Disney Dream Cruise Review part 2

Day 2: Disney’s Private Island, Castaway Cay

Did you catch part 1 of the Disney Dream cruise review? If not, read that one first.

We pulled up to Castaway Cay (pronounced key) with style. The boat is pretty dope, but I’m more referring to our matching family shirts (sorry Zach) and Minnie ears. Fierce!

One of the first things I noticed was the anxiety reducing way that the rock wall would hopefully keep out any sharks, electric eels, killer whales, etc. from the swimming areas. Phew.

With no real plans and no real idea what we were doing, we ate breakfast at Cabanas and debarked.

Mouseketip: If coffee is your love language, go to the Vista Cafe BEFORE Cabanas Buffet. The coffee is super disappointing at Cabanas.

We hand sanitized at the required station, started feeling sweaty immediately and under no circumstances did we tug.

After we walked off the ship, we got in line to ride one of these tan beauties. That sounds way sexier than it is. I mean, just take a look at Ommy’s face (left pic, blonde lady with the sunglasses). Enthusiasm low to quite low.

I had read a couple of what to do and what not to do on Castaway Cay blogs and came away with one main tip: don’t get off the tan tram at the first family beach stop because everyone does and it will be crowded. I can’t say with much authority if I agree with that or not. It was crowded in all the spots.

Mousketip: A cabana would have been dreamy. I love having a designated spot to post up. There are 21 private cabanas and they book up fast. People that have cruised multiple times with Disney get first dibs. My mom stayed up until midnight to try and snag one the minute they became available and they were already taken. There is a roped off beach for cabana use only and it looked so nice. Maybe next time!

We trammed on to family beach 2, letter K on the handy dandy map. Conveniently located right next to the Sand Bar and all of it’s lovely frozen cocktails it had to offer. What was not so convenient? The lack of chairs and umbrellas. It was 9:30 am and there were none.

Excuse me, did you say 5k?

Apparently there is a 5k that goes on in the early morning. If you are nuts motivated enough to go run that, you beat the crowd to the chairs. I’m going to go ahead and say, if you see me running or even so much as power walking a 5k on my vacation, look again ’cause it ain’t me.

Zach had to go find a stack of chairs in some far off storage corner and make multiple trips bringing them over to our lame spot we found. We just shoved 5 or so chairs all together under the unimpressive shade of a few palm leaves up next to a little hut with picnic tables in it.

Mousketip: Get up and get moving so that you are one of the first people on the island and can claim your spot. Even better, hang out on the ship for a few hours and don’t go to the beach until people start coming in around 1:00 or 2:00. That still gives you lots of time to do beach things and the crowd will be diminished by then.

What can you do at Castaway Cay?

There is so much to do there, even if you don’t have a planned excursion like snorkeling, banana boat riding, or stingray feeding.

• Pelican Plunge: I wanted to go down these slides, but no one else did so I opted out. Griffin thought he wanted to try it out until he got close enough to see the bucket that dumps water out. Do people really like that? All of my kids have frantically ran from those things.
• Scuttle Cove: A children’s play area with Disney employees to watch the kids. You can drop them off and go do adult things!
• Spring-a-leak: a splash pad.
• Bike Rentals: Jeni and her family did this when they were here in November. There weren’t a lot of bikes being rented due to the June heat.
• Tube Rental: We did this and loved it! More on that later.
• Monstro Point: A whale dig. We thought this sounded cute until we got there, got hot and got lazy.
• Serenity Bay Adult Beach: Sure didn’t experience this area of the island.
• Eat and Drink: When on a cruise, do as the cruisers do. Drink alcohol and overeat. Lunch is available there, so no need to get back on the ship.

Once Zach got the chairs situated, I needed a darn pic for the instagram feed. Style Duplicated don’t quit.

Disney shirt documentation was a must. As we assembled for a pic, out from behind a palm tree appeared a Disney photographer. I also handed my phone to a waiter guy for instant photo gratification.

Next order of business, we sent Zach to go rent us some tubes. Taking yet another one for the team, he hauled tube after tube over to our camp. For $13 a piece, you too can experience pure buoyant joy.

The majority of our Castaway Cay time was spent doing the above. Leisurely floating, sipping on drinks from the nearby Sand Bar and watching the kids look for fish and shells.

Mousketip: The Bon Voyage (Pina colada and strawberry daiquiri) and the Pinã Colava (Pina colada and raspberry) were my drinks of choice on the beach. Bon Voyage takes first place again! Aven ordered a chocolate smoothie in the fun coconut cup and all the kids loved it! No need for cash, just tell them your room number and you are all good.

