Still living the Dream: Day 20 – Castaway Cay, Part 2

[Peebee]

Day 20 – Castaway Cay, Part 2

Thursday 2nd June

Starting to realize that our little adventure on the high seas is nearly over, but we still have one more full day remaining, and it’s at Castaway Cay! I’ve definitely had worse days to wake up to

Skip down to breakfast at Enchanted Palace, and are in and out in double quick time. Fill up on the usual mix of sausages and eggs with mickey waffles thrown in for good measure. Yummy! We head off the ship at about 9.15am and stop for a quick photo in front of the Dream.

Today we do the sensible thing and wait for the tram to take us all the way down to the family beach. It’s a short ride, but much more enjoyable than walking.

Plenty of choice again for sunbeds and we make sure there is plenty of shade about – the sun looks pretty dangerous today. We’re covered in factor 30+, but you can’t be too careful – no one wants to burn this close to the end of the holiday.

We swim and sunbathe for a couple of hours, taking a few photos for good measure, and then decide to pop along to Cookies 2 for a small bite to eat. I do mean small in this case, as I haven’t quite worked off breakfast yet. As we finish our food Chip and Dale arrive nearby for a meet and greet, and Emma and Ryan rush over for photos and a bit of horseplay from the chipmunks.

We still have our bike rental passes from the first visit of the week, so decide to go for another ride. This time we head out to the observation tower again, stopping for more photos, and then we pedal on towards the end of the landing strip, and finally to the very end of the track. We’re probably gone for about an hour in total and it’s a great way to explore and see the island. We take a brief look at the adult beach. It’s much less busy than where we’ve set up camp, and very picturesque.

Observation tower

What do you mean, get closer??

Long way back!

One day we can come back again…

Adult beach

We make our way back to the beach, and the kids get some inner tubes to go and play by the water. Last round of ice creams from Cookies before we decide to make a move back to the ship. This place is just so lush and beautiful, and we really have been fortunate to be here not just once but twice on this trip. The tram takes us back towards the ship and we get a last few photos before climbing back on board. Love the name plate on the post office!

We arrive back at the cabin to find a final gift for being the magical family of the cruise, a tasty cheese platter and some lovely desserts, including chocolate covered strawberries. The whole magical family event has really put the icing on the cake for us, and there have been so many little extras throughout our stay that I’m sure I’ve forgotten some in posting this trip report.

We helps ourselves to the goodies and then pop down to guest services. First off all we want to pick up the pillow cases we left earlier in the trip and pay our tips for the dining and cabin crew, and secondly to meet Mark, our ‘magical family host’. He isn’t around at the moment – he’s out creating magic somewhere around the ship - but he’ll pop round to our cabin shortly. Ten minutes later he does, and is a really lovely and genuine guy, only too pleased that his little gifts this week have made our holiday. We ask how many families are awarded this honour and he tells us usually a couple, but as he is short-staffed this week, we’re the only ones on-board. We now feel even more special!

Dinner tonight is in the Animators Palate once again, and everyone feels a little more comfortable with the location. When we ate here at the start of the trip we were a little overawed I think, but now we can all appreciate the dining room and styling a little more. The food is lovely, and we get a special dessert to mark our 10 year anniversary. I had mentioned it on the original booking, but then forgotten all about it, so the treat was a surprise to all of us

Tuna…mmmm

Continued below…

 

[Peebee]

We bid farewell to Devon and Iputu our servers. They’ve been very hospitable all week, and looked after us very well. We hand out our tips envelopes to them both, and have a quick chat about how life is for them on the ship. Iputu is young and single, and though he is looking forward to shore leave soon, doesn’t mind the lifestyle. Devon on the other hand has two teenage kids that he hasn’t seen for some months, so is counting down the 6 weeks until he has some time off. He is very honest and says he doesn’t know how long he will do this job. He loves the people he meets, and the hours don’t bother him, but being away from home is clearly tough. I can definitely sympathise, and realize it’s not something I could easily do.

After the meal we are off to see Believe in the Walt Disney Theatre, but we kill a little time getting some final character photos with the kids….oh, and I wander off to the cruise line desk to put a deposit down for another cruise next year, as you do Well, you get $500 discount if you book now, and it’s completely refundable if you change your mind, so why not.

Into the show and I break the news of the booking to Helen...big smile! Curtains up and Believe gets underway. This is full of Disney characters, songs, magic and dancing – and Genie from Aladdin, too! Another typically high standard production, and I feel really spoilt with all the entertainment this week. The Golden Mickey’s remain my favourite, but all were excellent.

The kids go back to the club for one last time, and spend half an hour or so making flubber in the lab, or playing computer games. As we leave they remove the wristbands that were attached back in port. We had no real moans after the first day or so, but I’m sure it felt good to be without them again.

Making Flubber!

We head back to the room to find our final towel animal of the week. Now I’m not sure exactly what this one is meant to be, but it’s very impressive

Emma is just about asleep on her feet by now, and she and Helen make for their beds. Ryan however wants one final go on the Aquaduck, so we get changed and head out. It’s about 11pm by now, and most of the ship seems to have gone to sleep in advance of our arriving back in port. We arrive on deck and find a few people milling about, and a short line at the ‘duck. We’re on in about 10 minutes or so, and while the water is lovely and warm on the ride, you can feel the late night breeze as you get off the raft at the end. Best way to get warm again is to get straight back in line to do it again! We manage 4 runs in the end, including the very last one of the night…Ryan is very proud of this.

By now you can count the people on the top decks in single figures, though with the big funnel screen and Aquaduck all lit up it still feels to early to go to bed. We head up for a last round of minigolf, and then a quick peek into the arcade where other insomniacs are delaying the inevitable trip to the land of nod. Ryan and I walk the deck one last time, before heading down to the cabin and bed…he’s asleep within a minute or two of his head hitting the pillow, and I’m not much further behind.

Day 21 – Wilderness Lodge
Setting the Scene and Index

 

[sandshal]

Read Parts 1 - 20 over the last 2 nights ........ What an amazing holiday so far and thank you so much for taking the time out to share it with us ..... I'm sure it took you ages.

Would love to do the DCL one day .... Just need to convince hubby

Thanks again for sharing

Sharon xx

 

[Peebee]

You're very welcome, I hope the 20 days so far haven't been too hard going. It's taken me ages to get time to pull all the notes together, and am pleased it's nearly done now - just 3 more days that I will try to write up this weekend.

I did really well with my notes until the very end of the trip, so am using photos now to help me a bit with the order of the days

Hopefully I managed to convey a little bit of what it's like to cruise on the Dream. The time flew by so quickly, and there was lots that we didn't have time for, too. Even now, 6 months later, the kids still talk about it regularly and ask why other cruise ships don't have an Aquaduck

 

[DISWolves]

Castaway is by far my most favourite day in all of Disney. We would love to do a double dip.
Respect, for managing to write your trippie after 6 months, We only came back in August and I am so glad that I made some notes & took plenty of pics.
16 days done, 12 to go for me

 

[Peebee]

Aw, thank you...the pictures have definitely helped, but the last few days are going to be tough. Right...time to knuckle down and get it down, hopefully have something to post later in the weekend

 

[Chilly]

Great day!