The TCD Gang Sails Again!: A Four Night Disney Dream Trip Report

[Lou... 3,118]

Are you saying the Dream and Fantasy are larger than aircraft carriers?  That surprises me if it's true.

 

 

If true, come on?

Both ships at 1115 feet long, are longer, and actually have quite a bit more tonnage, 130k vs 105k, than a 1092 foot long Nimitz class carrier.

 

PS, ACCs are much wider.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I want to go back.  Curses, TCD!  :argh:

 

Sorry, bro.

 

If it makes you feel any better, I want to go back too.

 

Your pics make CC look like it is a place that does not SMB at all.

 

I hope to go someday.

 

I could go for some beers and mickey bars there right now.

 

Yup.  Castaway Cay is in my top five places in the universe.  Nothing about it SMB.

 

By the way, in case you don't know, and you make it there, Cay is pronounced Key.  Don't be a shoobie.

 

I'm not sure if there are Mickey Bars available on the island.  So, you may need to provide your own dry ice and a little cooler to pull that off.  Or, there are giant soft serve ice cream machines that will do in a pinch.  Self serve.  You're not allowed to put your mouth under the spigot though, in case you're wondering.

 

TCD

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

If true, come on?

Both ships at 1115 feet long, are longer, and actually have quite a bit more tonnage, 130k vs 105k, than a 1092 foot long Nimitz class carrier.

 

PS, ACCs are much wider.

 

They are even bigger than than the newest class USS Gerald Ford which will be 1,106 ft and 112,000 tons. It goes into service in 2015.  

[Memphis 105]

Sorry, bro.

 

If it makes you feel any better, I want to go back too.

 

 

Yup.  Castaway Cay is in my top five places in the universe.  Nothing about it SMB.

 

By the way, in case you don't know, and you make it there, Cay is pronounced Key.  Don't be a shoobie.

 

I'm not sure if there are Mickey Bars available on the island.  So, you may need to provide your own dry ice and a little cooler to pull that off.  Or, there are giant soft serve ice cream machines that will do in a pinch.  Self serve.  You're not allowed to put your mouth under the spigot though, in case you're wondering.

 

TCD

Just how did you learn that rule  was it posted on a sign  or explained to you?

[Lou... 3,118]

They are even bigger than than the newest class USS Gerald Ford which will be 1,106 ft and 112,000 tons. It goes into service in 2015.  

 

And then you have the two RC ships that are 95k tons larger, not quite double, than the Dream and Fantasy.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

How beautiful!

 

Are there usually more fish or do the people scare them away?

 

I'm sure you already know this, but the twins take better pictures than you.

 

How many Fiends know what a shoobie is? I do.

[Beckers 1,136]

Don't be a shoobie.

I'm not sure if there are Mickey Bars available on the island. So, you may need to provide your own dry ice and a little cooler to pull that off. Or, there are giant soft serve ice cream machines that will do in a pinch. Self serve. You're not allowed to put your mouth under the spigot though, in case you're wondering.

TCD

Shoobie made me lol. They are a breed of their own.

And you misunderstood the rules. It's that you can't put your mouth ON the spout, under is fine, on is not.

[Beckers 1,136]

Oh and your selfies are improving!

[Memphis 105]

I do now thank you Google much

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Tricking Lou into posting on a TR is tough.  He hasn't taken the bait.

 

Let me know how the crayon tricks turn out.  They're kind of lame when you think about it.  After the first couple, you start to think outside the box, and they become easier to solve.

 

 

See, Misty?

 

He's not taking the bait.

 

 

 

Well, you're in luck then.  Because the snorkel photos are coming next.

 

 

So what is the third update going to be?

 

Midnight snack, maybe?

 

 

Indeed it did, and it turned out to be one of our best visits ever.  Read on.

 

TCD

I just got caught up and it is almost midnight.  However, I have not had a snack.  And I did have an early dinner.  Hmmm... maybe it is time for smackerel. 

 

And I have no idea what a shoobie is, and I was pronouncing Cay wrong., which means i am one and i still don't know what it is!!!

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

And then you have the two RC ships that are 95k tons larger, not quite double, than the Dream and Fantasy.

And the Carrier I was on was a "midget" by comparison. USS BonHomme Richard, 872 ft, 36,380 tons

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Great pix!

Shoobie?

Googling it now.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Shoobie. Got it.

I should of figured it was a jersey thing b

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

If true, come on?

