So we spent the day at Castaway Cay. More specifically, we spent most of the day circling Castaway Cay. High winds and choppy seas stymied the captain’s first two attempts to dock at Disney’s private Bahamian island, so we had to pull away and circle around waiting for better conditions.

That was not what anybody wanted to hear after two straight days at sea, but the crew did an exceptional job of keeping passenger spirits up. A bunch of characters did meet-and-greets in the atrium, plus a crew member tapped me on the shoulder and offered the four of us a special photo op with Chewbacca (!) so that was pretty cool.

We finally docked on the third attempt, a full five hours late. The weather certainly was cloudy, cool and windy, but the kids still had fun. Justin splashed around a bit and then discovered the basketball court; Brayden and I had one go at the huge waterslide and then he busied himself building a sand fortress. I’d call it an OK afternoon.

The cruise ends early tomorrow morning (sob), then we’re planning to see Kennedy Space Center before catching a late flight home. It’s been a great trip, but we’re all ready to have some time away from each other. This family togetherness thing is getting old.

Back to the snow…

It’s a good thing I never go anywhere without my camera when we’re on vacation. Brayden and I were just chilling near the ship’s atrium this afternoon — I was reading, he was playing on Chris’s phone — when a dance party suddenly began and a bunch of Disney characters arrived. Brayden put down the iPhone and immediately joined in.

And when I say “joined in,” I mean he busted so many moves that I thought he was going to injure himself. You know that scene in “Back to the Future” when Marty gets all out of control while playing guitar at the high school dance? That was Brayden. People were actually clearing space to watch him go. He had Goofy and Mickey and Pluto all trying (and failing) to keep up with him. It was something to see.

We (barely) managed to stay awake for the Star Wars deck party last night, but I was glad we did. The show featured characters like Darth Vader, Chewbacca, C3PO, and R2D2, none of whom were part of the random character greetings around the ship yesterday. The fireworks were pretty spectacular, too. The boys were beyond exhausted by the time it was all done, but I think they had fun.

This was another sea day, so we spent the morning riding the water coaster and swimming in the pool. You have to get to the water coaster early or the line gets crazy long, but getting up early is par for the course in our group, so that worked out well.

Tomorrow we get to spend the day on Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas. Beach day here we come…

I thought people went all out for pirate night, but this takes theming to a whole new level. The costumes are so elaborate for Star Wars Day at Sea that it’s actually difficult to tell the Disney cast members from regular superfan passengers. Apparently our sailing has 1,500 fewer children than usual because of all the adult Star Wars fanatics that snapped up a room when Disney announced this special event. It’s kind of surreal.

Official characters from the movies wandered the ship for most of the day. We bumped into a couple of cute Jawas who searched Brayden for droid parts; we also came upon a funny-looking guy with a big axe that Brayden insisted on getting a picture with. The one sour note was when we got a special ticket to what Disney called an “interactive character experience” that turned out to be a 10-second photo op with a Dark Side dude none of us had ever heard of. Huh.

Star Wars TV shows on the giant poolside screen, Star Wars music over the PA system, Jedi training sessions, Star Wars trivia games…it’s like being in a parallel universe. There was even a special Star Wars menu in the dining room featuring things like a Jedi Temple Salad and Han Solo’s Frozen Carbonite Sundae. Our server even poured Brayden’s ketchup in the shape of a Yoda face, which was a welcome departure from the usual Mickey ears.

Right now we’re off to see The Force Awakens in the theatre, then there’s a late-night Summon the Force party on the pool deck complete with fireworks that we’re going to try hard to stay awake for. May the Force be with us…

Getting up close and personal with various sea creatures was the theme of our day in Grand Cayman. Chris and Brayden had an encounter with dolphins while Justin and I watched from lounge chairs on a sandy beach, then we all marvelled at the huge sea turtles at the Cayman Turtle Farm. It was sunny and hot and we all had a good time, except for when we rode the tender boat to shore and everyone else took in the sights while I closed my eyes and tried not to vomit. A good day overall.

Pirate night was a blast. Everyone got a bandana to wear; many people went much further than that with their costumes. The kids have not cared one bit about getting their picture taken with any of the Disney characters, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to meet Cap’n Jack Sparrow, so we stood in line for 20 minutes for that. (Not sure why I thought a Hulk pose would make me look like a pirate. Kind of blew that one.)

After dinner there was a pirate party on the pool deck featuring Mickey and friends that was actually really cool. Our dining room server explained that they had a 7:45 show because there were lots of kids who couldn’t stay awake for the Jack Sparrow version at 10:30. (That’s the great thing about this ship: there’s no shame in going to bed early. You can always blame the kids.)

Star Wars Day at Sea tomorrow. If it lives up to the hype, it’s going to rock.

Having travelled extensively around the world, I have discovered two things about myself: I enjoy looking at really old rocks, and I don’t give a rat’s ass about art. Both of these things came into play on our tour of Cozumel today.

We started at the Mayan ruins of San Gervasio. To be honest, they were a bit of a letdown, at least in terms of the tour. Our guide had much to say about a suitcase-sized rock that was used for crushing cacao, but made no mention of the house-sized temple standing beside it. The only bit that caught Justin’s attention was when the guide explained how the Mayans used to write numbers and do math. She used small words and spoke slowly and I still don’t have the faintest clue what she was talking about. Justin caught on pretty quickly, though. I sense a new obsession coming.

Then it was off to the Discover Mexico cultural park. We sat through a short video of images of Mexico’s sights and traditions, then walked through a museum of cultural artifacts. I tuned it all out, but the kids were surprisingly interested in some of the sculptures.

