To watch the Christening ceremony at 10:30 Eastern time, go here:
Christening Ceremony
I will add pictures to this, but my connection is too slow to load my high quality photos, so for now, just words!
We woke up early, because they told us to have our bags ready by 7 AM, and although we didn't have to meet until 8:15, we weren't allowed to bring anything larger than a purse, so we all had to get up and change and finish getting ready so we could put everything in the bags.
Luggage finally got picked up around 7:45, and we went downstairs to the chaos that was the lobby. We were given little tickets with Goofy on them, and when Goofy was called, we went outside and grabbed breakfast in Contemporary bags (yogurt, fruit bowl, granola bar, two muffins, cheese stick, orange juice). We left pretty quickly. About 40 minutes into the drive, DD5, who had been sleeping on the bus, woke up and threw up. Thankfully, it was in one of the handy Contemporary bags. I make it a point to never give her milk or dairy when we travel, because she gets carsick or airsick if she has it. She sat with my husband while she ate...and ate YOGURT. Okay, so, awesome. But she didn't make a mess and she felt fine...her stomach just rebels against dairy while traveling. Sigh...
We arrived at the port and seeing the ship was very exciting...it was next to the Carnival Pride...and you could just tell that not only the passengers of that ship were jealous but the ship itself was jealous of the Dream. We were led to a gigantic line around the back where some of the performers were loading, there were several different lines, and they led us into the area that is usually used for baggage pick up and customs, then out the back. On the way, they offered us bottled water, and we walked through a red carpeted area past the Dream which was anchored out a bit and into the stadium area. There was a large bleachers section, some seats on the floor, and a gigantic screen and stage.
The show itself was pretty exciting...lots of singing, dancing, characters, huge characters, and a helicopter taking the champagne bottle to the ship for the Christening. Many of you no doubt watched, so I won't spend too much time on it, but the whole thing was incredibly impressive. I have to admit, I felt extremely cool and privleged to have been invited, and it is a memory I will always keep with me.
We followed the herd back through the building where we were led out front, where there were small tables and servers walking around serving champagne, bubbly cider, and water. The appetizers they had were completely non child friendly, probably because this cruise has a huge ratio of adults to children (you could really tell in the clubs which are usually not that busy). They were serving apps in little tiny cute cups with teeny spoons...lentil salad, curry chicken, beef and corn, caviar.
We headed back inside and spent the next LONG time sitting in the customs area, out of the sun but just sitting. Struck up a conversation with a family next to us, turns out the Mom is media and had very little information about what she was going to be doing, but she gave me scoop...celebs onboard include John Stamos and some of the Dancing with the Stars peeps (Lacey Schwimmer is one). DD11 also got Jennifer Hudson's autograph, she was really sweet to the girls.
We finally got to head upstairs, and sort of by accident on purpose we boarded with the boarding group 13 (we were 17). I'm not exactly sure how it happened. I went to the kids area to sign up DD5 for the kids club since I hadn't been able to do it online, and when I came back I joined my husband in line and boarded. Only then did I realize we weren't supposed to be on, oops.
Stepping foot onto the Dream was very exciting...they announced our name, and we stepped into a truly magnificent atrium. It is simply gorgeous, as is the rest of this stunning ship. The little details really make a huge difference...it is clear that attention was paid to every single little tiny thing.
Right away in the hallway we ran into Pluto, who promptly fell on the floor and begged for DD5 to itch him. She happily obliged.
Our cabin was ready but we headed to Enchanted Garden for lunch. No kids buffet, we found out when we got our food...but we dealt with that. What a truly pretty restaurant...I'm going to be hard pressed to have a favorite on this ship. Great server who gave the kids tiny paper birds, and we dined on shrimp, crab claws, and other yummies. At times, I could see the line going into the aisles of the tables, which isn't great but hopefully won't be an issue. The booths are super cute, but only fit up to 4...our family of 5 would not fit.
Next up, the cabin. I have an oceanview family cabin that sleeps five, and although there was some confusion and changes with my cabin, ultimately I have an 8D. LOVE it. This is actually my first oceanview cabin, although I have seen them before. The window seat is great, and this cabin is extremely roomy. The decor is fantastic, more plugs, little touches I love like double clotheslines for wet clothes over the round tub, a magnifing mirror built right into the main mirror, an extremely long desktop, an adorable red desk chair, and of course the awesome red pillow on the bed. The coffee table/trunk is very cute. I don't love that the closet doors open instead of slide...while the slide was sometimes annoying during rough weather, this way makes movement a little hard in the hallway. There IS an ice bucket in here, but I don't see a card to request ice. We have no wave phones, they aren't working right so they took them out.
