5th day on the cruise, Castaway Cay Island

On Wednesday, October 19th, we were at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.  It was also Diane's birthday!  After a quick breakfast at Cabanas, we went down on the ship and got off on the island.

Happy Birthday signs we put on Diane's door.  Beautiful view in the morning.  

Fun Halloween touch on the island and our ship, Disney Dream.

Instead of taking the Tram, we walked along the pathway.  Steve went on the tram for a little while w/ his parents, then came back.  We got to see things we had missed the other times by taking the Tram.

Pictures w/ the Disney characters.  Joann, Dave and Steve on the tram.  The boys meeting Chip and Dale on the beach.

Mickey Mouse also showed up as we were walking over, so we got an awesome picture w/ him in front on the ship.  Hudson couldn't wait to play in the sand, so he played the couple minutes we waited to meet Mickey.  Cute boys on a big chair.

Beautiful flowers along the pathway.  I loved it!

Hudson catching a ride w/ Steve.  Nyles and Carter w/ Aunt Diane.

At the beach!  Such a beautiful place!  We had rain clouds overhead, but they held out until the afternoon.  Hudson and Carter playing on the hammocks for a minute, before getting into the sand.

Steve and I went snorkeling w/ Nyles and Carter first.  Carter got tired, so Steve brought him back in.  Nyles and I continued on and found the Disney statues hidden under the water.  We also found LOTS of cool Tropical fish, many more than last time.  It was awesome!

Fun in the sand.  Hudson playing w/ the buckets in the sand.  Joann and Diane relaxing.  

Steve helping the boys get ready to snorkel.  Carter digging in the sand.  

When Steve came back w/ Carter, they decided to bury him in the sand.  Dave helping Hudson.

Carter got hot so they put some life jackets on him to protect him from the sun, then later he took Steve's sunglasses.  Silly kid.  Steve also made him a sea lion.

Carter in the sand.

Hudson just loving life, kicking in the water.  Nyles helping Carter in the sand.  Hudson and I took a walk over w/ Nyles to check out the playground.

Nyles going across the rope.

Carter and Nyles posing near Olaf.  Beautiful views on the island.  Dave playing in the water :)

Getting lunch at Cookies Too.  A little decoration for Diane's birthday.  Hudson went right to sleep as soon as he got in the stroller.  Nyles enjoying some ribs.  Dave and Joann getting a spot.

Group picture.  Hudson enjoying an ice cream after he woke up and had lunch.  Beautiful flower.

Cute Hudson playing w/ his bucket in the sand.  Nyles enjoyed pushing Joann.

After lunch, Steve and I jumped on the tram to go to "Serenity Bay" which for adults only.  

Dave, Joann and Diane said they'd watch the boys.

Steve wanted to show me where he hurt his knee on Serenity Bay when he was at Castaway Cay back in 2007.  We were only there for a few minutes when it started to rain heavily, so we jumped back on the train and came back.  We helped clean up since it didn't seem like it was going to stop.  Nyles wanted to try the rope bridge one more time.

Coming back in the rain, on the train.

Nyles trying it again.

Cute Carter toes.  The rain coming down.

We were already completely wet by this time, so we took a few fun pictures on our way back.

Getting back on the ship.  Everyone coming back from the island to get on the ship.

That night at dinner, Joann/Dave gave Diane a pretty bouquet of flowers (fake ones since we can't bring real ones one) for her birthday!  

Diane in front of your stateroom, and at Castaway for her birthday.

To celebrate Diane's birthday we went to Vanellope's to get her some ice cream.  The boys wanted to get a race car full of ice cream as well.  It was a LOT of ice cream!

At Vanellopes.

More Vanellopes.

Steve, Hudson and Carter ready to dig into the ice cream.  Joann, Diane, Nyles and I also trying the ice cream.  Fun chocolate topping.

After ice cream, Hudson was ready for bed, so I took Nyles and Carter to the kids club for a little while.  They made pillow cases for Pluto's Pajama Party (like last time).  While they were playing, I went back to our stateroom and packed up.  Then I went back to pick the boys up and we went to our final play.  It was the "Believe" one, which we had seen on the Magic Ship, but I actually liked this one better.  It was a different version and really funny!  The Genie was the main character.

Nyles, Carter and I at the play.  With their pillowcases.

It's always so sad on the last night when the fun is coming to a close, but we played hard and enjoyed it.  It was another awesome day!

4th day on the cruise, Day at Sea

On Tuesday, October 18th, the 4th day of our cruise, we had fun another day at sea.

That morning we got some pictures before heading to breakfast. While waiting for Mickey Mouse, we got some pictures in the Atrium by the Halloween Tree and entrance.  Also beautiful sunrise.

Meeting Mickey Mouse.  Giving Mickey a High-five and Mickey noticing the boys Mickey shirts.

The boys meeting Mickey Mouse.

