Day Six: Nassau

We all woke up nice and refreshed. M was the first one up and I let her play Nintendo Switch from her upper bunk in order to let C keep sleeping. We didn't need the electronics much on the journey to Florida, and definitely not in WDW but they did come in handy and ultimately I am glad they were packed. 

By the time we woke up we were already at port in Nassau though we weren't really planning to get off the ship. 

We had breakfast at the buffet. That was complicated to find. It was nice to see a bright sunny day. This was the only part of the entire cruise where I questioned what we were doing. There were people everywhere. We couldn't find a table and... had I waited about 20 minutes it would have cleared out considerably as people went ashore. 

When we went to do our online check in, it was also the day you could book the Royal Gathering. What that means is a smattering of princesses are in one place at one time and booking this meant you could stand in the line at your designated time. It's kind of difficult to get but Husband and I stayed awake one night to make it happen. People in the cruise Facebook group were trying to find spots for their family. So I was thankful we got them. 

At our gathering was Rapunzel, Belle, Tiana, Moana and Cinderella. I'm just going to share one picture because you all can't really care about seeing my kids with 5 different princesses. 

After the Royal Gathering, we went to the Hero Zone for the Incredibles Obstacle Course. Do I think this was worth it? Absolutely not. They waited a long time in the line for about 30 seconds of fun. Did the kids have fun? Yes, they did and that's the point. Both kids wanted to try it and I am glad we made time for it! It was the only time we went to this specific area of the ship too so that's something I guess. 

Once they had done the course I went to collect our laundry. We pack light with the plan to do laundry. I figured doing it right away on Saturday morning would be ideal and it totally was. No one was in there. This laundry room was one deck down from our stateroom and I loved it. I just love to do laundry, clean clothes make me happy. 

Leave it to Disney to even make sure the laundry room is elegant and pretty. 

After the clothes were clean and folded, we were all in swimsuits and headed up to the pool deck. We all got in the line for the Aquamouse. The posted sign said it would take an hour but it didn't. I rode with C and it was pretty fun though I did get more wet than I expected. After we sat in one of the pools and watched Frozen. The kids went off to ride the water slide. (The yellow slide you can just barely see below.) I stayed and watched the movie but then moved to the shade for a while. 

We had a lovely lunch on the pool deck. Everyone picked something different which is the best part of the pool deck options: you're not limited. 

And after more swimming fun we went back to change because the boys were going to see a movie. Wish on the Wish... which was something C was very excited about!! 

M and I were heading to Arendelle for Olaf's Royal Picnic. And let me tell you, I am SO glad we lucked out and managed to get spots for this fun! 

Olaf's Royal Picnic is one of the hardest entertainment activities to book on the Wish. It is extremely limited and you must have a child under 12. Adults cannot go on their own. I thanked M several times for being 9 because I loved it every bit as much as she did. 

The picnic was meant to start at 2:30 but they had technical difficulties so the two of us waited for  over a half hour to start looking at this sign. We were among the more patient people waiting however.

Hang in there Joan. 

It was darling. Look at this plate. An actual china plate that looks like a cheapy paper plate. I have never ever wanted to steal dishware in my life but I would have walked out with this plate with no shame if they had let me. 

We had AMAZING seats. I honestly don't know how we got such good seats. But it was so special and sweet. It was a full dinner show, so there were characters on stage and even the waiters (each family had their own table and their own server) had choreography. As the show went on, the servers brought out picnic baskets full of special Olaf goodies that were exclusive to the picnic. 

I will tell you the only thing I am particularly salty about is that because of the technical difficulties the actual picnic portion was rushed. As such, when we went to take our picture with Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff our desserts were cleared before we had eaten most of them, even one bite. Other tables caught on and grabbed their plates, I wish I had done the same. 

I actually rationally understand that they needed to change Arendelle over for dinner service. But I wish they had bagged up the sweets is all. 

It was the ABSOLUTE sweetest and I am so so thrilled that we were able to go. While it was absolutely a one-and-done experience, because truly I don't need multiple Olaf's Royal Picnic picnic blankets and Rock Troll stuffies that turn into rocks among the other things, I loved every song and personal moment. 

