Cruising the Bahamas

I've just got back from the most amazing few days away in the Bahamas. On Thursday me and my friends, Rachel, Katherine and Kirstie set off to Cape Canaveral to board our ship, The Disney Wonder. Once we went through the terminal and boarded the ship we headed straight to the buffet for lunch which was lush. After lunch our room was ready so we went to check it out. It was quite small understandably for a cabin but we had a balcony which was the best thing! As the weather was starting to turn and a storm was brewing we decided to wander around the ship and check it out. We did a tour of the Spa and had a look at the pool area etc. At 4.00pm the ship had it's safety drill so we put our life jackets on and headed downstairs for the talk. After the talk we went upstairs for the welcoming party where we were introduced to the crew on board and of course Mickey, Minnie and friends! We then had a countdown until the ships departure from Florida.

We went back to our room to get ready for the evening. Every night at 6.15pm there was a show and the first night was the 'Golden Mickeys'. The show was excellent, like something you see on Broadway. We had a look round some of the shops and decided to go to one of the bars to take part in a pub quiz and have a cocktail. We suprised ourselves doing rather well on the quiz and at 8.15 we headed for dinner! This was the only night we actually felt the ship moving. Throughout dinner it felt quite rocky but Rachel assured us it was because the crew hadn't put the stablisers out yet because we were not further out at sea enough and sure enough we didn't feel it again. We had dinner at Parrot Cay the first night and we met our servers who would be our servers for the rest of the cruise and also we were sat with another family who we were also sat with every night. Fortunately the family were lovely, orginally from Pennsylvania they now live in Florida and the daughter who was with them is also a cast member so we had lots in common!
After dinner we were all pretty wrecked so we headed back to the room to watch a movie and get some sleep!

The next day we docked at Nassau. We headed down to breakfast around 9.30am then after we left the ship to explore the island. First impressions were not too great, there didn't seem to be much there, just a few shops and bars but we decided to get a boat over to Paradise Island which is where Atlantis is. On the boat over our tour guide pointed out all these beautiful houses which have been owned by the likes of Nicholas Cage and Mary Kate Olsen, it's an expensive island and pretty much private so the celebs are drawn to it. We also went past a small cabin which was used in one of the James Bond films 'Thunderball'. When we got off the boat we could see the difference straight away, the shops were pretty and expensive although the island is the cheapest place to buy real diamonds.

We then wandered through Atlantis which is incredible. It's a huge resort which includes a cassino and a marina. It's a favourite with the celebs and I dread to think how much it is a night to stay there however we were told it's booked up for the next six years! You even have to pay $60 to sit on the beach! In the lobby there was a huge fish tank with stingrays and all sorts in there, it really was a sight to see.
After we had taken photos of everything we headed back and boarded the boat again, we had some lunch at the Tritons restaurant and then we headed to the upper deck for some pool time!

At around 4.30pm we went back to the room to get ready for the second night show, which was 'Toy Story- The Musical'. This was my least favourite out of all the shows but it was still really well done. After the show we had some time to kill before dinner so we went to have a few professional photos taken on the ship. We had dinner at Tritons this night which is a French style restaurant. After dinner there was Pirate Party on the upper deck so went to watch that. It was really good fun especially Mickey's big entrance! And they also had fireworks at sea which the Disney cruise are the only ones allowed to do! After the fireworks they had a free dessert buffet on board however we were so stuffed from dinner that all I could manage was a cookie!

The last day was my absoloute fave! We docked at Castaway Cay which is disney's own private Island. As usual we has breakfast then headed off board. The first thing you see once you're on the island is 'The Flying Dutchman' which is the actual boat they use in 'Pirates of the Carribean'. There were lots of characters on the island have their photos taken and also three beaches- The family beach, the teen beach and the over 18s beach. Serenity beach is the name of the over 18s beach and of course we headed there. It is possibly the most beautiful place I've seen. It was so quiet and the sea was so clear you could see fish and starfish in the water and it was so warm! We sunbathed abit but it was so hot we spent most of the day in the sea however we still came back with cracking tans! At lunchtime there was a free bbq on the island so we enjoyed that too!

It was hard leaving this island at the end of the day but we headed back to get ready for the evening. The show on the last night was called 'Disney Dreams' and was by far my favourite of all the shows. It tells the story of a girl wishing upon a star because she wants to fly. Peter Pan turns up to help her find her magic so she will be able to fly by sunrise. In the process they look to all the Disney classics and there are lots of performances from lots of Disney films. I choked up abit during Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King!

The last dinner was at Animators Pallet which was a themed restaurant in black and white with pics of Disney films throughout. The food as usual was amazing and at the end they had abit of a show where all the chefs and servers came out and we all had to wave our napkins and cheer for them! Our servers were Savid and Roland who were great. We found out that they work about 84 hours per week and their service is so amazing you'd never even know it! After dinner we went to the lobby because all the characters were out signing autographs for the last time, we had a photo with Belle in her gold dress which I was really excited about! After this they had a farewell party in the lobby where everyone said goodbye to the characters, the last being Mickey Mouse of course!

It was late after this so we headed to bed, we had to be up early on the last day for breakfast at 7.45am and to be off the boat by 9.00am. I had a fantastic few days and my only regret is that it didn't last longer, if I ever get the chance to do it again id do it in a heartbeat!