April 10-15 Dream trip report, Hyatt, transfers, Cabana oh my! (COMPLETED 4/29)

[michelle9343]

Excellent report so far I can't wait to read more!!

 

[Sereina]

Awesome trip report so far! Looking forward to more!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Great report so far, I love all of the details!!

 

[strega7]

Loving reliving the Dream with you!! We sailed 12/11 and I'm still in withdrawals!! Subbing!

Darn, you mean withdrawals are going to last that long! Glad you are enjoying the trip report!

Loving your TR!

Thank you!

I'm enjoying your TR and looking forward to my June 10 double dip!

Thank you! I am so envious, I already wish we were going on another cruise. I hope you have a terrific time.

I AM REALLY ENJOYING READING YOUR POSTS. MY BOYS(13&9)AND I WILL BE SAILING AWAY ON THE DREAM IN 20 DAYS...WOOOOHOOO!!!! AND YOUR POSTS ARE JUSTING ADDING TO THE ANTICIPATION...KEEP THEM COMING!!!

20 Days!!!! Yippee, have a great time.

Loving the TR! The green isn't hard to read at all.

Thank you! I will keep posting the trip in the green then.

I like the different color font for the actual trip report. Makes it easier to skip over the talk if you want to do so.

Glad you got the cabanas worked out without too much of an issue. The line for AquaDuck was great! We went straight there and then grabbed lunch around 1pm after the crowds had died down some.

We probably should have done it in that order, but I was still surprised at how light the line was when we went. Did you make it to the cruise meet? I was feeling guilty because time got away from us, and I really wanted to meet everyone. I see you started a trip report, when I am done here I am going to jump over and read yours!

I am enjoying your report! I'm so glad to see someone do a detailed report about the MCO Hyatt...we are staying there before our cruise too.

Thank you! I loved staying at the Hyatt. We have done disney cruises several different ways, but it was sooooo nice not renting a car, or dealing with luggage. Especially if you are just there for the cruise part and not doing disney ahead of time, this was definately the easy way to go.

Excellent report so far I can't wait to read more!!

Coming right up!

Great report so far, I love all of the details!!

Thank you! If you have any questions, let me know I will be happy to answer!

 

[strega7]

Here we go....

April 11, 2012 Castaway Cay Day #1

Even though the beds were comfy, and I was tired, I was up early yet again. You would think with the time difference I would have to drag myself out of bed, but that certainly was not the case. Sleeping was not easy on this trip for some reason. So, I took it upon myself to figure out room service and order coffee and muffins for the whole family. This became something we did every morning, and now that I am back home, I am missing my morning coffee and muffins room service. I headed out on the balcony to watch the ocean go by, and soon we were spinning the ship around getting
ready to dock at Castaway Cay. I was really excited for this day. There is nothing like being on this island. We took our time sitting on the balcony, drinking coffee, watching us back in. After we had docked, we all got dressed and headed up to Cabana’s for breakfast. I was hoping we had given enough time for most people to clear out and get on the island, but when we got up there, it was the same craziness we had experienced before. We fought our way through and got ourselves breakfast. After we were done, we headed back down to our room and got our stuff to head onto the island. We disembarked, and took pictures all the way down to the tram stop.

We jumped on the tram and rode to the second stop were we got off to check in for our Cabana. The check in building was really easy to find, as it is right where the tram drops you off at the Pelican point stop. We had gotten our wristbands the night before in our room, and we had them on. We gave the cast members our name and they let us know where to get our snorkeling equipment and directed us to a golf cart that would take us down to our Cabana.

We were dropped off at our cabana, and shortly thereafter were greeted by another cast member. He explained everything about the cabana, the drinks, the towels, the call button, volume control for the music, etc. and then he was gone. Now What! We were finally here, what to do first? So we changed into our swimwear behind the burlap curtain and headed down to the swimmable beach. We were in Cabana #17 which is the very last Cabana on the beach. If I could ever get a Cabana again, I would hope beyond hope that I could get this same one. It was extremely private, not very far from the swim water, the view is amazing, and we loved everything about this cabana. I had also read somewhere that the sand in front of it was a little more course, and though we did see some shells, I thought the sand was perfect. I had bought swim shoes, and wore them the first day, but wish I hadn’t, there was really no need for them in my opinion.

