Cape Canaveral/Disney Cruise/WDW Trip

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Around 1:30 pm, we got our state room. We receive a free gift for being returning cruisers.

And as expected, they still have H2O spa toiletries!

We are now at the DVC welcome reception. They serve champagne, mimosa, and apple cider. I took the champagne, of course. It was a lot of fun with games and gifts.

Soon, it is time to depart Port Canaveral. Freedom of the Seas left ahead of us.

Just after departure, we had our first assigned dining at the Enchanted Garden restaurant. These were what I ordered.

It was a terrific first day on the Disney Dream. That will be all I will report till after the cruise ends. My next transmission will be from the Most Magical Place on Earth.

Zz

Greetings from port Canaveral. We just fly off the ship and heading to pick up our rental. It was a fabulous cruise. More later when we reach SSR.

Zz.

We are at DD standing in line to get a new pin released today.

Zz.

We are chilling out in the lounge area of SSR. Our room isn't ready yet.

After DD, we went to Epoct for a bite to eat and to look at the pins there. We then came back to SSR and decided that we just need to relax a bit and wait for our room .... And surf the web that we haven't been on in 5 days.

We plan on going to the Studios tonight for the Osborne lights.

Zz.

Continuing with the cruise trip report, we visited Nassau on our first day. We had a rough evening at sea prior to reaching Nassau. In fact, they closed the top front deck of the ship due to extreme high winds.

I caught this small boat from Nassau's harbor master, I presumed, about to pull alongside the Dream so that he could board the ship. The boat was tossed around the rough water quite a bit. I would have lost my breakfast if I were on that boat.

The Dream pulled in between two other cruise ship that were already there.

Once we got off, we had to snap a photo of the ship's rear end.

We spent a few minutes in the port terminal to use their free wifi (that was how I posted my earlier update), and then walked around the waterfront area of Nassau.

We got back to the ship at lunchtime and had a nice view of the Atlantis resort.

This is late afternoon and cruise passengers were streaming back to the ship.

We had perfect weather at Nassau, but it was nice to get back onto the ship.

Zz.

The next day, we arrived at Castaway Cay. The day started off being overcast. Here was Castaway Cay from afar.

The Dream did a 180 degree turn and backed into the dock.

Soon it was time to disembark the ship. Donald was there right on the dock to welcome us. After all, he was the Admiral of the Dream!

Oh, goofy was there as well, in his jogging outfit.

All the holiday decorations are out at Castaway Cay.

Donald was certainly vary happy to be there.

Soon we made our way to the beaches.

Not sure if you are aware of the story of Castaway Cay, but here it is.

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Speaking of the beaches, here are a few shot of them.

After lunch, we rented bikes and rode along the bike trail.

Here we are at the observation tower.

A secluded beach along the trail.

A calming bike path.

The air strip, which also connects the general beaches with the adults-only Serenity Bay.

Warming sign along the air strip.

And lo and behold, an abandoned airplane!

Soon, it was time to make our way back to the ship. We had an amazing time relaxing and exploring the island.

Goodbye, Castaway Cay!

Zz.

The evening of the same day that we visited Castaway Cay was our fabulous dinner at Palo. Here are a few pictures of what we had.

I ordered the shrimp appetizer.

Another appetizer that was very good was the calamari. It had to be THE tenderest calamari that we've ever had!

Can't remember what this was. Probably veal.

There was also a seared tuna.

A beef tenderloin.

But what I had trumped everything else, in my opinion. It was thickly cut lamb chops to destroy all lamb chops, cooked medium rare. It had ZERO fault! The only bad thing was that I couldn't grab the chops with both hands and just gnaw at them till all the meat was gone.

Of course, for dessert, we all did the chocolate souffle. How could you not when it was THAT good? At that point, I couldn't care less if we hit an iceberg and sank.

Zz.

We are at MVMCP this evening. It is quite busy. We are sitting down in Liberty Square waiting for the first parade.

Zz.

We spent our first evening at WDW at the Osborne Lights. Here are some shots from it.

Today is our last full day here. We plan to spend the afternoon and evening at Epcot.

Zz.

We are now sitting down in front of the Germany pavilion waiting for Illuminations, which will start at 9:30 pm tonight.

I'm a bit disappointed though. The buildings around World Showcase are bathed in their normal lighting. I remember from previous years that the buildings had different lighting during the holidays. In fact, there were colored lights outlining the buildings. I'll find those when I get back and look at my photo library. What I see tonight is no different from the ordinary night at WS, other than the holiday decorations.

At least the weather appears to be perfect for the show.

Zz.

A short report from our activities yesterday.

We started out the morning at Epcot. Did the new test track.

I will say that I don't like it as much as the old one. I don't have any nostalgic attachment to the old ride, but this one has less "real" test and more light show than anything else. It relies too much on virtual technology and not enough thrills, unlike the old attraction.

Later in the day, we hopped on over to MK. Did a bunch of attractions including the Little Mermaid attraction. It was OK and I didn't find it any different than the Nemo attraction at The Seas. The theming, especially the queue line, was quite fascinating. I'd be curious to see what happen if it rain since a large part of the queue line is outdoors. I suppose that no different than the queue lines at many of the other attractions.

We then did Dumbo.

We went into the Circus store and found this whole counter filled with sweet temptations.

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This the chrismastime parade during MVMCP.

We then staked out our favorite spot for Holiday Wishes.

It was wonderful, as expected. Video to come later.

Zz.

We pack our bags this morning to return home. Of course, that's easier said than done. We have stuff not just from the parks, but also from the cruise. We will definitely be using the duffle bags that we brought with us as extra checked-in luggage.

The whole week went by way too quickly, which is always the case when one is having fun. The cruise was quite memorable and we learned more about The Disney Dream. The few days we spent at the parks were just jam-packed with activities. I'm now tired and need a vacation to recover from this vacation.

We will be spending our last day at the Studios before leaving for the airport mid-afternoon. Hopefully our flight doesn't get affected by the rainy weather back in Chicago forecasted for today.

I definitely have a lot more to report on, and there will be photos and videos to follow after I get back and recover a bit.

Zz.

Greeting from MCO. We got to the airport in plenty of time. We spent the morning and early afternoon at DHS. Did Star Tours twice, ToT, and Great Movie Ride. We also had lunch at Sci-Fi dine in theater.

We will be flying into cold and wet Chicago. Not looking forward to it.

I'll post our final night at Epcot in the next post.

Zz.

We staked our place for viewing Illuminations very early in front of Germany. There's something missing with the holiday lighting around World Showcase, and I'll write more about this later when I have pictorial evidence.

These are pictures around our sitting area.

Illuminations started at 9:30 pm.

This is the start of the holiday tag to Illuminations.

It was spectacular as always.

On our way out, there was a holiday greeting at the monorail station.

I will post the complete video of the show later.

Zz.

Greetings!

I'm back in cold, dreary Chicagoland. Had a difficult time getting out of bed this morning, but glad to be home. I'm off to work too this morning.

Will post a few more stuff about this trip. Last count, I took close to 1500 photos! We also brought back quite a loot, especially pins (of course)!

Zz.