Disney Dream with a Toddler (May 2015) ~ Updated 10/30 - TR Complete!

[Dugette]

Oh the mystery of a cup. I can never predict when some dish just won't cut it for DD. It happens less now, but once in a while, we still have the "wrong" dishes.

Yes, it used to happen a lot for us (not so much lately). She would lose her mind over the wrong plate or cup or spoon, etc.

I'm really enjoying this thank you! We are sailing for our first time on the Dream with our 4 year old and 2 year old in October. Really looking forward to hearing how the nursery worked for you.

Glad you are enjoying it! Hope your family has a wonderful time on the Dream. I'm sure it will be great. I definitely want to go on another Disney cruise while Izzy's still young. And the nursery worked out really well for us. She was well cared for there and I think it was a better environment for her at that age vs. the kids club - she would have been pretty nervous about the independence required in the kids club. The nursery was small with a lot of staff attention and I think that was perfect at 2.5. NOW (at almost 4), she would LOVE the kids club, though.

 

[Dugette]

A Visit to Arendelle

After our late night, we all slept in this morning. According to my notes, we were up shortly before 10am, since we had to eat breakfast before our visit with royalty. Izzy had resumed her position in the chair with Birdie and her red cup of milk by 10am:



She was in a much better mood than when she had gone to bed.

So, we must have eaten some breakfast, but I have zero photos or notes to prove this. I don’t know what we did? Maybe grabbed something off the buffet at Cabanas?

By 11:22am, we were back in the room and Izzy had changed into her “Anna” dress. This dress was actually a gift from Dug's mom – she found it at a rummage sale or something along those lines and thought it looked like something Anna would wear. So, not an officially licensed Anna dress. Surprisingly, though, Izzy agreed to wear it and it still fit acceptably (with shorts, at least):





We were docked at Nassau at that point. We chose to skip this port in favor of spending more time on the ship, given we only had a 4-night cruise to enjoy the Dream. It was interesting to look out from our balcony and see other ships:



Very random picture, but earlier I mentioned that we had trouble finding a good place to store our carseat in the stateroom. This is where it ended up:



It’s basically stuck between the bed and the wall (bathrooms on the other side). It wasn’t ideal, but it worked fine for a few days. It wouldn’t fit under the bed or in the closet.

We were soon on our way to Animator’s Palate for our timed meet with Anna and Elsa. Izzy did her excited little toddler run down the hall:

(click to watch)

Pretty quiet out here this morning:





Izzy had to try out the porthole bed:



We arrived at Animator’s Palate and turned in our timed tickets. We still had to wait in about a 20 minute line. However, the restaurant was decorated like Arendelle and it provided some nice ambiance:









After a bit, we made it to the front and Izzy got her chance to visit with Anna and Elsa (and introduce Birdie to them ). Once again, we have a collection of poorly-lit pictures of it:









She is trying to show off her Elsa socks here :



I have the video as well. You can see that this meet was being rushed along – more intended as a photo op than a chance to play:

(click to watch)

The murals on the way out were cool:







We headed for the elevator after that. Birdie got to meet a new friend:



A video of the tweeting:

(click to watch)

Up next: Grabbing some lunch and checking out the pool/splash pad.

 

[Tashamu2004]

thanks for all the detail! really helps see what the cruise will be like!

 

[Dugette]

thanks for all the detail! really helps see what the cruise will be like!

Thanks, glad you are enjoying it! I loved reading all the detailed cruise TRs as we prepared for ours!

 

[Dugette]

Lunch on Deck

After our time in Arendelle, we headed upstairs to grab some lunch. I think this was in Cabanas:



Cute! (and now super appropriate since we’ve seen Finding Dory )

I think Dug grabbed some sushi or something from Cabanas, then we headed out on deck where there was some quick-service food. View from our table:



Remnants of whatever Dug had :



I think I got a cheeseburger:



And Izzy had a hot dog:



Though, as you can see, the first bun broke. That was unacceptable to her, so I had to go back up in line to obtain a second bun. Thank goodness these things are included in the cruise fare!

Guess she got some milk too:



Mmmm, Dug apparently found a yummy sandwich as well:



Um, and another burger?



Well, I guess when you can’t decide, get them all – you’re on a cruise, after all, they’ll give you multiple entrees!

In case you were wondering if that neighboring Carnival ship had a waterslide:



Izzy insisted on sitting on my lap for much of this meal, which made it harder to eat, but at least she was happy.

I’m not sure if this was right away, but at some point after lunch (maybe on the way back to the room?), Dug stopped at the coffee shop and got each of us a little treat. This one for him:



And this for me:



After lunch, Izzy and I went back to the room and got changed for some pool time. What better time than when we are docked and lots of guests are off the boat? I don’t have any pictures of this time (there are some pool pics later, though), but we had a good time. I thought Izzy would like the small Mickey pool, but she really didn’t care for that at all and we were in and out quickly. She was more interested in the big yellow slide, but she was too small for that, which upset her quite a bit. We ended up spending the balance of our time in Nemo’s Reef, the splash pad. She enjoyed that a lot, especially the small slide. She did that slide over and over and over.

After a bit, Dug joined us (maybe that had been when he went for coffee?). He took over supervising Izzy while I headed for the large Aquaduck waterslide (which Izzy was also too small for). This is the tube slide that goes all around the upper deck of the ship. Pretty cool. The wait was longer than I’d have liked, but I did eventually make it up there. I thought it was interesting that the CM at the top was very personable and had gotten quite skilled at chatting with guests just enough to pass the required time between riders. I enjoyed the ride and was glad to have gotten a chance to do it, but had no interest in waiting in the long line again. Dug decided he would try to do it later that night, as we had other plans coming up.

