Love Will Keep Us Together! A Feb. 2012 WDW & Disney Dream Cruise TR! UPDATED 4/10

[disneychic]

I am really enjoying your TR!! The girls are so adorable and I loved their BBB princess dresses and hair! I can't wait for my granddaughter to be old enough to treat her (she turns 1 yr old in a couple of weeks)!

Thanks for reading along! BBB was really cute. I was really impressed - they took a really good amount of time with each girl. I thought we would be rushed in and out, but we were in there a good hour or so. I'm sure you will have a great time when your granddaughter is able to experience BBB!

 

[disneychic]

After our DTD adventure we went back to AKL to get ready for dinner. We were going to 1900 PF tonight (first time for DH and myself). The girls were THRILLED that they were going to have dinner with Cinderella. When we sat down Victoria noticed there wasn’t enough seats for us AND Cinderella and asked the waitress for another chair. We then explained that she wasn’t going to actually EAT with us, just visit.

I love this one

While the girls LOVED 1900 PF I sure won’t be rushing back there anytime soon! The characters were great but the food…..not so much. Cold, and just OK. I wasn’t impressed at all. After dinner we stood around deciding if we should go to the MK or not since the next morning we were checking out of AKL and heading to the Disney Dream! My cousin and his wife said they’d better go back, get the girls in the bath (had to get all of that BBB glitter and gel out of their hair) and pack. So, my DH drove them back to the AKL and my mom and I took the monorail over to the MK. We were ½ way up Main St. USA, just starting to shop when my mom realized she didn’t have her cell phone. She was convinced she left it at 1900 PF. So she went to guest svc. To see if they would call over to the restaurant for her as I continued to shop. 15 minutes later my mom came back and said they would look at the end of the night, and then if they find the cell phone it would go to lost and found – not really good enough because we wouldn’t be around for too long tomorrow. So, I called my DH who had just dropped my cousin and his family off at AKL and he was about to park the van. So, he said he’d come pick us up at GF. My mom and I headed over to the monorail – which took FOREVER. By the time we got to GF my DH had already ran into the GF and inquired about the phone, he went in with a CM and looked for it, but didn’t find it. So, we headed back to the AKL where my mom went to her room to search for the cell……which was on the table. Crisis averted. It was only about 9:30 so I decided it was a good time to do our laundry.
Tomorrow morning…..we head out for our Disney Cruise on the Dream!

 

[disneychic]

Thursday, February 9th

Good Morning! We are leaving for the Disney Dream this morning! YES! We had a strict A.I.S. (A$$ In Seat) rule put into place for this morning! Everyone to be in the lobby, checked out with luggage and ready to go by 9:30. Since this was our 10th cruise I was able to check in on line quite early, and we received an arrival time for the port at 10:15. We loaded up (this was a bit tricky as there were 7 people who OVERPACKED) and were on our way. I loved when we crossed over the bridge and saw the Dream for the first time! My DH dropped all of us and our luggage off and went to park the car. We got through security, and up to the Castaway Club returning cruiser line and received boarding #3. I then took Victoria over to the kids club to get checked in (she was technically in our room – I booked using points, and they said that my cousin’s room could only fit 2 adult and 1 child, so our room had Victoria in it). Before we knew it, we were on board and on our way up to lunch! We had lunch at Cabana’s. Victoria was my lunch partner. The buffet is really good at Cabana’s. I can’t remember everything I tried, but I did have some pasta, chicken, salad….and some yummy chocolate chip cookies for dessert! It was still early when we finished lunch (state rooms weren’t ready yet) so we found a spot out by the family pool, deposited the husbands and carry on bags and went took the girls to explore! Of course we went to check out the kids clubs first. The girls loved playing in Pixie Hollow, checking out Andy’s room and then doing some arts and crafts at the open house. We stayed here for quite a while. The girls (all of us from my mom down to the 2 year old) were having a good time! Eventually, the state rooms were to be ready so we went back up to meet up with the guys so we could all check out our rooms. My cousin was in room 2525, my mom was also on deck 2 (? Can’t remember exact #) and we were supposed to be on deck 6 –don’t remember exactly which room because we upgraded at the port to 8010 which was a deluxe ocean view stateroom. LOVED our room! We went down to get Victoria for the muster drill (since she was technically in our room) and we were stationed in the WDT. This was quick and painless, after which we dropped Victoria back to her parents and decided to all meet up at the sail away party – which Victoria LOVED….as did I – It’s not a sail away party without my favorite cocktail – the Bon Voyage!

