Nassau, brides, pirates and fireworks

Today was Nassau day again. When we woke up we were still out at sea, but the Captain Henry had told us the day before that we would only arrive at Nassau around midday. Around 8am we were ready to leave our stateroom and we walked down to the Atrium to have breakfast at the Royal Palace. We signed in and were led to a table and handed the menu. It didn't take long and our server introduced himself and took our drinks orders, Coffee for Tom and Hot Tea for me.

They have really nice tea at the table service locations and I really enjoyed it. Once we had placed our orders another server came by offering pastries, and Tom got a Chocolate croissant. When the drinks were served we ordered our food. Tom ordered the Swiss Bircher Muesli, Muesli with raisins, shredded apples and yogurt, again. He had enjoyed it the last time and was really looking forward to it. And there was something I wanted to try ever since I had read about it in a friend's trip report, the Mornin' Tug Boat, a fresh blend of strawberries, bananas, almonds, raisin granola and low-fat yogurt. It was as delicious as it had sounded and I really enjoyed it.

For our hot plates Tom ordered the The Big Breakfast, a large filled omelet on savory toast with grilled tomatoes, bacon and baked beans topped with caramelized onions again and I went for my other favourite, the Traditional Eggs Benedict, Toasted English muffin with grilled Canadian bacon, served with poached egg topped with hollandaise sauce, grilled roma tomatoes and link sausages. We really enjoyed the breakfast and took our time finishing it, then tipped the server and off we went. We wanted to join one of the ship's tours and were right on time. Lots of fun information to be heard and a very nice Cast Member, who really enjoyed what she was doing. Our next stop were the on board shops. While browsing we saw a nice Mickey and Minnie Wedding figurine and we had an idea.

We asked the Cast Member at the till if they would deliver the gift to a stateroom and he agreed. We were not quite sure of the number, so we hurried up to Deck 7 and found their stateroom and wrote down the number. Back we went to the shop and bought the figurine and a card and the Cast Member promised to have it wrapped up nicely and sent upstairs to Michelle and Jon's stateroom before noon. They were to be married around noon, so we knew they would at least find it after they had got married. We went back to our stateroom and picked up our next round of Fish Extender gifts to deliver and started our exercise walk all over the Disney DREAM, handing out the gifts.

You could see from the ship that the storm had done quite a bit of damage to some of the houses and the straw market was destroyed. There were lots of closed shops, but we already knew what we wanted. We needed some drinks, some rum cake and some rum. So we headed over to the Bacardi store, but it was closed because of the storm, then we headed to the grocery store and they were open, so we stocked up on drinks, bought one or two things to try out and picked up some chocolate for Ana. Then we headed over to the Tortuga Rum Company and picked up a few small bottles of rum for Tom to try and a few rum cakes. Once we were done shopping we headed back to the ship, as we had an appointment for the afternoon.

Back on board we stowed all our shopping in our stateroom, looked for our stateroom host and handed him a rum cake as he had not been able to get into Nassau because of a drill. Soon enough it was time for our appointment, the Champagne tasting at Pink, one of the bars on the Disney DREAM. When we arrived there were already quite a few people there, but we still found a nice spot to sit and they had already set the tables. About 10 minutes after we had arrived the tasting started and we were served several different kinds of sparkling wine and champagne. We learned a lot about how they are made and how to tell if one is a better quality one than the other.

In the end we were served a Champagne Cocktail, which was really very nice. All the time while the tasting went on Tom and I thought that the Cast Member doing the presentation looked very familiar. Towards the end George, the CM, explained how he had worked and learned a lot on the Disney Wonder and then it dawned on us. George had been one of the sommeliers on the Disney WONDER, who we had met during a wine tasting. George walked from table to table to interact with the guests and when it was our turn we asked if it was possible we had known him from the Wonder. It was and we had a fun time chatting away.

Once the tasting was officially over we were in high “spirits”, but we were hungry too, so we went up to the Tow Mater Grill, and got a Cheeseburger and Fries and a Hot Dog. There is a condiments bar and Tom topped them both up and we enjoyed our quick snack. And then there was just enough time to pop down to our stateroom and freshen up a bit before we had to head to the ice-cream social. We arrived at the soft serve ice-cream station and we tried a cone but it was too dang hot and the ice-cream melted all over my hand. While I was still trying to clean myself up, the only other DISboard member who joined us, Leslie and her mother introduced themselves.

We found a nice table where we sat down and chatted for quite a while. And right while we were sitting there and having fun, the newlyweds Michelle and Jon and went by. We had to call them and congratulate and hug them before they went off to see the rest of their family after a visit to the spa. About half an hour later we ended our ice-cream social and Tom and I went back to our stateroom, where we found even more Fish Extender gifts and it was time for us to go and deliver some more gifts as well. We took our time and when we finally got back to our stateroom we find another towel animal in our room, this time it was a beautiful swan.

It was time for another rest and we watched a little TV, checking the ship's channel for information if we were to make it to Castaway Cay the next day. When it was time to leave Nassau again we walked up to Deck 13 and enjoyed seeing the DREAM leaving.

And while we were up on deck we heard the news we didn't want to hear. Because of the storm the day at Castaway Cay was cancelled and we would return to Nassau again the next day. Well, not the news we wanted to hear but we still had another cruise and another visit to Castaway Cay to look forward to. The sun was going down and we watched the sunset before we went back to our stateroom for another little rest and getting ready for dinner. Shortly before the doors to the Enchanted Garden restaurant opened we got in line and were led to our table. Ana and Sapto came over to greet us and Ana brought our Diet Cokes without us even asking for them.

Then she brought us some Multi Grain Loaf and Country Current Bread with Chickpea-garlic Puree. We placed our order and just a short time later the starter was served. Tom had ordered the Thyme and Garlic Brioche, filled with chanterelle, hedgehog and black trumpet mushrooms and leek stew in a light buttermilk cream, while I had wanted to try the Cream of Asparagus soup, served with Asparagus tips. We both enjoyed our starters and once the plates were cleared we were served our main courses, Tom had Prime Rib with Thyme roasted vegetables and a double-baked potato, while I went with the Baked Salmon, which came with a Baked Potato and a medley of vegetables. We were really full already, but our servers did not let us leave without having dessert.

I had the Esterhazy Cake, Almond meringue soaked in maraschino liqueur and layered pastry cream and Tom ordered the "Sacher" Chocolate Torte with apricot sauce. Both are originally from the Austrian-Hungarian region but the ones served on the DREAM had not much to do with them. While we still enjoyed our dessert, Sapto brought us a plate of sweets, cubes of Fudge and Papaya jelly. When we had finished our dinner we said our goodbyes to Ana and Sapto, left them some rumcake we had bought in the morning and headed back to our stateroom. We still had a little time to sit out on our veranda before we made our way up to Deck 12 to see the fireworks. It was pretty crowded but we still found a nice spot to watch the fireworks.

We got one and took it back to our stateroom where we ate it a little later, while watching a little TV. It had been another fun filled but long day and around midnight we both fell into bed and we were out like a light.