zerog
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 11, 2007
Day 3: Castaway Cay 
Since most people stay up late on cruises, you basically have 2 tough choices:
1) Sleep late and miss part of the day at the beach, but be well rested.
2) Get up early to maximize your day at Castaway, but go tired.
There's probably a happy medium for everyone. Perhaps this is something families can decide upon ahead of time, so everyone knows what to expect. Just remember, there are so many time delays involved with everything (i.e., getting off the ship, taking a tram to the Castaway Cay beaches, walking to find a lounge chair, checking kids in/out of Scuttles, taking the tram back to the ship, preparing for dinner or show, etc.).
Well, we had another late start to the day. It was tough getting my family to move in the morning, without causing fireworks of the family type. We had breakfast on Deck 9 (again). This time, the omelet bar was open and I ordered for my wife and I. The omelets were brought to our table, just as ordered. They also had smoked salmon. So, I would have to grade today's breakfast a B.
We were finally off the ship at about 10:30am. Then you get your towels and walk a little ways to catch the tram. The tram drops you off at a point where you can choose to go in one of many directions (i.e., family beach, adult beach, Scuttles, rent a paddle-boat, etc.). We decided to drop our kids off at Scuttles. Again, the slow methodical check-in process. ***Don't forget to apply sunblock/sunscreen. They will not put it on the kids for you.***
When we arrived at the family beach, there were quite a few people already there. We looked as far to our right as possible, and every front row lounge chair was taken. We got lucky and found some lounge chairs to the left, conveniently located behind the snorkel rental building. This building has a shower to wash off sand.
My wife and I brought our own snorkels, yet we were able to borrow flippers and floatation. We snorkeled for maybe an hour. Nothing too exciting to see. We found a queen conch, with animal inside, and saw just a few colorful fish. No living reefs. If anything, it was peaceful to be away from the kids for a few hours.
Scuttles took the kids to lunch around noon. My wife and I went to Cookie's barbeque. We learned our lesson on day 2 - don't eat a big late lunch - it wasn't 100 percent that we had late seating again for dinner. We didn't enjoy lunch at Cookie's, but again, it was good enough to hold us over until dinner.
We checked our kids out of Scuttles with the intention to rent a 4-person paddle boat and to let them play in the water. Scuttles doesn't have any activities for kids near the beach - its probably safer that way anyhow. Back to the paddle-boat, the minimum age is 5 years old. My DD is 4. So I took my 7 year old DS on a 2 person paddle-boat and my wife took my DD to get ice cream.
Pedaling the paddle-boat by yourself is very hard work (or great exercise, depending on how one looks at things). My DS was too short to help me pedal. I don't recommend this activity.
After the paddle-boat exercise, I found the rest of my family. Around 3pm, my wife was ready to get back to the ship with my DD in order to relax and get prepare for dinner/show. There would be no fire drill tonite. I stayed on Castaway with my DS. We walked to the Stingray encounter, but the 'tour' takes about an hour and wasn't to begin for another half hour. This would have put us back on the ship after 5pm. Instead, we found a covered pavilion near teen-beach that had foosball, pool, and ping-pong tables. I played a few minutes of each with my DS. We then rented 2 bikes and rode around for 1/2 hour. It was a peaceful ride - there are water stations everywhere and an observation tower.
At 4:45pm, we got our dining phone call. Tonite, we would have early seating at Parrot Cay's. Food was average at best, as expected. Server and assistant were extra nice, maybe because it was the nite to receive gratuities. I brought the tip envelopes to dinner and handed everyone their gratuity. (For the room steward, I left an envelope on the dresser the next morning). For the tips, I needed change for some 20's. I got change at guest services.
I'm not sure what they did at the other restaurants, but for the last nite in Parrot Cay, the waiters and some passengers performed in a 3 minute limbo contest. Okay, I got up from the table and went under the bar one time. Then the music stopped and dinner was over.
Next on the agenda was the Disney Dream show. According to Disney, this was ranked the #1 show at sea. Well, being spoiled by the broadway production of the Lion King, I didn't care much for the show. On the other hand, the rest of my family enjoyed it.
After the show, my wife took the kids to the Oceaneer's Lab, while I went to book our next cruise. We put the kids in the lab so that we could pack in peace and get our luggage out the door before the required 11pm deadline.
Side note: If you put your children in the Oceaneer's lab, it is highly probable that may not be the place you pick them up. The kids are continually moved from place to place, or are in transition - in which case you have to wait for the entire bunch to be moved before you can begin the checkout process. This is also the case at Castaway Cay. When you go to get your kids, they may be in the middle of a treasure hunt, for example. The lesson here is, you can't expect to pickup your kids at the last moment if you are hoping to be somewhere at an exact time.