Also, while I was up there, Dug took Izzy to the restroom. This was a successful visit and she happily declared, “I didn’t change my mind!”, which cracked Dug up.

After our pool time, Dug had decided to go on a tour of the ship’s bars and lounges (he’d seen it in the Navigator). So, he headed up to join that while Izzy and I headed to a character meet:



We always love Chip and Dale:







And some video:

(click to watch)

As we headed back to the room, we saw a large character meet taking place in the atrium:



Minnie! We weren’t allowed to join the line, though, as they’d already closed it. Izzy was sad.

Love walking around the ship, it’s so pretty:



I guess Izzy and I hung out in the room after that?

Dug enjoyed his tour quite a bit. They pointed out all kinds of details and theming and he was impressed. I can’t tell you much more than that, since I wasn’t there, but enjoy some pictures:























His view from that area:





A peek at Remy:









Up next: More tour pictures and passing out some Fish Extender gifts.

 

[Dugette]

Exploring the Dream

Continuing with Dug’s tour of the dining and lounge areas, more Remy photos:





There he is on the chair:







The view:



Yay, Paris:



I asked Dug about this one and he thinks it was Remy’s fancy wine case and that some of these are from John Lasseter’s vineyard (the Pixar guy):



Then out into The District, where the various bars and lounges are:





This is the Skyline bar:



The backdrop changes to various cities from time to time. Pretty cool!

Some other bar areas they passed through:







Then onto the Champagne Bar, Pink:







I just asked Dug what he remembers about his tour and he said that it was great and he found it especially fascinating that everything and every space had to tell a story. For example, the Pink champagne bar you just saw was based on the pink elephant scene in Dumbo and you can see pink elephants in some of the bubbles on the walls. Pretty neat.

I guess it was approaching 4pm when I was trying to get Izzy down for a nap:



I think Dug came back then too, very glad he had the chance to do the tour.

I heard some noise and chattering outside our door and took a peek out (I'm sure I took this photo after to help me remember, but it's kinda cool, so why not post it):



It was a dad and his two kids delivering Fish Extender gifts for us. It was cute, they were all working together to get the correct assortment of items put in our FE pockets. Funny to see another group in action – it was the only time I did.

I decided to take this chance to deliver some of our Fish Extender gifts too. I grabbed a bag full and ventured out while Dug got Izzy down for her nap:



I enjoyed looking at other people’s door decorations and fish extenders:





The leader of our group(s) had posted the lists in case we needed them (these are our DIS usernames and we met some of these people in our Mixology class later in the cruise ):



I enjoyed exploring the ship while I did the deliveries. It was a good chance to just wander around a bit. I saw the spa (but did not go there, though I know many DIS-ers love it):



Another packed fish extender:



You can see some of the stuff I put in there (Mickey planner and a Bullseye notebook/post-it thing – ironic to deliver some gifts from the company store of the company that had just sold us off a few days earlier! ) There were some fish extenders that were so full I had to put our gifts on the ground. It was way more than I ever expected!

When I passed by the atrium, I noticed Captain Mickey was up in the balcony for meet and greets:



I got back to the room around 5:30pm and Izzy was still napping:



Up next: Dinner at Royal Palace and another Minnie meet!

 

[Dugette]

Royal Palace Dinner

We got Izzy up from her nap so that we could bring her down to Royal Palace to consume her mass quantities of butter :





(Also, I am kind of creeped out by that first picture above...the chairs right above Izzy's head look like eyes! )

The dining room:



Awesome napkin folding:



Bread carriage:



For my appetizer, I ordered the Breaded and Deep-Fried Brie:



Yum! Very tasty.

I am sure Dug got Escargot, as it was on the appetizer menu, but no pictures of it. I think one of our tablemates got it too. I’m sure they enjoyed it.

Dug also got some French Onion Soup:



It appears I also ordered the Farmhouse Salad:



For his entrée, Dug ordered the Roasted Rack of Lamb:



He really enjoyed this. However, there was one other entrée that interested him, so they brought him a little side dish of the Lobster Macaroni:



I doubt that anyone will be surprised that Izzy picked mac and cheese again :



Nothing on the main course menu really appealed to me, so I orderd off the Vegetarian menu. I got Porcini Mushroom Ravioli:



I think I enjoyed it.

Izzy needed to attempt the potty a few times during this meal. I think we had to walk down a hall to get there:



Dug took her out once as well and our Head Waiter stopped by during that time. She was going around to inform everyone on the details of our stop at Castaway Cay the next day. She seemed very nice.

We had plans to run off after dinner to catch Minnie’s meet, so we ordered dessert to go. Got Izzy all cleaned up and were ready to go when our waiter came out with an unexpected Mickey bar for Izzy:



I was a little annoyed with this, as we hadn’t asked for it and we had just finished wiping all the butter and cheese off our kid. And now, of course, she wanted to eat it. We somehow convinced her just to eat a bite of the ear so that we could go meet Minnie. Waste of a Mickey bar, though.

We got in line for Minnie (all dressed up!) and met her around 7:30pm:



















Showing off the shirt!

And the video:

(click to watch)

Always nice to see Minnie!

Up next: Izzy heads to the “toy room” so we can have a “date night.”

 

[Dugette]

Villains Tonight

We got back to the room from our Minnie meet and found these things laid out for us:



Mmmm, chocolate!



Looks like Dug decided to dig into his to-go dessert, which appears to be the Grand Marnier Souffle:



Izzy enjoyed the view from the balcony:



I think I took Izzy down to the “toy room” (as she called it) while Dug finished up and headed to the theater to find us seats. We had decided in advance to sign Izzy up for the nursery this night as the show didn’t seem terribly toddler-appealing (and I’m glad, as I think she would have been scared by it). Dug’s journey down to the Walt Disney Theater:



I spy Captain Mickey:



Can’t get enough of these views:





The Golden Mickey:



And he arrived:



He got us seats in this balcony off to the side:



He liked that the chairs were more comfortable than the standard fold-down theater ones.

