The WHAT?! juicy cheesecake?!,pinkpajamaswithpenguinsonthebottom, dream sea adventure

[Cj Fantasmic]

Hi everyone! This is my first trip report My family and I took a cruise (the first time for most of us!) on the Disney Dream this past summer and enjoyed every minute of it!

Introducing the cast of this sea adventure: (my three cousins and I will be pictured below, I would post everyone’s individual pictures but we have a big family! Also, we are the main characters of the story, as it is told my me, and we were stuck together like glue! We did not spend as much time with the adults as we did with each other.)

I'm Chelsea- I'm a college student and love Disney! I love planning trips and going to new places which is why I'm majoring in tourism and events management. I even plan trips when we're not taking any This was my first cruise!

Caleb- my baby cousin! he’s taller than me but I still consider him a baby. He loves Disney too. He’s been my travel buddy for the last five or six years of our annual summer trip to Disney World. first cruise also.

Ciara- in college. She wants to be an engineer! lived close to or with her for my whole life. she’s crazy haha and i love her. first cruise

Caitlyn- also in college. extremely artistic, I’m talking crazy good artist. I wish I had half her talent! I think she's majoring in pre med right now. First cruise!

Here's a picture of all four of us on the cruse, from left to right:
Caitlyn, Ciara, me, Caleb

We can get extremely silly when together, here's another one to show you that we can make normal faces.

the rest of the crew:

Amanda- loves Disney, enthusiastic and fun to be around! I call her Kat so you might see me call her Kat in this trip report! second cruise
Anri- she’s 5. And extremely stubborn. But she loves dressing up like princesses and loves Disney
Nio- 3 years old! He’s so cuddly! and they cutest baby you’ll ever meet. Can really throw those tantrums though
Mom- She absolutely loved the cruise! Which is good, because it almost guarantees future cruises she wants to go to Alaska, which would be amazing! first cruise
Dad- first cruise! Disney brings out the kid in him. Has recently discovered facebook and got an iphone so he’s on there all day every day, posting pictures to facebook.
My aunt Tess, Ciara’s mom- She needed a break from work! first cruise
My uncle Tony- He’s crazy. Definitely have to thank him though for suggesting cruising Disney for the family. He’s been on 2 cruises before this one, both DIsney and goes to Disney multiple times a year with his family.
My aunt liza- we never run out of baked goods! she loves Disney


So with the introductions out of the way, let's get this adventure going!

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

July 29, 2011
We (my parents, cousins, and I) were literally packed in the van. We could barely move with all the things everyone had brought. It was the first cruise ever for half of us. We made the 16 hour car ride from Virginia to Florida, picking up my two cousins along the way in North Carolina.
We arrived at Port Canaveral well before the time we were allowed to board the Disney Dream. As we approached the port, we spotted OUR ship. Everyone jumped up (in the cramped car), any sleepiness or crankiness as a result of the long car drive erased from our minds. We knew the ship would be big, obviously, but we did not understand just how big it was. It was huge! Bigger than huge! We could not stop exclaiming our wonder and awe over the ship. Everyone was talking at once. No one could take their eyes away from the Disney Dream. We drove closer to the ship, talking about everything we could see on it. This included: the Aquaduck slide, Sorcerer Mickey and the brooms on the aft (look! I learned something from my time on the cruise!) of the ship, how beautiful it was, how we could not wait to get on the boat, etc. We were all extremely hyper and happy to be there. When we got to the gate, security told us that we could not start boarding until 11:00 am. It was about 9:00 am. We were clearly disappointed, having seen the ship. We wanted to get on immediately! But, we waited it out in a nearby little strip of beach, which was nice. We spent that time talking about what we were going to do on the ship and also about the shore excursions we had booked. We left that place at 10:30 and they let us unload our luggage! Finally. I think we were one of the earliest families there. We went through security and went into the cruise terminal where we got our boarding number. I don’t know the correct terms for cruises, it sounds like we were boarding an airplane the way I describe it. I didn’t take any pictures because I was too excited. We only had to wait a short while, we were boarding number three. They called us up and we went through to the area where they take a family picture: We look travel worn. Which we were. From traveling 16 hours in a car. Straight.

