April 13, 2014 - Bahamas Dream Cruise

[quiltymom]

Welcome to the thread for the April 13-17 Disney Dream Cruise to the Bahamas!

This will be the place where we can introduce ourselves and talk about our plans. If you have kids, post the age they will be when we set sail.

ETA: we had to cancel our cruise, but I hope everyone has a great time!

 

[IrishCowboy]

I have added your thread to the cruise meet list

Have a great cruise!

 

[dbxazd]

Hi

This will be our 5th cruise - the last one we were on was December 2012 on the Fantasy. We were last on the Dream in June 2011. Before that we did 2 on the Magic.

It'll be me, DH, DS and DD. We chose this cruise because it'll be during Spring Break & we are also going to combine this cruise with a few days at WDW.

At the time of sailing DS will be 13 (2 weeks shy of his 14th birthday) and DD will be 11 (4 months shy of her 12th birthday).

Looking forward to chatting!!

 

[Camden1972]

Hello! We are going on our first ever Disney Cruise and are so excited! It will be myself, my husband Jeff, and our seven year old daughter Emily. Booked this one for spring break. Looking forward to it and welcome any and all tips and advice anyone can give a first timer. I have heard about the fish extender gifts and look forward to participating in that also by making the pockets and coming up with a creative gift idea!

 

[ktmo]

Just got off the Dream on Thursday. We booked on board for next Spring Break. It will be our 2nd time on the Disney Dream and our 4th Spring Break cruise. My DH and I have two daughters, they will be 7 and 8 when we sail (well just turned 7 and almost 9). I am glad that Spring Break is later next year, hopefully Castaway Cay won't be so COLD.

 

[Camden1972]

Just got off the Dream on Thursday. We booked on board for next Spring Break. It will be our 2nd time on the Disney Dream and our 4th Spring Break cruise. My DH and I have two daughters, they will be 7 and 8 when we sail (well just turned 7 and almost 9). I am glad that Spring Break is later next year, hopefully Castaway Cay won't be so COLD.

My daughter was so excited to hear that there will be a girl the same age as her that maybe she can play with! Being an only child, she craves getting away from us adults, although she is a little shy at the outset. Do your kids enjoy the Kids club on the ship?

 

[ktmo]

My daughter was so excited to hear that there will be a girl the same age as her that maybe she can play with! Being an only child, she craves getting away from us adults, although she is a little shy at the outset. Do your kids enjoy the Kids club on the ship?

Yay. My DD will be happy too. The girls actually only went to the kids club once on the trip. There was SO much to do, we were busy, busy, busy. Well, and on the last sea day, DD7 got sea sick, so we laid low. But all in all, it was so much fun. I think we will try to plan more time in the clubs next trip.

 

[speechbridge]

We just did the three day cruise and booked our second cruise while on the ship. We had a blast! There are four of us. My husband and I have 2 boys who will be 5 and 10 during this cruise.

 

[tinktink17]

We will be on this cruise too! This will be our second time on dream. First was April 2012 for 3 nights. I have 2 girls will be ages 13 and 9. I'm so excited!!

 

[Sheri77b]

Hi! My mother is treating me, my son (9), and daughter (6) to cruise the Dream April 13! This will be our first disney cruise and we are so excited! I'm trying to figure this discussion board out, we want to take part in the fish extender fun but don't really know what to do...

 

[lbatesetc]

First time cruising. I cannot seem to figure out how to join the FE group. Can someone give me info on the process please. I am the grandma taking my daughter and grandson, age 9 and granddaughter age6. Sooo excited. Fe sounds like so much fun.

 

[April062500]

Hi,
This will be our 1st Disney cruise. Will be traveling with my husband and 3 kids 13, 11, 7. So looking forward to it as we will be celebrating my 40th birthday!! Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[lbatesetc]

Anyone starting a FE for this cruise?

 

[quiltymom]

Anyone starting a FE for this cruise?

Anyone who would like to organize a FE swap is more than welcomed to start it.

I'm not sure if we are going to participate in a FE exchange for this cruise, so that is why I'm not organizing it myself. Although it was fun, the last one we did got to be a bit overwhelming for us, where we had to bring an extra suitcase just to transport all of the gifts.

I do have a thought on this. Maybe we can somehow decide on some guidelines so people can decide whether or not they want to participate.

Some ideas could be :

• Will there will be a maximum of rooms per exchange, i.e., 20 (there always can be more than one exchange happening per cruise), or will all rooms will be in on it together? This could potentially keep it a bit more manageable in case a lot of people want to participate.
• If people would like to exchange gifts as one per stateroom or one per person
• Any particular size limit to the gifts due to space limitations (or not)
• The amount of gifts (or not)
• If there will be a cut-off date for joining the exchange so people will have sufficient time in gathering their gifts before the cruise.

Or anything else that people can think of. This would've greatly helped me as a first-time participant. Does this make sense to y'all? Or am I thinking too much this early in the morning?

 

[lbatesetc]

Anyone starting a FE for this cruise?

Anyone ever done a kids only fe? Know it would work for our family.

 

[Camden1972]

I am contemplating joining the FE group once organized but I am a first time cruiser and am frankly intimidated by the craftiness of all of the gifts I have seen posted. Not really sure how to go about doing it much less organizing it. But, I would be a fan of limiting each group and/or having a cut off.

 

[Sheri77b]

We definitely want to take part in FE, but being our first cruise can't be in charge. I think having gifts for kids only and setting a number limit on how many participate in each group is a good idea.

 

[lbatesetc]

Hopefully a cruiser with some experience with organizing the fe, will join our cruise and start the group. I would have no idea how to even begin, technology challenged here.

 

[toniosmom]

Joining in -- this will be our 3rd DCL cruise -- all on the Dream. It's me and my son -- who will be 9 by next April. He LOVES the kids club -- I have to drag him out of there at closing time -- so it gives me a lot of adult time. It would be great if we could have an informal meet and greet prior to sailaway. We had one at the Java cafe at 3pm on our sail day and it was nice because I ran into other parents traveling without spouses throughout the cruise. One mom happens to live near me and we are planning to meet for lunch soon.

We participated in our first FE exchange this past March and it was a lot of fun. I am not crafty at all and our exchange wasn't too large -- 16 cabins -- so it was manageable. I couldn't imagine dealing with more than 20 cabins -- it's just too much and a lot of extra luggage weight when you have to fly.

Counting down the days already......

 

[toniosmom]

Just got off the Dream on Thursday. We booked on board for next Spring Break. It will be our 2nd time on the Disney Dream and our 4th Spring Break cruise. My DH and I have two daughters, they will be 7 and 8 when we sail (well just turned 7 and almost 9). I am glad that Spring Break is later next year, hopefully Castaway Cay won't be so COLD.

Did you sail on the March 23rd sailing? We were on that one. You're right -- the water was way too cold for me.