Dan & Nancy's 20th anniv. trip report

[Lil' Lisa]

I want me some of that apple crumble now!

We're all such foodies!

 

[tlh0726]

Ice Wine

 

[Just Beachy]

Dan, the food looks/sounds great! Oh, yeah...so does the ship. Looking forward to more of your report!!!

 

[disney4dan]

Dan, what a awesome report and pics,
Maybe it's just me, but your wife reminds me of Patricia Heaton.

That's funny 'cause she treats me like Ray Romano!

 

[PolynesianPixie]

Dan, what a awesome report and pics,
Maybe it's just me, but your wife reminds me of Patricia Heaton.

I agree! Especially in this picture:

Dan, you've got me hooked. Other than the Fort board, the DIS section I frequest most is the dining reviews. I'm a sucker for food porn.

Oh now you went and got me all excited.

 

[disneynan]

So, I finally have some free time to add my two cents. First off, Dan, I noticed that you put in a few pictures without my approval.

What Dan didn't mention in his post about our departure was that our neighbor who was watching one of our children the night before ended up being brough to the hospital via ambulance around midnight. So we ended up not getting to sleep until after 3am due to our taking back our daughter plus also her daughter until her father was able to come get her. So the above pic reflects us with less than 2 hours sleep. And I'm afraid to fly. I thought I did a good job pretending I was calm - either that or I was too tired to be scared.

We didn't find out until we landed that our neighbor was OK.

 

[disneynan]

[QUOTEI need details on Chicken Shwarma please! It looks nummy![/QUOTE]

This is our all time favorite fast food meal in the parks to share. The meat is pressed chicken that is cooked in a big chunk, they cut slices off for serving. Doesn't sound very appealing, but tastes great served with cucumber sauce and onions. The sides are hummus with pita, coucous salad and toubulla (sp?). The kids love the meat and pita too. We always get a plate. You can get lamb too, but I don't eat it. Priced at about $13; we think it's a great deal. We try to eat food that we can't get at home.

I have to say that the fish and chips we had were the worst ever. This is another favorite of ours, but the fish was almost terrible this time. Very disappointing.

I love food porn too and was so glad to see that Dan is including our food photos. I'll try to provide as much critique as I can.....I love to eat and cook; don't consider myself picky, but expect good - meaning well-prepared, quality food. Especially on vacation.

 

[disneynan]

That's awesome!! He's obviously got a way with the ladies!

He's now 9 and so embarrassed by that photo! Which makes us love it all the more.

 

[disneynan]

That's funny 'cause she treats me like Ray Romano!

Hey, I'm not that bad!

 

[disney4dan]

Day Two;
The first full day of our cruise was here and we had made the decision to just have a relaxing day on the ship with no plans to check out the shops in Nassau. For one, we have no need for more “stuff” right now, and we were doing our best to try and travel light with only carry-on luggage for this trip. It was a short trip anyway, and with just the two of us it was nice to have carry-on bags only and just breeze through the airport.

So our plan for the day was to sleep in a little late, have breakfast in the stateroom and then just check out the amenities on the ship while most everyone else was in port. We had an afternoon appointment in the spa as well. Here is the mandatory shot of our breakfast on the table in the sitting area.

I don’t think I mentioned that the table height was adjustable. I could see how that would be handy, both to use it as a coffee table style for eating in the room, and to make it more kid friendly if they wanted to draw or play games on it. Then you could raise it up if you wanted. I know it’s a simple thing, but it left an impression on me! Right above the knee cap.

Once we were ready for the day, we started with a stroll on the upper deck to watch the ship pull into the harbor. The weather was better, sunny and a little warmer, but still fairly windy. I took a lot of video of the ship rotating 180 degrees in the harbor. It was neat, kind of like doing donuts in a parking lot when you were a kid, but a lot slower. I can just picture the designers of the fleet thinking up this option for the ship; probably a bunch of young Italian engineers who drive Ferrari’s to work who came up with the idea of donuts in the harbor!

I decided to post this photo of Atlantis from the ship so that Rog and everyone can plan their attack on the island. Let me know if you want some more recon shots guys, I’m thinking the harbor is patrolled with some heavy security, but an underwater approach will work…

Then we grabbed some beverages and went topside to get some fresh air. Here we are all by ourselves enjoying the view with coffee and OJ, and who could that be in the background?

Could it be Goofy? It is the man himself!

