Disney Cruise: Day 6-8

Besides our day in Magic Kingdom, my other favorite day of our trip was day 3 of our cruise when we went to Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect and Lucy & Cece could've played all day in the sand at the beach.  The island was beautiful and there were several beaches, a splash pad area, and they even had the kids' club stationed off the ship if you wanted to drop your kids off.  We took a tram to one of the family beaches and found some lounge chairs & umbrella in a not quite as crowded area.  We pretty much spent the next 5 hours relaxing on the beach.  Since our ship was the only one in port (and it's Disney's private island), they even provided a bbq lunch so you don't have to get back on board to eat.  That evening was Pirate Night and wow, did some people go all out!  I had heard about this night and am so glad I picked up a couple Uma (from Descendants) costumes on clearance back in January for the girls to wear.  I had to happen to throw in my suitcase a black & white striped tank top that I wore with a pirate bandana that everyone was given.  After dinner, they had a pirate party on the pool deck and then we went to the see the show that evening which was a showing of the new Lion King movie!  It had only been out for a couple weeks so we were excited to get to watch it on board.  They had also been playing Toy Story 4 throughout the day as well as some other Disney movies in the on board movie theater.  Cece was going on almost a week of no naps and late bed times so it was no surprise she fell asleep shortly after the movie started.  Right after the movie, the pirate party was continuing on the pool deck with fireworks but of course Lucy doesn't like fireworks so she said she wanted to skip it.  Maybe next time!

Before we got off the ship at Castaway Cay, we quickly ate breakfast and met Jessie from Toy Story

We made it to Castaway Cay!

After getting off the ship, we walked over to the tram that would take us to the beach

Todd & Cece on the tram...

and Lucy & I

One of the beaches

Posing with Olaf after getting off the tram

View of our ship from the beach

It was the perfect beach day

Toes in the sand

Todd & I

They had such a great time and could've stayed and played on the beach for a whole week

Todd & I were able to relax a bit too while watching the girls

We also played with them too and ventured out into the water

They were excited to see they also had soft serve machines on the island

Blue skies and beautiful blue water

There was a water play structure on one side of the beach that Todd took the girls over too for a little bit

After being in the sun for a few hours, we were worried about Cece getting burned (even though we put sunscreen on every hour) so the girls moved under the umbrella to play in the sand and stayed here for another hour or so

Back on the ship, I enjoyed a glass of sangria (we brought a few bottles of wine on board) while reading and waiting to be back at sea

The girls ready for pirate night

Family selfie

Pirate party after dinner

Waiting for Lion King to start

Our last day aboard the Disney Dream was at sea and we figured we'd spend the day by the pool.  Of course, the weather had other plans as it was dreary and overcast until late afternoon when it was time to get ready for dinner.  We had our second planned character meet & greet of the cruise that morning when the girls got to meet the Disney princesses.  They had already met Rapunzel & Tiana earlier on the cruise but were just as excited to meet them a second time around.  We went to the Royal Palace for breakfast and actually had a nice sit-down meal compared to the breakfast buffets we'd gone to the rest of the week.  We spent the next few hours checking out any area of the ship we hadn't seen yet (like the view from the very top of the ship on deck 14) and playing the Mickey mystery game that takes you all around the ship finding clues and solving a case.  Lucy loved it!  We also went back to Vanellope's to let the girls pick out some treats before we put them in the kids' area for a couple hours.  Todd & I had a martini tasting we had booked and it was so much fun.  I honestly didn't know anything about martinis and ended up learning a lot & enjoying a few martinis a well.  We ate in the Enchanted Garden for dinner on the last evening followed by the live performance of Beauty & the Beast (again, it was amazing! I was really impressed by the quality of entertainment they offered on board).

Seeing Rapunzel....

Cinderella...

Belle...

and Tiana

There were these beautiful mosaics all over the ship so I tried to take some pictures of them on the last day

Her favorite meal of the trip--PB&J pancake!

Hanging out on deck 14

Trying to solve the case for the Mickey mystery game

Finding Nemo mosaic in Cabana's where we ate lunch most days

Another view

Enjoying their treats on the balcony

Started off our martini tasting with a classic

and then we moved on to the ones I actually liked!

We had 5 martinis to taste and ended with a dessert martini

Last dinner of the cruise was in the Enchanted Garden

Family picture in front of the fountain in the restaurant

We were up early on our final day of vacation as we had to pack up and be out of room by a certain time.  We went to breakfast and waited to get off the ship as long as possible because we had a late afternoon flight out of Orlando and we wanted to avoid being at the airport forever.  We've never waited that long to get off the ship before and I'm not sure I would do it again!  We waited in line for almost an hour to just get off the ship and then another 30-45 minutes to go through customs!  We still arrived at the airport in plenty of time and as luck would have it, our flight was delayed an hour.  It was a long afternoon of sitting around and our vacation was officially over as we landed in Columbus around 7:00 PM on Friday, August 2.

Hanging out at the Orlando airport...and I can't believe after a week straight of taking pictures ALL THE TIME, they were still willing to smile for me

Getting antsy

Over 2 weeks later and the girls ask almost every day when we can go back!  If it wasn't so expensive, we'd go again next year but we're aiming for 2021!