Not cold but refreshing! - 4 nights on the Dream

[MommaoffherRocker]

My family and I just got off our latest Disney cruise and I am excited to be writing my first TR!!!

Here are the facts:

Ship: Disney Dream
Dates: Jan. 18 - 22, 2016
Itinerary: Nassau, Castaway Cay and a day at Sea
Rooms: 6666 & 6668 connecting deluxe family oceanviews


Our Crew: Melanie (Me/Mom), Mike (Dad), Liam (DS9), Nathan (DS6), Dylann (DD4), Lemon (DD2) Sam (DS 11 months), and Nancy (Grandmom)


Background: We live outside of Jacksonville, FL and Grandmom lives in VA. This was my 3rd Disney Cruise, and everyone else's (except Sam) 2nd. DH and I have also cruised on NCL, Royal and Carnival. This was our first Disney Cruise as a family! My mom and I took the kids on the Magic 2 years ago and I loved it so much DH and I went for our 10th anniversary in 2014 on the Dream.

Here are some pictures of us


DH and I at Pink Champagne Bar


Sam at Royal Palace


Grandmom and Dylann at Dinner


Nathan


Lemon and the only thing she would eat onboard Cookies!


liam being silly



Here is the breakdown of my report:

Day 1 Embarkation / Stateroom Review
Day 2 Nassau w/ Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
Day 3 Castaway Cay
Day 4 Sea Day including the Liquor & Chocolate tasting
Day 5 Debarkation and The Magic Kingdom



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[MommaoffherRocker]

Day 1
Embarkation / Stateroom Review


magnets I made for our stateroom doors

Happy Birthday Nathan!!!
Getting ready was a such a chore! I pushed off packing until the day before so by the time day 1 rolled around I was so ready to just be on board! Luckily we live about 2 hours away from the port so we just loaded up at 7 am and headed to Port Canaveral. We had to take 2 cars since there are so many of us. It was nice for the room but hard on the wallet when we had to park. We decided just to park at port since we have so many little ones it was easier to skip the step of parking at a hotel and be bussed over.

We arrived at 10am, our port arrival time was scheduled for 10:30 to 11. By the time we unloaded and then waited to go through security we were inside closer to 11. It seemed like there were so many people in the terminal I was worried that it would be forever to get checked in. The cast member directed us to the non-castaway club line since it would be faster. We waited maybe 10 mins and then we got checked in without a problem. We were given boarding group 3. We stood over to the side and about a half an hour later they started calling groups to board. Group 3 was called pretty quickly and the kids were so excited they practically ran onboard.

We headed straight up to the port adventures desk to get tickets for the Princess & Frozen meet n greets. They said they opened at 11:45 but they opened around 11:30. We sent the boys up to the buffet while the girls waited. We were the first to get tickets and we choose to see them on our day at sea. The times were for 9 & 9:15am, we were told on the day of they should have booked them 30mins apart but would honor them anyway if we were late to the 2nd one. I couldn't believe when I turned around how long the line was I was thankful I was first.

After getting the tickets we headed up to the buffet where the boys were waiting. The buffet was so crowded and overwhelming. It wasn't just one big line, you just walked up to what section you wanted and I found this so confusing because I could not tell where one line ended and the other began. I was so afraid I was line cutting that I just sat back down for awhile and let the crowd die down a little. The buffet itself was great, stone crab claws, pizza, chicken tenders, cookies etc.

Happy Birthday Nathan! Here he is at the buffet.


After everyone had more than their fill of food we headed over to the kids club. The kids got their bands and we went inside to look around. The highlight was the new Star Wars area. We are big Star Wars fans. We explored the club for a while and then I took the babies over to the nursery to check them in. All of the cast members in the nursery were so nice, they put my mind at ease with leaving the little ones. Then it was finally time to see our rooms!

Wow that was a lot of writing! I am going to break this day up into a couple posts! Hope you are enjoying this so far!​

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I'm signing on! Looks like you've had a good start so far!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

I'm signing on! Looks like you've had a good start so far!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

At 1:30 we were allowed into our rooms. Like I said we had rooms 6666 and 6668 they were connecting. We loved our room location. They were by the aft elevators. We were 5 floors under Cabanas buffet so it was just a short ride up in the mornings. They were also a floor above the kids club so we could run down the steps to drop off or pick up the kids. I also never had a problem with noise or vibration. Grandmom did say she was woken up the last morning by the vibration and lights when we were docking but no one else noticed. Here are some of the pictures from the room. We surprised Nathan with birthday decorations in our room and for grandmom we did Frozen.






and Frozen:

I loved the birthday decoration but I was a little disappointed that the Frozen package didn't come with as much as the birthday package but was still the same price. The kids were thrilled with all of it and that is all that matters right?!

