Trip Report Day 5: Castaway Cay

If you want to start this trip report from the beginning, click here.

 Day 5 was our day at Castaway Cay.  Jimmy the cruise director had warned us at the show the night before that the weather forecast was not good, and sure enough, it was dark and gloomy that morning.  We could tell that it had rained recently.  But, at least we were able to dock, right?  Here is a picture that I took of our virtual porthole that morning as we were approaching the island:

I was worried that parasailing would be cancelled due to the weather.  My husband and the 3 older girls had reservations for 2:00, but it was a surprise for the girls and they didn’t know yet.  We weren’t planning on telling them until it right before they went.  I was really hoping that the surprise wouldn’t be ruined.

We had tickets for the Princess Meet and Greet at 9:00, followed by the Frozen Meet and Greet at 9:15, so we were in no hurry to get off the ship.  We headed to Cabanas for breakfast around 8:00 and as we walked past Enchanted Garden, I noticed that it was a buffet as well so we went there instead.  We were practically the only ones in there.  The buffet selection is much, much smaller than the one in Cabanas, but it is a trade-off from the chaos.  It had everything we needed, and a waiter brings your drinks which is a nice touch.  We enjoyed a much more peaceful breakfast that morning.

During breakfast, I took a picture from a porthole inside Enchanted Garden.  The weather still looked bad.

After breakfast we had a few minutes to kill, so we walked all the way around the ship outdoors on deck 4.  We hadn’t been out on deck 4 yet and I like to do that at least once per cruise.  This was the view from the starboard side of the ship:

And the port side of the ship:

About 8:45, we went to the atrium to meet the princesses.  My youngest was the only one who wanted to meet them because my other girls are too grown up now (insert big ugly cry here).  They didn’t check our tickets, but looked for our names on a list.  There were only a few people in front of us.  Right at 9:00 the princesses came out.  First we met Cinderella:

Next up was Snow White:

Then it was Belle:

And finally, Rapunzel:

It probably took us less than 10 minutes to meet them all.  The ticket arrangement is such a nice change from the old days where you had to line up in a hallway for an hour.

Next we were supposed to go to the Frozen Meet & Greet at 9:15, but my youngest decided that she would rather skip it and get to the beach sooner.  In the past I probably would have made her go anyways because skipping it would feel like a waste, but I think I have mellowed a bit with age and just go with the flow more now.  So, we headed off the ship.  We had brought all of our stuff with us so that we didn’t have to go back to the room.

We grabbed some towels as we left the ship and headed out into the gloomy day.  It wasn’t raining at this point, and even though all ashore was almost an hour prior, it didn’t seem like many people had left the ship yet.

We had to stop for the obligatory ship photo:

What we saw next was a huge bummer:

We had to tell the girls about their failed surprise at this point and they took it well.  They were a little disappointed but not too much.  Later that day we noticed that we had received a notice of the cancellation on our wave phones around 8:30 am.

Hurricane Matthew had come through just 1 week prior, so I was very curious to see what the island looked like.  We were only the second group of cruisers to visit since the storm.  For the most part things looked normal.  Some of the vegetation looked browner than usual and a little beat up but that was about it.

We rode the tram to the second stop, which is called Pelican Point.  We wanted to go to the second family beach area, which is the one farthest from the ship.  This would be our first time on the family beach without a cabana, and I had heard that the second beach area tends to be less crowded.  We have stayed in cabanas 5 & 6 in the past (you can read my review here) and loved having a private beach area.  This time, though, we were not sailing concierge so were not able to score a cabana, even though we are gold.  Truthfully, I didn’t even check the website that often to see if one became available later because I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay the $600 this time.  I knew that we would spend a lot of time snorkeling and I thought that we would be parasailing as well, so I just didn’t think it would be worth it to spend that much money and then hardly even be there.  Here is a picture I took from the tram:

This is what we saw as we got off the tram and went to find a spot on the beach:

We ended up picking a spot on the little piece of land that juts out into the ocean and separates the 2 family beaches.  We were actually facing the first family beach, right at the entrance to the snorkeling area.  There were plenty of chairs and umbrellas here, and it would allow me to watch the others snorkel.  It was also very close to both the Pelican Plunge water slide (which was behind us) and the hut where you get snorkeling equipment, and right next to some bathrooms.  We were so close the the bathrooms that I was able to let the girls go by themselves, since I could easily see the door.  I thought it was a great location.  This was our view.  You can see that there were not many people on the beach yet.  By this time it was probably about 9:45-10:00.

