Disney Cruise Eastern Caribbean: Castaway Cay

Day 7 – Friday, May 1, 2009

When we woke up, we had already docked at Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island. Having been here before during our honeymoon cruise, I can tell you that Castaway Cay is a wonderful, wonderful place. It has all the tropical atmosphere that a person wants from a Caribbean vacation but with Disney-level service! The beaches are clean. It’s safe. The staff is wonderful. The food is great. But Castaway Cay is also bittersweet because it marks the last day of the cruise but at least we’re going out with a bang!

We had breakfast at Topsiders again. From Topsiders, we had a better view of Castaway Cay and spotted the Flying Dutchman, Davey Jones’ ghost ship from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”! The Flying Dutchman wasn’t at Castaway Cay during our last cruise so seeing it in person was a real treat!

View of Castaway Cay from our verandah

View of Castaway Cay from our verandah

View of Castaway Cay from Deck 9

Flying Dutchman

We were off the ship by 9:30 am and in line to see Chip and Dale in front of the Castaway Cay Post Office. After getting a photo with Chip and Dale, I mailed out postcards to our families from the Post Office. Even thought we visited 3 different places, I thought it would be particularily special to have the postcards mailed from Castaway Cay since it is a private island. Castaway Cay is part of the Bahamas so we had to buy Bahamian stamps, which were 50 cents for each postcard. (TIP: Unlike everywhere else on the island where you can use your room key to pay for stuff, the Castaway Cay Post Office takes cash only so bring cash if you plan to mail postcards from here!)

Castaway Cay, Bahamas

Chip and Dale at Castaway Cay Post Office

We took the tram to the beaches and rushed over to the Stingray Hut near the Teen Beach for our “Castaway Ray’s Stingray Adventure” excursion at 10 am. We were a few minutes late but we got our safety vests and just made it to the beginning of the orientation, which included educational facts about stingrays. We were divided into smaller groups and were assigned a feeding ramp in Stingray Lagoon. The water in Stingray Lagoon was cold, by the way! Our guide taught us how to feed the stingrays by placing a block of food between our fingers and laying our hands flat on a Mickey head. The stingrays have been trained to eat from the Mickey head! Chris and I both fed the stingrays a couple of times since our group was small. When they eat from your hand, you feel a sucking feeling like a low-powered vaccuum as the stingray sucks the food into his mouth. I was naughty and didn’t put my fingers flat when feeding and the stingray bit me on accident! The teeth of a stingray aren’t sharp but are flat like plates. The bite wasn’t painful at all. I just felt a lot of pressure. When I examined my finger, it was indented with a bunch of little rectangles! It was a funny experience to be bitten by a stingray! (Unfortunately, an older lady pulled her hand while she was being bitten and actually bled!) We also pet the stingrays as they swam up and down the feeding ramp.

Stingray Hut

Stingray presentation

Stingray Bay

Stingray on the feeding ramp

Stingray food and the Mickey head

Me feeding a stingray

Chris feeding a stingray

After the feeding, we had 30 minutes of free time to snorkel and swim with the stingrays in Stingray Lagoon. Swimming and snorkeling among them was amazing! Unfortunately, the water was pretty cloudy from all the sand being stirred up but I could still spot stingrays as they swam by me or hiding in the sand.

Overall, I thought this excursion was an amazing experience! I’ve heard other ports of call have stingray excursion but Disney trims the barbs on their stingrays so, even though being stung by a stingray is unlikely, it gives me greater piece of mind. Also, because it’s run by Disney and the stingrays live in Disney’s island, I have more confidence that these stingrays are treated well and what Disney does is environmentally sound. You should see how fat and happy these stingrays are! They seriously won the stingray lottery!

Chris in Stingray Lagoon

Me in Stingray Lagoon with the Disney Magic in the background

Snorkeling underwater photo of a stingray

The only other reservations we had at Castaway Cay was for one-hour bicycle rentals so, after the excursion, we picked up our bicycles. The backpack Chris was carrying was pretty heavy and big because of our snorkel gear and water shoes. The Cast Member recommended that he take an adult bike with a baby seat in the back and put our gear in the baby seat! It seemed like a great idea but Chris found controlling the bike to be more difficult with the extra unbalanced weight. We did one round with the baby bike and then the second round, we just left our belongings in a bin at the rental area and put our valuables into a case on a lanyard.

Riding bikes was really Chris’ idea. While I didn’t mind going, it wasn’t really something I was excited about. In my mind, bicycles = exercise and exercise does not = fun. But it turned out to be great experience! The Castaway Cay’s Bike Trails are a wonderful way to explore the island! Cruising down the path with the tropical wind blowing in my face was thrilling! The island was so beautiful! The trails also took us to part of the islands we’d never seen, especially a lot of undeveloped areas of Castaway Cay. It was pretty cool to see what Castaway Cay used to look like before Disney turned it into a tropical paradise!

