We're back from a FABULOUS cruise on the Disney Dream!!!

Day 4 - Castaway Cay Day - My Favorite Day

This was the day of the cruise I had most been looking forward to. So when DH was having trouble getting out of bed, I had to take drastic measures....I opened the curtains, let the sun shine in and jumped on the bed until he got up. After receiving a look of annoyance from him, I reminded him that if we wanted to get a shady spot on the beach at Serenity Baby (he's not a sit in the sun type of guy), then we had to get off the ship early. He agreed and we were headed off the ship by 8:30 AM, but not before enjoying this spectacular view of Castaway Cay from our verandah (thanks Dee for suggesting a cabin on the starboard side. It came in handy more than once).

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Day 4 - Castaway Cay Day - My Favorite Day (cont.)

Getting off the ship that early was actually pretty easy. I think a lot of folks were sleeping in that morning. We walked off and headed straight for the tram. We took the tram to Pelicans Point and got off to wait for the next tram to Serenity Bay (the adults only beach). We had barely waited 5 minutes and we were off. Serenity Bay was beautiful (as was the entire island). We were one of maybe 20 couples who had gotten off the ship early, so we claimed a great spot on the beach under a nice big umbrella and proceeded to take it all in. I immediately went into the water. It was warm, clear and gorgeous. DH sat under the umbrella with his big hat avoiding the sun. I joked that maybe he had some vampire in him. I sat in the sun to dry off and feel the warmth on my skin. After about 2 hours it was time to hop the tram back to the Scuttles Cove stop and head straight to Boat Beach where our personal watercraft adventure awaited us. Since we're both control freaks when it comes to driving, we opted for the single rider excursion. We got our instructions and hopped on our watercrafts and headed out. Now I will tell you, at first I was disappointed that we had to ride in a single file line behind a guide. I was worried that we'd be slowly cruising around the island, but much to my surprise the guide took us around at a pretty good speed. DH and I figured out that if we slowed down and let the watercraft in front of us get a bigger lead, we could speed up even more to catch up. We were having a blast. When we got to the other side of the island, the guide had us get off at a secluded beach and gave us a few facts about the Bahamas. Did you know the Bahamas is made up of 700 islands, but only 35 of them are occupied. Pretty cool. Anyway, after about 15 minutes on the secluded beach, we made our way back around the island a little faster this time. The total tour was about 45 minutes. We enjoyed it very much, but I would have liked to see it be a little longer for the price we paid. After the tour, we headed back to Serentity Bay for lunch. They were having a BBQ on the beach. The food was great, ribs, hot dogs, burgers, rib eye steaks cooked to order and even some fish. After lunch, DH had pretty much had enough of the fun in the sun and suggested we head back to the ship to ride the AquaDuck again. How could I resist? I LOVE that darn AquaDuck. After another ride on the slide, we found our way to deck 4 where we played a serious few games of shuffleboard. I lost 3 games to 2, but we had a blast. Here are a few more shots from the day.

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Day 4 - Castaway Cay - My Favorite Day (cont.)

After our competitive afternoon of shuffleboard (yes, I do realize how "old" that sounds), we headed back to our stateroom to relax and get ready for the most anticipated meal of the week - Dinner at Palo. Yes, for those of you experienced Disney Cruisers, we did skip Pirate Night for dinner at Palo. We figured being two adults traveling without kids, this might be the best meal to skip in the main dining rooms and head out for a quiet dining experience. It worked out perfectly. Our reservation was for 7:30 and we were seated promptly at 7:30. The waiter immediately came over to take our drink order and provide us with an amazing antipasto platter while he went over the menu with us. The whole antipasto was delicious but our favorite was the hunks of parmesan cheese drizzled with balsamic. I will be making that at home! I chose the calamari as my appetizer and DH had the grilled pesto shrimp. Both were fantastic. The calamari was served with a fried cherry pepper which really added a unique flavor to the dish. I never thought about service a cherry pepper with calamari, but it worked perfectly. DH's grilled shrimp was served with asparagus and pesto. Yum! We both had a lot of trouble deciding on our main course, so the waiter brought us each a 1/2 portion of our second choice with our main entrees. I had a 1/2 portion of the Penne Arrabiata with Grilled Shrimp and DH had the 1/2 portion of the Beef Ravioli with Chianti Sauce. Then for the main course I had the Tuna while DH had the biggest Filet Mignon on the ship (done to complete perfection). At this point, we were SO FULL. They really do give you a lot of food, but I had order Palo's famous chocolate souffle for dessert and it was on its way. I pushed through the pain of being so full, and managed to eat most of the souffle. It was decadent and totally worth the pain of overeating. Hey we were on vacation right! After dinner we headed straight back to our stateroom where we watched the fireworks right from our verandah (another thank you to Dee for recommending the starboard side of the ship). It was the perfect ending to an incredible day!

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It was incredible! Everything we ate was amazingly delicious! I highly recommend Palo!

Hey gang. Sorry for the delay. I've been in Dallas all week for work. I'll try to finish up the report this weekend!

