Hello, sun worshipers and those who like the idea of visiting small islands without being stranded on them afterwards, and welcome to Castaway Cay! Castaway Cay is a private island in the Bahamas, owned and operated by none other than Mickey himself. Disney bought Castaway Cay (pronounced "Key") back in the 90's, when it was known as "Gorda Cay". They cleaned it up, dug out a harbor, built a dock, and made it the exclusive home for Disney Cruise Line passengers. It's the perfect vacation island -- no beggars to harass you, no drunks laying in the road, no guys offering to sell you things that could lead to possible imprisonment back home. It's Shangri-La on 1,000 white sand acres, let me tell you.

The beans were thrilled to be on Castaway Cay, but which excursion would they choose? Stay tuned...

So what's there to do on this giant hunk of sand & sea? Well, plenty. Besides the obvious (tanning your can), you can go snorkeling, play a little beach volleyball, rent a boat and paddle around the sea, take the tykes to play at "Monstro Point" (and if you have to ask who 'Monstro' is, shame on you!), or just revel in the glory that you're here. They've even got an "adults only" beach - Serenity Bay, where you can escape the little darlings and share an open air massage with the one you love. Ahhhh...

Here the beans check out the Disney Magic, which is conveniently parked at the pier. And that's a good thing - they'd hate to "mistakenly" get back on board the wrong ship, and end up somewhere like Shanghai. Oh, sure I suppose that it'd be fun for the beans to end up there someday, but not because they've been indentured...

Did you know that Castaway Cay has its own post office? True dat. It's actually a Bahamian post office, and for a small contribution to the local economy (i.e. a buck or so) you too can send a postcard back home to the poor saps who weren't lucky enough to go on a cruise. Of course, be warned: It can take a long, long time for your mail to make it home, so don't send any urgent news via the Castaway Cay mail service. The beans figure it must take the dolphins a long time to swim all the way to the States with a bag of postcards on their back.

So here the beans pose with Alex and Ashley in front of the post office, where they're hoping that letter from Ed McMahon shows up one of these days....

Of course, since Castaway Cay is smack dab in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, odds are fairly high that it'll eventually come face-to-face with a certain uninvited tourist, in the form of a severe tropical storm. And as Hurricane Frances proved last year, when a mighty wind comes a-blowin', there's no stopping her. So here the beans pose with a tribute to the island making it through Hurricane Frances and her sister Hurricane Jeanne largely intact, which we can all be thankful for. Because if Hurricanes Frances and/or Jeanne had somehow managed to sink Castaway Cay, the beans suspect that you wouldn't have nearly as much fun. There'd be no white sand to get caught in your swimsuit, and it'd make the afternoon BBQ really soggy.

So do you remember earlier when we were wondering which of Disney's many fine shore excursions our frijoles would opt for? Well, here it is -- the hammock excursion. Not overly physical, not too stressful, and definitely a great way to spend the afternoon. Call it what you will, but it sure beats the heck out of a cold, rainy day at work...

Anywho, the beans had a marvelous time on Castaway Cay, and thank all of the nice CMs at Disney for making their day so magical. Now, where's a Bahama Breeze when you need one?