During our July 2022 9 night Southern Caribbean sailing on the Disney Fantasy, we were able to be on Disney Cruise Line's first port stop in Dominica! We wanted to get off the ship to see some of the island, so we booked the Dominica Beach Break excursion! The cost per person for this excursion was $54.
We recently went on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas for a 7 night Alaska Glacier Cruise (departure date August 16, 2019). During that cruise, my daughters got the chance to try RipCord by iFly. RipCord was located on the aft portion of Deck 16.
We signed up for a complimentary session a few weeks before our sail date through the Royal Caribbean website. We chose the first sea day for the activity. Once the time arrived, we headed to the check in station that is located on the Aft portion of Deck 15, right below the RipCord.
Once we got the girls checked in, they were let into a changing area where they could change into flight suits and put any loose items away. There were about 10 people in their session. The group was given an instructional video, then led upstairs to the RipCord. The instructor gave them a quick demo before giving them some last minute instructions. Everyone got a turn that lasted about two minutes. The instructor kept a hand on them as all times to make sure they stayed in the correct position.
During the two minute session, there was a photographer that took pictures of them (which were available for purchase after the session was over). Once everyone’s session was over, the entire group was led back into the locker room area to change out of the flight suits. We met them at the exit area, where we could review the photographs. We decide not to buy any of the pictures.
The girls really enjoyed the iFly session. They said it wasn’t like falling. It definitely felt like standing in front of a large fan. They even commented that they got wind burned a bit during the session.
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page or our Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!
Today was our stop at St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. We’ve been to St Thomas twice before, both on sailings on the Disney Fantasy. The first time we were here, we went zip lining. The second time, we had plans to go to St. John’s, but canceled our plans at the last minute and went for lunch instead. This time, we had booked the “Secret Sands Beach Getaway“. This included transportation to a local beach along with beach chairs!
It was a bright sunny day in St. Thomas when we arrived.
We were able to sleep in late today because our meetup time for the excursions wasn’t until 10:45 AM. We went up to Cabanas for a quick breakfast since our excursion didn’t include lunch. After eating, we headed to D-Lounge for the excursion.
Once in the lounge, we got checked in, assigned to a group, and then waited for our group to get called. We also collected beach towels to take with us since there are no towels available at the beach. This is important to remember. You are allowed to take these towels with you (and you should return them to the ship). Once our group was called, we were led off the ship and lined up next to the ship against a fence while we waited for our taxis.
After the tour operator also checked their list, we were led to a series of open air taxi buses.
Since we had a party of six, we all just found seats inside the taxi. This can sometimes be a bit chaotic, but people were willing to shuffle around so that parents could sit with smaller children. If it doesn’t work initially, make sure that you speak up.
We then headed off for a twenty minute drive from the port area to the beach. We got to see a good amount of St. Thomas, which looks to be recovering from the hurricanes of last fall (2017).
We eventually arrived at Smith Bay Park, home of Lindquist Beach. The taxi driver paid the entrance fee (which was included for us as part of the excursion fee).
As we departed the buses, our local guide appeared. His name was Kareem and he said his job was to make sure we had a great time. He showed us where the bathrooms were (in a nearby concrete building), setup chairs for us, and told us he had water, sodas, snacks, beer and various adult mixed drinks available. He said everything was included but said we could tip him if he made our day at the beach better. (We definitely gave him a great tip, the service and mixed drinks were fantastic).
The beach itself was beautiful. We were the only excursions there during our entire time, so it was really limited to the 40 or so people that came on the two taxis. There was a slight drop off out in the water, but it didn’t go over my head out to at least 50 feet from the shore.
The beach is shaped in a half moon and you can easily walk from one end of the beach to the other. There are more shells the farther you get away from the middle.
As you get further away, you can see the seaweed was coming up on the shore. The reason the middle of the beach wasn’t covered is because there are people raking it from the shore. They must have gotten the middle of the beach before we arrived for the day.
We even got to see some of the local wildlife near the beach.
After a few hours at the beach, everybody got a 15 minute warning to get ready to head back. We then took the scenic tour back to the ship.
We stopped at an overlook on the way back where we could get pictures of the ship!
We also got the option to get dropped off in the town if we want to. Unfortunately, the trip back was a bit longer with all the included stops. As soon as we got back to the port area, we had to find a restroom. Luckily, there are a number right near the ship.
Nancy wanted to go check out a local restaurant that we ate at during our previous stop at St. Thomas. The rest of us were hungry, so we headed back to the ship to get some quick service lunch from the pool deck. Nancy was able to find the Fresh Bistro and it was back up and operating!
After lunch, everybody headed to the room to cleanup and then the girls went off to their clubs. Nancy eventually returned as well. We watched sail away from St. Thomas together from the verandah.
