If you had asked me this question a year ago, or maybe even a month ago, I would have told you that there could never be too many at-sea days during a Disney Cruise Line vacation. You may have heard me gushing about how much I love at-sea days years ago when we first started The DCL Show, but things have changed slightly in light of my last cruise onboard the Disney Fantasy.
The Disney cruises I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing have been 3, 4, or 7-night itineraries. This last cruise was a 5-night voyage, and a call at Nassau in The Bahamas was the first stop. I don’t typically get off the ship in Nassau and hadn’t planned on it this time as I haven’t been onboard the Disney Fantasy since 2018. I love having the extra time to explore the ship and take in more of those Disney details that we all love so much. On this itinerary, we were scheduled to stop at Castaway Cay, Lookout Cay the day after, with our final full day being at sea.
You may have already read my article on missing our Castaway Cay day due to high winds and the ship’s inability to dock, but I’ve linked it just in case you didn’t. From the time we left Port Canaveral, the seas were rough, and it was so windy outside. As the night went on after we departed from Nassau, the ship really started rockin’ and rollin’. Had I realized there was a fairly decent chance we’d miss our Castaway Cay day, I would have likely gotten off the ship in Nassau, even if only to explore the port updates.
If you’ve ever been on a Disney cruise where your port of call was canceled the day of, you know that Disney jumps into action immediately by scheduling additional activities for the entire day so passengers won’t be walking around the ship with nothing to do. In all the cruises I’ve been on, I have not participated in any of the trivia games or classes that have been offered, so I decided that it was the perfect day to do just that. I wandered into O’Gills Pub to listen in on a game of Trivia before the next activity – an adults-only animation class – would start.
It’s been many years since I’ve gone into a Disney Animation class, and I’m not much of an artist, as you can see in the image above. However, I had a great time and an even greater laugh with the kind folks sitting at the tables around me. It really was a lot of fun and only lasted for about 45 minutes.
Next on my agenda was shopping. If you’ve sailed on a Disney cruise before, you know that the shops are only open when the ship is not in port, so this unexpected at-sea day was the perfect opportunity to spend some good quality time looking at all the DCL merch that you don’t typically see anywhere other than onboard the Disney ships. Did you know that occasionally, you can find select items on clearance?! I didn’t either – until this cruise, that is. I’ll have more on that in a future article.
If you’re a fan of the beverage tasting and mixology classes that Disney Cruise Line offers, look for additional availability to be added on days like this. I wanted to step into Ooh La La to check it out, but it was closed for a tasting.
I’ve walked through La Piazza on a prior cruise, but I never stopped to take a closer look at some of the fun details in this lounge. I’m completely in love with the carousel theme, and for the first time, I saw a few empty barstools and noticed that they were designed to look like the saddles you see on the actual carousel horses.
All in all, I had a great time exploring during our unexpected at-sea day, but it sure was great to get off the ship the following day at Lookout Cay before yet another at-sea day on the last full day of our cruise. I have to say that two at-sea days plus not getting off when we were docked in Nassau was a lot for a 5-night cruise. The windy weather played a large factor in this too, as the ship was really rocking. Our stateroom was all the way aft, making the rocking hard to ignore. Had it been a longer, maybe repositioning cruise with calmer weather, I think I would’ve been just fine with all those days at sea.
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