10/23/11 - Disney Dream

[A fat english gent]

My ticker says 8 months!!!!!
It's rainy & dreary today here so I am dreaming of 2 wonderful days on Castaway Cay!

Got a few questions for you guys that have done b2b cruises before.
How exactly does that work the morning of the 2nd cruise? I think I have read before they take the b2b group off together & re-check you in then take you back on the ship. What exactly can we do when back aboard the ship before the other cruisers are let on later? I am thinking it would be a great time to do a photo walk & I would love getting in the pool & hot tub without big crowds.
Also do you get the same serving team at dinner?

Another question......
I have seen a couple of your guys talking about getting a deal on a room at Atlantis for the day. How does that work?

Fear not Mel dear fat man is here to answer any questions you may have about doing B&B,when we did the eastern and the western together we simply got up as normal and had some breakfast (i only ever have a power shake)then left the ship about 9.45am,but as the ship was empty obviously we used this time wisely like any other good DISSer to have a sneaky peaky at the Cat 1 and Cat 2 rooms,WOW the Cat 2 rooms are expensive,only difference to our Cat 3 was you got a second bedroom but for an extra $2800 Thanks but no thanks Micky....

Servers you can ask but maybe you won't want to,Panama canal Jeff need i say more?....

Bags and in our case everything my beautiful wife owns can stay in your room (wish they could store our dishwasher downstairs as i always manage to kick the damned thing on the way to the bathroom during the night,why oh why do women feel they need to pack everything?)
Take your passports and paperwork for the next cruise and a bottle of water and your good to go...
If your leaving washing if it were me i'd leave a note saying 'doing B&B' on top of the washer as i'd hate to come back and find my thongs had been nicked....
Most important thing IMHO is to make sure you treat the cruise as a 7 or 10 day cruise rather than 2 or 3 cruises.....

Welcome to all the new cruisers,Wow PJ is on here too?,Real DISS royalty Would you prefer to be addressed as Miss PJ or Ma'am dear?....

PS....I'll have the details about the DLTFMROOB charity campaign ASAP....Thanks every little donation helps......

 

[JLDSMD]

Chris, I didn't know they made Chicken Finger Power Shakes. I still remember coming up to your Cat 3 one evening and you had a double plate sitting on top the belly watching tv.

What, you didn't like Sasha on the PC cruise? She was so intentive.

Sorry buddy, not commenting on the packing thing. You can take those arrows yourself.

Now don't lie about your thong, you had it on all the time, just couldn't see it.

Glad to see you back on the board Chris.

 

[JLDSMD]

I thought you might move out of the corner room. I'm glad that you were able to swap out. I didn't look far enough to see that lack of 6A and 6B's. You're right we'll be full!

Yeah, after seeing some of those pics, it didn't look like the layout would work that great. At least from the pics of the room on Deck 8 (we're on Deck 7, but figure it would be the same), you couldn't watch the TV from the sofa. I was also concerned about the amount of light the window would allow in being over on the side like that.

After seeing the pics of some of the 8D and 8C rooms with the big window, we made the switch. We won't have a room with the pull down bed, but will have the extra room though at the end of the room. Plus with the added chair in there, it will give a place to sit when DS's bed (i.e. the sofa) is made up.

 

[dsnydaddy]

I like that massive window too. My bro got one of those on Deck 7. I'm guessing about 5 and a half feet in diameter.

 

[JLDSMD]

I like that massive window too. My bro got one of those on Deck 7. I'm guessing about 5 and a half feet in diameter.

Yeah, it is huge. Not sure the exact diameter, but I know it is somewhere on the DIS.

Where on Deck 7 is he located? Is he forward or aft? We're forward on Deck 7.

 

[dsnydaddy]

Port side, fore. I can't remember the exact room right now. It was the larger oceanview in that area.

 

[pjpoohbear]

Welcome to all the new cruisers,Wow PJ is on here too?,Real DISS royalty Would you prefer to be addressed as Miss PJ or Ma'am dear?....

PS....I'll have the details about the DLTFMROOB charity campaign ASAP....Thanks every little donation helps......

I kind of looked at you and Hazel as my DCL royalty, guess if I am royalty too, then I am in great company.

Pj

 

[JLDSMD]

Port side, fore. I can't remember the exact room right now. It was the larger oceanview in that area.

He's going to be up in near me then. There are only 6 rooms plus the Cat 9 side of ship room.

 

[DrMomof3]

My experienced fellow cruisers I need advice!
JetBlue just opened their schedule to include the dates of our cruise. Will I be ok if I book a 6:30am flight on Sunday morning which is due to land at 9:07am at MCO? Is a car service a bad idea (vs. Disney transport) because of the extra time to get luggage? I'd prefer a car service if that won't make things too tight. Also, a 5:30pm flight home on Thursday, is that enough time?

