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Disney Dream at Castaway Cay |
Disney Cruise Line and Disney Aulani just won "Best of" awards from Travel + Leisure this week, and it reminded me that I never posted my cruise report! Now that two months have gone by and we have no current vacation plans, it was really rough to get pictures together for this post. I want to be back on a boat where there is ice cream and hot dogs any time I want them!
Francis and I were both huge cruise skeptics before this trip, but agreed to try a three day cruise because I wanted to be able to recommend the Land & Sea vacation packages honestly. If you read Craves, Caves, & Graves, you know that we are spontaneous, road-tripping people and our main worry was feeling trapped on a cruise.
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Daily Princess Meet & Greet |
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Nassau, Bahamas |

The inside staterooms have "Magic Portholes", which are flat screen monitors built into the wall that show the camera view of the outside of the ship. It keeps the room from feeling claustrophobic, plus there are visits from animated characters to break up the monotony of "at sea". We saw Winnie the Pooh, Tinker bell, Kevin from Up, the Emperor and Pacha, and a few others.
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Castaway Cay Mount Rustmore |
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Castaway Cay Pelican Plunge |
After lunch we went back to the boat, because we knew that there were so many people on the island that the wait time for AquaDuck would be drastically reduced. AquaDuck is an amazing water ride through a tube that runs all the way around the ship, and I think the best part of this whole vacation was Francis giggling behind me on that raft. The whole pool deck, especially the adult-only decks, were another reason we were happy to stay on the boat. One thing we learned on the Keys to the Kingdom tour is how Disney uses music to set the mood, and this technology is put to good use on the ships. You can walk between the all-ages area, which is like a party boat, to the adult area, where the music is subdued, or the total silence of the upper adult deck, and be blown away by the use of speakers and acoustics. The adult area is so quiet you could fall asleep (and we did).
I didn't get a lot of pictures of the dining rooms or food, but everything was EXCELLENT, particularly our solo dinner at Palo on the last night. Everyone should dine in a restaurant with a wall of windows on the top deck of a cruise ship at sunset once in their life. Make that happen for yourself.
The other dining experience I highly recommend is Artist's Palette. Our rotational dining group was all adults traveling without children and I know everyone at our table had as much fun as the families did in this restaurant. All those "pictures" are video screens that come to life and interact with the guests. It's AMAZING. There is also "Enchanted Artwork" throughout the ship!
Now that we are in the "Castaway Club", which gives you early booking privileges for Castaway Cay cabanas, Palo, the spa, and shore excursions, PLUS we never got around to seeing any of the shows, so now I feel like we have to go again. Who's with me? :)
I didn't get a lot of pictures of the dining rooms or food, but everything was EXCELLENT, particularly our solo dinner at Palo on the last night. Everyone should dine in a restaurant with a wall of windows on the top deck of a cruise ship at sunset once in their life. Make that happen for yourself.
The other dining experience I highly recommend is Artist's Palette. Our rotational dining group was all adults traveling without children and I know everyone at our table had as much fun as the families did in this restaurant. All those "pictures" are video screens that come to life and interact with the guests. It's AMAZING. There is also "Enchanted Artwork" throughout the ship!
Now that we are in the "Castaway Club", which gives you early booking privileges for Castaway Cay cabanas, Palo, the spa, and shore excursions, PLUS we never got around to seeing any of the shows, so now I feel like we have to go again. Who's with me? :)
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