Disney Dream Day 3: Castaway Cay and Pirate Night

I am not fast - Baymax
I had this shirt made just for the 5K -
it was a big hit among my fellow runners

Today was the day!  I was ticking a bucket list item off my list (kinda): Castway 5K as part of RunDisney marathon and running events.  Look, we live nowhere near Disney so I will take what I can get!  I had an early start to hydrate as much as I could without needing to pee during the run (it was bottom of feet burning hot – yes, I had to put my burnt feet into running shoes).  I am not going to lie.  I was damn nervous.  I’ve never attempted to run in 92F heat and 94% humidity.  When it’s that hot in Australia, you exercise indoors in A/C or you just get a Slurpee and don’t.

Welcome to Castaway Cay!

Hi Minnie!

We were the first off the ship and had a 10 minute warm-up walking to the start line (Pelican Point).  Then we were off!  I had a good start but as I was rounding through The Loop of Fun my head started pounding.  I panicked a bit thinking I was going to faint on this loop but drank what water I had left in my bottle as I walked to the half way point.  I managed to pick-up to a run again down the airplane strip towards Serenity Bay… and kept going until I hit the beach.  Just kidding.  I turned around and came back through The Loop of Death, walking most of it this time.  I finished the last 1K running.  And voila, I got a medal for not passing out!

Now that I was still, my feet were throbbing.  Between my “expired” running shoes and the heat swelling my feet, I was in a world of hurt.  I made my way to the designated meeting place that MrH and I had agreed on.  They must have had a lie in because I was late and they weren’t there.  I grabbed some lounges in the shade and put my sore feet up.  As I was making my way into the water, I saw them!

We got ready for our Stingray Adventure.  I had done this with my sister in the Cayman’s and loved the experience.  We were split up into the groups and shown how to feed the rays.  The rays are trained to swim up a floating platform and eat off Mickey plates (of course!)  Poor MissE had a rogue fish bite her finger!  While she decided to stop feeding the rays after this, she did continue to snorkel.

This was MrE’s first time snorkelling and he did so well!

As Castaway Cay is Disney’s private island, everything (outside of alcohol and souvenirs) was included so we went to Cookies BBQ for lunch, stopping for a quick dance with Minnie.

We spent the rest of the day on the water slides at Pelican Plunge.

On the ship, MissE and I managed to ride the Aquaduck while MrE and MrH worked on the Midship Detective Agency The Case of the Stolen Show featuring The Muppets before our afternoon appointments.

Pirate bandannas were waiting for us when we got back to our stateroom

Tonight was Pirate Night and to make sure we were dressed for it, I had booked MissE and MrE into Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique which overnight had become The Pirates League.

We met Captain Hook and Smee before dinner.

We found Peter Pan looking for Tinkerbell near the elevators...
he must of been looking for my fairy dust!

Dinner was back at the Animator’s Palette with a swashbuckling menu. 

After we met the man himself, Captain Jack Sparrow!

Waiting for Captain Jack Sparrow

As the sun set, we were treated to a pirate show… or 2.The first show was Mickey's Pirates in the Caribbean, the family show, featuring Captain Hook and Smee taking over the Disney Dream. 

The latter show, Buccaneer Blast, featured the hunt for Captain Jack Sparrow and a fireworks show off the boat!  DCL is the ONLY cruise line that does this in  the world.  It’s nothing short of amazing. For a snippet, click here.  Then it was time to dance the night away at Club Pirate. 

Tonight, Cabanas was open for a late-night snack and dessert buffet.  We shared crepes from the DIY bar before heading to bed.

How cute are MrE's sheets?

Good night, monkey!

Disney Dream Day 2: Nassau and Halloween at Sea

Nassau, Bahamas

#FromBahamasWithLove

This morning, we dragged ourselves out of our very comfortable beds to spend the day in Nassau.  We watched the boat dock between a Carnival and Royal Caribbean ship as we ate breakfast and couldn’t help but have a bit of swag when we got off (and back on) our ship! 

Mickey waffles, breakfast of champions!

We had a port excursion to Aquaventure, the water park in Atlantis Resort, which included the aquarium.

MissE tried her first non-tube, 200-foot-long single ride slide that also dropped 50-feet in the dark into The Cenote - an underground lair of prehistoric alligator gars and fish.  Oops.  She cried but we were proud of her for trying at least.  MrE also had tears because he wasn’t quite tall enough for The Serpent, which features a leisurely float through a tunnel in the shark tank.  To be fair, we couldn’t see the sharks that well from inside.  We had to pinkie promise that we would come back one day when he was tall enough for it.  Luckily he was happy in the Splasher area and with some of the smaller slides which were just as fast.

Thumbs down on The Abyss

MrH inside on The Serpent

Of course mine and MrH’s highlight was the Leap of Faith which is the 60-foot near vertical slide that takes you hurdling down through a tunnel in the shark tank.  This one is all for thrills.  Check out the video of my ride!

After our fun day of slides, we rushed to get back to the ship for the Halloween on the High Seas celebration!  

Mickey's Mouse-querade Party

There was even (very generous) trick-o-treating

Our costumes this year were Disney-related: Wreck-it-Ralph.  I drew the short end again and was assigned all pink as Taffyta Muttonfudge.  I preferred Sgt Calhoun BUT Disney has a strict no “weapons” policy and I also knew it was going to be darn hot in all black.  I was grateful for that foresight when we were at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party!  This year, it was a mixture of bought and hand-made but since I was well-planned for this trip I didn’t have my usual last minute panic.  We got quite a bit of mileage out of our costumes this year – I am happy to be done with them and onto 2017!  Disney Dream has a Vanellopes’ Sweets so of course we had to go visit and earned our very own medals.  I had my very own sundae!

Taffyta Muttonfudge, Vanellope Von Schweetz,
Wreck-it Ralph and Fix-it-Felix

That night, we had dinner at Animator’s Palate which is a highlight of the rotational dining restaurants.  As you eat, Crush from Finding Nemo comes to have a chat with you, Bruce circles the restaurant and Nemo and friends play throughout.

After watching Villains’ Tonight, and with the kids deposited at Oceaneers Club, we went to the Adults Only Halloween Is Not Just For Kids party.  We got into the Most Creative group but didn’t even come close to winning.  We blame being mismatched without the kids with us!

I had an early start the next morning for the Castaway 5K so it was off to bed!

Our rhino says goodnight!