Trip Report, Day 4: Great Stirrup Cay

Today, we got up, had breakfast and prepared to head over to the private island, Great Stirrup Cay. We reserved a cabana on the island, so we received VIP tender tickets which allowed us to take any tender boat we wanted to head over to the island. We decided to take the earliest boat possible. A tender is a boat that will take you to the island because the ship cannot dock at a pier and has to anchor in the middle of the ocean/sea. I didn't know what they were before this trip, but now I am very familiar with them.

So, we got on the tender boat and it was rocking back and forth as they let people on and idled in the middle of the sea. I ended up popping a Dramamine because the boat was seriously swaying and I didn't want to be nauseous while swimming at the beach. Even Jackson was holding on to us because he was uneasy about it and he jumps headfirst off of couches. When we started moving, we both were fine. It took all of 10 minutes to get over there.

When we got to the island, it was awesome. We just had to grab our bracelets for the cabana and then head over to cabana #9. It was the second farthest, of course, but it was lovely. Already at the cabana was a plate of fruit and chips with salsa. There were also bottles of water in the refrigerator, towels, lounge chairs and yellow foam floats. Fortunately, it was not a far walk to the beach and there weren't too many people on the beach with us, so we went right in. Jax went in the water with TK at first and then Uncle George brought down the yellow floats and Jax walked across them. After a little bit, he got out and we played in the sand with the bucket of toys we brought from home. He liked being able to stand in the water and throw rocks and shells.

After a little while, I went to get my snorkel and swam along the rocks on the coast. There were tons of little striped fish hanging out in there and a few big fish also. I let TK try the snorkel so he could see what I saw. It was great and I was glad that I made the decision to buy a snorkel at Target when I did.

We got out of the water and went up to the cabana for a snack. With the reservation, we received a $50 food credit to order food from a menu they gave my parents. The food we ordered, including beer, fruit and shrimp cocktail, arrived and the barbecue down at the entrance area also began, so we decided to take a walk. My dad and Aunt Rosie stayed back with Jax. At the barbecue buffet, there was an interesting array of food including pizza, burgers, brownies, salads, ribs, chili, hot dogs and chicken. We brought back a few plates of food, but my father decided that he would wait for my mother to get back, but she was shopping at the little shopping area that was set up and I figured that might take a while. We saw some guy walk by sipping a drink in a coconut shaped like a monkey's head and when TK asked him, he said he got it at the bar. The cabana had waiter service, so we asked the waiter for two monkey heads with pina coladas. The drink was so refreshing that it was hard to go back to my Blue Moon afterward.

After eating, we pulled out the lounge chairs and soaked up some sun. A few minutes later, TK's curiosity got the best of him and he wanted to take Jax down the Hippo Slide. So, we walked down to the big inflatable slide that we could see in the distance. I had to use the restroom, so I stopped on the way. Unfortunately, Jax fell asleep on the way, so we couldn't take him on the slide. But, that didn't stop TK and I. We met up with my mom and she watched Jax as we climbed up to slide down together. It was pretty high and a lot of fun. We ended up colliding at the end. Oops. When we exited the ride, we got our flip flops back on and decided to do a little shopping for our niece and Jax. We got Genny a little straw purse and a t-shirt with little beads. We bought Jax a Bob Marley t-shirt. That was a sweet find, even though we were in the Bahamas and not Jamaica.

When we got back to the cabana, we headed back to the water before laying out in the sun again. Unfortunately, by that time, it was time to head back to the ship, so we scooped everything up and headed to the tender area. On the ship, we went right to our rooms to get changed and ready for dinner. I had sunburn on my upper back only. The rest of my body that saw the sun was just tan, thankfully. We headed back to the Grand Pacific again and I had a soup, a salad and Gnocchi. It was great and just the right amount of food.

We hung out in the atrium before ordering a martini and arriving at the Happy Family Dance Party in the Bliss Night Club. Jax didn't love it and I took one for the team when TK didn't want to participate in the Nickelodeon contest. We did a musical chairs-ish game and it came down to me and a three-year-old girl, so obviously I had to lose and take a whipped cream pie in the face. Unfortunately, when that little girl won, she got a pie in the face too. Poor thing. They should've given her a prize of some sort instead. After wiping the whipped cream from my face, Jax was finished dancing and being happy, so we went back to the room to watch a movie and go to sleep.