>> April 1, 2012 - Disney Dream Spring Break Frenzy! <<

[tink_lover]

Hi fellow frenzy spring break cruisers! We did our first cruise last spring break but I guessed the 2012 sb dates wrong by one week. So after lots of maneuvering, we are booked in two rooms for this cruise! Our group is me, dh, dd will be 13, ds will be 10, and ds will be 9. Looking forward to getting to know peeps before we sail!

 

[VA_mouseman]

Welcome aboard! Looks like this cruise will have a nice collection of young teens and tweens. My boys will be 14 and 11 at the time of sailing.

Hope everyone is going to have a great summer. Anyone going to the parks anytime soon?

 

[sdzimm]

I am travelling with a a tween and a teen as well. My dd will be 14 and my ds will be 16. I keep double checking to make sure they are still game for the cruise part of the trip. We make it to Disney every year, but they do not remember the 1st cruise.

I am hoping they like it, I am planning on working up to a 7 day Alaskan cruise.

 

[tinkerbellfriend]

Thanks Whodat and Mantaz for help with the countdown pin. As you can see, I got one. Yeah!

Anyone that has teens, are your teens planning on going to the teen club? My son is planning on going. I was just curious because my son is the only one in our group that can go to the Vibe (I think that is what it is called). In fact, his plan is to be there the whole vacation but I really doubt he will as he will not know anyone else. But I have talked to other people who said their kids love it so much that they do spend a lot of time there. Anyone with experience in this area, I would love to hear your feedback on this. I am not used to having my kids not want to hang out with me....I know that time is coming but still not ready for it.

 

[sdzimm]

I am hoping my 13yo dd will spend LOTS of time in the teen club. She will be 14, and her brother 16, so they can BOTH go. Most days they do not like each other. I hope the will make an exception for vacation.

I had my big wake up call and withdrawl episode about 6 months ago. I had to deal with my 'babies' no longer wanting to be up under mommy. It was rough I have to admit, but I am okay with it now. (Most days )

 

[RemoCat]

We will be on this cruise as well, but our kids don't know it - shhh!! I have never posted on these boards, but have followed them several times. We sailed on the Dream in January 2011 on a Cast Member preview sailing with friends who work for the Mouse, but couldn't take the kids. Anyway, I am _very_ interested in the fish extender groups - has one been made for this cruise yet? How do I find out if/when one forms?? Thanks for any info!!

 

[Brookie1972]

In case anyone else was waiting, the resort rates are out now. I booked our room a few weeks ago. Can't wait!

 

[Brookie1972]

You can add me dh, ds 9, ds 5, dd 5

 

[guarn3md]

I am back in the group...yeah!!
My parents decided to pull my little sister out of school and not change the dates of our cruise!! They decided that since we had it planned and it is hard enough to coordinate our schedules plus they aren't getting any younger...
So put my groups back in...
2 cabins on 10th deck
my family - me (43), DH (44 at cruise) and DS - Connor (10 at cruise)
my parents - Mom, Dad and Sister - Asia (8 at time of cruise)

Glad to be back!!
Debbie

 

[WhoDat]

I am back in the group...yeah!!

Debbie

Welcome back Debbie! I'm glad it worked out for you.

 

[WhoDat]

We will be on this cruise as well, but our kids don't know it - shhh!! I have never posted on these boards, but have followed them several times. We sailed on the Dream in January 2011 on a Cast Member preview sailing with friends who work for the Mouse, but couldn't take the kids. Anyway, I am _very_ interested in the fish extender groups - has one been made for this cruise yet? How do I find out if/when one forms?? Thanks for any info!!

Welcome to the group. We're a small, quiet group but hopefully as time goes by more cruisers will join the thread.

As far as I know a fish extender group hasn't been formed yet. I'd love to join if we get one organized. I've never done one before (only been on one cruise), but it sounds fun. I've been looking on eBay and etsy to have fish extender made. They're so cute!

