Our Land and Sea Vacation 3/21-27 Update 7/5 P.16 The last night

[IamTrike]

When I last left off we had just walked into our room. We peeked and poked around the room quickly to make sure everything was Ship-shape and Bristol fasion. (yes, I learned that on Phineas and Ferb)

The bathroom seemed to be in order:

But they seem to have accidentally installed a cooler not a bathtub.

Pleased with everything in the room we changed into bathing suits and headed up to deck 10. We plopped our stuff on a deck chair and got in line for the Aquaduck. We had been anticipating it for months so we were all thrilled to get to ride it. The line for it only stretched about halfway down between the funnel and the pool deck. (Other than the evening this was the shortest we ever saw the line) The line moved relatively slowly as they seemed to wait for one boat to completely finish the ride before the next one went. (it seems like they could have people go a little closer together) The ride was definitely fun. I didn't get any pics on it though.

After the aquaduck we let the kids play in the pool for a couple of minutes.
The kids had a lot of fun splashing around.

After about 15 minutes we had to pull them out to the pool so we could go get changed for the rest of the evening. As we got them out of the pool Mickey came out to start getting ready for the sail away party so we got our picture taken with him.

The kids were still disappointed to be leaving the pool. However we were able to combat that disappointment with Eye-scream from Mike's

We went back to the room and put on our dinner clothes then headed back up to deck 10 for the sail away party. A couple other people showed up to so we went to deck 11 to get a better view.

The kids kind of lost interest in the show quickly so we walked around and explored. We headed over to the starboard side of the boat to wave to the people on shore. (I'm all nautical-y today)

Maybe just Mom waved. I have no idea what Bro is doing and Sis is swinging from the railing.
There were people waving and cheering all along the shore all the way down to Jetty Park. The couple in the picture standing behind us asked us to take their pic right after this. I did a double-take at first because the gentlemen was one of the ships pilots.

As we passed Jetty park into the ocean the Wish Upon a Star horn sounded. That is a very good sound.

After enjoying the view from the front of the boat. ( hey look, water!) we headed downstairs for dinner. We were dining at the Royal Palace.
For an appetizer Mom and I both chose the Lobster and Shrimp

The shrimp was good but the lobster was very tough. It was like lobster jerky.

For our salad course we ordered the Royal Market Green Salad. (yeah I could have ordered unlimited beef and I wasted room on Salad.)

for Dinner we choose the Beef Tenderloin with Lobster and potatoes: There is not a bad word in that name.

The beef was pretty good and the lobster in this dish was better than the lobster in the appetizer.

After that it was time for the important choice. What to do about dessert.
Mom and I chose different paths on this course she chose sweet temptations to get a variety, and I doubled down and put everything on Creme Brulee.

The risk paid off for me though as we all agreed the Creme Brulee was the best thing we ate all evening.
While we were eating Tiana did a quick walk though waving at people. She didn't stop and talk to anyone.

After dinner we walked around the ship for a couple of minutes. It gave us the opportunity to see the deck at sunset.

It was getting close to 8pm so we headed back downstairs to watch the Golden Mickeys.
Mom and I really enjoyed the show but there were times when the kids seemed to get a little bored.

After dinner we headed back up to deck 10. We got some warm cookies from Towmaters (I don't think they had them on the menu, but we asked and they brought us a plate of 4 large cookies) After the cookies and walking the deck for a bit and snapped a few more pictures. The ship looks awesome at night.

At this point it was almost 11 so we headed down to our room to go to bed. The bed fairies had come and made 2 beds in our room.

Soon everyone was climbing into bed. The kids fell asleep quickly. Its amazing how staying up 3 hours past their bed time will do that to them. It took a little longer for Mom and I too fall asleep because the boat was rocking fairly hard. I hard to take all the hangers out of the closet because they were banging around so much. Eventually everyone fell asleep with dreams of the Aquaduck and large piles of meat floating through their heads.

 

[trikefam]

Sis was so excited to see the picture of us with Mickey on the deck. She had to show everyone in the room! We're all ready to go back!

