June 26, 2011 5 Nights on the Disney Dream!!!!

[Tammyepolytinkfan]

Is anyone here a Platinum or Gold Catstaway Club member?

I thought the 105 day mark for Gold members was tomorrow, but the DCL website says March 13 (Sunday).

I am booked with Dreams Unlimited so I have to wait on the travel agent to let me know what is up.

All you gold and platinum members are lucky. I am not gold yet so I have to wait until March 28th to book my excursions/spa, etc. Hope the things my family wants to book doesn't fill up.

 

[CSwan1]

Here you go!

I called the Disney Cruise Travel Agent Line this morning and here is the info I found:

For 5 Night Cruises departing on a Sunday:
Night 1- Cruise Casual
Night 2- Dress Up Night
Night 3- Pirate Night- Special Menu
Night 4- Cruise Casual
Night 5- Cruise Casual- Special Menu (this is still a ? but a good possibility)

Dining Room Rotations (Restaurants repeat 1&5 2&3)
1- AP, EG, EG, RP, AP
2- RP, AP, AP, EG, RP
3- EG, RP, RP, AP, EG

 

[bombygriz]

THANK YOU!!!!

We're calling ASAP to request rotation 3-RP on formal night and AP only once (we've heard some negative food reviews and the menu just doesn't appeal to us).



EDIT: We've got it, and the person on the phone said that we would have to have a table for 4 to request this. Perfectly fine with us!

 

[PaceFamily]

Here are some questions you can answer in each post to get you up to 15:
*What are you looking most forward to on this cruise?
*Have you cruised before?
*Who is your favorite Disney character?
*What is your favorite ride at WDW?
Once you get to 15 posts, please PM me with:
*Your family's last name
*names and ages of everyone in your family
*Your stateroom number
*Your email address
Once I have this, I will email you a copy of the FE spreadsheet! Let em know if you need anything else!

This is our first cruise.

 

[PaceFamily]

Here are some questions you can answer in each post to get you up to 15:
*What are you looking most forward to on this cruise?
*Have you cruised before?
*Who is your favorite Disney character?
*What is your favorite ride at WDW?
Once you get to 15 posts, please PM me with:
*Your family's last name
*names and ages of everyone in your family
*Your stateroom number
*Your email address
Once I have this, I will email you a copy of the FE spreadsheet! Let em know if you need anything else!

DH is just looking forward to some down time. DW is looking forward to meeting some new people, relaxing and a break from the daily grind.

 

[PaceFamily]

As this is our first cruise, can anyone provide some reviews of the stuff for the kids? our DS (11) is very excited and wants to know some details. We have been watching all the videos on youtube (many at least twice) of what he might expect. He became very excited when he found out that one of the kids that he goes to school with will also be on the cruise.

 

[MrsScooby]

Okay, I guess I need to be up at midnight to book the the reservations I want. Hopefully, I am better at this than remembering to book my Radisson shuttle! I think we are the only ones not on the 10am shuttle!

I have been pretty lax on planning what and when we want to do. I usually have it all planned out. But, since we are doing a B2B I keep thinking we will just take whatever is available and work around it. I definelty want to book Palo dinner and brunch and we want to do the Dolphin swim in Nassau.

The Lanyards look great!!!

We did the dolphin swim in Nassau back in 2006 but booked directly with the company and not through DCL. At the time DCL was not offering the swim just the encounter. We had a great time. Maybe check to see if booking directly with the company is an option if you can't get the DCL one.

All you gold and platinum members are lucky. I am not gold yet so I have to wait until March 28th to book my excursions/spa, etc. Hope the things my family wants to book doesn't fill up.

I'm prepared to change things on embarktion day if needed
The wait list has worked for us in the past.

Here you go!

