Claudine&John
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2007
- Messages
- 71
Where do I begin? I guess a one line summary of the experience could be a place to start, but it just doesnt give the story any punch. To put it very simply and into a neat little package I guess my summary sentence when asked the inevitable question, how was it? Would be to respond with; it was awesome? The question mark at the end being as descriptive as the following paragraphs all summed up into one little hook shaped line.
We began our voyage on the Dream with very high expectations. As we had sailed on the Magic prior to this on a wonderful and joyous seven day sojourn to the eastern Caribbean, we had in our minds a solid level of detailed anticipation. The link to that TR can be found here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1622564
This trip would see some new faces in our group as well. Two new DNieces, and a DNephew rounded out the kid gaggle, and an additional grandparent joined the crew to boot. In all we were eighteen strong and a venerable honey pot of Disney loot with a nice little weeklong take for good ole Mickey. We did a small land trip this time as well, but that is for another board, and would be for another reader. You my friend are interested in the cruise are you not? You dont want to hear how we spent the 40th anniversary of opening day at the Magic Kingdom with 45 thousand other people and how we spent 90 minutes of it stuck on Pirates of the Caribbean do you? Well if you must know, there really isnt much to tell, even 90 minutes of robot pirates signing yo ho yo ho wasnt gonna drag us down, we are too tough for that.
Well start the voyage with a wonderful arrival at Port Canaveral. This trip we decided to rent a car and as such feel as though we made an incredibly smart decision with respect to that. Our scheduled (suggested) time of arrival was twelve oclock and as directed, we did just that and arrived right at the strike of noon. The Port was bustling, but not crazy and there were quite a few oos and ahhs from the back seat as we circled the parking area in the shadow of the Dream. We were directed to the drop off area after a quick flash of credentials and with a poof the bags were out of the car, DW and girls were whisked into the terminal, and I was off to the parking garage. I found a nifty little spot right next to the exit on the ground floor and proceeded to take the elevator to the third floor and the skyway which connects the garage to the terminal. At the security desk I had a moment of panic for a second when asked to produce my stateroom number, but I didnt flinch and barked it out like I had been a sea salted scallywag upon the open sea for days. The walk into the terminal was easy and I even got a high five from a cast member as I approached the hoard. Now, Im not one to be shy, nor am I the sort who dislikes many things, but one thing I dont particularly care for is crowds. There were a lot of people in there and they were here, there, and everywhere. Clearly many of them had not taken heed to the scheduled (suggested) time of boarding, but maybe they did, one will never know. I know what your saying right now too, why would you jump into a vessel on the open ocean with 5,000 other people if you dont like crowds? Well, see I can handle crowds, I just dont like them, and I have a deep love and fondness for my family who dont mind them, so I can hack it. I managed to spot DW and the girls who were already talking to a cast member at the check in desk so I managed to scurry through the line like a lab rat and get along side them. I had my picture taken, was given a lanyard for my now Silver status as a cast away and we were off to explore the crowd, er I mean terminal. We were given boarding pass number 15 and as they were currently boarding number 10 we had but little time to explore before our number was called. Managing to weave our way through the members of the hoard who thought it important to be right.next.to.the.ropes.and.crowd.out.the.line.for.everyone.else. we eventually managed to be able to flash our 15 card and get in line through the ginormous ear way. We walked through the gangplank and got our photo taken which was uneventfull but I thought Id throw in a tip here. There are basically two lines to get pictures in, and the one to the right as you walk in is faster. Why is it faster you ask? Because there are two (2) photographers at the end of it servicing twice the amount of people, therefore the line to the left is slower. In other words, stick to the right side of the gangplank. The walk into the ship was to the fanfare of our name being called out to a basically empty atrium. It wasnt the same as the walk into the Magic, it just felt a little empty and less personal. Kind of like if Walmart opened a little corner book shop. It looked and seemed like the Magic, but it wasnt the same.
A cast member asked us if we wanted lunch but we declined and his response was, oh. We basically ate only a few hours before and the girls had Aquaduck fever so we basically went straight to the main pool deck. The ship is really cool, and big, but again, upon arrival at the pool I expected something else. We had donned our bathing attire at the hotel so we were good to go and as there was no wait for the slushy scream machine we went for it. My DD-9 and I splish splashed all the way around the ship on the tube of duckness and loved every minute of it. That thing is just cool.
