Spring Break on the Dream! April 10-15 2012

[LissaW16]

Hey fellow Minnesotan! I have to say that after WDW, Duluth is one of my favorite places to visit!!

I'd put Duluth into the "nice place to visit, wouldn't want to live there" category... but then again, 10 and a half years later, I still live here... the things we will do for love! (DH brought me here, moved for his work).

I wish I lived somewhere within driving distance of Port Canaveral...

 

[MinnieCruzer]

I'd put Duluth into the "nice place to visit, wouldn't want to live there" category... but then again, 10 and a half years later, I still live here... the things we will do for love! (DH brought me here, moved for his work).

I wish I lived somewhere within driving distance of Port Canaveral...

My mom grew up in southern Minnesota. I remember visiting my grandparents' farm when I was growing up. Many good memories. We just had a family reunion on the farm last year! I can't imagine dealing with the winters there--at least not as my mom describes them!

We've talked about retiring to Florida to be near several good cruising ports. I don't know if it will ever happen with both of my children here in California!

 

[LissaW16]

Any pictures of the Rainforest spa?

These are "borrowed" from the DCL website, but totally accurate.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Thanks- you rock!

 

[LissaW16]

Lunch at CC Serenity Bay


Ribeye steak sandwich, greek feta salad, and (barely in frame) a cupful of banana bread


Mango, papaya, pineapple & grapes


Snacks at Castaway Cay





See Ya Real Soon menu at Royal Palace
Kid’s pineapple & grapes appetizer


Chicken on a stick appetizer


Lobster Bisque


Lamb


Kid’s sliced beef with gravy


Dessert – Celebration cake


Baked Alaska


Unrelated:
Duty Free Liquor List:
Duty Free

 

[LissaW16]

Day 5, Castaway Cay #2 (or the day we almost spent at sea) is now complete!

 

[LissaW16]

ok, the final day of the trip report is posted. I guess it's offically done.

Stay tuned, I plan to post my “final thoughts” – which will include the “to do” list for next time, and other stuff.

And I'd be happy to answer any questions, now that I'm an "expert" cruiser, having sailed the Dream all of twice!

 

[skatingmom]

Awesome job with the trip report! I was wondering how the luggage fees would work with the Delta AMEX card. I also have one and was hoping it would be easy--I know with RAC at WDW I just had to show them my card. I would love if you would update when you find out whether Disney takes care of it for you! Thanks again for taking the time to help all us newbies get a glimpse of what's to come!

 

[jecskc]

I love your Mickey FE magnet !! Too bad about Tim's ring. Heading over to look at your Flickr pics. Love the ones you posted on here. Good stuff !!

 

[MinnieCruzer]

ok, the final day of the trip report is posted. I guess it's offically done.

Stay tuned, I plan to post my “final thoughts” – which will include the “to do” list for next time, and other stuff.

And I'd be happy to answer any questions, now that I'm an "expert" cruiser, having sailed the Dream all of twice!

I loved reliving our cruise thru you--I'm going to miss waiting for the next installment. You really did an excellent (and thorough) job!

Angie

 

[LissaW16]

My list:
To do next time (that we just didn't do this time):
-order room service just for the fun of it - I just didn't ever need it, and glad we didn't do on the last CC day since Trinity needed to sleep in
-bike on CC
-eat sit-down meal in a dining room other than dinner (which may require sleeping late some morning)
-Watch Hercules before the next cruise so I can see Villains again and "get it"
-Buy a "mine" beach towel (if I limit myself to one beach towel per trip, I'll have a whole collection eventually!)
-Get character pics with Goofy and Daisy (how did we manage to miss these two?)

To do next time (that we did and it was just so awesome):
-Rainforest - at $16/per person per day for a "private" hot tub, how could you not?
-Serenity Bay (just for the "quiet")
-Snorkeling
-reserving the "getaway" package on CC, because it was easy (we used $25x3 adult gear, $10 kid gear, and $6x3 on floats, which would have been $103 and we paid $100)
-be part of the DIS/FB/FE group
-encourage a smaller split FE list (I was able to make gifts because the size of the "half a group" was manageable)
-encourage a DIS meet indoors (at vista café) - the one from my 1st Disney cruise was outside and at a bar…
-Get plenty of Mickey character pics

Things we'll skip next time:
-hopefully we can skip the Princess meet as a "been there, done that twice already
-getting on board before noon - I'd rather sit in the terminal watching Dumbo for another half hour than haul my backpack around
-Carry on diet pepsi - I can live with diet coke for the short term

Tim's list: (or, What He Said)
Sit down meal doesn’t have any appeal to me. Too much food, and takes too long. Character pics I can give or take. Agree with the others.

