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

[iloverags2]

What a great first day you had! Enjoying your report and looking forward to reading more!

 

[Nermel9]

I'm surprised you ended up liking the cruise this much, you didn't seem very excited about it!

It all seems so complicated...if I ever go on one, I'm going to have to let you plan it for me.

The ship is so pretty!

 

[pinkxray]

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!

I tried to take a nap on the plane and on the bus but everytime I was about to fall asleep "MOM!!" Caitlin thought it was perfectly fine that Daddy took a nap on the plane but no sleep was aloud for me

I love decorated doors too. I didn't see very many though.

I would love to try everything on the menu. 3 nights is not enough to even make a dent in all that the Dream has to offer.

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.

I liked everything we had that night. They were by far the best appetizer we had all trip.

I wish we were able to stay up a few hours later to explore some more but I was wiped out by the end of the night. No more 3am wake up times on the first day for me.

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.

We never made it to the breakfast either. I was awake and ready in time but everyone else was still sleeping and I didn't want to go alone. I was also hoping to get to WPE in Downtown Disney for breakfast so I skipped it.

I forget what time we got off, maybe 8:30. Our stateroom host knocked on the door around 7am and asked if we were able to leave. I guess she assumed we would be at breakfast.

What a great first day you had! Enjoying your report and looking forward to reading more!

Thanks for joining in! It was a great day for the most part. The ship is amazing and there is just so much to do for everyone. I dont know what I was thinking picking the 3 night over the 4 night.

I'm surprised you ended up liking the cruise this much, you didn't seem very excited about it!

It all seems so complicated...if I ever go on one, I'm going to have to let you plan it for me.

The ship is so pretty!

I wasn't really excited the week before or so. I was super stressed b/c it did seem complicated and I was afraid something was going to go wrong. It ended up being very easy to do. I was in a bad mood when you sent me the text that morning since we ended up getting lost driving from the car rental place to Disney(we turned right out of the parking lot instead of left) I was in the middle of getting the lecture about my navigation skills.

You really need to go on one. You will love it! The water at Castaway Cay is just the most beautiful shade of blue I have ever seen.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Hi Diane!

It sounds like your cruise was off to a good start! I am enjoying seeing all your pictures of the Dream.

 

[AKL LOVER]

I'm in too! I really, really wanted to do a cruise in the spring (along with a few days at Disney), but they are all sold out for our dates. Who knew Disney cruises were THAT popular?? Boo. Guess it will have to wait.

Until then, I will just enjoy the Dream through you!

The FE stuff seems like a lot of fun--too cute! Also, does the kids club cost extra? How long can they stay for and how often? My kids would DIE to go there for hours on end. They love the kids club at the resorts. Listen to me...I sound like such a negligent parent!

 

[pinkxray]

Hi Diane!

It sounds like your cruise was off to a good start! I am enjoying seeing all your pictures of the Dream.

I haven't caught up on your report yet. I know you have been wanting to do a Med. cruise. Have you picked one yet?
We really want to do a 7 night eastern caribbean cruise but it would be way too much on DCL. We are leaning towards RCL since we saw one of the ships and it looked comparable to the Dream. However everyone I work with seems to go NCL. I checked out cruisecritic but it is so confusing. It is such hard work trying to plan a cruise.

It would be nice if DCL would announce where the Wonder and Magic will be in 2013 too. They are taking there sweet time on that.

I'm in too! I really, really wanted to do a cruise in the spring (along with a few days at Disney), but they are all sold out for our dates. Who knew Disney cruises were THAT popular?? Boo. Guess it will have to wait.

Until then, I will just enjoy the Dream through you!

The FE stuff seems like a lot of fun--too cute! Also, does the kids club cost extra? How long can they stay for and how often? My kids would DIE to go there for hours on end. They love the kids club at the resorts. Listen to me...I sound like such a negligent parent!

The FE was very fun and Caitlin really enjoyed coming back and having something waiting for her. We had a small group, I think 13 cabins so it wasn't too bad giving out the gifts.

I will have to check the navigator on the kids club times. I think they are open most of the day until maybe midnight? I know on Castaway Cay day they take them to the kids club on the island.

