Tag: disneycruise

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Ten Wednesday 18th January 

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Wednesday 18th January

We were awake at 7am, excited to be at Castaway Cay today. Look, there’s a bit of it….

Wanting to avoid the scrum situation at Marceline Market and still not aware that some places did a more civilised sit-down breakfast, we had ordered room service last night. It was Continental in nature and absolutely fine. We wanted to be up, ready and poised to get off the boat as soon as possible so it worked well.

The view promised much for the day ahead.

We dressed and made our way to what we hoped was the right place to disembark and struck very lucky. As we stumbled out of the lift, still not sure where to go we arrived with perfect timing at the start of what looked like a long line back up the stairs that most folks had used to get there. After a five-minute wait we were allowed to disembark and we started our long walk to the beach.

We had decided to head for the adults-only beach. Look, I love kids…..that are related to me.

Being one of the first off the ship, my inner theme park commando wanted to set a blistering pace to stay ahead of the hordes of folks behind us, but due to Louise’s inability to sprint for a few miles at a time, we had to let some folks past us. It hurt.

We walked for ten minutes or so and arrived at the main area of the island. We asked a cast member where the adult beach was (we knew it was still a good distance away) and opted to take the tram the rest of the way. This took us there down the airstrip and to the adult beach.

We found a spot.

As we readied ourselves for a day of not much, I quickly discovered that Louise (you had one job) Williams had failed to put the sun cream into Ryan. I wandered off hoping to find a shop where some could be acquired. There was such a place but it meant getting back on the bloody tram and going back to the main area of the island. I was the only person travelling that way at this time of day, so I undertook a weird lonely tram ride. As I arrived back at the shops, I rolled from a still-moving tram, raced to the shop and hoped to get the thing bought and get back on the same tram before it set off again.

I was thwarted by some folks buying bloody souvenirs and deploying about 17 different discounts which meant the CM had to press more buttons than Rick Wakeman (ask your Dad) to process the sale. I watched the tram set off for where I wanted to go just as I took my receipt for the one item I had purchased.

I trudged back to the tram stop and settled in for my day ruining ten minute wait for the tram to return.

Oblivious to my struggles, as I returned Louise had done the ridiculous thing of starting a conversation with the family next to us. Appalled, Emily and I did our best to not get involved.

This family, from deep in some Deliverance-style Southern backwater, were telling Louise about how they went out to shoot things regularly and how we should try eating frogs and Gator tails. Hey, I eat Doughnut Burgers so who am I to judge?

We soaked up just being here all morning.

Until we were hungry enough to go and eat lunch. That was about one minute past 12.

It was a BBQ affair at the place just off the beach (no need to tram anywhere thankfully).

I finished with a cookie worthy of its own photo.

After lunch, on the way back to our beds we stopped at the bar for a drink.

I forget what the ladies had but I panic ordered an Aperol Spritz, which to my unrefined palette tasted like medicine.

Emily made a more successful order.

As we arrived back at our beds our Louisiana family next door had moved on, probably to shoot something, so we just lapped up the sun a little more.

Thinking I couldn’t come all this way and not venture into the water, I waded out a long way into the sea. I couldn’t walk far enough to get out of my depth. The water is crystal clear, and of course in January, chilly. I spotted a few Starfish, thankfully none of them chocolate. I returned to my sunbed and waited for the twins to descend out of my body cavity.

As the afternoon went on, the beach emptied, and that delightful late afternoon “golden hour” was just lovely and peaceful.

Louise and Emily ventured into the water for a little paddle before soaking up the last few minutes of sun. We had to be back on board by 4.45 so got the tram around 4.30.

It is a long old trek all the way back to the ship, with a change of tram halfway.

There was a security check as we re-boarded which didn’t take as long as waiting for the family in front to dig out their cabin keys for the crew to scan from the very bottom of the huge beach bag they had with them. As Scar says, be prepared!!

We went straight up to deck 11 and Marceline Market for a soft drink, with a nice view.

Back at the room we all showered and left again at 7.15 after a few photos of the view.

We stopped at the Star Wars bar (probably not its real name) for a drink.

The drinks menu was on some George Lucas style iPad.

The drinks were weird. My beer was a fruity one.

Louise’s wine was pretty standard other than the man sat in it.

The names and contents of Emily and Louise’s cocktails were really something I should have written the names of in my notes!

It was an unusual and pretty cool experience, but a bit loud, so like some noise-weary pensioners we moved next door to Nightingales.

We ordered our “usuals” and listened to some more piano playing.

With those finished, we were back in Arendelle tonight for dinner so we headed over there.

I ordered –

Crab Cakes, Jerk Chicken and Cheesecake.

Here is the Chicken.

