TimandLesley's When the Boat's a Rockin' Don't .... Trip of a Lifetime TR 2/4/1 pg.33

[timandlesley]

Love the updates! Oh my goodness, I had that same fish dish on pirate night and it was my favorite meal the whole cruise (they were all delicious though). It was the macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi, drool...... We've been there, done that with Nassau in the past and opted to stay on the ship. We just loved pirate night too, such a unique Disney experience. Looking forward to more.

So glad you are enjoying them. You know what's funny is Luke (whose a huge foodie : ) saw my picture and he had the same dish and said "Mom, how could you forget, it's the macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi dish!" So yes, I see that now ; ) It was SO yummy!! Yes, pirate night was such fun!!

wow, Jack Sparrow really did look like Will Ferrell!! (but perhaps a younger, more attractive Will Ferrell) And Luke looked great as Jack Sparrow!

Lauren too, what a cute dress & hair bow! The braids turned out really cute. It was also very age appropriate the way they did them.

Loved all the pirate night fun!!! That looked amazing!

So I have to ask.... (adult question only)....being on a cruise ship and all, did you see any of the same faces during the character meet n greets, if you know what I mean?

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one seeing Will Ferrell in Jack! : ) Yes, loved her braids. It's funny you ask, I only noticed one, Tianna was also in the pirate show and Lauren noticed and said "do you think that's Tianna's sister?"

Wow!! Pirates Night looks like a LOT of fun!!! Every time I read your TR I go and look at prices for next year. LOL. The kids costumes were FANTASTIC! Seriously, your TR just makes me speechless. Your pictures are the best pictures of the ship that i have ever seen and your words just make me feel as thought I was there with you.

It was such fun! Prices for 2013 come out in Oct, let me know if you want on my list of people to email when they come out, we are going to book then because we saved so much by doing so when we booked super early.

Pirate's night looks like a lot of fun! Your kids are so cute in their pirate gear.
Fireworks at sea must be so amazing.
I love Lauren's hair! So cute!

The fireworks at sea really were amazing. Thanks for your kind comments!

Pirates night looked like such fun

Lauren's hair came out great

Luke looked awesome

Can't wait for more

Thanks so much! It was a fun day/night!

Hey Lesley,
I'm subbing. So glad to see you doing another tr, I always love reading about your trips. The Disney Dream looks amazing. can't wait to hear more about it and the rest of your disney vacation.

Hi, glad you found us again! It truly was amazing!

Hi Lesley! Enjoying another timandlesley trip report! Have you started back to school (work?) yet!? I go back TUESDAY. We had a short summer, our calendar changed this year so it made our summer super short but we get out May 15 so we are headed to Kidani at the end of May 2012! Excited about that! A lot of pressure because we are bringing my bro's family (newbies) with us!!

I also joined an agency and am now a Disney Travel Specialist!! I really have to tell you that you, among some of my other "Disney friends" (we call each other CIF's=creepy internet friends, haha!! and have yearly, this year two!! Disney meets together!!!) really inspired me to go for it! I just kept sitting around thinking about what I "should" do instead of just DOING it!! (So I did it and just earned my ears this weekend!!) I really thought of you and all your teaching and kids and husband and blog and being a TA and thought, "WHY NOT!?!?!" Ya know!?!

I love your TR because it has helped me gain knowledge if I ever need it to help people book cruises. I have yet to experience one myself but maybe one of these days! Not only that, it looks SUPER fun!!! The kids and their pirate garb=adorable!!! Your descriptions are captivating and seemingly so effortless (although I know it takes a lot of work to write TR's!) and so very informative!

I noticed that Atlantis was right behind you guys. Is it true that you can go to Atlantis for the day if you are there?? I think I read that somewhere but not sure!!

My husband has also been to Nassau and said the same thing you did...that I am not really missing much except what you described!!

Anyway...I know you are probably very busy with everything going on so thanks for doing the report and updating it so regularly!! I really do look forward to your updates! I always learn so many new things when reading about your adventures!

So glad you are enjoying it. Not back to work yet but went in to set up my classroom today, first day back for me is the 19th but I have meetings two days next week, BUMMER! Congrats to you! I haven't regretted it one bit and just love being a Disney TA, it's been so much fun selling what I love and helping people plan amazing vacations with my help, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Yes, you can do an excursion to Atlantis but it's actually cheaper to get a room for the night and have access to the room and entire resort while in Nassau but for me, the ship was just as wonderful! So glad you are enjoying the TR, thanks for reading/posting.

Wow- what a wonderful adventure! I can't wait to read more! What is the youngest age you would suggest for kiddos on the cruise?

