2/6/2011 - 4 Night Dream - Update 3/5 Animator's Palette

[Dis_Yoda]

Who: Dis_Yoda & Mr. Dis_Yoda
When: Feb 5th, 2011 to Feb 10th, 2011
Where: Radisson & Disney Dream!


Table of Contents
Feb 5th, 2011
The Trip to the Port

Feb 6th, 2011
Journey to the Cruise Terminal
Terminal Time
Lunch & Exploring the Dream
Sailing Away!
Enchanted Garden
Super Bowl and Shopping!
Golden Mickeys

Feb 7th, 2011
Spa Morning
Breakfast and Detective Agency
Mini-golf
Afternoon Activities
Mixology
Royal Palace Dinner
Early Evening Fun
Villains Tonight Part 1
Villains Tonight Part 2
Villains Tonight Part 3
Late Evening Fun

Feb 8th, 2011
Castaway Cay
Lunch, Pools, Shopping
Remy
Pirate Night
Fish Extender Gifts

Feb 9th, 2011
Morning & Palo Brunch
Early Afternoon Adventures
Wine Tasting
Whiskey Tasting
Believe Part 1
Believe Part 2
Believe Part 3
Animator's Palette
Evening Adventures

Feb 10th, 2011
Returning Home

[Dis_Yoda]

The Trip To The Port

Excited for our trip, we woke up around 6:30AM. Trouble was, we couldn't drop off our dogs until 9:00AM at the kennel. We struggled to sleep in some more before finally packing up the car and pre-cleaning the house. At least by the time we left our home at 8:30AM, the dishwasher was run, the floors were mopped, the carpets vacuumed and the house was tidy.

We dropped the dogs off at the kennel and finally started making our way down I-75 to the port.

Around 10AM, I noticed I should filled up the gas tank and get some breakfast. We stopped at our usual road food place - the Chick-fil-a in Perry, GA & enjoyed some wonderful chicken biscuits and hash browns.



We filled up for gas and I walked inside the store for some energy drinks. Through in-stores specials and manufacturer's coupons the cashier gave me I ended up with 4 of them for $2.27, which is amazing for 4 full size energy drinks.

Thus began the long (well 5.5 hours) drive to the port. It was rainy and deary most of the drive down. My husband was watching stuff on his phone for most of the drive so I was in my own world listening to whatever radio station I could get for that section of the highway. Thus is seemed a lot longer than it should have.

We ended up not stopping again until we pulled up to the Radisson at the Port.

We checked in and our room was available - #124 at the building right next to check-in & the pool.


Our Room

I had forgotten that the hotel uses down feathers and we had to remove the duvet and many of the pillows as my husband is allergic. I stuffed it in the closet so it wouldn't bother him.

We realized we hadn't gotten any of our alcohol yet and that we were hungry. We turned right off the road the Radisson is on and said we'll stop wherever we find a liquor shop first. We find a hole in the wall liquor store got some vodka, rum, gin and were on our way to find a decent dinner. After 10 minutes of travel down the road, nothing looked good to us. We turned around and decided we would just go to Kelsey's Pizzeria which is right next door to our hotel.

Walking in we thought it was going to be a meh meal & were pleasantly surprised with our cheese sticks, pepperoni pizza and ziti.







We got out of there for less than $35 and went to head back to the room until tomorrow. I realized we had forgotten soda & we needed tonic water for the gin. As my husband played his video game, I headed back down the road to Publix.

At Publix, 2 wonderful things happened.
1) I found the cutest mini bottle of Rosa Regale that I've never seen before
2) Pepsi products were Buy 1, Get 1



Happy with my finds, I went back to the hotel to pack up our beverage bag (boy was it heavy) and we watched Four Christmases on HBO and went to bed.

[iloverags2]

Gotta love a trip that begins with chicken biscuits from Chick-Fil-A!

[Dis_Yoda]

Journey to the Cruise Terminal

We woke up around 7:30 and my husband was slow moving and wanting to sleep in some more. I decided to move our car over to the 'cruise parking' area and go out with my camera to see what I could capture this morning.





















