Castaway Cay – Day 1

Today was going to be the first of three Castaway Cay days. As we always do on Castaway Cay days, we had ordered room service breakfast and were up early so we could get ready before it arrived. When we had first gotten up, I had walked out onto the balcony and we could see Castaway Cay in the distance.

When breakfast arrived at 7.30am Captain Gus had already turned the DREAM around and was positioning her to get into the dock. We took our breakfast tray outside on the veranda and were starting to enjoy the coffee and tea and orange juice, Tom had a Bagel with crème cheese, some Chocolate Milk, and a fresh fruit bowl, while I happily munched my Croissants with some jam. All the time while we were sitting outside enjoying the food, the DREAM moved backwards and forwards. There was buoy right opposite our balcony and it seemed that the ship was just moving back and forth. After a while we looked over the veranda walls and could see that whenever the Captain manoeuvred her backwards, the ship was drifting close to rocks.

Since we were not moving much, we went to hand out our Fish Extender gifts and when we came back to our stateroom we still hadn’t moved much. Finally three hours after the first attempt to dock, the Captain informed everyone that he had finally been able to dock. He apologized for it taking so long, but the strong currents had made it very hard and he had been determined to get us there, but it had taken its time. After his announcement, all the Mickey Whistles were blown and about half an hour later guests were allowed to get off, first time ever without key cards being swiped! When we made it downstairs there were still lines to get off the ship, but they moved fast.

We walked right over to the trams, but there were just too many people waiting for the next one, so we walked over to the shops, checked them out and over to the Serenity Bay tram stop. There were already a few people waiting, but it didn’t take long for the tram to come around and off we went. When we arrived at Serenity Bay a minute later, our stateroom host was already waiting for us. We signed in, then hopped onto the golf cart and were taken to our Cabana. Our host was really nice, he took us inside and explained everything about the Cabana, showed us the button on which to ring him and asked if we were okay the way it was or if we needed something right away. We didn’t and he left us.

Before we did anything else, Tom took a lot of pics of the cabana and the goodies that were hidden inside. We applied some sunscreen, nibbled on the fruit and had some drinks out of the fridge, before we headed down to the beach for a swim. The water was heavenly warm and crystal clear and since it was low tide we had to walk way out to find water deep enough to swim. We swam and drifted for a while, watched for fish in the water and enjoyed the moment. We stayed in the water far longer than we had intended. When we finally went back to our Cabana we quickly took a shower and dried ourselves off, before we flagged a server down and ordered two Konk Koolers.

About ten minutes later the server came back with the drinks, we opened a bag of chips and sat in the shade enjoying the drinks and the view of the ocean. Once we had finished our drinks we both put on a shirt and walked down to the water’s edge, to slowly walk along it to the barbecue station.  It was pretty full and there was quite a line, but we didn’t mind and got a plate. Tom took some salads, a burger and a hot dog, while I didn’t feel like a lot of meat and just had some salad and some ribs. Everything was fresh and tasty, Tom just didn’t really like the hot dog. He deemed the ones on the ship much better. Once we had finished our main courses, Tom went to pick up some more drinks and some Chocolate Chip Cookies and a piece of Pineapple Upside Down cake.

The water was warm and very shallow, so we had to walk out quite a bit, but then it was time to play in the crystal clear waters again. We lost count of the time and only the dark clouds that piled up behind our Cabana made us go back. Thankfully the clouds disappeared soon after and we were able to enjoy some more time at our little retreat. We had some drinks out of the fridge and some more of the fruit and enjoyed the Bahamian sun. Around 3.00 we went back for a final swim in the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful, but seeing the cast members starting to close umbrellas at the far end of Serenity Bay we knew we only had little time left. But we played in the warm waters of Serenity Bay until we felt we had to go back to our Cabana.

Once there we still did not pack up but after having showered we sat in the sun to dry off. Around 4.45 we were ready to head back to the ship. We had changed and just wanted to walk down to the tram but our Cabanas host was already waiting for us and took us down. We waited for about two minutes for a tram to arrive, then got on and headed back to the next stop where we had to change trams. There were already quite a few people waiting, but we were lucky and got on the next one and were back at the ship in no time. Unfortunately they only let people back on at the front of the ship, so that meant that we would have to hike all the way back once we were up on deck 10 again.

Imagine our surprise when we returned and there was a rolled up message at our door. First we thought it was another Fish Extender gift, but it had a DCL seal on it. Hm, what could it be. We unrolled it and were stunned. It actually was a Magical Moment certificate, welcoming us on the Disney DREAM, from a cast member, whose name was Bettina and she was from Austria as well. Needless to say we were thrilled! Once we had finally gotten over the surprise we grabbed a drink out of the fridge, then took showers and sat out on the veranda to enjoy the sight of Castaway Cay.

Right on time at 6pm we heard all the ship’s horns and saw how the ship slowly made its way out to sea again. We and a lot of other people were out on the veranda saying goodbye to Castaway Cay, knowing that we all would be back soon. We walked up to deck 12 to have a good look back from there and explored some more of the ship. Once we were out at sea and my hair was dry again, we picked up another batch of Fish Extender gifts and went to hand them out. It was a lot of fun to sneak around the ship, handing out gifts, seeing the astonished faces of other passengers who were not sure what we were doing and why we were delivering gifts and sometimes stopping to enjoy some enchanted art.

Once we were back in our stateroom we relaxed for a little while before we had to get changed and head to dinner at Royal Palace. After wiping our hands we were led to our table and waiting for our servers to arrive. They were serving tables a little way over, but once they saw us they came over to greet us and to take our drinks order. We both ordered Diet Coke and then started to have a look at the menu. Tom decided on the Iced Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp, white and green asparagus, micro greens, and lemon-dill dressing with horseradish cream, while I ordered my favourite, the Double Baked Spinach Souffle, coated with a three cheese cream. And while we waited for our starters, we nibbled on the bread service.

Again it came in those cute carriage baskets, warm Herb Brioche that came with an Olive Spread. And both were really good. When our starters were served we enjoyed them while talking about our wonderful first days on the DREAM. Soon after we had finished our starters we were served the soups we had ordered. Tom’s choice had been Belle's French Onion Soup with gruyere cheese crouton.

I had gone with an old favourite of mine, the Comtesse du Barry's Soup, a rich velvety cauliflower cream, topped with salmon caviar croutons. And then our main courses were served. Tom had ordered the Double Cut Rack of Lamb with a Dijon Crust with fine green beans, gratin potatoes and rosemary jus and my choice was the Roasted Wild Boar Tenderloin, sweet carrot and onion potato cake with a red currant reduction. Having talked with our servers the previous night that we were no fans of eating too fast, they gave us ample time to finish our main courses before they took away the plates and announced that our desserts would be served soon. Again, we did not get a choice of desserts, but rather were surprised with a wide array of desserts. So when they returned the brought out the Sweet Temptations, a trio of peanut butter mousse, mango cheesecake and Tahitian vanilla creme brulee, the Grand Marnier Souffle infused with fresh orange zest and served with creme Anglaise and the Strawberry Short Cake Sundae, strawberries, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and Angel Food cake. We tried all of them and did our best to finish them, but it was far too much. After dinner we said goodbye to our servers, left them a little chocolate and went back to our stateroom. We could see from afar that our Fish Extender was full again and once we had made it there, we emptied it out and took it inside where we were greeted by a new towel animal. This time it was a dog wearing Tom’s hat and my sunglasses.