Mike & Missy Plus Six-A 9/11/11 Dream Trip Report! Update-12/08-COMPLETE!!

[mousetravel]

Eventually, Mike came back and told me that they had actually sent him to Medical to have his sunburn looked at. The person he talked to there told him that he didn't need to be out in the sun at all, so he signed a form that would allow us to receive our money back.

That's great that they gave you a refund!

And I decided to go with the very yummy pizza:

I sure do wish I could have a few slices of that right now!!

Me too! Especially the room service pizza!!!!


While I was sad that we missed a day on the island, I really enjoyed such a relaxing day onboard. It really felt like an at sea day, and really those are my favorite days of all. Dustin enjoyed relaxing in the room and having some peace and quiet which he doesn't always get at home.

I agree! We spent a lot of time on the ship when we went to Nassau. After about an hour there shopping, we went back to the ship. I also enjoyed having that extra time on the ship!

Love all your pics!

 

[Pinkocto]

That was so nice that you were able to get your money back! but sorry that your guys' sunburns were so bad, that is pitzy Glad Dustin was in the same mindframe and not disappointed about the cancelled fishing. Did you guys talk about what happened at dinner, or was it just nicely forgotten? sorry to be nosey, I'm just hoping things weren't awkward the rest of the trip.

 

[iloverags2]

Oh, so sorry about the sunburn, but glad you were able to cancel the excursion with no problems and receive a refund for it. A day on the Dream is certainly a great back-up to CC and fishing! Not a bad swap of plans!

 

[jenseib]

I did laundry on the ship as well. but the room I went to was much smaller. That one looks great. I had a heck of a time figuring out how to use it. It actually charged me twice because my first swipe didn't make it work..of course the money part did. It was also a front loader...which I know nothing about. I had purex sheets and I think I just threw one in and hoped for the best...Is that how you do it? LOL! I had no clue how to fill the little drawer thing.

 

[Jennifer48]

So sorry about the sunburn. They are the worst! Seems that Dustin learned his lesson though about sunscreen, don'tcha think?

Your day does sound relaxing but I can't believe you missed CC!

How wonderful of Disney you get your money refunded for your excursion!

 

[firecracker725]

So sorry about your sunburn. I had quite a nasty one myself after propping my feet up on the dugout at a college baseball tournament. It landed me in the emergency room with blisters and swollen legs.

Thanks to that experience, I am an absolute expert on sunscreen. What kind were you using?

 

[JKSWonder]

Ick sunburn, I know it well.

I'm very fair skinned and burn very easily. Even when I apply and re-apply SPF 50 and above, I still get burned. I now always look for seating in the shade and I have to wear a hat if we are going to be out for a while (because I managed to get burned on the part in my hair every time!).

My husband and my children however, never burn. Of course, I still make them all wear suntan lotion, but there they are at the end of the trip, tan as can be whereas I am either red, pink or white!

 

[UGAFan0829]

That was so nice that you were able to get your money back! but sorry that your guys' sunburns were so bad, that is pitzy Glad Dustin was in the same mindframe and not disappointed about the cancelled fishing. Did you guys talk about what happened at dinner, or was it just nicely forgotten? sorry to be nosey, I'm just hoping things weren't awkward the rest of the trip.

Yes, it was nice. I wasn't sure if we would or not, so I was surprised that we did. No, we never talked about the incident at dinner. I think we both decided to let it go, though I really should have apologized.

Oh, so sorry about the sunburn, but glad you were able to cancel the excursion with no problems and receive a refund for it. A day on the Dream is certainly a great back-up to CC and fishing! Not a bad swap of plans!

We really enjoyed spending another day on the ship. I know some people think we were crazy not to have enjoyed the island, but this was the 3rd year in a row that we went on a cruise. For us, we mainly wanted to go on this cruise because it was the new ship, so I was glad that we got to see more of it that we normally would have.

I did laundry on the ship as well. but the room I went to was much smaller. That one looks great. I had a heck of a time figuring out how to use it. It actually charged me twice because my first swipe didn't make it work..of course the money part did. It was also a front loader...which I know nothing about. I had purex sheets and I think I just threw one in and hoped for the best...Is that how you do it? LOL! I had no clue how to fill the little drawer thing.

