On the fourth day of our Pixar Day at Sea cruise aboard the beautiful Disney Fantasy, I woke just after 6:00am after a much needed solid night of sleep and immediately felt far more refreshed than I had the previous few mornings. Although I would happily have stayed in bed a little longer, I decided instead to make the most of another early start and headed up to Deck 12 for some fresh air, where another glorious morning was just beginning.

After making us both a cup of tea, I walked back down to our stateroom and sat out on our verandah while watching the sun slowly begin to rise as the familiar sight of Castaway Cay gradually came into view in the distance.

The last time I visited Castaway Cay was onboard the Disney Treasure last year and I remember feeling quite sad when I woke up that morning as seeing Castaway Cay ahead of you normally means that your Disney cruise is almost over, as the majority of itineraries dock there on the final full day before heading back to either Port Canaveral or Port Everglades overnight. However on this sailing we still had one more full sea day left to enjoy the Disney Fantasy before our cruise came to an end which was the best feeling ever.

It has always made me laugh that whenever I say that I am not sure when my next trip to Castaway Cay will be, I somehow end up back there again within a year every single time without fail. Apparently Castaway Cay always finds a way of calling me back and with this being our ninth visit – which I still genuinely have trouble believing after originally thinking that I would probably only ever visit once – I was so happy to be back yet again in this little bit of paradise.

As we had a stateroom on the starboard side of the Disney Fantasy, we had the perfect view when the ship began turning to dock alongside the pier just after 7:30am. It was such a beautiful morning and as both the Disney Treasure and Disney Destiny had missed Castaway Cay during the previous few days, I was so happy and felt so grateful that we were able to dock successfully and that we had been so lucky with the weather throughout our entire sailing.

Our Cruise Director Peter made an announcement just before 8:30am to let everyone know that the ship was cleared for disembarkation, however just like the previous day, we were in no immediate hurry to get off straight away. After getting ready, we headed up to a very busy Cabanas and grabbed a light breakfast of fruit, yogurt and granola. We had no trouble finding a quiet table outside where we enjoyed our food with the perfect view of Castaway Cay whilst we waited for the initial rush of guests to head off onto the island.

Once we had finished our breakfast, we walked down to Deck 3 of the Lobby Atrium as we had booked the Royal Gathering for 9:00am. Even though we were unable to book this activity online thirty days prior to sailing (as we had prioritised booking the Pixar Day at Sea meet and greets instead), we had no trouble grabbing a slot on the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app on embarkation day. We were able to connect to the ship’s wifi as soon as we parked our car at Port Canaveral and had a choice of days and times to book.

The Royal Gathering offers the opportunity to reserve a time to meet several of the Princesses onboard in one go with minimal wait and at no extra charge. During this five night Pixar Day at Sea cruise, it was only offered twice on our second day at sea as well as this morning at Castaway Cay.

We chose our Castaway morning because we figured it would be much quieter as there were so many first time cruisers onboard who did not want to waste a single minute of their very first visit to Castaway Cay and who wanted to be off the ship as soon as possible. We only waited about five minutes and because the line moves so quickly, we were able to meet Tiana, Belle and Cinderella in less than ten minutes. I would highly recommend booking this activity to anyone.

After meeting the Princesses, we walked down to Deck 1 Midship where we disembarked the Disney Fantasy just after 9:20am. When visiting Castaway Cay, we always love meeting all the characters wearing their colourful beachwear outfits which was definitely our first priority of the day. Each of the characters usually only has two meet and greet times in the morning (except for Chip and Dale who were not scheduled to be out on this day), so we had made a plan to meet all of them as quickly as possible so we could then relax, unwind and enjoy the rest of our day on the island.

As always, our first character of the day was the incredible Daisy who was out meeting at the Post Office at 9:30am. She even walked past us as we were getting off the ship and did her best runway walk along the dock as only she can.

Because the line was so short, we were able to meet Daisy incredibly quickly – in fact we were completely done before 9:30am which was her official start time! Since there were no more characters scheduled at the Post Office for another thirty minutes, we decided to head straight over to Mount Rustmore where Goofy was also out at 9:30am, hoping we would have just enough time to catch him. The walk took me just over five minutes and as each character line stays open for only ten minutes, I managed to jump into Goofy’s line just before they closed it.

We then walked back to the Post Office to join the line ready to meet Donald at 10:00am. Since we did not need to rush quite as much this time, we also took the opportunity to take some photos of the Disney Fantasy and Castaway Cay along the way.

There was already a short line waiting for Donald and once we had met him, we walked all the way back to Scuttle’s Cove to meet Minnie at 10:15am. We then stayed right there and hopped back into the same line to meet Mickey at 10:45am before heading over to Mount Rustmore to meet Pluto who was our final character of the morning at 11:00am.