Nancy

 

[WhoDat]

I just booked a room at Country Inn & Suites for the night before the cruise. I've never stayed there before but it seems awfully convenient. Do any of you have any comments, negative or positive, about this hotel? Two years ago we stayed at the La Quinta in Cocoa but it was a little scuzzy and with the date of our cruise falling at the time of year it does I figure the crowds will be crazy.

I booked CI&S for $119 but I'll keep trying Priceline to get if for less. I guess that won't work until the date gets closer.

Hope you're all having a great weekend.

Nancy

 

[VA_mouseman]

Our plan is to spend Friday and Saturday nights pre-cruise at WDW, squeezing as much park goodness as we can out of Saturday.

Is everyone having a great summer so far?

Jamie

 

[Brookie1972]

Our plan is to spend Friday and Saturday nights pre-cruise at WDW, squeezing as much park goodness as we can out of Saturday.

Is everyone having a great summer so far?

Jamie

I wish we could do pre cruise. I am a teacher and they don't allow you to take off the day before/after spring break. You are smart to do it before I have the feeling after is going to be packed being it is Easter weekend.

I'm enjoying the summer, I haven't really thought about the cruise in awhile, but now that I have the summer off work, I have been reading as much as possible about the cruise.

We booked late dining, anyone have any idea if this is something I am going to regret. We have kids 5, 5, and 9. I was thinking we didn't want to be rushed back to dinner from the ports, but the more I think about it, I'm not sure we are even going to get off the ship in Nassau. This is our first cruise with kids, we've been to Nassau several times and have did almost all the tours. The only thing I think we would enjoy was Atlantis, but as a family of 5 this is pretty costly. We have booked a hotel at the Comfort Suites when going before, but the rates are a lot higher than they used to be.

 

[guarn3md]

I just booked a room at Country Inn & Suites for the night before the cruise. I've never stayed there before but it seems awfully convenient. Do any of you have any comments, negative or positive, about this hotel? Two years ago we stayed at the La Quinta in Cocoa but it was a little scuzzy and with the date of our cruise falling at the time of year it does I figure the crowds will be crazy.

I booked CI&S for $119 but I'll keep trying Priceline to get if for less. I guess that won't work until the date gets closer.

Hope you're all having a great weekend.

Nancy

Stayed there this year at Spring Break the night before we went on our first Disney cruise. The room wasn't bad and the pool was nice. The kids enjoyed swimming in the pool! It was really funny because everyone there was leaving on a cruise the next day. The only bad part was signing up for the shuttle. We checked in early - I want to say by 1pm and the available time slot for the shuttle was 11:30!! We put our names down for it...but when we got out to the front of the hotel it was a mad house. My Dad ended up calling for a taxi and we just went over in the taxi. I think it was $30 for the five of us and all our luggage. It is a 5 min trip, unless you get stopped the the bridge opening and then it is 10 min. Not sure what we are going to do for 2012. Guess I better start thinking about it... I know we are flying down this time instead of driving...
Anyway - the CI&S was a nice hotel. The $119 price is good. We paid $124 and that was for the park and cruise package.
Ohhh...I just remembered one of the front desk girls, during the evening, was very stingy with the cookies. She would get annoyed that she would bake a tray of cookies and then the guests would come and eat them! It was really funny. We couldn't figure out what she wanted to do with the cookies - take them home...
Debbie

 

[guarn3md]

I wish we could do pre cruise. I am a teacher and they don't allow you to take off the day before/after spring break. You are smart to do it before I have the feeling after is going to be packed being it is Easter weekend.

I'm enjoying the summer, I haven't really thought about the cruise in awhile, but now that I have the summer off work, I have been reading as much as possible about the cruise.

