Disney Dream -- Day 3, part 1: Castaway Cay

For anyone that is reading up on my Disney posts, I'm sorry that it's taking me so long to do each one! I hope to finish blogging about our trip before school starts back, however, with the boys being home during the summer, I haven't quite had the time to blog!

Tuesday morning of our vacation we woke up in Castaway Cay (pronounced 'Key'), Disney's own private paradise/island.  We were surrounded by the brightest, crystal blue waters and everything was just absolutely gorgeous.  We got off the ship that morning at the very same time that Daisy Duck was getting off so we were first in line to meet her.

After getting off of the ship, there is a short walk to the tram that will take you to the different beaches on Castaway Cay.  On the walk to the tram, there is the Castaway Cay post office that has special Bahamian postage specific to Disney Cruise Lines with a unique "Castaway Cay" postmark.  This is the only place on the island where you will need cash and it's a fun little spot to send postcards out to family back home.  The trams run every 7 minutes and the walk to the first beach area is about a 7 minute walk so we chose to walk rather than wait on the tram (trying to walk off some of that All You Can Eat Icecream!) .  There are 3 beaches: 1 for families, 1 for teens and families and 1 for adults only.  There is also an area for kids, Scuttles Cove, where Disney provides free childcare and lots of fun activities for little ones (basically it's the Explorers Club of the island)... it features a whimsical water play area: a 1,200-square-foot soft wet deck area that provides fresh-water fun with an array of pop jets, geysers and bubblers as well as a giant whale bone excavation site for digging!  When you first first approach the beach area, you are greeted by 4 large buoys that have been painted with faces of our favorite Disney characters.  This area is called Mt. Rustmore and is a frequent spot for character greetings as well as an area where you can find complimentary sand wheelchairs, wagons and strollers.  There is also the She Sells Sea Shells... and Everything Else store where you can buy lots Castaway Cay gear, sunscreen, etc.  

We walked to the first beach and easily found a few lounge chairs, an umbrella and a few regular chairs for us to park ourselves for the rest of the day!  There were PLENTY of chairs available and the beaches were pretty full by the time we made it there so no worries as to not being able to find a spot to sit.  This was our very best day of the trip!  The kids LOVED the beach, the ocean, everything.  Because of the way the island is 'enclosed' there is barely a ripple in the ocean and it's warm almost year round.  Like everyone else, we grabbed our chairs and parked them in the ocean while the kids played in the water and sand.  Collier loved laying in the sand, building sandcastles and towers and just covering himself in it.  He even laid in it and made 'sand' angels.  Noah spent most of the day laying out and relaxing with Jamie but occasionally he came and took a dip in the ocean with me.  Like the cruise, lunch was provided and was a huge spread of barbecue, tenders, burgers, plenty of sides and desserts.  We were having so much fun at the beach that we didn't want to leave so Jamie ran up to Cookies, where the lunch spread was set up, grabbed us a couple of plates of food and we all just picked off of it.  I never even ventured up there to see what the restaurant area looked like.  Our day was perfect and it was like paradise.  The kids were having so much fun that we didn't even take them to Scuttle's Cove, we just all spent the day together playing on the beach!

We had a little attempted stripping incident with Collier when he got a swimsuit full of sand... I scooped him before the suit came completely off and rinsed him in the ocean water (but not before first snapping a quick picture)!  Collier began complaining about his sandy bottom, even after being rinsed so we took this as our cue to head back to the ship.  We had to get cleaned up for our Pirate themed dinner that night.  This time, we took the tram back to the ship and were welcomed back with fruit infused waters and ice cold towels to cool off with.  Awww... I love Disney service!

Disney Dream Day 2 -- Nassau, Bahamas

One of the nice things about having an inside stateroom/no window was that we all 4 slept in!  The boys slept soundly all night and wouldn't wake until at least 9:00 each morning, sometimes even later... now that's how I like to do my vacations.   Our first morning, we woke up, got everyone dressed and headed up to Deck 11 for breakfast at Cabanas.  It was exciting to see that we had arrived in the Bahamas!  We quickly found a table and loaded our plates up with all kinds of deliciousness, including my favorite Mickey waffles! I don't know what they do differently to make those waffles but they are mouth-watering! You don't even need syrup for them to taste delicious.  Our view at breakfast was of the most gorgeous crystal blue waters with the Bahamas in the background.   It was pretty incredible!

