Sorry for the delay (I'm a teacher) and thanks for the follows. I shall try to spice things up with a few photos but I'll warn you, I did not take as many as my first trip.
First, the cast:
- There's me, a newly minted 30-something, celebrating my departure from the rollicking youth of my 20's. I celebrated my "first" 29th birthday on the Dream last year.
- There's Myna, my best friend. This cruise was a gift to her from me, as I've always wanted her to join us on a cruise but she couldn't manage to come.
- Dixie, my Disney best friend. She's a Cast Member and a die-hard Disney fan. Together, we're unbeatable at Disney trivia!
- Kris, another best friend. We've known each other for close to 10 years now. We rely on her to be the queen of travel.
- My parents, who wanted to come along because they love cruising and Disney.
- My grandfather, who had never been on a pleasure cruise that did not involve gambling or gunfire.
Before we knew it, it was time to cruise! I had made reservations for Grandpa to rent a
scooter from Brevard Medical Supply. I also made reservations for us to park our cars at the Park n' Ride closest to the port. Both were firsts for us, as we've never needed to rent anything and we've also just parked at the port or had been dropped off by family. But we needed 2 cars and wanted to save cash.
Getting to the Park n' Ride was easy. Take the exit right before the port, go under the overpass on a dinky little road to another super dinky little road on the left, and it's on the right. I expected it to be a paved lot, but it's not. We pulled into the building, they unloaded our bags, and then I had to drive the cars to the parking spaces. It all looked secure, though, so I wasn't worried. You pay up front, and then after a few minutes, we were on the small shuttle bus to the port with another couple.
Here's where things got a little stressful. As a spoiler, observe our smiling faces post-initial stress:
The scooter rental company told us that when we arrived at the port, we could ask a CM to fetch the scooter for Grandpa so he wouldn't have to walk very far. It's not like my grandfather can't walk; no, he just gets tired quickly. Well, we ended up walking through the first security gate--fixated on getting everyone checked in--without realizing we needed to get someone to get the scooter. We walked to the benches outside the terminal for a quick photo and a break.
Grandpa figured he could walk inside, so we went through security and upstairs. The greeters, when asked about the scooter, pointed to an area where we could see--sure enough--a scooter. Hey howdy hey, that must be ours! But ... none of these greeters offered to fetch it. OK. So, we're herded into the
Castaway Club line. Meanwhile, Grandpa's getting a workout and beginning to complain. Mom, as result, is beginning to stress. And I'm trying to juggle everyone's documents and answer questions from the newbies. But there was no wait, and thus began the reality of traveling and being in charge of a large group of people.
We had two CMs check us in. It turned into a bit of a confusion, with everyone's documents and keys and photos and so on flying around. Then there was the scooter. The one girl looked and acted like she might have been new. When we asked about the scooter, she said that it wasn't ours. Ok, so
where is
ours? Her response was to sort of shrug and fetch us the number for the company, then tell us they weren't open on Sundays and it'd be an answering service. Meanwhile, my grandfather is beginning to whine and needed to sit. The girl takes off. I'm left at the desk, shooing my family and friends off to find a seat while I tried to call. The number didn't ring or anything. I'm beginning to panic. We paid over $200 for this rental, was assured it'd be there at the terminal, and was getting no support so far from the CMs. Finally, my mother grabs me and steers me over to the supervisor desk, where we managed to snag a supervisor--who thankfully offered to call the number herself and straighten it out. Now, there's the
DCL service we know exists!
She manages to get someone, was told that the scooter was still en route because there are 2 other ships in port (honestly, how many scooters are being rented? It's noon by then), and gives the service my number to give to the driver to give me an update. The supervisor then assures us that if it didn't arrive before we boarded the ship, they'd deliver it to his stateroom. Meanwhile, she'd find us a wheelchair to borrow to get on the ship.
Momentarily calm, I then went to search for the small corner that my party managed to find amongst the crowded terminal. Such a contrast to our first cruise at the same time last year, when we literally walked in, checked in, and walked directly onto the ship. It was clear immediately this trip was PACKED. We were clearly not the only ones to take advantage of a FL Resident rate---but then explain to me why there were so many foreigners?
