1st time DREAMers - Dancing On Over to Our Happy Place 01/30-02/06 - LOTS OF PICS TR COMPLETE!

[littlenellbell]

Yay, can't wait to stay at Yacht Club! How were the rooms? We're looking into a 1 or 2 bedroom villa.

We totally had the same timeline. Can't believe we didn't run into you! Oh my, I'm so happy you had a great experience with Sunshine Transportation. Maybe it was just our driver. No music, he didn't talk much which was totally cool since we were consumed with getting to know the kids and the family the whole ride. So cute

If you don't mind me asking, what stateroom were you in? Would love to look it up and see pictures of your spacious room and verandah

We were in stateroom 7688. It's category 5E. The veranda was on the back and wrapped around the corner. The room is more square than long and narrow and the extra room was nice! We did miss the split bath but I would rather have the extra space.
I might do a trip report at some point and I have lots of pictures of our room. Here is one of our verandah. I can't get it to rotate for some reason?

We had quite the opposite experience with our driver...he actually had a microphone and was singing Gilligan's Island and The Love Boat?!? Very strange, but it gave us a good laugh and he was nice. We had a van, but it was one of those tall top shuttle vans with individual seats.

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Day 4 - Part 3: Sailing Away Party & crushing it at Animator's Palate

On our way out, we met our stateroom host, Santanu. He was really nice and learned our names quickly. I'm surprised he got my name on the first try.. that's pretty rare. So he got brownie points right away

We headed off to Evolution for our 2:30pm FE meet and greet. We met a bunch of families and I'm so sorry I couldn't remember everyone's names! Eek. But I've got to be honest, this was such a cool way to vacation. It was so great running into our new friends during the cruise to say hi and share our experiences. So cool! I had never gone out of the way to do this much research for any vacation and to have been a part of the FB group and FE was an awesome way to meet new people from all over the country. The FE's were also a highlight of the trip. We really enjoyed coming back to our room to small presents from time to time and I still have ours hung to hold our mail.. although, it's definitely not as fun as FE when there are bills waiting for me inside.

After our meet and greet, we sprinted off to Senses to catch the spa raffle at 3:00pm. We hustled on over there thinking we were going to be late but we were far from late and we actually saw some of our FE friends there. The room was full and the drawing took about 30 minutes since the Senses staff saw it as a prime opportunity to advertise with that large group of people in there. We didn't win but it was worth a shot.

We left and headed over to Guest Services to see what ticketed things we could sign up for. We met a nice family who recognized us from our FE as the "dancers" (so cool) and she gave us a few tips as we were first timers. I've got to admit, she was so right when she said that we wouldn't wanna cruise any other way.. Disney has set the bar real high for any other cruise line we may or may not decide to try in the future.. oh yeah, so at Guest Services, I got a ticket for the Princess meet and greet to get signatures for my God-Daughter (that princess meet was AWKWARD but more about that later.)

By this point, it was time for us to head over to the muster drill. We were in location A which was located up in the Mezzanine of the Walt Disney Theatre. We were seated near the aisle which was great for escaping quickly after the drill was over. Sitting and waiting for the drill to start made us really tired and I was getting the cross eyed sleepy with my head embarrassingly falling as I tried to make it look like I wasn't falling asleep. Thank goodness the drill didn't last too long. The drill alarms woke us up and we listened to the procedures we needed to take.. yada yada..

After the drill, we went back to the room to pick up the GoPro for the Sailing Away Party and slowly made our way up to Deck 12. On the way up, we ran into our ride share friends who were doing the Midship Mystery Detective and got ourselves started. So cool! We had ran into these enchanted paintings earlier in the day but once we go on the MMD, it all just made sense.

After a few, we headed up for the Sailing away party. It made me tear a little. I couldn't believe we were finally here! It was everything I dreamed of and more, Disney style.

We left the Sailing Away Party a little before it ended to beat the crowd. Mind you, we were still learning what is where and all of that so we took the nearest elevator and went down and ran into this Golden Mickey's area.. we decided to use this as a photo opp while no one was around.

We also found this backdrop and took more silly photos.

