Cruising the Dream on our 1st cruise ever!!! (5 Night Double Dip)

[Pinkocto]

Continuing the afternoon of our last day on the beautiful Disney Dream we headed down to the stateroom to do some packing and cleaned up for the evening. We were not feeling the blues of the vacation ending since we were heading to Animal Kindom Lodge in the morning. It was a really good feeling knowing that the vacation wasn't ending, just changing. Don't get me wrong, we were not ready to leave the ship, but it would have been much worse if we knew we were going home in the morning.

The show of the evening was Believe, and it was my least favorite of the three. I enjoyed parts of it, but it was a bit on the mushy side and perhaps not the best choice when people are already emotional that their cruise is coming to a close.

After the show we stopped by Shutters which was packed! I had read time and time again not to wait until the last night to buy your pictures and I ignored that very good advice. Try not to wait until the last night if you can. We left for now with the intention of coming back later.

Headed back to the room and finished our packing. It was too early to put out the bags so I was going to rush to the room after dinner to put them out. You don't have to put out your bags, but if you don't you'll have to drag them to breakfast and out the ship in the morning. It was very nice to have them waiting down in the customs area.

Our last dinner was at Animator's Palate, and even though we enjoyed spending the last dinner with our wonderful new friends, the meal left much to be desired. It was the See Ya Real Soon menu and not the best.

We started with the Spinach and Artichoke Dip, which was good but not great.

Mom must have gotten this salad since I have a picture of it, but can't remember if she enjoyed it or not.

I had this wedge salad, which was pretty good.

Around this point I was getting freezing so headed to the room for my sweatshirt and put out the bags which left no stress for rushing to the room after dinner.

Before I left my diet coke was empty, and when I got back it was still empty. I was gone at least ten minutes. Up until this point Barry was a most wonderful drink refiller, but I was left thirsty most of the meal even though I tried so many times to catch Barry's eye as he was racing to all the other tables he was taking care of. So when he finally came by I figured I'd have one last Konk Kooler. I might as well have asked for an alien eyeball, he had no idea what I was talking about. He even asked our server Charlie to come over and ask what I wanted, and he had no idea what I was talking about. You'd think that people who have each worked for DCL for many years would know what a signature drink from CC would be, all the bars on the ship did. Oh well, I just asked for one of the specialty drinks on the menu, I think it was a peach and icecream drink. I got a headache within minutes so didn't drink any more, basically a waste of $5.

We both had just the pasta from one of the entrees. It was very delicious but very heavy. Neither of us could finish it.

I also had some salmon and vegetables from another entree. I ordered way too much food. The salmon was dry, the zucchini was really good though.

They gave mom a birthday dessert which she enjoyed.

and also the Baked Alaska, which she had always wanted to try but was not impressed by.

I had the sugar free Cappuccino Mouse, which was excellent.

The restaurant really was cute, but none of the meals we had there, we also had breakfast in the morning, were impressive.

Our wonderful tablemates and servers.

We were still going to see everybody at breakfast so didn't say goodbye, and we didn't stay and chat because most of them had to go finish packing. It was still a lovely evening even though the food wasn't the best.

 

[Pinkocto]

Oooh I just loved all your water pics and the fish! Wow, how beautiful! Sorry, hadn't checked in in a while, was getting over the pain of us deciding NOT to do a cruise next year... We are going to wait until the DD's are a wee bit older. But we will do one...oh yes I will see to it!!

What a bummer, I think their ages are perfect for a Disney cruise. I hope you get on one sooner rather than later

Thank you I was a bit worried about taking the camera in the water even though that's why I bought it, but I think it worked really well.

 

[Pikester]

That's weird that they didn't know what a Konk Kooler is. Like you said, it's a drink that you can get in the bars on the ship so why wouldn't the dining room know what it was. Even if they didn't know you'd think they could have asked someone from the bar area or phoned someone from the bar. Not sure how it works so who knows.

Food looks good even if it didn't taste that great.

 

[Pinkocto]

That's weird that they didn't know what a Konk Kooler is. Like you said, it's a drink that you can get in the bars on the ship so why wouldn't the dining room know what it was. Even if they didn't know you'd think they could have asked someone from the bar area or phoned someone from the bar. Not sure how it works so who knows.

Food looks good even if it didn't taste that great.

I know, I was totally flabbergasted at their confusion. It was just so bizarre. Probably will have to get a Konk Kooker first day next cruise since I didn't get one that night

The dinner was good, just not great. Nothing was bad, it's just that the other restaurants were fabulous, so this just fell below.