 

[amandaw]

Great update & great pics! We also ate at the Royal Palace the first night when we were on the Dream & chose, pretty much, the same food. Seeing that Creme Brulee makes my mouth water! I'd love to have another helping of that right now!

 

[Wherem I Now]

Your pics are great! I've only been off the ship for eight days but it feels like it's been weeks.

 

[tinawv]

Looking at your pictures makes me anxious to take a disney cruise. You have a beautiful family. Looking forward to reading more about your cruise and of course more pictures.

 

[FreezinRafiki]

The kids kind of lost interest in the show quickly so we walked around and explored. We headed over to the starboard side of the boat to wave to the people on shore. (I'm all nautical-y today)

Are you wearing your captain hat?

There were people waving and cheering all along the shore all the way down to Jetty Park.

Knowing me, I'll get a complex at this point. At first I'll be excited that all these people came out to see me off. But then I'll realized that they're all very excited to see me leave the country.

The couple in the picture standing behind us asked us to take their pic right after this. I did a double-take at first because the gentlemen was one of the ships pilots.

Umm...then who's driving the ship?

Eventually everyone fell asleep with dreams of the Aquaduck and large piles of meat floating through their heads.

Those are good dreams!

The pictures in this update were especially awesome in their awesomeness! I'm really digging the night shots!

 

[IamTrike]

Sis was so excited to see the picture of us with Mickey on the deck. She had to show everyone in the room! We're all ready to go back!

Well then I think we should go back and soon. All the cool kids are doing it.

Great update & great pics! We also ate at the Royal Palace the first night when we were on the Dream & chose, pretty much, the same food. Seeing that Creme Brulee makes my mouth water! I'd love to have another helping of that right now!

Thanks. It's hard to go wrong with Creme Brulee. It probably doesn't hurt that if you were having another helping it'd mean your back on the Dream.

Your pics are great! I've only been off the ship for eight days but it feels like it's been weeks.

Technically eight days is 1.14286 weeks so it has been "weeks". I know what you mean though. Its a hard adjustment going back to real world. What was your favorite place to eat on the boat?

Looking at your pictures makes me anxious to take a disney cruise. You have a beautiful family. Looking forward to reading more about your cruise and of course more pictures.

If you get the opportunity you should definitely do a Disney cruise. I would highly recommend the Dream and I am sure the Fantasy will be awesome as well. A couple of the Disdads are Disney Travel Agents and they pointed out that Disney cruise pricing isn't variable based on demand like other cruise lines. They have fixed price catagories. What that means is you will always get your cheapest price for a Dis Cruise on the day it becomes available and the price always goes up over time. Find a good Dis Agent and get them to work for you and let you know when cruise weeks are going to start being sold.

Are you wearing your captain hat?

It's Saturday isn't it? That's just typical Saturday attire.

Knowing me, I'll get a complex at this point. At first I'll be excited that all these people came out to see me off. But then I'll realized that they're all very excited to see me leave the country.

Didn't think about it that way. Those people were REALLY excited too. What'd I do to them?

Umm...then who's driving the ship?

I asked him that and he said it was his day off. It was very cool to see, because he was on deck and excited and taking pictures with his significant other just like everyone else. They're living the Dream. The Wonder and the Magic haven't worn off even though they spend months on those boats.

Those are good dreams!

Some of the best. "rest well and dream of large..uhh steaks"

The pictures in this update were especially awesome in their awesomeness! I'm really digging the night shots!

Thanks I have a couple more that I am really excited about coming up.

 

[amandaw]

Thanks. It's hard to go wrong with Creme Brulee. It probably doesn't hurt that if you were having another helping it'd mean your back on the Dream.

Oh how I'd love to be back on the Dream! We missed a call today from someone at Disney Cruise Line about booking another cruise with the onboard deals they had going. Think I'm going to have to give her a call back tomorrow & see what she has to offer!

 

[dvczerfs]

great update trike!!!! that is some tub there in the bathroom. i think my mom had pasta pots bigger than that. great pics!!!

 

[IrenicMom]

I just spent nearly 2 hours reading all of this and am politely requesting:

MORE MORE MORE!!!!!

I love love love your writing style and found myself laughing right out loud on several parts.

