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

[Bridora]

…..continued…..

Next, I did a little study on the life boats:

Life boats, looking aft

Without the side of the ship in the shot.

Life boats, looking forward.

Life boats, looking mostly-straight down.

One of my favorite things to do was to just watch the water. Especially right there under the life boats. It was so pretty!

Right?


Here’s a picture of the bunks, ready for sleeping:

I must have gone back inside for a bit then, ha!


I then joined the rest of the gang on the verandah to continue watching the ocean.

Allison, after reclaiming her sunglasses from the creature inside.

Love!

Creepin' on another ship!

However, we didn’t come on this cruise to ONLY watch the ocean, so we made ourselves ready to head out in search of adventure!


But first, one last sneaky picture taken from Davis’s phone. It gives a pretty good idea of the stateroom. Taken from the verandah doors, sometime before the bunk was down for the night:

 

[mickeystoontown]

Ya'll braved standing down on the main deck where the party was? It was so crowded when we got there!

Your room looks just our's except we had a porthole and you had the verandah which I am officially jealous of.

 

[Bridora]

Ya'll braved standing down on the main deck where the party was? It was so crowded when we got there!

Your room looks just our's except we had a porthole and you had the verandah which I am officially jealous of.

We are brave souls, what can I say?

I can't say enough great things about the verandah! I think it was my favorite place on the whole ship!

 

[princess_momma]

I'm here!! Better late than never, right?

Allison is so funny with her sunglasses. I crack up every time I see them!

AHHHHH I am so excited to go on a cruise! I am loving all your pictures!! I cannot wait for more!!

 

[Bridora]

I'm here!! Better late than never, right?

Allison is so funny with her sunglasses. I crack up every time I see them!

AHHHHH I am so excited to go on a cruise! I am loving all your pictures!! I cannot wait for more!!

Definitely!

She loves those things! They're actually still in existence, too - which is pretty good for things like sunglasses around here!

I saw your ticker!!! You're going to have so.much.fun! Are you going to do a pre-trip or trip report?

 

[princess_momma]

Definitely!

She loves those things! They're actually still in existence, too - which is pretty good for things like sunglasses around here!

I saw your ticker!!! You're going to have so.much.fun! Are you going to do a pre-trip or trip report?

Yay for sunglasses being around! So crazy how sunglasses are always so easy to lose!!

I am probably going to do a PTR. I just want to wait until I'm "officially" booked. The only reason I'm not now is because we are going to use my CM discount (PS I work at the Disney Store now ) and I have to wait 90 days until I can use the discount on cruises. So mid-November I should be booked and starting the PTR!!

 

[princess_momma]

Yay for sunglasses being around! So crazy how sunglasses are always so easy to lose!!

I am probably going to do a PTR. I just want to wait until I'm "officially" booked. The only reason I'm not now is because we are going to use my CM discount (PS I work at the Disney Store now ) and I have to wait 90 days until I can use the discount on cruises. So mid-November I should be booked and starting the PTR!!

Lol. I lied. I couldn't wait anymore. I wanted to just get it started! The link is in my signature!

 

[MEK]

Subbing to your TR so I can come back later to read. I am planning a Dream cruise for Oct 2013, so I can't wait to read about your experience! Sounds like you had a great trip. I can't see your pics because I'm firewalled at work, so I'll be back later.

 

[reyasmommy]

Hello!

I'm loving your trip report! Thanks for posting so many pictures of the dream. We'll be taking a 3 day cruise in November and looking at your pictures are making super excited!

You and your family look like a fun crew!

I'm patiently waiting for more!

 

[Bridora]

Yay for sunglasses being around! So crazy how sunglasses are always so easy to lose!!

I am probably going to do a PTR. I just want to wait until I'm "officially" booked. The only reason I'm not now is because we are going to use my CM discount (PS I work at the Disney Store now ) and I have to wait 90 days until I can use the discount on cruises. So mid-November I should be booked and starting the PTR!!

