Just back Dream 6/25 cruise from Miami! First timer review! Questions?

[harleyquinn]

Hi everyone! We just returned home after our very first cruise, This was a 5 night out of Miami on the Dream. I would have been lost without this board, so I figured I would give a review and more information.

Sailing out of Miami was a breeze, but the airport is kind of a mess. We decided to save a little money and book an airport area hotel with a free shuttle, which was a nightmare. I highly suggest booking closer to the port and just ubering.

Some strange things: we had no dining entertainment (no pirate take over or character thingy). The Crush thing at Animators Palatte was super lame and now I really want to see the original. We had no semi-formal night. The app did show which characters were out and when.

Some things I was asked before the trip:
No hugs (back in July)
No official Pin trading
Cabanas was only open for the Pirate buffet. No other dinners.

We had 2600 on the ship. I found it to be comfortable except some peak times at Cabanas (we avoided the pools in the afternoon).

So this was my family’s very first cruise. The first couple of days were okay, but once we got into the groove, we really enjoyed ourselves. My family is myself, my husband and our 12 (13 next month) year old daughter. We like active vacations and are definitely don’t like sit around on the beach vacations.
We loved getting to see the kids clubs, but DD never went to Oceaneers at all. She did go to Edge the second night, because we had a tasting. She LOVED it and went back after dinner, but didn’t live there the rest of the cruise. She went another evening (we had another tasting) and had fun again, but we mainly stuck together and did family trivia, crafts, towel and napkin folding, ect. The crafts were lame, but that’s fine. We really enjoyed the trivia and folding classes. They also did have one session of Anyone Can Cook, which I was surprised to see, but it conflicted with something else.
I really wish they had a family version of the Art of the Ship tour. DD is an Artist and wants to be an animator/Imagineer. She kept pointing out the Art Deco touches.

Things did get a bit repetitive. And scheduling was sometimes odd. Things we wanted to do were scheduled during dinner or a big show.

None of us got sea sick, but we did take bonine the whole time and DH and I are feeling some sea legs right now.

The shows were fantastic (Golden Mickeys, Beauty and the Beast, and Believe). Food was fine. We always found something to eat. Our serving team and room host were fantastic.

We opted to just go to the Museum on Grand Cayman. It was cute and a nice break of AC on a hot day. We did a little shopping, saw the island rooster and chickens and went to the library (I’m a librarian ) It was a nice easy first port ever and we got back on the ship to eat lunch and ride the Aquaduck before the crowds returned.

We had three tastings. I booked all of them before the price increase and was charged the correct, lower price even though the app showed the higher price. We LOVED our Mixology tasting. The bartender was fantastic and stated that since the price went up, he increased the quality of the alcohol. I was VERY pleasantly drunk after that one. Martini was almost as good. The bartender gave everyone extras of just about every drink. Chocolate and liqueur was our least favorite. I expected a huge difference when pairing the drinks and I’m probably just too plebeian for that one. The bartender was also the least fun/funny though he did talk a lot of science that I actually understood because of Alton Brown on Good Eats. I was able to answer several questions he asked us.

Time to wrap this up!! DD was asking when are we going again by the end. This is the girl who we had to talk into the trip to start with. I got an AMAZING deal on this cruise, and I have to be honest, I would never pay full price. So no, we are not now die-hard cruisers, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves and would do it again under the right circumstances.

Please ask me anything!

 

[Clarkson U]

Hi everyone! We just returned home after our very first cruise, This was a 5 night out of Miami on the Dream. I would have been lost without this board, so I figured I would give a review and more information.

Sailing out of Miami was a breeze, but the airport is kind of a mess. We decided to save a little money and book an airport area hotel with a free shuttle, which was a nightmare. I highly suggest booking closer to the port and just ubering.

Some strange things: we had no dining entertainment (no pirate take over or character thingy). The Crush thing at Animators Palatte was super lame and now I really want to see the original. We had no semi-formal night. The app did show which characters were out and when.

