Dream CAME true! June 21-26, 2011 TR w/LOTS of pics! Update 8/1 Day 6, Part 4

[hardingk]

Thanks for another great update!! I can't wait!

 

[tinkgurl]

Oh I do HOPE you'll be doing a TR for your Honeymoon! When is it taking place?

Of course I'll be doing a TR for our "Disney-moon"! It will be August of next year, so you have a little while of waiting.

 

[SoCaOC-Mom]

HI there, I love your trip report and all the pictures.

 

[bangzoom6877]

Hi! Excellent pics as always...that food looks like it's to die for. Yachtsman steak on your cruise, huh? It was like an omen since you guys missed it on your last WDW trip!

Yes, I am super excited...we sail the day after tomorrow! The boys are doing well. Very excited too. I packed all their things today, and then my things. The only things I still have to pack are some toiletries I need to use and add them in on Saturday morning. And the garment bag has to be packed with my dresses, which are all lined up together in my closet, ready to go. I must say (again) that packing for this is so easy compared to a road trip to WDW! So it felt like a breeze.

The MR cruise sounds wonderful. It's a place I have always wanted to cruise to, but haven't gotten the chance yet. And I completely understand from experience how much more convenient it is not to fly in order to catch the ship! We love it that we are leaving the house around 9:30 Saturday morning, driving into Manhattan to park right at the pier, and we will be on vacation!

This might be my last post here before my cruise (but never say never ), because tomorrow is busy. I have my mani/pedi in the morning, DH is packing so I will keep the kids company, and tie up any loose ends...re-check everything 55 times just in case I forgot something! If I don't make it here tomorrow, I will be back when I return from the cruise...but oh my, I don't want to think about returning!

 

[Wonder2008]

Thank you for posting those great Castaway Cay and parasailing pictures - I'm glad they finally work!

Were you asked to remove your shoes before you got into the parasailing boat? If so, where did you leave them? Someone else on this board said they had to so I want to know if it was the same for you. Parasailing remains high on my to-do list, so hopefully someday!

Robert

 

[heathsf]

Oh my gosh what a delicious update!!

Bonnie - I hope you have a great time on your cruise!

 

[blueladybug]

Great TR! I'm now getting excited about our 1st Disney cruise on the Dream next April. Thanks!

 

[Leshaface]

Thanks for another great update!! I can't wait!

Thank you!

Of course I'll be doing a TR for our "Disney-moon"! It will be August of next year, so you have a little while of waiting.

Well i'm DEFINITELY looking forward to reading and hearing all about it! Even if it is a year away!

HI there, I love your trip report and all the pictures.

Thank you!

Hi! Excellent pics as always...that food looks like it's to die for. Yachtsman steak on your cruise, huh? It was like an omen since you guys missed it on your last WDW trip!

Yes, I am super excited...we sail the day after tomorrow! The boys are doing well. Very excited too. I packed all their things today, and then my things. The only things I still have to pack are some toiletries I need to use and add them in on Saturday morning. And the garment bag has to be packed with my dresses, which are all lined up together in my closet, ready to go. I must say (again) that packing for this is so easy compared to a road trip to WDW! So it felt like a breeze.

The MR cruise sounds wonderful. It's a place I have always wanted to cruise to, but haven't gotten the chance yet. And I completely understand from experience how much more convenient it is not to fly in order to catch the ship! We love it that we are leaving the house around 9:30 Saturday morning, driving into Manhattan to park right at the pier, and we will be on vacation!

This might be my last post here before my cruise (but never say never ), because tomorrow is busy. I have my mani/pedi in the morning, DH is packing so I will keep the kids company, and tie up any loose ends...re-check everything 55 times just in case I forgot something! If I don't make it here tomorrow, I will be back when I return from the cruise...but oh my, I don't want to think about returning!

Aw man! I missed you! But I know you're having a BLAST on your cruise and can't wait to read all about it!!!

You're going to have to post a link on here in case others want to go over and read it too!

Thank you for posting those great Castaway Cay and parasailing pictures - I'm glad they finally work!

Were you asked to remove your shoes before you got into the parasailing boat? If so, where did you leave them? Someone else on this board said they had to so I want to know if it was the same for you. Parasailing remains high on my to-do list, so hopefully someday!

Robert

Hi!

Right before you board the boat, they ask you to remove your shorts prior to getting in to the boat. You'll just line the up on the dock so when you return you're shoes are right there as you get off the boat.

Let me know if you have any other questions! Parasailing was so fun and exhilarating!

Oh my gosh what a delicious update!!

Bonnie - I hope you have a great time on your cruise!

