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]

Just a few more and some video clips as well:

 

[MinnieM123]

The Halloween party looked like a lot of fun!

 

[lostpro9het]

After the party we made our way back to the room to get our costumes on for the evening. As we reached our room we were pulling away from Nassau.

Now, I can have my costume on in no time flat. The DW, on the other hand, takes a little longer. Since I had some time I went back into my exchange stash.

Dawn of the red.
Mild hop and malt. Slightly bitter. Textbook Red IPA 3.25/5

Some time later we were suited up and ready for the 80’s music trivia before dinner. The competition was held in Pub 687 which meant, of course, I had to get a 687!

While waiting for the game to start I was drawn to this piece. I’ve seen this several times before but it really stood out to me this time.

#tonyfromspain did a great job with the game and were close to being winners but there were two songs we just couldn’t get. Sad to say we didn’t bring our A-game to trivia tonight. Please ignore the score, there may have been some beer math going on.

With the game over it was time for dinner!
Tonight’s rotation was Animators Palate. During tonight’s dinner we got to meet our second set of dinner tablemates, Team Virginia. TR was a no show, more on that tomorrow! This was TVs first Disney cruise and so far they were loving it. We chatted things up for a bit and soon realized they were in the same facebook cruise group we were in and recognized us from our costumes and the beer exchange posts. Turns out they missed dinner last night because they were at Palo and they too had reservations for Remy tomorrow like we did. They were also DVC members too. While we were chatting it up a young girl from a table near us came over and asked if we were the Goonies. We said yes and she asked to get her picture with us which we obliged of course. Dinner was good and we went with our usual AP plates; Serano ham app, Black Truffle pasta app, Filet for a main and crunchy walnut cake dessert. Steeven was on his game again tonight. He pulled out two more crayon puzzles for us to solve and also performed a couple magic tricks for the kids at the table next to us. He was simply great tonight. He also brought out a spooky treat for the table!

It was getting close to the adult entertainment time so we grabbed a group shot with TV and made for Evolution.

Tonight’s entertainment included Match your mate which, for the first time ever, we put our hats in the ring for! We were a finalist for the “middle couple” but got slightly edged out by a few claps to couple in an excellent steampunk Alice in Wonderland costumes. Typically with these games the older couples bring the real entertainment but tonight it was the younger couple who had been married all of 8 hours! That’s right; this couple actually got married on board while we were docked in Nassau. What made this game, and their participation, particularly awesome was the family of both the bride and groom were in the crowd! So, when the questions regarding where the “unique magic” had been occurring and which family member needed to be booted off the island came up it added some extra kick since both moms and dads were in the audience, as well as a few grandparents.

After Match Your Mate we had a costume contest where again we were a finalist for most unique costume but we once again got edged out but this time by Merida Jedi. That’s right, we somehow lost to Merida from Brave with a light saber….go figure. No worries, getting on stage afforded me another selfie opportunity with #tonyfromspain.

After the costume party we were pretty tuckered out and decided to head back to the room since we had a long day tomorrow at Castaway with a dinner at Remy. Kavin was once again on his towel art game!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Still lovin those costumes! The adult games sound fun but I have to admit that dance party made me want to run for the room or maybe even a bar.

 

[lostpro9het]

Another great night of sleep after a great busy day! We woke up to another beautiful looking day and I think we were ahead of schedule as we were already pulling into Castaway Cay while I went to cabanas to get our hot breakfast food. Got to see some lifeguard training too.

The night before we left the door hanger for coffee, juice, and “pastries for 2” for our breakfast order. In case you’re wondering, here is “pastries for 2”:

Donuts aside, we still had a fantastic view backing in to CC.

 

[lostpro9het]

We made our way down to deck 1 to exit the ship a few minutes after the all clear had been given. It was still very early and I was surprised more folks were still on the boat. We took our leisurely walk to the family beach this morning because we had some plans this morning.

DW wanted to do some more snorkeling today so she rented some gear and we made for the snorkeling area. We did this a few cruises ago and had a great time. Today was no different. Prepare yourself for a ton of snorkeling pics!

 

[Kerri Whitmire]

We made our way down to deck 1 to exit the ship a few minutes after the all clear had been given. It was still very early and I was surprised more folks were still on the boat. We took our leisurely walk to the family beach this morning because we had some plans this morning.
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DW wanted to do some more snorkeling today so she rented some gear and we made for the snorkeling area. We did this a few cruises ago and had a great time. Today was no different. Prepare yourself for a ton of snorkeling pics!
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We saw a sea turtle and swam with it a long time this past trip. The earlier you can get out the clearer the water, good call.

 

[lostpro9het]

Part of the snorkeling is getting to view the cool artifacts they've downed in the bay. My personal favorite is the 20,000 Leagues ride boat.

We saw a sea turtle and swam with it a long time this past trip. The earlier you can get out the clearer the water, good call.

We had a great sea turtle experience on our previous snorkel adventure too!

 

[lostpro9het]

Thanks to @Doc Disney, I remembered to look for the dynamic duo this trip and finally got some footage:

We did just barely catch a ray swimming away from us towards the end of our snorkeling.



