Dream 4 day Cruise

[Skimat]

Was on the Disney Dream starting on 4/17 during the very busy Spring break period. Want to give a quick "review" of the experience. This was my first Disney cruise and 6th overall. Went with my wife and twin 8 y/o girls. We flew in to Orlando on Friday night, rented a car and stayed at Holiday Inn Express in LBV. Next moring we drove to CR and checked in, checked our bags and headed over to MK. At around noon received text that our room was ready.

On Sunday we were given a late checkout and stayed at the CR pool in the morning and hit the road to PC at 11:55am. It was an easy drive to PC and took 1 hour and 15 minutes from CR. Took interstate 4 to the Beeline 528. There are three tolls, 75 cents, $1 and $1.50 from west to east. Paid cash and never waited at any tollbooth. The road is very well marked right to the cruise ship.

When you pull in you first go to security and show ID, than to a CM outside and then to drop off bags. There were no other cars there when we pulled up to drop bags off. My wife went upstairs with the girls and with my passport. I parked the car on the 3rd floor of garage and walked across covered bridge into terminal and my wife was just finishing up with the check in and I was right on time to get photo taken for ship ID. We were given boarding # 29 and they just called # 20. The terminal was not crowded and there were plenty of places to sit. We waited about 45 minutes before they called our #. You then go through another check point and photos and you are on the ship. They call a new number every 5 minutes.

We headed up to Cabanna's for lunch which was very crowded as was the pool area. We had no problem finding a seat and the CMs were very helpful. After lunch we headed down to room and then took a walk around ship.

Our room was #7608 family deluxe veranda. Great room with great view and plenty of storage. Never felt tight with 2 adults and 2 children. Had single bed and single bunk.

Stateroom host was great. Room always clean and I asked him the first day to make sure we had plenty of ice and we always had a full bucket. Every night we had towel animals.

I liked going to different restaurant each night and felt the food was good to very good and some items were excellent. Our servers were Roque and Leo and they were great. The mixed drinks in the dinning rooms were hit or miss.The Meridian between Palo's & Remy made great drinks and had a great view.

We went to Blue Lagoon while in Nassau. It was a nice boat ride and the kids enjoyed the beach and swimming. We just did the beach day. The boats back to the ship were 1:00, 2:00 and 4:00. We went back at 2:00 which really left at 2:20 and took about a 1/2 hour to get back to Nassau. They pick you up right behind the ship but drop you off by the straw market. Food was at best ok at Blue Lagoon. You also get two tickets each for water or soda that is in addition to fountain drinks that come with lunch.

We had two days at CC b/c the Aquaduck broke the first day and CC was very crowded but we got off the ship early and had no problem finding a chair. The second day had half the amount of people and there was plenty of room to spread out and there was no wait at Pplunge. The water at both CC and Blue Lagoon is very salty and the kids enjoy the fresh water splash area at the end of each day at CC. They also enjoyed the kids area at CC. The snorkeling at CC was excellent. Lots of fish and sunken Mickey and Minnie. I even saw a baracuda. The food at CC was very good.

My children enjoyed the oceaneers club/lab. The shows were very well done.


Overall: The only area that seemed crowded was the main pool area. That didn't bother us because we didn't go on the cruise to go in the pool and spent most of the threes days off the ship. I was very happy to have an extra day at CC. Rode the Aquaduck once and it was fun but I could live without it. My kids loved it.

Getting off the ship was by far the best and quickest experience I've had on any cruise line. You go to breakfast and after eatting, you just walk off the ship. The bags are lined up by character tags and there were plenty of CMs around to help point you in the right direction. Once your through customs (5 minutes) you can take an escalator right up to the third floor garage and head out. We were back at Disney world by 9:30am.

Hope that helps. Enjoy.

 

[pixarmom]

Thanks so much for your report! We'll be at WDW before and after our cruise and I really appreciated the information about your port arrival and return to WDW. Thanks again!