 

[tiggrbaby]

I didn't know you could get a KK on the ship! I always have one on CC, but if I ever get back, I'll now have one every day!

Sorry your last meal was so uninspiring.

 

[Shell54]

That's too bad you had a less than stellar final meal at AP. Besides Remy, that was our favorite on the Dream. We had the beef tenderloin w/mashed potatoes for dinner there and it was excellent. On the Konk Kooler...well that's a bummer your waiter was clueless! DH&I agreed that was our favorite drink of the cruise. I can't remember if we ordered one on the ship..I know we did on CC

 

[dgbg100106]

Sorry your last dinner was less than impressive, but so happy that you enjoyed your trip!

Thanks for the beautiful updates.

 

[Pinkocto]

I didn't know you could get a KK on the ship! I always have one on CC, but if I ever get back, I'll now have one every day!

Sorry your last meal was so uninspiring.

Oh yes, the bars know what they are, and one of the drink guys who carry drinks around the ship knew exactly what I was talking about.

What is this 'if I ever get back' business? You must!

 

[Pinkocto]

That's too bad you had a less than stellar final meal at AP. Besides Remy, that was our favorite on the Dream. We had the beef tenderloin w/mashed potatoes for dinner there and it was excellent. On the Konk Kooler...well that's a bummer your waiter was clueless! DH&I agreed that was our favorite drink of the cruise. I can't remember if we ordered one on the ship..I know we did on CC

I'm glad you enjoyed that menu. My dessert was marvelous. Our meals at Enchanted Garden and Royal Palace were just so good this one just kind of fell flat.

I totally agree about the Konk Kooler

 

[Pinkocto]

Sorry your last dinner was less than impressive, but so happy that you enjoyed your trip!

Thanks for the beautiful updates.

The trip was so wonderful. I am totally in love with cruising now

Even though the food wasn't the best we were still very glad we spent the last night with out table mates. As good as I'm sure Palo is, it would have been bittersweet. Some people you only get to know for a short time, and I'm glad we made the most out of our time with them.

There's still tons of pictures from the WDW part of the trip so more updates to come.

 

[Leshaface]

I started laughing when you said, "We really shouldn't have gone in" and then showed, like 15 pictures of the fish, empty beaches, and the ship

We pretty much ordered the same appetizers on the MR!

It really makes me disappointed that you did not enjoy your final meal as well as you should have. I still hope there were no regrets for not making it to Palo.

I hope you'll be continuing your TR to WDW. I would love to hear about it since you're such a great writer!

 

[Pinkocto]

I started laughing when you said, "We really shouldn't have gone in" and then showed, like 15 pictures of the fish, empty beaches, and the ship

We pretty much ordered the same appetizers on the MR!

It really makes me disappointed that you did not enjoy your final meal as well as you should have. I still hope there were no regrets for not making it to Palo.

I hope you'll be continuing your TR to WDW. I would love to hear about it since you're such a great writer!

You got me laughing out loud I didn't even think about that, I was so obsessed with picture taking this trip, had to make the most out of every situation.

Absolutely no regrets about missing Palo. Like I said to Brandi, I'm glad we made the most out of our time with our table mates, because if we never see them again, which is more than likely, we won't think back on that last night and wished we hadn't skipped our dinner with them. But Palo is an absolute must on next trip.

Oh yes, definitely continuing the TR. I noticed I have almost as many pictures for the 4 days at WDW as for the 5 days of the cruise. It was the Flower and Garden Festival, is all I can say. Hopefully you guys aren't completely tired of flowers at this point.

 

[Leshaface]

You got me laughing out loud I didn't even think about that, I was so obsessed with picture taking this trip, had to make the most out of every situation.

Absolutely no regrets about missing Palo. Like I said to Brandi, I'm glad we made the most out of our time with our table mates, because if we never see them again, which is more than likely, we won't think back on that last night and wished we hadn't skipped our dinner with them. But Palo is an absolute must on next trip.

Oh yes, definitely continuing the TR. I noticed I have almost as many pictures for the 4 days at WDW as for the 5 days of the cruise. It was the Flower and Garden Festival, is all I can say. Hopefully you guys aren't completely tired of flowers at this point.

I'm glad we didn't make our Palo ressies for the last night too. I would have missed eating one last meal with them (or rather, the one couple that showed up).

I'm so happy you're continuing your TR! I'm definitely not tired of seeing flowers. I'm sure the flowers at WDW will be even more magnificent and beautiful!

