April 17, 2011 on the Dream

[alenushka]

We will be driving back Sat. night unless DH is able to get his hand surgery scheduled for next month.
We usually leave the WDW area anywhere from noon until 9pm, depending on what time we need to be back the next day. If DH has to work Easter Sunday night we'll probably leave around 5 or 6pm and that would get us home Easter morning around 10am at the latest. If he doesn't have to work Easter night then we'll leave late Sunday afternoon to get us home around 8am or so. That will give us time to get home before DD has to be to work at 4pm since she's off from school that day.

so you drive through the night, right? we tried it a few times, but around 2:30-3 am we start "falling asleep" If you go on Sat. - we might end up waving to each other on I-95

Debbie, if you can I recommend you just continue driving until you get to FL.

for the information about the drive down. I have to figure out how far into Georgia we can get from from Annapolis on that Thursday. I figure we have to leave my house by 5am in order to avoid DC traffic on the beltway to 95 South. Plus with my Dad and me driving, I figure we can get some good miles in...
Debbie

Debbie - i totally agree with "jilljill" - if I was starting from MD I would try to go straight to FL. It is around 4 hrs from us to MD (without traffic), and those 4 hours make it hard for us to go to Fl without stopping (if roads are good to us we usually enter GA around 8-9 pm, it is about 4 -5 hours from Orlando).

Here is the link to "driving to Disney along I-95". I always print it and take it with me. It will give you distance and approx. travel time through each state. We usually stop to buy gas/coffee, the rest we take with us: picnic bag and yummy foods. In this link you will be able to find all rest areas on your way as well. Most of them are beautiful and kids have a chance to run and play, I think, it is much better than McDonalds
http://www.wdwinfo.com/Transportation/I95.htm

OK first I want to know who he kissed to get it??? AND there is a girl on his competitive team that he has had a crush on for a year - is her mother going to tell me next week she has strep.

We've always had very smooth debarkation... if you don't count the tiny little detail that I have to be dragged off the ship kicking and screaming and crying each time. We always travel with just carry-on luggage

we need to remember to keep our distance from the screaming lady who is being dragged off the ship

How can anyone travel with JUST carry-on luggage I am like Debbie - need a UHaul track every vacation Usually we hardly fit into DH's truck, but sometimes we have to take a roof box as well I would need some lessons.

 

[Deb T.]

How can anyone travel with JUST carry-on luggage I am like Debbie - need a UHaul track every vacation Usually we hardly fit into DH's truck, but sometimes we have to take a roof box as well I would need some lessons.

Everyone always asks me that. DH and I spent almost 2 weeks in China with only a roll-aboard and a duffel bag each. Same for when we spent a little over 2 weeks in Europe for last July's Baltic cruise. I use a lot of packing tricks! For one, I slide my shoes inside DH's! When our kids were little, I'd put their shoes inside of mine inside of DH's! There is no wasted space in our roll-aboards - I pack everything as flat as possible, all the way to the edges of the suitcases. Then, I fill in any tiny gaps with socks and undies along all the edges. I stick with one color palate for evening wear and mix & match. I don't like carrying a handbag on vacation, so I put cash, credit cards, and my driver's license in a very small wallet that fits in my pocket. (Actually, I also put in a couple of checks, small nail file, flat container of dental floss I got from my dentist, postage stamps, emergency phone numbers, family addresses, and our insurance cards.) And my biggest trick is that we take a lot of "throw away" clothes! We save old socks, undies, and pjs to wear on vacation and then toss them all on the last night. No one is the wiser (except all of you now! ). You'd be really surprised at how much room that creates for souvenirs! So, the breakdown is:
-All of DH's clothes and some of my clothes in DH's roll-aboard.
-The rest of my clothes in my roll-aboard.
-DH's duffel will hold all our (nested) shoes, TSA-sized toiletries, his shaving kit, my hairdryer, binoculars, camera, video camera, chargers, etc.
-My duffel will have all the FE gifts, the FE, door magnets, snacks for the flights, reading material, all travel documents, etc.

Works for us!

 

[Deb T.]

Deb T.'s Top 10 List of Things to Do to Help Your Family Prepare for Your Cruise:

10. Start serving all breakfasts and lunches "buffet" or "food station" style.

9. In the mornings, make a 3-tone chime noise, then make the following announcement in your best British accent: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys, in 2 minutes time the forward door will open for all guests to disembark for school. The weather today is going to be (insert your weather, i.e. cold) so be sure to take your (insert necessity, i.e. hat and mittens) when you leave the house. And remember, all aboard is at (whatever your curfew is). Have a magical day!

8. Set your children's artwork out on display in the living room, set up folding chairs for everyone to sit on, and then auction off each piece of artwork to the highest bidder.

