Today was Castaway Cay day. I woke up at 8:00 and went up to Topsiders for breakfast.  The plan was for me to get to Serenity Bay and try to grab a hammock and some chaise chairs, while the rest of the group got ready.  We docked at around 9:00. Since, we backed into dock, our room was facing away from the island.  We may not have had a view of the island, but I didn't have as far to walk to the shuttle.

I took the aft elevators down to deck 1 and walked off the ship, grabbing enough towels for all of us.  I grabbed the shuttle to the family beach and then switched over to the shuttle for Serenity Bay.  The fact that there were only a handful of people waiting for the shuttle gave me high hopes that the beach wasn't crowded yet.  I got to the beach and saw John and Jeanne and Wendy and Doreen right away.  They had grabbed some chairs right by the entrance to the adult beach.  John told me he already checked and all the hammocks were taken.  It seemed that there were less hammocks on the adult beach than I recalled from our past visit and we wondered if maybe they moved them to the family beach due to guest complaints.  The Orellanas and the MacGregors were kind enough to make room for us so that we could share their umbrellas, so I pulled up two more chaise chairs and sat down.

I walked out in the water.  I say walked, because the grade of the beach is so gradual, you really can't swim until you get way out.  The bottom is course and rocky, so unless you have soles of steel, you need water shows or something like it. Jeanne, Jenn  and Wendy joined me, and then Dana and Lisa.  For the next two hours, we stood and talked in the refreshing waters of Serenity Bay.  By the time I left the water for lunch, Judy, Seth and Sara had made it off the ship, so we all had lunch.  Jesse and Amy showed up and Sara went off with Jesse to try the Seahorse Snorkel excursion.  The adult beach lunch is the best kept secret of the cruise.  It's not listed on the navigator (at least not that I could see.  There were hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, veggie burgers, Salmon and steak sandwiches, fresh fruit and soft serve ice cream.

After lunch we went back into the water, until it was time for Judy and my cabana massage.  We had Elyssa and Janine and the massage was just delightful.  We scheduled it for late in the afternoon (we had the last appointment), so that we could spend as much time on the beach as possible.  The only down side to doing that, is that you still have sand all over you and no matter how much you try to rinse it off, it still clings, so you feel it during the massage.  After the massage was finished, we picked up our stuff and headed back to the ship.  Judy had already bought the obligatory tee shirts for her and the kids, so I picked out one for myself before heading back.

Dinner was the Best of Master Chef. I had the Hand-made California Roll, Crawfish and Lobster Bisque, Florida Citrus and  Baby Spinach (if you're counting, yes I did have three appetizers!) and the Filet Mignon of Beef and Lasagna Roll.  Everyone else had the Roasted Red Snapper. I think between us, we all tried each of the desserts.  Being a sushi lover, the California Roll was not exactly what I expected, but everything else was delicious.

After dinner, Judy went back to the room to start packing and I went to the Walt Disney Theater to grab some seats in the row in front of Jesse, Amy  and the boys.  The Farewell show included performances from the Hill Brothers and Rich Purpura.  We went back to the room after the show to finish packing and get the suitcases out in the hallway by 11:00pm.  I ran down to Shutters to pick out two more pictures to complete our package.  After we got everything packed, Judy and I went down to Beat Street, but only Upbeat had anything going on.  We went into Sessions just before it closed, so we went back up to the room and enjoy the veranda once last time.