The palm trees looked like they had taken a beating from Matthew:

The rain was still holding off.  There was a wedding getting ready to take place right next to us.  I was hoping for their sake, especially, that it didn’t start raining!  It was neat to get to watch a wedding on Castaway Cay.

We let the girls play in the sand and water for a little while, and then decided that we should snorkel before it either rained or got too crowded.  My oldest didn’t want to snorkel, so she and I sat in some lounge chairs while the others walked over to the hut to rent the equipment.  We didn’t reserve it ahead of time as we weren’t 100% sure we would snorkel.  They came back shortly with their gear and suited up.  My husband thought the water felt cold, but the girls and I didn’t.  I think it was just that the sun wasn’t out and it was a little bit windy.  I would estimate that the ocean temp was near 80.

Once the others started swimming away, I walked over to the Heads Up Bar at the end of the little peninsula we were on to get us some smoothies.  I had never been out there before and it was really neat.  The ocean is on 3 sides of you and there are some really great views.  It also allows you to be pretty close to the snorkelers, even though they are far from shore.  I really wanted to take some pictures, but my husband had taken the camera snorkeling.

My daughter and I sat and read while the others snorkeled.  When they came back, they said they had a great time and saw some neat things.  Here are some of the photos my husband took.  If you want to know more about my underwater camera (which I LOVE!), you can read my post about it here.

This was a stingray that they saw.  My husband wasn’t quick enough with the camera and only got it as it was swimming away:

The highlight of their adventure was seeing this guy:

By the time they were finished snorkeling, it was starting to get more crowded, but still no rain.

I can’t remember exactly what we did next, but I think we let the girls play in the water for a while before packing up all of our stuff to go eat lunch.  We decided to take all of our stuff with us to Cookies Too BBQ (we were about equidistant between Cookies and Cookies Too, but I though Cookies Too would be less crowded) because if it started raining, we wanted our stuff to stay dry.  We made the short walk to Cookies Too which was very crowded.  This was one time that I really noticed the difference in crowd size on Castaway Cay from the smaller vs. larger ships.  I think we found the only empty table, put our stuff down, and went to get our food.  We enjoyed our lunch (my favorites are the couscous and chocolate chip cookies!) and I LOVE the fact that there are cast members milling about waiting to bus your table for you.

After lunch we headed back towards our previous spot on the beach, but decided to turn to the right and find a place on the second family beach, right in front of the Pelican Plunge water slide.  My two youngest wanted to do the water slide.  Note that the water in front of the slides is too deep to stand, and you must swim to the platform to get on and then back to the shore after you slide.  Here they are about to swim out to it:

I think they were in the line when I took this one:

While I was waiting for them, I took this photo of the second family beach area:

After they did the water slide, the weather was starting to look very ominous.  People started heading back to the ship and the beach began to clear out.  We decided to risk it and stay.

About this time I saw a water spout form off in the distance.  It was pretty big and lasted for a while, maybe 5 minutes or so.  It was really neat to watch!

It started sprinkling and sprinkled for about 30 minutes.  Then, the rain began.  I think it was about 2:00 at this point.  It began to downpour.  We ran to some bathrooms nearby and took shelter inside, hoping that it would let up soon.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  It didn’t let up.  We waited about 30 minutes and the girls talked me into just going back to the ship in the rain and getting soaked.  They were wet already, but I wasn’t.  I hadn’t been in the water all day, so it took some convincing for me to agree to walk out into the deluge, which we did.  We walked in the rain to the tram stop, which is covered, so we had shelter there.  Then, the tram is covered so we stayed somewhat dry there.  When we got off the tram to walk back to the ship, we got soaked through.  We put our towels over our heads, but the towels were soaking wet so it didn’t help much.  We were pretty chilly as the temps were probably in the 70s and it was breezy.  We got to the new security check structure but they weren’t checking anyone’s cards or bags, they just waved us through, probably because of the rain.  Once back to the ship, there was a long line to board.

The rain had let up a little by this time, now I would describe it as a hard sprinkle.  We were drenched but made the best of it!

When we finally boarded, there were some officers right inside the ship taking people’s wet towels and handing out dry, warm towels.  It felt SO good to wrap dry warm towels around us, especially with the blast of air conditioned air that hit us as we walked on.  I really loved that the officers took the time to do this.

