A Grand Dream of a Honeymoon - June 2011

[Stefy]

Gosh I would have been a little freaked at the storm (not a big fan of travelling via sea - crazy I know) But I can imagine that the storm looked pretty cool, esp when you are in the "middle of nowhere" so to speak.

Looks like you had a lovely day at sea. Quite eventful and not too busy busy

Palo dinner looks yummy, can't wait to eat there next month

Looking forward to your Nassau Day

 

[ronnmel]

Oh, I would have loved to have seen the storm! I'm sure it was really pretty.

I like how fancy the dinner was.

As if I didn't already have enough places I wanted to travel, I've now added doing a Disney Cruise because of this and another trip report!!

 

[BarbP]

All caught up and loving this report. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Looks like you both are having a wonderful honeymoon.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Sounds like a great day! I'm glad you guys enjoyed the Anyone can Cook presentation.

The Golden Mickey's show looks great as does Palo. I love the photo of the both of you at dinner. Oh no on there being a storm in the distance

 

[ronnmel]

I just realized that the other family whose TR I'm reading about their Disney Dream Cruise did the cruise at the exact same time as you! Their kids did some science experiments that involved some sort of explosion in the kids club, which is what got me think about the volcano sound you said you heard at some point. I checked the dates, and sure enough, you guys were there at the same time. How funny!

 

[Dugette]

Sounds like a great day. Palo looks wonderful. Really makes me want to go on a Disney cruise!

 

[disneylovin24]

No sales tax at sea?!? Im booking my cruise tomorrow

I love the mini gold course on the ship.

That is so cool what they do before the show!

I wonder how many people did feel ill during the storm and ran to their rooms


Can't wait to read more!

 

[disneylovin24]

I just realized that the other family whose TR I'm reading about their Disney Dream Cruise did the cruise at the exact same time as you! Their kids did some science experiments that involved some sort of explosion in the kids club, which is what got me think about the volcano sound you said you heard at some point. I checked the dates, and sure enough, you guys were there at the same time. How funny!

Im reading that TR too! I thought maybe they were on the same ship because they both had a mindnight Cars 2 premire.

If I find the link to their TR Im going to post it.

 

[tatar63]

Loving your report! I would love to see a picture of the D & B Purse you bought!

 

[disneybarbie]

Gosh I would have been a little freaked at the storm (not a big fan of travelling via sea - crazy I know) But I can imagine that the storm looked pretty cool, esp when you are in the "middle of nowhere" so to speak.

Looks like you had a lovely day at sea. Quite eventful and not too busy busy

Palo dinner looks yummy, can't wait to eat there next month

Looking forward to your Nassau Day

Your wedding and honeymoon are so close now Stefy!
I'd never really thought about storms at sea, but guess they are happening all the time! At least the captain could sail us around it lol

Oh, I would have loved to have seen the storm! I'm sure it was really pretty.

I like how fancy the dinner was.

As if I didn't already have enough places I wanted to travel, I've now added doing a Disney Cruise because of this and another trip report!!

Thanks for reading Mel! Who is writing the other TR you mentioned? A lot of the people who were on the Dis and booked on the June 21st cruise formed a facebook group, it was fun to countdown together - I didn't meet anyone on the ship but saw a few people in tshirts that they'd made with the group name ('Motley Cruise') while onboard!

All caught up and loving this report. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Looks like you both are having a wonderful honeymoon.

Thank you for reading along. I'm really enjoying writing up this report and looking through all our photos again - it feels so long ago already!

Sounds like a great day! I'm glad you guys enjoyed the Anyone can Cook presentation.

The Golden Mickey's show looks great as does Palo. I love the photo of the both of you at dinner. Oh no on there being a storm in the distance

Thank you, it was a really good day at sea!

Sounds like a great day. Palo looks wonderful. Really makes me want to go on a Disney cruise!

Thank you for reading! We really enjoyed Palo - as our reservation wasn't until after 8pm the restaurant seemed really quiet too

No sales tax at sea?!? Im booking my cruise tomorrow

I love the mini gold course on the ship.

