Wednesday, June 2nd
And sleep in we did! The girls finally woke up at 10:30 and we enjoyed brunch in the dining room, the service was rather slow because they were so busy. This was our “Day at Sea” which was funny to me because the ship wasn’t moving. We were quite close to where we needed to be in the morning, so we just stayed in the same place all day and played on the boat. We enjoyed mini golf, although we should have sun screened first because Teresa was sunburned by the end of our game (I barely pulled off a win over Addy by 2 points).
Back to our room we put on our suits and lathered up then tried out the slide and flow rider – Addy was far better than Kate and I and had it figured out in no time. 
We escaped the heat by attending the “One Word Movie Title” game, Teresa and I weren’t very good and the girls weren’t very helpful but we had fun trying. We caught lunch at our favorite nacho joint and the girls went off on their own while Teresa and I chatted before we meet back together for Harry Potter Trivia. We were much better at that! We got 25/30 questions right, but that was working together. They were hard questions.
After that we went straight to dinner. Dinner was supposed to be dress up, and the other two nights we had all worn dresses, but tonight the girls had on matching shirts and shorts and didn’t feel like changing and Teresa was just wearing her swimsuit cover. We had noticed that on previous nights not everyone was dressed up, so we decided to let it go. We walked in and started noticing that everyone was more dressed up than usual, like everyone. We later realized there was a note for the day on the app that said to wear your best that night – too bad we didn’t check the app so we looked like hobos.
Encanto was playing up by the pool (Can you see Addy, Kate and I under the triangular shade thing?) so we enjoyed the end of that then topped our bellies off with way too many desserts from the buffet. Addy wanted to bring the brownies back to our room, so we enjoyed the Promenade with the brownies in hand and found a little table to sit back and enjoy the live band.
Our room attendant left us creative towel sculptures each night and tonight we were treated with a pig – at least we thought it was a pig.
While the girls showered Teresa and I had a good laugh at the “Love and Marriage” game and were shocked to find both girls showered when we had only been gone 50 minutes. Let’s just say that was much faster than the previous nights.
Thursday, June 3rd
We woke at 7:00 determined to be among the first that left the boat. Breakfasted, sun screened, and prepared we dropped the girls at the water park at 8:45. Pretty impressive work for us considering we had to take a tram and everything. We paid for the chat option on the phone – weird but it worked – a nice tool so we could communication on and off during the day. 
Teresa and I were thrilled to let the girls explore the water park with the tallest slide in North America while we enjoyed the beauty of Coco Cay, the somewhat manufactured and manicured by lovely island owned by the Royal Caribbean company. We rode the tram around the island then got off and explored on foot. Whenever we got hot, we found a shady spot to relax, got some water, or enjoyed one of many vanilla soft serve cones that day.
On one of our off the trail explorations we scared/were scared by a lifeguard on his way to the beach. He kindly told us the path was just for employees and we should head back to the main path. That encounter turned out to be a blessing later as we ran into him on the beach and he pointed out two lemon sharks and taught us about the baby barracuda and needle fish that we had been observing. It was pretty cool, and we managed to spot two rays on our own.
I loved the time to chat with Teresa, a few dips in the ocean, and wandering barefooted all over the island- that is until it started to get hot and busy. The first few hours of the day were so fabulous but the hotter it got the more people seemed to come off the boat to dip in water.
At some point Teresa and I found a magic spot where we could sit in the pool water and evade the heat of the day. Little did we realize how bad we were scorching ourselves.
Eventually we connected with the girls and the came out to meet us ready to see the beach, enjoy several ice creams since the kiwi strawberry drink in the water park had run out. 
After a dip in the ocean, we were getting situated by the pool when dark clouds quickly moved in followed by wind and rain. Soon we were in a full-on storm with pelting sideways rain, and trees at odd angles. Our stuff was soaked through in minutes and everyone in the pool, other than Addy and Kate the synchronized swimmers, made a break for the boat. We laughed and ran around in the storm for a while till we started to get cold. Addy invited us to join her in the pool where it was much warmer and there we waited out the storm. When the worst of it passed we had the pool almost to ourselves. We swam a round and just enjoyed the beautiful water. 
Teresa didn’t want to miss the chance to experience a swim up bar, so she did just that, swam up to the bar and asked for a water. He gave her a water bottle and asked to scan her card (most drinks on the boat have to be paid for with a drink package which we didn’t have, and this water would have been a part of the package). Luckily, he was kind and just gave her the water bottle. It was cold so the girls would do handstands while Teresa rubbed the cold bottle on their sunburned legs. Yes, we were all sunburned by the end of the day. 
The girls decided to go back and enjoy the last 30 minutes at the water park with no lines and Teresa and I laid out our wet stuff hoping some of it would dry a bit before we headed back to the boat. Eventually we had to pack up and head back to the boat. Along the way we spotted a bunch of fish off the dock. Teresa and I hadn’t been looking forward to the day on the beach and didn’t think we would last long but it ended up being a lovely day. Maybe not a perfect day at Coco Cay but pretty close thanks to that amazing storm.
When we returned it was time to start packing and take turns showering. Our last dinner was extra fun with lots of cheering for staff and Kate’s favorite meal on the cruise (a Thanksgiving type entre). Teresa and I had to embrace our opportunity to walk up the grand staircase and check out the other floors of dinning, or should I say the more elite areas for dinning. It was incredible. The girls missed out becasue they were too embarrassed to walk up the stairs with everyone watching - their loss.
We savored our last night chilling on the deck, taking in a family feud game while completing the daily sudoku, checking on the hiden notes in the library, then listening to the piano man in one of the lounges. He was great and played a few of our requests all though he couldn’t pull off “Night Swimming”. Our last show of the trip was “Once Upon A Time” a mashup of fairy tales told all in song. We knew most of the songs and really enjoyed the performance.
We returned to our rooms shocked to find a towel penguin wearing Kate's goggles. Definitly our favorite towel creation of the trip.
We ended the night lathering in aloe and packing while the girls read “My Weird School” books to each other. Not quite sure how to pack all the wet stuff; every surface was covered hoping somethings would dry before we had to leave in the morning. We had such a lovely time but another day exploring Miami was calling.
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