Once we found the boys and dropped off all of the awesome things we received we went to Disney Songbook Live which was a trivia game based on Disney music. 

Our little foursome not only had a particularly good time, but we also WON! But I think even had we not won we would have loved it! There was a host, Ellie and a pianist playing snippets of Disney songs. 

Everyone contributed something that no one else knew. 

Husband knew one of the songs was from Home on the Range. 

M knew the Nothing Could Stop Us Now song from Runaway Railway. 

C knew that Belle was in Hunchback of Notre Dame. He also knew that Bashful is the dwarf that sings about a polecat in the Silly Song.

I knew Susan Egan was Belle on Broadway. (Though admittedly, so did my whole family but it was especially funny because I got this wrong on the bus trivia when it said who voiced Belle and I confidently answered "Susan Egan!") 

We got 30/40 possible points and were awarded the "coveted" Daisy Duck Medallions. We all got one and it was awesome. I think it was my favorite part of the whole cruise. Truly. 

We were having so much fun that we were even a few minutes late for dinner... and I am not someone who is late so I felt bad. Luckily I knew just exactly what I was going to order already. 

The best part was since it was the same characters we had just seen, they remembered M and said things like "Good to see you again" and it was the cutest. C also wore his Oaken shirt and pointed it out to Oaken. I love a good character interaction. 

The dinner show here was lovely, though slightly less thrilling since our dinner table was further away from the stage than our picnic table. But the live musicians were phenomenal. And I will sing along to any Frozen song if they'll let me. So I enjoyed it very much! And the food was delicious. I had the Swedish meatballs and the homemade egg noodles were SO stinking good. And we all picked a different dessert and liked that too! 

We conned M into going to see The Little Mermaid show with us. She was pretty grumpy about this because she just wanted to go to the kid's club. So the boys got beverages, and popcorn for us while I tried to convince her hanging out with us was fun. 

After the show, which M admits wasn't "that bad" it was time for the pirate party on deck. With fireworks. Disney is the only cruise line that can have fireworks at sea and I really enjoyed them. M did NOT enjoy the pirate party, I think mostly she was just tired. 

Her big problem was "she doesn't like rock music." Lol. It was awesome classic 80s stuff like "Come Sail Away" and "We're Not Gunna Take It." Not a big deal! Everyone else in our family not named M had no problem with the party at all. It was also cool to look out over the ocean and see nothing but black except for a few other cruise ships in the distance. 

Ice cream helped and after the pirate party was over, we headed back to our stateroom and went to bed. Please check out my sunburn! Sunburn! In January! Where we had two feet of snow at home. I loved it. 

We loved this pirate towel/blanket and the chocolate coins. Who doesn't love a good theme?! 

At this point, I was super convinced that this cruise was the best idea I ever had. I slept just as well on night two. I love that mattress! I will legit consider buying one when we need a new mattress. 

Day Five: The Wish

I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not quite sure how it came about that we decided to cruise. I think after the last Disney trip I was looking online and they had a sale 50% off of deposits. And as I was looking at cruises realized that they were actually more affordable than I thought and one thing led to another and I booked it. Not only did I book it but I booked it more than a year in advance. It was a really good plan because I had something to look forward to for an incredibly long time. And that really works for me apparently. 

I wasn't sure how cruising was going to go. C sometimes gets motion sickness from bad turbulence on an airplane So I bought all the Dramamine. It was almost ridiculous and I kept saying to Husband should I buy more Dramamine? But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Friday morning we woke up early because we had to pack our bags. Bell Services was coming to pick them up around 7:00 a.m. and we hadn't packed at all. Husband and I did manage to get them primarily packed before the kids woke up. M was fully under the covers. It made me smile. I love sleeping kids.

As it turns out my friend and C's godmother was coming to Disney that day. But because at home we were getting our second big storm of the week, she also flew out early and was staying at the airport hotel. That morning I asked if she made it okay and she told me she was just having breakfast at the Caribbean beach resort. Well, that's just one Skyliner stop away from where we were. So we invited her over and we got to hang out with her. 