To do next time:
1. Mid-ship detective agency
2. Bingo
3. Mini-golf
4. One of the CC excursions (stingray adventure?)
5. Exercise

Agree with all your next time awesome list. Meet and greet did nothing for me (same with fish extender) but it is something you liked

To do again next time:
1. See a movie on big screen
2. Getting on-board before noon (I loved it. I hated the crowded terminal last year, worst part of that trip in my opinion)
3. Dropping kid off at Scuttles cove
4. On-demand TV in room
5. Bus to airport

Things to skip next time:
1. Disney World
2. 2nd helpings at Cabana’s
3. 5k?

The food was the same for lunch whether we ate the buffet in the dining room or ate at cabanas. Both are buffets with the same food. So yes, I was fine eating at Cabanas for lunch (on day 1).

Our carryons were only heavy because we brought so much soda and booze on board. If we don’t bring any soda, and limit our booze to a single bottle, then yes I would have no issue carrying my backpack around for a couple of hours. We had WAAAAY too much stuff in our carryons.

Have the kid wear her swimsuit under her clothes, and take her straight to the pool and get a chair. Problems solved.

 

[LissaW16]

and one more, of course, re-book while on board. Booking on board saves 10% off the "regular" price of the cruise, and deposit is only 10% of the total for the stateroom (instead of the regular $200 per person). Plus you get an on board credit for your future cruise (this time we got $100 when we booked this cruise while on our June 2011 cruise).

Additionally - name a travel agent for extra free money. I use Dreams Unlimited, and for this cruise I got $75 in free money just for saying they are my travel agent. Emailing someone to say "add port to airport transportation to my reservation" is just as easy as logging on to the DCL website to do it myself (which is what I would do if I didn't have a travel agent).

And of course, continue to use my Disney Visa card at home to rack up more free money.

 

[LissaW16]

Awesome job with the trip report! I was wondering how the luggage fees would work with the Delta AMEX card. I also have one and was hoping it would be easy--I know with RAC at WDW I just had to show them my card. I would love if you would update when you find out whether Disney takes care of it for you! Thanks again for taking the time to help all us newbies get a glimpse of what's to come!

Thanks for the reminder, I just called again. The girl I talked to was very nice, but unable to find anything to indicate I had called and requested a refund on 4/16. She took down all the same info, and said she would get it to a supervisor who should call me in the morning. For reference - the phone number is 407-284-1231. I think that's the number for the Port Canaveral "ground crew", it's not a Disney-specific number.

I'm wondering if I had gone to Guest Services right away before I got off the ship, if it would have been taken care of right away? I'm not sure how to prevent the bag fees from getting charged. How could DCL know that I'm exempt from the fees? They probably just charge everyone automatically...

Honestly, it's one of those things I just forgot to think about. I'll be sure to update the story once I hear from Supervisor Jennifer in the morning.

ps - what's RAC at WDW? Sorry, we just never stay on-site, I'm not up on all their cool acronyms...

 

[LissaW16]

Too bad about Tim's ring.

So do I add the $125 he spent to buy himself a new ring to the "vacation" budget? lol... seriously, what a great husband. He asked where in town to get a ring (I bought his in Denver, he bought mine in Minneapolis), so I gave him the name of the best jewelry store downtown... and off he went, bought himself a new ring that cost twice as much as his original! yes, I am cheap!

Now every time we look at it, we can say he has that ring thanks to a Disney cruise. What a lovely reminder!

 

[LissaW16]

Thanks for the reminder, I just called again. The girl I talked to was very nice, but unable to find anything to indicate I had called and requested a refund on 4/16. She took down all the same info, and said she would get it to a supervisor who should call me in the morning. For reference - the phone number is 407-284-1231. I think that's the number for the Port Canaveral "ground crew", it's not a Disney-specific number.

