Pixie dust on our DREAM vacation! Update 06/08 TR finished!!

Day 2, February 19


"You are BACK!!!!" - Part 4

I was happy I had gotten what I wanted when we turned a corner and I could hear someone scream,


“You are back!”


We hurried over and there she was, our favourite server, Ana!

Having had her as one of our servers during our summer cruises, had added a lot of fun and we were eager to see her again, had brought some chocolate for her and I had been ready to go ask for her at guest services.
We both could not believe how lucky, or pixie dusted we must be, to just run into her like this. Since we had made such an abrupt stop, hugging her and talking to her, we had lost the Cast Member who was supposed to take us to our table and now was looking on somewhat surprised.
After we got over the first initial shock we followed the Cast Member over to our assigned table. Ana came over to talk to us when our server came by to take our drinks orders.
While we were still trying to catch up with Ana, she had a look at our dining rotation and was happy to see that we had the same rotation as she had, but we were not in her section. So when we were a bit disappointed about that, she told us that we could go to D-Lounge and try to get our table assignment changed. When our drinks arrived she left us and we headed to the buffet. We joined the line and within 5 minutes we were handed a plate and started filling it.
I was not very hungry, I was still full from breakfast at Wolfgang Puck’s Express. I didn’t take much and neither did Tom.

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And who should be manning the dessert station other than Sapto, our dining room server from last year.
I just stood there, mouth open looking at him until you could tell, he KNEW, who we were and greeted us warmly.
So, after meeting him we sat, ate and discussed what the odds must have been to run into that two very special people, of the 1500 Cast Members on board within 30 minutes of getting on board.
We finished our meal quickly, then proceeded to go to D-Lounge to ask if we could change our server assignment. We were greeted at the door, then pointed towards a table and there was Cast Member number three, who we knew very well. Zan, our head server from last year, was doing the changes. He looked at us, paused and then said, “I know you two”. We could not believe it, but he remembered us as well.
And after doing a little magic he was able to change Ana’s tables so we could be in her section. So far our trip had started with lots of pixie dust. And by then it was time to go and check out our stateroom.
So we walked to the aft elevators and went up to deck 10. Our stateroom wasn’t too far from the elevators and in we went. The stateroom was beautiful.

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There was a blue day blanket on the bed, and an extra comfy chair. Sitting on the bed was our new Castaway gift,

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a beautiful blue and black backpack. I had seen photos of it on the DISboards and was keen to look inside. There was a bag of Mickey pretzels inside, a small container of Mickey Puffy Cheese Crackers and a newly designed keyring!

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We were very happy with it. Once we had checked out the stateroom we walked out on the veranda and checked the view! Awesome! We unpacked our carry-ons, while we waited for our luggage to arrive. We checked periodically and all three pieces arrived within half an hour of each other. Once we had unpacked everything we decorated our door with all our magnets

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and met our stateroom host. He was a nice guy, but hard to understand, so a lot of smiling and nodding was involved to cover the parts we did not catch. Then, after checking our navigator we decided that we should check out the ship.
We went to deck 3 and watched people being greeted when entering the ship and then we walked towards D-Lounge to see if Zan was still there. He was and since there was no one in line for him we just walked up to him and handed him a bar of Austrian chocolate for being so nice and changing our dining assignment.
To say it was well received is an understatement! He was really stunned and happy that we had come back and brought his a goody. We decided to walk aft and when we turned a corner we walked right into the welcoming station of DVC.
They took our stateroom number and handed us our gifts, two hats and a new brochure. We were then invited to come inside.
We found a small table and Tom got a seat, while I wanted to keep standing, as the seat didn’t look very comfortable and Tom soon complained about it being the opposite of comfortable. We were served some sparkling wine and followed the presentation.

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It was a first time for us and it was pretty interesting. So interesting that we completely forgot to go to the Vista Café for the DISmeet. Once the official part was over, we all got a nice DVC bag and were told to come back to the DVC desk every day as there would be presents daily. We took the elevator up to our room again and stored away our gifts, had a drink and then it was already time to go and find our way to our assembly station for the lifeboat drill.

To be continued ..........
 
Ooh! Presents daily!

Ok, that made me skip ahead! :rotfl:

How wonderful to find THREE special CM's practically the minute you got on board and how lovely of you to bring them treats. :goodvibes

How long was the presentation? Jeff might be into the free goodies but probably has zero desire to sit through any kind of DVC presentation. Then again if it involves free sparkling wine, he might be up for it.

Your door looks great, I love your special ear magnets. The new backpack looks pretty cute.
 

Great update, Karin. Sweet on the daily presents; I'd be tempted to go for daily presents. But as we won't be buying DVC any time soon, if ever, I don't want to be depressed. :laughing:
 
Loved your updates Karin
So cool that you got to say hello to your fave CMs so soon after boarding the ship :)
 
Ooh! Presents daily!

