Day 12 -15: The Disney Dream

I almost don’t know where to start with this post. We had the most amazing, awesome and magical time on the cruise. It was very hard to disembark on the last day. I will try and include all the highlights so that you get a good sense of the fun that we had.

The Disney Dream

Getting on the ship was easy as Disney has its own very efficient terminal at Port Canaveral in Florida. They announce you as you walk onto the ship which to us was completely embarrassing but over quickly. The entrance you walk into is the main atrium area and it is beautiful with lots of Disney touches.

Beautiful ceiling light

We headed straight for lunch at Cabanas the buffet restaurant. There is a huge variety of food including piles of prawns, meat off the bone and a huge selection of deserts. Also on Disney the Soft Drink and tea and coffee is all included which is great! Cabanas has the cute seagulls from Finding Nemo.

A precarious pile of prawns

Heng's vegetarian feast. (Got enough parmesan??)

mine mine mine

You are allowed into your rooms at 1.30pm and your luggage will arrive sometime after that. We just explored the ship that afternoon, participated in the riveting compulsory safety drill and checked out our lovely stateroom with the cool virtual porthole. We also decorated our door with magnets and hung up our fish extender.

What is a fish extender? It is a prearranged gift exchange organised on the Disney forums. You agree to give a gift to everyone in the group and in return you receive one from everyone too. It is fun and you get a variety of items. It is called a fish extender as it is hung on the fish shaped hook outside your stateroom. However ours was a seahorse for some reason…

Every evening there is a show on which we watched before dinner as we had the late dinner seating. They are full on Disney musical productions unique to the Disney ships. We liked them all. I would recommend sitting downstairs to be more a part of the action. One night we got to watch the new Monster’s University in 3D, as Disney owns it. On the ship they show all the new Disney movies. Also in your stateroom you can watch a TON of Disney movies on your TV for free as well.

Oh no Heng is a monster

me and my golden mickey

Dinner for the first night was at Royal Palace which is French inspired food hence the escargot and French onion soup.  On Disney you get the same servers every night but you rotate around the three restaurants. You also get assigned a table with possible tablemates. Everyone on our table was newly married so we got along. However Heng and I were the only ones that turned up to every dinner.

fancy menu

mmm snails

cheese I LOVE IT!!

When we got back to the stateroom these cute swans were waiting for us. I was exhausted and went to bed while Heng checked out some of the nightlife. More on that over the next few days.

Our first full day was at the port of Nassau in the Bahamas. Most people tended to head to the beaches or to the Atlantis resort where there is a water park and aquarium. Heng and I decided to check out the town instead.  We really liked spending time in Nassau.

The straw market where as the name suggests you can buy stuff made from straw

I am a pirate

hehehehe

Balcony House the oldest wooden house in Nassau with a very interesting history

Queen's Staircase

Cannons!!

Which is my ship? The view from the top.

Two days before Independence Day in the Bahamas and all the buildings are decked out in the flag's colours.

Dinner that night was at Animator’s Palate which is definitely Heng’s favourite restaurant. The food was good and the atmosphere was fun. Crush the turtle comes around on the screens and talks to people and hears what you say and answers you. We were the only two at our table that night (maybe we scared everyone away??) but we still had a great time.

table decoration

paintbrush holding up the ceiling

delicious beef

even better truffle pasta

The next day was Castaway Cay day. This is Disney’s private island. It was a cloudy, rainy day although still warm. We got cute Disney ponchos to wear and bravely headed out into the rain. We ended up having an awesome day at the adults-only beach where we spent time with some fellow fish extender buddies Casey and Jenna. We crashed their Cabana (a private beach hut they rented) and had a great time swimming in the sea in the inflatable tubes, fighting seagulls for our lunch and trying to catch little fishies.

We were caught in the rain hahahaha

I went on a ship THIS big

millions of fishies, fishies for me

BBQ lunch

We made it to the sandbar

Heng is just chilaxing

That evening was pirate night. This meant that there was the movie instead of a show. The waiters dressed up as did a lot of the guests and there was a huge party on the top deck. Oh yeah and Disney has the only fireworks at sea!!

Welcome mateys!!

Boom

Pweeeeeeee

The last full day was a sea day and Heng and I still had lots of things we wanted to do. We had brunch at one of the adults-only restaurants Palo. It was absolutely delicious!!

the seafood portion of the buffet (there was lots more!!)

Desserts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am in heaven.

Isn't that nice :D

What a lovely couple ;)

We spent time at the pool and also in the hot tubs. The hot tub in the adult only area had a partly clear floor and you could see the sea!! We went on the water coaster the Aquaduct and we enjoyed our final show.

Heng gazing out to sea

The Aquaduct was super fun!!

Every evening after the show Heng, Jenna, Casey and I had been going to the 687 Pub for trivia. We had gotten progressively worse over the cruise however this last night we won!! To be honest it may have been because there were only three teams including us, but a victory is nonetheless a victory especially since it was brainteasers and not the lesser important TV tunes or 90’s music :-P.

The victorious trivia team

That night we were at the Enchanted Garden for dinner. This was probably our least favourite restaurant but the dessert was nice. We also really liked our servers Ale and Franko who always kept us entertained and well fed.

Lemon buttermilk pudding

Passionfruit Tart

The last morning arrived all too quickly. We still hadn’t played mini golf, played games at the Arrr-cade or tried Remy the adults-only French restaurant. We can definitely see ourselves booking another Disney cruise in the future. Even though we don't have children we found there was plenty for us to do. Also we were never bothered by the number of children onboard especially as there were lots of adults-only areas to escape to. It was a lovely, relaxing and enjoyable cruise.  Goodbye Disney Dream we will see you again soon!

Why is the ship so small?

So long Mickey!!