Sam gets some ice cream to celebrate at the sail away celebration

And so does Uncle Thomas….

Having my favorite cocktail!

Victoria having some fun at the sail away party

Dinner tonight was at Animators Palate. I thought the restaurant was nice, I do wish we would have been seated at a table where the girls could have seen the screen where Crush was and interacted with guests. What I thought was weird was the tables in front of the screen (all 3 of them) had adults only. Yet the surrounding tables by us were all kids. It would have been a bit more fun for the kids, and a bit more interesting for us to hear Crush interact with children instead of the adults (one of which was NOT into talking to Crush in the least). I had the mushroom risotto (which I knew I’d like because they serve this on the Magic and Wonder, and I’ve had it before), the endive salad, and the lemon/thyme marinated chicken breast for dinner (all were very good) I skipped dessert tonight – too stuffed to eat. BTW – my DH and my cousin – not really liking the smaller portions. DCL used to give very large portions but cut them back in the past few cruises DH and I have been on. I don’t mind but it. After dinner we were headed to the Golden Mickeys! The girls LOVED LOVED LOVED this show! I’ve seen it numerous times, but it was great to see the kids enjoying it so much. After the show, the girls said good night, while my DH, my mom and I checked out the shops, and then went up to get some tea and take a walk around the ship. It was a pretty long day, so we called it a night.

Next up….Nassau!

 

[gallmcduck]

Hi, I am late to your tr. Love all the pics, looks like everyone had a great time. BBB is a fav for my girls and they just adore feeling like a princess. I'll look forward to your dream section.

 

[WDWLove]

Glad to see you're up to the cruise part of your TR! I'll finally get to have a sail away drink on my Dream cruise! Can't wait! Looking forward to reading some more

 

[disneychic]

Hi, I am late to your tr. Love all the pics, looks like everyone had a great time. BBB is a fav for my girls and they just adore feeling like a princess. I'll look forward to your dream section.

Thanks for reading along! I loved the whole BBB experience. Hopefully my cousin will join us again next year and we can treat the girls to this again.

Glad to see you're up to the cruise part of your TR! I'll finally get to have a sail away drink on my Dream cruise! Can't wait! Looking forward to reading some more

Yep! I finally made it to the Dream portion of my TR! Stay tuned......

 

[disneychic]

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and spring break! Here is day 2 of our Disney Dream Cruise...

Friday, February 10th

I woke up feeling exhausted today – I guess all the running around WDW finally caught up with me. After breakfast at Cabana’s we met up with my mom who was laying out at the quiet cove pool. It was a bit overcast still, but it was nice and warm so I was hoping the sun would eventually burn through and it did. The adult pool area was very empty (I guess a lot of people went ashore to Nassau). I will say I agree with others who’ve already posted that the way they have the adult area situated is kinda weird – in that an elevator dumps people – families, kids, etc. off so they have to walk right through the adult area – therefore there were kids running around at all times. I’m not really thrilled with this as families who come through either don’t realize it’s adult only and set up camp and let their kids run around until someone tells them It’s a “no kid zone”. But there were a few who ignored it and the woman who was sitting behind us went and found a CM and asked them to inform that family, which they did. You would think Disney would have seen this one coming but I guess not? We were relaxing and I saw my cousin come through the doors – he had gone to the spa for a shave…funny that HE was the only one of us who visited the spa on this trip! He let us know that Danielle and the kids were at the open house (even though we had signed Victoria up for the kids program she didn’t want to stay without her sister, who was too young to be with her so they would just visit during the open house times) and that they would be coming up to the family pool in a little while. We let him know that we were going to stay where we were for the time being….relaxing too much to move. At 12:00 or so, he came back and said they were going to get lunch but I was apparently napping on my lounger and my mom and DH weren’t ready for lunch yet so we stayed put until 1:00. By the time we were ready for lunch we had gone over to see what my cousin and the kids were up to but couldn’t find them. We decided to have lunch at Royal Palace but I had a WICKED headache. As we were walking in to the restaurant we saw Mickey and Minnie! We were the only ones there so we were able to get a photo! Right about the time to order I decided to go our room to take something for my headache which was just so painful I couldn’t really eat. After I took some meds for my headache I decided to get out of the bathing suit (wasn’t going to sun bathe anymore today, especially with a headache) so I took a shower, got dressed and by this time my DH was back in the room and he decided to get showered/changed as well. I ended up meeting up with my mom at the Cove Café and by this time I was getting hungry so I ended up getting something to eat from Fillmore’s because Cabana’s and RP had stopped lunch service by now. I had a great turkey wrap and a salad –which were really good! My mom and DH decided they were going to the DVC member celebration. But I still had a slight headache, and I’ve gone to enough of those to know that my mom and DH would fill me in, and get me a new DVC baseball cap (they give these away to members). I let them know I was going to deck 4 to lay out on the teak loungers (this is a favorite thing to do for me on any Disney Cruise.). I actually fell asleep (this is NOT like me at all. I am NOT someone who naps – ever, unless I’m not feeling well) and my mom and DH came along and woke me up after the DVC presentation. By now it was after 4:00 they stayed with me for a little bit and then we went to get ready for dinner – which was at Enchanted Garden.
The empty quiet pool

