27th September - Castaway Cay

Just in case any of you are unaware of this, but Disney owns an island in the Bahamas. They have called it Castaway Cay, and it is their own special place - no other cruise lines visit it.Read more...

If you were to ask me what Castaway Cay was like, I would ask you to imagine what you think Disney would do if they wanted to create a "perfect, fantasy tropical island". Whatever you just thought of, I bet they have it!

It's a great place. A really great place. I didn't see more than a quarter of the actual square footage, though I saw most of the attractions except the adult beach. I loved it.

I don't know how much money Disney spent on this place, but it must have been a lot. There is a fabulous deep water harbour (enabling the ship to dock right on the island), as well as man-made breakwaters and various well marked out lagoon areas. The pathways are concrete (making it, in conjunction with the funkiest jumbo-tyre wheelchairs that you will ever see, the most accessible beach that I have ever come across on a cruise) as well as making it efficient and easy to walk, and allowing the use of a "tram" to take people back and forth... There is a "village" in the middle - and some really beautiful white-sand beaches, divided up for different purposes. There is the family beach and the adult beach, the snorkelling lagoon, the family lagoon and the boating lagoon, Castaway Ray's stingray encounnters and a teen beach.

The restaurant in the village is INCLUDED! - it's as if they moved a restaurant off the ship. They even have the free drink stations there too. So once you are off the ship you do not have to go back on, or shell out extra for food.

The move the kids club off the ship too, to a fantastic play area in called Scuttles cove. Gabriella went there straight after we got off the ship, for a treasure hunt. Kiara stayed with us and wanted to go straight into the sea. After an hour we collected Gabriella who played in the sea too, for a bit, until it was time for our paid shore excursion (this was not included...) at Castaway Rays. The rays in question are Southern stingrays. They have an area of the lagoon to themselves, and have been trained and had their barbs removed, so are harmless to us (thankfully). The Crocodile Hunter's untimely demise at the barb of a stingray had a few people worried, but we were reassured that we were perfectly safe. Gabriella, meanwhile had decided that she didn't want to do the stingray thing after all, and I almost had to drag her there. Of course, it turned out to be great, a close encounter experience that you probably can't get anywhere else (though the price, at $35 and $29 per adult and child respectively) is really gouging for less than an hour in the water. Gabriella, who also had insisted that she didn't want her snorkel stuff either, loved touching the stingrays, and having them swim around her legs, and then snorkeled with them for at least 30 minutes!

We had a great lunch at Cookies BarBQ.

We had planned to rent bikes (at $6 per hour) for part of the afternoon but in the end just enjoyed the beaches some more before heading back to boat for the last time... boo-hoo...

The kids both participated in "Celebrate the Journey" - a graduation of sorts which took place in the main theater - a treat for the kids just to come in "the back way" and see some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. Each child in the kids program received a t-shirt and graduation Mickey ears, and they played a little "memory reel" of video and still images from the cruise. It was very nice.

The main farewell show was a comedy juggling act that were actually really funny, followed by an understandably sentimental "remember the cruise"-type Disney finale. A very nice end to the entertainment.

We said goodbye to the kids counsellors (who we wont see tomorrow) and had another great meal before heading back to finish packing - all bags had to be outside the cabin door by 11 PM.

We have a very early start, and I am very late to bed, posting this final post - I am on the top deck, while typing this, and I can already see the lights of Florida in the distance, so I really must sign off.

I will not be attempting to blog for the next couple of days at Walt Disney World, so this is it for me, for now! Thanks for sticking with me!!!

 

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