Our Trip to Paradise, Part 2.

 

 Family shot in Nassau... the tourist who took this picture for us was from Syracuse!

 

 

 Pirate Megan, waiting in line to meet Capt. Hook, Smee and Peter Pan.

 

 

 Pirate Kate

 

 

 Swashbuckling Luke

 

 

 Two of the nights we were on the boat we went to a "nightclub" on the ship in between the big show of the night and dinner.  We listened to great music and the kids all had a ball dancing.  Alec, unfortunately, dances exactly like Elaine from Seinfeld.  He's so incredibly physically coordinated but when he hears music, he gets all herky-jerky.  It's adorable.  You can see him bustin' some of his moves in this pic.

 

 

 Pirate Themed Night! PopPop gets into the spirit of things with Alec's gun.  Goofball. 

 

 

 Another pirate at the table.

 

After awhile, the Apple products all come out... to be fair, dinner took a looong time for 3 and 5 years olds.

 

Gammie and Pops posing with Noel and Duran, our servers every night at dinner.  They were adorable.

 

 

 After dinner on Pirate night they had a Pirates IN the Carribean Deck Party with music and dancing and characters.  It ended with Mickey flying from one end of the ship to the other followed by fireworks!

 Ahhhhhhh.... Castaway Cay.

 

 

 PopPop relaxing on Castaway Cay.  Life is GOOD!!

 

 Michaela on the beach.  I started calling her my Bahama Mama but then we gave names to everyone: Beth and I were the Bahama Mamas, Gammie was Miami Gammie, PopPop was Poolside PopPop, Alec and Luke were the Key West Cuties, Michaela, Jenna, Kate and Megan were the South Beach Sisters, and Dan and Brian were the Riu (the hotel chain we stayed in at Miami) Wranglers.

 

 

 Castaway Cay had an awesome splash pad that Alec LOVED.

 

 

 Gams and Pops watching Alec and enjoying the gorgeous weather.

 

 We're smiling for the camera but crying inside... this is us riding on the very last tram back to the boat at the end of the day.  We played in the water, rode bikes, and even fed, swam and snorkelled with stingrays!  They are rubbery but so smooth and fun to play with.

 

 

 Alec and Kate were good buddies the whole trip.  This is walking back onto the boat.

 

 Three of the South Beach Sisters after the final show of the cruise, Dreams, which was so beautiful that I cried at the end. Like a baby.  It had all the princesses in it, gorgeous music and production, and at the end they showed a picture of the ship being covered by Tinkerbell in pixie dust.  As we're seeing the picture of the pixie dust swirling around outside the ship, inside the theater- on the floors, walls, and ceiling- thousands of tiny embedded LED lights start twinkling from the front of the theater to the back.  It was breathtaking.  Let's see you not cry after watching that.

 

 Posing in the portholes.  I think they were beginning to think the whole crusie was a gigantic photo shoot for them.

 

 

 By the last night, Alec was out for dinner.  They even brough tablecloths for a pillow and blanket.

 

 

 OF COURSE the ketchup is in the shape of Mickey Ears.  OF COURSE IT IS.

 

 

 One of the hallways in the ship had carpeting that was a map of Route 66.  Alec loved it.

 

 Love my girls and their bahamian hair.

 

We ate twice at Animator's Palette, where the room starts all black and white and throughout the meal, color is added to the walls.  The kids loved it. At the end it looked like this:

 

On the last night, Sunday night, all the characters gather after dinner at 10pm for a final chance to meet and greet.  Then they say not goodbye, but "Until we meet again!"  It was awesome.  AND my mom got her picture taken with Cinderella, her favorite princess, so the trip was complete.

 

 Much thanks to my parents, who got us all through the worst parts of the fall and made this celebratory trip a reality for all 12 of us!!  We had a blast and will never forget this week.  We love you and are so happy we were able to all be together!!

 Goodbye, palm trees... let's not wait too long before we meet again...