I really want to go on the Fantasy but the prices are just too much for right now. It would be over $6000 for the 3 of us to go in the summer of 2013 and that doesn't include any travel or excursions, just the actual cruise. RCL is about $3000 so we will probably give them a try next year.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I haven't caught up on your report yet. I know you have been wanting to do a Med. cruise. Have you picked one yet?
We really want to do a 7 night eastern caribbean cruise but it would be way too much on DCL. We are leaning towards RCL since we saw one of the ships and it looked comparable to the Dream. However everyone I work with seems to go NCL. I checked out cruisecritic but it is so confusing. It is such hard work trying to plan a cruise.

It would be nice if DCL would announce where the Wonder and Magic will be in 2013 too. They are taking there sweet time on that.

Nope, haven't picked one yet it is really hard! There are so many ports that I want to go to but no way to do them all. I am leaning towards booking with Celebrity but we have made no decisions yet. The 2013 summer Med itineraries aren't out yet anyways so we still have time. It would also be nice to know if the Magic will be in the Med that summer and if so what the itineraries will be. Disney probably won't release the "special" itineraries for the Magic and Wonder until the spring knowing my luck.

 

[KatMark]

Diane, it sounds like a long first day, but you all pulled through. Your meal looks absolutely delicious. I'm glad that Caitlin enjoyed the kids club. What a nice bag of goodies you got.

To answer your question about us not doing the cruise. The main reason I wanted to do the cruise was so I could do the dolphin swim. But after staying at AKL and falling in love, we've decided to spend the money to stay there for our 30th and go to Discovery Cove.

 

[Lidian]

Diane, it sounds like a long first day, but you all pulled through. Your meal looks absolutely delicious. I'm glad that Caitlin enjoyed the kids club. What a nice bag of goodies you got.

To answer your question about us not doing the cruise. The main reason I wanted to do the cruise was so I could do the dolphin swim. But after staying at AKL and falling in love, we've decided to spend the money to stay there for our 30th and go to Discovery Cove.

I can't find the "like" button.

 

[pinkxray]

Before I get to day 2, I thought I would mention two things that I forgot.

-At 4pm everyone on the ship had to make their way to deck four for the mandatory life boat drill. It was super quick and super simple. It was pretty much the same speel you get from the flight attendant before you fly.

-After we picked up Caitlin from the club, Caitlin and I handed out our FE gifts. We had 12 or so cabins to deliver so it went pretty quick. Most of the cabins were on deck6-9 and only one was on 2. We did the back half of the ship deck by deck, and then started on floor 2 for the front half and worked our way up. I thought it was a pretty good strategy.


It seems like now would be a good time to share what we gave for our FE gifts. It is up to you if you do a give per family, per person, just kids. I choose to do a gift for the adults and a separate gift for each kid. If we were to go on a weeklong with more cabins I would go much lighter since packing the bags took up almost a whole suitcase.

There is a Disney cruise line meet thread and you just find the thread for your sale date. Usually someone has started an FE list or you could volunteer. There is a homeade FE thread where people share homeade ideas, a FAQ, a make your own FE thread (I got mine on Etsy but ebay has nice ones too) and a favorite gift idea thread for ideas. It was fun but a lot of work, I was happy when they were finally packed in the suitcase. I would cut it back a bit next time and maybe do a cabin gift.

For the adults I made a magnet (I think all of the designs that have our cruise date were from Shadowryter except the itinerary photo which I think I got from Milliepie but adding the dates myself)

Every adult bag had a Halloween hand sanitizer from Bath and Body works (pretty much everyone except the little kids also got one but different designs)

I also gave every person in our group chapstick with a Disney Dream label. I ordered the lip balm and labels from Bulk Apothecary online and printed the designs on myself. I thought they turned our super cute. I had a hard time get the designs fitted on the labels right and Bulk Apothecary was nice enough to send me some more labels without having to pay the additional shipping charge. There customer service was great! I got vanilla or cherry for the females and regular (some might have ended up with vanilla since I didn’t open them) for the males.

I also used a Jordak the design (he is on the cruise magnet thread) and added a calendar file to make a large postcard for 2012. I was going to make it a magnet but decided to let people decide what to do with it on their own.