Some things I was asked before the trip:
No hugs (back in July)
No official Pin trading
Cabanas was only open for the Pirate buffet. No other dinners.

We had 2600 on the ship. I found it to be comfortable except some peak times at Cabanas (we avoided the pools in the afternoon).

So this was my family’s very first cruise. The first couple of days were okay, but once we got into the groove, we really enjoyed ourselves. My family is myself, my husband and our 12 (13 next month) year old daughter. We like active vacations and are definitely don’t like sit around on the beach vacations.
We loved getting to see the kids clubs, but DD never went to Oceaneers at all. She did go to Edge the second night, because we had a tasting. She LOVED it and went back after dinner, but didn’t live there the rest of the cruise. She went another evening (we had another tasting) and had fun again, but we mainly stuck together and did family trivia, crafts, towel and napkin folding, ect. The crafts were lame, but that’s fine. We really enjoyed the trivia and folding classes. They also did have one session of Anyone Can Cook, which I was surprised to see, but it conflicted with something else.
I really wish they had a family version of the Art of the Ship tour. DD is an Artist and wants to be an animator/Imagineer. She kept pointing out the Art Deco touches.

Things did get a bit repetitive. And scheduling was sometimes odd. Things we wanted to do were scheduled during dinner or a big show.

None of us got sea sick, but we did take bonine the whole time and DH and I are feeling some sea legs right now.

The shows were fantastic (Golden Mickeys, Beauty and the Beast, and Believe). Food was fine. We always found something to eat. Our serving team and room host were fantastic.

We opted to just go to the Museum on Grand Cayman. It was cute and a nice break of AC on a hot day. We did a little shopping, saw the island rooster and chickens and went to the library (I’m a librarian ) It was a nice easy first port ever and we got back on the ship to eat lunch and ride the Aquaduck before the crowds returned.

We had three tastings. I booked all of them before the price increase and was charged the correct, lower price even though the app showed the higher price. We LOVED our Mixology tasting. The bartender was fantastic and stated that since the price went up, he increased the quality of the alcohol. I was VERY pleasantly drunk after that one. Martini was almost as good. The bartender gave everyone extras of just about every drink. Chocolate and liqueur was our least favorite. I expected a huge difference when pairing the drinks and I’m probably just too plebeian for that one. The bartender was also the least fun/funny though he did talk a lot of science that I actually understood because of Alton Brown on Good Eats. I was able to answer several questions he asked us.

Time to wrap this up!! DD was asking when are we going again by the end. This is the girl who we had to talk into the trip to start with. I got an AMAZING deal on this cruise, and I have to be honest, I would never pay full price. So no, we are not now die-hard cruisers, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves and would do it again under the right circumstances.

Please ask me anything!

Thank you for your reply. We are sailing in 20 days so glad to hear that hugs are coming back!

 

[Cruzin’Sisters]

Hi everyone! We just returned home after our very first cruise, This was a 5 night out of Miami on the Dream. I would have been lost without this board, so I figured I would give a review and more information.

Sailing out of Miami was a breeze, but the airport is kind of a mess. We decided to save a little money and book an airport area hotel with a free shuttle, which was a nightmare. I highly suggest booking closer to the port and just ubering.

Some strange things: we had no dining entertainment (no pirate take over or character thingy). The Crush thing at Animators Palatte was super lame and now I really want to see the original. We had no semi-formal night. The app did show which characters were out and when.

Some things I was asked before the trip:
No hugs (back in July)
No official Pin trading
Cabanas was only open for the Pirate buffet. No other dinners.

We had 2600 on the ship. I found it to be comfortable except some peak times at Cabanas (we avoided the pools in the afternoon).

