SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2022
Gayle: I woke up just as we were turning to back into Disney Castaway Cay, probably about 8 or 8:30am. It initially looked somewhat overcast and the temps and humidity were still quite high. We had decided prior to this trip we wouldn’t spend the day on the island (Disney Cruise Line blasphemy!) in order to further explore the ship and take advantage of it being mostly empty of people.
At roughly 10am we debarked only to capture photos of the ship and then hopped right back on. The sun was out in full force and it was going to be a broiler! We’d already endured that in May and said “no, thank you” today.
As Kara was feeling bad, I knew any ideas I had of pool time would be by myself. Back onboard we finally made our way up to Deck 14 to the Chip n Dale Pool. As there is really nothing else on this deck, it could easily be surmised most people wouldn’t even know this existed and wouldn’t be crowded! The great thing about this “pool” is that part of the seating area and loungers actually have shade, which has been a rarity on this ship. My hopes were dashed when we discovered this pool wasn’t open (as the netting was covering it). AUGH! I later learned in the App this pool was only open 2-5pm, which was of no use in the schedule of our day.
We headed back down to Deck 11 to fill our water bottles and I was still scoping the crowds and weather. I’d guess there were only about a dozen people on the Deck 11 & 12 pool deck/areas. Another desire I had was to watch a movie on Funnel Vision. We hadn’t made this at night was it either conflicted with other things, wasn’t showing a movie we were interested in, or Kara wasn’t feeling well. Today both Cars 3 and Incredibles would be playing. However, I further discovered only 3 of the 5 pools in this area were open and all the pools and loungers (where you could see the screen) were in direct sun. So that was another non-starter. BOO.
Kara: I'll pop in here a bit and talk about how I was feeling. At the Pirate Party, I actually got a "catch" in my throat that I thought was from smoke. I had a bit of a sore throat the next day and really thought it was just irritation from some of the pyro. Unfortunately, I began feeling progressively worse late that evening and into today (Saturday).
Gayle: I didn’t want to waste the day in the room, but that’s mostly what we did. After a quick stop to cool off, we headed up to lunch. We took a walk through Marceline Market, but the only thing I found that was really interesting were the sweet potatoes. So I got that and met Kara on the deck after she got a (repeat) platter from the quick-service BBQ station. However, the sweet potatoes weren’t great and I immediately knew it was too hot and with hardly any air circulation to eat on deck. So Kara took her BBQ inside Marceline Market and I did the same with a quick-service taco. We both ended lunch with chocolate chip cookies and strawberry ice cream.
Unfortunately Kara forgot/didn’t bring any playing cards like usual. To be fair, we felt this would be such a packed and short cruise, we wouldn’t have time for such a casual activity. In the absence of this, I called Guest Service to learn if any of the lounges had board games or cards, as this is a feature at least on the smaller ships. After having to explain my question 3x - & no I’m not looking for a casino! - the answer was no.
Kara immediately napped and I spent too long scrolling my phone since we had complimentary internet. About 2:30pm I hopped in the shower to take care of that and start packing, so I could be out of the way/help Kara. I woke her up at 3pm at which time she grabbed a quick shower too. Even though we weren’t on the island today, it was to be a usual last day in that it’s a busy evening. We were both almost completely packed by about 4pm.
Today offered a rare Disney Cruise Line activity they were only doing per the extended nature of the cruise: Disney Dance Camp! We had experienced this on only one other cruises, by a guest artist, where we learned part of “Arabian Nights” from Disney's Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular. At 4:30pm three of the stage show dancers would be teaching us for 45 minutes the ending of “Under the Sea” from Disney's The Little Mermaid. Wow is that song fast! Kara quickly bowed out and took on video recording duty. Luckily this was held in Hero Zone (Deck 12 Aft) so we had plenty of space. (Now, to go home & practice!)
A note on the video - since it contains "Under the Sea", we fully expect YouTube to block this at some point for copyright issues.
After this it was time to start heading to dinner. On the way I inquired about taking some meclizine, as we would be setting sail. Additionally, we’d be crossing the Florida Straight again, which can be slightly bumpy, and that we’d be cruising at a faster rate in order to return to Port Canaveral.
So Kara headed to Arendelle (Deck 5 Aft). I’d planned to hopefully grab a packet at Guest Services, instead of going back to our stateroom (Deck 9 Forward). However, they were packed as expected, so I dashed to the Health Center (Deck 1 Forward) and then back to the restaurant. However, Kara then noted we forgot to grab the gratuity envelopes, so back to the stateroom I went.
By the time I was seated for dinner, I definitely needed some water after that trekking! Kara had somewhat casually inquired the night prior if they could open the back shades so we could see out the back of the ship from Arendelle since the theme show wasn’t happening. To their credit, they opened both side sections, but only two small panels at the very back (where we were), as it was clear they definitely were trying to hide Rapunzel’s hair from the stern statue. Sigh.
As for out actual dinner, see Day 2, as we both ordered the exact same thing! (Why mess with perfection?!) Queen Anna, Kristoff, and Elsa all did walk-about. This restaurant was FAR more pleasurable without the non-stop show aspect. It would be great if they just did a couple of vignettes instead of one long continuous show.
We noted we wouldn’t be at rotational breakfast the next morning, handed over the gratuities, and said our goodbyes to Pitinart, Carlos, & Simone. We then headed back to the stateroom to go ahead and tackle the end-of-cruise Feedback Survey. As solid nerds, we honestly enjoy completing this survey in reflecting on our experience and comparing it to other Disney cruises.
We weren’t sure if we’d go to “the show” tonight or not, but were curious what “Disney Victrophonics” was all about. It seems this was a spontaneously “thrown-together” show per the unplanned extended sailing. They had the jazz ensemble (piano, drums, bass, & guitar) from The Bayou and Grand Hall with two of the stage show singers along with one of the dancers on tap. They performed Disney tunes along with some Prince, Tina Turner, and other popular musical artists, mostly in a 40’s style jazz.
The theatre was less than half full, which I believe was based on the odd name of the show and a lot of first-time cruisers not realizing all that needs to be done on this final night.
Then it was a final trip to fill our water bottles and get soft-serve: strawberry/vanilla swirl cone for Kara and strawberry cup for me. We easily had our bags set out prior to the 10:30pm deadline - a rarity for us! I grabbed another quick shower (per all that dancing in “the gym” earlier) and we headed to sleep due to the (GRRR) 7am alarm.
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