Castaway Cay and The Crab Race

                                             This picture was taken from our private verandah.



When we were on the Disney Dream, Noah and I did so many activities. One of the days we went to Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island. Cay is pronounced key; because that is the way it is spelled in the Bahamas. Castaway Cay was not only beautiful but a lot of fun. Before we left I decided to look at the excursions. I found a glass bottom boat ride that I thought Noah and I would love. It was going to be on his birthday after all. I excitedly called my mom to see what she would think. I wasn’t 100% sure that Noah would like it. We both agreed that he would. I went to order tickets and my heart sank they only had one ticket for each ride. Obviously, we couldn’t take turns going. I decided to check later to see if there was any openings. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t check merely a couple days before we set sail. I decided to maybe check when we were on board, hoping while not getting my hopes up. We went to the Port Adventures desk and they had lots of tickets for the Glass Bottom Boat ride. Just a tip if you are doing a Port Adventure, do it later in the day because we almost missed ours. I planned on going back to the ship and getting our tickets and my digital camera before. Well, we didn’t make it back to the ship before. More about that in a little bit.

Noah’s favorite thing of the whole cruise was The Crab Race. One of the Bingo people told Noah about it and he wanted to race a crab. So, we promptly went to the gazebo and talked to the crew to find out information. I wanted to know how much the crab race cost, what it was, etc. I was very excited when I found out it was free. There were all kinds of free activities on the cruise, but there were some with an expense. We were crab #1 and Noah named our crab Pet Crab. Since you probably don’t know what a crab race is, I will explain it to you. There are two big circles on pavement and all the hermit crabs are let go and the first one to the outer circle wins. It is pretty goofy, but so much fun. They have four races. The first race Pet Crab came in second. In the second race, Pet crab was the winner. After the four races, they take the winners and have The International Crab Race Championship. You might have seen it on ESPN and ESPN 2. Well, Pet Crab was all ready to win; he took off his little crabby robe and was ready to crawl. Pet Crab is the Champion of The International Crab Race Championship. Noah was so proud, he told everyone about winning. We even won a few prizes, as if the title wasn’t enough. I took some pictures so we could commemorate the occasion.

Next we went to The Family Beach. Noah and I could have played in the water all day. It was beautiful. It was shallow, but not too shallow to where I couldn’t enjoy myself too. We had a lot of fun being able to splash about. It’s hard to explain. I would just occasionally float a long. Noah was wearing a float vest so I felt better about letting him roam a little. We had an underwater camera that we took in the ocean with us. I can’t wait to see those pictures. We ended up staying in the water too long, to where we had to scarf down our lunch to make it to the glass bottom boat. I was able to get a receipt for the tickets that were locked in the safe in our room. The Glass Bottom boat wasn’t exactly what I pictured but it was still really cool. The water was really choppy so I had to sit down most of the time, but I could still see. We saw lots of fish. We even fed the fish oatmeal. I had never seen so many tropical fish. When we got off the glass bottom boat, I decided it was time to go back to the ship. We were both covered in sand so we had to rinse off in the outside showers. We made it back to the room and got something to drink and just relaxed while I took a shower to remove all the extra sand. Castaway Cay was awesome. I can’t wait to go back someday.

Come On Betty!

Let’s talk about Bettys. Of course some of the famous Bettys are Betty Grabel, Betty Rubble, and Betty White. All of them are awesome in their own way. Let me introduce you to my newest Betty. Her given name is Bingo Betty. Noah and I went on a Disney Cruise on The Disney Dream. The first night we were on the cruise, I dropped off Noah at the Oceaneer Club to play. I decided since I was all alone, I would check out the Navigator, which was a daily calendar of the day’s events. After a conversation with my mom about if there was a casino on board, she asked me if I was going to play Bingo. As I have mentioned before I had never played bingo in person except in school. I kept waiting for the text message to pick up Noah right away. I hadn’t received one and it had been over an hour. So, I decided I would walk down to the D lounge and find out about playing Bingo.

It was the first session of the cruise and of course knowing my luck, I was the one who was called up on stage to check that Betty had all the balls to play. I was insanely shy. It ended up being a good thing because I broke out of my shell some. I received a gift of a Disney Cruise Line water bottle. At first I was thinking, oh “wow” like I don’t want this…. but believe it or not, it was actually very useful and I used it a lot. The drink stations were on deck 11 and we were on deck 7 and so I would fill it with Coke and take it back to the room. They had milk on tap as I called it, so Noah was able to drink a lot of milk on the cruise which is something you don’t always get to do on a vacation.

