Tuesday was a day of ups and downs. It started on a down note when the kids were really crazy at breakfast, and Deacon tipped over in his stroller. Not a great way to start the day. It began looking up when we went to the princess gathering after breakfast.
Rather than making you wait for hours in line to see the princesses, Disney has timed tickets to see all of them at once. It makes life so much easier. I highly recommend getting tickets as soon as you get on board.
Once we were done with the princesses, we had docked in Grand Cayman. We had tickets to do a dolphin encounter. This is when things started to go down hill again. First, we had to wait for quite a while in the ship's lounge to get boarded onto a tender boat to shore.
Once we got on shore, we had to wait out in the hot sun in line for buses to the excursion. The wait was about 40 (hot, sweaty) minutes with kids who were tired and not behaving. Poor Fletch even spent some time in timeout.
After finally boarding the bus, we were taken to the dolphin encounter place, overall, it was awful. I already had moral objections to seeing dolphins in captivity (please watch these movies about keeping large marine mammals in captivity--Blackfish and The Cove) but decided to do it b/c I thought the kids would love it.
As soon as we arrived, I felt bad for the dolphins and for us. We were basically like cattle being herded into the hot sun to eventually get in the water with the dolphins. Once in the water, the ledge wasn't tall enough for the kids to stand on so they were bobbnig around, and the instructor kept getting upset with us for not keeping the kids under control. I won't go into all of the details, but it ended up with us complaining, Eric getting stung by a jellyfish (thank goodness it was him and not the kids), and us getting most of our money back. I feel so bad that we did this excursion that I may need to make a donation to some type of ocean-based charity to repent for our sins.
Anyway, after the dolphins, we went across the street to the turtle conservation farm. That was much nicer and actually really cool.
I wish we had more time to spend there, but alas, we had to get back on the bus to head to the ship. Back on board, we all took baths/showers, relaxed for a bit, and then the kids went to the kids club and nursery for a few hours. As it turned out, the other family at our dinner table was eating in the fancy adult-only restaurant, so Eric and I had dinner alone. It was so nice to eat a meal without corralling three kids. After dinner, we picked up the kids, and headed to bed. A nice end to a long day.
Wednesday:
The only new country on our cruise itinerary was Jamaica, which we visited on Wednesday. The Disney excursions for Jamaica didn't seem that great, especially with kids, so I bought us day passes to the Jewel Runaway Bay Resort through Resort for a Day. I was nervous about doing a non-Disney excursion, especially in a place like Jamaica, but it worked out great. I can't say enough good things about Resort for a Day.
Before we docked in Jamaica, we checked Deacon into the nursery. We decided he wouldn't appreciate the day at the beach or the 40-60 minute bus ride. It was a great decision because it gave us lots of time with the big kids. So, we dropped him off and got off the boat. Falmouth is a relatively new port, built just a few years ago, and is very clean and nice, although maybe a bit sterile. I was pleasantly surprised. Lots of little shops as well as a Margaritville restaurant.
Piper and Fletch checking out the pool at Margaritaville.
Once we got there, the resort was really nice. A beautiful beach and several big (empty) swimming pools.
After swimming and playing for a few hours, we had lunch (all food and drinks, including alcoholic drinks, are included as part of the day pass). The waitstaff loved bringing P&F their own virgin pina coladas.
The resort also has a water park, which I was really excited to try, but on the day we were there, it was packed with local school kids, so we skipped it and stuck with the pools instead. Around 2pm, it was starting to get cloudy, and the bus was scheduled to depart at 2:30pm to go back to the boat, so we changed into our clothes and then caught our ride back. The sun knocked us all out in about 2 seconds.
Back in Falmouth, we got on board the ship, took showers and baths, got Deacon from the nursery, and put on our pirate costumes. It was time for the pirate night. First up, some pics with Pirate Mickey and in the ship portholes.
Then it was onto a Peter Pan/Captain Hook-themed dinner in Animator's Palate, followed by the pirate party on the pool deck.
The kids loved the show. When it was over, they went to kids club again while we put Deacon down. By 9:30pm, we were all pooped, so rather than stay up for the fireworks (which I heard were awesome), we all hit the hay. I know we were all exhausted because none of us even heard the fireworks.
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