Dream Concierge 12000, BL Dolphin Swim, Cabana, Gluten Free Vegetarian

[sillecruisers]

We just got off the Dream Sept 7-11. It was our first cruise. We stayed in 12000, the one bedroom suite in between the royals.

Also included will be our pre-cruise visit to Downtown Disney Saturday afternoon when we arrived in Orlando, Clearwater Marine Aquarium to visit Winter and Hope, with a behind the scenes tour, an afternoon at Clearwater beach, Blue Lagoon Dolphin swim, Cabana 9 on CC, Teen adventure excursion for my 15 year old son, Vibe and Edge reviews by my 15yo son and 12 yo son and 11 yo daughter, Remy dinner, snorkeling on CC. Private mixology class. I am gluten free and plan to thoroughly review my experience obtaining meals that were gluten free and vegetarian.
Post cruise we stayed at Royal Pacific and visited Universal and IOA with park to park/ concert tickets for Rock the Universe, which took place Friday and Saturday evenings. So we played in the parks during the day, and went to the concerts in the evenings, then flew home Sunday morning.

I'm downloading pics and videos and getting them organized, then I will begin the trip report.

 

[sillecruisers]

Okay, I'm going to start, and add pictures as I figure out how.
The players:
me, Cindy. I've dreamed of a Disney cruise for years! We finally decided we'd better go for it before the kids are too old. I'm a photographer (but don't expect amazing pics here- when I'm not working I'm not working so although I did bring the nice camera, I only pulled it out at Clearwater and Castaway Cay). Most pics were taken with my iphone or the gopro. I'm also a graphic designer. I'm gluten free and vegetarian.
hubby, Jason. He is a nurse with his MBA and now works from home, as a healthcare consultant. He is vegetarian and occasionally eats gluten free just in support of me.
Grant, 15 years old.
Logan, 12 years old.
Kelsey, 11 years old.

We decided on this cruise so that the kids would only miss 4 days of school instead of a whole week. The peak times when school is out seemed way too pricey.

Pre-cruise hotel: we couldn't get a decent flight Friday night so we flew down Saturday morning. We had a 6am flight with a connection in Atlanta, and a 2pm arrival in Orlando. We rented a minivan from budget (it was just like our van but 5 years newer and the kids loved it! We may have to upgrade soon lol). We chose to stay in Embassy Suites due to Jason's Hilton Honor membership. Every time he has stayed in ES they have been very nice hotels. Not so for us. The hotel was older and seemed run down. As soon as we got to our room, our key cards did not work. This trend continued every single time we tried to enter the room. Turns out the cards weren't bad, the lock on the door needed to be replaced. We had issues with the toilet not working as well. The first thing we noticed upon entering the room for the first time was that the toilet was running. They fixed it for us multiple times. We got in the hot tub and shortly after turning it on, brown bubbles came out. Eww! We were out of there and into the shower pretty quickly. Ultimately, they ended up giving us 10,000 HH points, crediting us $30 for the first night, got the second night free, and a $40 gift shop credit. We had a nice view of the Orlando Eye from our room, which was the only nice thing about this hotel.

Saturday night: We didn't have time to hit parks or anything major so we decided to go to Downtown Disney. It was sooo packed. People soup. Multiple times I thought some random kid was mine because they were walking so close to me. There is a lot of construction so it was like a herd of cattle slowly moving to get into DTD from the parking area. We shopped a little and hit the Lego store for my son, and couldn't take the crowds or humidity any more.
Dinner: Chevy's. We love this restaurant, and hit it every time we are in town. The food is great, and there is always someone making balloon animals for the kids. My daughter got a unicorn, my older son got a teenage mutant ninja turtle, and my younger son got a sword. They got a huge kick out of it, and it really was a fun dinner.

Up next: Clearwater Aquarium and beach day.

 

[kittymamma]

Looing forward to reading your TR. At which Embassy Suites did you stay ?

 

[sillecruisers]

Looing forward to reading your TR. At which Embassy Suites did you stay ?

