Trip Report ***BOOM, DONE***No, Its not Déjà vu. It’s just that time of year again…the 20th surf ’n turf part deux. And we’re live now!

You were with us for the 16th, 17th, the epic bungalow 18th, the 19th, and the 20/40 so why not...do it again.

I went back and forth on covering this one, TR fatigue has been biting me in the butt lately. I figured, though, that with the amount of new things we are considering for this trip it may be worthwhile to give it another go. With that, lets get the formalities out of the way for the newbs:

Who: @imahistorygeek and myself

What: Surf 'n turfing a 4-night Disney Dream
When: Oct. 20 -27
Where: AKL, Dream, AKL
Why: Well, going to the bubble in the Fall for our anniversary has kinda grown on us. We will be at sea for our actual 20th!

As I alluded to we had some decisions to make for this trip like:
Drive or Fly
Palo or Remy
MNSSHP or Jiko
Get off at Nassau or Stay on the boat?
Homecomin' or Homecomin'

Watching The Muppets Movie now as I write this... can you really watch this without singing!?!? A filet of fish, hey!

Mas details to follow, like how many have signed up for the beer exchange!

 

[lostpro9het]

DISCLAIMER:
Going forward you will probably notice far less “food pics”, heck pics in general. With this being our 7th boat ride, and most all documented here, I wont inundate you with the same old pics that I have posted multiple times in the past. Additionally, I’ll do my best to not include pics I already did in the live portion but will probably end up double dipping a few.

Disney Dream day 1:
So we arrived at port around noon and were quickly off the bus, through security, and being introduced as The McGillicuttys.


We hit the lobby and made for Cabanas to grab some lunch to enjoy in the adult pool area. I grabbed a powder monkey from the bar and we enjoyed the pool for about an hour or so.

We arrived later than we normally do and the boat was abuzz with activity but not as busy as it could be. There was a feeling this trip that the ship was under sold which made for some nice low crowds. Soon it was closing in on 2:00 and our room was ready so we made for the aft to check out 7194(room pics here)

Our luggage was not at our room yet so we only stayed a minute. The DVC M&G was about to go down on deck four so we made our way there to enjoy some free drinks, bottled water, and a chance at some on board credit. I stayed for a bit, said hello to #tonyfromspain, but had some more important things to deal with! I hit the lobby around 3:00 and there was already one beer exchange member waiting on me! We tossed our beers on the table and waited as others started trickling in. In total we had 16 participants including folks from Oregon, Brazil, Australia, Virginia, New York, and Florida. Here was my pull:

From left to right you have
Eisenbahn, a Pilsner from Brazil
Dawn of the Red, a Red IPA from Oregon
Galactopus, a Barleywine from Australia
Notch 9, a Double IPA from Virginia
High Stepper, an IPA from Forida
Alpenflo, a Lager from New York

I'll talk more about these when I get to them in the report.

After the exchange we went back to the room to see if our luggage was there. It was! We set some clothes out to be pressed for Remy and I grabbed some rum to make Castaway Cocktail. We had to get to our mustering station for emergency training. Thankfully our station was inside Evolution so we we didn't bake outside while they went through the drills. After our safety drills we made for the adult pool area again during the sail away party. I enjoyed some CC while the DW had a drink of the day which we forgot to get a picture of!

Spent a few more hours at the pool when we decided to checkout the shops and head back to the room to clean up before dinner.

 

[Captain Barbossa]

WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!

 

[MinnieM123]

@lostpro9het and @imahistorygeek , figure you're singing the theme song this morning! Congrats to the Red Sox.

 

[lostpro9het]

WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!

@lostpro9het and @imahistorygeek , figure you're singing the theme song this morning! Congrats to the Red Sox.

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[imahistorygeek]

@lostpro9het and @imahistorygeek , figure you're singing the theme song this morning! Congrats to the Red Sox.

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Let's just say this is me and sports:

 

[RyPat]

We had 100% participation! This pic is before 4 folks arrived late so imagine this pile with 24 more beer on top of it!
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I had a good pull including some beer from brazil, Tennessee, and a 10%er from Australia!
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i eagerly await the Untappd reviews....

 

[MinnieM123]

Let's just say this is me and sports:

Ha ha ha!!! That's me, too! It's just that it was on the daily, local news each day for the past few weeks, and it was impossible to avoid any news about the series.