You know, I wish we would have discovered it earlier. I would say as SOON as you are comfortable leaving your child with others because the kids will love it and have a great time no matter what the age and you will have an incredible time while they are in kids club too and build incredible family memories when you are together!

Great Update Lesley!

I am so glad Lauren found her wand!

The kids look great in their pirate outfits! Did you and Tim dress up? Do most people dress up? I really want to ( I love all of that stuff...I think it's so fun) but honestly have no idea what I would wear. Thankfully Halloween is before our cruise so I will be keeping a look out for something.
TTFN
Darlene

Hi Darlene, yes we were all SO glad the wand was found! Tim and I did not dress up but a lot of adults had full pirate gear on, going after Halloween would be ideal : )

Hi!

I have just caught up with all of your TR - Ronmel sent me the link, as we were on the same cruise!
It is fun to see your photos and remember that wonderful ship



Looking forward to more,


Emma x

HI! Thanks for reading/possting, glad you are enjoying it, small world that we were on the same cruise ; )

I love all of the character meet and greets that they have! That must had a nice touch of Disney. I always wondered if the cruises felt like they were Disney or if they did not have a lot of Disney apart of them. It seems to me that they are very Disney.

The pirate outfits look great! How did you find out in advance that there was going to be a pirate night? Do they send you this stuff in a itinarary type thing

Im sure the fireworks at sea were amazing! I didn't know that they did that! I didnt know that they could do that

Besides all of the pushy people how was Nassau? Is it a beautiful place? Is it clean? Are the pushy people the only problem?

I never realized that Atlantis was near Nassau. I always thought that Atlantis was on it's own island, boy was I wrong


Im reading that other TR too for the couple that took the same cruise as you. That's funny that you both are doing TRs for the same cruise and that there are a few people reading both! Its a small Disworld.

Hi, I knew about pirate night based on posts here on the Dis and through friends who had cruised. The fireworks at sea are amazing. It is an "o.k." place, there are a lot of shops and vendors everywhere, it is relatively clean on the main streets, I wouldn't venture too far off the path and if you are going to do an excursion do one through Disney.
There were a lot of beautiful beaches like paradise island, etc. that you can get to.

Great updates (had to catch up b/c we went back to work this week)! Loving Luke's pirate outfit! So awesome!

So sorry you are back already! Glad you are enjoying the report. I was so glad Lukes outfit still fit!

Ohhhhh what a perfect perfect day! Love the braids and pirate costumes! How awesome that you could see the Cars 2 premiere on board...wow! I can't believe all of the characters you met in one day too! Awesome! So now you headed out of Nassau for CC again right?

It really was such a fun day! Yes, CC again!!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this!!!

You are quite welcome, thanks for the thank you : )

AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING!!!
Disney Magic=THE DREAM!!
I truly hope I can experience this one day!
I think you have many people "sold" on
the disney cruise, Lesley!!!

So glad you are enjoying it, it's easy to sell people on Disney cruises, they are worth every penny!

I'm following another TR from a couple who honeymooned at Disney World and on the Dream and I'm pretty sure they were on the boat at the same time as you. Talk about coincidence!

Pirates night looks like a lot of fun.

Too funny! Yes, it really was a lot of fun!

Sounds like another perfect day!!

We didn't get off the boat in Nassau, either. We stayed on, had some beverages & relaxed.

The kids look so cute on Pirate Night!! What great outfits!!

Yes, it was anothe rperfect day. Staying on the boat will be what we do next time FOR SURE! Thanks for your compliments on the outfits : )

Wow! What a great day! Reading this is making me more excited about our cruise! I can't wait to experience all of this.

Have such a GREAT TIME!!!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Joining in! I've read your reports in the past, in case you recognize my name. I was thrilled to see a new one, and as always, I have enjoyed every moment of it! I'm just DROOLING over these pictures and cannot wait for my cruise in June!!

 

[anbouk]

Hi Lesley! I check for daily updates. The cruise seems so much fun I should really consider this vs the parks for a change. May I ask how you got the Disney TA position, was it hard? Waiting for more! BTW, we leave in two days for a week long of fun !

 

[jwwi]

Lesley,
It looks like your whole family is just loving the cruise, I can see why you said that this was one of the best trips yet! I love how cute the kids looked dressed up for the pirate night, looks like Luke was a hit dressed like Jack. Lauren looks so grown up for your dress up night out, so sweet that she didn't want to change to go to the show. I'm sure she was getting lots of compliments

 

[kimbo0569]

OMG, I so want to take a Disney Cruise right now!!!! LOL ...Cannot wait to read more...

