grahamgallagher
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2002
- Messages
- 260
Disney Dream Stateroom 8186.
August 15th 2012.
We left Animal Kingdom Lodge on the DCL ground transport (2 adults and 1 child aged 12 years), as the ground transport offered the on-board check-in for the domestic connecting flight when we got off the Dream on the 19th August.
Arrived at Port Canaveral and was promptly checked in and we boarded the Dream. On entering the Disney Dream you see the amazing atrium whilst your party is announced on-board. We found our room 8186, on deck 8 in the aft (back) of the ship.
We then went to Cabanas for the embarkation buffet man, I never knew there was so much snow crab in the world, and Disney must have it all! The buffet comprised off almost every type of food from pizza, chicken tenders to jumbo shrimps with everything in between. We then got our drinks from the drink station on deck 11 inside Cabanas, choices of the usual sodas, water, a selection of teas and of course coffee. I did not like the creamers in pots, but preferred the creamers in the machine, as you could see how strong the coffee was as you added the creamer those pots are never enough.
We then went back to our room and found our room host (Foster awesome service!), who was very helpful and got us some ice for the cava we had in our carry-on baggage, as well as the box of red wine.
We then did our first the Guppy delivery, as we joined mootmoots Guppy extender and yes we had more fun than Fish extenders! We did not know how often to deliver so we delivered a bunch of goodies to cover 2 days, including Olympic merchandise from the UK. Max says thank you all for your wonderful Guppy gifts delivered today.
Our son checked out Edge being 12 years he did not know if and when he would attend, however soon after looking around he decided to skip dinner with us and go the Edge, so at 6:30pm he went to ToMatas Grill and had a fantastic looking burger (he confirmed he was full and did not want an ice cream (must have been full!), he then went to the Edge.
My wife Jacqueline and myself then went to Animators Palate on the second seating time and met a wonderful family from Near Dallas, Texas. We had a very enjoyable meal at AP, my wife had the Truffle pasta, potato and cheese soup, bean patties with chipotle (the bit I had tasted dull and bland) finishing her meal with the trio of small deserts and I had Truffle pasta, butternut squash soup (not as good as Boma butternut squash soup ), Angus Beef (must have been the smallest piece ever around 4 long x 2 high x 2 deep), finished with the Pineapple sponge cake. We ordered the Classic wine selection ($111 plus tax and gratuity) but could not understand if you received all 8 bottles or could select from the 8 the 4 bottles you wanted (1 per night), the server did not make this clear.
Returned to the room to find the bunk bed down for our son, he then contacted us on the Wave phone to ask if he could stay for the midnight dodge ball game we said yes and I met him at 1am to walk him back to the room tired but still excited well done Disney cast members in (or should it be on?) the Edge.
Note: If you book the aft rooms expect vibrations, I felt them throughout the night and I am a solid sleeper and a seasoned angler please do not get the wrong impression, this is a trade-off between having the larger verandah that can accommodate 3 x sun loungers with vibrations or a mid-ship veranda room with minimal vibrations. The people in 8188 did not sleep a wink due to the vibrations and this was explained as the ship was going again the current.
August 16th 2012.
Woke at 6am went for a walk round the ship. Through Cabanas on deck 11 and walked up the steps to deck 13 on the starboard (front) side of the ship and walked over to the aft to Cabanas. Got a coffee from the drink station near the pool on deck 11 and then picked up some fruit (excellent selection of 3 types of melon, fresh pineapple, apples and bananas).
By this time the ship was approaching Nassau so the speed was much less and the vibrations were un-noticeable, the family woke and our son wanted to know what time the Edge started! After breakfast he decided to stay on board and go to Edge whilst my wife and I went ashore to the Straw Market, fighting our way through the groups of taxi drivers, scooter hire agents and boat excursion people. After a while we returned to the ship and chilled out in our stateroom.
My wife went to the Villains show and I watched the Pirate animation movie on demand in the room.
We ate lunch in the Enchanted Garden wonderful, then we rested and sun bathed until diner, it was dress up night so we dressed up and went to the Enchanted Garden for diner. Diner was good with lobster tail ravioli, various soups and salads and divine main courses of marinated scallops and oven roast chicken, finished off with banana sundaes!
BE WARNED THEIVES ON BOARD! Guppy Extender Gift Stolen!