Louise had –

Samosa, Jerk Chicken and Banana Bread Pudding…

Emily –

Samosa, Stir Fry and Banana Bread Pudding

All of the food was good, but we felt the desserts were a little tasteless. We of course still finished them all.

Tonight was Pirate’s night, for which we had not dressed up, but it was nice to see many had, including all the servers. After dinner, we went to Deck 14 to watch the Pirate Band perform at 10.15 and then catch the fireworks.

It got quite busy of course, so once that was over we hung around and watched the dance party for a bit until the decks had cleared a little.

We went back to Nightingales again for a nightcap and then returned to our cabin to meet my personal favourite of the cruise…

A lovely day and Castaway Cay is incredible.

Till the next time…..

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Nine Tuesday 17th January 

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Tuesday 17th January

Following a decent sleep for Louise and me, we awoke to Emily’s tales of some people snoring nearby keeping her awake. These walls must be very thin if she could hear snoring from next door as it cannot have been coming from within our cabin.

We got up around 7.30 and slowly got ready for breakfast. We watched the ship arrive into Nassau from the balcony.

Once I was satisfied that the captain no longer needed my help guiding him into port, we headed up to Marceline Market and it was pretty busy.

One of the reasons we hadn’t cruised before was a “fear” of being captive in a defined space with a load of people and having to queue for stuff. This was realised at this breakfast sitting as there were long queues for all the food stations. Had we known what we were doing we probably would have gone to the Roy or Walt Disney restaurants for a sit-down do rather than battle through these crowds.

We found a table and took turns going getting food which was decent.

We left about half an hour later and started the search for somewhere to spend the day sun-worshipping. We had decided not to go ashore into Nassau, mainly due to some things we had seen on-line about safety concerns which were probably unfounded, but to be honest, having committed to the cruise, it would be good to spend time getting to know the boat etc.

We found some chairs up on the adults-only deck, which disappointingly only meant that children were not allowed on it.

We enjoyed the view.

This was our neighbouring boat.

We left after about half an hour as the chairs we were in were not suitable for long-term sunbathing. We moved to another location where we found two sunbeds and ordered a drink. Whilst the ladies enjoyed those I set off on a walk of discovery, hoping to find a quieter area where we could all sit or lie down at once.

Our spot on deck 14 from yesterday bore fruit and I went back to collect Emily and Louise and relocated us up to a much more civilised spot.

We would settle here for the day.

My phone told me it was 73 degrees but it felt much hotter, to be honest. It was lovely.

We had more drinks and didn’t do a great deal for the next few hours. More drinks, relaxing, some reading and I think I went for a wander at some point.

You will notice that we did not have lunch, a side effect of a late, large breakfast, but after Emily had gone back to the room around 3 to catch up on some sleep, I sourced ice cream from a still very busy Marceline Market around 4pm.

At 4.45 we went back to the cabin. We quickly showered and changed and were back out at 5.25 heading for the Walt Disney theatre for the Ariel show.

It was quite a different take on the tale (get it?) but very enjoyable and Emily cried.

The show lasted an hour at which point we wandered to the Nightingales piano bar for some pre-dinner drinks.

The pianist soon arrived and performed songs themed around classic 90’s Disney movies.

This drink became a staple for me over the next few nights. I can’t remember its name but it came with a hammer to break the ice ball and release the drink. It tasted a bit like Baileys so was more dessert than a drink.

I mentioned the price of alcohol in Disney earlier in the trip. I would say that this was our main expense on the cruise. Of course, that is because pretty much everything else is included, but I would say a round of three drinks would be costing $50+ a time with a tip included. I don’t drink much so I don’t know if this is too shocking but it certainly added up over the duration of the cruise. Enjoyable though they were!

We left at 8.05 for our dinner sitting in Arendelle at 8.15. We were greeted with a huge queue to get in.

We were seated quickly enough and looked over the menu….sideways.

The dining experience here is a good one. There is a show being performed pretty much throughout the meal and our food was good.

Emily started with whatever this is.

I think Louise and I had soup, that was more pie than soup.

I had wondered where The Corrs were these days.

Louise had the chicken dish.

I had the Ribeye steak which was a bit fatty for my tastes but I think it is supposed to be?

Before dessert arrived Olaf did a tour of the tables.

Apple cake for dessert was very nice.

When Edi, our server, asked Louise what she wanted for dessert she said nothing. So he brought her a plate with the word nothing written on it in chocolate sauce.

We finished eating around 10pm and we were, to be honest, knackered and full and needed to go to bed. We had a slight detour on our way out of the restaurant. Having lost our bearings we wandered into a backstage kitchen area before several cast members pointed out we shouldn’t be going that way. We did then find the exit and made our way back to the cabin.

We were greeted with this belter.

A lovely day of doing nothing came to an end with me already realising that writing about sitting in the sun leads to short posts!

Till the next time…..