Wes Sauer of the DCL Dude Podcast, recently went on a 3-Night Bahamian Cruise on the Disney Dream. He originally posted this on his Facebook page, but was kind enough to let us repost it here! Wes and his wife are also Disney travel agents who specialize in Disney cruises. If you’d like a free, no obligation quote, send Wes an email at wes@mickeyworldtravel.com.
You can listen to his trip report here:
It’s no secret to those who have been listening to my show for a long time that Castaway Cay is one of my favorite places in the whole world. It is perfect and I cherish every minute I get to spend on the island. And that includes taking in the sites as we approach and dock at the pier. I was up early (once again to my wife’s dismay) and was out on the verandah waiting for Captain Andy to flip the ship around so I could have a view of the island. Even though we were in a cabin at the very aft of the ship, we were still technically on the starboard side, so we didn’t have a good look at the island until the ship was docking. There’s no better view of the island than from these 5E verandahs.
In keeping with the theme of first time experiences, I had signed up for the Castaway Cay 5K at the Port Adventures desk the day before. They gave me a waiver form and instructed me to meet at the bike rental shack on the island at 8:50. On a side note, you can now sign up for the Castaway Cay 5K online or through the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app prior to your cruise, which I learned not too long before we set sail.
We packed our day bags and headed up to Cabanas for a quick breakfast and were ready to debark the ship at the all ashore time, which was about 8:30. It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect.
We elected to walk over to the 5K registration spot so that we could visit one of our favorite merchandise shops along the way, She Sells Sea Shells and Everything Else. I should mention that, for some time now, I have been in relentless pursuit of “the perfect DCL souvenir”. There is something that I need and can’t live without. The problem is, I don’t know exactly what it is, and I won’t know what it is until I see it. It has been an exhaustive search thus far, and sadly, I still have not found it. The search continues!
I did, however, find that the Merrytime merchandise had extended onto the island.
After glancing around the shop, I proceeded to the 5K registration while my wife continued to browse. The registration is very quick and the crowd was smaller than I had expected.
After registration was complete, a cast member walked us out to the starting line and went over the rules and the race route. Side note: I found out after we had returned that the route we ran was a new route for the Castaway Cay 5K. As I had not run before, I had no idea it was different and never thought to take a picture of the map with the new route. Sorry, Scott.
The run now starts at the beginning of the air strip, turns right and does the Observation Tower loop, then right again on the air strip toward Serenity Bay, all the way down the path past the Serenity Bay cabanas, then straight back down the air strip and ending back at the bike rentals.
The run was HOT. Very different than my training runs in the frozen tundra of the Northeast. Once again, working out on vacation is not high on my priority list, so this may have been my only experience with the 5K. I did it for the medal (and because I needed to do a training run). By this time, I was ready to relax.
The plan for the day was Serenity Bay. When you first walk on the beach, you first notice how beautiful it is, but then you notice how quiet it is. We found a spot down the beach beyond the lifeguard chair and set up for the day. It was sooooo relaxing and we really enjoyed ourselves.
It was approaching lunchtime and I was starving. We planned to eat at the Serenity Bay BBQ until we got to the front of the line and both realized we were craving the spicy chicken sandwich, which was not on the menu at Serenity Bay.
So we took the tram back over to the other side of the island, visited the Buy the Seashore merchandise shop, and made our way over to Cookie’s BBQ. We were both very happy with our decision. Afterward, we grabbed two chocolate chip cookies for some ice cream cookie sandwiches. YUM!
On the way back to Serenity Bay, we stopped at Summertime Freeze for what we have always described as our favorite smoothie – the Ice Palace. HOWEVER, this is the second time since our original purchase that we did not enjoy our smoothies. They were made fresh the first time we bought one, and ever since then they’ve been pre-made and poured out of those slushy machines. We probably won’t visit again unless they start making them fresh again. We were left very disappointed.
We spent another hour or two on Serenity Bay. We met a nice couple from the Orlando area who both worked at Walt Disney World. It was fun talking with them and asking them questions about their jobs. I have to admit, I was a little bit jealous.
It was about 3:00 and we decided to make our way back to the ship, but not before stopping for a couple photo ops along the way.
Once back onboard, we spent the remainder of the time we were docked at the island out on our verandah enjoying the view. We stayed out there until you could barely see the island on the horizon. Until next time, Castaway Cay.
Another perfect day spent at Castaway Cay
Our final dinner was in Enchanted Garden with my absolute favorite menu across the fleet. I ordered the Ahi Tuna and Avocado Tower, the Heirloom Tomato Soup, and the Caramelized Sea Scallops. I asked our waiter, Sebastian, if he would put a couple extra scallops on the plate for me, and he happily obliged. Alyssa, who is not a very adventurous eater, had the Spinach and Raspberry Salad, the Heirloom Tomato Soup, and the Marjoram Scented Roast Chicken. Every one of the courses was excellent and I would say the kitchen knocked it out of the park on this cruise. Every meal we had was fantastic!
I have heard people say before that the quality and cleanliness that you experience on the Dream is consistently the best of the four ships in the fleet, and after two great experiences in the last two years, I might have to agree.
We opted to skip Disney’s Believe so we could finish packing. When we returned to the stateroom, our character luggage tags were on the bed and I was happy to see that it was Mickey. Even though we weren’t planning to use the service, for some silly reason I have always wanted to be in the Red Mickey group. We also had a voicemail on our phone saying we had not yet requested our Platinum Castaway Club gift. The remaining options were a bottle of wine or a set of chocolate truffles (the fruit plate was not available anymore). We said we did not want either and they offered chocolate covered strawberries instead, to which we said YES PLEASE!!
We put Believe on the stateroom tv, but were disappointed that it was a recording from a performance on the Disney Fantasy and not a live feed of the ongoing performance. We finished packing and spent the rest of the evening out on the verandah enjoying the starry sky and the sound of the ocean – a great way to wrap up a great cruise.
In the morning we would be heading to Walt Disney World.
Full Trip Report – Boarding | Nassau | Castaway Cay
The DCL Dude Podcast is a show dedicated to all things Disney Cruise Line! They talk recent DCL news, share travel tips, interview guests, go over the best and worst (ok, mostly best) that DCL has to offer, share trip reports, and hopefully interact with their listeners!
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