Cruise to the Bahamas

Scale basic model of Disney cruise ships

Continuing with my family reunion we left from the parks to do a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. Monday morning we left for the airport to then take the shuttle from the airport to Port Canaveral, Florida. My brother met up with us later that morning to join us on the cruise. We did a 4 Night cruise through the Bahams that included one day at sea. Our boat was the Disney Dream.

Sunset the first night

On Monday we boarded the ship. Disney is all about families so before you can enter the ship they announce your family to the crew and then you walk onto the ship. After you get on the ship there's basically non-stop activities. As soon as we got on the boat my dad gave us a brief tour of where things are at. There's a kid specific deck as well as adult only areas. There are also several family zones on the boat. Guy and I also played mini golf on one of the top decks and we rode the aquaduck. The aquaduck is a waterslide that is on the top of the cruise ship. It goes out over the ocean. The day we rode it though we were so cold! Usually they keep the water heated but because someone ahead of us had gotten stuck they turned off the water and then turned it back on so by the time we rode it the water hadn't warmed up yet. We also played shuffleboard before the deck cast away party.

Taking in the view

We ate dinner in one of the three main dinning facilities. It's called The Enchanted Garden. The restaurant has flower lights hanging from the ceiling that open and close while you are eating. After dinner we went and participated in the family game show. Then we went to see the "Golden Mickeys." The Golden mickeys pay tribute to the award that Walt Disney created to give out to those in the company. Basically the show is a broadway type show lasting an hour. The first night we saw it they preformed songs from some of the more popular disney movies.

The next day was spent entirely at sea. I had my first ever mani/pedi. I like pedicures more than manicures but both felt nice after having run the marathon. All of the women got mani/pedi's while the men had their own spa day. For their spa day they went to the sauna. Guy's favorite part was sitting in the heated tile chair. He said it was very relaxing and just the right temperature. Also during the day, Guy and I went and saw Rogue One. Disney cruise ships play recently released movies so we were able to catch up on several movies. We participated in other family trivia games and Guy went on a tour of the boat that talked about all of the detail/art work. There were some pretty interesting facts.

For dinner that night we ate in the Royal Palace. I wasn't super impressed with the design of this one as much but the food was still pretty good. Our wait staff was Indian and Brazilian. Later that night we went and watched the next day of the golden mickeys. Tuesday's theme was Villans. So they had some of the popular song from all of the villians. For example, Be prepared from the Lion King and Cruella de Vil. I also was able to layout side and read my book. I learned though that it makes my sea sickness worse.

On Wednesday we docked at Castaway Cay. Castaway Cay is an island in the Bahamas that Disney has a 100 year lease on. We got to spend the entire day on the island. We docked early in the morning. Those of us who were doing the Castaway Cay challenge (5k on the island after the WDW marathon weekend) were let off the boat early. We ran our 5k. Guy beasted and finished probably 10th overall. Keith finished behind him then dad. My mom, Rachel and I finished in about 50 minutes. We walked a 16 minute mile pace. It was nice being able to cruise along the coast. After the race we came back onto the ship for breakfast. Then we de-boarded with everyone else. We went to swim out at pelican point. Pelican point as this pier thing that you can swim out to and then on it is are water slides (2) that you can go down. We swam for a while but it was pretty cold so Guy and I went to lay in the sun (shade for him). After a while we ate lunch and then participated in a whale dig. The whale dig was based in an area where they had found whale bones on the island. We were digging trying to find whale teeth. It was actually pretty fun. Guy found a few teeth and then a fin.

5k Castaway Challenge Runners

After the whale dig we got to do the excursion my parents had paid for. We went and fed sting rays and then got to snorkel with them. The sting rays were pretty fun to feed. Keith got his finger bit by one of them so that was pretty exciting. It was really neat to be able to snorkel with them. The sting rays bury themselves in the sand so all you can see is their eyes. Disney has their sting rays trained so there aren't any barbs on the tails. I also learned that there is one male and 70 females. The sting rays were our favorite activity.

When we got back on the boat Guy and I went and saw Dr. Strange. I didn't like the movie very much but I was still glad we saw it. We ate dinner again in the Royal Place. For dinner our Indian server made curry for the men. Guy said it was the best meal he had ever eaten. His favorite meal on the cruise. That night was pirates night. So we saw a pirate show and then they let off fireworks. It was exciting and great to see.

The next day we cruised down to Nassau. We did a city tour and saw the garden zoo. It was really nice to see the garden but the downside was that after the hurricane hit they were still trying to rebuild and clean up. I'm sure that the gardens were much prettier before. It was still fun to be able to see them though. While in the zoo we got to see marching flamingos. Keith posed as a flamingo in the gardens as they marched around him. While in the zoo we also got to feed birds. I opted out of that one but Guy fed them. He had fun but he liked swimming with the stingrays more.

Guy had won a free tanzanite necklace from a drawing earlier in the week so we got to go and pick that up in the market place. We had to be back on the boat earlier since there was a storm coming so we went and watched the movie Moana.

Animator's Palet

That night we ate dinner in my favorite restaurant. This one was called the animators pallet. The design is that the restaurant is sketches of characters from movies. The ceiling changed colors as well. They also had screens all around and Crush from Finding Nemo came out and talked/interacted with guests during dinner. It was really nice! That night we also saw the last of the golden mickeys. This one was entitled Believe. I didn't like it as much but I did like the music they did overall for it. We packed up our suitcases that night. The cruise will check you and your bag in for your flight if you leave them the flight information. It's pretty convenient.

Picking up Finn to go home

The next morning was sad and bittersweet. We ate breakfast on the cruise ship and then disembarked for the busses back to the airport. Guy and I looked at booking another Disney Cruise while on board (10% discount) but we didn't like that they didn't have all of the dates yet for 2018 so we decided to not book another one just yet. I also learned that dramamine is good for me for helping with the sea sickness but it tends to make me really drowsy. Hopefully with the next cruise we can get our sea legs faster.

We both would recommend a Disney Cruise to anyone who wants to try one.