After San Juan we had another full day at sea. It was fun to relax after two busy port days. Friday morning we woke up already in port. It was a pretty windy day and so a lot of the activities were closed, but it still was a very nice day! It still amazes me that we were on a ship with 30 members of the Hixson family and yet we hardly saw anyone. We could spend time together if we wanted too, but we could also go off and do our own things when we wanted too as well. Thinking back, we were on Castaway Cay all day, and I don't remember seeing Scott and his family at all! It isn't that big of an island, but there is just lots to do!
Since the island is owned by Disney it is really just an extension of the ship. All the food was free and you could use your Key to the World card to make purchases. You could even buy something on the island and pick it up later on the ship! Everything was so convenient!
Obviously, the family beach was a little crowded, so we headed over to the 'adult only' beach. It was so deserted and we were able to find a nice place to sit back and relax for a while. We even took a short nap!
While going back to the ship at the end of the day we saw Jean, Oz and Luan up on their balconies. We had no idea they had such great rooms, so we boarded the ship and headed to check out their rooms! We told them that had we known they had balconies we would have been there every night to enjoy the ocean with them!
While watching people board and crew members come and go we saw some really cool behind the scenes stuff. They brought in load after load of beach towels! It was crazy to see how many towels an island can go through in just a few short hours and with one cruise ship!
Someone told us that the island really doesn't have that many employees that live on Castaway Cay. The crew members on the ship get off the ship and work in different areas when they are in port there. They work seven days a week for 4-6 months and then get 6-8 weeks off. They then renew their contracts and start all over again. They do get a couple of hours off during the day, but no full days off. Also we heard that most of the people that Disney hire for the cruise ships are from different countries and they never leave the ship. If they never leave the boat then they are always in international waters and don't have to worry about visas. I thought that that was so interesting.
One thing that really amazed me is that Disney must really take care of their employees. Everyone was so happy and nice. I would think that after working 7 days a week, especially around kids, that I would get tired of it and become less than nice or friendly. That was so not the case with all the crew members. I never once encountered a short tempered or irritated worker! It was incredible!
Disney workers waving goodbye to us!
Magen, Emma, Jessica and Sarah
Dinner that night was once again at Royal Court.
Johnathan, Emily, Sophie, Austin and McKay
Spencer, Aaron, Brooklyn, Ty and Jana and Tanner
Richard and Ozzie and Jeannie and Luan
Molly, Scott, Madeline, Parker and Jefferson
Brenda, Richard, David, me, Vaughn and I Made
The two best servers ever!
Richard is from South Africa and I Made was from Indonesia. Richard was actually finishing his contract and so this was his last night on the cruise as well. He would then fly to Washington DC and then take a 19 hour flight home. We asked about his family and he said he has a wife and two children. We asked how his wife manages while he is gone and he said it is a huge sacrifice, but he does it to provide for his family. Such an amazing guy. He also said that we were by far his favorite group ever! I don't know if he says that to everyone or not, but we'll take his word for it!
I didn't notice any other tables doing this, but our waiters used the crayons to color on the table cloths. Every night I Made would think of some riddle or puzzle for us to solve. He stumped us a few times and the other times it just took some brain power and other times common sense to figure them out!
After we said our goodbyes to the them we headed out to buy some last minute souvenirs for the kids and then headed up to deck 11. Every night we seemed to gather up there before bedtime and eat pizza, french fries and ice cream cones. Not good habits at all, but it was only for a week, so no real harm done! One night while we were sitting there, I glanced over and totally saw someone that I knew from Jerome! Ok, so I didn't really know her, but I knew that she was a kindergarten teacher at Drew's school. So I told Vaughn and him being the brave soul went over to talk to her! It is such a small world! Then another night we were eating our french fries with fry sauce and a guy approached our table and said, "fry sauce huh, you must be from Utah." Turns out he was from Utah as well and a huge BYU fan.
Since this was the last night on the ship we didn't really want the night to end. So we decided we'd have a party in our room! We had a great room that had a hallway on one side and a cleaning closet on the other and stairs behind us. So we really didn't have to worry about making too much noise and waking other cabins up!
We decided to order room service and watch a movie!
Here is what we all wanted to be ordered:
Mac & Cheese x3, french fries, chicken noodle soup x3, grilled cheese sandwich, chicken tenders, ham, turkey and swiss sandwich x2, all hands on deck (can't remember what that was), and mickey bars x7
The lady that answered the room service phone just laughed and laughed while Vaughn was placing the order!
Jessica, Sarah, Magen, Austin and Johnathan
The room service!
The guy brought it in on two trays!
Our SEVEN Mickey bars! They were so so delicious!
We had so much fun with our nieces and nephews! They are such great kids and we love being around them and feel like we aren't so old when we hang out and do things with them!!
Sadly, that night went by way too quickly. When we woke up in the morning it was time to hurry up to deck 11 for breakfast and disembark the ship one final time. The process was pretty easy and it all went so smoothly. You could tell that the vacation was definitely over when you saw parents being short tempered with their kids and more tantrums from the kids! It made me so so happy to know that I was refreshed and ready to go home and see my kids! That was the only bright thing about the vacation being over!
Our group loading back up onto the bus.
Jeannie, Aaron and Emma
Taking the tram at the airport
Johnathan, Austin (doesn't he look so happy to be going home?!) and Jessica.
On the flight home we had a lot of family on the plane with us and it was a direct flight!
We were "so" excited to be heading home to the cold weather.
Can't you tell?!