I think if we knew each other in real life, people would think we might be related - our senses of humor are entirely too close.

 

[ZZUB]

For our salad course we ordered the Royal Market Green Salad. (yeah I could have ordered unlimited beef and I wasted room on Salad.)

I'm enjoying your TR. But this, this right here, is unforgiveable. If you tell us you ate bread, too, then I'm gonna have to move on to another TR.

Seriously, great TR. I especially appreciate the Phineas and Ferbisms. My daughters love that show. And maybe I do as well.

 

[afwdwfan]

After enjoying the view from the front of the boat. ( hey look, water!)

I think a view of water from front of the boat is usually good news.

For our salad course we ordered the Royal Market Green Salad. (yeah I could have ordered unlimited beef and I wasted room on Salad.)

What were you thinking? Food is already paid for, right? Go big or go home!!

They're living the Dream. The Wonder and the Magic haven't worn off even though they spend months on those boats.

You've been reading too many of Barry's trip reports.

I just can't get over all the character interaction. I've never been on a cruise, let alone a Disney cruise, but it really looks like there's even more character interaction than you'd even have in the parks.

 

[IrenicMom]

I just can't get over all the character interaction. I've never been on a cruise, let alone a Disney cruise, but it really looks like there's even more character interaction than you'd even have in the parks.

Andy -

1. Hello from a fellow Indiana person

2. It really is great. It reminds me so much of WDW "back in the day" - you know - when you'd just bump into them out and about? There are still scheduled times, yes, but they're also "out" more - partly because unlike WDW, there isn't a lot of backstage area where they can prep and then just magically pop out to their space. They have to walk just like the rest of the folks, and unlike WDW, when they're walking, they're almost always willing to stop and interact, instead of being pushed along by their handlers like they are at WDW.

 

[Wherem I Now]

Technically eight days is 1.14286 weeks so it has been "weeks". I know what you mean though. Its a hard adjustment going back to real world. What was your favorite place to eat on the boat?

Animator's Palate is the coolest for the entertainment factor and a completely different experience than on the Wonder. But another restaurant that we were very impressed with was the Enchanted Garden. That's a pretty place. DW and I actually got one of the center booths.

For completeness, another favorite place to eat was on our Verandah.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

(yes, I learned that on Phineas and Ferb)

Everything you need to know can be learned from P&F.

The ride was definitely fun. I didn't get any pics on it though.

How fast does it feel? From watching video, the Aquaduck looks a little slow, but maybe it feels faster when you ride?

We went back to the room and put on our dinner clothes then headed back up to deck 10 for the sail away party. A couple other people showed up to so we went to deck 11 to get a better view.

I remember having to the same thing. Did they count down for yours? Ours just randomly left the dock in the middle of the party.

The couple in the picture standing behind us asked us to take their pic right after this. I did a double-take at first because the gentlemen was one of the ships pilots.

I can only assume the ship is being steered by a computer named Otto. Was the view from the front of the ship the backside of water? Or just the front side?

(yeah I could have ordered unlimited beef and I wasted room on Salad.)

Rookies.

Next time, follow Homer Simpson's lead. Order more steak. "And to drink: meatballs."

Eventually everyone fell asleep with dreams of the Aquaduck and large piles of meat floating through their heads.

Too many pictures to re-post, but the sunset/nighttime shots are great!

Any trouble with seasickness?

 

[afwdwfan]

Andy -

1. Hello from a fellow Indiana person

2. It really is great. It reminds me so much of WDW "back in the day" - you know - when you'd just bump into them out and about? There are still scheduled times, yes, but they're also "out" more - partly because unlike WDW, there isn't a lot of backstage area where they can prep and then just magically pop out to their space. They have to walk just like the rest of the folks, and unlike WDW, when they're walking, they're almost always willing to stop and interact, instead of being pushed along by their handlers like they are at WDW.

Hi!

I guess if you look at the logistics of it, it really does make sense. Less places to hide, fewer staging areas and probably more characters to visit with fewer guests than in the parks. Seeing spontaneous meets on the ship really reminds me of how it used to be in the parks.

