So we just took sweet Lauren on another Disney Cruise. We went on the exact same cruise that we did this time last year, the 4 night Bahamas on the Disney Dream out of Port Canaveral.
Upon arriving to our room, we discovered this awesome Castaway Club member backpack, a welcome note thanking us for cruising again, and yummy snacks in the bag. You apparently become a Castaway Club member after cruising just 1 time. Gotta love Disney. They really treat their guests wonderfully.
We first stopped in Nassau. I'm not a huge fan and Todd has flown down there a ton of times. I don't like all of the haggling and people begging you to take taxis, etc. There's a great market right when you get off the boat where they don't allow that stuff. We walked around there and little L picked out a beautiful blue necklace as her souvenir. We then ventured to the busy streets on Nassau but I only wanted to go in one store. I saw an advertisement on the ship talking about the Tortuga rum cakes. I wanted to get something for my Mom and Grandma for watching Connor so we picked them up a coconut flavored cake. It was delicious.
Bahamian Beauty
Lauren is for sure our little fish. She was most happy swimming in the pools on deck or going down the awesome Mickey water slide. I was so excited for her because she was tall enough for the slide this year. She went down it so many times. Todd and I pulled up chairs and just watched and watched.
The best port of all is most definitely Castaway Cay, Disney's own private island. It's just pure bliss, no other way to describe it. You are the only boat docked and you have this big private island all to yourself for the day. We enjoyed swimming in the crystal clear water, the beautiful sand beach, the wonderful bbq lunch that's on the island, endless ice cream cones, and playing with our sand buckets.
Of course our sweet girl got her hair braided again this year. Yes, those braids are still in her hair. I love it!
We saw lots of characters on this trip. That's the beauty of a Disney Cruise. The characters are everywhere and there's a ton of interaction. You visit them, attend dance parties with them, and they even show up in the cool Kids Club.
Tiana was walking around on one of the decks and stopped to pose with Lauren. We love Tiana!
Snow White was just walking around the ship...
The ship has a ton of awesome activities for kids of all ages. We enjoyed a craft hour in the D-Lounge. Lauren really enjoys crafts so I looked at the personal navigator each night about what was happening the following day. There are a ton of activities to choose from and I knew anything craft related was right up her alley. On this afternoon, everyone got a Disney tote bag and she got to decorate it. Sweet girl even got one for her brother.
Another cool activity is a neat detective game. You register a card up on deck 5 (I think) near the Kids Club. You then get a map and follow the instructions. On each deck, you will find a gold plate looking thing on the floor in front of a picture. That picture is actually an animation of some sort. You hold up your cool badge and it tells you about this neat clue. It's really fun.
We enjoyed having an oceanview room this year. Last year we had a balcony that was wonderful too. This was pretty neat though because Lauren and I would lay in the window and watch the waves.
This is how Lauren would go to dinner at night....
Finally, as a little tip. Take a pillowcase, put it in a large ziploc bag with 2 sharpies, and write your name and stateroom number on the bag. Drop it off at guest services your first day on board. It's a fun little kept secret that you can get all of the characters to sign the pillow for your child/children. Your housekeeper then delivers your pillow to you on the last night in a gift bag. Lauren enjoyed her awesome "present" from her favorite friends.
And this is how we ended the trip. Fast asleep holding on to either Chip or Dale. She was the sweetest and went shopping for her baby brother. She has Dale and he has Chip.
We came super close to making a stop at The Magic Kingdom before driving all the way home. My heart hurt too much being away from Connor for 5 days. I had to hurry home to my sweet boy.
Notes:
Booking the cruise for a cheaper price : I watched the online rates at DisneyCruise.com every single day. I saw a restricted rate pop up for about $800 cheaper than the unrestricted rate. There are just a few rules with that like you can't back out, can't change the names of people in your room, etc. Nothing fancy. I then called It's a Small World Vacations because they offer a larger on board credit vs booking strictly on the Disney Website. Win Win.
***Todd gets a hefty discount on Disney Cruise Line with the airlines. However, this restricted rate is out of the world good and matches usually what we can book for. I highly recommend it***
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