For those who are wondering, we did get a photo with Goofy, but right as the shot was being taken, the cloud moved and I got hit with direct sunshine while Goofy and Nancy are in the shade and it’s not a great shot. If it was Nancy who looked, well … Goofy, then I might post the photo. But this is my TR and that’s the way it’s gonna be!

From there on out, for the rest of the day we pretty much just took it easy on the ship and only grabbed a few pictures here and there. I did snap this picture of the crew cleaning the windows:

We enjoyed the spa time in the early afternoon, especially getting a chance to talk to the girl who was our spa attendant about the rescue they did a few weeks earlier when the guy jumped/fell off the Carnival cruise ship. I had never done a “spa” thing before, and it was fun. Nancy signed us up for the Razoul thingy, or whatever it was. The time flew by and before long we were getting ready for dinner again. I only managed to get shots of our appetizers and desserts, so I’m figuring that the main course was mighty tasty and I just dove right in without taking time for photos!

And for dessert;

Again, no photos of our tablemates. They really were interesting people, but I thought that they might think I was weird if I took a photo of them. As you could tell from the photo from 1989, our servers on Premier were a little more outgoing and did a lot to set a festive atmosphere. The servers we had on DCL were great, but a little more reserved like you would get in a good restaurant. They did have to perform to some sort of floor routine every evening, and some were more into it than others.

After dinner we took in another show and then went topside for the Pirates in the Caribbean gala event. I got some video of the fireworks they do from the deck, and a little of the dance party which was full of energy and pirates, but the temperature had dropped again and the wind had picked up, so we were freezing (and we’re from the cold, white north!).

We also had our picture taken twice with Captain Jack; once right after dinner (yup, I really did wear shorts to the table, shame on me!) and once later in our pirate outfits. Pretty much the same outfits that are in my signature pic, so you can see that below:

Captain Jack was a popular guy, mainly with the ladies who could not wait to get their arms around his waist. While we were in line, there were a group of three, twenty something aged guys who were also pretty excited to get their photos taken with Captain Jack. It was interesting to see, I think Captain Jack was a little overwhelmed by their energy, but he handled it well. I hope that my saying that does not offend anyone, it was just one of the more interesting parts of the event and these guys were doing their best to have a great time.

So that ended our second day on the ship, late in the evening after the fireworks we went on back to the room to dream about some quality time on the beaches of Castaway Cay, our own little private island with a few hundred of our closest friends! More tomorrow…

 

[tlh0726]

 

[Lil' Lisa]

What's up? Two days you've left us hangin'. Do you want us to beg? I'm not above begging! More please!!!

 

[disney4dan]

Sorry...the workweek gets so busy, trying to finish now! Pinewood Derby races this morning, so this might be short and sweet! I was just thinking, three kids keep us so busy, the time has flown by over the years and I can now understand why it will be such a shock to become "empty nesters" later in life. The youngest and a friend of his from scouts slept in the living room last night and are in there watching "Spirited Away" and it is gonna be a good day...

 

[disney4dan]

Day 3 – our own little island with a few hundred friends from the ship!

We got up bright and early because this was going to be the day on Castaway Cay, promises of beach sand in our toes, snorkeling and trying out my new little waterproof, destruction proof, idiot proof camera with the “food porn” automatic setting!

When we did Premier Cruise lines, they would park the boat off-shore from their island and shuttle people over on launches, kind of like good sized pontoon boats. Not Disney! Nope, they build themselves a nice pier for docking the whole cruise ship so you can come and go as you please, and they can unload gear and supplies as needed.

So we got up early to watch them dock the ship at the island and have breakfast on the stern deck overlooking the shore. Did I mention earlier that it was cold and windy on the first few days? Anyone remember my wining about that? Guess what – still COLD AND WINDY on day 3. While getting dressed we watched the planning channel on the stateroom TV and saw that all the shore excursions involving the water were cancelled. So, we get ready to go make the best of this and give it a try. You have to try dining outside for breakfast, memories of this meal helped get me through many a difficult winter morning this winter!

Can’t you just “feel” the wind and chill in that photo? Here is a shot of my breakfast getting cold while I take the shot. By the way, Frank, that is a Krispy Kreme donut on the plate! And it has pepper on it because I made the mistake of trying to put some salt and pepper on my eggs outside on a windy day. I don’t recommend trying a KK donut with pepper.