I'm wondering if I had gone to Guest Services right away before I got off the ship, if it would have been taken care of right away? I'm not sure how to prevent the bag fees from getting charged. How could DCL know that I'm exempt from the fees? They probably just charge everyone automatically...

Honestly, it's one of those things I just forgot to think about. I'll be sure to update the story once I hear from Supervisor Jennifer in the morning.

ps - what's RAC at WDW? Sorry, we just never stay on-site, I'm not up on all their cool acronyms...

So Supervisor Jennifer called me at 8:15am (Central time) - and I missed the call - I was chatting with a co-worker and my cell was on silent. I called her back, and basically she took my credit card info (the card I used for my on-board charges) and said the refund would get processed in the next 24-72 hours. I was afraid I was going to have to somehow "prove" I was exempt from bag fees, but I guess either she has that info from Delta, or she just took my word for it.

I don't know what the issue was before when I called, but I got someone's attention this time!

 

[LissaW16]

Links to TR's from two others who were on the same cruise. If you know of other TR's from this cruise, let me know and I'll add a link for them.


Pudge Controls the Weather (still in progress as of today 5/9/2012)

Spring Break Dream

 

[MinnieCruzer]

Thanks for the reminder, I just called again. The girl I talked to was very nice, but unable to find anything to indicate I had called and requested a refund on 4/16. She took down all the same info, and said she would get it to a supervisor who should call me in the morning. For reference - the phone number is 407-284-1231. I think that's the number for the Port Canaveral "ground crew", it's not a Disney-specific number.

I'm wondering if I had gone to Guest Services right away before I got off the ship, if it would have been taken care of right away? I'm not sure how to prevent the bag fees from getting charged. How could DCL know that I'm exempt from the fees? They probably just charge everyone automatically...

Honestly, it's one of those things I just forgot to think about. I'll be sure to update the story once I hear from Supervisor Jennifer in the morning.

ps - what's RAC at WDW? Sorry, we just never stay on-site, I'm not up on all their cool acronyms...

We had bag charges that we shouldn't have had (especially since I put my Mileage Plus number on the paper we filled out). We just went down to Guest Services when we got the final statement and they refunded the fees on the spot.

Angie

 

[skatingmom]

Thanks for the reminder, I just called again. The girl I talked to was very nice, but unable to find anything to indicate I had called and requested a refund on 4/16. She took down all the same info, and said she would get it to a supervisor who should call me in the morning. For reference - the phone number is 407-284-1231. I think that's the number for the Port Canaveral "ground crew", it's not a Disney-specific number.

I'm wondering if I had gone to Guest Services right away before I got off the ship, if it would have been taken care of right away? I'm not sure how to prevent the bag fees from getting charged. How could DCL know that I'm exempt from the fees? They probably just charge everyone automatically...

Honestly, it's one of those things I just forgot to think about. I'll be sure to update the story once I hear from Supervisor Jennifer in the morning.

ps - what's RAC at WDW? Sorry, we just never stay on-site, I'm not up on all their cool acronyms...

RAC is resort airline check in. You check your bags with them before heading home...don't see them again until you get there. Love it! Basically sounds like the service after the cruise. Glad to hear that you are getting a refund! Helps to pay for the replacement ring!

 

[LissaW16]

Is that the Ahi Tower from Enchanted Garden? It looks good!

Also, I love scallops but that stuff in the middle looks kind of weird (pearl pasta I think?) What did you think?

I found this on another TR - in case you wanted to know:

Caramelized Sea Scallops - with roasted asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, and pearl pasta, garnished with caramelized leeks and veal jus reduction

 

[LissaW16]

and hey... check out my new ticker...

So much for a "dummy" date. We went and made it "for real", and then some! We booked a back-to-back, a 4 night, followed by a 3 night, for the last week of August. Hopefully the in-laws can join us for one of the two cruises.

We also booked our same stateroom, 2558, for both cruises. Maybe we'll find Tim's wedding ring in there? Or maybe I'll leave mine in there, just for good luck?