That is so cool what they do before the show!

I wonder how many people did feel ill during the storm and ran to their rooms


Can't wait to read more!

Hehe - I don't know why I hadn't thought about the sales tax not applying to being on a cruise ship, I guess we are used to adding on 6/7% to the price of whatever we buy in the USA, whereas here our's is already included in the price (at 20%! lol)

Once we were back at our room we could barely feel the ship moving, so maybe it was just people who were at the very back/very front of the ship?!

 

[disneybarbie]

Loving your report! I would love to see a picture of the D & B Purse you bought!

Hi, thanks for reading! I definitely have a photo of the purse somewhere.. I'll upload it to photobucket soon it's the small wristlet, in navy blue with red edging


Emma x

 

[ronnmel]

Thanks for reading Mel! Who is writing the other TR you mentioned? A lot of the people who were on the Dis and booked on the June 21st cruise formed a facebook group, it was fun to countdown together - I didn't meet anyone on the ship but saw a few people in tshirts that they'd made with the group name ('Motley Cruise') while onboard!

It's TimandLesley.Here's the link : http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2752980

 

[mamaboogie]

Hi Emma!

Just found your report and have really enjoyed reading it.

I was really interested in your Virgin Premium Economy experiences - we are hoping to go back next year and we are thinking about treating ourselves to PE. I think you've sold me on it!

Your cruise experience seems just heavenly

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Sunstar]

Oh dinner at Palo looks so nice and elegant! Hopefully, my hubby will fall in love with Disney as much as I am, so we can do a Disney cruise some day. Lol

 

[disneybarbie]

Hi Emma!

Just found your report and have really enjoyed reading it.

I was really interested in your Virgin Premium Economy experiences - we are hoping to go back next year and we are thinking about treating ourselves to PE. I think you've sold me on it!

Your cruise experience seems just heavenly

Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for reading along so far!
We really loved flying PE - if you have any Virgin Flying Club miles saved up it can take a few £££s off the price too

It's TimandLesley.Here's the link : http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2752980

Thanks Mel.. I've read Lesley's TR now, love reading about the cruise from other people's point of view!

Oh dinner at Palo looks so nice and elegant! Hopefully, my hubby will fall in love with Disney as much as I am, so we can do a Disney cruise some day. Lol

It really was a lovely restaurant! I hope you do get to go on a Disney Cruise one day, if anything - it is less 'Disney' than WDW.. especially the adult areas - my DH wasn't sure about going on a cruise but we both loved it so much!



and for Tartar63 - here is the Dooney & Bourke purse I bought..

So pleased I bought this - a Cast Member at WDW even noticed it the next week and asked where it was from!

Emma x

 

[Sweet Pea UK]

Another great update Emma!! I love watching storms from inside. It must have been fascinating from sea!!

I have that same style D&B purse only mine is pink based!!

By the way ... Got our thank you card in the week which was really thoughtful of you!! I loved the picture!! Xx

Sara xxx

 

[disneybarbie]

Friday 24th June 2011

Nassau

Today’s navigator..

We woke up just after 8am, the jet lag was finally starting to wear off! We looked out from the verandah we could see we were almost in the dock at Nassau.

We liked how the docks had been extended as the cruise ships have got bigger!

View from the bridge, via the tv…

We went up to Cabanas for breakfast – I had fruit & a muffin and Steve had a cooked breakfast. Back to the room pack up the bag for the day, and then headed down to the Buena Vista Theatre ready to disembark the ship. Today we had booked an excursion at Blue Lagoon island, the dolphin encounter!

The theatre was busy but everything was very well organised, we showed our tickets (that were in our room on the first day we arrived) and were given wristbands and stickers.

The character on our stickers matched the sign that a crew member held up as we walked through Nassau so we stayed with our group.

We disembarked around 9.30am, our cards were swiped off and then we had to line up for a few minutes next to the ship while are group assembled.