Both ships at 1115 feet long, are longer, and actually have quite a bit more tonnage, 130k vs 105k, than a 1092 foot long Nimitz class carrier.

 

PS, ACCs are much wider.

 

Thanks for the information.   I truly had no idea.  I've been on exactly one aircraft carrier in my life, and it was an older one.  I figured the new ones were much bigger than passenger cruise ships.

 

 

They are even bigger than than the newest class USS Gerald Ford which will be 1,106 ft and 112,000 tons. It goes into service in 2015.  

 

I didn't know that there was a new class of carriers or that one was going to be named after Gerry.  See?  ff.net is not a waste of time-it's educational!

 

Just how did you learn that rule  was it posted on a sign  or explained to you?

 

Both.

 

And then you have the two RC ships that are 95k tons larger, not quite double, than the Dream and Fantasy.

 

Again, I had no idea.

 

I went and fact checked this.

 

The largest cruise ship in the world is currently the Royal Caribbean ship, the Allure of the Seas.

 

I didn't know that.

 

I wish I had.

 

Because guess which Royal Caribbean ship was parked next to us in Nassau?

 

Yup.

 

This is it:

 

 

It didn't look that much bigger than the Dream to me.

 

It isn't that much longer.  It's 1181.167 feet long (that .167 is important) vs. 1115 for the Dream.  Only 66.167 feet longer.  But, it is 208 ft. wide at its widest point vs. only 121 ft. for the Dream.  It kills the Dream on tonnage 252 vs. 129.  And it also kills the Dream on passengers- they claim it can carry 5400 passengers vs. only 2500 on the Dream.

 

You know what, though?  That many more passengers is not a good thing, as evidenced by that long line of guests trying to get back on the ship in Nassau.  No thanks.

 

How beautiful!

 

Are there usually more fish or do the people scare them away?

 

I'm sure you already know this, but the twins take better pictures than you.

 

How many Fiends know what a shoobie is? I do.

 

I  typically have never seen very many fish in that lagoon.

 

But, let's say you accidentally pick up a bag of chips from the buffet on the way to the lagoon, and crumble up the bag and put it in your pocket.  If you open that out in the water, you will see an amazing amount of fish.

 

But, since the twins have been volunteers at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (home of the world famous Winter the Dolphin^TM) , I have learned that it is not good form to feed fish while you are snorkeling, so I didn't see very many fish this time out.

 

Everyone is a better photographer than I am.  But you can't say I don't make up for it with quantity.

 

I will respond to the shoobie comment below.

 

Shoobie made me lol. They are a breed of their own.

And you misunderstood the rules. It's that you can't put your mouth ON the spout, under is fine, on is not.

 

You're right about the ice cream spigot.  That makes sense.  As long as I don't put my mouth on it, I should be OK. That will be on the next LOF.

 

Oh and your selfies are improving!

 

Gee thanks.  That isn't saying much.  LOL.

 

I do now thank you Google much

 

I thought I knew what shoobie meant, but I was surprised by its origin.

 

Apparently, the term originated as a derisive term used by locals to describe tourists visiting the Jersey Shore.  I don't recall ever hearing the term when I lived in NJ.  Maybe because I was a shoobie.

 

The first I recall ever hearing it was when my kids started to use it.  They picked it up from a Nickelodeon Channel cartoon that they used to watch back in the day: Rocket Power.  The cartoon was about a group of SoCal surfer/skateboarder dudes.  They called those who did not embrace their surfer/skateboarder lifestyle shoobies.  In the TCD gang, we use the term to describe clueless tourists.  We run across quite a few of them around our parts.

 

I just got caught up and it is almost midnight.  However, I have not had a snack.  And I did have an early dinner.  Hmmm... maybe it is time for smackerel. 

 

And I have no idea what a shoobie is, and I was pronouncing Cay wrong., which means i am one and i still don't know what it is!!!

 

Yeah, if you say "Kay" instead of "Key," then you're a shoobie.

 

You grew up in NJ, right?  You apparently never heard the term used there either.

 

And the Carrier I was on was a "midget" by comparison. USS BonHomme Richard, 872 ft, 36,380 tons

 

Hard to believe a carrier can be that much smaller than a cruise ship.  I mean you land jets on that thing!  How about the pools?  They must have been pretty small.  I'll bet there wasn't a slide either.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Great pix!

Shoobie?

Googling it now.

 

 

Shoobie. Got it.

I should of figured it was a jersey thing b

 

It's not just a Jersey thing.

