On our last day of our Eastern Caribbean cruise onboard the Disney Fantasy, I woke up early just after 6:00am all ready for our day at Castaway Cay. I checked the map on the television and we still had forty nautical miles to go and as I walked out onto our verandah, it started to rain heavily but it quickly passed and it was very soon a beautiful morning outside.

Since leaving St Thomas two nights previously, our stateroom (as well as the rest of the aft of the Disney Fantasy) had been suffering from bad vibration due to the speed that we were having to travel to make it to Castaway Cay on time. However not long after we woke up, the vibration suddenly stopped as the engine power was reduced and we started to once again cruise at 17 knots. It was a welcome relief after being shaken around non stop for two nights. Another thing that I realised at this time was that on the Eastern Caribbean sailings, the all ashore time at Castaway Cay is at 9:30am – an hour later than every other sailing due to the distance you have to sail from St Thomas. Having one hour less at Castaway Cay did not bother us but it could be a dealbreaker for other people – our day there definitely felt a lot shorter than normal.

As there was still a while to go before we docked at Castaway Cay, we wanted to get some breakfast. Cabanas was the busiest I have ever seen it at 8:00am so we got our breakfast and took it back to our stateroom to sit and eat on the verandah. I also spotted the famous POG (Passionfruit, Orange and Guava) juice in one of the machines that morning that I’ve read so much about online so I had to get a glass of it to try.

Just before 8:30am we got our first glimpse of Castaway Cay. It now seems such a familiar sight to both of us but it’s always a strange feeling knowing that years ago, I hoped that one day I would get to visit and this would now be our third time on the island – it’s something I never thought possible back then and definitely something I’m incredibly grateful for. After the earlier rain it was now such a beautiful day and from our verandah, we had a perfect view as we backed towards Castaway Cay. We were docked just before 9:00am and there was a sense of relief as the Disney Fantasy had been unable to dock there on the same cruise two weeks previously.

One of my favourite things about having a stateroom with a verandah at the back or on the starboard of the ship is the amazing views you get of Castaway Cay – it’s a view that you could never get bored of looking at. As the all ashore time was 9:30am, we were happy to let everyone rush off the ship to grab their spots on the beach before we disembarked.

After making sure we were both covered from top to toe with plenty of SPF50 (the sun at Castaway Cay is no joke), we disembarked from the Disney Fantasy at 10:00am and the Forward, Midship and Aft gangways were all available to use. Towels are available at each the gangways so you do not need to take them from the pool or from your stateroom – you can then drop them into the containers around the island once you have finished with them so you do not have to carry them back to the ship.

One thing we did differently on this cruise to our previous visits to Castaway Cay is that instead of taking our passports off the ship with us (which we would do for any other port of call), we only took our UK driving licences and we did not have any problems using these at all during the day to get back onboard.

There were a lot of people waiting at Kargo Handling for the tram to take them to Scuttle’s Cove and Pelican Point but as we’ve always done before, we decided to walk. The walk to Scuttle’s Cove takes seven minutes and it means you can get some great photos of Castaway Cay itself as well as the Disney Fantasy whilst the skies are blue in case the weather turns bad later in the day.

As it was early May, the weather at Castaway Cay was perfect and it was not too humid which made the walk from Kargo Handling to Scuttle’s Cove even more easier than normal. In fact a lot more people were walking compared to our previous trips so I think the lower humidity really made a difference.

After filling up our water bottles at one of the drinks machines, we made our way onto the beach where the snorkelling lagoon is located. I had brought my own mask and snorkel with me so all I had to do was to collect a snorkel vest which are available free of charge all along the beach. As well as already covering myself in SPF50, I also brought a rash guard shirt with me to cover my back and arms to help protect from the sun whilst I was in the water. The last time I went snorkelling in Castaway Cay was on our 2015 Transatlantic cruise on the Disney Magic and I was really looking forward to swimming in the lagoon again.

Unlike my previous time snorkelling, I was aware this time of actually how big the lagoon is – it’s a lot bigger than it looks so I was prepared for how far out you need to swim. However I had forgotten how exhausting it is to swim against the current to get out that far into the lagoon. I also remembered how useless the mask and snorkel I had were as they both constantly let in water and the mask did not stop fogging up the entire time I was in the water. However I quickly found the Minnie Mouse statue underwater as I remembered where she was located before swimming even further out to find Mickey.

When I snorkelled for the first time at Castaway Cay, it was when we sailed on the smaller Disney Magic and I remember how quiet it was everywhere on the island but especially in the lagoon. This time and being there on one of the bigger ships and the snorkelling lagoon was packed – it was easy to find the Mickey statue not just by looking for the floating white buoy but just by looking where all the crowds of people were in the water.