I called the Disney Cruise Travel Agent Line this morning and here is the info I found:

For 5 Night Cruises departing on a Sunday:
Night 1- Cruise Casual
Night 2- Dress Up Night
Night 3- Pirate Night- Special Menu
Night 4- Cruise Casual
Night 5- Cruise Casual- Special Menu (this is still a ? but a good possibility)

Dining Room Rotations (Restaurants repeat 1&5 2&3)
1- AP, EG, EG, RP, AP
2- RP, AP, AP, EG, RP
3- EG, RP, RP, AP, EG

Oh that helps alot!!!
Thanks! I had just assumed days 4 and 5 would be repeats.
I'm going for Remy dinner on day 3 then.
Anyone else?

As this is our first cruise, can anyone provide some reviews of the stuff for the kids? our DS (11) is very excited and wants to know some details. We have been watching all the videos on youtube (many at least twice) of what he might expect. He became very excited when he found out that one of the kids that he goes to school with will also be on the cruise.

My DS17 liked the trivia game they had back in 2006 when he was in the Lab. According to him he led his team to victory

Both my kids liked the Mickey 300 where they made a race car out of a potato and carrot and raced against other kids.

Not sure if they still have these activities or not.

Also, my DD14 and DH won at bingo in 2008 so that is a favorite activity now too.

Getting him to the Lab the first night helps as alot of kids are meeting then for the first time. That trivia game my DS played was an ice breaker activity the CMs planned for the first night.

 

[PaceFamily]

My DS17 liked the trivia game they had back in 2006 when he was in the Lab. According to him he led his team to victory

Both my kids liked the Mickey 300 where they made a race car out of a potato and carrot and raced against other kids.

Not sure if they still have these activities or not.

Also, my DD14 and DH won at bingo in 2008 so that is a favorite activity now too.

Getting him to the Lab the first night helps as alot of kids are meeting then for the first time. That trivia game my DS played was an ice breaker activity the CMs planned for the first night.

Thank you. I know that he has had some ideas of spending a lot of his time in the tween club. We would love to have some "family events".

 

[Tammyepolytinkfan]

This is our first cruise.

Hi, I need your first names for the Lanyards please.

 

[PaceFamily]

Hi, I need your first names for the Lanyards please.

Scott (DH)
Kim (DW)
Dylan (DS 11)

Thank you very much!!

 

[Tammyepolytinkfan]

Tinkerbellneyor, since you have not responed to my e-mails or PM's I thought I would post that you still owe your share for the lanyards $28. All the other Lanyard Team families paid their share Thank you. It was split between 6 families and the lanyards were ordered and arrived now the bill has come in and I am missing your share. Can you please PM me. If you changed your mind you should have let me know so I could have asked another family to chip in.

Please advise us as to what you decide to do.
I am sorry to post this on the board but since you do not respond to my many attempts to contact you by e-mail or private message I had no other choice.

 

[PaceFamily]

DH is just looking forward to some down time. DW is looking forward to meeting some new people, relaxing and a break from the daily grind.

I am sorry to have taken so long to respond but I had a massive amount of homework I had to finish by tonight. UGH!!! I can't wait for this vacation! LOL so... to continue working to get 15 posts... *Who is your favorite Disney character? I would have to lean towards the Toy Story crew, I guess Woody. I have too many things I like to have a "favorite" of anything. I like them all!

 

[PaceFamily]

*What is your favorite ride at WDW? I've only been to WDW once, last summer, but I think the Tower of Terror was my favorite. I was really nervous and was ONLY going on so my DS could. All three of us went and LOVED IT! My DH made an awesome video that included the picture that was taken during the ride. Priceless!

 

[PaceFamily]

You would think this would be easier. I guess I would like to ask all of you what has been your favorite category/deck to stay on during the cruise.

 

[PaceFamily]

For those that have participated in the dolphin swim, is it really worth the amount of money it costs? What all does it entail?

 

[We Love the Mouse!]

I got up at midnight and was able to book the dolphin swim and Palo without any problems. I only booked brunch because I want to go to dinner at Palo on the 2nd leg of our B2b.

 

[Tammyepolytinkfan]

You would think this would be easier. I guess I would like to ask all of you what has been your favorite category/deck to stay on during the cruise.

