What to do after running a half marathon in the rain…How about a Disney cruise to the sunny and warm Bahamas???

Our cruise didn’t start out sunny and warm – it was raining in Port Canaveral for much of the afternoon, which is why the Cove Pool is totally empty in this photo. 🙂 It was still drizzling during the lifeboat drill (though fortunately we were under cover for that), and the Sailaway Party. The Sailaway Party was moved to the Atrium Lobby because of the rain.

We had a late bus from Walt Disney World, and didn’t arrive at the port until almost 2:00. The “Merrytime” holiday cruises had just started, and this was the first one on the Dream, so the port terminal was decorated for the holidays.

When we booked this cruise we did it strictly because of the schedule, since it fell right after the Wine and Dine Half Marathon. When I looked at the itinerary I was really happy to find that it was an alternate itinerary, featuring two days at Castaway Cay and a day at sea. The second Castaway Cay day replaced the stop at Nassau. That was great for us – we don’t get off the ship in Nassau.

Then just a few weeks before the cruise I found that Disney had moved the holiday season forward, and that our cruise would fall during the “Merrytime Cruise” season, so that we’d get to see all of the decorations and have the opportunity to participate in some of the other special events.

This was our first cruise as Platinum Castaway Club members, but due to our late arrival we really didn’t get to take advantage of most of the perks, like early boarding. Oh well. Next time!

The Lobby Atrium was already decorated for the holidays with the big tree and lots of garlands. The crew was very busy, since it all had to be done between the time the previous guests disembarked, and when the new guests came on board – that’s typically less than two hours!

Our first order of business was to sign up for any Tasting sessions we wanted to attend. The Navigator didn’t do a very good job of describing what they were and when – we had to ask at Guest Services. The Stem-to-Stern session had already been booked by a private party, so that wasn’t available at all. But there were two champagne tastings: Champagne, and Champagne Cocktails. We booked both of those. My very favorite, Chocolate and Liquor, conflicted with our Palo brunch on the sea day. I was very disappointed.

Since we were so late the staterooms were already available, so we made a quick stop to drop off our packs before heading off to lunch. This time our Castaway Club gift was already on the bed. (Last cruise I had to call three times before they delivered it to us.)

We had lunch in Cabanas – it was the usual buffet items, such as shrimp, fish, chicken, lamb, salad bar, various hot and cold side dishes, breads, and dessert. Nothing too exotic, but it tasted good.

We wandered around the ship looking at some of the new holiday decorations before the lifeboat drill.

Our suitcases both arrived before dinner, so we had a chance to unpack and change clothes before going down to Enchanted Garden for dinner. As usual, our dining rotation is Enchanted Garden, Royal Palace twice, and then Animator’s Palate on the final night. It must be somehow noted on our record. 🙂 The weather improved as soon as we pulled out of port and there was a nice sunset as we were getting ready for dinner.

I’ll have a food blog later…but I wanted to give a shout-out to our tablemates Russell and Annamarie – Russell is an AllEars fan, and he and Annamarie were on their first Disney cruise. But I don’t think it will be their last. 🙂

After dinner was the first of the main holiday activities: Mickey’s Tree Lighting Magic.

We’d just barely finished dinner in time, so the Atrium was already crowded when we arrived. But at least we had a spot where we could see the staircase and the tree, so we could see most of it. I thought they might do it every night, but it was only the one time.

Later in the evening was Santa’s Winter Wonderland Ball, but we missed that one. That was when Santa Claus arrived.

The pastry chefs were busy building a gingerbread house in the Atrium, it’ll be interesting to see how far they get with it before our cruise ends.

We headed to Pink, the champagne bar in The District. It had some holiday garland – pink, of course. 🙂

There were a few people in there when we arrived, but they headed out and for a while it was just the two of us and our bartender Don and server Cinthya.

