An Enchanted Day at Castaway Cay

Collin’s Ten-Year-Old Trip
Disney Cruise Day 3:  Tuesday, June 18, 2013

 

Yesterday we woke up docking in Nassau, today we woke up as the ship was docking at Castaway Cay, Disney’s own private fantasy island in the Bahamas. 

 There are two long sugar white sand family beaches with palm trees (and an adults only beach on the other side of the island), plenty of umbrellas and beach chairs for all, and many island adventure choices. 



Collin decided it would be fun to try snorkeling, another new experience for him.  We are proud of how adventuresome he is. 

 

 

We rented our gear and did some warm-up practice breathing with the snorkel and clearing water from it, then swam way out to explore Disney’s lagoon, which, of course, had a sunken treasure chest, a sunken ship, a huge anchor, and other evidence of pirates.  There were some colorful fish swimming around the wreckage, too.

 

  
After our snorkeling excursion, we had a beach cook-out lunch, topped off by serve yourself soft serve cones.  Collin made himself two picture-perfect cones, and said, “I think I am really getting the hang of this now.”  We agreed--he is getting a lot of practice, and it is paying off in perfection of technique. 

Grandma Gayl foolishly bet him a dollar that he would have another cone before we went to dinner, thinking that might be enough incentive to keep him from eating any more ice cream.  He managed to win a dollar and have his ice cream too--by having not another one, but another two cones before dinner (yes, that is four soft serve cones in one day).

 

 
Here is Collin on the Pelican Plunge, a swim-up super slide in the lagoon at Castaway Cay:
 

Back on board in the afternoon, Collin and Grandma Gayl rode the Aquaduck a couple more times while Granddad rested, then Collin and Granddad played a round of Goofy Golf while Grandma Gayl rested. 

 

We were all for going back to the room for a nap, but Collin was up for more action, so we tracked down a detective game we had seen other kids playing around the ship. Collin got a clue map and a Midship Detective Agency badge, then we followed the map to places on the ship where he could hold his badge up in front of a picture which would magically open, ask him to perform an interactive task by moving his badge around like a mouse to effect the screen, revealing a clue to solve his mystery.  It was very ingenious, and sent us scurrying to just about every floor of the ship, fore, aft and mid-ship locations, ten stops in total, before Collin could solve the mystery.

 

Back in the room, we got ready for our special pirate night dinner--donning a bit of pirate attire and applying temporary tattoos.  And then . . . . Collin crashed.  We made it to dinner, but Collin’s exciting day in the sun and surf, his four ice cream cones, and maybe even a little bit too much salt water in the snorkel, had caught up with him.  When his first course arrived he had no appetite and he came close to falling asleep on the spot.  So, Granddad tucked Collin in his bunk, he fell sound asleep right away.  (Duncan, his tablemate, almost made it to dessert before he was falling asleep at the table, and his dad had to take him back to his room, too--like Collin, he had four ice cream cones and hours of exciting adventures at the beach today). 

Granddad and Grandma Gayl listened to the music from the Pirate Party and watched the 10:30 fireworks and lightshow from our stateroom balcony--all that noise didn’t disturb Collin’s slumber a bit.   (Disney takes great pride in being the only cruise line in the world to offer onboard fireworks, and another cruise ship passed slowly by us at 10:30--we are pretty sure it was not a coincidence that their itinerary let them peek at our party.)