Disney Dream! 8/15/2012

[samily]

Hi Little Bill! We'll be flying in from RI as well, but the night before. Glad to have you onboard...and joining our FE group! It will be our first Disney Cruise and FE experience. Looking forward to both!

I am reading through the thread to get caught up and just saw this. We are coming from RI too! Pretty funny to have 3 different families from the smallest state on the same cruise!!

When are you guys flying down? We are flying the night before on Southwest.

 

[Little Bill]

We are flying down bright and early on the 15th on southwest.

After the cruise we are spending four days in the parks. Flying out late on the 23th.

 

[Cruisin]

We are flying down bright and early on the 15th on southwest.

After the cruise we are spending four days in the parks. Flying out late on the 23th.

We had thought of flying down on the morning of the cruise but there are no flights out of Detroit that leave early enough, in my opinion.

I want to be at the terminal as early as I can get there, and get on that ship as quickly as possible

 

[Dalpal]

We had thought of flying down on the morning of the cruise but there are no flights out of Detroit that leave early enough, in my opinion.

I want to be at the terminal as early as I can get there, and get on that ship as quickly as possible

I'm gonna try to be there by 10AM...
But we will still have to check out of Pop and drop off the car... So we will see how we do...

 

[nicolepdonnelly]

We are flying down bright and early on the 15th on southwest.

After the cruise we are spending four days in the parks. Flying out late on the 23th.

We will be in the parks after the cruise too. We are staying at villas at wilderness lodge and flying out on the 24th mid morning.

 

[nicolepdonnelly]

We had thought of flying down on the morning of the cruise but there are no flights out of Detroit that leave early enough, in my opinion.

I want to be at the terminal as early as I can get there, and get on that ship as quickly as possible

Sorry if you posted this before, but how are you getting to the terminal and how early do you think you will get there?

We are flying in the night before and are going back to the airport and taking DCL bus. I've read other places on the disboards to get there around 9AM and the 1st buses usually leave around 9:30.

 

[nicolepdonnelly]

50 days until we sail!!

 

[KTills]

So, what time did everyone choose for arrival at the port, when you did online check-in? We picked the first one - 11:00-11:30! Getting closer...can't wait!

Kristin

 

[tripster222]

So, what time did everyone choose for arrival at the port, when you did online check-in? We picked the first one - 11:00-11:30! Getting closer...can't wait!

Kristin

We picked the first one as well. Plan on getting to the cruise port around 10:30 am or so, when it opens.

Sounds like everyone here got the 11:00-11:30 arrival slot?! Anyone NOT have that time slot?

Also, what dinner seating does everyone have? We have 1st.

 

[nicolepdonnelly]

Our arrival time is 11:00-11:30 and we are dinner seating 2.

 

[KTills]

We picked the first one as well. Plan on getting to the cruise port around 10:30 am or so, when it opens.

Sounds like everyone here got the 11:00-11:30 arrival slot?! Anyone NOT have that time slot?

Also, what dinner seating does everyone have? We have 1st.

We're going to get there a little earlier too. Last time, we got there and boarded so fast that I hardly got to see the terminal at all! We did the Kids Club registration (which wasn't TOO long of a line) and then they were calling our boarding number!! We picked the 12-12:30 slot last time -- and I have a picture of the monitor as we were walking on to the ship -- it says 12:09!

We have the first dinner seating. With a little one, we couldn't push him to the later seating -- he'd be a starving madman!! And with the early seating, he can go to the Kids Club for the evening and the hubby and I can go hang at the District or something!!

 

[Savannah Mom]

My husband surprised me last night having booked us on this 4 night Disney cruise! He and I and my oldest son went on a Royal Carribean cruise over 10 years ago but otherwise we've never been on one. I skimmed this thread and am so confused haha, I have work to do it seems, I thought the packing would be the hard part! (That and the 5 hour drive to port from our house

Anyhow, looking forward to learning a LOT from y'all! I am calling to confirm our room in a bit- still debating upgrading to a suite but likely will keep the saved money for more excursions Does a smaller room matter all that much? We have a Family room on the 11th floor with a queen/murphy bed and pull out couch I would think we'll only be in the room to get ready and sleep. THe gym is near us so I can make my teenaged son shower there ha ha.