Ok, that made me skip ahead! :rotfl:

How wonderful to find THREE special CM's practically the minute you got on board and how lovely of you to bring them treats. :goodvibes

How long was the presentation? Jeff might be into the free goodies but probably has zero desire to sit through any kind of DVC presentation. Then again if it involves free sparkling wine, he might be up for it.

Your door looks great, I love your special ear magnets. The new backpack looks pretty cute.

It was actually fun to stop by the desk every day and pick up presents. I am not someone who just goes picking up presents, so we made them little goodybags full of Austrian candy (did I mention that we brought about a suitcase full of candy? :rotfl2:) to exchange for THEIR presents. :laughing:

The presentation was about half an hour and they gave out lots of prices. It's to let you know that if you "add on" on board there are special conditions and for people who you "inspire" to buy into DVC! ;)
There was lots of sparkling wine involved - as you can see from the FOUR glasses on our table! :lmao:

Tom takes great pride in making those magnets. We had actually started doing the same magnets with seagulls (adding one per cruise) for every cruise, but I guess we need to rethink the magnets as they take up A LOT of space on that door! ;)

I could not believe we ran into Ana, Sapto and Zan during the first half hour on board the ship! And for Zan to change our assignment was a wonderful thing to do!
Truly lots of Pixie dust sprinkled our way! :cloud9:


Great update, Karin. Sweet on the daily presents; I'd be tempted to go for daily presents. But as we won't be buying DVC any time soon, if ever, I don't want to be depressed. :laughing:

Daily presents were nice! :love: All those added perks of DVC ..... ;) :rotfl2:

Loved your updates Karin
So cool that you got to say hello to your fave CMs so soon after boarding the ship :)

It was so fun to run into Ana and the others and then have her as our server! Made for a truly magical experience! :cloud9:
Well, the whole cruise was SO much fun!!!!! :thumbsup2
 
Oh Karin, I have lots of thoughts about this day............It's amazing how the workers remember you. We had the same occurance on our second Disney cruise on the Wonder. As soon as we went to eat lunch at Parrot Cay, our server, Arnel, from our very first cruise saw us and immediately came over to talk to us. I think it was that very moment that I was soo glad I booked another cruise with Disney. But wait! It gets better than that.............when we were on our June 2011 cruise (first time on the Dream) my husband and I sat down for dinner at a table for 8 and we see our tablemates from the previous June cruise on the Wonder. Not only did we see them, they were our table mates AGAIN! One year later, on a different boat! It was unbelievable! And then we start to wonder, was it fate, by chance? Does Disney dig down deep to see that 2 families that were on a previous cruise together are cruising again? (We had no clue the other family was cruising the same week as us one year later). I still can't get over that coincidence.

Now, getting to your first DVC member meeting, did you win any prizes there? Do you know how close we were to meeting one another there? We were at that meeting and I left at 3:00 to head to Vista Cafe. My husband stayed at the dvc meeting while I went to the dismeet. Then when everyone parted at Vista Cafe, I went back to the dvc meeting just when it was letting out. I bet we crossed paths many times and just didn't know it. Our room was aft also. I'm sure we ran into one another but didn't know it,...... darn!

I can't wait to read the rest of your report! I'm also enjoying the pictures.
 
I mam all caught up !!Yes Rosie has returned !!Wow soooooo much Pixie Dust !!!:cloud9::love::banana:
Judy is palanning us going on a cruise in 2014 for the girls graduation !! Not Disney, but she wants to do a 7day minimum Bahamas cruise and She wants to plan it !!!!:banana::banana::banana:I didn't tell her that planning a Disney vacation is a lot more involved , she just has to pick the cruise , the dates , the airline and the Tours . Ressies are pretty well set, From what I remember you had 1 dining room, or the buffet on deck :rotfl2:
I promise to keep up much better !!
 
How sweet that so many remember you! Well I must say for such devoted Disney fans you deserve no less!

Ive always thought WDW should have a rewards program so its nice to know DCL does.

Thats so sweet you gave out goodys! Im suprised the chocolates didnt get warm in your suitcase tho..

I plan on making magnets for our first cruise in Sept, I already have a ton of stolen .. errr borrowed templates.. LOL

By the way my husbands name is Thomas too we call him Tommy..

Loving the report!!
 
What a great surprise...well surprises to see all your servers again.
You have done so much and not even sailed away yet.
Love the shots of you approaching the Dream too.
 
