Day at Sea: Trip Report pt. 3

Wednesday was our day at sea, which was a day I was dreading a little bit, mainly because of the sea sickness from earlier in the cruise.  As luck would have it, Castaway Cay is not that far from Port Canaveral, so the ship was moving very, very slowly, which meant little to no motion.  Yeah!

We slept in a little bit that morning, and when we finally did get up, we headed down to Enchanted Garden again for breakfast.  It was a bit more crowded this morning than it was the day before, mainly because we opted for a later breakfast, and everyone was on-board.  After breakfast, the guys headed up to decks 11 & 12 to see what was going on while I started the packing process.  Each guest is asked to have their luggage (minus what they will need for that night & the next morning) packed and outside their stateroom door between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. so that it can be prepared for debarkation.  So the mad sorting began...what was dirty, what was clean, what was going to be needed at Disney World, and so on.

After I finished as much as I could, I headed up to the top deck and met up with the guys while they were playing mini-golf.  While there, they had made friends with a little boy named Rodrigo from Puerto Rico.  As they finished the course, Max (Goofy's son) made his way onto the course and stopped for pictures.  Up next, another round of Mid-ship Detective Agency.  As we were waiting to get our casebook and badge, the Jack Jack Diaper Dash was taking place in the atrium.  It was so funny to watch from up above!  Once we had our Detective gear in hand, we headed out to solve the mystery of the missing puppies. 

Another highlight of the day was at the Captain's signing.  At Payton's insistence, we purchased a model of the Disney Dream and waited in line for Captain Tom's autograph.  It's a pretty cool souvenir, I have to say.

That night was our official dinner in the Royal Palace.  Now we did eat there for pirate night, but the atmosphere and food were very different.  By now, our service team really interacted with us well.  The overall experience was much better, and the desserts were the best we had tasted all cruise!

Following dinner, I began to notice that the ship was starting to pick up speed again, and that did not bode well for my stomach.  I was so scared I would be sick again, especially since tonight's show was the performance of Believe, which had received rave reviews from previous Dream cruisers as well as the cruise staff.  We sat in the balcony, with me on the aisle, just in case I needed to get out quickly.  The atmosphere in the theater was just magical, and after one last visit from Rachel, our cruise director, the show began.  Although my tummy wasn't happy, this show was able to take my mind off of it and I was truly caught up in the story.  Believe is just amazing.  Now I did say in an earlier post that Villains Tonight was my favorite, and that's still true, but they most definitely created a heart-warming, magical production with Believe.  I'm so glad that I didn't have to miss it!

Once we returned to our room, we found debarkation instructions waiting for us, which included a breakfast time of 6:45 a.m. the next morning.  We pretty well decided at that moment that it just wasn't going to happen, but we knew we needed to be up early so we could head out for Disney World.  We finished up the packing and against our better judgment, headed up to deck 11 for one last swim and Funnel Vision movie.  This probably had to be one of the most relaxing family moments we had had all cruise.  We sat in deck chairs, wrapped up in towels, eating ice cream and watching Up.  It was after 11:30 p.m. before we made it back to the room and to bed.

The final morning was a tough one, mainly because we were so tired!  Kendall and I both got up and around, finished packing up what we had in the room to carry off the ship, and then came the painful process of waking up Payton.  Once he was around and ready, we made a final stop at Shutters to pick up the last of our cruise pictures, then got in line to exit the ship.  This process went very quickly and I have to give a shout out to the porters on land.  These folks work quickly to match you with your bags and get you through the customs lines.  Before we knew it, we were outside the terminal waiting for our shuttle to take us back to the hotel and to the van.  Once we arrived back at the Country Inn & Suites, we loaded up in the van and headed to our next destination...Animal Kingdom Lodge!

Stay tuned, the land portion of this vacation will be coming soon.  I will be sharing some thoughts and tips on cruising, as well as some details of the Disney Dream in my next post.