Pics of #17:

View of the side:

Looking down to the ship:

Off to the right of the cabana, where we never went except to get a picture:

View of our row of cabins from where we were swimming:

We sun blocked up with the 70 proof block that was provided with the Cabana and headed off to the swim beach. As a side note, there was beautiful water in front of our Cabana, but because it is out of sight of the lifeguards, nobody is allowed to swim in it. We did wade in that water and sit with our feet in it, and nobody seemed to mind. We did not break the rules right away though, we went to the approved water area and spent hours just floating around in the tubes and mattress and having a generally great time. It was really warm out, and the water felt good. Somewhere along the line the family wanted to try snorkeling, so DH and I offered to walk up and get the lifejackets. While we were walking up, we saw people getting food, and started to feel pretty hungry ourselves. We got the life vests and headed back to the Cabana. Everybody else must have had the same feeling, because by the time we got back, they were out of the water and at the cabana. I also think the salt water was bothering DS eyes because he later made a comment about wishing he had fresh water to wash them off with. At the time, he didn’t realize the shower at the Cabana was fresh water, lessoned learned, he now knew for day #2. DS did not want to leave the Cabana, so we walked up, got lunch and brought it back to eat. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the sand in front of our Cabana, wading in the water, reading our books, and just relaxing. I guess we are not that lively of a group. Oddly enough we never did head back down to the water that afternoon. We went up and did a little shopping, but that was it.

Here we are resting, no wonder he didn’t want to go back to school:

Rough Life:

Forcing my son to play in the sand with me so I wouldn’t look like the crazy old lady playing in the sand:

Later in the afternoon, we headed back to the ship to clean up and get ready for dinner. We called concierge and had the cart come down and pick us up. DH and I decided to walk back to the ship as we wanted to take pictures. It was pretty funny because twice we passed the rest of our group that was waiting for trams to get back to the boat.

There they go!

Getting passed up

Back at the dream

We boarded the ship, and ended up getting back to our stateroom only slightly later than the rest of the family. We cleaned up, delivered our FE gifts, and headed down to Enchanted Garden for dinner. Tonight was cruise casual / dress up optional. We decided to do the cruise casual, but did see quite a few people that did dress up nicer that cruise casual.
After dinner, we went to see the show in the Walt Disney Theatre. The show was the illusion of Knight Magic with Kyle Knight and Mistie. I have seen magic shows on other cruises and just thought they were so-so, so I wasn’t as excited as the boys in the family to go to this show. Boy, am I glad I went, this was a fantabulous show, and we all really enjoyed it. They were doing a couple of adult shows later in the cruise, but unfortunately, we never made it to one. After the show, we headed back to our stateroom to say goodbye to another amazing day.

Up next, Atlantis Aquadventure…..

 

[Tommys Mommy]

I'm really enjoying you TR and all of your photos!! Our first cruise is June 6th on the Dream - I'm getting very excited!!!

 

[Linda67]

Really enjoying your TR

The cabana looks wonderful, what a perfect day

 

[kyirish25]

We missed you at the meet. We had a pretty good turnout, I would guess around 30 people. It is always nice as then you recognize people throughout the cruise and have someone you can talk with.

We had Cabana 17 last year and loved it as much as you did. It was so private and quiet! We were never told about not swimming out in front of it and all the kids had a great time after the tide went down chasing the fish and trying to catch them. The view back at the ship is amazing!

 

[In Luv with Disney]

Subscribing!

I was on this cruise, and we were neighbors at Castaway on Day 1! We had Cabana # 16 along with our friends. I have to agree, it was PERFECT!!! So private. And we went in the water without anyone saying anything to us. I hope I can get a Cabana again, I absolutely LOVED it!!!!

