The Bermuda Triangle Hokey Pokey

Due to COVID-19, my cast and I debarked the ship just six weeks before our contracts were originally scheduled to end. I've spent this time looking back on the places I've seen and the magic I've found. Our itinerary is considered "Western Caribbean." I like to call it "The Bermuda Triangle Hokey Pokey" because our home port was Miami and we visited Nassau and Castaway Cay in the Bahamas almost every cruise, and sometimes we went to the Cayman Islands, causing us to go in and out and all about the Bermuda Triangle. One of the best places we visited was Disney's own Island, Castaway Cay. I got off the ship every time we visited Castaway Cay because I had to greet a character on the island and/or I went for a run on the island trail. I walked around Nassau maybe four times. The first time it was raining and I spent maybe fifteen minutes off the ship before I came back and got lunch on Deck 9. The second time I got brunch, and the last two times I sat in the Hilton and used the WiFi and pretended I was a guest. I went to Grand Cayman once. The main reason I only went one time was that our ship did not actually dock here because of the shallow rocky coast. Our ship anchored off the shore and guests took tendering boats between our ship and the island. Since my schedule was pretty tight and the shore-to-ship tendering time was unpredictable, I was not eager to leave the ship. But then I did! I could not find too much to do in the near vicinity on the island, but I saw some chickens. My island experiences are below. 

Nassau, Bahamas

We often docked next to another ship in Nassau.

Mickey and his friends do not visit the Nassau gangway, but Norwegian Cruise Line's friends do.

Brunch at Smugglers with Stephen and Chris! They serve Starbucks and WiFi. And the pirate museum I did not go to is next door to the restaurant.

Here is the Hilton whose WiFi I used.

George Town, Grand Cayman

One morning en route to the Cayman Islands I went out on Deck 9 to eat some poached eggs and watch the sun rise. We were sailing by some mountains in Cuba and a child looked out and this happened:

Child: Where is that?

Father: That's Cuba!

Child: We're going to CUBA!

Mother: No, we are not.

View of the ship from the tendering boat

Fort George

Chickens on wire

Outside Guy Harvey's, a restaurant I did not enter.

Castaway Cay

Every cruise itinerary included a stop at this island. One of the best parts are the cookies, served at the restaurants Cookies and Cookies, Too. The names of the shops and attractions at the island are made up of spelling and grammar jokes: our shops on the island (run by employees who live on the island and the merchandise team from our ship) are called "She Sells Sea Shells" and "Buy the Sea Shore."

I got an Arendelle Winter (frozen coffee) at  Summertime Freeze.

Trams take you to and from the various beaches and attractions on the island.

Mount Rustmore

Stephen, Ben, and I snorkled through the reefs, shipwrecks, and many schools of fish off the shore. I saw two schools of fish looking out at a larger fish. The larger fish looked out into the deep blue water. I did not know what was going on. And I saw a big turtle.

Conch shells are everywhere on the crew beach.

That's my dad.

This is me and my mom.

Several trails forge their way through the leafy green landscape of the island. Disney hosts a 5k for each cruise, and I got to run it with Abbey! 

As the ship pulls away from Castaway, the island crew waves goodbye, hands dressed in large Mickey and Minnie style gloves. These places gave me the warmest winter, and I'll miss them. See ya real soon, Mickey!