Note: My wife is sea sick easily, this time she used Bronine and she says they are fantastic (did not cause drowsiness-but this varies person to person).
August 17th 2012 A day at sea.
Woke at 2:23am when the ship was leaving Nassau, another drawback of an aft room is that the mooring points are there and you could hear the gears pulling the mooring rope up to the ship.
Up at 7am then headed to Cabanas for a coffee then down to meet the family for breakfast in the buffet at Enchanted Garden, this seems more civilised than at the cabanas buffet, as people are trying to get tables outside so once they finish breakfast they can keep their prime location for sun bathing! I found it manic! Perfect and much more civilised at 6am at Cabanas.
Today is the day at sea with the Pirate night me hearties...
My wife and I attended the how to make animals from towels an excellent activity. Then we used the laundry, the one on deck 8 (2 washers and 4 dryers WHY odd number?) is occupied most of the day due to the poor ratio of washers to dryers. So we visited deck 7 delivering the Guppy Extenders and saw the laundry room empty so used that. 3 washers to 4 dryers still odd ration.
Spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the verandah whilst our son was permanently on the Aquaduck a total of 103 times during our stay.
Dinner at the Royal Palace, the food is on the line of nouvelle cuisine which went out of fashion in the UK some 20 years ago, small portions high price! Dinner was a rush, but after dinner we rushed on deck to see the fireworks and the Pirate Club party, man those pirates can dance. Totally excellent time, by the time we got to the buffet nothing was left and the crew was closing the dinning area on Cabanas, so we went back to the room and ordered room service. Chicken salad and large island cookies and milk.
August 18th Castaway Cay
Woke and dressed at 6am, went to deck 13 at the front of the ship and saw the island get closer and closer, what a beautiful site and how it has changed since our last visit.
At 9 we went to Royal Palace for breakfast very civilized whilst everyone rushed to get off the ship onto Castaway Cay. We left the ship about 10 and took our sons snorkel and mask, he used the life vests on the snorkel area and then we preceded to find a place on the beach, main problem here is that all the chairs, sun beds and parasols had been unofficially reserved by putting bags, sandals etc on them and the most frustrating point is the signs EVERYWHERE stating do not reserve - I had to come to the conclusion that either the people are totally ignorant or can't read. However I spoke to a cast member who told me to watch if anyone comes back to their stuff after 30 minutes and if not take what you need, so we did and put them underneath 2 palm trees that was a fantastic spot.
We then over the next 4 hours see several nasty arguments with people who claimed we where here before you, and did you not see our clothes? It was good to be an observer.
I went back to the ship to begin packing at 3pm and my wife and son returned at 4pm very sunburned. We had applied a leading brand sun block (factor 50) ever 20 minutes and still they both burned, I just stayed in the shade being fair.
Once we had all packed we got ready for our last dinner at the Royal Palace and the message on the TVs in the staterooms stated that if you had a flight that departed at 1pm you MUST be of the ship by 8am the following morning to ensure that you made your flight.
We were a little hungry so we ordered room service, this time we ordered another salad, 2 island cookies and milk when the lady delivered the food she noticed the sun burn on our sons shoulders and asked what we had used (we had used the yellow cooling gel from the bathroom), she told us to wait 5 minutes she would get something better, 5 minutes later she returned with a blue coloured gel and our son had immediate relief.
August 19th Disembarkation.
Due to us being on the 2nd sitting, you could only have breakfast from 8am, but we had to leave the ship by 8 as informed by the Cruise Director so we decided to skip breakfast (this we WILL NOT DO next time! Read on to find our why.)
We cleared customs and got on the DCL bus to Orlando International airport (40 minute journey) and due to us flying Jetblue we did the inboard airport check-in, boy was that something! We put our check in baggage outside our room on the last night between 8 and 10 pm and the next time we say them was at our destination airport luggage reclaim area. We had breakfast at MCO, you have the choice of McDonalds, Krispy Kremes and other outlets. By the time we had cleared security at the airport it was 9:30 and we had to wait until 1:35 for our flight. The lesson here is the 8am departure from the ship is used as an excuse to get you off the ship so they can prepare for the next cruise, if we had left the ship at 9am we would have gotten to MCO at around 10, still plenty of time to clear security for any flights at 1pm.
All in all, it was a fantastic cruise and an excellent introduction to DCL for our son, but unfortunately we are now spoiled as we feel DCL is the only well maintained cruise line we are aware of.
