Day 3 of our cruise was Castaway Cay, which is one of our favorite stops.  Imagine if Disney had taken an entire Caribbean Island and turned it into a water park.  That’s basically how I describe Castaway Cay to people.  We aren’t beach people, but we love this port stop more than any others.  We had managed to grab the last Cabana on the family beach (Cabana #20) when we checked in for this cruise, so it was going to be a great day.  We invited our friends to enjoy the Cabana with us, since there was no additional charge for six people versus four people.

Nancy signed up to run the Castaway Cay 5K, so she got off the ship before the girls and I did.  She had her Cabana wrist bands, so she would just meet us at the Cabana.  We took our bag for the day (complete with Nancy’s change of clothes for after the race) and headed off the ship.  Normally, we would have grabbed towels at the end of the gangway, but we knew there would be plenty of towels in the Cabana. 

We normally would have taken the tram down to the Cabana check in, but we decided to walk today to get some pictures.  Here is a map of the island.

There are helpful signs to point you to your destination!

We also passed by Mount Rustmore, a favorite photo stop on the island!

This is another favorite photo spot!

We also walked past all the shops.  You can get almost everything you need for a fun beach day here, including goggles, sun screen and beach toys.

Eventually, we arrived at the the Cabana check-in area.  We let them know we would be in Cabana 20.  Once they verified our wrist bands, they directed us to the golf carts and drove us down to our Cabana.  Cabana 20 is at the far, far end of the family beach with only the large family Cabana 21 next to it.  In fact, you have to go out onto a little deck walkway to get to the entrance!

At the entrance to the Cabana is your family name, welcoming you to your Cabana.

Here are a few photos of the Cabana!

The Cabana has a ton of seats, in addition to some beach toys that can be enjoyed while you are on Castaway Cay.

There is sun screen and plenty of towels in the Cabana as well.  There are magazines in one of the corner to read.

Each Cabana comes with its own hammock so you don’t have to share.  The beach is also lined with chairs, umbrellas, tubes and rafts. 

There is a small refrigerator in the Cabana that is stocked with sodas, water, and wet wash clothes to help keep you cool.  We also received a fruit plate that we place in the fridge just to keep any flies away from it.  There was a basket with chips and granola bars that I didn’t photograph this time.

Here are some pictures of the view from the Cabana.

Here is the view of the Cabana itself from the beach.  You can see a freshwater shower on landing attached to the stairs leading up to the Cabana.

Since we were here early, I made sure to take a picture of the large family Cabana next door (21) before anyone showed up to occupy it.

Since we went parasailing on our last visit to the island three weeks before this one, we had really talked up the experience to our friends.  They decided to go parasailing themselves.  They were at least smart though, they decided to take some great photographs while they were up in the air.

We spent the rest of the day in the Cabana and on the beach.  When we get a Cabana on Castaway Cay, that is the only thing we plan to do because of the cost involved.  We have the best time just relaxing in the hammock or swimming in the water on Castaway Cay.  We save some of the other excursions, like parasailing, water trikes, and Stingray Adventure for visits where we can’t get a Cabana.  We did go to Cookies Too for lunch, but quickly returned to the Cabana.  We didn’t attempt snorkeling like we did last Spring Break, mainly because that experience didn’t go well.  We stayed in the Cabana till around 4:30 before heading back to the ship. 

We decided to get showered and changed so we could watch the island crew wave goodbye to the ship.  We always make a habit of getting staterooms on the port side of the ship so we can head onto the verandah just to watch this.  Once that was done, we headed to the Walt Disney Theater to watch the show for the evening, which was Believe.  We had taken in that show on the Fantasy a few weeks earlier, but we decided to see it again and it didn’t disappoint.  After that, we headed to Animator’s Palate for dinner.  They didn’t do the full show like we were used to on the Fantasy in terms of the dancing drawings, but they did have the normal interaction with Crush.  I got my standard order of the Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin, served on Wasabi Mashed Potatoes. 

Of course, I managed to forget to get photos of the rest of the food or the dining room itself.  But, we did go on a tour of the ship after dinner to get photos of everything else!  Our first stop was the atrium and the shops.

We then head up to the pool deck to get some pictures.  In the first one, you can see into the Edge where the preteens are still having fun on the last night of the cruise!

This is a photo of the adult pool area.

As luck would have it, it was Super Bowl Sunday, so the entire pool deck was filled with people watching the Super Bowl.  We didn’t bother to watch the game, but kept going on our tour.  The ship did have special food out as well as decorations for the big game.  Disney Cruise Line definitely made sure that people would get to see the game despite being out on the cruise.  In our cruise group, several people stated they had people in their parties that wouldn’t sail unless they could see the game.  I don’t know what happened during the commercials though, perhaps they were only visible from within the United States and something else was put on during those.

 

This ice sculpture was setup right outside the quick service area.  I believe that was a cake that was meant to be eaten, but I didn’t see it get cut into at all while we were walking around.  Maybe it was being saved for the conclusion of the game.

The decorations and food wasn’t limited to just the pool deck, they also had viewing in the adult areas of the clubs as well.  A buffet was setup outside of the clubs.

We decided to skip  putting our luggage out that night so we could just carry it off using express walk off.  It would mean we would have to carry it to the Disney Cruise Line transportation bus in the morning and check it with the airline, but that was fine with us.  It was a short cruise and we didn’t have very much luggage to begin with. 

Planning | Travel | Boarding | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation

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