August 18th, 2013 - 4 Night Disney Dream Cruise

[disneyholic family]

Hi Everyone!!
i'm not on your dream cruise this august (i was on the Dream in October and she's FANTASTIC)...
i'll be on the Allure of the Seas and we'll be sharing the port with you in Nassau on August 19!

so i figured i'd pop in here and say hi.... i'll be the woman with curly hair waving like a nutcase at your ship!

 

[labdogs42]

Hi all! What say we meet in the Vista Cafe around 3pm on embarkation day? Sound good? I'll post in the FE thread, too!

 

[labdogs42]

Hi Everyone!!
i'm not on your dream cruise this august (i was on the Dream in October and she's FANTASTIC)...
i'll be on the Allure of the Seas and we'll be sharing the port with you in Nassau on August 19!

so i figured i'd pop in here and say hi.... i'll be the woman with curly hair waving like a nutcase at your ship!

Cool! We will wave back at you!

 

[BlevinsFamily]

For everyone that has cruised with DCL before .... I was reading our cruise book that came in the mail this week (with all the forms to fill out etc) and I was curious about the dress code requirements. Is there really a "formal night"? And to confirm I should bring at least a few pairs of khaki's for the hubby for dinner services? What about a jacket and polo? Is a full suit really necessary?

Thanks --- if all this is true I may definately look into mailing my FE stuff to the ship to save some suitcase room.

 

[applebutter]

For everyone that has cruised with DCL before .... I was reading our cruise book that came in the mail this week (with all the forms to fill out etc) and I was curious about the dress code requirements. Is there really a "formal night"? And to confirm I should bring at least a few pairs of khaki's for the hubby for dinner services? What about a jacket and polo? Is a full suit really necessary?

Thanks --- if all this is true I may definately look into mailing my FE stuff to the ship to save some suitcase room.

This is also our first Disney Cruise, so please let me know if I'm way off base. I understand the dress code as - no shorts, tank tops, flip flops for dinner. I'm not planning to dress up in anything fancy. My husband and son will probably wear khakis and a collared shirt. My daughter and I will wear a sundress of some sort. On pirate night, my husband and son have Pirate Mickey shirts; my daughter and I have pirate fabric dresses - again nothing fancy. I don't think we have a true formal night because it is only a four night sailing. I think the longer sailings have formals.

 

[disneyholic family]

Cool! We will wave back at you!

we'll probably walk over after our excursion and drool over the ship!!
of my family, i'm the only one who's been on the Dream..(they've been on the wonder several times)..
i took my mom and sister in october (as a kind of celebratory post chemo cruise for my sister)..
we had a great time (even though we were outrunning Sandy the whole time!! )
i'm sure i'm going to want to jump on the Dream when we see her in Nassau..
but hopefully, the allure will be as much fun as i'm hoping..
i've been wanting to try out the allure ever since she was christened...
we'll be back on DCL next summer - on the magic in the med!

For everyone that has cruised with DCL before .... I was reading our cruise book that came in the mail this week (with all the forms to fill out etc) and I was curious about the dress code requirements. Is there really a "formal night"? And to confirm I should bring at least a few pairs of khaki's for the hubby for dinner services? What about a jacket and polo? Is a full suit really necessary?

Thanks --- if all this is true I may definately look into mailing my FE stuff to the ship to save some suitcase room.

there is NO formal night on the 4 day cruise (or the 3 day cruise for that matter)..

DH and DS wore polos and khakis to all the dinners and they fit in just fine..

there is one night where some people "dress up", but i would say that not even half of the passengers dressed up....everyone else just was in resort casual...some people like to dress up for the photographs....and that is nice..
but we did our pictures in our resort casual and we looked great (if i do say so myself)..

on the 7 night cruises there are actual formal nights - but even on those, a lot of people just go with resort casual...

there were people who dressed up on pirate night though....some in really really amazing costumes!!!! i was impressed..
but it was only a handful of people....(and the servers in the dining rooms were also all dressed up for pirate night)...

oh...and by all means play that interactive game...i forgot what it's called..
it's a mystery game where you have to figure out 'who did it".
there are two games....one with puppies and another one...
my sister and i did the lost puppies game and really enjoyed it!!
and we're 62 and 57 years old!!!!!
so even if you don't have kids with you, play the game..
everyone we saw playing it was having a great time!!!!
and you get to see the whole ship that way as the game takes you all over...

and one more thing...
i should add that i was totally down on DCL before i went on the Dream cruise....i was really pretty fed up and not expecting it to be a good cruise at all...
well let me say that it was FANTASTIC!!!! the dream is a dream....and the crew is even better!!!
we had a great time....the food was wonderful (and i'd read a zillion threads before my cruise that the food wasn't good....wrong....the food was GREAT!!!!)
i would go back on the Dream in a flash!! she's a wonderful ship!!
you're all going to have a magical time!!!!

 

[Rx774]

We are a cruisin ourselves on the 18th.