August 15th 2012.
We left Animal Kingdom Lodge on the DCL ground transport (2 adults and 1 child aged 12 years), as the ground transport offered the on-board check-in for the domestic connecting flight when we got off the Dream on the 19th August.
Arrived at Port Canaveral and was promptly checked in and we boarded the Dream. On entering the Disney Dream you see the amazing atrium whilst your party is announced on-board. We found our room 8186, on deck 8 in the aft (back) of the ship.
We then went to Cabanas for the embarkation buffet man, I never knew there was so much snow crab in the world, and Disney must have it all! The buffet comprised off almost every type of food from pizza, chicken tenders to jumbo shrimps with everything in between. We then got our drinks from the drink station on deck 11 inside Cabanas, choices of the usual sodas, water, a selection of teas and of course coffee. I did not like the creamers in pots, but preferred the creamers in the machine, as you could see how strong the coffee was as you added the creamer those pots are never enough.
We then went back to our room and found our room host (Foster awesome service!), who was very helpful and got us some ice for the cava we had in our carry-on baggage, as well as the box of red wine.
We then did our first the Guppy delivery, as we joined mootmoots Guppy extender and yes we had more fun than Fish extenders! We did not know how often to deliver so we delivered a bunch of goodies to cover 2 days, including Olympic merchandise from the UK. Max says thank you all for your wonderful Guppy gifts delivered today.
Our son checked out Edge being 12 years he did not know if and when he would attend, however soon after looking around he decided to skip dinner with us and go the Edge, so at 6:30pm he went to ToMatas Grill and had a fantastic looking burger (he confirmed he was full and did not want an ice cream (must have been full!), he then went to the Edge.
My wife Jacqueline and myself then went to Animators Palate on the second seating time and met a wonderful family from Near Dallas, Texas. We had a very enjoyable meal at AP, my wife had the Truffle pasta, potato and cheese soup, bean patties with chipotle (the bit I had tasted dull and bland) finishing her meal with the trio of small deserts and I had Truffle pasta, butternut squash soup (not as good as Boma butternut squash soup ), Angus Beef (must have been the smallest piece ever around 4 long x 2 high x 2 deep), finished with the Pineapple sponge cake. We ordered the Classic wine selection ($111 plus tax and gratuity) but could not understand if you received all 8 bottles or could select from the 8 the 4 bottles you wanted (1 per night), the server did not make this clear.
Returned to the room to find the bunk bed down for our son, he then contacted us on the Wave phone to ask if he could stay for the midnight dodge ball game we said yes and I met him at 1am to walk him back to the room tired but still excited well done Disney cast members in (or should it be on?) the Edge.
Note: If you book the aft rooms expect vibrations, I felt them throughout the night and I am a solid sleeper and a seasoned angler please do not get the wrong impression, this is a trade-off between having the larger verandah that can accommodate 3 x sun loungers with vibrations or a mid-ship veranda room with minimal vibrations. The people in 8188 did not sleep a wink due to the vibrations and this was explained as the ship was going again the current.
August 16th 2012.
Woke at 6am went for a walk round the ship. Through Cabanas on deck 11 and walked up the steps to deck 13 on the starboard (front) side of the ship and walked over to the aft to Cabanas. Got a coffee from the drink station near the pool on deck 11 and then picked up some fruit (excellent selection of 3 types of melon, fresh pineapple, apples and bananas).
By this time the ship was approaching Nassau so the speed was much less and the vibrations were un-noticeable, the family woke and our son wanted to know what time the Edge started! After breakfast he decided to stay on board and go to Edge whilst my wife and I went ashore to the Straw Market, fighting our way through the groups of taxi drivers, scooter hire agents and boat excursion people. After a while we returned to the ship and chilled out in our stateroom.
My wife went to the Villains show and I watched the Pirate animation movie on demand in the room.
We ate lunch in the Enchanted Garden wonderful, then we rested and sun bathed until diner, it was dress up night so we dressed up and went to the Enchanted Garden for diner. Diner was good with lobster tail ravioli, various soups and salads and divine main courses of marinated scallops and oven roast chicken, finished off with banana sundaes!
BE WARNED THEIVES ON BOARD! Guppy Extender Gift Stolen!
Note: My wife is sea sick easily, this time she used Bronine and she says they are fantastic (did not cause drowsiness-but this varies person to person).
