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!