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

[dizneeat]

Now that's my kind of shopping ............... coffee and rum

Best shopping ever!

Sounds good! Looking forward to more!

Glad you enjoyed it so far! More coming up shortly!

So- how do you transport the rum home? Do you bubble wrap iot in your suitcase? Do you pay extra to ship it? I have several bottles of Guavaberry for Kara (from St Martin) and I'm trying to decide if I should bring it with me in May or just ship it somehow, and I'm kind of leaning towards shipping it- thanks!

Ellen, we usually just bubble wrap and put it in the suitcase. I always put it in the hardside one and so far we have always been lucky and brought everything home in one piece. Shipping to Austria is just too expensive.

Nassau looks interesting !! I got a kick out of the COP on wheels !!

Nassau is quite nice, and we have done lots of exploring during all our visits. So far we have spent 8 days there and nowadays we just take it easy. I have a walk all around it and it's about 3 hours and I would love to do it again, but we both need to "feel" it.
That policeman looks so funny in his little "house" on wheels. He positions it and then directs traffic from there. Ever so often he would get out and adjust it. It was so funny!

 

[dizneeat]

Great update, Karin. Not a fan of rum, but love the coffee at Starbucks. That stinks about the internet being down.

I don't usually drink rum either, but they have flavoured ones and they really smell nice!
Starbucks was a nice change from the usual "coffee".

Glad the rum shopping paid off, I will remember that if we decide to pick anything up.

If you go into Nassau you should at least pay a visit to the Tortuga rum company. And maybe only for the sample of rum cake. It's very nice!

The officers cart is a bit... interesting.

Yum on the rum cakes. Chocolate? AND Rum? YUMMMM

Looks like it was a beautiful day.

Ann, you should see that traffic policeman for yourself. It was so funny to see him wheel it in place, then hop in, hop out, readjust it and get in again. Guess he was photographed A LOT!!!!!!

They have all different flavours of rum cake .... we LOVE the chocolate one. So yummy!

 

[Wicket's Mom]

I love that rum cake. It can be bought at Beal's in Florida. I had some this past Feb. & it was so good!

 

[dizneeat]

I love that rum cake. It can be bought at Beal's in Florida. I had some this past Feb. & it was so good!

It's so good, isn't it ...... and they have free samples of most of the cakes they offer at the shop!

 

[dizneeat]

Day 3, February 20


Remy, a dining experience - Part 3

Now that we had gotten everything we wanted to buy we slowly tracked back to the Customs House and when we had finally arrived I packed all our purchases in the Tesco’s bag I usually bring with me, so it is easier to carry everything on board.
While we were still organizing our purchases I heard someone talking to us. First I didn’t pay much attention at all, because a lot of then vendors there are constantly trying to sell you something, but that was different. It turned out it were the DVC reps we had met the day before.
They were friendly and bubbly and asked if we had liked yesterday’s present in our stateroom. Well, we were stumped as we hadn’t received any gift. And I jokingly added that we hadn’t even received at DVC magnet for our door. They were sure there was something wrong and maybe we had not been placed on their list and they urged us to come to their desk this afternoon.
They also reminded us to bring our DVC bag for “trick or treating”, means pick up a daily DVC present. Their enthusiasm was catching and we promised to visit them.
They went on their merry ways and we went towards customs. Once we were through customs we noticed that the room behind us was FULL of people with laptops on their knees. There was a bench and we took out Tom’s i-pad and tried to connect. It worked!!! We were able to check our email and there was an email from Ron telling us that he was looking forward to meeting us at the California Grill and another one from the cat-hotel, mentioning that Pixie was doing well.
I tried to get on the DCL site to price an upgrade from the stateroom category we had booked to the one we were in now and it worked on and off, but the Disney sites take a lot of time to load with good internet service and this one was poor. After about 20 minutes we gave up, packed our stuff together and headed towards the ship. The DREAM was in the middle between two other ships and when we approached her we were in awe at how majestic she looked compared to the other two, who were beautiful, but just not as beautiful as the DREAM.

We walked up the gangway, went through the security check and were back on board. We took the elevator up to deck 10, walked past all the staterooms towards ours, emptied the Fish Extender and were back home in our beautiful stateroom.

We had about an hour’s time left to have lunch at Royal Palace, so after quickly freshening up we headed back down to the restaurant. After letting them know our stateroom number we were quickly walked to a table and handed a menu. We both ordered Diet Cokes and then started to sample the pieces of baguette and dinner rolls that were in a basket on the table.

