Star Wars Day at Sea

The next day we were "lazy", but we were still some of the first people on the pool deck after breakfast.  We almost had the whole place to ourselves.

Elena happily swam around the Mickey pool, while Vivi got Jeff and both the Goerss grandparents to go on the Aquaduck with her.

An added bonus to being on the pool deck is that we got to hear the ship's horn play both the first few notes of the Star Wars theme and the Empire theme.  We were really impressed, since we've gotten used to the When You Wish Upon a Star one, and didn't realize it could do other songs too!

We got in a good hour of fun, and then it was time to get ready for our Star Wars photo ops.  I had gotten us timed tickets for photos with Chewie, R2D2 and C3PO, and Darth Vader himself.  The Goerss grandparents came along for the fun.  I think Chewie was the one Jeff was most excited about.

Elena and I are more robot people.

While Viv was just waiting to reveal her true rebel colors to Darth Vader.

While it was a lot of fun to get pictures with all of them, we also had fun taking pictures in places where there wasn't a line.  The girls found some great photo opportunities with a little motorcycle in the Italian themed cafe area.

My goofy family :-)

After that, we handed the girls off to the grandparents for lunch, and Jeff and I went to the spa for a massage.  It was a nice break.  No surprise, we found the girls back up on the pool deck afterwards with Elena zipping around the yellow slide again.  We let them play a bit longer, and then called it quits on pool time.  We knew the next day was going to be a beach day, and we were trying to pace ourselves.  Plus, BB8 was scheduled to come to the kids club and recruit volunteers for the resistance.  The girls were happy to get cleaned up for that.  They even watched some Star Wars on the TV in the room to prepare.

The popcorn bucket was one of our best investments.  You paid one time for the bucket, and then refills were something like $1.50 each time.  We got it filled up before the evening shows and whenever we needed a movie snack.  The girls didn't get to finish the movie this time though, because they had to get to the kids club.  They got front row seats.

They also discovered the animation tables where they could trace some of their favorite characters.  Getting them to come to dinner was a struggle once again.  They were delighted to discover though that their menus where storm trooper masks.

Mom couldn't resist getting them BB8 cups for their drinks too.

They had brought their drawings to dinner to continue working on them, so this was my dinner companion for the evening.

By that point in the cruise, we were feeling the pace and everyone was tired, so we didn't manage to stay up and watch the rebels reclaim the ship.  Instead, we settled in for a good night's sleep.

Jamaica

The next day we pulled into port in Falmouth, Jamaica.  We had a couple shore excursions planned for the day.  The Anderson grandparents came with us to the Good Hope Estate, and the Goerss grandparents had a day of catamarans and waterfalls.

The drive up to the Good Hope Estate was a bit harrowing, but once we got there we had a lovely view over the rolling hills.

The house itself had an interesting history and our tour guide did a good job presenting it.

I actually got to listen this time, because Elena had received a bribe.  My mom had bought her one of the ugliest stuffed cats I have ever seen with Jamaica stamped across its chest.

She still wasn't keen on pictures though.

The house had some interesting elements.  The shutters let a breeze come through, and it was actually quite cool inside.  The roof was made of a special kind of wood, and you could see holes of light through it, but the guide explained that when it rained the wood swelled up and the holes closed, so that no water came in.

Out back in the center of the yard was the old counting house where they would keep the money.

The current owners don't live in this part of the estate.  They use it for various tours and things like high tea and rum tasting.  There's also a part with a big pool complex which is where they took us for lunch.  Lunch was, of course, Jamaican jerk chicken.  It was a bit spicy for the girls, but it was good.  We spent some time hanging out in the cool stone building that housed the lunch set up.

Elena and Jeff went for a walk around the grounds.

And then we headed back to the ship.  I got a nice picture of Dumbo on the back of our ship, while Mom and Jeff went shopping (danger!).  

It was still fairly early in the afternoon, and the ship wasn't crowded, so we decided it was the perfect time to hang out at the pool.  Elena was disappointed that she wasn't tall enough for the Aquaduck, but she decided to explore the parts of the pool deck that were designed for kids her age.  She spent quite a bit of time in the Nemo's Reef splash area.

Then Vivi came down, and offered to take Elena on the yellow slide which she was tall enough for.  It was still pretty high and twisty, so I wasn't sure how she was going to react.  

I should have known that my rollercoaster loving kid would adore it.  She became completely addicted and just kept going on it over and over again, little speed demon.

Viv was enjoying herself too.

After a while, it was time for an ice cream break.

Then, the girls discovered the little splash pool with a view.

It was hard convincing the girls to leave the pool deck for dinner, but they were hungry.  We caught the beautiful sunset from our balcony before heading down to dinner.

Dinner that night was at Enchanted Garden, and we had a nice little table off to the side.  The food was good as usual, and for dessert Elena decided to try the Mickey ice cream, which she really got into.

