Castaways

Good morning aboard the Disney Wish!  One of my absolute favorite things to do is go up to the deck each morning, because it's so quiet up there as the sun is rising, and there I go to prepare Mom a cup of hot tea.  This morning was a special morning though, because as I was walking around the top of the deck, I got to see something special.

Okay, it's not Partysaurus Rex.  Although he does look very cool up there on the deck.  It's what's behind Partysaurus Rex...

You can see the sun rising there just beyond Castaway Cay, which we're of course slowly approaching.

The ship's horns were sounding off - they're located in that Mickey Mouse shape up there.

A few of us were up there at the front of the ship, looking due east of course.

I had to get back to Mom and bring her some tea.  But I snapped a few pictures of the deck before doing so, all nice and quiet before the big day on the private island.

Here's a picture of the sun just before it rose, and below you can see it heading upwards to say Good Morning!

After this, I made my way down the stairs with the hot tea, past the wall decor in the stairway, which is always nice.

And by that point we were pulling in to "port" at Castaway Cay.  These moments are the best, just quiet and peacefully gliding along the calm seas as we watch the sun rise over the island.  All with a nice cup of tea!

Very nice.  Well, after a quick shower and getting dressed, it was time for our first order of business:  breakfast!  

I love Mom's shirt here - a new Disney shirt!  We were back in 1923 again, and this time we ate at the Walt Disney side of things.  Yesterday morning it was the Roy Disney side of the restaurant - I didn't have my phone with me then, but I did today.  First, check out these shots of the booth we sat in yesterday for breakfast, all surrounded by artwork from one of my favorite animated movies ever.

That's where we sat yesterday, and below is where we sat this morning.

Mickey Waffles!  Yes!

On our way out of the restaurant, we stopped in the Grand Hall and took a few pictures of Cinderella again... and also some of the Pumpkin Tree, Boo!

And then it was time to do a bit of swimming!  We stayed on the boat and we had this pool here all to ourselves!

It's in the adults only section, this infinity pool that has these seats in, and you can just sit there, relax, and overlook the entire island from here.   We didn't have the phone with us for pictures, and that's okay - I just took one earlier, and grabbed a few from someone else to show the pictures of this amazing pool.  Mom and I had a really relaxing time just seated there on a perfect day really.

And then it was time for the Aquamouse!  We stood in line for a little bit, but sure enough, soon we were getting really wet on this water slide.  It's got a movie with Mickey and Minnie (and others) at the beginning, and then of course there's the long ride through the tube from one end of the ship to the other.  Super fun!  

And super wet!  We left there and went back to cabin 10520 - this is something you have to memorize because they ask it of you over and over again to find your seating, or charge for a beverage or popcorn or whatever.  We have this one memorized a bit quicker this time.  Anyway, we got dried off and went back out again - the boat wasn't crowded at all, as everyone was on the island.  We got some food from a few of the places up top, mainly some more fries - a hamburger for Mom - and some chicken tenders!

Oh, and I got a few slices of Margherita pizza from the other side.  Super yummy cheesy pizza, although I might be starting to have a problem with that sort of thing.  Regardless, we finished up eating and went down to Tiana's Bayou for another round of trivia - it was Star Wars Trivia, and we did pretty well there!

We got 19 out of 20 this time, and that was pretty good!  Afterwards, right next door it only made sense to walk into the Hyperspace Lounge for a quick mocktail in space, right?

It was fun, but it would have been more fun with Maddie here with us for this one for sure.  Still, we enjoyed sitting there with our drinks and enjoying that atmosphere.  I took a lot of these pictures earlier in the day when the place was not open yet, but by the time we were in there the seats were nearly all full.

After this, we were close by the place and time where Clara Belle, Daisy and Minnie were posing for pictures with people - they were dressed as the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus, and because many people were still on the island, the line wasn't too long today.  This line is usually very long from what we read, so we were surprised to see that the wait wasn't too bad at all.  So yes, we hopped in line to get a picture taken!

Again, we didn't opt for the photo pass this time around, but my cell phone seemed to do just fine.  After this we went over to another trivia:  Marvel Trivia.  We actually did a lot better than I thought we'd do, getting 17 out of 20.  It was fun, and I couldn't believe we actually did that well.  

What was really nice here was our conversation afterwards with Amber, the hostess for this event.  It was nice just sitting and talking for a bit.  We headed back to the cabin after this and got some rest - I was reading on the verandah there, overlooking Castaway Cay.  Mom was taking a little nap.  I brought along that Haunted Mansion graphic novel, and have been going through the book of Ezekiel lately. 

After a bit of rest, I went up to get Mom and myself a drink.  I also paid a visit to the emotions in the Joyful Sweets shop there! 

Here's our view from the cabin, by the way.  And right when we were leaving, that's when a pretty good rain shower hit swept across the island - we could see it move like a heavy mist rolling over the landscape.  

And off in the distance here, we watched a pretty big waterspout form.  Pretty cool!  Here's a closer image.

And then soon enough we were leaving the island, sailing away again.  The rain storm was getting closer as we departed...

The rain swept in between us and the island, and sure enough, we could see this wonderful rainbow.

Time for the final production though.  We got over to the theater, and we basically got the same exact seats we have for the Byers Theater at City Springs:  dead center, front row of the balcony.  I don't know how we got those seats with all the folks going in to find a place, but it was super cool because this is our favorite show of the entire cruise, "Aladdin."

We've seen this a few times now, and perhaps have seen the same exact actor playing the Genie.  He's hysterical, a mix of stand-up comedy and of course big musical numbers.  It's a really great production, honestly only second to "Believe" in my opinion.  We really enjoyed it tonight.

We got back to our room and there was a towel bat!  We walked about and did some shopping, and got ourselves a placeholder for a future cruise.  Mom didn't have to worry about packing to get the suitcases outside the hotel room at 10pm tonight though, because we're doing the express check-out tomorrow.  So we got ready, and we went to our last meal on the rotational dining schedule, and this one was at 1923.

Lobster salad

We sat on the Walt Disney side again, and again we had this table for six... with just two of us.  Our dining companions never showed up!  But we enjoyed our meals, both of us eating a little lighter tonight.  Except for perhaps the dessert!

And then it was time for some rest.  The Grand Hall is so crowded for the sail away party and the ending celebration - we opted for a quieter experience, going back to the cabin to watch "Haunted Mansion" until we got tired and went to sleep. 

At one point I did go up to get Mom some tea, and people were watching "Nightmare Before Christmas" on the Funnel Vision.  Maybe next time, right?  Here's some final photos from up top.

And I took this last photo because I wanted to show you a few of the hangers - I took all of them off the rack because of the motion of the ship.  You couldn't really feel it so strong, but the evidence of gravity was there, the hangers hitting into each other as they hung up there, empty.  So I had to take them down to stop the clanging and clacking.  No big deal, but it was just kind of funny.

The beds are super comfortable.  We arranged for a wake-up call from Mickey tomorrow, and shut off the lights, peeking out the verandah one more time at the vast ocean spread out for so far.  We said our prayers and got under the blankets.  Nice and comfortable on board here, and another good night's rest on the way.