Disney Dream cruise and Walt Disney World 2014 - Day 2 - Nassau

Nassau

We awoke to the rumblings of the ship docking in Nassau. From a distance, it looks charming and the water is beautiful and blue. Many people don’t even get off the ship in Nassau, but we at least wanted to experience a new place so we got off. I was sort of ready to be off the ship for a bit anyway. We ate breakfast at Cabanas and headed out.

I thought I would feel better off the ship, but once on land, the ground was rolling and tilting in my perception. We went through the visitors center and we were accosted by various people offering tours and water taxis (mostly to Atlantis). We continued on and were accosted by a man offering buggy tours. We were interested in one and we also wanted to go to the pirate museum so we haggled him down to $30 for the three of us and climbed aboard.



Our driver was hard to understand (and hear) and the tour was hindered due to it being a national holiday in the Bahamas. We didn’t know before leaving, but the first Friday in June is Labor Day in the Bahamas. So we wove around, trying to avoid the giant, noisy parade going on right through the middle of town. Our buggy tour was over without us really seeing much except for some mango trees and dilapidated buildings. We shopped a bit (in the stores that were actually open) for some souvenirs on our way to the pirate museum which was about a four block walk from the ship. We arrived at the pirate museum (which was actually one of the nicest-looking buildings in Nassau) to find a note on the door, “closed for holiday.” Bummed, hot and tired we headed back to the ship.



We ate lunch at Cabanas and then went back to the stateroom where we all had a nap. I dozed for a bit and let Emmaline sleep for an hour so she’d be ready for pirate night. After waking her up, she and Roger went swimming and I hung out on the pool deck and had a snack while watching Pixar shorts on the “funnel vision” (giant screen on the forward funnel above the pools). Then we went back to the room and got her changed so she could attend the “Tinkerbell’s Talent Show” activity in the Oceaneer’s Club.

While she was in the club, Roger and I took the opportunity to ride the Aquaduck before heading back to the room for a shower and change for pirate night. We picked up Emmaline at the club and got her changed into her pirate costume and went up to the lobby balcony to meet Mickey in his pirate outfit. When we were done there, it was time for our show. Friday night’s show was “Villian’s Tonight” which I was really looking forward to. It actually ended up being my least favorite of the three shows. It was a comedy show about the Disney villains, but the central character was the bad guy from “Hercules.” I don’t really remember “Hercules” and I can’t imagine most people do. The actors were all great and the theatrics were all fantastic, but there were sections that were just a bit too long with Hades.



After the show we had a few minutes to shop before the Mickey pirate show up on the pool deck (they cover up the swimming pools to fit everyone on the deck). Emmaline looked around at what she might want to buy with the money she had saved up. We made note of the things she liked so we could narrow it down later. The Mickey pirate show up on the pool deck was really great. It was super cute and featured Captain Hook taking over the ship. They even had a cute video clip of overly dramatic frightened crew members tied up with giant ropes. After the show, we got some family photos taken of us all dressed up in our pirate outfits (which we got a lot of compliments on).



Dinner that night was in Animator’s Palate which was Emmaline's favorite dining experience (and also featured my favorite dish - truffle infused pasta pillows with champagne cream sauce). During the show, Crush the sea turtle from “Finding Nemo” comes around to the tables to interact with the kids. Using some form of Disney magic, the animated Crush actually has real-time conversations with the all the guests.

After dinner it was time for Emmaline to go to “Pluto’s Pajama Party” in the Oceaneer Club. While she did that, we returned to our room and got some things cleaned up and changed out of our pirate costumes to get ready for the second pirate party (we decided we’d had enough of our costumes by that point). The second pirate party was kind of meh. Captain Jack’s dialogue was nearly impossible to understand. I know he’s a mumbly character, but this was really tricky to hear. So we just sort of waited that out for the fireworks. I wasn’t expecting much from fireworks on a boat but these really exceeded my expectations. It was a great fireworks show.

We were all pretty beat so we headed back to our room, skipping the pirate buffet and the pirate dance party.

Click here for Day 3.