Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm not going to lie, one thing that really caught my eye when we were thinking of booking this cruise was that we would be cruising on my birthday.  Then I did the math and realized my birthday was the day we would stop at Castaway Cay and I was ready to book!

---

Castaway Cay (pronounced key) is Disney's own island.  They have a 99 year lease on it from the Bahamian government and they have developed it to be exactly what would expect on a Disney island . Like Mary Poppins, it's practically perfect.  You can consider the island as an extension of the ship, food and soda are included, alcohol and excursions are extra.   There's lots of shade, the beach is immaculate, to us the water seems warm and it's shallow a long way out.  Plus, the characters are there and there is a kids club you can take advantage of if you want a few child free hours.

So Port #2, Castaway Cay! We woke up to another beautiful day and another delivery of room service, which the kids enjoyed with a little Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  I would like to take a minute to explain our sleeping arrangements.  In our stateroom there was a queen bed for the adults and two beds for the kids.  First, the couch becomes a bed and then a bed comes out of the wall to make a top bunk.  It's perfect! I never got a great picture of it, but here are the kids eating breakfast on the couch and you can see the top bunk (which Anne had to have).

You can't tell here, but there was a side rail that kept her safe and a ladder which I always put away so that no one played on it.  The best part of the room is the cabin attendant.  Each night, they turn down the bed and prep the bunks and then in the morning, when you go to breakfast, they make the bed and put the bunks away.  Very nice service.  

Ok, so we had continental breakfast and then we went up to the buffet.  Whatever, we were on a cruise and I wanted a Mickey waffle for my birthday.  It was a good thing we did, because while we were up there, we ran into our server H.  You see, on DCL, you have the same server and assistant server every night, no matter what restaurant you are in.  Our head server was H and his assistant was Mr. G.  They were awesome, always had crayons waiting for the kids, water with lids for them, and a ginger ale for me.  

Back to the story, H (who was from Serbia and his real name had 1 vowel and 6 consonants) was working the breakfast buffet that morning.  When he saw us, he made sure we had what we needed and passed on a tip which proved to be invaluable, so I'm going to pass it on to you.  There is a tram on the island.  It will make 2 stops, one at the snorkel beach and one at Pelican Plunge.  Everyone will get off at the first stop.  Stay on and go to the second stop.  We promised him we would and told him we would see him for dinner.  Off we went!

Ah, dry land!  Isn't she a beautiful ship?  If you look really closely, you can see Sorcerer Mickey and some of the enchanted brooms cleaning the back of the ship.

We boarded the tram and at the first stop, almost everyone got off.  I mean, probably 75 people got off and 8 stayed on.  When we arrived at the second beach, it was practically deserted!  We were able to grab chairs on the front row, right by the water.

Where is everyone??  They got off at the first tram stop!  Thanks for the tip, H!  Ok, it only stayed like that for about the first hour.  Eventually all the chairs were taken.  Around noon, people were still getting off the ship, wandering down and looking for chairs.  They had no luck.

Here's the view looking the other way.  You can see the ship in the distance and Pelican Plunge, which is a floating waterslide play barge type thing.  When our kids are older I'm sure they will love that!  There are plenty of things to do on the island, bikes, floats, snorkels, a sting ray excursion, boats, water trikes, wave runners, fishing trips.  A ton of stuff! Unfortunately, our spot was so good and the kids were having so much fun in the sand and water we didn't do anything but sit and enjoy our day at the beach.  Not true, we swam and snorkeled, but we had brought our own equipment, so no cost there.  DCL does make you wear a vest when snorkeling, in order to identify snorkelers.  

Lunch, as I mentioned, is included. They have two locations for families and one at the adults only beach. We ate around 11 and went back to our spot on the beach. At one point I went to check out the shops and bought myself a birthday present. Around 2:30 we noticed that Anne was getting a bit red. Parenting fail, I missed her legs when I reapplied the sunscreen. Then Rob noticed I was getting a bit red. Time to go back to the ship.

We took the tram back and there was a bit of a line to get back onboard. It took about 10 minutes. Of course by this time the kids were spent and insisted on being carried. And I was getting redder and redder. In fact, I was in a bit of a mood by the time we got back to our stateroom. And I instantly regretted it once I opened the door as Rob had pulled off the ultimate birthday surprise, having the cabin decorated for my birthday!!

I cried, of course, and apologized for being grumpy. The kids were upset that I was crying until I explained that sometimes grown ups cry when they are happy. I felt even happier once I took a shower and put on some aloe.

We all needed some down time.

But as we were sitting there, a storm rolled in. It was fun watching the people running to the ship in the rain.

Luckily the storm was short lived because we had a fun night ahead of us, Pirate Night! The kids and I went out to get our Party started with some character meetings.

First up, Daisy Duck.

And then, at long last, the man, the mouse, the legend. Mickey!!

After meeting Mickey, Ryan started to cry. I picked him up and asked him what was wrong. He said, "Mommy, sometimes little boys just cry when they are happy." Melt my heart, little man! We spied Minnie, but didn't make it to see her again.

Our restaurant that night was Animator's Palatte. It's really cool with screens everywhere, on Pirate Night the screens show pictures from Disney pirate movies.

After dinner there is a pirate deck party, which I enjoyed so much I took no photos! The kids had the time of their lives watching the characters dance and sing. I won't spoil the surprise, but it was one of those moments as a parent you know you will never forget.

There is also a Buccaneer Blast fireworks show at 10:30. We slept right through it.

​Hey, I did get a picture of the bunks!