I had to get rid of my favorite pair of sunglasses a few weeks ago because I left them out on the dash of the car in the hot hot summer we've had and the tint on the lenses got really messed up. They were the ones I had in the TR. They were just cheap ones, but I really liked them.

Congrats on being a CM!

Lol. I lied. I couldn't wait anymore. I wanted to just get it started! The link is in my signature!

Too funny! I'll have to go right over and get started reading!

I'm so torn about this game tonight, by the way. You know we're Steelers fans, but I've got Peyton Manning in for my fantasy team. My mistake, I should have put in my backup - the Redskins, but I really had somehow missed that it was the Broncos & the Steelers tonight and by the time I realized it, it was too late.

Subbing to your TR so I can come back later to read. I am planning a Dream cruise for Oct 2013, so I can't wait to read about your experience! Sounds like you had a great trip. I can't see your pics because I'm firewalled at work, so I'll be back later.

Hi! Hope you enjoy reading!

We had a great time! You'll love it!

Darn firewalls!

Hello!

I'm loving your trip report! Thanks for posting so many pictures of the dream. We'll be taking a 3 day cruise in November and looking at your pictures are making super excited!

You and your family look like a fun crew!

I'm patiently waiting for more!

Hello!

November is getting closer! I'll try to post some more pics to add to your excitement!

And I'm glad you're being patient! Last week was such a crazy week that I didn't even have time to do another chapter. Hopefully, I'll get one up tonight!

 

[Bridora]

Secret Agent Man

They're giving you a number and taking away your name.​

Each day, Disney provides you with an itinerary of all the events that will take place, the Personal Navigator. The first day, I’m pretty sure there were stacks of them in the terminal. Every other day, though, our Stateroom Attendant would leave it for us when he came to turn down the beds.

Our Navigator for the day:

Looks like the Mandatory Lifeboat Drill was at 4:00 pm, the Sail Away party was at 4:45 pm, and Port Departure was 5:00 pm.

It opens up also and shows a timetable of the activities taking place during the day and evening, color-coded by: The Main Event, Fun for All Ages, Just for Adults, and Character appearances.

The back listed Operating Hours for everything on the ship as well as special shopping opportunities and other information.

We had the second seating for dinner (8:30 pm), which meant that we were to attend the first show each evening (6:15 pm). The Golden Mickeys were that night, and while that would have been my pick of shows to see, we didn’t attend. We’re not all that big on “shows” anyway, especially not Davis. That, plus the fact that 6:15 always seemed to come too early kept us away from the shows. Don’t worry – even though we never attended a show, we were never without something to do!

Something we were all excited about trying out was the Midship Detective Agency. We were big fans of the KimPossible missions in Epcot and we can’t wait to try the updated Agent P’s Word Showcase Adventure! While out exploring the ship, we decided to find Headquarters (Deck 5, Mid) and get our sleuthing on.

Headquarters is, of course, a well-themed area.

Singing up.

You are here.

Wanted for being Mean & Despicable!

Detective Allison

Detective Luke

Getting the details on the Stolen Paintings Case.

The telegram reads:
To: Mickey Mouse
Midship Detective Agency
From: The Ship’s Captain
Mickey, congratulations on catching Pete!
That despicable villain stole my dress whites and tried to dye them another color. But you caught him red handed! Now I can still go to the formal dinner tonight. I am in your debt.



You take one of these cards:

And register it before picking up one of these Detective Casebooks:

Inside is a “Crime Scene Map” which shows the location of each magic portrait.

There were two mysteries that we could choose to help solve. One had something to do with missing puppies and the other, the one that we chose, had something to do with missing art. One good thing about the Midship Detective Agency is that you can play at your own pace (as long as you’ve kept up with your badge) throughout the entire cruise. So if you only have time for one or two stops on one day, you can pick right up where you left off the next day.

I will say that using the Crime Scene Map helped us (well, at least me) learn our way around the ship. Like I said before, you couldn’t always go straight from Deck X Aft to Deck Y Forward, so you had to learn where the staircases were and which decks did go all the way across the ship.