After I had finished snorkelling, we headed back to the ship as I wanted to have a shower to wash the sea water off and drop off the GoPro as well as the mask and snorkel back in our stateroom so I did not need to carry them around for the rest of the day. On the way back, we passed Minnie Mouse at Scuttle’s Cove so I had to quickly stop and take a photo as there was no line to meet her.

After having a shower, we took the tram back to Scuttle’s Cove and looked around She Sells Seashells and Everything Else but there was absolutely nothing I wanted to buy. We then grabbed a cold drink and walked to Pelican Point to visit Buy the Seashore – the one thing I really wanted to buy was a Castaway Cay t-shirt but I did not like any of the very few designs that they had. There seemed to be more Castaway Cay 5K merchandise than anything else in both of the shops on the island.

As we were both hungry, we decided to have lunch at Cookies Too BBQ. There was not too many people here at this time and all stations were open so it did not take long to get our food. Once again unless you eat meat, there are not too many options for lunch except for coleslaw, corn on the cob, potato salad, bean chilli as well as various fruits. I knew that they had veggie burgers so asked for one hoping that it was either a Beyond Burger or Impossible Burger that are served in so many places now including at Walt Disney World which I absolutely love – the Beyond Burger I’d had the week before at the ABC Commissary at Hollywood Studios was incredible. However the veggie burger at Castaway Cay is not good at all – in fact it’s possibly the worst veggie burger I’ve ever had in my life as well as the worst food item I’ve eaten in five cruises. I managed two bites of it and could not eat anymore and I hate wasting food. It was such a disappointment given how amazing the rest of the food onboard the ship is.

After lunch, we both got an ice cream each when it started to rain heavily which was not a surprise as the forecast had been for 45% rain during our day at Castaway Cay. We sat down under one of the shelters nearby until the rain stopped less than ten minutes later.

Our next stop was Monstro Point to meet Paleontologist Mickey Mouse at the Family Whale Dig. I’d seen photos of Mickey wearing this costume but always assumed that we could not meet him as Monstro Point is normally a kids-only area. However for forty-five minutes each day at 1:00pm, this area becomes open-house and all ages can visit. There was less than ten people here and we met Mickey with no wait. Not too many people seem to know about this character meet and it really is such a cool photo opportunity that you would not get anywhere else so I’m really happy that we noticed it on the “Fun for all Ages” section of the Personal Navigator.

After walking back to Pelican Point, we took the tram over to Serenity Bay. It had started to feel very hot so we got another cold drink as well as another ice cream and sat in the shade under an umbrella on the beach. Serenity Bay is absolutely beautiful and it was a perfect place to sit and relax in peace and quiet. However not long after we got there however, the sky started to look very grey and ominous but thankfully it did not rain again.

We took the tram back from Serenity Bay to one of our favourite places on the island which is the Heads Up bar at Pelican Point. We did not have a cocktail whilst we were there but instead just took in the perfect view of the Disney Fantasy and Castaway Cay. We asked someone if they could take our photo (we have the same picture taken on each visit to Castaway Cay) and even though he looked petrified to be holding an SLR camera as he said he had never used one in his life, he took a brilliant photo for which we were very grateful.

We also decided that if we do another cruise that includes Castaway Cay on the itinerary, we would want it to be on either the Disney Magic or the Disney Wonder. Until you have visited Castaway Cay on the both the smaller and bigger ships, you have no idea how much of a difference that makes to the crowd levels on the island. Ideally I’d love to visit Castaway Cay again on the Disney Wonder (my favourite ship) which would mean I would have then visited Castaway Cay on all the Disney Cruise Line ships in the fleet.

Just after 3:00pm, we decided to go back to the ship. It was a beautiful walk from Pelican Point all the way back to the Disney Fantasy which took about fifteen minutes.

Once back on the dock, we noticed that Hawaiian Stitch was meeting at the gangway. This was not planned but it felt appropriate and fitting that this was our last proper character meet on this cruise as next year we will be sailing to Hawaii on the Disney Wonder and I cannot wait.

We were back in our stateroom at 3:45pm which was an hour before the all aboard time. As I was hungry after not having much for lunch, we decided to get some food from Deck 11 and I had a veggie hot dog (made with a Beyond Meat sausage ) and fries – it tasted so good and was so much better than the veggie burgers onboard and at Castaway Cay. We ate our food on our verandah and also finished the last of the Rosa Regale that we had brought onboard with us whilst enjoying a perfect view of Castaway Cay.

We set sail just after 5:00pm and the view could not have been more beautiful as there was a rainbow and right at the end of it was Castaway Cay.