After breakfast, we took the boys to the Oceaneer's Club for their Open House.  Oceaneer's Club is open 9am to midnight and it's COMPLIMENTARY childcare for kids 3 - 8 that are potty trained.  They also have an Oceaneer's Lab for the older kids with more hands on activities, crafts, games, etc. and the kids can go back and forth between the 2 areas.  Because of their strict security policies, parents aren't allowed back into the club except during Open House hours.  We took the boys during Open House to try and familiarize them with the club with us in there with them.  You can see the yellow armband that Noah is wearing in the picture above.  That's the security bracelet that checks the kids in and out.  When the band is scanned, a picture of the kid as well as pictures of the parents (and anyone else that's allowed to check them in/out) pops up on their computer screen and parents have to have a secret word to check kids out. It's a pretty good and safe policy despite their being over 100 kids in there at any given time.  We went back with the boys and were blown away at the decor.  It has a room in the center were they play games and then several separate rooms: Andy's room (Toy Story), a Monsters Inc room and Tinkerbell's Pixie Hollow and a computer lab.  Collier was in Pixar heaven (I'll be honest, so was I!)  Prior to this Collier REFUSED to wear his 'magic watch' aka armband and we HOPED that by showing him the club, he would be willing to wear it so he could play in there.  When we got there, Goofy was in the center room playing games and dancing with the kids.  Noah stayed in there and Collier ran off to the Monsters Inc room.  We had some reservations about leaving Noah since they can't do one on one with the kids due to the number of kids in there but they have plenty of cast members working the area so I made sure to talk with them about Noah and felt like he would be okay as long as Jamie and I periodically came down to check on him.  I always tend to worry more about Noah... then Collier ends up being the one that presents the challenges.  Needless to say, Collier still refused the armband and we used the drawstring on his shorts and tied it to him hoping he would just leave it alone. 

The Cowley's brought their kids to the Club and we all set off hoping for some time at the adults only pool.  We laid out briefly and Anna and I decided to get off the ship and venture into the Bahamas while the guys headed off to ride the Aqua Duck waterslide.  As we were heading out, the Club called me on my room phone to let me know that Collier had fallen, hit his head and was unresponsive for a few seconds after it had happened.  When they got to him he had removed his armband so they didn't know his name! They told me he was fine now and drinking water, but of course, we freaked and ran to the Explorer's Club to get him.  Thankfully, he was fine but after that he didn't want to stay in there and then Noah saw us and he wanted to leave too.  So me, Anna and the boys headed back out to the pool to find the guys, where we all ate lunch, then Anna and I left the boys together and we headed off to explore and do a little shopping in the Bahamas.

Ice cream BEFORE lunch... why not? We were feeling a little sorry for Collier and the fall he had taken!  Besides, there's not much that ice cream can't fix.

After a few hours, we returned to the ship to get ready for dinner.  At one point during the day, we looked down into the atrium and saw all of the princesses down below!  Belle, Ariel, Rapunzel, Snow White, Tiana, and Cinderella.

Later that evening we had dinner in the Royal Palace.  RP was elegantly themed and inspired by Disney classics, such as Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty with hand-painted portraits of these princesses and their princes throughout the restaurant.  The servers were dressed as though they ready to serve royalty.  The menu was French inspired and DE-LICIOUS. For my appetizer, I chose the Brie with a fruity chutney dip and had the Beef Tenderloin AND the Wild Mushroom filled Pasta.  Everything was amazing.  Collier chose a potato soup for his appetizer and would have licked the bowl if we would have let him. For dessert, the boys had the Apple Pie (with ice cream and Mickey sprinkles) and I had the Sweet Temptations trio: mango cheesecake, Tahitian Vanilla Creme Brulee, and Peanut Butter Mousse.  I can't remember any of what Jamie chose for his meal but I know it was all incredible.  

Collier gave his daddy a big 'ol messy potato soup kiss right on the lips and thought it was sooo funny :)

I'm telling you, the kid LOVED the soup! He would not put the spoon down until he got every last bit of it.  And from the looks of it, Jamie loved the wine! :)

Following dinner, we walked around the atrium for a bit, watched Goofy dance with the atrium singers, then headed back to our room to go to watch a movie and go to sleep.  Since Anna and I had an afternoon in the Bahamas while Jamie watched the boys, I let him join Ryan for some guy time.  Every evening they have broadway-like performances with all the characters (including others from Disney movies), lots of singing, dancing, etc.  If you choose the 5:45 dinner rotation, like we did, then you go to the 8:15 show and if you choose the 8:30 dinner, you go to the 6:00pm show.  However, after sitting at dinner for 2 hours each night (and going on no naps) we never made it to a single show.  That's one thing I do regret... I don't feel like we 'planned' our days very well and missed out on some things.  However, our kids slept in each morning (not that I'm complaining about that!) so we would get a late start to our day, cram as much in as we could before it was time to get cleaned up, then an early dinner time just made for a busy day and worn out kids each night.

Movie time before bed... besides, we needed to rest up for our FUN day that lay ahead!