Vacation Potpourri - Disney Dream, Kidani Village, and more! - Vacation Wrap-Up 4/24

[Bridora]

Yay! I can see all the pictures now. Looks like ya'll had a blast at the beach and ended the evening with some tasty pizza.

Yay! I don't even know what was going on with them the other day, but I'm glad they're all back up now---what's a TR without pics!?

I love the beach - I just can't talk Davis into going very much!

 

[Bridora]

“Got out of town on a boat goin’ to southern islands…”
(I've always loved this song by Crosby, Stills, & Nash)
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Or a ship…

Specifically, the Disney Dream goin’ to the Bahamas!



And boy, was our hotel bustling that morning! I'm guessing most of their business is from cruisers. I noticed a big group of people with matching t-shirts would be boarding the Carnival Sensation that morning. (This won't be the last you hear of the Carnival Sensation either!)

Anyway, if you’ve read any of my other trip reports, you’ll remember that the kids and I love-love-love continental breakfast at the hotels. When we went out in search of the breakfast room we only had to follow the sounds! Well, we already knew where the breakfast room was since we had to pass it to get to our room, but still…

It was a madhouse in that breakfast room! So much of a madhouse that we decided to skip out on the free breakfast that morning. I didn't even see an empty table. Instead, I made a run out to the van and raided our “Disney breakfast” stash - individual sized cereal boxes for the kids and Special K bars for Davis and myself.

After eating, we took our bags and shuttle vouchers to the appointed shuttle meeting room and saw there was a line coming out the door. I don’t know if there was another shuttle loading or what, but we joined the line out in the hallway. Before too long, the line began to move and we found ourselves in a nearly empty conference room with rows of chairs and a TV. The kids made themselves comfortable in chairs while Davis and I stood against the wall, out of the way with the bigger luggage.

Our shuttle driver arrived, gave us some instructions, including how to arrange for our pick-up after the cruise, and then we were off to the terminal! I think they usually have two shuttles running, but for some reason or other there was only one today and he was running a bit late. They ended up loading for two pick up times instead of just ours--oh well--at least it was a fairly short ride! And there was a cruise ship at the end of it!!!


Our first glimpse of the Dream:

Soooo excited!

Allison - modeling the cool sunglasses she found at Ron Jon. Notice that Davis and Luke had to stand.

Pulling in to the terminal…

We got off the shuttle, made sure all our bags were off the trailer and with a porter, and then went right down the sidewalk to a little gated-off entrance.


We only had to wait a few minutes outside at the gate before we were ushered inside, through security, and up the escalator. We were greeted by Cast Members who directed us to fill out the form stating we weren’t sick and then to the check-in desk. Check-in was a breeze and we were given our boarding number: Group 10.

Not too shabby! After taking care of business we hopped in line to meet Minnie Mouse.

And took some time to look at the model ship that was on display:

They had begun calling groups to board while we were in line to meet Minnie. The closer they got to calling “10” the more excited we became. Before we knew it they had called our number and we were going through these doors:

(I borrowed the above picture from All Ears because I didn’t take one of my own.)

Almost on the “boat” ….almost on the “boat”!!!


We found a small line inside the hallway - we were waiting to have our picture made. While waiting I spotted someone I knew was going to be on our cruise...someone I’d hoped we’d run into - it was Mickeystoontown - Lisa and her family! I hollered out “Lisa!“ and we all chatted for a few minutes while waiting to have our pictures made.


After smiling for the photographer and giving our name to the Cast Member at the door - we found ourselves walking right into the atrium with an awesome welcome! Directly behind us was Lisa’s family. As they walked in the piano player began playing “happy birthday” - just for her son. We thought that was pretty cool!


We were told staterooms would be ready at 1:30 and informed that Cabana’s was open and serving lunch. I was just following those in front of us at that point. We went down a hallway and that’s when I had my first “porthole sighting”. Yeah, pretty funny thing to be excited about, I guess!

And there's the Carnival Sensation!

Seeing how much we were enjoying playing in the portholes, Lisa offered to take a family portrait!

