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

[Dugette]

Wow this was awesome!!

Thank you!

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).

Oh, good to know! I couldn't find that on the online menus. Thanks!

Great review and you have an adorable little one.

Thanks so much!

 

[Dugette]

Dinner at Palo

We had just been seated at our table in Palo and our waiter came over to introduce himself. His name was David and he was from Hungary, plus he turned out to be a really great waiter and a nice guy! (Also, I remembered what country he was from with my lame joke about being NOT hungry after a meal at Palo ).

Right in front of us, he made up an antipasti platter, which was great. He also brought out a bread basket and water:





For my appetizer, I was debating between the caprese and the tuscan bean soup. I love caprese, but I do make it at home sometimes, so wasn’t sure if I should get something at Palo that I can make at home. But David highly recommended it, so I ordered it anyway. And it was super tasty! Better than the one I make, even! Drizzled with balsamic vinegar:



Sorry for my dark and creepy pictures of dinner. Dug’s are much better and I’ll mostly post his, if possible. Speaking of these pictures, early on in our meal Dug said he heard a guy at the table behind us say, “He’s taking pictures of his food!! Just enjoy it!!” I guess he doesn’t have a trip report to write. Dug told me this as the guy was away from his table for a few minutes. Wish I’d known he was talking about us, because I totally would have taken a picture of him at the table behind us. As Dug finished telling me about this, he said something like, “Mind your own business!” Just as the guy was walking by. Not sure if he heard it and no further incidents (I think they were on their way out).

Looks like Dug got this calamari appetizer:



They brought out some sort of palate cleanser:



We also ordered wine, not sure if there are pictures, but you know what that looks like.

For his entrée, Dug ordered the lamb shank:



And apparently got some sort of seafood-y side, not sure what this is:



I got the beef tenderloin entrée:



It melted in my mouth!

And a side of asparagus gnocchi:



We loved everything. It was all SOOOOOO good. We didn’t ever want to stop eating.

But, once that food was sadly gone, we thankfully still had amazing desserts to consume. Of course, we got the legendary Chocolate Souffle:





We also got another dessert to share. I can’t seem to find it on the online menus and can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was good and topped with a mini cannoli (and I think filled with chocolate and cherries):





Both desserts were scrumptious!

David brought out a small after dinner drink that was a lemon and apple combo of sorts, I think:



Looks like Dug then ordered a limoncello drink and some coffee:



I want to say that I may have gotten a hot chocolate, but there is no photographic evidence of that, nor notes, so maybe I am making it up.

We loved dinner at Palo! Both the food and the service were outstanding. In fact, we enjoyed it more than the brunch (still coming up in the report). Funny, because I always hear so much raving about the brunch and very little about the dinner. Except for one person on our cruise meet/FE thread who couldn’t recommend the dinner highly enough – he was right. We’d do it again in a heartbeat. (I think part of our dinner preference was that we didn't have to keep getting up and going to a buffet...it was nice to just DINE. I guess we don't do enough of that these days with a little girl in tow.)

So, once we finished, we rolled on out of there. Went through Cabanas and noticed the birds:



Mine, mine, mine!

We walked out on the pool deck around 10:30pm and realized we had time to see the pirate show and fireworks. We found a spot and tried to enjoy things. However, I was distracted by some guys that seemed to be flirting with a girl near us. It was weird and involved a lot of swearing and selfies. Despite that, we had a surprisingly good view of the fireworks from our latecomer spot. Here’s a bunch of pics and video:









(click to watch)





We headed back to our stateroom after the show. There was something waiting for us (and our navigators and chocolate coins too):



I was uncomfortably full to the point I needed my asthma inhaler to breathe normally (I know, weird). Also, my stomach had blown up to the point that it looked like I was about 5+ months pregnant (no, I wasn’t! ):



That’s a Palo belly.

It was back to more-or-less normal in the morning, in case you are wondering (and this sort of thing is not unheard of for me, so I wasn't concerned):



It was around 11pm and we changed and then just rested in the room until we had to go pick up Izzy at the prescheduled 11:30pm time.

