This is our 4th Disney Cruise, but our first on the Dream, and we had quite a few firsts on this cruise. I am going to write this trip report, because I am not yet ready to let go of such a terrific vacation. I have to admit, that I am more of a math brain, not a writing brain, so bear with me and I hope you enjoy the report.
Cast of Characters:
We enjoy traveling, and love to travel with my parents, so yet again, my parents were dragged on another vacation. We had two rooms, in our room it was DH, Myself, and DS 12; in the connecting room, it was my Mom, Dad and Sister. When we first booked this cruise we had booked Cat 5Es rooms 5534 and 5536. Somewhere along the line, they changed the categories to 4Es (I think), so we were upgraded? Or not really however that works. Let me just say we loved rooms 5534 and 5536. They are all the way forward on the Starboard side. We had a great view leaving port, a great view of Castaway Cay, and a great view of the Carnival Magic when docked at Nassau. These rooms have the extended balconies, but the stateroom itself felt a little shorter than regular staterooms that we have had on the magic and wonder. What is nice about the location is that in order to get to them, you have to go all the way to the forward staircase before you can get to the hall to go to your stateroom on the starboard side. If you are midship you have to walk forward on the port side in order to get to the forward staircase and cross to the starboard side. Some may think this is a pain, but it sure kept a lot of foot traffic in front of our rooms down. The staterooms had connecting doors on the inside, but also the outer part of the balcony also opened up, giving us a huge balcony together. 5534 is on the edge of a group of staterooms, so the divider between the 5534 and 5532 on the balcony didnt go all the way out to the edge because it is rounded. Luckily my parents had a very sweet neighbor, and the times that they ended up out on the edge of the balcony together was very enjoyable.
Our Room 5536 on the inside:
Our Balcony:
See what I mean about the rounded edges in 5534:
But, I have totally gotten ahead of myself. Our trip really started a year ago when I booked it, and my poor boss who had to put up with me every day for the year while I obsessed about it. Since we are silver castaway members, I promptly logged on at midnight at the 90 day mark to get a Cabana on the family beach. It was spring break (can you say busy cruise), I had my parents coming (not fond of crowds, but are still good sports), and I wanted so badly to surprise them when we got on the cruise with a cabana. We were doing a double dip, so my chances were good for a least one day right? WRONG! All Cabanas were gone. I was glad I hadnt told my parents about them and built up their hopes. Like the crazy obsessive person in my quest for a perfect vacation that I am, I continually checked the internet for a family cabana cancellation. But no luck. Then one afternoon about 4 ½ weeks after my booking window opened, while I was at work hmmmm .I logged onto the Disney website. I was just starting to click on the port adventures button to check for a Cabana when my boss walked in the door behind me .Great!. At this point, do I shut the webpage down in a hurry and pretend to be the upstanding employee that I should be? Heck no, I need to try to get a Cabana, so I just tell her that I am doing personal stuff, cruise related, that probably will amount to nothing, but just then it appeared. Cabana #17 had opened up for our first day at Castaway Cay. My excitement got the better of me and as I am trying to catch my breath and quickly nab the cabana, with my boss just staring at me like I lost my mind, I quickly punch in my cabin and my parents cabin hit confirm and nooooooo it is already gone. I am now almost in tears, but when I hit refresh, the Cabana is still there. So, I try it again, only not putting our linked cabin on the reservation, cross my fingers, and Congratulations! I have Cabana #17, sorry mom and dad, I will deal with you not being able to be added later. Then greediness kicks in, maybe it is open for stop #2. And sure enough there it was. I was lucky enough to get a cabana for both days. As I am jumping around the office, feeling luckier than winning the lottery, my boss finally just had to walk away. Of course, surprising my parents was completely out of the picture, I had to call my mom immediately, (even though she wasnt on the reservation, yet, but that is another story).
