Disney Dream - April 3, 2011 - 4 nights

[WDWCrazyfromGA]

I know that everyone was raving about the Ricardo mango rum on our Carnival cruise last fall. There are several liquor stores on the way to Hard Rock and Senor Frogs. Hopefully your post on the Cruise Critic board will get some good responses – I know some stores sell at the same prices as the Duty free shops on the boats sell while others are much cheaper.

Senor Frogs – could be a fun ‘adult’ place for lunch – but I warn everyone about those ‘yard drinks’ - they can do some serious damage

Cindy – On our cruise in the fall – I think they told us the limit was 1L per adult.

CY – My daughter is a very shy child and we went on our first Disney cruise when she was 5 – she did not want to leave the kids club – we were in total shock because she is just not like that. That was one of the things that really sold us on DCL – she was so comfortable and had so much fun! She will get a little bored during the ‘free play’ times and have a CM page us – but on the port days – they have fun activities. On CC day – the kids clubs actually go to CC as well for activities and your wave phone will work out there (supposedly) if there are any problems.

I would love to do Atlantis – on our last Disney cruise, some passengers that we ran into went there and paid one of the maids $20 for 8 room keys and did the water parks all day. Now, I could never do this – I’m just not that smooth or whatever – but it sounded like so much fun – I just don’t know if I could come off the $$ to pay to do the water parks.

So glad tomorrow is Friday!!

 

[mjvans]

Hi Michelle!


My crew would love to do Atlantis again...it's a great place...awesome lazy/not-so-lazy river! But the price is crazy high...even at the Comfort Suites. We are still thinking about it though... I am not sure about any other hotels that have day passes to Atlantis...there are some that have their own day passes -


Here is some info. that I found over on another board...
Both Sheraton and Wydham are located on Cable Beach and are sister properties. The Wyndham's day pass is $40 pp and includes a buffet lunch at the Seaside Cafe near the Casino. It does not include alcohol.
The Sheraton has a day pass for $25pp, or a day room for $99 for 2 ppl.

Day passes can only be purchased same day, at the check in desk at each of the hotels. I'm told day rooms can be booked in advance thru the hotel, when they are available (mainly off season). I have not seen any of this information posted on thier websites. It's word of mouth only.


We will probably hang out in Nassau some...and then head back to the ship...to the top decks...get some drinks (Or make some) and do some swimming.


I believe that we are in Nassau until 6PM...so enough time to do Atlantis.


You still have 2+ months to get ready for this! Hakuna Matata!


Crystal

Crystal......found some info on day passes at Atlantis....from scubagirl on the same board you posted about the mango rum......
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can book in advance thru Majestic Tours, and pick up your ticket when you get to Atlantis at their tour desk.

http://www.majestictoursbahamas.com/

 

[jetskigrl]

WOO HOO - just checked on the Wonder and she is making her way up the coast of Mexico. The kids are in bed, the bags are packed and I'm too amped to sleep

I can't wait for tomorrow morning!! It is going to be so cool to have the Wonder parked just a few miles from our house! We have our trading pin lanyard, two Duffy bears (with sailor outfits, of course) and some vinylmation traders (thanks Crystal) all ready to go

 

[Disney On A Dime!]

WOO HOO - just checked on the Wonder and she is making her way up the coast of Mexico. The kids are in bed, the bags are packed and I'm too amped to sleep

I can't wait for tomorrow morning!! It is going to be so cool to have the Wonder parked just a few miles from our house! We have our trading pin lanyard, two Duffy bears (with sailor outfits, of course) and some vinylmation traders (thanks Crystal) all ready to go

Have Fun!!!!


Crystal

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

WOO HOO - just checked on the Wonder and she is making her way up the coast of Mexico. The kids are in bed, the bags are packed and I'm too amped to sleep

I can't wait for tomorrow morning!! It is going to be so cool to have the Wonder parked just a few miles from our house! We have our trading pin lanyard, two Duffy bears (with sailor outfits, of course) and some vinylmation traders (thanks Crystal) all ready to go

Have an awesome time!!!

 

[Disney On A Dime!]

Wow... time is flying. Just over 10 weeks left! Mentally... I need this vacation more than I can describe, and I'm sure the same can be said for my wife. We're both going nuts up here in New Jersey. Anyway... we're all set with our excursions (for now)... but I'm feeling a little guilty.

The main purpose of this cruise is to celebrate our 7th anniversary. We're obviously looking forward to spending some 'us' time together during this trip... but I want the kids to get as much out of it as we will. So... I've got a question for anybody who's cruised with Disney before. If the kids are in the Oceaneers Club for a good portion of the day... will they get bored?

I would love to be able to help answer the "bored" question, but my kids have never done the kid's clubs.