We walked around more and found Mickey in the atrium so we HAD to take a picture with him. Looking back at it.. I think we were just way too excited and did anything for a photo opp. We were just way too excited. Next time around, I think we'll better plan out the character meets and arrive a few minutes early so we wouldn't have to wait the 20 minutes we waited just to get this picture.

At this point it was about 5:15pm and we were getting really hungry and tired. We had completely forgot about nourishing our bellies from all the excitement. We just felt like we had to do EVERYTHING.

We headed back toward the forward elevators (haha, we're learning) to head back to the room. We saw the stores were open and perused to see what goodies they had. We did a bit of shopping and met a really nice CM, Bianca, who quickly became our friend. She shared a secret sale rack that I don't think many people knew about since it wasn't advertised as a on sale. The T-Shirts we picked up were half off! $11?! Can't beat that for a DCL shirt. We went back to the room and here's a picture of our pick ups from the stores.

Shopping threw us off time wise so we had about 15 minutes to sit and relax and then we were off to catch the Golden Mickeys at 6:15pm. We had seen this show at Hong Kong Disneyland before so we ALMOST skipped out on it.. thank goodness we didn't because the DCL version was much better in our opinion. The choreography was much more crisp and the whole production was much better in our opinion. We absolutely loved the stage shows. So beautiful.. so fun! Definitely almost Broadway caliber.. almost. They advertised the shows as being 45 minutes but they lasted well up to an hour. So at 7:15pm, we headed back up to the room to collapse into the bed. We saw this little guy sitting on our bed. Yee, so cute!

I ALMOST took a nap but fought the temptation since we didn't want to be late. We quickly remembered we were hungry so we ordered a pizza to hold us down until our 8:15pm MDR. The pizza was sad and we didn't order another one after that..

We showered, freshened up and made our way down to our first MDR, Animator's Palate!

This was my favorite MDR out of the bunch. The experience was hands down the best dining experience (minus the service and you'll find out why) and such a great first night. We were seated at table 122 and actually were given a table to ourselves in the far back corner of the restaurant.

We met our drinks guy, Miro, and our server, Ronald. They were an unorganized team to say the least and since we were in the back corner, they frequently forgot about us. For appetizers, we ordered the Salmon Tartar and Black Truffle Pasta Purseiettes. The Black Truffle Pasta was our favorite of the two.

Crush came by to visit us which was so totally awesome, dude! This was the total highlight of the dinner. It diverted our attention away from our service team for sure.. He talked to us, called out Kevin and it was just a really awesome experience. He taught Kevin how to speak whale, the most "romantic" language of the sea according to Crush. Hahah video coming soon

For our entrees, Kevin ordered the Teriyaki Ginger Dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin, I ordered the Chicken Lemon Thyme, and a half order of the veal to try and share.. although we wanted a half order, he brought out a full order anyway. The Beef was okay. The Chicken was tasty and the veal was good for the first few bites, then the texture really got to me. Seasoning was good though.

By this point we were stuffed! But me being me, of course I saved a little room for dessert.

Now, remember I said our servers were unorganized? By this point, our drinks weren't refilled, our server passed us up several times and didn't check up on us once while eating our entrees, and we sat finished with our entrees for 15 minutes before Kevin got restless. He got up and asked the head server for a dessert menu. By this point, Ronald saw the interaction and got a little flustered. He then tended to us, didn't apologize but then tried really hard afterward to give us some unwanted attention and aimless conversation.

Kevin ordered the cheesecake, I got the sweet temptations with coffee and Ronald decided to bring out the cookies and cream sundae. He also then shared that they're bringing out a "surprise" for us which turned out to not be a surprise since he JUST told us. Ugh. It was okay though, we got a happy anniversary cake and they sang "Happy Versary to you" with the happy birthday tune. It was cute and we laughed.

We struggled through trying to finish our desserts. The Sweet Temptations was a great taster for those who are already full. All the desserts were just okay. Nothing to rave about. I probably enjoyed the sundae the most. The anniversary cake was bleh. Not a chocolate mousse fan.

