Three weeks before our cruise began, we were really excited for our day in Nassau. Most of the time we spend the day onboard enjoying the ship’s amenities, but we had some fun planned this time around. We felt our kids were finally old enough to have fun swimming with dolphins, so we booked the Blue Lagoon Island Dolphin Swim port adventure through Disney Cruise Line. I have done a few port adventures to Blue Lagoon and always had great experiences, so this felt like a slam dunk. Unfortunately, Disney Cruise Line cancelled all port adventures to Blue Lagoon a couple weeks before our cruise, so we went from excitement to relative indifference about our day at Nassau. I’m not certain why they were cancelled, but I suspect it had something to do with the ferry accident that had occurred several weeks back. All I wish is that they had given us more notice that the port adventures would be cancelled so that we could have booked something else, but that was not the case.

So now we had a full day with no plans, so we mostly found things to keep us busy around the ship, beginning with breakfast at Cabanas out on the back deck.

After breakfast, I had (what I thought was) a routine medical procedure to take care of, so I headed down to the Health Center located on Deck 1 forward. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when you walk in, it feels like a normal doctor’s office with a reception counter and waiting room. It turned out the procedure was going to be much more expensive that I was expecting, so I just took matters into my own hands. (If you want to hear what it was, listen to my podcast episode).

While I was doing that, Lyss got the kids ready for a pool day and I met them there afterward. It was a bit overcast and somewhat chilly, so the kids spent most of the time in the hot tub and eating ice cream(??), but we did manage to ride the AquaDuck a couple times and caught most of Big Hero 6 on FunnelVision (a 6/10 FV movie).

I need to pause for a moment here and talk about a revelation that I learned about around this time. I had previously posted on Instagram that orange Fanta was offered at the soda stand on the pool deck. This was the first I had ever seen this offering on a Disney cruise and I was excited because it meant orange creamsicle floats! After I posted my Instagram reel, I received several comments about people making floats WITH COFFEE! Naturally, since coffee is the best flavor of ice cream, I had to try this.

Let me tell you, it was REALLY good! Just serve yourself some vanilla (or chocolate/vanilla swirl for more of a mocha flavor) ice cream in a cup, pour some coffee over it, grab a spoon (available at the ice cream stand), and enjoy! I learned later that it’s actually an Italian dessert called an affogato. Thanks to all who informed me of this!

Later that afternoon, I ventured ashore with my parents while the kids stayed onboard and checked into the kids clubs. We walked to the Queen’s Staircase, which was about a 20-minute walk. I was glad that I did it, but it’s not likely something I will do again. On the way back, we stopped at the Rip Ty’d Brewery, which is located a little ways off the beaten path. It’s a great local business and don’t let the outside appearance dissuade you.

Back on the ship, I met back up with Alyssa and the kids in the stateroom as we were preparing to sail away. I heard the Mickey horns playing from the open verandah door, so we spent some time out there as the ship prepared to depart.

Disney’s departures tend to draw big crowds from the ships docked on either side. There was a lot of waving and cheering as we pulled away. The kids have a lot of fun with that.

We enjoyed dinner at Palo that evening. A real blogger would take pictures of the food for you to look at, but unfortunately, that is not me (yet). I ordered the caprese salad, the 8oz filet, and a side of asparagus off the a la carte menu and finished it off with the chocolate souffle.

It was pirate night, so we were excited for the fireworks, which are always a huge hit for us. We really enjoyed the “Pirates in the Caribbean” deck party, which was a nice departure from the acted out scenes that they used to do. While not as good as the Rockin’ Parlay Party on the Wish, the pirate songs and the crowd participation was a lot of fun!

My favorite thing about the Pirate Night fireworks is the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song playing while the show is happening. It’s absolutely epic.

Something we were not expecting was our DisneyBands having a show of their own while the fireworks were going off. There were a few times throughout the cruise where the DisneyBands would “perform” and each time was kind of fun because we didn’t know it was going to happen. Make sure they’re charged up, though – if they’re dead, they can’t participate. One crew member said that they only last about a day onboard compared with a couple days in the parks.

After that, it was right to bed with a lot of anticipation for our first visit to Castaway Cay the next morning.

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