Under the Sea

Morning!

Well the cruise has been and gone, I got a tan – I swear it’s a first; usually I just burn and go back to white: Thank you Bahamas. I won’t go into a lot of detail about the cruise; otherwise we would be here for days. I worked Sunday and Monday (6^th & 7^th) then had Tuesday off to amuse myself and pack then wait some more for the text message from Lauren saying she’s landed. Alex was a sweetheart and drove me to the Port Orleans Riverside Resort, and Myndi came along for the drive to say hello to Lauren. Thankfully I got a lift as it began to pour down with rain when it was time for me to catch the bus, so again – thank you Alex! We arrived, the girls said their final goodbyes to Lauren and we got our room number and key. Lauren and I stayed in one of the Royal Rooms, which was something we had wanted to do for months, I’m glad we finally got to. It was gorgeous and I loved looking around the room finding the ‘gifts’ left behind from the other Disney princesses for Princess Tiana.

One of the beds in the Royal Room, the bedhead lights up and makes fireworks!

One of the gifts, from Beauty and the Beast

We were up early the next morning as our bags were being collected at 8am, so we disappeared and got breakfast and took a few photos around the resort. Our coach to take us to Port Canaveral wasn’t until 11:15am. Thankfully time went quickly and we were on our way. Our boarding time for our cruise wasn’t until 2pm, but as soon as we go to the terminal, checked in, we were able to board straight away, which was nice. As we entered the ship, one of the crew members announced our names, a tad embarrassing, but fun as well. 6604 was our room number (yay for even number), which meant: we had been upgraded! We had paid for an oceanview room, so that would have been levels 2-3 I believe. But when we got to our room and saw that we had a veranda we were a little excited, I ended up being very grateful for the veranda later that night as I got a little seasick, the aircon didn’t help with my headache and dizzy head, so we opened the door for some fresh air, it immediately helped.

Disney Magic - taken from Castaway Cay

Lauren and I in the terminal, just before we enter the ship

Our dinner time every night was 8:15pm, we chose the second seating to avoid majority of the children. At 6:15pm there was the first Disney show for the cruise – All Aboard! It was just a little introduction show to what we had in store for the future nights. Our first night, we were at Parrot Cay, a colourful restaurant. Thursday we arrived in Key West at about 12pm, but had to be back on the ship by 7pm, we wanted to see the Broadway-style show for that night: Villains Tonight, so we had to be back on earlier to shower and see the show at 6:15pm. We first went into the market area where I bought my first tumbler, Lauren persuaded me to buy one, even if she didn’t realise it! We then walked down the shopping street, ate lunch, then decided to go back near the ship to the beach everyone was recommending and had apparently ‘white sand’. It was $2.50 to go to that beach, I’m not used to paying to visit beaches, and it was certainly not white sand. White rocks would have been more accurate. Honestly I was a little disappointed, I think I assumed I’d be going to a beach similar to home. We swam for a while then it was time to head back.

Key West

The so-called best beach with white sand - Key West

That night dinner was at Lumiere’s, the French restaurant where I tried snails for the first time – yes I liked them. Villains Tonight was a great show with my favourite villain – Hades! – as the main character. The next day was the day at sea, which I can hardly remember. We wandered the ship, went to the pool, ate ice cream, relaxed on the top deck – a whole bunch of nothing, which was fine by me. There was a theme for dinner that night – dress up and yes, people actually wore ball gowns. We ate at Animator’s Palate, where there were sketches along the walls and throughout the night they get colour. It was very pretty. The show that night was Cinderella: A Twist In Time, another great show. Saturday we finally made it to Nassau where I finally did some shopping. I got myself some pearl earrings, necklace and bracelet; I was satisfied with my purchases. Since it was $36 to visit the beach in Nassau, we went back on the ship and enjoyed a very quite pool, then sat on deck 10 (top deck) for a while where I managed to burn my legs, they were very red. Sunday brought along Mother’s Day and our day at Castaway Cay – Disney’s private island. It was gorgeous, ironically enough, my favourite place we went to. There was sand! And the water was so clear it was amazing. Lauren and I got our snorkelling stuff and I attempted to snorkel. Convinced the fish were after me, we didn’t spend that much time looking at them. Afterwards we headed to the 18+ beach where there were no kids, it was very peaceful and we spent most of the day there. On the way back to the ship I managed to find a mother’s day present for mum, she’ll have to wait until August to receive it, but I got her one nonetheless!

Lighthouse at Nassau

Finally met Captain Jack Sparrow!

Castaway Cay 18+ Beach

Me and my smoothie in a coconut shaped cup - Castaway Cay

Monday we were kicked off the ship bright and early, I then had to say my final goodbye to Lauren, then headed back to the apartments.

Since my cruise it’s been work work work. It’s all you really do here, your days off consist of nothing unless you have the effort and money to go to theme parks or shop. Which seeing as I just get the minimum 32 hours a week, I have hardly any $$. I have just under 11 weeks until I go home! I’m looking forward to seeing my family again. My brother comes in 7 weeks and I only really have June left as a full month of working since July is when Ben’s here. We also got our emails about changing roles, I replied requesting to stay in my current role. No reply as of yet though.