After a lunch of quesadillas and fries (yum!), the kids all got to take turns whacking at a colorful pinata. It still hadn’t busted after everyone had had a turn, so they asked for a volunteer father to finish it off, and Chris jumped at the chance. When it finally broke, candy scattered everywhere. Justin grabbed a couple pieces; Brayden filled his hat.

And that wasn’t even the end of the sugar rush. Our final stop was at a chocolate factory, where the kids did not care to try the free samples but insisted on spending $10 on chocolate bars in the gift shop. Naturally.

It’s pirate night on the ship! More on that tomorrow.

Now to Grand Cayman…

Nobody does it like Disney, I tell ya. From the stage shows to the sports deck to the water coaster, there is serious fun to be had. Even the staterooms are awesome — the kids are totally stoked that they have a curtained off area with bunk beds where they can mess around with no parental oversight. Justin in particular has been crazy happy. (Out of the blue this morning he blurted out, “I can’t believe we got a nice room on a good ship!” Like he was expecting to be stuck in steerage on the Titanic or something.)

There was a fun-for-all-ages interactive fantasy football draft in one of the pubs right before the AFC championship game today, so Brayden was all over that, even though he was the only one there under the age of 15. Chris was busy doing a ship-wide scavenger hunt with Justin, so Brayden was stuck with me. I know next to nothing about football, but I kept track of who had been picked and how much money we’d spent.

Unsurprisingly, we were near the bottom after almost every round. At one point Brayden whispered that he didn’t care if we won; he just didn’t want to be dead last. But in the final round, all but one of the other teams got disqualified for spending more than their allotted budget…and we won! They gave us ball caps and high-fives, and everyone seemed pleased that the little guy actually won. That was easily the highlight of Brayden’s whole week.

I’m not normally a fan of sea days, but this one has been awesome. Cozumel tomorrow…

I get that Florida isn’t exactly Hawaii. I get that it’s January and it’s an El Nino year and all that. But 3 C with a wind warning? It was warmer than that when we left Kelowna, for cripes sake. (When we got on the ship, one of the Disney crew members greeted us with an ironic, “Merry Christmas!” Holy God, it’s cold out there.)

Speaking of the ship: it’s beautiful. Things are always chaotic on embarkation day, but the boarding process has been the smoothest of any cruise line we’ve ever been on. They even announce your family and applaud as you come aboard, which made the kids feel like rock stars. The original plan was to hit the waterslides first thing, but given the weather I didn’t bother digging out our swim gear. So instead, we went straight for lunch.

As experienced cruisers, we knew enough not to hit the main buffet, where 90% of people congregate after coming on board. So we made our way to the one sit-down restaurant that was open. This meant we got table service AND a chance to sit inside out of the wind (the main buffet is on the freezing cold pool deck). Good stuff.

We actually had a pretty neat experience at dinner last night too. We went to NBC Grill and Brew, which not only had hundreds of TVs showing every sport known to man, but also offered special tables with plexiglass covers over different table games (shuffleboard, in our case). So we could eat and drink and play shuffleboard all at the same time. It was pretty much a dream dining experience for the boys.

After dinner, I had to spend an hour in the hotel laundry room drying out the clothes — and shoes! — that got drenched in yesterday’s rain so I could pack for today. Party on.

They swear it will be much warmer tomorrow. Time will tell…

High winds, pouring rain, not a speck of sun, and a three-hour time change messing with people’s sleep schedules. I’m so glad we came to Florida. Good times.

We actually did have a good time at Universal Studios today. The crappy weather meant there were virtually no lines, so we covered a lot of ground in very little time, and didn’t have to feel guilty about bailing early. We were completely and utterly soaked by the time we made it back to the hotel. I’m sitting in the room wrapped up in a fleece jacket instead of laying on a beach towel by the pool, but c’est la vie.

Tomorrow we board our Disney cruise ship to sail the western Caribbean. The forecast is for grey skies and a high of 10 C, but I’m hoping the ship will be so amazing that I won’t care.

Stay tuned…

I think the Vegas heat fried whatever brain cells we possessed when we left home. Somehow it seemed like a good idea to save the cab fare and just walk to the Atomic Testing Museum. In my defense, Chris had looked up the address and informed me it would be about a 10-minute walk. Turns out that was the driving time, not the walking time. We ended up walking 35 minutes each way. I really thought I was going to die.

And all that to get to a museum that bored me into a stupor. It might have been fascinating for anyone interested in the history of nuclear weapons in America, but I am not one of those people, and after walking so long in the heat I just wanted to sit down and never get up. Even Chris found it so-so. I can’t believe we paid more for that than for the Mob Museum the other day. Live and learn.

The day improved when we had a very nice lunch at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. We relaxed, had a few cold drinks…and decided to walk around the south end of the Strip in what was probably the hottest part of the day. Brain damage is the only explanation.

We’re hoping to stay awake long enough to see the Strip all lit up in the dark, but given that it’s a 7-minute walk from our room just to the front door of the hotel, we may not have the energy to go exploring again.

Home tomorrow…

When I first suggested this trip to Chris, he was less than enthused about the whole Vegas thing…until I pointed out that we could take a day trip to the Grand Canyon. Even better, we could do it on a small group tour that included stops at Hoover Dam and along famous Route 66. Sold.

After a quick photo stop at Hoover Dam, it was on to Seligman, Arizona, on historic Route 66. That place is straight out of the ’50s. John Lasseter saw a bunch of old cars there that had eyeballs painted on the windshields, and that gave him the idea for the movie Cars. Pretty cool.

We finally made it to the Grand Canyon in late afternoon. It’s truly astounding what a raging river can do to solid rock. We hiked along the canyon rim for an hour or so, which was amazing because the cloud cover kept temperatures down and made for great photos. Then we sat to watch the sun set, which was a total bust because the cloud cover kept the sun from ever coming out. Can’t win ’em all.

One more day in Sin City…