The kids also loved the huge port holes that had seats in them. They also enjoyed waving to the crew when they came by to wash them.

Our room stewardess was super nice, she always made sure our room was clean and stocked with everything we could possible need, including a diaper genie which I did not know they had! I am horrible with names I should write them down so I can give recommendations, most all of the cast member we came across were super friendly and were great with our kids!

Our room, 6666, besides the regular bed had a couch that was made into a bed and a murphy bed that came down out of the wall and rested on the floor. We didn't use the murphy bed because we got a pack and play for the baby. The other room had a couch bed, a bunk that came out of the ceiling and a murphy bed beside the regular bed. The murphy bed and bunk were the hit of the cruise and the kids would fight over them every night.

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[flvy]

That birthday package is insane! I need some of that disney magic in my life.

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Hopefully this post will finish out Day 1
After we spent sometime in the rooms it was time for the safety drill. It was quick and to the point, we were thankful because the kids started to get a bit squirrelly. We decided to head up to Cabanas to get a drink and watch the ship leave port. There was hardly anyone in Cabanas, I think everyone headed to the sail away party. Crowds are not our thing so it was perfect for us. It was also a great time to try Vanellope's.
Everything in there is extra but it was all reasonably priced. I got the mickey cookie in the picture, it was actual 2 mickey chocolate chip cookies with icing in between and it was $2. The cookie was a bit bland. I thought I would make it back to sample other goodies but we ran out of time. I wanted to do the ice cream in the trophy for the whole family but I guess that will have to wait until next time. The kids loved their treats and gobbled them all down. Later on in the week Grandmom and Liam got gelato there and loved it. The gelato was $3 a scoop.

An interesting thing we saw when leaving Port Canaveral was the landing pad for when they try to land the rocket ships. DH's company does some work with it so he was super excited.


After leaving port we went back to the room and got ready for dinner. Our first dinner was at the Royal Palace restaurant. This one is princess themed. Dylann and Lemon were so tired from the day's excitement they fell asleep waiting for dinner. Our waiters were very nice but they weren't entertaining like the waiters we had on the Magic. The kids found the dinners boring but I enjoyed them. At Royal Palace I had the Imperial Illusion to drink

I had the onion soup and Chateaubriand-Roasted Filet Steak. The food was excellent. Everything was cooked perfect. For dessert we had ordered a birthday cake for Nathan before hand. I thought the cake was good too I know some reviews said they were bad but ours was very tasty and huge!

It was a big production with singing and everything but Nathan was not impressed! After the kids were finished with their cake I ran the older ones upstairs to the kids club. The dining room wrapped up the cake and the dinner the kids did not eat and we took it all back to our room. Then we dropped the babies off at the nursery and headed to the theater for the show. The show that night was the Golden Mickeys. The shows are always so good and that is one reason we love DCL. On all the other cruise lines we have been on we never did any of the shows, they just didn't appeal to us or we didn't know they had any. After the show we picked up all the kids and headed back to the rooms for the night. We let the kids watch a Disney movie and fall asleep. That is another plus for DCL they have so many Disney movies on demand in your room!

I wanted to add an interesting fact about the nursery, I prebooked spaces for Sam for showtime each night. I did not book Lemon. I wasn't sure if she would like to see the shows or not. She ended up wanting to go to the nursery so we just walked in and they always had room for her. So they charged Sam for all of the time I booked for him even if I did not use it all but for her they only charged for the actual time she used. I thought on the last cruise if I picked them up early they didn't charge for that time but I guess they have changed that or it was different on different ships. They also did not give me a discount on the 2nd child like they were suppose to. It wasn't a big deal and I just let it go because I didn't want to stand in line to get it fixed my last night since it was under $10. Ok end of my nursery rant.

That is the end of day 1! Stay tuned for Day 2 in Nassau. Dylann did the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and Grandmom and Liam did an Atlantis excursion!


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[lillygator]

Vanellopes looks great!

 

[Deanna Lynne]

Hi Melanie, loving your TR so far! I live in Jacksonville and am leaving on the Dream this Friday for the 3 night. Curious as to how the weather was down there for y'all? I have been toward the end of February before but never this early in the year. Was the water freezing at Castaway Cay? Excited to hear more about your cruise!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Hi Melanie, loving your TR so far! I live in Jacksonville and am leaving on the Dream this Friday for the 3 night. Curious as to how the weather was down there for y'all? I have been toward the end of February before but never this early in the year. Was the water freezing at Castaway Cay? Excited to hear more about your cruise!

