So let me start with this: I'm not the smartest person in the world signing back on to finish a report from almost 3 years ago. OK, 2 years and change (DW would have surely corrected me on that). I have a hard enough time remembering a month ago...and what happened in what order...let alone what happened two plus years ago. I had to re-read everything, and look through my pictures to make sure that I didn't bore you (more than I already have!) with duplicate pictures. Now, I believe I have it in the right spot...but don't know for sure...so if I don't...well...you get what you pay for, right???
Anyhooooo, as this cruise was a double-dip (my favorite kind of cruises), we had the opportunity to hit
Castaway Cay a second time (and yes...Cay can be pronounced "KEY" or phonetically "Cay". I just found that out on my last TR (or Trip Report for those of you initial challenged)
. We absolutely, positively love Cataway Cay...and have not been there since they expanded the beach to accommodate the Dream. Really looking forward to that...and you can look for my pre-trippie to begin on that soon! As if you haven't heard from me enough!
We had our character breakfast at Lumiere's that morning...so no Topsiders this day (whew...almost said BBBBBBB). And we got to deal with our oh-so-wonderful servers. Ahem.
Anyway, at some point the captain came over the loudspeaker and informed us that while we were at Castaway Cay the Wonder would be passing by (I know, a lot of you are now Wondering why the Wonder is passing by Castaway Cay when it is currently cruising the West Coast. Those of you that are truely wondering clearly have not gone back to read the previous posts in this thread...as this particular Christmas Cruise is from 2008, pre-Dream!
).
This passing was a very rare event, and in fact it was only the third time in the history of
DCL that this had happened. We thought this was cool and wanted to get a picture of both ships...as we thought this would be a good keepsake. More on that later.
I honestly have not read any TR's lately about Castaway Cay...but when we were there we had the opportunity to participate in a Pirate Scavenger Hunt. We had to go to Guest Services and grab the pirate map which would give you clues on the island to the "treasure". We had heard about this, but had never done it...so today was our day to try something new. Actually we tried a whole bunch of things new.
The first couple of times at Castaway Cay all we did was hang out on the family beach and eat at Cookies. If you have been following along in this particular TR (and you *have* been following along, right? no cheating!), you know we rented bikes and tubes this trip...so we expanded our horizon. This would continue on the second visit!
Time to head off the ship...our first clue took us to the Post Office.
Naturally we had to take this picture as Stitch was (and still is) DS8's favorite character
And a few others along the way
aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhhh a Pirate!
Honestly we never figured out the clue at the post office...but continued down the path anyway. Luckily Disney takes into account that some families just might not be smart enough to get the first clue.
Next we had to go to Marge's Barges and decode nautical flags. This one was a breeze (maybe we are not *quite* as dumb as we thought...but that lead us to the next spot...and we couldn't figure that one out...so maybe we are. Grrrrrr, this is supposed to be easy...come on Disney!
On to Mt. Rustmore....and that one was easy. What the? It's like a great big tease! Disney is so mean! But on we go! Thankfully you can miss a few and still be ok. Oh yeah, this *is* Disney.
Onward we went, clue by clue. I won't bore you with every detail, and I don't want to give it away if they are still doing it (I'll bet you $100 that DW does know and will chime in). We found a spot for our towels while walking past the family beach and headed out to Heads Up Bar where there were a few more clues (I know, I said I wouldn't...and then I did anyway). But it was almost time for the Wonder to come by...and we decided this would be a great spot to catch the action.
This was one of our new things...we actually had a couple of drinks. As you know, we bring our drinks on...so this was a departure from normal. Cheap I am!
The kids enjoy their drinks
Our family at Heads Up Bar
The boys with the Magic in the background