We stayed at International Drive.

 

[PJB71]

Looking forward to reading more

 

[cheermom2four]

Following as we booked our cruise this same week next year on the Fantasy so my two kids would only miss 4 days of school. Different ship but same concept. Cant wait to hear about your experience eating gluten free as I am that way also

 

[Marita916]

Following your review. My family is on a Disney cruise in November ( can't wait). My son and I are celiac, so I'm very curious of your "gluten-free food experience". We are also, staying in a suite and we got cabana 8 on CC.

 

[sillecruisers]

Thanks for following along!

Clearwater: Since watching Dolphin Tale, I have always wanted to visit the aquarium. I love their rescue work, and honestly, my dream is to one day work with these animals. So we decided to add this side trip to our vacation. We chose to stay in the Orlando area since it is central to the gulf coast and the port.

We had breakfast at the hotel and headed out. We had pre-booked and paid for our admission at 10am with a behind the scenes tour at 3. This was the best we could schedule a couple weeks out, so we decided to make the best of it and visit the aquarium in the morning, get lunch and go to the beach, then come back at 3 for our behind the scenes tour.

We left the hotel around 8:30 and arrived right at 10. The process was very smooth for getting our wristbands. As soon as we walked in, they were doing a show/ demonstration with Winter. It was good but crowded and kind of roped off to where you couldn't get as close as you wanted to, to see well. We checked that out, walked around, took some pictures, and left to find lunch.


Since I am gluten free, we researched ahead of time where to eat. Happy Cow (a vegetarian app) led us to Basimo Beach Cafe. It has all organic ingredients, which appeals to me. It was hot and humid, so we all opted for smoothies. They were delicious and hit the spot. They held us over just perfectly til dinner, which amazed me, considering our busy day.



We weren't sure where to access the beach, so we asked at the cafe, and he told us we could change at a little place right next to the Sand Pearl resort. The kids and I walked down there while Jason tried to find a parking spot for the car. My oldest son went in there and used their bathroom to change into his swimsuit. He said they didn't care and the bathrooms were large. I felt really uncomfortable doing that, so I waited. Jason showed up and agreed we should't do that, so instead, we went into the lobby of the SandPearl and used their restooms. One big mistake- we forgot towels. Ugh! A beach day with no towels. Anyway, we went down the the beach from the pool area of the SandPearl (I still feel bad about that- no one seemed to notice or care and it was very crowded). The beach was nice and we had a great time playing until we had to change to go back to the aquarium for our tour. We basically got out of the water and "air dried" for a few minutes in the breeze- then went back into the SandPearl pool area to access the lobby and their restrooms. We changed back into our clothes and went back to the aquarium. I felt like a squatter, using the hotel when we were not guests. I wish we would have researched the beach access better ahead of time. In the moment, we didn't know what else to do. The Sand Pearl is gorgeous by the way, and if we decide to stay in Clearwater in the future, it would be on the top of my list.


Back to the aquarium, we had to wait for about 30 minutes for our tour (we were right on time arriving). We were asked to wait by the door that was the original back door that the boy in the movie used to access the aquarium. The tour itself was only a few dollars more than admission so we figured, why not? However, it was tedius and boring, and the other family with us, their kids were playing on their electronics the whole time. We spent most of the tour standing in a hallway while the tour guide went over the history of the aquarium, showing us pictures on the wall. We seemed to be in the way of staff members as they came and went. I would not do it again.

After the tour we checked out the aquarium a little more thoroughly and discovered and underwater viewing area, and got to see Winter and Hope swimming around together. Then we shopped in the gift shop.



We did purchase the photo package that included the photo they took of the family upon entering, as well as some really cute images of the kids taken on a green screen. We had also purchased a photo with Nicholas, one of the dolphins. Our photo was at 11, right before his show. We watched his show afterwards. It was a lot of fun! He has so much personality!

 

[sillecruisers]

Clearwater, continued.

