The WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and WHY” of our Cruise TRIP REPORT About This Page:

[tazgirl1981]

Day 3
Castaway Cay Day
All ashore
- I was asleep when they announced that we were docking at castaway cay, so I didn’t hear it, but Mike heard it and was up and looking out the window when I woke up. We wake up at 9:15am and eat our breakfast in our room, actually we decide to eat it out on the veranda while we watch those who have already disembarked the ship walk around castaway cay, we have the perfect view from our room, we are starboard, aft and we love it!! While looking out of the veranda we spot chip and dale down in front of the post office taking pictures with people, and Chris just loves that, it encourages him to get his clothes changed and ready to head off the boat. We ate our breakfast and was out of the room by 10am
Castaway Cay, here we come!
- We walked around castaway cay just taking everything in and taking lots of pictures (can you tell? LOL) I love how they have the free strollers, wheelchairs and even wagons in the front for everyone to use, we grabbed a wagon and although Chris wont ride in it, we use it to carry our towels and misc. things in it (it frees up our hands for the day). We then head towards the bike rentals at 11am (as we had rented the bikes already online). We were not sure how Chris would like the bikes as he would have to sit in the seat on the back and wear a helmet (which he HATES hats in general so I thought that would be very hard) but he actually likes it a lot and only fusses when we have to get off of the bikes (it’s a long bike ride and we learned that we are not in shape at all as we were huffing and puffing and ready to get back to return the bikes LOL)
Lunchtime, to eat or not to eat, to eat!
- 12:15 we head to see what they had for lunch (although we are not really hungry but we can’t pass up food right? LOL I got a hot dog for Chris and I ate some of the tomato salad and a mixture of fruit. Also we couldn’t pass up the chocolate chip cookies.
There be treasure ahead!
- After lunch at around 12:30 we head out to start on the treasure hunt, we thought we would be smart and start from the back of the map and work our way forwards so if we get tired we would be closer to the ship, although I warned mike that the treasure that we were looking for is probably in the back of the island (as that is Murphy’s law right?) but he didn’t care and so off we went to look for clues. We did really well, but one of the clues was virtually un- determinable because the telescope was broken and you couldn’t see thru it at all, but we just did what we thought and it turned out to be correct. The treasure hunt was fun, not too hard but not too easy either. We took our time and was in no rush and we finished around 2pm. So we head back to get our reward (which was of course the opposite way we were at) and by now we were tired and Chris was needing a nap, so I convinced him to ride in one of the jogging strollers (he hates strollers) and the only way he would ride in there is if/when I convinced him that it wasn’t for babies (which is what he was concerned about LOL) and of course as soon as he got in, he fell asleep while we were on the way to collect our prize. Nothing special (just some fake gold coins) but it was fun.
Getting my hair braided
- I used the time that Chris was asleep to get my hair braided on Castaway Cay, I love having my hair braided (I only get the cornrows at the top, but it makes it easier to deal with my hair during the rest of the trip). I choose blue and silver beads because to me they represented the water in the sea.
- The lady finished my hair at 3pm and just as she was putting in the last bead, Chris woke up (Perfect timing) so we decide to head back to the ship since it has been a long day and we are all tired.
Oops I guess we forgot
- As you can tell we never stepped foot into the ocean to swim, not really trying to avoid the ocean at all, its just that since I have grown up on the ocean, its not really the “HAVE TO” thing for me, although I would have liked to go in, That will be on our to do list for next time.
Back on board, and into the pirate theme