While we did a lot of walking that morning, meeting all of the characters this way was honestly the quickest and easiest route for us to be able to meet everyone in the shortest amount of time. I know that some people might not want to walk back and forth so much between the Post Office, Scuttle’s Cove and Mount Rustmore as it can feel a bit inefficient, so I would always recommend checking the character meet and greet times on the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app and making a plan that works best for you on the day.

After meeting all of the characters, we definitely noticed that it was starting to get very hot – especially compared to our previous day at Lookout Cay – so we decided to find some shade and look around the She Sells Seashells and Everything Else shop. Once again there was nothing that caught my eye on this visit, although since returning home I have seen that there is now a Mount Rustmore Christmas decoration which I know I will have to buy on our next cruise and somehow find room for it on my already full Christmas tree!

After grabbing a cold drink to help cool down, we walked over to Pelican Point to get the tram to Serenity Bay. Despite the high number of families with young children on this sailing, the adult only beach was a lot busier than we expected it to be. Thankfully we were able to find two sunloungers with an umbrella for some much needed shade further along the beach. There is something incredibly peaceful about doing absolutely nothing but listening to the ocean waves – I have never been a person who can sit on a beach for too long as I get bored, so an hour and a half spent here was just right and sometimes, that lazy relaxation is exactly what a cruise day is all about.

I also took a walk along Serenity Bay and there were a lot of sharp shells and stones in the water as well as a heavy amount of seaweed too. Once I had settled back onto my lounger, I noticed that a rash had broken out all over my feet where I had just been paddling in the water. Having heard multiple stories about sea lice at Castaway Cay over the years, I am guessing that they or something very similar were to blame.

Just after 1:00pm we left the beach and walked over to Hangar 98, the new lunch location at Serenity Bay which opened in November 2025. I was really looking forward to visiting this new venue and had extremely high hopes, especially given how incredible my lunch had been the previous afternoon at Lookout Cay.

While they offered many of the same items as Lookout Cay, there were frustratingly no Impossible burgers available at all which was so disappointing as I had really been looking forward to another burger for lunch that day. To make matters worse, the quality of the other food on offer was nowhere near as good as the previous day, and because everything had been left to go cold, I ended up leaving there hungry. On our last few cruises, we have actually gone back to the ship for lunch when at Castaway Cay. I really wish that we had done the same on this day too as it really is a much better option.

The seating area for Hangar 98 is still the same old space that the previous BBQ used and after experiencing the amazing dining spaces at Lookout Cay, it really felt like a giant letdown.

One detail I did love though, was the adorable Chip and Dale buoy at the entrance to the new Mickey and Minnie Cove cabanas. Speaking of cabanas, we had actually managed to book a cabana at Castaway Cay on this cruise for the first time ever, which was honestly quite a shock. We had somehow also been able to book one at Lookout Cay too with no issues, which I forgot to mention in my previous blog post.

As tempting as it was to do something different, the prices for cabanas at both island destinations are just so expensive and ridiculous that in the end, we released both of our reservations. For what they would have cost for such a short amount of time – especially after taking so much time during the day to meet characters which we always love to do – we both genuinely felt like we could book another entire trip somewhere else in the world instead (or even another cruise!) and still have change left over.

We took the tram back to Pelican Point and then headed over to the Head’s Up Bar, which remains to this day one of my favourite spots on Castaway Cay. Unlike on our last visit on the Disney Treasure when all the bars on the island closed early that left us completely unable to get a cocktail, they were thankfully open much later on this cruise.

I ordered a frozen margarita which was absolutely delicious and we found a spot in the shade to sit for quite some time. The view across the snorkelling lagoon back towards the ship is simply perfect and we just sat there with a drink in hand while appreciating how lucky we were to be back in Castaway Cay once again. It really was the perfect afternoon with no rushing to be anywhere and absolutely no plans.

Just after 3:00pm, we began the slow walk back towards the ship, stopping for a few final photos of the now quiet island along the way. We were back onboard the Disney Fantasy just after 3:30pm which was in plenty of time as the all aboard time was 4:45pm that afternoon.

Once back in our stateroom, we had the most wonderful surprise as a plate of beautiful macarons was waiting for us on the coffee table. The view from our verandah was absolutely picture perfect that afternoon, so I immediately had to take a photo of my Evie the Towel Animal that I had bought on embarkation day with that incredible backdrop, which is now easily one of my favourite photos from the entire cruise.

We then decided to head up to the Quiet Cove pool to cool down for a little while, which was once again almost deserted. As I had not had too much to eat at lunchtime, I was still hungry, so I also grabbed two slices of pizza which I enjoyed along with some much needed caffeine in the form of an Oat Latte from Cove Cafe.

