Cruise Day #24: Castaway Cay

Alright folks....it's finally here....the final full day of our cruise. I figured I shouldn't procrastinate writing & posting it any longer....so here goes....our day at Castaway Cay.......

Jason made our magnet for the day with a Lilo & Stitch surfing theme....which is, of course, Hawaii and not the Bahamas....but they're both tropical and both beautiful...so hey---we thought it worked!!

For those of you who have never cruised with Disney before----Castaway Cay is Disney's private island in the Bahamas.  Every Disney cruise that sails in the Caribbean makes at least one stop at Castaway (weather permitting).  The only ships that ever get to dock there are the Disney ships...and there is only ever (to my knowledge, at least) one there at a time.....so you basically have this very private experience on a tropical paradise.  The island has beautiful beaches, a snorkeling lagoon, a marina with water sports rentals (parasailing, paddle boats, jet skis, etc.), game areas, a family beach, an adults only beach, a large BBQ buffet restaurant, little shops, bike and float rentals, walking trails, spa massage cabins---it's like a beautiful tropical land extension of the ship itself--basically, it's heaven......DISNEY STYLE!!!



On any Disney cruise in the Caribbean (at least for me & Jason), Castaway Cay is the stop you look forward to most.   It's just a beautiful amazing place with all the amenities you could ever want or need....and we could spend days there.   In fact, we (and many other cruisers) have often said that we would love a cruise that did nothing but several sea days and several days at Castaway Cay----aaaah...I can feel the stress of the world seeping away even as I think about it!  So, knowing that we love Castaway so much, Jason and I were more than a little sad with our luck on this trip....for two reasons.

Not a picture I took, but a beautiful shot of the island

The first reason is that, while usually on a Disney Cruise you get a full day at Castaway Cay---like 8:30am to 4pm---we were scheduled to be there only from about 11:30 to 4pm.  Of course, the truth is that any Castaway Cay is better than NO Castaway Cay (and it's not like we hadn't already had the most amazing vacation ever LOL)...but it was hard not to feel sad that we were only getting 1/2 day the island.

The second reason was the weather.  As you'll recall....the weather went a little south on us on our sea day, the day prior, and while it wasn't the worst weather for cuddling up on the ship to enjoy----it wasn't the best weather for enjoying a tropical paradise. More concerning than that, however, was the fact that we had already heard that the other Disney ship, the Wonder, had not been able to dock at Castaway Cay for either of its two most recent stops (one being the day prior) due to the wind, water and weather conditions----and so there were some rumblings that if the weather didn't get better, our stop at Castaway might meet the same fate.  Now----if you think we were depressed about only having a 1/2 day at Castaway....I'd have been absolutely despondent if we had to miss the island altogether.  Half day at Castaway sucks----but NO day there is just downright devastating!! LOL

Never fear, however-----like the lyrics to "When You Wish Upon A Star" tell us.....

"Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true!"


And our pixie dust came through.....because the day before we docked at Castaway, the captain made an announcement that he was going to get us to the island earlier than scheduled so we'd have an extra hour or two......AND when we woke up were pulling into Castaway-----THE WEATHER COULDN'T HAVE BEEN MORE PERFECT!!! (The Blue Fairy did definitely make our weather dreams come true for this ENTIRE journey!!).  Here is the weather we awoke to on our Castaway Cay day...our LAST (*sob*) day of the vacation:

We woke up early because we were excited about our day...but also because we wanted to get off the ship early to get a prime spot on the beach!! LOL  So while the ship was pulling into the island, we headed up on deck to have breakfast.  Here is a picture I took of the island from our table and of Jason eating his breakfast with the island in the background:

After we got done eating, we decided to head down to the open deck closer to the gangway we would use to get off the ship so we could wait for them to let us out.  On the way, however, we stopped for this cute photo op:

That is a picture of me standing in the "Mickey Pool"----this is the children's pool on the ship and, having no children, Jason and I had never been in it obviously.  When we walked by and saw it completely empty, though, I thought it would make for a very fun Disney Cruise photo! *smile*

We then headed down to the open deck and watched over the balcony as they tied off the ship and unloaded all the food and supplies for the day from the ship and onto the island. I didn't take pictures of it....but let me just tell you that preparing the island for us is quite the orchestration!!  I think only a handful of people, all Disney employees, actually live on the island and take care of it....so when the ships dock, everything has to come OFF the ship and onto the island (towels, food, staff, sound equipment, photo equipment, etc.) to prepare it for the cruise guests.  Standing on deck and watching you can tell it's kind of a herculean task----but it goes down like a military maneuver or well choreographed dance!  It was quite impressive to say the least!  Here is a photo of Jason and I (not so) patiently waiting on deck to be told we could get off the ship and onto the island!

 Once they did clear us to get off the ship, we were off and headed into paradise!  Jason and I really hauled tail to get to a prime spot on the beach and got a fantastic space with lots of loungers and beach chairs, palm trees for shade, a hammock, easy access to the bathrooms, the bar, the food and beach.  We quickly saved a bunch of seats and arranged them as all our friends from Table 9 (our dining table) were planning to spend the day wherever we staked our claim, as well.  Here is a picture of the eight of us around the hammock we snagged-----what a great bunch of folks...it was so nice to have dinner with them nightly and to spend such an amazing relaxing final day with them on the island:

 

Castaway is always really fun for us not only because it's just beautiful...but also because there are some fun things to do on the island----they offer a number of excursions and activities on the island...and we've done several in the past like parasailing, open-sea kayaking,  jet ski tours, bike tours, beach massages, swimming with and feeding stingrays, etc.  Because we had thought this trip to Castaway was going to be only a half day, however, we had decided not to book anything extra and just to rent a couple of floats/inner tubes to relax in and get snorkel gear for the snorkeling lagoon.  We had never done a "just hang out" kind of day on Castaway...and boy was it lovely!!

