We were able to have a nice slow start to the day. We greatly enjoyed our walk from our room to breakfast. We looked around The Little Mermaid portion (where we were staying) and The Lion King.
(Unfortunately, this is the last picture we got of Ella and Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley disappeared at breakfast. We think he must have been afraid of getting sea sick, so he decided to stay at Disney World and ride the roller coasters instead.)
After breakfast, we waited in the lobby until our driver arrived to take us to the port. We were all very excited to get to our ship, The Disney Dream!
We were so glad we had decided to take private transportation. We made it to the port at about noon and there were hardly any lines. We had a quick check in, took time for pictures with Pluto, and walked onto the ship.
Once on board, I went to guest relations to arrange a couple of surprises for our girls while Bryan took the girls to get registered at the Oceanear Club. Then we went up for lunch. After we had eaten, we went to our room to get changed to go swimming. We had time for one ride on the AquaDuck and for the girls to play at Nemo's Reef a little bit before we needed to get ready for the Sail Away Party.
The Sail Away party was a great start to our trip! Lots of fun!
Looking out to sea from the fun windows on The Dream:
Some pictures around the ship:
A quick game of shuffleboard:
Dinner this evening was in The Enchanted Garden, and it was as expected- Delicious!!! The girls finished before the adults, so Bryan took them for some fun in the Oceanears Club while we enjoyed our dessert. (But don't worry, they were able to have dessert before they went. Ella especially liked her Mickey ice cream bar.)
Bryan and I shopped a little bit before getting the girls for our first show, The Golden Mickeys. It was a Great show!! While we were waiting for the show to start, a cast member came up to us and explained a problem he was having. He was in charge of making sure all the characters got on board and he forgot all the dwarves except for Dopey. So, he asked our girls if they would be willing to help him and play the part of dwarves in the show. Ella was willing, but Emma didn't want to. (Emma was worried because she wanted to help him out, but didn't want to be on stage. We assured her he would be able to find someone else to help.) Ella did a great job! She is the dwarf in blue. She said she was Happy.
We took the girls shopping after the show. They have been saving up the money they've earned doing chores and what they've received as gifts for months to spend on this trip. They found several things they wanted, but after looking at the price tags, they decided most of it was too expensive. They each bought a foldable hair brush and pen. (You cannot pay with cash on the trip, so we charged it to our room with the understanding that they would pay us back when we got back to the room.) On our way out of the store, they spotted Duffy bears. They really wanted those bears, but they also realized it would take almost all of the rest of their money to buy one each. There were tears as they deliberated what to do. They wanted to have money left to spend at Disney World, but they really wanted Duffy. We were very impressed that they never once asked us to buy it for them. In the end, Duffy won and got to come home with us. (Bryan and I bought a few items as well.)
When we got back to our room for the night, our stateroom attendant had made a sea turtle for us:
A great day and many more to come!
Our time on Castaway Cay was wonderful. We took several trips down Pelican Plunge, played on the beach, swam in the ocean, played at the splash pad, and just generally had a great time. The girls really wanted to spend some time in the kids only area, so they ate lunch there and played while Mommy and Daddy took a few extra trips down Pelican Plunge. We did not take very many pictures on the island partially to keep the camera safe, but also to just enjoy the day without the camera in my hand.