Me (Rob)
Wife (Shana)
Daughter (Make A Wish child - Annika)
Son #1 - Christian
Son #2 - Dylan

We don't have our room number yet. From dealing with MAW in the past, i know we probably won't get our itinerary till the week of, maybe even the day before. We are super excited, but we don't even talk about the cruise anymore. We "over" investigated everything in regards to the Disney Dream experience. So now, we feel like, "what could possibly be new?" So for now, we will patiently wait for our day to arrive.

 

[PoohJen]

Welcome Rob and Family!!! Planning is half the fun! But you are right, now you can just anticipate and once you get on the ship, just try to relax and enjoy! Know that you can't pack it all in to one cruise, go with the moment.

Have you looked at past Navigators (daily itinerary handed out to you each morning of the cruise) to get an idea of what is offered each day? Although they can change from cruise to cruise, much of it is pretty standard and reading them helps you plan for the activities you know you don't want to miss.

Re: clothes - yep, khakis and a collared (short sleeve buttoned and polos just fine!) for the guys looks great! I don't get too dressed up myself, just neat and clean. I usually have a light sweater with me to ward against any chilly air conditioning.

What are we at? 19 days?!!!

 

[Tammi67]

Are there any other single parents w/ kids sailing on this cruise?

 

[Rx774]

Welcome Rob and Family!!! Planning is half the fun! But you are right, now you can just anticipate and once you get on the ship, just try to relax and enjoy! Know that you can't pack it all in to one cruise, go with the moment.

Have you looked at past Navigators (daily itinerary handed out to you each morning of the cruise) to get an idea of what is offered each day? Although they can change from cruise to cruise, much of it is pretty standard and reading them helps you plan for the activities you know you don't want to miss.

Re: clothes - yep, khakis and a collared (short sleeve buttoned and polos just fine!) for the guys looks great! I don't get too dressed up myself, just neat and clean. I usually have a light sweater with me to ward against any chilly air conditioning.

What are we at? 19 days?!!!

Actually, i just recently print out some navigators to take home to the family to show off. Like you said, it appears to be very helpful in giving us an idea how the day to day is going to go through. The light sweater seems to be a good idea, especially since we seem to tolerate heat alot better than tolerating the cold.

 

[PoohJen]

With less than two weeks to go, I just couldn't let our Meets thread to languish on Page 5!

Time to GET THIS PARTY STARTED! Just 13 days 'til we set sail on the Dream!!!

I ordered some more eBags packing cubes...love these, but I think I did this more to help move the waiting time along! I started collecting from the boys all the clothes they want to wear on the ship - they can get by without them for the next two weeks! I also reserved my off-site parking.

Lastly, I am considering buying Disney gift cards from Target (to take advantage of the 5% off via RedCard) to pay for tips, massage, etc. via my onboard account. I may wait til I get to Florida though to do this - I'd hate for something to happen and find I've got $500 worth of Disney cards that I can't use right away.

I've also planned out my outfits for the 3 dinners, plus need to decide on Pirate Night outfit...I'm afraid I finally won't be able to squeeze into my usual pirate night pants of many years. Reality sucks.

Hmm...maybe I should peruse some online menus again and begin plotting my selections...

 

[TotallyTink]

Hi everyone! This is our first cruise and my family is super-excited!

Just in case any of my fellow cruisers are renting cars- you may want to check to see if the rate for your rental has dropped. My initial rental fee for a full size car for 10 days was $350. It has been dropping steadily over the past few weeks and hit a new low today of $198 (including taxes/fees!) through Costco. I also looked at Budget's regular site and the prices were significantly lower than my initial rental rate.

 

[PoohJen]

Hi Tink Welcome!!!

Just 12 days to go!

 

[labdogs42]

I'm super excited, too! I have all of our dinner clothes picked out. I got eBags packing cubes, too! Everyone in our house will be wearing "non-cruise" attire from now until then, too. I just did laundry and the cruise stuff is being set aside! FE gifts are about half wrapped up (I went a little overboards with those). Thank goodness we are taking the Autotrain. There's no way I'd get all this stuff on a plane! Our Magic Bands arrived yesterday for the parks part of our trip. So many exciting things going on. I can't wait to meet everyone!

 

[Rx774]

We are a big movie watching family. Does anyone know what movies will be playing during our voyage???? I'm assuming Planes will be one of them...

 

[PoohJen]

I assume Planes will be the feature movie. I expect that Monsters U will be available (I'm planning on seeing that one). I won't be surprised if Lone Ranger has a limited showing.

 

[TiggerAllie]

It's close enough to the cruise date -- if you call DCL they will tell you what will be showing. I've been waiting for Monsters U!

 

[Rx774]

I assume Planes will be the feature movie. I expect that Monsters U will be available (I'm planning on seeing that one). I won't be surprised if Lone Ranger has a limited showing.

We will have to see Planes out of pure boredom, which i hope won't be the case while on a cruise.

Monster's U we are still geeked on.

Lone Ranger.... pass.

 

[Rx774]

What's that new invention called... when you can make time speed up, so that the day you are waiting for comes faster???

Oh.... that's right... that hasn't been invented yet.

 

[Rx774]

Over already...