August 17th 2012 A day at sea.
Woke at 2:23am when the ship was leaving Nassau, another drawback of an aft room is that the mooring points are there and you could hear the gears pulling the mooring rope up to the ship.
Up at 7am then headed to Cabanas for a coffee then down to meet the family for breakfast in the buffet at Enchanted Garden, this seems more civilised than at the cabanas buffet, as people are trying to get tables outside so once they finish breakfast they can keep their prime location for sun bathing! I found it manic! Perfect and much more civilised at 6am at Cabanas.
Today is the day at sea with the Pirate night me hearties...
My wife and I attended the how to make animals from towels an excellent activity. Then we used the laundry, the one on deck 8 (2 washers and 4 dryers WHY odd number?) is occupied most of the day due to the poor ratio of washers to dryers. So we visited deck 7 delivering the Guppy Extenders and saw the laundry room empty so used that. 3 washers to 4 dryers still odd ration.
Spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the verandah whilst our son was permanently on the Aquaduck a total of 103 times during our stay.
Dinner at the Royal Palace, the food is on the line of nouvelle cuisine which went out of fashion in the UK some 20 years ago, small portions high price! Dinner was a rush, but after dinner we rushed on deck to see the fireworks and the Pirate Club party, man those pirates can dance. Totally excellent time, by the time we got to the buffet nothing was left and the crew was closing the dinning area on Cabanas, so we went back to the room and ordered room service. Chicken salad and large island cookies and milk.
August 18th Castaway Cay
Woke and dressed at 6am, went to deck 13 at the front of the ship and saw the island get closer and closer, what a beautiful site and how it has changed since our last visit.
At 9 we went to Royal Palace for breakfast very civilized whilst everyone rushed to get off the ship onto Castaway Cay. We left the ship about 10 and took our sons snorkel and mask, he used the life vests on the snorkel area and then we preceded to find a place on the beach, main problem here is that all the chairs, sun beds and parasols had been unofficially reserved by putting bags, sandals etc on them and the most frustrating point is the signs EVERYWHERE stating do not reserve - I had to come to the conclusion that either the people are totally ignorant or can't read. However I spoke to a cast member who told me to watch if anyone comes back to their stuff after 30 minutes and if not take what you need, so we did and put them underneath 2 palm trees that was a fantastic spot.
We then over the next 4 hours see several nasty arguments with people who claimed we where here before you, and did you not see our clothes? It was good to be an observer.
I went back to the ship to begin packing at 3pm and my wife and son returned at 4pm very sunburned. We had applied a leading brand sun block (factor 50) ever 20 minutes and still they both burned, I just stayed in the shade being fair.
Once we had all packed we got ready for our last dinner at the Royal Palace and the message on the TVs in the staterooms stated that if you had a flight that departed at 1pm you MUST be of the ship by 8am the following morning to ensure that you made your flight.
We were a little hungry so we ordered room service, this time we ordered another salad, 2 island cookies and milk when the lady delivered the food she noticed the sun burn on our sons shoulders and asked what we had used (we had used the yellow cooling gel from the bathroom), she told us to wait 5 minutes she would get something better, 5 minutes later she returned with a blue coloured gel and our son had immediate relief.
August 19th Disembarkation.
Due to us being on the 2nd sitting, you could only have breakfast from 8am, but we had to leave the ship by 8 as informed by the Cruise Director so we decided to skip breakfast (this we WILL NOT DO next time! Read on to find our why.)
We cleared customs and got on the DCL bus to Orlando International airport (40 minute journey) and due to us flying Jetblue we did the inboard airport check-in, boy was that something! We put our check in baggage outside our room on the last night between 8 and 10 pm and the next time we say them was at our destination airport luggage reclaim area. We had breakfast at MCO, you have the choice of McDonalds, Krispy Kremes and other outlets. By the time we had cleared security at the airport it was 9:30 and we had to wait until 1:35 for our flight. The lesson here is the 8am departure from the ship is used as an excuse to get you off the ship so they can prepare for the next cruise, if we had left the ship at 9am we would have gotten to MCO at around 10, still plenty of time to clear security for any flights at 1pm.
All in all, it was a fantastic cruise and an excellent introduction to DCL for our son, but unfortunately we are now spoiled as we feel DCL is the only well maintained cruise line we are aware of.