After we left the aquarium, we stopped for dinner. My thoughtful husband had already researched this without me knowing. We used to live in Atlanta, and when he realized there was a Mellow Mushroom in Clearwater, he checked to see if they had gluten free options. Indeed they did! We missed that place! We went there, were seated very quickly, and ordered various pizzas, mine with a gluten free crust. It was delicious, one of those times when you are like, are you sure this is gluten free? It was. I always know within 24-48 hours if something I ate had gluten in it.

No pictures, I think I was too hungry to remember to take any lol. After dinner, the long, rainy, stormy drive back to Orlando to pack up for our cruise the next day!

Up next: Port arrival and embarkation!

 

[sillecruisers]

Monday morning, we woke up early, ready to hit the road for the port!

Side note: we purchased the sunpass for $20 and put it in the windshield of the rental car. It was worth it. We went through countless tolls and felt like the time savings alone was worth it. We opted for the removable (more expensive) one because we'll use it on future trips.

It was a surprisingly short trip to the port. We stopped right before we got to port, at Publix, for our Coffeemate Vanilla creamer. Coffee simply isn't coffee without it. We grabbed 2 small bottles to put in our carry on, and were on our way!

The feeling of seeing the ship for the first time... priceless! I wish we had made use of our GoPro that we bought just for this trip. We didn't use it much. I will share videos when available, but this wasn't one of those moments. But I digress. Seeing the ship was so exciting! I must have snapped 20 pictures, as it got closer, and closer!
I'll spare you all 20 of them, but here are a couple:



We managed to find a car rental that was actually cheaper to keep the car and pay the port parking (we paid in advance and showed our printout) than to return the car, deal with the hassle of taking a shuttle to port, then having to rent it again at the end of the cruise. So we parked the rental car. We got a nice spot on the 3rd level, right where the line was forming. I think it was around 10:15 or 10:30 but I was so excited I really am not sure.

Oh- we did drop off our luggage at the front and tipped the porters there. We kept 2 bags with us containing valuables such as laptop (never used it, wouldn't bring it again) and my camera gear. The drop off process was quick and smooth.

Once we got in line, the line started moving. I did wonder if I was going to die of humidity (is that a thing?) before we got inside the building, but alas, I did manage to survive the process. Hey, I'm from the desert. The humidity was astounding to me. We put our bags through the security machines, much like at the airport, and into the terminal we went.

That moment! We were just... stunned senseless to be in there. We got right into the check in line that some very nice cast member directed us to, and just as I was arguing with Jason that there must be a separate line for concierge check in, we saw a friend who I had met online through our DIS boards meet up. I think she heard me say Jason and then recognized me, and said, Hi Cindy! I looked up and immediately recognized her. I ended up really bonding with her over the week (Hi Amanda!) and it was so cool to bump into her so soon!

Lo and behold, once we got all the way through the line, we were asked our room number (12000). Oh, concierge? You're in the wrong line! You need to go over there! (I TOLD YOU SO, dear hubby!!!) No big deal, really, as the line had moved quickly, and our family got to meet Amanda's family. We walked across the terminal to the concierge check in, where we had our picture taken and were given various papers, and honestly, I don't remember what else happened (again, excited senseless to just be there!). They ushered us into the concierge waiting area, which had a few people quietly sitting around (why aren't you guys, like super excited?!?!) It felt kind of like an airport waiting area. So we had someone sit with our bags and took turns finding the bathroom and checking out the terminal. The concierge waiting area was adjacent to an outdoor ship viewing area. I ventured out there, but that humidity... I'm a wimp.
Here's the view from that area.

We checked out our navigators and waited for the call for boarding. It came around 11:30. We were third in line to board.
Up next: boarding the ship!

 

[sillecruisers]

We did do the family picture before boarding, and had pre-purchased the photo pass, but ended up cancelling the photo pass. I'll talk more about that later. I do wish I would have thought to purchase just this picture. I liked it. But I didn't. Oh well.

It was surreal when they announced our family- of course there was hardly anyone to announce it to, since we were third on the ship. We did the obligatory picture:


and then were ushered straight up to the concierge lounge.