Yes, the laundry machines can be quite confusing. Like you said, sometimes it takes several swipes of your KTTW card before it will actually work. And to be honest about the little drawer things, we really weren't sure either...we just put the detergent in one and hoped that it would work...thankfully it did!

So sorry about the sunburn. They are the worst! Seems that Dustin learned his lesson though about sunscreen, don'tcha think?

Your day does sound relaxing but I can't believe you missed CC!

How wonderful of Disney you get your money refunded for your excursion!

Yes, I think he definitely learned his lesson. He can be a little hard headed like that at times, but I guess that's mostly the teenager in him!

I know it sounds bad that we missed CC, but it really was nice staying on the ship.

So sorry about your sunburn. I had quite a nasty one myself after propping my feet up on the dugout at a college baseball tournament. It landed me in the emergency room with blisters and swollen legs.

Thanks to that experience, I am an absolute expert on sunscreen. What kind were you using?

Oh no...a burn bad enough for the ER makes me hurt just thinking about it. No wonder you've become an expert! I actually used a couple different kinds...Coppertone 70 SPF for my neck, shoulders and back. I had one that was specifically for faces and then a little tube that I used to get my hairline and ears covered since they somehow don't get enough coverage with the liquid kind. It all worked well for the places that I did use it...no sunburn at all there...next time I just have to remember to use in on all exposed areas!

Ick sunburn, I know it well.

I'm very fair skinned and burn very easily. Even when I apply and re-apply SPF 50 and above, I still get burned. I now always look for seating in the shade and I have to wear a hat if we are going to be out for a while (because I managed to get burned on the part in my hair every time!).

My husband and my children however, never burn. Of course, I still make them all wear suntan lotion, but there they are at the end of the trip, tan as can be whereas I am either red, pink or white!

I'm very envious of your DH and kids! I've always wanted to be that way...but that wasn't the way that God intended! A hat definitely comes in handy when I don't have my hair pulled back, otherwise my part always gets burned and that can be pretty painful as well!

 

[UGAFan0829]

I wanted to start by apologizing for the lack of updates lately. Things have been a little busy in my part of the world and I've been meaning to get something posted, I just haven't had time between staying busy at work, planning and having Brandi's wedding shower, Christmas shopping, and trying to get our runs in at night, it's been tough. But either way, I'm back, and I plan to get this thing finished soon!! BTW, can y'all believe that Thanksgiving is next week??! We are actually having our get together with Mike's family on Sunday, so we're really looking forward to that!! And I'm not sure if I posted it here or not, but Brandi and Brandon have set a date for their wedding--January 28, 2012, which is right around the corner. And not only am I excited about that, but she also asked me to be a bridesmaid to which I very, very happily accepted! Ok, so enough blabbering--on with the show:

When I last left off Mike and I had just returned to the room from doing a load of laundry. When we made it back, Dustin had asked if we could get off the ship to get a quick pic of him in front of it. That had been his only request for the day, so I was happy to oblige.

We quickly went down to the gangway, made our way off and snapped these pics:

Within just a minute or so, we were already back onboard and heading back to the room!

Since Mike and I hadn't seen very many characters so far, and we knew everyone would be in their Pirate garb tonight, we decided to get ready for dinner and head out a little early so that we could stop and visit with a few of them.

Thankfully, we were ready in plenty of time, so we headed on out while we left Dustin to get himself ready since he didn't want to join us. Our first stop was to see Minnie!

Then, we headed down to the atrium where the Captain was waiting:

We also noticed that Tinker Bell was going to make an appearance, and since we still had plenty of time before dinner, we decided to jump in her line as well:

By the time that we'd seen Tink, it still wasn't quite time for dinner, but we also didn't have enough time to wait in another line, so we had a seat over by the Royal Palace which is where we were dining tonight. As we sat, we watched Peter Pan sneak up on Captain Hook which was quite comical!

They had a quick chase through the Lobby that got everyone's attention. It was very cute and left us laughing!

Before we knew it, the doors to the Royal Palace were opening and we made our way inside, but not before I got a shot of the floor:

We made our way inside and were seated at our table where I once again began snapping away at all the details:

Betram brought our Pirate Night menus:

Then made sure we looked as Piratey as possible!

