From the Sea to the World - Completed!

[Flossbolna]

Of the many devices I have seen dropped in a pool I have not heard of any electrocuting anyone. I cannot remember but I think the pool was empty the one and only time I dropped my phone in the pool.

Not a smart thing to do either - drop the phone in the water. I guess it was as dead as my old phone after I let a water bottle fall over it...

I LOVE that you high Fived Jimmy the cruise director. That is great.


As for the picture..... Sending a PM now

Got the PM! And it was just the perfect moment to meet Jimmy!

To me this shows how much these guys enjoy their job. It is fun for them, and the guests, when there is something like this going on.

Yes, that's what I thought as well.

It looks like lots of delicious food to choose from at Palo. I especially love almond croissants, and that walnut bread and the warm sticky buns look and sound quite yummy. (I think I see a theme starting to emerge here) I've never tried caviar, but a cruise like this sounds like a great opportunity to give many new things a try!

What better moment is there as when you only pay a 20$ surcharge to get a buffet that you normally would have to pay much more for.

So which one of your German/Croatian "friends" did you have to bribe to get your table knocked over so you could get more of the prosecco???

Ha! None!

Okay, something besides "breads" that looks really good!

Something else I haven't been adventurous enough to try before, but that also looks pretty good!

Glad you found some things you might want to try! From all the reviews I read, it appears that many less adventurous eaters prefer brunch to dinner at Palo since it is easier to avoid unknown things.

Sounds like a great choice going with the early show!

It worked out perfectly and I hope to take advantage of it on my next cruise again!

I can certainly understand feeling the need to exercise after all that food. Too bad the runners and the shuffleboarders had to compete though.

The other runners were fine... Next time I am going to play shuffleboard to annoy the runners!!

Not sure I could take my MP3 in the pool or hot tub with me. That would be the one time I would somehow manage to drop it.

Yes, same thought here. Especially my expensive iPhone! But I have taken my kindle with me to the bathtub. It has been years since I dropped a book in the water, so I hope I will be fine there...

Okay, I agree it would have been hard to be hungry again, but if anything was going to be a temptation, that looks like a great choice!

I have been looking at this pictures so often now and talked about it so much that I am kind of sad that I did not order the steak. I just know that I would not have been able to eat it!

Well that can't be Rosie. You would have to ruin the top of the next page to be a tribute to her!!!

No, I was nearly going to make a comment about Rosie not being there if you needed her. But I guess I keep my TR going with enough speed that she has no time to appear and bump it! There are some other people, whose TRs I follow who seem to take an awful long time between updates (to be fair, on my previous TRs Rosie had to bump me quite regularly, too).

It's hard to beat cartoon art, especially when it is art of Goofy being, well, Goofy!!!

I guess I can see why you would like that!

So where's the clock??? Isn't there supposed to always be a clock at the top of the stairs like that???

What WOULD your co-workers have said if they could have seen you then...............

Not bad, as long as you are also getting the "high end" alcohol instead of the cheap stuff.

Yes, and it was a proper cocktail, not the quick poured together drinks they had at the pool. Even though those were delicious as well.

Great information to have, and nice to get the "Big Cheese" teaching you the proper way to wear it.

We also got an instruction during the muster drill, but it is nice to have a reminder!

Submitted part of my answer..........still trying to come up with the rest.

Got both parts by now!

 

[lovealldisney]

Ohhh are you in the process of writing a new update??? Just curious.....

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 8:

A new day and something that is considered the highlight of a Disney cruise: Castaway Cay.

We had set our alarm to 8:45 am and I think this was the first morning when I needed an alarm to wake up. We woke up to a first view of Castaway Cay from our stateroom:

We slowly got ready. After all the food the day before neither of us felt like getting any breakfast and we headed straight off the ship at around 9:30am. The ship is docked directly at the island and you can just walk off, same routine as in Cozumel. And we made sure to bring plenty of towels again. Of course we had to stop first for some pictures with our wonderful Disney Wonder:

Then we decided not to wait around for one of the trams, but instead walk towards the family beach area.

You do get a map with your Navigator the evening before the Castaway Cay day, but there is also one on the island:

There are two main areas, the family beach and Serenity Bay  the adult only beach. There are a number of activities available on the island, like snorkeling etc. Those are at the family beach. The adult beach only has a bar, a rental hut (for floats and bikes), a lunch place and a beach. No other entertainment. Also, as you can see on the map and from the pictures from out porthole, the family beach is kind of closed in as there is a wall separating it from the ocean, the adult beach does not have that.