- We get back onto the ship and into our room at about 3:50pm. We take our showers/baths to get dressed and ready for Pirates night. Mike didn’t listen to me when I told him that it would be cool for him to get a pirate outfit (although now he says that he wishes that he would have dressed up and he will next time) but he does have a pirate shirt and a goofy pirate hat that he wears. I got myself a pirate outfit and although I wanted to dress Chris up, I couldn’t find an outfit for him in enough time to get one for him, but like Mike, Chris also has a pirate shirt (Pirate Mickey) which works for now. Also in our room we find another card, and a postcard of castaway cay with captain hook and a plate of cheese and crackers that Chris and Mike LOVED and dug into right away.
Picture time again!
- We head out of the room at about 5:30pm and head to shutters to pick up our photos from yesterday, then we headed straight down to get some photos with Pirate Mickey and Pirate Stitch. The line for Mickey was the longest one yet in all of our time on the ship, but at least we got to see many pirate outfits. People go from not at all into it, to all decked out completely!!
Golden Mickey time
- After our photos were taken, we headed straight to the theater to see the Golden Mickey show. It was really good. After the show we head back to the room to drop off our photos from shutters as we didn’t have time before hand
- At 7:30pm we head to guest services to ask a few questions about whether or not you can buy the videos from the performances on the ship (you cant because they don’t have any) but anyhoo after all this we head to Animators palate again (this time for Pirates night) so different menu all together.
Dinner, Pirate style, at Animators Palate
- Dinner was once again DELICIOUS! We got our pirate bandanna's as well as our rolled up pirate menus as soon as we sat down. And our tablemates were back tonight. They hadn’t seen the cool show here the night before so we filled them in on what they missed, as it wouldn’t be happening tonight ☹ Christopher had chicken strips and macaroni and cheese for his dinner, which we ordered right away. For appetizers I chose the pirates golden pasta envelopes, which were good, and Mike chose the Caribbean style spicy vegetable gumbo soup, which he said he liked but he stayed away from the Jalapeños that were in it. For our meals, I had the black pearls oven roasted beef tenderloin (yes it was as good as it sounds) and Mike had the Treasure of the seas grilled shrimp and seared scallops and he liked it a lot as well.
- Desserts (my favorite part of the meals) Both Mike and I got the Walk the Triple layered Gangplank cake which was very good but very rich, I couldn’t eat it all which was the first time on the whole trip so far that I couldn’t finish the dessert. LOL Chris got the cheesecake and I think they gave him an adult portion because it was huge but Chris ate half of it, which is great for him because he doesn’t like too many sweet things, so I know that it had to be good!
Pirates in the Caribbean deck party!
- We get done with dinner at about 9pm and head straight to the “Pirates in the Caribbean deck party” and we go up to deck 10 (which is our favorite spot to watch all the activities). There are already a lot of people gathering together for the party so we are glad that we came up right after dinner. The show was good, and of course our two favorite parts were when Mickey glides down the line to save the ship, and when the fireworks go off. Chris HATES fireworks but fortunately they were not as loud as what I thought they would be, and they were very pretty. It was VERY hot out tonight and with all the pirate gear on, I was melting. And I was also getting a headache from the braids (yes they are tight and hurt!) So we decide to forgo the dessert (which looked very yummy but we were still full from dinner) and head back to the room, by that time it was 11pm anyways. Thinking back, I wish I had grabbed a plate or two of dessert to bring back to the room with me for later when and if I got hungry. So there’s a tip for those of you sailing that may not be hungry during the desserts, grab some anyways to bring back to room for later!!
Back to the room we go!
- When we got back to the room, we had our nightly towel critter waiting for us, this time it was a monkey hanging up on a clothes hanger on our room divider. I also took this time to take some Tylenol (thank goodness I brought it with me) and then I looked over tomorrow’s navigator and then got ready for bed. Tomorrow is going to be a sad day since it will be the last full day on the ship before we have to leave (Wish hubby would have listened to me and gotten the 7 day cruise or longer! LOL)
- Well goodnight me hearties YO HO!