Meanwhile, I dropped Izzy off in the Small World:



And then apparently went back to the room to eat my dessert in peace. Mine was the Sweet Temptations (A trio of Peanut Butter Mousse, Mango Cheesecake, and Tahitian Vanilla Crème Brulee):



I think I enjoyed it, though I can’t say I really remember after all this time. Guess I need to take another cruise.

Then I met Dug down in the theater:





No photos are allowed during the shows, so all you get is a snippet of the pre-show when we saw this guy walking around:





The show started at 8:30pm. We enjoyed it quite a bit. We found out later that our table-mates REALLY enjoyed it – was the highlight of their cruise, I think. Brief summary is that Hades gathers up a bunch of Disney villains for maximum evil. It was actually very funny.

On our way out after the show, Dug took a picture of this sign:



I still have absolutely zero idea what this could mean?! I guess we should all run towards the people trapped in the upside-down vehicle?? If anyone knows, feel free to enlighten me.

Since we had a long block of nursery time reserved (hoping Izzy might go to sleep there), we had a mini date night. Walking along deck is so nice:



And then we headed up to where Dug had been touring earlier:







He showed me around a bit and filled me in on some of the details from his tour. I took some pictures as we passed through the various spaces:























Ooooh, I see the Eiffel Tower!



Up next: Date night continues!

 

[Dugette]

Date Night

We chose to get drinks at Meridian (just outside Palo), as there was outdoor seating available and the options sounded good. The bar:



Menu:






I took a picture of those cool booth cushions that Dug pointed out to me:



I think that Dug got bourbon:




I wish I could tell you what mine is, but I’m not sure:




I want to say maybe the Crème Brulee Martini, but that raspberry is throwing me off and making me think maybe the Latitude 46.5? Beats me. We both enjoyed our drinks, though. It was about 10pm and the outdoor deck was very pleasant and quiet, but it was too dark to really see much (if you leaned over the deck, you could see water, but not from the table):



After just sipping and chatting and enjoying the toddler-free time, we wandered a bit more. Checked out the mini golf course, which we never did have a chance to play:






Also checked out the Aquaduck at night:



A few people were still swimming while Frozen was on the big screen:





Since we didn’t have Izzy, we ventured up here (adults only area):



Looks pretty nice:



We never did get there to swim, though.

Looks like we popped into the Cove Café to check out the offerings:



Our spontaneous moment came when we realized we could get free pizza to eat while we wandered :



Something about late night free (and tasty) pizza while riding a cruise ship elevator struck us as particularly fun (maybe it was the drinks? )

After that, we picked up Izzy at the nursery. She did not sleep. I think they tried, but she wasn’t cooperative. Spoiler alert: she never slept in the nursery, despite the cribs and prime sleeping times. Guess that was a theme for this trip – overtired kiddo! She was in good spirits, though:



A brief video clip of her driving the boat:

(click to watch)

We arrived back to EVEN MORE amazing Fish Extender gifts waiting for us! I don’t know if this is normal or if our group was extremely generous and thoughtful, but I sure felt spoiled! We all shared this fantastic cookie for a late-night snack (and we saved the matching one for later):



I’m going to say someone in our group was from Maine (people often bring things unique to their area):



There was a ton of other stuff too, but those were the only pictures I took.

Izzy had a good time playing in the bed, which was made up with rails for her:



However, she wanted to sleep in the pack ‘n’ play again.

Around 11pm, she was still lively and walking around the room in everyone’s shoes:



Yes, her sleep schedule was really messed up on this trip!

Dug decided to run out quick and do the Aquaduck, as it would be closing for the night soon. After he got back, we got Izzy to bed and I decided to go deliver some more of our Fish Extender gifts:



I went back to my Pre-Trip Report to find some details and pictures of what we passed out and here’s a copy/paste of that section:


Backtracking a bit to yesterday, I picked up the candy for the Fish Extenders, which meant I had everything except the Mickey straws that I’m getting at WDW. So, time to assemble them! (If any of Group Mickey is lurking, shut your eyes now! ) Because I’m me, I had to start with a spreadsheet that told me what goes to who:



(I noticed we have a lot of people on deck 5, some even seem to be next door to each other!) Then I pulled all the bags from the closet where I’d been stashing them. Man, there were a lot of them (piled high in the high chair - notice Bailey's cameo ):



Looked a bit less intimidating when I took things out of bags and organized it:



Oh, I forgot to mention, I also found little treat bags at Party City that I thought would be nice to put the toddler items in:



I worked and worked and bagged and labeled and eventually ended up with this:



Close-ups:





Leftover candy and other goodies for Izzy:



I am thinking all of this will take up the majority of a carry-on sized bag. I mean, it fills this diaper box pretty well:



I tried to get mostly “small” things, but it adds up. I don’t know how some groups do like 50 cabins. I mean, ours is 13. We’re still waiting on our actual Fish Extender, which is why you haven’t seen a picture of it yet. I’ve been freaking out a bit, since we are so close, but the lady making it (Etsy) assured me I’d have it. It looks like it’s going to ship tomorrow and she uses 2-day priority mail. Whew, cutting it close! I just hope it arrives in time and we like it!



Back to the TR now! So, I passed out some more gifts and admired a Star Wars Fish Extender:





Here you can see how I had to put things on the floor by these two cabins:



Too much stuff to fit in the pockets!

I headed back to the room about 11:45pm to rest up for our next day at Castway Cay.

Up next: The island is calling!

 

[willijen]

Great report! Following

 

[Jessirip]

Love reading your updates! Can't wait to hear about the beach with Izzy.