So this was my family’s very first cruise. The first couple of days were okay, but once we got into the groove, we really enjoyed ourselves. My family is myself, my husband and our 12 (13 next month) year old daughter. We like active vacations and are definitely don’t like sit around on the beach vacations.
We loved getting to see the kids clubs, but DD never went to Oceaneers at all. She did go to Edge the second night, because we had a tasting. She LOVED it and went back after dinner, but didn’t live there the rest of the cruise. She went another evening (we had another tasting) and had fun again, but we mainly stuck together and did family trivia, crafts, towel and napkin folding, ect. The crafts were lame, but that’s fine. We really enjoyed the trivia and folding classes. They also did have one session of Anyone Can Cook, which I was surprised to see, but it conflicted with something else.
I really wish they had a family version of the Art of the Ship tour. DD is an Artist and wants to be an animator/Imagineer. She kept pointing out the Art Deco touches.

Things did get a bit repetitive. And scheduling was sometimes odd. Things we wanted to do were scheduled during dinner or a big show.

None of us got sea sick, but we did take bonine the whole time and DH and I are feeling some sea legs right now.

The shows were fantastic (Golden Mickeys, Beauty and the Beast, and Believe). Food was fine. We always found something to eat. Our serving team and room host were fantastic.

We opted to just go to the Museum on Grand Cayman. It was cute and a nice break of AC on a hot day. We did a little shopping, saw the island rooster and chickens and went to the library (I’m a librarian ) It was a nice easy first port ever and we got back on the ship to eat lunch and ride the Aquaduck before the crowds returned.

We had three tastings. I booked all of them before the price increase and was charged the correct, lower price even though the app showed the higher price. We LOVED our Mixology tasting. The bartender was fantastic and stated that since the price went up, he increased the quality of the alcohol. I was VERY pleasantly drunk after that one. Martini was almost as good. The bartender gave everyone extras of just about every drink. Chocolate and liqueur was our least favorite. I expected a huge difference when pairing the drinks and I’m probably just too plebeian for that one. The bartender was also the least fun/funny though he did talk a lot of science that I actually understood because of Alton Brown on Good Eats. I was able to answer several questions he asked us.

Time to wrap this up!! DD was asking when are we going again by the end. This is the girl who we had to talk into the trip to start with. I got an AMAZING deal on this cruise, and I have to be honest, I would never pay full price. So no, we are not now die-hard cruisers, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves and would do it again under the right circumstances.

Please ask me anything!

30 days out. Fingers crossed. Do you know what was the soonest one could start boarding the ship? Earliest PAT?
TIA

 

[dnadler10]

Glad you had a great trip. Could you tell us what's nights the live shows were on and what night pirate night was? We were booking spa and dinners and wanted to make sure they did not conflict.

Thanks

 

[Chipmunkmaniac]

Who did tell you about hugs being back in July? I just got off the Magic and there the character greeters were also saying they expect hugs to come back in July at the time of the inaugural wish sailing. I must say that during interaction distance was not existing and even got a few quick character 'touches' from their side but then it fell extra weird to stand on a dot for the pic. Looking back at my pics there are huge differences in distance depending o the character and the irony being that generally face characters stood closer than fur characters

 

[kps7795]

Hi everyone! We just returned home after our very first cruise, This was a 5 night out of Miami on the Dream. I would have been lost without this board, so I figured I would give a review and more information.

Sailing out of Miami was a breeze, but the airport is kind of a mess. We decided to save a little money and book an airport area hotel with a free shuttle, which was a nightmare. I highly suggest booking closer to the port and just ubering.

Some strange things: we had no dining entertainment (no pirate take over or character thingy). The Crush thing at Animators Palatte was super lame and now I really want to see the original. We had no semi-formal night. The app did show which characters were out and when.

Some things I was asked before the trip:
No hugs (back in July)
No official Pin trading
Cabanas was only open for the Pirate buffet. No other dinners.

We had 2600 on the ship. I found it to be comfortable except some peak times at Cabanas (we avoided the pools in the afternoon).