Overall, the food was okay. The experience with Crush is what really made it special.

After dessert, we were probably one of the last ones in the restaurant.. Ronald came to our table to aimlessly talk nonsense with us again. We read it as, he's trying to make up for earlier. Our talk lasted about 15-20 minutes but there were a lot of awkward moments and it all just seemed forced.. By the end of it, we left the dining room around 10:45, upset that we were the last ones out of there. Dining for 2.5 hours? really? He didn't need to hold us up for that long.. Anywho.. he set the tone for our MDR service experience and were not thrilled that we would be stuck with him and Miro for the duration of our trip.

Next up... late night exploring!

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

We were in stateroom 7688. It's category 5E. The veranda was on the back and wrapped around the corner. The room is more square than long and narrow and the extra room was nice! We did miss the split bath but I would rather have the extra space.
View attachment 2375 I might do a trip report at some point and I have lots of pictures of our room. Here is one of our verandah. I can't get it to rotate for some reason?

We had quite the opposite experience with our driver...he actually had a microphone and was singing Gilligan's Island and The Love Boat?!? Very strange, but it gave us a good laugh and he was nice. We had a van, but it was one of those tall top shuttle vans with individual seats.

What a beautiful verandah! Wow, yeah, I would totally trade a split bathroom for that verandah and extra space any time. Thank you for sharing I look forward to reading your trip report when you post

Haha that's awesome about your driver and the van. Maybe we'll give them another chance on our next trip.

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Subbing! Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Welcome! Thanks for following

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Joining in!

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[Off to Neverland 7]

I'm in! Looking forward to seeing more of your report!

Awesome! Welcome Thanks for following!

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Day 4 - Part 4: Late night exploring = perfect photo opps

After dinner we headed back to the room to deliver our FE's. It was fun being Santa for a little bit Delivering the FE's helped us get accustomed to the ship. We learned how to navigate the ship and what elevators. We went off to check out the clubs. Clubbing was a bit of a joke on DCL.. that's one thing we quickly learned. We did find a surprise buffet right outside of evolution. We were suuuper full so I only tried a small fruit tart and wonton (random food selection) and they were pretty good. We grabbed a drink from Skyline Lounge and walked out to solve our paintings mystery in the midship detective.

I don't remember where I found this bathroom but I thought it was cool.

Here are some photos we took from our walk that night..

We went back to the room to change into more comfy clothes.. Our FE was filled with a few gifts

Our new friend, Bianca, surprised us with some pins. So sweet

We walked around the ship and it was empty! We took some really fun pictures..

After our photo shoot, we headed back to the room. By this point, it was 1:30am. We put on the Incredibles and ordered room service. We looooove the Disney movie selection. We always had a Disney movie playing while we hung out in the room.

We ordered chicken tenders, salmon and the mickey premium bar. We laughed when we saw the order of chicken tenders. Couldn't believe they only served two pieces. The chicken was a little dry but crispy. My favorite room service entree was the salmon. The butter rice and asparagus went well with the salmon. So yummy!!

After our late night meal, we washed up and collapsed into bed. All it took was closing my eyes to fall asleep. It was such a good day

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Day 5 - Part 1: The oh so amazing, Palo Brunch

February 3, 2015

I woke up bright and early at 7:45am. Yeah, I know, ridiculously early right? But I was so excited to open the curtains to an amazing view at sea. Remember, this was my first cruise so naturally, everything left me in awe. I called room service for coffee and continental breakfast, and happily enjoyed my breakfast on the verandah as the ship docked into Nassau.

I woke up Kevin and quickly got ready for the 9am Princess Meet and Greet. Now this was such an awkward experience for me because Kevin bailed out on me last minute to sleep a little longer and it was just weird. Womp, I went down all alone to the atrium and got signatures for my God-daughter (oh the things I do for her.) The princesses were very nice and I skipped over getting photos with them.

After the meet and greet, I went back up to the room to check on Kevin and he was still sleeping. Ugh, it was like pulling teeth trying to get him up that morning.. but I managed to finally get him up and going and we rushed on over to our 10am Palo Brunch Reservation.