[tazgirl1981]

More photos from 3rd day

[tazgirl1981]

More photos

[tazgirl1981]

More photos still

[tazgirl1981]

sorry for all the photos, just wanted to give visuals LOL

[tazgirl1981]

Maybe last set, gotta see LOL

[BJ Wanlund]

CUTE!!

I love the idea of Castaway Cay! How was it? Was your time as unstructured as I implied? I'm considering a cruise, but my question about Castaway Cay is that I'd probably head STRAIGHT for the quiet adults-only beach and bring my own beach chair and just relax with a good book or two...

BJ

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by tazgirl1981

sorry for all the photos, just wanted to give visuals LOL

Shauna;

No need to apologize for the photos I am enjoying them a lot! Even on my dial-up () connection, the thumbnails load fast! The more pictures posted, the better we can see your actual cruise experience!

Anyway, I'm enjoying your TR and am only sad because you are nearing the end.

Kenny

[Colexis Mom]

Great day at CC, and great pictures

[DyanKJ130]

the photos!!! Can't wait to see more!!

[lauriep]

Never too many photos! Enjoying the report.

[tazgirl1981]

Sorry for the delay, Just got back from the food and wine festival in Epcot for the weekend, so in just a little while I will post the last full cruise day (SIGH) Im glad that everyone likes the pictures, I tried to make sure that I got a ton of pictures. On the disembarkation day (final day of the trip report) I will include some more misc pictures from the trip to add more visuals. I have a ton of pictures (I think it was like 600 plus photos that I took during the whole cruise ) Ok I will be back in a little bit with the LAST CRUISE DAY section.

[tazgirl1981]

