Disney Dream Sep 17 Port Arrival report

[stkgator]

PAT 11:15-11:30 Boarding Group 5

11:15 - dropped off luggage.

11:20 - paid for parking, drove into garage where you pull into a spot to receive your Covid test. The test is cotton swab you insert yourself just inside your nose (not uncomfortable at all). They take your test kit and then you are instructed to park and wait for the results.

11:30 - parked and waited. FYI: restrooms are on the 1st floor. The walkway to the terminal is on the 3rd floor.

12:08 - received an email notification to login to the Safe Passages portal to review your test results. CLEAR TO BOARD!

12:19 Passport check

12:25 Security check

12:27 Boarding!

12:30 They wait for around 10 groups to enter the main lobby, keeping everyone spaced, they then have a short welcome with Mickey and Minnie

12:45 Sitting down for lunch at Cabanas. It was a buffet where your food and drinks are plated by CMs.

2:00 in our Stateroom!

I was told that there were only 1,000 on the ship - I am not sure if they meant rooms or people. When walking to our Stateroom, 9016, I did not see many keys waiting on the doors.

Departure was scheduled for 3:45. At 4:30, I noticed a few passengers boarding - as well as a few boarding a van, with their luggage.i am thinking these folks were waiting for their Covid test results, and a few tested positive?

5:00 still see a few folks boarding.

 

[KaityB]

Thank you for this!!!

 

[CamColt]

Thanks for the report!

 

[Disneyland_emily]

crazy you parked 15 min after us but got your results 4 min earlier

 

[Kwami]

Departure was scheduled for 3:45. At 4:30, I noticed a few passengers boarding - as well as a few boarding a van, with their luggage.i am thinking these folks were waiting for their Covid test results, and a few tested positive?

What time did the ship actually leave, if in fact it has left? Last time someone reported, the ship was leaving at about 7pm. Is that still true now?

 

[stkgator]

crazy you parked 15 min after us but got your results 4 min earlier

I was watching them and they would periodically collect all the samples from each technician - ours was picked up immediately.my guess our samples were in the same batch

 

[stkgator]

What time did the ship actually leave, if in fact it has left? Last time someone reported, the ship was leaving at about 7pm. Is that still true now?

Ship is still at port - it's now 4:49.

It is now raining and there was some lightning earlier, so they could have closed the dock for the safety of the ground crew.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

We set sail about 515

 

[onesam319]

We set sail about 515

I tuned in to portcanaveralwebcam.com at about 6:30 intending to watch the Dream sail away. It was already out to sea! Are all the departures now scheduled at around 4 pm now?

 

[jmclester]

5:15 departure!! Lucky you! We were on the 9/13 Dream and didn't leave until about 6:45. We did the early dinner seating so didn't make it up on deck to wave at the webcam. To address a previous post we were told there were 1,058 people on our sailing. That must have included the crew. We rarely waited for an elevator even after the shows ended. The ship and CC looked like WDW used to look in early December. The food was great and plenty of it! Everything was up to par by Disney standards!!

 

[OKW Lover]

Sounds like a pretty smooth experience. Thanks for posting!

 

[MikeDebTaylor]

hope you post more from your cruise - we sail Oct 9 and want to know if there's pirate night in addition to Halloween activities and which night each of those are on. Thanks!!

 

[stkgator]

Post-Cruise Update

As was stated earlier, the ship finally departed PC around 5:15 pm on a "slow" trip to CC. The ship traveled directly to just west of CC passing Freeport, Grand Bahama around dawn at a very leisurely pace of around 10 mph. The ship then completed numerous loops in the sea west of CC until docking at CC the next morning. The loops were very large and slow, so you could not really tell that the ship was turning unless you noticed the sun changing position from ship or the large-arc of the ship's wake.

There was no Pirates Night during the cruise - I am thinking it was replaced with Halloween events.

There was a single firework show at 10:30 PM the second evening - for some reason, the firework show was not listed on the day's agenda but was announced late afternoon on the PA system.

CC: Getting on and off the ship was quick and easy. We had a 9:00 am port adventure, so we were told that we did not have to use the virtual queue to disembark. We departed around 8:40 and were only ones in the lobby to depart. As on the ship, the meals were plated by CMs with all restaurants severing the same food - except for Serenity Bay, which also offered grilled steak (which was surprisingly tasty!). The beach at Serenity Bay was fairly busy but when we were walking back toward the ship just after noon, the family beach was empty (there were rain showers earlier which might have encouraged folks to return to the ship. Getting back on the ship, again was very easy and quick - there was no one else on the dock boarding which was around 2:00 pm.

The return back to PC was at a much higher speed, around 22 mph. We arrived into port around 5:30 am and you were allowed to depart starting at 7:15 am. Passengers were given set breakfast times after which they could then disembark - this was to space out the passengers as they disembarked and proceeded through customs. Since we drove to PC, we were given a later (maybe last) breakfast slot of 8:35 am and finally disembarking around 9:15 am.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

On the flip side we had the 7 am breakfast time and was back in our vehicle at Port at 745.
Easily the most efficient exit we had.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Clearly they run the tests in batches. We arrived just before 11. Took test, parked on 3rd floor of garage with one or two other cars. We were parked by 11:07. Watched people arrive. At same time as OP (about 12:08), we got our all clear as did everyone in the cars parked on 3.

we had a wonderful time on the cruise!

our Palo server, Leo, told us there were 1016 booked as ofFriday morning, but he did not know how many, if any, were turned away at port and denied boarding. Someone else told us about 800 adults snd 200 kids.It wasn’t so few people that it felt creepy, but it was far far less crowded than any other sailing we’ve been on.

 

[thunderkeys]

We tested at 11:30 (PAT was 11:!5) and had our test results at 12:28. Overall - quite pleased with how it went, we got to wait in our car in the garage, which I much preferred over having to sit in a tent.

 

[princessmommyx3]

our Palo server, Leo, told us there were 1016 booked as ofFriday morning, but he did not know how many, if any, were turned away at port and denied boarding. Someone else told us about 800 adults snd 200 kids.It wasn’t so few people that it felt creepy, but it was far far less crowded than any other sailing we’ve been on.

Was it Leo from India? If so, he is one of our favorites and I have been wondering if he was back onboard!

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Was it Leo from India? If so, he is one of our favorites and I have been wondering if he was back onboard!

Yes, Leo from India who is married to a woman he met on the ship from Ukraine. I think he said he had been on the Wonder before. We talked to him a lot during our 2 meals in Palo.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

We stayed on the ship at Castaway (I know, terrible), and surveyed the island with binoculars from our verandah. There were tons of chairs and umbrellas available on the family beach, even before the rain came through. The concierge said not all cabanas were booked. So oddly—the one time you could get a cabana, you really didn’t need it.

 

[princessmommyx3]

Yes, Leo from India who is married to a woman he met on the ship from Ukraine. I think he said he had been on the Wonder before. We talked to him a lot during our 2 meals in Palo.

Yes, that's him! We first met him in Palo on the Wonder in May 2018, and then he was our MDR server on the Magic in Oct 2019. Such a nice guy, and his wife Alex is a sweetheart too. I hope they are sailing together again.