We booked late dining, anyone have any idea if this is something I am going to regret. We have kids 5, 5, and 9. I was thinking we didn't want to be rushed back to dinner from the ports, but the more I think about it, I'm not sure we are even going to get off the ship in Nassau. This is our first cruise with kids, we've been to Nassau several times and have did almost all the tours. The only thing I think we would enjoy was Atlantis, but as a family of 5 this is pretty costly. We have booked a hotel at the Comfort Suites when going before, but the rates are a lot higher than they used to be.

I too have the summer off...and have been reading alot!! Amazon is enjoying all the money I am spending on kindle books!!
We booked late dining but then requested a change to early dining which came through when we got on the ship. We had two kids (7 & 9)...my Dad was against the late dining. I don't think it was hard to do the early dining. The good thing was that there was time after dinner to do stuff - see a show and you didn't feel like you were going to bed after eating. We have late dining again and are waitlisted for the early dining. The one request I want to make sure comes through is that we are the only ones at our table. We had a hard time with the table share...I'll leave it at that!
We did the Dolphin Swim through Blue Lagoon when we were in port at Nassau. Probably won't do anything this time. I too have considered Atlantis but it is sooo expensive and there are a ton of people there.
We are going to WDW after the cruise, which is what we did this year. I have to say that the crowds were manageable. I was surprised, didn't feel like anything more than 4th of July...just not as hot!!
Debbie

 

[Brookie1972]

We are used to the the November crowd level, we were actually booked on the Dream this Nov, but when I went back to work that was out.

I just checked and we are actually booked on the early dining, I had requested to change it, but it looks like it wasn't changed....yes for someone not listening to me!

For those of you who are flying down and staying in the port area the day before, how are you getting from Orlando airport to the port?

I didn't know if the Disney shuttle went a day early and dropped you off at a hotel. Right now we have a car rental for 24 hours, hoping it isn't too much trouble to return and take a shuttle with them to the cruise terminal. Curious if there are other options out there, we do have 5 people in our family though....so trying to weigh convenience/cost. Car rental is a bit under $100 each way and figured we could use it for the day in the cocoa beach area.

We are staying at Disney afterwards and we are using that as a day in the park, so don't want to waste too much time returning car (downtown disney area). No flights booked yet, so that could change everything, rates are supposed to be out 6 months in advance.

And my one last prob is one of my twins is going to be big enough to ride Aquaduck, but the other will not, unless she grows 2 inches in 6 months! the crazy thing is she is the most adventurous out of all three, looking the most forward to it.

 

[sdzimm]

I was wondering if our little thread was in the land of the forgotten

So glad to see new posts.

I am glad a few have done Spring Break cruises before. I am used to Disney World crowd levels at Spring Break. How bad is it on Castaway Cay? I have seen a few complaints on other boards.

I plan on staying in a hotel the night before the cruise. I am leaning towards the Hyatt in MCO, but now I am not sure after the latest Port arrival rules being rolled out in August.

I will keep my ears open before I make a final decision.

 

[WhoDat]

Holy Cow! I just checked our cruise price on DCL's website and the price for my cabin is 75% higher now than when I booked in January! Unbelievable.

 

[guarn3md]

I had to check after reading your post...The cruise is not an option for a group of two adults w/ one child age 10. But I was able to see the price when I checked for 2 adults only.
Cruise is selling out...just like this year.
Spent a lot of time researching flying into MCO and then what to do with transportation to terminal, hotel prices, shuttle prices, etc... Then we need to get over to WDW after cruise and not sure how I want to do that... Lots of pricing, had to make an excel spreadsheet!
I like the idea of staying at the Hyatt, but there is a Hampton 2 miles from airport w/ free shuttle service from airport. The Hampton also offers a shuttle to the port. I also saw there was a Courtyard in Cocoa Beach that has a "Snooze, Stay & Cruise" Package. They will pick you up from MCO, one night at courtyard and then take you to the port. Plus they will pick up from port and bring you back to MCO. This might not be a bad option. Lots of decisions!!
Debbie