We got her cleaned up for a garden themed picture with Grandpa.

The next day was the Star Wars day at sea, and after dinner we could see them starting to get things set up.  Our waiter told us we would probably want to be in the atrium later that night.  Sure enough there was a large crowd, ominous music played, and in marched Darth Vader with a storm trooper escort to inform us that they had taken control of our vessel.

The opening behind him leads to the Tiffany's, so we got a giggle out of that.  The storm troopers were sent to look for resistors, so they went down the elevators and through the crowds.

Honestly, I was a little worried for their safety, because there were a lot of kids with light sabers in the crowd, but everyone played along, and no one tried to take a swing at them.  It was a cool way to end the day and get excited for the next day's fun.

Grand Cayman

We had a lazy morning on the ship, because the first tenders didn't start going ashore until 10:30.  Viv went out on the balcony to test the weather.

Slowly but surely, the girls got dressed.  They put on nice dresses, because we had tickets to meet the princesses after breakfast.  We got a picture with the Minnie statue before going to a sit down breakfast.

After breakfast, Jeff and Vivian went back up to the room, while Elena and I stood in line for a picture with princess Minnie.

Viv was on the fence about whether or not she was too old for princesses, so she missed her chance to take a picture with Cinderella, and she almost missed Belle.  She got there just in time, which is good because Belle and Tiana are her favorite princesses.

After princesses, the girls changed into their bathing suits, and we got ready for our Grand Cayman adventure.  There wasn't a shore excursion that covered everything we wanted to do, and a lot of the things were for five and up, which excluded Elena.  After some research, Mom and I decided to charter a boat for the eight of us, so that we could do what we wanted to do at our own pace.  It turned out to be a great decision and made for (in my opinion) the best day of the cruise.

Getting from the cruise terminal to the smaller harbor where our boat was waiting was pretty easy.  There were lots of "taxi" vans waiting, and we paid in dollars.  After going over some logistics, we were on our way with Mandy and Andrew, our guides for the day.  Elena's smile captures the way we all felt once we got out on the water.

Our first stop was Stingray City.  This is a sandbar where fishermen had historically cleaned fish and thrown what they didn't need overboard.  The stingrays started coming in such big numbers, that someone got the bright idea to make it a tourist attraction.  At this point, the stingrays are used to humans, but, to keep them healthy, there are regulations in place for how much people can feed them.  Our guide Mandy clearly loved stingrays and on the ride over she taught us all kinds of interesting things about them, including that they're even smarter and better at recognizing people than dogs.

It was already quite crowded when we got there, but our crew maneuvered us around to find a spot all our own.

They found a large female named Shark Bait for us to make friends with.  The females are larger than the males.  There were tons of stingrays swimming all around, so Mandy recommended doing the "stingray shuffle", basically shuffling your feet to move, so that we didn't accidentally step on one.

The girls were happy just petting them.

Supposedly, kissing a stingray brings you seven years good luck, so a bunch of us went in for a smooch.

We also got to hold her.  She nuzzled like a water puppy.

She even gave back massages!

It was a lot of fun, but tiring, because there were waves coming through, so after some play time with the stingrays, we were ready to get back on the boat and have a rest and a snack on the way to our next stop, Starfish Point.

Starfish Point was much shallower, calmer, and less crowded, but the water was just as clear and full of starfish.

Our starfish rules were that it was fine to hold them, but we had to keep them under the water, so that they could breathe.

We also had a starfish race, where we put three of them on their backs and watched to see which one turned over first.  Jeff and Vivian's starfish won.  Mine and Elena's came in second, and my mom's didn't move the whole time, so we turned it over ourselves.

After all that marine animal excitement, the land animals needed to be fed lunch.  Luckily, there was a lovely beach front restaurant on the other side of the point with a pier for our boat.

We tried some conch fritters, and I had a drink which was basically a coconut with rum poured in.  Yum!!

The girls, as usual, finished eating well before the adults.  Since the beach was right there, they went to play, and Andrew went to keep an eye on them, so that the rest of us could enjoy our meal, which was really nice of him.  I tried to get a picture of the girls playing, but the sun was behind me, and they didn't appreciate the attempt.

Eventually, we had to leave our little slice of paradise to make it back to the port in time for the last tenders back to the ship.  Jeff captured our feeling of relaxation as we were sailing back through the mangrove channel to the little harbor.

He also got some great shots of our ship as we were sailing back towards it on the tender boat.

The excitement continued with another dinner at Animator's Palate.  This time, we were the animators.  We got special sheets to draw on, and then during the meal our drawings came to life on the screens.

The fun just kept on going with the show that evening, a shortened version of the Aladdin musical.  It was a full house and a lot of fun.  Elena got a dance in with Goofy before the show.

I also got a cute picture of the two girls.  I love that with all the characters and princess around, Elena's favorite is still her big sister.