It’s Castaway Cay day (or Castaway Key as it’s pronounced) which is Disney’s private Island. We breakfasted at 9 on the balcony and couldn’t believe our eyes: heavy rain pouring down and making the view of the Island merely a foggy, murky, grey nothingness! At 9:30 the captain played all 7 of the ships horns; “When You Wish Upon a Star”, “Makes No Difference Who You are”, “Be Our Guest”, “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes”, “It’s A Small World”, “Hey Diddly Dee An Actors Life For Me” and “Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirates Life For Me”. Soon after the skies seemed to be clearing and brighter weather seemed hopeful. We had planned to stay aboard and ride the Aquaduck whilst the boat was quiet as pretty much everyone will have gotten off. We made our way up there in our outfits (Disney swim shorts and Aquaduck t shirts) and it looked dry… Not good. We returned to our room to check our guide and saw it don’t open until midday. It was 11:15 so we figured 45 minutes on our balcony would be more than acceptable. To explain at this point what the Aquaduck is, it is a water ride in a boat around a tube that spans all around the boat above the decks. Half of it is a clear tube and half is covered.
As we sat on our balcony the weather really had improved. We could see all of the island clearly and watched the jet skiers, the parasailers, and the peddle boat riders getting some good pics along the way. Midday soon came so we headed back up to the top deck. There was no queue so we headed up the stairs. The boat is inflatable with seats front and back and grab handles on the side. You climb in on a flat area then the ride assistant pushes the boat into the tube. It was faster than I had imagined and much more vigorous. Every bump threw cold, chlorinated water in my face so I spent a lot of the ride with my eyes shut. Unfortunately, my scream meant I got mouthfuls of water as well. The straight areas in the clear tube were much more serene but there was not enough of this for me. The ride camera was not working so sadly we got no momento pic. Getting out of the boat was an art form as it stopped in the water in the tube, I needed a bit of a push from Paul. I got out and headed back for our room but Paul decided to ride again. He said it went even faster with one rider.
We were both drenched and hung our wet clothes in the bathroom and on the balcony. We got changed and made our way to deck one to disembark. By now the weather was scorching sunshine again, you could not believe it had even rained a drop! We meandered along the pathways taking pics as we did. When we got to the centre point it was already 1:15 and we knew that the bar-b-que lunch ended at 2pm so we decided to get a tram to Serenity Bay (the adults only beach) as we wanted to eat there rather than the family places. We got there and tucked into our hot dogs, ribs, chicken and coleslaw. We saw our dining room waiter, Ameet, serving there so we said hi.
We then wandered onto the beach (which was busier than January) and had a paddle. The ocean was pure turquoise and was warmer than January. We wanted to go out to the observation tower so set out on our trek. It’s actually a bike path but we elected to walk. By now the heat was sweltering, even Paul complained how hot it was so you can imagine how I felt. It was about 1.5k out to the tower but there were water stations along the way so we got there ok. We climbed the stairs and felt particularly underwhelmed at the view! You could see the ship in the distance but other than that it was scrub land and some sea. After a few photos we headed back down and back along our pathway for the 1.5k return walk. When we made it back to the centre of the island it was about 3pm so we found a bar and settled down with a piña colada and a shandy. We got a nice breeze and cooled off and we watched the swimmers and snorkelers in the water around us. All aboard was about 5pm but as no one stays on the island everything starts closing at 3:30 so it can be packed away and taken back on board where necessary. We thought we might as well make our way back to the ship as it was now about 4pm so got the shuttle all the way back.
We got an hours rest in our room and I managed to blog day 7 which Paul has just posted here at the airport which is where I am writing this. I may not completely finish by boarding time but I promise I will finish the trip when I’m home for you. We also got our Vinylmation back in our room which is just as good as before. We’ve got different signatures too like Woody, Jessie and Buzz FromToy Story, Phineas and the Ferb, Jake, Aladdin and the Genie.
Our final meal was back in the Royal Court and we took the Vinylmation to shoe Adam and Hayley. On the way to the restaurant we spotted Cinderella so grabbed a quick photo opportunity. We also saw Donald Duck and had our pic taken with him. As I walked up to him (or her, as it must be) I said “you’re never too old huh?” and got a resounding “no” hand gesture from Donald.
The starters at dinner were poor. 3 of 4 were sea food and the other goats cheese. I skipped and went straight for soup which was leek and potato. Paul skipped both starters and soup and salads. For main course we both opted for the beef wellington and Paul got given double helpings as he’d skipped starters. It was nice with really tender beef. For dessert Paul chose the baked Alaska which was a slice of a bigger dessert not a meringue mound that was expected. I had the chocolate decadence cake and we both had our usual cup of Tetley afterwards as well.
We headed straight back to our room after dinner to get packed before the show. Cases have to be outside the room by 10:30pm so we hurried to pack. We made our way to the theatre about 8:15 for final show time. The final show was a medley of characters and songs with a brief appearance by a magician (who was not very good). No Tinkerbell appearance on final night although we had seen her at Believe on the previous night – it’s a small green light that somehow flies over the theatre and really looks like Tink.
After the show we hurried back to the room to complete packing and put the cases out, we had just 20 minutes to do so ahead of the Disney trivia quiz at 9:45. Adam and Hayley joined us at the end which helped us to score 13 out of 20. Not good enough to win as a very loud group next to us scored 16. After this it was bed time as we would have an early start on Saturday for debarkation day.