Thanks Lisa!


I'm not sure were I snapped these next few pictures:

I can’t remember if we took an elevator to get to Cabana’s or not, but these elevator shots lead me to believe we may have:

We did eventually pop up in Cabana’s where we were greeted by Cast Members armed with hand sanitizing wipes - nice!


After filling our plates to the max, we found a table where we could enjoy lunch. It just happened to be right by the drink machines and right by Lisa and her family! Hi guys!

And no, it’s not filled to the max, lol! This was a combination of my first, appetizer-type plate and my fears of stuffing myself silly on a cruise with all-you-can-eat-because-you’ve-already-paid-for-it meals. I was trying to be good!

...Continued in next post or here...

 

[Bridora]

...Continued...


We hung out at the table for a while - just taking in our surroundings.

Wish I could still choose from those wireless networks right now!

Allison in the hoodie from Ron Jon - she practically lives in that thing still!

That covered area on the right side of the picture is where we were dropped off not too long ago!

Another cruise ship outside! I don’t know which one that was.

The kids were itching to try out to Aqua Duck - or at least get into the pool - so we headed that way. The kids joined lines for the restroom so that they could change into their suits. Davis and I waited for them at a table and stashed their things in our carry on bag. (Forgot to mention that I had one of those packed with our suits, cruise documents, flip-flops, and sunscreen!) Luke almost left his shirt behind, but remembered and ran back inside to get it.

While the kids got in line for the Aqua Duck, I wandered around and took a few pictures before deciding to change into my suit to join them.

Davis kept watch on our things and on the time. When 1:30 rolled around, we gathered everything up and went off to find our stateroom: 8100.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I was looking at the pictures of you guys with Minnie and I see us waaaaay over in the left hand corner of the picture. That's me in the red shirt and the straw hat.

Who would have ever thought that we would run into each other not once but twice? There were loads of folks getting on the ship so the odds were probably pretty high. Hey, we shoulda bought a lottery ticket that day.

You did a whole lot better than me on planning. I didn't even think to pack out swimming suits/trunks to change into before setting sail. Smart of you!

 

[Bridora]

I was looking at the pictures of you guys with Minnie and I see us waaaaay over in the left hand corner of the picture. That's me in the red shirt and the straw hat.

Who would have ever thought that we would run into each other not once but twice? There were loads of folks getting on the ship so the odds were probably pretty high. Hey, we shoulda bought a lottery ticket that day.

You did a whole lot better than me on planning. I didn't even think to pack out swimming suits/trunks to change into before setting sail. Smart of you!

I looked back at the picture and saw you!

I know - I'm glad we did! I guess we're better at being in the same place at the same time on a cruise ship than in the parks!

Packing a day bag with swimsuits/other necessities is one of the things I read about in others' trip reports and in our cruise planning stuff from Disney that I actually remembered to do!

 

[Bridora]

"To understand the future, you have to go back in time..."
I still haven't seen Men in Black III, but I've heard the song!

I am interrupting your regularly scheduled Trip Report to show you the following:
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I didn't even think to check Davis's phone for pictures until last night. It turns out that he had a lot - some from days I've already written about. Silly me!

Here are some better shots from The Hammock. You can get a better feel for the nature trail in these:

Anything up there?


These next shots are from Thursday, May 24:

A better look at the sidewalk where we were dropped off that morning. That's our shuttle driver giving us instructions there in the bottom left hand part of the picture!

Here's the inside of the terminal. Those people in the bottom left are filling out the "We're not sick" sheet. The left hand side of the picture has the check in desks, straight ahead is where we met Minnie. You can see the Mickey shaped doors in the center of the picture. I think that line of the right hand side was to sign your kids up for the kids' club/activities. We didn't have to wait for that because the kids were older.

Admiral Donald

Me at lunch. You can't really see me, but you've got a good view of what's outside!

More of what's outside.

Luke and his lunch. I guess that was Allison's pizza in the other picture, then!
Looks like he had macaroni and cheese, french fries, and chicken strips.