Thanks!!

Great TR! I'm now getting excited about our 1st Disney cruise on the Dream next April. Thanks!

You're gonna have the best time on the Dream!

I wish our next cruise will be on the Dream or the Fantasy, but the Wonder will do, I suppose.

 

[Leshaface]

This is SUPER IRRITATING!

Just as I FINALLY decide to write the last bit of my report, PB had to come and punch me in the face with this!

I should probably just look into paying for PB now since it hates me so much. Especially since, in about 5 months, I'll be writing another TR!

Sorry guys!

Waaah!

 

[heathsf]

oh no! Is it for the same reason as last time?

 

[Leshaface]

oh no! Is it for the same reason as last time?

Yup! I exceeded bandwidth again...

HOWEVER, they're showing now, because I paid to upgrade to Pro

 

[Leshaface]

I just decided to upgrade to Pro, cus I was so tired of not having my pics available to others.

So I just sucked it up and paid for it. But now i'll never have to worry (at least for a year) about my pictures not showing up!

So let's get on with the rest of this TR!

 

[Leshaface]

Dessert Menu.

For my dessert, I ordered the See Ya Real Soon Sweet Temptations, a trio of Celebration Cake, Chocolate Decadence, and Cappucino Mousse.

Ugh, delicious and sweet!

DH ordered the Deep-Dish Apple Cranberry Pie, served warm with Vanilla Ice Cream.

This looks small from the picture, but it was fairly big. It came out piping hot and terrific.

After we were served our desserts we ordered some coffee and just hung out and chatted. We then gave our tips to the correct people and they thanked us profusely. We had such a great waitstaff. I didn’t talk about them much in my report, but honestly, they were wonderful. Especially our main server. This was her second to last cruise that she was working on, and it looked like she wanted to cry when she was saying goodbye to us. She thanked us for being so sweet to her (she was pretty sick the first few days) and that we helped make her second to last cruise memorable.

While leaving the restaurant, we wanted to take a few pictures outside the restaurant.

It was now 10:30 so we went up to the Future Cruises desk to talk about re-booking another cruise. They were packed! A CM named Leslie came over to us and handed us a card to fill out and told us that they would get a hold of us after the cruise and that they would still honor the OBC and 10% off any cruise, even though we weren’t booking today! AWESOME! So we filled it out and handed it to her and left.

It was our last night, and we didn’t just want to return to our room. We wanted to go have a drink. Dsil didn’t want to drink so she went back to the room, so DB, DH, and I went to the Pink Lounge to have our last drink.

Well, DB and DH had made friends with the bartender on the 2 night, so when we returned the bartender remembered us. The boys ordered some champagne cocktails (I went to Evolutions to buy a vodka drink) and returned. The bartenders name was Paulo and he was from Portugal. He was AWESOME! He was like, well, it’s the last night so cheers! He poured 3 shots (I have no idea what it was) but it was delicious and strong! We started asking him how many more cruises he was doing, and said he would be on the Dream until 2012 when he would move over to the Fantasy. He said to PLEASE come see him on that cruise, and as he said that, he had poured off the rest of the shaker shot that he had made and served us earlier. Second shot of the evening! Another couple that my DB had conversed with on another night (as you can see, my brother can make friends with ANYONE and EVERYONE; he’s just so approachable) came up to the bar and sat down with us and we all chatted. Apparently, they had talked to Paulo before because he knew who they were and greeted them by name. We all started talking about tequila and how we did the tequila tasting and Paulo went and grabbed a tequila bottle and poured 6 shots: 2 for the couple, 3 for us, and one for him. We cheered and took them like champs! By this time, we were all feeling VERY good and toasty. We told Paulo we needed to take off because we needed to get some sleep for our early morning the next day. He gave us our bill and only charged for ONE DRINK! We tipped him very well and he kept saying, you can’t do that, that’s too much, please have another drink to make up for it, etc. He was so grateful and we were just happy to have made another friend on the Dream!

When we returned back to the room, we found our last animal on our bed waiting for us.

Needless to say, we passed out quick!

 

[Leshaface]

Last Day.

I'm sad to say, nothing eventful happened this day.

I woke up and saw the port outside and got super sad! I did NOT want to get off and let others get on my ship

Because our dumb TA made our flight at 11:15am, we weren't able to go to breakfast (we had the later seating breakfast..if we had the earlier, we probably could have made it) However, that meant a little sleeping in. But not much.