Thanks for the help!
Amanda

 

[JLDSMD]

My experienced fellow cruisers I need advice!
JetBlue just opened their schedule to include the dates of our cruise. Will I be ok if I book a 6:30am flight on Sunday morning which is due to land at 9:07am at MCO? Is a car service a bad idea (vs. Disney transport) because of the extra time to get luggage? I'd prefer a car service if that won't make things too tight. Also, a 5:30pm flight home on Thursday, is that enough time?

Thanks for the help!
Amanda

Amanda,

We've never flown in the day of, so I can't comment on that. Also, we've always rented a car, but I'm not sure if I'd do that on "day of" in case you're running late, you don't want to have to take time to drop that as well. I'm not sure how late the DCL buses run. If the flights run on time, 9:07 arrival will give you plenty of time. Are you going non-stop or connecting?

As for the return, a 5:30 p.m. flight is more than enough time. We've made flights around 11:30 a.m. a couple of times. We have also done the evening we get off as well a couple of times. On the flights later in the day, we usually go to Downtown Disney or one of the waterparks. We prefer to fly home the day after though, just so we're not rushed. Not sure what we're doing yet for this cruise (we're used to coming off on Saturday and then flying on Sunday. Flying the next day would be on Monday and another day off of school for DS).

Hope that helped a little.

Jeff

 

[silver7]

Your early flight is early enough--if there are no delays. I always tell my clients to try to come in the night before so you don't have to worry about any flight delays causing you to possibly missing your cruise

About the bus vs towncar--with the bus you might have to wait on others vs getting your luggage and going--it could be the same amount of time or you might have to wait. So I would look at the cost differential and see what works best for your travel party.

We always take the bus back to the airport but take a towncar to the port. That is just what works for us personally.

 

[DrMomof3]

Thanks for the responses. You're making me a little nervous about the early flight. I'm not sure what to do! Our preferred airport is White Plains and there are no late flights on Saturday night. I have to worry about childcare arrangements and leaving on Saturday complicates things a bit. *sigh* I could book a late flight on Saturday out of JFK and just fly home to White Plains. It's so complicated.

Amanda

 

[PFlamingo]

Thanks for the responses. You're making me a little nervous about the early flight. I'm not sure what to do! Our preferred airport is White Plains and there are no late flights on Saturday night. I have to worry about childcare arrangements and leaving on Saturday complicates things a bit. *sigh* I could book a late flight on Saturday out of JFK and just fly home to White Plains. It's so complicated.

Amanda

According to my favorite guidebook (written by people who have done this themselves, many times), you have to be on board by 3:00. So unless you have some hideously long delay, you should be fine with that early flight. If you use the DCL transfer, the last bus leaves around 1:30. They get your luggage, so you just go straight to the bus.

I can't tell you first-hand how it is, b/c we always drive to Orlando and have my parents take us to and pick us up from the port. I can tell you it takes maybe an hour to get there (more or less, depending on which of my family members drives ). So unless it takes you several hours to pick up your luggage and find your car service, again, you should be fine with that flight.

It's been a while since I've flown into or out of MCO, but it's an easy airport to navigate and the shuttles from the gates to the terminal are fast and efficient.

Sure, if you can fly in the night before, it's less of a hassle, but plenty of people fly in the day of their cruise and do fine.

 

[DrMomof3]

Thanks Pat!
I ended up booking the late flight out of JFK on Saturday night. I figure we'll sleep at the airport Hyatt and then maybe an early-ish car service to the Port. I like the idea of being able to stop at a store and buy a couple of bottles of wine to bring on board (it IS my 40th birthday trip, after all! ) and maybe some bottled water. Since we're new to this experience, I think I'll enjoy getting to the Port a bit early and feeling relaxed.
We'll fly home to White Plains and I'm thinking about using DCL transfers for the return trip. The flights were $97 per person each way. I'm happy with that price!

Amanda

 

[ppartekim]

Thanks for the responses. You're making me a little nervous about the early flight. I'm not sure what to do! Our preferred airport is White Plains and there are no late flights on Saturday night. I have to worry about childcare arrangements and leaving on Saturday complicates things a bit. *sigh* I could book a late flight on Saturday out of JFK and just fly home to White Plains. It's so complicated.

Amanda

Since we have to fly from CA, we always fly a day early and spend the night at a resort (DVC memeber and typically AKL). I never trust planes to get my anywhere on time. We take the Magical Express to the Resort and then the Cruise Bus to the port/airport. It is nice not having to deal with luggage and there is only two us so, the cost really is no difference to rentals.