 

[lostpro9het]

So after a few hours at the pool we made for the room to clean up for dinner. Our Stateroom host had taken off our dry cleaning for us and prepped our room. We changed and made for Royal Palace as that was tonight’s restaurant in our rotation. We arrived about 5 minutes before our dining time and were the first of our table party to arrive. We were at a table to be shared with two other couples. We were introduced to our service team for the cruise Steeven, yes two e’s, was our server and Dujoun the assistant server. We had actually had Dujoun a few cruises ago and it was nice to see a familiar face. We were quickly greeted with water, menus and bread. The other two couples had not arrived yet and Steeven was trying to hold out on them before taking our order. Soon another couple arrived, we’ll call them Team Raleigh. TR was on their first Disney cruise but had cruised many times on many other liners so it was interesting to pick their brain to see what they thought of other lines and DCL. Steeven finally conceded that couple #3 would not be coming tonight and took our orders. Again, since we’ve done RP so many times I will not bore you with the food picks that you’ve seen over and over. DW went with the fried brie as an app and filet as a main. I had the confit as an app and the duck as a main, yes I double dipped the duck but its soooo good. Soufflé for dessert for me and nothing for the DW. During dinner we soon learned that Steeven was skilled! He kept our table and the table next to us entertained with some brain teasers with crayons and some magic tricks. The kids at the next table over especially benefited from his skill set. It was closing in on 10:00 and there was some adult entertainment scheduled in Evolution tonight so we said our goodbyes to TR and made for the District. Tonight’s game was Snipits. Basically they play short clips of various movies and music and the contestants have to be the first to buzz in and guess. #tonyfromspain was on point as usual and the night was fun. They had Silent Disco after the game but to be honest we had been up Since around 7:00 after going to bed around 1:30 the night before so we were ready for some sleep. Upon returning to our room we learned that for as weak as Tri was with towel creations on our last cruise out stateroom host Kavin was not!

If we haven’t stressed it enough in the past, the beds on DCL are @#$%! AMAZING! They infinitely better than any bed we’ve slept on at a deluxe, including the bungalows. We were quickly out and morning came even quicker.

As is our recipe, we placed a room service order(free) for coffee, juice, and some English muffins. We schedule it to be delivered shortly after Cabanas opens. This gives me time to go topside, look around a bit, and hit up Cabanas for the good food.

Our view for breakfast

Up next: Making port at Nassau.

 

[lostpro9het]

After breakfast we decided to throw our bathing suits on and hit the pool for a bit while all the ealrybird debarkation craziness wore off. On the way to the pool we saw this happy family of towelies.

I grabbed a few pics as we were pulling into port. There were already 2 Carnival ships and one Royal Caribbean docked. Another RC ship would be pulling in about an hour. It was going to be a busy day at port for sure!

It was closing in on 10:00 now and we decided it was a good time to go change and debark Nassau for our very first time. As we collected our things the DW noticed and pool water hidden mickey on her chair as we got up.

Up Next: The only reason to get off the boat for Nassau

 

[Zipadeelady]

I got to ask. I know you're dying to tell me. What did Team Raleigh think of DCL compared to others?

 

[imahistorygeek]

I got to ask. I know you're dying to tell me. What did Team Raleigh think of DCL compared to others?

Well, I think they had fun. We didn’t see them at dinner for the rest of the cruise. Let’s just say they’re probably one and done.

They were impressed with the customer service and cleanliness.

 

[lostpro9het]

So we made it back to our room, changed, and grabbed our gear for the Nassau experience. Here is the view of Nassau from our room

The debarkation process is very simple and the walk from the boat to Festival Place, the Nassau checkpoint, is relatively short and you really don’t start getting badgered by the locals until you get close to the checkpoint. Then you walk through the check point and all bets are off! My best advice is just keep waking and avoid eye contact, this got us through the market place in decent time. I did stop long enough to take these pics as I thought it was a great piece and sadly kinda shoved off into a corner folks don’t walk by.

We had one destination in mind and knew the address of the location so made for that point. Sadly when we arrived at the intersection of where our destination was supposed to be we did not see it, oh noes! So we walked up the street further and asked a uniformed official and he gave us some directions…to a pirate museum 5 minutes away and not Pirate Republic Brewery. So we decided to start from scratch and just go back to the main drag and follow it back towards the intersection of where the brewery was supposed to be and wouldn’t you know it, there it was…on the other side of the street!

The signage of the building was very subtle and blended in with everything else so we simply missed it! No matter, I was quickly making friends and knew this was going to be worth it!

Up Next: DaBeer!

I got to ask. I know you're dying to tell me. What did Team Raleigh think of DCL compared to others?

I'll expand on what I think of TR in future posts and why I would take their input on what a good cruise line is with a grain of salt. Yes they did comment on the cleanliness and service but they weren't into that.

 

[LadyBelle]

The debarkation process is very simple and the walk from the boat to Festival Place, the Nassau checkpoint, is relatively short and you really don’t start getting badgered by the locals until you get close to the checkpoint. Then you walk through the check point and all bets are off! My best advice is just keep waking and avoid eye contact, this got us through the market place in decent time.