Here is the document telling you about breakfast and getting off the ship

Getting off the ship was fairly easy. Same with the going through the terminal and getting on the Disney Cruise Line bus to MCO. We got to MCO in good time, and went straight to security, since DCL had already printed out our boarding passes for us AND took care of our checked luggage , so it was a breeze. We went and grabbed some Starbucks and Burger King (ick) for breakfast and went and sat by our gate. Our flight was on time and soon enough, we were on our way back to Cali.

And THAT, my friends, is a wrap.



I pretty much know what to expect for our next cruise coming up in only, 4 1/2 short months.

There are things I want to do differently on this cruise though.

-I want to take more pictures of the ship/lounges/lobby areas/theaters. I feel like I didn't take enough pictures for some reason. Same with the buffets. I'm a little worried about dinners though. Obviously, I didn't care about taking food pictures in front of my DB and Dsil, however, i'm not sure how other people will feel about it.

-I really want to take pictures of the Drink of the Day, EVERYDAY. That was on of the things I had said I wanted to do, but just didn't do it for some reason.

-I want to make use of the spa this time. I'm going to check and see what specials they offer once on board and make use of that.

-SIT DOWN BREAKFAST! This is something that I REALLY want to do at least twice on this next cruise. I didn't even know that they offered this until AFTER I returned home. So yes, that means getting up earlier, but I can rest when I get home.

-DH wants to workout everyday I know, had sad are we...but I agreed. We didn't want to waste a lot of time sleeping and laying around (unless it's on a lounger out by the pool )

-I'm definitely taking a journal next time. I want to keep track of everything I do, since I left out a few things of this TR that I didn't mean to leave out (Like the Baby Jack Jack races they held in the lobby..so cute)

-Alcohol. We're definitely bringing more alcohol with us this time around. We're going to stick with the 2 bottle of wine, like we did, however, since we'll be driving to the Port, we're going to pick up a 30 pack, and also bring some vodka and/or rum ....we're not lushes, we just enjoy not paying a fortune for a drink. However, we'll still purchase beverages on board.

-Disney Reward Dollars. Dummy me, forgot to bring the rewards card with us. But I guess the cards only have a year expiration date, so it wouldn't have helped us anyway. So I need to order the rewards card for both DH and I.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure i'll be adding more to this list as the time gets closer.

But I hope you enjoyed my TR and I hope you'll join us on our next adventure.

 

[disneybarbie]

thank you for writing such a lovely TR about the cruise!

We just missed each other at Pink on the last night.. we were there until about 10.30pm, just us and one other couple (also honeymooners!) with Paulo and the other bar tender (was she called Maria?) - loved it in there

At least it's not long to go now until your next cruise... very jealous!



Emma x

 

[Leshaface]

thank you for writing such a lovely TR about the cruise!

We just missed each other at Pink on the last night.. we were there until about 10.30pm, just us and one other couple (also honeymooners!) with Paulo and the other bar tender (was she called Maria?) - loved it in there

At least it's not long to go now until your next cruise... very jealous!



Emma x

Oh no way!?! Geez! Yes her name was Maria and she was super nice!

Oh gosh, I forgot to mention this on your TR, but I showed DH your spa villa, and he LOVES the idea! So I think we may be booking a spa villa for two for one of the days at Cabo San Lucas (since we'll be there for 2 days). So a big THANK YOU!

 

[LoveStitch]

I've been following your trip report, and it's been a delight! You two are about the cutest couple I've ever seen! Your report was wonderful for a first-time cruiser like me...thank you!

 

[Leshaface]

I've been following your trip report, and it's been a delight! You two are about the cutest couple I've ever seen! Your report was wonderful for a first-time cruiser like me...thank you!

Thank you so much! You're too kind!

It was such a great experience, I can hardly WAIT for December to roll around I know you'll have an awesome time on your cruise!

 

[Shell54]

Lesha, I just loved reading your trip report. The pictures were fabulous and your writing style was easy to read. You already know that you helped push me over the edge to try Remy and DH and I absolutely loved it And I see you have the Spa on your "to do" list for your next cruise..I highly recommend it DH and I got a couples massage and I got a facial. Loved the spa!!

 

[Leshaface]

Lesha, I just loved reading your trip report. The pictures were fabulous and your writing style was easy to read. You already know that you helped push me over the edge to try Remy and DH and I absolutely loved it And I see you have the Spa on your "to do" list for your next cruise..I highly recommend it DH and I got a couples massage and I got a facial. Loved the spa!!

Thanks Shell! Oh goodness i'm in DESPERATE need of a facial. My face feels so gross and clogged right now..that would be JUST the thing!

But thanks for sticking around and reading my TR! Hopefully you'll stop by on my next TR whenever I start that one up.