We have only been on the Wonder but the 2 different staterooms we stayed in were Cat8 Outside stateroom with large porthole. This was a really nice room for our family of 4. We also stayed in a Cat4 Deluxe Family Stateroom with Verandah. This was a splurge for our family back when my husband and I celebrated our 15th wedding Anniversary. It was very nice and the verandah was great but we were so busy on the cruise we hardly used it. So we save on cost now and for this cruise we have an inside stateroom. We might be a little cramped for space but we feel our family will be so busy on the cruise that we will only be in the room for sleeping.

 

[bombygriz]

You would think this would be easier. I guess I would like to ask all of you what has been your favorite category/deck to stay on during the cruise.

I would say that although the verandah wasn't used a lot on our first cruise, if I booked a long cruise (7 nights or more) I might spring for one of those. The porthole was also a good room, despite the fact that it would fog up sometimes in the morning and obviously you couldn't wipe it off

If I could choose a room on this cruise I would like the stateroom with a porthole that has a seat in it. Perfect place to read or watch the sunrise.

 

[MrsScooby]

Thank you. I know that he has had some ideas of spending a lot of his time in the tween club. We would love to have some "family events".

Forgot he would be in the tween club and not the Lab
I only know a little about the tween club and that is the one on the Magic. My DS was never in it as by the time they started it he was too old. My DD tried it in 2008 and was not crazy about it, but she managed to find fun things to do elsewhere on the ship
But the Dream looks like they have really gone all out with the tweens and teens this time. The Edge looks great!
I think for the tweens they can sign themselves out of the club so you might want to set some ground rules for your DS so you can easily find him if/when he decides to leave the club.
We make sure our DD leaves us messages in our cabin when she decides to change locations on the ship and to be back at the cabin in time to dress for dinner.

You would think this would be easier. I guess I would like to ask all of you what has been your favorite category/deck to stay on during the cruise.

We've stayed on decks 5,6, and 7 in the past and cats 11 (inside), 8 (port hole), and 6 (verandah).
We prefer the verandah rooms. For a cruise like the Panama Canal crossing they are so worth it because you can watch everything from your own cabin. We opted for a port hole room for our Baltic cruise to save some money and that was fine for that cruise.
We usually try to get a cabin in the aft of the ship as in the morning it is a quick run up the stairs to get breakfast from Topsiders/BBB and bring it back to the cabin. (Last time we brought a couple of those cardboard drink trays from McDonalds and it helped alot in bringing drinks back to the cabin. Plus we just threw them out in the garbage when the cruise ended.)
One of these days I want to try and get a suite

For those that have participated in the dolphin swim, is it really worth the amount of money it costs? What all does it entail?

For us, yes it was worth it. We even bought the video and the pics at the end. Not sure if I would buy the video again as the pics were enough on their own. Everyone in my family from my DH to my DD to my DS had an amzing time. My DH even thanked me for booking it as we were leaving We are all beaming in the pictures

It was back in 2006 when we did this and we booked directly through the company. I've found that it is usually cheaper to book with any excursion directly rather than booking through DCL. Some Dis friends of mine got me in the habit of doing this. Of course if DCL makes the stop in port so short that you have to worry about making it back to the ship in time-then your options are really limited to DCL excursions

 

[MrsScooby]

I got up at midnight and was able to book the dolphin swim and Palo without any problems. I only booked brunch because I want to go to dinner at Palo on the 2nd leg of our B2b.

Me too
So much nicer than past experiences

I think this is the first time I've ever gotten everything I wanted and without the website freezing up

We got Palo brunch at 11:00 am and Remy dinner the night before at 6:00. Not ideal timing but with only one sea day and trying new restaurants and the new show "Believe" it left few options for spacing things out.

We might try to change things on the ship anyway once we see our dining rotation and see if we get main dining from the wait list.

Did you do the online checkin yet? We are suppose to pick port arrival times at online checkin -but this wasn't an option at midnight. I was able to checkin online later when I woke up at 5:00 am. Not sure if we are required to show up at this time or can get in earlier