Curated By Shelley

Since we had second dinner seating we also had the later seating for breakfast at 8am in Parrot Cay. It was a fast breakfast but gave us some time to say good by to "J" as well as Nikola and Nicole. Then we were off. None of us got caught up by customs. The bummer about going to the resorts versus straight to the airport is luggage handling. When you are going to the airport they handle your luggage for you. You put it outside your room by 11pm the last night and don't see it again until you land at home (assuming you flew on a participating airline). But when you are going to the resorts you have to collect your luggage at the port terminal and bring it to the bus with you. Not a big deal for me since I had just the two smaller bags and my Get Carried Away Tote. But still not as nice as them handling it the entire way. We got over by the resort buses and were put on a shuttle van instead of a large motor coach - they told us it would be faster. It was super cramped (not ...

This would be Thursday, our second trip to Castaway Cay this cruise. Since we didn’t relax on the beach at all the first time that was plan for this time. We started with breakfast at Tritons. Hristo was greeting people, so he can and chatted with us for quite a while as we were waiting for our servers and food. Then we were off to the island! We were greeted by Mickey and Minnie as we disembarked. Sadly, it was SOOOOO humid all our camera lens were crazy fogging up. I got a semi decent shot of us with Mickey. Minnie is very hazy. Then we grabbed our towels and headed near Pelican Plunge. Now normally, mom and I head STRAIGHT to Serenity Beach at Castaway Cay. But she wanted to go out to the Plunge, and when we’d scoped it out earlier in the week the beach seemed way less crowded down there, so I agreed. We got there while the beach was still empty, got some nice chairs under an umbrella (a must for me with my fair skin) and mom headed off to the Plunge while I read for a while. It was...

Today was planned as another leisurely day. Because everyone was on board, it was not our plan to spend time at the pool today which I figured would be mobbed. Plus we had both brunch and tea at Palo reserved. I woke up even earlier than normal and headed up to deck 9 for some coffee and to claim my normal reading spot outside the Cove Cafe. I did pick up a light breakfast at the Beach Blanket Buffet. Because it was so early it was not that crowded and I could hear the fun sixties music playing. After breakfast I headed over to check out the shops again, and then down the cabin. I was surprised to find mom already gone, because normally she'd still be in bed then. I headed back up to deck 9 then and found her there. She was trying to get in some pool time today before everything else. At 9am there was a scrap booking session. I have a vague recollection of checking this out on one of the other trips and it not being that exciting. But couldn't remember details. I figured if not...

Day 4 - Nassau, Bahamas Up early again, I dressed for the pool and headed up to Cove Cafe again. This time I watched up pull into Nassau. Not particularly impressive other than seeing the Atlantis resort for the first time. Port was overwhelmed with 3 Carnival ships already (Sensation, Fantasy, and Fascination - a fourth, the Glory showed up later). All the Carnival ships meant no good views from the Wonder while in port. This was a LAZY day. Breakfast at Beach Blanket Buffet. We decided the themeing was much nicer here than the buffet on the Magic. The rest of the day was at the Quiet Cove pool with lunch brought back over there from Pinnochio's Pizzeria for me. The fun thing we'd not experienced before...all the characters were walking through Quiet Cove after their appearances next door and surprising people who were sleeping (or just not paying attention). I headed back to the room to get cleaned up and relax for a while before watching the first part of Prince of Persia wh...

Day 3 - Castaway Cay, Stop 1 Monday, Memorial Day, was our first stop at Castaway Cay. As usual, I was up early. I dressed and headed up to the Cove Cafe with some magazines and grabbed a latte. I sat and enjoyed my latte in one of the comfy seats up there while I watched us pull into Castaway Cay. Mom found me a little before 9am, and we found Donna shortly thereafter and headed to Triton's for breakfast. This was my first inside view of Tritons, and as I expected I absolutely loved it! The decor is beautiful, particularly the beautiful mosaic mural on the back wall of Triton, Ariel, and Sebastian. I ordered a menu item with Sebastian in the name that included French Toast, Pancakes, and a Belgian Waffle. It was YUMMY! After breakfast we ran back to our stateroom to change for our bike rides on Castaway Cay. Mom and I have done this once before and LOVED it. We were hoping with the expansion more trails would be open now. There weren't any, but I did get some lovely photos, in...

Day 2 - Sail-away!!!! Today got off to a rocky start. I woke up in the middle of the night last night violently ill. The good news is, seemed to be over by morning. But neither mom or I slept well so we were up at the CRACK of dawn this morning. We got ready so early that we had a good 45 minutes to wander around the Contemporary property and take pictures before our Chef Mickey's breakfast reservation. I got some super cute pictures at Chef Mickey's this morning. And the pancakes were fantastic! Breakfast was short and sweet, but it allowed me a chance to make sure I had a picture with each of the fab five for this trip. After breakfast we took the monorail over the the Poly to do a little more shopping and just kill time. Then back to Bay Lake to check out. We hung out in Donna's 1 bedroom for a little while and then headed down to the lobby for the cruise. Seemed like the transfers took FOREVER this time. Our bus started with Bay Lake, then went to Wilderness Lodge were...

Day One - Travel and Shopping Finally our day came! I left my house at 5:15am this morning to head to the Hartford airport. Just as the parking shuttle was pulling into the terminal I saw my first flight status notification from Delta that we were delayed approximately 35 minutes. I started to get a little worried cuz I knew big storms had come through Florida the night before. I got in past security around 6:15am and hit up McDonalds for some breakfast. It felt like I'd been up for hours already. I got to the gate a little after 6:30am. Original flight time was 7:55am with a 7:15am boarding time. New departure was 8:30am. They made an announcement that pretty much ALL the delta flights were running late that morning because all the planes had gotten in really late the night before and the crews have mandatory rest time. We took off at 8:30am as we were told and off to Orlando we went. Pilot made up a lot of the time in the air. I didn't even get the entire way through my ipad ...