I took some video while seated there that I wish I could figure out how to load on this page. They were backing the ship in to the pier, and it is a slow process. I’m figuring that ships are not usually designed with a reverse option, and this puppy was shaking, rattling and rolling like you would not believe. Lots of sand and silt in being stirred up in the water. I was thinking they need to get Donny out there to help back that giant RV into it’s site! The video shows the glass panels that cover part of the outdoor dining actually bouncing in there brackets and making a fairly creepy sound. But, they managed to get us into the pier safe and sound, even had the island staff outside waving the big Mickey hands to greet us. Did I get a photo of that? No, you do remember about the cold wind making my breakfast cold and even my children know better than to get between me and my food!

We finish breakfast and head back to the stateroom to get changed into our swimming gear, gather up some water bottles and “stuff” to head on over to the adult only beach for a relaxing day. For those who are just looking into this, they designed the island to have a family beach area where everyone can go, there is a teen area for older kids to be away from their annoying little brothers and sisters, and then there is a place for adults to go and get away from the kids. Lucky for us, we were travelling without the kids so we could go try that beach; they actually made announcements about not dropping your kids off at the other beaches and escaping to the adult only beach – I never thought of trying that! All these years when I could have out run the little rug rats and enjoyed some peace and quiet and I never once thought about just doing that.

So, off we go, departing from the ramp near the stern of the ship for our stroll. There was a lot of construction going on to prep the area for the new, larger ship, but they did the best they could to keep the area looking decent during construction. You can pick up a tram ride from the end of the pier or you can walk along a nice paved walkway to the family beach, which is what we decided to do. After all, it was a fantastic, CHILLY and WINDY day! And here we are, greeted with the friendly reminder about the days activities:

And shots of the ship in the bay:

That “healthy glow” on my face, in case you are wondering, was the result of being sand blasted. Just in case any of you were wondering about my grooming skills…..

Then we passed by the area where we would have been able to take out a wave runner, if it was not so WINDY and CHILLY (anyone want some cheese with my wine????). Kind of a sad photo really, they look lonely over there wondering why all the kids are passing them by and not taking them out to pound on the waves…

So, we make the most of it and head on over to Serenity Bay, that peaceful, quiet spot on the, ahem, WINDWARD side of the island today. We managed to score one of the few hammocks on the beach. Once again, Disney has a way of working the whole capitalist approach to leave you wanting more. Creating that “demand” needed in the “supply and demand” equation. For whatever reason, there are many lounge chairs on the beach, but only a few hammocks. Now I know they can be expensive and require sooo much maintenance to just plant and leave behind, but I don’t get why they have so few on this beach? There are more on the beach at the Fort. But, because Nancy is the ultimate trip planning queen, she knew this and we hot-footed it over there early to get one.

It was not long before we were joined by other cruisers, like vultures circling, waiting for us to get up from the hammock so they could claim it for the rest of the day. What they did not know is how skilled I am at planting my fat **** in a comfortable spot for hours on end! So we managed to strike up a friendly conversation after a while, where I learned from one of the women that the water was not really all that warm, and when she tried snorkeling she found that the water was full of sand and silt stirred up by days of high wind. So I never got to try the camera for the underwater shots that I was so looking forward to. I had some photos from 1989 where I got to use my father’s Minolta underwater camera that actually used 110 film. On that trip, the only shots of fish that I could get were these little buggers about one to two inches long. I called them bait fish! Anyway, the only pictures I had included my feet in there for scale so you could see how small they are, and nobody wants to see that! But I digress…

We enjoyed our time on the hammock built for two, all bundled up in our extra towels trying to get some sun . A little while later, when it became obvious that the sun was not going to warm the area up that much with the cold wind blowing in off the water, and my snoring was not going to scatter the vultures waiting nearby for the hammock, we decided to head on back for some more, wait for it, just wait……….FOOD!

We walked on back down the beach, occasionally looking back at the vultures hopping on the hammock that we left behind, gathering shells along the way. Then we strolled along the tarmac of the airfield that is the quickest route to and from the family beach area and most of the dining options. They have a really big area set up for this, and the staff on the ship all come on over to the island to help dole out the calories to the hungry hoards. I don’t recall what all the options are, but we just opted for the cafeteria style option, wandering through and adding food to our tray. There is a very large, covered seating area nearby with lots of picnic tables. It was a little crowded, but there always seemed to be open seating areas, maybe because a lot of people were eating on the beach as well. I think if it was raining lightly that this place would get crowded.