After sailaway I walked up to Sweet On You as I wanted to buy one of their amazing looking cupcakes that I had been looking at the entire cruise and this was my last chance to get one. It looked so perfect but as I’d just eaten, I put it in our fridge to save for later. At this time, we also started to pack our cases ready for the next morning which did not take long and as we were only driving to Orlando, we did not need to pack properly as it wouldn’t be long before we had to unpack again.

There were no characters we wanted to meet on this night but they were all out in the lobby atrium before dinner with either little or no lines. Shutters on Deck 4 was busy with everyone looking at their photos from the week but Guest Services was completely empty which I have never seen before on the last night of a cruise. It was a perfect evening outside so we also walked one last lap outside on Deck 4 before dinner.

For our last dinner, we were back in Enchanted Garden and I still loved our table in one of the round booths next to the Mickey fountain in the centre of the restaurant. I still cannot believe we were lucky enough to get that table – it really was perfect to us. It was just another reason to add to the list of things that I loved on this cruise.

To start I ordered the Garlic and Parsley Shrimp on Jambalaya Rice and the Wild Forest Mushroom Soup which were both delicious. As I’d enjoyed the Porcini Sachetti so much in Animator’s Palate the night before, I asked if I could have that but as a main course which was possible as it was being served in Animator’s Palate again that night – the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app was great throughout the whole cruise to be able to look up the menus for all the restaurants each night. For dessert, I ordered the Tiramisu was was a perfect size to finish our meal.

Before we left Enchanted Garden we thanked Xavier, Tanya and Ciao for looking after us so well throughout the week and handed them their tip envelopes. We also let them know that we would not be at breakfast the following morning as we would be doing Express Walk Off and disembarking as early as possible.

At 10:20pm we made our way to the lobby atrium to grab a spot for “Mickey and Friends” which was due to start at 10:30pm. It was still very quiet and there was no one waiting on Deck 4 to watch when we arrived. We were not sure what we would be seeing as we had been expecting to see “See Ya Real Soon” which is the normal farewell show on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy.

At 10:30pm Cinderella, Ariel, Tiana, Pluto, Goofy, Daisy, Donald, Chip and Dale, Captain Minnie and Captain Mickey arrive in the lobby atrium for you to get any last minute photos as this is the last time you will see the characters during the cruise as you will not see them the morning you disembark.

After fifteen minutes, the It’s a Good Time (Get Your Ears On) music started and the characters all assembled together on the Deck 4 balcony for a photo opportunity for everyone in the lobby. Between the two of us, we managed to get some great photos but I’m not sure why we saw this and not See Ya Real Soon but I know from reading Personal Navigators for cruises in the weeks after our sailing, that they have done both on the last day.

After watching Mickey and Friends, we headed up to Deck 12 to walk around the open decks. It was very quiet – even the Aquaduck was already closed – and it was a great time to get some photos with no one else in them. It really is one of my favourite times to explore the ship and I do not see that ever changing.

We then walked back down to the lobby atrium to get a last few photos as it was now also empty. On the way back to our stateroom, we walked outside onto Deck 4 when we saw the Disney Dream sailing past us in the distance on her way to Nassau. We tried to get a picture but it’s very difficult to take a photo of a moving ship from another moving ship at night!

It had been such a long day that after sorting out the last of our bags in our stateroom, it did not take long to fall asleep. It felt like no time at all before we were woken by the thrusters of the Disney Fantasy as we docked back into Port Canaveral early the following morning.

It was a beautiful morning in Florida so after having a shower and getting dressed, I sat on the verandah and ate the cupcake that I had bought the afternoon before for breakfast – it seemed like a sweet and delicious way to finish our week onboard.

We had been told Express Walk Off was due to start at 7:30am and we took the elevator down to Deck 3 with our bags just before 7:15am. There was already a long line of people waiting (a lot more than I have ever seen before) and we were about half way between the lobby atrium and Animator’s Palate in the line. However as soon as people started disembarking at 7:30am, the line moved incredibly quickly and before we knew it we had tapped our Key to the World cards for the final time and were back in the terminal building at Port Canaveral.

There was a short line for customs and immigration and less than ten minutes after disembarking the Disney Fantasy, we were back in our car and leaving Port Canaveral and driving back to Orlando – and just like that, our cruise was over.

There are not enough words in the world to describe how much I loved my cruise on the Disney Fantasy. I already want to book another cruise on her but I think it will be a few more years and it would have be on a new itinerary as I have now sailed to both the Eastern and Western Caribbean and I never want to repeat a port as there’s just so many other places that I need to go. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, our next cruise is back on the Disney Wonder to Hawaii – and that is going to be incredible. I cannot wait!

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