Disney cruising!!!

Well hello there! Did you miss me? I sure missed writing and my Facebook, and clearly fb missed me, I had 18 msg's when we pulled into port! Lol
So for the last 4 days we have been cruising the Bahamas aboard the Dream, Disneys newest vessel, it had it's maiden voyage in February this year, so she's a brand spanker!and I tell you now she is beautiful! Now the last time I cruised I was about 5 and we went on the fairstar so my expectations were pretty limited, so when I walked onto the dream like an excited kid in a lolly shop, she absolutely took my breath away. The lobby was just stunning, the tiles, carpet, staircase, everything about her was just impeccable and I fell in love. It's just a ship! I hear you say, but honestly I've never seen anything like it! The memories I take away with me are memories that will last forever (or until my next Disney cruise!!)
Let me take you back to the beginning, and honestly our Disney cruise experience started from the moment we drove through the gates. The staff were so welcoming and friendly , as we came up the escalators up into the check in area we were greeted by 2 ladies with huge Mickey hands on waving and smiling and instantly we felt like family. Minnie was over by a huge replica of the dream having photos so we lined up and had ours too, even the damn characters are warm and friendly , I even found myself wanting to give her a big hug (to my disappointment she brushed me). We checked , got our 'key to the world' or room key come charge key, the. I took the kids to get their Mickey bands on. Now the Mickey bands are what the kids under 10 wear that are using the kids club. It gets put on at the beginning of the trip and then it's not removed until the last night when you take them out of the club for the last time (or unless your name is kai and you lose yours in the pool somewhere!). I will explain more about the kids club further along.
Once we boarded we had about an hour before our rooms were due to be ready, so we took a bit of a look around and then headed for level 11, that's where the pool and aqua duck (waterslide) and eateries are. We had no sooner stepped onto the deck and "cocktail for the ladies?" my response " ah is the pope a catholic?!!!!" and so begins my relationship with the poolside waiters and my 'key to the world'!!!!! ;) lunch is next on the agenda, we were starving, so cabanas was the buffet restaurant for us! And so began my relationship with buffets! The food was spectacular, veggies for the first time since we got here, the americnas don't really do veggies, even the kids grabbed some! We sat out on the deck and enjoyed our lunch and cocktails, had a look around and the kids were off to the pool or should I say pools! 2 pools to choose from, a waterslide, the aqua duck (that's the waterslide that goes around the top of the boat and at pone point you go out over the side of the boat, very cool indeed!) and nemos play area for the under 8's. Whilst the kids played Glenn and I went and unpacked and checked out the room, very nice and quite roomy. The lounge flipped over to create a bed, another pulled out from the ceiling and ours was a king size! Which was like a marshmallow, ahhhh heaven!
So an hr before sailing we had to do the safety spiel, kinda like the one you get before you fly, then it was up onto the deck for the best viewing point for our sail off (similar to take off I guess??? Lol) beers and cocktails were a plenty, I told you my relationship with my key to the world card started early! The horn sounded, and not just any old horn, it's Disney after all! It's "when you wish upon a star" from Cinderella! Janet was a little disappointed she likes the big 'hooooonk', but I thought it was quite fitting.
Our dinner sitting for the cruise was at 8:15 so the kids swam till about 6, a quick shower and the. Up to kids club for a bit before dinner. Now kids club is not your average kids club! It's larger than most child care centers, it has state of the art facilities, interactive computers etc etc. The kids Mickey bands are what they use to sign in, they just scan them and theyre off! Arts crafts games characters computers you name it they had it! Then when it was time to pick them up we gave their name, they brought them up on the computer and through the Mickey bands they could tell us where they were! Upon exiting we swiped our key to the world, gave the password and the kids swiped their Mickey bands once more and hey presto they were signed out! So easy so efficient and so safe!