These next few pictures Davis must have taken at some point while we were Aqua Ducking. Which was a lot of fun, by the way! I don't think I said that earlier.

I just noticed the guy in Mickey ears in the center of the picture -

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm so glad that you thought to look at Davis's phone pictures. There were some really cool ones in there. I think I was a little overwhelmed when we entered the terminal because I didn't take very many pictures in there. Good to see that Davis was calm, cool and collected and thought to do so.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Joining in.

 

[Bridora]

I'm so glad that you thought to look at Davis's phone pictures. There were some really cool ones in there. I think I was a little overwhelmed when we entered the terminal because I didn't take very many pictures in there. Good to see that Davis was calm, cool and collected and thought to do so.

Me too! I can't believe I didn't think about it sooner, though!

The terminal was so busy! Add to that making sure you had everything taken care of check-in wise and listening for your boarding number, it was easy to forget to take pictures. That must be what happened to me, too! Which just proves that we're the ones who take of business!

Joining in.

I'm so glad you're here! Hope you enjoy!

 

[BsAngel]

You have caught the magic in ways others havent I cant wait to read more

 

[Bridora]

You have caught the magic in ways others havent I cant wait to read more

Thanks! I'm glad you're here!

I'm going to work on another chapter right now!

 

[Bridora]

I don’t know any songs about staterooms.​

But it was 1:30 and our stateroom, 8100, was supposed to be ready. We gathered our things and headed back inside. Here’s where we were:

Deck 11 Aft


It was a bit disorienting at first, learning which set of stairs or elevators to take to get from, say Aft to Mid-Ship. You couldn’t just go straight from where you were to where you were trying to get every time.

We took an elevator down to Deck 8.

Fancy!



(The weirdest thing to me - not that it happened then, but it happened many times over that 3 night cruise - was that almost every time we left Deck 11 or 12 to go to our stateroom I always wanted to go UP when our stateroom was DOWN!)

Hi Davis!


At some point on the cruise, on one of the elevators, that right screen would go out, never be fixed, and bother Davis to no end!



We found our stateroom without much trouble, though we would later learn a shorter route than that first one we took. The hallways seemed endless at first.

See what I mean?

We quickly began to ooh and aah over our “home” for the next few days:

I think the very first order of business was the verandah, though.

Hello there Carnival Sensation! I also remember zooming in on the Carnival ship and that barge-ish thing there, looking for people - Some say I have a reputation for zooming - it’s quite fun to watch our home videos!




And then it was back inside to discover the rest:

Or to goof-off in front of the mirror!

I really don’t know why there aren’t more pictures of the stateroom. I will refer you over to Lisa at mickeystoontown’s trip report if you’re dying to see stateroom pics from this very same cruise. They had the exact same room as we did, the only difference being that theirs had a giant porthole.


While we were in there, goofing-off and not taking pictures, Freddy, our Stateroom Attendant stopped by to instruct us on proper hair-dryer usage. He gave us a quick run down of the room and all, but what I remember most is don’t plug two higher voltage things (like hair dryer and straightener) in at once - one at a time please! Freddy was a great guy and the kids loved his accent. I’m pretty sure he said something about the safety drill too somewhere in there.


No pictures of Freddy or that safety drill, either.


It was pretty much controlled chaos out there. I was glad to get that part finished!



The next major thing to happen was actually leaving port! I think we went back to our room before the sail away party, though. Freddy had also been back to magically pull beds out of thin air and leave us this awesome towel animal on the bottom bunk:

Yes, there was a time in there when we first got in the room that we were wondering where those bunks were. Did we book the room we thought we did? Did they assign us the wrong kind? But then we saw the little handle-type thing in the ceiling above the couch and figured the bunk pulled out from there. We couldn’t get it to come down, though. I can’t remember if that was before or after we found the mysterious ladder in the closet!





Sometime in there our luggage was delivered because I remember changing before going back to Deck 11 for the party.


We took a small tour of the ship, going back through the atrium, before making our way back to the pool area for the Sail Away party.

Isn’t it so pretty?