My oh my, this was such a great experience and I would've done it every morning if we could've. The brunch totally lives up to the hype! I recommend this to everyone and anyone who loves food. Our server was Mircea and he was very nice and attentive. He first asked if we had any allergies and Kevin shared his slight allergy to scallops and avocado. None of which are major but Palo was very cautious and it kind of turned out to be a hassle than anything else..

Mircea took our drink orders, then showed us to the buffet. Now, I was off to make my own plate but Kevin on the other hand had to make a list of items he wanted with Mircea and they would make his food separately. Here are some photos we took at the buffet

I went through 2 plates before Kevin got his first so I shared some of my food with him.. poor guy.

This was my first plate. The salmon mousse was too different of a texture for me. The seared tuna, shrimp, muscles, and prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe were all DELICIOUS! The crab was super juicy and so so good.

His food came out a little different from what was at the buffet. The shrimp he got was plain, not seasoned. Although it was fresh, most were under seasoned.

We also ordered the chicken parmesan which was AMAZING and this fish was great too.

I ordered a Cappuccino and asked if they had Soy Milk.. Mircea went out of his way to go down to Cove Bar to get the Soy Milk for me. So awesome! What a great guy

We had to try the Grape and Gorgonzola Pizza and for the other half, Kevin chose the sausage pizza. Oh my, it was so good. Such a flavor blast of sweet and savory all in one bite.

I also tried the Chilled Strawberry Soup, which was more like a strawberry smoothie so that wasn't too out of the ordinary.

The dessert selection was another favorite part of brunch. By this point, I was well beyond my limit but I did love the small portions to try a bunch of different desserts.

I'm a sucker for coffee and coffee flavored foods.. so my favorite dessert from the bunch was this little espresso cream dessert.

This was a raspberry something something. Hahah, I don't remember the name but I do remember it tasting delicious.

This was Champagne Jell-o topped with fruit.

At the end of our meal, Mircea came out with this lovely surprise

Overall, we had an amazing experience at Palo Brunch and wouldn't hesitate to eat there again. Food quality was way better than Cabanas, service was amazing, and the view of Atlantis was breathtaking. Next time however, Kevin will not be sharing his small allergy so he can go in and out of the buffet and make his own plate.

 

[lizzyb]

Great review of Palo. Haven't tried brunch yet but will on our upcoming cruise!

 

[PhillyCruiser]

Great review of Palo. Haven't tried brunch yet but will on our upcoming cruise!

Ditto!

 

[littlenellbell]

Yummy! Palo brunch is so good! We did it during sea day. Your pictures are making me hungry! You guys are such a cute couple. Loving your report so far.

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Day 5 - Part 2: 20 minutes in Nassau, Aqua Duck, awkward DVC meeting

We couldn't believe brunch lasted 2 hours. We were stuffed! Kevin almost had to roll me out of there hahah. We went out to Meridian's balcony to get a picture of Atlantis. It was so cool seeing it kind of in person after only seeing it in commercials.

On our way out, we stopped by the bathrooms so I could take some pictures. Luckily, no one was in there so I was free to take pictures as I please It was soo pretty!

We loved all the detail Disney put into every nook and cranny of that ship. It was just simply amazing.

We headed back to our room and Kevin changed out of his nice clothes and we got ready to jump in the pool. I've read that the pool isn't nearly as crowded since most people are off exploring.. This wasn't true for the aquaduck. We waited about 20 minutes to try it out, and it was AWESOME! We had so much fun! GoPro video coming soon

After the AquaDuck, we sat in the pool for a bit and watched Hercules with all the kiddies.

A ton of people hopped in the pool after us so we stayed for maybe 15 more minutes and got out. We headed back to the room to get ready for the day. Afterward we headed up to Deck 11 to get some drinks for the road.

More photos with Atlantis.. it was so close, yet so far.. Maybe next trip!

We went down to the gangway to check out Nassau. Now getting to the gangway confused us just a bit. Initially, we walked over to where we entered the ship and that was so wrong.. then we followed the signs to the gangway but those signs disappeared on Deck 2 so we asked a CM where to go.. hahah we felt like such dummies. Anywho, we made it off the ship. Yay! This was our first time standing next to our ship and we HAD to take pictures.

