Private Island (Cruise 2/5) | USA Trip
I was pretty excited for the coming day. Why? Probably because I like private islands. Not that I’d ever been on one, but I was sure that they would be good. Luckily, Disney actually owns one and our cruise went to it so now I have been to a private island.
I woke up very early after very little sleep and got ready for breakfast. We went upstairs to Cabana’s (the buffet) where they served a basic breakfast buffet. After all that, I was extremely full and we headed down onto the island, Castaway Cay. The first thing I saw off the ship was insect repellent. Lots of it. Hopefully it wouldn’t be needed.
Everywhere around us, people were preparing to run the Castaway Cay 5k. It was a race to run 5 kilometres around the island.
A few months in advance, we had already booked all the equipment rentals that we wanted. We went to pick up some bikes and we began to cycle around. The bikes were very dodgy. There was no ability to back-pedal and brother’s didn’t even have a brake!
At the bike trail, there was a short runway where I assumed planes carrying staff or supplies would land and take off. Continuing down the trail, we arrived at an observatory. We climbed up the stairs to a platform where we could see the entire island.
We walked back down and began our cycling journey back. Suddenly, I felt something in my eye. I couldn’t do anything, since I was riding a bicycle. I continued riding, but half blind. I left my right eye slightly open while my left eye was closed. Very safe.
We arrived back at the bike rental shop and dropped off the bikes. My brother was very excited about snorkelling, so we walked straight to the rental store. We gave the guy our tickets and he handed us the gear.
Back at the beach, we put on all our stuff and entered the freezing sea water. It was very cold. Step by step, I walked into the water. There was a moment when I just gave up and fell into the water. For 2-3 seconds, I couldn't move from the cold. But after that, it was fine. My brother, on the other hand, couldn't get his face in the water because the salt got in his eyes and mouth. Later on, we realised that this was because his mask was broken. After his bad experience, he left with a wise man to go back to the beach chairs. Then he started collecting shells. My mum and I continued snorkelling.
We went back up to the beach and I lied down on one of the beach chairs. Before long, I was asleep.
When I woke from my slumber, it was banana boat time. I had never done that before, so I was quite excited. It was very rushed because the time was approaching. We asked one of the people where it was, and he said it was near the cruise ship. Therefore, we nearly went on the tram. Luckily, my brother was walking very slowly so we missed it. We got out of line and found a banana boat lying on the beach on our right. We quickly ran over and found some guys getting off. We got a life jacket and got on. We were each handed a pair of goggles. They were going to be needed.
It started slowly. Just floating along the water. But then it got quicker. Like very quick. The bullets of water slammed against my face. I was hanging on for dear life. We went up, we went down. We swung side to side. In all the ways I thought would die, I didn't think it would be on a banana boat. But then we stopped. We had a little rest, and it all happened again. When the water wasn't spraying in my face, I could actually kind of see the ship.
When that was all done, we took off the stuff and put on our shoes. After an exhausting day on Castaway Cay, we decided to head back to the boat.
Since we all still had our bathers on, we went to Deck 11, were the pools were. The pools themselves weren't exactly big, but we weren't here for them.
On the Disney Dream, there was a waterslide: the Aquaduck. This tube slide was mainly clear so you could see over the entire ship and onto the land. We entered through the funnel. Throughout the path to the slide was a comic describing how the slide came to be. It turns out that the slide was built by Donald Duck's nephews, and he went on the slide but flew off.
When I finally got to the top of the line, I received a tube and got into the slide. There was this conveyor thing that brought the tube into the slide, and after that, I was off. The slide first spiralled off the side of the ship. Then, there was a series off ups and downs before entering a dark bit with lights. This was followed by a long section of clear slide where you could see a lot of stuff. Then it was basically the end.
We rushed back to our room and quickly took a shower. We had to make an appointment. We ran back up to the pool deck and went up a flight of stairs. and entered Goofy's Sport Simulator. If you've ever played a golf simulator, then you know what I'm talking about. basically, you throw or hit something into a screen and it would simulate the rest of the notion on the screen. There were multiple games to choose from. Obviously there was golf, but there was also basketball, baseball, soccer hockey, and much more. We tried nearly all the games. Unfortunately, we only had half an hour and our time was up.
Back outside, there was still the entire sports deck to explore. We started with the mini golf. On each course was two starting points and two dotted paths showing how to get a hold in one on each of them. One of the paths was Max's (Goofy's nephew) and the other was Goofy's. Max's path was more straight(forward) and Goofy's was more... goofy.
It was time to watch the show. Each night, the ship held a Broadway-style play in the Walt Disney Theatre. Last night was the Golden Mickeys, but since we watched Wreck-it-Ralph, we could not watch it. But tonight, we had nothing on.
The show being preformed was named Disney's Believe. It was about this scientist guy who's daughter liked magic and stuff. He met this thing which took him on a quest to believe in magic.
Great show, lots of popcorn. And now it was dinner time. We would be eating at Royal Palace. This restaurant was based on classical French things and the entire restaurant looked like a big ballroom. Our same two servers followed us from last night.
I ordered a lobster bisque and some other French food. During the dinner, some photographers came and took some photos of us. The service was impeccable while the food itself was also very good.
After dinner, we went straight back up to our rooms where we turned on the TV. There was a large selection of on demand movies and TV shows (most were Disney of course). We turned on some old Mickey stuff and began to try to maybe sleep.