[graygables]

On the Fourth Day of Disney, Mickey gave to me, a walking tour of Nassau and an awesome pirate party!

I woke up in time to see us pulling into the port at Nassau and dock…very cool. We ordered room service for breakfast (didn’t get the order right, but didn’t have time to fix it) and got ready. By the time we got the girls checked in the clubs and off the ship it was 1000 and I had to pick them up at 1115 for lunch! I had taken the map of Dave’s walking tour out of my Passporter and set a course for Ft. Fincastle. The map didn’t exactly line up with my route (and I refused to pick up a “tourist” map [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] ), but we got there in short order, took some photos, and set off in search of the Governor’s mansion. Took a photo and headed toward the straw market. I took some pictures at Christ Church and we finally made our way through the straw market, which was not NEARLY as bad as I’d thought it would be (guess nothing beats a Turkish market for pushy vendors!). M bought a LV knockoff (very nice one) and I got little ones some bracelets. M paid, since she was the only one who made it off the ship w/ cash (I’d changed purses). As we left, I spied a hat that I *LOVED*, so I tried it on and loved it more. For me, $20. M spotted one she liked and for her, $15. I tried to haggle the total to $30, but she wouldn’t budge. M pulled out her cash only to find we were short $5, so I asked the vendor’s name so I could come back after lunch. Her name was Ardel and I memorized where she was. As I turned, I put my hand in my pocket and lo & behold pulled out $6! I was so excited and she said, “The Lord be praised!” to which I said, “Amen, sister!” and she started blessing us and we had a lovely time talking about God. It was truly a blessing to my day! Got back on the ship right on time and picked up the girls. B had been crying again, they tried to page me (even though I told them I’d be in Nassau). No one seemed to try to comfort any children who wanted their parents or try to redirect them or anything (there was another little girl that was upset and they just said, “Your mom and dad are in Nassau, we can’t page them.” rather than try to help her…made me sad) For some reason, they never got my “do not page” message, which upset B even more that they’d page and I wasn’t right there. Most of the counselors seemed disengaged and uncaring in both clubs. Very much a sit back and make sure they don’t kill one another rather than hands on and involved. Both girls really disliked their clubs.


Went to Triton’s for a lovely (empty) lunch and took S back to the club (she was torn, but insisted on trying it again). B refused, so we went to Shutters to find the AP photos. We saw Mrs. Claus in the atrium reading stories, so we stopped for that when Mickey and the gang showed up. We got photos and soon thereafter S paged and was VERY upset at having missed, but it was one of those choice things, plus there wasn’t time to get her checked out of the club in time to see them. I was exhausted from Mom’s One Hour Walking Tour of Nassau, so I laid down for a little nap. We got dressed and went to Parrot Cay for dinner. B wanted to make flubber, so M left dinner early to take her (plus she wanted to get back to the teen drama-of-it-all, the boys, the excitement…ugh!) S and I got our pirate bandanas (after disappointing Levi with the news that M&B would not return to the table…I just think that’s kind of rude, but what do you do??) BTW, B made flubber, but never got to keep any… they “ran out” before she picked hers up (you make one, there should be one to take home). I took S with me to shop in Treasure Ketch and one of the Cms admired S’s pirate costume, so we had a delightful chat about sewing. I picked up B, rounded up M and went to the Golden Mickeys. Wonderful show, made me tear up, and the Toy Story segment THRILLED Miss B. Tonight was the Pirates IN the Caribbean party, so I staked us out a spot on deck 10, overlooking the stage. S was upset b/c she wanted to be on the dance floor ([img]/ubb/images/graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] who are you and what have you done w/ my child???) but B refused and it turned into yet another, “I’ll feed you room service and keep you in the room the rest of the cruise” moments. We stayed put and I was glad. We wound up having a perfect view of the stage and Goofy, Captain Hook, and Mickey made their ‘appearances’ just to our right, so close we could have touched them. As an aside, Johnny Depp could have stood there and I would have been, Oh, hey look, it’s Johnny Depp, but you put Mickey next to me and I’m all “IT’S MICKEY!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img]” Man, I’m weird. Back to the pirates…we also had a perfect view of the fireworks and the girls were singing “We will, we will rock you” for a long time! After, the girls were hungry, but didn’t want to eat from the “midnight” buffet, so I snapped a couple of pictures of the chocolate show pieces and we went back for room service (manciotti…yummy!) and bed.