Back from my First Cruise ... Not what I Thought it Would Be

[WaltD4Me]

Back from my first cruise. We sadly departed the Disney Dream yesterday morning. Never in a million years did I think I would love it, but I absolutely did! It was fabulous and amazing. I thought a cruise would be boring, yes, I really thought this, but it never was and there were so many things I wish I had time to do. The Dream is a gorgeous ship and the staff/crew members were just unbelievable. I thought of the Podcast often. We booked the Palo bruch (not something I would have done, but did because of the rave podcast reviews) I tried my first grape gorgonzola pizza at brunch, which sounded so gross, but was delish. Saw all the shows and cried at the end of Believe. Made very good use of room service, every day, more than once. Enjoyed several coffees at Cove Cafe thinking of Pete and got my frequent buyer card filled. Stayed on the ship in Nassau...excellent advice I also took from Pete. Loved, loooooved Castaway even though I forgot my bathing suit. Kids had a BLAST. Our three verendah staterooms were perfect thanks to Teresa (she booked our cruise and got the exact rooms I requested) we were on Deck 5 forward, in the best location, steps from the theaters and an elevator. Our room host and dining servers were the best, they all got excellent ratings from us and I plan to write a letter to DCL about them as well. The whole trip was magical and worth every last penny. Lord help me, I can't wait to book another one.

 

[mikelan6]

Glad you had a great time.

 

[carol1231]

That's fantastic! We have a cruise booked on the Dream this summer - can't wait!!

 

[sschmidt]

Thanks for sharing your excitement. Do you know I am so excited about our Dream cruise, I can not sleep at night. It will be our first with DCL also, and I think my husband is expecting it to be like our honeymoon cruise on another line. I keep telling him, no way, this is going to blow your mind.

Did you try doing the Fish Extender group? and if so, what did you think?

 

[wdwscout]

Lisa, I am so glad the cruise and huge family gathering went so well! I know you were very concerned about all the details and making sure everyone would have a good time- I was thinking you would forget to have a good time yourself!

Now you know why we all love the cruise so much. We have never left the ship without booking another cruise while on board! We have 2 "dummy" dates right ow for future cruise- and we can't wait to sail again.

So happy to hear your positive first impressions!

 

[OKW Lover]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your first cruise!

You got great advice about what to do on the cruise which helped you avoid some of the typical first-timer mistakes. I'm sure you are now planning a 7-night.

 

[kylmac]

So glad you loved your cruise! We love the Dream!
Elizabeth

 

[jcb]

So glad you had a great time.

But

A picture is worth a thousands words.

 

[WaltD4Me]

That's fantastic! We have a cruise booked on the Dream this summer - can't wait!!

You are going to loooooooooove it. Excited for you!

Thanks for sharing your excitement. Do you know I am so excited about our Dream cruise, I can not sleep at night. It will be our first with DCL also, and I think my husband is expecting it to be like our honeymoon cruise on another line. I keep telling him, no way, this is going to blow your mind.

Did you try doing the Fish Extender group? and if so, what did you think?

I never cruised before, but yes, the Dream blew my mind. I didn't do the Fish Exnteder group. I thought about it, but there were 11 of us and I had enough to do with that. I decorated three stateroom doors (Ariel helped me ) and did little gift bags on the fish extenders for my nieces and nephews.

Lisa, I am so glad the cruise and huge family gathering went so well! I know you were very concerned about all the details and making sure everyone would have a good time- I was thinking you would forget to have a good time yourself!

Now you know why we all love the cruise so much. We have never left the ship without booking another cruise while on board! We have 2 "dummy" dates right ow for future cruise- and we can't wait to sail again.

So happy to hear your positive first impressions!

Once we were on board, I was able to relax and really enjoy it all! I didn't re-book on board. I thought about it, but just had no idea when to do it for.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your first cruise!

You got great advice about what to do on the cruise which helped you avoid some of the typical first-timer mistakes. I'm sure you are now planning a 7-night.

Yep, everything I learned on the boards and podcast, really, really made a
HUGE difference. I'm looking at the 5 night cruise that stops at Key West and two days at Castaway. We were all sorry we didn't have one more night, 4 wasn't quite long enough and no one could imagine just doing a 3 nighter.