We headed off together to pickup a coffee from Cove Cafe, then went by Guest Services. We wanted to increase our gratuities for a few of the cast members we had interacted with and didn’t want to wait till the last night when Guest Services gets busy. We had already prepaid our gratuities, so we were just allocating additional amount. We then headed to the shops to look over the merchandise again. We didn’t end up buying anything on this cruise though, that I can remember
Before dinner, we also met up with our friends again for 80’s music trivia in O’Gills. The other husband and I were equally successful in “helping” again, so this was the last night we were allowed to participate. After this night, we sat by ourselves while the wives found people who actually knew song titles and artists.
Nancy was again taking advantage of the beer mug during this trip. If you pay an additional $14.95, you get a Disney Cruise Line beer mug. When you get a refill, you can pay for a 16 ounce beer but you get a 22 ounce pour. If you don’t want to carry the mug around with you, you return the mug to the bartender and they will give you a mug card to carry around that you can exchange for the mug. You can take either the mug home (a clean one) at the end of the cruise or the card if you have a full collection of mugs at home already.
Our master of ceremony was Teesa again. Teesa was the same adult entertainment coordinator that we had on the Magic during our Spring Break cruise.
Dinner tonight was in Enchanted Garden featuring the Prince and Princess Menu. After dinner, everybody was really tired. We headed back to the stateroom to call it a night. As always, our room attendant did a great job with his towel wizardry.
Tomorrow would be our last sea day.
Boarding | Exploring | Sea Day 1 | Sea Day 2 | St. Maarten | St. Thomas | Sea Day 3 | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints as well as our cruise trip reports!
So, you’ve booked your Disney Cruise — now it’s approaching your check in day and you wonder what will happen? The most important thing you need to know before booking your excursions, adult dining, character meets, and other activities is that you must be paid in full on your cruise. Once you have paid in full for your cruise, you can book your activities. The date for this depends on how many Disney Cruises you have taken. If this is your first cruise, your check in day will be 75 days from your sailing date. If you have taken 1-4 cruises (this makes you a Silver Castaway Club member), your date will be 90 days out. If you have taken 5-9 cruises (this makes you a Gold Castaway Club member), your date will be 105 days out. If you have taken 10 or more (a Platinum Castaway Club member), your date will be 120 days out. On the other hand, if you are sailing in a Concierge stateroom, you can book 125 days out regardless of your prior number of cruises. You should be contacted by the shore side Concierge team who will book your activities for you (I believe you can email them 125 days out, so you should get everything you want).
Let’s walk through booking an excursion on Castaway Cay, Disney Cruise Line’s private island in the Bahamas! In this article, we will assume you have already checked in. If you haven’t checked in, please read over our article on checking in for your Disney Cruise.
You will want to go to the Disney Cruise Line website at https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/.
Once you are there, look in the upper right hand side and select My Cruise Activities.
At this point, if you haven’t logged in, you will be prompted to log in with your Disney Cruise Line log in information.
Once you have logged in, you should see a listing of all of the cruises you have booked, but haven’t taken yet. In this case, we’ve got a few cruises lined up over the next two years. We are just going to deal with the first cruise.
If you notice on the first cruise, there is a Book Now area highlighted next to Activities. You will want to click on that link.
Once you have selected Book Now, you will be brought to a web page similar to the below, which is the booking mechanism for the first day of your cruise. All of the activities have a similar process for booking them, so we are just going to book an excursion for Castaway Cay.
You can change the activity day by selecting the calendar icon next to the date and selecting the date you want. In this case, we are going to move to our Castaway Cay day. As you can see, we have already selected Parasailing for the day, which is a great activity. We’ve done this activity before and highly recommend it.
In order to book a new excursion, select Book a Port Adventure from the bottom of the web page under “Book activities for <Date>”.
This will take you to a web page where you can see all the available Port Adventures for your stop. In this case, we are looking at the Port Adventures for our stop at Castaway Cay. (Yes, I already checked for the Castaway Cay Cabanas but they were all taken).
In this case, we are going to book a Walk and Kayak Nature Adventure, as a test case. (We will release it later). Press the “Select” button next to the adventure you want to book.
Once you select the port adventure you want, you will get a pop up that shows you the duration and price of the adventure, plus allows you to select the people going on it. (I’ve blanked out the names in this case).
In this case, we are only going to send the adults on this adventure so the kids can enjoy their new found friends in the Vibe and the Edge. Once you select individuals, you can then select “Check Availability”. After doing so, another selector will show up that allows you to pick the time of the excursion. Simply select the time and hit “Save”.
The excursion will then be added to your list of scheduled activities for the cruise! The process is the same for Port Adventures, adult dining (including Mixology Classes), spa services, and character meet and greets.
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!
Today was the last full day of our cruise and it included a stop at Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island. We’ve stopped at Castaway Cay several times over the years on our cruises, with the exception of our Alaska Cruise. When we checked in for the cruise 105 days ago, we looked for a private Cabana on the family beach. Unfortunately, they were all booked. We instead decided to try some new excursions on the island.