So this was my family’s very first cruise. The first couple of days were okay, but once we got into the groove, we really enjoyed ourselves. My family is myself, my husband and our 12 (13 next month) year old daughter. We like active vacations and are definitely don’t like sit around on the beach vacations.
We loved getting to see the kids clubs, but DD never went to Oceaneers at all. She did go to Edge the second night, because we had a tasting. She LOVED it and went back after dinner, but didn’t live there the rest of the cruise. She went another evening (we had another tasting) and had fun again, but we mainly stuck together and did family trivia, crafts, towel and napkin folding, ect. The crafts were lame, but that’s fine. We really enjoyed the trivia and folding classes. They also did have one session of Anyone Can Cook, which I was surprised to see, but it conflicted with something else.
I really wish they had a family version of the Art of the Ship tour. DD is an Artist and wants to be an animator/Imagineer. She kept pointing out the Art Deco touches.

Things did get a bit repetitive. And scheduling was sometimes odd. Things we wanted to do were scheduled during dinner or a big show.

None of us got sea sick, but we did take bonine the whole time and DH and I are feeling some sea legs right now.

The shows were fantastic (Golden Mickeys, Beauty and the Beast, and Believe). Food was fine. We always found something to eat. Our serving team and room host were fantastic.

We opted to just go to the Museum on Grand Cayman. It was cute and a nice break of AC on a hot day. We did a little shopping, saw the island rooster and chickens and went to the library (I’m a librarian ) It was a nice easy first port ever and we got back on the ship to eat lunch and ride the Aquaduck before the crowds returned.

We had three tastings. I booked all of them before the price increase and was charged the correct, lower price even though the app showed the higher price. We LOVED our Mixology tasting. The bartender was fantastic and stated that since the price went up, he increased the quality of the alcohol. I was VERY pleasantly drunk after that one. Martini was almost as good. The bartender gave everyone extras of just about every drink. Chocolate and liqueur was our least favorite. I expected a huge difference when pairing the drinks and I’m probably just too plebeian for that one. The bartender was also the least fun/funny though he did talk a lot of science that I actually understood because of Alton Brown on Good Eats. I was able to answer several questions he asked us.

Time to wrap this up!! DD was asking when are we going again by the end. This is the girl who we had to talk into the trip to start with. I got an AMAZING deal on this cruise, and I have to be honest, I would never pay full price. So no, we are not now die-hard cruisers, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves and would do it again under the right circumstances.

Please ask me anything!

Was the ice cream self serve or did you have a castmember provide you with the ice cream? We were on the Magic last week for a Greek Isles cruise (amazing!) and the ice cream was not self serve for us.

 

[harleyquinn]

30 days out. Fingers crossed. Do you know what was the soonest one could start boarding the ship? Earliest PAT?
TIA

I don’t know. Ours was 12:15. The earliest I saw in my Facebook group was 11.

Glad you had a great trip. Could you tell us what's nights the live shows were on and what night pirate night was? We were booking spa and dinners and wanted to make sure they did not conflict.

Thanks

Day 1: Golden Mickeys
Day 2: Pirate Night
Day 3: Magician
Day 4: Beauty and the Beast
Day 5: Believe

Who did tell you about hugs being back in July? I just got off the Magic and there the character greeters were also saying they expect hugs to come back in July at the time of the inaugural wish sailing. I must say that during interaction distance was not existing and even got a few quick character 'touches' from their side but then it fell extra weird to stand on a dot for the pic. Looking back at my pics there are huge differences in distance depending o the character and the irony being that generally face characters stood closer than fur characters

I’ve seen several reports here and 2 photographers told me on the ship.

Was the ice cream self serve or did you have a castmember provide you with the ice cream? We were on the Magic last week for a Greek Isles cruise (amazing!) and the ice cream was not self serve for us.

It was self serve. And we had strawberry and banana on Castaway and then on the ship later that day too. We ate a LOT of ice cream. Thank goodness they were small!

 

[dnadler10]

Thank you! One more question - do you know what times the dining on the pool deck (Flo's, etc) was open throughout the day?

 

[JM_97]

How was embarkation and debarkation in Miami?

 

[harleyquinn]

Thank you! One more question - do you know what times the dining on the pool deck (Flo's, etc) was open throughout the day?

