July 5th Dream

[KristEn87]

I know what you meand -- The Poly bus leaves at 11:30

Well I guess on the plus side there hopefully won't be too long of a wait at the terminal.

 

[mikesz]

The ship looks beautiful.

We went on the first bus from MCO. The best thing was bumping into ppiew who told us about the sushi at cabanas ( DW thinks I am nuts for posting )

 

[Princess Bette]

We are back home safe and sound. Hope everyone had a wonderful cruise. Sorry I didn't get to meet everyone...I ran into Mary when I was delivering FE gifts. We stayed so busy...and so now I am very tired! I will post more later. Wanted to share our not so magically start to our cruise! More to come!

 

[Tequilamamacita]

Hi all!! We are home too! I would be happy to start a Facebook page for this group and our FE so we could share photos. THis being our first cruise and first Disney CRuise I was blown away!

 

[Princess Bette]

Hi all!! We are home too! I would be happy to start a Facebook page for this group and our FE so we could share photos. THis being our first cruise and first Disney CRuise I was blown away!

Glad you made it home safely! I would love to join the fb page if you start one - I am a big facebooker! Just send me the info!

 

[Princess Bette]

Hey gang! Just a few notes about our Dream cruise. We arrived at the terminal early and rec'd boarding number 4. I didn't think the wait inside the terminal was all that bad nor was it as crowded as I had imagined it would be. Once on board we went up to deck 11 to the pools and aquaduck! DS and DH rode the duck while I watched the carry-ons. Before long it was time to go to our staterooms. This is where the magic disappeared for us. Our stateroom had not been properly cleaned. There was feces on the toilet seat, candy, beads, and wrappers on the floor. Hair all on the floor of the bathrooms. We even wondered if the linens had been changed. DH made a few calls and people began appearing to help calm him down. We left them to clean the room again while we ate lunch. Upon our return, the beads, candy and paper were still on the floor. The toilet was clean and the floors in the bathrooms had less hair on them. So DH made another call to guest services. This time a manager of some sort appeared and assured us that it would be taken care of and that the hostess would be reprimanded. The next day while we were enjoying our cabana on CC, they thoroughly cleaned the room, even changing the DCL throw on the bed. We received a call each day from guest services to check on us. They also took care of the charge for our Palo brunch and sent a poster to our stateroom. We received several vouchers for free float/bike rentals but had these already with the cabana rental and the stingray package we booked. They told us to keep the vouchers for our next cruise since there wasn't a date on them. However, we didn't rebook while on board. After the fiasco in the stateroom the first day, I was so worried about the service we would be getting at dinner. I had read so many reports of bad service...I just knew we were in store for more of the same. However, we were pleasantly surprised with excellant servers - we had Rexson and Haggag - they were awesome! We had our drinks waiting on us at the table each night after the first. They were so quick also! We were often finished with dinner before some tables got there main course. On the last night, they sang happy birthday to me and gave me a chocolate cake and a birthday button. Our head server even came to our table each night as well to speak with us. So different than when we were on the Wonder. DS spent most of his time in the Oceaneers lab. He just loved that place! He even earned a special award for his oragami work - they had a certificate sent to our stateroom on the last evening. After I spent all that time and effort in making his autograph book, he didn't want to get any this time! He didn't have his pic made with any characters either. He is only 7 and way too young to have outgrown the magic already!! However, we did run into several characters here and there and he would hug them and talk to them. His favorite is Stitch and we saw them (Stitch and Lilo) on the 2nd CC day just off the ship. Oh which reminds me of another hiccup we had! As we were exiting the ship for CC on the 2nd stop, a crewmember accidently stuck his finger in DS eye - they whisked him up immediately and took him to "medical" - bypassing all the passengers waiting to be seen by the doctor. They took him straight back to a room and cleaned the eye (which was very red, hurting and watering) with a solution and cleaned the scratch on his lid as well. They came me a bottle of drops to use when it started to hurt again. Of course since this was their fault, so it was no charge to us. But this delay in exiting the ship caused us to be late for our stingray adventure...so if any of you had one at 10:00 on the 2nd CC day and saw a family of 3 coming in late...that was us and now you know why! Whew...I think that was enough drama for one cruise! Did anyone else have trouble with the TV only getting one station for a day or was it just our luck again?! Hope everyone else had a magical time on the Dream. We did enjoy watching POTC4 and Cars2!!

 

[KristEn87]

We're back as well! We arrived home last night and I'm already missing the Dream! I don't think I got the chance to meet any of you. I did put a lime green ribbon on my chair at CC and my sons stroller and bag, but I also think I was in the wrong area of the family beach.