First, we toured the Cars area of the resort because we hadn't done that yet. It was really cute. I'm not sure that I would stay at Art of Animation again, I'm really a fan of the deluxe resorts as it turns out, but if I did I would request the cars area because it was super cute.

Let it be known that I was 100% crabby because I hadn't gotten a ton of sleep and I was super stressed out about our cruise transportation. Well, when we were in the Cars area I heard from our agent. She called the cruise line, all was going to be fine but I needed to check in with the cruise line agent in the lobby at about 8:30/9:00. 

I really thought that I would get into the Disney bubble and not really think about anything again until we were heading to the airport. While it wasn't nearly that seamless, and we do know what went wrong for the future, it also wasn't that bad. What happened was during the Disney Cruise Line Check In, which is kind of a long process, the site kept glitching. So I entered Art of Animation as our pick-up spot and during one of the glitches it reverted to MCO as our pick-up spot. It really ultimately didn't matter at all. 

So we mobile ordered our breakfast and it took over 45 minutes. Apparently, they never notified us that it was ready. When they did notify us it still wasn't ready cuz they were remaking it. I was less than impressed. Husband and C had gone to the room to collect all of our backpacks and everything to make sure that we were where we needed to be to get on the bus to the port. Husband was thrilled with me. He got more sleep than I did, but not enough to not be crabby too. We were a real pair. 

We said goodbye to Kathryn, checked in with the person, waited a whole bunch in the lobby, and then it was finally time to board the bus! I was so excited. It's apparently about an hour-long ride. I was shocked that AOA had its own bus of people. There were like 6 different families but for the most part, the bus was pretty empty. Each cruise has its own Facebook page, and I knew there were people staying at other resorts on the property. I wonder how they allocate the buses? 

But I primarily snoozed through it which was just fine with me. When the driver announced we were getting close I cried again. Let's just go on record and say on this vacation if I was really happy I cried. It was just so beautiful to see The Wish. 

I had specifically chosen The Wish as our ship because of the Arendelle restaurant. But then Nat Geo and Disney Plus had their Wish documentary that came out after we booked and it just made me even more excited for the whole thing. 

I knew going into it that by taking Disney transportation we would have an easier time boarding the ship and that we would board pretty darn early. I didn't realize how easy it would be or how early it would be compared to other passengers. It was so slick we basically walked right on. It took approximately 8 minutes in the port building. Plus our luggage was going to meet us at our room without us having to do anything.

We got on board and one of the cool things is you tell them your name and then they announce you. "Welcome aboard to the P family!" This will shock you but I cried. 

It wasn't all magical so don't get me wrong. The adults were still cranky. Husband had mistakenly packed my phone cord that worked with the bonus battery in the checked luggage so my phone was on its last leg. And I mean like I was at 5% battery. So I couldn't get the cruise line app to work which would have our whole schedule and dining rotation and everything we needed to know on it. 

I love him and he was definitely not the planner for this trip. So he was woefully unprepared to be in charge of guiding us and he was just mad at me for not telling him I needed the cord. And I was just frustrated with him for packing the cord in the first place because he obviously should have known. Plus I was overtired and that is not a good place in my world. Marriage. Keeps things interesting doesn't it? 

We got magic wands for a wishing ceremony in the grand lobby. It was sweet but I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have since I was panicked about not having a schedule. M and I hit the restroom, cruise restrooms are funny. We walked around just a little bit and headed to the kid's club for their open house. 

About 2 weeks before our sailing, Disney changed their policy on ages for the kid's club and it was now 10 and under. Which meant C was in the tween club with no check-in and check-out policy. We were all disappointed but decided to make the best of it by going to the club during the open house. 

After both kids checked out the area and we did the roller coaster simulators we headed up to the pool deck for some lunch. The pool deck had great options! Everyone ate and then the kids changed into their bathing suits. C ran off to ride the Aquamouse. The Aquamouse is the first Disney attraction at sea. Mostly it's a water slide ride with a little movie first. M jumped in a pool. Then they both ran off to ride the Aquamouse. I watched Aladdin on the funnel vision screen and just basked in the partly cloudy warmth. 