Oh, and I cannot agree with you more, Lesley...Epcot is my favorite place to be at night in Disney, right up there with MK...

 

[timandlesley]

OMG, I so want to take a Disney Cruise right now!!!! LOL ...Cannot wait to read more...

Oh, and I cannot agree with you more, Lesley...Epcot is my favorite place to be at night in Disney, right up there with MK...

The cruise is such fun, I want to get back on that ship so bad! Yes, isn't Epcot wonderful!!! Thanks for reading/posting

Lesley,
It looks like your whole family is just loving the cruise, I can see why you said that this was one of the best trips yet! I love how cute the kids looked dressed up for the pirate night, looks like Luke was a hit dressed like Jack. Lauren looks so grown up for your dress up night out, so sweet that she didn't want to change to go to the show. I'm sure she was getting lots of compliments

We did just love it, it was amazing (I can't say that enough). Yes, Luke was a hit. I know, isn't Lauren growing up so fast, can't believe it! Yes, she loved that dress! : )

Hi Lesley! I check for daily updates. The cruise seems so much fun I should really consider this vs the parks for a change. May I ask how you got the Disney TA position, was it hard? Waiting for more! BTW, we leave in two days for a week long of fun !

I'm sorry I haven't been my normal quick self on the updates, so busy with going back to school but I just uploaded all of the pics from our last cruise day and will post an update tomorrow. It was kinda hard in the sense that I wanted to be with a good/reputible company that was hiring, it was an intense interview process and had to take some online courses, I sure do love it! Have a GREAT trip (guess you are there now ; )

Joining in! I've read your reports in the past, in case you recognize my name. I was thrilled to see a new one, and as always, I have enjoyed every moment of it! I'm just DROOLING over these pictures and cannot wait for my cruise in June!!

Welcome! So glad you found us again (yes I recognize your name ; ) You are going to have a BLAST in June!!!

 

[3amigos]

Well Lesley you inspired me to change our Jan. Disney trip to include a 7 night Western Carribean Cruise on the Magic. So excitd!

 

[timandlesley]

Well Lesley you inspired me to change our Jan. Disney trip to include a 7 night Western Carribean Cruise on the Magic. So excitd!

So excited for you! Have an AMAZING time!!
Lesley

 

[timandlesley]

Final Full Day of Our Disney Dream
We woke up after a wonderful night sleeping in those comfy Disney Dream beds ready for another fantastic day on Disney’s private island Castaway Cay. I looked out of our virtual porthole a little disheartened that it was cloudy and overcast outside as we headed to breakfast at the Enchanted Garden. We enjoyed a good buffet breakfast and we were talking to our server and he told us that it will definitely clear up soon and be a beautiful day – he was right!
We got dressed into our swimsuits and headed out to the island. Lilo was waiting for us as we got off of the boat:

Knowing this was our last day on the island I wanted to get a pic here:

We decided on this day not to take the tram to the far beach and just stay on the closer beach area since it had all we needed anyway. So we took the short stroll over to that area:

Luke and Tim wanted to rent one of the boats or do something else fun so we went over to the boat rental area to check out the prices. It was only like $10.00 for a half an hour for one of the water bikes so they decided to do that.

And off they went :

Beautiful picture of the Dream on that gorgeous water as we watched them go out. If you look, you will see the lifeboats on deck 4 are all crooked. We had an announcement that morning that there was an incident and they had come down onto deck 4 (which is the running deck) but no one was hurt, thank God, that would have been terrible! :

While the boys did that Lauren and I headed over to cash in our tickets for our pre purchased raft rentals. We found a good spot to put our stuff down on some chairs and headed out. This is how we spent most of our day (with some time lounging on top of the rafts too of course):

We just had the greatest time enjoying the island. The boys met up with us after their adventure all sweaty and tired, they said it was much harder than it looked – they had fun but had to work for it : ) We played in the water together for a bit and then Diane and Bryan and kids met up with us on the beach, they had done the sting ray encounter that morning and loved it. It was now lunch time so we headed over to Cookies BBQ. On the way we encountered a crab race that the kids REALLY got into:

We enjoyed another wonderful meal at Cookies, I had to take a picture of the fruit carvings:

To the left and right of those beautiful carvings were piles and piles of freshly cut fruit, it was so good. Oh to be back there right now………….
After our yummy lunch we did some more swimming and then did some souvenier shopping on the island. Luke decided to spend his money on a Castaway Cay shirt (it’s a cute one and will make an appearance in the next installment of the TR).
When we had enjoyed all we could of the island we decided to head back:

Some pics on our walk back to the ship:

I was sad walking onto the ship knowing we wouldn’t be back to that beautiful island for a long time, makes me tear up a little bit right now as I type this (sad I know, but true : (
When we got on the ship the kids club had more fun things for the kids planned that Luke and Lauren wanted to do so Tim dropped the kids off as I enjoyed having the stateroom to myself getting ready for dinner while Tim had some drinks with Bryan in the lobby. After I was ready I called up to him on the wave phone and he told me to join them in the lobby, so that’s what I did:

I went over to the beautiful bar by the lobby and got my drink of the day (so yummy!) and joined Diane for a drink:

As we sat there they did a farewell show with all of the characters:

I couldn’t resist, I had to jump up and get a pic with my best pal in his cruise gear:

Then we went upstairs to pick up the kids from the kids club. On our way up we decided to stop by Shutters to view our cruise pics. There were SO many to choose from and we had the hardest time narrowing it down. We ended up with a great pic of just Tim and I at dinner at Animators Pallet and then a silly one of the four of as at pirate night where we were all making our “pirate” faces – I was happy with our pics. For 20.00 a pic, you had to be picky : ) So wish they had an affordable cruise photo pass.
Our dinner was at Royal Palace that night. We took some pictures as we were waiting to enter dinner.
These guys were in the lobby nightly singing beautiful tunes:

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!!!

 

[timandlesley]

Time for some porthole photos:

This is my favorite!

Then it was time for our last dinner aboard the Dream:

Just as we were starting our meal Lauren told me her tooth was loose and before the appetizers were served she had lost it:

We had a FANTASTIC final meal, all indulging in multiple appetizers and entrees to soak it all in on our final night. Then they came out with the flaming baked Alaska encouraging everyone to cheer and wave their napkins to thank our fabulous wait staff:

We applauded Zoe and Anna:

We said our goodbyes to the fabulous Anna and Zoe, gave them hugs and tip envelopes and got a final shot:

It was such a wonderful experience. Then we rushed upstairs to get our box seats for “Believe” the final show:

Some pics of the show, again, my camera doesn’t do great from far away but I’ll throw them in anyway:

The step in time number was awesome!!

After the show we put the kids in kids club again for a bit and ran downstairs to finish packing and put our bags outside for pick up. We left our carry on, laptop, and toiletry bag inside the cabin and planned on just taking them to breakfast with us the next morning. When we had all of the luggage in the hall we went back up to get the kids because we saw that first seating for breakfast that we had to be at tomorrow morning was at 6:45 a.m. When we picked them up we turned in their kids club arm bands, they gave us a receipt for this (you are charged 50.00 for each armband not turned in) Then we headed back to our stateroom together.
Here was our final towel animal of the cruise:

We gave Healine a big hug for being an amazing stateroom attendant and headed off to bed, looking forward to checking into Animal Kingdom Lodge concierge the next day!!!

Check out the NEXT EPISODE HERE!http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=42425483&posted=1#post42425483

 

[Aburns8]

So excited by your cruise experience. Ours is only 28 days away! I am hoping to do a trip report about it.

 

[jecskc]

My DH is really stressing about the tips. Do you mind me asking how much you tipped everyone ?? You can PM me if you like. I just want to make sure we give them enough. DH doesn't want it to be too much.

 

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

ugh.....just reading that makes me sad. Great installment....but I too feel the sadness of any Disney trip coming to an end. The island just looks awesome....and I just love the closeness/brother-sister love between Luke and Lauren. Don't you have a trip on the Dream coming up in a few months??

 

[Trentmom]

Castaway cay looks great and water beautiful.

Those bikes looked like fun, but can see how that would be tiring

So sad when something comes to an end, but looks like you had an amazing time

I forgot you were heading to Disney World after cruise. Can't wait to read about that

 

[sharonW]

Great update, love all the pics especially the porthole ones!
What wonderful memories for you and yours!

 

[sharonW]

Great update, love all the pics especially the porthole ones!
What wonderful memories for you and yours!

 

[psupple]

I was excited to see an update to your TR... fabulous, as always!

 

[disneymomof1]

What a great update, you sure do a good job of selling the cruise, I never thought I would like cruising, but after your report, I really want to do it !! Can't wait for the next update !!

 

[precious pixie]

I agree you have sold me on really wanting to try the cruise!

 

[Poolrat]

Oh My How did I miss this??? Busy summer on my end that how.


So glad you decided to do a TR and a cruise to boot. I enjoyed every minute of your cruise and maybe someday the timing will be perfect for me to take one.

I am really interested in AKL concierge. That may end up being an option for me soon.