Some other cool things about the cabin...the drawers have a mechanism that stops them from smashing fingers, you push it shut and it closes the rest of the way slowly. The bed is extremely comfortable and I love the comforter...and the fact that it is white makes you feel very clean. The coffee table/trunk is used for the pillows when the room steward flips the couch into a bed. The red blanket they use for the flipped bed is SO SOFT. There is a nightlight feature which is really cool, and a light up on the top berth near the stars ceiling, and lights in the murphy bed as well. Phones were weird, they gave us a letter with extensions on it, I'm not sure that those phones will actually be the phones in the room. The bathroom doors opening to the outside are annoying, because the closet doors do too, and they aren't compatible with one another. The square shape of the bathroom does give the feeling of more space.
One side of the bathroom smelled sewer-ish, I know that sometimes happens while in port but it was pretty bad. We called and they sent someone up immediately who fixed it. Later today I had to call guest services again...the people next to us in the connecting cabin weren't in there (and I knew that because their luggage was still out in the hall) but an alarm was going off in their room for a LONG time. We could only take so much of that.
They gave us little slips informing us that each person (including the kids) received a $30 OBC for alchol. However, it worked out that it was just deducted from the entire bill...cool!
After getting semi settled, or as much as you can get settled with no luggage, DH and DD5 stayed in the room and I took the twins on the stateroom tour. I saw a Concierge Family cabin, a one bedroom suite, and the Roy two bedroom suite. One word...awesome.
I took so many pictures of the Roy Suite and the one bedroom and the family concierge room that they won't fit in this space (max 20 pictures per post) so I started a new thread:
CLICK HERE for those pictures
We then checked out the Edge and the Club and Lab. A news crew was filming in the lab so we left trying to get out of their way.
Muster with no life jacket needed, I like that, so much easier. We came back to the room and I realized I missed the 5 PM TA reception onboard...oops...
DH took twins swimming and to AquaDuck while I took DD5 to the shops at 6. Lots of Inagural merchandise available, but many things held back for the Maiden...vinylmations, Dream Dooney & Burke, other Maiden specific merchandise. They were very clear that the Maiden voyage is considered the first "real" voyage.
Through the atrium we ran into Captain Mickey and Aurora, DD5 got a ton of time with each.
We met them outside...the pools were empty, and there were only a few people in the hot tub by the family pool. They rode the AquaDuck but DD5 is too short, she was very upset.
A word about shows...we aren't really show people, so no show report found here. I did get some awesome theater pictures though.
We ordered room service, and minutes after it arrived we got a call saying that the only way we could get our server request (Grisell) was to switch to Main dining. Wouldn't work since we just received food, but they promised to put us near Grisell. Later we found out that the other table Grisell had requested her as well, and then proceeded not to show up the second night
. Plus, she was also supposed to have Whoopi, who was of course in Palo and Remy instead! It was great to see her though. Her husband is now in Remy, he is French so that was no surprise. Our drink server was Anthony and server was Krista. Both are brand new...Krista came from P&N. Drinks were slow in coming and not always accurate, but both were very friendly and tried hard to please.
Dinner was at Animator's...it was cooler than I thought it was going to be. At first, I thought it looked a bit like a conference room, the way the walls were set up...but the screens around the restaurant are really very awesome. Food was the same well known and well loved food, including rock shrimp cheesecake and potato soup. The dishes were adorable, the cutest butter forks and a Mickey bread basket that I WANT.
The kids were itching to get to the kids' clubs. We made them sit with us, but they whined and begged pretty much the whole time, DD5 especially. We were told there was a "surprise" and thought it was probably Mickey, but it was just the normal Crush ending to Animator's, which was cool, but the kids were mad we made them wait. Silly us trying to have a quality family time dinner.
Kids went to the clubs, very very happy, and we checked out the nightclubs. They were pretty full...I think Media and Travel agents are big drinkers, lol. Pink was really cool, and Skyline is really awesome..they have the COOLEST menus, and a great backdrop that changes cities periodically (hard to describe but it is really great).
We collected DD5 (and she was not happy to be collected) and the twins came in and begged to go back out...we let them stay out and they were thrilled. We tried to squeeze in as much as possible but crashed...time for bed!
The room set up in the evening is awesome. What was not awesome was seeing luggage tags and customs forms ALREADY, on the first night of the cruise
.
We received an awesome gift, a crystal ship in a bottle, so cool.
One last awesome thing...on the TV, which was just running various photos around the ship and of guests, popped up a pic of DD5 and Princess Aurora! We were shocked and amazed!
More kids clubs pics click
HERE
For 42 pictures on the Cat 8, click
HERE