Dinner here was OK (not my favorite) I had the Romaine Wedge, and I thought I ordered the marjoram chicken but ended up getting the “lighter fare” backed chicken which was bland but the service was SUPER SLOW and I just didn’t want to make a fuss. I will say, this was our 10th DCL cruise and my least favorite servers of any cruise. They barely spoke to us, the service was slow, we had to ask more than once for drink refills – usually I could excuse this kinda thing if the servers had fun personalities but not this group. They didn’t show any sign of personality until the last night when they got their tip envelopes. For dessert I got the same thing that as Victoria – strawberry shortcake from the kids menu. After dinner we all went to see Villains Tonight. Sam lasted about 2 minutes but was too scared to stay. So, my cousin took her out and the rest of us stayed to watch…..I must admit, I used to LOVE Hades when Hercules the Muse-ical used to play on the Wonder. That is still my all time favorite DCL show (too bad they nixed it in 2007 I think). But this show….not for me. My headache came back so I decided to just leave the theater (I was on the aisle so I don’t think I disturbed anyone). I noticed that the gift shops were pretty much empty so I decided that this was a great time to shop…..and purchase my DCL Dooney and matching wristlet. Happy Birthday to me (My birthday was a few weeks away). By now the theater was emptying out and I waited for my family to come out. We dropped my purchases in our room and I needed to get the pirate stuff that I had brought for the girls (bandanas, eye patches, hooks, etc.) and head up to the Pirates IN the Caribbean deck party. We all met up for the party and we all had a great time! Sam’s afraid of fireworks, so right before they went off my cousin and I took her inside and went to explore the ship a bit more. Once the pirate party was over, my DH and I met back up and wanted to check out the sports bar, and Pink since we hadn’t done that the night before. After a bit of exploring (we ended up in the art gallery and purchasing a David Doss to add to our collection) we called it a night.
Some photos from the Pirates party….

Next up…..Castaway Cay….will it rain? Will it storm? Will I EVER get to ride the Aquaduck? Stay tuned!

 

[disneychic]

Well, I woke up with another headache! This stinks – I don’t want a headache on Castaway Cay day! There was NO way I was missing CC day, so I took some meds and pushed through it. It was cloudy/overcast but warm enough out. We all met up for lunch at Enchanted Garden and then went ashore. The girls couldn’t wait to get onto the beach, and if you read my PTR, you know that I’d purchased a bunch of Disney princess beach toys for the girls (pails, shovels, and toys, beach balls, etc.) We hopped on the tram and settled on a spot on the family beach. We had a GREAT time on CC! There were a couple of quick passing showers, but the sun kept coming out – and they were very light showers. We got some tubes for the girls to float around in and built sandcastles – the standard “beach” activities. The girls were having a blast, and my cousin and his wife were also as in love with CC as we are. Even though I’ve been on 10 DCL cruises, CC always looks beautiful and new to me. Victoria heard us talking about what a great vacation this was, and started crying because she didn’t want it to end. Unfortunately, at around 12:30 or so my headache came screaming back and I just couldn’t be in the sun for much longer (we’d been on the beach since about 9:15). My DH, mom and I headed back to the ship while my cousin and his family decided to stay because the girls were having too much fun on the beach to leave. In case anyone here is curious about the weather on CC during mid-February – it was warm (maybe 80 degrees) and the water was a bit nippy – but not too cold that you didn’t want to go in. Back on the ship, we went to Cabana’s for lunch and then it was time to try the Aquaduck! I went first (I think my DH was having an ice cream and there was no way my mom was going on). I LOVED it! There was NO ONE there, barely any line at all. I came off and my DH was now ready to go, so we went together. By now there had been another passing shower….that brought HEAVY WINDS and cooler temperatures! I was freezing! I decided to go shower, get changed, PACK and then went to my favorite spot on deck 4 to relax.