Soon we were walking towards the town, through a small shopping centre (most shops were closed at this time in the morning) and to the dock where our catamaran boat was waiting for us.

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[disneybarbie]

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We sat upstairs and Steve took lots of photos as we sailed to the island – it was about 20/25 minutes away, at some points the sea felt quite choppy, we’d been spoiled by the Dream and its stabilisers!

We overheard another passenger say that this was the ship’s anchor.. I’m not sure if it was, but we took a photo anyway (apparently it weighed the same as four elephants!)

Once at the island, we disembarked and made our way to a covered area where a member of staff gave a 15 minute presentation about dolphins.
The whole island was really nicely designed and everything looked lovely.

Map of the island…

The presentation was really interesting, just the right length and we learnt a lot about dolphins. This excursion had been Steve’s idea – while planning our honeymoon, I said to him “what shall we do in Nassau?” and he said “I want to swim with a dolphin!” … the Blue Lagoon had good reviews and our travel agent said it always seemed to be a popular place. The only other place we might have gone would have been the Atlantis resort, but I’m really glad we picked the Dolphin Encounter.

Once the presentation was done, we headed down to the swimming areas, there were free lockers – we were allowed to have waterproof cameras with us but nothing else.

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[disneybarbie]

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We were grouped with about 12 other people, and gathered around one of the ‘pools’ – the dolphins were very tame and seemed excited to see us, it didn’t feel like a zoo at all and the trainers told us that the animals are not made to do anything; they are free to swim around and not take part in the encounters at all if they don’t want to!

Our dolphin was called Cacique, he was 4 years old and very cute!

Steve and I were asked to walk down into the pool, onto the ledge for a photo..

All the other groups with us had their photos, then smaller groups of got to go into the water and do various things with Cacique – stroke his tummy, give him a hug, dance with him and get a kiss!

We were both fascinated by these animals, Cacique made so many different noises and was so responsive to the commands from the trainer.

When it was my turn to kiss the dolphin, the trainer must have given him a signal to try and ‘kiss’ me for longer.. he just wouldn’t stop!! She said “oh, Cacique likes the pretty lady!” - it was quite funny!

The trainer said that each dolphin had a favourite toy, and Cacique’s was a blue ball! At one point, the ball was behind her while she was talking to us.. and the dolphin snuck behind her and grabbed the ball, then he was playing catch with it, by himself!

Once our turn was done, we went back to get our things from the lockers and were able to watch a video of us in the pool.

This video was for sale (I think it was about $75) as were many photo package options – but I had only brought $20 with us and no credit cards (I’d read a lot about Nassau being a bit intimidating and didn’t want to carry a lot of valuables around with us!). But luckily we had enough to buy one 5x7 photo and a can of Fanta.

We went to look around the rest of the island.
We saw the Dolphin Swim area..

And also the sea lions..

Watching some dolphins being trained..

We could have stayed a bit longer on the island, the boats back to the dock were at 1pm, 2pm and 4pm… but we decided to get the first boat back – Steve suggested we went for a look around the town before getting back onboard the Dream.

We sailed back to the port, admiring some of the huge mansions along the shore!

Another ship had docked next to the Dream, the Carnival Sensation, it made us appreciate just how big and majestic our ship was!

The boat stopped at Atlantis, a few people got off here – then we were back at the town.
Within a few minutes of stepping off the boat, Steve and I agreed just to go back to the ship. We were asked by locals if we wanted a taxi/moped/hair-brading/conch shell.. no one was intimidating, but we just didn’t fancy walking around the town if it was going to be like that!
Such a shame, but I was sort of expecting it – we’ve been to other Caribbean islands and found the main towns are similar.

As we were along the Dream, we noticed huge trucks taking trash & waste away from the ship – it was quite interesting to see, thinking about how the ship functioned!

Once back onboard, we decided to drop our stuff in the room, and go ride the Aquaduck!

The wait was about 20 minutes, not too bad – it was fun to ride it while in dock as the views were amazing… not that I saw much after the first bend and I was concentrating on the slide… it’s fantastic! A bit like the Crush n Gusher slides at Typhoon Lagoon… but on a huge cruise ship.