Adult FE-

I found pirate sandwich bags on clearance at Target for $.25 a few weeks before we left and used them for almost everyone except the little girls just b/c their gift didn’t fit.

Labels

We didn’t have any little boys. I think the youngest was 11? All the teen boys got

Pirate Playing Cards

(I forget who the stickers went to? Maybe anyone under 10)
Hand sanitizer- I tried to give them Zombie tonic and the others to the adults

They also got candy,gum, and lip balm

For all the girls I made necklaces. Little girls got characters, tween age got pirate, and older girls got Hidden Mickey designs

Most of the girls except the younger ones got Vampire Blood hand sanitizer. I thought it was cute since most girls seem to know Twilight. DD7 disagreed.

Older girls

There were only 3 or 4 other little girls besides Caitlin so I made them all photo albums.

Front and back
On the inside I put the itinerary

They also got candy and maybe stickers?
The photo albums didn’t fit in the pirate bags so I used princess lunch bags also in the Target $ section when school started.

 

[pinkxray]

Nope, haven't picked one yet it is really hard! There are so many ports that I want to go to but no way to do them all. I am leaning towards booking with Celebrity but we have made no decisions yet. The 2013 summer Med itineraries aren't out yet anyways so we still have time. It would also be nice to know if the Magic will be in the Med that summer and if so what the itineraries will be. Disney probably won't release the "special" itineraries for the Magic and Wonder until the spring knowing my luck.

I can't wait to hear where the Magic and Wonder are going. I would love to try one of the older ships.

Diane, it sounds like a long first day, but you all pulled through. Your meal looks absolutely delicious. I'm glad that Caitlin enjoyed the kids club. What a nice bag of goodies you got.

To answer your question about us not doing the cruise. The main reason I wanted to do the cruise was so I could do the dolphin swim. But after staying at AKL and falling in love, we've decided to spend the money to stay there for our 30th and go to Discovery Cove.

Your plan for AKL and Discovery Cove is awesome. That will be an amazing trip. I have no idea when we will be in Disney again since DH has been biten by the cruising bug (his words, not mine) but when we do we are staying at AKL. We only had 3 nights and that wasn't long enough.

You will love Discovery Cove. I can't wait to hear all about it since the opened a new area since we have been there.

I can't find the "like" button.

I must be the only person not on Facebook.

 

[jerseygirl74]

I Love Love Love your FE gifts!! It gave me some ideas for our cruise! Thanks

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Wow! You really went all out on the FE gifts, I bet everybody loved them.

 

[ansmom]

I'm just getting started on all this DCL stuff but loving your trip report and oh my gosh your FE gifts are awesome!

 

[Lidian]

Your little treat bags are just amazing! I'm sure everyone was tickled with them! How very thoughtful you were!

 

[pinkxray]

I Love Love Love your FE gifts!! It gave me some ideas for our cruise! Thanks

Wow! You really went all out on the FE gifts, I bet everybody loved them.

I'm just getting started on all this DCL stuff but loving your trip report and oh my gosh your FE gifts are awesome!

Your little treat bags are just amazing! I'm sure everyone was tickled with them! How very thoughtful you were!

Thanks everyone DH thought the whole idea was lame so it was hard to run ideas by anyone. I did go a bit overboard, but it I really wanted to make sure I got someone for everyone involved. Plus it helped Caitlin get into it a little by picking up items here or there for the cruise.

 

[Lidian]

Thanks everyone DH thought the whole idea was lame so it was hard to run ideas by anyone. I did go a bit overboard, but it I really wanted to make sure I got someone for everyone involved. Plus it helped Caitlin get into it a little by picking up items here or there for the cruise.

I think its just the nature of any DH to be indifferent to things like this.

I'm glad Caitlin enjoyed helping pick out items to add!

 

[pinkxray]

I think its just the nature of any DH to be indifferent to things like this.

I'm glad Caitlin enjoyed helping pick out items to add!

There has to be some DHs to love it right? While we were handing them out one guy happened to be opening his door and we got to give it right to him. Even he looked excited.

We also dropped of some for 2 girls and we passed them in the hall afterwards. I heard the little girl yell out "We got fish extenders! We got fish extenders!"

