Jennifer48
Not a Disney bride but engaged and honeymooned at
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2005
Saturday April 8, 2006---Castaway Cay, Bahamas
My birthday didnt start off exactly the way I planned. Why you ask? Because Dan kept me up all night from his snoring. I had to roll him over and/or nudge him so many times. Sheesh! Cant a girl get some sleep on her birthday?? I wanted to be at Serenity Bay early because I had read that there are only a handful of hammocks there. Of course it being my birthday, I planned in laying in one and drinking the whole day
.
We set our TV alarm again for 8am and we were dressed, sunscreen lathered up and on solid ground by 9:30am. It wasnt the picturesque day I had hoped either. Quite cloudy this morning.
I couldnt believe I was here though! I was so excited to see this island. This was the thing I was looking forward to the most.
We took the tram over after getting our picture taken on the dock with the Wonder as our backdrop. Yeah right, Im buying that one too
Ok, which way to Serenity Bay???
We took the tram over and there was only 3 other adults with us. Ok, so my odds are good that they arent all going to be taking hammocks. We get off the tram and I take in the surroundings and a few photos before walking onto the beach.
Holy cow! The water is beautiful!! Look Dan a hammock, RUN!!! I throw off my sandals and power walk up to one of the hammocks. There was like no one here.
This is perfect! Not only that, the clouds are starting to burn off as the sun warms up. Paradise!
I throw myself on the hammock and just relax and enjoy the view.
Its about 10:30am at this point when the drink lady starts walking around. Sweet! They are serving alcohol early! Ive read all about this Kronk Kooler on the DISboards so of course I had to order one and since it was my birthday, I splurge for the souvenir cup as well. Can a birthday get any better than this?!?
As I lay and relax Dan heads out to check out the water. I watch him searching around the water for sea creatures. He calls me over to show me this starfish he found. Its huge! He pulls it up from the water for a second so I can see it and when he puts it back in the water we watch how fast it scurries across the ocean floor. We walk along the water to look for more sea life when we see this little fish about 4-5 inches long just swimming around us. I start to get a little scare when he gets too close (Dan said he looked like a barracuda thats why I got scared thanks Dan!) So Dan distracts the fish so he stays around him. No joke, this fish just swam in and out of Dans legs. It was so cute! We named him Shadow since he liked to follow Dan. We were watching Shadow for a bit and we see this woman book it up the beach. She thought that our hammock was open and she went running after it! It was kinda funny since I would have done the same. She didnt throw my stuff off (she would have had me running after her if she did) which was good. Shortly after, I head back up and relax.
Dan came back to dry off and we are getting hungry so we decide its time for lunch. Plus, the beach is getting pretty crowded anyways. We pack up our stuff and head over to Castaway Cay Air Bar-B-Q. Its a little before noon so there arent many people there either. We load up on hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and enjoy the sun.
I want to see the rest of the island so we decide to hop back on the tram over to the other side of the island. We walk by the Boating Harbor and Dan wants to check out how much to rent a jet ski. $165 for 45 minutes holy moly! Skip it. I really wanted to do the water trike but Dan was a little nervous because it was really windy out and he didnt want them to topple over so instead we opt for the 2-person paddle boat ($8 for a ½ hr, much more our style).
We thought this was going to be difficult since neither of us is in peak physical condition but it really wasnt too bad. The water was so blue that it looked like we were only out to 2-3 deep waters but Im sure it was deeper than that.
Ok now I need to shop! I need to get a postcard (duh) and make sure I send one to myself from the Castaway Cay post office (which btw, I just got today, 2.5 weeks later). Since we cant really lie on the beach with all our new purchases, we head back to the ship to drop it off. As we are there, I take a few pictures from decks and we are back on our way out.
We walk all the way to the end of the island where the Heads Up bar is. There was no one drinking there! The view across the water was priceless.