 

[Dugette]

Great report! Following

Thank you!

Love reading your updates! Can't wait to hear about the beach with Izzy.

Thanks so much! Beach time coming up!

 

[Dugette]

Castaway Cay Morning

We were up around 7am this day and put on our swimsuits under our clothes, in preparation for a day at the beach on a beautiful private island. Izzy was even agreeable to wearing the “swimming kitty” shirt that I’d selected for her. Off to a great start!

We checked out the view from our balcony, now that we were docked at Castaway:





We chose to go to Enchanted Garden for breakfast, as it was fairly close to the disembarkation point. We were allowed to get off the boat at 8:30am, but it was about 9am by the time we sat down to eat and we figured that would allow us to avoid the crowd, but still have plenty of time on the island. We sat at Table 100 this morning (don’t need to go to your assigned number like at dinner).

We enjoyed an assortment of yummy food:







Izzy had some pancakes, Mickey waffles, cheese, and a bite or two of croissant. Got her a carton of milk from the cereal station and poured it into a nice cup (that she thankfully did not drop or spill). As you can see in the background of this picture, Izzy constructed a tower of baked goods:



Everything is a building material to her! (Seriously, she LOVES to build things and will find a way with nearly anything).

Pretty fountain in the restaurant:



At some point during the meal, Izzy said she had to go potty. I took her out and this is when we discovered how obnoxious it is to have a potty training toddler in a 1-piece swimsuit under regular clothes. She was not at all happy about taking her arms out of her shirt to get the swimsuit off. And, of course, she didn’t actually go after all this. I ended up taking her back to the bathroom once more a bit later and this time she just completely lost her mind at the prospect of getting things off, refusing to go entirely. And, in fact, she never actually did go potty that entire morning. (And, yes, the most recent swimsuit I bought her is two pieces, so we don't have to deal with something like that again).

Between these side trips and the fact that Izzy took forever to eat her baked goods tower, we ended up at the ship’s exit at 9:50am, a bit later than I’d hoped. As we walked up, Dug told me that he didn’t have Izzy’s key card, which was mandatory to get off and back on the ship (I must have thought he had it in his wallet?). So, I had to trek all the way back to the room and search for it. After trashing our room looking for it, I finally gave up and headed to Guest Services where they had to print a new one. In case you are wondering, at some later point in our cruise I discovered that it was in the little slot by the door that keeps the lights on. Oops.

While they waited for me, Izzy played with her floating Minnie toy that she had insisted on bringing to the beach (but did not actually play with at the beach):



I returned and we went up to the exit area:



We saw that we had to scan our key cards and I asked the CM if I should hold up Izzy’s card to the scanner for her. He snapped at me, as if I was being ridiculous (the answer was yes, by the way). Caught me off guard – maybe letting everyone off the ship makes CMs grumpy, I don’t know. I explained to him that we didn’t get off the ship yesterday, so this was all new to us. His attitude quickly improved and he explained that we would have to do the same thing to get back onboard as well. We finally made it onto Castaway Cay at 10:07am:



Guess those people were already getting back on the ship?

Ahhhhhh, here’s a better view:



Some other scenery and signage:









Dug took all of these pictures, as he walked ahead while Izzy and I stayed back to meet Daisy near the ship.

A tram that takes you to the various beaches:







The lunch place:





The family beach we ended up at (the second family beach):



As I mentioned, I knew that Daisy Duck had a 10:15am meet at the Post Office, so Izzy and I hung back for that. A couple shots after getting off the boat:



Gotta get a boat selfie :



Then we joined this line for Daisy:



I used the time in line to apply our sunscreen and give Izzy her thermos of milk, which she did not want to give up, even to meet Daisy (though I managed to get it from her right before she went up).

Looks like Izzy wanted to show off her swimming kitty shirt when she got up there:



Minnie’s all ready for a day at the beach:



Here’s the video, which mostly consists of everyone yelling Izzy’s name in an attempt to get her to look at the camera:

(click to watch)

I think Izzy and I managed to catch up with Dug at the tram and ride it over to the beach together. Dug stopped at a little shop to get some flip flops, as I think his other ones were bothering him or something? Izzy posed with Olaf while we waited:



We stopped at the Cookies Too BBQ place you saw in the earlier picture to fill our nice Fish Extender gift cups with Diet Coke (yay for free pop on both the ship and island!) We found a chair towards the back of the beach at the end of a row and Dug sat there with our stuff while Izzy and I headed over to the nearby splash pad. Sorry that I have no pictures of any of this, as we only had our phones, no waterproof camera.

She enjoyed the splash pad, but wanted to check out everything else too, so we headed back to the beach. She played around in the sand a bit, then wanted to try going in the ocean, but would only do it with me holding her. She tired of that pretty quickly and wanted to go back to the sand, where she ended up collecting a bunch of little shells (and tossing them back after). We checked in with Dug and he was content in the chair, just relaxing. I grabbed a drink of my Diet Coke and got Izzy some milk, then we headed back to the splash pad again. Izzy really enjoyed playing in there (with me). It was approaching 11:30am by this point, which was when lunch opened up, so we headed back to Dug. Not before we both got sprayed in the face leaving the splash pad, though.

It started to rain as we headed back, so we helped Dug grab all our things and found a picnic table under the shelter you saw earlier. Izzy and I waited there with our stuff and dried off while Dug braved the rain to stand in line for some food for us all. By now it was pouring and poor Dug had to stand in a long uncovered line for food.

I took some pictures in the meantime, now that we were under a roof:



Guess Izzy wanted to check the Navigator to see what fun was still to come.

