It’s Castaway Cay Day! Yay! It’s our last day on the ship. BOO! It’s Kim’s birthday! Yay!
Yeah, it was one of those wake-ups. A bittersweet day. I woke up with the sun, and I got up and checked wind conditions. I know Castaway can be a real beast to dock at when it’s windy, and…we’ve seen some wind. I don’t know a ton about the wind situation as it relates to Castaway, but I had to wonder when I saw the continued head-on winds.
But, about the same time I really started wondering, it became clear we were closing in on Castaway, so apparently the captain was optimistic…or at least willing.
I started getting ready for the day and woke up Nick, while also watching us back into Castaway. Looks like a go!!
Pretty soon we headed down to Royal Palace, where we found Kim and John for breakfast. Breakfast here was exactly what everyone was hoping for: peaceful. But I’m still pretty anti sit-down for breakfast, because they generally open too dang late! We actually had Edison as our assistant server for breakfast, which was awesome. I had the eggs benedict (and a hashbrown, duh!), and it was excellent. I have no idea what the others got. Then our server offered us churro waffles, since it was the last day. John and I took him up on that and about 10 minutes later, a plate appeared, with two waffles on it. I passed one over to John, and we both enjoyed them (obviously).
After breakfast, we headed back to the rooms to sunscreen up and stare at the beautiful island.
I think we met in the hallway around 9:15. It was a quick walk down to deck 1, and we were off the ship a few minutes later. We collected towels and then did lots of picture taking as we walked to the tram stop that would take us to Serenity Bay.
We had to wait probably 10 minutes for a tram, but eventually we were on our way to Serenity Bay. We got there well after 10, so to find 4 chairs together that were Nick approved we had to walk pretty far down the beach, but, eventually we found chairs and we settled in.
Our time at Serenity Bay involved Konk Koolers, some time in the water, some time out of the water after a shark was spotted, and some more time in the water after the shark had disappeared. And then of course lunch.
After lunch, I think Kim and John went back to the beach for a bit. Nick and I (ok, I) did some more picture taking and then we hopped on a tram back to the family part of the island. We then hopped on another tram back to almost the ship, and then worked our way back on board. It had been a great day on Castaway Cay!
Once back on board, Nick hopped in the shower, and I headed up to the pool deck. It was now or never if I was going to try the Aquaduck. When I got there, the posted wait was 20 minutes, but I couldn’t actually see a line so I was optimistic. Reality was about a 10 minute wait. Seriously, while the ship is still at Castaway Cay is a great time to ride the Aquaduck! It was fun, but short. And getting back out of the raft after was…a challenge. But I’m glad I finally tried it out to try to see what the fuss is about.
After a ride on the Aquaduck, I probably got some soda and then I definitely headed down to the room to shower off the ocean and chlorine. Then I did a bit of picture taking.
And then it was time to pack. NOOOOO!
Packing complete, I headed for deck 4 to watch us sail away. I actually found Kim and John so we watched together as the lines were dropped and the cast members waved us off with Mickey hands.
Then it was back to the room to round up Nick for tonight’s show. We met up with his folks at the theater, back on deck 3 and settled in to watch Believe. This was fantastic. I think Kim cried. Seriously, though…excellent show.
After the show, we headed back to the room to finish packing, watch sunset, and put the suitcases out. NOOOO!
Then it was back to District Lounge for some “Enchanting Disney with Keith Marlo”, aka some more really good Disney piano music, and of course some bar snacks.
And then it was time for our last dinner. We were in Royal Palace tonight. Dinner was great. The food was excellent, we enjoyed visiting with the table next to us and our serving team, and we celebrated Kim’s birthday. Although my pictures don’t prove it, I think I had the full four courses tonight: baked brie, potato soup, the salmon royale and the gran marnier souffle, and a Double Crowned to drink. Honestly, this is my favorite menu that I’ve experienced on the ships so far.
After dinner, Nick, Kim and I headed up to deck 5 to try to watch the See Ya Real Soon thing. We got to listen to a bit of Daniel Richardson on the piano, and then our assistant cruise director came out to chat, and we found out that the characters were going to come down the stairs, meet and greet for 15-20 minutes and THEN they’d sing. Yeah, no. So, we watched them come down the stairs.
And then we led our resident Muppets fan, Kim, to the tiny door, before heading back to the staterooms for the night, where we found our final towel creation of the cruise.
We crashed hard, bummed that the cruise was essentially over, and grateful that we still had several days of vacation left.
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