disney dream: happy mother’s day on castaway cay & saying goodbye

Boarding the Disney Dream here.

Our first night aboard here.

Nassau and Pirate Night here.

Sunday was a big day, full of exciting things: Mother’s Day! Castaway Cay! And, of course, the Castaway Cay 5K!

I was so excited I couldn’t sleep and so I went out on the verandah to watch the ship pulling into its destination. From our side of the ship, we had a wonderful view.

Nana and Papa Bear were already awake and outside, and so we chatted for a bit in the lovely morning weather, before I had to start getting ready to run.

While I was in the shower, a surprise arrived: room service! Little man thought room service on Mother’s Day would be the perfect thing, especially since I wasn’t going to be able to attend a sit-down breakfast with the family, and it was nice to have a half a bagel and a banana.

Great thinking, little man!

We formulated a plan. I had a pre-race meeting at 8:15, and while I was running, the rest of the family would enjoy a real breakfast and then make their way out to the beach on Castaway Cay. I asked Mr PugRunner to take one of the wave phones so I could locate everyone after I showered and changed.

And with that, we said our goodbyes.

Had I been in the main part of the ship, I probably would have seen this duck, welcoming cruisers to paradise.

I will recap the race in a dedicated post, but it was fabulous. Hot as Hades, but I am so glad I had the opportunity to do it. As soon as I was finished, I started trekking back to the boat.

Coincidentally, I saw Nana and Papa Bear passing by on the tram to the beach, and was able to tell them I would be back shortly. I also saw a photo opp for Captain Jack Sparrow. We had missed him the night before, and I hopped in line. Unfortunately, there was no Shutters professional photographer on hand, and my camera phone wasn’t working (who’s got to make another trip to the Genius Bar? This girl! Womp womp), so I had to move along. Boo.

I was really hungry, but I didn’t have time to grab a snack onboard. I showered, got into my swim clothes and was back out on Castaway Cay in less than 30 minutes.

I’m a rockstar that way.

The tram line was pretty long, so I opted to walk back to the recreational areas of the island (I think this is the one day I wish I had a FitBit or similar activity tracker – I am willing to bet I did about nine miles on the island).

Unfortunately, Mr PugRunner hadn’t charged the second wave phone, so I was stuck weaving through beach chairs looking for them.

At least there were fun things to see along the way.

Mr PugRunner had set up camp on the farthest beach, but Nana, Papa Bear and little man were keeping an eye out for me. We found each other at the halfway point, and began to make our way to our seats.

But first, there was this guy!

He was standing quite randomly between the beaches, with no line! Probably looking for more rum! And I had my real camera! Joy!

I was so happy to settle into a lounge chair.

The beach wasn’t particularly crowded, especially at that point of the morning. I was surprised that there were still a bunch of empty lounge chairs. We had great positioning – right next to a tiki bar and quite close to Cookie’s Too, where lunch would be served.

We really hadn’t booked any excursions or tours on the island. Since it was our first time, we kind of wanted to kick back. Mr PugRunner got a big inner tube and little man did a lot of floating and spinning out in the water. Which was really, really, REALLY cold! We were right near Pelican Plunge, but little man wasn’t interested in the slides. I think he just wanted to hang out with his family.

The morning was nothing short of lovely. I didn’t spend all the much time in the water (I prefer more bathtub-like temperatures and the bottom was rocky), but I loved watching everyone while reading with a nice cocktail.

After a while, we got hungry, so we put on our flip flops and made our way to Cookie’s Too for the all-you-care-t0-eat BBQ buffet.

It was actually pretty good, and kind of fun to eat at the big picnic tables.

The crab races took place right near we were eating, after lunch, so we stuck around for that. Little man’s crab made it to the finals!

And then Mr PugRunner wanted to take little man to do something and we headed over to the water sports area,

where they settled on a paddle boat.

We took our time heading back to the beach, and stopped for ice cream along the way.

It was getting later in the day, and it was time to start thinking about packing up and heading back to the room.

We were scheduled for dinner in Animator’s Palate, and I was pretty excited about that.

All the moms were treated to a special strawberry mouse and chocolate dessert, too. Yum.

Dimarka and Keneisha gave us last minute-instructions about dining in the morning in preparation to leave the ship, and we took advantage of the fact that we were all kind of dressed up for some last family portraits.

Little man wanted to go back to the Oceaneer Club, so we dropped him off and headed back to the stateroom to finish packing our things, take care of extra gratuities and just relax before morning. By 10:00, we had left our suitcases out in the corridor for pickup, and we were all set to go.

It was a bittersweet evening.

We woke up with a 5:30 alarm to see that we were docked in Port Canaveral. It wasn’t quite the same as being at the dock of a tropical island. Not by a long shot. Sigh.

We had the option to go to Cabanas for a buffet breakfast, or back to Animator’s Palate to have a seated meal with our servers. We opted for the latter, simply because we didn’t have to lug our bags around with us, and it would be nice to say a final goodbye to our servers and our tablemates.

When we were finished eating, the Captain had already announced that it was time to go and that guests were free to disembark at their leisure (but quickly).

Goodbye, Disney Dream!

Until next time!

And so ended our cruise weekend. I owe you full reports of a certain 5K race, the staterooms and dining, and I will get to those next week. In the meantime, it’s almost summer, and I hope you all have great vacation plans of your own.

What was your most memorable vacation?

Are you racing this weekend?