Everyone was under this shelter to escape the downpour (hard to see in the pictures, but the rain was really coming down):



We-sie:



Izzy making her movie selections, I guess:



Eventually, Dug returned with a bunch of food. We did go drink-less, though, as we’d finished our Diet Coke and neither one of us was willing to go back out in the pouring rain for more (he didn’t have enough hands to get some with the food). Izzy enjoyed some sort of bread/cake and a cookie for lunch, followed by a hot dog and some chips:



Given all the food was free (included in the cruise) and Dug had run off to get food before the line got longer, so hadn’t asked what I wanted, I think he just got me some of everything:



I believe this plate contains a spicy chicken sandwich, a cheeseburger, coleslaw, potato salad, corn, and maybe some BBQ chicken or ribs or something? I sampled everything and also ended up eating some of Izzy’s leftover hot dog. Oh, and here’s Dug’s plate of BBQ and slaw:



The food was good enough, but we were pretty bummed watching the downpour go on and on and on. I mean, we’d really only had about an hour to enjoy the beach and splash pad. And Izzy was due in the nursery on the ship from 1-5pm. We had set that up in advance with the plan of dropping her off there to nap while we got back off and went to Serenity Bay, the adult only part of Castaway Cay.

Once we finished our lunch and the rain let up a bit, we headed back to the tram and the ship and dropped Izzy off at the nursery. Spoiler alert: she didn’t nap there. Again. Dug and I debated our next move after dropping her off. Neither of us was really inclined to get back off the ship, as it was still raining. So, we decided to cut our losses on Castaway and just stay onboard to enjoy the Dream and do some laundry. Exciting, I know. Ironically, the afternoon did clear up and was fairly nice once it did. Oh, well, can’t win ‘em all. So, yeah, we didn’t have a lot of non-rain time on Castaway Cay and this is something I’d like to rectify if we take another Disney cruise sometime. On the bright side, neither of us are big lounging-on-the-beach people, so we weren’t TOO heartbroken vs. those DIS-ers who take the cruise only as a means of visiting Castaway Cay. I mean, I did have to give up my daydream of sitting on a chair in the shallow water of the adult beach with an adult beverage in my hand , but we had a pleasant enough afternoon on the Dream.

Up next: Our pleasant afternoon.

 

[Dugette]

Living the Dream

So, we got back on the ship after our rainy lunch at Castaway Cay and brought Izzy to the nursery. Though she didn’t nap as we’d planned, she did have a great time playing – so much so that she didn’t want to leave when we went to get her later.

After dropping her off there, I must have stopped up to the pool deck to refill my cup with Diet Coke, since I know I was carrying one around later when I did laundry. I also made a stop at the Midship Detective Agency kiosk to pick up a mission for us to do. This is the interactive game aboard the Dream where pictures come to life and give you clues to find out “who dun it.” I probably picked this up right after dropping her off, as it’s right by the nursery.

When I got back to the room, I saw we had Pirate Night stuff laid out for us:



Those are the bandanas they give to everyone.

I checked the laundry room on our floor first and it only had two washers in it – one of which was in use and the other had a load of wet clothes sitting in it.



I chose to head back to the room and wait about 15 minutes, then check back to see if they had opened up. However, it was still the same when I came back, so I decided to check out other laundry options. We were on floor 8 and I ended up finding a nice, big laundry room 5th deck aft with 5 washers! In case you are wondering, I was feeling rather clever, as I’d put all of our dirty clothes in a rolling carry-on bag to easily transport to and from the laundry room. It was about 2:40pm by now.

I put my laundry in a washer(s?) and then went to the payment machine. When I tried to use it, the machine indicated that my washer was busy and couldn’t be used. Maybe I was supposed to pay and then put the clothes in? I don’t know. I ended up switching to another machine and that worked. I also had to buy some detergent at the machine. You pay with your key card and my swipes kept generating error messages. Eventually, the card worked and the wash was in progress. I just remember getting annoyed and frustrated that it felt so clunky. I made a note of when the laundry would be done, then headed back to our stateroom for a bit.

It had gotten nicer outside, so we took to the balcony for a break. I noticed that they were cleaning the lifeboats down below us:



We opened up a bottle of wine that we’d brought and pulled out that other Fish Extender cookie to share:







We enjoyed the lovely view (yes, of course it was gorgeous out now! ) and watched some parasailing:





We saw Stitch come out and do a meet and greet on the dock. I have no idea if he’s in this picture, but maybe :



About 3:20pm, I headed back to deck 5 to switch our laundry into dryers, for which the payment machine worked just fine. This must be floor 5’s laundry room:



After that was done, we started our detective work on the Mystery of the Missing Puppies. The 101 Dalmatian puppies had gone missing! I have some various pictures from along our journey around the ship. These two pictures had a cannonball battle with each other:



I managed to catch a bit of the aftermath on video:

(click to watch)

You hold your game card in front of the pictures to make various things happen, sometimes having to move it in a certain way. Here we are getting one of our clues:

(click to watch)

Ooooh, looks like we found some puppies:



This game took us all over the ship, so we ended up passing through Cabanas at one point. There was a Make a Wish group in there with Mickey having cookies and milk, which was pretty neat:



We also passed by the splash pad and I took a picture of the random unconnected corner tile that was really annoying me the other day:



Pool deck was a nice place to be:



We noticed that the Donald pool was open now, as it was covered up the previous day.

While we were on deck, I must have decided to try out the free ice cream:



I believe that was a strawberry and banana twist. (And check out my very impressive ice cream twirling skills…I could have made it taller, but didn’t want TOO much – we had Palo dinner coming up that night!)

I have no idea where or when these pictures were taken, so I’ll just throw them in right here, though they may have been from when we got back to the room:





Pretty, pretty ocean!

We passed this picture of the stars from my favorite Disney movie, so had to get a selfie:



And one with Mickey too apparently:



Awww, look, it’s Walt and Bambi:



I think this was my attempt at an artistic shot :



They were cleaning the deck:



I guess Castaway day is cleaning day for the Dream crew!

