Disney Dream - 3 night cruise

This weekend, we went on a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas on the Disney Dream. It was our third Disney cruise, and although we knew what to expect this time, it was still very fun.

The kids were good in the drive down. We got them new movies to watch on their iPads for the drive.

Connor helped quite a bit carrying things from the car and Paige looked super cute with her teddy bear backpack.

The check-in process was pretty quick and before long we were on the boat!

After we checked out the boat and did some walking around, we got dressed for dinner.

Since we signed up so late for the cruise (Andrea booked it last week), only the late seating for dining was available. Thankfully they were able to switch us to earlier seating and we were also fortunate that they got us great tables that were only set up for our family. Originally, they thought that they may have to seat us with other guests.

After playing outside all day, we got changed for dinner and the kids played on their iPads for a few minutes in the room.

Paige was very excited for her macaroni for dinner.

Paige loved eating strawberry ice cream for dessert.

Connor loved the Mickey bars.

I told the kids to sit in the chair so I could take their pic. Paige just grabbed big brother and posed so cute with him. She doesn't need any posing lessons!

Connor picked out a Stitch stuffed animal from the gift shop. He is always very excited to add to his ridiculously large collection of stuffed animals.

Paige took a while picking out a dress. She was very tempted to get a Minnie Mouse dress, especially since it came with a super pretty tall hat. We tried it on while we were shopping and she struck a princess pose for me.

After shopping we stood in line to take a picture with Mickey Mouse. We chatted with one of the workers that was managing Mickey's line. We discussed that we'd been on other Disney Cruises and asked her about the princess gathering and which princesses would be present. She went through the list of princesses on the boat and mentioned that this was the only boat that had Snow White on it. We discussed when Anna and Elsa would be on the cruise boats, and she said that they were only on one boat that was in Europe only right now. As we wrapped up our conversation, she asked the kids their names.

After pictures with Mickey Mouse we did some dancing at the family dance party.

Instead of going to the show that night (we'd already seen the Golden Mickey's show twice) we did a mystery adventure to find the lost puppies. We only had time to solve one mystery on this cruise. It really seemed hard to fit everything in that we wanted to do with the short timeframe.

On Friday, we stayed on the boat rather then get off at Nassau Bahamas. There never seems to be much to do at that port, and we thought it'd be a good day to play on the boat while it wasn't so busy.

When we got to Snow White, we were very surprised when she greeted Connor and Paige by name. She said that she remembered them from the last time we were on the Disney Dream. She was very sweet and talked with them for a while before they all posed for pictures.

It took us a little while to connect the dots in our brains, but eventually we realized that Snow White had been the girl that chatted with us in the Mickey Mouse line. Andrea and I were very impressed that she remembered the kids' names. 

After all the pics and breakfast were done with, we found some chairs on the deck, and then the kids wanted to do some mini-golfing. Connor was very patient with Paige, and she took quite a bit of time to get through each hole.

I asked Connor to take a picture of me, and he did a pretty good job!

After mini-golfing, Paige hung out with mommy and did some swimming while Connor and I waited in line for the Aquaduck.

The Aquaduck was fun, but the line took way too long. It turned out that quite a few people had the same idea as us and stayed on the boat.

I don't know how Andrea managed to spot us when we went, but she managed to get a video of us the entire way around the ride!

After playing outside all day, we got dressed for pirate night. Connor showed off his vicious gap toothed pirate snarl!

Paige decided to pretend to be a ghost.

For dinner, we ate in the Animator's Palate. I only had a couple bowls of soup since my throat was super sore and I wasn't feeling so good. Connor and Paige were very good at the dinners, and they took quite a while to get through.

After dinner, we snapped a few more pictures with some of the characters and then the kids asked to go to the Oceaneer's Club. Connor had made a few friends, and Paige was really enjoying herself there too.

Andrea and I decided we'd go watch the pirate party and hang out by ourselves for a bit. I wasn't feeling very good and we ended up going to bed a bit early.

The next morning I felt even worse and went to the Health Clinic that was on the boat. It was nice that it was available, but definitely not how I was hoping to spend my vacation. The nurses were thoughtful and brought some frozen Popsicles for the kids to snack on while they waited for me.

The doctor diagnosed it as Acute Pharyngitis and did say that it was probably contagious. Andrea decided to leave and take the kids ashore to Castaway Cay. The doctor gave me some Amoxicillin, Acetaminophen, and Benadryl. My throat was hurting so badly that I wasn't sure how I was going to choke down the medicine. I had to eat with it, so got some oatmeal and then some water for the pills. The fact that I'd slept horribly, plus the fact that the Benadryl makes you drowsy, meant that I was very sleepy. I was kind of cold and didn't want to go back to the room, so I fell asleep on some of the chairs up on the adult area by the pool. It was actually very comfortable and I slept up there for about three hours.

Meanwhile, Andrea took the kids ashore so they could enjoy the day.

They played for a long time at the beach, and Connor played football with some of the friends that he'd met at the Oceaneer's club. Paige mostly dug in the sand like she likes to do. They had some BBQ for lunch and were thrilled that there was strawberry icecream in the icecream machines.

Yum!

It ended up raining the second part of the day, so they weren't able to stay ashore too long. That night, the kids went to the club to hang out with their friends. Andrea and I got room service and then I went to sleep. Andrea collected the kids from the club, then they had one last ice-cream cone and watched "Princess and the Frog" on the big movie screen by the pool.

In the morning, I was feeling very slightly better. We packed up our things and then it was time to go! The drive home was pretty quick and we're all done with another fun cruise.

All in all, it was a good time and I'm glad we went. I'm very appreciative of Andrea for always finding fun things for our family to do together. She is always researching fun trips and without her, our life would be so much more dull. It was a wet drizzly weekend at home, so was a great weekend to go do something fun.

I'm disappointed I got sick and couldn't play at my favorite port of call, but we have been very lucky on all our trips to this point that we've never gotten sick. At least I got sick on the last day instead of the first, and at least it wasn't too serious.