Surprise Birthday Cruise Jan '16

[Bishoparc]

My wife and I had been anxiously awaiting our next Disney Cruise in September of 2016 since our first ever cruise in September of 2015 was so great! We had just booked our 9/2016 one and just kept talking and talking about how much we enjoyed the last one and couldn't wait for the next one. I ended up being out of town for work the last 2 weeks of January 2016 and my wife's birthday was coming up on 1/31 so I decided what better birthday present than another Disney Cruise!

When I arrived home during the middle of the 2 weeks I was out of town I picked up our passports from our safe deposit box and also a container of the emergency vitamin C's along with a gift bag to put each in. I arrived home and presented my wife first with the vitamin C's and she was quite confused. She then opened up the gift bag with our passports in it and I had the YouTube video of the horns from the Disney Dream ready and played it when she pulled them out. She was so very excited.

I hope you enjoy the next few posts that share the story of how our Disney Dream Cruise on 1/29/16 for the 3 nights to the Bahamas was! It's hard to believe it could've gotten any better after our first cruise on the Dream but even though this was the same itinerary we had before it was a whole new experience and will go down as one of our best vacations ever!

Quick Links
Day 1: Check-in, more surprises, and Animators Palate
Day 2: Skip Nassau, let's meet some characters! Pirate night
Day 3: Heaven, I mean Castaway Cay and a wonderful dinner at Royal Palace

 

[Bishoparc]

Day 1: Check-in, more surprises, and Animators Palate

On the Thursday night before we went ahead and stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Ocala just to make sure we were down there on time for Friday's check in.

I had booked the cruise last minute so our PAT wasn't until 1:30 but after having that PAT, I actually might use it more often. The car line for parking at the terminal wasn't long at all. We were directed to pull through a gate to the right of where you drop off your luggage normally which I hadn't done before. Inside the gate they checked our ID and directed us on around and we actually dropped off our luggage right next to the building. It was much quicker (and they still had the porters). From there you can either park there in the "preferred" parking or go on out to the regular parking garage. Preferred was $80, regular is $60'ish for the 3 day so I just went ahead and did preferred so I wouldn't have to go back through the gate again. Check in was super smooth, the line moved quickly and it was open boarding. We got there at 1:30 so we were able to go ahead up to our room and drop off our carry on, put our drinks in the fridge, and then head up to Cabanas for lunch (which was great, love their selection).



For the sailing away party, previously we had been one of those couples that just stood up on deck 12 and watched but this time we participated! We were down on the pool deck, dancing and having a great time "sailing away"! I highly encourage you to just embrace it and have fun. I'm normally one of those quiet folks but I said ya know what, I'm on vacation, I'm going to have fun.



Since it was my wife's birthday I had ordered a few surprises for her to be delivered to our room (including some sparkling apple cider and a box of chocolates).


Dinner the first night was at Animators Palate. I'm going to be honest, our first cruise I didn't really care for it but this time my whole perspective changed. Backing up a little bit, on our previous cruise we had sailed with my wife's parents but on this cruise we were by ourselves. On the previous one we were just at a 4 top table by ourselves so this cruise we were actually seated with other couples. I had heard Disney tries to match you with similar people (by age) but had no clue that they would do such a fantastic job of seating us! We sat with 2 other couples that were absolutely amazing and will likely be lifelong friends now (we're already talking about all cruising together again)! My wife and I were both very nervous about being seated with others because we're both pretty shy; we had no clue Disney would match us up so well with others. At Dinner we were actually seated by one of the screens so when crush came around I was actually the one he decided to talk to. He ended up having me stand up and tell my wife in "whale" "I adore you!" It was an experience I never will forget lol Having great table mates that had already warmed me up helped me get into that though because otherwise I would've been a mute lol

After dinner we hit up the show, which was the Golden Mickeys. It was good just as last time. I definitely recommend hitting the shows if you don't normally. It's amazing what they can pull off on a ship. Some brief shopping after the show and then we were off for bed. Spent most of our night talking about how great day 1 went and how happy we were with the folks we got seated with.

 

[Bishoparc]

Day 2: Skip Nassau, let's meet some characters! Pirate night

Neither of us had any desire to get off the ship at Nassau so we stayed on. We started with a wonderful breakfast at Cabanas. The weather was absolutely beautiful so it made for a great view! (Mickey waffles of course)


We spent most of our day roaming around the ship doing character meet & greets. We had a blast as the characters on the ship are always top notch. We caught a showing of Star Wars and then had lunch at Cabanas.


After a few more character meet & greets it was time for dinner at Enchanted Garden. We both had the prime rib, it was good but will probably try something else next time. We greatly enjoyed the company of our table mates again and were the last ones out of the restaurant again lol

Then it was off to Villains Tonight. It's not my favorite show but it does have some funny parts and again it amazes me how much they can do on a Cruise Ship.

