astronautmom
Mouseketeer
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- Jan 30, 2014
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Thanks for reading and congratulations on your upcoming cruise. You are going to love it!
TR Completed! A tale of 2 cruises: same Dream cruise two years in a row, totally different!
- Thread starter astronautmom
- Start date
astronautmom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
- Messages
- 158
Days 5: Our final breakfast aboard
Here are the kids in the atrium, either before or after our sit down breakfast. I think this was the only breakfast we ate in an MDR. We prefer Cabana's for breakfast, because it seems to have more choices. Last year we ate our final breakfast in Cabana's as well, because we were on the early dining schedule and there was no way we were going to make it to 6:30 a.m. breakfast. This time it was nice to be able to say our goodbye's to the serving team, especially because we had gotten to know them better than we had our first serving team. Here we are all together.
It reminds me of another story from dinner the night before, since we had eaten in the Royal Palace then too. My daughter is notoriously picky. She's 8, a middle child, an only girl, and more than a little dramatic. When she is trying really hard, she will decline food items with a polite, but obviously forced, "no thank you." When she's not using an enormous amount of self control, she will screech and run away from foods such as bananas, yogurt, and oranges. Her brothers will torture her by chasing her or cornering her with one of the despised foods. These are the non-tangible benefits of having siblings. I tried to use the buffets and open kitchens of the cruise to get her to taste new things, and we had baby steps of success. We walk the fine line between indulgence and scarring her for life. She has a scale of disgustingness: ketchup is a "no thank you," okra is an "I'll try a bite," casserole is "I'm eating it, but I'm not enjoying it," and fresh tomatoes are the most horrifying thing a person could suggest or bring within a 5 foot radius. On the last night, I was cajoling her to try something new and there was some sort of bribery involved. I can't remember where it started, but she was cooperating, we got on a roll, and where it ended was a slice of tomato on her plate, her hiding from it under the table, and the other four of us with tears of laughter rolling down her cheeks, because I had offered to throw her a parade around the dining room if she took just one bite of the slice of tomato. My boys were so desperate to let me embarrass myself they were begging her to do it. I knew it was a completely safe bet. And that scene is probably exactly what our no-show tablemates were trying to avoid when they learned they were to be seated with a young family of five. On the other hand, we would have restrained ourselves if we thought we were bothering anybody.
Here are the kids in the atrium, either before or after our sit down breakfast. I think this was the only breakfast we ate in an MDR. We prefer Cabana's for breakfast, because it seems to have more choices. Last year we ate our final breakfast in Cabana's as well, because we were on the early dining schedule and there was no way we were going to make it to 6:30 a.m. breakfast. This time it was nice to be able to say our goodbye's to the serving team, especially because we had gotten to know them better than we had our first serving team. Here we are all together.
It reminds me of another story from dinner the night before, since we had eaten in the Royal Palace then too. My daughter is notoriously picky. She's 8, a middle child, an only girl, and more than a little dramatic. When she is trying really hard, she will decline food items with a polite, but obviously forced, "no thank you." When she's not using an enormous amount of self control, she will screech and run away from foods such as bananas, yogurt, and oranges. Her brothers will torture her by chasing her or cornering her with one of the despised foods. These are the non-tangible benefits of having siblings. I tried to use the buffets and open kitchens of the cruise to get her to taste new things, and we had baby steps of success. We walk the fine line between indulgence and scarring her for life. She has a scale of disgustingness: ketchup is a "no thank you," okra is an "I'll try a bite," casserole is "I'm eating it, but I'm not enjoying it," and fresh tomatoes are the most horrifying thing a person could suggest or bring within a 5 foot radius. On the last night, I was cajoling her to try something new and there was some sort of bribery involved. I can't remember where it started, but she was cooperating, we got on a roll, and where it ended was a slice of tomato on her plate, her hiding from it under the table, and the other four of us with tears of laughter rolling down her cheeks, because I had offered to throw her a parade around the dining room if she took just one bite of the slice of tomato. My boys were so desperate to let me embarrass myself they were begging her to do it. I knew it was a completely safe bet. And that scene is probably exactly what our no-show tablemates were trying to avoid when they learned they were to be seated with a young family of five. On the other hand, we would have restrained ourselves if we thought we were bothering anybody.
astronautmom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
- Messages
- 158
Day 5 Continued- Disembarkation and the Kennedy Space Center
After the sit down breakfast, it was time to go.