Dinner for our first night was in animators palate, a very fun and interactive restaurant! The 2 older girls missed this restaurant because they were up on deck 11 having their hair braided, I just went to one of the food outlets and grabbed them a burger, grabbed them a drink (which was bottomless and available the whole trip as was the ice cream machine) and they sat there munching away while we had our dinner downstairs. So the interactive restaurant, every wall had a large screen on it with the characters of nemo swimming around, next thing I hear crush (the turtle) talking and I though oh that's cool, until I realized he was actually talking to the man that was seated at the table in front of the screen he was on! He'd ask him questions and then answer him, it was unreal, then he'd jump to another screen and harass some other diner, the kids thought it was great! At the end of our dinner he had us up dancing, so much fun! We met the girls up on deck 11 then they all headed back to kids club for a little bit, it was 10:30 but it's open till 1am!!!!! While they played Glenn and I went for a little explore, so much to see and do on this boat. 11:15 we pick the kids up and bed! That ends day 1!
Day 2 - Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas
When we wake up we are pulling in to port, so we head up to Cabanas for our buffet breakfast, and are greeted with copious amounts of food, including doughnuts!!!! Which my kids took full advantage of, ONLY CAUSE YOU'RE ON HOLIDAYS!!!! Lol, by the last day I had one too! When in Rome! ;) so breakfast was scrummy and then we head out for a day in Nassau (well we thought it was going to be a whole day). The minute we stepped foot onto Bahamian soil we were annoyed by the locals with "you want a taxi" "you want to take the kids here" "you buy the kids this" ahhhhhhhh leave me alone!!!!! As we walked down the streets the kids were very uneasy and kept asking when we could go back on the boat. I did a quick shop, some cheap clinique makeup, and we took them back, they really did t like it, and Nassau really wasn't a very nice place. Cabanas buffet the pool and aqua duck were calling so that's how we spent the rest of the day, oh and of course cocktails and beers! Janet and Peter hired mopeds and drove around and apparently Nassau wasn't much nicer any further out, so going back onto the boat wasn't a bad decision. By 6pm the kids were back in kids club and by 7 Glenn and I and Janet and Peter were enjoying a cocktail in an adults only cocktail bar, very swish. We pick the kids up and head to the Enchanted Garden for dinner. Now every night may have been a different restaurant but our waiters followed us, so every night we had the same people serving us, it was great, by the end of the cruise we had developed quite a relationship with our head waiter, Adanna she is from Trinidad and she took quite a liking to the kids, as did they with her. Again after dinner the kids went back up to KC and Glenn and I did some more exploring, I told you this was a big ship, and even to this day there are still bars and clubs we didn't even see! We pick the kids up around 11 and that ends day 2.
Day 3- Castaway Cay
Castaway Cay is an island in the Bahamas, but this island is owned by Disney and is exclusively for Disney cruises! It reminded us all of Fiji, the clear blue water the palm trees, the sun, ahhh the list goes on and on. Now because it's a Disney island it was just like being on the boat, all the food and drink you wanted. All we had to pay for was rental os snorkeling gear, tubes and floats to relax in the sea with and the watersport equipment. We had a great day, swimming snorkelling, the kids and Peter enjoyed the waterslide, and of course the ice cream machine!!!! They all gave that a nudge, not me, I didn't have any, not
one! We had to be back on ship by 3:30 for a 5pm sail off! Not that any of us wanted to leave castaway, it was so beautiful! Pool and aqua duck were on The agenda once again and quite possibly cocktails too!! When we got back to our rooms there was a little surprise waiting for us, 4 pirate bandanas cause it was pirate party night!!!! Basically everyone dresses up in pirate attire and they have a pirate show with all the characters and then at 10:30 pm they have a fireworks show. That was a fun night, a bit too much for some, lexi fell asleep at dinner :( and missed the fireworks, pretty cool shooting off the ship really! And that brings day 3 to a close.