By this time it was nearly 3pm, so we got a late lunch at Flo’s V 8 Café on Deck 11 – there is a range of pizzas, sandwiches, fried chicken and salads; we both enjoyed the food here.
While we were sat near the café, I recognised a Disney podcaster (Mike Rahlman from the Be Our Guest Podcast) whose show I listen to every week! I decided to go and say hello – I panicked at first in case it wasn’t him, but luckily it was!


We spent the rest of the afternoon on Deck 12 in the adults only area – we cooled off with a Bud Light with lime, and I wrote some postcards (there were two in a draw in our stateroom with the room service breakfast ordering cards!)

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[disneybarbie]

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We went back to our stateroom a bit before 6pm, there were pirate bandanas on our bed as well as a letter that asked us to remove everything from the balcony due to the fireworks show later!

We also had envelopes and a letter about gratuities for our servers & stateroom host..

We had showers and then got dressed for the evening… as it was pirate night, we’d brought full costumes with us!
I’d heard about the DCL ‘Pirates IN the Caribbean’ nights, and knew the dress code was ‘pirate attire’ – and knowing how well people dress up for the Halloween parties in the Magic Kingdom, we wanted to make sure we had really great costumes for this night.

Steve felt a little self-conscious at first, but I assured him that ‘everyone else would be dressed up’ so it was ok I think his costume was complete once he’d put his guy-liner on!

Pirate on the balcony…

And me in my costume!

At one point, Steve lent over the balcony to take a photo.. and there was another guest on their verandah who jumped out of his skin when he saw a ‘pirate’!

We watched the ship pull out of Nassau (I think the horn played ‘yo ho, yo ho’ but I’m not sure) – and at 7.30 we went up to Deck 11 ready to watch Mickey’s pirate show.

During the afternoon, we’d heard an announcement from the captain (.. he always started his announcements with “hello, this is Captain Thom…” – in a strong Scandinavian accent!) that one of the lifeboats hadn’t worked correctly during safety checks that had taken place while we were docked… the lifeboat was noticeably wonky, but we were assured that there were plenty of lifeboats for all of us if there was an emergency!

There was music played in the corridors on the ship all the time, and tonight it had all changed to pirates music!

Once up on deck.. we noticed that the ‘pirate attire’ was mostly worn by children!! We felt a little over-dressed, most adults were wearing POTC tshirts and the complimentary bandanas from our staterooms.

Never mind, we headed to the back of the ship to the Waves bar… the server greeted us with ‘hello pirates!’ and recommended the special rum cocktail of the night.

These were served in light up glasses that we got to keep as a souvenir.

We went back to Deck 11 – and noticed the swimming pools had been covered up to create a huge dance floor!

The pirate show was very cute – this one was aimed more at children but very good.

We noticed the technicians up on top of the funnel, they were dancing along to one of the songs!

There was a Captain Jack Sparrow stumbling around the decks throughout the night… I’m not 100% sure it was a crew member, but he was very good none-the-less!

Unfortunately, my camera battery got low at this point – so we stopped at our room to charge it, and made our way to Animator’s Palate for dinner (sorry, no photos of this!!)

On approaching the restaurant, we saw that the servers were all dressed as pirates and greeted guests with a loud ‘Arrrrr!’ – as we entered, they took one look at our costumes.. and just started clapping!

Rather than the normal Crush from Finding Nemo show this restaurant has, the screens showed concept art from the Pirates attraction and movies; while the movie soundtracks played in the background.

We both really liked the menu on this night, I had pearls of the Caribbean to start and prime rib for my main; Steve had crab cake and steak. For dessert, I wanted to try the fruit cobbler, but asked our server if it had nuts in it – he wasn’t sure so went to check with the chef, luckily it was nut-free! So I had that and Steve had a banana crepe.


Arrrrr..

As this was the last night with our rotation servers, we gave Ivor, Caterina and Gabor their gratuity envelopes before we left.

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