Day #4
Final Day at Sea
Waking up at sea

-Today we woke up at about 9:45am and I automatically started getting all of our stuff together because I wasn’t sure how our time would go throughout the day, and I didn’t want to feel rushed later on in the day to get everything together and out the door. And by10: 30am everything was done and we were dressed to head out for the day.
Mickey 200, ready, set, go???
-At 11am we headed to the Promenade Lounge to participate in the Mickey 200 race where you have to design and race a car that you build/make out of vegetables (Carrot and Potato). Ours wasn’t the coolest looking and it wasn’t even the fastest (we came in dead last in our race) but I do take pride in that even though it wasn’t pretty or fast, it did roll (although we were not sure about that to begin with) and it didn’t break apart at the finish line like the one that won did (It makes me wonder how it was going to race in the next race to determine the ultimate winner).
Disembarking Presentation
-We had to leave the race as soon as we raced our Car, because the disembarking presentation was starting and someone had to attend (we ran to the guest service to ask if they were going to show the presentation on the TV in our room later and the lady told us that she didn’t think so, well she pretty much told us not likely) well we ran to the lounge and Mike sat and watched the presentation while I went out to walk around with Chris (poor little guy didn’t want to stay and I cant blame him). We had missed the first 15 minutes or so of the presentation and were curious as to what we had missed, and since we were told it would not be shown in our room, we were wondering what important info we had lost out on.
Captain John’s autograph and picture
-While mike was watching the presentation, I headed to the gift shop with Christopher since I was in search of a shirt for myself (I had gotten a shirt for everyone else but myself and I was determined to get a cruise shirt for myself). While I was checking out and heading out to the hall to walk around, I saw a line lining up in the other gift shop (Treasure Ketch) and I automatically knew it was for the Captains Autograph at noon! And as I had that highlighted on my Navigator, I lined up as well (I was like the fourth person in line). A few minutes later I saw that the disembarking presentation had ended and Mike was heading out looking for me, so he eventually saw me (yea it takes him a minute even if you tell him exactly where you are at LOL) anyhoo shortly after he joined me in line, the captain arrived and we were heading up there to get him to sign my journal that I had just purchased for the trip (wish I would have saw it at the beginning of the trip so I could have jotted down my trip report in it) it’s an awesome journal for the cruise info, it has a compass included into it but it’s a sailing journal. And I am going to just copy over my trip report from this little cheap journal that I had written everything in, into this journal that is now signed by Captain John from England. Since I had my camera with me, the lady that was there helping, asked if we would like a family photo with the Captain and of course I said yes!! So we were able to get a family photo with him YEA!!
Shirt Hunting
-I had found myself a shirt that was ok, but not different like I really like at the Mickey’s mates. And although I was happy to have gotten myself a shirt, I was wishing it wasn’t exactly like the one I had already purchased for my mother. (Not a huge selection of cruise shirts that are different) so as I was walking out, I saw an AWESOME shirt in the window at Treasure Ketch. It is the cruise logo in silver glitter on a black shirt. So Mikey ran in to see if they had one in there in my size as I had to locate the bathrooms…shouldn’t have drank so much soda LOL. And as soon as I got out he said that they had them but they were only in medium and large (hubby forgets that I take medium instead of small) so we purchased one right away.
At 12:15 we headed to shutters to pick up our photos and then head back to the room to put everything away in our luggage.
Lunch At Beach Blanket Buffet
-At 12:30-1:30pm we head to eat some lunch at the Beach Blanket Buffet (believe it or not we hadn’t eaten here before now) and it was Delicious!! It is buffet style and I absolutely loved the pork stir fry (even Chris ate a lot of it!) Mike saw how much I liked the stir fry and headed back in to try his hand at the make your own stir fry (he got a sirloin stir fry) and for dessert we grabbed some chocolate chip cookies. I have to admit that the view from up here is AWESOME, and to have the good food added to that is just amazing. (We sat outside on the deck to eat, as this was such a gorgeous day). I tell you, I will never look at the ocean the same way again. You know that the sea is huge but you never understand the true beauty of it until you are seeing more of it then just the beach. I’ve never seen just pure ocean without land around, and the glistening water is just gorgeous! It makes me sad that today is the last day at sea.
Filling out Forms & More
-After lunch we head back towards the room to fill out all of the custom forms and other misc. stuff that has to be done (like the luggage tags) but before we head to the room, we pop into the oceaneers club to see if we can see Kari to say goodbye one last time, and its perfect timing as she is leaving the club just as we walk thru the doors.
-We finished up filling out the forms and putting the luggage tags onto our entire luggage but we wanted to grab a couple more luggage tags for our bags so we headed down to guest service to pick more up. Fortunately they had a table sitting out in front that had everything on it, so you didn’t have to wait in a long line to get them. (Our luggage tags were Mickey Mouse, but we noticed that other sections had different tags so I grabbed just one of each to keep as a souvenir for our scrapbook).
Drawing at Studio Sea
-At 3pm we head to Studio Sea so that I could do the animation education thing. (I LOVE to draw) so this was on my agenda from day one since I first head that they do this. So Mike took Chris to walk around, as he didn’t want to sit down, cant blame him. And we (those who joined) were all taught how to draw Mickey Mouse and Goofy.
Naptime and Disembarking presentation ON TV
