Thursday, January 23, 2014
Navigator
I woke up around 5:30 a.m. and felt the ship had stopped moving. I was hoping and praying we were docked at Castaway Cay!
At 7:45 a.m. we pulled open the curtains and went out on the verandah--we were at Castaway Cay!
We decided to get into our swim suits and head to the island immediately after breakfast.
Instead of going to the full breakfast buffet at Cabanas, we opted to eat at Daisy De Lites. We had muffins, yogurt, smoothies, etc.
Then we were off the boat in no time, around 9:00 a.m.
The boys wanted their photo with Chip and Dale at the post office...Alyssa was scared of these two characters for some reason.
Next, we boarded a tram to go to the first family beach.
Brian decided to rent a water trike to ride with the boys (Alyssa didn't qualify--you had to be at least 5 years old). He alternated with Joshua and Nathan. What a great view!
While Brian was out on the water with Nathan, I saw that there were characters on the beach behind us. So I took Joshua and Alyssa to see Pluto:
Then Nathan joined us for Minnie Mouse:
We spent the morning relaxing on the beach. The kids played in the sand (the water was a little cool, although Joshua went in a lot). The weather was gorgeous--sunny and mid-70s.
We spent some time relaxing in these hammocks. They were full when we first arrived at the beach, but were empty later on.
At 11:30, we headed over to Cookies (restaurant on the island) for lunch. They have a great buffet with ribs, chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, salad, etc. There is also a large fruit station and an ice cream machine.
After lunch, around 12:30 p.m., we dropped the kids off at Scuttles Cove, which is the kids club for the island. There are scheduled activities there as well as free-play in the sand and splash park.
Brian and I took that opportunity to rent bikes by ourselves. We did this back in 2012, also.
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| On top of the observation tower--the Magic in the distance |
We road the bike path to the observation tower, down the airplane runway and to the end of the adult beach. The whole ride took about an hour. It was peaceful and relaxing.
Then we picked up the kids for more beach time. Joshua wanted to go to the ocean water slides at Pelican Point. Brrrrr!
The rest of us stayed on shore while Joshua went in the cold water. Since this was our 3rd time on Castaway Cay (our first cruise on the Dream had two stops there), we didn't feel pressure to do and see everything. I had already run the Castaway Cay 5k on the earlier cruise, and we had snorkeled last time. The water trikes were new to us on this visit, and maybe next time we'll try the stingray adventure. Castaway Cay is a really great island! Lots to do (if you want), or plenty of time to do nothing on the beach. Since food on the island is free (included), the day is fairly inexpensive for a port day.
Around 3:00 p.m., I headed back to the ship with Alyssa and got her started on a bath. One last look at the waters of Castaway Cay:
Brian followed a few minutes behind with the boys, and we washed all the sand out before dropping them all off at the kids' clubs to prepare for Friendship Rocks.
Friendship Rocks is a program put on by the kids' clubs in the two "classic" Disney ships. It features a picture slideshow of the kids in the clubs throughout the cruise, and the kids get to dance on stage with Mickey and Minnie. It's definitely a highlight for the kids and parents especially!
It was so awesome to see all 3 of our kids up there on stage having fun.
Brian and I admired one last sunset and stopped by the photo place to buy a few photos. We couldn't believe this was our last night on the ship!
We picked up the kids from the club for our last dinner on board. We were going to let them eat in the club, but our servers really wanted to see them again. So we ordered their food first, then dropped them off for the rest of dinner. Mugu did a few more magic tricks for the kids.
After dinner, Brian and I went back to the room to pack. The saddest part of the trip. We had to get our suitcases out in the hallway by 10:30 p.m.
But there was still one last show in the theatre--Disney Dreams. We saw this on our last Magic cruise, and it is an unbelievable show! We gave the kids the option to see the show or stay in the club--the boys chose to stay in the club. So we picked Alyssa up from the club around 8:00 p.m. and headed to the theatre. She was mesmerized by the show, the music, the characters and the special effects.
We were back in the room by 9:30 p.m. I put Alyssa to bed while Brian bribed the boys out of the club with ice cream cones on deck. Our last day of our cruise was really fun!
Up next: Disney's Art of Animation Suites
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