There are all kind of cute little buildings. The whole area is very well done and very well maintained. It reminded me a little bit of the Disney waterparks (due to the theme more of Typhoon Lagoon obviously).

We got to the area with the shops and looked around there for a bit. I was rather disappointed by the selection. I had planned to get a CC beach towel, but they all looked rather cheap and plain.

So we hopped onto the tram to the adult beach.

It actually follows an old airstrip and there are some old planes along it:

And then we were there! First a few pictures of the aforementioned amenities. Lunch:

rentals:

bar:

We headed into the lunch place and I asked whether I could get a drink from there. They let me do that  food and fountain drinks are included on the island. And I also grabbed two bags of chips that were on display next to the drink station.

Then we headed out to the beach and found two lounge chairs with an umbrella and got settled in. I think we were about one third down the beach, but it never got crowded around us at all!

And then we stayed put there for more or less the rest of the day& After getting us covered with sunscreen we headed down to the water, there were pairs of very low chairs stacked at the loungers and we picked up the two in front of our space and took them down to the water edge to sit. You can see them in this picture.

At some point (I think it was before lunch) we walked out into the ocean. The sea is very shallow at Serenity Bay and we could walk for a long stretch. Comparing with other pictures I think we were there during high tide and at some point we could not touch the ground any more and had to swim, but that was relatively far out. The end of the bay is where there is a long sandbar. We walked/swam out to this and sat there in the shallow water for quite some while. It was soooo pretty and beautiful and serene. There were perhaps two other small group out at the sandbar as well and we could see a boat in the distance. You did not feel like there was a cruise ship just around the corner of the island.

We were hungry early on and I was glad that I had grabbed the packet of chips. So we headed to lunch when they opened at 11:30am. Lunch at CC is a barbecue. There are two stations at the family beach and then one at Serenity Bay. There was a selection of salads:

And then there was a grill station where you had the choice of burgers, hot dogs, steaks, fish and I think ribs.

Then there are picnic tables to sit and eat. It is all very casual and had an atmosphere like a barbecue party with friends. The food was all delicious. Since we were so early there really werent huge crowds or lines at all. But even when we left and it had become busier, it was not bad at all.

This is my plate:

I think I tried most of the salads and they all were really good. I loved that they all were different.

This is Michaels plate:

We also later on got a hot dog which we shared and that was a very tasty hot dog!!!

For dessert there was fresh fruit, banana bread and cookies and soft serve ice cream. This is the banana bread:

And my selection of fruit and banana bread:

Close to the lunch place are the restrooms. They look very rustic, but are actually a nice set of clean restrooms. It truly was a common theme on this cruise that I kept being so impressed with the state and cleanliness of all the public bathrooms I used that were provided by DCL and this CC one was no exception!

Next: Continuing to Cast Away

 

[Flossbolna]

Just wanted to let everyone know that while I got some correct answers already, I won't close the contest until my dear sister Katharina (nodnol) has returned from her summer vacation to France and has had a chance to guess as well.

So you still have time to submit an answer!

Oh - and mentioning Katharina's trip: As some of you might have noticed she had a ticker for DLP in her signature. Her trip to France included DLP. And I think you might be able to convince her to share some of her travel experiences to DLP with you here if she felt that people would want to hear about it!

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

I vote for a Katharina TR!!! I'm always ready and eager to hear about DLP and Paris too for that matter...

Hmmm... I've been a very bad Diser and am way behind (although I just read and caught up) so these comments are not necessarily in the right order...

Palo-looks lovely-the food yummy and your dress was fabulous... very chic...

I am a huge Eggs Benedict fan as well... although I'm picky and the yellow has to be still runny...

Your excursion to Cozumel really seemed nice...I loved the snorkeling (and drinking- I happen to like a good margarita every now and then...)... the water looked gorgeous... (i've been wanting to go to Tulum...it's a pretty easy flight from the Eastern US... I think next March maybe...-nice chance to have a beach/water trip that combines some culture/ruins...

The whole cruise vacation seems like it really gives you a chance to kick back and relax... there's no rushing to dinner or parks... because you're literally just traveling around on your "destination"...