-Shortly after the drawing class ended (about 3:45pm or so) we headed back to the room so that Christopher could have his nap, and it turned out that Mike needed one as well LOL, so while they were napping I watched some TV and just so happened to see the Disembarking presentation on TV!! And It just kept replaying after it would end, I had half a notion of walking down to guest services then and there and telling the lady that she should turn on the TV and check out what was on (I think channel 15), But I was just thrilled that we could see what we missed for that first 15 minutes. Which as it turns out was nothing more than him just talking about what had been happening on the ship and how to fill out the luggage tags. Which I had already done at this point.
Pre-Dinner
-Both the boys wake up around 5pm and of course we are hungry and ready for our pre-dinner (we are loving this). We head up to Goofy’s galley and I grab a Caesar salad wrap and some fruit and Mike and Chris grab some pizza. And we sit on the deck chairs and watch Finding Nemo on the jumbo screen while we eat.
“Disney Dreams”
-After we eat our pre-dinner snack, we head to the theater to watch tonight’s show, “Disney Dreams” at 6:15pm. It was good but I have to say that I really liked Hercules the musical the best but only because it was more humorous. This one was great theatrical wise.
Second Magical moments Certificate for the trip
-7:30pm we head back to the room to get Christopher a diaper change before dinner and on the way in we see our Lobster towel animal for tonight and under the door was a Magical moments certificate from Paul, our head stateroom staff guy). I think that was so sweet.
Dinner At Parrots Cay tonight
-After changing Chris’s diaper at 8pm we head out for dinner tonight. Tonight it’s Parrot Cay. Although we had lunch here the first day, I do not care much for the dinner. This is the only place that I wasn’t fond of the food, it just didn’t have much flavor for me, maybe it was just because I didn’t want this to be the last dinner, I don’t know. But for appetizers, I had the salad, which was good; the creamy ranch dressing was delicious! Mike had the Sweet Onion soup, which he did like, and for our meals Chris had the alfredo Mickey pasta which he didn’t like at all, he took one bite and then spit it out, he wouldn’t eat any of it! Mike had the Grouper for his dinner and he said that he liked it, I choose the Beef, which as I said, didn’t have much flavor at all to me. I didn’t finish my meal for the first time on the entire trip. Now desserts were awesome as always. Chris loved the strawberry cheesecake, Mike chose the Ice Cream Sunday, and I had the Lemon meringue pie, which was really good.
-We started to leave the restaurant but stopped short seeing that they were getting ready to do something special, the whole serving team came out and sang and walked around with the flags from the different countries that they were from. That was very nice. We said one last goodbye to the team and our table mates and grabbed pictures with everyone (of course).
Luggage outside the door
-After Dinner we stop by the room really quick to put our luggage out to be collected. We see that a lot of others have already put theirs out but since we are right across from where they hold the luggage, it really isn’t a big deal. We are looking for Paul to give him his gratuity envelope but our other housekeeper “Winston” tells us that Paul is off for the night but we should see him in the morning.
“Till we Meet Again”
-10pm we head down to the Lobby/Atrium to see the “Till we meet again” show with the characters. And get our last minute photos taken with characters that we had missed, or just wanted taken again with. We grabbed photos with Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Belle, Mickey, Snow White and the Muses from the Hercules show. It was sad that we wouldn’t get to spend more time on the ship after tonight. But the show was very cute, and Chris loved the end when “Pixie dust” falls down (glittery Mickey heads) and we spent at least half an hour sitting on the floor after everyone had left picking up the Mickey glitter, as Chris didn’t want to leave either. I grabbed some for the scrapbook as well. While Mike talked to Darren our Cruise director about the Hercules musical (this is where he learns that they will be ending the musical in January and a new one will replace it in march. SIGH!
The Forward of the Ship
-After we talked Chris into leaving the Atrium, we headed out to the forward of the ship to see what it looked like, because believe it or not, we hadn’t made our way up there yet during the whole trip! I was sad that I couldn’t get any good pictures off the front of the ship because it was already way too dark (but more reason to take another cruise!!) but Chris and Mike played some basketball near the court…Chris loves balls and so this was heaven for him. And now the boat does start rocking a little as the wind is really blowing outside. And it feels weird because we hadn’t felt the boat rock or move all day. So we head back down to grab some pizza for Christopher (since he didn’t eat dinner) and some sodas to drink in the room.
Last Moments before bed
-We return to the room by 11:30pm, and call in for a wake-up call for 7:20 in the morning ( way too early for me) but we have to be off of the ship by 9am and out of the rooms by 8am. We have planned to just get up and get off the boat in the morning without getting breakfast, so we can take more time sleeping in. We do have to stop by shutters in the morning to get our refund on the pictures that we didn’t use on the package, and we have to find Paul to give him his envelope. We are all sad to be leaving tomorrow and none of us wants to go to sleep because we don’t want the trip to end (as if that could postpone it). We had an EXCELLENT Cruise and I’m not ready to leave yet. Although Mike did say that I could start checking into doing another cruise for us! And we have both agreed that in two years for our 10-year wedding anniversary that we can take at least a 7-day cruise with the family!
-Well I hate to say this but G-Nite for the last time on the cruise; we got to wake up early (SIGH) Farewell Disney Wonder! Till we cruise again-

**I will write one more section of our disembarking quest later**

[tazgirl1981]

Day 4 Pictures

[tazgirl1981]

More pictures from day 4