Dustin decided to go with a different sort of head gear (This is one of my favorites of him, just because he was being silly and having a good time):

Before we knew it our appetizers were arriving! Mike and Dustin had the Pearls of the Caribbean, which they both enjoyed:

And I went with the Black Beard's Jumbo Crab Cakes that were pretty decent as well:

Continued in next post...

 

[UGAFan0829]

For soups--Dustin decided to skip this course and I honestly can't remember for sure what Mike and I had. I *think* he may have had the Caribbean Style Spicy Vegetable Gumbo Soup, but for some reason, the picture just doesn't look like that's what it was:

And I'm guessing that maybe I was adventerous and went with the Chilled-to the-Bone Honeydew Melon and Mango Soup:

I'm not a big melon person, so I really didn't care for this.

Next, was our main course of course! Mike and Dustin had the Captain Hook's Macadamia Dusted Mahi-Mahi (can you tell they both have the same taste in food since they ate a lot of the same thing during the trip):

I had the Treasure-of-the-Seas Grilled Shrimp and Seared Scallops.

Lastly, for dessert, I once again don't know what we have. The pictures I took don't seem to match the descriptions on the Pirate Night menu, so I'll just share the pics anyway:

Mike did decide to have a cup of coffee with whatever it was that he had, and of course, he made sure to drink it properly with the pinky out!

Dinner was pretty good tonight and the food seemed to have come a lot faster--we certainly didn't feel rushed, but there wasn't as much sitting and waiting for the food to be delivered as there was with previous nights. Before we left, Bertram made sure to tell us the best spot for seeing the fireworks, so we made a mental note and made sure to try and go there!

Once again, I can't remember the details here as to what we did after dinner. Since my next picture is of the towel animal in our room:

I assumed that we went back there, but I have no idea for what reason we did.

I do remember that since we had plenty of time before the Pirate Party that we decided to take another after dark stroll around the ship. But first, Mike had somewhere that he wanted to visit. So, we made our way up to the Vista Cafe where Mike picked up these beauties:

Our coffee was yummy and you just can't beat chocolate covered strawberries!! We loved the place and wished that we'd visited sooner!!

After enjoying our yummy drink, we wandered outside where we discovered yet another cool feature of the Dream after dark:

Mike and I were so enthralled with the underwater lights and thought it was SOOO cool! We just stood there and watched the water go by for several minutes before we started back on our journey. As we got back to one of the darker areas of the ship, I gazed at the moon reflecting on the water. I always love this sight, so I tried to take a picture, but it isn't nearly as beautiful as seeing it in person:

As we were walking, it was a bit windy and Mike and I were getting a kick out of the wind kicking up his bandana. I had to get a picture since it made him look like a cone head :

Next, we wondered back through the adult District, where I found this super-duper cool restroom!! I know, this shows how nerdy I am, but I had to take pictures to share with y'all...it was the coolest restroom ever! Check out the rounded, sliding, frosted doors:

And there were mirrors on the ceiling, that yes sadly, I had to get a picture of as well!

I have to say that the Dream has some of the best restrooms ever!! (By the way, thankfully there was no one else in there at the time...I had it all to myself--otherwise I probably wouldn't have been so snap happy!)

After I was finished looking like a weirdo taking pics of the restroom, we noticed that Stitch was about to be out for pics, and since he's one of my favorites, we had to go get in line!'

We then decided to stop in at Shutters to see what our pics from throughout the trip looked like. We decided to get the one of all of us from embarkation and the one of Mike and I on dress-up night.

Continued in next post...

 

[UGAFan0829]

As were making our way on through the ship, and into the shopping area, we came across Daisy! We've never gotten a picture with her and though she wasn't actually out for pictures, she was very kind and took a quick pic with Mike. (I guess she knew that he's one of Donald's #1 fans!)

We quickly ran back to the room to drop off our photo purchases before we headed up top to meet up with the rest of the clan in the spot that Bertram had recommended!