So, fast forward to departure day. Everything was booked, Hyatt at the airport confirmed, Disney transportation reserved, Cabana, Oh yeah! It was time to begin the trip. We were traveling from California to Florida. So everyone up at 4:00 am so that we can be at the airport by 5:00 am. The weather was a balmy 46 degrees and rain, I couldnt wait to get out of town. The flights to Orlando were pretty uneventful, we were a bit late leaving our first flight, but we had 2 hours before our connecting flight, so it was not big deal for us, the lady in front of me with a 30 minute connection was another story. There is nothing like a little airline drama with an angry passenger to start off the trip. I was headed to 86 degrees and sunshine, so I didnt care. We landed in Orlando about 6:30pm. We flew in on United, so we were already in Terminal B. We made our way down stairs, collected our luggage, came back up the escalator and followed the signs to the Hyatt. I didnt realize we were at the hotel until we looked up and saw the hotel all around us.
They Hyatt out of nowhere:
It was so nice having the hotel right there in the airport. We made our way up the stairs and to the check in counter. I informed the customer service representative that the next morning we were going on a Disney Cruise and we were going to take the Disney Cruise Line transfers. She gave us a form to fill out to give to the Disney cruise reps when we checked in, and told us to leave our luggage in the room with our Disney cruise line luggage tags on them, and somebody would be by around 8:30 to pick them up. We headed to the elevators to go up to our rooms. We hopped in one, while my parents and sister hopped in another. Luckily a guy also hopped in our elevator because I was standing there pushing the button to take us to our floor, but nothing was happening. Finally the guy asks us if we put our hotel key in the slot .ummm no, am I supposed to? He shows us how to put your hotel key in the elevator and then push your floor button, and like magic we were off to our rooms. Except, Mom and Dad arent there when we get to our floor. I know they must be having the same room card then push the button problem we experienced earlier. So I head back down to the lobby where I find them still in the same place. I amaze them with my new found elevator operating knowledge (thank you random mystery guy who got in our elevator) and soon enough we are all in our hotel rooms. The Hyatts rooms were really nice. The room we had even had a balcony. The beds were very soft, and we enjoyed the ceiling fan. After all we left winter at home and flew into summer, so we were already roasting.
Hyatt Room:
Hyatt Balcony:
After settling a bit, we headed down to get some dinner at Chilies. After Chilies we did a little airport shopping. I love you can get all the souvenirs you want from the Orlando attractions, and you dont even have to leave the airport. After wandering the airport, we headed back to our rooms for some down time before we were off to bed, to dream about the Dream that we were about to board.
Boarding the Ship up next.....
Cast of Characters:
We enjoy traveling, and love to travel with my parents, so yet again, my parents were dragged on another vacation. We had two rooms, in our room it was DH, Myself, and DS 12; in the connecting room, it was my Mom, Dad and Sister. When we first booked this cruise we had booked Cat 5Es rooms 5534 and 5536. Somewhere along the line, they changed the categories to 4Es (I think), so we were upgraded? Or not really however that works. Let me just say we loved rooms 5534 and 5536. They are all the way forward on the Starboard side. We had a great view leaving port, a great view of Castaway Cay, and a great view of the Carnival Magic when docked at Nassau. These rooms have the extended balconies, but the stateroom itself felt a little shorter than regular staterooms that we have had on the magic and wonder. What is nice about the location is that in order to get to them, you have to go all the way to the forward staircase before you can get to the hall to go to your stateroom on the starboard side. If you are midship you have to walk forward on the port side in order to get to the forward staircase and cross to the starboard side. Some may think this is a pain, but it sure kept a lot of foot traffic in front of our rooms down. The staterooms had connecting doors on the inside, but also the outer part of the balcony also opened up, giving us a huge balcony together. 5534 is on the edge of a group of staterooms, so the divider between the 5534 and 5532 on the balcony didnt go all the way out to the edge because it is rounded. Luckily my parents had a very sweet neighbor, and the times that they ended up out on the edge of the balcony together was very enjoyable.