Since most people stay up late on cruises, you basically have 2 tough choices:
1) Sleep late and miss part of the day at the beach, but be well rested.
2) Get up early to maximize your day at Castaway, but go tired.
There's probably a happy medium for everyone. Perhaps this is something families can decide upon ahead of time, so everyone knows what to expect. Just remember, there are so many time delays involved with everything (i.e., getting off the ship, taking a tram to the Castaway Cay beaches, walking to find a lounge chair, checking kids in/out of Scuttles, taking the tram back to the ship, preparing for dinner or show, etc.).
Well, we had another late start to the day. It was tough getting my family to move in the morning, without causing fireworks of the family type. We had breakfast on Deck 9 (again). This time, the omelet bar was open and I ordered for my wife and I. The omelets were brought to our table, just as ordered. They also had smoked salmon. So, I would have to grade today's breakfast a B.
We were finally off the ship at about 10:30am. Then you get your towels and walk a little ways to catch the tram. The tram drops you off at a point where you can choose to go in one of many directions (i.e., family beach, adult beach, Scuttles, rent a paddle-boat, etc.). We decided to drop our kids off at Scuttles. Again, the slow methodical check-in process. ***Don't forget to apply sunblock/sunscreen. They will not put it on the kids for you.***
When we arrived at the family beach, there were quite a few people already there. We looked as far to our right as possible, and every front row lounge chair was taken. We got lucky and found some lounge chairs to the left, conveniently located behind the snorkel rental building. This building has a shower to wash off sand.
My wife and I brought our own snorkels, yet we were able to borrow flippers and floatation. We snorkeled for maybe an hour. Nothing too exciting to see. We found a queen conch, with animal inside, and saw just a few colorful fish. No living reefs. If anything, it was peaceful to be away from the kids for a few hours.
Scuttles took the kids to lunch around noon. My wife and I went to Cookie's barbeque. We learned our lesson on day 2 - don't eat a big late lunch - it wasn't 100 percent that we had late seating again for dinner. We didn't enjoy lunch at Cookie's, but again, it was good enough to hold us over until dinner.
We checked our kids out of Scuttles with the intention to rent a 4-person paddle boat and to let them play in the water. Scuttles doesn't have any activities for kids near the beach - its probably safer that way anyhow. Back to the paddle-boat, the minimum age is 5 years old. My DD is 4. So I took my 7 year old DS on a 2 person paddle-boat and my wife took my DD to get ice cream.
Pedaling the paddle-boat by yourself is very hard work (or great exercise, depending on how one looks at things). My DS was too short to help me pedal. I don't recommend this activity.
After the paddle-boat exercise, I found the rest of my family. Around 3pm, my wife was ready to get back to the ship with my DD in order to relax and get prepare for dinner/show. There would be no fire drill tonite. I stayed on Castaway with my DS. We walked to the Stingray encounter, but the 'tour' takes about an hour and wasn't to begin for another half hour. This would have put us back on the ship after 5pm. Instead, we found a covered pavilion near teen-beach that had foosball, pool, and ping-pong tables. I played a few minutes of each with my DS. We then rented 2 bikes and rode around for 1/2 hour. It was a peaceful ride - there are water stations everywhere and an observation tower.
At 4:45pm, we got our dining phone call. Tonite, we would have early seating at Parrot Cay's. Food was average at best, as expected. Server and assistant were extra nice, maybe because it was the nite to receive gratuities. I brought the tip envelopes to dinner and handed everyone their gratuity. (For the room steward, I left an envelope on the dresser the next morning). For the tips, I needed change for some 20's. I got change at guest services.
I'm not sure what they did at the other restaurants, but for the last nite in Parrot Cay, the waiters and some passengers performed in a 3 minute limbo contest. Okay, I got up from the table and went under the bar one time. Then the music stopped and dinner was over.
Next on the agenda was the Disney Dream show. According to Disney, this was ranked the #1 show at sea. Well, being spoiled by the broadway production of the Lion King, I didn't care much for the show. On the other hand, the rest of my family enjoyed it.
After the show, my wife took the kids to the Oceaneer's Lab, while I went to book our next cruise. We put the kids in the lab so that we could pack in peace and get our luggage out the door before the required 11pm deadline.
Side note: If you put your children in the Oceaneer's lab, it is highly probable that may not be the place you pick them up. The kids are continually moved from place to place, or are in transition - in which case you have to wait for the entire bunch to be moved before you can begin the checkout process. This is also the case at Castaway Cay. When you go to get your kids, they may be in the middle of a treasure hunt, for example. The lesson here is, you can't expect to pickup your kids at the last moment if you are hoping to be somewhere at an exact time.