Izzy was sleeping at pick up and went right back down to sleep in the room, no issues. We were all wiped out and immediately hit the hay.

Up next: A day at sea.

 

[Dugette]

Palo Brunch

We had considered taking Izzy to the “Wake Up with Disney Junior” event at 8:30am this morning, but we ended up deciding to sleep in until about then instead. Something to do next time, I guess!

I put Izzy in her pirate Jake shirt this day, since I’d forgotten to put it on her the previous night for Pirate Night :



Dug and I had Palo’s Brunch reserved this morning and Izzy would be heading back to the nursery. We weren’t sure if we needed to run to Cabana’s to get her some breakfast, so we put in a call to the nursery. Turns out they had bananas, yogurt, etc. and we could send along her thermos of milk for breakfast. Perfect!

Izzy, however, said she “didn’t need to have fun” this morning and wasn’t excited to go back to the nursery. But we headed out anyway. On the way, we saw Princess Minnie out doing meet and greets (sorry for the blurriness):



Dug went straight to Palo and I brought Izzy to the nursery and checked her in:



As you can see, she insisted on bringing Birdie along. And Birdie had some friends there:



She was checked in at 9:54am, still claiming she “didn’t need to play”:



In case you are worried, she ended up having fun and playing after all.

As I walked past the Kids Club (3 and up), I noticed they had Magic Band scanners, just like in the parks:



At the nursery, they just used a handheld scanner on their bands. Because, really, can you imagine trying to get babies to scan their Magic Bands on a fixed post?

I met up with Dug in Meridian and we waited only a moment before David, our waiter from the previous night, came to escort us inside. He showed us that we had the same table as we had at dinner, then led us over to the buffet. He showed us around and then let us go to town.

We filled our first plates and David carried them to the table for us. He also brought out a mimosa for me and sparkling wine for Dug (he gave us the choice).

This was my first plate. Notice I have a sweet tooth but have balanced the plate with some veggies :



And the drinks:



Looks like Dug started with this (yeah, less chocolate than mine…):



And it appears he got some caprese?



It had been dark the night before, so we didn’t know what the view from our table looked like until brunch:



Nice!

David mentioned that we could see Freeport (in the Bahamas) and that the Dream would be spending a few weeks in dry dock there soon, as it was 5 years old and needed some checks. He said he’d be staying on and was excited to see the ship empty, see the bottom, etc. I’m not sure if this is Freeport in the background, but could be:



Soon, I headed up to the buffet for seconds:



Yep, more chocolate. Plus some of those fun colored cheeses and some meats.

We also were able to order freshly-made hot dishes. I went with the tried-and-true DIS recommendations and ordered Chicken Parmesan and a pizza to split, half grape/gorgonzola (of DIS legend) and half spicy Italian sausage.

This chicken parm was insanely good:



I can’t really explain it. I’m not even a big chicken parm fan. But Dug tried it too and agreed it was amazing.

We also enjoyed both types of pizza:



The grape/gorgonzola was good, but nothing I’d rush back for. However, I know it has a loyal following, despite being an odd-sounding combination.

The view continued to be lovely:



Dug ordered an open-faced frittata (though there was some poor labeling on the buffet display and he called it by whatever name it appeared to be labeled with at first, but they straightened things out and got him the right one):



He also got Oysters Rockefeller:



I seem to be enjoying my chocolates:



And he was also entranced by the view, it appears:



And another shot of the pizza:



I don’t think we managed to finish that.

But Dug still had room for coffee and some dessert (I’d eaten mine before the entrée, as you saw)





However, he was kind enough to grab me seconds on my favorite little Nutella cup:



Yummy!

As we finished up, David came by to explain how things would work the next morning, as the cruise was coming to an end. He said that he would be in Cabanas and it was open from 6:30-8:30am before disembarking by 9:15am. We also knew that we could go to a dining room with our regular wait staff, but there was some appeal in just grabbing some things off the buffet at our leisure before heading off, so we decided we’d probably do that.

As you can see, we definitely enjoyed our brunch, but it just had a different vibe than dinner. More brunch-y, less date-like, I guess. Still great service – David was fantastic! We left just after 11:30am, so about 1.5 hours total.