 

[goofy4tink]

We were on that same cruise. We were on deck 10. We had a somewhat different experience. We stayed on the ship rather than get off in Nassau...been there, done that so to speak. We did ride the AquaDuck that day though. We did the nature walk/kayak excursion at CC..it was a ton of fun. Good thing we got to use a very nice private beach that we had kayaked to.....there were no chaises empty when we got back to the family beach area after lunch at Serenity Bay. Should have stayed there but I wanted to see what my dd was up to with the other teens.
It was miserable trying to find a chair or chaise at that time...around 1:00ish. Finally found one next to an older couple we had met on the AquaDuck. But it was towards the rear of the area and it was awful trying to get to the water. In fact, I smashed my foot on a chaise as I tried to get through.

We found the food not to be nearly as good as the food on my previous cruises on the Wonder. Not sure why that was, but that's how we felt. Our servers were nice, but not as attentive as other servers we have had.
And our stateroom host never got around to our room until around 3pm....made it hard to relax midday. He was very pleasant but there was a language barrier of sorts. I asked that he make up the upper bunk for my dd. He thought I meant the lower, fold out sofa. Yes, there were only three of us, but my dh likes to have the queen and I like the sofa bed....he snores something awful so it works for us!! And dd needed to a bed as well. But when we came back that first night, he had made up only the fold out sofa bed. Dh had to call and have him come back. He was apologetic but it took a bit to get him to understand what we needed.

The Dream is a beautiful ship and we met some wonderful people. Met some DISers that I have seen posting here for years. And that was wonderful. My dd, 17, had a wonderful time with the other teen girls. She had a smallish group that she hung out with which made it especially nice for her.

We did find the terminal to be crowded when we got there...but we did arrive at 10:45, and figured it would get more crowded as time went by..and it did. By about noon, there was a huge crowd waiting to board. When boarding groups were called, those people trying to board had to squeeze through the massive group. It was actually kind of funny.

I was among those who were not happy about the second day at CC. We had a very special Palo brunch booked for that day. And because it was a CC stop, all the brunches had to be cancelled so that the wait staff could work the dining spots on CC. And of course, the shops had to remain closed for the day. The adult pool was massively crowded...so didn't go there. I had thought that a lot more people would head to CC but as you said, that wasn't the case.

All in all, it was an okay cruise. There were some good things about it. But as is said so many times...good things come in small packages. I think the Wonder and the Magic work better for my family. The Dream is a beautiful ship...impressively so. But, I think there are too many passengers for Disney to provide their usual outstanding service for. The CMs seemed to be always rushing around...especially during mealtimes. It got to be a joke with my dh that we had not one single meal where at least one tray wasn't dropped. Usually it was two or three. And that is something you never saw/heard on the Wonder. The waitstaff was simply running to and fro. I liked our servers..they were very personable. But, they weren't as well trained as previous servers I have had.
I think I need to stick with the smaller ships from now on.

 

[jetskigrl]

All in all, it was an okay cruise. There were some good things about it. But as is said so many times...good things come in small packages. I think the Wonder and the Magic work better for my family. The Dream is a beautiful ship...impressively so. But, I think there are too many passengers for Disney to provide their usual outstanding service for. The CMs seemed to be always rushing around...especially during mealtimes. It got to be a joke with my dh that we had not one single meal where at least one tray wasn't dropped. Usually it was two or three. And that is something you never saw/heard on the Wonder. The waitstaff was simply running to and fro. I liked our servers..they were very personable. But, they weren't as well trained as previous servers I have had.
I think I need to stick with the smaller ships from now on.

That is too funny about the dropped trays. We noticed that too. I loved everything about the Dream but I agree that the servers were overworked and we never had time to "connect" with them. They were nice enough, they just seemed to be running all the time. On the Wonder, after the first night of our 2-night cruise the servers knew my kids names and were so great with them any time we would see them. But even after 4 nights on the Dream I don't think the servers knew my kid's names. They just didn't have time to get to know us.