We enjoy this for a bit and then head over to the Sports Beach where we scoped out 2 chairs already at the waters edge and no one around them. The shore was wicked rocky here so we decide to move to the Family Beach. There were 2 chairs here as well so we sat and enjoyed watching these 3 little girls playing around us. I wanted to swim a bit so I left Dan and enjoyed floating around for a while.
Its about 4pm at this point and we wanted to beat the rush back on the boat so we left. We headed up to deck 9 to get a snack at Plutos. We got some French fries to share and we noticed that we started to debark from Castaway Cay. I look down from the window and there are the cast members waving good bye.
I bid them farewell and we run up to the back of the boat to give Castaway one good look as we depart. So sad!!
Boy do I miss that island.
We stopped by Shutters on are way to our room and we see that the professional photo we took in front of the Wonder backdrop is there and so is that horrible one we took when we got off the boat this morning. Yuck. So what do I do? I take a picture of that one with my digital camera when no one was looking and we end up buying the professional one and our Pirate night one. Do you really think I'd post it here?!
Showered and dressed for dinner we head up to watch Disney Dreams in the Walt Disney Theater. Jacqui, our cruise director reminded us that we missed her informational talk on disembarkment for tomorrow but she does mention that it will be shown on the stateroom TVs all night. Darn. Lets hope that our tablemates saw it and can fill us in at dinner.
Disney Dreams was ruined for me because there was a gentleman (and I use that term loosely) behind us translating the whole show to his son in Italian. What?! Yes, Im not joking. And it wasnt like he was whispering either. Full out loud translation. Thanks a lot, jerk. If anyone would like a transcript of the show in Italian, please PM me.
Ok back to the show. I can see how it was award winning as Jacqui had introduced it as. Very great. Too bad I missed most of the dialog (ok so I am bitter. Sue me).
We read that the final installment of Bingo was tonight in Wavebands so we ran from the theater down to deck 3. The grand prize was $1500 of course we were going to try to play! We purchase our cards and take a seat in front of Melanie, our caller for the night.
She was from South Africa and so much fun. Another couple sat in with us and they were kinda annoying so Im not going to mention their names
but apparently everyone here had played bingo every night this week because they all had these inside jokes. Every time Melanie picked a number that someone had theyd yell, oh baby! and if they didnt get the number theyd say come on Melanie! This was for EVERY, SINGLE, NUMBER CALLED!! For 5 games straight this went on. Yeah, I couldnt drink enough of the drink of the day which was the Sting Ray. Talk about yumm-o. This had Captain Morgan, Midori, cranberry juice and pineapple juice. Sooooooooooo good! I need to start making them from home! Needless to say, we didnt win anything and we were a little late for dinner.
Dinner tonight was Tritons. Our last dinner. Just thinking of this made me sad as we walked up. Our table family was already there and already ordered! No appetizers for us tonight just entrees. Dan and I both had the 4 cheese rigatoni.
Superb! For dessert I had the chocolate soufflé
and Dan had an ice cream sundae.
We handed our servers their tip envelopes and thanked them multiple times for the great service that they provided us the last 3 days. It was wonderful (no pun intended this time). Pictures were taken with us and our servers and our awesome tablemates. We gave them our email addresses to keep in touch (we havent heard from them yet
) . Chat let us know that our breakfast would be at Tritons the next morning before we disembark. He was excited to be leaving the ship because he had an early flight back home to Thailand. I asked Tina if she made it to the disembarkment talk and she said no (doh!). Its after 10p at this point and we dont have anything packed so we miss the Till We Meet Again show and head back to our room.
I immediately turn on the TV to listen to what Jacqui has to say as we start packing. She mentions these luggage tags and immigration forms that should have been left in our room by our host. Dan and I frantically look around and NO TAGS OR FORMS! Dan calls up to guest services and they promptly send some down. I sit down and listen to Jacqui as she explains how to fill them out. We are rushing around so of course I filled them out wrong the first time. Dan had to run up to get us some more. Finally at about 10:55pm, our luggage is outside our stateroom door. Whew!! Dont worry, in all that panic I did make sure to leave out an outfit for the next day
. We hop into bed and watch Goblet of Fire
..again.