 

[strega7]

I'm really enjoying you TR and all of your photos!! Our first cruise is June 6th on the Dream - I'm getting very excited!!!

I am glad you are joining in and enjoying the TR. If you have questions, please ask, I would be happy to answer. Have a great time on your trip, I know you will love it!

Really enjoying your TR

The cabana looks wonderful, what a perfect day

I am glad you are enjoying the report. I felt very blessed this whole vacation, I felt everyday was a perfect day, we really enjoyed ourselves.

We missed you at the meet. We had a pretty good turnout, I would guess around 30 people. It is always nice as then you recognize people throughout the cruise and have someone you can talk with.

We had Cabana 17 last year and loved it as much as you did. It was so private and quiet! We were never told about not swimming out in front of it and all the kids had a great time after the tide went down chasing the fish and trying to catch them. The view back at the ship is amazing!

I think that missing the meet was my only regret. Next time we go, I want to make sure I attend, I really loved our dis group and getting to talk to everyone before the cruise. It would have been nice to meet you all in person. Was it your FI that ended up in the ER before the cruise. If it was my heart went out to you, I am glad it all turned out ok and you made it on the cruise.

Subscribing!

I was on this cruise, and we were neighbors at Castaway on Day 1! We had Cabana # 16 along with our friends. I have to agree, it was PERFECT!!! So private. And we went in the water without anyone saying anything to us. I hope I can get a Cabana again, I absolutely LOVED it!!!!

I remember you, I think you said hi to us. I wish I knew it was you, I would have come and introduced myself. I almost came and grabbed you at one point to come take our picture as a family, but I ended up asking the room guy to do it.

 

[strega7]

I just have to add pictures and then the next part will be posted. Stay tuned, will be up shortly...

 

[strega7]

April 12, 2012 Nassau
This morning we had the Atlantis Aquadventure booked for 9:30. Even though I was up early for vacation, my mom and dad were up before us and ordered the coffee and muffins of the morning. Since we had to be down in the Buena Vista theatre for our excursion, we were happy with the room service for breakfast. Our whole family loved the coffee on the ship, I usually like a little coffee with my cream and sugar, but the coffee was so yummy, I was happy with just three creams and a couple of sugars with my coffee, which for me is hardly any. We were on the starboard side of the ship, and if there isn’t a ship next to you, you have a great view of Atlantis. We got everything together as we were pulling in, and headed down to our meeting place for our excursion. Disney had this down to a science. Before we entered the theatre, we handed in our signed forms that were left in our room when we embarked. We were given a sticker to wear and instructed to go to the bottom row in the theatre where the Atlantis people would give us our wristbands and lunch vouchers.

After that we walked to the other side of the theatre were we all sat in rows to wait for our march out to the shuttle bus. When everybody had arrived, we got up and followed in a line out the ship, down the dock, to some gates where a guard of some sort let us walk thru.

I am following who?

This sounds easier than it was. Keep in mind that there were 3 other ships in port at the same time ours was. There were people everywhere. The guide had told us to make sure you know who is in front and behind you to keep track of the group. I had no problem with those instructions, but I was hoping the people I was following knew who they were following. I was kinda surprised at how beat up everything was. We had been there in 2006 and it seemed to be in much better shape. It looks like they have been hit by a few storms over the years. We were stopped by a road where all these van/bus things stopped to load people up.

Wait, is this my bus?

Riding in the sporty plastic covered seats, I hope they are cleaner than the windows…

We got into the little bus and sat down on the plastic covered seats. It was a short, maybe 10 minute ride over to Atlantis. We pulled up and got off, we were put in another line, given one really bad map per family, marched inside where we waited in the hall for a little while. There wasn’t a lot of instruction going on at this time, and it was hard to keep my husband from running into the gift shop that we were stopped next too. Finally the guy in front said follow me to the aqua park and the line started to move. We went down a hallway, down past a really cool sculpture that reminded me of something you would see in superman, through the casino, out a door, past a guy standing at a roped off area, over some bridges, and then…..hmmm, where did the line go? As we were getting to where ever we were being taken, people kept jumping out of march to take pictures. I don’t think the guide guy ever looked back once he started walking. I can only imagine he got to where he thought he was taking a whole bunch of people, and found himself standing alone.