Oh boy that’s a tough one. I believe they were open most days from 12-6. And then at least one bay was open at other times most days. We only ate there once. Sorry I can’t be of more help there!

How was embarkation and debarkation in Miami?

Easy peesy. I was so worried about this since it was one of the first out of Miami.

The Miami airport is gross and was a nightmare, but the port was super simple. It’s terminal C East. We took a Lyft from our airport hotel and it was about $20. We got there at about 12:10 (there was traffic due to an accident) and we almost literally walked right on. There were a lot of people waiting for there PAT inside in a location with minimal air conditioning, but they had come through almost the entire process to get there. I would not arrive more than 20 minutes or so before your PAT.
Debarkation was simple too. We had early dining, so we ate breakfast at 7, then waited maybe 15 minutes before our group was called. Dont wait in the floor 3 atrium. I don’t know why so many people did that. We went up to deck 4 and the couches were empty. We walked through, got our luggage and went through customs. Then we walked outside crossed over to the taxi area and got another Lyft for $20 back to the airport. There were a lot of transports that were charging around $10 per person, but our Lyft was there immediately. Let me know if you have any other questions there.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

So Glad you had a good time!

We keep seeing 35% off advertisements for DCL sailings from Miami. Might have to look a bit more at those. I love the Dream, Glad to hear it went well for you!

Its nice to hear that the Anyone can cook series is being offered again. For a while it only seemed like they had those on the 8+ day cruises. We are on the Magic in August. I'll keep an eye out and see if they have any!

I loved the beverage seminars but with the price increase... we'll only do one at the most per cruise. Question: Were the drinks you got full sized or were they smaller?

Thanks for your trip report!

 

[harleyquinn]

So Glad you had a good time!

We keep seeing 35% off advertisements for DCL sailings from Miami. Might have to look a bit more at those. I love the Dream, Glad to hear it went well for you!

Its nice to hear that the Anyone can cook series is being offered again. For a while it only seemed like they had those on the 8+ day cruises. We are on the Magic in August. I'll keep an eye out and see if they have any!

I loved the beverage seminars but with the price increase... we'll only do one at the most per cruise. Question: Were the drinks you got full sized or were they smaller?

Thanks for your trip report!

I would sail out of Miami again, but I’d fly into Fort Lauderdale.

The drinks are mini. Though one lucky gal got a VERY full sized martini during our martini tasting and we all got refills for several of those drinks. I thought the mixology drinks were generous (though small). Chocolate and liqueur were very small. I might pay the new price for mixology again, but definitely not C & L.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

We live in Orlando so its thankfully normally a drive for us. I always tell friends to Fly into FTL instead of Miami. Most of them take my advise. The ones that don't always take my advise the second time

Was C&L $38? I think its always been that price. I think they brought the others in line with this one.

It used to be that all the drinks in the classes were full pours of each drink (Like... Minimum 12 oz). Once the Seminars turned into "How drunk can we get" competitions is when they started using the smaller glasses and the value decreased. We have mixology booked for August. Depending on how that goes it might be our last. Time will tell.

 

[Cruzin’Sisters]

Hi everyone! We just returned home after our very first cruise, This was a 5 night out of Miami on the Dream. I would have been lost without this board, so I figured I would give a review and more information.

Sailing out of Miami was a breeze, but the airport is kind of a mess. We decided to save a little money and book an airport area hotel with a free shuttle, which was a nightmare. I highly suggest booking closer to the port and just ubering.

Some strange things: we had no dining entertainment (no pirate take over or character thingy). The Crush thing at Animators Palatte was super lame and now I really want to see the original. We had no semi-formal night. The app did show which characters were out and when.

Some things I was asked before the trip:
No hugs (back in July)
No official Pin trading
Cabanas was only open for the Pirate buffet. No other dinners.

We had 2600 on the ship. I found it to be comfortable except some peak times at Cabanas (we avoided the pools in the afternoon).

