The second part of the challenge was to complete the Castaway Cay 5K! 3.1 Magical tropical miles on Disney's private Port of call paradise Castaway Cay! The completion of the two events earns you a whole bunch of Disney swag and bling! We received a half marathon event shirt and finishers medal and a 5k Challenge event shirt and finishers medal and the brand new beautiful Inaugural Castaway Cay Challenge Finishers medal! All great stuff if you are a Disney fanatic, I mean Disney fan!!!
Did I mention that the only way to get to Disneys private Island is by Cruise ship, more specifically, by Disney cruise ship! That was the real challenge! Having enough time money and effort to take a two week Disney vacation! It was a hard choice #Iknow ! But we are troopers no make that warriors! We stepped up to the battle and accepted the challenge! Somebody had to do it!
We relied on our favorite Disney Travel Planner Main Street Memories to make all the Magic come together! As usual everything was practically perfect in every way! No snags at all! Main Street Memories just makes vacation easy & I recommend letting them book your next trip!
We set the clock for typical Run Disney dark early thirty! 4:30 am ship time! But thank goodness there was no early bus to catch! We decided to dress in a Mary Poppins and Burt theme! That was really fun! We were even a little costume under dressed compared to some of the other runners!
We met for breakfast at the Cabanas and then asseombled in our pre assigned corals in the Walt Disney Theatre. It was nice to have a seat to wait in until time to head to the Start Line! This should be mandatory for all future runs! Breakfast ready and waiting and a nice cozy chair!
After a 5-10 minute pep talk and a review of Island Race Instruction it was time to go! We disembarked the Disney Dream Cruise Ship and within minutes the photos began! A night time view of the ship was a bonus photo op for sure! And of course Mickey and all of his pals were making their way to the course!
There were 3 corals A B & C with less than 1000 runners. Very small scale for a Run Disney event! After the Mark Get Set Go countdown by Cruise Director Christian & his pal Mickey runners were on their way! We started in Coral B so we had about 5 minutes to wait until it was our turn! Mickey cheered us all the way!
The course was easy & flat! A little congested all the way simply because its an island! We ran down the airport runway and made a loop around the bike path! It was a scenic view of all the green bushes and trees on the Island! The Disney Fab 6 characters, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto were on the course for pictures and Magical Motivation!
We walked the majority of the 3.1 miles and just enjoyed taking the scenic route! We were not in a big rush but of course we ran across the finish line and finished strong! We recieved the Castaway Cay 5k finishers medal and the beautiful Inaugural Castaway Cay Challenge Finishers medal! We did it! We finished both of our races! 16 .2 miles!
We returned to the ship and ate breakfast again! After a much needed shower and short nap we soon forgot about that 4:30 am wake up call! We spent the rest of the day in a lazy lounge chair on the Island! It was the perfect way for catching up on a little R&R! Neither of these R's stand for Run!
After a fabulous Disney Island style bar b que lunch we returned to the ship again to celebrate Pirate night! Pirate Mickey was waiting for us! He loved our medals! I think i heard him say Hi ya Pal! I hope to see ya again real soon! I hope so too!
It was really fun to be part of the Inaugural Castaway Cay Challenge. It was a great Disney run, theme park and cruise vacation! There's been alot of Magic and Bling from Cinderella Castle to The Disney Dream for us this year! So far 2015 has been a really good year!
xoxo Peace Love Mickey Mouse & Grandmary!