Group, what group?

Ohhh pretty, picture time…

We walked around a little bewildered and lost until we found a bunch of chairs by the pool area. And in all the bunches of chairs was a bunch of people. There was not a chair in sight that was empty. We were walking around totally dazed, and we must have looked it, because some angel looked at me and said, we are leaving, here are my chairs. Geez, sometimes being completely clueless does pay off! Happily we took the chairs off of his hands and set up camp. We were next to a neat pool that had waterfalls, yep that is about as much as I knew about it. DS hops in immediately while DH went to change into his swimsuit.

See, waterfall pool

When DH comes back, he has found a water river ride that we have to try. DH, myself and DS walk not too far away where we find the entrance to what turns out to be the not so lazy river. My Mom, who can’t swim, Dad, who didn’t really want to swim, and my Sister, who wasn’t into swimming either waited at the chairs with our stuff. The river ride was AWSOME! We laughed and giggled all the way around the ride. There were these great tunnels that some pretty good rapids, a really cool part that sent huge waves at you and so much more. It took at least 30 minutes to do the whole ride around.

When we got back to the beginning we had to go grab my parents so they could try. I was a little nervous about mom doing it, because she couldn’t swim, but I rode a double raft with her and she ended up having a great time! We went around a couple more times, and then got out to go check on my sister. It was lunch time so we went and found one of the places that would accept our lunch coupon. The nearest one was quite a ways from where we were at, we had to ask a couple of different people to find out which place we could eat at. They did give generous amounts of food in my opinion. DS swam for a while longer in the waterfall pool, but he was really starting to wear out fast. I think the heat and constant going was finally getting to him. We still wanted to see the dig, so we packed up our stuff in search of the aquarium. DS was getting pretty whiny at this point, but we made him keep going. The aquarium was pretty cool, and they had one super huge Stingray in there. I didn’t even know Stingray’s got that huge.

We made it thru the aquarium and then decided to go back to the ship. We found our way back to the meeting place, and there was a van/bus thing waiting there for us. We climbed into the plastic covered chairs again, only this time I realized why they were covered in plastic. I hadn’t changed out of my swimsuit and I was wet, Smart, the plastic is so the seat doesn’t get wet. I thought the plastic was originally there just to look creepy. They packed the shuttle as full as they could, even dropping the seat that folded down into the center aisle, and we were headed back to the ship. It was an uneventful ride back to the ship, except for the shortcut the driver took, which ended up being legitimate. We went back to the room to let DS rest and so we could get cleaned up. Now when I packed for the trip, I hadn’t realized I would be taking at least two showers a day, every day, and I surmised that I was going to run out of some essential clothing if I didn’t do a quick load of laundry. My husband, who is the most perfect guy on earth, helped me do laundry. We were very far forward on the 5th floor. The Laundry was as far aft as you could get on the 5th floor. So we loaded up our suitcase with some dirty laundry, and wheeled across the ship, in front of the Buena Vista theatre, past port adventures, around the corner, down in front of the kids club, down another couple of corridors and until finally at the laundry unit. I felt really cool wheeling my luggage all over deck 5.

In retrospect, I think it would have been easier to find a laundry facility that was forward, but on a different floor, but I will do that next time. While we were waiting on our clothing, we ordered up a couple of mickey bars and enjoyed them on the balcony, yummmmm.
Tonight was pirate night, so as our laundry was finishing up, we were getting dressed. I had made my mom and I these really cute headbands made out of pirate material, and then we forced everyone to wear matching pirate shirts. As soon as our laundry finished we headed down to the Royal Palace for dinner. When we got there the photo place with the white background only had one person in line, so we stopped and got our pictures taken.