My birthday didnt start off exactly the way I planned. Why you ask? Because Dan kept me up all night from his snoring. I had to roll him over and/or nudge him so many times. Sheesh! Cant a girl get some sleep on her birthday?? I wanted to be at Serenity Bay early because I had read that there are only a handful of hammocks there. Of course it being my birthday, I planned in laying in one and drinking the whole day
. We set our TV alarm again for 8am and we were dressed, sunscreen lathered up and on solid ground by 9:30am. It wasnt the picturesque day I had hoped either. Quite cloudy this morning.
I couldnt believe I was here though! I was so excited to see this island. This was the thing I was looking forward to the most.
We took the tram over after getting our picture taken on the dock with the Wonder as our backdrop. Yeah right, Im buying that one too
Ok, which way to Serenity Bay???
We took the tram over and there was only 3 other adults with us. Ok, so my odds are good that they arent all going to be taking hammocks. We get off the tram and I take in the surroundings and a few photos before walking onto the beach.
Holy cow! The water is beautiful!! Look Dan a hammock, RUN!!! I throw off my sandals and power walk up to one of the hammocks. There was like no one here.
This is perfect! Not only that, the clouds are starting to burn off as the sun warms up. Paradise!
I throw myself on the hammock and just relax and enjoy the view.
Its about 10:30am at this point when the drink lady starts walking around. Sweet! They are serving alcohol early! Ive read all about this Kronk Kooler on the DISboards so of course I had to order one and since it was my birthday, I splurge for the souvenir cup as well. Can a birthday get any better than this?!?
As I lay and relax Dan heads out to check out the water. I watch him searching around the water for sea creatures. He calls me over to show me this starfish he found. Its huge! He pulls it up from the water for a second so I can see it and when he puts it back in the water we watch how fast it scurries across the ocean floor. We walk along the water to look for more sea life when we see this little fish about 4-5 inches long just swimming around us. I start to get a little scare when he gets too close (Dan said he looked like a barracuda thats why I got scared thanks Dan!) So Dan distracts the fish so he stays around him. No joke, this fish just swam in and out of Dans legs. It was so cute! We named him Shadow since he liked to follow Dan. We were watching Shadow for a bit and we see this woman book it up the beach. She thought that our hammock was open and she went running after it! It was kinda funny since I would have done the same. She didnt throw my stuff off (she would have had me running after her if she did) which was good. Shortly after, I head back up and relax.
Dan came back to dry off and we are getting hungry so we decide its time for lunch. Plus, the beach is getting pretty crowded anyways. We pack up our stuff and head over to Castaway Cay Air Bar-B-Q. Its a little before noon so there arent many people there either. We load up on hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and enjoy the sun.
I want to see the rest of the island so we decide to hop back on the tram over to the other side of the island. We walk by the Boating Harbor and Dan wants to check out how much to rent a jet ski. $165 for 45 minutes holy moly! Skip it. I really wanted to do the water trike but Dan was a little nervous because it was really windy out and he didnt want them to topple over so instead we opt for the 2-person paddle boat ($8 for a ½ hr, much more our style).
We thought this was going to be difficult since neither of us is in peak physical condition but it really wasnt too bad. The water was so blue that it looked like we were only out to 2-3 deep waters but Im sure it was deeper than that.
Ok now I need to shop! I need to get a postcard (duh) and make sure I send one to myself from the Castaway Cay post office (which btw, I just got today, 2.5 weeks later). Since we cant really lie on the beach with all our new purchases, we head back to the ship to drop it off. As we are there, I take a few pictures from decks and we are back on our way out.
We walk all the way to the end of the island where the Heads Up bar is. There was no one drinking there! The view across the water was priceless.
We enjoy this for a bit and then head over to the Sports Beach where we scoped out 2 chairs already at the waters edge and no one around them. The shore was wicked rocky here so we decide to move to the Family Beach. There were 2 chairs here as well so we sat and enjoyed watching these 3 little girls playing around us. I wanted to swim a bit so I left Dan and enjoyed floating around for a while.
