A Peach on the Beach! 4 Night Disney Dream 5/18-5/22/15 Updated 3/18/16

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

2 Star Wars Weekends. A 24 hour Magic Kingdom party. What could possibly make this adults only trip week better? OH YEAH! Throwing in a 4 day cruise on the Disney Dream right smack in the middle!!!

So jump on in, the waters fine!

I'm Kristen. My husband Andy and I make an annual trek to Disney for our Anniversary in May. It covers Star Wars weekends, our anniversary, and lately the 24 hr parties at the Magic Kingdom. When I was planning out this years trip I noticed there was a 4 night cruise that fit nicely into these plans. Talked to our friends and they were in as well so they will be joining us on the cruise portion of the trip.

We started off by torturing ourselves with a 5:30 am flight from Buffalo to Orlando so we could arrive by 8am. Our daughters had their dance recital the night before so we got about 5 minutes sleep then were off to the airport. It's Disney adrenaline folks. If I could bottle it, I'd be a gazillionaire.

Magical Express was EMPTY

we valiantly fought through the crowds and got through the line

and were pretty much allowed to go right out to the buses

where we waited....and waited...for other crazy morning people to show up and fill the bus enough to take off

i see you Mickey....I SEE you

our room at All Star Sports wasn't ready so we stashed our bags to head out to Hollywood Studios. We would be spending one night before boarding the Dream the next day.

we went straight to the buses

There were quite a few people making their way into the gates for Star Wars Weekend I.

Yoda is too cute - loved seeing this pic on the ticket window

 

[cheermom2four]

Joining in to see the fun you had!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

More Yoda love

As we were walking into the park we realized it was about 20 minutes until the Star Wars motorcade parade began. To our surprise there were still some open spots in front right at the entrance so we decided to wait and watch the parade. About 3 miliseconds later the wind picked up and we knew it was going to rain. Our 52 Disney ponchos from previous trips were all home and we didn't dare leave our spot anyways as it was rapidly filling in. So, we got wet. Close to soaked. but so worth it!

After a rain delay of about 15 minutes or so

Then Mickey showed up! I love you Jedi Mickey!

Chewie was pumped!

Ashley Eckstein had her umbrella

Ian McDiarmid

After the parade we walked toward the stage and watched part of the show

Then walked behind the stage to where the cars were lined up with the stars

James Arnold Taylor

Ian

By now we were starving so we headed over to ABC Commissary for lunch with some fun Dis'ers (yuli from the SWW thread and others!)

Darth Vader cupcake

We decided to head over to pick up our Annual pass SWW posters. They were giving out a different poster each week to annual pass holders.

This week's poster was Yoda

After we grabbed our posters we headed over to use our fast passes for the Tower of Terror. Hands down my favorite ride in Disney.

Doesn't Andy look excited?

Getting close

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Joining in to see the fun you had!

Hooray! Thanks for joining in!

 

[RysMomma]

This looks like so much fun! Can't wait to read more!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

I hadn't seen this Tower of Terror T before so i put it on my wish list

I really wanted one of these,

but it was Smart Water time

Then we headed over to see if any of the roaming characters were out. Success!

Then this happened. Could they BE any cuter? Love the chip ewoks!

By now it was time to head over to the theater of the stars to use our fast passes for the Stars of the saga show with Ian McDiarmid

The line quickly got insane

The Stormtroopers did their preshow - love it!

The show was great as usual!

Then we were quickly off to head to the Backlot Express to go to the Rebel Hanger! We were SOOO looking forward to this new experience. And it was AWESOME

We saw the Cantina band wandering around while we were waiting for our table

One of the band members came to visit while we looked over the menu

And finally drink goodness! YUMMMMMO. I do love a good Disney glow cube. These drinks were delicious and SO cool looking! Thoroughly enjoyable

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

This looks like so much fun! Can't wait to read more!

So glad you are reading along! It was soooo fun! I'm enjoying reliving it now through this report

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

This. This is Andy's "I'm at Disney. But not just Disney. STAR WARS Disney" face. Kinda like a deer in headlights. Minus the headlights. And minus the deer.

Disney is the only place that makes you want to buy french fries for like $6. And makes you think it's a good deal by throwing in star wars patterned paper and some kind of Chewie crisp. But they WERE delicious. Seasoned with a parmesan cheese. nice!

Then there was this cuteness. Darth Maul hummus. with cute little horns made out of BUGLES. Stop it. And besides being absolutely adorable in a Darth Maul sort of way, it was soooooo good! Loved it!

The hummus came with this cute basket of chips. It was a HUGE portion and I tried my best but could not finish it.

We contemplated desert while entertaining ourselves with the glow cubes. Despite being stuffed we decided we couldn't pass up the box of cupcakes. Clearly, we NEEDED a plastic Han Solo cupcake box.

There were 3 different mini cupcakes. Yoda, Darth Vader, and Jabba

Then it was time for our Toy Story fp+

See this "best in vehicle" score? yeah, that's me. Just sayin'.

After Toy Story we were standing in line for characters when I noticed someone walking by......and when I walked up to him and asked if we could take a selfie he said yes!

