Disney Cruise - Part 2: Ports of Call

When I first saw the cruise itinerary I thought wow! two at sea days before getting to a port. Well finding something to do those two at sea days was certainly not a problem.

There were 3 ports of call during our cruise. Jamie booked an excursion at each one. Our choices were limited since we had such young kids. The one thing about scheduling excursions through Disney is you're on the tour operator's schedule. It basically takes a good chunk of time being herded on and off the ship. It definitely lessens your time at the port.

St Maarten

Our excursion time was set for the morning. We got onto a bus and driven to a semi-submerged boat. The first part of the boat ride you're sitting on the top deck and then when we reach the reef we go down below where there were seats and porthole windows. It reminded me of the Finding Nemo submarine ride at Disneyland. We saw different kinds of fish and even a sea turtle. A little bit into the tour a diver goes in the water and attracts fish by feeding them. After the tour we were dropped off in the boardwalk area where there were shops and restaurants. On one of the TV channels there was a presentation on all the different shops you can visit while in St Maarten. There was a store named Cariloha**  that specializes in bamboo clothing and linens. It was touted as softer than cotton and equivalent to 1000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets. I had to check it out and we easily found the store. Jamie loved the feel of the shirts and went on a buying spree. We also got a sheet set and towel set that were shipped home for free. We asked for a recommendation for a place to eat and headed there. Two seconds after we stepped into the restaurant there was a downpour. We had some jerk style chicken and BBQ wings. SPICY! Lucas devoured a grilled snapper (love that about him!) while Caleb had a cheeseburger *sigh*. By this time the boys were really tired and it was hot and humid. I decided to take them back to the ship for a nap while Jamie toured the island. We took a water taxi back to the ship and somehow Caleb skinned his knee falling off the incredibly high seat. He turned into a 12 month old and I was forced to carry my 5 year old 35 pound kid because he was bleeding a tiny bit. At the same time I had to make sure my 3 year old didn't fall into the Caribbean Sea while walking from water taxi to the ship along the dock. Good times... At least they both took a long nap.

** Now that we're home I went to look at the Cariloha website and found out there's a store at Pier 39 in San Francisco! HA!

St Thomas

On this port we had another semi-submerged boat ride to see coral reefs and fish. The excursion time was  late morning so we hung out on the ship. This was the morning that I got to ride on the AquaDuck waterslide. Most people were off the ship and even the pools were empty. The tour was meant to be a boat ride and then a chance to wander through the aquarium. At this port we had to return to the ship by pretty early at 3:45pm and the tour was supposed to last until 3:30pm. We decided to cut our tour in half by just going on the boat ride and taking a taxi back to the ship. There wasn't much else the boys and I wanted to do. Jamie ventured alone again to tour St Thomas and visit Blackbeard's castle. I think I reminded him (and annoyed the heck out of him) what time he was supposed to be back on the ship. The captain waits for no one!

Blackbeard

I enjoyed the boat tour on St Thomas more than St Maarten. That being said, if I had a do-over I would've only chosen to go on the boat tour on St Maarten and done something completely different on St Thomas. I don't know what it would've been since the boys were too young to do anything else so it could've just been hanging out on the beach. Or maybe we could've left the kids in the Oceaneer Club and Jamie and I could tour the island and see the sights. A big drawback of doing an excursion through Disney was I don't think you had any control as to what time your excursion was. I think you just sign up and groups are created and given times. So with our excursion on St Thomas being at 11:15 we didn't have time to go off the ship at 9:00am do some sightseeing and return to the ship by 11:15 for our tour. We made a good decision to enjoy the half empty ship that morning but it was at the expense of doing nothing else on St Thomas.

Castaway Cay

So the morning that we were to arrive on Castaway Cay (Disney's private island in the Bahamas), Jamie woke up and said we're at the Atlantis in Nassau Bahamas. What? I looked out on our verandah and could clearly see the Atlantis hotel. Turns out there was a medical emergency the previous night and the captain made a detour to Nassau in order to drop the "patient off to receive the required medical attention". We never found out if it was a guest or crew member. One crew member mentioned that if we were too far at sea a helicopter would've been sent but since we were close enough we went into a port instead. While there we saw the Disney Dream cruise ship arrive. The patient was dropped off and we were back on our way around 9:30am and didn't arrive to Castaway Cay until after 1pm. So instead of having a whole day at Disney's private island we had about 4 hours. Because of the change in itinerary our glass bottom boat excursion was cancelled. We also cancelled our adult only beach cabana but got a last minute call from the concierge asking if we wanted to take a family cabana at a discounted price. There are only 17 family beach cabanas and they get snatched up pretty quickly. I guess someone cancelled at the last minute so we were elated. The family beach cabana was awesome. It was more secluded and perfect for people who want to sit on a beach to relax but be covered. The beach was soft fine sand. Immediately upon getting there we went in the water. It was colder than I expected but we got used to it quickly. The boys floated on rafts and swam. The best part of the water was no strong waves. It's such a relief to know that the boys aren't going to get swept into the sea. They also collected a lot of sea shells. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take them onto the ship. The cabana was stocked with snacks and drinks in a refrigerator. We were a short distance from one of the restaurants where we picked up sandwiches, cookies, and of course they had another self serve ice cream cone station. There was a post office on Castaway Cay and I wanted to send ourselves a postcard but unfortunately I did not have any cash on me for the postage. The postman was nice enough to stamp my postcard with the Castaway Cay postmark.  It was a bummer our stay there was cut in half but in the grand scheme of things I'll take a detour for a medical reason over no electricity and backed up toilets.

Cabana 8

playing in the water

View from cabana of beach and ship

Looking for sea shells

Our cabana

The day is not complete without an ice cream cone

This was by far the best family vacation we took. I think what made it so great was that we spent quality time as a family, a couple, and me time which included going to the gym TWICE! And when we looked around at all the passengers it wasn't just families with little kids. We saw several tweens and teenagers having fun too. In the end we embraced all things Disney and being on a cruise. We definitely want to go again. We'll just have to wait until Lucas is tall enough to go on everything.

Tip from MouseSavers.com - I put Jamie's birthday shirt and Sharpies in a ziploc bag and gave it to the Concierge. They filled out a form and I chose Mickey and Friend signatures. It was returned the last night of the cruise. Totally inexpensive and unique souvenir.