 

[IamTrike]

Oh how I'd love to be back on the Dream! We missed a call today from someone at Disney Cruise Line about booking another cruise with the onboard deals they had going. Think I'm going to have to give her a call back tomorrow & see what she has to offer!

Hope she's got some amazing super special deal for you, and if she does let her know we'd like one too. It's gonna be entirely too long before we get to go back on another cruise.

great update trike!!!! that is some tub there in the bathroom. i think my mom had pasta pots bigger than that. great pics!!!

thanks. Yeah after seeing the pics Stopher had posted of the tub in his DVC suite I thought people needed to see the other end of the spectrum.

I just spent nearly 2 hours reading all of this and am politely requesting:

MORE MORE MORE!!!!!

I love love love your writing style and found myself laughing right out loud on several parts.

I think if we knew each other in real life, people would think we might be related - our senses of humor are entirely too close.

I'm glad your enjoying it and appreciate that you think that I have a writing style. I come from a big family (I have like 27 cousins) so it's entirely possible we are related).

I'm enjoying your TR. But this, this right here, is unforgiveable. If you tell us you ate bread, too, then I'm gonna have to move on to another TR.

Seriously, great TR. I especially appreciate the Phineas and Ferbisms. My daughters love that show. And maybe I do as well.

Yeah I really didn't take advantage of the "eat whatever quantity of anything you want" aspect of the cruise. I really should have used it as the opportunity to turn every restaurant into my own little Ohana.

Bread might have been consumed

I think a view of water from front of the boat is usually good news.

Yeah it's much better than being able to see only sky. From the spot we were able to look down on the teen club. That space looked amazing, but we never saw anyone it the entire trip.

What were you thinking? Food is already paid for, right? Go big or go home!!

Yeah I was slack. Next cruise I will learn how to order from the Simpsons.
"Bring me your finest food stuffed with your 2nd finest"

You've been reading too many of Barry's trip reports.

Is that really possible.

I just can't get over all the character interaction. I've never been on a cruise, let alone a Disney cruise, but it really looks like there's even more character interaction than you'd even have in the parks.

Yeah that really was great. The random hallway interaction was much better than anything in the parks.

Animator's Palate is the coolest for the entertainment factor and a completely different experience than on the Wonder. But another restaurant that we were very impressed with was the Enchanted Garden. That's a pretty place. DW and I actually got one of the center booths.

For completeness, another favorite place to eat was on our Verandah.

Animator's Palate was hands down our favorite place to eat on the boat. We ate there on our 2nd night at sea. We didn't have a Verandah and eating on the little bench in our porthole would have been really challenging.

 

[IamTrike]

Everything you need to know can be learned from P&F.

AGLET! enough said.

How fast does it feel? From watching video, the Aquaduck looks a little slow, but maybe it feels faster when you ride?

The initial drop and first curve have a little bit of speed and I seem to remember a little kick when the jets push you up the hill, the rest of the ride is pretty tame.

I remember having to the same thing. Did they count down for yours? Ours just randomly left the dock in the middle of the party.

I don't remember a countdown, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I can only assume the ship is being steered by a computer named Otto. Was the view from the front of the ship the backside of water? Or just the front side?

Computers are so outdated. One of the crew members just has an iSteer app. With apple tracking your position constantly its made it also functions as a black box.
I guess we were looking at the backside of the water when we were on the bow. Later we headed to play minigolf on the stern so we could see the frontside of it.

Rookies.

Next time, follow Homer Simpson's lead. Order more steak. "And to drink: meatballs."

that makes me thing of Ohana for some reason.

Too many pictures to re-post, but the sunset/nighttime shots are great!

Any trouble with seasickness?

Thanks.
We didn't reallyhave any trouble with seasickness. It was only that first night that the motion was really noticeble.

 

[amandaw]

Hope she's got some amazing super special deal for you, and if she does let her know we'd like one too. It's gonna be entirely too long before we get to go back on another cruise.

Nope, she did not have an amazing super special deal for me. Looks like it's gonna be a while before we can cruise again. But, I'll just focus on (hopefully) returning to WDW in 2013. Would love to go next year but there are lots of changes on the horizon for us.

