Disney Dream Day 3: Nassau & Pirate Night

Picking up where I left off on our most recent Disney Dream cruise is our day at Nassau which also included Pirate Night. We were not used to a "backwards" itinerary of Castaway Cay as the first stop, so this day felt a little off to us. Nonetheless, we still had a great one!

If you missed any posts from our recent cruise on the Disney Dream, check out these links below:

Disney Travel Day: Wine and Dine Expo & Animal Kingdom
Disney Day 2: Wine and Dine 10K & Kids Races & Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Disney Day 3: Wine and Dine Half Marathon & Magic Kingdom
Disney Day 4: Boarding the Disney Dream
Disney Day 5: Castaway Cay
Disney Day 6: Nassau
Disney Day 7: At Sea Day
Disney Day 8: Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Initially, we didn't plan any excursions for Nassau and we weren't even sure we would get off of the ship. A couple of our travel buddies told us they had never been to Nassau, so instead of staying on the ship all day, we decided to disembark and walk around the port area to explore the town a little bit.

For starters, we began the day with breakfast...which included Mickey waffles, of course!

We literally had zero plans for Nassau, so we disembarked the ship and began to wander. The straw market that I remember encountering directly off the ship was under construction, so I'm interested to see what that looks like once we return next time!

We shopped around a bit and I found a some "authentic" cadbury chocolate to take back home with me. (It's so much better than the stuff made in the states.) I also purchased an Alex and Ani bracelet with the Bahamas logo on it.

We really didn't spend much time in Nassau (maybe a couple of hours), and our final stop was at a Starubucks!

We couldn't pass a Starbucks and not stop!

I've never had a chance to "wander" around Nassau and although we didn't go very far, we still enjoyed seeing a little more of the island!

Right outside of the parliament area was a few park benches where we sat and enjoyed the gorgeous day!

Of course, we had to take a few pictures on our way back to the ship.

A HUGE plus for us with cruising Disney is the hospitality when returning to the ship. We were met with ice cold towels as well as fruit infused water and juice!

This was so refreshing on such a warm day!

That afternoon, we enjoyed lunch, took a couple of rides on the aqua duck, swam in the pool, and had a nap! It really was a productive vacation day in my books!

For Pirate Night that evening, we all dressed in (somewhat) matching shirts and Brayden was our little pirate!

I love how our shirts turned out!

The Pirate Night meal on Disney Cruise Line is one of my favorite menus and offers so many delicious choices. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm sad for the loss of the pot-stickers (dumplings) off this menu, but there are so many other delicious choices to choose from!

After dinner, we walked up to deck 12 to catch the fireworks. There was a huge crowd and we were quite late, but we still managed to snag a decent spot to see the show!

My sunglasses were the star of the show for the towel animal display that evening!

See those gold coins? I have a funny story to tell about them in the next cruise blog post - we still laugh about it when we talk about it today!

I love the Disney cruise ships all the time, but especially at night! It all just feels so magical!

Oh yes, and one other funny story that happened that day - so as I was walking around passing out fish extender gifts, I happened across this cabin where he was asking for funny jokes. Jason helped me think of one, so I sent it and this was my response....

Isn't that too funny? I wonder if he received any other jokes the rest of the cruise? :)

Stay tuned for our final day on board the Disney Dream - our at sea day with brunch at Palo!! :)

Disney Dream: Day 1 - Boarding the Ship

On the morning we were set to board the Disney Dream, we woke up with a mission - to ride the Skyliner one final time. Disney's Skyliner quickly became my toddler's favorite "ride" at Disney, soaring even above Dumbo, the Tea Cups, and the Carousel.

Well, we had plenty of time to spare, so we took a quick ride from Pop Century over to Caribbean Beach Resort where we snagged breakfast at the Joffrey's kiosk.

Full disclaimer: I really do think the Skyliner is pretty darn neat, too!

While ordering our toffee flight coffee, Brayden happened to see the giant blue donut and well...vacation.

I ordered the Toffee Flight warm and Jason ordered it cold. We both agreed that the hot version had better flavor.

Before long, it was time to leave for the port. With our large group size, we realized that it would be more cost effective to take a Happy Limo over to the port and (bonus) with our own mode of transportation, we got to choose our port arrival time!

They even had an option to include a child safety seat (for a small extra fee).