Bette- sorry you had a bad experience with your stateroom...that sounds awful Do you feel as if they took care of the problem property in the end?


I hope everyone else had a wonderful time. This was truly one of the best vacations I have had in a long time and I could not stop watching my son as his little 19 month old self started to discover the magic! I've always loved Disney and never questioned why my parents kept bring us back, but now as a parent myself. I completely understand!

 

[marhs]

Bette, that sounds like a HORRIBLE start to the vacation! Ugh! Well, at least it got better!

We had a wonderful trip, and I"m sorry I didn't get to meet most of you! I ran into Mary a few times and Tiffany once as we were boarding, but never saw anyone else with green ribbons.

We had such a blast and already booked for the WOnder out of LA in February. Can't wait for that.

I'm thinking of doing a trip report, so I'll post the link on here if I do!
Hope you all made it home safely and are recovering from a great trip! So much laundry to do and the house is a disaster with suitcases open and STUFF everywhere. Ah well, atleast we had a wonderful trip. The cleanup can come slowly!

Marcy

 

[telephoneman66]

Just back from the Dream. Sorry to hear of your hiccups Bette. Ours were interesting too. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach resort before our cruise. We had spent the day at Typhoon Lagoon and rented a locker....Number 1313 !! Nothing bad went wrong right away.

We left Typhoon Lagoon for Magic Kingdom, we had the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party booked for crowd free fireworks viewing !! Worth every penny !!! Under $100 for 4 ppl. The all you could eat chocolate Strawberries.......

So we stayed for EMH after the fireworks and got back to the room at 2:30 AM. The lock is jammed. It worked the day before and earlier that day. The electronic key turns the light green, but the handle won't budge. I call the front desk from the phone in the ice machine room. They say they'll send someone right away. 45 minutes later and 2 more phone calls and someone shows up.

I told them to send someone with a metal key to unlock the room, of course....they didn't. The girl they sent freaks out and calls her manager. Runs off and comes back 15 minutes later with the metal key.

They change the entire lock assembly the next day while we're in the parks and voila, no more problems.

We get on the ship and guess what, my DD9 key won't open our door. Dud key. Luckily we caught that early and before she got locked out of our room at a bad time without an adult around. She thought it was cool she had her own key and could come and go as she pleased. I was glad I was following her down the hallway when she found out her key didn't work.

Our host: Luis did great with our room, but he seemed older and very experienced. He was telling several of the younger hosts what to do from time to time.

The resort issued us a $75 credit for our troubles with the room key.

It was a great trip.

 

[lgcountry]

We made it home about 11:00 pm last night. Thank goodness the trip home was the worst part.

SSR was great, and I will look forward to seeing the new Paddock Pool when the trees grow enough to provide some shade. July 3 fireworks from the Cali Grill absolutely awesome. Made a mistake with the shoes I wore, and had blisters on the top of my feet from the walk over from MK. Then went barefoot back to MK, and had little scratches and cuts on the bottom.

The cruise was great, even though we didn't do a lot we planned on, and went more for the relaxation route. Sorry I didn't get to meet any of you. We were on CC directly in front of the Sand Bar. I had a small green ribbon on the back of my chair. This turned out to be really nice, as there were about 40 loungers and 40 sand chairs, direct access to beach and bar, shade, and very close to bathroom and Cookies II. It stayed fairly empty until about 11.

I'll save the rest of the story for my trip report. I wasn't going to do one, but our trip started with a very special memory that I would like to share.

Lisa

 

[marhs]

I'll save the rest of the story for my trip report. I wasn't going to do one, but our trip started with a very special memory that I would like to share.

Lisa

Looking forward to reading it!!!

 

[jrbdad]

Looking forward to reading it!!!

I agree - pls post a link here.

We had a magical cruise. Got sooooo lucky and were able to upgrade from a Cat 4A to Concierge Level. OMG! It will be hard to go back. We were so spoiled. Even ended up getting a Family Cabana - sweet!!!!

Loved Remy & Palo. Our servers were fantastic . Our stateroom host was incredible!

We wanted to take the concierge staff home with us.

We booked two future cruises while onboard.

Oh yeah! We got last minute spots (3) for the fishing excursion. It was awesome.

Now I need a second job.

 

[Tequilamamacita]

OK I have started a FB group do a search. Disney Dream July5-10
I will leave it open for till the weekend and then set it as a closed group, so we can post more freely.
I am also going to do a trip report. JRbdad which cabana were you in? we were in 10 both days. Sweet.

 

[jrbdad]

We were in 12 on the second stop.

 

[marhs]

OK I have started a FB group do a search. Disney Dream July5-10
I will leave it open for till the weekend and then set it as a closed group, so we can post more freely.
I am also going to do a trip report. JRbdad which cabana were you in? we were in 10 both days. Sweet.

