Nassau

After Castaway Cay, it was just a short jaunt to Nassau, so when we opened our curtains at 7am we were pulling into dock.  This was our first excursion day, so we had to sign waivers, get breakfast, and meet at the dismissal point by 8:00.  

The massive size of the ship made the scale of things out the window hard to judge, so after showing our ID at about a million checkpoints, it turned out to be a loooong walk across the dock to meet our catamaran.

We rode our boat to the creatively named Blue Lagoon Island.

Whiskey, meanwhile, not being old enough, stayed on the cruise ship with his momma.  He didn’t seem to suffer too badly.

Once in Blue Lagoon, we entered the tank for our dolphin encounter.

{NB that the water was cold.  I witnessed many others (mostly of the small child or mom variety) who didn’t do all the things because it required submerging too far in freezing water.  Once again, beloved wetsuit ftw.}

We all petted the dolphin’s back.

Then we all petted the dolphin’s tummy.

It was so very smooth on both sides.

Then we got to dance with the dolphin.

His flippers were strangely hard, which does make sense from a swimming perspective.

This dolphin has been encountered.

Then, the pièce de résistance:  we all gave the dolphin a hug.

He really leaned his weight on your shoulder and about sunk me.  I’m sure he’s buoyant and all, but out of the water, on my shoulder, that guy was heavy.

We got to pet him one more time…

And then he posed with us for family photos.

After closely encountering our dolphin, we were dismissed to the beach. 

Some of the kids played on giant inflatables, and some of the adults sampled margaritas from the conveniently located bar.

We were all sufficiently loosened up to enjoy the boat ride back to the ship.

Lunch wasn’t provided by the dolphins so first thing back onboard we got sandwiches and ice cream, lay in the sun, and catch the end of Inside Out playing on the gigantic Funnel Vision on deck.  Shortly after the viewing moved on to The Lion King several of us were snoozing.

Nobody slept through dinner at Royal Court, however, where we were again served ample and delicious food.  After dinner the younger kids went back to kids’ club and Jason and I peeled off to look at the stars off the front upper adults-only deck, and then wandered through the series of bars on deck 4.  We settled on the beautiful champagne lounge, Ooh La La, and enjoyed sipping bubbly until time to pick up the kids.

Tonight’s towel animal, a turtle, was sporting my sunglasses.  Caleb worked a bit more through his Star Wars marathon on the in-room TV but we were all soon out after another full day.