7. Step outside and lean on a porch or deck railing, gaze wistfully out at your landscape, and comment on how amazing it is that the ocean is spread out before you for as far as you can see.

6. Start checking your children in and out of their playroom. If your children want to leave the playroom before you come to get them, they must stand in the doorway and make beeper sounds until you arrive to get them.

5. Draw the DCL logo on tall plastic cups and drink your favorite alcoholic beverages out of them.

4. Every night, perform a turn-down service for everyone. Place a small chocolate bar on each pillow and leave a schedule of the next day's events and a towel animal on each bed. Oh, and don't forget to set chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk on the nightstand (from Room Service, of course!).

3. Every evening, have your family line up outside the dining room to wait for dinner to begin. Before they are allowed to enter, make sure the table is set and their favorite drinks are poured and waiting for them. Hand each family member a hand wipe before they enter. Oh, and of course, have a 4-course dinner prepared to serve.

2. Also every evening, have everyone sit in front of the TV to wait for that evening's show to begin. (Actually, if you'd really like to enhance the cruise, show the following movies: Princess and the Frog, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 101 Dalmatians (live action w/Glen Close), Sleeping Beauty, Tarzan (animated version), Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio. Now, back to my silliness...)

And the number one thing to do to help your family prepare for your cruise
1. Every Tuesday evening, have everyone dress in full pirate gear for dinner. After dinner, dance around wildly while talking like a pirate. Arrrrrrrrgh!

 

[mommybean]

Deb T.'s Top 10 List of Things to Do to Help Your Family Prepare for Your Cruise:

Deb T - you are a trip!!!! I tried reading these to DH but was laughing so hard he only caught every other word!!

 

[alenushka]

Deb T.'s Top 10 List of Things to Do to Help Your Family Prepare for Your Cruise:

Thank you for a good laugh!
We made a decision - changed our reservation from Radisson to Doubletree, and though it is about $40 more, it's on the beach and reviews are good, and......we got a room for FREE right off I-95 in GA, bs we had enough Hilton points

Have a great night everyone! I want to give all a big hug for all your help!

 

[guarn3md]

Everyone always asks me that. DH and I spent almost 2 weeks in China with only a roll-aboard and a duffel bag each. Same for when we spent a little over 2 weeks in Europe for last July's Baltic cruise. I use a lot of packing tricks! For one, I slide my shoes inside DH's! When our kids were little, I'd put their shoes inside of mine inside of DH's! There is no wasted space in our roll-aboards - I pack everything as flat as possible, all the way to the edges of the suitcases. Then, I fill in any tiny gaps with socks and undies along all the edges. I stick with one color palate for evening wear and mix & match. I don't like carrying a handbag on vacation, so I put cash, credit cards, and my driver's license in a very small wallet that fits in my pocket. (Actually, I also put in a couple of checks, small nail file, flat container of dental floss I got from my dentist, postage stamps, emergency phone numbers, family addresses, and our insurance cards.) And my biggest trick is that we take a lot of "throw away" clothes! We save old socks, undies, and pjs to wear on vacation and then toss them all on the last night. No one is the wiser (except all of you now! ). You'd be really surprised at how much room that creates for souvenirs! So, the breakdown is:
-All of DH's clothes and some of my clothes in DH's roll-aboard.
-The rest of my clothes in my roll-aboard.
-DH's duffel will hold all our (nested) shoes, TSA-sized toiletries, his shaving kit, my hairdryer, binoculars, camera, video camera, chargers, etc.
-My duffel will have all the FE gifts, the FE, door magnets, snacks for the flights, reading material, all travel documents, etc.

Works for us!

Wow! I am amazed!! I try to be that good of a packer and I have often read of the sticking with one color palate...I always have good intentions of doing that when packing! But then I go back for one more thing, and then one more pair of shoes, and before you know it it's out of control.
I have really got to work on losing some of the shoes...
I am going to have do more research on the IOA. I am not sure if Hyatt Place is a hotel that you get those privileges, but now I am going to find out. May have to change the hotel.
Finally got Connor to bed. The one good thing about boys getting sick - they always come back to their moms for a snuggle. It is like having my little boy again! I am looking forward to some more quality time with him tomorrow. Hoping he is better for school on Monday. DH has to testify in court on Monday - on Halloween night all of us and another family were out trick or treating when we almost got wiped out by a drunk driver. She swerved at us then smashed into a truck that was parked next to us. Then we found out she hit DH's car first as she was swerving up the street. The trial starts on Monday... Not really something we want to relive but hopefully some good will come of it!
Wendy - Thinking good thoughts that the offer comes through tomorrow.
Night all....
Debbie

 

[Mom 3 mouseketeers]

Deb T.'s Top 10 List of Things to Do to Help Your Family Prepare for Your Cruise:

10. Start serving all breakfasts and lunches "buffet" or "food station" style.

9. In the mornings, make a 3-tone chime noise, then make the following announcement in your best British accent: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys, in 2 minutes time the forward door will open for all guests to disembark for school. The weather today is going to be (insert your weather, i.e. cold) so be sure to take your (insert necessity, i.e. hat and mittens) when you leave the house. And remember, all aboard is at (whatever your curfew is). Have a magical day!