Its about 4pm at this point and we wanted to beat the rush back on the boat so we left. We headed up to deck 9 to get a snack at Plutos. We got some French fries to share and we noticed that we started to debark from Castaway Cay. I look down from the window and there are the cast members waving good bye.
I bid them farewell and we run up to the back of the boat to give Castaway one good look as we depart. So sad!!
Boy do I miss that island.
We stopped by Shutters on are way to our room and we see that the professional photo we took in front of the Wonder backdrop is there and so is that horrible one we took when we got off the boat this morning. Yuck. So what do I do? I take a picture of that one with my digital camera when no one was looking and we end up buying the professional one and our Pirate night one. Do you really think I'd post it here?!
Showered and dressed for dinner we head up to watch Disney Dreams in the Walt Disney Theater. Jacqui, our cruise director reminded us that we missed her informational talk on disembarkment for tomorrow but she does mention that it will be shown on the stateroom TVs all night. Darn. Lets hope that our tablemates saw it and can fill us in at dinner.
Disney Dreams was ruined for me because there was a gentleman (and I use that term loosely) behind us translating the whole show to his son in Italian. What?! Yes, Im not joking. And it wasnt like he was whispering either. Full out loud translation. Thanks a lot, jerk. If anyone would like a transcript of the show in Italian, please PM me.
Ok back to the show. I can see how it was award winning as Jacqui had introduced it as. Very great. Too bad I missed most of the dialog (ok so I am bitter. Sue me).
We read that the final installment of Bingo was tonight in Wavebands so we ran from the theater down to deck 3. The grand prize was $1500 of course we were going to try to play! We purchase our cards and take a seat in front of Melanie, our caller for the night.
She was from South Africa and so much fun. Another couple sat in with us and they were kinda annoying so Im not going to mention their names
but apparently everyone here had played bingo every night this week because they all had these inside jokes. Every time Melanie picked a number that someone had theyd yell, oh baby! and if they didnt get the number theyd say come on Melanie! This was for EVERY, SINGLE, NUMBER CALLED!! For 5 games straight this went on. Yeah, I couldnt drink enough of the drink of the day which was the Sting Ray. Talk about yumm-o. This had Captain Morgan, Midori, cranberry juice and pineapple juice. Sooooooooooo good! I need to start making them from home! Needless to say, we didnt win anything and we were a little late for dinner. Dinner tonight was Tritons. Our last dinner. Just thinking of this made me sad as we walked up. Our table family was already there and already ordered! No appetizers for us tonight just entrees. Dan and I both had the 4 cheese rigatoni.
Superb! For dessert I had the chocolate soufflé
and Dan had an ice cream sundae.
We handed our servers their tip envelopes and thanked them multiple times for the great service that they provided us the last 3 days. It was wonderful (no pun intended this time). Pictures were taken with us and our servers and our awesome tablemates. We gave them our email addresses to keep in touch (we havent heard from them yet
) . Chat let us know that our breakfast would be at Tritons the next morning before we disembark. He was excited to be leaving the ship because he had an early flight back home to Thailand. I asked Tina if she made it to the disembarkment talk and she said no (doh!). Its after 10p at this point and we dont have anything packed so we miss the Till We Meet Again show and head back to our room. I immediately turn on the TV to listen to what Jacqui has to say as we start packing. She mentions these luggage tags and immigration forms that should have been left in our room by our host. Dan and I frantically look around and NO TAGS OR FORMS! Dan calls up to guest services and they promptly send some down. I sit down and listen to Jacqui as she explains how to fill them out. We are rushing around so of course I filled them out wrong the first time. Dan had to run up to get us some more. Finally at about 10:55pm, our luggage is outside our stateroom door. Whew!! Dont worry, in all that panic I did make sure to leave out an outfit for the next day
. We hop into bed and watch Goblet of Fire
..again.
and lock it up!
to be back on CC again! Maybe a double dipper?! 
I'm not worthy! 
