Click here to read about day 6 of our Seven-Night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy.
Best. Day. Ever.
When you visit Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas, be sure to set your expectations high! It really will be (one) of your best days ever.
We had visited Castaway Cay two times previously (via the Disney Dream and the Disney Magic), so we were pretty pumped for a day in paradise, relaxing on the beach and in our cabana.
As noted in my previous post, we had to stop off for a medical emergency during our day at sea on the way to Castaway Cay. So, we were significantly delayed in our arrival. We originally were scheduled to be there from 9:00am to 4:00pm. We ended up not arriving until 12:30pm and were scheduled to leave at 6:00pm.
Regardless, we still had some amazing views of the island as we approached:
Here’s a closer view of the cabana area on the Family Beach:
With a shortened day, I asked the Concierge staff whether we would get some type of credit on our account for the cabana rental. Indeed, they were going to adjust the charge on a pro rata basis. We ended up paying $503.16 (which includes Bahamian tax), instead of $670.88.
Since we arrived late, we already had our usual breakfast fare from Cabana’s and the Concierge Lounge prior to docking. Once we got off the ship, we hustled over to our cabana as quickly as possible to take full advantage of our limited time on the island.
Here’s a view of the Family Beach on our way over to the cabana:
We had reserved cabana #20, which we had booked and used during our two previous visits to the island. Upon arrival, we actually were ready to eat lunch, so we snacked a little (each cabana has fresh fruit, granola bars, and chips for snacking). Then, my husband headed over to “Cookies Too BBQ,” one of the buffet-style open-air restaurants on the island, to grab a tray of food for our lunch. He was going to bring back some grub to the cabana.
While I waited for food to arrive, I assumed my favorite pose:
We were lucky to have fantastic summer weather during our visit: about 85 degrees with a mixture of sun and clouds, plus an island breeze. We got a little worried when we saw these clouds, but it never rained (and if it did, we had the cabana for shelter):
We encountered various “wildlife” throughout the day, including a beautiful sea bird, lots of puffer and other types of fish, a large lizard, and…Olaf!
Here are some photos of the amazing views in and around our cabana:
Of course, all good things have to come to an end, so around 4:30pm, we started getting ready to head back to the ship (as we had main seating dinner at 5:45pm, and we had to pack up our suitcases that night).
I took these photos while we were walking back to the ship, as I sobbed and sobbed, wondering when I would return to one of the most perfect places ever created:
Cue even MORE sobs here:
After getting back on the ship, we quickly cleaned ourselves up and proceeded to Enchanted Garden, for our final dinner on the ship. Although it’s super-cute, I always hate seeing this menu because it means that disembarkation is just over 12 hours away:
For an appetizer, I had the porcini sacchetti, which is pasta filled with porcini mushrooms and swiss and fontina cheeses, with a garlic, thyme, and prosecco wine sauce. It was very good. I also had the Malaysian chicken satay. The chicken was kind of dry, but the peanut sauce was very good.
For a soup, I got the lobster bisque, which I did not really like. I’ve kind of learned that Disney Cruise Line does not seem to do a good job with lobster, which is a shame.
For a salad, I got the dill and lemon marinated shrimp with potatoes and fresh peas. The dish was very good, with the dill being the highlight:
I went with shrimp again for my entrée by getting the grilled garlic-marinated shrimp with linguini pasta, roasted cherry tomatoes, artichokes, sautéed baby spinach, and a tomato-basil provençal sauce. This dish was just OK, and this is the reason why I order many dishes because you never know how things may turn out:
For dessert, I ordered both the Chocolate Decadence and the Celebration Cake (layers of cheesecake covered with strawberries, embedded with vanilla cream and white chocolate). Being a chocolate person, the Chocolate Decadence was excellent. The Celebration Cake was good, too, just not decadent!
Of course, we were very sad to bid adieu to our amazing servers (Igor and Anastasia). After giving each of them hugs and a generous tip for a week’s worth of amazing service, we returned back to our stateroom for the very sad ritual of packing things up and getting ready to go to bed for a final night of sleep.
We were happy, though, to see that Mr. Ray would be sending us off:
Also, we would be bringing a friend home with us! My son is a huge Stitch fan and begged us to buy him this plush toy while on-board, so we would have more than just memories to join us for the return journey:
Click here to read about day 8 of our Seven-Night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy.
This post also may be viewed on the Disney Cruise Mom Blog.