And of course, this beautiful thing needs several pictures taken of it!

Hello again, Admiral Donald!

What have we here?

A self-serve, soft-serve ice cream station?




And so began the quest for 3 ice cream cones a day.

 

[mickeystoontown]

It's sounds like ya'll had much better luck finding your stateroom than we did. Well, actually, we lucked up the first time but couldn't remember how to get there every other time. I love the pictures of you guys acting all goofy! Too cute!

The atrium was gorgeous wasn't it!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Loving the TR - your DH meal doesn't look like Shepherds Pie though unless it's a very unusual one. Can't wait to hear if your not overeating willpower continues for long

 

[Bridora]

It's sounds like ya'll had much better luck finding your stateroom than we did. Well, actually, we lucked up the first time but couldn't remember how to get there every other time. I love the pictures of you guys acting all goofy! Too cute!

The atrium was gorgeous wasn't it!

I don't know how much better we did. We really did go the long way - I knew we'd eventually reach our number!

Loving the TR - your DH meal doesn't look like Shepherds Pie though unless it's a very unusual one. Can't wait to hear if your not overeating willpower continues for long

Thanks! Glad you're here!

I had the hardest time trying to figure out what that was! I really don't remember what he ordered and tried to match it to something on the menu. He thought he ordered the Sheperd's Pie, but I agree that it doesn't look right. I know whatever the "main" dish was is under that large hunk of bread!

 

[15isto2]

Loving the TR - your DH meal doesn't look like Shepherds Pie though unless it's a very unusual one. Can't wait to hear if your not overeating willpower continues for long

It looks like a chicken & ham pie to me but thats not on the menu, I am intregued at curried shepherds pis... never heard if that one in the Uk LOL

 

[Bridora]

It looks like a chicken & ham pie to me but thats not on the menu, I am intregued at curried shepherds pis... never heard if that one in the Uk LOL

Hi!

I'm just going to consider you an expert and go with chicken & ham pie. I'll ask Davis tonight if that rings a bell! Even though that menu I got off the internet looks exactly like the one we were offered, I'm sure it could have been different. Restaurants are always changing up their menus!

And now you have a new dish to try - curried shepherds pie!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hey girl! I hope that ya'll don't get a ton of bad weather on the tail end of Issac. Batten down the hatches and stay safe!

 

[Bridora]

Hey girl! I hope that ya'll don't get a ton of bad weather on the tail end of Issac. Batten down the hatches and stay safe!

Thanks!

As of right now, they're saying it will move in sometime tomorrow and calling for the wind to pick up today.

It'll go through you before it gets to us, though - so you guys stay safe too!

 

[Bridora]

Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away

Enya - too obvious?

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Bye-Bye, Carnival Sensation!

It was time for the Sail Away party! I had read about how crowded it is on the pool decks during the party but we wanted to check it out for ourselves anyway.

We found a spot pretty close to the middle of Deck 11 to watch some of the show.

What was taking place “on stage” was also shown on the jumbo-tron so that even if you couldn’t see the performers, you didn’t miss the show.

This cast member was doing choreography right in front of us!

Sometime after that, the whole deck got involved in some line dance or another - I don’t remember its name, but very similar to the Electric Slide - and Luke and I joined in for a song or two.


We then went upstairs to Deck 12 to see if we could get a better view for sailing away. There are stairs right there outside on deck, (it’s all open there in the middle where the pools are) so we just went up and found a spot at the rail. I was also doing a lot of video recording at this time.

Some of the scenery as we began to move:

Aqua Duck!

We left the railing to do some more wandering. We found the Edge, which is a club designed for the pre-teens (11-14) on the ship. We tried to commit that location to memory, as Allison wanted to check it out sometime while onboard.

We eventually found our way back down to our stateroom, where we went straight out to the verandah for more ocean watching!

Apparently there was more wildlife than just this bird to be seen. Mickeystoontown said they saw dolphins and sting rays and we were sailing away. We didn't see any of those guys, though.

Tiny boat!

…Continued here, in next post…..