Aren’t we cute and all piratey

Dinner was dinner, and Meible, the assistant server boggled our minds with crayon games. After dinner we did a little souvenir shopping and then we headed to our rooms. We were going to watch the pirate thing, but DS and I promptly fell asleep. I woke up when I heard the fireworks blasting, and went out on our balcony and watched.

Yes, you can see them from the forward, starboard side balcony. Then it was back to bed to rest up for our day at sea.

 

[TheThomsLuvDisney]

I'm in and loving your TR!

Question: Do you remember what you paid for the night at the Hyatt? Did that include your transfers?

 

[Tommys Mommy]

TheThomsLuvDisney: Regarding the MCO Hyatt: I have booked one night (2 adults, 2 kids) on June 5th, the night before our cruise. I booked online, with no cancellation/changes and with taxes our room was $211. This does not include transfers to the port. I booked those separately with DCL. We only need transfers to the port (not after the cruise) and the charge is $35 per person. ------ I tried to read as much as I could about staying at the MCO Hyatt before a cruise. The conclusion of others seemed to be that it might not be the least expensive way to do it, but it was the easiest & most convenient. HTH.

 

[strega7]

TheThomsLuvDisney: Regarding the MCO Hyatt: I have booked one night (2 adults, 2 kids) on June 5th, the night before our cruise. I booked online, with no cancellation/changes and with taxes our room was $211. This does not include transfers to the port. I booked those separately with DCL. We only need transfers to the port (not after the cruise) and the charge is $35 per person. ------ I tried to read as much as I could about staying at the MCO Hyatt before a cruise. The conclusion of others seemed to be that it might not be the least expensive way to do it, but it was the easiest & most convenient. HTH.

Sorry I was absent to day, DS ended up with fever, sore throat, headache crud. Way to go kid for waiting until we got back. But Tommy's Mommy, you took the words right out of my mouth. We booked Hyatt a long time ago and 2 adults 1 child ended up costing $209.00 but then I think I had to pay taxes on top of that. I have heard people using the stay certificates (or something like that) and it makes it cheaper. I was just wanting easy, and was willing to pay for it.

 

[awtigger]

Great Trip Report

 

[DisneyDream2B]

Thank you for the great trip report and photos!

May I ask from what location the beautiful photo of the Dream docked at Castaway Cay was taken? I would really like to take a similar photo on our upcoming Dream cruise.

Again, thanks!

 

[strega7]

Thank you for the great trip report and photos!

May I ask from what location the beautiful photo of the Dream docked at Castaway Cay was taken? I would really like to take a similar photo on our upcoming Dream cruise.

Again, thanks!

The one that is a close up of the dream is taken from the path as you walk back from the beach. I think it was taken right as you are walking up a little hill almost to the bridge. It is right after the beach area that rents water craft on the way towards the ship. I hope that makes sense. There are tons of photo ops like this one if you walk the path and not take the tram back.

 

[strega7]

Ok, here is another segment, Day at Sea....

Friday April 13, 2012 day at sea…
Day at sea, comfy bed, nowhere to rush too, perfect morning to sleep in, NOT! I really don’t know what was wrong with me but sleeping was a serious issue. By this day I was tired beyond tired, but that wasn’t going to stop me. I was up and about ordering room service. I wish I could just dial 0 and push 1 here and have coffee brought to me every morning, but I am back in reality so I have to get up and push the button on my Kuerig . While sipping coffee and getting dressed DH and dad decided they would just run up and grab the muffins and stuff from cabanas for breakfast. By the time I got out of the shower, DH was back, but he was eating steak and eggs, and he brought me back a muffin. Yeah, not feeling the muffin thing, so after I finished getting dressed I headed up for hash browns and toast. I took it back to the room and ate. We were feeling pretty leisurely today, DS decided he wanted to play shuffle board, so we headed down to deck 4 with DH and played quite a few games.