 

[JasonDVC]

Thanks for your report. We were just down the hall from you in 7662.

A couple of nights it took us about 2 1/2 hours for dinner. It was kind of annoying but we didn't let it bother us.

Overall we really enjoyed the cruise and feel it was money well spent and we won't hesitate to cruise on the Dream again.

 

[epcotrulz]

Agree with the comments about the servers, we experienced the same thing in Enchanted Garden, they were just too rushed and didn't have any time to spend with you at the table, food delivered to us was wrong, and we never had a chance to correct it because they never came back to check on us. (sorry for the run-on) Fortunately, we were able to get the other three nights in Remy and Palo which were outstanding.

Our April 10th 4-night was our 6th cruise with Disney, and the Dream is beautiful, and we had a wonderful vacation, but I will stick with the Magic & Wonder. For us, the smaller size is just better.

And I would have been EXTREMELY disappointed if the brunch was cancelled. (I'm sure the wait staff was too!)

 

[Skimat]

We had no problems with our servers and the food came out quick and we never felt rushed or that meal took too long. We always had plenty of time after dinner to walk around before the 8:30 show. On the night we ate at Palo's we took our children to Cabana's for a sit down meal. I think they only do that on Pirate night but not sure. My wife and I didn't eat but it was really nice and quiet and the waiter was really great and did have more time to talk to us. On any cruise I always feel the waiters are rushed and working hard but on a longer cruise there are more days and opportunities to get to know them. Most 7 day cruises have one night in a port and dinner that night is usually slower as many people eat onshore. Maybe we just got luck with our servers or I have different expectations.

 

[goofy4tink]

Agree with the comments about the servers, we experienced the same thing in Enchanted Garden, they were just too rushed and didn't have any time to spend with you at the table, food delivered to us was wrong, and we never had a chance to correct it because they never came back to check on us. (sorry for the run-on) Fortunately, we were able to get the other three nights in Remy and Palo which were outstanding.

Our April 10th 4-night was our 6th cruise with Disney, and the Dream is beautiful, and we had a wonderful vacation, but I will stick with the Magic & Wonder. For us, the smaller size is just better.

And I would have been EXTREMELY disappointed if the brunch was cancelled. (I'm sure the wait staff was too!)

The truly funny thing is that I had a Palo dinner reserved, but then cancelled it so that we could all eat together. Hind sight being 20/20, we should have kept it. My dd would have been happy to grab a burger and then meet up with her friends rather than sit through another meal of pizza bites!!!
Our servers continually mixed up my dh and my meals. That happened almost every time something was brought out. Then, there was the dinner where we arrived at our table to find double drinks already poured and waiting for us. The second drink was pretty watered down with melted ice by the time we drank it.

And we had been hoping for some fun tablemates...nope, just us at a table for 6 each night.

I was so unhappy about no Palo brunch. I'm sure the wait staff missed those tips. They didn't get tipped on CC, that's for sure.

I guess the Wonder spoiled me.

 

[DisneyOHFan]

Agree with the comments about the servers, we experienced the same thing in Enchanted Garden, they were just too rushed and didn't have any time to spend with you at the table, food delivered to us was wrong, and we never had a chance to correct it because they never came back to check on us. (sorry for the run-on) Fortunately, we were able to get the other three nights in Remy and Palo which were outstanding.

Our April 10th 4-night was our 6th cruise with Disney, and the Dream is beautiful, and we had a wonderful vacation, but I will stick with the Magic & Wonder. For us, the smaller size is just better.

And I would have been EXTREMELY disappointed if the brunch was cancelled. (I'm sure the wait staff was too!)

We were also very surprised at how rushed everything was and the lack of experience with the servers on the Dream. We loved the Magic because our servers spent time at the table chatting, but that was definitely not the case on the Dream. They seemed SO stressed out.

Many of the crew admitted that they just don't know how to do "big" yet (from the boarding process to the restaurants). I'm sure they will figure it out, I just hope they do before we go again in January and next June on the Fantasy.