I think Andy was fumbling around with his phone in a panic - over here Andy....over here...everyone else behind us was focused on Darth Vader and not noticing who was standing right behind them

He was SOOOO nice and super humble and sweet to talk to! James Arnold Taylor! Obi Wan! Host of Star Wars Weekends! It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

Time for a few more roaming characters

more drinks

Some Star Wars legos - we looked for the make your own section but it was already closed down for the day

And just like that it was time to head over to Ohana's for a late night dinner reservation. Ohana is one of our favorites and we were meeting up with our friends after dinner at the bar. I have to say I was not a fan of the new lobby at the Polynesian. I miss the waterfall.

Andy checking out the Yoda poster while we waited for our table

it was soooooo pretty out!

dinner was excellent as usual

we got serenaded lol

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

After dinner we went down to Trader Sam's to meet our friends. We sat outside with a drink and watched wishes. it was the PERFECT ending to an amazing day.

After that we split up and Andy and I headed over to Magic Kingdom as it was open late. This is when Andy finally hit the wall. We had been up for 2 days straight and exhaustion started catching up. We decided we would ride Peter Pan standby to see the new queue then we would head back.

The queue was cute. I'm glad we've seen it once since normally we only go on with a fp.

we caught the tail end of the parade on our way out. The day was PERFECT

Up next - the CRUISE!!

 

[ImaginAli]

Can't wait! Love all the pictures too.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Can't wait! Love all the pictures too.

Welcome! I took a ton of pics on the trip - glad you are enjoying them! Thanks for joining!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

The next morning we were up bright an early to get packed up and grab some breakfast before we left for the Port. Our friends had grabbed a rental car when they got to the airport so we split the cost. Originally we had booked the Disney transfers to port but i am SO glad we cancelled that! After searching the internet for deals our car was a WHOPPING $17 to rent the car for one night so it cost us each $8.50 for our transportation. It was awesome!

It was pretty empty around the resort. We have stayed at almost all of the Disney resorts. Seeing as I knew we would barely be at the room I snagged a GREAT annual pass rate for our one night stay at All Star Sports.

I just can't see the point in spending a lot of $$ on a room that we'll barely see even though Andy really wanted a deluxe hotel. I am pretty good about snagging deals so that we can go quite a few times each year to Disney to get our Disney fix.

Goodbye room!

It's a cute resort for kids. I brought my oldest son when he was 5 and stayed here. He loved it and i have really great memories of that trip. Hope you don't mind a few resort pics before we head out

I would love to be sitting around this pool area right now!

We found out where all the people were - in the food court! It was pretty busy.

So we headed into one of the lines to grab some breakfast

Andy was SO proud of his "I'm on a Boat" shirt. He couldn't wait to wear it on the cruise lol. Andy got some kind of breakfast platter and I got biscuits and gravy. We both had a smart water as well.

We wanted to make sure we didn't starve to death before we got on the cruise.

After we ate we took a few pics before we went to wait for the car to arrive

Goodbye All Star Sports!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Even though the pic isn't very good here it is - our $17 car

We had a good laugh when they pulled up and jumped out with a sign with our name on it like they were hired drivers.

A cruise line bus was pulling in at the same time

It wasn't too long until we were unloading at the rental car location at the port

Waiting for the shuttle

Unloading at the port

There it is!!! I was beyond excited!

 

[grantclaire]

Great pictures and report so far!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Great pictures and report so far!

Thanks so much!! Glad you are reading along and enjoying the report so far!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

We made our way towards security as quickly as possible. We couldn't wait to board! So exciting to finally be there!

Time to get out our passports and get in line

Here's a tip - make sure you know what your room number is as they ask for it to look you up when you come through the line. No matter how many times I had looked it up prior to the trip I blanked out!

Once our passports/room # was checked we were in! Off to go through security!

Look how pretty the Dream looks in the background!

As we were headed in, one of the security officers noticed me taking pics and told us to head up the staircase you see on the left to the 2nd level to get the best view

There she is!

Through security, up the escalator, and then we were in!

It's incredible how happy a giant white glove can make me - loved seeing the cast member directing everyone to check in with one on

Hooray - we are now silver - our friends are gold - so we entered the Castaway Club check in

We were checked into the cruise in no time.

We checked into possible upgrades but decided the price just wasn't worth it for the few they had available. The cruise was pretty much sold out. There were maybe 2 or 3 verandah rooms free and i believe on concierge suite. We would've had to split up to upgrade to a verandah so we decided to keep our adjoining inside staterooms we already had.

Last cruise we had rushed onto the ship so fast that I totally missed the photo op in front of the model cruise ship with Mickey or Minnie. I had put this at the top of our must do list for this cruise. Luckily even though we could've boarded right away (we had the earliest boarding time) everyone was a good sport and humored me waiting in the looooong line to see what ended up being Mickey. Minnie traded out the family after us.

Isn't he AWESOME??? I'm soooo glad we did this. We collect character photos and I really wanted to get this pic

 

[grantclaire]

We have sailed on the Dream twice, beautiful ship! Can't wait to see some pictures.

 

[Pegasus928]

Loving the trippie - and all the photo's - so far. We are booked on a 4 nighter on the Dream so am following this with a huge amount of interest

 

[mmmears]

Really enjoying your trip report so far!

 

[condorthb]

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