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 Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

This morning we awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean in the Bahamas.

Hard to have a bad day starting off with a view like that …

At 8:00am we had breakfast up at Cabanas and watched the Bahamas come slowly into view over the horizon. By 9:15am the ship was docked at the port in Nassau and the gangplanks were down for debarking. We tried to catch a quick nap later in the morning but the ship’s crew emergency drills kept waking us up (I guess they assumed most people had left for Nassau or Atlantis).

We hadn’t planned any excursions for the day, so around 11:30am we wandered down the gangway into Nassau to just get a brief taste of the city. Some things don’t change no matter where you are: down a side street we found a Starbucks, a Subway, and the Hard Rock Cafe. Getting our passports stamped was a bit of an ordeal. Nobody checked our paperwork on the way into the city, but the line of cruisers heading back to their ships (a Carnival and NCL ship were also docked next to us) was very long as credentials were checked. After asking a few people for directions we were directed to a military guard shack. The soldier checked our passports and let us into the immigration building where we got a Bahamas stamp. Having gone through the military checkpoint actually allowed us to bypass the long line in the port building so that actually worked out better for us as we walked back to the Dream’s berth.

For lunch we were back at Cabanas on deck 11, eating on the outside deck with a view of the Atlantis resort across the bay. Then we went to a 3D showing of Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph” in the Disney Theater (one of three theaters on the Dream). The movie was great, and even if you didn’t grow up playing video games in arcades like I did, it’s very enjoyable (although the video game references are the best part).

After the movie, the ladies wanted to try and nap again back in the stateroom so I headed topside to read a bit in the Bahamian sun. At 5:30pm, I met up with the rest of the family (refreshed from their nap) and we grabbed some snacks for first dinner and then my daughter rode the AquaDuck again as the sun was setting since the line was relatively short. At 6:00pm, the Dream departed Nassau and started heading north. We did a little on-board shopping and then stopped quickly back at the stateroom so my daughter could change for the pirate deck party at 7:30pm.

Right after the party we headed to dinner at the Royal Palace (French cuisine) and this time all of our table-mates were present, having recovered from the previous evening’s weather-related maladies. The food was great, and dining ran a little long, but we still managed to make it back up to deck 12 to see the fireworks at sea at 10:30pm.

Shortly afterwards, the ladies retired for the night but I wasn’t quite ready to go to bed yet so I caught the 11:00pm showing of “Lincoln” in the Buena Vista Theater (my favorite character: Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens, and spoiler alert: Lincoln dies at the end). Two movies in one day … on a cruise ship! I was back in our stateroom by 1:30am. Tomorrow will find us at Disney’s private island: Castaway Cay.