Note here: if we were to cruise concierge again, I would not go straight to the lounge, but rather straight to Cabanas and hit the lounge afterwards. I'll expand on that in a little while.

At the concierge lounge, we were directed to a table for our family, and invited to get snacks. Jason and I were offered champagne, and we said, why not. There was literally nothing I could eat there, even though I told shoreside concierge that I was gluten free multiple times. I was disappointed by that for sure. Even the salads had croutons.


Yes, they had fruit, but who wants fruit when you are in the concierge lounge on your first cruise, and the rest of your family is sampling tempting looking treats?
One of the kids plates:

Everyone loved these cookies:


Eventually, Ashley from India, one of the concierge hosts, came by to go over our itinerary and ask us if we needed any other reservations. We did not. They did surprise us by giving us tickets to the princess meet and greets (one with princesses, one with Ana and Elsa) for 9 and 9:30 on sea day. That was nice, and Kelsey was very excited about that.

I felt like the whole concierge process took longer than it needed to. I wanted to check out the ship. The nice thing was our room was ready! We took our bags and checked out our room.

I guess I'll go into a room review before I go over lunch.

Room review next!

 

[sillecruisers]

Thank you to my friend Amanda for taking pics of our room! We had some friends we had met on the DIS boards over after our sea day mixology and she took pics of the room. It wasn't until after the cruise that I realized I never took one single picture of the room! Amanda saved the day by sending me these pictures.

We were in room 12000, a one bedroom suite situated in between the 2 royal suites. It is direcly in the middle, looking at sea straight ahead, and also overlooks the outdoor area of the teen club, Vibe. We hardly ever saw anyone there. The verandah is HUGE! However, the front 6 or 7 feet of it are clearly visible from an overlook on deck 13, and more often than not, someone was up there looking down into our verandah. I found that intrusive and would NOT get this room again because of that. Otherwise, the room was very nice. I love the category and would love to sail again in a cat T with a bumpout for a somewhat larger verandah (I know they are not as big as 12000 but I don't feel like we needed all that space.) When we did have friends over, it was too hot to be out there anyway.

Even when we sat on our loungers, out of sight of the deck 13 onlookers, you could hear them talking. It was almost like their voices were amplified. Not quiet, serene, private, and relaxing like you would expect.
The verandah from inside, hence the floor reflected in the glass.








We loved all the closet space. 2 small closets and one big walk in closet. We used the dining room table a lot. The tv in the bathroom mirror was amazing! We would usually look at the weather or something while getting ready in the morning. Kelsey watched a movie from the bathtub one afternoon.
I did love this room, with the exception of the verandah.
Up next: lunch, exploring the ship, checking out tween area, Edge, muster drill, and sail away.

 

[Princessjenny1225]

Enjoying your TR. Cant wait for next post!

 

[timrousbeastie]

Thanks a lot for the fun and well written posts. It looks like you had a wonderful family vacation. I had never heard of "Dolphin Tale" and kept wondering what was up with that dolphin, but now I am eager to see the movie! It was nice to read that the concierge service was so good. We'll be staying in a Cat T+V for the first time in the near future and I am eager to learn from your experiences. Suite 12000 seemed like the best Cat T at first glance, but I had an uneasy feeling about it as the verandah did seem quite exposed when I looked down on it from deck 13. Even so, the straight view forward must have been amazing.

 

[TnMaryJo]

Looking for your next post. I'm enjoying hearing about the concierge lounge on the Dream. The macarons looked soooo good. I am so sorry the gluten-free options were not available then. boooooo

 

[sillecruisers]

Thanks a lot for the fun and well written posts. It looks like you had a wonderful family vacation. I had never heard of "Dolphin Tale" and kept wondering what was up with that dolphin, but now I am eager to see the movie! It was nice to read that the concierge service was so good. We'll be staying in a Cat T+V for the first time in the near future and I am eager to learn from your experiences. Suite 12000 seemed like the best Cat T at first glance, but I had an uneasy feeling about it as the verandah did seem quite exposed when I looked down on it from deck 13. Even so, the straight view forward must have been amazing.