The grand staircase:



We ended up completing our mission and finding the missing puppies around 4pm:



I have some video of that too, if you don’t mind spoilers :

(click to watch)

The game was a lot of fun. I’m glad we did it without Izzy at that point, as she was 2.5 and would not have had the patience or understanding for it to be particularly fun. NOW, at almost 4, I think she’d get a kick out of it, though.

After that, Dug went and sat near the coffee bar while I went back to get our laundry. I brought it all back to the room and laid things out/rolled things up, etc. I also grabbed Dug’s coffee punch card (I think it was like buy 5 get one free or something like that?) and our Disney Visa – so we could go to the onboard booking desk. I think Dug got a coffee to bring with him to that.

There was a long line for Pirate Mickey forming near where Dug was waiting and I happened to catch my favorite stalker shot ever of Mickey walking by to get to his spot:



I know he’s blurry, but he’s looking right at me!

We noticed down below that there was a big game going on that might make you nostalgic for your childhood:



If you know this game as Duck, Duck, Goose – you are NOT a Minnesotan. We take our Duck, Duck, Gray Duck VERY seriously here. Really, even Buzzfeed agrees:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/katieheaney/youve-been-playing-duck-duck-goose-wrong-your-whole-life?utm_term=.klmPPNenJq#.wp3VVNQnwx

I noticed that this Disney Dream game is actually doing it’s own version that is apparently Quack, Quack, Honk:

(click to watch)

At any rate, at about 4:40pm we got to the Future Cruise Booking desk and sat down with a CM. I have to say, we picked the right time to do this. Not crowded. Later, and the last day of the cruise especially, I noticed long lines here! So, be strategic about when you go here if you intend to book another cruise while onboard.

The reason we chose to do this was because of the onboard booking discounts. We really didn’t know if we’d be taking another cruise, but can’t hurt to book. All we had to do was put down a deposit (20%, I think, and 10% for a 7-night+) and using the Disney Visa made it interest free as well (for 6 months). The incentives were a 10% fare discount and $100 onboard credit for the next cruise (more onboard credit for a longer cruise). Can change or cancel the reservation, but your next cruise has to take place within a certain time period. For us, it was two years (so, by May 2017), but I think that policy might have changed? Sorry, not sure. Because we had no idea if we’d take another cruise in the next two years, we just booked the same cruise we were on (same room category and everything) for December 2016. A "Very Merrytime" cruise, which sounds fun.

Well, spoiler alert, we hung onto it for a long time even though we knew we weren’t likely to take it. Especially since we booked a WDW trip overlapping it (with @Imagineer5 ). So, a couple weeks ago, I finally called and was going to cancel it entirely to make sure we were clear of the full refund window, but the CM talked me into just pushing it back to the end of our 2-year cruising window just in case, to maintain the discount. So, in order to keep the price point the same (since we’re not as far out), we booked a 3-night Bahamian instead of 4, again on the Dream in the same type of room. Again, we have no intention of taking this, but we’ll hang onto it throughout the full refund period (February). I don’t expect us to take another Disney Cruise by May, so it will likely be cancelled. I hate that you lose the discount after 2 years, though. I mean, I want to take another Disney Cruise someday, but within 2 years is really not feasible without giving up other travel we want to do. Plus, I’d like to do a different non-Bahamian cruise (maybe Alaska?) when we go again – and that will be more expensive, so that 10% off would be so nice! Not to mention the onboard credit. Oh, well. If we come into enough extra money between now and May to do it, at least we still have the discount. And then we can rebook an Alaska cruise for 2019. Or something.

After that fun, we had to go pick Izzy up around 5pm:



For Pirate Night, they had done face painting and temporary tattoos in the nursery (which she did not want washed off for several days, so get used to them ).

Up next: A surprise character meet! And Pirate Night dinner!

 

[Dugette]

Pirate Night Dinner

We got Izzy from the nursery, but it took about 5 minutes to get her out of there, as she didn’t want to leave. That delay proved worthwhile, though, because as we walked away, we happened upon an unscheduled meet with Pirate Stitch and almost nobody was there! Score! Two families later, it was our turn:







And the video. There’s some confusion at the beginning because the family before us walked away and then turned back to take a picture of Stitch by himself, which I wasn’t expecting:

(click to watch)

She had a good time with Stitch, but when I asked her about it later, she brought up the Chip and Dale meet then – I guess she REALLY liked them! (and you will see more of them on the WDW part of the trip that’s coming up ).

About 5:40pm, we headed back to the room for a bit. I think Izzy watched some TV:



She also came out to the balcony to steal the ice from my cup:





Can’t be mad at a thief that cute! She was obsessed with eating ice on this trip.

I think Izzy spent most of our time in the room playing with the little hanger part for her portable potty seat (the hook to hang it up) and using it to “catch” things, like it was a fishing pole. Maybe I should have given those as Fish Extender gifts for the toddlers. She also got really upset when we had to leave for dinner before she finished watching her episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Our stateroom attendant happened to be nearby as we left and he consoled her with a chocolate coin, which worked wonders for her mood!

Dug wore his pirate bandana (and pirate shirt):



Then we headed to the dining room. We were at Royal Palace again, just like the night before. Since there are three dining rooms and this was a 4 night cruise, they repeat one of them on Pirate Night. This is part of why we booked Palo that evening – it’s a repeat dining room and many people feel it’s the weakest dinner menu as well (same menu in all dining rooms for Pirate Night). Our plan was to bring Izzy to dinner, have some appetizers ourselves, then have our Palo dinner a bit later. So, we took our table in the dining room:



Looks like they had pirate hats for the kids:



Our table-mates didn’t come to dinner this night:



We ran into them later, though, and found out they had dinner at Cabanas and they served the same Pirate Night menu there. Good to know. Nice option if you feel like a more casual dinner, I guess. They enjoyed it.