Hi Karin-I am so enjoying your trip report. My husband worked over in Germany for two years so I can still remember the Frankfurt Airport and trying to manage two small children before our flights home to visit family in the summers. It is so huge and always crowded! Our very first experience with Disney started with Disneyland Paris since this is was the closest. We have been hooked ever since. We absolutely love all things Disney! Where in Austria are you from? Such a beautiful country. We visited while we were in Germany and absolutely loved it there! One of our favorite places! :goodvibes Lisa
 
We are reading along intently as the Dream may be in our future! Thanks for sharing. Love your report as always.
 
Oh Karin, I have lots of thoughts about this day............It's amazing how the workers remember you. We had the same occurance on our second Disney cruise on the Wonder. As soon as we went to eat lunch at Parrot Cay, our server, Arnel, from our very first cruise saw us and immediately came over to talk to us. I think it was that very moment that I was soo glad I booked another cruise with Disney. But wait! It gets better than that.............when we were on our June 2011 cruise (first time on the Dream) my husband and I sat down for dinner at a table for 8 and we see our tablemates from the previous June cruise on the Wonder. Not only did we see them, they were our table mates AGAIN! One year later, on a different boat! It was unbelievable! And then we start to wonder, was it fate, by chance? Does Disney dig down deep to see that 2 families that were on a previous cruise together are cruising again? (We had no clue the other family was cruising the same week as us one year later). I still can't get over that coincidence.

Now, getting to your first DVC member meeting, did you win any prizes there? Do you know how close we were to meeting one another there? We were at that meeting and I left at 3:00 to head to Vista Cafe. My husband stayed at the dvc meeting while I went to the dismeet. Then when everyone parted at Vista Cafe, I went back to the dvc meeting just when it was letting out. I bet we crossed paths many times and just didn't know it. Our room was aft also. I'm sure we ran into one another but didn't know it,...... darn!

I can't wait to read the rest of your report! I'm also enjoying the pictures.

I can't believe that we missed you at the DVC meet! :sad2: We did enjoy the meet a lot, and no, we didn't win any prices, we didn't participate. (Kind of burned .... remember when they did the "who wants to be a millionaire - play it" at the parks? Well, when the question was asked I just punched "something" in as I had no idea of the answers and ... yip, was the fastest one and made my way to the middle. :scared1:)
So whenever we do not really know what to expect we do not participate, maybe next time, when we know all the answers! :rotfl2:

Isn't it amazing, how the CMs remember you? Guess it was easy for Ana and Sapto, as we stayed with them for 3 cruises last summer, but there were others who still remembered us and we had only met them briefly.

Your story about your tablemates is amazing! We know for sure that we are travelling the same time as the Douvres family again and hope to spend lots of time with them! :cloud9:
Tablemates can turn out to become great friends - Teresa and Mick, who were our tablemates on our third cruise are cruising with us again on the Fantasy in 2013! :cloud9:


I mam all caught up !!Yes Rosie has returned !!Wow soooooo much Pixie Dust !!!:cloud9::love::banana:
Judy is palanning us going on a cruise in 2014 for the girls graduation !! Not Disney, but she wants to do a 7day minimum Bahamas cruise and She wants to plan it !!!!:banana::banana::banana:I didn't tell her that planning a Disney vacation is a lot more involved , she just has to pick the cruise , the dates , the airline and the Tours . Ressies are pretty well set, From what I remember you had 1 dining room, or the buffet on deck :rotfl2:
I promise to keep up much better !!

Yay! Rosie is back!
The Pixie Dust this trip was amazing! We were so lucky ... first the awesome view and then running into all our favourite servers! But there was even more pixie dust, Rosie ..... so stay tuned! :thumbsup2
Judy should definitely look into cruising with Disney .... the service is just amazing! Just let her read my trip reports. ;) :lmao:


How sweet that so many remember you! Well I must say for such devoted Disney fans you deserve no less!

Ive always thought WDW should have a rewards program so its nice to know DCL does.

Thats so sweet you gave out goodys! Im suprised the chocolates didnt get warm in your suitcase tho..

I plan on making magnets for our first cruise in Sept, I already have a ton of stolen .. errr borrowed templates.. LOL

By the way my husbands name is Thomas too we call him Tommy..

Loving the report!!

We stayed on board for three cruises during the summer and I guess that was one way to remember us! :laughing:
The Castaway Club gifts are just awesome. We were so surprised at how generous DCL is! :love:

I knew that Ana loved Austrian chocolate (well, and it was well received by the other CMs too! ;)), so we brought a lot for her.
And since we were only travelling for a day and our distances weren't too far we didn't have a problem with the chocolate melting. :thumbsup2
Can't bring any in August though - it would all be melted all over my suitcase! :rotfl2:

Decorating your door is such a fun thing to do .... and PLEASE, try to find out if there is a FE exchange going. This was one of the best things to do on our first cruise - we got to explore the ship handing out the gifts and finding gifts was so much fun too! :goodvibes


What a great surprise...well surprises to see all your servers again.
You have done so much and not even sailed away yet.
Love the shots of you approaching the Dream too.