Day 4 - day at sea
A nice relaxing day, or so I thought! Janet and I and the 2 older girls were booked in at the day spa for pedicures (charli a manicure) but being the last day there were all these things we had to fit in! First up brekky at cabanas then kai and lexi took off to the pool. The girls retreated to the room for a bit of r&r. 12.00 pm saw the girls off to the spa for a bit of pampering, 12:15 was the character dance party in the lobby. Lexi and I got our groove on with goofy Mickey Donald and daisy, that was a bit of fun! 1:15 was the princess meet and greet but nor before I raced back up to pick my 2 princesses up from the day spa. Glenn and lexi waited in line, and thank goodness, by the time I got back the line up was wrapping it's way around the ship! Girls and their princesses! Kai took off with with kalahni and charli to the pool, I left Glenn with lexi for the princess meet and greet and retreated to the day spa for my pedi, ahhhh bliss. The only pedicure I've had looking out over the ocean, and there was nothing but ocean to be seen. Janet joined me half way through, then left her to enjoy her pampering and went and met up with the family at the pool. From there it was time to head to the rooms to pack up and get ready for the Disney believe show and dinner. Our bags had to be out between 8:30 and 10:30 and seeing as though we had a 8:15 dinner sitting we had to get that done early. Before dinner however we took ourselves off to the Walt Disney theatre, now I'm talking state of the art theatre and production! Something we'd definately pay money to see in Sydney, and the think state theatre, theatre royal, take your pick, this thing was fancy smancy, and clearly cruising had agreed with Glenn as he rocked up with bare feet! Lol
The show was great, lots of characters for the kids to see, like they needed to see anymore, it was all about a father who didn't believe in magic, very entertaining.
Dinner for us tonight was at palo, a restaurant just for adults that we had to pre book and pay a little extra for. Our plans were to grab the kids a bite to eat up on deck 11 and than drop them off at KC, but the night before at dinner our hostess insisted that the children still join her in the dining room and she would look after them and return them to kids club! Wow what service, the kids thought they were the bees knees dining on their own!later when we picked them up kalahni told me the head dining room man had taken them up, certainly can't complain about the service!
So our dinner at Palo was just amazing, we started in the adjoining bar for a cocktail, imagine that, pomegranate passions were the drink of the night, yum yum! We ended up with an Aussie waitress and her service was just perfect, as was the food. We all left very full but had a great last night together. We picked the kids up, kalah I was a little under the weather, our last night the boat got a bit of a sway up, I'm glad it was the last night cause the motion wasn't much and kalahni felt quite ill. She went off to bed as did lexi, I think she was aleep before her head hit the pillow, so I stayed at the room while Glenn took kai and charli for a night ride on the aqua duck. They weren't gone long, it was quite breezy up on deck and it was about 11:30 pm! And day 4 draws to a close
Day 5 - disembarkment
A sad day, we really didn't want to get off! The service the staff the amenities , everything was just perfect, not a thing out of place the whole time, I never saw a bit of rubbish, a dirty bathroom, there was always someone cleaning something! But all good things must come to an end. No cabanas this morning, we all had to eat in the restaurant we ate at the night before, and for us that was the royal palace (well the kids anyhow) we bid farewell to our wonderful hostess, hugs all round, she complimented me on my parenting skills, then informed me that when she has children she will give them to me! I really wanted to say no worries cause you'll have little black babies , but obviously I didn't, I thanked her for her wonderful compliment. Sadly we moved off the ship and out to our Avis car rental shuttle. We picked up our 11 seater bus! And headed back to orlando. We dropped Janet and Peter off at the outlets, yes they still had shopping to do, ourselves, if we ever see a mall again it'll be too soon! Lol. We headed to downtown Disney for lunch and then it was back to epcot! I did some calculations and realized that we still had one day to use our passes, sooooo much to glenn's disgust we headed back to the theme parks! We chose epcot because there was one ride we didn't get to experience, soarin! Another virtual ride that takes you 'soarin' over California, a well done ride, very spectacular!
We picked up Janet and Peter and headed for our hotel at the airport, Denny's for dinner then bed, we all had early wake ups to be at the airport, which is where I am now quickly finishing off this blog before our flight boards to LA, which is just about too soooooo
Till next time
Cheers
Clair xx