I'm on a boat! Disney Dream TR 0ct 20-23 (last update pg 7 12/1)

[pinkxray]

We just got home from a 3 night cruise on the beautiful Disney Dream, which was our first cruise ever. We followed up our cruise with a one night stay at Pop Century so that we could attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.


In case you don’t know us, we are:

DH-John
Me-Diane
DD7-Caitlin

DH is not a big Disney lover. After our trip in May 2011 he refused to set foot in Disney for at least 3 years. I wanted to return in Oct. to attend MNSSHP. I planned a quick mother/daughter trip for Oct20-24th but felt bad that DH and I were celebrating our 10 year anniversary Nov. 3 and wouldn’t be doing anything special for it. I happened to be reading a Disney Dream trip report by Amandaw and decided to ask DH one more time. He called on his lunch hour and I asked if he wanted to do a Disney cruise for 3 nights. He asked a few questions- how much, where does it go, etc. and agreed. I booked us on a 3 nighter for Nov 3. Over the next few weeks our trip got moved to Oct. 20- 23 on the Dream and one night at Pop so I could finally get to the Halloween party.


It was the first cruise for all of us. To be honest I never really had any interest in cruising. Haven’t you ever seen Titanic, Poseidon, or Ghost Ship? However DH likes beaches, snorkeling and relaxing and I like Disney service, food and characters. It was a perfect idea. We chose the 3 night cruise so that we could try it out and not be stuck on a ship if we hated it.


I was planning on doing an all out trip report but I ended up not taking a million pictures and just tried to enjoy the moment I was in. I thought of maybe not doing any trip report but I really want to share the photos I did take and things I learned along the way. I really enjoyed reading TRs before our cruise and found them very helpful in our planning so I hope I am able to return the favor if you are planning a Disney cruise.

 

[pinkxray]

Arrival

Checking out the ship

Dinner at Animator's Palate

Our FE gifts

 

[KatMark]

I'm here and enjoyed the intro. We were going to do a cruise in 2013, but we've changed our mind. But I still want to hear all about yours.

 

[Jazzabelle508]

i'm in i don't know a whole lot about the disney dream or disney cruise line in general but i can't wait to learn about it!

 

[Lidian]

I'm here! I'd love to do a cruise (but apprehensive myself). So can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[pinkxray]

I'm here and enjoyed the intro. We were going to do a cruise in 2013, but we've changed our mind. But I still want to hear all about yours.

Oh no, you changed your mind? Are you pushing it back or just not doing it at all?

I haven't had a chance to catch up on the dis but I did see that you have a very special 5 year anniversay to celebrate and a girls trips is a great way to celebrate!

i'm in i don't know a whole lot about the disney dream or disney cruise line in general but i can't wait to learn about it!

The DCL was amazing. We are probably going to try another cruise next time to have something to compare it too. I don't think DH will appreciate DCL until he sees how it is better than others (not like I really know either, just assuming)

I'm here! I'd love to do a cruise (but apprehensive myself). So can't wait to hear all about it!

Do it! It was fantastic and had something for everyone. I wasn't a big fan of ever taking a cruise but really enjoyed it. We didn't book bounce back but have already started talking about doing more cruises in the future with Caitlin and maybe just adults too.

 

[pinkxray]

Our cruise dates were Thursday October 20- Sunday Oct. 23. I would have preferred to fly out the night before but DH didn’t want to miss an extra day of work and I didn’t want Caitlin to miss another day of school. We took the 6:30am Southwest flight from Hartford which would arrive at MCO around 9:30am. It worked out fine and we arrived with plenty of time, but if I had it my way we would fly out the night before and stay at the MCO Hyatt the night. The only issue that we had was that no one was able to take a nap and by 9pm we were completely wiped out.


I woke up bright and early at 3am. After a quick shower and some coffee I woke everyone up and we were in the car by 3:38. Our drive was pretty uneventful and we arrived at Bradley airport. We parked the car and took the shuttle which pulled up as soon as we got out of the car. There was a short line at the Southwest counter and we waited a bit to check our bags.
After checking our bags and quickly making our way through security (I love that we haven’t gone through the scanners yet. We are always directed to the family line and skip them) DH and DD stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and I skipped breakfast. I was saving my appetite for lunch at Cabanas.