So this was my family’s very first cruise. The first couple of days were okay, but once we got into the groove, we really enjoyed ourselves. My family is myself, my husband and our 12 (13 next month) year old daughter. We like active vacations and are definitely don’t like sit around on the beach vacations.
We loved getting to see the kids clubs, but DD never went to Oceaneers at all. She did go to Edge the second night, because we had a tasting. She LOVED it and went back after dinner, but didn’t live there the rest of the cruise. She went another evening (we had another tasting) and had fun again, but we mainly stuck together and did family trivia, crafts, towel and napkin folding, ect. The crafts were lame, but that’s fine. We really enjoyed the trivia and folding classes. They also did have one session of Anyone Can Cook, which I was surprised to see, but it conflicted with something else.
I really wish they had a family version of the Art of the Ship tour. DD is an Artist and wants to be an animator/Imagineer. She kept pointing out the Art Deco touches.

Things did get a bit repetitive. And scheduling was sometimes odd. Things we wanted to do were scheduled during dinner or a big show.

None of us got sea sick, but we did take bonine the whole time and DH and I are feeling some sea legs right now.

The shows were fantastic (Golden Mickeys, Beauty and the Beast, and Believe). Food was fine. We always found something to eat. Our serving team and room host were fantastic.

We opted to just go to the Museum on Grand Cayman. It was cute and a nice break of AC on a hot day. We did a little shopping, saw the island rooster and chickens and went to the library (I’m a librarian ) It was a nice easy first port ever and we got back on the ship to eat lunch and ride the Aquaduck before the crowds returned.

We had three tastings. I booked all of them before the price increase and was charged the correct, lower price even though the app showed the higher price. We LOVED our Mixology tasting. The bartender was fantastic and stated that since the price went up, he increased the quality of the alcohol. I was VERY pleasantly drunk after that one. Martini was almost as good. The bartender gave everyone extras of just about every drink. Chocolate and liqueur was our least favorite. I expected a huge difference when pairing the drinks and I’m probably just too plebeian for that one. The bartender was also the least fun/funny though he did talk a lot of science that I actually understood because of Alton Brown on Good Eats. I was able to answer several questions he asked us.

Time to wrap this up!! DD was asking when are we going again by the end. This is the girl who we had to talk into the trip to start with. I got an AMAZING deal on this cruise, and I have to be honest, I would never pay full price. So no, we are not now die-hard cruisers, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves and would do it again under the right circumstances.

Please ask me anything!

What movies were playing????

Thanks!

 

[harleyquinn]

We live in Orlando so its thankfully normally a drive for us. I always tell friends to Fly into FTL instead of Miami. Most of them take my advise. The ones that don't always take my advise the second time

Was C&L $38? I think its always been that price. I think they brought the others in line with this one.

It used to be that all the drinks in the classes were full pours of each drink (Like... Minimum 12 oz). Once the Seminars turned into "How drunk can we get" competitions is when they started using the smaller glasses and the value decreased. We have mixology booked for August. Depending on how that goes it might be our last. Time will tell.

Nope. It’s over $50 now. We paid $37. I think it’s $54 now?

What movies were playing????

Thanks!

Lightyear, Turning Red, Dr. Strange, Sneakerella, and Rise are the big ones.

 

[Cruzin’Sisters]

Can you recall the soonest people were let onto the ship? Boarding group 1…

 

[harleyquinn]

Can you recall the soonest people were let onto the ship? Boarding group 1…

Sorry, I don’t know. Let me ask my FB group.

 

[harleyquinn]

Can you recall the soonest people were let onto the ship? Boarding group 1…

Boarding group 3 was at 11. Some were allowed in for testing at 10:30.

 

[NeverlandCrew]

Hooray for hugs! Hopefully pin trading will return in July as well

 

[Cheburashka]

None of us got sea sick, but we did take bonine the whole time and DH and I are feeling some sea legs right now.

Next time don't take Bonine unless you start to feel queasy. No need to medicate yourself if it's not necessary- most cruisers don't need it, especially on these little Bahamian/Caribbean cruises. And not taking it might keep you from feeling weird after the cruise is over.