Pictures w/ Mickey Mouse!

We then went to the Kids Club where we had more characters come to visit, including Goofy, Donald Duck and Mickey again!  The kids played games w/ them.

Hudson doing Head shoulders knees and toes w/ Mickey Mouse.

Nyles and Carter also pretended to drive the Millennium Falcon.

We then took the boys swimming again.  Hudson went to the splash pad area, called Nemo's Reef.

Hudson loved it!  He especially loved the slide!  Afterwards he wanted ice cream of course!

Nyles w/ some ice cream.  Beautiful view from our verandah. Carter and Nyles getting some lunch.

Later that afternoon we played mini-golf again.

Taking a walk around the deck, then playing shuffleboard.

Getting a picture w/ the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus.  Later the Coast Guard came and got a passenger off the ship for medical reasons.  The ship had to redirect and go towards the Florida Keys to meet them, but we made up time to get back on track for the next day.

Dinner that night.  Yummy desserts.

Hudson pretending to be sleeping in our bed before actually going to bed.  Our towel animal.  

Another cruise ship in the distance glowing in the night.

It was another awesome day at sea!

3rd day on the cruise, visiting Grand Cayman Islands

On Monday, October 17th, the 3rd day on our cruise, we stopped at Grand Cayman Islands.  Ironically there wasn't an excursion for us to do w/ Hudson through Disney (since he's under 3), so we booked an external excursion instead.  We had to take a tender boat from our ship to the island.  Our excursion was at 9am, so we made sure to be one of the first in line to get off the ship, as we didn't want to miss it.  Thankfully it all worked out according to plan, we got clearance from the island, and were able to get off on time.

On the tender boat, riding over to the island.  Joann wasn't feeling the best, so she stayed back on the ship instead of going w/ us.  We missed her.

We found our excursion group right at the port, then got on a bus to take us to the boat.  We booked a 3 part excursion called "Starfish and Stingray City Adventure with Snorkeling."  The 3 parts were to snorkel over the Coral Garden's reefs, then go to Stingray City, then Starfish Beach.

Taking the tender boat over to Grand Cayman.

On the bus, waiting our adventure.

Then on another boat going to the Coral Reef.  Steve w/ Hudson and Nyles ready to snorkel. Amazingly the water was REALLY warm.  We saw lots of stingrays and tropical fish.  It was awesome!

Then over to Stingray City.  The water was waist deep, which was great for the kids.  

Nyles took a turn feeding a stingray, as did Diane.

Taking some pics w/ the stingrays.

The guides then allowed us to get closer to the stingrays and the stingray gave us a quick massage :)

We even got to kiss them!  They feel pretty interesting.

Lastly we went over to Starfish Beach.  

The starfish were all over the shorelines so we could pick them up.  It was awesome!

Cool starfish.

I've never held a starfish, let alone in it's natural habitat, so I really enjoyed it.  Funny there were more chickens/roosters on the shore by the beach we were at.

Back on the boat, they had soda and drinks.  Hudson had to try an orange soda, and of course he really liked it!  Shortly later, he crashed, as it was naptime ;)

Getting a picture in front of our boat.

Some pics of our boat, the Disney Dream.

A cool mural in Cabanas.  Getting some ice cream after lunch after our excursion.  Hudson back in the stateroom.  He liked to pick up the phone and pretend to call people.  We had to unplug it so he didn't call the front desk :)

Hudson saying Halloween and hello on the phone.

That night was Halloween night.  We all dressed up for it.  Carter was a Bokagon character, Nyles was an Army man, and Hudson was an Incredible.  They had a Trick-or-Treat activity throughout Cabanas.  They gave everyone a bag of candy and REALLY filled it up w/ candy.  It was awesome!

Our Halloween Costumes.

Yummy dessert.  Steve, Joann, Dave and Diane at dinner.  Hudson eating his rice and steak.  

Nyles was camouflaged in a wall going to dinner.

Hudson climbing in and out of his crib.

Cool pic from our verandah at night.  Our towel animals that night.

It was an awesome day at Grand Cayman, and fun day back on the ship.  Steve and I actually went to Grand Cayman on our honeymoon and we did snorkeling near Stingrays.  I should really say Steve did snorkeling while I watched, as I was too scared to move.  I had never snorkeled before, let alone in the HUGE OCEAN, and wasn't sure what to do.  Plus due to fright, and I'm not the best swimming, I thought I was sinking, so I asked for a life preserver.  I wanted to go back there again to redeem myself and also actually see the fish and stingrays in the wild while snorkeling.  I'm glad we went back and this time I was actually able to snorkel.  It was so incredible!  I loved it!!  

This was our snorkeling adventure on our Honeymoon.  Love my flotation device?  The guides were great and tried to get the Stingrays over to us.  Thankfully Steve still enjoyed it though I was scared.