We had collected our Shutter's Package, the autograph items had been delivered the night before, all loose ends wrapped up. We had put our bags out the night before, so we only had the lightest of carry-ons (offs) because we knew we were going straight to get our suitcases and our own rental car and we could reshuffle as necessary. We did have to wait in a line to scan our keys to the world cards and that took longer than I remembered from the last year. Then we were off the ship and into the bowels of the port. We had been assigned to the Daisy Duck section and found our rolling suitcases easily. Everybody took their own suitcase and backpack and rolled it through customs and that was it. Nothing to declare, paperwork in order, we were in the parking garage before we knew it. A quick shuffle of what was going in the trunk, what was riding in the car and what was coming in to Kennedy Space Center and we were on our way.
We still weren't prepared weather wise for Florida to be as cold as it was. I had a generally negative experience at Kennedy Space Center, but I will admit, being cold just put me in a bad mood. Had it been a warm sunny day, who knows how differently I would have felt? We had promised my oldest the trip to the KSC after I learned on the Dis that you could get free tickets from your congressmen. I chased down that lead as part of my planning until I got the final no. Either they were out of tickets for the year or the program was completely discontinued, I'm not sure which, but I had followed the instructions exactly and it didn't work out. I ended up buying discount tickets on Undercover Tourist, which was fine, but it still wasn't a cheap day. I want to say tickets and parking were $150+ and food on top of that. Having been to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, I knew what to expect with food and had looked for alternatives like stopping at a store and bringing a cooler, etc. But in the end, there was nothing that convenient and we ate the cafeteria food there. Your basic overpriced a la carte blah. (I had tried to get everyone to eat a lot at breakfast on the ship, but that only holds you for so long.)
Once we got through the gates, we beelined for the first indoor exhibit. Eldest boy and dad took their time reading everything and basically getting their money's worth. These two raced through to try to find something interesting:
I thought it was neat that you could get so close to most things and touch a lot. Not enough to keep the younger two that interested for very long.
There were lots of things to sit in and explore outside:
The people taking pictures ahead of us in that one (above) tried to sit in it every which way and their younger children kept trying to explain it to them. Mine had the benefit of watching them finally get it right, so they were ready to hop in and pose.
We also got to talk to a real retired astronaut and take our picture with a guy in a space suit who was walking around. Sorry that it didn't turn out well enough to post. Thankfully this retired astronaut was encouraging; when we visited the JSC two years ago over spring break, the retired astronaut took one look at my kid and said, "well you have glasses, so you'll never fly the shuttle" or something to that effect. It was crushing. We've talked to lots of other people since then about what he COULD do, and it's all fine now, but for goodness sakes, that guy was not thinking when he said that! Pull his docent card.
My biggest complaint about the KSC was the waiting. This was not because of crowds. I'm okay with waiting my turn for things. This waiting was all due to the way they set things up. The bus drops you off at a big door and you wait for it to open. Then you are herded inside to watch some sort of film. Then you are released into the exhibit. This happened at least three different times. I also waited with my younger two while husband and oldest went on the virtual reality ride. It was probably a half an hour in an area where we had already exhausted all the activities. My kindergartner was over it. By the time we got to something he actually wanted to do there, he was behaving so badly that he had to go to time out and miss the giant slide. We were also there at the same time as a field trip group and lets just say the chaperones were unconcerned with their kids taking turns or following exhibit rules.
I'm being lazy about looking up the names of the different places and exhibits, but there is an included bus ride that takes you from the entry plaza and exhibits to another big exhibit via a launch pad. On the bus ride, we did see a giant bald eagle's nest, and that was cool. There was plenty of nature to watch out the bus window if that keeps your attention. I enjoyed the bus ride because it was warm. We didn't see any alligators, but I'm told that's a possibility.
Now for the big question: how was the Angry Birds play area? Mixed review. The actual AB area was mostly iPads with Angry Birds, an area with stuffed Angry Birds that you could sling shot at targets, and a mirror maze. It's smaller and less impressive than it sounds, and I realize it doesn't sound that impressive. It's obviously just an afterthought add-on to continue the AB theme. At the Johnson Space Center, the Angry Birds area is a giant indoor playground, and I didn't even get all the way inside it, but my kids still talk about how awesome it was. Apparently there are some full body physics experiments inside and it's connected to the second story with a slide exit. That was very impressive. KSC did have a big, covered playground, and my kids would have loved to play on it more than they did. But it was outside. It still wasn't as impressive as the AB playground in Houston, but I do want to give them credit for a spiffy kids area.
We stayed at KSC well into the afternoon, and it was time to leave when we had seen everything and before we got hungry for dinner. We wanted to get to Cocoa Beach before we bought any more food. (Spoiler alert, it was the Subway within walking distance of our hotel.)
After the sit down breakfast, it was time to go.