My oldest daughter and I decided to try out parasailing! We had watched other people do it on our previous visit to Castaway Cay and it looked like fun. We selected a really early time so we could do the excursions and then get on with the rest of our day. We were directed to Marge’s Barges, which is on the left almost immediately after you get off the ship. You check in at the booth and then head towards the waiting area.
The waiting area is a raised area closer to the ship. I had thought for years that it was a bar, because it kind of looks like one. We waited here until our activity was called (parasailing at 9:30 AM). They told us that we couldn’t bring any footwear on the boat, but that we could leave them on the pier. They also said we were responsible for anything we brought onto the boat.
We then were led down the pier to the boat. We got instructions for climbing onto the boat (go backwards down the ladder). We left our shoes on the dock and got onto the boat. Everyone grabbed a seat and met the driver and assistant.
The boat headed down next to the Fantasy and out to the open water. This was a great time to snap a few pictures of the Fantasy as we were right next to it.
The parasailing boats go to the area right outside the barrier and go back and forth. I’ve drawn the area on the map below to give you an idea of where we went.
Once we got into open water, the assistant started setting up the parachute. He got it hooked up on a rack on the boat that would keep it filled as different participants took their turns. Everyone got a harness to wear that would allow them to clip onto the parachute. All of the flights would be in tandem, with one person behind the other.
When it was our turn, we were directed to hold a railing in the center of the boat and make our way to the back of the boat. We were then hooked up to the chute. The assistant checked over the rigging as well as the harnesses. Once we indicated we were ready, the chute was released from the harness and we climbed into the air.
My daughter was wearing a Go-Pro, but we made the decision to use a chest mounted harness. Unfortunately, it didn’t give us the best position for the video. We were up in the air about five or six minutes. It was GREAT! Once we left the boat, it was completely silent except for a little bit of wind. You could see a really long distance. We were even higher than the top of the Fantasy. Here is the video we took:
The excursion was a bit expensive at $104 per person for the one hour we were out on the boat and the five minutes we were in the air. Since it was the first time we had done it, I thought it was worth it. I wouldn’t do it every time we go to Castaway Cay, but it was fun!
After our activity, my daughter went off to the Vibe hangout area. I joined Nancy and our other daughter in the chairs and hammocks right at the start of the family beach. After relaxing for a bit, we decided to head off to Cookie’s BBQ for lunch. This was our first visit to Cookie’s, we usually go to Cookie’s Too. We found the food and layout to be almost identical. We got our lunch and then went to the covered seating pavilion to eat. We also made a stop at the soft serve station for dessert.
Nancy and our younger daughter selected the Castaway Ray’s Stingray Adventure as their excursion. Their start time for this was 2:30 PM. They headed over and took a seat in the briefing area. It is a building with bench seats. They received snorkeling equipment, were provided with background and safety information, then were led out to the water.
At the water, there were a number of feeding platforms. The stingrays at Castaway Cay have been taught to swim up onto the platforms (that are held in the water by cast members) to eat. While eating, guests can pet them.
Everybody is assigned to a platform and the cast member takes it out into the water. Soon after, the stingrays start swimming up.
As the stingrays come up to eat, the guests can touch them. They have had their barbs trimmed, so there is no danger here.
Once the feeding time is over, you can snorkel in the stingray area for a while. The water was really clear, so you could easily see the rays.
After the Stingray adventure, we just relaxed the rest of the day. The water was a bit cold, so we didn’t get in too much. We had another cruise scheduled in a short time (we had rescheduled our October cruise that got canceled), so we weren’t in a hurry to rush around and do stuff knowing we would be back soon.
We enjoyed the rest of the day, then headed back to the ship. We showered and got something to drink. We were about to watch one of Nancy’s favorite things from our cruises: The Castaway Cay Wave Good Bye. The passengers eventually all funnel back onto the ship, then the crew continues to pack up all the items that were taken off the ship (towels, food, etc). There is a small crew of people that stay behind on the island to clean up and make it ready for the next ship. A handful of them wave goodbye to the ship as it sails away using Mickey gloves.
We took a video of it as well!
The girls and I went to see the show, which was Believe. It was a cute show and everybody enjoyed it. Nancy stayed behind to pack everything up. We had signed up for the Disney On Board Airline Check In, which I will talk about later, so she got the bags together.
Dinner tonight was in Royal Court. The menu tonight was the See Ya’ Real Soon Dinner. This turned out to be a great menu, mainly just because of the Malaysian Chicken Satay. It was so good I ordered two!
All of the entrees were good, as were the desserts.
Our older daughter got a special dessert because her birthday was coming up and her little sister wouldn’t stop talking about it.
We headed back to the room to put the bags out. The girls went off to their clubs for their good bye programs. I think the kids in the Vibe had spent the week making a zombie movie, so they were going to preview that. The girls actually headed back early tonight, so we all got to be before midnight.
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