Okay, starting from the top left: Aunt Tess, Caleb, Aunt Liza, Nio, Anri, Uncle Zald, Dad
Now starting from the bottom left: Me, Ciara, Amanda, Caitlyn, Mom




And yes we did get the pictures from Shutters! We couldn’t resist, especially since there were photographers everywhere, including in the water at Castaway Cay. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. We’ll get to that later

After the family picture, it was finally time to actually get on the ship. As we stepped on, we were asked for our last names and they announced us to the ship through a microphone and the welcome crew members burst into applause. I really loved that, it made you feel like a star. Every single person in my family had the biggest grins on their face. I didn’t know where to look first! The lobby atrium was so big. The chandelier was really beautiful and I took many pictures of it during our trip. We were immediately directed to the Enchanted Garden for lunch. We weren’t expecting this and a lot of us had brought our pillows and backpacks on the ship. I think we looked a little funny, our big family walking into the Enchanted Garden with pillows.
The first taste of the cruise ship food was amazing! yummy! I forgot what we had because it was a buffet style and I did not take any pictures but I remember everyone repeating these phrases: “WOW this is really good”, “try this”, “OMG this is sooooo good!!” and variations of those phrases. My cousins and I were done way before the adults and we were ready to go explore the ship. We left and went to the outdoor deck which was deck 11, where I snapped a few quick pictures.

People were already in bathing suits and enjoying the Aquaduck! Darn. If me and my cousins had known that we would have brought our bathing suits with us! oh well, there’s always next time.

The rooms weren’t ready yet so we headed back down to the lobby to wait with our family.


This was so beautiful. I could literally stare at it all day.

Everyone was waiting:

Some more awake than others...


When it was close to the time our room was suppose to be ready, my cousins and I made our way to the seventh deck to wait for the room to open up

Our rooms were finally ready!!!

We kind of just dumped our stuff everywhere haha. But we loved the room! It was small but it had a balcony (verandah?) and was just right for the four of us. Oh, the people in my room were: me, Caleb, Ciara, and Caitlyn.
More pictures of the room:

We had a split bathroom. I didn’t get pictures of the other bathroom which had the toilet. It was extremely convenient though, especially with the girls in this room. There were not enough mirrors

There’s the couch which turned into our bunk beds! It was so comfy

We then had to wait for the safety drill, so, we took some pictures out on the verandah!

It was finally time for the safety drill. Each room has a speaker in which the Captain or crew could speak through. The first few times he did, it startled us. We didn’t know where it was coming from. They only used that speaker that first day so that during the remainder of the trip, little ones taking a nap wouldn’t be waken up by it. No one wants grumpy little ones! Announcements were made on a particular channel on the television or in the lobby atrium.
So the alarm sounds, signaling the start of the drill. We each had a number that corresponded with the part of the ship we were suppose to be. I believe ours was deck 4, but I don’t remember. It was quick and efficient, we were out of there in no time!


Nio fell asleep during the drill

Coming up next is the sail away party and our first night on the Dream!

 

[lvstitch]

awesome start, can't wait to read more

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

awesome start, can't wait to read more

thank you!!!

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

We all went back to our rooms, where we waited for our luggage. This took an hour or two, during which we explored our parents room. Their rooms were bigger, the area by the couch/bunk beds had more space. My three cousins and I were happy though, it had been a while since the four of us were all together. We went back to our room where we discovered the free Disney movies on the tv!! We were SO excited. Now every moment we spent in the room, a Disney movie was playing on the tv, regardless of whether anyone was paying attention to it or not
Our luggage finally came! And it was just in time for the start of the sailing away party.


My dad snapped this picture, we were on the upper deck. and it shows the time!

and now the sailing away

Mickey and the gang!

Disney really knows how to kick off a cruise. The deck was crowded. Everyone was dancing and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

As soon as that was over, we headed back to our room. We all desperately needed a shower after our 16 hour car ride. It took a while, with the four of us and one shower. Poor Caleb was last. Which would be a trend during the cruise haha. But it wasn’t so bad, we also used our parent’s showers in their rooms because they usually had a completely different schedule than us


Our family had the second seating of dinner, which meant our dinner was at 8 every night. Which also meant that we went to the 6:00 shows! These shows were one of my favorite things about the cruise. I love musicals, especially Disney ones! And these were definitely some of the best ones I’ve seen. Before we knew it, it was time for the first show of the cruise: The Golden Mickeys!