Our plan looks like this (at the moment):

Day 1 - We're going to tour the boat as a family, try and find some time for the pool, if possible... and then we've got the 5:00 show time (do they run the shows on the first night?)... and the 9:00 dining time. In between... we'll just kind of wing it with no real plans.

Pools would be good on the first day. They are the least crowded then. I have pics of my crew in the pool by themselves! Yes, shows run on every night.

Day 2 - This is the day I'm worried about. It's our actual anniversary date and we plan to spend it as 'alone' as possible. We're going to Atlantis for the Deep Water Dolphin Interaction and then whatever else comes of that time... we'll be back on board for the 5:00 show time... and then we've booked a 7:00 couples massage. We'll then go to dinner... and then we'd like to possibly hit some of the bars before going to bed.

Sounds good!

Day 3 - I'm not too worried here. We'll probably spend the entire morning with the kids at the beach, etc. Then, after lunch, we've got parasailing booked from 1:30 - 2:30 (what can the kids do while we're parasailing?). We'll spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing and generally touching on whatever we want to do... and then the same evening routine. Is this the night of the Pirate Party?

Not sure which night is the Pirate Party. The kids can do the kid's club on CC, I believe, while you all are parasailing.

Day 4 - I'm assuming the kids will be in the kids club again for a portion of the day and we'll spend some time relaxing. No real plans for this day... just kind of an 'unwind' day before we head back to Disney World to finish out the vacation.



So... I'll list my questions here again to see if anybody can help me out.

1. Will my girls (5 and 4) be bored in the kids club? I'm not so worried about my son... he'll find something to do on the ship. My girls don't TYPICALLY bore easily... but I want to make sure they've got activities, etc.

Sorry, no help here. From what I have heard...most kids love the kid's clubs!

2. Can the kids stay in the kids clubs if we leave the ship to visit Atlantis... ? I actually didn't think about that until now. Crap! That wouldn't be good...

I would believe that they could stay on the ship in the kid's clubs.

3. Do they run shows on the first night... ?Yes

4. What do kids do at Castaway Cay when parents are on other excursions... ?

Not exactly positive, but I believe the kid's clubs come outside to CC...so go there.

5. Is the third night the night of the Pirate Party... ?

Not sure...will check my navigators from the past...hopefully it will be the same night as before???

6. This is kind of a random question... but I'll ask anyway. I doubt there are hard 'rules' around this... but who knows. Our son will be 11 at the time of the cruise. He's a good babysitter for short periods of time (45 minutes to an hour). If we decided that we wanted to visit the hot tub or a bar for a quick drink during the evening... would it be okay to leave the kids in the room (sleeping) while we went out or... does Disney have a rule or rules against that? I know some places do.

I don't know the rules on this one...but I have left the kids in the cabin plenty of times. My oldest was 10 the first go round. I do tell them to not answer the door. I also allow my oldest to cruise the ship at his discretion...sometimes the youngest goes with him. I usually get a general direction of where they are going or doing. Once we even left our youngest at age 9 in the cabin by himself. He didn't want to go to Pirate Night...

I'm just really concerned because we don't have family that will sit for us... so it's rare we get to go out together. This whole cruise, as much as it's for the kids, is really about us celebrating OUR time together... so I want to try and make the most of it.

Now, that said... who knows if my wife would agree with that, but... going into it... that's how I'm viewing it.

You didn't ask her before you had these plans......Naw, I'm just playing with you!

Anyway... thanks for your help. I'm getting really excited (as you can tell by my babble above).

Stay warm!

CY

Good Questions...hopefully someone else will be able to help out with the ones I had no answers for...

Crystal

 

[mjvans]

WOO HOO - just checked on the Wonder and she is making her way up the coast of Mexico. The kids are in bed, the bags are packed and I'm too amped to sleep

I can't wait for tomorrow morning!! It is going to be so cool to have the Wonder parked just a few miles from our house! We have our trading pin lanyard, two Duffy bears (with sailor outfits, of course) and some vinylmation traders (thanks Crystal) all ready to go

Have a wonderful Time!!

 

[kikids]

Ty n Cy: Yes, you can leave your kids on the ship when you go to Castaway or you can use the kids club on CC. It's outdoors but frankly my kids found it a little boring. The kids klub on CC doesn't have beach access (for safety), it's a fenced area inland from the beach but it's sandy. They have hula hoops, jump ropes, balls, sand toys, etc. Mostly the counselors sit at picnic tables and "supervise." They have scheduled times when they have 'digs' which are lots of fun. An high energy, british 'archeologist' hides plaster dinosaur bones in the sand and the kids are given sifters, shovels and brushes to find the bones. He acts all excited when the kids find one. They love it. I'll try to post a picture.

But my kids liked the on ship clubs much better overall, though they never spent more than two hours there without sending us a page. But I'm sure some kids would spend all day in them - just depends on the child.

