Arriving at Disney's Castaway Cay in the Bahamas
Laura and I are the kind of people who like to watch as our cruise ship arrives in a port and docks. Whenever we can, we make it a point to go up to one of the top decks of a ship and watch as the ship slowly approaches the dock and the lines are tied up to secure the ship. Yes, we may not be quite like everyone else, but that’s okay. On our recent Disney Cruise, we enjoyed watching as the Disney Dream arrived at Castaway Cay, Disney’s island in the Bahamas.
As you can see from the above photo, we had a pretty good view as the Disney Dream neared Castaway Cay. We also had a good view of all of Castaway Cay from this deck. I like how you can see all the way across the island from the upper levels of the ship, which shows just how small the island is, relative to some place like the United States, or even larger islands like New Providence Island where Nassau is located.
The white trails in the water are the wake of one of the smaller boats going in ahead of us. And yes, this is the rear of the ship. The Disney ships always back in at Castaway Cay, in case you want to watch sometime and are wondering which end of the ship to go to. As the ships approach the island, they stop and turn 180 degrees to be able to back to the dock. Pretty cool to watch that, too.
Zooming in a bit on Castaway Cay from our upper deck location, you can see the main beaches of the island, including the Family Beach where we would end up spending most of our time on our two stops there. Just as the beach gives a good view of the ship, the ship also gives a good view of the beach. Which makes sense if you stop to think about it. And even under an overcast sky, the water still looks a lovely shade of blue, so much different than our rivers and lakes back home.
Castaway Cay made a nice backdrop for a portrait of Laura as we were arriving. My favorite person in one of our favorite places. We had just finished breakfast, and we hurried outside to see the arrival before going back to our room to get ready for our day out on the island.
Right below her right arm, you can see some of the service trucks on the dock, waiting to unload supplies from the ship. Those would be gone by the time the ship’s passengers (like us) were leaving the ship, because they don’t look all that inviting for photos and such. But they are necessary, and it is interesting to get little glimpses of how some things like that work there. Because as fun as everything seems, there obviously has to be some behind the scenes operations to keep everything running smoothly.
Our stateroom verandah also gave a good view of Castaway Cay. Because our room was on the starboard side of the ship, it would not have been a good location for watching us arrive, because the dock and the mooring lines are on the port side. But once we were there, it was a great location, because we had a good view of Castaway Cay all day long. Except that we were not in our room all day long but instead out on the island. However, whenever we were in our room, we did have a really nice view.
In contrast to the zoomed in view of the beach above, I liked this wide angle view from our room, showing the verandah rail and the lifeboats down below, along with the lagoon and island, and those ominous clouds overhead. Because of those clouds, we did not linger in our room all that long, instead going out onto Castaway Cay as soon as we could go, just in case some later rain would drive us back to the ship.
The rain did just that, but not until well after lunch, so it all turned out well. After all, a rainy day on a beautiful tropical island is still a day on a beautiful tropical island. Not too much to complain about there.
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” - Philippians 2:14-15
About the photos:
Once again for these photos, I used multiple lenses to get the looks that I wanted. It is probably pretty obvious, but the first and last photos use a fisheye lens, while the two middle photos use a zoom lens. And interestingly, those two photos show the two extremes of that particular lens. The beach photo was taken with the lens zoomed as close in as it would go, which is only 42mm, so it is not that powerful of a zoom. And the photo of Laura was with the lens as wide as it would go, which is 14mm. I wanted to get just a little bokeh on the background for more of a portrait look. However, I still wanted a good bit of the island visible in the background as well, and the 25mm prime lens would have cut out a good bit of that, so that is why I stayed with the zoom lens for that photo.
Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR and Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: June 8, 2017
Location: Castaway Cay, Bahamas