I think I was impressed with how many platters those waiters can carry on one tray without dropping them :



They offered special kids light-up cups for Pirate Night and we decided to get Izzy one:



Here she is playing with it (and I apparently tried to get us in the pirate mood with some Yo Ho…oh, funny story – so, Izzy and her daycare crew take walks sometimes and the daycare provider lets the kids pick the songs they listen to while they walk. She told me that Izzy always picks Yo Ho on her turn and she said they must be a sight to see, a bunch of kids walking down the street singing Yo Ho ):

(click to watch)

So, the milk cup was neat, but it was a fairly cheap plastic cup. When we got home, we used it for dinner one night and left it on the counter while we got Izzy to bed. When I came back to empty it, the milk had leaked into the battery compartment and the thing was dead. But fun while it lasted, I guess.

Our carriage basket was filled with bread:



Which, once again, Izzy used to deliver her butter:



I think Dug and I each ordered two of the appetizers. I believe his first one is Pearls of the Caribbean – Crabmeat, Shrimp, and Salmon mixed in Pearls of Couscous with Lemon Grass infused Vinaigrette:



His other appetizer appears to be Black Beard’s Jumbo Crab Cake – with a Golden Raisin-Carrot and Coconut Slaw served with a spicy Calypso Dressing:



Hmmmm, looks like he got a soup too. I am guessing this is the Caribbean-style Conch Chowder – with Sherry, Sweet Peppers, Onions, Tomatoes, Thyme and garnished with diced Potatoes and crispy Bacon Bits:



I think he must have also ordered a small dish of Scallops, as he loves them and they were part of one of the entrees offered:



I just got two appetizers, hoping to save plenty of room for Palo. The first was the Pirates Golden “Pot Stickers” – Oriental Pork “Dumplings” deep fried and served with a Tamarind-Ginger Soy Sauce and Pickled Vegetables:



I also got the one I’ve heard the most good reviews about, which was The Buccaneer’s Sun-Ripened Pineapple – fresh island Pineapple with a Coconut covered Banana and Orange Glaze:



I believe everything was pretty tasty. I’m sure it will come as a surprise to nobody that Izzy once again ordered mac and cheese for dinner:



She actually did eat a lot of it this night, though!

As you may be able to see in the pictures, I completely forgot to put Izzy in her Jake and the Neverland Pirates shirt I’d bought her for Pirate Night. Oops. Ironically, she wore it today! (yes, still fits, as it was big at the time) She was pretty attached to Swimming Kitty that day anyway, though, so probably best not to mess with her shirt.

Our waiter was a lot of fun again. When we arrived, he gave Izzy a paper bird that “flies” (and, no, I don’t remember what that entails, but that’s what my notes say! ) At the end of our abbreviated meal, he played some games with the blinking light on the bottom of the cup – pretending to put it in Izzy mouth, etc. You can get the gist of it in this little video clip of his magic tricks:

(click to watch)

We really enjoyed the effort he put into entertaining the kids.

We headed back to the room briefly after dinner. It was interesting to see people decked out for pirate night all over the ship. That’s one thing that makes me want to take another cruise – sometime after this cruise, I found Izzy a fantastic homemade pirate costume at a consignment sale and I’d love to have her wear it on Pirate Night. We’ll see. At any rate, there were some people that really got into the costumes, which was fun to watch. I also saw one girl drop a pirate earring down the elevator shaft on accident. Ooops.

We spent a few moments enjoying the glorious view of the ocean from our balcony:







Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

Up next: A pirate party and Palo!

 

[kateandy08096]

Great TR so far! We are cruising the dream Nov 2017 with a 17 month old for our first ever cruise. Cant wait to read the rest of your report

 

[Dugette]

Great TR so far! We are cruising the dream Nov 2017 with a 17 month old for our first ever cruise. Cant wait to read the rest of your report

Thank you! Wow, you must have a pretty little baby right now! I hope you have a wonderful cruise! I've always thought a cruise (especially a Disney cruise) is a great trip to take with a baby/toddler because your room follows you everywhere and it's easy to escape for some downtime/naptime, etc. But you still get to go places and see things and be entertained and dine out...I love it!

 

[Dugette]

Pirate Party

Dug and I got changed (“dressed up”) for our dinner at Palo. My PTR followers helped me to decide on this old dress I had (holding Izzy's nursery bag, in case you're wondering, not carrying a Winnie the Pooh purse ):



And, yes, there is a ton of stuff from the Fish Extenders on that counter…we didn’t bring all those snacks and stuff ourselves.

We packed a small bag for Izzy’s evening at the nursery (as seen above) and then headed up to the pool deck area to watch the little pirate night show with the characters. There is another “main” pirate night show later that we’d likely miss while at Palo, but we were okay with that, knowing that Izzy would be much more interested in the one that included Minnie.

The crew was starting to gather as the 7:45pm start time drew near (we went up to the rail of deck 12, above the pool deck):





Waiting for the show to start:





Dug apparently was into artsy waterslide/sunset shots:



Soon enough, the action started. I didn’t take a single photo, because Dug took about 700 (okay, not quite ), so here’s a selection that will give you a pretty good overview of the show:





I think this guy and other CMs played some part or led some games? I don’t really remember:



Izzy wanted to be held most of the time (while she held Birdie):



























A very brief video clip:

(click to watch)

Uh, this doesn’t look good :



But, you know, there was a patented Disney happy ending and we all went on our merry little ways. And Dug got one more artsy shot of the waterslide:



The show was fun, but nothing terribly memorable. Lots of singing and dancing and people had a good time, though. There was a couple next to us without kids that was just having a blast, which was really cute. Izzy enjoyed it and danced around a bit when I wasn’t holding her (and kept scaring me by dangling Birdie between the deck rails! ) Glad we checked out the show, but nothing to plan a cruise around.