I will follow up in a bit with more of day one, but Im nursing a bit of a Dream hangover, so Ive given all I had for the moment. Stay tuned though, there is so much to write and its not all bad or good, just a smattering of both.
We began our voyage on the Dream with very high expectations. As we had sailed on the Magic prior to this on a wonderful and joyous seven day sojourn to the eastern Caribbean, we had in our minds a solid level of detailed anticipation. The link to that TR can be found here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1622564
This trip would see some new faces in our group as well. Two new DNieces, and a DNephew rounded out the kid gaggle, and an additional grandparent joined the crew to boot. In all we were eighteen strong and a venerable honey pot of Disney loot with a nice little weeklong take for good ole Mickey. We did a small land trip this time as well, but that is for another board, and would be for another reader. You my friend are interested in the cruise are you not? You dont want to hear how we spent the 40th anniversary of opening day at the Magic Kingdom with 45 thousand other people and how we spent 90 minutes of it stuck on Pirates of the Caribbean do you? Well if you must know, there really isnt much to tell, even 90 minutes of robot pirates signing yo ho yo ho wasnt gonna drag us down, we are too tough for that.
Well start the voyage with a wonderful arrival at Port Canaveral. This trip we decided to rent a car and as such feel as though we made an incredibly smart decision with respect to that. Our scheduled (suggested) time of arrival was twelve oclock and as directed, we did just that and arrived right at the strike of noon. The Port was bustling, but not crazy and there were quite a few oos and ahhs from the back seat as we circled the parking area in the shadow of the Dream. We were directed to the drop off area after a quick flash of credentials and with a poof the bags were out of the car, DW and girls were whisked into the terminal, and I was off to the parking garage. I found a nifty little spot right next to the exit on the ground floor and proceeded to take the elevator to the third floor and the skyway which connects the garage to the terminal. At the security desk I had a moment of panic for a second when asked to produce my stateroom number, but I didnt flinch and barked it out like I had been a sea salted scallywag upon the open sea for days. The walk into the terminal was easy and I even got a high five from a cast member as I approached the hoard. Now, Im not one to be shy, nor am I the sort who dislikes many things, but one thing I dont particularly care for is crowds. There were a lot of people in there and they were here, there, and everywhere. Clearly many of them had not taken heed to the scheduled (suggested) time of boarding, but maybe they did, one will never know. I know what your saying right now too, why would you jump into a vessel on the open ocean with 5,000 other people if you dont like crowds? Well, see I can handle crowds, I just dont like them, and I have a deep love and fondness for my family who dont mind them, so I can hack it. I managed to spot DW and the girls who were already talking to a cast member at the check in desk so I managed to scurry through the line like a lab rat and get along side them. I had my picture taken, was given a lanyard for my now Silver status as a cast away and we were off to explore the crowd, er I mean terminal. We were given boarding pass number 15 and as they were currently boarding number 10 we had but little time to explore before our number was called. Managing to weave our way through the members of the hoard who thought it important to be right.next.to.the.ropes.and.crowd.out.the.line.for.everyone.else. we eventually managed to be able to flash our 15 card and get in line through the ginormous ear way. We walked through the gangplank and got our photo taken which was uneventfull but I thought Id throw in a tip here. There are basically two lines to get pictures in, and the one to the right as you walk in is faster. Why is it faster you ask? Because there are two (2) photographers at the end of it servicing twice the amount of people, therefore the line to the left is slower. In other words, stick to the right side of the gangplank. The walk into the ship was to the fanfare of our name being called out to a basically empty atrium. It wasnt the same as the walk into the Magic, it just felt a little empty and less personal. Kind of like if Walmart opened a little corner book shop. It looked and seemed like the Magic, but it wasnt the same.
A cast member asked us if we wanted lunch but we declined and his response was, oh. We basically ate only a few hours before and the girls had Aquaduck fever so we basically went straight to the main pool deck. The ship is really cool, and big, but again, upon arrival at the pool I expected something else. We had donned our bathing attire at the hotel so we were good to go and as there was no wait for the slushy scream machine we went for it. My DD-9 and I splish splashed all the way around the ship on the tube of duckness and loved every minute of it. That thing is just cool.
I will follow up in a bit with more of day one, but Im nursing a bit of a Dream hangover, so Ive given all I had for the moment. Stay tuned though, there is so much to write and its not all bad or good, just a smattering of both.
. We go on our 1st cruise in April and love reading peoples reports.