We enjoyed having the opportunity to chat on the way to the port and while checking facebook, we soon discovered that official boarding time had been pushed back by an hour due to a coast guard inspection that morning. Whomp whomp. Although it was a little sad, we didn't let it ruin our great day!

By the way, Happy Limo comes highly recommended! They were prompt, had plenty of place to store our luggage, and super friendly!

Look at this madhouse!

One little disruption in our boarding process happened when we officially checked in. Since Jason and I were Castaway Club members, we went to a separate check-in line from our friends who were first time cruisers. Well, our two groups of friends were all given boarding group 7 and Jason & I were given boarding group 15. After asking around, we realized there was nothing anyone could do to help us or change our boarding group to align with our friends. We didn't want to board separate and it may seem like small potatoes, but when you're ready to be on the ship and your boarding time has already been delayed once, it kinda stinks to wait around and watch as everyone else boards. Our friends were nice enough to sit back and wait with us so we could all board together!

In all, that was really the only "issue" we ran into with our cruise. First world problems, right? :)

Our first stop after boarding the ship was Cabanas for a little lunch!

After lunch, we all took a little time to explore the kids club. Since this was Brayden's first cruise and he had all of this extra room, we were a little worried about how it would go for him. He loved Andy's room, though and didn't want to stop playing!

Before long, our rooms were ready and we were ready to drop off our bags.
 

This was our first cruise since becoming DVC Members and we were so excited to see the "Welcome Home" signage on our door!

We booked a verandah towards the front of the ship and didn't have any issues with our room.

It was so neat to see how they literally just flipped the couch over to form a bed for Brayden!

So simple and easy!

Around 2:30 p.m., we said goodbye to our friends for a few minutes to attend a DVC Member Celebration. Since we became DVC Members mid-way through our last cruise, we didn't get to attend all of the fun events, so we wanted to take advantage of as many as possible here.

It was also here that we discovered our adult cruise staff was Tisa! She has seriously been on at least four of our nine Disney Cruises (not intentionally on our part) and I was so excited to see her!!

After our DVC event, we reunited with our friends for the boat drill and Sail Away Party!

We were so excited to begin our cruise and 4 magical nights at sea!

I love waving to the port cast members as the ship sails away!

Dinner on our first evening was in Animator's Palate.

Brayden was zonked, so our head water got him a table cloth to use as a blanket. So sweet!

Mickey bars for dessert, anyone? :)

We deemed dinner on our first night as "romper night" so of course we had to take a picture!

On the way back to our room, we made a little pit stop at our friend Kim's room to decorate it for her birthday.

Last but not least, a lovely sand crab was waiting to greet us good evening!

Want to check out more from our Disney Vacation? Click on the links below!

Disney Travel Day: Wine and Dine Expo & Animal Kingdom
Disney Day 2: Wine and Dine 10K & Kids Races & Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Disney Day 3: Wine and Dine Half Marathon & Magic Kingdom
Disney Day 4: Boarding the Disney Dream
Disney Day 5: Castaway Cay
Disney Day 6: Nassau
Disney Day 7: At Sea Day
Disney Day 8: Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Up next: Castaway Cay!!

Alaskan Cruise: Juneau & Whale Watching [Part 4]

The next stop on our Alaskan cruise was Juneau where we planned a whale watching excursion. This was my first time officially whale watching, and I was super excited to see what it was all about!

The beginning of this excursion was definitely one where I looked at Jason and said "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore"...

Our tickets told us to meet in the Aurora Theater at a specific time, right? I assumed we would meet there and walk with our group to our bus. No.

Instead, we were given a sticker with our group number on it and told to go to the "tent at the top of the pier".  Well, we arrived at the top of the pier to a giant group of people who were all wearing different numbers and stickers. There were also a few guides holding signs with numbers on them but none of their numbers lined up to ours. I thought our group might have left already although we were there in plenty of time. I asked one of the guides about it and she said "oh no, you're in this group" and she pointed to the girl next to her who was holding a sign with a completely different number than what was on our sticker. It was so incredibly confusing but we did eventually make it where we needed to be.

On the bus, ready to go!

Our whale watching boat was an incredibly comfortable one. It was roomy, clean, the seats were comfortable, and it wasn't over crowded.