Glad your enjoying it! The water was pretty cold at castaway, it didn't bother the kids while they were swimming but I didn't get any further in than knee deep. When they got out they were freezing so I would recommend lots of towels on hand to wrap up in. After drying off they were fine again. It was in the low 70s on castaway and Nassau. Every time we mentioned it being cold the cast members would say not cold but refreshing, lol. Even with it being refreshing everyone still had a blast and we can't wait to do it again!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Day 2

Nassau

Our first full day on the ship! DH, Sam and I woke up and made our way to the buffet around 8:30 for breakfast since everyone else was still asleep. I loaded up on yummy Mickey waffles of course and bacon! I'm not an adventurous breakfast eater give me bacon and I am happy. The food again was fresh and delicious. We then loaded up plates of food for the kids that were with grandmom and headed back to the room. Dylann had a 10am appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique so we got her ready and headed over. Here she is before

She was so delighted to do this and told us later it was her favorite part of the vacation. Her fairy godmother in training was Valentina from Italy. She was wonderful! She made Dylann feel right at home.

Dylann choose the Elsa dress with the Disney Diva hair in pink. She also got an Elsa tiara and wand. I really wanted her to do the Elsa braid with the Elsa dress but it was a losing battle. LOL, In the end she wore the hair the entire cruise so I am glad she choose something she really liked. Here she is all made over

I took pictures of the "menu" for the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique if anyone is interested I can post them otherwise I won't bore you with them
After Dylann was done it was time for grandmom and Liam to leave for their excursion to Atlantis (Discover Atlantis Tour). They met their group in one of the lounges and were taken over to Atlantis by taxi. Grandmom said the driver was very informative. We paid around $40 for Liam to go and grandmom paid about $60. They were allowed to walk through the outer ring which was like an aquarium. Grandmom has always wanted to visit Atlantis and she said it was nice and clean but old. They ate lunch there and told me it was expensive but the portions were huge. Her conclusion was she was glad she went but didn't feel like it would be worth it to ever go back. While they were exploring Atlantis, DH and I took Sam and Lemon into Nassau to go shopping. We left Nathan and Dylann in the kid's club. We let the counselors know we would be gone for a few hours and they said that was fine just let them know when we return. We have been to Nassau a handful of times in the past so we knew exactly what we were looking for... RUM. Since rum is heavy we decided to get that last. Our first stop was the linen store for a gift for DH's mom. They have the prettiest table cloths in there. This time around we ended up getting her a rug and lemon got a stuffed animal dolphin. Then we headed over to Cariloha's for some workout clothes. They have the softest clothes/sheets etc made from bamboo. We then got some color changing gifts for some family back home from Del Sol. Next we went to Effy jewelers and got the free necklaces for the girls with our coupons from the ship. Gotta love free! Then we went to the rum store I believe the name is Bay Street Station. It is our favorite store in Nassau. They have all kinds of Guy Harvey shirts, rugs & purses, but we go there for the rum and vanilla. They sell John Watlings Rum. This rum is made in the Bahamas and you can only get it in the Bahamas. I love making rum cake with the amber rum. The Distillery is actually in Nassau and you can do a tour. We did that last cruise (while I was pregnant, go figure), It was really neat to see and the best part was it was free!

Once we were back on board we picked up Dylann and Nathan and went to our room to be spoiled by room service! Stay tuned to see what we ordered


I almost forgot if you're ever on the Dream be sure to keep an eye out for pepe's (the shrimp/king prawn from the muppets) door it was one of the highlights of the kid's cruise


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[cheermom2four]

I would love to see the BBB menu if you can post it! Great TR so far !

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

I would love to see the BBB menu if you can post it! Great TR so far !

Here are the pictures, I tried to keep the size big enough so you can see the details. Let me know if you have any questions

 

[MariaJ]

Loving your trip report, thank you so much for taking the time to write with three children! I can't believe her hair lasted the whole trip, wow!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Loving your trip report, thank you so much for taking the time to write with three children! I can't believe her hair lasted the whole trip, wow!

Thanks! We actually have 5 kiddos! I know it gets confusing with all the DS and DDs I was delightfully surprised her hair lasted too! It makes the price a little easier to swallow knowing she could enjoy it for so long.

 

[crichardson11]

Do you remember what the options were like to get tickets for the Princess & Frozen meet n greets? I see you chose your at sea day for 9:00 & 9:15. How many sessions were being offered? I was just reviewing some navigators for the 4 night Dream cruises and didn't see them listed on there. I'm assuming they took them off the navigators because they're ticketed events now?

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Do you remember what the options were like to get tickets for the Princess & Frozen meet n greets? I see you chose your at sea day for 9:00 & 9:15. How many sessions were being offered? I was just reviewing some navigators for the 4 night Dream cruises and didn't see them listed on there. I'm assuming they took them off the navigators because they're ticketed events now?