I had to go pick up Noah in the middle of Bingo, I was able to bring him back with me and we were able to play together. He wasn’t too sure about the game, all the people and the loud announcer and his really corny jokes. All the bingo crew were really nice and always talked to Noah and made him feel special. After the first Bingo session, Noah was hooked. He kept asking to go to Bingo. We went to almost all the sessions on the cruise. It was so much fun. I was loud and obnoxious, which you don’t see often. I wasn’t ridiculous but I was shouting out the things they told us to say, and hooting and hollering. I noticed that Noah was too. He was so loud sometimes I would have to tell him to quiet down. We won one game of Bingo, it was a split pot but it was just a much fun I wasn’t upset the other times we didn’t win. The entertainment crew was awesome. I love their personalities and one of the crew members, Chris was in a British Band called The Spice Studs. I googled it and there was nothing on Google. I really wanted to hear the band.

When we would leave Noah would say come on Betty, which is what you say when you want her to give you your numbers. Noah and I had a blast playing bingo and will remember the following probably forever.

B1 is the baby of Bingo and they play a really creepy baby laugh. It’s disturbing

B9 is the seagulls

I22 are the ducks

074 is the Grandma of Bingo

B11 is the crew’s favorite number. I am not exactly sure why but they start dancing.
There is pretty much something for every ball called, plus sound effects. So, I recommend playing bingo it is fun. We had a good luck charm. It was a light up dolphin named dolphin. It worked because the first time we brought it, we won. I know I will be one of those little old ladies playing bingo with 7 good luck charms every Saturday night.

Have you ever played bingo in real life for money? Did you have fun? Did you win?

The Rainforest Room at Senses Spa On Board The Disney Dream

As some of you might know I turned 30 on August 29^th and never had been to a spa. I have never had a professional massage, maybe someday.  I felt like I was really missing out, because even little kids go to spas. Every time I thought I would get to go, something happened to where it just didn’t work out. Being a single mom, alone time is very important so I thought it was something I wanted to experience.  Recently, when we were on our Disney Cruise, I had the chance to have a spa day. It only took me thirty years to get one. I was offered a day pass to The Rainforest Room at the Senses Spa on the Disney Dream. I was really looking forward to it. I had to work while on the cruise. I had to relax.  I might not have done it, if I wasn’t doing it for my blog.  I took Noah down to the Oceaneer Lab and off I went.  The cool thing about the Navigator was you know what time things are going on.  So, I knew that  Super Sloppy Science was not during the time that Noah was going to be there.  I was armed with my wave phone and a prayer that he wouldn’t want me to pick him up for a while. He knew that it was a blog thing and he had to stay for a bit, while I worked.  Yes, I worked on my cruise, they made me relax, not the typical work task.

I went up to deck 11 and in to The Senses Spa, where I redeemed my certificate for The Rainforest Room.  They handed me a comfortable robe, and pointed me to the changing room and told me to leave my belongings in a locker.  Well, I left my wave phone in the bag in my locker. I didn’t want it to get ruined and I just didn’t really want to be bothered.  I was having a selfish moment I guess.  I knew Noah was in good hands, he knew I was at the spa. If they really needed me they could find me. During one of the sessions they had spa bingo and Matt the entertainment host was talking about the ceramic heated chairs.  I thought that sounded amazing, so that is where I went first. I could have sat there for forever.  You have the ocean view that just makes you relax. The heat felt so good. I felt like I was butter melting in to the chair. It wasn’t too hot, it was just right. I actually sat in the chairs twice.  I also went to the hot tub, it was perfect, the water was pretty hot, which is the way I like it.  Everything was inside the boat, with huge windows. I really didn’t want to be outside because I was burnt and I didn’t want to burn worse. 

There were some things in The Rainforest that I didn’t really care for. It is probably just a personal preference, but the idea is cool. They have these showers and each one is a different rainforest experience.  Each experience has three different settings.  I didn’t like that most of the experiences were freezing cold. Thankfully there were other guests saying this one is cold, this one is hot, which was extremely helpful after a few cold showers. Maybe I should have stood right under the shower. It wasn’t that big of a deal, just not my favorite.  I also went in to a steam room.  I am not sure if it was just me but I walked in and walked back out. It was too steamy for me. Maybe I am not used to it, but I had trouble breathing and at this point, I knew that the lab was texting to come pick up Noah. I checked the wave phone and called them to make sure it wasn’t an emergency or that he wasn’t really upset.  I talked to him and I talked to the crew and told them I was at the spa and that I would pick him up at 2 pm.  I was really able to relax and have some alone time with beautiful views and quiet places to do so.

I highly recommend you spend some time in a spa, just to rejuvenate and relax.   Check out Senses Spa aboard the Disney Dream.

For more information, check out Sense Spa & Salon and be sure to book a special spa treatment on your Disney Cruise.

Thank you to Disney Cruise Lines for providing me with a complimentary Rainforest Pass for me to try out the Rainforest Room. All thoughts and opinions are my own.