 

[Pinkocto]

After dinner the next thing on the agenda was the See Ya Real Soon goodbye from the characters at 10:15. They also had one at 4:15 but since we were still on our way to the ship at that time it was impossible. The mother/daughter team from our table also wanted to see the show so we walked up to the atrium and watched it together. I had read it was quite different from the show on the Magic and Wonder, but since we had never seen it before we didn't know what to expect. We had gotten there a bit early so after staking out a good viewing spot mom and I went back to Shutters and ordered the two pictures we liked and went back to stand with our friends for the show.

Even though this is almost exactly like the one we had taken with our camera we liked the Disney border. It wasn't printed yet so we ordered it and was told it would be ready to pick up in the morning.

and this one was already printed so we picked it up then and paid for it. They didn't have us pay for the other one, which was nice because if we had forgotten to pick it up we wouldn't have been out that money.

I am so amused by our 'pirate look'.

The characters started by doing a meet and greet time.

there was quite a good turn out. I wonder how many people went for the 4:15 show.

This lady was in charge of the show.

It wasn't a long show, which is one of the main complaints people have against this show from the one on the Wonder and Magic.

The characters soon started to say goodbye.

I'm not sure why all the princesses were not out.

I am not sure why some of these are darker because I had the camera on the same setting the whole time.

I'm glad we went, it wrapped up the cruise nicely. We could have also gone to the adult version of the magic show but they were both at the same time. Seeing all the characters one last time was fun.

We decided to call it a night after the show since we had to wake up early. I took a few pictures on the way.

I just loved this picture of Walt.

This cute Mickey was outside the theater entrance.

a lovely swan greeted us in our room.

I forgot to mention that I had read that it's a nice touch to include a thank you note with your tips and I'm glad we did that. I just bought some blank cards from Michaels and put the tips in their envelopes and the envelopes in the thank you card. Our stateroom hostess was so thankful for the personalized touch. It's something I'll do for future cruises.

 

[Leshaface]

I love your pirate picture! It's adorable.

I never thought about doing a personalized thank you note. This is something I need to remember for next time.

Can't wait to hear about the next day!

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am all caught up. Thanks for sharing.

There won't be any need anymore in future to go to Guest Services to sort out the tips. They changed the system recently and the tips get automatically get charged to your stateroom account and the tip tickets delivered to your stateroom unless you make alternative arrangements with Guest Services. We really liked this. Not only did this save me time, but the lines for Guest Services were generally shorter.

I am glad that you enjoyed the parasailing. We did this in 2009 and loved it even though we are both terrified of heights.

I don't think that there will be any more double dips and the reason for this is that they have 4 ships now. The Fantasy calls at Castaway Cay once a week, the Dream twice and the Magic once. This is going to get even worse come December, when Fantasy will call at Castaway Cay once a week, the Dream twice and the Wonder twice. They still need some downtime for maintenance.

Corinna

 

[Pinkocto]

Corinna what happens if you want to leave extra for some of the tips? We gave our stateroom hostess more than 'recommended' since she was so wonderful to us, and it was so easy to do. But if they're automatically putting them on your account I wonder if you even can.

I'm glad you were still able to enjoy parasailing even with your dislike of heights. It was really very amazing. We'll definitely be doing it again in the future.

That's true about all the ships being at CC, and I didn't even factor in maintenance time. My biggest problem with that is that now they have the extra ships they could branch out and go to more exotic places rather than adding more Bahamas and Carribean itineraries.

 

[Pinkocto]

I love your pirate picture! It's adorable.

I never thought about doing a personalized thank you note. This is something I need to remember for next time.

Can't wait to hear about the next day!

I loved doing the ARG for pirate night! It was too funny. I was laughing so hard, you can hardly see my eyes are open

The last day wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be since I knew we were heading to one of my favorite places, Jambo House

 

[Pikester]

Love both pics that you bought!!

 

[cjlvsccm]

Corinna what happens if you want to leave extra for some of the tips? We gave our stateroom hostess more than 'recommended' since she was so wonderful to us, and it was so easy to do. But if they're automatically putting them on your account I wonder if you even can.

We sailed before the change in policy, but we did pre-pay our tips before the trip (just for spreading out the expenses! ). I just planned for the possibility of extra-special service, and took enough cash to add to the envelopes, in case we didn't have time for a trip to GS to charge it. Three of our envelopes did get a cash bonus to the ticketed amount!

The thank you note is a great idea, I had read about that and we did it too.

Cindy