erinburrsir
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2018
Hi everyone!
I've been browsing the DisBoards for a couple years now to help with my planning of previous cruises, but I've never done a Trip Report before. First time blogging it, so apologies if I'm not the best haha. I've enjoyed reading others' experiences, so I thought I'd give it a shot!
Some quick backstory on me - I am part of the LGBT community and got married to my wife in Fall 2018. We'd been dating for two years after meeting through a mutual friend, but we were long distance for a majority since she was here on temporary VISAs. My wife is from Scandinavia, so when we both popped the question to one another (at the same time!), we had a small wedding in her hometown in Europe, and then once she immigrated to the U.S. we had a second wedding in Los Angeles where we lived at the time. Our second wedding was a big celebration of both our families coming together with friends and loved ones to celebrate us becoming a family and her immigration to the U.S. This happened early March 2020 and we were set to sail on our Honeymoon with DCL on a 5-night out of Miami on the Magic later that month.
Then..............COVID happened.
We were very lucky no one got sick at our wedding and her family was able to make it home safely just before the shut downs began. In the week or so following the wedding, I was getting worried and anxious with the state of the health crisis, and just 9 days out from our sail date, we got that email saying our cruise had been cancelled.
Fast-forward to the present: We were both furloughed from our jobs in LA and being unable to afford to stay out there much longer, we moved to my home state of FL. Our initial honeymoon cruise had been rebooked a handful of times, each time having to be pushed back due to the ongoing pandemic. We decided to bite the bullet and push it far enough out as possible to September 2022 so we wouldn't be getting our hopes up for nothing.
As sailings came back, and now being FL residents, on a whim, we were checking the discounts, and saw a great deal on the 3-night Bahamian sailing out of Port Canaveral on A Very Merrytime Cruise. In the past year, we both got new jobs, had started to rebuild our savings, and decided it would be nice to keep our rebooked 7-night in September as an anniversary sailing, and book a new quick Honeymoon for the weekend. After a year of quarantine in 2020, we both are on the same page that we were blessed with so much quality time together that may not happen again until we're retired, so a quick honeymoon seemed perfect for us to get back to normal life.
Our sailing was Nov 12 - 15 on The Dream out of Port Canaveral.
Our day started with me being my usual, bubbly self, being very Princess Anna-like by hoping out of bed, throwing open the curtains, excited that today was the day!! My wife, who's a lot more down to Earth than I am, was shuffling about the apartment, getting dressed, checking her messages, and double checking our suitcases and passports while I was still busy bouncing off the walls, wanting to leave 2 hours early due to impatience. Of course as things happen, my wife's flip flops broke that morning, so we headed to Target for a quick trip and grabbed some Starbucks while we were there. Then we hit the road!
We arrived to Port Canaveral at 10:55am for a PAT of 11am - 11:15am. We dropped off our luggage with the porter and made our way to the garage for testing. My poor wife was still waking up, and in the passenger seat she was accidently dropping papers, pens, our documents, and after swabbing, she accidently dropped the blue cap under the seat, loudly whining "What is happening with me today!?". The lab diagnostics employee was very patient and helpful and got her a new one, which she apologized profusely for, but we laughed about her clumsy-ness while parked, waiting for results.
Once we got our Clear to Sail, her mocha had finally kicked in, she was excited to start our vacation, and we boarded the Disney Dream.
This is my 3rd cruise with DCL, first time on the Dream, and my wife's first cruise ever! This was also my first Merrytime sailing, so the decorations blew me away! They're more stunning in person. Pictures and video really can't do it justice.
We immediately headed for Cabanas and had our lunch outside on the deck. I was a little disappointed in the limited options but I fully understand it's for pandemic related reasons. Being her first time at Cabanas, and having the taste buds of a child, she was more than happy to partake in the chicken tenders, mac and cheese, and fries. We stayed there for a while just talking about all the fun things we had in store until our room was ready at 2pm. We went straight there and I was happy to find my little surprise waiting for her once we got inside.
Because my wife does not drink, I ordered for us the Non-Alcoholic Bon Voyage amenity, and it was a delicious treat to snack on while we sailed away from port. It really was just blue apple juice, and we downed the whole thing before we got past the beach! Door decorations were quick to put on, and then we were out the door.