We stopped into the restrooms, then headed up a deck to check out the Goofy Golf. We’d considered playing while Izzy was in the nursery, but it seemed pretty crowded, so we decided to check out the shops instead.

I’m not sure where this was, but probably near Goofy Golf:



And on the elevator, I had to capture Star Wars Day at Sea:



Anyway, we perused things in the shops. I thought these slanted smokestack glasses were pretty cool:



We were really looking for a Christmas ornament, though. We generally get at least one to commemorate each of our trips. I thought this one was super adorable (though maybe a little bit creepy?):



But we ended up getting this one:



I’d been considering getting the Chip and Dale cruise plush animals for Izzy, since she loved them so much this trip, but got the ornament instead, as it was so appropriate.

I think we then headed towards the main atrium. I’m not sure why I took this picture, but I love that babies can hang out at the bar on a Disney cruise :



Looks like I found myself in a porthole at some point:



Dug stopped into the restroom and I realized I was near a throne of a different sort, so had to take a princess selfie:



I actually had to wait a while to do that, as a family was taking forever getting all of their pictures there just perfect. Luckily, Dug soon returned and was able to get a non-selfie picture for me:



So, I got one of him too:



He looks thrilled. Or regal? I’m not sure.

Up next: Peeking in on the farewell party and downtime in the room before Mixology!

 

[Dugette]

Character Party

After testing out the throne, we headed up to Deck 4 to check out the character dance party that was starting on Deck 3 at 12:15pm. This was the crowd on Deck 3:



Easier to see from Deck 4, so that's where we went:



There was some music playing and this family below us (very bottom of the picture) was really getting into it:



I was creepy and took a snip of video, as I loved watching the dad and his two kids having such a great time together:

(click to watch)

Soon enough, the characters began appearing and making their way down the grand staircase:











I have some video of the characters coming out and then dancing to YMCA:

(click to watch)

Izzy would have enjoyed seeing the characters appear and the dance party that followed, but I’m sure she’d have to be restrained or pried off of Minnie. You can see Minnie down in there (along with other characters):



As we took the elevator back up to our floor, we could see more of the party. I got some video of that unique view (and at the end, you can see some of the character art in the elevator shaft):

(click to watch)

When we arrived back at our stateroom, we were greeted by departure information and luggage tags :



Earlier that day, we had also received Tomorrowland flyers on our Fish:



Yes, that was a new movie at the time.

We got changed into more comfy clothes for the rest of the day, then I headed out at 12:30pm to get Izzy from the nursery:



Just happy to be walking around the Disney Dream.

I headed into the It’s a Small World Nursery and here’s a glimpse of it:



Izzy was eating lunch when I arrived, but they happily packed it up for her to bring back to the room (they provided the lunch, by the way). The CM said she’d been great, went potty, was happy to eat, played nicely with others and a real pleasure. Not bad for a kid that “didn’t need to have fun.”

She wanted to drive the boat again before we left:



I got her to head out with the promise of possibly catching some of the character dance party. We did indeed catch a bit of the party and Izzy enjoyed watching from near the elevators on Deck 3, while munching on her lunch leftovers, as the characters ascended the staircase to Deck 4.

When we got back to the room, I showed Izzy that we’d received a container of bubbles in our Fish Extender. She was excited about that, so we took them out to the balcony, along with leftover lunch, and enjoyed the outdoors for a bit:



That blue water is so gorgeous :



Around 1pm, I brought Izzy back inside and she drank some more milk, then wanted to try to use the potty. Naturally, this did not result in anything.

We ended up hanging out in the room and singing a bunch of rounds of "Yo Ho" and goofing around. I got some silliness on video:

(click to watch)

(click to watch)

She also enjoyed making goofy faces and cracking herself up:

(click to watch)

We had a good time playing around together:



Around 1:30pm, we convinced her to put on a naptime diaper in exchange for a chocolate coin. She wanted to read Darth Vader and Friends before nap (we’d brought it along), so we did that. Then she wanted to read her other Darth Vader book on her own:



By then, it was about 1:45pm and time for her to get down for a nap, as she was due back in the nursery in a couple hours so that we could attend the 4pm Mixology class with other DIS-ers.