We got the first row! We got there early because we thought it would be crowded and we wanted the first row. It wasn’t that crowded at all. I think people were still getting settled on the first night or exploring the ship; the next two shows were more filled up than this one.


The Walt Disney Theater was beautiful. And it was huge! There was a balcony for additional seating.

I don’t have any pictures from the show because I wanted to thoroughly experience it without having to worry about taking pictures and watching the show through the camera screen. Plus, flash photography isn’t allowed as it could potentially distract the performers.

Warning: SPOILERS! if you haven’t seen these shows yet and you want them to remain a surprise. I personally love being surprised when experiencing new things.

If I had one word to describe the show: WOW. we LOVED it. it incorporated all the Disney classics and the newest Disney movie, Tangled.
The Tarzan scene was amazing, he was swinging up on those ropes and was so close to us.
I also loved the Little Mermaid scene where they performed Under the Sea. Ariel was swimming around and Ursula even made an appearance, with her huge tentacles literally reaching out into the first row, where we could touch them!! I could go on and on about this show. We were laughing and singing along. We literally smiled throughout the whole show.
They also managed to put Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dam in there
It was just all so amazing. Here I was with my cousins, two of which I hadn’t seen for a year, all of us experiencing our first cruise together. And having it be Disney which we all love so dearly. I was loving that moment.

After that amazing show, we had some time to prepare for dinner, so back to the room we went. We saw our first towel animal!

And I loved this pillow, it’s perfect, don’t you think?
I wish I could have brought it home with me

Caleb and I took the bunk beds. I took the top It was really cool how they transformed that couch into bunk beds every night. I loved my bed! It was comfy. Combine that with the gentle rocking of the boat every night and I slept so well! We all did.
Speaking of rocking, no one in my family experienced motion sickness. I really noticed the rocking of the ship the first night but it didn’t bother anyone that much. It was just a really strange sensation to have the whole room moving when you’re watching the Golden Mickeys or sitting down to eat dinner.

Coming up next is dinner at Animator's Palate!

 

[dsnygirl2006]

Loving your TR....can't wait to read more you have a very beautiful family!!!!

 

[Wonder2008]

Hi! I'm really enjoying your trip report so far.

I completely agree with you - I prefer to be surprised when I do something new too. I was on the Dream in May and I hardly read anything about it before we left so everything could be brand new.

Robert

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

Loving your TR....can't wait to read more you have a very beautiful family!!!!

aw thank you!!

Hi! I'm really enjoying your trip report so far.

I completely agree with you - I prefer to be surprised when I do something new too. I was on the Dream in May and I hardly read anything about it before we left so everything could be brand new.

Robert

Thanks! I did the same thing! I knew we were going to go on the Dream so I stayed away from the discussion boards that had anything to do with it! Being surprised is an important part of any new trip, I think!

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

Our first dinner that night was at... Animator’s Palate!!! It was easily everyone's favorite.

The theming here was absolutely amazing. The chairs were Mickey Mouse. You were surrounded by the art of Disney. Everything was included in the theme; silverware, wall to wall art, even the crew members shirts were art! I loved those shirts but unfortunately did not get a picture. Caitlyn was loving it. She even joked with our servers, asking them where she could get a shirt like that.

Oh you can see a little bit of the server’s shirt in the background of this picture:

Our servers names were Gabor and Alwayne. We LOVED them. They really made our cruise special. They were always quick with service and took time to talk to us. I can’t say enough about how awesome these two were. They’ll make more appearances later They introduced themselves to us, and handed us our menus. The adults were all a bit late so it was just the four of us there.

The menus were really cute! All of us had a hard time picking what we wanted, everything sounded delicious!

The adults finally arrived and we started to order. Anri and Nio's parents requested that the little kids get their food first.

They were hungry!

Minnie Mouse

Waiting for our food!

..and it finally arrives!