 

It's a surfer thing too, bro:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWLGifMXBs4

 

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Hurry up and get to lunch.  I'm in the mood for some Island BBQ Beach Pood Forn. 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

And the Carrier I was on was a "midget" by comparison. USS BonHomme Richard, 872 ft, 36,380 tons

 

 

 

 

 

Hard to believe a carrier can be that much smaller than a cruise ship.  I mean you land jets on that thing!  How about the pools?  They must have been pretty small.  I'll bet there wasn't a slide either.

 

TCD

 But they were good for diving practice. When we had swim call the Capt. use to remind us to not try and touch bottom it was usually 5,000 ft or so down. :bugeyes:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Hurry up and get to lunch.  I'm in the mood for some Island BBQ Beach Pood Forn. 

 

Sorry, bro, but we're on island time.

 

Lunch isn't coming until after the next update.

 

Hopefully we will get to it later today, mon.

 

 But they were good for diving practice. When we had swim call the Capt. use to remind us to not try and touch bottom it was usually 5,000 ft or so down. :bugeyes:

 

LOL!  You didn't really go swimming off of a carrier, did you?  You would need a pretty long ladder, I would imagine.

 

TCD

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

Sorry, bro, but we're on island time.

Lunch isn't coming until after the next update.

Hopefully we will get to it later today, mon.

LOL! You didn't really go swimming off of a carrier, did you? You would need a pretty long ladder, I would imagine.

TCD

Oh yes we did. 5th pic from the left.

http://www.google.com/search?q=aircraft+carrier+swim+call&hl=en&rlz=1G1ACEW_ENUS534&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VIYTUtC6BsK6yQH-6YHYDQ&ved=0CCsQsAQ

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Oh yes we did. 5th pic from the left.

http://www.google.com/search?q=aircraft+carrier+swim+call&hl=en&rlz=1G1ACEW_ENUS534&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VIYTUtC6BsK6yQH-6YHYDQ&ved=0CCsQsAQ

 

This was your ship, Dave.  Are you in this pic?  (Not sure what period of time you were serving...)

 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

This was your ship, Dave.  Are you in this pic?  (Not sure what period of time you were serving...)

 

My ship, but not when I was on board. I was on board in 1970. Happen to find the pic a while back and kept it for reference.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

My ship, but not when I was on board. I was on board in 1970. Happen to find the pic a while back and kept it for reference.

 

Holy Crap!

 

That's crazy.

 

Thanks for sharing that.

 

My brother has served aboard several Navy carriers.  He's never mentioned the swimming.  I'll have to ask him about that.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We left off with a little swimming fun, and we're still there as this update begins.

 

Another bad selfie:

 

 

This guy over here had one of those Go cameras strapped to his ample bosom.  I have seen this a couple of times lately.  What is up with that? :

 

 

 

Father/Daughter shots- first Twin #1:

 

 

Then, Twin #2:

 

 

We've already seen iPad guy and big tablet guy today.  But we haven't seen ereader guy.  But, now we have:

 

 

 

I asked the girls who made waterproof ereaders.  They said no one, as far as they know.  So, this guy gets the TCD Real Man of Genius Award Castaway Cay edition.  One wave or bump, and his enjoyment of 50 Shades of Gray is over.

 

We had blue skies all morning:

 

 

When we came out of the water, the girls wanted to go rinse off in a shower.  I had noticed there were two right behind us, near the entrance to the water play area, so we headed there.

 

Those Disney Imagineers are so clever.  The water play area is called Spring A Leak:

 

 

We had driven past the back side of this on the tram this morning, and Mrs. TCD had noticed the fences looked like they were made out of pallets.  She has an idea of using pallets in a gardening project at our house, and wanted me to take a look at the fences to see if it was something that I might be able to build for her.  So, I snapped a couple photos of the fences- I think they are made out of pallets, and I think they look pretty cool:

 

 

 

Of course,  I couldn't resist taking some photos of the nautical flags they have on display around here.  I like to see what they say:

 

 

Here's a guide, in case you would like to play along:

 

 

Going back to that last photo, it looks like the flags in the foreground spell out SPRING A LE . . .  If I had done a better job with the photo, I'll bet the last two flags were AK.  That was easy.

 

Now the back row.

 

From the left, the flags appear to spell:  UFN REFRESH TOO . . .

 

Interesting.

 

Here's another photo that shows more of the back row:

 

 

Looking to the right of the pole, it looks like those flags spell TOOL DRWN.

 

What the Fort?