Our Room 5536 on the inside:
Our Balcony:
See what I mean about the rounded edges in 5534:
But, I have totally gotten ahead of myself. Our trip really started a year ago when I booked it, and my poor boss who had to put up with me every day for the year while I obsessed about it. Since we are silver castaway members, I promptly logged on at midnight at the 90 day mark to get a Cabana on the family beach. It was spring break (can you say busy cruise), I had my parents coming (not fond of crowds, but are still good sports), and I wanted so badly to surprise them when we got on the cruise with a cabana. We were doing a double dip, so my chances were good for a least one day right? WRONG! All Cabanas were gone. I was glad I hadnt told my parents about them and built up their hopes. Like the crazy obsessive person in my quest for a perfect vacation that I am, I continually checked the internet for a family cabana cancellation. But no luck. Then one afternoon about 4 ½ weeks after my booking window opened, while I was at work hmmmm .I logged onto the Disney website. I was just starting to click on the port adventures button to check for a Cabana when my boss walked in the door behind me .Great!. At this point, do I shut the webpage down in a hurry and pretend to be the upstanding employee that I should be? Heck no, I need to try to get a Cabana, so I just tell her that I am doing personal stuff, cruise related, that probably will amount to nothing, but just then it appeared. Cabana #17 had opened up for our first day at Castaway Cay. My excitement got the better of me and as I am trying to catch my breath and quickly nab the cabana, with my boss just staring at me like I lost my mind, I quickly punch in my cabin and my parents cabin hit confirm and nooooooo it is already gone. I am now almost in tears, but when I hit refresh, the Cabana is still there. So, I try it again, only not putting our linked cabin on the reservation, cross my fingers, and Congratulations! I have Cabana #17, sorry mom and dad, I will deal with you not being able to be added later. Then greediness kicks in, maybe it is open for stop #2. And sure enough there it was. I was lucky enough to get a cabana for both days. As I am jumping around the office, feeling luckier than winning the lottery, my boss finally just had to walk away. Of course, surprising my parents was completely out of the picture, I had to call my mom immediately, (even though she wasnt on the reservation, yet, but that is another story).
So, fast forward to departure day. Everything was booked, Hyatt at the airport confirmed, Disney transportation reserved, Cabana, Oh yeah! It was time to begin the trip. We were traveling from California to Florida. So everyone up at 4:00 am so that we can be at the airport by 5:00 am. The weather was a balmy 46 degrees and rain, I couldnt wait to get out of town. The flights to Orlando were pretty uneventful, we were a bit late leaving our first flight, but we had 2 hours before our connecting flight, so it was not big deal for us, the lady in front of me with a 30 minute connection was another story. There is nothing like a little airline drama with an angry passenger to start off the trip. I was headed to 86 degrees and sunshine, so I didnt care. We landed in Orlando about 6:30pm. We flew in on United, so we were already in Terminal B. We made our way down stairs, collected our luggage, came back up the escalator and followed the signs to the Hyatt. I didnt realize we were at the hotel until we looked up and saw the hotel all around us.
They Hyatt out of nowhere:
It was so nice having the hotel right there in the airport. We made our way up the stairs and to the check in counter. I informed the customer service representative that the next morning we were going on a Disney Cruise and we were going to take the Disney Cruise Line transfers. She gave us a form to fill out to give to the Disney cruise reps when we checked in, and told us to leave our luggage in the room with our Disney cruise line luggage tags on them, and somebody would be by around 8:30 to pick them up. We headed to the elevators to go up to our rooms. We hopped in one, while my parents and sister hopped in another. Luckily a guy also hopped in our elevator because I was standing there pushing the button to take us to our floor, but nothing was happening. Finally the guy asks us if we put our hotel key in the slot .ummm no, am I supposed to? He shows us how to put your hotel key in the elevator and then push your floor button, and like magic we were off to our rooms. Except, Mom and Dad arent there when we get to our floor. I know they must be having the same room card then push the button problem we experienced earlier. So I head back down to the lobby where I find them still in the same place. I amaze them with my new found elevator operating knowledge (thank you random mystery guy who got in our elevator) and soon enough we are all in our hotel rooms. The Hyatts rooms were really nice. The room we had even had a balcony. The beds were very soft, and we enjoyed the ceiling fan. After all we left winter at home and flew into summer, so we were already roasting.
Hyatt Room:
Hyatt Balcony:
After settling a bit, we headed down to get some dinner at Chilies. After Chilies we did a little airport shopping. I love you can get all the souvenirs you want from the Orlando attractions, and you dont even have to leave the airport. After wandering the airport, we headed back to our rooms for some down time before we were off to bed, to dream about the Dream that we were about to board.
Boarding the Ship up next.....
...KEEP THEM COMING!!!
