Trip log, day three. Castaway Cay.
3-Night Halloween on the High Seas Bahamian Cruise from Port Canaveral
October 14, 2018
Personal Navigator – Day 3

Before I get into our day at Castaway Cay, I need to talk about Beauty and the Beast. On Saturday night, I finally saw the new production… in my stateroom. I guess I should be turning in my blogger credentials now, but those don’t exist. The scheduling was perfect with the show on day 2, we didn’t have any dinner or evening plans. I had plans to see the show, even by myself, but when push came to shove, I simply didn’t want to sit in the Walt Disney Theatre for an hour and 15 minutes. I was having more fun doing practically nothing. Before I go any farther, this is NOT a knock on the show, I just like going to Pink with Emily, eating too much ice cream with Isabelle and watching college football to take the time out for the show. The choices we make.

The good thing is that the the shows are on in the stateroom. Sadly, they are no longer on demand like they were years ago, but there are 4 showings throughout the evening. As I was flipping between football games, Isabelle found the channel playing the show. It already started, but at this point the Wisconsin vs. that team up north game was not watchable so I was more than happy to try it. The production drew me in to the well established story and when it was over, the replay started again allowing me to see the part I missed. I have not yet watched the live action movie which was used as inspiration for the production so I am not sure how well it follows along with the film. The production was enjoyable, from someone who hasn’t watched the film, I can best explain the show as the retelling of the animation classic in the style of the live action film. No doubt there is more to it than that, but it works. I will do my best to make time to pop in the blu-ray (which I did buy the day it was released) because I’d like to see the live production, say next June during the inaugural DCL Blog group cruise.

Our final full day started with a smooth arrival at Castaway Cay.

Isabelle and I packed extremely light for this cruise (read as) we purposely didn’t bring running shoes so Emily was the only one running the Castaway Cay 5k, but we did go ashore with her when she left to start the run.

The first thing I noticed was the removal of Anthony Connelly’s sign which was on Pump House 1 opposite Bob Chapek in March. Similar to the windows on Main Street, signs at Castaway Cay reference those behind the scenes at Disney Cruise Line.

Jeff Vahle, President of Disney Cruise Line and Signature Experiences, sign can be found in the same spot at the Conched Out Bar where Karl Holz’s sign once hung. If anyone happens to know where Karl’s sign is if it is still on the island let me know. I did not have time to search for it.
As Emily was walking toward the starting line, she turned to see this incredible sight.Isabelle and I headed over to the family beach where I decided to purposely take this out of focus image of the Disney Dream. Who knows, maybe it will save me a step one of running gaussian blur in Photoshop for a door magnet.
Isabelle enjoyed the time before the end of the race to play on the practically empty ropes course.The Castaway Cay 5k medals were hung on the sand fence with care, while runners ran the runway and 2 loops of doom.Continuing with the artist focus shots, here is Emily approaching the finish line with her stylish sunglasses.Here is a shallow depth of field medal photo for you enjoyment.

See a trend here….

Over at Summertime Freeze, the huge blowout of artistic photos continues with Sven eyeing that delicious carrot.

Kinda explains the look in this happy snowman’s eyes.

Jumping around here is a look at the latest Conched Out Bar menu.

After the 5k, we settled in beach chairs about a foot into the water off the family beach while Isabelle played on the ropes course. Remember that lame excuse of packing light to have an excuse to not run? Well, we did pack our snorkeling equipment, including our fins and we didn’t even venture out. Primarily my fault, I was happy as a clam in the chair not doing a darn thing.

Cookies BBQ provided today’s lunch and the garlic focaccia bread was the best it has ever been making my Castaway Cay chicken sandwich even more delicious and by delicious I mean, you should have run or gone to the gym, eating like this is going to be your downfall.

After lunch we hit a bit of a snafu. Isabelle wanted to participate in the Island Scavenger Hunt which is listed on the Navigator app as Edge, Deck 13…. Well, the actual meeting spot was the Hideout on the island… Oh well, we live, we learn. Specifically, Isabelle and I learned we can walk from In Da Shade to the EDGE on Deck 13 and back to In Da Shade in 40 minutes. As much as I’d like to bash the app, I knew it didn’t seem right to meet on the ship, but that is all on me for not questioning this important detail. Oh who am I kidding, the chat feature still timestamps messages when you open the app, not when the other user sent them. I’m not going to let that one go.

We saw the Youth Activities counselors with a group of kids who were more than welcoming to Isabelle, but by this time she didn’t want to join near the end as to not spoil the experience for her next opportunity to experience the activity.

Isabelle met up with a classmate and spent more time on the ropes course before we all decided we’ve been sitting out in the sun for long enough. Time to go check out some of the merchandise.

The increasing popular Spirit Shirts are available in pink and a hooded version.

I am positive the following line of merchandise was at least partially available back in March, but the sign says new arrival so who am I to argue… Here is the collection in its entirety. I know for sure the following two items were available in March, based on my photo archive. There are 2 long lengths of fabric in the above image. I guess this could be a cover up or something you could wrap around yourself or a table cloth. Alternatively, you can also look at this item as a few yards of Castaway Cay print fabric for $30 to make whatever you want.

Isabelle spent part of this cruise working on a scavenger hunt for the DCL Blog Group Cruise and well, as we were looking at the enchanted map near the Port Adventures desk I couldn’t help but update it prematurely based on recent news.

We packed up as best we could while Isabelle enjoyed dinner and we flipped back and forth between the available NFL games. On the special events channels, we had games from CBS and FOX including the Bengals vs Steelers and Jaguar vs Cowboys, the evening game between the Patriots and Chiefs was also on. I cannot recall the other games. Still, much better than the NCAA offerings.

Emily and I had another date night planned. We started off in Meridian talking to Alexander who dug into to the sommelier bin for us.

We started the cruise with date night in Palo which leaves the best for last, Remy!

Hands down, tonight’s dinner was the best Remy dinner experience to date. Last year, I snuck a Remy dinner review in the trip log, but the menu recently changed and the evening deserves a stand alone post. If you are reading & following along, you will notice that we again did not set foot into the MDRs. This is a trend for us on these short cruises & it is absolutely lovely to not feel pressures into following a schedule.

I failed to mention this on the first day, our captain for this sailing was Captain Michele Intartaglia. We saw Captain Andy walking around during embarkation day, but it was Captain Michele who had command of the Dream during this sailing. I suspect he is bridging the gab until Captain Robert takes the helm.

I went into this cruise with on big question on my mind. Can the Dream redeem? One year ago, I summed up this same 3-night Halloween cruise as lackluster compared to our 3- and 9-night cruises earlier in the year aboard the Disney Wonder. This year the bar was established by a Marvel Day at Sea and a Mediterranean cruise. A themed day cruise and another new cruise destination is going to be tough to top. While the Dream did not top either of those trips, the Dream redeemed itself from last year (albeit the Sail Away party was awful). We just take it for what it is, which is a ship full of mostly first time cruises and folks looking for a weekend getaway. We just enjoyed ourselves with no schedule and had a blast.

Thanks for following along, we’ll return to the high seas in early 2019. If you have any questions about this cruise ask away in the comment section below!

Complete Trip Log Index

• Day 1 – Port Canaveral
• Day 2 – Nassau
• Day 3 – Castaway Cay