If you have a single hop flight, then I would not worry about delays. But, a double hop thru a major airport would make me think twice about a buffer.

The first time we did the TA in '07, we flew to Barcelona a week early to spend some time and make sure we got there. It was a good thing as we got delayed in Chicago, missed our plane and ending up spending a day in Dublin before continuing to Spain. It was a wonderful 24 hours, but was glad we had a week buffer. When we did it again in '10, we actually planned 3 days in Dublin before heading to Barcelona. On both cruises, there was a plane of people that did not make the ship in Barcelona and had to fly into Gibraltar to board the ship (on their dime).

 

[Meliador]

@PFflamingo: I *had* to post just to tell you how beautiful your wedding dress is! And the piping on the sash!! I enjoy sewing as a hobby, and couldn't help but admire all of the beautiful princess seams on your dress!! such talent!

For those who have questions regarding Disney transportation:

When we did our first DCL cruise this past December, DH and I took the "porthole bus" from Caribbean Beach Resort (where we had just spent a week) to Cape Canaveral.

While it was super efficient, only downside is that the buses didn't leave WDW until 1:15pm, so by the time you get to port, go through security, line up for check-in, etc, you don't board until 2:45pm. By then, you get to your room, check things out a bit, get your "bearings" ....and poof, it's time to think of the muster drill...By then, they were closing down the food stations so we had to wait until the sail away party to get late lunch snacks (as our dinner was at 8pm).

It made sense for us to pay for the bus ride, since it was just the 2 of us. But if there were more people in my party, I would either rent a car for the day, or book a car service.

 

[PFlamingo]

@PFflamingo: I *had* to post just to tell you how beautiful your wedding dress is! And the piping on the sash!! I enjoy sewing as a hobby, and couldn't help but admire all of the beautiful princess seams on your dress!! such talent!

Thank you! It was a lot of work. Many seams ripped out and redone! I started it in July and just barely finished it by our wedding in October. In fact, I was still working on the hand stitching on my hat in the car on the way to Orlando the day before the wedding. But I knew I wanted a non-traditional dress and hat, and when I found the patterns and the fabric, I knew it was exactly what I had in mind.

I love to sew, but that was definitely the most ambitious thing I've ever done.

 

[tommycruiser]

Good morning folks

Been a while since I posted just wanted to say hi

 

[Disneygrl36]

Fear not Mel dear fat man is here to answer any questions you may have about doing B&B,when we did the eastern and the western together we simply got up as normal and had some breakfast (i only ever have a power shake)then left the ship about 9.45am,but as the ship was empty obviously we used this time wisely like any other good DISSer to have a sneaky peaky at the Cat 1 and Cat 2 rooms,WOW the Cat 2 rooms are expensive,only difference to our Cat 3 was you got a second bedroom but for an extra $2800 Thanks but no thanks Micky....

Servers you can ask but maybe you won't want to,Panama canal Jeff need i say more?....

Bags and in our case everything my beautiful wife owns can stay in your room (wish they could store our dishwasher downstairs as i always manage to kick the damned thing on the way to the bathroom during the night,why oh why do women feel they need to pack everything?)
Take your passports and paperwork for the next cruise and a bottle of water and your good to go...
If your leaving washing if it were me i'd leave a note saying 'doing B&B' on top of the washer as i'd hate to come back and find my thongs had been nicked....
Most important thing IMHO is to make sure you treat the cruise as a 7 or 10 day cruise rather than 2 or 3 cruises.....

Welcome to all the new cruisers,Wow PJ is on here too?,Real DISS royalty Would you prefer to be addressed as Miss PJ or Ma'am dear?....

PS....I'll have the details about the DLTFMROOB charity campaign ASAP....Thanks every little donation helps......

Thanks for the answers Chris! I had not thouhgt about being able to take a sneaky peek at the big suites. Great idea.
We are in the same cabin both cruises so I am glad to know that I can leave all our stuff in there. No comment on the "thong" but it made me smile as I have surely missed your sense of humor.

Anyone thinking of booking Remy? I would love to experience it, but am having a hard time with the 75$ per person upcharge. Thoughts?

 

[Otimon]

Hi everyone. We returned yesterday from the 3/10 Dream cruise to check out the ship. We'll be on this cruise as well.

We were absolutely overwhelmed by the beauty of the Dream and
experienced none of the problems often heard from previous reports on the DIS. Having sailed on the Wonder and Magic numerous times, we couldn't get over the difference in size as well. The ship is huge. As the Wonder and Magic look similar inside, the Dream is on a completely different level and does not resemble the other two at all. It took my breath away just walking into the lobby!

If anyone has any questions would be glad to answer if I can.

Best wishes.