By the time I was finish with the pictures, my husband was dressed & we headed down to the restaurant for breakfast. We realized we wouldn't have that much longer until it was time to be on the ship & just ordered some bacon and a pastry but they were out of the pastry so we ended up with a small order of bacon for breakfast. At least it was cheap!

We headed back to the room to gather up our luggage and go outside the hotel for our shuttle. I had booked us on the first shuttle of the day as I wanted as early of a boarding number we could get.

The shuttle started loading about 15 minutes before 10AM and we were soon on our way to the port.

[Dis_Yoda]

Terminal Time

Shortly after 10AM, our shuttle pulled into the Disney Terminal. The porters were quick to get our luggage and breezed through security & the filling out of the health form. No one was in line for Castaway Club members (I'm silver even though it was my husband's first cruise) so within 5 minutes we were checked in.



Boarding group 5! Woot!

We made our way over to the chairs overlooking the dream to the side of the kid's club & finally got to see the Dream in person!




Knowing we had over an hour to wait, I went to take some pictures of the Disney Magic Model & Terminal while it was less crowded.


Little sad it's a bit worn.





As the terminal got more crowded, they brought out some characters for you to visit!





Beginning at 11:30AM, the boarding numbers started to be called and within 15 minutes they were up to group 4. We were up near the line waiting for our number to be called when it looked like they had an issue with their system to let people on board. We waited and waited and waited for about 20 minutes for it to be fixed. The crowd around the Mickey got tighter during this. Soon #5 was finally called & we were on our way to gangway! They scanned our tickets, we declined to have our welcome aboard picture taken as we knew we wouldn't purchase any of them.

[Dis_Yoda]

Lunch & Exploring The Dream

Once we boarded the ship, we made our way to the Enchanted Garden for lunch. The buffet selection was rather small but I enjoyed some peal & eat shrimp while my husband had some rock crab claws. Once we enjoyed them, we made our way up to D Lounge to see if I could get us into Palo Brunch!

Turns out missj1975 was behind me getting her Remy & Palo Brunch reservations too! My husband and I were able to get our Brunch reservations for 10AM on Wednesday and we were soon on our way to explore a little of the ship before our room was ready. We ended up doing the spa tour and entering into the raffle for free treatments.

At 1:30PM, we made our way to our room







We discovered the ship map had our room wrong! 9669 and 9667 are actually switched on the ship versus what the map says.

After unloading our heavy alcohol bags we went to Cabanas as we hadn't had a ton to eat at Enchanted Garden for lunch. We were shocked at how much better the selection was at Cabanas vs Enchanted Garden and wished we would have gone there instead!

We got a plate to split so we wouldn't eat too much.


After eating, we decided to go upstairs to look at Remy & Palo and Meridian.


Picture leading up the Aft Staircase to Deck 12.


Check in for Palo & Remy


Left side of Meridian


Right side of Meridian


Floor Details of Meridian


Cushion Details of Meridian


Remy Sign


Palo Sign

We then attempted to get upstairs to Goofy's Sport's Deck from the Aft Staircase.


Artwork Up Aft Staircase to Deck 13

Turns out - you can't get the door to open to the sports deck that way, at least at this time.

We took the elevator down to Deck 9 to see if our luggage had arrived.



It had! I spent the next hour or so unpacking and giving stuff its place before we were going to head up to Deck 12 for the Sail Away Party!


Swivel for TV

[BethC1952]

Sorry we didn't get chance to meet onboard, but I'm looking forward to reading your review. I'll be posting mine, along with pictures, maybe later this weekend or sometime next week. Right now, were at WDW at Pop Century, so I have a lot of things to do!

Beth

[gfly]

great job so far! What did you think of the radisson?

[Dis_Yoda]

Originally Posted by iloverags2

Gotta love a trip that begins with chicken biscuits from Chick-Fil-A!

Almost all our trips end up starting with Chick-Fil-A. :D

Originally Posted by BethC1952

Sorry we didn't get chance to meet onboard, but I'm looking forward to reading your review. I'll be posting mine, along with pictures, maybe later this weekend or sometime next week. Right now, were at WDW at Pop Century, so I have a lot of things to do!

Beth

I'm sorry we didn't get to meet up either! Can't wait to see how your week went. I'm jealous you are getting some WDW time as I don't get any of that until May.

