Trip Report: November 3, 2018 7 Night Eastern Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy – Day 7

Day 7:  Castaway Cay

(you can start this trip report from the beginning by clicking here)

Today was our day at Castaway Cay and the weather was PERFECT!  This was our view once we docked:

I didn’t make note of what time we got up, but probably our usual time around 8:00.  I went up to deck 11 to get some coffee and took these:

The lifeguards were doing some training:

I don’t remember what we did for breakfast, but either we all went to Cabanas or my husband and I brought some food back to the room for the girls.  FYI none of us are big breakfast eaters – we much prefer to skip breakfast (or just eat something tiny) and then eat an early, large lunch.

All ashore was supposed to be 9:45, so we waited in our room for the announcement as we applied sunscreen and packed our bag for the island.  Well, we somehow missed the announcement because around 10:00 we saw a boat go by our window with people on it heading out for a port adventure.  Oops!  We went down to deck 1, grabbed some towels, and left the ship.

This was our first time to see the Christmas tree:

The crowd for the tram was large, so we decided to walk to the family beach:

Along with all of these people:

Pluto was already on the beach:

Do you know we’ve never taken a picture at Mt. Rustmore???

We kept going down the path:

We finally stopped at the first family beach.  Since we didn’t get off the ship right away, most chairs were taken but we grabbed some on the back row.  Continuing down to the second family beach would have probably provided lower crowds, but we were tired of walking.  This was our view:

FYI, I tried to get a family cabana (we have had #5 and #6 in the past when we were sailing concierge, review can be found here) but even as a Platinum Castaway Club member logging in right at midnight, was unable to do so.  I checked several times a day, every day, but never got one. I think the days of Platinum members snagging a cabana may be over.  Also, while I’m thinking about it, I do feel like the larger number of people on the Dream & Fantasy vs. the Magic and Wonder is noticeable at Castaway Cay – one of the reasons I prefer the smaller ships.

The girls got in the water right away.  It was cool, but not cold.

The kids played and the adults lounged for a couple of hours, and then we started smelling the food and got hungry.  We walked over to Cookies BBQ which was right behind us.  This was for both me and our youngest – we shared a plate and tray:

I LOVE the potato salad and couscous salad – I dream of them in-between cruises!

After lunch, the adults and our 8 year old wanted to snorkel, but the other 2 didn’t.  So, we left them reading on the loungers and walked over to the rental hut:

We got our gear (we didn’t reserve it in advance because we weren’t sure if we would feel like snorkeling or not) and entered the snorkeling area which was right next to us:

We started swimming out and saw lots of fish!  This guy was not scared of me at all and came right up to my mask:

The underwater “features” are marked above the water with buoys, so we swam around to most of them.  Mickey had a ton of fish hanging out behind him:

I didn’t take pictures of all of the sunken objects, just Mickey and Minnie (click here to see the latest version of the underwater camera that I use).

By this point our daughter was tired and wanted to go back, so we started swimming towards the shore.

We were about to turn in our snorkel gear, but then decided to keep it in case the other 2 girls decided they wanted to snorkel.  When we got out of the water, we noticed this completely empty, shaded area next to the rental hut:

We decided to move our stuff from our crowded spot to this empty, serene spot complete with empty hammocks and a view of the ship:

Next time we will just come here first thing in the morning.  The only downside is that the waiters do not come over here, so if drink service is important to you then you won’t want to sit here.

These 3 wanted to read/sleep in the hammocks, and our youngest and I went back down to the beach.

We were right next to the snorkeling area, and we kept hearing people yell over and over that there was a sea turtle.  We hadn’t seen it, although we have seen one here on previous trips.

After a while, we went back to join the others.  I think a few of us went to check out the shops at this point, and use the restrooms.  The sun was starting to get lower in the sky.

At about 4:00 we headed back to the ship (all aboard was 4:45).  We stopped for a photo along the way:

We were so fortunate to have perfect weather this day.  It wasn’t super hot (maybe 80 at the most) and the water was still warm.  I think the last 3 times I have been here we had rain for either part or all of the day, so this was long overdue!

Once again we chose to walk instead of take the tram.

I took some pictures of the Christmas decorations:

From 4:00-6:00, we rotated through the shower and watched TV.  I got our tip envelopes ready:

Puri had also left us the debarkation instructions and luggage tags:

We wanted to carry all of our own luggage off the following morning, so we didn’t need the tags.