Our next stop was the 6pm Beauty and the Beast showing. We arrived at 5:30pm to a short line, and we were social distanced seated in row 7 away from other guests. There were 2 technical difficulties at the same moment, just at the start of Be Our Guest, but the issue was resolved quickly, about 5 minutes each. It actually made for a more pleasant experience because the audience had such high energy when the song began that we kept the energy all the way throughout with clapping and cheering for the whole thing, not just the ending to the song. And I was able during the downtime to snap this photo of the title holding screen!
We had Second Seating dinner this cruise, so after the show we headed down to Enchanted Garden. Immediately upon walking in, a host asked for our table number. Before we even had time to tell him, a server appeared with arms open and announced, "Erin and Ilona!?" and we felt so special when we said he was right and everyone clapped for us on our way inside.
Our fantastic serving team was Jonathan from the Philippines who was already an all-star, and our assistant server Nick from Thailand who was just as friendly and accommodating and happy to see us. For my dinner, I ordered a bottle of Chardonnay I split up between the 3 nights, and my wife went with her classic Shirly Temple. Her dinner was the Ahi Tuna Tower and Prime Rib, while my dinner was the Garden Roll, Harissa Lamb Salad and Prime Rib. I see photos often of most of the dishes we ordered, so here's the Harissa Lamb salad that was absolutely divine.
I would definitely recommend getting this as a salad to split amongst a small group since it is an entrée sized dish.
For desserts, I went with the Garden torte cake and my wife got the chocolate brownie sundae. While we waited for our desserts, our wonderful servers along with a few others came over to clap and wish us a happy honeymoon aboard the cruise. They presented us with a third dessert that we split, and it made the night so magical.
After dinner we caught Match your Mate in Evolution. We didn't play since my wife is shy when it comes to public speaking, but the couples that competed were hilarious and entertaining. After the show when we headed back to the room, she did mention that it looked like a lot of fun and would love to try it on a future cruise. I'm glad she's already getting hooked to the DCL lifestyle!
I did dress in my Christmas attire for dinner on this first night, and on the way back to the room snapped a photo by the tree
Our towel animal was a cute little penguin from JoJo, and we settled in for our second day. Nassau was on schedule, but we planned to have it be a ship day. More to come soon!
I've been browsing the DisBoards for a couple years now to help with my planning of previous cruises, but I've never done a Trip Report before. First time blogging it, so apologies if I'm not the best haha. I've enjoyed reading others' experiences, so I thought I'd give it a shot!
Some quick backstory on me - I am part of the LGBT community and got married to my wife in Fall 2018. We'd been dating for two years after meeting through a mutual friend, but we were long distance for a majority since she was here on temporary VISAs. My wife is from Scandinavia, so when we both popped the question to one another (at the same time!), we had a small wedding in her hometown in Europe, and then once she immigrated to the U.S. we had a second wedding in Los Angeles where we lived at the time. Our second wedding was a big celebration of both our families coming together with friends and loved ones to celebrate us becoming a family and her immigration to the U.S. This happened early March 2020 and we were set to sail on our Honeymoon with DCL on a 5-night out of Miami on the Magic later that month.
Then..............COVID happened.
We were very lucky no one got sick at our wedding and her family was able to make it home safely just before the shut downs began. In the week or so following the wedding, I was getting worried and anxious with the state of the health crisis, and just 9 days out from our sail date, we got that email saying our cruise had been cancelled.
Fast-forward to the present: We were both furloughed from our jobs in LA and being unable to afford to stay out there much longer, we moved to my home state of FL. Our initial honeymoon cruise had been rebooked a handful of times, each time having to be pushed back due to the ongoing pandemic. We decided to bite the bullet and push it far enough out as possible to September 2022 so we wouldn't be getting our hopes up for nothing.
As sailings came back, and now being FL residents, on a whim, we were checking the discounts, and saw a great deal on the 3-night Bahamian sailing out of Port Canaveral on A Very Merrytime Cruise. In the past year, we both got new jobs, had started to rebuild our savings, and decided it would be nice to keep our rebooked 7-night in September as an anniversary sailing, and book a new quick Honeymoon for the weekend. After a year of quarantine in 2020, we both are on the same page that we were blessed with so much quality time together that may not happen again until we're retired, so a quick honeymoon seemed perfect for us to get back to normal life.
Our sailing was Nov 12 - 15 on The Dream out of Port Canaveral.