When we got our tickets they were going to give us tickets for the day we were in Nassau at 9 & 9:15 but then when he saw that we were doing BBB at 10 he thought that would be too much for us and then automatically went to our day at sea. I am not sure if they have it more often than that but they at least have tickets for those 2 days. The princesses also had times when they were out alone. We saw Belle in her blue dress later on in the day on the sea day. I am going back over my Navigators now so if I see something different I will let you know.

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Aahhh room service, if only real life was that easy! Our first room service meal consisted of a fruit bowl, chicken tenders, a grilled cheese, an uncrustable, 2 chocolate chip cookies, a coke and 3 Mickey Ice cream bars! We were in heaven. I love that it is all included (except the coke and tip). Nathan decided he was disappointed he didn't get to go shopping so he asked me if I could take him into Nassau to let him pick something out. I had wanted to go to the straw market anyways so I said ok. As we were getting off the ship we ran into Grandmom and Liam coming back from their excursion. They were tired so they decided to go relax in the rooms for a while with the others. We only had 2 hours left before the all aboard time so we hurried to the straw market. Nathan was overwhelmed by all of the people trying to get him to buy things so he held on to me tightly. He picked out a small drum and a wooden owl caught my eye.
Last cruise with DH we bought a horned owl from the same guy. I love his work because he is carving them right there, he was also nice enough to carve Nathan's name on his drum, that really put a smile on his face!
We made our way back to the ship and stood in line to go back through security. Everything was going smoothly until an older gentleman in front of us was asked to surrender his alcohol until the end of the cruise. He was so mad, screaming and cursing and demanding everyone's name. I know Disney has recently changed their policies and they had huge posters at Port Canaveral explaining it so I don't understand why it was surprising or why he had to make a scene like that infront of children. I quickly ushered Nathan away from the situation so I don't know what the outcome was. I feel sorry for the cast members I am sure they put up with a lot!

Once back onboard we all got dressed for dinner and made our way to Animator's Palate. We had mixed feelings for this dinner. Last time DH and I were there Crush tried to make him confess his love for me in whale (like in Finding Nemo) and he was not too happy about that. DH is a very quiet person. But we were excited to see the kids interact with him. This dinner seemed to take forever and Crush only came to our table for a minute so it was a bit disappointing in that respect. We saw Crush spend plenty of time with other tables and it was like he ran out of time for our section. We didn't stick around to see if he would come back because after sitting for over over an hour the kids were getting restless. But The food and service was excellent. I had the baked potato and cheddar cheese soup and the Lemon-thyme chicken. For dessert I went with the white chocolate fudge cheesecake and I have to say it was the best dessert of the whole trip! In fact it was probably the best dessert I have ever had on a cruise!

Here is our waiter doing a card trick with Liam and Dylann.

After dinner we took the kids to their club and then the babies to the nursery and then headed down to do some shopping before the show Villains Tonight. It took so much self control to go through those shops without buying anything! But that didn't last long lol. Villains Tonight was my least favorite show (probably because it was my third time seeing it) but it was still very entertaining. DH got called out because Dylann wanted to leave the kids club so he left halfway through the show. Some of the characters had come to play in the kids club and it freaked her out a little bit. So strange because she wanted to meet them the next night!? So DH took her to the bar for a drink. LOL he said she wanted an OJ and they didn't want to walk all the way up to Cabanas so they went to bar in the atrium. The bartender gave her a huge to go cup of OJ and chatted with them for awhile. (FYI you get charged for the OJ at the bars, but they did made sure DH knew that before they got it for her) DH said Dylann was so tickled there was no one else there and she got to talk the bartender's ear off. It seems like a lot of cast members are away from their kids and really enjoy talking with all the kids onboard. He then grabbed the babies and we met back up at the rooms when the show was done. Back at the room we put Sam to bed and then put on a movie for the other kids in Grandmom's room and then we snuck out for a 10:30 showing of the new Star Wars. We got there at 9:45, just as the last movie was ending so we could get good seats. We had our pick of seats and it slowly filled up and about 10 mins into the movie I think almost every seat was taken. This was my 3rd time seeing the movie but the first time in 3D and I loved it even more!

On our way back to the room, around 1am, no one was walking around the ship and it was the perfect time for pictures.

All in all it was a great day! Day 3 will be up next starting with a nice little jog around Castaway Cay!​

 

[Kimartinez]

How fun! I can't wait to go on our first cruise and blog about it...

 

[crichardson11]

When we got our tickets they were going to give us tickets for the day we were in Nassau at 9 & 9:15 but then when he saw that we were doing BBB at 10 he thought that would be too much for us and then automatically went to our day at sea.

This is exactly why I am asking