Here are the mandatory food shots, Nancy’s selection first:

And then my plain ole burger and cookie selection;

There was a much bigger selection of food available, but I have been trying to remind myself that I don’t have to taste everything on the buffet just because it does not cost any more. I have found that it does come with a price….I get fatter! There is not enough time or energy left for me to get the exercise needed to handle the extra calories and I have decided to stick around on this planet long enough to be a burden on those kids of mine. They owe me, BIG TIME!

On the stroll over to the shops to get some Castaway Cay plunder, we discovered a food station with some healthy fruit options being manned by one of our dining servers, so we talked with him for a while and grabbed a plate to share:

Well, we are now about half way through the final day of the cruise, and I will get this posted while I try and get through the last few shots and closing thoughts. Hey, I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it ;-). Thanks for the patience, your friendly cruise director will be along again shortly to provide more banter and photos!

 

[disney4dan]

That is so funny, I can write "food porn" but not "fat ar$e"

 

[tlh0726]

another post.

As for the not letting you write fat ---
I guess they don't want you to know/see what the results of to much food porn can lead to.

 

[disney4dan]

The last few shots of the trip, and a few thoughts

So we returned from the festivities on the island and decided to relax a bit before dinner. Not sure what it was, but I was starting to get worn out real fast and decided to snooze for a little while before dinner. We got up, dressed for dinner and took a last stroll around the ship as they prepped for departure. We got to see the regulars on the island stand on the dock of the bay (har har) and wave the big Mickey hands at us. I could have sworn I saw a few one finger salutes, but that might have been just my imagination!

The breeze had let up a little and we watched the sunset in the distance for a while:

And then found the shuffleboard decks and extra comfy lounge chairs to relax for a while.

Wish we had tried those chairs earlier on in the cruise, they were pretty comfy. We made our way to dining and a final meal with our table mates. Somewhere about this time, I got a full – on wave of nausea and pain that was inexplicable. I got that uncomfortable, cold sweat and could not eat thing. Not sure what it was, but figured I must have picked up a flu bug or something because this feeling came on like a freight train and left me cold and uncomfortable. Because I thought I might have the flu and did not wish that on anyone, we excused ourselves from the table early and headed for the stateroom. As we entered the lobby, our two servers ran out to say good-bye and provide us with a special anniversary cake that the kitchen had prepared for us and they were saving for dessert. We thanked them profusely and went on our way.

By the time we got to the room I was useless. Well, more useless than normal let’s say! I crawled into bed as Nancy finished packing, glad that the cruise staff had managed to check one of our carry-on bags into the check-in luggage for our flight (they took care of the fee and everything at the concierge desk, contacted the airline and made the arrangements for us to leave it outside the door at night. I went to bed dreading the travel day ahead, convinced that I would be really sick and miserable.

Somehow, either the sleep did the trick, maybe I had eaten something that didn’t agree with me or maybe I had some fluke thing, but I woke feeling better the next morning. Nancy thinks I had a bad case of I did not want to pack the suitcase-it is. Either way, I was at least glad I was feeling better and we went to the dining room at our appointed time for a sit down breakfast before disembarking. We left our bags in the lobby area during breakfast and then headed on out to customs. Then we grabbed a Disney Cruise Line shuttle for the airport and a four hour wait for our flight!

Some final thoughts on the cruise:
If I had to do it all over again, I would put in a request for warmer weather!
I would take more photos of the food and the people at our table.
I would remember to send postcards from Castaway Cay.
I would still only bring carry-on bags for a 3-night cruise.
I might skip one of the evening shows and maybe try one of the nightclubs.
I would go snorkeling if the water was clear.
I would still avoid Nassau and spend the day on the ship but get a couples massage scheduled.
I would try a Cove Café specialty coffee at least once.
I would like to cruise with friends or family someday soon if we can scavenge the money from the budget. Not sure how to manage that at the moment. It took us 20 years to get back on a ship after our first time, so here’s hoping we can get back sooner this time!

I hope you enjoyed this, and I look forward to reading trip reports from the big GG cruise you guys are planning for 2011. Rhonda and the folks at Dreams Unlimited will serve you well. They are good people who give back to the community, and are just as crazy about Disney as we are, so they spread the magic whenever possible.

 

[Lil' Lisa]

Great report!!!! Thanks so much for sharing!

 

[Lil' Lisa]

That is so funny, I can write "food porn" but not "fat ar$e"

Next time try "Uranus"

 

[tlh0726]

Well done!
Thanks for sharing!