So glad you had a great time.

But

A picture is worth a thousands words.

I'm working on pictures Jack. I'm at my mom's and for some reason her computer won't read my card.

A couple things post cruise.........

We went to WDW for 2 days before the cruise and let me tell you, I really
noticed the service difference between WDW and the cruise.

There were 4 kids in our party and NONE of them had any interest in the kids clubs!!! That shocked me. The 16 and 13 year old said the Vibe and Edge were lame. The 10 year old had fun in the Oceaneer Lab for a couple hours the first day, but then didn't really want to go back and my 4 year old niece lasted an hour and then wanted to be picked up and never went back. I couldn't get over it. It was fine, but I was really surprised none of them really
loved the clubs. I think part of it was that they had each other though and with the age differences wouldn't be in the clubs together.

It was pretty darn chilly on our cruise, but even still the pools were PACKED,
I can't imagine what they are like in the summer. Why didn't they make those pools bigger?

With the exception of Royal Palace, we all like the food in Cabanas better than in the dining rooms. It wasn't terrible or inedible, but the food in the dining rooms really could be better.

How do you know what to tip at Palo? We had brunch and a big debate about to tip the server. Do you tip on the $20 fee or try to figure out what the meal would cost in the real world and tip from that? There were five of us, we finally decided on $40....I still think it wasn't enough.

Bring candy bars for the room service people. I tipped them all $2 to $3 and a Hershey candy bar, they really seemed to appreciate it. One told me he hadn't had a candy bar in 2 months.

Shutters is really, really expensive, take ALOT of your own pictures. We bought a few 8x10 and a few of the smaller ones. I would have liked more, but to get all three of our CD's would have cost almost $1,000. I think they would sell more if they were a little cheaper or offered more packages.

The characters you meet just roaming around are awesome. Ariel happened to pass by when I was decorating our stateroom doors and she helped me put the magnets on. So fun!

A verandah room is the only way to go. One of my favorite things was sitting out on the balcony in the morning with my coffee.

Use a travel agent...Dreams Unlimited for me...the OBC was put to good use.
I got my first Disney Dooney purse in Main Sails with it and I love it!

 

[WaltD4Me]

A couple pics........Sorry they are so big...

 

[DSNY4ever]

Glad you had fun. I am just still so on the fence about cruising. I think if I was going to do one I would probably have the most fun on a Disney cruise, but they are just so gosh darn expensive! I have a hard time justifying the price plus the flights it always ends up being more expensive than a regular WDW trip and it is usually for a lot shorter amount of time . And then I think, nah, I'd rather just go to WDW. Maybe, someday, I don't know.

 

[WaltD4Me]

Glad you had fun. I am just still so on the fence about cruising. I think if I was going to do one I would probably have the most fun on a Disney cruise, but they are just so gosh darn expensive! I have a hard time justifying the price plus the flights it always ends up being more expensive than a regular WDW trip and it is usually for a lot shorter amount of time . And then I think, nah, I'd rather just go to WDW. Maybe, someday, I don't know.

This is EXACTLY what I thought. I could not imagine "wasting" my vacation time on cruise when I could be at WDW, but I was soooooooooooooooo wrong. I loved, loved, LOVED the cruise. Yes, it's expensive, but I truly thought it was worth it. We went to WDW for 2 days before the cruise and honestly now I wish we could have spent those extra 2 days on the Dream.

 

[disneyholic family]

we also had a fantastic time on the Dream and were very sorry when our four day cruise came to an end!!

we found the food in the main dining rooms to be outstanding!!!!
we only ate in cabanas for lunch the day we boarded,so i can't really comment about the food there.

 

[WaltD4Me]

we also had a fantastic time on the Dream and were very sorry when our four day cruise came to an end!!

we found the food in the main dining rooms to be outstanding!!!!
we only ate in cabanas for lunch the day we boarded,so i can't really comment about the food there.

It could be that I don't eat seafood. I got steak most nights and the only night it was really good was Royal Palace. Everyone else usually got some kind of fish/seafood and I think they enjoyed it more than I did my steaks. I also am not a foodie and would rather have grabbed something quick then go do other things rather than spend 2 hours at dinner. We had the late 8:15 seating and dinner went until 10pm-10:15pm and I felt like I was missing stuff.