 

[KTills]

My husband surprised me last night having booked us on this 4 night Disney cruise! He and I and my oldest son went on a Royal Carribean cruise over 10 years ago but otherwise we've never been on one. I skimmed this thread and am so confused haha, I have work to do it seems, I thought the packing would be the hard part! (That and the 5 hour drive to port from our house

Anyhow, looking forward to learning a LOT from y'all! I am calling to confirm our room in a bit- still debating upgrading to a suite but likely will keep the saved money for more excursions Does a smaller room matter all that much? We have a Family room on the 11th floor with a queen/murphy bed and pull out couch I would think we'll only be in the room to get ready and sleep. THe gym is near us so I can make my teenaged son shower there ha ha.

Welcome aboard, Kristin! (great name, by the way!)

I'm pretty much a newcomer to this group of fine people too love and have been enjoying getting to know everybody! What a nice surprise - a Disney cruise! Your kids will LOVE it, and I'm sure you will too!

I've only been on one Disney cruise (the Dream, Thanksgiving 2011). We had a verandah room then and are doing the same now as well. Is that what you have? We did not have a murphy bed in our room, but did have the couch. It doesn't really pull out per se...it kind of flips over and is the size of a small twin, I'd say. The split bath was definitely nice to have and the verandah too. There's a small closet and plenty of room under the bed to stuff a suitcase or two! We utilized some of the storage around and above the desk too, to stuff some things (I think I overpacked a bit!). We're a family of three, so it worked for us...

But like you said, we really didn't spend TOO much time in the room. I'm kind of claustrophobic I guess you'd say, so I just needed to be able to see out and have fresh air -- so we really enjoyed the verandah room.

Have you checked in online yet? You can register your kids for the clubs on there too..best to do that ahead of time so you aren't fussing with paperwork at the terminal or when you get on the ship.

Looking foward to getting to know you! It's going to be a great trip -- assuming we don't have any more tropical storms or hurricanes! (fingers crossed!!)

Kristin

 

[Savannah Mom]

Thanks Kristin (you even spell it right ) !

We went with the family room (yes with a Veranda) it was almost 4k more to have the 1 bedroom suite, this way I can justify new clothes for my kids and I

Haven't checked in yet but getting ready to!

 

[KTills]

Thanks Kristin (you even spell it right ) !

We went with the family room (yes with a Veranda) it was almost 4k more to have the 1 bedroom suite, this way I can justify new clothes for my kids and I

Haven't checked in yet but getting ready to!

Time to go shopping!!

Which excursions are you looking into?

 

[Savannah Mom]

Not sure on excursions- probably just the snorkel and bike on the island, haha, and maybe Atlantis in the Bahamas. My dh NEVER takes time off from work (like never- this is our first "real" vacation in 15 years other than visiting family and I usually go ahead with the kids on those and he comes for a day or 2) Anyhow, he's a work a holic so I am going to let him chill on the beach for the most part

I may try to get jetskis for my older son and he though. Oh and I'm considering the stingray thing. What excursions do you recommend?

I NEED to get on the passport thing- when we went 10 years ago I only needed a birth certificate!

I'm so sad I missed the fish extender thing, that sounds awesome. My 9 year old has Down syndrome and LOVES mail haha (well don't we all of course )

 

[nicolepdonnelly]

Not sure on excursions- probably just the snorkel and bike on the island, haha, and maybe Atlantis in the Bahamas. My dh NEVER takes time off from work (like never- this is our first "real" vacation in 15 years other than visiting family and I usually go ahead with the kids on those and he comes for a day or 2) Anyhow, he's a work a holic so I am going to let him chill on the beach for the most part

I may try to get jetskis for my older son and he though. Oh and I'm considering the stingray thing. What excursions do you recommend?

I NEED to get on the passport thing- when we went 10 years ago I only needed a birth certificate!

I'm so sad I missed the fish extender thing, that sounds awesome. My 9 year old has Down syndrome and LOVES mail haha (well don't we all of course )

Welcome Kristin!

I think you really can't go wrong with any excursion. My DD(16) & I will just be shopping around the port at Nassau while DH & DS (13) got to Ardastra Gardens and Fort tour. We are planning to do the kayak trip on castaway cay as well as sting rays and snorkel.

~nicole

 

[KTills]

Not sure on excursions- probably just the snorkel and bike on the island, haha, and maybe Atlantis in the Bahamas. My dh NEVER takes time off from work (like never- this is our first "real" vacation in 15 years other than visiting family and I usually go ahead with the kids on those and he comes for a day or 2) Anyhow, he's a work a holic so I am going to let him chill on the beach for the most part

I may try to get jetskis for my older son and he though. Oh and I'm considering the stingray thing. What excursions do you recommend?