We went back to the rooms and took turns showering.  I think we ordered some cheese platters from room service as well.  After everyone was showered, we had some time before dinner so my husband and I decided to leave the girls in the rooms watching movies while we visited the future cruise sales desk.  We went looking for it and discovered it had moved since our last cruise on the Dream.  It now had a larger area beside the art gallery.  They also have a system where you enter your name into a computer for a place in line.  We had to wait for about 3 people to go in front of us and then it was our turn.  We just booked a place holder (2 rooms) at $250 per room.  If you want to know all of the details about the onboard booking process, you can read my post about it here.  It was quick and painless and we went back to the rooms to hang out until dinner.

My youngest had not been able to wear a princess dress when she met the princesses that morning because we were dressed for the beach.  So, she decided that she wanted to wear it to dinner that night.  I was hoping for her to choose one of her Little Adventures dresses for this cruise because they are easier to pack, but she chose her Rapunzel wedding dress instead.  I just went with it as it may be her last cruise to wear it before it gets too small.  I get a lot of questions about this dress.  It is a limited edition Disney Store dress from 2012.  My 10 year old wore it for several years and my 6 year old has as well.  The only place to get them now is eBay.  We stopped for a photo in the atrium:

Dinner tonight was in Animator’s Palate.  Our kids had never seen the Crush show before so we were all excited.  During dinner, my 10 year old dropped her corn dog on the floor.  As she was down there looking for it (she never found it by the way), our assistant server Leo walked up and asked what she was doing.  When we told him, he insisted that she get up off the floor and he would bring her another one.  A few minutes later, he showed up with 2 which she thought was hilarious!

We were lucky and Crush talked to our table.  I wasn’t quick enough with the video camera, so I missed the beginning but here is the portion that I got:

I really want to know how Crush hears people.  My best theory right now is that there is a microphone inside the prop on the tables that looks like a cup full of pencils and paintbrushes.  But, I have examined it many times and can see no evidence of a microphone.  There are obviously cameras all over the ceiling, so him seeing people is no issue but if anyone knows how he hears people in such a loud restaurant, please tell me!

 During dinner I was looking at the Navigator and noticed that some princesses would be in the D Lounge after dinner at 7:30 pm.  I asked my youngest and she wanted to go.  She was hoping to see Rapunzel again so she could show her her Pascal purse.  We got there and it was Snow White and Belle.  Oh well, we tried.  She enjoyed meeting them again.

Next it was time for the final show, Disney’s Believe.  This show is specific to the Dream.  My husband and I have seen it twice when we cruised without the girls, but it was the girls’ first time to see it.  They loved it!  Watching the last show of a cruise is always bittersweet, knowing that the cruise is coming to an end.  We headed back to our rooms so I could get most of the suitcases out in the hallway by 10:30.  When we arrived we found our final towel animals of the cruise:

We also discovered that Joscelyn had made up the beds with princess sheets!  I had heard of this happening to others before but this was our first time to experience it.

Three of the girls got into bed, but our 10 year old wanted to do karaoke at 10:45.  So, my husband and I both went with her.  She was first in line again so after singing Part of Your World, we went back to the room and got in bed.

The next day was actually day 6, but there are only a few details to add about that so I will just do that here.  We didn’t bother with breakfast on the ship.  We just got up, got dressed, and walked off with our carry-on bags.  I noticed that they cleared the ship for express walk-off at 7:15 (you can read my guide to disembarking in Port Canaveral here), but we left our room at 8:00.  When we got into the terminal, we got a porter and went to find our luggage.  We were in the Tinkerbell section, and all but one of our suitcases was there.  Luckily the missing suitcase is distinct (pink & white polka dots) and we quickly spotted it in a nearby section.  Our porter walked us through the customs line which didn’t take long at all.  Then, he walked us all the way to our car in the parking garage.  He was probably with us for at least 20 minutes so I gave him a nice tip.

By 8:30 am we were on the road home.  We drove through Chick-fil-A for breakfast, which I much preferred to messing with the dining rooms or Cabanas on the ship with all of our carry-on bags.  As we were leaving Port Canaveral we saw this:

It was a beautiful ending to a beautiful vacation!

Thanks for following along and if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or email me at disneycruisemomblog@gmail.com.