For the appetizer, I ordered the Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes. This was by far my favorite appetizer of the whole cruise. YUM. I get hungry just thinking about. I have no idea how to describe food so you’ll just have to believe me when I say it was delicious!

I also ordered the Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup, but didn’t get any pictures. I was hungry!

here's the appetizer:

For the main course, I had the Animator’s Trio of Veal. It was fantastic. All the food we had here wowed us. No complaints, we felt like we were eating in a five star restaurant! Better than a five star restaurant, because we had the company of Nemo and friends throughout the dinner. There were big screens (like TV screens) where the characters would float on by and occasionally say hi. We saw all the characters from Finding Nemo.

...I couldn't figure out what that leaf thing was on the right side of the dish. I think it was decoration, because we tried it and it had a weird texture

I forgot what I got for dessert, there was a separate menu for that, but I believe it was something chocolate. Dessert wasn’t the best part though!

While we were eating dessert, Crush came to talk to us! He asked my cousin what she was eating (which was a Mickey bar) and then asked what “that green thing on the table” was. I told him it was my camera. He asked me if I would like to take some pictures, because he would love to pose for me. This was the result:

Hahahahaha! He was great! We were all cracking up. The facial expressions he was making were fantastic and pretty hilarious.

After dinner, Alwayne talked to us a little bit about what kind of training he had to go through for the cruise ship. He told us that he had to jump from deck four into the water three times; the first time with lots of protection, the second time with just a life vest, and the final time with nothing . I can’t imagine! It sounded scary to all of us, and we joked that if we ever had to jump off the ship, we would go find him.

Ciara and I weren’t ready to head to bed yet. We went to explore the night clubs. Caleb would have come with us except he wasn’t 18 yet. Although, considering how tall he is, he could pass as an 18 year old! haha.

The port holes were huge!

Here’s Ciara showcasing all the names of the clubs and bars in the adult section.

We just went in and out of each club (except skyline... We didn't know where it was) to see what it looked like.

After exploring the clubs, we went to visit our parents for a little bit. They had a towel animal too

You can see the chocolates and the Navigator in the corner. The Navigator listed all the activities offered throughout the day. We got one every evening. It’s impossible to be bored on the ship. There is always something to do, sometimes we couldn’t pick what event to go to! We also had to plan out where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do the day before in order to be on time for things and maximize our time, meaning fitting in as many events as possible!!


We said our goodnights and made our way back down to our cabin. We went to sleep early that night because we had to be out the door by 8:00 am for our first excursion: Atlantis Aquaventure.

 

[chicmommy]

YOU HAVE TO UPDATE BEFORE THURSDAY!!!! I LEAVE IN TWO DAYS AND I AM DOING AQUAVENTURE - SO I AM DYING TO HEAR WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF IT!!!!

PLEASE UPDATE YOUR TR BEFORE THURS!!!!

(Thanks in advance hee hee! Oh, and add lots of pics )

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

YOU HAVE TO UPDATE BEFORE THURSDAY!!!! I LEAVE IN TWO DAYS AND I AM DOING AQUAVENTURE - SO I AM DYING TO HEAR WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF IT!!!!

PLEASE UPDATE YOUR TR BEFORE THURS!!!!

(Thanks in advance hee hee! Oh, and add lots of pics )

haha! I'll have an update later today, just for you!

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

July 30


We were up bright and early this morning which was not a problem because we were in the Bahamas! It was our first time there. We also had the Atlantis Aquaventure excursion scheduled early for this day. We quickly got ready and went down to the Walt Disney Theater to meet with our group. Disney was really organized with this. They had mini stations set up with crew members. At the first one, we showed our room keys and excursion ticket (which was in waiting in our rooms when we first got on the cruise). The next station we were given stickers (we got goofy!) to stick on our clothing to remind us which group we were in. There were a lot of people with different excursions planned for that day, including other cruise lines. At the last station, we were given our bracelets which would allow us to access the water park and aquariums in Atlantis. After this, we only had to wait a short while before we were lead off the ship. It helped that we were one of the earliest people there! While we were waiting, a crew member talked to us about safety and what time to be back on the Dream. He also told us that if we took a cab because we miss the bus for some reason, that the fair fare (haha) would be around I think $4. I thought that was great advice and he gave us more advice which I can’t remember. We walked a short distance to where a bus would be picking us up. We rode the short distance to Atlantis, enjoying the beautiful sights during the ride. I would love to be surrounded by beaches and crystal clear turquoise water right now!! Anyways, we soon arrived at Atlantis where a tour guide was waiting for us. We followed her around the resort while she spoke into a mini microphone about where everything is and a bunch of other important stuff. We barely heard anything! The microphone was awful, but it was okay because the sights made up for it!