I NEED to get on the passport thing- when we went 10 years ago I only needed a birth certificate!

I'm so sad I missed the fish extender thing, that sounds awesome. My 9 year old has Down syndrome and LOVES mail haha (well don't we all of course )

Nice of your DH to book this for your family, being a workaholic and all...that means alot!! That's great -- you'll ALL enjoy a relaxing time I'm sure! And not having gone on a 'real' vacay in that long will make it that much more special!

You may want to take some time to look through some Navigators (the 'newsletter' type thing that you'll get every day on board, explaining different things going on around the ship). It's pretty overwhelming the amount of things going on and it takes a while to learn how to read the darn thing. Don't feel like you have to do everything -- you can see from the Navigators the types of things there are to do, and kind of pick and choose what works for your family! This was a huge help for us because it's easy to get stressed out trying to go here and there and catch every little thing!

Better get on those passports ASAP! Ours took several weeks to come in!

I know, I'm sad that I missed the Fish Extender deadline too - it is a lot of fun. I was planning to bring my Fish Extender with us anyway and leave little things for our son (he's was looking forward to it). If you want to give me your stateroom number, I'd be happy to drop off a few things for your kiddos!

We're not doing any excursions, so I can't help ya there -- the ship is so cool and there's lots to do that we just aren't going to fuss with any of it. We'll get off on Castaway Cay of course, but we will stay on the ship in Nassau. We live very near the beach and can pretty much do water sports/activities/fishing, etc. whenever we want. We're more into relaxing and honestly, our son wants to spend so much time in the Kids Club, that it allows DH and I to hit the adult areas and just sit quietly with a drink! That's our objective on this trip -- to CHILL!

 

[Cruisin]

Oh my, what busy little chatters you all have been That's what I get for not checking on this thread often enough.

Sorry if you posted this before, but how are you getting to the terminal and how early do you think you will get there?

Nicole, we are doing 2 one way car rentals for our transportation. We find it a much cheaper option and then we are on our own agenda. We can leave when we want.

We usually leave the Orlando area around 9ish and that gets us to the terminal (having dropped off the rental car and taken their shuttle to the ship) at approx 10:30.

So, what time did everyone choose for arrival at the port, when you did online check-in? We picked the first one - 11:00-11:30! Getting closer...can't wait!

Kristin

We don't have a time booked for arrival. Because we are Platinum level Castaway Club members we can arrive whenever we want and board as soon as we have checked in.

Also, what dinner seating does everyone have? We have 1st.

We are also on the first dinner seating. We like it much better. We find that the second seating ends so late that we don't feel like we have enough evening left to take advantage of the other things going on, like the adult clubs etc.

My husband surprised me last night having booked us on this 4 night Disney cruise!
Anyhow, looking forward to learning a LOT from y'all!

Welcome aboard, what a great surprise you received.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask and we will try to help if we can.

 

[nicolepdonnelly]

We have 27 participants so far.

I plan to update the list and finalize it one last time on 6/1.

Here is the current list:

Stateroom 6508 (4 Participants)
nicolepdonnnelly
DH
DW
DD16
DS12

Stateroom (6580) (2 Participants)

Dalpal
DH
DW

Stateroom 7672 (4 Participants)
Tripster222
DGM
DD (Adult)
DGD9
DGD4

Stateroom 7685 & 7687 (4 Participants)
Scrapbookmomma74
DH
DW
DD12
DD9

Stateroom 5546 (4 Participants)
awilliams4
DH
DW
DD (Adult)
DS13

Stateroom 2023 (3 Participants)
Cruisin
DW
DH
DGM

Stateroom 9160 (3 Participants)
Little Bill
DGM
Adult DD
DS14

Stateroom 9660 (3 Participants)
Little Bill
DGF
DBF
DD12

I was just checking online and re configuring some of our CC excursions and I noticed that when I confirmed them, my reservation # was the same but our stateroom # had changed. I just about panicked and called member services. After a bit of back and forth with DCL, she confirmed that we had been upgraded to a veranda room! So our stateroom is now 6518. She said it is possible that between now and the cruise it could change again, but highly unlikely. Sorry if this messes anything up for th FE, but we are excited to have a veranda!