Even though we'd gotten there pretty close to time for the party to start, there was still plenty of room. I'm guessing that's because most everyone else was further down the deck where there was a clear view of the show. Our view was blocked by the tunnel, but that was okay with us, we mainly just wanted to see the fireworks. And it wasn't long before they began. Before the trip I kept saying that I was going to get a gorillapod to use for my fireworks pictures since it's really hard to get good shots, but I never got around to it. So, I didn't get very many decent pictures, but I'll still share what I did get:

As we were watching, we noticed another cruise ship floating out not too terribly far from us, so we knew they were out there watching OUR fireworks!! It made us want to yell, "Hey losers, get your own fireworks show!!"

After the show, we decided to pay the buffet a visit. On all our other cruises, we either didn't know about it or just never made it. So, we decided that we were going to try it for sure this time. I intended to take pictures of all the offerings, but that didn't happen as I was trying to decide on what to fill my plate with. I did get this one though:

I have to say, and this was the only time, that I was a little disappointed in the offerings. I guess it was mostly my fault as I'd imagined that there would be an endless amount of desserts and such available. And it wasn't that they didn't have lots, it's just that I'm so picky that I had a hard time finding anything that I'd eat. Either way, we enjoyed it, and I was glad that we'd finally made it there!

After enjoying what we did find, we decided that it was time to retire for the evening, which is what we did. After saying our goodnights to everyone, we headed back to the room to turn in for the night. Of course the night was still young for the two Dustin's and with the rest they'd gotten throughout the day, they still had plenty of energy left for another late night!

Up next: Palo Brunch!

 

[iloverags2]

Oh my gosh! I love those night time underwater lights...how cool!!!

 

[Jennifer48]

How wonderful being a bridesmaid for Brandi! I'm sure you'll have lots of fun!
Seriously, Thanksgiving next week! Where did the year go?!

Great character photos!

Those underwater lights are cool and that bathroom, neato! I hope I can find one on the Fantasy like that!

 

[Pinkocto]

That was a short engagement! What are the colors?

Love all the characters in costume, they are all so cute!!! So is all the food in the Vista Cafe free but you have to pay for the drinks? I know we'll be stopping by for some coffee.

 

[jenseib]

we totally missed the pirate buffet too. It was late, we had late dinner, and just never even thought about it.
How exciting to be in the wedding...My son will be turning 23 that day.

 

[mousetravel]

Great update & pics! And I knew you would love those round bathrooms!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Oh my gosh! I love those night time underwater lights...how cool!!!

We thought so too! Just another awesome Disney detail!

How wonderful being a bridesmaid for Brandi! I'm sure you'll have lots of fun!
Seriously, Thanksgiving next week! Where did the year go?!

Great character photos!

Those underwater lights are cool and that bathroom, neato! I hope I can find one on the Fantasy like that!

Well, Thanksgiving's come and gone..and here comes Christmas!! I'm with you--this year has flown right by!

I'm excited about being a Bridesmaid for Brandi!

I'm betting that the Fantasy will have some super cool areas!!

That was a short engagement! What are the colors?

Love all the characters in costume, they are all so cute!!! So is all the food in the Vista Cafe free but you have to pay for the drinks? I know we'll be stopping by for some coffee.

It is a short engagement, but they knew that's what they wanted before he ever popped the question. He already has a house, so they're pretty much ready. She's using Plum and Mercury for the colors. Our dresses are Plum, though we all each picked a different style. We ordered our dresses a couple months ago--one's come in and we're still waiting on mine and the Maid of Honor's. I'm hoping they hurry up and get here!

Yes, the food at Vista Cafe is free...you just help yourself to whatever's in the case and you do pay for the drinks.

we totally missed the pirate buffet too. It was late, we had late dinner, and just never even thought about it.
How exciting to be in the wedding...My son will be turning 23 that day.

It's easy to miss the Pirate buffet--this was our first time making it in 5 cruises!

Great update & pics! And I knew you would love those round bathrooms!

Yes, they were awesome!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Mike and I awoke on Wednesday morning without the help of an alarm or wake-up call. We slept very well the night before and felt very refreshed! Other than Palo Brunch we had no other real plans for the day, with one thing that we'd decided on the night before. After looking at the Navigator, we decided that we were going to hit up the Princess Gathering that was being held in the Atrium that morning. We'd seen a few characters throughout the cruise, but none of them were Princesses, and I really wanted to see my two favorites--Ariel and Tiana.

