As with most of our vacations with Hunter, we found ourselves awakened by our personal rooster before the sun had a chance to rear its head. But this time around, Emily and I had already resigned ourselves to the schedule that is Hunter-driven! We all got showered and dressed, then made our way to the Beach Blanket Buffet, grabbed some breakfast, and headed out to the back deck to watch the ship approach Nassau. The food was OK, but my lack of taste buds I believe was a side effect of the motion sickness patch that I had on for the past 30 hours. The scenery could not be beat, however, as we took in the comfortable ocean breeze.
Emily and I had agreed prior to the trip that we would take this day to explore the ship and take Hunter swimming on the boat. There were some excursions on the island but, being that I don’t have any hair to braid, we thought it would be much more enjoyable to relax on the amazing ship.
We got our suits on and headed down to the Mickey pool area where there was a small pool for children as well as a little splash area for the really young
ones. Hunter loved every minute of the experience. He had fun showing off his new “swimming” skills from the class Emily took him to the last two weeks at the YMCA. The water was 83 degrees and felt like you could have cooked pasta in it. Not as refreshing as I had hoped, but the fact that Hunter loved it made it OK. After finding out we maybe were not supposed to be in the one pool (no swim diapers, even in the kiddie pool? WTF?), we went back to the splash zone, where the nursery staff had a bunch of water toys out for the kids to play with. There definitely were plenty of activities for all age groups well thought out by the staff.
After swimming we grabbed some mediocre pizza from Pinocchio’s Pizzeria. We ate a few slices and saved room for snacks later in the afternoon. We timed our events so Hunter could meet Goofy poolside. We patiently waited with our cameras and autograph books for Goofy to arrive. When he hit the scene in his beach attire Hunter’s face just lit up. We waited our turn and Hunter approached Goofy and began his meet-n-greet routine of hug, kiss the nose, autograph, hug and good bye with a few extras for his favorite. Goofy seemed to really be enjoying Hunter as he motioned to the Character Attendant as if to tell her to write something down. The Attendant came over to us and asked our room number. We weren’t exactly sure what was happening but Goofy seemed pretty harmless so we obliged.
After our full afternoon of activities we headed back to the room so Hunter could lie down and take a nap. He slept like a rock and Emily and I relaxed as well and read our books. After a solid two hour nap we got Hunter up and ready for the 3:15 showing of Disney/Pixar’s Up which we had not seen previously. This was Hunter’s first movie in a movie theater, so we were excited (especially since it was free and we could leave if there was a meltdown). The movie was good and Hunter was great through all but about 5 minutes of the movie when he decided he was done sitting still. We’re still Toy Story loyalists, though, if we’re being honest about how this movie compares.
After the movie finished it was almost time for our Palo dinner reservation with the Stevensons. Because Palo is a no-kids, fine-dining establishment, we had set up time at Flounder’s Nursery for both Lily and Hunter to play in this really cool toy room. After we dropped them off they seemed to be very excited to explore all of they new toy options.
We got dressed up and arrived at Palo at around 6:00 p.m. As we were escorted to our table we walked past a pretty elaborate camera crew set up to tape the Extreme Makeover Home Edition family having their dinner. Although their vacation looks relaxing on film I believe the actual vacations for these families are anything but relaxing.
We enjoyed the delicious food and amazing service at Palo as we also enjoyed the quiet of no kids. Our server’s name was Oliver from Australia who really made the experience what it was. He barely batted an eye when Emily and Jen peppered him with questions about just how many things they could get away with ordering.
Periodically throughout the evening, we speculated which of us would receive the dreaded nursery staff page, as we knew the odds were stacked against us. Hunter has only been in the care of a non relative maybe two other times in his life! Sure enough, as we were awaiting our entrees, I heard a foreign noise coming from what could only have been my pocket. What was the sound you might ask? It was the ever so convenient pager that we were supplied with in the event that Hunter did not enjoy his experience at 
the Nursery. Since we were already expecting it, we were actually kind of relieved when he lasted longer than we both thought he might! The message cracked both of us up as it read “Hunter Hayes is very upset but we are working on making him happy. Thank you”. Maybe it was funnier after a couple beers, but we all chuckled. My sensitive wife Emily’s first reaction was not one of concern, as you might expect, but, “Ooh, hold still, we have to take a picture of that pager!” Five minutes after the first page we were met with a second informing us to come and pick him up, which we did.
Thanks to Oliver, he had the three desserts that we ordered sent back to the room, so Hunter, Emily and I went back to devour the delicious treats that awaited us. After we couldn’t eat anymore it was time for the Toy Story the Musical show at the Walt Disney Theater. We watched the show and Hunter again impressed us with his ability to sit still and take in the show. After it was over you could tell Hunter would have been willing to sleep in a garbage truck he was so tired (actually with his love of garbage trucks he might prefer it to his bed!) We headed back to the room, got our pajamas on and put Hunter to bed. Emily and her love of cheese plates after 10 p.m. decided we could not go to bed without eating more food, which we did. (Emily here… I cannot turn down “free” room service! Genius!) The cheese plate was good and was a perfect ending to a really fun day. As we were enjoying our food the ship was making its way to the private Disney island, Castaway Cay. More adventures would surely await us on Day Three!
