Disney Cruise: Sailing Away, Antigua, Formal Night (And More)

I read a blogger who just spent over a month recapping a one week trip. I don't want to be that blogger so I'm going to warn you now: There will be some long cruise posts ahead. Between Dave and I, we took almost 2,000 pictures so there's a lot to sort through -- and a lot to share! Ha! But my goal is to be done all the cruise posts by the end of next week. (We'll see if that happens... Don't hold your breath...)

I was soooooo happy to wake up on Sunday morning and see this -- it meant it was CRUISE DAY!!! We spent the morning at the outdoor seating at a Starbucks around the corner from our Airbnb. We had to check out by 10 and couldn't leave for the port until noon so we had some time to kill.

The line up outside the port was crazy, but once we had checked in, we breezed through the rest of the boarding process and were on the ship within about ten minutes. Thank you to the kind port employee who took this picture of all six of us! (The matching shirts were a little cheesy but it sure helped identify us as one group throughout the boarding process, which was good.)

 

We spent the afternoon eating lunch, getting into our staterooms, getting unpacked, and going to our Facebook cruise meetup. That was really fun! The Sail Away party was moved inside due to weather and after about five minutes, Rachel burst into tears. We were way up high, it was really crowded, and it wasn't fun at all. I have such good memories of the Sail Away party from our first cruise and we were all disappointed in this one.

That night there were really rough seas. (Guest services was handing out free seasickness medication -- that's how bad it was.) Sam gave up on dinner about halfway through, but the rest of us held out. Dave's parents had ordered a cake to be sent to us on our first night to celebrate his birthday. That was a nice gesture but the cake was HUGE and we ended up throwing about half of it out at the end of the week.

We skipped any evening performance that wasn't a Disney musical. Since this evening was some random performance, we all went to bed early. We wanted to sleep through the worst of the weather. Thankfully, Sam rallied after a few hours, and the rest of us weren't hugely affected. Phew.

Dave and Sam were so excited about breakfast. Between them and my dad I'm shocked there was any bacon left for the rest of the passengers! Ha!!!

Our port this day was Antigua.

Sam was really excited to spend some time on the Sports Deck...

  

...and Rachel was excited to check out the kids' clubs. Above is Andy's room from Toy Story and below is Wandering Oaken's Trading Post from Frozen.

  

Honestly, our stop in Antigua was disappointing. We'd been hoping to go to a beach, but by the time we got off the ship (much too late, we realized in retrospect), the taxis were super expensive. We tried to find a map of a nice walking tour but there wasn't much to see besides a couple of cathedrals and shopping.

 

We walked up to the produce market (pictured below -- I don't think it was actually open this day as it was really empty) and saw a huge statue dedicated to an important politician.

I did like the colourful wooden houses though.

 

We got back on the ship for lunch. I was so excited to get pizza and drink Coke in my cup from our last cruise. That afternoon I think the kids went to the clubs and Dave and I relaxed.

I should point out now that Sam discovered Edge this cruise which is the club for 11 - 14 year olds and he was there every single moment he could be. He loved the independence of it and the ship was a great place to allow him that. If you don't see him pictured it's probably because he was in Edge. Ha!

 

Our supper this night was at Tiana's Place and I had so been looking forward to it. It was so much fun! It was exactly like the movie, The Princess And The Frog. We LOVED it!!! And best of all, it was formal night so we all dressed up a bit.

After Tiana's Place, we got a group picture with Minnie in her formal wear.

Then it was the Captain's Reception in the lobby. Also known as, "We're handing out free drinks! Whooo hooo!!!"

 

Rachel was just holding my champagne here, but she did get a sip. And there were even fancy drinks for the kids. I had champagne, a martini, and some sort of cranberry drink :) I was having fun!!!

And we took some nice family shots on the stairwell.

I had heard so much about the show, The Golden Mickeys and it did not disappoint. My favourite part is that there was a red carpet and Rachel got pulled in as a VIP for an interview. When we went inside, we realized that the interviews from the red carpet were actually being aired inside the theatre! That was really fun!!!

After The Golden Mickeys, Rachel ran into Belle.

 

Then we went to the after party, where Goofy made an appearance.

And on the way to bed, we met Spiderman. Rachel did her best Spiderman pose. Ha!

 

One thing I will say about cruise life is that time has no meaning -- especially in the evening. When The Golden Mickeys ended, it was about 9:30. Sam headed off to Edge, and Dave, Rachel, and I ran into characters and partied. I think we all finally got to bed around 11 that night. A few nights, we would pick Rachel up from club at 10:30 or later, and there were usually about fifty (or more) kids partying the night away. It was so crazy!

And this was just the beginning!!! Next up is our first ever "at sea" day. Spoiler alert: It did not disappoint :)

*You can read about Day 5 here.