Each seat also included a map guide and a pair of binoculars.

Our naturalist told us that there were five different types of wildlife we could possibly see: bald eagles, harbor seals, sea lions, orca whales, and humpback whales.

I'm super excited to say that our group actually had the chance to see them all! I didn't get a good shot of the bald eagles, but we did see them first.

We started off with a group of harbor seals. They blend in with the rock very well in the picture, but they are mostly to the middle.

 After we said goodbye to the seals, our guide became incredibly excited because a pod of orca whales was spotted! She told us that this only happens on about 10% of these excursions!

They were "hunting" and it was so cool to see! The pod would come together to help "push" the fish towards the coastline so they were easier to catch.

 Up next on our excursion were the sea lions!

A group of sea lions were hanging out on this buoy and wouldn't let their friends on. It was quite comical to watch and felt a lot Mean Girls..."you can't sit with us"!

Last but not least, we went on search of humpback whales and although our sighting was brief, we did get to see a mom and baby humpback whale swimming together!

Our excursion ended around noon and we decided to go back on the boat, eat lunch, let Brayden nap, then return to Juneau to do a little shopping. This was by far our longest port stop (until 9 p.m. that night), so we made the most of it! 

I LOVED reading the story of the Patsy Ann statue at the port. She was a free spirit and loved watching ships sail in. They ended up burying her at the port and put a statue up in her memory. It was such a sweet (and tear invoking) read!

After nap time, we headed back out to do a little shopping. Our waiter told us that this was the best port for souvenir shopping and he was right! (By that I mean tshirts on the cheaper side, coffee mugs, etc)
 

I laugh about these Diamonds International buildings (and other jewelry stops) at each port. I never even noticed them in the Caribbean until a couple of years ago.

It was raining fairly hard at the beginning of our shopping tour. We didn't care, though - we just covered up and continued on. I was glad it stopped shortly thereafter, though! 

 Let me also say this - I was incredibly grateful for my North Face jacket. It was definitely my saving grace on this cruise because it was very chilly at every stop. If it was raining, that made it even more so. In this picture, I'm wearing my normal clothing (shirt, jeans, etc) plus a North Face jacket with my rain coat on top. During the really chilly days, I also added gloves and an ear cover!

The flower arrangements were beautiful all over Alaska!

Jason's parents took the same whale watching excursion we took, only later (around 1p.m.). Listening to their stories, it sounds as if they didn't get a chance to see as much wildlife. I hear these whale watching tours are so hit or miss sometimes.

We also missed our "official" dining time that night because we were shopping and Jason's parents missed it because of their excursion, so we met back up on the ship for dinner in the buffet that evening. After dinner, our entire group came together in one of the staterooms to play a the game 10,000 with dice!

We also dropped the two youngest kids off at the kids club for an hour so we could play uninterrupted! :) 

Goodbye, Juneau!

Y'all - I was SO shocked when I went to pick Brayden up at the kids clubs! His face was painted like what a I thought was a tiger, but he informed me it was a "titty tat"! He's never had his face painted before (because I just assumed he wouldn't let anyone do it), so this was a huge surprise (an exciting one at that) to me!

He was so freaking cute and proud of his face! He kept walking in front of the mirror to look at himself and saying "I'm a titty tat"!

My mother in law graciously agreed to put Brayden down for the evening for us so we could watch the Love and Marriage show.

After the show, we grabbed a late night snack (because we could) and sat for a while, just talking about the trip. (A hot dog joint was open until super late every night, so that's where this came from!)

We also went up to Starquest to see the incredible views of Alaska!

This area turns into adult only after 10 p.m. and was quite the happening place that evening!

We had a blast on our Juneau day and loved seeing all the sights! Up next: Skagway and a Musher's Camp!

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For recaps from our 7 night Alaskan cruise on board the Radiance of the Seas, check out these links below:
Alaskan Cruise: Travel Day & Boarding the Ship [Part 1] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: At Sea Day & Ketchikan [Part 2] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Icy Straight Point [Part 3] & VLOG (Icy Straight Point & Juneau)
Alaskan Cruise: Juneau & Whale Watching [Part 4]
Alaskan Cruise: Skagway & A Musher's Camp [Part 5] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Hubbard Glacier [Part 6] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Seward and Anchorage [Part 7] & VLOG