We left our 7 and 10 yr old girls in the room at night, no big deal. They'd fall asleep watching a movie and we'd be in one of the lounges for an hour or so. They knew not to answer the door. And with the onboard phones now they can reach you instantly. There isn't a rule about it that I am aware of.

The best advice I can give you to have time to yourselves is to give your children time references instead of dropping them and saying, just play for a while, and hoping they will stay. We found it worked best when we'd take our girls to kids club and ay 'ok, it's 4:00, dinner is at 6:00 so we will come back for you shortly before then. Or, it's 2:00 now and we know you want to do Mickey trivia, so play here and we will pick you up and all go to trivia together at 4. That way, pick up wasn't ambiguous - they don't have a watch or can tell time necessarily but they know you have a set time that you will return for them.

Cindy

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

I have read various things about leaving kids in the club when you go into port, apparently some people have done so and some say it is not allowed

Either way, remember the Bahamas is a foreign country and if something were to happen, you miss the ship or get hurt, etc, your kids would be alone on the ship. I am a worrier, so it would bug me the whole time, especially if you go on your own somewhere. If you're going through the Disney excursion then they will wait for your group in the event it is delayed, but if you're on your own and have 1 too many margaritas and lose track of time, the Dream won't wait. Either way I would take a good, waterproof watch and be sure to arrive long before the sail time. Also I think I would call Disney directly and ask the question since there is some debate on the boards as to it.

 

[WDWCrazyfromGA]

WOO HOO - just checked on the Wonder and she is making her way up the coast of Mexico. The kids are in bed, the bags are packed and I'm too amped to sleep

I can't wait for tomorrow morning!! It is going to be so cool to have the Wonder parked just a few miles from our house! We have our trading pin lanyard, two Duffy bears (with sailor outfits, of course) and some vinylmation traders (thanks Crystal) all ready to go

Have a great time!!!

 

[rcraw45425]

First time cruiser here, although we're old hands at WDW. We're on Deck 7 room 7586, wow, this is a lot to take in!

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

First time cruiser here, although we're old hands at WDW. We're on Deck 7 room 7586, wow, this is a lot to take in!

If you have any questions ask away! If you look on the first post there is a lot of info about stuff we have planned, including a gift exchange (FE-fish extender) and a rum shopping trip in Nassau!

 

[rcraw45425]

thanks for the welcome, I admit I'm a bit overwhelmed! This all came about due to our "snow and ice" days here in GA. We actually just came back from Orlando about a month ago, our older DDs high school marching band performed in the Macy's parade at Universal Orlando and in the Champs Bowl on Dec. 28. Yes, we were there when the temps were in the 20s (in fact our kids were practicing OUTSIDE in that weather). OMG, never been that cold in Orlando. So looking forward to this , we will celebrate our 20th anniversary 10 days prior to it so it's about time for a cruise! Have booked Discover Atlantis and some float rentals but that's all so far...

 

[Disney On A Dime!]

thanks for the welcome, I admit I'm a bit overwhelmed! This all came about due to our "snow and ice" days here in GA. We actually just came back from Orlando about a month ago, our older DDs high school marching band performed in the Macy's parade at Universal Orlando and in the Champs Bowl on Dec. 28. Yes, we were there when the temps were in the 20s (in fact our kids were practicing OUTSIDE in that weather). OMG, never been that cold in Orlando. So looking forward to this , we will celebrate our 20th anniversary 10 days prior to it so it's about time for a cruise! Have booked Discover Atlantis and some float rentals but that's all so far...

Hi Robin! Welcome to our crew! We have a great group of people here...some of us have been chatting since the initial bookings for the Dream came out in 09!


We, too, were in Orlando for the cold temps! We did WDW from the 21st to the 27th. The 26th and 27th were crazy cold! Walking into Animal Kingdom and getting on Everest...it was just like being at the real Mt. Everest!


Take some time and look over our first post. If you would like to be added to our group list...just give me some info...and I will put you on that. Also...it looks like you are on Deck 7...with a bunch of us! In Nassau we are doing a Mango Rum Run...not really a run...but a walk into Nassau to get some Mango Rum. The discussion and hype about this occurred a long time ago...kind of fun, though...you all are welcome to join us! We will definitely have a DISmeet sometime on the first day. And we have about 20 cabins right now participating in the FE exchange.


Again, it's great to add another DISer to our list...welcome aboard!


Crystal

 

[Michele325]

Hi everyone. I just finished reading through old threads trying to catch back up. We had a great time at the Orange Bowl, the experience for my dd who danced in half time was FANTASTIC. So much to do after we got back though. As others have said Orlando was freezing that last week in Dec. We did Universal in 28 degrees. Luckily Miami was a lot warmer.