We had collected our Shutter's Package, the autograph items had been delivered the night before, all loose ends wrapped up. We had put our bags out the night before, so we only had the lightest of carry-ons (offs) because we knew we were going straight to get our suitcases and our own rental car and we could reshuffle as necessary. We did have to wait in a line to scan our keys to the world cards and that took longer than I remembered from the last year. Then we were off the ship and into the bowels of the port. We had been assigned to the Daisy Duck section and found our rolling suitcases easily. Everybody took their own suitcase and backpack and rolled it through customs and that was it. Nothing to declare, paperwork in order, we were in the parking garage before we knew it. A quick shuffle of what was going in the trunk, what was riding in the car and what was coming in to Kennedy Space Center and we were on our way.
We still weren't prepared weather wise for Florida to be as cold as it was. I had a generally negative experience at Kennedy Space Center, but I will admit, being cold just put me in a bad mood. Had it been a warm sunny day, who knows how differently I would have felt? We had promised my oldest the trip to the KSC after I learned on the Dis that you could get free tickets from your congressmen. I chased down that lead as part of my planning until I got the final no. Either they were out of tickets for the year or the program was completely discontinued, I'm not sure which, but I had followed the instructions exactly and it didn't work out. I ended up buying discount tickets on Undercover Tourist, which was fine, but it still wasn't a cheap day. I want to say tickets and parking were $150+ and food on top of that. Having been to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, I knew what to expect with food and had looked for alternatives like stopping at a store and bringing a cooler, etc. But in the end, there was nothing that convenient and we ate the cafeteria food there. Your basic overpriced a la carte blah. (I had tried to get everyone to eat a lot at breakfast on the ship, but that only holds you for so long.)
Once we got through the gates, we beelined for the first indoor exhibit. Eldest boy and dad took their time reading everything and basically getting their money's worth. These two raced through to try to find something interesting:
I thought it was neat that you could get so close to most things and touch a lot. Not enough to keep the younger two that interested for very long.
There were lots of things to sit in and explore outside:
The people taking pictures ahead of us in that one (above) tried to sit in it every which way and their younger children kept trying to explain it to them. Mine had the benefit of watching them finally get it right, so they were ready to hop in and pose.
We also got to talk to a real retired astronaut and take our picture with a guy in a space suit who was walking around. Sorry that it didn't turn out well enough to post. Thankfully this retired astronaut was encouraging; when we visited the JSC two years ago over spring break, the retired astronaut took one look at my kid and said, "well you have glasses, so you'll never fly the shuttle" or something to that effect. It was crushing. We've talked to lots of other people since then about what he COULD do, and it's all fine now, but for goodness sakes, that guy was not thinking when he said that! Pull his docent card.
My biggest complaint about the KSC was the waiting. This was not because of crowds. I'm okay with waiting my turn for things. This waiting was all due to the way they set things up. The bus drops you off at a big door and you wait for it to open. Then you are herded inside to watch some sort of film. Then you are released into the exhibit. This happened at least three different times. I also waited with my younger two while husband and oldest went on the virtual reality ride. It was probably a half an hour in an area where we had already exhausted all the activities. My kindergartner was over it. By the time we got to something he actually wanted to do there, he was behaving so badly that he had to go to time out and miss the giant slide. We were also there at the same time as a field trip group and lets just say the chaperones were unconcerned with their kids taking turns or following exhibit rules.
I'm being lazy about looking up the names of the different places and exhibits, but there is an included bus ride that takes you from the entry plaza and exhibits to another big exhibit via a launch pad. On the bus ride, we did see a giant bald eagle's nest, and that was cool. There was plenty of nature to watch out the bus window if that keeps your attention. I enjoyed the bus ride because it was warm. We didn't see any alligators, but I'm told that's a possibility.
Now for the big question: how was the Angry Birds play area? Mixed review. The actual AB area was mostly iPads with Angry Birds, an area with stuffed Angry Birds that you could sling shot at targets, and a mirror maze. It's smaller and less impressive than it sounds, and I realize it doesn't sound that impressive. It's obviously just an afterthought add-on to continue the AB theme. At the Johnson Space Center, the Angry Birds area is a giant indoor playground, and I didn't even get all the way inside it, but my kids still talk about how awesome it was. Apparently there are some full body physics experiments inside and it's connected to the second story with a slide exit. That was very impressive. KSC did have a big, covered playground, and my kids would have loved to play on it more than they did. But it was outside. It still wasn't as impressive as the AB playground in Houston, but I do want to give them credit for a spiffy kids area.
We stayed at KSC well into the afternoon, and it was time to leave when we had seen everything and before we got hungry for dinner. We wanted to get to Cocoa Beach before we bought any more food. (Spoiler alert, it was the Subway within walking distance of our hotel.)
astronautmom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
- Messages
- 158
Days 5 & 6 Cocoa Beach
Thanks again to our Starwood (Sheraton) Points, we stayed at the Four Points Sheraton Cocoa Beach that night. There was nothing special about the room, in fact, we had to unplug the refrigerator because it was so loud. But there was attached covered parking and a detached private pool.