Finally it was time to board. I always pay for the early bird check in since I really like to sit together. We had boarding numbers A28-30. Our flight seemed smooth to me but the pilot had the flight attendants remain seated for almost half the flight. I guess there were some strong winds or something that were slowing us down so we arrived about a half hour late. I was a bit bummed since I really wanted to be at the terminal asap.


Once we landed DH had to stop at the store to grab sunglasses. Somewhere between Hartford and MCO he lost the sunglasses he had on his head. (?) He doesn’t like to give Disney his money so he only brought $40 spending money. Between Dunkin and sunglasses he now had $18 left. We headed to baggage claim to retrieve our bags. I believe that you can just place your luggage tags on there now with Southwest and they will arrive in your stateroom, but I was so stressed that our bags would never show up onboard that I decided to just handle them ourselves. Once we grabbed our bags we headed to Magical Express. We always rent a car when at WDW so I had no idea where we were going. We checked the map but didn’t realize that we had to go to the B side. We finally asked someone and they directed us to the B side.
There was a bit of a line to check in. Once at the counter we handed in our signed letter and showed our passports. We were given our room keys and a purple Minnie mouse pass that would be the bus we needed to be on.

We sat down and waited for our bus which took about a half hour to arrive. Once our bus arrived someone walked around with a purple sign with Minnie on it. We jumped up and quickly formed a line. We were given our boarding number which was 6. We were able to get right on the bus and finally we were on our way. It took about 45 minutes to get to the terminal.

Caitlin has decided I take too many pictures and I had a really tough time getting her to have her picture taken this trip. Once in awhile she would agree.

Once we arrived at the terminal someone came on board to explain what would happen next. Since we had already taken care of the paper work at the airport all we had to do was head through security and that was it. If for some reason you didn’t register at the airport you had to go hand in your paperwork and fill out a form saying no one has been sick recently.

We left our big bags to be delivered and just grabbed our carry ons. Going through security is much easier than airport security. You don’t have to remove shoes or take our liquids. You just place your bags on the belt and walk through the metal detector. We had boarding number six, but they had already boarded 1-26 or something like that. I wanted to stop and look around the terminal and get a picture with Cpt. Mickey but everyone else wanted to get on the ship. We had to wait in a bit of a line to get our picture taken. It didn’t come out that great so I never purchased it. Everyone has to get this picture taken since they use this photo for facial recognition to sort your photos throughout the cruise.
Waiting in line to get our photo taken.

We were almost there. Of course the family ahead of us had to take a family photo, a photo of just the kids, then just the girl, just the parents, just the boy, different pose, etc. They took forever! Once we got our photo taken we waited another few minutes to be let on the ship. As you enter they announce your name and everyone claps. I could do without that, but everyone else seems to like it. The atrium was beautiful but I saved the pictures for later. I still hadn’t eaten besides a 100 calorie pack one the plane and I was starving. We headed right up to Cabanas. Someone was around to show us where to go but I don’t remember what she said or if she even mentioned Enchanted Garden as a choice. We said we were hungry and couldn’t wait to get to Cabanas so she directed us to the elevator and to the 11th deck.

When you arrive at a meal there are CMs there to hand you alchohol wipes. They explained how Cabanas works. There are different pods and you don’t have to stand in line, you can just hop to were you want to go. This idea worked well when Cabanas was slow, but when it was busy it seemed people went back to going in a line. When you skipped a pod people seemed to glare at you like you did something wrong. It probably would have worked better if the food wasn’t set up in a straight line and had pods on both sides with spaces between them.
Dh waited while Caitlin an
d I grabbed some food. We grabbed some basics like pizza, chicken and fries. Of course I can’t skip asparagus when it is there.

DH went up and it seemed to take him forever. He returned with some pizza and chicken.