This was also a nice day because we got the chance to do two activities on the island that we had never done before.  The first of these was Pelican's Plunge.....

Pelican's Plunge is a brand new water-play area they have built in a new beach section of the island (part of a recent expansion on the island to keep it current to have more to offer once the two new bigger Disney ships join the fleet).  The Plunge area just opened earlier this year...so it was cool to experience it for the first time. It is very basic---one open slide and one closed/tube slide----and it's certainly not Aquatica (the Sea World water slide park we visited earlier in the trip) or Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon (Disney's two amazing water parks in Orlando)....but it's really fun and a nice addition to the island.

The second fun new thing we did on the island was "hermit crab racing."  This is a TOTALLY silly family activity but Melanie, one of our favorite cast members who I've mentioned before, was helping run it and recruited us to join.  Basically, you get assigned a live hermit crab and they have two large circles drawn on the pavement.  They put all the hermit crabs in the middle of the circle and the first one to reach the outer edge wins.  Our crab, which we named Sebastian, came in second.  It was silly fun....here are some pictures:

Jason wearing the "team uniform" and holding up our team placard.

Our crab "Sebastian."

The "race track"----crabs go in the center and have to move all the way to the inner white circle line.

Ready, Set, Go!!  Melanie lifts the bucket and the crabs are off!!

After the hermit crabs, we ate some lunch, lounged about, took some pictures, went for a walk and then decided to snorkel.   Jason and I really enjoy snorkeling and Disney has done a very good job of creating a snorkeling lagoon in which they have some nice things to look at including a number of different kinds of fish, shells and some "sunken treasures"-----like some intentionally sunken boats and artifacts (for the fish to swim around in) & a submerged Mickey Statue.  Unfortunately, I think because of the recent inclement weather, the water wasn't as clear as we've seen it in the past...so our pictures didn't turn out great....but we did get a few pictures we thought we'd share from our 40 minute snorkeling adventure:

Me swimming down to the submerged Mickey statue----he's probably a good 12 feet deep (or more).

"Darling it's better down where it's wetter!"-----Posing for a photo op with Mickey "Under the Sea"

After snorkeling, we went back to our area to hang out with our friends from Table 9, we ended up napping for a while on the hammock together (I firmly believe that you've never really taken a nap until you've done it  on a hammock between two palm trees on a Caribbean beach!! LOL) swam and lounged a bit more....and before we knew it...our day at Castaway was drawing to a close and it was time to head back to the ship----with just enough time to stop in the gift shop on the island and pick up a new magnet.

We then got back on the ship and hung out in the pool up on deck for a little while just to cool off some more before heading back to our room to....*gulp*....PACK (BOOOOOOOO!!! LOL) and get changed for the evening's show.  As we started to pack the emotion of it all started to become very real (and, actually, as I sit here typing this now---it's creeping back, as well *frown*)---we had to start packing away all our dirty laundry, folding and packing clean laundry, deciding what personal products we needed overnight and could carry off the ship and on the plane (the ship has a wonderful onboard airline check in program that allows you to have your luggage picked up at your cabin the last night of the cruise and it gets automatically transported to the airport, checked in and checked all the way to your final destination so you don't have to deal with it----but that means you have to make some choices about what you can live without that last night and last morning before getting off the ship).  We also had to undecorate our door----which was probably one of the worst parts because it took our beautiful door back to the barren wasteland it was when we got aboard.  You'll recall that we were adding magnets daily to our door---but many of our DIS friends were also giving us magnets and leaving them on our door throughout the cruise.  By the time this final day/night had arrived...our door that started as a plain white metal door with a cabin # on it looked like this:

Once we were done with our packing, we got dressed for the show and dinner. The show this evening was the farewell show and it is themed around saying goodbye to the ship and to each other....so it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with this blog that it's utterly heart-wrenching and I cried like a baby! LOL

Our ties this evening, or final set of ties (are you sensing a theme?!  how focused I was/am on the finality of it all?!? LOL) were Pocohantas ties:

After dinner we went back to our room and changed into the clothes we planned to wear off the ship the next day.  We had our final towel animal waiting there to greet us:

After changing we went down to visit with some friends and cast members in the lobby of the ship briefly and they do a little meet & greet with characters and sing you the final song from the Mickey Mouse Club (".....M-I-C...see you real soon....K-E-Y...why? because we like you!...M-O-U-S-E"...ugh...just cut my heart out and stomp on it already! LOL).  There was another adult themed show in one of the theaters that lots of people were going to...but we decided to spend a quiet night at the movies that last night seeing Step Up 3 in 3D (at the recommendation of my cheerleaders).  It was definitely a quiet night together as we were the ONLY people in the theater...LOL...but I have to say the movie was not that great---if it wasn't for the amazing dance sequence at the very end it would have been totally unbearable.

After the movie....we were off to bed...so that we could wake up one final time aboard the Disney Magic.....

(Note:  This is NOT the last post for this blog....Once I get pics from our CD's sorted, etc. I will make a couple more posts to share some more pictures.)