After getting her down in the pack ‘n' play, I was hoping to sit out on the balcony and make notes on our trip while watching the ocean go by. However, I ended up sitting on the couch in the dark instead, since Izzy wanted me there and Dug was napping, so couldn’t help with her. About 30 minutes later, she was finally asleep and I was able to sneak out onto the balcony and work on my notes. I was happy to get some downtime out here:



I was also thrilled that she was actually getting a nap this day.

About an hour later, feeling good about having updated notes (that are currently VERY useful! ), I snuck inside and went up to the pool deck to refill my cup with Diet Coke. I think I probably enjoyed walking around the ship and sipping that a bit before heading back to get Izzy up from her nap and back to the nursery.

Up next: Our DIS Mixology class (aka – can we all pick up our kids from the kids clubs afterwards without falling down?)

 

[Dugette]

DIS Mixology

After enjoying some quiet time during Izzy’s nap, I had her up and ready to go to the nursery at 3:41pm. After dropping her off, we headed up to the Skyline Bar for our 4pm Mixology class. This class was made up of other DISboards members – it had been arranged in the same thread where we coordinated our Fish Extender groups. Turned out to be a great group!

On our way:



We went inside and grabbed a seat, admiring the Skyline:





I guess this next one was on the wall? Oh, Dug just told me that Tinkerbell sometimes appears in it , so it's a magic picture:



Soon enough, our whole group had gathered (11 people, I believe). We had a great CM leading our class, he was very entertaining:



He basically showed us how to make each drink, then let us do a lot of the work to make our own drinks. We made 5 different drinks each. Since I barely remember a thing, I am very grateful that Dug actually took good notes on the drinks. So, I can tell you that the first drink was this:

Capriosca
- packet of sugar
- ice
- absolut vodka
- three muddled limes

I remember muddling limes, kinda fun. Apparently, neither of us was very on the ball for taking pictures of this first one. The best I can do is tell you to look at the glasses in the background of this shot :



I think this one was okay. Not really my favorite kinda thing, but decent. Dug just told me he really liked it.

Next up was probably the biggest hit with our group:

Blue Hawaiian
- Malibu
- Pineapple rum
- pineapple juice
- blue curaçao



Yummy!

Next up was this one:

Abc shot
- amaretto
- bailey's
- cognac

In progress:



Complete:



I don’t remember much about this one. Probably good, though.

We weren’t allocated a lot of time to savor these, however, so on to drink #4:

The Angel
- Dutch caramel vodka
- midori
- bit of agave
- minute maid cranberry

Really fun to see this one turn into a rainbow :







Though the colors didn’t stay in a rainbow for long:



Again, probably decently good, not that anyone would have even noticed by that point…these were all strong drinks (and I seldom have more than 1 drink at a time).

And then we were on to drink #5, our last one:

100 Years Wartini
- St Germain
- Beefeater gin
- Sweet and sour mix
- agave



I was running quite a backlog of unfinished drinks at this point:



You can see that I was enjoying the Blue Hawaiian the most.

Meanwhile, we were all having a great time that just got progressively more fun as our class went on. We were all very chatty and talked a lot about our cruise experiences and such. I remember one couple was doing this 4-nighter back-to-back with a 3-nighter (staying in the same cabin, just had to get off and back on), since it was cheaper than a 7-nighter and would give them two days at Castaway Cay. Smart idea! I also remember talking to Mamadragona a bit, as I felt like I "knew" her a little more, since she was also participating in the Star Wars Weekends planning thread that I followed. In general, I just remember this being really fun, but would be hard pressed to provide you with many details.

At the end of the class, we got a group picture. Well, a couple – and neither of ours are very good, so here’s both:





Really fun group and this was a great experience. Especially for like $20/person or whatever it was. I’d do it again in a second.