I finished my first plate and headed up for more. DH asked me to grab him some pizza. The wait for cheese pizza was ridiculous. It is the first station so you have people waiting for pizza plus people not realizing that they can pass the pizza station. CMs headed over and told people if they weren’t waiting for pizza they could keep going a few times while I waited. The issue was that the pizzas are small, maybe 12 inches. There was plain, ham and pineapple, and a chicken and spinach pizza. They seemed to be making each cheese one at a time and that was the one everyone wanted. So everyone would take 2-3 slices and give some to a kid so one family would use up a pizza and then you had to wait for another. They really need to do a couple cheese at a time. I gave up waiting and grabbed more chicken and fries for Caitlin. I also grabbed some type of beef and more mashed potatoes for myself. I got back in the pizza line. By the time I got up there I was so aggravated I just grabbed the two pieces left and headed back to the table.
I guess I didn’t take a picture of the second plate. Everything I had was very good, especially the mashed potatoes. The pizza was okay, not much better than a frozen pizza.

We still had a bit before our room would be ready so Caitlin and I headed off for dessert. She had some cookies and I grabbed a chocolate cake. It was a bit dry so I didn’t finish it. Caitlin wanted ice cream but they only had choc and strawberry so we decided to head to the self serve Eye Scream later that day.

We finished lunch around 1:10. I knew that they don’t let you in the rooms until 1:30 so I wanted to walk out to the pool deck and check it out. DH thought we should head to deck 9 in case they opened the rooms early. I repeated that we would not be able to get in until 1:30 but DH thought it might take 20 minutes to walk from floor 11 to 9 where our room was. Alright then. About 30 seconds later we arrived on deck 9 and sure enough the halls were blocked off and it stated that you would be able to get in at 1:30.

We hung out and looked at the deck plans. Finally it was 1:30 and they lowered the ropes. We headed to our room which was 9638. It was right on the line of midship/aft. I don’t really know starboard vs. whatever the other side is. We were on the right side. For some reason DH got to open the door and we checked out our room. The staterooms are very comfy and had plenty of room for the 3 of us. DH quickly made himself comfortable and watched some tv. Caitlin and I wanted to explore so we went off on our own. We agreed to meet up at 3 to check out the pool deck together.

Just a note: the time stamp is an hour off on all of my pictures. The time should be an hour later than what is on the picture.

 

[Lidian]

Not being knowledegable on cruises ... why the wait for the rooms?

Totally loving your TR so far! More please!

 

[pinkxray]

Not being knowledegable on cruises ... why the wait for the rooms?

Totally loving your TR so far! More please!

I believe the wait is just to give the attendants time to clean the rooms. The cruises are all back to back so the previous guests had just left that morning. I think they had to be vacated by 11am. I am sure some rooms are ready earlier but they must want to be fair and let everyone in together.

 

[pinkxray]

Caitlin always had to stop in every porthole that she could fit in.

That’s the Carnival Sensation in the background. Not a very pretty ship next to the Dream.

We stopped at the bathroom. I loved stopping in all the bathrooms to check them out. Most of them were very nice looking. There was one on the fourth floor near the district area that was very pretty but had a mirror above you. Why do you want a mirror above you when you are in toilet area?

We didn’t have much time before we got DH so we just decided to head to the kids club. They have open house in all the kids/tween/teen areas so that you can see them before the ship sales. We didn’t have time to get Caitlin’s bracelet in the terminal so we got it at the club. We took a quick walk through the rooms.

The kids club was amazing and Caitlin loved it. I wasn’t sure if she would think it was too babyish but she preferred it over the lab side.

We headed back to the room to find DH and our luggage had arrived. I quickly unpacked what we needed that night and took out our door decorations and FE to hang up. FE stands for fish extender. On the DCL sections there is a Disney cruise line meet thread. When you book your cruise you can find your date that you are traveling and join up with fellow travelers. Usually someone will start a FE group. It is basically a small gift exchange. You hang up a homemade or ebay bought FE over the hook by your door and come back to find cute surprises from others in your group. There is a FAQ thread on the cruise board and how to make your own FE.
I purchased our FE off Etsy. With most of the selling you can costumize the amounts of pockets, colors or have names/designs embroidered on the pockets. I chose the esty one b/c I wanted one without embroidery. I just got 2 pockets and kept the design simple. I didn’t want our names or Mickey heads so that I could hang it up at home. Please if we have another kid I don’t have to worry about their name not being on there.