Just after Pirate Goofy made a quick appearance in the Quiet Cove (there were also pirate towel animals on display in the Quiet Cove ready for Pirate Night that evening), Captain Damir made an announcement at 4:45pm to let everyone know that we would be leaving Castaway Cay shortly and that we could expect even more sunshine and clear skies for our final day at sea the following day.

Just after 5:00pm, all of the ship’s horns were blasted as we started to sail away, so I quickly ran straight up to the back of the ship on Deck 13 Aft to watch the Disney Fantasy leave Castaway Cay. It really had been such a great day in the Bahamas and I already cannot wait for my next visit.

However, for the first time ever in this blog, I am definitely not going to say that I do not know when I will be back this time, as I really hope to be back at Castaway Cay once again next year.

Once we were back in our stateroom, I spent a little while sitting out on our verandah with a cup of tea whilst I backed up my photos from our day at Castaway Cay, before showering (as well as putting plenty of hydrocortisone cream on my poor feet) and getting ready for Pirate Night.

As this cruise was sailing close to capacity, I already knew that it was going to get very busy on deck for the Mickey’s Pirates in the Caribbean deck party which was due to start at 7:35pm, so I did not mind in the slightest getting up there a little early to secure a good view.

As there were so many first time cruisers who wanted to make sure that they did as much as possible onboard, Decks 12 and 13 only started to get very busy in the final ten minutes before the show was due to start, as so many of them had spent their evening at the early dinner seating, meeting characters around the ship dressed in their pirate costumes or watching that evening’s show in the Walt Disney Theatre.

I grabbed our usual spot up on Deck 12 with fifty minutes to go, and even then, there were many spots already taken. It was definitely going to be a very busy night onboard and I was also very glad that I had brought my hoodie with me as the air had turned a little chilly once the sun had gone down as we headed out to sea.

The Mickey’s Pirates in the Caribbean deck party is near enough the same show that we have seen so many times over the years on our other cruises, but I still love it just as much as the first time I saw it back on the Disney Dream in 2016. The show begins with Mickey’s Pirate Academy where Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy teach everyone what it takes to join their pirate crew.

Not long after, a cannonball hits the ship and Captain Hook and Mr Smee arrive to take over. This leads to Captain Mickey challenging Hook to a “Captain’s Challenge” to win the Disney Fantasy back. It was just as much fun as it always is and you honestly cannot help but sing and dance along. One detail that always makes me laugh so much is hearing Donald shout “Get out of my way!” when everyone is running across the stage to avoid the cannonball — it’s these little things that make me want to watch it again every single time.

As we had decided to skip the dining rooms on this cruise, once the deck party had finished, we walked down to a completely empty Tow Mater’s Grill at Flo’s V8 Cafe on Deck 11 where I got a plant based hot dog and fries, which ended up being the perfect dinner that night. We took our food as well as a cold drink over to the comfortable chairs in an even emptier Quiet Cove where we once again enjoyed the peace and quiet. I really loved these peaceful moments and these chilled evenings were easily some of my favourite parts of the entire cruise.

After an hour or so, we decided to head to Sweet on You on Deck 11 Aft to get some dessert. Even though the treats here do come with a small extra upcharge, it is always worth it and I chose the amazing mango sorbet along with some delicious raspberry popping pearls.

As it was so quiet we did wonder how busy the rest of the ship was so we walked down to Decks 3 and 4 only to find really long lines everywhere for Captain Hook and Mr Smee, Mickey and Minnie as well as for Chip and Dale. We had decided to skip the pirate night photos this time especially as we have another cruise coming up very soon that will definitely be much calmer and a lot saner. The lines for the characters were definitely long on this night but as we would later find out, it was absolutely nothing compared to what we would see the following day!

We then headed back to our stateroom for a little while before going back up to the open decks to watch the fireworks. The show that takes place on the Deck 11 Stage before them is called Buccaneer Blast which starts at 10:15pm which we decided to skip as neither of us really enjoys it. Instead we headed to our absolute favourite place to watch the fireworks on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy which is by Currents bar on the adult only part of Deck 13 Forward.

The fireworks themselves do not start until just after 10:30pm so after grabbing a cup of tea, we headed up there a few minutes beforehand and were completely shocked to find Currents almost empty. It usually gets quite busy up there, but on this night we were even able to get a front row seat to watch the fireworks for the first time ever as so many of the tables and chairs were free. It really was the perfect way to end a great day.

It had been another long day so as soon as the fireworks had finished, we ran back down to our stateroom and quickly got ready for bed. It was such a great feeling that we did not have to face the sadness of packing just yet as we still had one final sea day ahead of us to simply relax and enjoy everything that the Disney Fantasy had to offer – and who knew what that day would bring?

And spoiler – it was one of the best days ever!

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