It didn’t take long and our order was taken and our starters were on the way. Tom had ordered the

Vegetable Quesadillas, served with guacamole, sour cream and

pico de gallo, while I enjoyed the

Ginger-infused Carrot Soup, with yogurt. Tom’s main course was the

Glazed Meatloaf, with smashed yukon potatoes, buttered carrots, long beans and gravy, which he enjoyed a lot. I tried the

Grilled Halibut with a tomato, olive and garlic sauce, served with saffron rice, which I subbed for mashed potatoes. Both main courses were very good, but we were both far too full for dessert, so after tipping our servers we left the dining room and headed back to our stateroom.
We sat out on the veranda for a while enjoying the view and the weather, before we picked up our Fish Extender gifts for the day and made our round. We were back after about 45 minutes and while we were done I had remembered that DCL offers free access to the DCL site, so I COULD check out if I could change our room assignments.
Funnily enough the year before I had paid big bucks to use their internet mostly for their own sites and it was horrible, now that I was using their site for free it worked quite well. I checked out back to back and yippie, both times our favourite stateroom was available. I started changing the first one, paid the difference in fare and began to work on the second one when a window came up that told me that the booking would only be complete when I had it checked by an onboard sales agent.
First I didn’t pay much attention, but then it got me worried. All the juggling around took a while and when I finally came to change our stateroom for the second leg of our back to back I couldn’t pull up the stateroom we needed. We were not sure if it was just a fluke, or if it had been sold in the meantime, but it would not show up.
So nervously I changed the first reservation again and went back to the old stateroom assignment. With all the booking and changing a lot of time had passed and we took another break, out on the veranda just to see one of the other ships pull out. It freed the beautiful view of the Atlantis

and we stood and admired for quite some time, before we took our paperwork and notes and headed downstairs to the future sales desk. There were a few people in line ahead of us, so we just stood, people watched and waited. Around 20 minutes later it was our turn and we started to bug the sales rep.

To be continued ..........

 

[eandesmom]

Lunch looks amazing but incredibly filling, I think I'd need a nap! Question for you, you mentioned tipping your servers which confused me. On our Wonder Cruise, outside of Palo, I don't recall any tipping opportunity until the end of the cruise. Is it because it was the sit down lunch?

Your stateroom change situation is making me nervous!!!!!!!!

 

[dizneeat]

Lunch looks amazing but incredibly filling, I think I'd need a nap! Question for you, you mentioned tipping your servers which confused me. On our Wonder Cruise, outside of Palo, I don't recall any tipping opportunity until the end of the cruise. Is it because it was the sit down lunch?

Your stateroom change situation is making me nervous!!!!!!!!

I don't think you are supposed to tip servers at lunch or breakfast, but since they do "serve" me something, we usually slip them a few dollar bills and it is always very welcome. (.... and they will definitely remember you! )

The stateroom mix up got me worried too, but it did work out in the end!

 

[jenseib]

I hope you got it all worked out.

 

[Wicket's Mom]

That halibut looked gorgeous! I want to go on one of those cruises.
The suspense about the rooms will drive me batty!

 

[luvslikepi]

Loving the trip report. Can't wait to read more.

 

[nikkistevej]

Loving the pics!!! I really want one of those carriage bread baskets. Wonder if I could bring my "big purse" to dinner one night.........

 

[englishrose47]

Now Tom's meal has my mouth watering !!Quesadillas and meatloaf Great choice Tom !!Mind you Karin your fish dish looked VERY good !!

 

[michelle9343]

Karin
I have to say I am enjoying your report so much esp the pictures!!
I do have one question where is the Tortuga Rum company??
Looking foward to you next installment!!

 

[Tinkerbell139]

I'm enjoying your report and pictures! Can't wait till my turn onboard!:

 

[dvc4life]

Hi Karen - just getting all caught up on your report since we were on the Dream last week. Loving seeing the ship and everything again since we were just on it and I want to go back. I so don't want to be back home.

I will say that I too had the eggs benedict one morning while on board and they were very good. But I really liked the eggs better up at Cabana's. I don't eat much breakfast usually so it was fun to try the different places to eat. Can't complain about any of them.

 

[dizneeat]

I hope you got it all worked out.

I changed everything back to what I had once I figured out it didn't work out, but in the end we got everything changed to what we wanted to have.

That halibut looked gorgeous! I want to go on one of those cruises.
The suspense about the rooms will drive me batty!

The halibut was wonderful and I was so happy to have subbed the mash for the rice. The mash was so creamy and went wonderful with the fish!
You really need to go on a Disney cruise ..... just let me know and I'll suggest a nice cruise (with friends )

I'll post more about the room change very soon.

Loving the trip report. Can't wait to read more.

Welcome! I am so glad you are following alone. I'll try to speed up with updating, but somehow real life sometimes gets in the way.

Loving the pics!!! I really want one of those carriage bread baskets. Wonder if I could bring my "big purse" to dinner one night.........