We decided to visit the Dig (the aquarium) before we went into the water. We had a little trouble finding the aquarium; Atlantis is huge! But with a lot of help from the staff there, we made it just fine.


in front of the aquarium

what we saw:

And along the way we saw these scary guys.

I love seahorses

And saw NEMO

Also jellyfish. which scare me.

The aquarium was not that big. It only took us about 30-45 minutes there. I honestly didn’t think there was anything special about it. I love aquariums though! And I’ve been to better ones than this one. Maybe I'm biased though because I didn't see any dolphins and that's what I love seeing the best at aquariums!


When we were done with the aquarium, we went to rent a locker to put our belongings in. We slathered on the sun block (I don’t like sun block! I feel sticky and feel like it washes off as soon as I get in the water anyways) and went to ride the Current! It was like a lazy river except with rapids and waves. For this, you had to remain in a tube at all times. Those tubes were hard to get into. There were even people in the water who were there to help you onto the tubes..and I was one of those people who needed help. It was just not happening for me, as hard as I tried. The guy had to literally lift me onto the tube, with a jumping start from me. Sad day. We were all laughing about it though.
The first time through a rapid section was really fun. We held hands so we wouldn’t get separated but that did not work out so successfully sometimes. Here we are in the more calm sections of the ride:

Me, Caitlyn, and Ciara

We loved the Current so much that we took a second ride through of the whole thing...and it was a long river!

Caleb, Ciara, and Amanda

Caleb needs to open his eyes more!

Me and Amanda

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

Oh palm trees, how I miss you!


I took this while we were waiting in line for a slide. The really cool thing about this was that the line was in the water and you’re already in your tube! It was connected to the rapids so you had to paddle yourself over there quickly to get in line. From there, a conveyor belt took you up to the top of the slide. So, no walking, no carrying a big tube in the hot sun, and no burning feet! It’s all done in the water with the exception of the conveyor belt. I think all water slides should have this system, don’t you? A conveyor belt to take you to the top of the slide!! Or at least a conveyor belt to take the tube up to the top!

When we got to the top, there were two slides from which you could choose from. One was called the Surge and the other was called the Drop. We went with the Drop It was in an enclosed tube and was pretty scary! Especially that first drop

The slides empty you out back into the Current

We got out of the Current and went exploring by accident. Meaning we got a little lost. We went by this section with a few waterfalls and a series of kiddie slides, which we went on. We had no choice, that was the way to get the the bottom. We had fun though, and it was a neat little place to stumble into.

We found our way and from there, we went to the slide that takes you through a shark tank. It was called the Serpent Slide. This was the view from the top:

I MISS those waters so much!


Another view of the Atlantis Resort

You can see a little of the waterpark in the next picture, those tall buildings in the middle and left are various waterslides

This was what we were riding.

We opted for the slower ride, which is the boxy tube on the left, rather than the faster one, which is the tube on the right.
You can see some of the sharks! And you do slow down when you reach the tunnel. I thought we were stuck for a moment but waves from behind push you towards the end. Some sharks were resting on top of the tunnel, which was really amazing to see from that angle.

Oh, at the top of the slide where the attendant was controlling the flow of people going down the slide, there was a man who didn’t have a bracelet (ours was pink) which you have to have in order to access the waterpark. The attendant was really strict, saying he needed one, but he was explaining to her that he had one but didn’t wear it or something. She let him go but told him sternly not to come back up again unless he had a bracelet. So, make sure you have your bracelet on, because they do check!

After the shark tunnel ride, we went to get lunch. We were starving!! We asked a staff member which restaurant was the best. We had a list we could choose from. She recommended the Dive In. There’s no pictures of the food, it was just burgers and fries. While we waited for our cousins to get food, Caleb and I got silly.