Again, I knew the benefit of boarding early was the lines would be short but I didn't quite appreciate how short they were until later. We could just walk up and get any food or drink we wanted. The kids rode the Aquamouse four times each with almost no line to speak of. 

At about 1:30 Husband wandered off to see if he could find our stateroom. And to check to see if the luggage was there yet. He came back and it was! So that was great We rounded up the kids and headed down to check out our stateroom. 

The kids changed and we got situated in our room. I plugged my phone in! And at 3:55 we went to the Luna Theatre Balcony for our required Muster Drill. It wasn't a big deal. 

After the Muster Drill, we headed to the pool deck again for Mickey's Sail Away Party. This was the BIG thing I was looking forward to the most. We got a spot on the railing and it was everything I wanted. Do you watch the Macy's parade? It's the song they sang at the float this year. (And also... thank you to the 2022 Macy's parade for being the catalyst for us going on the cruise in the first place or at least getting the idea in our heads. Because upon reflection, it was right after our trip, we saw the float and said "that could be fun!" Which led to me looking at them as previously stated.) 

The whole thing made me cry and gave me goosebumps. Again, it was cloudy but warm and humid, and felt like Florida! 

When we did the countdown and the horn played the first 7 notes of "When You Wish Upon a Star" I was done for. And then we pulled away from port and we were sailing! 

So The Wish has rotational dining for dinner. You're assigned one of three restaurants each evening and your wait staff travels with you. We were set up for Main Dining at 5:45 daily. So we had just a little bit of time to kill. I waited in line at Guest Services because my Magic Band was a dud. They had to reset it at Epcot. They set it up in the port but once on board, it didn't work. 

The guest services cast member was getting so mad at it too. She seriously went to ask her manager's permission to gift me a new one and that's when it started to connect. And while I am so grateful to her for getting it working, I am glad I didn't need to accept a new one because it wouldn't have been engraved with my name like the dud one and I would have just felt bad. 

I found the kids playing shuffleboard, which really feels like a cruise ship thing to do. 

Our first dinner was at the Worlds of Marvel dinner. We met our servers and had a delicious meal! We aren't big Marvel movie watchers but they recommended Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp to watch beforehand to know what was going on at the dinner show. So we did and not only did we enjoy those movies quite well but it did make the dinner more fun! 

At the end of the meal, Spider-Man even came around quick! 

Every evening there were a million entertainment options including a live show. M just wanted to go to the kid's club. So we dropped her off and she was happy! 

This was the only night where the sea bugged me a little. I am not positive if it was the sea or just that I was really really tired and on fumes but my head was tingly. I did end up taking a Dramamine before the Seas the Adventure show. I don't think it did anything, so I am pretty sure I was just tired. It was however the only Dramamine taken on the ship by anyone. No one had ANY problems at all. Admittedly, the bulk of our time we were at ports but still, no sea sickness at all!

Seas the Adventure was fine. Some technical difficulties stopped the show for a few minutes and a bunch of people left which was too bad. We stayed. 

After it was over, I sent Husband to Nightingales, one of the adult-only lounges to listen to some music that was his genre of choice. I picked up M and we sat in the grand lobby for the Wish goodnight. They did this every night at 10, 11 and 12 but we only experienced it this once. 

Basically, the clock strikes 10 and the whole ceiling and chandelier put on a light show to music and everyone says goodnight. It's very cool. All in all, it was a pretty darn good snow day for the kids!

After that though, we headed back to our stateroom, got into pajamas, and went to sleep. Our house is very small, so we didn't think anything of our inside stateroom. Furthermore, 3/4 of us sleep with eye masks on to block out light so not having a window was not a problem. 

The towel/blanket creations were always a highlight for us! 

Jumping ahead here... I slept like I was dead. I know I was exhausted but I truly slept so well. And it was so delightful. There are many reviews about the Disney Cruise Line Mattresses... they're all true. And the gentle rocking of the boat in the total darkness... it was almost like being back in the womb. Such a good sleep! 

By the time we all woke up, we were docked in Nassau!