Glad you enjoy them!
Hm, that's a good idea, bringing a "big purse" to dinner. I think they might even sell them ..... at least they were selling the paintbrush knives from Animator's Palate in the shops.

 

[dizneeat]

Now Tom's meal has my mouth watering !!Quesadillas and meatloaf Great choice Tom !!Mind you Karin your fish dish looked VERY good !!

Rosie, I talked him into trying the meatloaf! I had it on a previous cruise and it was really good.
You really need to talk your people into taking a Disney cruise, you need to experience it all for yourself.

Karin
I have to say I am enjoying your report so much esp the pictures!!
I do have one question where is the Tortuga Rum company??
Looking foward to you next installment!!

I am glad you enjoy the report ... not much longer and you will be able to experience everything first hand!

I snipped a photo for you, so you can see the location of the Tortuga Rum Company. It's very close to the ships! I put the green marker where it is!

Hope that helps!

I'm enjoying your report and pictures! Can't wait till my turn onboard!:

I am happy to hear that you enjoy the report. When will you be cruising on the DREAM?

Hi Karen - just getting all caught up on your report since we were on the Dream last week. Loving seeing the ship and everything again since we were just on it and I want to go back. I so don't want to be back home.

I will say that I too had the eggs benedict one morning while on board and they were very good. But I really liked the eggs better up at Cabana's. I don't eat much breakfast usually so it was fun to try the different places to eat. Can't complain about any of them.

Wow! Your vacation went by so quickly! And I share your feeling of not wanting to be home after being on the ship.
Glad you enjoyed your food! While breakfast at Cabanas is very nice, I just prefer being served. Guess that pushes me a lot towards liking the TS breakfasts more.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 3, February 20


Remy, a dining experience - Part 4

Around 20 minutes later it was our turn and we started to bug the sales rep. First off I wanted the stateroom changed on our two summer cruises. The price for the double dip had hiked a lot, but we were sold by the round tub an larger room.
The second one had just an insignificant price difference. Then we went to work on the Fantasy cruise in 2013. Again the price was just a little higher than what we already paid and it was easily settled.
Our fourth cruise was a bit more tricky. I had booked it without any discount at all for our cruise next February. Now I had the sales rep check if it was cheaper to rebook with discount and on board credit. And yes it definitely was. We are now paying even less than what we would have for the lesser category.
It had taken quite some time and since the DVC counter was supposed to open in about 10 minutes we just stuck around, sat at the Vista Café and people watched in the atrium.
It was just a short wait until the DVC reps arrived and we could try to solve our problem. Low and behold we were not on their list, so they handed us two DVC magnets, one with the old logo and one with the new one and handed us the present we should have gotten the night before.
It was a nice wooden box with DVC lanyards in it. Once everything was settled it was about time for us to get back to our stateroom to freshen up and get changed for our dinner at Remy.

We had discussed this for quite some time and then finally decided to go for it. So Tom got into his suit and I changed into my outfit and off we went. We arrived about 10 minutes early and were asked to take a seat at Meridian until our table would be ready.
I found that pretty funny, as all the tables are already decked out and they usually remove any extra plates once you are seated.
It took them about 3 minutes to get ready and we were led into the restaurant. On the way in the hostess explained about some of the wines on display and about references to Remy, the movie. We were taken to a booth and then handed white napkins. Now this is another one of my pet peeves … black trousers and white napkins don’t go together, we both were wearing black/very dark grey.
Our server was on hand right away and introduced himself as Mathieu. He left us to study the menu after he had given us a bit of a pep talk about it. We had vowed not to do the wine pairing, but then we just gave in and opted for the wine pairing.
In the end we decided on each ordering one of the tasting menus. Once that was done an assistant server filled our glasses with water and offered some bread. I opted for the

French Baguette, while Tom had the

Truffle Brioche. It was served with sweet

French butter and Fleur de Sel.
I was kind of hoping they would offer D’Isigny butter, but nope. And while we were waiting for our dining experience to begin, Mathieu prepared their signature cocktail,

Collette, for us. He started by pouring a generous amout of pear vodka, then adding the garnish of blueberry, a piece of dried apricot and a small mint leave, before topping it up with Taittinger Champagne. It was amazing watching him and an amazing taste. We were still discussing what we thought of the place when another assistant server came by to hand us our first amuse bouche.

To be continued ..........

 

[cheryllarsen]

Welcome!
I am very happy to have you here.
The DREAM is such a beautiful ship and as much as I want her "all for myself" I do not mind sharing her with my DISfriends!

cant wait 4 my cruise!

 

[dizneeat]

cant wait 4 my cruise!

You are going to love it! The DREAM is a wonderful ship, well, all the Disney ships are wonderful!
Can you tell I love cruising with DCL?