Pink is a nice space, but it’s not Ooh La La (on the Disney Fantasy), though Lee prefers Pink. We had a fun evening trying to convince people that were passing through that it was the Biker Bar, and that they should stay. 🙂

When I’d looked at the Navigator that day I was happy to see the the new movie Big Hero 6 would be showing while we were on board. The first showing was going to be in the Walt Disney Theater that night, and we decided to go. It started at 10:30 in the Walt Disney Theater. There were quite a few guests who had stayed up late to see it. We saw the 3D version, and really enjoyed it, as well as the short that preceded it: Feast. Jeanine already posted a review of the movie, so I’m not going to say much about it, except that we enjoyed it. But we were petty tired when it was over, and ready for bed.

When we returned to our room we had the first towel animal…ssssss.

Tuesday – Castaway Cay

When we awoke around 7:30 we were already docked at Castaway Cay. As you can see it was a beautiful day!

After breakfast we walked off the ship. There are some fun holiday decorations on the pier. Some of them were just put into place that morning after we arrived.

Lee tried to hula along with Olaf. 🙂

I liked how they kept the nautical theme going in the decorations.

Even the tram and tram station were decorated!

Several friends from Team AllEars are also on this cruise, and they were all doing the Castaway Cay 5K that morning. We saw some of the early finishers come in and saw our friend Stan finish the race – the others were walking and were still behind him. I headed back to the ship since I had a massage coming up, but Lee stayed on the island and went to Serenity Bay with Stan, Pam, Molly, and Tom. They had a good time.

As i walked back to the ship I took a few photos – I was surprised that the Family Beach was still not crowded at all. But maybe because were were visiting Castaway Cay twice, most people didn’t have the same sense of urgency to get out there early to get a good spot.

A nice holiday farewell as you leave the island.

I enjoyed my massage, and had lunch at Cabanas. Then went to deck 5 to one of the Midship Detective Agency stations and solved The Case of the Stolen Artwork. This is a little easy for the adults, but you get your exercise going all over the ship if you use the stairs like I do. There’s a second case also: The Case of the Stolen Puppies, and you choose which one you want when you start. On the Fantasy, in addition to these two cases, there’s also a Muppets version. That one is also a lot of fun, and more challenging for the adults.

Lee was back on board when I returned to our stateroom, There was a knock on our door later – it was room service delivering our complimentary fruit plate. Another of the benefits of Platinum Status is a free “edible gift” – I’d received a phone call the night before, and we had a choice of a fruit plate, sparkling wine, or a box of chocolates. I’d chosen the fruit. It was a really nice assortment, with fresh berries, grapes, tangerines, and apple, and a banana. The berries were quite good.

Later in the afternoon Lee and I went to Pink for the first of the Seminars we had booked – Champagne Cocktails. Our bartender Don was leading the seminar, and we were delighted when he told us that we would be making the cocktails ourselves! There were 12 of us in the seminar, and three of us behind the bar at a time, each preparing four of the same kind of cocktail. Since there were four different cocktails, everyone who wanted to was able to participate. It was fun to go behind the bar and work with all of the shakers and bottles! We really enjoyed the experience, and Don was an excellent teacher. And it was fun to taste the different cocktails, though most of them we had already tried before.

And we had to check out the progress on the gingerbread house in the lobby.

We were juat leaving Castaway Cay when we returned to our stateroom. Even though we’d be back the next day, we couldn’t stay docked there over night. There was a colorful sunset as we left.

It was “optional dress-up” night, ad we looked pretty good, if I do say so myself. 🙂 We were in Royal Palace for dinner, and enjoyed our meal. After dinner we went to Pink again, but didn’t stay really late, since we had to get up in time to run the Castaway Cay 5K the next morning.

Tonight’s towel animal! This cabin steward made much more use of the bed throw than we’d seen in the past. We didn’t see him very much, but he did a good job, and our stateroom was clean and neat.

Coming Up: Another day at Castaway Cay, including the Castaway Cay 5K.

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