Disney pose!

The second week of our summer vacation this year (check our first week here) was spent on a 4-day Disney Cruise to the Bahamas, capping off with a day at Universal Studios! Departing from Port Canaveral Florida, we’d sail first to Nassau in the Bahamas, then on to Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay before returning to Florida. Seas were calm so it was smooth sailing for the Wilsons!

I won’t go into great detail here, but THE BOAT. Wow. We sailed on the Disney Dream, and it was awesome. From the stateroom with balcony to the themed restaurants, full sized movie theatre, and especially the broadway-calibre shows (Beauty and the Beast was amazing), we enjoyed everything on the boat. Photo ops with the Disney characters, scavenger hunts, a pirate-themed night and dance party, mini-golf, water slides, kids’ club, filling ‘fish finders’ (you put little gifts in these pockets hung outside other people’s cabin doors (pre-arranged before the cruise via Facebook etc), they do the same for you), fantastic meals… most nights were late nights as there was no shortage of things to do! Time spent on the boat was a blast for sure.

That’s a big boat

Time off the boat wasn’t too shabby either. Our first stop was in Nassau, where we spent a day at the beautiful Atlantis hotel water park, Aquaventure. The slides were awesome (and scary in some cases!), I think our favorite place to be was on the not-so-lazy river (it moved along fairly quick, which was pretty fun). A very fun day before returning to the boat for dinner and sailing off to our next destination, Castaway Cay.

Castaway Cay

We woke up as we were pulling into port on Disney’s private island, we didn’t waste any time getting off the boat as we had signed up for the 5K race they run there every trip. (Insiders say that’s also a good way to be first off the boat as the runners leave the boat before people who weren’t in the race.) Ryley didn’t do the race so got the full hospitality of the on-island kids’ club mostly to herself during the run. The rest of the day was spent snorkeling with stingrays, snorkeling in the lagoon looking for underwater hidden Mickeys (we found ’em!), at the little waterpark (Scuttle’s Cove), and just hanging on the beach (literally, there is a ropes course in the water!). Another awesome day, but it wasn’t over yet! It was pirate night, so after a pirate-themed dinner we had a pirate-themed show and a pirate-themed dance party that went late into the evening! I think we all danced (like proper DJ music) on the deck until 11pm or so… then everyone went to bed exhausted (well, I went for a nightcap in the bar district of the boat).

We had another fun-filled day at sea on the boat before arriving back in Florida. The cruise was amazing – Disney sure does it right, I’m sure we’ll be back again before too long… now our final stop of this seemingly never-ending holiday, Universal Studios!

Petrificus totalus!

I’ll give kudos here to Jenn as she did a fantastic job on our whole holiday, including a fair amount of extra research into this year’s trip to get it all booked just right (I mean, she books all our holidays but this one had an extra amount of things to book plus taking care of the associated logistical quirks). The hotel we stayed at in Florida was affiliated with Universal, Jenn got in on some deal with the hotel where we got fast passes as well as early entry to the park! Needless to say we were up early the next day to catch the little ferry up the river that dropped us pretty much at the door to the park.

We used our early entry pass and headed straight for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where the kids were among the first to get their new wands, which were a source of entertainment for a good portion of the day. I’m not a huge ride person (ask anyone who’s been deep-sea fishing with me!), but all four of us had a great time as we spent most of the morning just exploring the Harry Potter portions of the park and taking in most of the rides (the new Hagrid’s Motorbike ride had a huge wait from the get-go so it was a no-go for us). The pass Jenn got for us (dual-park) allowed us to ride the Hogwarts Express to the adjacent park (via Hogsmeade), Islands of Adventure.

We took on more rides in the afternoon as there was plenty to do between the two parks. There were a few that were super fun that you got a ‘little wet’ (so… absolutely drenched), we ended up heading back to the hotel before dark to change into something dry, then came back for a couple more coasters (most of us anyway…), including the kids’ favorite – the Rip Ride Rockit. The three of them came back to our meeting spot with huge smiles on their faces. Awesome. Back to the hotel for a late dinner and a swim before passing out from a very, very full day.

That was about it… What a vacation, great time had by all! Back to Bermuda for a nap. 😉