Here is our door with all of the magnets I printed with disigns from the creative boards. Our FE had a black background but I taped a laminated Phineas and Ferb head to it.

Around 3 we headed up to the pool area. I grabbed a drink. I think it was a Bahama Mama which was half pina colada and half strawberry daiquiri. It was okay. It was a bit chilly throughout our cruise so the nice cold drinks could have used a bit of sunshine to go along with them.

Afterwards DH headed off on his own to explore while Caitlin and I attended the sail away party.

Afterwards we headed to guest services to drop off the pillowcase I purchased from ebay and a photomat to have signed by the characters.
We also took a few atrium pictures.

It was after 4 so we decided to head back to the room. We happened to walk by Remy getting ready for his meet and greet time so we waited a few minutes.

After meeting Remy we headed to our room to get ready for dinner. At some point we happened to run into Donna, who was our stateroom hostess. She was great and very nice.

 

[TinksThree]

Hey Girl! I am here!! I love the pictures you have so far!! Even if there isn't a thousand! You are totally hooking me on a Disney cruise!! The ship looks great!

 

[dizneeat]

Now, this is one report I would not want to miss!

Going back to read - can't believe I made it to page 1!

 

[amandaw]

Yay! Y'all made it back! I'm so excited - can't wait to hear all about it. Unless, y'all didn't like it - then I will feel terrible.

 

[pinkxray]

Hey Girl! I am here!! I love the pictures you have so far!! Even if there isn't a thousand! You are totally hooking me on a Disney cruise!! The ship looks great!

The ship was beautiful. I thought I remember you saying that you might be doing a Carnival cruise in the future. Do you have anything booked? DH wants to go on another cruise asap but he wants to try another cruise line. I was thinking maybe RCL or NCL but it is so overwhelming trying to choose.

Now, this is one report I would not want to miss!


Going back to read - can't believe I made it to page 1!

I just caught up and saw that you booked the Fantasy. I am so jealous. I really wanted to book onboard for 2013 but it was way too much for the 3 of us. It would have been over 6000 plus airfare and when DH saw that RCL was only 3000 he ruled out Disney for a few years. I am just happy that enjoyed himself.

Yay! Y'all made it back! I'm so excited - can't wait to hear all about it. Unless, y'all didn't like it - then I will feel terrible.

Yep, we managed to make it back without killing each other. DH was actually fantastic this time. He loved it. There were a few times I thought about throwing Caitlin right off our balcony though

Don't worry, we all loved it

 

[Lidian]

I believe the wait is just to give the attendants time to clean the rooms. The cruises are all back to back so the previous guests had just left that morning. I think they had to be vacated by 11am. I am sure some rooms are ready earlier but they must want to be fair and let everyone in together.

Oh ... I figured there would be at least a day for the Mousekeepers to tidy up the ship. Doesn't sound like much time ... I figured there would be lots of cleaning between sailings, and there would be a day or two dock-time for it. See how little I know about cruises?

 

[pinkxray]

I am trying to speed through this report quickly b/c I know soon the Disney blues will kick in and I will have to stay away from the boards a bit. I think I have time to finish off day 1.


We had the first dinner time of 5:45. I put in a request to have Animator’s Palette, Enchanted Garden and Royal Palace in that order and it was met.
I had read all of the menus on the DCL website and they were all correct for the most part. I planned on trying a few extra items but ended up not being super hungry since we had a filling lunch. DH also decided to be boring and ended up ordering almost the same entrees I did each night so I have half the pictures I would have.


We met our server Dumitri (I think that is how you spell it, I know it had a u where I thought there was an I) and Benjamin was our assistant server. They were both great and we never had to wait for food or drinks very long.

I started with the:
Golden Breeze
Vodka, Amaretto, Galliano, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice

DH also got a glass of wine. If you have ever seen my dining or trip reports you know that DH has the same eating habits of DD7 so this was a big deal. It was the first time he ever had wine so he asked the server to pick him something that went with his meal. He hated it and I think I ended up drinking it later. I was also shocked that DH never once ordered a burger off the childrens menu as an entrée.

