Castaway Cay...the lets be honest that is why everyone takes the Disney Cruise edition

I along with everyone else who has taken this cruise, looks forward to Castaway Cay the most.

As a caveat to my experience with two kids this go around (one being way more mobile than last time) I will preface this with the fact that it rained (Florida style...so 40 minutes and done, but there was intermittent sprinkling) and it was difficult to contain EV so we did cut our time on the beach a lot shorter than we intended.

Castaway Cay is non-operational other than when the cruise ports, so you will find that all the employees on the island are the ones from the ship, so make sure to be super friendly as the odds are, you have seen them before. There are plenty of activities to do on the beach, whether it be registering for one of the Port Adventures, Volleyball, Biking, etc. By the end of the week, all of the exploring both on and off the ship has me wanting to do nothing, but enjoy the sun, have a cocktail and stuff my face at the all-you-can-eat barbecue buffet.

As mentioned, before we got off the ship we did the Princess Gathering meet and greet and Anna and Elsa (which took a bit to get through). Once all that was done, we disembarked. There is an adult section of Castaway Cay, so we separated from my MIL and BIL and took our time just meandering off the ship. Because it looked like rain, Hubs and I wanted (lets be honest, mostly me...okay, only me) to get our pictures out of the way since the photographers would be scarce once the rain started and they tend to not be around towards the end of the day. If you are a photo person and you paid for the package, its best to just stop, get the picture and keep moving to your beach destination.

You will find two types of families, the families who stop, get all the pictures and leisurely make it to wherever they want to locate too or the family who cares less about getting the pictures first, wants to secure the perfect beach spot, drop their stuff and then make it back for pictures...or not. These families tend to be the ones who walk briskly (sometimes a light jog) past you when they get off the ship lol.

Again, although Castaway Cay meet and greets are listed in your app, there are some that do not have handlers so you may not see them again (be phone/camera ready). We walked off the ship into Chip and Dale and Capt. Hook and Mr. Smee (we thought we would run into them again at the end of the day as we did last year, but the weather kept this from happening). It was EV's first time meeting Chip and Dale and the interaction was super cute and well worth the stop.

Daisy Duck is ALWAYS a favorite of EV's no matter where we are, so not stopping, was NOT an option. You do not get cuter than the fab five's Castaway Cay ensembles.

We passed by Jack Sparrow. Truthfully, I was kind of bummed as he looked super cute perched on a rock, but Hubs had been nothing, but patient stopping at every single photo location. I might've pushed it and by might've I mean definitely if I knew we were going to get rained out anyway. We had missed out on a lot of the Castaway Cay photospots (see below) last year since by the time we left to get back on the ship, the photographers had already packed up. We made sure to stop at all of them this year...obviously if it is not a character or a Disney Castle, EV could care less.

As well as made time for a certain mouse...

There are photogs on the beach taking some interactive and relaxing beach pictures, but we never seem to be in the same location as them and with our awesome phone cases, I didn't feel they were all that important to locate. Plus, it was overcast, slightly windy and the water was honestly too cold to put EV and Baby D in, but not for lack of trying. Obvs there was some northerners not bothered by this in the least (all five of them pictured below) :P

We opted for making it over to the tiki bar (don't judge) and share a bucket of Corona. It is beautiful here as it is never busy early on, you get great views of the ship, there is plenty of room for EV to run amuck and it is a great picture site (we watched a couple who had just gotten married take the most adorable pictures here). It also provided moderate covering for the kids things when it sprinkled a lot sooner than I thought it was going to (you would think as a Floridian I would have this down to a science).

I also meandered to the small shopping area that is adjacent to here where they have a really cute Frozen/Olaf stand that serves smoothies and frozen drinks. I wish I had taken pictures of this and I am too lazy to go through my photos last year where they are housed. Google it, I promise it is worth it. I ended up getting Ellie a frozen fruit drink in a really large Sven shaped drink container because #whenincastawaycay. I was also insistent that I could cart it home too...mainly because Sean said it would fit in the bag #guesswhowon #ishowedhim #inretrospect

As you can see by the sky in our pictures, it was getting darker by the minute and knowing that we had about a ten minute window before it got REALLY bad, we hoofed it to the all-you-can-eat barbecue area. The food at this luncheon is fantastic, especially the ribs and there is even a soft-serve area to get even more all-you-can-eat ice cream with the kiddos. EV was a big fan of the banana/strawberry swirl. We got a table no problem since no one else on the ship seemed to be from Florida and had no idea what was about to happen as quickly as it was going to. Once the rain came down, it was every family member for themselves :). Make sure that if you are not using the whole table to kindly offer some of the seating to others. Even when it is not busy, tables fill up quickly (it is picnic table seating) and people are trying to get their kids situated which can be frustrating in and of itself. Again, you will more than likely see these people later and kindness goes a lot farther then furrowed eyebrows and dagger eyes from strangers.

We could have stayed as the sun came out in all its glory about an hour later, but honestly we just figured with it being our last day and with everything we had to pack up, it would behoove us to head back, get the kids some naps, and get as much as we could in suitcases (obviously we left with more than we came with, so that was terrifying...and typical lol). I was determined to bring ALL the Star Wars decorations home. Although I hated leaving early, in doing so would allow us to enjoy all the last night festivities without the kids having a #teamnonap meltdown.

Keep in mind, the porters will give you a time when your bags have to be in front of your door to be picked up and if they are not, you are responsible for bringing them to a location. While the kids and the hubs napped (again, typical), I went ahead and packed like a whirling dervish. I was totally sane when they woke up nice and refreshed said no 'Type A Mama' ever. At least I can say everything was done on time and by the time dinner took place, we had nothing to worry about but enjoying our last evening. Watching my MIL and I try to finish a bottle of wine apiece because we didn't want to take any wine off the ship (each person is allowed to get on the ship with two bottles) made for a fun evening in and of itself. I do not know how we ended up not drinking what we came with since we had 7 days on the ship, but I am sure our liver thanks us.

The last night on the ship, there is a Disney Character dance party in the lobby where EV was able to get her boogie on with all her favorite friends. The pictures of her unadulterated happiness made leaving the island early the best and most practical decision (#parentingwin) and the blurry pictures just go to show the amount of fun that was had.

Spinning is an EV fave!

And then there was more spinning

Donald spins commenced

EV had such a great time and enjoyed her boat freedom so much that when we transitioned to a regular Disney Park Day the following day (it was her birthday), she had a really hard time acclimating to just sitting in her stroller. She could not fathom why she couldn't get "down" and explore Epcot like she did on the Cruise. It was during the Festival of the Arts and happened to also be a sitting on the sun type of day, meaning it was super busy and beyond hot. Mind you, I normally have one of those leash (they are kindly called 'harness' online lol) backpacks for EV, but I absently packed it in my 'we dont need suitcase' that I left with my MIL (we were stopping at her place on our way home at the end of the weekend (#momfail). Truth be told, we could not fit everything in my SUV with the two strollers and having two carseats in the car so this was more necessary than anything. We tend to do a "layover" at her place anyway since it is a little less than half way home and it gives us an opportunity to let EV stretch, have a snack, hang with Nana and feed Baby D somewhere comfortable if necessary. With that being said, EV spent a lot of time hanging out on Hubs shoulders that weekend...

The perfect end to another perfect family vacation!