After the show it was time for all the pirate festivities. The fireworks at sea with the Buckner blast show is fantastic. Disney does it right as always. We had a great time too dancing during the pirate dance party on the pool deck after the fireworks. I felt like I participated in the largest cupid shuffle ever lol. We don't drink but we still had an amazing time acting crazy and dancing the night away.


During our last cruise, we didn't realize there was a Pirate Buffet! We weren't super hungry but we did try some of the wraps and they were great. They had some incredible decorations using watermelons.


I think we finally ended up in bed around 1:30AM but we had an amazing time. (And we had a monkey waiting for us in our room!)

 

[Bishoparc]

Day 3: Heaven, I mean Castaway Cay and a wonderful dinner at Royal Palace

Day 3 is always a happy and a sad day. Happy because you're at Castaway Cay and sad because it's your last day. We got a late start because we were tired from the night before but then we headed off to Castaway. We actually spent the day there with our table mates (see I told you Disney matched us up well)! The weather was beautiful when the sun was out but the water was chilly. Luckily we prepared and had bought wet suits so we were about some of the only ones in the water!


I forgot to mention we were at serenity bay. Lunch was great as usual and we stayed most of the day out there. We finally headed back in around 3:00. I enjoyed several virgin Pina Colada's while out there. I don't know what Disney does differently but I've not been able to find a pina colada outside of Disney that tastes so great. When we got back onboard we went to the Aqua Duck. The line wasn't awful but we did wait about 20'ish minutes. We timed it right and were pulling out of port just as we got on so they were blowing the horn while we were in there. It was an awesome experience (although it did throw us out of the tube right as we came out).


After that a mad rush to get showered for dinner. Note to everyone, if you have steam in the bathroom...don't open your bathroom door until it is all out lol. We ended up setting off the smoke detector in our room and got a call from the bridge. They were cool about it but embarrassing still.

Our last dinner was at Royal Palace. The food was amazing. One of our couples had reservations at Palo so it was just the four of us at dinner but we still had a great meal and got to celebrate my wife's birthday in style.

After dinner we rushed off to the rebooking desk to book our next cruise. We had to wait a bit so we were a little late for the show. Of note, on the Dream, the booking desk is now the "Disney Vacation Planning Center" and is located on deck 4 next to the gallery. You have to go and scan your "key to the world" card to put your name on the list if the line is long.

Made it only 10 minutes late for Believe (which is also a fantastic show). A little more shopping and then the worst part of the cruise...packing. (here was our gift for being a silver Castaway Club member since it was our second cruise.)


Summary
My wife and I both enjoyed this cruise so very much, even more than our first one. We met some great people (including @CampbellzSoup ) and just had so much fun participating in everything we could. Some people think a 3 day cruise isn't long enough but if that's all you had time for it is certainly wayyy more fun than just sitting at home All of the crew members were top notch. We were given silver castaway club lanyards when we checked in and so when crew would see us they would say "Welcome home". We didn't run into a single person that was a part of the Disney team that wasn't enjoying their job. If I could leave again today I would. We enjoy the cruises so much that we've almost decided to skip the parks and only cruise. It's just such an absolutely wonderful experience and what the parks used to be.

I hope you all enjoyed my post and hope that you too will "Sail Away" soon!

 

[SixtoMouse]

Enjoyed your report. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ladybugmommy84]

Loved it!!!

 

[dglilbit]

Sounds like y'all had a great time! Thanks for the trip report!

 

[CindyandBrice]

We were on this cruise too. We had Royal Palace first night and celebrated sons 18th birthday last night at Enchanted Garden. Looked forward to meeting table mates but they changed dining rotation so we are by ourself a. Our wait staff was fantastic and the room was great. We loved having a 10th floor aft verandah.

 

[Bishoparc]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! We've got two more booked this year, one in September and one in November. Just having a hard time convincing ourselves not to book another one before September lol. We've absolutely fallen in love with DCL and to us is one of the best vacations you can get!

 

[K8theGr8]

Did they do anything special for your wife's birthday? Or was that all you?
I ask because we'll have a birthday in our family during our cruise coming up.

Also, loved reading your review!

 

[Bishoparc]

Did they do anything special for your wife's birthday? Or was that all you?
I ask because we'll have a birthday in our family during our cruise coming up.

Also, loved reading your review!

The items in the room I purchased via the in-room gifts - http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/gifts-and-amenities/

If you let them know ahead of time it is someone's birthday they will leave you a special certificate with a birthday button. They will also sing happy birthday at dinner.

 

[Lizzards]

Great report!!! You captured the magic perfectly! I am jealous that you live in Florida. I would cruise every couple of months too if I lived there! Glad you had such a great trip!

 

[Sytrace]

Fantastic report!

 

[Bishoparc]

Fantastic report!

Thanks! I enjoy writing so I try to be as informative as I can.