He decorated and brought food- cinnamon rolls, "snow covered donuts", Santa hats made from strawberries, bananas, & marshmallows, hot chocolate, candies, & sprinkles!
Decorating her cinnamon roll with the sprinkles!
Fred left out a letter for her to write to Santa. I questioned her decision to select "Very Good", but she said she can answer it however she wants. But Santa knows.... he knows.
Fred, also, brought a gift to help her get ready for Christmas!
She received a new ornament for her tree, matching pajamas for her and her doll, and a Christmas book!
We can't wait to see what kind of antics Fred gets into this year!
Day 4 was such a big day, I had to split it into 2 posts!
After getting cleaned up from the beach and the pool, we got ready for Pirate Night! We had already done the pirate costume thing in January, so Em went as Tinkerbell this time! Clinton and I still did not dress up. Well, I did wear a skull shirt! Ha!
We headed down to get our pirate pictures with the characters!
I missed it!! Still upset! But the Captain bowed to Em. *Tear*
Sorry for the overload on Chip & Dale, but I couldn't resist her face during these! She was having a blast!
Taking a little break in a porthole. This is one picture from our last cruise that Clinton really wanted and we never got! So when I caught her doing this, I had to snap a shot!
She was like "What?!?"
We started feeling the effects of Tropical Storm Jerry. We were on the outskirts of the storm the rest of the trip.
After the rain....
This is her "I'm not the REAL Tinkerbell" face!
He never broke character, called her "Tink" the whole time!
I think this may be my favorite Mickey costume!
Cap'n Jack with Skinny Steve!
After all of our pictures was taken care of, we went to family pirate game show called "A Pirate's Life For Me!" We were all on the same team, but when it came time to "Swab the Deck" Clinton and Emma ended up on different teams. SMH.
It was a really fun little show that led right up to dinnertime!
Argh! A pirate fairy!!
Clinton got into the spirit!
Aarrgghh!
K's App- Pirate's Gold Pot Stickers
Black Beard's Jumbo Crab Cake
Em's ketchup Mickey!
K's entree- Jack Sparrow's BBQ Marinated Beef Short Ribs
C's entree- Macadamia Nut Dusted Mahi Mahi
Someone got a little sleepy...
Our servers tried to perk her up with the cutest little fish!
K's dessert- Mickey Bar. Yes, mine. Yes, I know they are usually for kids. Em stole it anyway.
C's dessert- Floating Islands
Em still left us for the kids club after she ate. And Little Miss "I'm so jaded" did not want to go to the pirate party. Wanted to go to the Camp Out in the club, instead. SHE MISSED THE FIREWORKS. AT SEA. FIREWORKS OVER THE OCEAN. "I've seen it." SMH. What am I to do with her?!? (Note: After seeing a DCL commercial on TV the other day, she told me that she'd go watch the fireworks on the next cruise. Ok? Ok!)
When it was bedtime, we saw that Kamong, our room host, had made Em's bed with princess bedding. Let me tell you, this might as well have been the highlight of the trip for her. She was thrilled!!
Our new favorite place is Castaway Cay, Disney's private island, in the Bahamas. OMG! It was amazing! And that's where we were on the 4th day of our cruise!
We woke up in time to watch the ship dock, and the crew start unloading everything we would need ashore that day! It was quite an operation! We headed up to eat breakfast at the buffet, and got a great view while we ate!
We headed straight for the family beach, but had to stop first for sand toys. I had been promising Em some Mickey sand toys, and thankfully, they were the only souvenir she really wanted the whole trip! Expensive! Cute, yes, but expensive for sand toys. Oh well.
After some amazing beach time, we explored a little and came upon the sprinkler area, called Spring-A-Leak! The child went crazy here! This was amazing to us because our child 1) freaks out about showers and 2) rarely plays in sprinklers. If she does play in a sprinkler, she barely gets wet, just runs around it! Something about that Disney magic! She now LOVES showers and playing in the water! Craziness.
While we were at Spring-A-Leak, Clinton realized that we had left our tickets to our Port Adventure in the room! Since we were on Disney's island and the only people there, it was no big deal to get on & off the boat, so Clinton went back to get our tickets. We each had our wavephones (cell phones that worked onboard & on the island), but we ended up having a hard time communicating while he was gone. That was the only part of the day that wasn't good. Of course, if we hadn't forgotten the tickets, it wouldn't have been a problem at all! Ha!
Em played a while longer, and then decided she was ready for lunch. So we texted Clinton to meet us and headed to the food area. While at Castaway Cay, all food and drinks (non-alcoholic) are free!! While on the way, we caught a glimpse of the Disney Dream coming in close to say Hello! The way I understand it, this is very rare! And no, they weren't porting at the island, just came by!
Clinton was still close to the Wonder when this happened and got a video of the "horn battle"!
After eating, we took Em to Scuttle's Cove, the kid's club on the island. Even in paradise, she couldn't wait to go back to the kid's club. :( That's ok, we had plans to swim with stingrays and she wanted no part of that! We stopped and took some pictures on the way!
Once we checked in for our Port Adventure to feed/ swim with the stingrays, we were given a safety talk and instructions on how to proceed. Feeding the rays was so cool, they were so soft! It was never something I thought I would want to do! I'm not a great snorkeler, so I only did it for a little while, then went and grabbed the camera and took some shots of Clinton.
Once we were done with the stingrays, we checked in on Em and of course, she wasn't ready to go. We still had time before we had to get back onboard the ship, so Clinton and I went to check out Serenity Beach, the adult only area!
Clinton could resist a little advertising for our friends!
All too soon it was time to pick up Em and get back on the ship.
So sad. Castaway Cay is by far my favorite place that we've been on vacation in a while! Well, a beach vacation anyway. It's hard to beat New Orleans in my heart! ;)
Walking up to the ship, we ran into some friends, Lilo and Stitch!
Emma was so excited because she hadn't met Lilo yet!
Once we were onboard, Emma wanted to go to the pool. It wasn't crowded because so many people hadn't boarded yet! Her braveness from the sprinkler area must have been still hanging around because she wanted to go on the Mickey slide again! Last time, she swore she wasn't doing it again!
This time was a great success! She loved it! Whose child is this?!?!
