2022 Disney Cruise Report Day 7 - Castaway Cay
On Day 7 of the 2022 Disney Cruise, we spent the day at the Disney Cruise Line’s private island of Castaway Cay…
Friday, June 10
As was our custom for the entire cruise, we woke up at 7:00 AM, thanks to my phone alarm. This was to be our last full day of the cruise. But instead of being sad, it was to be a fun day at one of our places, Castaway Cay, the Disney Cruise Line’s own private island.
Good morning from Castaway Cay! I see that they are getting everything ready for us down below!
While we were getting up and getting ready, I did a quick check of the weather, and it looked to be a beautiful, sunny day! On several of our summer cruises, we had encountered rain showers or even deluges at Castaway Cay, but I was hoping that would not be the case today. The weather forecast looked promising!
Looking out from our verandah, we could see the dock and the walkway to the main part of the island. While it was not quite as nice as the view out across the bay on the other side of the ship, I did not mind too much. We had been on enough cruises to know which Castaway Cay view we would have based on which side of the ship our stateroom was on. And any view of Castaway Cay is not a bad one to me.
Our whole group (the three of us, my parents, and the Luttrells) headed up to Cabanas buffet for one last breakfast there, because Cabanas would not be available on our debarkation day. I was happy to see that they had regular Mickey waffles once again, so that I could once again have my routine breakfast of Mickey waffles, fresh pineapple, and orange juice. And just for variety, we got a table on the opposite side of the ship from our rooms, so that we could look out over the bay while we ate.
Our breakfast view. I could get used to this.
My Mom checking out the view.
The Luttrells (minus John) at breakfast. I wasn’t the only one taking photos of the view!
We had planned ahead and brought all of our beach stuff to breakfast. So when we were all finished, we went down to Deck 1 to leave the ship and head out to Castaway Cay. Of course, we could not pass up the photo opportunities from the ship photographers, since those photos would be included in our unlimited photo package. And as a bonus, Rodrigo, one of our favorite photographers, was out there taking photos. He always kept us entertained!
We made it onto the island!
The Burns Family at Castaway Cay!
I like the border that they used on these photos, too.
One more from the ship photographers.
Laura and Rodrigo the photographer
Kyle and Kaitlyn at Mt. Rustmore
We also took a few minutes to look around in the shop. Interestingly, masks were required in the shop, even though it is pretty much an open-air shop. I wondered if that was a Bahamas requirement since we had not had to wear masks anywhere on the ship. Just another one of those unusual Covid things. Fortunately, they provided masks for us to wear, because none of us had brought one off of the ship with us. Although we looked at everything, we decided to save purchasing anything until later on.
A photo opportunity with Donald and Daisy
Walking along past the beach, but that beach was not our destination for now.
Our first main stop was to be Serenity Bay, the adults-only beach. Not that anything “adult” happens there besides people without children taking naps. But it is nice and quiet, and very relaxing. This was our first cruise where everyone in our whole group was over 18 years old, so that made going to Serenity Bay even easier because we did not have to wonder what the younger ones might do without us.
That’s my speed, too!
You can get to Serenity Bay by walking, but it is a long, hot walk when the sun is out, so we rode the tram to get there. Everyone else wanted to ride the tram, too, so we had to wait for a few trams, and it took two trams for our whole group to get there.
We’re on a tram to Serenity Bay!
When we arrived, we first went to get some chairs under umbrellas. Because we had left the ship early, we beat most of the crowd to Serenity Bay, so that we did not have any trouble finding a place for all of us together. Once we got settled, some of us went to get in the water, some of us went to the food location to get a drink of water, and some of us (well, one of us) took photos of the water. Water fun all around!
We made it! Let the beach fun begin!
I always like their places at Castaway Cay, such as the Windsock Hut
After I had taken my first round of photos, I joined the others who were in the water. We had to walk pretty far out to find water of any depth, but that was okay. We also found that the farther we got from the side of the beach where the food pavilion and restrooms were, the deeper the water got, even closer to the shore. It might not have been ideal for swimming, but we were happy just to be in the water, which felt good on the sunny day. Not that I was complaining about a sunny day at Castaway Cay at all.