Mary, am I missing something? I searched it through facebook and a bunch of other Disney Dreams came up but not our July 5-10. Can you post a link?

 

[iansmom723]

I found it, don't put any spaces in the date -

We had a great time on the cruise as well, though we didn't get to meet any of you wonderful people! Booked again for January in the same cabin

We were home by 9:30 am, unpacked, did laundry and everything was put away by afternoon! I was ready for a quick trip up to Flo's V-8 Cafe for a snack; but alas, no cookies for me.

 

[marhs]

Found it, no spaces. Thanks!!!

 

[Tequilamamacita]

Maybe this will help
https://www.facebook.com/groups/225336674173516?ap=1

 

[luvavacation]

Hi all! Made it home at 9:00 pm last night, my house is a wreck, my outdoor plants are almost all dead (darn housesitter forgot to water them!!! ), the cats all lost weight, but my house is in one piece and so are we!

Had terrible storms leaving Florida and into Georgia on Sunday. Soaked through the car carrier, into all the luggage, and the clean clothing that I had washed on the cruise (saving me time at home!) is all wet and needing to be rewashed. At least my washing machine is working!

The dog was an angel the whole trip, we really enjoyed having her with us, and am thinking of certifying her as an "emotional therapy dog" so we can bring her on all our vacations. I saw the lady with her dog on the cruise, and kept thinking I needed my dog. And my cat. Emotional therapy dog and cat - I think I can make this work.

I have so much to write about, but I have to go return the rental van in a few minutes, so I thought I would just hit some highlights.

1. Mario Sliva - our Head Server. Oh my gosh, best one we have ever had!!! Loved him, the girls were IN love with him and his eyes, he was just fantastic. On our second night, we talked about our respective homelands, and it came up that we both are descended from European royalty, so he named me a fellow Blueblood, and treated us like we were still royalty. Truly a great experience with him.

2. Servers Balazs and Michal - great! Balazs was a little slow to warm up, almost shy, but when we started talking in Hungarian he really opened up, and by day two was much less hesitant with his interactions. His food recommendations were always spot-on for my DH, he just didn't seem to have the confidence right away that some of our other servers have had in the past. We did like him, though.
Michal, the assistant, he was such a cute-y, usually pretty good about drink refills and the like. He was a bit more outgoing and less hesitant with interactions, especially with our girls, than Balazs was, so the girls really enjoyed his service. He is leaving after the present cruise though and going to work for Disney in California, so we won't be seeing him again. Balazs hopes to make it to the Fantasy, so if we ever sail the Fantasy, we would have no hesitation is requesting him again.

3. Marie in Merchandising - tiny gal from my birthplace, Canada. She was such a sweetheart, and at the end of the cruise I gave her one of the boxes of chocolates I had saved for our stateroom host (we didn't care for him too much, so no gift for him). She gave me a "Magical Moment", and I will be writing a letter to DCL about her.

4. Stingray Swim at CC - eh. Not as good as we have done in the past (this was our third). We used to be able to feed the stingrays numerous times, this time only twice. The handlers doing the feeding/teaching for our group were not very friendly nor did they seem to enjoy what they were doing. Doubt we will do it again.

5. Stateroom host - eh. We have had better. He did his job, but he didn't do anything but his job, and even then, our tub was not cleaned everyday, cups never washed or brought in new ones - just left by the sink, asked for extra soaps (because no one likes to use the other person's soap, and we have always received extra soap when requested), left a tip for the extra soaps, received one extra soap. He said Disney doesn't like him going downstairs to get extra soaps for cabins. I thought the tip was supposed to cover it, but if Disney the parent company is being stingy with soap, I am disappointed.

6. Saw Believe, really liked it, Dh teared up, I shed a few, but still love Dream the best. Something about Tinkerbell flying over the ship at the end just gets to me in Dream.

7. Food - wow, portions shrank! Not that it is a problem ordering extra if you really like something, and there certainly was less waste than with previous cruise meals, but yup, portions were smaller. Would have liked a bigger piece of Tilapia, personally. Mario did keep the scallops coming, though!

Overall, I liked the Dream, but the Magic is still my favorite, probably because it was our first (we were on it during 9/11, so it really is a vivid cruise in our memories). I am sorry we never met up at the meeting spot, we were there but somehow missed everyone else. Still, we were very busy, not enough sleep at all, but many great memories to treasure.

Thanks for helping in the preparations, and perhaps we shall meet someday in the future!

 

[KristEn87]

Marcy

I did meet your parents a few times on the elevator and they were so nice! I think I them again at the airport, but was too shy to come and say hi.