I also have to say that we learned the hard way and paid with seasickness at the very beginning. We were still on Deck 5. I don’t remember which Deck we were going to next, but I believe we were heading “Forward” I led the way down the hallway outside of the staterooms, thinking we’d come out Forward and go up or down from there.

Mistake.

Something about that long, never ending hallway got to most of us. I can’t remember if it affected Luke, but the rest of us were feeling our first seasickness of the cruise. I had been worried about Davis anyway, because he doesn’t do well on motion simulators, rides that spin, or in the backseat of a car. But he wasn’t too worried about himself. I didn’t, however, bring along any motion sickness medication. I had heard that what they hand out on the ship worked well, so I figured that we would have that option, if necessary.

We quickly (as quickly as we could, anyway) got ourselves out of there. I think we went out and got some air, but that feeling lingered with us, hiding somewhere in backs of our minds.

Once we were feeling better, we went back inside to find some clues.

There is a special marker in the floor where you stand and hold your badge up “like so”. If you’re not holding it correctly, there is a nice voice that will guide you. Pretty cool! In this picture she was moving the badge around, which moved that circle in the painting. It must been a flashlight type search. Each painting did something different!

I definitely recommend playing this no matter what age you are; even if there are no kids in your party!


While playing, we were also exploring. Deck 4 became one of my favorites. I think everyone else liked it too. We may have discovered it while recovering from the long, claustrophobic Deck 5 hallway. Deck 4 housed the lifeboats and was the designated “running deck”. It seems like there was always at least one person running there. It was an outside promenade around the ship, and also had some very nice deck/lounging chairs along the wall.

Deck 4 from above – that’s the deck we could see from our verandah!

What else was on Deck 4?



Shuffleboard!

You can’t go on a cruise and not play shuffleboard, right?

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for dinner.
We’d be dining at Enchanted Garden that night. The Navigator informed us that the menu was to be Continental Market Cuisine.

 

[mickeystoontown]

We never got a chance to play the Detective Agency games and I'm now wishing that we had. It looks like a lot of fun.

I hate to read that you guys got motion sick. We did really well and I only felt a little yucky the first night. I don't reven thought that it was motion sickness but more of a sinus problem.

I loved the pictures of the bright blue water! The water was always so pretty.

 

[princess_momma]

I'm so torn about this game tonight, by the way. You know we're Steelers fans, but I've got Peyton Manning in for my fantasy team. My mistake, I should have put in my backup - the Redskins, but I really had somehow missed that it was the Broncos & the Steelers tonight and by the time I realized it, it was too late.

How did you do overall? Luckily for me, in both my leagues, I had Matt Ryan! I was actually the top scorer in both leagues! And in one of them I beat Garret's sister-in-law by 43 points. I did have the Steelers defense, but I didn't want to play them when they were playing the Broncos so I picked up the Lions D, because you would think they would do work on the Rams, but no. It was a wash. Both the Steelers and Lions D got 4 points, so it wouldn't have mattered. C'est la fantasy. IS YOUR BACKUP RG3?! If so, I am insanely jealous. In one of my leagues, Andrew Luck is my backup and so far I am NOT happy about it. (FYI, I have always been pro-RG3 over Luck, but he wasn't available and Garret is all about Luck and is sad he didn't get him in any leagues, so we decided that I would pick him up and see. This is why I don't listen to men about fantasy!)

Anywho...

That detective game looks SO FUN! I especially love that you can do it throughout your cruise at your own pace. It's nice to just do that here and there as opposed to taking out a huge chunk to get it all done at once. That was our problem with KP Missions! We got too distracted all the time that we couldn't keep our focus on it.

Deck 4 looks nice! Looks really peaceful. I'll have to remember that. OMG the ships sound so confusing! lol I am sure I will get so lost. Or have my nose stuck in a map the whole time! I am really going to go need to beg the cruise boards to give me cheats about how to get around. One time I read somewhere the red anchors pointed forward and blue anchors pointed aft? Or something. Like they secretly try to help you know which direction is where but only if you know that secret. I don't even know if I got the names right! I'll really need to study!