 

[IamTrike]

So on our 2nd day aboard the Dream we woke up in Nassau. Yeah I wouldn't mind waking up to this view every morning.

Mom and I had been to Nassau before and we wound up with a "Little Souvenir" so we decided we'd avoid the risk and spend the day on the boat.

After getting our bathing suits on (in case we couldn't resist the siren song of the pool or the aquaduck) we headed up to Cabanas for breakfast. I forgot to take pictures of breakfast, but a good time was had by all. I had some eggs benedict that were particularly tasty. At breakfast the kids decided the first thing they wanted to do was the midship detective agency. We signed up and got our badge.

Hey this is photographic proof that I have actually read the instructions for something.

Then it was time to explore for clues.

Silly Sis, that's Princess Minnie not a clue.
Certain pictures around the ship are actually clues. When you walk up to one of those pictures and hold up your badge the picture switches to a puzzle that you can interact with by moving your badge.

If you solve the puzzle it gives you a clue to help solve the mystery.

The pictures are networked so that they keep track of how many clues you have solved. After solving about 8 clues it directs you to the certain picture so that you can decide which villain is responsible. I was pretty sure the butler did it, but that wasn't an option.

After successfully solving the mystery and saving the puppies we took the kids to the kids club. Mom and I were really not sure about this. We felt like a family vacation should be enjoying time together, and dropping our kids off at the club seemed like opposite of that. The kids however, were quite sure that they got enough of mom and dad at home and really just wanted to go hang out in the clubs.

While the kids enjoyed their vacation from their parents, mom and I went to take the animation class. Hmm kids on vacation and parents going to class, this seems kind of backwards.

We've done the animation class at Hollywood studies and really enjoyed it. Those classes felt like they were really being led by a real animator. On the boat it felt like this class was led by a random crew member who had lost a coin toss to decide if he would take people on the dolphin tour or teach this class. This being Disney they are prepared though. They have labelled all the papers in case guests are concerned that their teacher isn't a good artist.

Mom and I had fun drawing. As usual Mom's picture looked great, mine looked like a copy of a great picture as drawn by a small uncoordinated child.
The drawing class was short and we wanted to give the kids a little more time in the club, so Mom and I headed to the adults only quiet part of the ship. On our way we took time to look down on the "Carnival" Boat.

When we got to the quite area we took some time to enjoy the view.

View enjoyed we found some lounge chairs to relax by the pool. (Note:If any children are reading this Mom and I did not have fun, this was just a sacrifice Mom and I were willing to make.) I enjoyed my 2.5 seconds of relaxation (a new personal best) and then I was ready to go do something more. Mom, however, has this crazy view that relaxing means not rushing of to do something else so she wanted to hang out there for a bit. Mom enjoyed her chair an book for the next half hour, while I fought with every fiber of my being to remain seated. The next time I get irked because Sis or Bro are trying to use the couch back as a balance beam during a conversation, I need to remember how hard it was for me to sit in that chair. Wow this paragraph is way to long. Everyone has probably skipped ahead to the next picture so I think I will too.

It was lunch time so we went and picked the kids up at the club.

Bro had made a friend over video games (the universal language of boys) and Sis was in crafty heaven.

We headed back up to Cabanas.

We are definitely creature's of habit.

I determined to enjoy the vast bounty of the sea by eating as much of its population as possible.

Lest those land animals get to cocky I also had a large slice of prime rib. (looking at this pics has me thinking slightly less favorably about the leftover spagetti I brought for lunch today)
In order to make sure I ate Seafood in as many ways as possible I also grabbed some Sushi.

After lunch we took another family - Dad picture and then headed to the pool.

The kids and I had a blast swimming. The water was cloudy enough that you couldn't see Donald on the bottom of the Donald pool unless you swam to the bottom.

Mom enjoyed her time to relax without me fidgeting in the chair next to her.

I am going to end this update here.

Coming up next: the rainforest room, animators Palette and onboard fireworks (the shoot up in the sky kind, not the family argument kind).

I'll leave off with a couple more pics of the Caribbean.

Nothing like sitting on the deck of the Dream watching a video on the Dumbo-tron of other people on the Dream.