scrapbookingpro
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2006
- Messages
- 545
Day Seven: Castaway Cay
Like many people, Castaway Cay is my absolute favorite part of the cruise. On our last cruise we were unable to dock there, again because of bad weather, so I was so excited about finally going back on the island.
We got up at around 8:30. For once DH skipped spin class. We wanted to be ready to get off the ship as soon as we could. We had some breakfast from the buffet (ate in our room) and got off the ship by 9:30. First stop was the gift shop. We had friends that were sailing on the Wonder and we knew they were going to be at Castaway Cay tomorrow, so we wanted to leave them a little message to find. We bought a little plastic container (meant to hold your ID while you work out) and put a note in it. Later we would hide it somewhere at the adult beach. Minnie was outside the shop with NO line, so I ran over and got a picture. She was super cute in her bathing suit
We had rented two floats, so we stopped to pick them up and we decided to walk out to the adult beach. It's kind of a long walk, but we didn't care. As we walked, we noticed the sky getting darker. Pretty soon we could hear the rumble of thunder. Having lived in Orlando for more than six years, I knew that we had very little time to find some shelter before the inevitable downpour hit. People on the adult beach seemed to think that the storm was going to skip over us. Nobody was heading for cover or looking the least bit concerned. We set our floats aside and headed to the adult restaurant to wait out the storm. It was actually quite beautiful. The lightning flashed over the ocean and the thunder grew steadily louder, and then the rain started. Soft at first and then BAM- downpour. The "unsuspecting" people from the beach ran to join us in the restaurant. The CMs in the restaurant were great- they let me stand by the cooking stove because I was freezing. It only poured for a few minutes and then, Tah dah! Beautiful weather appeared and stayed for the rest of the day. We got ourselves a great spot half way down the beach and went for a quick swim. The water was perfect!
At eleven, we jumped on the tram back to the family beach because we had booked a banana boat ride at 11:30. We met up with S and J (who had slept in) and the Canadians. I had read about these BB rides and people saying they had fallen off, or that they had held on so tightly that their hands and legs were sore. All of this is absolutely true, but we had a BLAST! J and I were in the front, DH and S behind us, then three Canadians (Eric wouldn't come because he doesn't like the water) and one solo guy we didn't know, who made of point of saying he wanted to fall off. If you don't know, the BB ride is basically an inflatable banana shaped float that they pull around with a speed boat. It was crazy fun. J and S kept sliding off their seats and J was screaming like a girl. I was laughing so hard I could barely sit up straight. The water sprays you in the face so you can't really see as you fly around the ocean. Whenever I could steel a glance, I would look behind me and see everyone flailing around madly, except our Canadian friend Flavio who looked as if he were sitting on a park bench watching children play. I laughed even harder at that. How was he so calm?? Anyways, that ride is really fun- you should try it!
The only weird thing was that Eric, who was watching from the beach, said that we were only out for about five minutes (it did feel short, but I don't know if we could have held on much longer...) and the ride is supposed to be fifteen/twenty minutes long. I don't know why they cut it short, but we didn't mind. My legs were shaking when I got off. Hey, we didn't fall off though! (sorry solo guy!) 
After the ride, our Canadians went off to snorkel and the rest of us went to Cookies for some lunch. It's true the food here is only so-so, but they had tons of fresh fruit and I liked the banana bread and cookies. They also have burgers, hot-dogs, chicken, cold salads and ice cream.
After eating we took S and J out to our spot at Serenity Bay. We all went into the water. You can swim out really far and it's still no deeper then chest level, and it's very calm, so no waves are splashing you in the face. We stayed out for what felt like hours. Took some pics on the underwater camera and laid on the floats talking. It was the most peaceful, wonderful day. When we finally went back to shore, I fell asleep on my lounge chair.
When I woke up, the beach was mostly empty and the guys were sipping drinks from the bar.
I must have been OUT because I didn't hear a thing! We figured it was about time to head back, but first we walked to the very end of the beach to bury our surprise message for our friends. We marked it with a stick and an "X". (We haven't talked to them about this yet but I heard from another friend that they found it and loved looking for it. Yay!!)
We got on the tram to head back at about 4:15. Now, they say that your "all aboard" time is 5:00, but the CMs that saw us pretty much yelled at us to get back to the ship. Did I miss something? I thought five o'clock meant five o'clock....? We stopped to snap a few quick pictures, feeling like fugitives on the run. "Hurry, take the picture before we get caught! Hurry!!"
We were back in our staterooms by 4:30.