And this describes our relationship perfectly:

We finished eating and decided to go back to the Disney Dream. We wanted to shop!


So we said bye bye! to Atlantis

Overall, we had an excellent day at Atlantis. We spent most of our time in the Current but tried out a few of their slides as well. I liked all the slides we went on and had fun exploring the different parts of the water park



What I would have loved to do was the dolphin interaction. Dolphins are my favorite! Maybe next time

 

[Wonder2008]

It looks like you had a fantastic time at Atlantis! I was there a few years ago and did the Serpent Slide and some of the other animal exhibits. I wanted to go to The Dig but I honestly couldn't find it! I thought the lobby and all of the architecture was amazing, though.

Robert

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

It looks like you had a fantastic time at Atlantis! I was there a few years ago and did the Serpent Slide and some of the other animal exhibits. I wanted to go to The Dig but I honestly couldn't find it! I thought the lobby and all of the architecture was amazing, though.

Robert

we had an awesome time! The Dig was a little hard to find, we needed the help of staff members!! lol it was all really pretty

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

We took the bus back to the Disney Dream and went into the building which had stands set up for shopping. Where we saw these lovely things

And that picture just reminded me that the place was called Festival Place! They had stands set up for various items, mostly jewelry, food, and t-shirts. I got a bracelet there! It says Bahamas. It’s really simple but I love it and have been wearing it every day since.

Caitlyn found all that she wanted in the Festival Place which included a bracelet, ring, and t-shirt! She was tired so she made her way back onto the Disney Dream. Ciara, Caleb, Kat, and I wanted to do a little bit more exploring in Nassau so we went a little beyond the Festival Place and found some really cool shops. Caleb bought a t-shirt that said bahamas. Ciara and I bought the same shirt which said “Smile mon!” haha you will see this shirt later in the report when Ciara wears it. We also bought some feather earrings which I am in LOVE with. You’ll see these later as well! We saw a Coach store and couldn’t resist walking into it. They had different designs than the ones here! We left and started walking back to the ship. We paused to take pictures with our baby cousin:

I'm sad that he's growing up!

We saw all the other ships at dock

In our opinion, the Dream wins hands down, in all categories

And we took more pictures

The Islands of the Bahamas. Caleb cast a shadow on me because he’s so tall

And took more pictures of the gorgeous Dream

I love this picture because it shows you just how HUGE the Dream is; look at the people on the left corner. They’re so tiny!

We went back to our room to get ready for that nights show, which would be Villains Tonight! We had a good shower system going. Caitlyn had already showered since she went to the ship early. Ciara went to shower and Caleb waited for her to finish. Meanwhile, Kat and I went two floors up to the 9th deck so that I could shower in my mom’s room and Kat could shower in her mom’s room. So we all got ready fairly quickly. We went down to the Walt Disney Theater, where sadly, there were no more front row seats. But we still had a great view

You can see my feather earrings in this picture! I am so in love with them.

Here, we were in the theater already and just waiting for the show to start. We passed the time away by taking pictures!
Here’s a few. I really love these pictures because they bring me right back to that exact moment.

apparently, I make that face a lot

Then we saw this guy!!! Panic! Pain was on the other side. But Panic was kind enough to pause and panic there long enough for me to take a picture
They were so hilarious! And they kept it up throughout the whole show.

Again WARNING: spoiler alert! some sections of the show may be enthusiastically described in the following paragraph.


We really enjoyed the show that night. It wasn’t my favorite but I loved seeing the villains and hearing their songs. My favorite part had to be either the Cruella fashion show section or the Yzmapollis section. In the Cruella fashion show, I loved how they transitioned the scene. It went from a scene with Captain Hook to Cruella. Captain Hook was swashbuckling around on his pirate ship, when he is suddenly forced to walk the plank by his crew mates. Then the music starts and the Cruella section begins, so you have Captain Hook strutting fabulously down the plank which turns out to be a runway hahah It was great. The Yzmapollis section was hilarious. Both Yzma and Kronk were spot on. And I loved the music! Writing about this makes me want to be on the Disney Dream right now, watching one of the shows.
I wish they had soundtracks from the shows that you could purchase. Wouldn’t that be great?


