The Log Dog Blog

A while back, I wrote about my definition of trip vs. vacation because to me, a trip is when you DO STUFF and a vacation is when you DO NOTHING. We've been very fortunate to take several big trips over the past few years (Europe, Australia, Europe, Europe, Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, Antarctica, South America) and as we were planning those, we decided that for some of our spring breaks, we would take vacations. Nothing but relaxation! So for spring break 2025, we took a Disney Cruise; this year, we took a Disney Cruise; and we have a Disney Cruise planned for spring break 2027.

We did a cruise on the Disney Fantasy back in 2017 with C's parents and we had an amazing time, so we were excited for the chance to take another cruise on this ship!

Let me tell you, we lived up to my claim that a vacation is when you do nothing! We boarded the ship on Sunday at noon and walked off the ship this morning at 7:15, and in between those two times, there is very little to report! Of the five nights, we only ate in the sit-down restaurants on the first two nights (and we probably should have skipped the first night). Animator's Palate is a fabulous experience; the other two are fine, but we don't like sitting through a prolonged 90-120 minute dinner when there is no shortage of food on the ship and room service is included and available around the clock! We've found that during the two dinner seatings, the ships feels the most empty and that's when we love to wander around!

The original itinerary had Monday as a Castaway Cay day, but the weather was not cooperating, so we didn't get to stop there and had an additional day at sea. I love the days at sea, but we were a little disappointed because we love Castaway Cay! On Tuesday, we had our first visit to Lookout Cay, Disney's second private island, and while it is certainly beautiful, we unfortunately weren't able to swim or snorkel because of the high winds and waves. We did enjoy hanging out on the beach, though! Wednesday was a stop in Nassau, but since we don't get off in Nassau, we just relaxed on the ship, and then yesterday was another day at sea. In addition to the cancellation of Castaway Cay, there was another unscheduled change to the itinerary:after we left Nassau, we ended up returning there in the evening due to some sort of medical emergency on board. This impacted Pirate Night and the fireworks, but they were thankfully able to do the fireworks last night, which was a nice surprise because I know a lot of people expressed disappointment about them not happening the previous evening.

In terms of what we actually did on the ship, it was hardly anything and it was glorious! We went to the movies, we went to karaoke (as audience members only!), we did a fun Muppets scavenger hunt around the ship, and we went to trivia.

I've been known to be *just a little* competitive when it comes to Disney and Pixar trivia and over the years on our various Disney cruises, I’ve been pretty successful. Some of the versions I’ve won include Disney Music Trivia, Ultimate Pixar Trivia, and Disney Movie Trivia. The issue is that because I’m so competitive I don’t really enjoy it because I’m only focused on winning and it's certainly not fun for C to suffer through each of these trivia sessions with me! As of a few cruises ago, he has unofficially "banned" me from trivia because of how insane I become and whenever I suggest it, he reminds me how stressful it is for me. C is a saint because I'm absolutely NOT the best version of myself at these trivia sessions. LOL!

The ban was temporarily lifted during this cruise because the trivia being offered was Ultimate Disney Trivia and that’s never been one where I’ve performed well when I’ve tried it in the past. So we went in with ZERO expectations of winning, and therefore there was no need for me to be competitive about it. I planned on just enjoying the event and trying to answer the questions, which have historically been very challenging.

Lo and behold, I walked away the winner! If it tells you how challenging it was, I only got 12 out of the 20 questions correct! The questions were super hard and one of the only reasons I won is because I have a weird knack for numbers and dates, so I was extremely pleased with my unexpected victory! We avoided all other trivia sessions on the cruise because I'd gotten my fix and managed to not be completely insufferable in the process! LOL!

The best thing about this cruise was our room. I'd seen photos and videos and did a ton of research a couple of years ago to pinpoint this type of room because there are only four of them on the ship with the split layout, which you can see below, particularly in the video. The room was incredible! I know there are spacious suites and concierge level rooms, but I have no interest in paying who-knows-how-much-more for one of those rooms. This was absolutely the next best thing and you can bet I was logged in and ready to book this particularly room the moment the cruise opened back in June 2024! All of that craziness paid off because the room was awesome and made it very easy for us to do nothing and relax!

It's now 10:00 pm and we're a few minutes from home after a long day of driving. It's nice to have a couple of days to take it easy before going back to work on Monday, as opposed to our usual getting home late the night before returning to work - or sometimes, the morning of, which I've done three times in the past year! We get to pick up Avalanche tomorrow morning at 8:00 am and we can't wait to see him!