It's pretty impossible for you to forget it's your last day on board. Every announcement, sign and activity has the word "final" or "last" in it. We went to the farewell show and I pretty much cried my eyes out. By dinner we were all feeling depressed. Our last dinner was at Lumiere's. Maria said she didn't want us to go and we could all move into her stateroom with her
Sandor brought me extra desserts one last time and played a little joke on me. He brought out a bowl of "ice cream" for me and then spilled it into my lap. Turns out it was just paper balled up to look like ice cream. We all had a good laugh at that. You got me, Sandor!! We took tons of photos with our servers and the Canadians, but we knew we'd see them at breakfast, so we didn't do any sad good-byes. We went off to "Till we meet again" in the atrium and got photos with a bunch of different characters. That was fun, but again, depressing.
Next was Pub night. If you have had any interaction at all with the entertainment staff, or you just like a good pub skit, DO NOT miss pub night!! The entertainment staff (in this case, Travis, Michael, Lauren, Jamie, Christian, Belle, DJ Hollywood, Pikey and Christy the bar girl) does a skit called "If I Were Not Upon the Sea" and it is very very funny.
I think it's a great way to end the cruise and the perfect chance to say good-bye to the staff.
After the show, it was one last walk around deck ten and then off to bed.
Saturday
Saturday for me was just plain sad. I hated saying good-bye to the Canadians, though we exchanged e-mails and promised to learn some French
We said good-bye to Sandor and Maria at breakfast. I hated knowing that they would just move on to serving other families tonight. The Debarkation process is completely quick and painless, and before we knew it, we were packing up the car and heading home. 
We are so thankful for the experience and we had the time of our lives on this trip.
Thanks to everyone for letting me relive the experience here. I thought I'd end with some TIPS that may be helpful to know.
- I wish I had listened to the people that said "Bring an extension cord or some kind of extra outlet!!" We thought, Oh, we won't need it, but there was no outlet in our bathroom, and the one at our desk couldn't fit the charger for our batteries. We ended up having to use the plug behind the T.V, which was a pain. Bring an extra!!
- Definitely take the time to find the not-so-secret verandah on deck 7. It really is quite and lovely.
- Be sure to ask for what you want at the restaurants. The servers can almost always get you what you want, even if it's not on the menu! It's better to ask then to be disappointed with what you get.
- You'll hear this tip a lot, but it's so true: You can't possibly do everything- there is too much to do! So don't stress over it, just relax and go with the flow!
I hope everyone has an amazing time on their next cruise. I'll be reading your trip reports!
Like many people, Castaway Cay is my absolute favorite part of the cruise. On our last cruise we were unable to dock there, again because of bad weather, so I was so excited about finally going back on the island.
We got up at around 8:30. For once DH skipped spin class. We wanted to be ready to get off the ship as soon as we could. We had some breakfast from the buffet (ate in our room) and got off the ship by 9:30. First stop was the gift shop. We had friends that were sailing on the Wonder and we knew they were going to be at Castaway Cay tomorrow, so we wanted to leave them a little message to find. We bought a little plastic container (meant to hold your ID while you work out) and put a note in it. Later we would hide it somewhere at the adult beach. Minnie was outside the shop with NO line, so I ran over and got a picture. She was super cute in her bathing suit
We had rented two floats, so we stopped to pick them up and we decided to walk out to the adult beach. It's kind of a long walk, but we didn't care. As we walked, we noticed the sky getting darker. Pretty soon we could hear the rumble of thunder. Having lived in Orlando for more than six years, I knew that we had very little time to find some shelter before the inevitable downpour hit. People on the adult beach seemed to think that the storm was going to skip over us. Nobody was heading for cover or looking the least bit concerned. We set our floats aside and headed to the adult restaurant to wait out the storm. It was actually quite beautiful. The lightning flashed over the ocean and the thunder grew steadily louder, and then the rain started. Soft at first and then BAM- downpour. The "unsuspecting" people from the beach ran to join us in the restaurant. The CMs in the restaurant were great- they let me stand by the cooking stove because I was freezing. It only poured for a few minutes and then, Tah dah! Beautiful weather appeared and stayed for the rest of the day. We got ourselves a great spot half way down the beach and went for a quick swim. The water was perfect!
At eleven, we jumped on the tram back to the family beach because we had booked a banana boat ride at 11:30. We met up with S and J (who had slept in) and the Canadians. I had read about these BB rides and people saying they had fallen off, or that they had held on so tightly that their hands and legs were sore. All of this is absolutely true, but we had a BLAST! J and I were in the front, DH and S behind us, then three Canadians (Eric wouldn't come because he doesn't like the water) and one solo guy we didn't know, who made of point of saying he wanted to fall off. If you don't know, the BB ride is basically an inflatable banana shaped float that they pull around with a speed boat. It was crazy fun. J and S kept sliding off their seats and J was screaming like a girl. I was laughing so hard I could barely sit up straight. The water sprays you in the face so you can't really see as you fly around the ocean. Whenever I could steel a glance, I would look behind me and see everyone flailing around madly, except our Canadian friend Flavio who looked as if he were sitting on a park bench watching children play. I laughed even harder at that. How was he so calm?? Anyways, that ride is really fun- you should try it!
