Today was our Castaway Cay day! Castaway Cay is Disney's private island and this is the day that we were most excited for. I walked out on to our veranda around 7:25 am and we were slowly approaching the port. We were told that after the ship was secured at port and was cleared for cast members to get off ( to go set things up on the island), it would be at least an additional hour before guests would be able to get off the ship.
As we made it to Marceline Market for breakfast it started to rain. This bummed us out. The only thing we really wanted to accomplish today was running the Castaway Cay 5K. We've done all the Disney races in other locations and wanted to finally add this one to our list. You can read about all our other races HERE.
We were hoping that the rain would slow down or at least we would catch a break in the rain but either way, we were determined that we were going to run the 5K even if it was the only thing we did when we got off the ship.
While we waited we noticed the characters were walking around the ship in yet another costume change! Today it was their beach attire. We spent some time with them before going back to our state room to make a plan.
Back in the stateroom we got our stuff around for the race and put together a beach bag. The rain had stopped, so we were planning on getting off the ship when the all clear was called. While looking in our stateroom desk drawer for a pen, I saw there were complimentary postcards and stationary from Disney cruise lines.
Since we had some time, I decided to write out a post card to send home. I knew I would be home before the postcard got there but I thought it would make a cute souvenir. I called down to guest services to see if I could purchase some stamps. The cast member said I could indeed purchase stamps there or I could get them at the post office on Castaway Cay. What? Castaway Cay has a post office? She said that she wasn't sure if anyone would be working there today though. I immediately remembered that it was Sunday and knew the post office would not be opened. But the cast member told me that it didn't matter that it was Sunday, sometimes people just decide not to show up for work. Hmm, I thought that was odd.
Shortly after that, the all clear to get off the boat was called. This was about 9:30 am. Prior to boarding, I had made a reservation for us for the Royal Gathering at 10:00 am on this day. I wasn't sure what that was all about, but then when I found out it was a meet and greet with all the princesses I decided that I was going to cancel it. Aren't we a little too old to be meeting with princesses?
But by the time we got to the deck to get off, we would have only had a few more minutes to wait our turn for the meet and greet and my sister seemed to want to do it, so we just hung out a few more minutes to meet the characters. It was nice and I'm glad that we stayed for the interaction since it was our first Disney Cruise.
We made it to the gangway to get off the ship. As we got off a cast member handed us each 4 big towels. Wow, I didn't think we needed 8 towels between us. They made my beach bag even heavier. We assumed we got so many towels because they were probably needed to wipe off chairs and such that were wet from the rain.
When you get off the ship, you can either walk the path to the island or take the tram. It's not a bad walk nor is it very far so I would suggest walking. If you walk, you can stop to take some cool pictures of the boat and even the Castaway Cay sign.
The tram stops at 3 locations, The family beach, Pelican Point, and Serenity Bay ( the adult beach).
We needed to make our way to Pelican Point because that is where the 5K race would take place. There are also some shops at Pelican Point and the water slide area is at this stop too.
There is a clearly marked sign as to where the 5K starts and there is a large wooden box right beyond the sign that you can put your beach bag in. Anyone can get in this box and it does not lock so do not leave valuables in here.
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The 5K race is along an old air strip and is paved the entire way. Be sure to stop for pictures at the photo ops and take a climb up the lookout tower along the way. I'll talk more about the 5K race in another post.
If you want to see more of the island but don't want to run or walk, you can rent bikes for an additional fee. You can also rent tubes and other water crafts on the island for an additional charge.
We finished the 5K race at the same place we started. The course made a loop!
We collected the finishers medallion we earned and then decided to get lunch.
The lunch was actually quite good. After lunch we walked back over to Pelican Point because Lacey had saw some Castaway Cay 5K t-shirts at one of the shops over there.
We were in the small shop for a few minutes when the sky opened up and it started to pour down rain. We waited it out for about 10 -15 minutes. After the rain, the sun came out and it end up being really nice.
We didn't know it was going to end up being a beautiful afternoon so we were really hesitant to get too far away from the ship in case it started to pour down again.
We then walked back to Pelican Point and watched the kids go down the Pelican Plunge water slide. We decided that maybe we would try this next time ( if the water was warmer).
When we got off the ship we saw Mickey in his Jeep out on the beach for photos. We were hoping we would still see him later on but he never came back out after the rain. In fact, there weren't a lot of people out on the beach at all. I think the rain made people want to go back on the ship. We didn't see any characters so we got that obligatory photo with Mount Rustmore!
Since it continued to be nice out, we explored the island a little more.
It was windy on that top deck where the water ride was, so when we got off we wanted to jump in the hot tub to warm up, but it was already filled to capacity so we took a dip in the infinity edge pool that was heated ( it wasn't real warm but slightly warmer than pool water).
After that we decided to go get cleaned up for dinner. Lacey went back to our stateroom and to save time, I decided to shower in the locker room at the spa.
The spa locker room had everything I needed to shower.
The showers are the amazing rainfall showers ( even better than what we had in the stateroom). In the shower was shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. There were even disposable razors available and a hair dryer.
Our dinner rotation this night was in Arendelle which is the "Frozen" themed restaurant.
Just like at every other dinner, our table was numbered ( I think ours was 602) and that is the table number you will sit at each evening. To our surprise, our table was right up against the stage!
Tonight's dinner was sort of like a dinner theater. There was song and dance and then the characters even made their way around the tables to interact with the guests. I later found out that the characters do not make it a point to go to every table. This isn't a typical character dinning meal like at the parks. I think they maybe just came to the tables surrounding the stage.
Tonight's meal and dinner experience was probably my favorite. I will do a separate post on this dinner later so I can go into more detail.
I was highly satisfied with my dessert, but Lacey was not, so we thought after dinner would be a perfect time to finally go to the Bayou and get those beignets she's been wanting.
Instead of getting just a plate of beignets, she ordered a drink off the "secret menu". It was a secret chocolate drink that had a beignet on top of it ( and a green chocolate alligator)
After this treat, it was time to go get our seat for the main stage show.
Tonight's show was Aladdin. All the shows were excellent but this one was probably our favorite!
After the show there was one last meet and greet with the characters in their captain and sailor attire and then there was a farwell show on the atrium stage.
I wanted to make sure what time we needed to be on the bus tomorrow for departure and the line to talk to guest services was longer than any line for characters..lol. I suppose everyone was trying to settle their bills and what not before the morning.
We got Mickey bars!
And that ended our last night on the Disney Wish.
Until next time.....M & L
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Fairytales and Fitness is a personal blog authored and edited by us, Meranda and Lacey. The thoughts expressed here represent only our own and are not meant to be taken as professional advice. Please note that our thoughts and opinions change from time to time. We consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind in an ever changing society. Any thoughts and opinions expressed within our out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those we may express today. Some links may contain affiliate links. Some links are just to pages we'd like to share.