 

[pinkxray]

Day 2

I woke up bright and early on our first full day. When we were about to go to sleep the night before I accidentally unplugged the alarm clock and couldn’t get it to set. I don’t know why I didn’t just call for a wakeup call, but I figured I would wake up anyway. I kept one of the wave phones next to me that had the time and only managed to wake up about twice to check on the time. Finally around 6:30am I was awake and got up to get ready.

I looked outside and could see Nassau off in the distance. I took a quick shower and once I got out Dh was already up. We woke Caitlin up and headed upstairs to Cabanas buffet for breakfast. When you get to Cabanas from midship you can go right or left and the same food is on either side. What I didn’t realize until after breakfast was that once you go through the day you can go right or left again. To the right was the main buffet and to the left they had all the pastries and fruit. We went to the right so I never realized I could have had a chocolate croissant until we had already eaten. I thought the whole set up of Cabanas was a bit confusing, but then again I never had any clue if I was aft, forward or which side I was. I got better towards the end of the trip but I was constantly looking at the you are here dots on the ship map.

Caitlin’s plate

My plate- I wasn’t very impressed with the waffles or pancakes. They were a little worse than Chef Mickey’s that morning. The bacon and sausage were typical Disney buffet style. The eggs were HORRIBLE. DH and I both took one bite and that was it. The hash browns and asparagus were good.

I went for another plate and searched for chocolate croissants but couldn’t find any. I had another hash brown and more asparagus.

Caitlin didn’t like the pancakes either so I got her a Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt and milk.

I was a bit disappointed in breakfast that morning. As we were walking out I noticed that through the doorway there was more food. I took a quick peak and that was where all the pastries and fruit were. Darn it! I thought about grabbing one but since I was going to be spending the day in a bathing suit I skipped it.

We went back to our room to get our stuff ready and watch us pulling in.

The water after the ship turned around

Our destination for the day

Carnival Destiny- Much nicer than the Carnival Sensation that arrived later, but not as nice as the Dream

We booked the Altanis Aquaventure excursion through Disney and the meet time was 9:15 and we had to meet near the theater.
We headed down and caught the Princess meet and greet which was a 9am. I really hated the two times they had the Princesses out. This one wasn’t good for anyone leaving for Nassau and was at 2pm on the Castaway Cay day. Caitlin is teetering on liking the princesses anymore but she would have liked to meet them. I would have been quite sad if I had a little Princess who wanted to do the meet and greet. I would hate to have to cut into Castaway Cay time to come back to the ship.

We had to wait a little bit outside the theater for the Bahamian people to get onboard. Just a note: All of the shops are closed while you are in a port. We saw several people heading for the shops only to be turned away.
Once whoever needed to get there got there we were let into the theater. There are four things you need: Photo id if over 18, your ticket for the excursion (shows up in your room the night before), room key for everyone and a signed waiver. We were split into group and once everyone got there meal vouches and bracelets we were lead off the ship.

There are different ways to get into the waterpark. Book through Disney, book a room at Altanis (don’t know why you would do this since it would be $$$) or book a room at Comfort Suites. Orginally I was going to book a room at Comfort Suites since it would be cheaper. They have full access to the waterpark for cheaper but you have to rent a cab to and from the ship. It would have saved maybe $100 but I decided piece of mind was worth the $100 and stuck with Disney.
A guide led us to a shuttle which is an adventure. I was terrified of riding in the shuttle so I can’t imagine how it would be riding in a private cab. The traffic is crazy there. CRAZY!!!!
We arrived in one piece. Another guide lined us up and gave us all maps of Altanis. You are dropped off at the Coral Towers and it is a hike to get to the waterpark area. You have to go through the casino and the dig site aquarium area. Then you get to the waterpark which is HUGE. The whole Atlantis resort seemed like a maze to me.

to be contd

 

[pinkxray]

Side note: Caitlin had major attitude issues on this trip. My TR should have been called “Caitlin, you better enjoy this vacation b/c it will most likely be your last for a very, very long time.” I couldn’t even count the times both DH and I said this to her. She was constantly whining, not listening and getting very upset if she didn’t get her way. There were so moments that I really thought the trip would be ruined b/c of her. I admit that I spoil her a bit too much, but she took it to the absolute extreme this trip. DH and I have both agreed to crack down on her and if her attitude stays this way it will be adults only vacations for awhile.