 

[Bridora]

We never got a chance to play the Detective Agency games and I'm now wishing that we had. It looks like a lot of fun.

I hate to read that you guys got motion sick. We did really well and I only felt a little yucky the first night. I don't reven thought that it was motion sickness but more of a sinus problem.

I loved the pictures of the bright blue water! The water was always so pretty.

Well, there's something for your "pro" column on your "Should We Do Another Cruise?" list!

I wasn't an all-out puking kind of sickness, but rather just an uneasy feeling - for me anyway. Allison's was a little worse, but again, no puking!

How did you do overall? Luckily for me, in both my leagues, I had Matt Ryan! I was actually the top scorer in both leagues! And in one of them I beat Garret's sister-in-law by 43 points. I did have the Steelers defense, but I didn't want to play them when they were playing the Broncos so I picked up the Lions D, because you would think they would do work on the Rams, but no. It was a wash. Both the Steelers and Lions D got 4 points, so it wouldn't have mattered. C'est la fantasy. IS YOUR BACKUP RG3?! If so, I am insanely jealous. In one of my leagues, Andrew Luck is my backup and so far I am NOT happy about it. (FYI, I have always been pro-RG3 over Luck, but he wasn't available and Garret is all about Luck and is sad he didn't get him in any leagues, so we decided that I would pick him up and see. This is why I don't listen to men about fantasy!)

Anywho...

That detective game looks SO FUN! I especially love that you can do it throughout your cruise at your own pace. It's nice to just do that here and there as opposed to taking out a huge chunk to get it all done at once. That was our problem with KP Missions! We got too distracted all the time that we couldn't keep our focus on it.

Deck 4 looks nice! Looks really peaceful. I'll have to remember that. OMG the ships sound so confusing! lol I am sure I will get so lost. Or have my nose stuck in a map the whole time! I am really going to go need to beg the cruise boards to give me cheats about how to get around. One time I read somewhere the red anchors pointed forward and blue anchors pointed aft? Or something. Like they secretly try to help you know which direction is where but only if you know that secret. I don't even know if I got the names right! I'll really need to study!

I won my game! And the difference in QBs ended up being only 4 points. It was hard to want fantasy points AND to want a Steelers win, though!

I don't tend to listen to Davis much on FF either! I guess you could say I've learned my lesson on that one!

Yeah, RG3 is my other QB, but I might put him in next week, we'll see.

I didn't try to learn my way around the ship before going, but I don't know if it would have helped or not. It seemed like we just kind of learned as we walked. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it! And wow! that anchor thing sounds really confusing, lol!

 

[Bridora]

The End of Embarkation Day​

This is going to be short and sweet. Like a Tootsie Roll. Unless you’re thinking of those really big ones, in which case you should think of the small ones.

Like these.


We got changed for dinner at Enchanted Garden. That consisted of a simple cotton dress for me and khakis and a button down for Davis. Luke got away with just changing into khaki pants:

And Allison put on a cute skirt and top.

Nothing too fancy here.


Enchanted Garden is on Deck 2, Midship. We found our way there fairly easily. We were handed sanitizing wipes, on our way in. Always glad to see that! We had not made a request to be seated just the four of us, but that’s how we were seated. I think we were all pretty happy with that arrangement!

Throughout the meal I could feel the ship’s movement every so often. Was it because we were on a lower deck? Some of that motion sickness from earlier still hanging on? Nothing too major, though.

Our servers were Niks and Palmer. I’ve forgotten their formal titles, but Niks handled our entrees and Palmer took care of our drinks, etc. We enjoyed both their service - they were friendly and helpful - great servers! I’m also drawing a blank on most of our food choices. I think I remember having a very good tomato soup. Davis ordered the North Atlantic Lobster Ravioli - with roasted garlic and Sweet Basil in a light tomato broth (description from Disney Food Blog) for his appetizer. Luke ate as much of it as Davis would let him. He loved it! I thought it was pretty good too. Luke is our more adventurous eater, while Allison sticks to familiar tastes.