The view was amazing, and my daughter and I enjoyed sitting out there at sailaway. I think I have pics of that. It was raining, but the way the railing slants toward you, we were able to sit on the floor all the way up front and were sheltered from the rain. It was a wonderful moment! We watched another cruise ship that was sailing away just ahead of us.

 

[sillecruisers]

Okay, lunch. Since we were whisked to the concierge lounge upon embarkation, we did not beat the rush at Cabanas. In fact, it was really crowded. I did find a nice CM to help point out gluten free options, and I got a few things, then we simply could not find a table. I finally found one, and literally as I was about to place my tray down, a man and his daughter swooped out of nowhere and leaped into the seats. I wish I was exaggerating. I was like, alrighty then. It's a fend-for-yourself kind of deal. So, after walking all around, we gave up and just abandoned our trays and decided to go to Enchanted Garden instead. I was really the only one who was hungry after everyone else had nibbled for the past 45 minutes at the concierge lounge anyway.
We went to EG and were seated right away. There was 2 lines for the buffet but they moved fairly quickly. We got our food and were seated in about 10 minutes.
My lunch at EG:

Since I am vegetarian and GF, there weren't an abundance of options, but I was assured that if I pre-ordered, it would all be good. The mashed potatoes in this pic were delicious, as was everything on the plate. I was assured by the chef, who came out at the CM's request, that the food I had chosen was GF.
Next, Jason and the kids wanted to go on the aquaduck. I wanted to record their first trip down. In hindsight, I wish I had just gone on it. It was so hot and humid. So they went- the line was 20 minutes long so I settled in with a drink of the day while I waited for them.

The drink was yummy, but I remember thinking when I took the first sip, is there even any alcohol in this? There was, but not much. I am not much of a drinker, mind you. It was just the whole 'I've been waiting for 2 years to be on a Disney cruise ship sipping a drink of the day out of a DCL glass' that made me do it.
After a while, they came down and I got some poor quality iphone video of them. I won't bore you with it.
I feel like this is a terrible run on post, so I will end it and pick up with a visit to Edge with my two tweens in the next post.

 

[sillecruisers]

On the way back to our room after the aquaduck, we ran into... guess who! just outside the concierge lounge.

After changing clothes, my tweens were anxious to check out Edge, and since it was open house, so were mom & dad.

On the way to Edge, we noticed that the Outlook Lounge was open so we peeked in and took some pics. I think this is used for private events.

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And the Edge is right near there.
My two tweens (11 and 12).

There was no one there but us, so my kids were playing with the counselors.

My kids liked Edge 'okay' but were not huge fans. Their main complaint was the other kids were rude, and it was boring. That's about as much as I got out of them. They did go on several occasions, and were overall pretty independent. We let them go to the aquaduck on their own, the midship detective agency on their own, and the arrcade. They are good kids and it went well (allowing them a moderate amount of freedom). They also enjoyed watching Disney movies in the room.

Oh! I almost forgot- we had planned to meet up with a huge group of 'friends' and I only say that in quotations because we had never met in real life yet- friends that we met on the DIS boards meetup for our cruise. The meetup was an ice cream social at I Scream, deck 11 near the pool, at 3. Everyone brought an ice cream topping. There were tons of people there, some of whom I recognized and it was cool to meet them. The only problem was they closed the ice cream machines at 3 for the 4:00 muster drill! We had no idea that would happen. I don't know what became of all the ice cream toppings. We left ours there (butterscotch topping) and left after a large group picture was taken. Someone from our group had the big red Disney Cruise Line banner for sailaway and we took a photo with it. There must have been close to 100 people there. I'll try to track down a copy of the picture and post it.

We decided to head to our muster station at around 3:45. We were in the Walt Disney Theater on Deck 4. I took one picture. The drill was painless, though it was difficult to understand what they were saying.