Castaway Cay Bike Rentals

Castaway Cay Bike Trail

Castaway Cay Observation Tower

Castaway Cay Observation Tower

View of Disney Magic from Observation Tower

View of undeveloped area from Observation Tower

DCL Anchor along the Bike Trail

Undeveloped beach along the Bike Trail

Undeveloped beach along the Bike Trail

After returning our bikes, we decided it was time for lunch. We took the tram to Serenity Bay, the adults only beach. The BBQ lunch was yummy! I had BBQ ribs, all sorts of sides, and split a cheeseburger with Chris. I also finally had the highly recommended cookie dough ice cream and chocolate chip cookie! Yummmmm! We shared a table with another couple, Amy and Ray, and were chatting about various things, including sports that we watched. Ray mentioned that he liked baseball and he used to be a Yankees fan but converted to Red Sox. Well, a Yankee fan behind our table overheard our conversation and started going off on Ray! I mean, this guy was so angry that I was worried he was about to start a full-on fight! The guy backed off after saying some choice words and we ignored him. OMG. I can’t believe people are so rabidly crazy. This guy almost started a bar fight on Castaway Cay!! O_o We later saw the same couple again on the ship and had a good laugh about the crazy Yankee fan.

Serenity Bay BBQ Menu

Serenity Bay BBQ Lunch

After lunch, we found a nice spot on the beach at Serenity Bay, which is my favorite part of Castaway Cay. Since it’s an adults only area and most guests on Disney cruises are families, there aren’t a lot of people on the beach. During our last cruise, we spent some time at the family beach when I snorkeled in the Snorkel Lagoon and it was SO crowded. It was hard to find a empty chair for one thing and the chairs were all so close together. It was packed with people. Anyway, at Serenity Bay, there are PLENTY of empty chairs and most groups are sitting with a good amount of space from each other. It is also so peaceful since there are no kids running around horseplaying in the water or in the sand. Anyway, it’s truly paradise!

Chris and I swam and snorkeled in the water together for 30 minutes. I snorkeled and would find things on the ocean floor and would pick them up for Chris to see. It was very relaxing.

Serenity Bay

In the water at Serenity Bay

Chris in the water at Serenity Bay

Chris holding a sand dollar we found

We ran into Danny who was snorkeling. He told me about all the fish and sea life he was seeing further out. Chris went back to the chair on the beach to relax and I went snorkeling with Danny. I felt a little bad because Danny often had to wait for me to catch up. I was having issues with my mask leaking and I wasn’t wearing fins so I saw slower. But snorkeling in Serenity Bay was amazing! We saw conch, HUGE starfish, and lots of different kinds of fish! I took lots of underwater photos! I wasn’t really good at diving for stuff so Danny dove and picked up a lot of things to show me. I got to feel a starfish sucking on my hand! We swam really far out to a pink buoy. I really wish I had those fins because I was pretty exhauted by the time we got out to the buoy and I felt like I was going to DIE on the swim back. Next time, I’m going to rent the fins!! But it was truly an amazing experience!!

Conch

Fish

Fish

Starfish

Starfish

Me holding a starfish

When I got back to the beach, Chris had ordered me a Bahama Mama cocktail and so I relaxed in a lounge chair and sipped it. *sigh* Paradise!! It was already past 3 pm when I got out of the water and all aboard time was 5 pm. How time flies!! We weren’t there nearly long enough. I picked up some pieces of coral and seashells I found on the beach as mementos.

Enjoying my Bahama Mama

Me & Chris on Serenity Bay

Coral & shells from Castaway Cay

We wanted enough time to leisurely walk back to the ship and do some shopping so we packed up around 3:30 pm and took the tram back to the family beach. We first stopped at the Bahamian Retail shop, where I picked up a magnet and a nice sand photo frame. Next, we dropped a ton of money at She Sells Seashells shop. Chris and I both bought “Finding Nemo” seagulls shirts. I also bought a magnet, Christmas ornament, Castaway Cay pin, Castaway Club pin, and Castaway Cay shirt.

Gorgeous palm trees

Bahamian Retail Shop

Bahamas photo frame

She Sells Seashells and everything else

Finding Nemo seagulls shirt

Castaway Cay shirt

We continued our walk back to the ship. Instead of taking the tram, we walked the route so we could take photos along the way. We took photos of Mount Rushmore, which are four giant metal tanks painted with the faces of Mickey, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy. We also took some great photos of the ship and the Flying Dutchman.

Arriving at Castaway Cay was bittersweet because it was the last day of the cruise but Castaway Cay is awesome. Leaving Castaway Cay was just bitter…well, sad really. I didn’t want it to end!!