Duffy the Bear... I still don't see the "magic" although honestly if you dress anything up in a sailor suit/nautically... It becomes cuter...

 

[kid-at-heart]

Second vote for a Katharina TR!! We were on the Wonder just a couple of weeks before you. It was an awesome trip! We even picked up Cuban refugees during our voyage.

Before our trip I was really concerned with my water phobia that I would be stressed the entire cruise but as long as I stayed away from the railing I was fine. Thanks much for writing a TR! Now I want to go again.

Kate

 

[lovealldisney]

What a lovely update. Now that is my kind of travel day. Sit and relax and soak up the sun. All the food looked really yummy... I'm curious how you liked the banana bread?

I have a really good recipe if you'd like it...

Oh and I really liked your dress to...

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

A new day and something that is considered the highlight of a Disney cruise: Castaway Cay.

After all the food the day before neither of us felt like getting any breakfast

If you're anything like me, that feeling won't last very long.

Then we decided not to wait around for one of the trams, but instead walk towards the family beach area.

Good choice! It's a very nice walk.

It actually follows an old airstrip and there are some old planes along it:

The old airstip really looks cool. It lends an adventurous feel to the island.

Then we headed out to the beach and found two lounge chairs with an umbrella and got settled in. I think we were about one third down the beach, but it never got crowded around us at all!

And then we stayed put there for more or less the rest of the day… After getting us covered with sunscreen we headed down to the water, there were pairs of very low chairs stacked at the loungers and we picked up the two in front of our space and took them down to the water edge to sit. You can see them in this picture.

I'm starting to see where they came up with the "Serenity" name....

It was soooo pretty and beautiful and serene. There were perhaps two other small group out at the sandbar as well and we could see a boat in the distance. You did not feel like there was a cruise ship just around the corner of the island.

Such a great island.

We were hungry early on

Aha!

Just wanted to let everyone know that while I got some correct answers already

But probably not from me.

Oh - and mentioning Katharina's trip: As some of you might have noticed she had a ticker for DLP in her signature. Her trip to France included DLP. And I think you might be able to convince her to share some of her travel experiences to DLP with you here if she felt that people would want to hear about it!

 

[dekkerdisneydreamer]

Day 8:

Next: Continuing to Cast Away

I will absolutely love that view!! That is truly something I'd never get tired of.

Glad to hear that the amenities were on par for Disney standards. It's never fun to go somewhere without a clean bathroom.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Day 8:

A new day and something that is considered the highlight of a Disney cruise: Castaway Cay.

Such beautiful water and view! I can't wait to see that one day.

Of course we had to stop first for some pictures with our wonderful Disney Wonder:

Looks like a good thing you had that railing to lean on so you didn't tumble into the water. I never realized that the closer you got to the equator the more everything tends to lean over to the side like that..........

There are two main areas, the family beach and Serenity Bay – the adult only beach. There are a number of activities available on the island, like snorkeling etc. Those are at the family beach. The adult beach only has a bar, a rental hut (for floats and bikes), a lunch place and a beach. No other entertainment. Also, as you can see on the map and from the pictures from out porthole, the family beach is kind of closed in as there is a wall separating it from the ocean, the adult beach does not have that.

That is quite a list of Cautions on that sign. Looks like they cover just about everything!

And then we stayed put there for more or less the rest of the day… After getting us covered with sunscreen we headed down to the water, there were pairs of very low chairs stacked at the loungers and we picked up the two in front of our space and took them down to the water edge to sit. You can see them in this picture.

WOW!!!! I can't imagine anything being more relaxing and, well, Serene!

At some point (I think it was before lunch) we walked out into the ocean. The sea is very shallow at Serenity Bay and we could walk for a long stretch. Comparing with other pictures I think we were there during high tide and at some point we could not touch the ground any more and had to swim, but that was relatively far out. The “end” of the bay is where there is a long sandbar. We walked/swam out to this and sat there in the shallow water for quite some while. It was soooo pretty and beautiful and serene. There were perhaps two other small group out at the sandbar as well and we could see a boat in the distance. You did not feel like there was a cruise ship just around the corner of the island.

What a wonderful day you were having!

We were hungry early on and I was glad that I had grabbed the packet of chips. So we headed to lunch when they opened at 11:30am. Lunch at CC is a barbecue. There are two stations at the family beach and then one at Serenity Bay.