The only weird thing was that Eric, who was watching from the beach, said that we were only out for about five minutes (it did feel short, but I don't know if we could have held on much longer...) and the ride is supposed to be fifteen/twenty minutes long. I don't know why they cut it short, but we didn't mind. My legs were shaking when I got off. Hey, we didn't fall off though! (sorry solo guy!) After the ride, our Canadians went off to snorkel and the rest of us went to Cookies for some lunch. It's true the food here is only so-so, but they had tons of fresh fruit and I liked the banana bread and cookies. They also have burgers, hot-dogs, chicken, cold salads and ice cream.
After eating we took S and J out to our spot at Serenity Bay. We all went into the water. You can swim out really far and it's still no deeper then chest level, and it's very calm, so no waves are splashing you in the face. We stayed out for what felt like hours. Took some pics on the underwater camera and laid on the floats talking. It was the most peaceful, wonderful day. When we finally went back to shore, I fell asleep on my lounge chair.
When I woke up, the beach was mostly empty and the guys were sipping drinks from the bar.
I must have been OUT because I didn't hear a thing! We figured it was about time to head back, but first we walked to the very end of the beach to bury our surprise message for our friends. We marked it with a stick and an "X". (We haven't talked to them about this yet but I heard from another friend that they found it and loved looking for it. Yay!!)
We got on the tram to head back at about 4:15. Now, they say that your "all aboard" time is 5:00, but the CMs that saw us pretty much yelled at us to get back to the ship. Did I miss something? I thought five o'clock meant five o'clock....? We stopped to snap a few quick pictures, feeling like fugitives on the run. "Hurry, take the picture before we get caught! Hurry!!"
We were back in our staterooms by 4:30.
It's pretty impossible for you to forget it's your last day on board. Every announcement, sign and activity has the word "final" or "last" in it. We went to the farewell show and I pretty much cried my eyes out. By dinner we were all feeling depressed. Our last dinner was at Lumiere's. Maria said she didn't want us to go and we could all move into her stateroom with her
Sandor brought me extra desserts one last time and played a little joke on me. He brought out a bowl of "ice cream" for me and then spilled it into my lap. Turns out it was just paper balled up to look like ice cream. We all had a good laugh at that. You got me, Sandor!! We took tons of photos with our servers and the Canadians, but we knew we'd see them at breakfast, so we didn't do any sad good-byes. We went off to "Till we meet again" in the atrium and got photos with a bunch of different characters. That was fun, but again, depressing.Next was Pub night. If you have had any interaction at all with the entertainment staff, or you just like a good pub skit, DO NOT miss pub night!! The entertainment staff (in this case, Travis, Michael, Lauren, Jamie, Christian, Belle, DJ Hollywood, Pikey and Christy the bar girl) does a skit called "If I Were Not Upon the Sea" and it is very very funny.
I think it's a great way to end the cruise and the perfect chance to say good-bye to the staff.After the show, it was one last walk around deck ten and then off to bed.
Saturday
Saturday for me was just plain sad. I hated saying good-bye to the Canadians, though we exchanged e-mails and promised to learn some French
We said good-bye to Sandor and Maria at breakfast. I hated knowing that they would just move on to serving other families tonight. The Debarkation process is completely quick and painless, and before we knew it, we were packing up the car and heading home. We are so thankful for the experience and we had the time of our lives on this trip.
Thanks to everyone for letting me relive the experience here. I thought I'd end with some TIPS that may be helpful to know.
- I wish I had listened to the people that said "Bring an extension cord or some kind of extra outlet!!" We thought, Oh, we won't need it, but there was no outlet in our bathroom, and the one at our desk couldn't fit the charger for our batteries. We ended up having to use the plug behind the T.V, which was a pain. Bring an extra!!
- Definitely take the time to find the not-so-secret verandah on deck 7. It really is quite and lovely.
- Be sure to ask for what you want at the restaurants. The servers can almost always get you what you want, even if it's not on the menu! It's better to ask then to be disappointed with what you get.
- You'll hear this tip a lot, but it's so true: You can't possibly do everything- there is too much to do! So don't stress over it, just relax and go with the flow!
I hope everyone has an amazing time on their next cruise. I'll be reading your trip reports!
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With your getting off the ship and Will & Grace...ahhhhh 
I am so pumped 
I will try not to be so sad when I see the words last 