 

[disneyholic family]

It could be that I don't eat seafood. I got steak most nights and the only night it was really good was Royal Palace. Everyone else usually got some kind of fish/seafood and I think they enjoyed it more than I did my steaks. I also am not a foodie and would rather have grabbed something quick then go do other things rather than spend 2 hours at dinner. We had the late 8:15 seating and dinner went until 10pm-10:15pm and I felt like I was missing stuff.

on past cruises, i've always had late seating, but my mom and sister wanted early seating, so that's what we had..
i was surprised to find out that i like early dining better! who knew!!

i ate the seafood, but my sister and mom didn't.....i think they had beef ribs one night, lamb, one night, some sort of roast beef (i think) and maybe the fish on one of the nights...basically, they ordered whatever our server recommended and it was always great..
and the soup, salads and various other appetizers were also really yummy!

i don't know if i'd call myself a foodie - i don't think so...but i did really enjoy the food!!!
the only meal we didn't enjoy was our brunch at palo!!! funny!!!

 

[Teewan78]

I too thought I would never enjoy a cruise. I didn't like the thought that I would be "trapped" on a boat. Well boy was I wrong. DCL is the best. And the advice read on the boards makes it even better.

 

[BriarRosie]

Once we were on board, I was able to relax and really enjoy it all! I didn't re-book on board. I thought about it, but just had no idea when to do it for.

That's a rookie mistake. I also didn't re-book on board while I was on my first Disney cruise 10 years ago. Since then, I've put "dummy cruise" dates FAR into the future. You can move the dates around, but you need to keep an eye on the dedicated final payment date. If you used a travel agent and like to designate them again, it's easiest to do that at the time you're re-booking. DCL recently made adding a TA after the fact much more difficult. The discount and on board credit are worth booking on the ship. Just as an example, I had a dummy date set up when I was on the Dream last May. I changed the original date to join friends cruising next May. I was able to move the reservation over, but I had to pay a difference in the deposit, because it was a longer cruise.

It was pretty darn chilly on our cruise, but even still the pools were PACKED,
I can't imagine what they are like in the summer. Why didn't they make those pools bigger?

Standard for cruise ships. The pools are always too tiny for the amount of guests on board.

With the exception of Royal Palace, we all like the food in Cabanas better than in the dining rooms. It wasn't terrible or inedible, but the food in the dining rooms really could be better.

I saw your other comments about not getting seafood. I thought the seafood choices were better than the meat choices. They really know how to do sushi grade ahi tuna REALLY well.

How do you know what to tip at Palo? We had brunch and a big debate about to tip the server. Do you tip on the $20 fee or try to figure out what the meal would cost in the real world and tip from that? There were five of us, we finally decided on $40....I still think it wasn't enough.

Common question. You actually do not need to compare costs at Palo and Remy to shore side restaurants. I base a tip on the upcharge and adjust from there. $20 upcharge, I tend to give $5 gratuity. I think $40 for 5 people is a generous tip. I went to Remy for dinner, and the upcharge is $75. A 20% tip on that is $15. I thought the service was so much better than 20%, so I tipped a little more. I think they'd be happy with the 20%.

Shutters is really, really expensive, take ALOT of your own pictures. We bought a few 8x10 and a few of the smaller ones. I would have liked more, but to get all three of our CD's would have cost almost $1,000. I think they would sell more if they were a little cheaper or offered more packages.

The characters you meet just roaming around are awesome. Ariel happened to pass by when I was decorating our stateroom doors and she helped me put the magnets on. So fun!

I never buy anything at Shutters for that reason. It's way too expensive! And I had a surprise encounter with Hook as I was walking past the kids' club doing the enchanted art detective game. I didn't realize he was trying to pass me, and he nearly gave me a heart attack.

A verandah room is the only way to go. One of my favorite things was sitting out on the balcony in the morning with my coffee.

A verandah is nice, but I didn't really use it much on the two cruises I had one. My last cruise on the Fantasy was in a 9D, obstructed porthole room, and it was HUGE. It was stateroom 8504, a corner room so big, you could roller skate in it. I booked it again for next May.