I Have A Dream … A Disney Dream …
We have never been on a cruise before. On several occasions, we did toy with the idea of a short getaway on cruise but after pricing the vacation, we instantly gave up. We did not want to pay so much for a cruise to Port Klang, Kuala Lumpur or Penang. Moreover, the staterooms did not appeal to us.
On our trip to Orlando last year, we thought of trying the highly rated Disney Cruise after reading all the good reviews about it. However, we decided against if as we were afraid that we would have been Disney overdosed. Moreover, our days were already packed with all the activities we planned on land. We did regret not trying it after reading more good reviews about it after our return.
Ever since we booked our tickets to Miami, it became apparent that a Disney Cruise to Bahamas will be on our itinerary.We have 2 choices – depart from Miami on Disney Wonder or depart from Port Canaveral on Disney Dream. Both have similar itineraries except that Dream is a much newer and bigger ship than Wonder. We decided on a 3 night cruise on Disney Dream as Ashley really wanted to try the AquaDuck (an exciting ‘water coaster’ where you travel 765 feet through an acrylic tube). Moreover, Disney Dream is the number one ranking ship. There were still choices of staterooms available for selected dates but we held off our booking, in anticipation of the Walt Disney World Free Dining Plan offer announcement. Our priority is to get the Free Dining for our stay in WDW before we confirm our cruise date. (The Free Dining Plan is only applicable on select stay dates).
Things were looking good for us as this year’s Free Dining offer was announced much earlier than expected and we secured our 12 night stay at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort on 7 May. This offer is usually announced late July/early August. We decided to book the 3 night Bahamian cruise on Disney Dream sailing on 5 December. To our surprise, for that sailing date, only staterooms with verandah are available. It’s not that bad since we wanted that category but rooms were extremely limited especially on the starboard. We have read that rooms on the starboard usually faces the Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island in Bahamas). So without hesitation, we booked a Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah – Room 9630 (category 4A) on deck 9, one of the few starboard rooms left and we are good to go!
This is our itinerary:
3-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Dream Itinerary A
December 5 to December 8
Disney Dream
| Day | Port | Ashore | Onboard |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Port Canaveral, Florida | — | 3:45 p.m. |
| 2 | Nassau | 9:30 a.m. | 5:45 p.m. |
| 3 | Castaway Cay | 8:30 a.m. | 4:45 p.m. |
| 4 | Port Canaveral, Florida | 7:30 a.m. | — |
We are looking forward to our very first cruise experience and the dining, activities and entertainment both onboard and on Castaway Cay. We are also looking forward to the Pirate Night which is a deck party which ends the night with a spectacular a fireworks display on the cruise ship.