Some super quick shots around the terminal
Boarding had begun very shortly after that. Within minutes, I was called (in the bathroom, no less) by the driver to say that he was still delivering and had not arrived at Disney yet. They'd take the scooter to the stateroom. Meanwhile, the promised wheelchair had still not shown up. The boarding numbers were flying through--about a minute between boarding numbers. We had 16, and by the time we were called, the wheelchair was still missing. By 18, CM's were finally bringing it to us. Finally, we were on our way on board.
We had lunch in Cabana's, where we quickly learned that it's not that handicap friendly. From there, we had some time, still, until the stateroom were ready. So, I went to take care of another matter: our dining time. We couldn't get main seating, so my friends and I went to go see if we could get it switched. Commence our next drama. Long story short, we were told that the ship was completely full and there was very little chance our request could be filled. If they could change anything,
they would call our stateroom by 4 PM. With the long line behind and ahead of us of people wanting to change, we knew that it just wasn't going to happen. With diabetic men in our party, this was not good news.
But there was good news! The scooter was at our rooms, as promised. We spent some time settling in, getting our luggage and unpacked. We also went through our CC goodies and the goodies left by my
Dreams Unlimited TA:
My parents and I were certainly spoiled with the little extra room in the 4B we had last year. The 5C's were cramped at times, even with just two adults. The dividers on the verandah also took some time to get opened by our hostess--the first night (to jump forward), they opened up one divider too many, and the one connected to a room that did not belong to us was broken and flapping loudly in the wind. So they closed both of their dividers
and it wasn't until the last day that it was finally opened again.
It has led my mother and I to consider upgrading on our Alaska cruise, as we currently have a 5B booked.
Once settled, I decorated our doors and we went exploring:
We went to the lifeboat drill, which was a mess this time with a lot of guests who simply just didn't know where to stand or where to go. We were dismissed early, though, because of Grandpa being in a scooter. This did not help us get an elevator, though, because everyone felt they were more entitled than a handicap person and rushed ahead of us. We waited very long throughout a lot of the trip because of this.
And I'm sorry, I do not understand why people take LARGE strollers on the ship. They are NOT necessary and are a nightmare in close quarters.
By the time we made it to the sail away party, there was no space to see. After peeking through for a while and grabbing my first ice cream, we headed to my favorite place to watch the sail away--the front of the bow. It was crazy windy; meanwhile, it didn't occur to me to go back to the stateroom. We assumed we were stuck with late seating.
See where this is going?
We grabbed a snack at Flo's, ate in the Cove Cafe, went down to the show, then leisurely went to get ready for dinner. That's when I noticed the light on the phone.
Oops. Somehow they managed to give us first seating. The call was timestamped
4:45. Could we go down immediately?
Well, first, you said
4:00. Second, I wasn't going to wait in my stateroom all afternoon when I wanted to be out for the festivities. Nervous we weren't going to be able to eat anything, we went down to EG. Before I could do anything, my party got ahead of me and gave our tickets to a waiter. We were then led to a table where another large party was already being seated. Then we simply just STOOD THERE while NO ONE did anything. None of the CMs seemed to notice that we were led to an occupied table. That's when I went to the desk. I didn't realize the man I was speaking to was the same man I spoke to earlier about changing. I began to explain our situation. He IMMEDIATELY goes on the defensive, loudly insisting that HE had told me HE WOULD CALL BY 4:30 and HE CALLED 5 TIMES and HE DID EVERYTHING HE COULD.
And I'm just standing there going:
I remained calm, and insisted that it was OK. I was not upset. We were simply concerned that now we had missed the first seating and here it was the second seating and we had no table. I wanted to know if we could still eat, then eat at first seating for the rest of the cruise. OH YES, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT, I CAN DO THAT BUT JUST KNOW I DID EVERYTHING...
Yes, sweetheart, calm yerself. ... I took note to mention this occurrence on the comment card. I'm sure he must get angry guest all the time over these issues; what was irking was he wouldn't calm down enough to realize I was not mad or upset, simply worried over ME making the MISTAKE.
We were at 2 tables this first night. Our beverage waiter was awesome; our main waiter was far from it. Regardless, we were stuffed and it was after 10 PM
We turned in for the night after a very long day.
I can't even ...
We were on the Feb 10 Dream sailing. If I may ask you a question.... we did the Atlantis excursion w/ dolphin swim on our Nassau day. We have rebooked for next year, & was wondering about just going over to Atlantis on our own. I see you were only able to access the casino/lobby/shopping "mall". Was that what anyone can do by just walking in (no admission fee)? What if you wanted access to other areas (cost)?