Leaving that class was interesting. Again, I seldom have more than 1 drink at a time. And I’d venture to say that 5 drinks was a lot for everyone in the class. So, here we all are, barely able to walk straight, but many of us were off to pick up our kids from the clubs. The whole thing just struck me as hilarious – trying to act like we are responsible parents picking our kids up, but really just hoping we don’t fall over.

On the way there, we admired the lovely chandelier again:



Looks like there was also some entertainment down in the atrium.

And we saw that Captain Mickey was doing meet and greets:



No, we didn’t stop. It was 5:23pm by then and we needed to get Izzy and prepare for dinner and tomorrow’s departure. We apparently came across as together enough to pick her up, then we all headed back to the stateroom.

Once again, we found more Fish Extender items, this time presumably from a neighbor in the Dakotas:



We worked a bit on packing up our bags, as we would need to set them outside our door later that night to be collected for departure.

Up next: Dinner at Animator’s Palate and a visit from Crush!

 

[Dugette]

Animator’s Palate Dinner with Crush

After some packing, we made our way to our final dinner on the Dream: Animator’s Palate. We were feeling a little bit more "normal" now, though I’m sure we were still feeling some effects of Mixology. Once again, we joined our tablemates and had a nice time discussing the fun we’d had aboard the ship.

As usual, Izzy dug into the butter:



Not enough butter on this bread, time for more :



This dining room has large screens everywhere and they use them to make you feel like you’re under the sea:







We were seated right by one of the screens. You’ll see the benefit of this in a bit.

But, first, a dining room selfie/we-sie:



Izzy washed her butter down with some milk:



Nobody can accuse this girl of not getting enough dairy.

Okay, so actually knowing what our food pictures are has proven to be difficult 1.5 years later. My advice to aspiring trip reporters: take a picture of your menus! At any rate, I’ve found a menu online that may or may not be the same as what we had. So, this appetizer seems like it might be: Sliced Serrano Ham – with Manchego Cheese and Olive Tapanade:



I don’t see any cheese, though. (Maybe I ate it?)

I do know what this one is! One of those DIS-recommended things that was very tasty: Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes – Pasta Purses filled with Truffle-Scented Cheese and coated with a delicate Champagne Sauce:





I think we may have both had this and each taken a picture?

Really good, at any rate. I actually do remember that.

I think this might have been the Roasted Garlic Dip for the bread service :



I also ordered some of the Creamy Butternut Squash Soup:



I think that Dug’s entrée was the Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin – served on Wasabi Mashed Potatoes with Bok Choy and a Tamarind Barbeque Reduction:



Here’s a shot with a better overview of the dining room. You can see all the screens everywhere:



No surprise what Izzy chose for dinner :



Surprisingly, though, she actually wolfed it down this night. Hungry girl! All those nights of ordering and then only snacking on macaroni built up an appetite.

For my entrée, I went with the Pinnate Bolognese – Pennete Pasta mixed with a rich Bolognese Sauce garnished with Shaved Parmesan Reggiano and Toasted Garlic Ciabatta:



This was good, but pretty standard pasta, which was all I wanted that night.

We found Nemo and Dory:



And then….Crush came by to pay our table a visit! All of his expressions crack me up:














Wondering why I have so many pictures? Well, it’s because Crush was posing for me and I snapped away at his request. He actually came over and interacted with our tablemates quite a bit and I captured the whole thing on video (about 2 minutes long):

(click to watch)

Don’t worry, we exchanged contact info with our tablemates and I sent them this video when we got home.

Once again, our waiter brought out a Mickey bar with sprinkles for Izzy :



She promptly got Mickey sprinkles everywhere:



We watched the turtles glide by:







And the Mickey Bar got even more messy:





Then I needed some chocolate too. I think my dessert was the Crunchy Walnut Cake – Dark Chocolate Mousse and Raspberry Coulis:



And it was very tasty. In fact, Izzy had polished off her Mickey bar by the time this showed up and was apparently still hungry, so she dove right in:



Yeah, so I ended up sharing my dessert.

Chocolate face to prove it:



Up next: After dinner entertainment and some princess meets!

