We woke up and ate breakfast in the room.  While Judy and I had planned ahead and ordered room service the night before, the kids never got their act together in time.  It didn't matter though, since they were able to call it in and still had it delivered within ten minutes. You had to go to the Walt Disney Theater for your tender tickets.  A CM hands them out and sits you in a row.  You then walk as a group down to deck 1, where you exit the ship right onto a tender  Pretty easy procedure. We were concerned because we took longer getting out than we intended and the tender didn't leave the Magic's side until about twenty minutes after ten and we were supposed to be at Captain Marvin's by 10:45am.  It took about ten minutes to tender in and following the directions that Ruth gave me in her email confirmation, we walked the two blocks to their offices in the Waterfront Center.  It was an easy walk and we got there by 10:40am.  Once we got to the office, we ran into the Bennetts and the Orellanas, who we knew would be on the excursion with us.

We had booked the short excursion for two and a half hours.  I have an aversion to three hour tours, having grown up on Gilligan's Island.  From the office, they then take you in a van to where the boat is docked.  You are provided with snorkel equipment, if you need it.  The mask, fins and snorkel were all clean and new looking.  The boat is manned by a crew of two and held about twenty of us.  They provided punch and water on board.  First we went to Stingray City, where we were instructed on what to do and how to feed them.  We had to go in barefoot, no flippers or water shoes, to protect the stingrays.  Footwear has certain toxins that can be harmful to the rays.  We made our way off the back of the boat into waist deep water.  You could hear the squeals as the rays rubbed up against everyone, but after a few minutes, everyone got used to it and the squealing died down.  The men would help us pose with the stingrays, first positioning one in my arms, then holding it up to show its mouth.  We were probably there for about thirty minutes.

From there, we went to the barrier reef.  This is deeper water with beautiful coral reef formations.  We were able to wear our mask and fins to swim around.  We had fun taking pictures of the fish and coral and each other.  When we were done, we headed back to the dock and from there back to the office by around 1:40pm.   

Walked back to the pier and grabbed a tender back to the ship.  There was a very long line for one of the other cruise ships.  These poor people had to wait in the hot so=un, my guess is for at least thirty minutes for their tender.  We had to wait on a short line, covered to protect us from the sun, for only a few minutes before the next tender came.  When we got back on board, we went swimming for a while, before getting ready for the Castaway Club party.

By the time Judy and I got to beat Street, they were directing people to Off Beat.  There were no seats, so Judy and I got a few munchies, not wanting to spoil our appetite for dinner, and sat on the cushions between two tables.  We didn't see anybody we knew, so we decided to go over to Rockin' Bar D to see if we could find anyone.  Sure enough, we saw Denise, Andy, Wendy and Doreen and after Jim Urrey finished talking, we walked over to sit down with them.  Denise and Judy left and the rest of us sat around as the crew cleaned up and started setting up for the night's activities.  Rich Purpura, who would be performing later on,  came out to do his sound check and Andy started busting his chops about something that happened while we were in Key West.  After some good natured heckling, Rich invited Andy to show up at 10:00pm by the bar, for a "surprise".

Tonight's show was Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer.  We met the kids in the theater and sat behind Jesse, Amy and the boys.  Jim Urrey came onstage to do the intro and hit us with a big surprise.  We already knew that we would be seeing Pirates of the Caribbean on board, but he informed us that there would be a special showing tonight at 12:01am, the earliest they were allowed to show the film.  He then explained WWTBAM and asked for volunteers for the panel.  Both Jesse and I jumped up.  At first, Jim picked Jesse and as Jesse started down the aisle, he pointed to me too.  Jesse and I congratulated each other as we walked on stage.  The performer who played Hades in Hercules was the MC for the show.  The first guest selected was a boy, about eight years old, whose mother was on the panel with us.  Her friend came up on stage with him.  After managing a tough first question, the y breezed through the next few questions, not using their lifelines until the last five.  When the final question was how to spell the word from Mary Poppins, I turned to his mother and told her she just won a cruise.  Sure enough, he polled the audience to be sure and the response was overwhelming for the correct answer. 

After WWTBAM, I went down to Rockin' Bar D early, since I wanted to be there by 10:00 to see what Rich had in mind.  Wendy and Doreen were already there, in the back booth by the bar.  Andy came down shortly from dinner at Palo.  Rich took him inside the engineering booth and we all looked at each other wondering what was going on.  Rich's act is very funny, using magic as a part of his comedy.  BY the time the show had started, Judy and Denise had joined us. For one trick, he selected five men from the audience and what a surprise, Andy was one of them.  As is the case with Dan Riley, if Rich is on your cruise, his act is not to be missed.   

After the show, we sat around the atrium for a while, then headed over to the Walt Disney Theater at 11:45 for the movie.  A whole bunch of the DISers took over one row.  A lot of people came donw to watch, the theater was about three-fourths full. The movie was wonderful, but between the late hour and the long day we had just put behind us, we were all dosing off and on throughout the movie.  Plus, I realized that  as nice as the Walt Disney Theater s, the seats are not comfortable enough for a two and a half hour movie.  (Note: Elana, Sara and I saw the movie again a week later at a local theater.  We didn't realize how much of the movie we missed until watching it a second time.)

One final note.  Sara learned the hard way about he harsh Caribbean sun. She didn't ask anyone for help with her sunscreen and tried to do her back herself, which meant she missed some areas. She got a pretty nasty burn. So for all of you future cruisers who don't like to bother with sunscreen.  Be prepared to pay the price.