Our day started with me being my usual, bubbly self, being very Princess Anna-like by hoping out of bed, throwing open the curtains, excited that today was the day!! My wife, who's a lot more down to Earth than I am, was shuffling about the apartment, getting dressed, checking her messages, and double checking our suitcases and passports while I was still busy bouncing off the walls, wanting to leave 2 hours early due to impatience. Of course as things happen, my wife's flip flops broke that morning, so we headed to Target for a quick trip and grabbed some Starbucks while we were there. Then we hit the road!
We arrived to Port Canaveral at 10:55am for a PAT of 11am - 11:15am. We dropped off our luggage with the porter and made our way to the garage for testing. My poor wife was still waking up, and in the passenger seat she was accidently dropping papers, pens, our documents, and after swabbing, she accidently dropped the blue cap under the seat, loudly whining "What is happening with me today!?". The lab diagnostics employee was very patient and helpful and got her a new one, which she apologized profusely for, but we laughed about her clumsy-ness while parked, waiting for results.
Once we got our Clear to Sail, her mocha had finally kicked in, she was excited to start our vacation, and we boarded the Disney Dream.
This is my 3rd cruise with DCL, first time on the Dream, and my wife's first cruise ever! This was also my first Merrytime sailing, so the decorations blew me away! They're more stunning in person. Pictures and video really can't do it justice.
We immediately headed for Cabanas and had our lunch outside on the deck. I was a little disappointed in the limited options but I fully understand it's for pandemic related reasons. Being her first time at Cabanas, and having the taste buds of a child, she was more than happy to partake in the chicken tenders, mac and cheese, and fries. We stayed there for a while just talking about all the fun things we had in store until our room was ready at 2pm. We went straight there and I was happy to find my little surprise waiting for her once we got inside.
Because my wife does not drink, I ordered for us the Non-Alcoholic Bon Voyage amenity, and it was a delicious treat to snack on while we sailed away from port. It really was just blue apple juice, and we downed the whole thing before we got past the beach! Door decorations were quick to put on, and then we were out the door.
Our next stop was the 6pm Beauty and the Beast showing. We arrived at 5:30pm to a short line, and we were social distanced seated in row 7 away from other guests. There were 2 technical difficulties at the same moment, just at the start of Be Our Guest, but the issue was resolved quickly, about 5 minutes each. It actually made for a more pleasant experience because the audience had such high energy when the song began that we kept the energy all the way throughout with clapping and cheering for the whole thing, not just the ending to the song. And I was able during the downtime to snap this photo of the title holding screen!
We had Second Seating dinner this cruise, so after the show we headed down to Enchanted Garden. Immediately upon walking in, a host asked for our table number. Before we even had time to tell him, a server appeared with arms open and announced, "Erin and Ilona!?" and we felt so special when we said he was right and everyone clapped for us on our way inside.
Our fantastic serving team was Jonathan from the Philippines who was already an all-star, and our assistant server Nick from Thailand who was just as friendly and accommodating and happy to see us. For my dinner, I ordered a bottle of Chardonnay I split up between the 3 nights, and my wife went with her classic Shirly Temple. Her dinner was the Ahi Tuna Tower and Prime Rib, while my dinner was the Garden Roll, Harissa Lamb Salad and Prime Rib. I see photos often of most of the dishes we ordered, so here's the Harissa Lamb salad that was absolutely divine.
I would definitely recommend getting this as a salad to split amongst a small group since it is an entrée sized dish.
For desserts, I went with the Garden torte cake and my wife got the chocolate brownie sundae. While we waited for our desserts, our wonderful servers along with a few others came over to clap and wish us a happy honeymoon aboard the cruise. They presented us with a third dessert that we split, and it made the night so magical.
After dinner we caught Match your Mate in Evolution. We didn't play since my wife is shy when it comes to public speaking, but the couples that competed were hilarious and entertaining. After the show when we headed back to the room, she did mention that it looked like a lot of fun and would love to try it on a future cruise. I'm glad she's already getting hooked to the DCL lifestyle!
I did dress in my Christmas attire for dinner on this first night, and on the way back to the room snapped a photo by the tree
Our towel animal was a cute little penguin from JoJo, and we settled in for our second day. Nassau was on schedule, but we planned to have it be a ship day. More to come soon!
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