While waiting for our desserts to arrive, Palmer stopped by with a little brain teaser for the kids (and us!) He took some crayons and laid them out in a certain way on the table (of course, I didn’t take a picture and have forgotten how he did it - stay tuned for Royal Palace night - I’ve got pictures of that one!) He then gave us instructions on how the crayons needed to end up and restrictions as to what we could do to them to make them end up that way. We did end up solving the puzzle, though!


I take that no-picture statement back! Here is the solved puzzle (plus Luke and his dessert):

We are looking at it upside down. It started out with "two triangles". That orange one hanging down there would have been moved up to fill in the gap and make one of the triangles. We were to make “four triangle” out of it. You can see by my posting of the spoiler pic how it was done!


And so concluded our first dinner on the Disney Dream!


When we returned to our stateroom, stuck behind the little fishy with our room number on it, there was an invitation for Allison to come by and check out Edge.

Inside our stateroom, there were 4 chocolates waiting for us on the bed, as well as an invitation to a DVC Members' Celebration event, and our Personal Navigator for the next day: Nassau day!

Using my brain powers, I decided the DVC Members Celebration would be similar to the Welcome Home Wednesdays event that they have in WDW. That pretty much means a way for the DVC folks to promote their new properties and to give away free stuff! Hoping for new DVC baseball caps, Davis and I made plans to go.


We had no excursions planned for Nassau. Was that a mistake?

 

[ShortStuff]

My daughter and Grandmunchkins want to go on a Disney cruise out of TX next year. I am so happy to see your trip report and be able to see some of the offerings on the cruise!! What a wonderful vacation you are having so far!! Great pictures! :

I love pre teens. No food pictures, but will wear those fun sunglasses!

 

[Bridora]

My daughter and Grandmunchkins want to go on a Disney cruise out of TX next year. I am so happy to see your trip report and be able to see some of the offerings on the cruise!! What a wonderful vacation you are having so far!! Great pictures! :

I love pre teens. No food pictures, but will wear those fun sunglasses!

How old are your Grandmunckins? (love that word, by the way!)

You should see some of the things she wears! It's all cute stuff, (she has a hair barrette with a sombrero attached, for instance, so that it looks like she's wearing a tiny sombrero when she puts it in her hair) but it's funny what embarrasses them and what doesn't.

Or maybe it's just pretty much anything I do that she wouldn't deem "normal" that embarrasses her!

 

[princess_momma]

I won my game! And the difference in QBs ended up being only 4 points. It was hard to want fantasy points AND to want a Steelers win, though!

I don't tend to listen to Davis much on FF either! I guess you could say I've learned my lesson on that one!

Yeah, RG3 is my other QB, but I might put him in next week, we'll see.

I didn't try to learn my way around the ship before going, but I don't know if it would have helped or not. It seemed like we just kind of learned as we walked. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it! And wow! that anchor thing sounds really confusing, lol!

I can't wait for this week again!! I just love football!!

Does it help at least knowing which way is aft, starboard, portside, and forward? Are those even the right words? Did you learn them?

So lucky you guys got to sit by yourself! It's always such a gamble when you are with other people. As social as I am, I'm not good in forced social situations like that. I feel obligated to entertain and then I just feel awkward! So I'm glad you guys were able to snag a table for just you guys!

Oh man, I love stalking the cruise food porn! I can't wait for the food! The servers always seem so great too! How fun that they did the brain teasers for you!

I am hoping you guys made it to the Edge open house! I love seeing pics of those places, they look SO FUN! Was there no invitation for Luke for the other one? Are the open houses for all the kids places at the same time?

Oh Nassau...you seem so unappealing! I don't blame you for not doing anything. Isn't the only good thing there Atlantis?

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Great updates. I am very interested in how Nassau day works out!

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

I'm in! I adore your Trip Reports!

Thanks to you, I ALWAYS check my Starbucks Vanilla drinks before I buy them!

I can't wait to follow along!