TR: Last Trip of 2012 and First Trip of 2013 Pt. 10: Disney Dream visit to Castaway Cay (1/5/2013)

Nassau required footwork to be done and I dropped the ball. Castaway Cay required absolutely zero such research or work. None of the private islands really do, and that’s why cruise ships go to them and cruisers enjoy them. They are the idealistic island paradise where alcohol flows, food is free, and the beach is clean and empty except them. It is completely understandable as to why this is such a beloved thing when the fruits of colonialism are often so brutally on display elsewhere in the inhabited Caribbean.

But I digress; I shouldn’t start with a critical eye to the private island concept. Why should I? This is really the reason we booked this cruise. And in truth, if there is any reason whatsoever to book Disney Cruise Line for the majority of people in the world, I’d say this would be it.

TR: Last Trip of 2012 and First Trip of 2013 Pt. 9: Disney Dream In Nassau (1/4/2013)

On this, my 7th cruise, I’ve finally managed to get to one of the most common cruising destinations, Nassau in the Bahamas. Prior to this stop, my only visits there came via private island days (Princess Cays, Great Stirrup Cay), so for once, I’d get to see a version of the Bahamas where the general public could come out and greet us, for good or bad.

TR: Norwegian Pearl Pt. 3 Embarkation and Beach (1/1-1/2/2012)

Every time I saw the words “Port of Miami” listed on a sign from the taxi cab I sat in intended to take us there, I could only imagine it being said in the gruff voice of Rick Ross, followed by a low rolling “BOSS”. Miami has just become a center of cool in America in recent years, just looking from the windows of a yellow Crown Vic, it appears exotic in ways I simply never remembered it being as a kid. There was no time to experience anything about the city and its culture; this just a journey on the way to a destination.

The line of boats in the port ended with the Norwegian Pearl, our home away from home for the next week. NCL only really had one line into the cruise terminal for customs, something I wish had been changed to accommodate suite passengers such as myself. Once in the building though, we got to head to a special check in area and were quickly whisked onto the ship. We took some brief walks to inspect its interior and to drop off valuables in our safe before heading up to lunch at Cagney’s.

TR: Ruby Princess Pt. 3 – Cruise Review Days 1 & 2 (1/30-1/31/2011)

Given all the things I wanted to write, I made sure to separate out the itinerary and at sea days with the general boat review. Made sense in my mind.

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DAY 1: EMBARKATION (1/30)

Arriving around 1:30 to Port Everglades, the wife and I cruised through the security line like we hadn’t done before outside of our suite stay with Norwegian. The process of embarkation took a whopping ten minutes this time. It did helps that we just walked by people and filled out the medical forms ourselves while they stood in place. Once arriving on our vessel, we headed for the balcony and sat there awhile until deciding to head up to the decks and look around. One thing we didn’t like was the pitch on the soda card. My memory is that there’s a table often set up in the atrium area and people go to it in order to purchase. In this case, we got a hard sell coming off the elevators on the Lido deck. I suppose I can’t be too upset in that we purchased it and got the free tumbler to have laying around.