It was the best thing ever to meet them so early into the cruise! We just knew it was going to be a wonderful cruise!
As for the photos approaching the DREAM ... I always sit there prepared, camera in hand, so I can take photos of her as soon as she comes in sight ..... can't wait to get on board! :yay:
 
Hi Karin-I am so enjoying your trip report. My husband worked over in Germany for two years so I can still remember the Frankfurt Airport and trying to manage two small children before our flights home to visit family in the summers. It is so huge and always crowded! Our very first experience with Disney started with Disneyland Paris since this is was the closest. We have been hooked ever since. We absolutely love all things Disney! Where in Austria are you from? Such a beautiful country. We visited while we were in Germany and absolutely loved it there! One of our favorite places! :goodvibes Lisa

Hi Lisa! :flower3:
Frankfurt Airport .... construction ever since we first went through there, and it is HUGE!!!
Disneyland Paris is nice, isn't it? We are going back in just 6 weeks and I cannot wait for all the new shows and parade for their 20th anniversary! :woohoo:
We live in Upper Austria, in it's capital, Linz, to be precise! Most people visit Salzburg and Vienna and Linz is right in the middle between those two.
Glad you liked it here .... where did you visit?


We are reading along intently as the Dream may be in our future! Thanks for sharing. Love your report as always.

I really hope it will be in your future soon! :thumbsup2 The DREAM is a beautiful ship and the service is just outstanding. We just love it!
And I am very happy you enjoy this trip report! :goodvibes


Look Karin I am here again !!!!:rotfl2:

:woohoo: Rosie is back! Yippie!!!!!!!
 
Day 2, February 19


"You are BACK!!!!" - Part 5

We took the elevator up to our room again and stored away our gifts, had a drink and then it was already time to go and find our way to our assembly station for the lifeboat drill.
This time we had an outside location and the sun felt nice and warm. Such a wonderful change from freezing cold Austria. The lifeboat drill took about 15 minutes and then we joined the crowds on our way back to our stateroom.
We climbed up the stairs to deck 10 and sat outside on our veranda for a while.
And soon enough it was 5pm and we could watch the ropes being pulled in and were heading out to sea.

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Since there is a webcam at Fishlips, a restaurant in the channel, and our friends at home promised to watch, we had thought up a little extra we would do to maybe be seen. We had bought a pair of white Mickey gloves to wave with. The DCL port Cast members, who man the terminal and come out to wave were the first to point up at us and laugh! And there were many more people pointing and waving at us on the way out.

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It was a truly fun event, as Captain Gus seems to love his Mickey horns and went through the repertoire twice on the way to Jetty Park.
It really set a fun note to us sailing away and he could not have made me any happier. This was pure heaven. Once we had reached the open waters we walked back into our stateroom

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and I rested for a while on the bed.
When I got up I ran into the round part of the wall and only then did I realize that the room looked different. In the summer we didn’t have that round shaped “thing”! And then I remembered. Family Staterooms have a round tub, so off we flew to check it out. It was awesome. Not only was there a lot more space in the round tub there was actually a regular shower and a rainforest shower. At one side there was kind of a little seat and a few shelves for soap, shampoo and shower gel.

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We were so happy! Once we had recovered from our shower surprise we got ready to head out again.
This time we wanted to enjoy some coffee at the Cove Café! So we donned our lanyards and walked up to deck 11. We walked around a bit taking in the pool and the quick service stations before we entered the adults only area. It was very quiet in there and we stopped and took in the atmosphere before we headed to the Café.
There was only one other guest there and a Cast Member was right on hand to give us menus, so we could decide which coffee to order. Tom had a

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Frozen Cappuccino, 1/3 espresso blended with vanilla ice cream, which was really good. I went for something I had discovered last summer, the

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Mochaccino, 1/3 espresso and chocolate blended with vanilla ice cream, yum, yum, yum. We sat for quite a while and enjoyed our drinks, then walked outside and around the pool and up to deck 12.
After enjoying the view for a while we walked inside again and the floors down to our stateroom. We ended up having to cross through Cabanas which was closed at the time, so we had time to stop and take photos without a lot of people in it.

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Once back in our stateroom we found another DCL present.

To be continued ..........
 
Great idea, using the Mickey gloves when you set sail! Reading your report is getting me so excited for my upcoming cruise - I can feel the relaxation seeping from your words!! Love it!
 
Great idea, using the Mickey gloves when you set sail! Reading your report is getting me so excited for my upcoming cruise - I can feel the relaxation seeping from your words!! Love it!

The gloves got a lot of attention! :rotfl2:
Your cruise will be here before you know it, and it will be as relaxing and fun as ours! :thumbsup2
 


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