Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 11 years and 5 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

I’m on a boat!

Well, a ship, actually. For the next three days we’re on the Disney Dream, cruising to the Bahamas on a short family vacation for Thanksgiving.

Note: lest you think I was blogging while on the cruise, rest assured I am writing these entries after we got back home on Wednesday afternoon. I actually did not use the internet for three days … amazing, I know, but it can be done! Using the internet on a cruise ship is way too expensive anyway.

We left home this morning at 8:30am to drive over to Port Canaveral. There was no traffic to speak of on I-4 or the Beeline on an early Sunday morning so we made it to terminal 8, parked the car, and were in line to check-in by 11:15am. The whole experience was much like an airport (security, metal detectors, lines to check in with agents, etc.) except smoother and more pleasant. We had a bit of a wait for our boarding group, but by 12:30pm we were on board!

Our stateroom wouldn’t be ready for another hour so we spent some time walking around the ship, generally gawking at the amazing sights to behold (just incredible, my photos below don’t really do it justice) and grabbing some lunch at Cabanas. We knew to bring a carry-on day bag with supplies (since our luggage wouldn’t be delivered to our stateroom for several hours), which included swimsuits. Since boarding would continue for several hours, we decided to take advantage of the smaller crowds in the pool area on deck 11. Specifically, my daughter wanted to ride the AquaDuck, an elevated “water coaster.” Due to the high winds at the port, they were requiring double riders so I was commandeered into changing into my swim trunks to ride the AquaDuck with my daughter. It was a fun ride, but with the water, wind, and temperatures in the upper 60s, it was freezing when we got off. Luckily by now our stateroom was ready so we were able to get into the room,  meet our stateroom attendant Nay La, change back into our dry clothes, admire the view from our verandah, and warm up a bit.

We still had some time before the mandatory safety drill at 4:00pm so we continued to explore the ship, getting a feel for the layout, and also visiting the different youth club open houses (like the Oceaneer’s Club and Edge) for my daughter. After the safety drill, where we learned about the life jackets, our assembly group area, and lifeboat designations, it was time to set sail! The pools on deck 11 had been covered over turning the entire mid-section of the ship into a big dance floor for the Sailing Away party as the Dream left Port Canaveral for the Bahamas.

We had been assigned the late dining time (8:15pm!) so around 5:30pm we grabbed some snacks from the dining areas (what we began to call “first dinner”) and watched the sunset while we ate. With formal dinner still three hours away we walked around the ship taking in even more sights and even pausing briefly to play some shuffleboard underneath the lifeboats on deck 4.

Dinner that evening was in the Enchanted Garden (continental cuisine). By now, as Captain Henry had warned earlier in the day, the wind was contributing to high seas which in turn were causing the ship to noticeably sway. This motion wasn’t bothering my daughter or me, and my wife had taken Dramamine earlier so she was mostly fine, but a lot of other people on the cruise were not feeling too well (I actually saw someone run and vomit into a trashcan in the atrium, something I thought only happened in movies and bad TV sitcoms), including some of the other people assigned to our table. Despite the rocking of the ship, dinner was very pleasant and our dining staff (Ronald, Antonio, and Dougan) were friendly and accommodated our requirements (my daughter is vegetarian and gluten-free and I have a nut allergy) with no problem whatsoever.

Stuffed after dinner, we walked over to the D Lounge to see the “Mirror Mirror” game show and stuck around afterwards to watch my daughter dance with Donald Duck at the Latin Dance Party Fiesta. By now it was 11:30pm and despite the various activities still going on on-board, we decided to turn in and call it a night.

Tomorrow, we awake in the Bahamas.