Day 5 - Our day at sea

So after that amazing dinner (which stuffed us to our gills), we took the opportunity to sleep in a little. We rolled out of bed around 9:00 AM and headed up to Cabanna's for breakfast. Then back to our room quick to freshen up before we headed to our 11:45 couples massage appointment at Senses Spa. We arrived at that spa, they showed us to our respective dressing rooms and then had us meet up in the relaxation room. When it was our turn, two lovely ladies came to take us to the couples room for our massage. It was a gorgeous room with huge windows looking out over the ocean. I laughed a little because you spend most of your time looking at the massage therapists' shoes not out the window, but it was a spectacular view. The massage was fantastic. It was 50 minutes long but I could have stayed there for hours. Here's a quick shot of the room.

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Day 5 - Day at sea (cont.)

After our massage, we headed back to the room to change clothes and head up to the pool deck. We hung around for a while until we got hungry and went to grab something for lunch. This time we tried Flo's Cafe on deck 11. It was your typical fast food type fair (burgers, sandwiches, pizza, salads, etc.). It was OK...nothing to rave about but it did its job. After lunch we hit deck 4 again for a shuffleboard rematch. Again, I lost 3 games to 2. After shuffleboard, we decided to get away from the crowds for a bit and hang out on our verandah until our 3:30 tequila tasting. We headed to 687 (the sports bar on board) for tequila tasting. We tried several different kinds of tequila and finished it off with a margarita. One of the cool things we learned (tried for the first time) is rather than chasing tequila with a lime, try an orange. It was fantastic. After the tasting we had a few drinks at the bar and walked around the ship again taking it all in. Its such a big ship that I still don't think we saw it all. Dinner on Day 5 was at the Royal Palace. This dining room was very regal. The food was pretty good too. We both had the French onion soup to start. I had the lobster mac & cheese for my main course and DH had the salmon. Both were very good, but I liked his a little better. For dessert...Mickey Ice Cream Bars again. We were given our pass for breakfast the next morning (the morning of departure) and headed off for one more drink before we went back to our stateroom to pack. We sat up for quite a while on our verandah talking about what a great time we had and decided we would do a Disney Cruise again sometime. It was a great adventure and everything was done the Disney way...i.e. the right way!

Day 6 - EPCOT F&W FESTIVAL

So we got up pretty darn early as they started making announcements about getting off the ship around 7:00 AM. Customs was open at 7:30 so we could disembark. We had chosen to take our own bags off of the ship rather than putting them out in the hall the night before. So we lugged our bags to breakfast at the Royal Palace, ate a quick breakfast and headed off the ship. The line for customs was long, but it moved quickly and soon we were in our car and on our way to Epcot for the F&W Festival. It only took about an hour to get from the cruise terminal onto WDW property. We made a quick stop at DTD to hit the Legos store so I could get my nephew his requested Star Wars Lego set and then off to the Beach Club to check in. Much to my surprise and delight, our room was ready at 10:30 AM. We dropped off our bags, put on our magic bands and headed straight to Epcot. I loved being able to walk from the Beach Club. It was quick walk and before you know it, we were headed to Spaceship Earth for our first fast pass plus time. From there we headed to Soarin and then to Test Track. I loved my first experience with the fast pass plus system. We knocked out two of our must dos in the first couple of hours. From there we headed over to World Showcase to dine around the world. We grabbed a few beers at the Craft Beer stand and then on to Mexico for a shrimp taco. After the taco we hit South Korea for the new Kimshi Dog. It was a hot dog with Kimshi slaw and spicy mustard, and it was my new favorite. From there, we grabbed a few beers in Germany and made our way around to Hops & Barley. I had to have me a lobster roll and DH got the New England Clam Chowder with Tobasco. Yum. By this time it was closing in on 3:00 and we had planned to meet DH's sister and her family over at The Seas with Nemo & Friends. They were having a late lunch at the Coral Reef. We got there just as they were coming out. DH's niece and nephew were so excited to tell us about their week (it was the family's first trip to WDW). They had had a really fun week. Mandy's favorite memory was being identified as the rebel spy on Star tours and Eric loved Big Thunder Mountain. We headed over to see Figment and then off to the Agent P booth for a mission. We started the mission in the UK and after what seemed like forever, the mission was over. They asked if they could do another mission and I requested France so I could get my Grey Goose Slushy! Boy had I missed my Grey Goose Slushy! After mission #2, they wanted to do another one, so of course I suggested Mexico so we could get a few margaritas! Hmm...maybe those missions aren't so bad if you can do them where the good drinks are found. After they completed the last mission of the day, we headed onto the boats to see the Three Caballeros. They had been in Epcot earlier in the week but didn't realize there were rides in some of the countries. The kids loved the boat ride. It was starting to get a little late for them, so we said our good bye and made plans to meet the next morning at DTD. DH and I were actually getting pretty hungry since we hadn't eaten since 2:00 so we walked back to the Beach Club and then over to the Boardwalk and the ESPN Zone for dinner. I was not impressed. The menu was limited and we both just settled on burgers. They were fine, but nothing to write home about. We finally fell into bed sometime around 10:30. It had been a long day, but a fun one!

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So good!

Food is in included as are soft drinks, coffee and tea. Alcohol is extra and not cheap, but DCL allows you to bring your own on which saved us a bit. Palo was extra - $20 per person but totally worth it!