 

[Dugette]

After Dinner Entertainment

So, during that dessert time where Izzy was scooping up bites of my cake, our waiter came by to do some magic tricks for the kids. I have video where you can see both the tricks and the cake pilfering taking place:

(click to watch)

Once I got Izzy cleaned up and out of her chair, I noticed the Mickey floor (with Mickey sprinkles on it):



Our server was a lot of fun and really good with Izzy. We didn’t get a great picture of them together, but here’s what we have:





This was our last time with our serving team, as we would be dining at Cabanas for breakfast the next morning, rather than staying in our dining rotation. We also had to bid our wonderful tablemates farewell. They were great and we enjoyed their company!

After dinner, I took Izzy to the princess meet & greet taking place before the evening show. Dug headed back to the stateroom for a bit. We had some more chocolates and a towel bunny waiting there:



They also had dropped off our signed items we’d left at the guest services desk on arrival day. We got the customized (Etsy) pillowcase signed by many characters with the fabric markers we brought:



Very cute! Now, I have to admit, I did this because I’ve seen many, many reports of people doing a pillowcase with signatures. I mean, there are custom ones sold on Etsy, so it's clearly a thing. And I’m glad we did it, since they don’t do the drop off and sign thing at all anymore on Disney cruises – so, it’s a great souvenir to have gotten. But it’s still folded neatly in the bag they delivered it in. I don’t want to put it on a real pillow in Izzy’s room, as I feel like that’s just going to ensure she lays on it and gets a nosebleed or something. And I guess I could hang it on a wall, but her walls are so full already and I think it would look odd anywhere else in the house. So, yeah, maybe she can take it with her to college someday.

They actually allowed everyone to drop off up to two items for signatures. So, since I didn't need anything else, I had been thinking it would be nice to have them sign a card for @Imagineer5 's new baby (this trip was shortly after she had announced her pregnancy with Maya). However, since I had fabric markers, I tried to think of something that they could use those on for the baby. I came up with a onesie and was just going to get a plain white one (didn’t know if she was a girl or boy yet at the time). But, as you may recall, I’d been on Etsy for the pillowcase and also the Fish Extender, so I searched for Disney onesies and found an adorable one:



And here’s the backside of it after the characters had signed:



They let you choose if you want the princesses to sign or not and I skipped that, since it could have been a baby boy and there just wasn’t a lot of room anyway. I sent it to Lauren after the trip and she loved the surprise. And, hey, now she has another little baby girl on the way that will go to Disney as a newborn and might need a onesie!

While Dug was checking that stuff out, Izzy and I were standing in the long and slow line for the princess meet. We chatted with the people ahead of us for a bit and then Izzy became interested in trying out the chairs that were enclosing the line. It made me a little nervous to have her out of my reach at that age, but I kept a close eye on her, hoping nobody would question why she was by herself:



We stuck it out in line and it was our turn to meet Snow White at 8:16pm:



Izzy proudly showed her Birdie:







I wish Snow White had taught Birdie how to help with the housework (we just watched the movie on Disney Junior today).

It ended up being a very sweet meet and I’m glad we stuck it out:







I have the video as well, but you really can’t hear what they are saying:

(click to watch)

Then, after just a few brief moments of waiting between them, on to Rapunzel:



She was also suitably impressed with Birdie:









I just watched the video and it’s kind-of adorable. Rapunzel decides to sit on the ground with Izzy for pictures. At the end, Izzy decides to blow her a kiss. Also, this was back in the days where Izzy said “cheese” for pictures – for a long time now, she has yelled “chicken feet!” (thanks, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!). So, enjoy the video:

(click to watch)

We probably made a quick stop into the restroom and were seated in the theater at 8:23pm:





This was the balcony we sat on the previous night:



Tonight’s show was Believe and it was very enjoyable for the whole family. Lots of Disney characters, so Izzy was happy. And I remember Dug commenting about the heartwarming message.