Of course, none of us could remember the rules, but we made them up. Mom, Dad, and Sister showed up at some point while we were playing and said that Bingo was going to start in about ½ an hour. There was a guy and a son waiting for us to leave, so we decided to go grab a chair for bingo.

DS is 12, but he had never played bingo before, I know, what kind of parents would have a 12 year old who has never played bingo? I was glad we got there early, as the theatre ended filling up pretty quickly. We didn’t win anything, but we had a ton of fun playing. After bingo, we went back by the rooms for a bit, but our room hostess was just getting to them. We left the rooms and headed up to Cabanas for lunch. Lunch was just mehhh, but it was a good place to hang out for awhile. The weather was not the world’s greatest that day. It was slightly overcast, kinda drippy, a lot like home only warmer. We didn’t spend much time up on deck 11 during the day as it still seemed pretty busy, and we were entertained by all the other stuff on the ship. After lunch, they boys wanted to go play in the arcade, while us girls went and checked out our pictures and then headed back to our staterooms for a little rest. It was at this point I decided to go to guest services to add our gift card we had from our visa rewards. When I went down, they had already charged my credit card for some of our purchases and excursions because it had come to $500. Apparently every $500 you spend triggers your visa to be charged. If you have a gift card, make sure you go to guest services the very first day and put it on your account because once they charge your credit card, they will not reverse the charges so it will come off your gift card instead. It didn’t really matter to us, because my DH hadn’t hit the gift shops yet, so we had a good credit for his shopping spree, but it was a good lesson for next time. I headed up to the room to get some book reading and resting in, but the boys were already back. The movie John Carter was playing in 3-D down in the Buena Vista Theatre, the boys were going, so I decided to go with them. I have heard people not crazy about this movie, but I enjoyed it. Mainly because it turned out to be a love story – sort of- and I can hardly ever get the boys to go see a love story, I will take what I can get.
When we got out of the movie, it was almost time for dinner, boy the day went fast! We got our semi formal clothes on and headed down to the royal palace for dinner. I am not one who enjoys getting dressed up, but I did put on a dress and tights for the occasion.

See, a little dressed up, but not crazy:

Dinner was dinner, and after dinner, we started to head up to our rooms to change, when we heard the Fantasy was going by us in the opposite direction, so we went out and got a pic.

The fantasy going by:

The captain had also come on and explained that due to the projected winds the next day a Castaway Cay, he was going to try hurry down and dock at CC at night. How cool is that? Be the first Disney cruise to dock at CC at night. While we were headed down to CC, the winds were 30mph with another 20 from the speed of the ship. The winds were blowing across the deck at about 52 mph, so we decided to go play in it.

Dad catching some wind:

DS up on deck before the kicked us off:

We tried to get to the front of the ship, but they closed that off due to high winds, so we ventured to the back of the ship where we played in the wind until they closed off that deck. We walked to Deck 12 where we say Mulan playing on the big outdoor television thing. We watched for awhile then headed down to the Walt Disney theatre to watch Villans. Both DH and DS enjoyed the show, but I am not much of a live show person. I found it mildly entertaining. I think the cast did a great job, it is just not my thing. Just as the show was finishing up, we started feeling the ship vibrating. After the show we went up to our rooms and realized our captain was trying to back into castaway cay. Of course we had to stand outside and watch with fingers crossed. The captain tried really hard, but after fighting with it and getting really close, he had to end up leaving, Boo Hoo.

Castaway Cay at Night:

Trying to get to the dock:

Look how close we got:

After another successfully fun day, it was time to head to bed and cross our fingers that we could make Castaway Cay the next day.


Stay tuned to find out if we make it....or read one of the other trip reports

 

[kyirish25]

We were at Atlantis. Boy was it crowded! All the big water slides had @ 1 hour waits. We did the river thing over and over because it beat standing in long lines.

I missed passing the Fantasy. Guess we were either at the show or dinner. Sorry you don't enjoy the shows, we love them.