This is the theater- they had everyone sitting in the back and sides. We were up in a side balcony. I'd say it lasted around 20 minutes. Then we were released into a sea of people trying to get on the elevators. We decided to head back to our amazing room, and watch sailaway from our balcony. It was really crowded on deck for the sailaway party, and we are not into fighting crowds in the heat and humidity.

 

[sillecruisers]

We hung out and enjoyed our room and verandah until we noticed the ship starting to move. Another ship had just departed ahead of us, and since we were on the front of the ship, we got to watch it! It had started raining right around the time we started moving.


Seriously, it was surreal! We planned this trip and {I} obessed over it for sooo long. We were actually on this ship and moving out to sea! I can't even describe the feeling.
Fishlips.


I noticed right away the weird feeling of the ship's movement. I didn't feel nauseous, just out of sorts. Logan really felt it too.

Before leaving for dinner we stopped in the concierge lounge. Jason arrived before me and they offered us drinks, and he told them I like fruity drinks. This was waiting for me when I walked in.

It was really good, and yes, it had plenty of alcohol in it! They did not skimp on this drink! It was the polar opposite of my drink of the day, in a good way. I don't even know what it was, but I liked it.

Okay, Remy dinner. I do want to say a good word for shoreside concierge. We had changed this reservation so many times. We were going to do it on sea day but had plans to meet up with some friends we met on our cruise meet board, and we didn't want to be rushed or whatever. Shoreside concierge was amazing in helping us get it set up. We really didn't feel sure about embarkation day, because we would miss meeting our servers and the kids would have to eat on their own. Our compromise was a 6:30 reservation, since our dinner seating was at 5:45. That gave us a chance to meet our servers and get the kids situated. Dinner was at Enchanted Garden (or was it Royal Palace? I'll have to look and get back to you!). Anyway, our server, Edi from Indonesia, was super! The kids immediately loved him and he assured us they would be fine. We stuck around for a few minutes and made sure the kids were good, and they could reach us if they needed to, via the DCL app texting, and we dashed off to our room to get dressed for Remy.

Side note: Jason sent his shirt and jacket to be pressed right away via our concierge hosts, and even though it says next day, they got it done and it was waiting in our room with time to spare, for about $10.

Next up: Remy dinner. Be prepared to be bombarded with pictures. Let me just preface the next post by saying that I am NOT one to drop $200 on a meal for two- never done it. In my mind, I just think, oh, we could do an excursion for that, or oh, that is the cost of the photo CD. But let me tell you, my mind was changed! It was worth every penny! (And we ended up spending $225, including tip, with no alcoholic drinks beyond what is included at the beginning of the meal).

Our server, the food, the views, the ambiance, just everything. It was just perfect and I think everyone needs to experience it at least once. I don't know if we'll do it again because to me, it's a family vacation and I felt kind of bad being away from the kids for 3 hours, even though they were fine. I am glad we did it this time.

 

[sillecruisers]

Our custom vegetarian and gluten free menu.

I'm not sure if this video will work, but I'll try. This is just a little clip showing our view, and at the end you'll see the little piece of dried pineapple they drop into the drink, how it bubbles. I cannot even remember all the details of the drink, but basically it starts with champagne, and they add a few things, right there at the table for you to watch. It is complimentary at the beginning of the meal. I actually declined at first because I was REALLY feeling the movement of the ship and I was afraid any more alcohol was going to make it worse. So they brought me a very good non-alcoholic drink, then I asked for this champagne drink after I watched him prepare it.

We took pics of each other.


Here was my non alcoholic drink.

And the champagne cocktail.

First course: Ratatouille with Olive Oil Ice Cream.

It was really delicious, but we were kind of expecting the kind of ratatouille that Remy served. You know, the movie? Anyway, it was still very tasty.
Petite Green Salade Nicoise with Quail Egg

This was AMAZING. A salad, yes, but oh my. The sauce. I told our server he could go ahead and just slather that sauce on all the rest of our dishes from here on out. He did not.
Moving on to the next few courses in the next post.