We headed back to our stateroom after the show to finish packing our bags. We had them outside our door shortly before the deadline (10pm, I think). After that, Izzy got some candy from our Fish Extender pile, then Dug started her bedtime routine. While they did that, I stepped out to run an errand:



Izzy had agreed to remove her Nursery Magic Band, so I decided to return it for the refund. If you keep it (and you can), they charge you about $13, I think. In our case, we have a ton of (non-cruise) Magic Bands, so preferred to have the money. But it was really cute:



And, thankfully, she never missed it.

After that stop at the nursery, I enjoyed the ship a bit on my way back. There was a piano player in the atrium:



A brief clip of that:

(click to watch)

I love all the subtle Disney character touches around the ship:



And the best part was that I arrived back to a sleeping toddler:



She apparently wanted to sleep in her clothes. Cool, whatever works, kid.

I probably went to bed then as well, since we had to be up early the next day to eat and disembark. (And go back to Disney World!)

Up next: Our final morning aboard the Dream.

 

[Dugette]

Leaving Our Dream Behind

We were up early this morning, as we wanted to eat, disembark, and get our rental car before the major rush hit. Before we could leave our stateroom, though, we had to drink in that verandah view just a bit more :





Goodbye, chair with a view:



That’s where I had sat to make TR notes the day before.

We left our room just after 7am:



Goodbye stateroom 8100 :



Great room, no complaints! Would recommend!

We passed through a very quiet pool deck:



And finally managed to get a picture of that Mr. Ray slide in the Nemo's Reef splash pad that Izzy enjoyed:



Then on into Cabanas:



You can see I’m pulling our rolling carry-on, which contains the items we didn’t want to put out the night before (things we needed). And Dug is actually pushing the stroller with the car seat attached to it. We had to bring all of those to breakfast with us.

As usual, lots of eye candy:







I think we ran into David, our Palo server, pretty soon after arrival. This wasn’t a table service meal (there was a buffet, since it was Cabanas, after all), but David helped us out quite a bit, I believe. I remember him being around and doing what he could. Glad we came here to see him again. We took a corner table that gave us some room to put our things out of the way. And Izzy apparently enjoyed playing with knives while I was at the buffet getting her food :



Soon enough, I was back with a plate of breakfast goodies for her:



You can see we were right by a window:



Lovely parking structure view.

Quick shot of Cabanas, looking toward the buffet from where we were seated:



You can see that it wasn’t packed yet. So far, so good.

Looks like I was in the mood for Froot Loops:



I guess Izzy got a few of them too:



Check out this muffin, mom:



While we ate, Dug filled out the service survey and customs form so that we could put the survey in the dropbox on our way off the ship.

I mentioned we were in a corner next to the window. After Izzy finished eating, she went over to play in that little corner cutout thing and it kind-of freaked me out, just hoping that window was solid :





It was, of course. Just something unsettling about hanging off the side of the ship like that, I guess.

At any rate, I believe that David came back as we were ready to head out and offered to take our picture. We did our classic so-sad-to-be-leaving faces (which Izzy apparently didn’t understand ):



So, as I had failed to get a photo of me and Dug from Up (the talking dog) on this trip, I had an idea. The elevator contained an opportunity:



No, I never did make that one my avatar. (Current one is from Disneyland in Feb. 2016 – TR pending).

We made it down to the survey dropbox at 8:10am:



I believe we all used the restrooms and then wandered for a few last minutes, taking it all in:





And then it was time to go, with a giant Mickey hand happily waving farewell :



Dug had been a little concerned about bringing leftover Fish Extender snack food off the ship, due to some wording about food on the customs form, but that wasn’t a problem at all.

We had to split up after the porter got our bags for us. I was going to Enterprise to pick up our rental car that we would use to drive back to WDW. Dug and Izzy would wait with our luggage for me to come back and pick them up (rather than lug the whole she-bang onto a car rental shuttle). We kept our fingers crossed that this would be a quicker process than the way in after dropping the rental car (slow, drawbridge, etc.) They waited around here:





(Izzy’s daycare provider made her that shirt, by the way! And, yes, she still didn’t want those temporary tattoos from the nursery washed off ).