The one cruise that I go have thus been on, that was the worst part. Had no problem at Grand Carmen, but a terrible time at Cozumel.

Well, I think they had fun. We didn’t see them at dinner for the rest of the cruise. Let’s just say they’re probably one and done.

They were impressed with the customer service and cleanliness.

Raleigh is...Raleigh.

 

[lostpro9het]

We arrived shortly after they opened. With 5 ships docked at port I thought this place was going to be packed but it was not. Apparently Senior Frogs was the place to be and I’ll talk more to that point soon. So we had the pick of the place and made camp at table to ourselves. I grabbed a few pics while we decided how to attack the bar.

We went with 2 flights to try all they had and decide what we would buy a pint of, if anything was worthy. Here is how our flights played out:

Black Beard Stout
Strong coffee notes, carbonated. 3/5

Coconut Porter
Smooth a little butter lite in the coconut 3/5

Gold and Haze of Piracy
Dry slightly sour cat pee aroma 2/5

Island pirate ale
Basic, lite on flavor 2/5

Ekuanot pale
Hoppy almost IPAish 2/5

Not being blown away by anything in the flight I decided to get a glass of a limited release that wasn't available in a flight

Bourbon barrel scotch ale
Lite bourbon slightly sweet but not heavy in the flavor department. ABV on point. 3.75/5


We were feeling pretty good at this point and decided to grab a 6-pack to go and head back to the boat for lunch. They allowed us to mix the togo beer so we could try the two beers we didn’t get in our flights. I’ll talk more to those in a bit. Overall I’d say Pirates Republic is worth revisiting on future visits. While I didn’t give terribly high marks on any of their beers there were a few decent ones. Thing is, though, they cater to the hot weather beers, i.e. ales, pilsners, and Kolsch and I’m more for the heavy porters and stouts but think they are good at making what they make. They also have a decent pub food offering which we may try on a future visit

Up next: Back to the boat and lunch.

 

[lostpro9het]

So after our time at Pirates Republic we made the much shorter walk back to the boat. During our walks through Nassau we decided on the best way to describe this place as a whole. For those familiar with our neighbors to the north, Tennessee, then this should make perfect sense. Nassau is essential a Tropical Gatlinburg. We were happy to return to the ship and relax some more. We grabbed just a few pics along the way.

As I said, we did get a 6-pack to bring on the ship. We got three of each and I’ll talk more about them soon.

We took a walk out on our veranda and noticed the Bermuda flag was flying and the weather was still just beautiful out.

We went topside to Cabanas to grab some lunch and took it to the adult pool area to enjoy before some time in the pool

I decided to try one of my exchanges too with lunch

High stepper
Malty and hoppy almost sweet with nice abv. 3.75/5

Up next: Coffee break, beer, and a Halloween Party

 

[lostpro9het]

So after a few hours of pool time, and a nap by the DW in a lounge chair, we needed a boost to see us through the rest of the day/evening. Where better to get our fix than Cove Café. We dried off and made our way inside to get a few treats. They had a few seasonal themed treats to choose from. Choosing what to get was difficult as it all looked so good.

We ended up with these sweet treats as we didn’t want to ruin our dinner to much ;-)

We each went with a specialty drink. Myself a latte:

The DW went with a café mocha:

We sipped and snacked for a bit and enjoyed some people watching. After we finished our drinks we made for our room and spent some time out on the veranda catching up on some work and fantastic weather. During this time I had a chance to break into our Pirates Republic 6-pack. These two ended up being some of my favorite from the brewery so I am glad we got to bring some home.

Long John Pilsner
Nice and buttery slightly sweet. Good pool beer. 3.5/5

Captain Kidd Kolsch
Slightly buttery and smooth, another good pool beer 3.5/5

Up next: Spooky Dance Party, 80’s trivia, and some more adult funtivities.

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

For those familiar with our neighbors to the north, Tennessee, then this should make perfect sense. Nassau is essential a Tropical Gatlinburg.

I've been to both - you couldn't have described it any better!

 

[imahistorygeek]

One thing I want to mention about Nassau, should you decide to venture forth, is that it IS NOT a wheelchair-friendly city. I saw quite a few folks in wheelchairs and scooters struggling with sidewalks and shop entrances.

 

[LeighM]

I was wondering about that pirate museum I was thinking of visiting during our cruise next year.

 

[lostpro9het]

So after some time relaxing on the veranda the first Halloween party of the night was underway. I wanted to check this out since we typically skip it. It was a lot of fun and maybe next year will actually participate.