Tuesday 10/14
Nassau Day!
By the time I woke up, around 7:00 again, we were pulling into Nassau. I planned another quick run, but the track is closed when the ship is preparing to dock. This ended up working out well for me. I wandered up to deck 10 and found a spot right over where Captain Henry was steering the ship into the dock. Just like on the
DCL Planning video! I shot baskets for a few minutes before heading back to the room to check on everyone else.
It was a beautiful sunny day, but still extremely windy. DW, the girls and I headed for Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast. It was really windy on the outdoor dining area, but it was too nice to eat inside.
We almost had to nail everything down to keep it from blowing away. And then I turned my back on my plate for a second and a seagull made off with a piece of my bacon! MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!
We survived a nice breakfast, maybe not as nice as brunch at Palo, but very nice. I really enjoyed the grilled tomatoes.
The girls headed to the club, DS13 slipped away somewhere and DS17
hung out in the room! I felt bad for Rommel (I hope I have the spelling right!), our cabin host. He had to work around DS17 every day.
DW and I didnt plan to go into Nassau figuring that there was more than enough to keep us happy on the Wonder. Since it was sunny, put on swimsuits and headed for the adult pool.
Just like at breakfast, towels, clothing, etc
had to be nailed down to keep it from blowing away. But it was sunny anyway. While we were at the adult pool, I stopped at the Cove Café for the best cup of coffee I had while on the Wonder. I consider myself a huge Disney fan, and I LOVE DCL, but Im baffled by the Nescafe. I guess I can understand that the cost of having decent coffee at the drink stations may be prohibitive, but it would be nice to have better coffee in the dining rooms or maybe available through room service. Oh well, Im a cup half full person, so Ill just say I really enjoyed my coffee from the Cove Café and leave it at that!
DD9 was scheduled to have a beaded braid put in her hair at noon, so DW left to get her and I moved our things to the family pool. With many people off the ship in Nassau, we had no trouble finding good chairs by the pool.
While DD9 was getting her braid put in, DD12 decided to get one as well.
Lauraljp: Actually it was a hairwrap. DD 12 had gotten the cornrow crown on our last cruise. Neither one of them wanted to do that. I believe it was around $25 for the crown last times. The hairwrap was a little less. The shorter the hair the less expensive it is. I think it was $1.50 per inch and extra for beads.
MBB: I ate lunch at Goofys Galley while the braiding was going on. I hadnt eaten at Goofys on our last cruise and I was really impressed with their sandwich selection. It was difficult to eat a light lunch (saving room for what was sure to be an excellent dinner), but I settled on two small sandwiches and some fruit.
Lauraljp: I ate at Beach Blanket Buffet. It was great! I tried stone crabs for the first time and the dessert choices were overwhelming. I had to send someone to the cabin to get DS 17 to make sure he ate there. They had asparagus and calamari--two of his favorites!
MBB: By the time we had finished lunch, I realized we had been in the sun for quite awhile. I had used sunscreen, but since it had been almost two months since Id spent much time in the sun back in Minnesota and because Im sure the sun in the Caribbean is more intense than what Im accustomed to, I thought it would be wise to find something else to do.
Back in our room I found
DS17! He agreed to leave the ship to walk around Nassau for awhile. We picked up DS13 along the way and had a boys quick trip into Nassau. We were only there for about an hour, but now we can say we were in Nassau. I considered buying a t-shirt at Del Sol, but I didnt see any prices on the shirts. Oh well; this left more money for me to buy a couple t-shirts at WDW later in the week!
After getting back on board, it was almost time to prepare for Pirate Night! We found that our priorities on this cruise were different than on our 2003 cruise. Pictures with and autographs from characters were a high priority five years ago, this year there were only a couple pictures with characters.
On one hand, it was nice that we didnt have to spend a lot of time waiting in line (and there were lines!!) On the other hand, it was fun when the kids were in awe of the characters. Anyway, before dinner on Pirate Night we waited in line to have our family picture taken with Mickey in his pirate costume. No one in our family had an elaborate costume. I hate to be a party pooper, but none of us are real creative when it comes to costume ideas, space was at a premium in our suitcases and Ive worn too many costumes in the past that have been uncomfortable.
There were a lot of great costumes and that was fun to see. There were also many people who were in less piratey than us! I think all us at least had a skull and crossbones somewhere on our person. And we wore our Pirates IN the Caribbean bandanas in the dining room. All of us except DS17! Stick In The Mud! He did wear black!
Here are some dinner pictures--
Dinner was great again. I stuck with the chefs recommendations and wasnt disappointed.
A few minutes after dinner, we went up to deck 10 to save a spot for the Pirate Party. Once again it was really windy and I was afraid that we wouldnt get to see fireworks! As you know if youve been on a DCL cruise, DCL is the only cruise line that has fireworks at sea!
We planted ourselves in a good spot on the rail overlooking the family pool and the Ariel Vision. I hate sitting around saving a spot, especially when there are so few hours to enjoy on a 4-day cruise, but it was worth it to have a good view of the party.
The party was led by Shaka (from Wales) and Martin among other cast members and characters and it was fun. Its hard to do a lot of dancing when the deck is so crowded, but it was a great event. And, we got to see fireworks! They arent Magic Kingdom fireworks, but they are the only fireworks youll see at sea!
Next was the post party buffet. I certainly didnt need more food, but this was too good to pass up.
The younger three kids scattered after the party. I went to retrieve DS17 (from the cabin) to get in on the buffet. I have somehow never had a turkey leg, so DS17 and each got a turkey leg. Mmmmm! There were probably other things that I might have liked more, but I couldnt pass on the turkey leg.
There were a couple of desserts I didnt need, but really wanted to try, but they start taking down the buffet pretty quickly.
I had to be the mean dad and get the younger three kids back to the cabins by midnight. DD9 was always upset when we picked her up at the club and DD12 was very unhappy that I wouldnt let her stay up to watch Pirates of the Caribbean on Ariel Vision. We had kind of agreed to let do that, thinking that a couple of her friends would be watching with her. None of her friends were allowed to be out there and her brother had gone to Aloft so we had her come back to the cabin. We had to get up for
Castaway Cay the next day! There had been a little fatigue-related drama during the day, so everyone was better off getting to bed sooner rather than later.
Finally, Castway Cay...