All the food looks so good, and I know the setting had to make it all taste even better!

I can't imagine a more perfect day at the beach!

 

[kid-at-heart]

What an awesome day!

Kate

 

[englishrose47]

I also VOTE for a Katarina TR!!!!

 

[englishrose47]

Now to comment on CC. I agree it is beautiful and we also used those chairs in the water. A couple of them sat out there almost the whole time , of course well sunscreened . The food was delish too !!!

 

[Flossbolna]

I vote for a Katharina TR!!! I'm always ready and eager to hear about DLP and Paris too for that matter...

Hmmm... I've been a very bad Diser and am way behind (although I just read and caught up) so these comments are not necessarily in the right order...

Great to see you on here again! Katharina should come back tomorrow, so I hope she will see the requests for a TR from DLP!

Palo-looks lovely-the food yummy and your dress was fabulous... very chic...

I am a huge Eggs Benedict fan as well... although I'm picky and the yellow has to be still runny...

Thanks for the comment on the dress. And the Eggs Benedict were perfect, yes the yellow has to be runny (as a kid I would only eat soft boiled eggs since I hated the hard egg yolk, I still prefer it runny in any form of eggs).

Your excursion to Cozumel really seemed nice...I loved the snorkeling (and drinking- I happen to like a good margarita every now and then...)... the water looked gorgeous... (i've been wanting to go to Tulum...it's a pretty easy flight from the Eastern US... I think next March maybe...-nice chance to have a beach/water trip that combines some culture/ruins...

Cozumel seemed like a wonderful place! I really thought that it would make a very nice vacation for more than just a cruise visit!

The whole cruise vacation seems like it really gives you a chance to kick back and relax... there's no rushing to dinner or parks... because you're literally just traveling around on your "destination"...

Yes, that's exactly it. It was maybe the most relaxing vacation I ever had - and by that I do not mean a lazy vacation, but it was such a great equilibrium of lazyness and diversions.

Duffy the Bear... I still don't see the "magic" although honestly if you dress anything up in a sailor suit/nautically... It becomes cuter...

I guess you are right about that... I love Minnie and Mickey in their nautical outfits, too!

Second vote for a Katharina TR!!

Great, I hope this will convince her!!

We were on the Wonder just a couple of weeks before you. It was an awesome trip! We even picked up Cuban refugees during our voyage.

Before our trip I was really concerned with my water phobia that I would be stressed the entire cruise but as long as I stayed away from the railing I was fine. Thanks much for writing a TR! Now I want to go again.

Kate

I read about the Cuban refugees being picked up on the Wonder. Since I love water, that was never an issue for me. But I am glad that you were ok with it as well!

What a lovely update. Now that is my kind of travel day. Sit and relax and soak up the sun. All the food looked really yummy... I'm curious how you liked the banana bread?

I have a really good recipe if you'd like it...

Oh and I really liked your dress to...

It was really a fantastic day! And thanks on the comment for the dress. I picked it up when it was on sale a few years ago and it is still my favourite summer/pool/beach dress. Such a great find!

Thanks for the banana bread recipe offer, I actually have a very good recipe! And I love banana bread. This one was a little on the dry side, but still very good!

 

[Flossbolna]

If you're anything like me, that feeling won't last very long.

Yes, as you found out later on, it did not. Next time I will be warned!

Good choice! It's a very nice walk.

Indeed, I really did not see any need for the tram on that stretch. Out to Serenity bay the walk is less scenic and I think also longer.

The old airstip really looks cool. It lends an adventurous feel to the island.

It does - I think it is great how they managed to incorporate something that otherwise could be very ugly.

I'm starting to see where they came up with the "Serenity" name....

Oh, yes!!

Such a great island.

It is truly wonderful!

I will absolutely love that view!! That is truly something I'd never get tired of.

Glad to hear that the amenities were on par for Disney standards. It's never fun to go somewhere without a clean bathroom.

The beach there was so beautiful - and so uncrowded.

 

[Flossbolna]

Such beautiful water and view! I can't wait to see that one day.

Hope you get there sooner than later!

Looks like a good thing you had that railing to lean on so you didn't tumble into the water. I never realized that the closer you got to the equator the more everything tends to lean over to the side like that..........