Caitlin and I entered the restrooms to change. She went in one stall, I went in another. She was having an issue with the lock on her door so I told her to wait right outside my door until I was done. Of course she didn’t listen and went to hide in another area. I called her name about 3 times and finally she appeared. I was mad. I know she just turned 7 and shouldn’t be babied but we are in a huge resort with no way of knowing how to find each other in another country and she hides. For all I know some grabbed her and left. Finally the large stall opened and we went in together to get her dressed. As I am explaining to her in a very mad tone why it is not okay to hide from your parents she is getting dressed and just starts throwing her clothes at me. I might have raised me voice a bit which of course gets me the response of “you’re so mean, you are the meanest person on the planet” Yep, you are in the middle of the Bahamas on a Disney cruise and I am the meanest person on the planet. Deep breath.

Caitlin and I stomp out of the bathroom to where Dh was waiting. He remarked that he wished he had a camera to capture the misery on both of our faces. I told him what had happened and he gave Caitlin the warning that if she acted like that again we would bring her back to the ship and she would stay there by herself all day in the kids club.
I needed a break so I walked ahead while DH and DD bought some goggle since I had forgotten to pack their goggles.

The weather this trip wasn't that great. It was in the 70’s and no sun. It was very breezy that day too. It sucked but I was just happy that there was no rain; after all it could have been a lot worse.

Before this trip I measured Caitlin and she was exactly 48”. I was hoping we wouldn’t have any issues since all of the slides except the kids area are 48” and over. We walked up to the first set of slides.

The guy looks and Cailtin and pulls her aside to measure her. She is pretty much right at the line. He calls over his boss and she measures her. She has her take off her water shoes and busts out a measuring tape. Then she takes a credit card type card and holds it on her head. Except that she doesn’t go by the highest part of her head, she slants the card down the curve of her head so that the card is titled. Apparently now she is only 47” Whatever.

I decided to chill out a bit while DH tried another slide with Caitlin. They got measured again and she was allowed down. Now I have no problem with her no being aloud, but at least be consistent. The guy told DH that if he found a manager she could be measured and given a blue bracelet that should she was allowed to ride. We figured we would try that if needed.

Dh went on some other slide while I took Caitlin to a large pool.

Everything was going good for a bit. Then, Caitlin started to go into the deeper part that was above her head. I asked her to stay of the area above her head b/c I didn’t want to get wet above my waist right now. (I found out while getting dressed that the bikini top I had brought from Lands end had shifted. There is a little pad or lining on the bottom and it all shifted to the sides of the top which made me look very strange with it on. I ended up just using my regular bra under a rash guard but didn’t want to get it wet incase you could see through it, sorry for the tmi) She didn’t listen and stopped to go deeper. Really she would have been fine as I learned later when I saw her swimming with DH but it annoyed me that she wasn’t listening. I told her she has 2 more strikes. If she didn’t listen two more times we were getting out of the pool.

A couple minutes passed. I happen to have a bandaid on my foot that was falling off. I grabbed it before it could come off and I told Caitlin we were going to go around the pool. We were going to swim left b/c that is where the garbage can was. She wanted to swim right. 1 more strike Caitlin. We are going to swim left. She says no we should go right and proceeds to swim the opposite way. Deep breath. Get out of the pool right now.

We got out of the pool and waited for DH to return. We headed for the shark tank with the waterslides. We grabbed some tubes and went up. The guy who measured Caitln the first time saw her and said she wasn’t big enough. So we climbed down the million stairs with the tubes. DH found an attendant and asked him to call someone who could give her a blue band. A supervisior came over with a measuring tape. Apparently Caitlin was about 1/10 of an inch too short but he would let her ride anyway and gave her the blue band.

We walked up the stairs again. If you have not been to Altanis, the waterpark is huge. Huge, confusing and tons and tons of stairs. Non stop walking and climbing up stairs.

We were headed up to the serpent slide which takes you right under the shark tank.

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