Trip Report: October 11th-October 17th 2014 - Part 4

By Nick

Tuesday October 14th,

I had a hard time sleeping, as this was our Castaway Cay day, and I was very excited to be going to this lovely island that I had seen in so many photos through the years.

We had a quick breakfast at Cabanas, and then headed ashore.

I had been told that we should head directly to Serenity Bay, the 18+ beach, but instead we stopped at the Castaway Family Beach as it was already very hot. We chose a couple of chairs in the shade, and headed directly into the water to cool off. 

Note the prescription sunglasses I'm wearing above. More on that in a minute.

After floating around for awhile, we decided to try out the slide, Pelican Plunge. 

I had bought a really cheap waterproof video camera before going on this trip, which really worked out well, despite the photo quality not being the best, for $40, what the hey. 

I brought this camera to Castaway Cay, and figured I'd video my trip down the slide. 

At the top, the Cast Members warned me to hold onto my sunglasses. Did I listen? Sort of. 

I held onto the video camera with one hand, and my glasses with the other. 

Let's roll the clip.

I got to the bottom of the slide, and, yes, the glasses came off, and even though I had one hand on them, the gushing water behind me took them out of my hands. I was juggling them, and...gone.

I was told by the life guard who had witnessed this whole sad event that the bottom is very deep, and full of jellyfish, so the odds of me going down, blind, literally, and finding anything was slim to nil.

The life guard directed me to fill out a form. This is a very common occurrence it turns out, and every day, after closing, life guards comb the bottom for lost items and bring them to the ship.

Lucky for me, I'd brought a pair of regular glasses with me, so all was not lost.

After getting my spare glasses, we decided to head to Serenity Bay for a look at that part of the island. We were told we should get a tram, as the walk was long and hot.

Once we got to Serenity Bay, it did indeed look serene.

We preferred being where there was more activity, so we hopped the same tram back.

I'm glad we did hop a tram, we saw these folks walking, and they looked totally spent.

Once we got back to our chairs, it was closing in on lunchtime. You could smell barbecue all over, so we went to Cookie's to eat. The burgers were good, but the spare ribs and chicken were delicious. I even shared a frozen tropical drink with Barbie, who rarely drinks.

After lunch, we floated around in the lagoon for a couple more hours until we started to prune up.

On the way back to the Dream we stopped and took pictures at this popular photo spot.

Once we got back on the ship, we showered and got dressed for the Family Halloween Party at 4:45 in the Lobby Atrium, which featured a visit and dance party from our favorite Disney pals.

 

We were Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus on vacation. My wife sewed her dress, my shorts, and my Santa hat and facial hair.

We were a hit! Many people asked if they could get photos of us, or with us. We are pretty sure that some young children may actually have believed that I was Santa! 

The dance party was a lot of fun. Where else does one get to dance with Chip and Dale while holding a drink and dressed as Santa?

After the party, we headed to the upper decks as we sailed away from Castaway Cay.

We skipped our dinner at Royal Palace, and instead decided to try the sit down dinner served at Cabanas on certain nights during the cruise.

For appetizers, we both had the Ahi Tuna and avocado tower and Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese soup, while for entrees, I had the marinated rib eye steak, while Barbie had the grilled Portobello Mushrooms.

Everything was terrific. This was my favorite dinner of the cruise. It was less formal, and the food was actually just as good and better than we'd had the previous 2 evenings.

We took one last walk around the Dream before turning in early, having decided to skip the adult costume party that evening at 10:30pm. 

And who did we encounter? Captain Henry!

And, to have an even happier ending to my favorite day of the cruise, we stopped by Guest Services to check if my sunglasses had been recovered, and indeed they had!

Please check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of my trip report as well.