A nice, quiet day on a nice, quiet beach
We all alternated between the umbrellas and chairs and the water at different times. It was nice not to have a plan and not to have anywhere that we needed to be. Just a day with no plans at a beautiful beach on a Bahamas island with perfect weather. You couldn’t ask for much more than that.
Looking at the beach from out in the water
If you are concerned about crowds, just keep walking farther down the beach. There were almost no people down here!
Laura at the Serenity Bay beach
Except that after a while our stomachs started asking for a little more than that. Specifically, lunch. Fortunately, lunch is served right there at Serenity Bay at the nearby food pavilion, so that you don’t have to go all the way back to the main part of the island just to eat lunch. They think of everything!
For lunch, I had a hamburger, because they always seem so delicious there. Maybe it is just the heat making me really hungry, but the burgers are always good. I also had some fresh fruit, along with Coca-Cola to drink, of course.
All of us Burnses sat at one table, and the Luttrells sat at another table across the way, because that was where we could sit. While we ate, I watched a crew member try to chase birds away from some food that people had left on the table. Those birds are always watching! And when we went to leave, we ran into Randy, our dinner server, who was manning the entrance to the eating place. He was telling us about trying to keep out some kids. “There was no way they were 18,” he said. I am sure that is a common problem there. We do our best to follow the rules!
Looking back through my photos, I am not sure why I took this photo of a trash can. I think I was just testing out focus settings that I was changing.
One more look at Serenity Bay for the day
After we ate, we decided to say goodbye to Serenity Bay, which never is easy to do. But we were not leaving the island, just that particular beach. We caught the tram back to the main stop at the main part of the island so that we could enjoy the beach there.
On a tram back to the Family Beach. There are actually four Burnses in this photo, because you can see parts of my parents’ heads behind us
And here is Jaylin, the fifth Burns on the tram. I didn’t want to leave anyone out.
Laura with Sandman Olaf, with matching poses
Kaitlyn and Jennifer with Sandman Olaf
Laura wanted to do the Pelican Plunge water slide. We found a place to put our stuff, and Laura got a few others to go with her to the slide. That involves swimming out to the floating dock where the slide is, which is fun in itself.
However, I decided to skip the fun of the slide and instead grabbed my camera for a round of photos at this part of Castaway Cay, to go along with the photos from the Serenity Bay area. The sun was still out, there were very few clouds, and the water looked a perfect shade of blue. Plus, I could see the Disney Fantasy across the way at the dock. I may have taken way too many photos, if there even is such a thing, which I don’t think that there is.
There are definitely more people at the Family Beaches than at Serenity Bay. And look, there is the Disney Fantasy off in the distance!
The Disney Fantasy across the bay, as seen from Pelican Point. And so many wonderful colors in the water, too.
Also, while I was making my photo rounds and Laura and some of the others were making trips down the slide, I got some ice cream from the Cookies Too eating place. I think they were getting close to closing everything up, because it was well after noon by that point. I had gone over there to get a cup of Coke, but I ended up with ice cream instead. A perfect day on a perfect island, and you can just go get some ice cream if you want it! Perfection.
The Luttrell family at the beach at Castaway Cay
Laura and Jaylin take a break after the Pelican Plunge slide
Laura and I went out to enjoy the water for a while, and Jaylin and my parents stayed up under the umbrellas. The Luttrells had already gone back to the ship by that time. After a bit longer, my parents decided to head back to the ship as well. Jaylin stayed up under the umbrellas just lounging at the beach, and Laura and I stayed out in the water just a little longer. We have known what it was like to have to go back to the ship at noon because a huge storm with lightning closed everything, so we were determined to make the most of this beautiful Castaway Cay day.
Coming up, we leave Castaway Cay and enjoy the last night of the cruise! Check back soon for more from our 2022 Disney Cruise!