Dh and I both had
• Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes
Pasta Purse filled with Truffle scented Cheese and coated with a delicate Champagne Sauce

Sooooo good!
I had the
• Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup
With Bacon Bits and Chives

While DH had a regular garden salad with ranch dressing

For our entrée DH and I both had
• Marinated Angus Beef Tenderloin
Carved to order on Wasabi Mashed Potatoes with Bok Choy and a Tamarind Barbecue Reduction

Caitlin did not like any of the appetizers so she just ordered a burger and fries.

For dessert Caitlin had vanilla ice cream.
DH had
• Cookies & Cream Sundae
Vanilla Ice Cream, Chocolate Wafer Cookies and Whipped Cream

I choose the
• Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake
With Whipped Cream and Raspberry Coulis

I loved all of the food here. I wish I had been able to sample a little bit more but just couldn’t eat anything else.
After dinner we headed to our room to find our navigator for the next day and a swan.

We also had some Fish Extender gifts waiting

Caitlin wanted to go to the kids club so we dropped her off. They had everyone drop off in the lab section for the first night. Caitlin wanted to be picked up in 30 minutes so we headed off to the port adventures desk. DH originally wanted to do the snorkel excursion at Atlanitis while DD and I did were at Aquaventure. He would do the dive at the ruins and meet us at Aquaventure but then he decided he didn’t want to split up so he had to go to the desk to change it.
While he took care of that I watch some little girls dance in there princess gowns around the piano. So cute!

Afterwards we checked out the stores and then headed up to get Caitlin. She was in the middle of playing a game so we waited towards the back until it was over. She seemed to be having fun so we offered to come back later but she wanted to leave. We headed back to the room and watched some tv before passing out.

Just a note in case you haven’t been on DCL. This has tons of recorded movies- all the animated Disney movies, Pixar movies, tons of regular Disney movies plus a few Hollywood features such as Green Latern and Transformers 3. They also had all 3 nightly shows available to watch which was good b/c I never made it to one.

 

[pinkxray]

Oh ... I figured there would be at least a day for the Mousekeepers to tidy up the ship. Doesn't sound like much time ... I figured there would be lots of cleaning between sailings, and there would be a day or two dock-time for it. See how little I know about cruises?

Nope, there is NO time in between. The 3 night cruises go Thurs-Sun and the 4 nights go Sun-Thurs. They try to get people off as early asap but they probably have some people who hang out until the last minute. There is a 1st and 2nd breakfast. Our was at 6:45am and the second was 8something. They want you to eat breakfast and get off! Okay, they put it a nicer way but there is no sleeping in all morning and having a nice relaxing morning.

 

[dizneeat]

Wow, that's a pretty long first day! It's amazing all of you got through it without a nap!

BTW ...... I love your door decorations! Decorated doors are the best. Easy to recognize and they show lots of "character".

Your food looks VERY familiar - having stayed on for 11 nights we kind of munched our way through all the menus!

I really enjoy reading along ...... even though it makes me VERY homesick for the Disney DREAM!

 

[amandaw]

Don't worry, we all loved it

Thank goodness! Now, I can breathe easy while I read your TR.

Sounds like y'all had a very productive first day. I love, love, love those black truffle pasta purseittes & really wish I had a huge bowl of them in front of me right now. Seeing your pictures makes me want to be back on the Mickey Boat! Can't wait to hear about what else y'all got to do.

 

[Lidian]

Nope, there is NO time in between. The 3 night cruises go Thurs-Sun and the 4 nights go Sun-Thurs. They try to get people off as early asap but they probably have some people who hang out until the last minute. There is a 1st and 2nd breakfast. Our was at 6:45am and the second was 8something. They want you to eat breakfast and get off! Okay, they put it a nicer way but there is no sleeping in all morning and having a nice relaxing morning.

I figured they'd "nicely" push you off the ship ... and then have all that day and the next to tidy up for guests. But good to know!

DH said there's NO WAY he'd get up for a 6:45am breakfast.