That is quite a list of Cautions on that sign. Looks like they cover just about everything!

I did not even notice this! But since in the cruise contract you already sign your life away anyway, I am sure that they don't want to be caught with some liability under Bahamian laws either.

WOW!!!! I can't imagine anything being more relaxing and, well, Serene!

It is quite a perfect place!

What a wonderful day you were having!

Yes, I wish I could be back there soon!

All the food looks so good, and I know the setting had to make it all taste even better!

Yes, it was the full packet that made it so great.

I can't imagine a more perfect day at the beach!

 

[Flossbolna]

What an awesome day!

Kate

And that's not yet all!

I also VOTE for a Katarina TR!!!!

Katharina, do you see all these people who want to read your TR!

Now to comment on CC. I agree it is beautiful and we also used those chairs in the water. A couple of them sat out there almost the whole time , of course well sunscreened . The food was delish too !!!

I am glad that your group enjoyed CC as well. Did you go to the adult beach or did you stay at the family beach?

 

[Flossbolna]

After lunch it was finally time to get a drink! I had looked at the drinks menu posted at the bar before lunch and once we were back at our chairs we ordered a drink from one of the servers that roam along the beach:

It was called Deep Blue Sea  and as you can see they got the colour right! I remember that it involved blue curacao and sprite  but there were more ingredients. It was quite lovely and refreshing. Very good drink!

While we were lounging on our lounge chairs under our umbrella (a side note: there were plenty of umbrellas and they were positioned so that I really always was able to sit in the shade all day long, I thought that this was a great feature!) we saw something black in the water. It was floating around and came quite close to a girl who was on a floating mat. I thought I would go and explore  thinking that it might be a stingray. When she noticed it she started screaming and ran out of the water and my suspicions were confirmed. Michael came in the water as well and there were some more people and we all walked slowly towards it, but kept some disctance. We all just were rather amazed watching it floating around gently. Then a snorkeler started to swim over to us. And swam around us and the stingray for a short moment as well. And then he proceeded to get closer to it and finally swam directly over it. And with that the stingray did not enjoy hanging out here anymore and swam away, the snorkeler tried to chase it, but wasnt really successful and our entertainment was gone. It was good that we were at the adult beach as the terms we used to talk about this guy were not really kid friendly&

At some point we had to head back to the area with the infrastructure as we needed to make use of it. And after that was dealt with I wanted to check out the bar once more and we ended up getting another drink there and sat on some bar stools there watching the sea from a different angle while enjoying another delicious drink. This time we got a Konk Cooler, which kind of is the Castaway Cay signature drink and I had read a lot about it on the DIS. It is kind of a pina colada with the addition of orange and passion fruit juice. It was extremely delicious! It was served frozen and really more like a dessert than a drink.

After some more laziness we decided to head back to the family beach as we wanted to try out the water slide there before it was time to head back onto the ship. It was nearly 3pm by now. With a heavy heart I left the wonderful beach:

But we were planning on more fun! So after a short tram ride back, we quickly found an empty chair to just dump our stuff on. By that time it was obvious that the family beach was starting to get emptier, there were plenty of chairs which obiously had been in use during the day but had now freed up. Some had used towels from the ship on them. I guess people thought that since it is all Disney, it does not matter? Actually, there were a number of towel drop off points at the beach (we had gotten rid of some of our towels at the adult beach already), so it was easy to just bring them back.

But this was our destination:

You have to swim out to the platform, then there is a line and you get to choose between two different slides. We did both of them. They were fun slides and they dump you into water which is actually quite deep at the end. That was fun. However, make sure to hold your nose (or exhale when you hit the water) otherwise you end up with a lot of salt water up your nose.

Originally we had planned to hang out for a little longer and maybe do some more shopping. But we started to feel very hot, sticky and exhausted, so we headed back to the ship. While walking there Michael started to feel worse and worse. He had spent less time under the umbrella and I think he had gotten a little bit too much of the sun and heat. So I let him walk ahead while I needed to get some more pictures as this had been a day with very few pictures so far!

Next: A Trip to Santa Monica Part 1 Part 2

 

[englishrose47]

And that's not yet all!





Katharina, do you see all these people who want to read your TR!



I am glad that your group enjoyed CC as well. Did you go to the adult beach or did you stay at the family beach?

We went to the Adult beach !!!!