There were two Carnival Cruise ships and the Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Sea Cruise ship parked near us. It was amazing to see the differences between all of them it I was pleasantly happy in the investment we made to cruise with Disney first after seeing the other ships. Our ship was gorgeous compared to the others (not to be biased or anything). It was evident to see how far our dollar stretched by staying on the Disney Cruise. It's funny because we didn't really share with anyone that we were going on a Disney Cruise before leaving for our trip because we knew we would be criticized for how expensive and pricey it was. We had an opportunity to go on a Carnival cruise with some friends a few months before the trip and Kevin talked me out of it, saying we should just wait for our "ultimate" experience.. he knows me so well. I'm so happy we didn't go on that Carnival cruise and I don't think we'll ever go on one, especially after looking at their ships next to ours.

We saw this sign on our way out and of course, we took a picture. We needed to at least have proof to say we were there..

Okay, now walking out of the cruise terminal area and walking into Nassau gave me the same feeling every time we drove down to Tijuana from San Diego or the time we walked around Manila by ourselves.. I felt so unsafe and knew we were definitely far away from the magic. We walked with caution.. many men approached us trying to sell us things. I clung on to my purse.. we found a few souvenirs that costed literally $5 then headed straight back to the ship. I immediately understood why many people decide to stay ON the ship at Nassau. We probably would've do that again and would only get off if we knew we were going to Atlantis.

We power walked our way back to the safety.. whew.. Thank goodness! We were given water and juices right outside of the ship. We went through security, scanned our KTTW cards and were back home. Ahh, a sigh of relief came over us.

We walked through the empty walkways and saw many great photo opps we hadn't paid attention to before.

We went back to the room to drop off our souvenirs and our door was starting to look really fun.

We relaxed in the room, hung out, and talked about our experience at Nassau. We checked the Navigator app to see what was going on and saw the DVC meeting that was starting in about 30 minutes. As I mentioned before, our friend Cheyenne was a DVC member so we wanted to see what all the fuss was about and to see if it financially made sense for us. I really was interested in buying so with that in mind, we got ready and headed out to Evolution.. On our way down, we knocked out a few Mystery Detective thingies.. Oh what fun that was. It was such a cool interactive game.

When we got to Evolution, a nice lady recognized us and gave us a Padfolio to share. We walked in and there were maybe 5 tables of older adults already seated. We were offered Crown and Coke, Vodka and sprite, Shirley Temples, or bottles of Evian water. We took the crown and coke and a bottle of water and sat down. We filled out the forms for the $200 OBC raffle and put it in the box. Now, I had no idea how long this was going to be but I already saw Kevin dozing off while drinking his drink hahah. I tried my best to pay attention and was fully engaged at the very beginning of the meeting. They had giveaways for answering questions and I raised my hand for every question but was passed up by Justin, the DVC guy who IMMEDIATELY stereotyped us as not really taking that meeting seriously. How do I know this? Because he overlooked me so many times and the DVC girl (I don't remember her name) tried to give me an opportunity but was always overruled by him. UGH, I was so mad. I immediately revoked my interest in buying since I didn't want to give them the commission or credit for us signing up as DVC members and decided we would do so when we meet a nice CM who is willing to work with us and talk to us as normal human beings/adults. After 30 minutes of frustration, we just sat there tipsy and decided to drink as many drinks as we could since they were all free hahah! We turned it into a game and drank every time they said Disney so you can only imagine how much fun that was Finally, the drawing happened and it was an older man who didn't seem to care for the OBC won the OBC. Ugh, lucky! On our way out, we finished our drinks in hand, and double fisted with an Evian and another Crown and Coke. The nice lady we met at the front of Evolution hooked us up with more light up bracelets and another padfolio. We wobbled and laughed our way back to the room to put all these Evians away.