So after that fantastic show, we went to get ICE CREAM! We were LOVING the free ice cream on the Dream! We went there at least 2 or 3 times a day

I really really love this picture. The four of us grew up together but now Caitlyn and Caleb live in North Carolina and we don’t see them as often. In this picture, you can see me and Caitlyn smiling really big because we were laughing (I think it was about how much ice cream we were consuming) and trying to contain ourselves enough to take a nice picture.

We sat down to watch Princess and the Frog for a little while we ate our ice cream. That was another perfect moment. Imagine having just watched a fantastic show, sitting down on the open deck 11, watching Princess and the Frog in gorgeous weather, and eating ice cream right before dinner with your favorite cousins.

After we finished our ice cream, Ciara and I went to check out the adults section of Deck 11, while everyone else went to the arcade.

We saw the adults pool, which we would later take a dip in. Then we climbed the stairs to deck 12 to check what was up there.

The view was so beautiful. It was just before sunset. Everything was bathed in warm, sunset colors. You know those colors I’m talking about. The yellow and orange, mix in bits of pink and purple, set against a background of sky blue, all reflected against that indescribable deep blue ocean water. Those colors that take your breath away.

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

After we enjoyed that beautiful sight, we went down to the arcade to join Caitlyn, Caleb, and Kat.
We spent just a short time in there and then went back to our room. We saw our second towel animal!

That night’s dinner was at the Enchanted Garden.

I didn’t get a very good picture of the menu...

We ordered and waited for the food. That night, Alwayne, our assistant server had all our drinks memorized. He didn’t have to ask and set the drinks in front of the right person. He got it right every night after that! We were really impressed with that.

I took pictures with:

Nio he’s a cutie


And my parents <3 who I barely saw on this trip 0 Sorry mom and dad!

For the appetizer, I had the North Atlantic Lobster Ravioli. This was really good, but I liked my pasta appetizer from the previous night.

For the soup, I had the Heirloom Tomato Soup, of which I did not get a picture. It was good too

For the main course, I had the Slow Roasted Prime Rib. That was a lot of meat! But it was one of my favorite main courses. It was really juicy and cooked just right (I asked for it to be medium well) and just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

YUM! For dessert, we asked our main server, Gabor, what he recommended. He immediately recommended Sacher because it was a dessert from his country PUT IN COUNTRY OF HIS HERE WHEN YOU REMEMBER. We also got a language lesson!! He taught us the correct pronunciation of ‘Sacher’. That conversation was really funny. Gabor was so awesome. and it’s pronounced like za-herr, in case anyone was wondering

It was extremely rich and chocolatey. Which is what I like in desserts

We got complimentary desserts! I forgot what they were, but the chocolate one was extremely bitter when you first put it in your mouth, because of the cocoa powder on the outside. As you bit into it though, it turns out to be extremely chocolatey and gooey. And the orange one was like an apricot jelly I think. I think you can tell, I’m more of a chocolate person, than a fruit person when it comes to desserts

We finished dinner and took some pictures with our parents

We went back up to our parent’s room to hang out for a little bit and I took a picture of their towel animal
And the artwork on their wall

After dinner, we wanted to spend some time with our parents, and there was an adult hypnotist show that night in Evolution. Unfortunately, Caleb couldn’t come But he went to go look at his age group’s club. We went down to Evolution just as the show was beginning. It was a comedy hypnotist show, and he asked for some volunteers to go onstage. There was a rush to the stage, people literally ran to get on. We all wanted to volunteer but we were pretty far in the back so we didn’t even attempt to get onstage He did some test to see if you could be hypnotized, some people got sent back to their seats, and others replaced them. It was hilarious! One of the things I remember was this old woman who was there with her husband. The hypnotist put them all under a trance, and went into the audience to the lady’s husband. He told him to shout “cookie!” when he signaled him. So the hypnotist goes back onstage and tells the woman that whenever she hears “cookie”, to go over to her husband and give him a big ol’ smooch haha. Also whenever he yelled it louder and more often, the more passionate the kiss would get. Everyone was cracking up. I also remember this one guy, he looked pretty young, who I thought was the funniest. At one point the hypnotist told him that this woman’s purse was his and that he loved it. As soon as he woke up from his trance, he immediately started staring at the purse, which was on the chair next to him. The hypnotist told him that he could wear it, so he slung it on his shoulder and clutched at that thing for dear life! It was a good time spent with the adults, with lots of laughter going on. Caitlyn and Ciara were not convinced it was real. I thought it was! How would they get that many great actors onstage before the show? Also, the young guy’s (the one I mentioned earlier) family was a little bit in front of us, and they were all laughing really hard. Many of them were taking videos and pictures of the guy and they definitely sounded surprised at some of the things he did. I believed it