8. Set your children's artwork out on display in the living room, set up folding chairs for everyone to sit on, and then auction off each piece of artwork to the highest bidder.

7. Step outside and lean on a porch or deck railing, gaze wistfully out at your landscape, and comment on how amazing it is that the ocean is spread out before you for as far as you can see.

6. Start checking your children in and out of their playroom. If your children want to leave the playroom before you come to get them, they must stand in the doorway and make beeper sounds until you arrive to get them.

5. Draw the DCL logo on tall plastic cups and drink your favorite alcoholic beverages out of them.

4. Every night, perform a turn-down service for everyone. Place a small chocolate bar on each pillow and leave a schedule of the next day's events and a towel animal on each bed. Oh, and don't forget to set chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk on the nightstand (from Room Service, of course!).

3. Every evening, have your family line up outside the dining room to wait for dinner to begin. Before they are allowed to enter, make sure the table is set and their favorite drinks are poured and waiting for them. Hand each family member a hand wipe before they enter. Oh, and of course, have a 4-course dinner prepared to serve.

2. Also every evening, have everyone sit in front of the TV to wait for that evening's show to begin. (Actually, if you'd really like to enhance the cruise, show the following movies: Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 101 Dalmatians (live action w/Glen Close), Sleeping Beauty, Tarzan (animated version), Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio. Now, back to my silliness...)

And the number one thing to do to help your family prepare for your cruise
1. Every Tuesday evening, have everyone dress in full pirate gear for dinner. After dinner, dance around wildly while talking like a pirate. Arrrrrrrrgh!

Deb T - You are hysterical!!!! How excited am I that you and I are on the B2B together! You must spread this joy to our 4/21 thread, it's kind of quiet over there!!!! Love the beeper idea when leaving the playroom!!!!

 

[svcutler]

I wish I had time to reply to the day's posts but I am running around with buckets, towels and praying myhouse will not cave in before the restoration people come on Monday.

Anyone want to lend me a roof rake???

Anyway , I need your help... I am reading a great TR but some of his pics don't come through although i think others can see them. I see a lot of the pics and then several won't come up and in their place is a ? Inside a bluish colored box. Whats up with that?? :

Please let me know!!!

Sandy

 

[Deb T.]

Deb T - you are a trip!!!! I tried reading these to DH but was laughing so hard he only caught every other word!!

Thank you for a good laugh!

Deb T - You are hysterical!!!! How excited am I that you and I are on the B2B together! You must spread this joy to our 4/21 thread, it's kind of quiet over there!!!! Love the beeper idea when leaving the playroom!!!!

Thanks! I had a lot of fun writing that a couple of years ago and still enjoy sharing it.


Mom_3_mouseketeers, you're right, that 4/21 thread is downright boring! I just posted my Top 10 list there, too.

 

[Deb T.]

I wish I had time to reply to the day's posts but I am running around with buckets, towels and praying myhouse will not cave in before the restoration people come on Monday.

Anyone want to lend me a roof rake???

Anyway , I need your help... I am reading a great TR but some of his pics don't come through although i think others can see them. I see a lot of the pics and then several won't come up and in their place is a ? Inside a bluish colored box. Whats up with that?? :

Please let me know!!!

Sandy

YIKES! Sandy, prayers and pixie dust are headed your way!!!

As far as the photos not showing, are you using a different computer than usual? Or, do you have firewalls, new privacy settings, or spam controls on? I know that at my workplace (shhhhhh! ), no photos show up on the DIS Boards threads because of all of their firewalls. The only other thing it could be is when someone has exceeded their limit on certain photo sharing websites and they need to pay to increase their bandwidth, which is what's going on with this "Experience of a Lifetime" TR: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2637723

 

[svcutler]

Thanks for the well wishes and magic!!!

This link is different. Can you look to see if you can all the photos on this link please? You would need to scroll about 1/2 way down. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=39841128#post39841128. It is post 34 and 35 etc.

Thanks!

 

[bdink921]

Thanks for the well wishes and magic!!!

This link is different. Can you look to see if you can all the photos on this link please? You would need to scroll about 1/2 way down. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=39841128#post39841128. It is post 34 and 35 etc.

Thanks!

I see all of Cass' pics -- I love her trip reports. Don't know why you're having trouble but it does happen to me on different threads What you're not seeing are very detailed pics of the room -- closets, outlets, bathroom, under the beds.

