The Disney Cruise

This post SHOULD have been written months ago, but I am writing it now because I have neglected my blog for far too long. I just posted three unpublished posts because for some reason or another, I never got around to pushing the "Publish" button...how unbelievably sad is that?

Anyway, as stated at the end of my last post, we went on a Disney Cruise in February. THis was something ERick and I had wanted to do for a LONG time. Erick had never been on a cruise - I had. I went on a Carnival Cruise for my Senior trip in high school and I was not that impressed. It was a booze cruise - and while I'm sure that the activities on those types of cruises are fine for the Over 21 and drinking crowd, there's something about wet t-shirt contests and jello shots that make me feel a little out of place as a good little Mormon girl.

 While a Disney cruise appealed to me far more than a Carnival or even Royal Caribbean cruise, I still had my reservations. I had gotten sea sick last time and while our stateroom was one of the nicer ones, it was small...and I'm claustrophobic. Still, I looked forward to the experience. Right away, there was a difference in quality and level of service as we entered the loading facility. Trademark Disney greetings were found everywhere we went. Even the security guards were pleasant. Disney is quite organized with their passenger loading - we arrived and were given a Boarding number which was called out shortly after we finished checking in. We had lunch on the top deck of the ship (Cabanas, how I miss you!) and had a wonderful view of the Kennedy Space Center there at Port Canaveral. After lunch, our room was ready - we entered our stateroom, went to the lifeboat drill and then partied as we sailed away. We had dinner that night at the Royal Palace, followed by a meet and greet with various Disney characters and then a show called the Golden Mickeys in the Walt Disney Theater.

 The next day we arrived in Nassau. The forecast called for rain and so our original shore excursion (a submarine tour of the reef and harbor and a carriage ride through the streets of Nassau) was cancelled. We ended up booking a last minute Glass Bottom boat tour. While it wasn't a submarine, it was still pretty neat. The water was SO clear and we could see fish and coral reefs - it was beautiful. On the way back to the harbor, Elise danced to calypso music. We did a quick stroll through the shops before getting back on the boat and enjoying lunch. We changed into our swim suits - it was a cold day so there wasn't much swimming, but we did spend some time in Nemo's Reef with Elise and Erick did take a ride on the Aqua Duck. That night we ate at Animator's Palate. I enjoyed that restaurant more for the show than the food.

 The next morning we were in Castaway Cay - Disney's Private Island. I recommend a Disney cruise JUST for this island. It was AMAZING. Pristine beaches, beautiful water, a water slide that goes right into the ocean. They do a morning 5K run around the island, we rode bikes, we ate BBQ at Cookies (the red snapper was DELICIOUS!) and we laid around in hammocks. It was perfect. The day was gorgeous, the water was blue, and I got a massage at the end of our beach day. Marvelous. When we got back to our stateroom after our fun day the beach, our pirate bandanas were waiting for us. This was my absolute favorite night of the cruise. We had a pirate themed dinner at the Enchanted Garden (best food of the whole cruise), a pirate party after dinner complete with fireworks. Elise LOVED it. She was going strong all night. She danced, and danced and danced some more. We bought her a lightsaber for the pirate party and she wielded that thing like a pro. It was seriously the most fun we had had as a family ever. Not even exaggerating a little bit there. We had a blast.

The last day of our cruise was a sea day. All day we sailed the deep blue and enjoyed a little more of what the ship had to offer. We were Midship detectives - the picture frames on the ship interact with cards that you get at the detective agency booth. We roamed the ship in search of stolen art - way fun. We played minature golf and we watched Baby races. The shows, the characters, amenities, everything about this cruise was special. Disney goes above and beyond for their guests and we were extremely happy with this vacation. We were so thrilled, we became Disney Vacation Club Members and spent the night at Animal Kingdom almost as soon as we got off the boat.  It was well worth the money. We can't wait to do another one.