Nassau (well, we saw Nassau, that is) - Saturday January 21
I woke up at 7 AM and went to the gym. Before we left, I downloaded a couple of workouts in my Les Mills+ app to do offline, but it wouldn’t load. I had studied the new BODYPUMP I needed to learn on the bus on the way to the port so I decided to test my memory and find a little corner and grab some dumbbells and do a modified Pump. I actually did pretty well remembering things. Except Core. Core was a hot mess. I walked out of the gym door onto deck 5 (yes, there’s a door out on deck - this ship is odd) and then went up to deck 6 forward (again, odd layout) and watched us coming into Nassau.
I was back in the room at 8:15 AM and roused the others and we went up to Marceline Market (I almost said Cabana’s again) for breakfast. Once again, I apologize to the people of ship who had to deal with me after a workout in my sweaty gym clothes. We went back to the room and I showered and we got ourselves ready for a day of activities on the ship.
Emmaline wanted to meet Black Panther, but we missed that (8:45) but Spiderman was up at 10:15 so we went down to deck 2 for his meet and immediately turned back around upon seeing the line. They need more than one meetup with the Avengers characters. They are really popular! On our way back up we stumbled across two beautiful brides taking their wedding photos. They were to be married later that day in the atrium. I told one of the bride’s maids to pass along my congratulations to the cute couple.
Emmaline decided to head off to Vibe, which actually didn’t open until 11 so she just hung out for a bit. I went back to the room and started to read my book on the verandah while Roger went up to get a snack, but then they were starting a lifeboat drill and it was really fascinating and I couldn’t pay attention to my book with all of that going on so instead I watched them do their drill. Roger returned from snacking and joined me to watch the drill.
The ship next to us, the Mariner of the Seas, was also having a drill. Funny enough, the last time we were in Nassau we were on that ship! And we were docked next to the Dream and wishing we were on the Dream. So it felt good to be on the Disney ship this time! Now the Mariner was also having a lifeboat drill but they were clearly having an issue with a lifeboat. It was just sort of drifting and they had another little boat (the Wish had one too) that would sort of speed around and keep tabs on things and they finally hooked a line to their hapless lifeboat and kept trying to tow it back but it wasn’t working. At first we thought it was part of the drill, like “oh no, what if one of the lifeboats lose an engine” but then it became clear that this was not a drill and the thing really wasn’t working properly. If I were on the Mariner that would not exactly be confidence inspiring. The little Wish speedy boat kept tabs on it and it seemed they all had a conversation at one point when the Mariner lifeboat was drifting really close to the Wish and their drill. I started narrating it, “Dudes, get your act together. What in the world are you doing with all this flailing about with that lifeboat.”
We legit watched the lifeboat drill for almost an hour, during which time the Wish lowered and launched every single lifeboat on the starboard side. We found out later they were to have a coast guard inspection upon returning to Port Canaveral.
At 11:30 we got changed and ready to go have our adult brunch at Palo. I checked in with Emmaline and she was happily playing Spoons at Vibe with some new friends. We went to Palo at 11:45 and were one of the last brunch seatings of the day so the place slowly emptied out while we ate. Our friend and
travel agent Heather had recommended a server so we had requested him and he was very good. We had a wonderful brunch. It’s funny because Roger was sort of luke warm on trying brunch again, but since we’re Platinum now it’s free (other than drinks and tips) so we went for it. But it was so great and he said it was one of his top experiences of the cruise. We were there for about two hours and ate many courses, but it was so spread out that I didn’t feel stuffed or horrible at the end.
After brunch we checked the Aqua Mouse to see if we wanted to change into our swimwear but it was a 30 minute wait so we skipped and changed back into regular clothes, rested a bit and watched some Mickey Mouse cartoons in the room. I checked in with Emmaline. She was still with her new friends. They had eaten lunch by the pool deck and then went back to Vibe to hang out some more so she was set.
Around 3 PM I decided it was time for coffee so we went to one of the many places onboard with fancy coffee (seriously, there are tons of places with espresso drinks). Coffee in hand we went out for a walk on decks 4, 5, and 6. There’s no contiguous walking/running deck on the Wish but you can sort of make a big U by going out on deck 4, going up some stairs to 5 (out a door next to either the gym or the spa, depending on what side of the ship you are on) and then up another set to deck 6. It’s bizarre.
After our walk, I needed to check with Guest Services because there was some problem with my credit card on file so I gave it to them again. After that we decided to try the “Uncharted Adventure” game that is in the
DCL app. We were sent off to various pieces of artwork on the ship which would come alive and interact with the phone but the controls didn’t work well and at one point it completely crashed and that prevented some people who came up after us from being able to interact with the art because it said it was in use by someone else. We played about three different pieces of art and then just completely gave up on it.
We went back to the room and regrouped and I made some notes about our day so far for this trip report. (Did you seriously think I could remember all these little details later?) At 5:15 I saw that there was an Ursula animation drawing class so I went to do that. It wasn’t being taught live but was instead a video. I thought it would be a problem but actually it worked out just fine and we got some nice tidbits about her from one of her actual animators so that was actually kind of neat. Did you know she only has 6 tentacles? Right?! Mind blown. Apparently they tried her with 8 and there were tentacles everywhere so she has 6. Two arms makes 8, right? Works. I was pretty pleased with my drawing. I think it’s one of the better ones I’ve done. Maybe I’m just good at villains.
It was time for the show of the evening, The Little Mermaid, which was very good. Though they did have to stop the show halfway for some kind of technical issue. I read later it was some kind of issue with the lift that lifts Ursula into the air when she’s taking Ariel’s voice. Everyone handled it super professionally and they started back up right where they left off.
After the show Emmaline wanted to do karaoke so I went with her and gave “Spoonful of Sugar” my best shot. After we had both sung we met up with Roger in the Bayou Lounge to listen to the ship’s band (The Wishers) perform Beatles songs. This band was really good. They were the same people that performed the Victrophonics show the day before and we would see them again performing all kinds of other sorts of music all over the ship. Their repertoire and range was truly astounding.
This became an emotional moment for me. I really enjoyed their set, but my mom was a huge Beatles fan and the emotion from music is strong. Add to that the memory of my mom being on the cruise with us a few years back and how much she enjoyed being in the lounges and enjoying the musicians each night and the tears began to flow. I miss her so much.
I got myself back together for dinner and we made our way to Worlds of Marvel for dinner. I feel a little mixed about this whole experience. On one hand, it was hilarious and I enjoyed it. On the other hand, it did interrupt dinner. I think it could have been edited slightly to be shorter and it would have felt less invasive. That said, Paul Rudd is a national treasure. Oh, also, when the servers walked in at the end with giant plastic doughnuts and Mickey bars, it was silly. I really feel like this was a missed opportunity to make some huge or small food. They brought us some smaller two-bite size brownies at the end, but um, I can get those at HEB (and they’re better). How about a GIANT meatball with noodles. Or maybe some little tiny cookies. Or maybe a huge cupcake or something. Not overly big, but like the size of those giant muffins? Or play around with the dishes for perspective. I don’t know, but skip the large obviously plastic food.
After dinner we went up to the pool deck for the pirate party and fireworks. The same band played the pirate show and it was so much fun with a live band with 80’s rock hits. It made the show so much more entertaining and dynamic. They should have planned the slide better or changed which side the fireworks launch from because the huge ramp from the Aqua Mouse on the starboard side obstructs the fireworks somewhat.
We were tired so all of us went back to the room and went straight to bed afterwards.