Finally, the kids got to swim in a real pool! It was too cold for me (shocker) to want to get wet, but the water itself was warm. Our family had the place to ourselves.
Based on the night sky in that picture, it must have been the last thing we did that night.
While it had still been light, we made the short walk to the beach. It must have been about 4 p.m., because we watched the Disney Dream sail away. We had a great view of it and were sad to not be on it. This picture of the beach was taken the next day:
Even though there were several strangers in that picture, the beach was very quiet. It definitely wasn't warm enough to swim, and no one was trying. But I did take off my sweatshirt!
Of course the day we left was the prettiest day. Thankfully we didn't have to rush out. We spent time in the hotel gift shop and next door at Ron Jon's Surf Shop. Then we walked to the beach again. It warmed up really quickly mid morning and if I had realized how warm it was while we were in the gift shops, we would have headed to the beach earlier. We looked for little shells until it was time to go check out of the hotel and head to the airport. A long line at the TSA and an uneventful nonstop flight home, and there you have it. The end of my trip report. Thanks so much for reading along.
Thanks again to our Starwood (Sheraton) Points, we stayed at the Four Points Sheraton Cocoa Beach that night. There was nothing special about the room, in fact, we had to unplug the refrigerator because it was so loud. But there was attached covered parking and a detached private pool.
Finally, the kids got to swim in a real pool! It was too cold for me (shocker) to want to get wet, but the water itself was warm. Our family had the place to ourselves.
Based on the night sky in that picture, it must have been the last thing we did that night.
While it had still been light, we made the short walk to the beach. It must have been about 4 p.m., because we watched the Disney Dream sail away. We had a great view of it and were sad to not be on it. This picture of the beach was taken the next day:
Even though there were several strangers in that picture, the beach was very quiet. It definitely wasn't warm enough to swim, and no one was trying. But I did take off my sweatshirt!
Of course the day we left was the prettiest day. Thankfully we didn't have to rush out. We spent time in the hotel gift shop and next door at Ron Jon's Surf Shop. Then we walked to the beach again. It warmed up really quickly mid morning and if I had realized how warm it was while we were in the gift shops, we would have headed to the beach earlier. We looked for little shells until it was time to go check out of the hotel and head to the airport. A long line at the TSA and an uneventful nonstop flight home, and there you have it. The end of my trip report. Thanks so much for reading along.
astronautmom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
- Messages
- 158
Thanks!
We didn't order anything for the kids. Our travel agent surprised us with chocolate pirate lollipops on the first day. Then we were selected by someone at Guest Services as a "Magical Family" and everything else that appeared on our stateroom was from him. I don't know the criteria for Magical Family, except that we visited GS more than once on our first day and made friends there. Just one of those Pixie Dustings that happen from time to time!
2Pirates2Princesses
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2010
- Messages
- 2,910
Thank you again for doing this trip report, I enjoyed reading it 
astronautmom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
- Messages
- 158
Thank you, 2Pirates2Princes!
astronautmom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
- Messages
- 158
If you enjoyed this trip report, you may be interested in our next adventure. We just returned from 6 days at Walt Disney World and staying at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort (the WDW property, not an actual Caribbean Beach Resort. Don't I wish!)
My blog continues and will compare our WDW experience to our two cruises.
http://kateges.blogspot.com/2015/08/dcl-fans-visit-world.html
My blog continues and will compare our WDW experience to our two cruises.
http://kateges.blogspot.com/2015/08/dcl-fans-visit-world.html
Alex Aymar
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2015
- Messages
- 69
Awesome Trip report very detailed. I also like how you showed that talking to people was a good experience for your family. I tend to be a introvert and it helped me look at things differently for my next cruise so thank you.
astronautmom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
- Messages
- 158
Thanks Alex!
I don't know if this is true, but my husband saw somewhere that Disney tracks repeat guests and he wondered if we had something on file about our second cruise that would yield us special treatment at Disney World. We did get, in our opinion, the best possible building and room at the resort in the category that we paid for. There wasn't the same opportunity to get to know the individual cast members at WDW that you have on the cruise, but I definitely recommend chatting with the photographers and the CMs that control the characters lines. We had some nice conversations with CMs here and there that yielded good advice.
astronautmom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
- Messages
- 158
I've edited my second post in this TR because the old blog links no longer work. You can find my new blog at kateskitchencounter.blogspot.comand you can search by the tag "Disney Cruise." There is a Disney Cruise Diaries Index Post here: http://kateskitchencounter.blogspot.com/2016/05/vacation-party-of-five-index-to-my.html
There is also a day-by-day recap on my new blog of our summer 2015 Disney World Vacation.
There is also a day-by-day recap on my new blog of our summer 2015 Disney World Vacation.
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