Jessica Johnson - 2006

Today was our last full day on the cruise- so we slept in. This was also our second Castaway Cay day, and Chris and I were kind of beached out. I'd avoided sunburn so far, and was determined to continue that trend. I'd also spent as much time as I could stomach on a lounge chair, so when we finally did get up, we headed up to Topsiders to check out the breakfast buffet.

Chris adores breakfast, so he was thrilled. There was a really big selection, and I was surprised at all that was offered. We found a table, and ate, and then took our time heading off the ship. We decided that we'd just walk around to see what we could on the island, and take some pictures.

We walked down to the tram station, and then on to where the shops were. We wandered out towards the Heads Up Bar where we found Robin and Vince. There was a wedding in progress, so we watched the end, and then saw the bride and groom take off on a flower covered golf cart. Then Chris and I set off again, this time checking out the Grouper Game Pavilion, and then decided to walk down to Serenity Bay.

The walk was good- and we took some great pictures. We wandered over to the Massage Cabanas, and were allowed to peek inside one of them. Then we headed back to the beach, and settled on some chairs. There was a Character Parade that went by- so Vince and Chris ran to get some pictures, and then everyone else had to go off to their Stingray Experience. Chris decided to rent a bike and take a ride out to the Observation Tower, to take some pictures. He found out that the tower isn't completed yet- but he did get some pictures of it. Then, when he came back, we headed to Cookies, to get some lunch.

After lunch, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the ship. Once on the ship, we decided to cover whatever ground we hadn't on our previous days. Sadly for Chris, this involved taking the elevator up to deck 10 and then walking down all the steps to see the artwork. There are a lot of amazing pictures from different movies, and it's worth the time to look around. We ended up back on Deck 9, where we got some ice cream. I don't really remember why, but we ended up eating it sitting in one of the portholes outside of Animator's Palate. I think we might have been on our way to check our email.

In any event, after our exploring, we headed back to the stateroom to pack up our stuff. I hate this part of the trip- it always seems to make the end of the night come too early. But, while packing up our stuff, we decided that the best thing to do would be to call everyone and invite them to hang out on the "secret" aft deck, and watch the ship leave Castaway Cay and the sunset. We were able to reach the Forresters, and left a message for everyone else. Then Chris and I set out to wander again. While on the elevator, we saw Robin and Vince walk by, so we hopped off to get them, and then we headed back to the deck.

Chris went to get the Forresters, while the rest of us hung out on the deck. It was sort of full of teens when we first got there, but they headed in when they saw adults, so we pretty much did have it to ourselves. The Forresters joined us, and we hung out, taking some pictures, and watching the ship leave Castaway Cay. It was strange to see everything on the island kind of put away as we were leaving.

The sunset was spectacular, but we were sad to leave. Since we had time before dinner, we ended up heading to the Promenade Lounge, where we hung out and had drinks before dinner. Chris had run back to the room for something, leaving me to order his drink, and so I asked Steve if I should get him ice cream or rum. Steve said rum, so I got Chris a caiprionha. It was apparently pretty strong, because at one point Chris kind of threw up his hands and started rubbing his eyes. We weren't sure what was going on, because he seemed to have lost the power of speech for a little while. Eventually he recovered, and told us what had happened, which just made us laugh harder.

Soon it was time for dinner, and tonight we had dinner at Lumiere's, and it was the Til We Meet Again menu. For an appetizer, I chose the Honey-mustard Chicken Tenderloins lightly coated with Crackers- served with Tangy Sweet Dipping Sauce. These were the best chicken fingers I've ever had! Chris got them as well, and he loved them too. For my entrée I went with the Grilled Beef Tenderloin- served with William Potatoes, Asparagus Spears, Baby Vegetables and Bearnaise Sauce. Chris had the Oven Baked Filet of Salmon. Both were wonderful.

When it came time for dessert, after the little parade the wait staff does through the dining room, I couldn't decide between two desserts, so ordered them both. I got the Banana Crème Brulee Napoleon- with Fudge Sauce and the Chocolate Decadence- For the real Chocolate lover! This Chocolate dessert lets you experience Chocolate in all it's glory. The Banana Crème Brulee was good, but I much preferred the chocolatey mousse in the Chocolate Decadence. Chris chose the Celebration Cake- Layers of Cheesecake covered with Strawberries embedded in Rich Vanilla Cream and glazed with White Chocolate, and it was good- I stole one of his strawberries.

There was also a presentation by the Chef's of Baked Alaska, which was sort of the signature dessert for the evening. We were very sad to leave dinner that night- as we would miss our servers. But, the night ended, and we had to go.

Right after dinner, we made our way up to Shutters to check out the pictures from the previous night. The guys ran down to put the luggage out, and then we all met up, and decided on which pictures to get. Robin and Vince joined the huge line to rebook their next cruise, and then when they were done, we decided to head to Diversions to cap off our final night.

We got to Diversions, and it was really crowded. There was some sort of show going on, so after making our way to the back and seeing how loud it was, we decided to skip it, and headed over to Rockin' Bar D instead. This club was deserted- we were literally the only people in the place, so it was pretty quiet. We found ourselves a booth in the back, and were checking out the drink menus when Steve decided we should all get a shot and our regular drink. So, when the waitress came over, we sort of inundated her with orders. I got a For the Love of Chocolate (a chocolate-ish martini), a Record Breaker (Midori, Amaretto and Vodka) and a glass of water. Robin chose a Raspberry Martini- which smelled and tasted like Robitussin.

Eventually all our drinks were out- we had quite a crowded table, and after a toast, we downed our shots. Mine was ok until the aftertaste hit. For some reason, it has a cough syrup sort of finish to it. But- that was fine. We were having fun!

There was a show scheduled, INTWYNE was performing. This group sort of puzzled me, we had accidentally seen them performing at the Promenade Lounge one night, and I really thought it was just bad guest karaoke. Turns out that Disney hired them- I'm still kind of baffled by that. Anyway, they did a half hour long Madonna restrospective, during which the club started getting busier. As it turns out, some of the Cast Members who were in the show at Diversions came in to dance after the show. We didn't realize they were part of the show, so at that point we thought we'd sort of stumbled into a cross between the Rocky Horror Picture Show and a rave. There was one Cast Member in a rain slicker and hat, and another, male one, in a white leotard, pink tutu and a wig. It was definitely amusing, so we decided to do another round of shots. This time I chose the Amplitude (Grenadine, Galliano, Bailey's). It was better than the first one.

By this time it was just a few minutes before the club was closing, so we decided to go to the Promenade Lounge. Once there, though, we realized it was also closed, so we headed up to Deck 10, to do another walk around the deck. Tonight was much colder than the previous night, and way more windy. I was very glad that I didn't plaster myself on the front of the ship, and was even happier when we headed back inside. Before we went in though, we went down to Deck 9, after doing a complete loop of the ship. We decided to call it a night and hopped on the elevator- but, joking with Robin, I told her to push all the buttons. She actually did, so we had several stops until Pam and Steve's deck 6.

When the elevator finally hit deck 6, they didn't get off, so we all got off on deck 5, and spent the next hour just sitting on the floor on the stairs, talking about the trip. At one point, some kids came pounding down the stairs and seemed shocked to see us. As they walked away, they commented about the "old people being up so late" That was quite a blow to our egos, and soon after we did call it a night, since we had to be up so early the following day.

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