What was the water like?

It was clear and blue! The temperature was perfect and my only complaint was the large amounts of turtle grass and seaweed stuff annoying us. There were no waves which made it seem really safe for Griffin to freely swim around and not get swept out to sea.

Mouseketip: This is very important. Keep an eye on your tubes or put them back at your chairs if you aren’t using them. They will get stolen by mannerless teens. We went from 4 tubes to 1 real quick. And by all means, do NOT worry about taking the tubes back to the rental place when you are going back to the ship. We thought you had to do this to avoid a fine. What was a really fun day ended in cuss words and crying as me (the cusser), Tiffany, Blake and Aven (the crier) took the huge and awkward-to-hold tubes all the way back to the rental place in the heat. All they tell you to do is throw them in a pile.

Lunch at Cookie’s BBQ

If you are ok with hotdogs, hamburgers and a bag of lays then you should just eat at Cookie’s on the island. There are picnic table areas set up, but we just ate at our beach chairs. I probably wouldn’t suggest eating on the beach because…

…the seagulls started flocking from every corner of the island for a chip. Griffin, like a true gull whisperer, had them gathered all around patiently waiting for him to throw a bite of food. I’m not a big bird lover, so a feathered flash mob gives me the willies.

Blake, Tiffany, Aven and I stayed at the beach a while after the others went back to the room. We saw the island get less and less busy as everyone slowly started going back, and it was so much better! We decided that when we stopped at Castaway again, we would wait until the afternoon to go to the beach.

The Evening Activities

A nice tram ride back the ship and it was time to get ready for the show! This was the dress-up night for dinner which is more of a casual dressy vibe. Please do not pack your beaded gown or tiara. Zach and I saw a woman dressed like this on the elevator one night and side eyed each other so hard.

The Golden Mickeys

Tiffany and I would usually grab the tropical drink of the day at the bar right outside the theatre before we went in. The kids all wanted popcorn, so we got them the bucket that included $1.50 unlimited refills for the rest of the cruise. Do that!

I don’t like musical theatre and I don’t like sitting still. Nothing really keeps my attention and my favorite part of live shows is intermission and leaving.

That being said, I seriously loved this show! It was not too long, I have the attention span of a small child so your small child should be able to hang! The songs were really good, the costumes and dancing were super entertaining. It was almost like a sampler of lots of Disney musicals. I was completely blown away and judging by the wild standing ovation, so was everyone else.

Don’t miss this show! This was my favorite of the entire cruise!

My mom snapped the photo below illegally. GASP! She had no idea they were running around telling anyone with a phone out to put it away and they were so worried about photos and videos.

I’m assuming she took this pic of the Little Mermaid part of the show because it was the best part! Also, this picture does not do it justice, it’s way more broadway and way less high budget private school play like this picture sort of leads you to believe.

Meanwhile, the gentlemen had a pre dinner beverage on the stateroom balcony! Griffin woke up grumpy from a nap and couldn’t pull his life together in time for the show. Looks like they had some good dude time though.

This time for the awkward amount of time between the show and our dinner, we didn’t go to any organized game shows. We went out on the deck, played shuffleboard and took pictures. Way more my vibe!

Dinner at Enchanted Garden

Dinner was at the Enchanted Garden, this was my favorite restaurant on the ship! Look at how cute it is!!

Marko, our waiter, had taken a liking to Aven. He spoon fed her Mac and cheese like an airplane flying the night before. She was completely horrified and thought he was going to follow her back to the room and try and keep her as his own daughter. ha! I had to give her a pep talk and tell her to sit close to her dad and he probably wouldn’t goof around with her as much. She realized he was harmless and had fun with his magic tricks, which still makes him sound creepy, but it was fine.

What did I eat for dinner?

The bread came rolling out right away with a chickpea-garlic dip, basically hummus. Gimme all the bread. Gimme all the bread dips.

I had the Ahi Tuna and Avocado Tower for my appetizer. It was great and Marko brought us the Lobster Ravioli to try, also great! The Tomato Soup was the next course. Again, yum. For the main course, I picked the Sea Bass with risotto and tried the Carmelized Sea Scallops. We loved it all! Dessert for me was the Chocolate Brownie Sundae. If peanut butter and chocolate are ever mentioned together on a dessert menu, I look no further. Name a better pair.

I’ll wait.

Photographer lady was at it again and this time with her flash. Shiny oil face look for everyone!

With another great day down, it was time to go to bed. the Disney Dream would be pulling into Nassau at 8:30 am! Stay tuned for part 3 where the Walkers take the Atlantis!