 

By the way, don't miss how those kids in the foreground of that last photo have a hat covering one of the spouts.  I missed that when I was taking the photo.  I wish I had stuck around to see what happened next.

 

To add to the fun, here is how the flags looked last year, when we were here:

 

 

Last year, the UFN was still there, but next to it, it spelled SPRING A LEAK.

 

The flags in the foreground spelled PIXIE DUST.

 

I don't remember this weather vane being here, but it is now:

 

 

The flags here on the fence spell out DREAM:

 

 

I should have told that guy he was going to be famous by being in a TCD trip report.  Maybe he would have smiled and sucked in his gut.

 

This is one last shot showing the end of the top of the back row of flags:

 

 

It spells DRWN.

 

Is that supposed to be DROWN?

 

Is that supposed to be funny.

 

Somebody needs to get these flags straightened out.

 

I'm bringing some new ones and some clothespins on my next cruise, just in case.

 

It was time for us to go to the Crab Races now.

 

They have two Crab Races.  One near the pavilion closest to the ship.  And then a second one near the Cookies II dining area, which is closer to us.  There is a dance party with characters after the first Crab Race, but not the second.  So we usually go to the first.  But today, the girls didn't want to make the effort.  Fine with me.

 

I fixed a couple of more beers:

 

 

 

Before long, it was time to sign up for the second crab race.  Since that was right near the dining pavilion, the plan was to eat right after the crab race. 

 

The way the crab races have always been done in the past is the first 8 groups that show up get to pick and name a crab for the race.  There is a small goodie bag of prizes awarded to the winning team.  Simple.

 

So, I went to sign up for a crab.

 

When I got there, there were a couple of CM's getting ready.  I said I wanted to sign up for a crab.  They said you don't sign up.  Everybody just picks a number on the circle they draw on the ground, and that's how you pick your crab.  Oh, I said, that's new.  They said no it's not.  I said, that we had done it before, and had been able to pick a name for our crab.  They were surprised by that.  The male CM asked if I wanted to name one of the crabs.  He was humoring the senile old man.  I said sure.  He said OK, what name?  I said Jer-Bear.  That's the name the girls had picked.  It's a tribute to their favorite CM from the last cruise.  At least I got that done.  I asked the CM if everyone who stood at the winning crab's number would get a prize.  They said what prize?  I said never mind.

 

Here's the crab race court.  Note the Intentional Deliberate Not So Hidden Mickey in the center:

 

 

The dining area is just over here.  If I was the fashion police, I might say something about those pants that lady is wearing there.  And the rolled up cowboy hats.  But, I'm not so I won't:

 

 

I posted a lot of photos of that big fake palm tree, but there are some nice real palm trees on Castaway Cay:

 

 

This is the walkway from the dining area to our part of the beach. That's the Pelican Plunge in the background, and the lifeguard stand that you saw in some of the photos from the water:

 

 

I went and told the girls what I had found out about the crab races.  They didn't like what I had to say.  Neither did I.  No prizes?  Boo!  But, we planned to go to lunch after the races, so we agreed to go and see what happens.  We planned to stand in the space for Jer-Bear, but when we got there, we found a big Shoobie with a giant camera had beat us to the punch.  Why would he want to root for Jer-Bear?  Here he is poning Twin #1:

 

 

I like that last photo.  There's a lot happening in it.  Like check out the guy with the big gut and rolled up cowboy hat standing next to the Shoobie.  His crab is named Dinner.  How clever.  And look- he has an ice cream cone.  So do a lot of people in that photo.  The ice cream machines are right behind the Shoobie.  How convenient.

 

Here's the cruise staff getting ready for the big race.  They have a new, fancy, crab race sign.  That must have broken the budget -so no money left for fabulous prizes:

 

 

It's almost time for the big race.  Check out the names of the competition:  Mi-Shell, Slow-Z, and Greggles.  Oh brother:

 

 

And then the race began:

 

 

They were going to drag this out with several heats, and then a big final.  We all looked over at the same time, and saw there were no lines at the lunch buffet.  Everyone agreed to bail on the crab races.  So we did.

 

Next up-lunch time on the island!

 

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

My ship, but not when I was on board. I was on board in 1970. Happen to find the pic a while back and kept it for reference.

 

After doing the math, I realized that the pic I posted was either too old for you to have been in, or you are older than you look. 

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Nice try Misty, but haven't you heard that I don't read TRs. 

 

Dang. We'll have to try harder next time. Maybe the same person who came up with those crayon tricks can come up with some clever Lou-bait.