We decided to go ahead and get the day started with a shower. Since we had Palo Brunch booked for the early afternoon, we knew that we needed to skip breakfast in order to have lots of room for all the yummy lunch.

After getting dressed and being ready for our relaxing day at sea, we decided to head on out since we knew the line was more than likely going to be long for the Princesses. Before we left, we woke Dustin to let him know where we were going and asked what he wanted to do today. You can guess that he wanted to sleep a little longer before he decided!

Thankfully we made it to the Atrium before the line got too awful long, so I was glad that we decided to head up a little early. We did have to wait a little while, but we spent most of it chatting with a super nice lady who was behind us with her little girl. They were from Lake Charles, LA and were super nice to talk to.

Fortunately, it wasn't too much longer before it had finally become our turn! We made our way to each line and were able to meet each of them! Of course as always, some were a lot more fun to interact with than others!

I love this one of Mike and Relli chatting it up:

Aurora seemed a little shy:

And Tiana was outgoing as usual with her Southern charm!

My very favorite princess of all:

And of course we couldn't leave out Snow White:

They were so much fun and I was glad that we'd taken the time to meet them all, even if we did get a couple strange looks for being two adults standing in line to meet the characters. I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, but you get a lot more funny looks on the cruise if you don't have kids than in WDW. Maybe it's just me though...but either way, I don't really care...Mike and I are just big kids at heart and that's why we love Disney so much...it allows us to forget about being an adult and go back to our childhood when everything was worry and care-free!

By the time we were finished with our Royal meet and greets, it was time to head back to the cabin to change for brunch. I was really, really excited about going back since we had such a great experience on or Magic cruise in 2009! And Gayle and Allen were joining us as well, so I was hoping that they would enjoy it as well!

We met up with Gayle and Allen outside their room and made our way up to Palo together. We checked in right on time and were led right to our table, which was very nice. Our table was actually one step up from the rest of the tables, and we were able to sit where we had a perfect view out!

I don't remember our server's name, but she was WONDERFUL! Probably the best service we've ever had on any of the ships! She made us feel very comfortable and explained everything to Gayle and Allen. And within just a few minutes we were filling up our plates! This was Mike's first one, which doesn't look like much, but he was saving room for his beloved Chicken Parmigana!

As we were enjoying our first plate, our server came by and asked if we wanted anything from the kitchen! Of course we all said yes! Mike got what he's been waiting so long for:

And I ordered the mushroom flatbread/pizza that I'd enjoyed so much on our last visit here:

Both items were as good as we remembered! I don't recall what Gayle and Allen ordered, but I do remember that they both enjoyed it!

Before we headed for dessert, our server offered to take a picture of us, and you can see the great table that we had:

My dessert plate:

I just love how they present everything!
She then brought out an "Anniversary" plate for Mike and I, which I thought was really, really sweet! I didn't even realize they did this in Palo:

She then of course wanted to get a pic of the two of us which turned out to be one of my favorites:

She was such a wonderful server...very attentive and very friendly, so of course we made sure to document it on our comment card!

By the time our meal was over, we were all very satisfied and full to say the least! We stopped to take a pic by the stairs before Gayle and Allen went off to get into their pool gear:

It had turned out to be such a lovely morning so far, and we were excited to see what the rest of the day had in store for us!

Next up: Characters Galore!

 

[mousetravel]

They were so much fun and I was glad that we'd taken the time to meet them all, even if we did get a couple strange looks for being two adults standing in line to meet the characters. I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, but you get a lot more funny looks on the cruise if you don't have kids than in WDW. Maybe it's just me though...but either way, I don't really care...Mike and I are just big kids at heart and that's why we love Disney so much...it allows us to forget about being an adult and go back to our childhood when everything was worry and care-free!

Next up: Characters Galore!

That's the way I felt when I walked around the ship by myself without DD. I didn't care that I was an adult, alone, standing in line for the characters! I feel like being a kid sometimes too! Especially since I never went to Disney as a child.

Love this pic!!!

 

[iloverags2]

What an awesome morning...and how very cool you got the alcove table in Palo (as I refer to it as!). Great pictures with the princesses, and I agree...Tiana is always a treat to interact with on the ships. We have never noticed strange looks with just us two adults waiting for characters, but then again I'm usually oblivious to those around me!