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

We said goodnight to the grown ups, but I was definitely not ready to call it a night! It was too early for me. Caitlyn and Ciara decided to stay in the room and call it a night so I asked Caleb if he would like to explore the ship with me. He did So off we went to have an adventure and to document it all on camera!

We started in the lobby atrium. I really suggest going around late at night; there’s barely anyone around and you can take your time to appreciate all the details put into the Dream.

The detail is really amazing though

Absolutely gorgeous! The lobby atrium was where most of the character greetings happened. We did occasionally see characters wandering around though. We were in line for the Aquaduck when we saw Donald Duck! We didn’t have our camera, sadly, but that didn’t stop us from waving hello!

Then I told Caleb to pose like Mr. Donald Duck. and I took a turn

We then took the elevators up to Deck 11 to see the ship at night! It was beautiful.

Caleb wanted to show me his club, so we went to the forward of the ship where it was located. If I had been looking for the place by myself, I would have gotten lost! That club is really out of the way, which I’m sure the teens love. We got there but didn’t really look around that much, so off we went to our next destination!


We checked out all the sports stuff on deck 12. The minigolf course was cute, but we couldn’t find a golf ball so we didn’t do that. We found a foozball table and started playing but then it started drizzling! I didn’t mind at all though. Caleb wanted to play ping pong but I was concerned about the ball going over the railing :O The ping pong table is close to the railing of deck 12! And, Caleb and I get extremely competitive and overenthusiastic when playing against each other. So I could see one of us hitting the ping pong ball over the edge and flailing all over the slippery deck trying to save the ball. haha so that was a no. We went back down to deck 11 and took pictures!


Caleb posed like this -___-. I wasn’t even trying to take his picture, I was trying to get a picture of the poster!! hahaha. You can see some rain on his shirt

I took some pictures of Flo’s Cafe and then of our favorite daily stop.

Then we went inside

We went to those lovely murals and took pictures: Caleb posed like what he thought a prince would look like... and I sat next to the Cinderella mural <3

Then we had some fun in the HUGE port holes!

 

[Cj Fantasmic]

And paused to contemplate the beauty of the light

These really show you how big the lobby atrium is.
I took some pictures of Caleb in the elevator

Okay, before these next few pictures I feel like I have to explain something. Does anyone know what planking is? Well, here’s an explanation if you don’t! Planking became a fad with people just this past year. It’s basically acting like a plank, you lay yourself in the plank position which is face down, and hands down by your side, on a floor, or wherever you can come up with. Well, this fad caught up to my cousin. So, these pictures are of him....planking.

On the elevator

In front of the chandelier

And this one's my favorite: On a port hole

This boy... hahaha


I did not join in because I had a dress on.

We went back to the elevators and took a few silly self portraits of ourselves before returning to our room. We put on our pjs and within (I swear) 2 minutes, Caleb was snoring. I don’t know how that boy falls asleep so fast.
In no time though, I was asleep as well (Just not as fast as my baby cousin!)
We had another early day at Castaway Cay the next morning and we were really excited to see Disney’s own private island. Our second and final excursion was also scheduled for that morning: Snorkeling!

 

[Wonder2008]

I'm really enjoying your pictures!

Spoiler alert:
My favorite part of "Villains Tonight" was when Kronk and Yzma sat down in their roller coaster car thing and you heard the Disney monorail announcement "Please stand clear of the doors..." - I laughed really hard when I heard that!

Robert