By this point, it was around 5:30-5:40pm and we watched us sail away from Nassau on the Verandah. We were so drunk, it was awesome and so not awesome all at the same time hahah. We headed down for the 6:15pm showing of Villains tonight. We stopped by the stores before the show to say hi to Bianca and checked to see if anything new was out.. they put out a few new sale items that we hopped on right away. Awesome! We loved getting DCL shirts at $11. Now remember how I said being drunk wasn't awesome? Here's why.. I fell asleep during Villains! Ugh! I missed a majority of it.. and when I wasn't asleep, I was fighting myself to stay awake.. Kevin loved Villain's Tonight and it was actually one of his favorite live shows that trip. For me on the other hand, I was fast asleep and don't remember much from the show. Hahah, oh well! It was a nice nap and I felt refreshed and ready to go. On our way out of the theatre, we caught Chip and Dale right on time and took this picture

We also caught a really short line with Minnie near the atrium so took this with her.

Our timing with outfits and was really off. We didn't get the memo that it was "formal" night and were thrown off by everyone's outfits.. Some people were suuuuper formal with their families and others were just in normal casual attire. We fell under the casual attire category..

The live music was AWESOME! The singer had a beautiful voice and had a way of getting everyone up and moving. We danced and had a ton of fun. We went up to Shutters to kill time before dinner. We didn't like any of our photos so we left. We went to Enchanted Garden a little early and the servers were dancing so we started dancing with them. We danced all the way into the dining room before we forgot that we had no idea where to go. A nice CM lead us to our table and seated us.. Up next, our dinner at Enchanted Garden

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Joining in. I just found your trip report and read it through. It seems as though you're having a wonderful time. Looking forward to reading the rest.

 

[sager1969]

You guys are too adorable! Enjoying your report. I have a DCL confession. I have yet to set foot off the boat in Nassau..... We love to stay on the boat during one port day to enjoy the water areas.

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Joining in. I just found your trip report and read it through. It seems as though you're having a wonderful time. Looking forward to reading the rest.

You guys are too adorable! Enjoying your report. I have a DCL confession. I have yet to set foot off the boat in Nassau..... We love to stay on the boat during one port day to enjoy the water areas.

Yay! Welcome to our adventure! Thanks for following

@sager1969 yeah, I think next time we will probably do the same and just stay on the ship. It was a great way to say "we went there," but past that, we would probably not get off to walk around again

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Day 5 - Part 3: Enchanted Garden & our servers

Our initial impressions of Enchanted Garden was that it was nice and I felt like I was a little fairy in there. Hahha, I wish I had gotten pictures of the environment but I was still a little buzzed so my pictures didn't turn out so well.

Now, remember our experience at Animator's Palate the night before? There was NO WAY were going to be at that restaurant for that long again.. so right when Ronald got to our table, we expressed to him that we needed to be out of there at 9:30pm to be somewhere else. He was right on it and Miro was swift with his service as well. He remembered our drink order from the night before and confirmed that we were okay with those selections before bringing them out.

We were starving at this point and ordered quite a lot of food. For our appetizers, we ordered the Spinach Salad and Lobster Ravioli.

The salad was good. It's kind of hard to mess up a salad, so they did well in that department. The lobster ravioli however was not as great as it sounded. The ravioli was dry and overcooked, and cold by the time it got to our table. We could tell it was sitting for a while.

For our entrees, Kevin ordered the prime rib and I had the scallops and a kids order of the fish nuggets with tartar sauce.

The prime rib was okay. The scallops were okay. The fish nuggets didn't come with tartar sauce until maybe 15 minutes after receiving them.. The fish nuggets were good but not great.. All the food was on the cold side when we they arrived at our table..

For dessert, we ordered the apple crumb sundae, bread pudding (Ronald suggested it) and coffee.

We were largely unimpressed by the food at Enchanted Garden. I think we were tainted by the quality and service at Palo Brunch.

At the end of our meal, Ronald came by our table to ask for any feedback on tonight's service. I was surprised by the question but was happy to give him feedback, positive and constructive. He was nice and had us out of there right on the dot, 9:30pm.

It was awesome being out of there that early and we had the whole night to ourselves. We headed back to the room to change and clean up from the day. This guy was waiting for us back at the room hahah!