 

[Deb T.]

Thanks for the well wishes and magic!!!

This link is different. Can you look to see if you can all the photos on this link please? You would need to scroll about 1/2 way down. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=39841128#post39841128. It is post 34 and 35 etc.

Thanks!

I can see all the photos. Thanks for the link because I don't think I've seen these yet. Another thought... are you giving the pages enough time to load? There's an awful lot of photos on each post and it did take a while for them to load on my laptop.

 

[svcutler]

Thanks Bridget and Deb. It may be the time it's taking to load. I'm on the iPad but can usually see everything. Bummer I will try it tomorrow on the laptop if my house is still standing. . I know, dramatic much!

 

[Z'sDisneyMom]

Hi Everyone

Figured I'd say a quick hello.

It hit me yesterday that we are about 60 days out and that I should probably finish up our plans

So as of yesterday, we are now all set with our flights, hotels, rental cars etc.

We have a change in our lineup... This is now a girls only trip for us. A great opportunity came up for DH at work so he won't be joining us as we originally planned.

I noticed that a few of you guys plan to spend some time at the WWHP either before or after the cruise. The 3 of us were able to sneak down to the world over MLK weekend and we also spent an afternoon at IOA. We enjoyed it and thought the theming was excellent. We rode 2 of the 3 rides, couldn't get DD or DH on the dragons ride. So if you have a question I may be able to help.

Dream Cruising Soon!
Robin

 

[rdevine10]

Ughh.... I should never look at Dream reviews. Its just stressing me out. Everytime I read a poor review I wonder what if I made a mistake booking our family's first cruise on a new ship (which any logic will know is going to need some time to tweak things out).

This trip is costing us more than any other trip we have ever taken (exception of honeymoon, which was partially gifted to us by my grandparents).

Just worried if its lines galore DH will never give it another shot again. OK.. NOT reading anymore reviews. But Im still trying to find a pic of an standard inside room (which has been no easy task!).

End of vent.... go about your business and happy superbowl!

 

[pershing]

Ughh.... I should never look at Dream reviews. Its just stressing me out. Everytime I read a poor review I wonder what if I made a mistake booking our family's first cruise on a new ship (which any logic will know is going to need some time to tweak things out).

This trip is costing us more than any other trip we have ever taken (exception of honeymoon, which was partially gifted to us by my grandparents).

Just worried if its lines galore DH will never give it another shot again. OK.. NOT reading anymore reviews. But Im still trying to find a pic of an standard inside room (which has been no easy task!).

End of vent.... go about your business and happy superbowl!

There are always gonna be people who complain! The podcast crew said the Dream had a MORE intimate feel to it than the Magic and Wonder, and that crowds were not a factor.

I know the stress of hoping someone else's vacation feelings come out good. I took my friend and her son with us to WDW. She didn't want to go but felt she would be a terrible mother if she didn't take her son. She's a teacher and wanted a more relaxing vacation. Who could blame her!

She loved it. Absolutely loved it. She said she had a totally outdated idea of what WDW was from her childhood trip to Disneyland.

She said it was the most relaxing vacation she's ever had. (Ok, we were sipping Pina Colada's in the AKL jacuzzi at the time, but I'd like to think it was my brilliant vacation planning.)

Anyway, were you looking for a cruiser's picture of a Standard Inside or will the one off Disneycruise do?

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/staterooms/dream-fantasy/standard-inside-stateroom/

 

[momtoleasawav]

I've stopped reading reviews. I am going to have a great time no matter what! Everything is not going to be perfect I'm sure but this is proabably one of the last vacations we will take as a whole family and I'm not going to let a few lines and a small pool ruin that!

 

[jilljill]

Y - yes we do drive thru the night. Dh works nights so that makes it easier for us. Plus we take turns sleeping.



Looks like we are now cancelling our Sept. Dream 3 day cruise and are taking a Jan. 4 day instead. Now I'm looking at the deck plans again and trying to find a cabin that works with what friends want to book so we are near each other. I'm thinking of a 6A or 6B on the very back of the ship so now I'm off to find pics of those cabin.

 

[bdink921]

Ughh.... I should never look at Dream reviews. Its just stressing me out. Everytime I read a poor review I wonder what if I made a mistake booking our family's first cruise on a new ship (which any logic will know is going to need some time to tweak things out).

This trip is costing us more than any other trip we have ever taken (exception of honeymoon, which was partially gifted to us by my grandparents).

Just worried if its lines galore DH will never give it another shot again. OK.. NOT reading anymore reviews. But Im still trying to find a pic of an standard inside room (which has been no easy task!).

End of vent.... go about your business and happy superbowl!

The bad reviews make me nervous too!! And what's up with everyone stealing stuff ??

For standard inside cabin pics, try this link, start at post #79

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2650672&page=6