Our family had the unique opportunity to be invited to the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration at Walt Disney World and on board the Disney Dream. This is a conference that we paid to attend. During the Celebration we received experiences and gifts that were beyond the scope of a typical Disney vacation. I will mention those as I discuss them to properly disclose any of those extras. I also have affiliate links in this post.

Out of all the days during the Disney social Media Moms Celebration I was looking most forward to our trip to Castaway Cay. This is Disney’s private island that is full of fun and exciting things to do. You can rent boats, kayaks and more. You can even get those bikes that pedal on water that they used to rent at the beach back in Falmouth when I was a kid. We did a lot while on the island and probably would have spent much longer there if we hadn’t wanted to pop back to the ship to ride the Aquaduck, but we avoided over-exposure to the sun by making it an early day.

Our morning started out with breakfast at Cabanas. Well, the rest of the family’s day started that way. I wanted to take some photos as we pulled up to the island. I went up on the 12th deck and watched as we neared closer to the island. I took some panoramic photos of the sunrise and all that was ahead. Then I came downstairs and we got changed into our beach things to get some breakfast before going ashore for the day.

When you arrive on the island there are people selling insulated bags with drinks and ice inside of them. We purchased one so that we would have bottles of water with us because it was going to be a hot day. Then you walk a ways and catch a tram to the main beach area. There you can rent various things for recreation. You can get things for snorkeling, or riding bikes or even using a float to laze around on the water. As you walk along there are meet and greet areas where you can get your photo taken with Disney characters in their island best. We stopped once to get a photo of us with the ship in the background as well as to meet Mickey Mouse.

Mickey was the only character that we actually stopped to meet. We wanted to get to the beach because part of being at the conference meant that we were given a family pass to rent snorkeling equipment, a bike for an hour and a float for the day. We wanted to get going on that immediately.

I think we did a pretty good job of getting everyone ready and off the ship early enough to make a good go of the day and do all that we could do. Our first activity was snorkeling.

My sister had let us borrow their GoPro Hero 3 and waterproof case to take with us on the trip. I took it with us to capture video of the fish and other things that we would see under the water and also to take some photos of ourselves while we snorkeled. We did this until Andrew got too cold and then we headed out of the water to gather a few things and make our way over to a family photo opportunity.

We went over to one of the piers and there were some props set up for us to use to take some family photos. The photographer, Alex took them of us and then some with our cameras. It was a nice vantage point to capture the ship and much of the island in the background.

On the island they have a couple of places where you can get a BBQ lunch, Cooks and Cooks Too. Then there are large outdoor seating areas with picnic tables. We sat at a table and to our surprise we were sitting at the same table with Tom Warburton and his family. We didn’t disturb them. I was having fun taking photos of the kids after the meal. I am loving the portrait mode on the Pixel 2 XL. I captured a bunch of photos of Andrew goofing around while the ones of Eva were of her making disapproving faces.

After lunch we tried bike riding. We’ve never gotten the chance to really teach Eva to ride a bike and being on this trip was not the best time to do that. there were no bikes that still had training wheels that were big enough for her. There were some that were big enough for Andrew but we only had him in flip flops so we’d ride two feet and he’d lose a flip flop. It is hard to ride along with someone who is stopping every 2 feet. When he went further than that he did quite well.

We did this for a while before Eva and I went snorkeling again and Allison and Andrew got floats to enjoy. We packed it in and made our way back to the ship to ride the Aquaduck before taking a rest before the night’s activities.

Before settling in for a nap Eva read a little bit of “It’s Your Universe” by Ashley Eckstein to Andrew. I snapped this photo above and tweeted it to Ashley. She asked if she could post it and tag me in it. I said sure.

After an hour or so nap we got ready to go and see the final show of the trip, Believe. This was a cute show about a dad who learns to believe in Magic and reconnect with his daughter. It is funny how many people said that it would make me cry but it did not. It was fun and entertaining but did not make me cry.

Our dinner tonight was at the Animator’s Palate. I liked the look of this restaurant the most our of the three that we tried. Our server and assistant server were there and by tonight they had all our orders down pat. There is a strong Pixar theme to this restaurant and they even have interactive screens on the walls where the characters of finding Nemo talk with you. Crush does the talking but the technology is such that he actually talks to you by name if he’s asked your name and been given an answer. The food this night was very good and we were actually seated near Madison Hu. We may have been on other nights but never noticed until tonight.

After dinner we finished packing up our suitcases to leave them outside our rooms so that they could be brought to customs in the morning. Once that was done I wnet downstairs to take care of a few things at Guest Services.

While I was out walking around I went by the Walt Disney Theater to take a photo with the man who has been a big inspiration in my life. This was the most amazing trip. While the conference was essentially over our vacation still had a few more days ahead.