April 2018: A MAGICal April Vacation: Day 8, Part 1

Day 8: Saturday, April 28, 2018

I woke up early again this morning, despite the fact that it was not sunny out. I don’t even think I can blame the ship changing direction or anything. I stepped out onto the balcony and saw nothing except rain, clouds, and water pouring off the side of the ship. Well, this doesn’t bode well.

I pulled the curtains between the bed and the couch, and turned on the TV. The bridge cam showed the same view I had...grossness, but the tracker channel (bridge report), showed us very close to Castaway Cay. Hmm.

I then noticed us starting to spin around, so I stepped outside. Sure enough, there was Castaway Cay, and we were getting ready to try to back into the ship channel. I did not envy the captain that morning. While the water was relatively calm, those were not nice conditions to dock in. And no, you are not imagining things; we really could just barely see the ship channel through the rain.

Somehow we docked. It was slightly later than intended, I think, but no big deal. I don’t think anyone was in a rush to get off of the ship today. Around 8, the captain started making announcements that it was expected that it would rain most of the morning, but it should clear somewhat in the afternoon, however, the island would be mostly surrounded by rain, so cruise director Darren was busy adding activities on the ship, and all character meet and greets would be moved to the ship for the morning, as would Kids Club operations. Oh, and the 3rd party people who come in from other islands were having difficulty getting to Castaway Cay on their jet skis, so many of the excursions would be canceled.

By this point, Nick was waking up, so we got ready and headed for breakfast in Cabanas. I was excited to see that not only did they have turkey sausage this morning, but they had 2 options for eggs benedict. I'm fine with Canadian bacon but I prefer non-greasy-bacon products. One of the eggs benedict options was served with turkey on it. It was great. So I piled my plate with turkey eggs benedict, turkey sausage, fruit, and HASH BROWNS! Oh, and more of that Orchard’s Best juice!

Nick and I sat by the windows again, and couldn’t help but notice that the rain had stopped, and the clouds were thinning. Hmm.

We went back to our room, and got ready for the day, deciding to leave things like real cameras in the room, out of the rain, and to pack ponchos. We also decided that where it had rained THAT hard, we were probably not going to be riding bikes today, so I got dressed in just a swimsuit and cover up, rather than shorts and such. The sky was getting lighter, so I put sunscreen on, hoping I wouldn’t jinx things, and I thought Nick put sunscreen on too. While he was supposed to be sunscreening, I took some pictures. If you notice some excessively close seagulls, it’s because the teenagers next door had decided to join the popcorn throwing club. UGH.

Pretty soon we were meeting Kim in the stair/elevator lobby. John was? We aren’t sure where he was. So, we headed down to deck one, grabbed some towels, and scanned our way off the ship.

We did some picture taking, and shortly after taking our last Shutters pictures, John came into view. He really has a distinctive walk. 

We continued doing a bit of picture taking as we walked toward the tram to Serenity Bay, dodging insanely deep puddles along the way. Yup, bike riding will be a “next time” activity!

A tram to Serenity Bay appeared pretty quickly, and very soon we were cruising through miniature lakes down the path to Serentiy Bay, shocked that there were people who had actually decided to stick it out and run the Castaway Cay 5k. I later heard the 5k described as the Castaway Water Obstacle 5k by a runner.

At Serenity Bay we hopped off the tram, and oohed and ahhed our way over to some beach chairs. Nick and I couldn’t help but notice that the beach seemed to have a much greater slope to it than it did 2 years ago. We assumed this was because of recent hurricanes. Kim headed for the water to put her feet in, which she deemed cold at the surface due to the rain, but warm a bit deeper. I took some pictures, and then put my phone away for a bit. 

While all of this was going on, Nick ordered 2 konk koolers, and we settled in. Not for long though. For one thing, the konk koolers arrived. But also, that slope was kind of awkward to sit on a lounge chair on. And speaking of that slope, we had to make some sacrifices to keep those konk koolers safe. The good news is, his shoes were new at the start of the trip and not worn in WDW!

The sun continued to emerge, so pretty soon we decided to haul the little chairs down to the water’s edge and put our feet in. Kim was right. Surface level was cold (but warming), but deeper water wasn’t too bad.

We gradually ditched the chairs, working our way into knee deep water, and enjoyed the increasing sunshine, really amazed by the pleasant turn the weather had taken. Pretty soon it was after 11 (where does time go on vacation?) so we got out of the water and got ready for lunch. We all were starving! But first, pictures!

When we got to the barbecue area, I saw Roberto from Palo directing people into line. I was very surprised when he recognized me immediately and said (in his thick Italian accent) “long time see...no…”. Wow! Nick was a bit behind me, and he was recognized too, but he’s a bit more memorable.

We all joined the line, where Kim and John realized this would be no ordinary beach picnic. I got a few sides, some dessert (pineapple upside down cake, which is really more like a mini pineapple loaf), and cajun mahi mahi.Nick had mahi mahi and some other meats. I think Kim had ribs. John was probably the boring one with a burger or something.

The food was really good. I contemplated going back for seconds and thirds on the mahi mahi, but the food baby was becoming quite visible, so I decided to stop there.

Once we’d finished eating, we parted ways. Kim and John went to “partake in some activities”, which turned out to be riding multiple trams over to the boat rental area, where they rented an aqua-trike. Apparently trying an aqua-trike had been a bucket list item for Kim. Nick and I headed back to the beach, where we promptly ignored every old wives’ tail we’ve ever heard, and went straight back into the ocean, this time out to a sandbar.

As we worked our way toward the sandbar (not the one way out, but one kind of in the middle of the bay) we found some other people standing around. Turns out there was a massive starfish visible. This is where I realized that I had left my waterproof camera on the ship. Tourist fail! We observed the starfish for quite some time before making our way to the sandbar.

We sat on the sandbar for quite some time. Yes, there was a LOT of sand in our shower drain that night. We saw another starfish and MANY teeny fish. It was a perfect spot. Really all we needed was another konk kooler and some more sunscreen.

After quite awhile enjoying the sun and sand, we worked our way back to our beach chairs. It was here that we ordered another round of konk koolers and that we realized Nick had gotten quite sunburned. Turns out that he had put SOME sunscreen on, but that sunscreen was only on his face and his head (which he was also covering with his new “American tourist” hat). He hadn’t put sunscreen on anywhere else, hoping to get a tan.

Swim trunks and a swim shirt means that Nick is, a few weeks later, still peeling from his knees down, and his elbows down. I believe (hope?) he will remember to put sunscreen on the next time we are that close to the equator!

We enjoyed our konk koolers, and then started heading back in the direction of the ship, stopping to listen to the music of our favorite of the musical couples we had heard on this cruise (and I finally looked at the Navigator...they were the FireLites), and at a couple of shops along the way. I ended up buying a cute swimsuit cover-up. It’s striped and has the DCL logo on it. My fashion advisor (Nick) persuaded me to do it. He and I had both been eyeing it since we arrived on the island.