Originally Posted by gfly

great job so far! What did you think of the radisson?

Thanks! We liked the Radisson. The room was quiet as the waterfall outside minimized the noise from the pool bar. It was nicely located with lots of stuff nearby and the shuttle was free! We would definately go back there for our next cruise (whenever that may be)

[smwg]

Originally Posted by Dis_Yoda

The Trip To The Port

We stopped at our usual road food place - the Chick-fil-a in Perry, GA & enjoyed some wonderful chicken biscuits and hash browns.

We must be neighbors! Been to that Chick-Fil-A several times and know someone who works there! Small world. We leave today for our Dream cruise (departing Sunday).

[mefordis]

Thank you for such an awesome report (so far!) I love all of the pictures, and love reading your reports! I'll be checking to see when the next installment is posted!

[Dis_Yoda]

Originally Posted by smwg

We must be neighbors! Been to that Chick-Fil-A several times and know someone who works there! Small world. We leave today for our Dream cruise (departing Sunday).

Yeah we live about 30 minutes north of there. Have fun on your cruise! You will enjoy it so much.

Originally Posted by mefordis

Thank you for such an awesome report (so far!) I love all of the pictures, and love reading your reports! I'll be checking to see when the next installment is posted!

Thanks for joining in! I took about 600 pictures and so many of them will end up making their way into the report I hope. Depends on how much imageshack and I fight over too large of pictures.

[Dis_Yoda]

Sailing Away!

After unpacking, it was time for the muster drill. The new way of doing this is so very easy. We met in Evolution starboard side and had our key tapped into their computers and were shortly on our way to the sail away party.

We found ourselves some chairs next to the railing on deck 12 and decided to have our first adult beverage of the trip!



It was only $15 for the two of them which isn't horrible. It was the only cups we got during the course of the cruise.

At the party we ran into some of the fellow Disers from our cruise thread & it was nice to put names to faces.

One of the ladies mentioned she never got notice of her onboard credit when we realized we didn't either. Luckily when returned to our cabin after the party, we had a note it was there!

The party wasn't as interesting as the last sail away I went to but it was cute seeing everyone dance it up.

After the party, we headed back to our room and I went outside at the Meridian Bar to send some last minute emails to some friends.











Once I was done with the picture taking, I went back to the room to get ready for dinner @ the Enchanted Garden.

[sunshine girl]

Love all the photos! And someone please bring me one of those multicolored adult beverages ....

[Dis_Yoda]

Enchanted Garden

We arrived about 15 minutes early to our dining time for Enchanted Garden. They hadn't opened the gates yet so we took some pictures until it was opened.





Right at 6PM, the doors opened and we were lead to our table (#80)

Our server, Maria, quickly brought us our bread and welcoming treat.




The assistant server, Jayson, took our beverage orders and then didn't return for about 20 minutes.


My snowfall which was wonderful!


Chair Details


Lighting Details

Our server wouldn't let us order until our table mates arrived and they were about 20 minutes late. We were hoping to get through dinner quickly as my husband wanted to get to the Super Bowl watching ASAP.

Once allowed to order we went with:

North Atlantic Lobster Ravioli - with roasted garlic and sweet basil in a light tomato broth


I really wasn't a fan of this but I'm not a huge Lobster lover. My husband on the other hand loved it!

For our 2nd course, I went with:

Duck Consomme - with julienne of carrots, napa cabbages and shiitake mushroom


I loved it!

My husband went with:

Romaine Wedge - fresh crisp romaine topped with creamy Romano dressing and homemade spiced croutons


He thought it was ok but not exactly what he wanted.

For our entrees, I went with:

Pan-seared Sea Bass - with Saffron and fennel risotto with a sweet chili glaze


I only really ordered this for the risotto which was very good for mass produced risotto. The sea bass was really sweet due to the glaze and I could only eat a third of it.

My husband went with:

Grilled NY Strip Steak - thyme roasted vegetables, double baked potato topped with handmade herb butter.


He enjoyed it but we ended up scarfing down our food to make our way to the District Lounge for the game & we skipped dessert. Our service was so slow on the first time as it was 7:45 before we got our entrées.