We snorkeled for about an hour and a half in all and saw all we wanted to see and decided to make our way to Serenity Bay to relax for the rest of the day. For as late as we arrived we still had plenty of great spots to choose from.

For the first time ever I took advantage of the beach server and ordered the DW a Konk Cooler and a cup of ice for my Castaway Cocktail mix. It was nice just lounging and having someone bring you the drinks!

 

[lostpro9het]

We rotated between exploring and relaxing all afternoon. in all we spent 5ish hours out at the beach. What was amazing is we actually found NO STARFISH! We typically pull up a dozen or so each trip but they were hiding pretty good today. We did find some wildlife, though.

It was here where we bumped back into TR. They actually sat their beach chairs in the water next to us. It was here where we learned two things; why they missed dinner last night and why they are not Disney cruisers. TR's husband lamented the story of how yesterday he had to practically carry his wife from Senior Frogs back on to the boat because she was so inebriated from all the cheap booze they enjoyed there. He said it was so bad that there was no leaving the room at all that night. Further discussion reveled that their cruising preference most definitely didn't involve young kids and most definitely involved plenty of cheap drinks. Needless to say we never saw them again after the beach at SB.

While we were relaxing you could see what looked like a nasty storm heading our way. Thankfully it looked like that for about an hour or so but never resulted in any rain and fizzled out.

Around 12ish we made for Serenity Bay BBQ for lunch. We timed it just perfect because we had no wait for food and shortly after we arrived there line grew to about 30 deep! The food as usual was excellent except for one thing...THEY TOOK AWAY MY BANANA ICE CREAM!!! 6 straight CC visits and my traditional chocolate and banana ice cream swirl treat with chocolate chip cookie streak was over #1stworldproblems

You'll notice in the food picks a very cool, pun intended, boss's day gift I received right before the trip, a Yeti beer can tumbler! This thing works GREAT! I put my can of beer in the tumbler around 08:30 and didnt drink the beer until about 4 hours later and it was still super cold! Great tumbler for the beer can drinkers. Speaking of beer, the beer I kept cool was from the exchange:

Smartmouth Notch 9:
Nice middle of the road ipa with decent ABV 3.5/5

 

[lostpro9het]

So after a great day at CC we needed to get back to get cleaned up for dinner. We stopped off at a few shops along the way but didn't see much of anything we were interested in. We grabbed one last selfie before boarding the boat again then promptly took another on the veranda.

The weather was still beautiful out, which made it difficult to come in and get ready for dinner. The bright side is that we would have a fantastic view for dinner.

So we cleaned up, got on our dinner attire, and did our best to get a decent picture before dinner.

Tonight would be a first for us. I had long been holding out because of the menu but finally gave in to the DW. Rather than our rotational dining and rather than Palo we made for:

 

[MegRuss626]

You'll notice in the food picks a very cool, pun intended, boss's day gift I received right before the trip, a Yeti beer can tumbler! This thing works GREAT! I put my can of beer in the tumbler around 08:30 and didnt drink the beer until about 4 hours later and it was still super cold! Great tumbler for the beer can drinkers.

Yeti also makes a bottle similar to your official CC one. I have one and after 24 hours, the ice is still in there!

 

[LadyBelle]

I've heard Remy is a hard to come by reservation. Do you have to pay for that meal or is that all-inclusive as well?

 

[lostpro9het]

So we were seated in a fine spot with a very nice view and introduced to our service staff and sommelier. It was also around this time we learned we were heading back to Nassau! Apparently there was a medical emergency that required us to drop off a guest so we may even get to see Nassau lit up at night from our window, time would tell.

Before we were given our menus they started things off with a cocktail “The Colette”. This included drink was a blend of champagne and two other liquors. They dropped in a dried piece of apricot to create some action. I’m not a fan of champagne at all but this was a refreshing start to the evening.

Before we were presented with our menus they also brought out some Chef Selections. I remember on being a whipped cauliflower and the other being a scary form of meat in foam form. While not a fan of cauliflower, I enjoyed this one most out of the pair. The other was…well…weird but I tried it.

We were then provided menus and given an explanation about how the two chefs designed the different sides of the menu and how we could follow the chef’s plan or make our own. DW went with the SAVEUR unmodified and I went with the Gout sans the stuff that swims. I swapped in the wagyu beef and pork in place of the lobster and sablefish

Next was a bread service. We both chose to go with a brioche bread that was wonderful, The Remy butter and salt that accompanied it was also pretty good.

Next, another Chef's Selection came out. I honestly don't recall what it was but know it was a veggie puree under what seemed to be baked cheese. It was very tasty.

Next we were presented with some wine menus. We asked the sommelier what we should get with our dinner and explained what we would be eating. He stopped us right there and said “What do you like to drink?” That is when he went into his philosophy of drinking what you like regardless of what you are eating. He didn’t believe in forcing certain wines with certain dishes. We explained our preferences for dark reds and blends and he made some recommendation and left us two decide. Now, he left us with two menus. One menu was in your typical menu jacket with replaceable paper pages. The other was a sophisticated leather bound antique book that was lined in red felt and had about a dozen silver badges with wine names engraved on them…with no prices. We promptly smiled and nodded at that “menu” and moved on to the realistic menu. We ultimately went with a bottle of nice Bordeaux. I wish I could say I got a picture of the bottle but the sommelier took it away before we could but he was quick to replenish the glasses when they got low.