After that, we headed back to the nursery to drop Izzy off. Despite the fact that she had so much fun earlier that she didn’t want to leave, she wasn’t at all excited to go back. She went along with it anyway, though. As we arrived (around 8pm), the kids were all starting to wind down and Izzy actually followed suit. And this is where my notes come in handy and you can see how poor my memory is after all this time: I was thinking she never napped in the nursery, but she actually slept at the nursery this evening! I think this was the only time she did actually fall asleep there, but she slept almost the whole time she was there that evening. Nothing like a little peer pressure (other kids going to sleep) to persuade her, I guess. Yay for sleep!

We checked in at Palo right on time at 8:30pm. We waited to be seated in Meridian, the same lounge we’d gotten a drink from the night before. We both took a couple pictures. Dug’s photos:





And mine:





Clearly, we both were fascinated by the luggage booths.

We were soon led inside to our table:









A violinist was serenading the room :



Up next: Palo presents our dinner!

 

[Leslie Ann Eastland]

Date Night

We chose to get drinks at Meridian (just outside Palo), as there was outdoor seating available and the options sounded good. The bar:



Menu:






I took a picture of those cool booth cushions that Dug pointed out to me:



I think that Dug got bourbon:




I wish I could tell you what mine is, but I’m not sure:




I want to say maybe the Crème Brulee Martini, but that raspberry is throwing me off and making me think maybe the Latitude 46.5? Beats me. We both enjoyed our drinks, though. It was about 10pm and the outdoor deck was very pleasant and quiet, but it was too dark to really see much (if you leaned over the deck, you could see water, but not from the table):



After just sipping and chatting and enjoying the toddler-free time, we wandered a bit more. Checked out the mini golf course, which we never did have a chance to play:






Also checked out the Aquaduck at night:



A few people were still swimming while Frozen was on the big screen:





Since we didn’t have Izzy, we ventured up here (adults only area):



Looks pretty nice:



We never did get there to swim, though.

Looks like we popped into the Cove Café to check out the offerings:



Our spontaneous moment came when we realized we could get free pizza to eat while we wandered :



Something about late night free (and tasty) pizza while riding a cruise ship elevator struck us as particularly fun (maybe it was the drinks? )

After that, we picked up Izzy at the nursery. She did not sleep. I think they tried, but she wasn’t cooperative. Spoiler alert: she never slept in the nursery, despite the cribs and prime sleeping times. Guess that was a theme for this trip – overtired kiddo! She was in good spirits, though:



A brief video clip of her driving the boat:

(click to watch)

We arrived back to EVEN MORE amazing Fish Extender gifts waiting for us! I don’t know if this is normal or if our group was extremely generous and thoughtful, but I sure felt spoiled! We all shared this fantastic cookie for a late-night snack (and we saved the matching one for later):



I’m going to say someone in our group was from Maine (people often bring things unique to their area):



There was a ton of other stuff too, but those were the only pictures I took.

Izzy had a good time playing in the bed, which was made up with rails for her:



However, she wanted to sleep in the pack ‘n’ play again.

Around 11pm, she was still lively and walking around the room in everyone’s shoes:



Yes, her sleep schedule was really messed up on this trip!

Dug decided to run out quick and do the Aquaduck, as it would be closing for the night soon. After he got back, we got Izzy to bed and I decided to go deliver some more of our Fish Extender gifts:



I went back to my Pre-Trip Report to find some details and pictures of what we passed out and here’s a copy/paste of that section:


Backtracking a bit to yesterday, I picked up the candy for the Fish Extenders, which meant I had everything except the Mickey straws that I’m getting at WDW. So, time to assemble them! (If any of Group Mickey is lurking, shut your eyes now! ) Because I’m me, I had to start with a spreadsheet that told me what goes to who:



(I noticed we have a lot of people on deck 5, some even seem to be next door to each other!) Then I pulled all the bags from the closet where I’d been stashing them. Man, there were a lot of them (piled high in the high chair - notice Bailey's cameo ):



Looked a bit less intimidating when I took things out of bags and organized it:



Oh, I forgot to mention, I also found little treat bags at Party City that I thought would be nice to put the toddler items in:



I worked and worked and bagged and labeled and eventually ended up with this:



Close-ups:





Leftover candy and other goodies for Izzy:



I am thinking all of this will take up the majority of a carry-on sized bag. I mean, it fills this diaper box pretty well:



I tried to get mostly “small” things, but it adds up. I don’t know how some groups do like 50 cabins. I mean, ours is 13. We’re still waiting on our actual Fish Extender, which is why you haven’t seen a picture of it yet. I’ve been freaking out a bit, since we are so close, but the lady making it (Etsy) assured me I’d have it. It looks like it’s going to ship tomorrow and she uses 2-day priority mail. Whew, cutting it close! I just hope it arrives in time and we like it!



Back to the TR now! So, I passed out some more gifts and admired a Star Wars Fish Extender:





Here you can see how I had to put things on the floor by these two cabins:



Too much stuff to fit in the pockets!

I headed back to the room about 11:45pm to rest up for our next day at Castway Cay.

Up next: The island is calling!

Wow this was awesome!!

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Pirate Night Dinner


I think Dug and I each ordered two of the appetizers. I believe his first one is Pearls of the Caribbean – Crabmeat, Shrimp, and Salmon mixed in Pearls of Couscous with Lemon Grass infused Vinaigrette:

that's the black eyed pea thing they serve with the bread, not an appetizer (so he probably did only have 2 - the crab cake and the soup).

Great review and you have an adorable little one.