We threw on Monster's University in the mean time while we checked the navigator for late night activities.

Side Note: one of our favorite perks of the stateroom was the On Demand Movies and the selection of Disney animated/live action/pixar films and TV shows. They were smart in keeping you immersed in the Disney magic, even if you're just simply watching a Disney movie. They got you.

We headed out to catch the 10:30pm showing of Big Hero 6. Kevin was waiting patiently for this moment since the movie wasn't out on DVD yet. This was our first time at the Buena Vista Theatre. It was beautiful and had that Disney flare. We couldn't believe that there was even a full on movie theatre on the ship. When we got there, the theatre was half full. I was surprised with the amount of kids out considering how late it was.

Yet again, I fell asleep through Big Hero 6. We left halfway through the movie since Kevin felt bad.. It was around 11:30pm when we left. We headed over to the "secret buffet" aka Late Night Buffet near Evolution and plated a few snacks to take to the room. The snacks were different from the night before with more vegetable options which were all just okay. Nothing that really stood out to us.

We got back to the room and washed up for bed. I was completely done for the day and totally okay with sleeping a little earlier to wake up for our exciting day.. the day we've waited a whole year for.. Castaway Cay!!!

 

[perditax]

Wow, that prime rib is scary looking. What doneness was it supposed to be?

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Wow, that prime rib is scary looking. What doneness was it supposed to be?

Medium. Can you believe that?!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Hi! I was in the midst of enjoying your trip report and I saw your cabin door magnets. Is your name really Chaldea? Because that was my grandmother's name and I've never met anyone else named that! Her nickname was Chally.

Anyways, great report!

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Day 6 - Part 1: The day we've been waiting for, Castaway Cay!!

February 4, 2015

I woke up bright and early, well before my alarm. It felt like Christmas morning! After a year of researching, looking at countless pictures and reading reviews of how amazing this place was.. I couldn't believe the day was finally here! It was a relief to have been there. (Side note: The week prior to our trip, the weather was crazy and some ships weren't able to dock so I worked to prepare myself in the event of us not being able to dock.) I went out to the verandah to open the curtain to find this view awesome view of us docking into Castaway Cay.. (Note to self: book a Starboard side room to have a view of Castaway Cay.. nonetheless, it was still beautiful.) I called for room service coffee and breakfast.

While we were hanging out that morning, I happened to have opened the desk drawer to FINALLY find this breakfast door hanger. OMG, I couldn't believe I had JUST now found this amongst a bunch of really cool stationary and postcards.

Here's the pirate night Navigator:

We got ready quickly and were out the door by 8:45am. We skipped down to the gangway like little kids. We ran into our FB friends on the way out and they gave us some tips for the island. They were so nice. We picked up our towels and headed straight for the post office. Another noob thing I did was put US Forever stamps on all of my postcards.. HAH! Oh man, I completely forget we were in the Bahamas. I had to buy Bahamian stamps but the post office only accepted cash and we only brought our KTTW cards so we had to make another trip out there later.

We were so excited that we couldn't wait for the tram and just took a nice walk

We ran into Minnie and Mickey so we took advantage of the short lines. Loved their island attire!

We went to the first stretch of beach we could find to put our stuff down. Ugh, the island was so pretty! It was everything I expected it to be and MORE! We were entertained by these hammocks and took some fun photos.

We walked out more and perused through the shops to see if there was anything we liked.. saw a few things and kept it all in mind.

Prior to the trip, I had booked the Castaway Cay Getaway Package for $41/person = $82 for the both of us. It included a 1 hour bike rental, snorkeling gear rental and floaty/tube rental.

So we got to the bike rentals kiosk and picked up our bikes around 10am. The ride was nice and the paths were open. It was so fun

We found the outlook and decided to make our way up.

Here's the view from the outlook.

After spending about 10 minutes up there, we made our way down and continued on the trail. We made it to Serenity Bay and continued along the bike path down past the cabanas. We came to this nice corner and took a few photos.

I've reached my photo limit.. Continuation coming in next post.