Our Second Day at Sea

Our second full day aboard the Disney Wonder began as the first, with a breakfast buffet at the Beach Blanket Buffet. This time I thought ahead however, and stashed a spare banana and apple in our away bag.

Oh, one thing was different. We'd set a wakeup call and Mickey himself called to wake us up!

From there it was off the ship and on to gorgeous Castaway Cay, the beautiful privately owned island that Disney operates for its cruise ships.

Our first stop was the scheduled excursion of the day, the Glass Bottom Boat tour.

Here the girls again erupted in tantrum mode, and we began the trip wondering what we ever did to deserve them ;). They turned it around on a dime though, once the trip got going.

And it was worth the money - heck, it was almost worth what we paid for the dolphin encounter.

It wasn't that it was mind-bogglingly impressive, but it held the girls attention, which let me tell you is 99% of the battle. Moreover the guide was friendly, well versed in the fish and geography of the area (he should be, as a native), and was GREAT with kids since he has six of his own!

At one point the girls were made to stand on the boats step ladder and feed the fish some Quaker Oats, a treat which brought the local wildlife streaming their way.

How's this for a view?

Later the girls were allowed to sit on the glass bottom itself - well, the youngest in each family was allowed. YaYa kinda stretched the point to get herself down there, but she wasn't the only big sister to do it ;)

I was kind of nervous at times, with the boat going full speed and the girls' lacksadaical about hanging on, especially since both girls shared the boat with friends they'd made at the Oceaneers Club, one set of which was from San Diego.

Or as they put it "We're friends from the club".

Preoccupied with socializing, they all seemed oblivious to the water around them at times. Or I'm just paranoid.

This is LuLu telling folks her age.

Lu really adored our guide!

After the boat trip it was a quick tram ride to the family beach

[Here's the wreck of the Black Pearl.]

, where we set up shop on a lounge chair and hit the water for OUR FIRST EVER SWIM IN THE OCEAN!

[No, the penned in dolphin water didn't count]

Naturally, the first thing I did was taste the water.

And ya know what? The ocean is salty.

Oh, I knew it was, but I always assumed it was a subtle thing, a flavor that crept up on you, or some mild concoction that just left you parched.

Imagine my shock - seriously - when it was every bit as salty as the water my Grandma used to make me gargle when I had a sore throat!

The stuff stings when it gets in your eyes, too.

On the other hand it was crystal clear, a gorgeous pale blue, and warmer than Lake Michigan gets even in the height of summer. And the sand was so white and perfect . . what a way to get introduced to the sea.

Here's how the 45 minutes we spent on the beach went down. After a quick family swim LuLu and I spent the rest of the time in the water horsing around. Meanwhile Lisa supervised YaYa as she methodically hunted for seashells on the beach and the waters edge.

[BTW - for the first time in months, LuLu has actually referred to her sister as YaYa]

At noon we broke off for a quick bite at the Disney barbeque, where the girls had hot dogs and burgers and I tried couscous and mahi-mahi for the first time ever - and loved both.

Then we dropped the girls off at the Castaway Cay beach events; an archelogical dig by YaYa to uncover a whale skeleton and a scavenger hunt for musical instruments for LuLu.

Unfortunately, Lu was getting tired and bugged out about being left there. We stayed for a good 15 minutes to try and talk her into staying - heck, I even built a 5 tower sand castle with her - but it was no go.

We signed her out and went to pick up YaYa, who was having loads of fun, and luck too, having uncovered three different parts of the skeleton on her own!

[Side note: the kids began calling one of the Club teachers 'Picklehead', which I guess was a nickname he allowed, based on a skit he did with Captain Hook the day before]

Lisa was worried that I was annoyed/saddened/depressed that I got to spend so little time on the beach, as I'd stated all along that was my big 'thing' on the trip, but it was enough. I did what I set out to do, had some fun, and was in a good enough mood to put my kids first (and not be annoyed by it). So no big deal. I'll be back.

It was Lisa's idea to hit the famous Mickey Pool on Deck 9 while it was near empty with everyone on shore.

For a good hour we had a good time in the shallow water. YaYa went down the water slide about a zillion times

, and yours truly, Mr. Stick in The Mud himself, loosened up a bit and played a good deal with the kids, chasing them in the water and having Lu jump in to cadences of "Bada Bing, Bada Boom, Bada . . . Splash!"

Here's some views of the Cay from Deck 9 or 10:

A solid nap followed for all (tho' YaYa outlasted us all and just lay quietly) and then it was back to Animator's for dinner.

Yeah, forget losing weight, I'm almost as heavy as the ship itself after this trip. The food . . ..crab cake appetizer with a jerked chicken salad and an entrée of melhi-melhi. Oh man. And desert . . .

It was Pirates In The Caribbean day at the restaurant (and on the ship) and as part of the festivities I donned a Pirate Doo Rag, as did the girls.

I also chipped in about a thousand "Arrr, cap'n" throughout the dinner. Here's Lisa's dessert. Note the 'parchment treasure map' menu for the night.

At the end of dinner all the kids danced around the room with the servers and limboed.

Then the girls were off to Oceaneers Club for an hour, LuLu for Story Time with Belle and YaYa for Flubber making, while Lisa and I had our first ever game of shuffleboard, then retreated to our stateroom for some, uh-hem, melhi-melhi of our own.

Alas, a screwup with the Club's clerical records left YaYa in LuLu's age bracket, thus denying her a dose of Flubber. She was disappointed and we were ticked off (does she look three???) but there was nothing we could do after the fact . .

We then went as a family to another show in the Walt Disney Theater, this time the Golden Mickey's, an 'award show' complete with elaborate renditions of some of Disney's greatest movie songs. Very good, and certainlyentertaining.

LuLu was a little vocal, but nothing over the top. Both girls enjoyed it.

Back in our room we ordered cookies from room service and settled in to watch the end of Toy Story and the start of Beauty and the Beast, and then off to sleep for another day . . .