While we were on the island, our Platinum Castaway Club gift had also been delivered.  Someone had called us earlier in the week and asked us which one we preferred: a fruit bowl, a bottle of wine, or chocolate truffles.  We chose the truffles:

At 6:15 we went to the Walt Disney Theater to watch “Disney’s Believe”.  I think the girls had only seen this once before, and we all enjoyed it.  After the show, we walked to the atrium and discovered that they had unveiled the gingerbread house!  It smelled incredible!!!

We hung out in the atrium for a while before dinner.  There were some characters out dancing with people and it was fun to watch.

Our final dinner was in Enchanted Garden.

The Garlic and Parsley Sautéed Shrimp on Jambalaya Rice (good):

The Pancetta Salad (good):

The Portobello Triangle Pasta (excellent):

Either my husband and I ordered the exact same thing (unlikely) or I forgot to photograph his food (likely).

The Strawberry and Cream Tower (excellent):

The Sacher Torte (good):

The Creme Brûlée Cheesecake (good):

The Tiramisu (good):

I had ordered this tiramisu on a previous cruise and it was absolutely awful.  I cautioned my daughter not to order it, but she insisted.  She actually enjoyed it, so maybe the one I had previously was a bad batch.  I took a tiny taste of this one and it was not revolting like last time, but I didn’t love it either.

After dinner, I had to go back to the room to pack. We were not putting out any luggage this night, so that helped, but I still had quite a bit of organizing to do and some swim suits to dry.  The others just wanted to watch TV.

The following morning, I got up bright and early at 5:30.  We did not eat breakfast on the ship (most of us don’t like eating before about 11:00) and were all ready to go downstairs by 7:00.  We didn’t have any trouble getting an elevator this early, but when we got to deck 3, the line to leave the ship was already backed up to the concession stand outside the Walt Disney Theater.  I heard someone say that it was the same length on the other side of the ship, going towards Animator’s Palate.  After about 15 minutes, I noticed that one of our large suitcases was missing.  I sent my husband back up to the room to look for it.  He found it right inside the room.  Luckily we noticed this sooner rather than later!

Here we are waiting for them to start letting people off the ship:

FYI we had a 12:15 flight, which barring any unexpected delays is easy to make, but I still felt better disembarking ASAP to allow for any delays (like the notoriously long security lines at MCO) and also to leave plenty of time for us to get something to eat before boarding the plane.

Once they started letting people off the ship, the line moved quickly and we were walking off at 7:25.  We were through customs and on the DCL bus by 7:35, and the bus pulled away at 7:45.  We got to the airport right at 8:30.  I stopped noting the time at this point, but we were never rushed.  Checking our suitcases went quickly, and although the security lines were long, they were reasonable – it probably took us about 30 minutes to get through.  We got something to eat after that and waited for our flight.

Do you ever keep running into the same people over and over again on a cruise?  There seems to be one family for us every cruise, and this time it was a fellow NC family.  I first met them on our day in Tortola.  We had stopped for lunch at Pirate’s Bight restaurant on Norman island (they were also on a private boat charter), and the woman struck up a conversation while waiting in line at the bathroom because she had seen our daughter at karaoke.  We discovered we were both from NC and we chatted while we waited.  Then, they were right in front of us boarding the ship a few hours later, and then we ran into them the following day getting ice cream after reboarding the ship in St. Thomas.  My husband had also noticed that we were on the same flight to Orlando the night before the cruise (he is great with faces, I am terrible so I didn’t notice this).  So, guess who we ran into again at the airport?  Yep, our fellow NC family.  They were on our flight again, and directly in front of us in the boarding order (we flew Southwest) so we sat near them on the plane.  We had a lot of time to talk after the flight while walking to baggage claim and waiting for our bags and it was great getting to know them.

The drive home was uneventful, and we were excited to be reunited with our dog Minnie!

I hope you enjoyed this trip report!  If you have any specific questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me by leaving a comment below or emailing me at disneycruisemomblog@gmail.com.  So, one question I know I’m going to get: which cruise is next?  That is a really good question that I don’t think I can answer right now.  We have the 10 night Hawaii to Vancouver in May 2020 booked, so that is a definite.  Before that, I’m not sure.  At one point we had booked the 8/18/19 Northern European on the Magic, but that month ended up not working well with our schedule for such a big vacation, so we canceled it.  We really want to sail on the Magic though, since we haven’t seen it since they added Rapunzel’s Royal Table and the Tangled show.  I would also love to sail out of NYC, so right now I’m thinking one of the 5 night Bermuda sailings next fall.  But, I can’t book anything until we know our daughter’s theater schedule for next Sep/Oct and I don’t know when we’ll get that information.  If anyone has any itinerary suggestions, feel free to send them my way!

Finally, be sure and come back tomorrow for a big giveaway!  You don’t want to miss this one, I promise!!!