At least they found a bench to sit on. They’d be there for a while. I know it felt like a long time to Dug. I remember a lot of texts asking my status. Meanwhile, I was doing my best to get that car ASAP. I headed into the car rental shuttle pickup queue:



I believe the right was the Disney bus pick-up area. I was going to the left where the car rental shuttles picked up. That queue area looks fairly empty from there, but the part on the left was actually pretty crowded and, as you can see, not many car rental shuttles were there. When an Enterprise shuttle finally showed up, I was still pretty far back in line. But the driver was walking along, checking numbers of people and such, so I made sure he knew that it was just me, I had no bags, and was willing to stand. I wasn’t going to wait around for another shuttle if I didn’t have to – it had already taken a while for this one to show up. Well, it worked and I got on that first shuttle, skipping by others in line (bigger families with bags, the driver came and got me once he'd finished boarding those before me). Once on the bus, I was surprised that there was even a seat for me, as I’d been fully expecting to stand. So, I sat and off we went. Yay! And the drawbridge even stayed down this time, woo hoo!

Unfortunately, there was a wait at Enterprise. I noticed that nearly everyone in line spoke a non-English language, which was interesting. They were moving things along okay, though. I only took one picture, as it was almost my turn:



Yes, very random. Anyway, the lady that helped me was very friendly and we chatted while she did the rental stuff. She told me that she had something like a 100 mile commute – WOW! She also told me that they get really busy right about this time of the morning and do almost all of their business for the day in one hour. So, try not to hit Enterprise between 9:30-10:30am, I’d say. I actually had just missed the real rush, as I was out of there at 9:31am.

I got back to the cruise port, picked up Dug and Izzy and our luggage, and we were on our way back to WDW. Well, with a quick slightly-out-of-the-way stop at Super Target. Once again, we paid the $3 or whatever to be able to zip right past the tollbooths :



I’d do this again on a 1-way trip like this. I’m cheap, but a few bucks (per day) automatically charged to our card by Enterprise to not have to deal with getting cash or a sunpass or stopping – worth it!

Looks like there was some traffic as we got near our Target stop:



We made it at 10:51am:



I went in myself, so I’m guessing maybe Izzy was napping? I got the groceries we’d need for the rest of our trip to avoid paying the Disney prices for them. There wasn’t too much, since we had a fair amount of ADRs. I also got a couple more Disney Gift Cards (with 5% Red Card discount) to pay for the rest of our expected spending. I found it interesting (though not surprising) that this Target had a whole section of Disney things:



So, you can do your souvenir shopping right there. (I didn’t – we are not big on souvenirs).

And then we were back on the road, just waiting to go under the magical Disney arches.

We had an amazing time on our first Disney Cruise and I hope you enjoyed reading along. We'd love to go on another one, but still not sure when (so many trips we want to take!) If you would like to hear about the WDW portion of this trip, there are several days left that I'll be covering in my main TR, which you can find here: "I'm NOT a Princess, I'm Izzy!" - May '15 Land/Sea

Thanks for following along!

 

[Flossbolna]

Thanks for the wonderful trip report of your Dream cruise! I really enjoyed reading it all.

 

[TestingH2O]

Thanks for a fun report!

 

[GlassAct]

Thanks for the review with a toddler, lots of great tips!

 

[Dugette]

Thanks for the wonderful trip report of your Dream cruise! I really enjoyed reading it all.

Thanks for a fun report!

Thanks for the review with a toddler, lots of great tips!

Just realized I never replied to all of these. Thank you so much for reading and hope this helps some fellow cruisers!

Also, we finally decided to use our Onboard Booking Discount...and we'll be cruising on the Wonder NEXT MONTH! We are super excited and can't wait to be back on "Mickey's boat". We'll be doing a 4-night Bahamas again, so we'll have a chance at a re-do of our rainy Castaway Cay day (on Valentine's Day, interestingly). Plus, being on the Wonder will allow us to explore a different ship - and all the recent renovations to it look pretty amazing. Can't wait to see the Frozen show, eat at Tiana's, go down the Twist 'n' Spout, and let Izzy explore the Oceaneer's Club. Should be a great time.

 

[Flossbolna]

Have a great cruise on the Wonder!