We are starting to plan for this trip. Decided on the Sting Rays in Nassau (actually on the 3 day after this) instead of Atlantis or the Dolphins. Just too much money. We will stay on the boat for this cruise for Nassau day (I might do the rainforest room, or the spa if they are running specials). Staring on our FE gifts. And still working on details such as hotel and transportation.

Anyone planning on doing the Castaway 5k? I am totally planning on it. Would love some company.

Friends of ours are trying to join us on the 3 night on April 7th, with no luck. Looks like there are no 4 person rooms left. Probably going to be very crowded cruises!

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

If they are traveling with kids that might be the reason no rooms are showing up. Disney limits the # of kids on the boats to not overload the clubs and all.

 

[Disney On A Dime!]

Hi Everyone! Happy Monday! We have had a sick weekend! Literally! Youngest came down with the stomach bug on Friday night. He has severe reflux...so getting him well takes extra long. Then last night...I started...thank goodness...my stomach handles these things fairly well...I was able to go to the supermarket this morning... The worst part...the husband...started up with this around 5AM! He also has severe reflux...so it has not been pretty. I have Lysoled everything...Chlorox wiped everything...putting anything cloth in to be washed...towels...sheets...clothes... My oldest practically ran out of the house today to catch the bus! We will see what happens with him...


Apparently this stuff is going around...I wish that it would have by-passed my house!


Hi Michele! Glad to hear that you all had a good time down in Florida! It sort of felt like we should be skiing instead of riding rides... BTW...you are welcome to join us in our Mango Rum Run...well walk into Nassau. It's going to be pretty short...well mainly because the port is very close to all of the shopping...anyhow...it is going to be fun! I would love to do the 5k, but my body would kill me! Not in the right shape right now...someone else might be... As far as booking for your friends...have them split up their party...or contact a Disney TA...they might be able to help. It might be that each parent take a kid in a cabin...in order to get the numbers correct.


I hope that everyone is off to a better start to the week than we are!


Crystal

 

[rcraw45425]

Hi everyone. I just finished reading through old threads trying to catch back up. We had a great time at the Orange Bowl, the experience for my dd who danced in half time was FANTASTIC. So much to do after we got back though. As others have said Orlando was freezing that last week in Dec. We did Universal in 28 degrees. Luckily Miami was a lot warmer.

We are starting to plan for this trip. Decided on the Sting Rays in Nassau (actually on the 3 day after this) instead of Atlantis or the Dolphins. Just too much money. We will stay on the boat for this cruise for Nassau day (I might do the rainforest room, or the spa if they are running specials). Staring on our FE gifts. And still working on details such as hotel and transportation.

Anyone planning on doing the Castaway 5k? I am totally planning on it. Would love some company.

Friends of ours are trying to join us on the 3 night on April 7th, with no luck. Looks like there are no 4 person rooms left. Probably going to be very crowded cruises!

Michelle, not exactly sure what your plans are but if you need WDW hotel for before or after I booked the Swan for $194 + tax and fees with AAA discount. The moderates were coming in at around 195 with tax but with the Swan you get the BW area, inside corridors and queen beds. We live in GA so we'll be driving down. Not purchasing tickets as we were just at the CR in May and stayed at RPR for the Universal part of DDs band trip. Soooooo much planning to do!

 

[jetskigrl]

Hi All,
I'm back, LOL. Well, I am now official a member of the Castaway Club, LOL. BTW, is there someplace where I should be able to see my number online? I want to make sure it shows up for the Dream cruises.

Well, it was only 2 nights but it was a blast!!!! We had so much fun and I cannot believe how beautiful the weather was (and how calm the sea was). I'm so glad that I added capris and shorts to our bags at the last minute. The kids were able to enjoy the pools on Saturday and there were times that I completely forgot that we were out on the ocean. We never had any problems with motion sickness so I hope that is a good sign for the Dream cruise.

Since it was only 2 nights, there was no dining rotation so we ended up in Triton's both nights. We had the most awesome serving team! WOW...we have always been impressed with Disney CMs..but this was even more impressive. Our stateroom host was also very nice but we didn't have much reason to need to speak with him since it was so short.

We had a great spot for the Sail Away party (although they called it the Adventures Away party) and then hopped up to deck 10 to wave at all the CMs at the dock as we pulled out. There were also news helicopters following us as we left and the cruise director reminded us that we were the Inaugural cruise for the Wonder out of LA (that made us feel special). Even one of my coworkers this morning told me that she was watching it on the news on Friday night.

The port firemen all came out of the station to wave at us as we went by and one of the restaurants was using its outdoor speaker to wish us a happy journey It was so neat to see all the people come out to watch us as we pulled out.

And the cruise certainly had the desired effect on my DH. After we got off the ship, he said he could certainly see himself enjoying a 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise (as long as we didn't get off the ship, LOL). So with his permission, I may be booking a 2012 MR trip while we are on the Dream

 

[rcraw45425]

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