Day 3 aboard the Disney Magic- Castaway Cay (part 1)

Yes once again I have decided to split the day in half. There's just so many pictures! I would hate to be overwhelming ;)

In case you need a refresher you can find the first few days of my vacation here.

The last full day of our cruise would be spent at Castaway Cay- Disney's private island in the bahamas.

We woke up nice and early on Sunday because I wanted to spend as much time on the island as possible. We also planned to come back a little early so that we could finally use the pool and hot tub on deck!

Once again we had a nice and full breakfast. The only complaint I have is that the scrambled eggs were runny, not perfect like they were the day before.

The view from breakfast....I truly couldn't believe that Disney has their own island! I love it because every single thing about it was hand crafted by Disney. & when something is hand crafted by Disney, you KNOW it will be amazing.

We got off the boat and one of the main things I wanted to do when we got there was go to the post office to send a postcard! I had read online that this was a neat thing to do because you could use Bahamian stamps and Castaway Cay has their own post mark. So I thought we must do it...until we got there. And realized it was closed. Because guess what? It was Sunday. D'oh!
So, kinda bummed we didn't get to do that. But we kept walking and saw Captain Jack Sparrow meeting people, so I grabbed a picture with him before we really entered the island.

One thing that was AMAZING...because it's Disney..guess what it had? Trams! Haha! Yep there were trams on the island to take you to different spots.

The first stop was the mainly kid oriented area. We skipped this one and went right on to the family beach/snorkel lagoon area.
We looked through the gift shop and then I couldn't get to the snorkel rental shack fast enough!!

I made the decision before we left that I really wanted to snorkel for the first time. I had never done anything like it. And it was the cheapest shore excursion AKA the only one we could afford.

It cost $30 to rent the equipment for the whole day so we only rented one set, although I wish it was something I could have experienced with my boyfriend.

I got all geared up to go in the snorkel lagoon and ventured in all by myself.

It was pretty cold! Even though the weather itself was really nice, the water was still pretty chilly. Going in I was making a total fool of myself. The lagoon was pretty empty! There were maybe 5ish people out in the really deep parts (it was a roped off lagoon but it was really big!) and then maybe 3 other people getting in at the same time as me. I was leading the pack and I'll admit I was kinda scared! I didn't know what to expect!

So I was trying to wade in and making a royal mess of myself before I heard a dad tell his daughter behind me "it's easier if you go in backwards" My head snapped up and I turned around and shouted WOW THANK YOU and the few other people around me all had a light bulb go off above their heads.

We all turned around and waded in backwards- which definitely didn't help with the fear factor.

Wading in and trying to figure out what to do was a little confusing at first. But once I dove in and figured it out, it was very easy! And fun!

Here's part of the snorkel lagoon with the ship in the background. I'm in there somewhere!

This was a spontaneous picture I took from the lagoon of the bar and I am so glad I did because it ended up being one of my favorite shots!

Behold- the first fish I saw! I was a little intimidated okay. There were signs talking about stingrays and sharks and barracuda and jellyfish- it was a little scary! But I only saw fish.

One thing I loved was that there was a bunch of stuff underwater like a fish tank haha. Stuff to see and that simultaneously attracted fish to hang out. Above is a sunken boat.

I'm so glad I asked someone about it and they told me that the orange & white buoys were markers of where interesting stuff was. So I made it a point to try and go around to all of them..
However since it was a very large area I kept getting turned around and I didn't get to see everything.

 Of course my favorite sunken treasure was this Mickey statue!

So many fish! Just hangin' out like it's nothing.

Per a fellow snorkelers suggestion, I ventured to the very edge of the lagoon...hence the rope. And there was SO MANY fish I got freaked out and that's why this picture sucks. I didn't even stick around to watch them or anything I just hightailed it out of there. Haha! I bet there was some interesting stuff in there but I didn't even look!

More sunken things & fishies

I mean...naturally I had to take a snorkel selfie.

After getting lost too many times in the lagoon I was finally ready to come out. I grabbed my bf, who had been sipping drinks out of a coconut cup on the beach waiting for me. I told him my legs felt like jello.
Then we sought out the waterslides!

This was pretty cool...it was a dock of sorts that you had to swim out to that had 2 waterslides on it and other fun water features. Walking out to it, we saw a jellyfish!! We got so close to accidentally walking into it, that could have been bad!
We swam through the cold water and I was unsure about the slides at first. Being fat you just don't know if slides are do-able. Finally I just said fuck it and climbed the stairs.
I chose the enclosed slide and shoved myself off so fast to give myself an extra boost. Oh boy. FASTEST slide ever. I went flying out of it and hit the water so hard my bathing suit went completely up my butt. It was so much fun :|

No but really it was fun. Minus the super wedgie.

After the slides we decided to seek out the BBQ lunch place. The best part about the island was that all the food and stuff was included! So we went through the buffet. I got a hot dog, some corn on the cob, cajun mahi mahi, bbq chips, and some cinnamon cake.

After lunch I got some fruit punch and made myself some rum punch with the flasks we brought.
Then we decided to go to Serenity Bay, the adults only part of the island!

Serenity Bay was soo relaxing. There were lots of chairs, hammocks, and waiters bringing drinks. We just sat in beach chairs and looked out on the water for a while. My friend Heather and her family (including our dinner mates) showed up and then they went snorkeling.
It was one of those surreal moments that I didn't want to end. It was beyond beautiful and peaceful and relaxing.

But finally we decided to head back to the ship.

The sight of our ship made me so happy!

One of my favorite pictures! It looks like something out of a movie!!

The last surprise was before boarding, Stitch was there to greet everyone back! It was cute and a nice little something extra.

So that was our day on the island! We had an eventful final night as well so look out for that in the next post!!

Getting closer to the end was sad, though. I never wanted it to end!! Vacation forever! :P