Mount Rushmore

Disney Magic & Flying Dutchman

Disney Magic & Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman detail

Castaway Cay flags

Castaway Cay Post Office

Disney Magic

When we returned to the room, our Onboard Airline Check-in documents were there. If Disney was handling your transportation from the port back to Orlando airport and you are flying with a participating airline, you can do Onboard Airline Check-in where they deliver your airline tickets to your room, pick up your check-in luggage from your stateroom, check in the luggage for you, and all you have to do is get on your flight and pick up your luggage at the baggage claim in your home airport! It’s pretty neat to not have to worry about hauling our luggage to the airport and checking it in ourselves. The only flaw I found with the program is that we can only have our airline check-in luggage taken by the Cast Members. During our first cruise, there wasn’t Onboard Airline Check-in and we could have Disney take any luggage that we didn’t need overnight or the next morning down to the port for us and we could pick them up when we got off the ship. That way, we didn’t have to haul around additional luggage in the morning to breakfast and exiting the ship. With the program, we had to keep both of our rolling carry-on suitcases and would have to take them to breakfast with us. I made a note of this in the feedback form so hopefully, this changes in the future.

Anyway, it was time to get down to the business of packing. We had gotten quite a few magnets as FE gifts so I took one last photo of our stateroom door before sadly taking down all the magnets. I also packed up all the pins I traded/bought and buttons we acquired from the trip! Right as we finished packing the last of the check-in bags, Air delivered our autographed photo mat to our room! We totally forgot about it. I dropped off a blank photo mat to be signed by the Disney characters at Guest Services on the first night. It was signed by everyone! Yay! But unfortunately, we had to unpack one of the bags and repack it with the photo mat. LOL! Even though we didn’t have to have the bags outside until 11 pm, we decided to put them out before leaving for dinner so we wouldn’t have to rush back.

Onboard Airline Check-in Documents

Our final door decorations

Sample of my pins & buttons

Autographed photo mat

We went to Shutters again to get the last of our photos and it was a MAD HOUSE! It was a good thing that we went through most of our photos the night before and purchased our packages. We just had to pick up a couple of photos and downgrade our photo packages since we didn’t use all of them. That’s one of the great things about the photo packages at Shutters. As I mentioned before, we purchased the 20 8×10 and 10 6×8 photo packages but only winded up liking 16 8×10′s and 6 6×8′s so Shutters refunded us the prices for the original packages and charged us for a 15 8×10 photo package and we bought the remaining 8×10 and 6 6×8′s individually. It was really quick and we got outta there.

Next, we did some last minute shopping at Mickey’s Mates and Treasure Ketch. I winded up finding a beautiful Ariel wooden statue. It was behind the counter so I asked a Cast Member (CM) to see it.

Me: How much is it?
CM: $35
Me: Did you say $35?!
CM: Yes.

OMG. I thought it would be more along the lines for $300!! I snatched it up right away. While heading to dinner, we ran into Minnie Mouse and I got a quick photo with her! Chris and I also took a picture in front of the Helmsman Mickey statue in the Lobby Atrium.

Wooden Ariel statue

Minnie Mouse

Helmsman Mickey Statue

Our last dinner on the cruise was back in the restaurant we began in, Lumiere’s. The theme of the night was “Till We Meet Again” and the international diversity of the food and our servers was the focus. During dessert, the server did an international flag parade. Then the chefs presented the Flaming Baked Alaska! The food was back to the glory that I knew and love! Yum! At the end of dinner, we took photos with our table and servers. Last dinner! *sniffle*

Tuna Sashimi Appetizer

Flag of Nations Parade

Flaming Baked Alaska Presentation

Baked Alaska Cake

Our Table #52 and our servers: Me, Miki (Assistant Server), Chris, Paula (Server), Kip, Casey, and Paula

After dinner, we went up to Deck 4 to the area that overlooked the lobby for a spot to watch the “Till We Meet Again” show, which was a gathering of the casts from the stage shows, staff members, and Disney characters! After an introduction of everyone, the characters broke off into area around the Lobby Atrium to take photos. I got photos with Chip & Dale, Belle, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Anne Marie from “Disney Dreams”! After taking the photos, the characters gathered on the staircases for one final wave goodbye to us!

Chip and Dale

Belle

Cinderella

Till We Meet Again show

Till We Meet Again show

One of the tips I read was to savor the last night by having a Mickey ice cream bar on the balcony. We ordered a Mickey ice cream bar every night anyway so we ordered another one and sat outside on the balcony to eat it this time. It was so lovely to hear the crashing of the waves around us and look out into the distance with the moon lighting the water. How I will miss this.

+ See all photos from Castaway Cay
+ Read more about my Disney Magic Eastern Caribbean Cruise