Hi everyone! Im very new to the DIS boards I only found you all while I was planning our very first Disney cruise the 4/21/11 3-night on the Dream. I read so much on the boards, and found all of the trip reports very helpful - not to mention how they got me so excited for my own cruise! Actually, my addiction to the DIS boards was quite complete, as I bookmarked pages on my iPhone and read the boards any time I had 10 seconds free yep, I was hooked! 
So, I thought Id jump in with my own trip report!
Our cruising gang is: myself, DH, DD (11), DS (7), and my Mom and Dad. All of the grown-ups had been on only a couple of cruises before DH and I with NCL and my parents with NCL and Disneys Big Red Boat. For the kids, this was their first cruise ever!
We knew, since we were traveling during Easter breaks and from reading the boards, to expect crowds. So, we approached our trip with an expectation of having to wait sometimes, and to do our best to look on the up-side of things and try to have fun whatever we were doing. I definitely believe that a positive attitude helps!
Pre-Cruise:
We arrived in Orlando the Friday before the cruise, rented a house in Kissimmee, and spent time at the parks Epcot, Universal Islands of Adventure (to see Harry Potter), and the Magic Kingdom. Thank goodness for FastPass and the wait-time apps on my iPhone at WDW we were able to get to almost every ride we wanted to even with peak crowds. The Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot was absolutely beautiful and I just love watching Illuminations! Universal was where we felt the most like sardines in a can. So hot and so crowded even the Cat in the Hat ride was over an hour wait! Harry Potter was very cool (and our main reason for going there), but my kids do not like roller coasters & scary rides, so we probably wont be returning to Universal again.
The day before the cruise we spent in our rental house I wanted the kids to have plenty of time to swim in the pool (since we heard how crowded the pools on the Dream would be), and the grownups relaxed on the lanai, swam, did some laundry and re-packed for the cruise. And after pounding the parks for 3-days in a row (and believe me, we were exhausted!), we wanted to be well rested for the Dream!
Next installment Embarkation Day!
To tide you over until my next post, heres my favorite photo I took of the Dream while on Castaway Cay
Thanks for reading!!
So, I thought Id jump in with my own trip report!Our cruising gang is: myself, DH, DD (11), DS (7), and my Mom and Dad. All of the grown-ups had been on only a couple of cruises before DH and I with NCL and my parents with NCL and Disneys Big Red Boat. For the kids, this was their first cruise ever!
We knew, since we were traveling during Easter breaks and from reading the boards, to expect crowds. So, we approached our trip with an expectation of having to wait sometimes, and to do our best to look on the up-side of things and try to have fun whatever we were doing. I definitely believe that a positive attitude helps!
Pre-Cruise:
We arrived in Orlando the Friday before the cruise, rented a house in Kissimmee, and spent time at the parks Epcot, Universal Islands of Adventure (to see Harry Potter), and the Magic Kingdom. Thank goodness for FastPass and the wait-time apps on my iPhone at WDW we were able to get to almost every ride we wanted to even with peak crowds. The Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot was absolutely beautiful and I just love watching Illuminations! Universal was where we felt the most like sardines in a can. So hot and so crowded even the Cat in the Hat ride was over an hour wait! Harry Potter was very cool (and our main reason for going there), but my kids do not like roller coasters & scary rides, so we probably wont be returning to Universal again.
The day before the cruise we spent in our rental house I wanted the kids to have plenty of time to swim in the pool (since we heard how crowded the pools on the Dream would be), and the grownups relaxed on the lanai, swam, did some laundry and re-packed for the cruise. And after pounding the parks for 3-days in a row (and believe me, we were exhausted!), we wanted to be well rested for the Dream!
Next installment Embarkation Day!
To tide you over until my next post, heres my favorite photo I took of the Dream while on Castaway Cay
Thanks for reading!!
I can't wait to read about your experience on the cruise. I am surprising DH for his 40th birthday with a 3 night DREAM cruise. I'll be interested to know if you thought the cruise was long enough to do everything you wanted to.
Heres a photo of one of our first glimpses of the Dream:
There was a large line in the middle, which I later found out was for character autographs I think Mickey & Minnie were there, right in front of a model of the Dream. Finally I spotted someone with a health form in their hands, and saw them on tables in the center when we headed over to fill ours out, a nice CM was there to tell us where the check in line was. Well, I say, line but there really wasnt one just one family ahead of us. And, by this time, the guys had returned from the parking garage. The CM at the head of the check in area gave us a boarding card - #15 and directed us to an open CM to check in and get our photos taken. Check-in proceeded quickly, and the CM looked at our boarding card, winked at me, and crossed out the 15 and wrote 5!! Woo hoo! 
Hoping to get my next TR installment up tomorrow!
