The few postcards we sent from Nassau are just finally arriving at their destinations.

After finishing my postcards, I grabbed the tram back and found my seat. I had planned to get into the water, but a storm seemed to be looming, so I just walked in up to my knees (I was wearing shorts and t-shirt, not bathing suit). The water was beautiful - a clear aqua-blue. I wish I had spent some more time in it.

We headed back to the boat at around 3. From what I recall, we just spent time wandering around the ship until we finally took off at around 5. We ended up standing near the horn, and it was LOUD. I didn't have my ear plugs in yet, so I about dropped over from fright. :-)

We decided this last evening to see the early show (okay, I know our tickets said 10:30, but we deviated from that). If the theater had been full, we would have come back later. It wasn't, and we sat in one of the back rows. My husband says the show was good, I fell asleep. This cruising stuff just wore me out. The ship was rocking quite a bit my then, so I had a very nice nap.

After the show, we headed back to the room and got our bags packed. They needed to be outside the door by 10pm, so we decided to wait until after dinner to put the luggage out. We had a towel swan on the bed for us, the second or third evening we had a towel animal. There was a catfish out in the hallway ouside someone elses room. After packing, we headed to our last dinner at Parrot Cay. Oh - we had received our tip envelopes the previous evening, and went right away to guest services to have them charged on our credit card. There was no line to do this, I guess everyone waited until the last minute.

Parrot Cay was very nice. The atmosphere this last night was very lighthearted, a server dropped something and the whole room just clapped like crazy. It was really quite nice, even though we knew we would be leaving in the morning. My food was excellent, as usual. I had the jerk steak that was seasoned perfectly. Jan had the same. I am sure I had a salad as an appetizer, and for dessert I had vanilla ice cream (yum). A wonderful meal! We gave our tips to the servers, and it was rather depressing leaving (we did not realize we would be seeing them in the morning). We said goodbye to Jennifer (who kissed everyone on the cheek) and Tom, and headed out to Shutters.

Shutters was CRAZY, and the pictures from dinner were not up yet (and did not go up this evening). I decided to check back later, and we went to the room and left our luggage in the hallway.

Jan decided to stay in the room for a while, and I went down to do a little last-minute shopping. I really spent very little on merchandise, items were either uninteresting or overpriced. I saw one of our tablemates in the hallway near shutters, and spoke to her for a lengthy amount of time. I headed to Shutters one last time, and our photos were not available so I decided to go back in the morning.

The rocking motion of the boat made for a wonderful nights sleep.

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