Chapter 20: Castaway Cay, Swimming Beasties, Digging Denizens, and Silly Snorkelers
Ahh Castaway Cay, a lyrical sounding place that warms the heart of many
DCL vets and piques the curiosity of those yet to sample its sweet offerings. Now to set the tone for today you must know, my girls are beach girls. They love the beach. My folks have a time share at Atlantic Beach, NC that I have been going to since I was a kid. They even have a pool there affectionately referred to as The Mickey Pool :
Taken from Google Earth, Coordinates are 34° 41 57.89 N 76° 44 48.98 W if you want a closer look.
So when we told the girls that we were going on a cruise and that we were going to have a beach day in February, this became one of the most anticipated parts of the trip!
Again we had an early rise, saw the sunset and got to see the ship back into Castaway Cay. Mini Me had a special time enjoying the view:
We got dressed (like it takes a long time to put on your bathing suit!) and lathered up the family with the super duper wet proof, sweat proof, nuclear strike proof sunscreen SPF 60, thick as all get out and a bit grainy when applied. Feels weird going on but nothing gets through this stuff and one application is usually good for the day.
Here is where I add a tip from a beach pro to my friends on the Dis, I dont think I have seen this tip before. Apply the sunscreen in your room. It is easier to ensure proper application and its easier on the kids. It is sheer torture to apply sunscreen to kids when the beach is so tantalizingly close.
We head up to Beach Blanket Bingo for breakfast (I really like eating here for breakfast) and score a table on the aft deck overlooking Castaway Cay. After breakfast we take a few pics including a nice one of the beach and the Flying Dutchman:
We head down to deck 3 for one last potty break before we head out. I run over to guest services to take care of our tips figuring that it will be a mad house that evening. I hook up with the kids and we are off to Castaway Cay. We arent the first ones off the ship but I bet we are in the first 100. We stop to take another picture of the Flying Dutchman:
Notice the enough with the pictures lets get to the beach look on the girls face. Now I have a confession to make. This may sound like apostasy and may even get me banned from the Dis and any future DCL cruise, I dont care for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
The first one was okay, the second was just too intense for me for a Disney movie plus I didnt like the way it never really resolved anything and cut off haphazardly in an obvious set up for the third movie. I know it was meant to be a trilogy but I always felt that even a trilogy movie should be able to stand on its on. That said, seeing the Flying Dutchman up close was very cool!
Okay movie rant over, deep cleansing breath, I feel better.
Anyhoo we stop for a pic at another Castaway Cay Icon, Mt Rustmore:
We get on the walkway. DW and the kids see the first cutoff for the family beach and want to pull off. Nope I said, trust dad on this one, we stick to the walkway to the end of the family beach and we stand a much better chance to score a hammock. So off we go:
We get to the end and score the last open hammock on the beach! Yess! As we set up camp we see another family running in the sand in our direction towards our hammock. Their shoulders slump in pain and defeat as we justly claim the spoils of a superior beach rest station acquisition plan. I smile smugly to myself as I turn my gaze of disdain from the hapless fools who either dont know the Dis or didnt heed its teachings, a return to my vacation.
My wife and I hop into the hammock:
and the kids hit the beach:
The weather is beautiful, the water azure blue and life is good. It is a windy day so there are very small waves at the shore line (like 4 inches tops) but the girls are used to much windier beaches and much rougher surf so they think it is perfect. We hang out and play on the beach for about an hour and then head over to the Stingray excursion set to start at 10.
Now Disney hit the ball out of the park with this excursion. You get a brief orientation/educational lecture. While waiting for the lecture one of the people on the excursion commented on the pirate ring that one of the CM had. He told us he was on the POC crew and got that as an employee of the week award, very cool! Each participant is then given a mask/snorkel and Mae West vest. The group is sub divided up into 4 groups of about 8-10 people. The CM drags a Ramp made of PVC pipe that is shaped like a U. The stingrays know the drill because as soon as the ramps go into the water, they start making to the shoreline like we head to BBB when we get on the ship!
A Ray coming up the Ramp:
The rays are trained to come up one ramp and head to a Mickey Shaped plate where they expect to get fed. You squeeze a piece of Shrimp, or Calamari, or Gel sticks that have vitamins between your middle and pointer finger. When it is your turn, you bend down, place your hand on the Mickey Plate.
Eating From the Mickey Plate:
The ray swims up and sucks the food out of your hand. The rays are swimming all around you. Very Cool! The stinging barb on the ray is not at the end of the tail like I thought. Rather it is about 2/3 the way down. The CMs trim the barbs on the days the ships arent at Castaway Cay.
A Ray up close:
Despite this, Mini Me didnt want to be in the water or to feed the rays so she asked me to hold her.
Mini Me up top:
Again the water was quite brisk and the level was at a place on my body where certain strategic parts were neither completely in nor completely out. Again I was asked by the others what I was doing and I told them it was my shrinkage acceleration program. That got a few laughs and the other guys in our group decided to do the same thing!
Well when I dipped down that was the last straw for Mini Me, she wanted to get up on my shoulders. We feed rays for about 20 or 30 minutes. Then you get to swim around the enclosure to get a closer look at the rays. The kids didnt want to do this so they headed for shore. The CMs who helped us with the feeding were building a gargantuan sand castle so the kids (ours and others) stayed on the shore building the castle while we swam around for another 20 or 30 minutes. I thought it was so cool that Disney had something there to occupy the kids who might not want to swim and save the parents from either deciding who got to sit out or chucking them down to the kids clubs. We got done and ready to go and the kids had no idea we were done yet! Good job! I highly recommend this excursion and I recommend you do one of the first few time slots as the rays are more active then. They microchip the rays so they know who is getting what as far as food. Again Great Excursion!
Next Up Paradise Continues!
(PS I was at the ships terminal this time last week!)