I've heard Remy is a hard to come by reservation. Do you have to pay for that meal or is that all-inclusive as well?

Oh on, its a $95/person up charge, another sticking point for me. I can't speak to the difficulty of getting the reservation as we've only tried once, this cruise, and get the day and time we wanted.

 

[lostpro9het]

Despite the rapid fire nature of this TR, we were afforded plenty of time between each course to enjoy what was prepared for us. Our first course was now arriving. For the DW she had the King Crabe

I had the Poulet Rouge, that's fancy for fried chicken. It was tasty and the mushroom broth complemented it well.

The view was still pretty wonderful out

For our second course the DW had the Pain De Possion

And I had the Pork. It was very Asian inspired pork belly and tasted pretty good.

For the third course the DW had the Fletan

And I had the Wagyu. This ws my first time having it and it was ok. I don't get why folks lose their mind over this beef. Its good but certainly not great.

For our fourth course it was the DW's turn for the Wagyu

And I had the lamb. This might have been my favorite course of the four.

 

[imahistorygeek]

It was pâté...foam pâté. I can eat almost any food. I tried this. The gag reflex was strong. The taste wasn't bad. I couldn't handle the texture. My brain said meat and my mouth said foam. My brain couldn't handle what was happening. I hate eggs and I'd eat a lifetime of eggs before I'd eat that again.

The wagyu beef was just odd. Looked like beef, tasted like beef, but again, the texture bothered me. I can't describe the texture, but from what I've read, that's part of the appeal.

 

[lostpro9het]

So heading into our first course I was legitimately concerned that the portions were going to be too small and I was going to leave hungry. Whelp, around course three I was lamenting my foolishness for thinking that way. When our mains were done I was thinking, "I made it, just dessert to go" and that's when they brought out the cheese cart! They gave us two plates of samples to enjoy and enjoy we did!

With the cheeses behind us they finally brought out our final course, or so I thought. So they brought out our "first" desserts! The DW had the Miel

And I had the Banana. This was so good and tasted unlike anything I've had before.

Again, thinking we were done we were ready for the check but out comes this large silver egg and a long speech from our server congratulating us on our 20th anniversary and opening the egg to reveal a decorated cake with our names on it. So this marks dessert #2.

Then came dessert #3 which was essentially fancy fruit rollups and chcolates.

The fruit rollups were promptly followed by dessert #4, the tarts!

Nope, not done yet, were then given hand made lollipops, dessert #5

THEN, hand made chocolate!!! Dessert #6!!!

Seriously, we were there 2-3 hours and couldn't take any more! We said our goodbyes to our service team and made our way out when we bumped into Team Virginia! They were just finishing up their third course and having a great time too. We wished them well and decided to head to deck four to see how the Nassau return was going.

Closing thoughts on Remy:
I'm ok that we tried it so we could say we did it once. I'm in no rush to do it again. The food was good but I would argue that the Palo offering is just as good at a better price. We also had a server and assistant server who didn't know what they were serving us when they served it. Not a deal breaker but not expected either. We had a very good experience and had a great time celebrating our 20th in style.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Foam pate

I have texture issues also. I just can't eat tapioca pudding and I will never let my corn come close to my mashed potatoes.

 

[lostpro9het]

So we made for deck four, along with about 30 other curious cruisers, to see what was going down with this medical emergency.

While we waited we got to see the other cruise ship pull away. We were docked at Nassau for a good while and we didn't feel like waiting any longer so we returned to our room. Once again, Kavin smashed it!

But he wasn't done! We looked up and noticed the curtain was closed, this was unusual. We cautiously pulled the curtain back to reveal this fella! Well played, Kavin, well played.

We had a fantastic day and today was supposed to include the pirate fireworks but we most certainly wouldn't be firing them off from port so we waited for a while for us to pull away on our veranda.

Some time had passed and I went in and called the GS to ask what was up with the fireworks and was informed they would be postponed til tomorrow night. With that, we were ready for bed! We had a great day and still had a great day at sea to look forward to tomorrow!

 

[imahistorygeek]

My Remy thoughts:

I'd read so many accounts that this was the best food people had ever eaten in their entire lives.

It did not live up to that hype. The food was very good and the whole Remy experience (the presentations and pacing of food) was excellent. I did learn that while French food is good, it's not my favorite. Palo is superior in food, but Remy is all about the experience. I believe my favorite parts of the meal were the champagne beginning, the cheese course, and the desserts. The regular food was very good, but a little too many things with sauces. My favorite was one of the fish dishes and least favorite was wagyu beef. I wish we had a picture of the wine. I would definitely drink it again. The Miel dessert listed above was honey (and made to look like honeycomb) and almond ice cream. It was very good and I'm not crazy almond-flavored food.

It's worth a try, especially for the experience, but like Sean, it's a one and done. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think this has stopped me from wanting to dine at V&A. From what I've read, the food is similar.