Graduation Celebration: Day 3 Castaway Cay

I've been waiting for weeks to share this with you all. If you've read my posts before you'll know that we aren't beach people...we don't like to sit around and well...relax! We like to be on the go!! So on cruises we take that stop in Castaway Cay we usually get off the ship, have lunch, wander around and then head back...looking for something to do! Well this trip was going to be a bit different!

For this trip we decided to splurge on ONE thing. After much back and forth, we decided we would try and book a Cabana on Serenity Bay. I reasoned that without have kids with us, we may as well go for it! I also thought (not being a beach person) that it would give us a retreat, not to mention some activities if we wanted. Here is what you get when you book a Cabana:

The night before we received some things in our stateroom, including our wristbands which is what gave us access to our cabana.

By the time our cruise rolled around, I was READY for a vacation. Surprisingly I was looking forward to this day and just unplugging and relaxing...something very unusual for me. I got up very early to watch the ship dock at the Island.

I HIGHLY recommend doing this! The ship was very empty and it's really  neat watching the ship back in!

As soon as the all clear was given we hopped off the ship and on the Tram.

You can kind of see in this map where we are headed...to the VERY far left!

After 2 Quick Tram rides...

...We arrived at Serenity Bay! We checked in (they were expecting us of course...more on this later).

And we were taken to Cabana 24!

 I was NOT prepared for what I was about to see. We have been to Castaway Cay before but the view from our Cabana and Castaway Cay BLEW me away. Combined with the fact that we were the first to arrive!

A few photos inside:

We were beyond excited so we immediately headed down to the beach with a few chairs and floats.

Eric and I down on the beach

You can see behind us...NO ONE!

We really enjoyed the beach for the better part of the day. 3 out of the 4 of us (I'm a baby) swam out to the sand dune. They saw fish and even a LARGE sting ray! We just relaxed and enjoyed the quiet. I can't describe the feeling of sitting on the beach, with nothing but the sound of the ocean and the warm sun on our skin. It was AMAZING (and I may be a "beach" person after all)! We ordered some drinks...and I think someone sensed we had rum....

It was just about time to grab lunch so we buzzed our Cabana host and were whisked off to  lunch. We also discovered we were the ONLY cabana booked and that was partially why the beach was so empty (we didn't mind)!

After lunch the guys grabbed some snorkel gear and swam around for a while. We attempted to nap but unfortunately  it was just TOO hot. We found out it was the hottest day in MONTHS...102!!!

At this point the tide was out (see the people on the sand dune?) and the water was CRYSTAL clear!

It was also about this time when we discovered a HUGE mistake we made...well 3 out of the 4 of us anyway. We had been applying SPRAY sunscreen all day (several times) and it just didn't provide enough covered. We were badly burned and decided to head back to the ship.

We rested up a bit before dinner at Palo. I don't think we realized how bad the burns were until we all started to get dressed.  Eric had it the worst and barely at his dinner and went back to the room early. Not a great way to end our amazing day on the beach!

Palo dinner was AMAZING as usual but under the circumstances we only  have a few photos.

Erin and Richard were celebrating their wedding anniversary :)

After a quick change in to more comfortable clothing, we headed upstairs to catch the Pirates in the Caribbean Fireworks!

Even with the  mild sun poisoning we had an AMAZING day and we would definitely book a Cabana again. It's a memory that will stick with me forever.