We’re BACK (to back) on a Dream Spring Break Trip - COMPLETE

[TestingH2O]

We’re back! It’s been a long 2 years, but it was so great to be back on board. We originally booked this trip for March of 2021, but we all know what happened there.

The Travelers
Usually we travel with my parents, but my mom was recently diagnosed with cancer. She and my dad stayed home while she did her chemo and radiation. My daughter and I planned to cancel as well, but my parents really encouraged us to go as planned. So this trip was just DD9 and me!



The Plan
We were scheduled to fly to MCO on March 16, spend the afternoon on Disney property, and then head to Merritt Island to stay at an AirBnB until we boarded the ship on March 18.

Chapters
3/16 - Travel Day
3/17 - Hanging Out in Florida
3/18 - Boarding the Ship!
Room 5020
3/18 - A Relaxing Evening
3/19 - Nassau
3/19 - Another Relaxing Evening
3/20 - Castaway Cay
3/21 - Turnover Day
Room 11000
3/21 - Afternoon and Evening
3/22 - Day at Sea
3/23 - Nassau
3/24 - Castaway Cay
3/25 - Debarking and Heading Home
Final Thoughts and an Update

 

[TestingH2O]

3/16 - Travel Day

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00 am. I wanted to leave around 5:40, so I got up at 4:30 and planned to wake up DD at 5:00. Instead, she was so excited that she was awake when my alarm went off. Eeek!



I made coffee, fed the dogs, got dressed, etc and decided to double check that our flight was still on time. Good thing I did because the flight was canceled! There was no notification from the app or anything. WTH Southwest?!? I called customer service and got the rudest, least caring woman I have ever encountered at SW. I’m accustomed to their agents being caring and trying to help. Not that day. She basically just said F you you’re not leaving until tomorrow.

I called my dad, and we used his status customer service number. From there we actually got someone who was going to help! She got us rebooked on a flight to Tampa that left at 10. I took a nap, DD had second breakfast, and we left the house at 8:30. I also modified then canceled our lunch reservation for Beaches and Cream.


(I always take a photo of the parking spot in airport garages.)

Because we got moved, we had C30+ boarding passes. Luckily the gate agent took pity on us and let us board with family boarding. The flight to Tampa was very full, but we arrived without trouble.




(We were glad Tampa had a tram so we got our planes, trains, and automobiles all in one day.)

Now, when we moved airports, I had to figure out what to do about the rental car. I had a car reserved at MCO, and I thought I might be able to just change the pick up location. Nope. Tampa was totally sold out of cars. So I reserved a car to take us to MCO. $200 that I wasn’t planning to spend. It was also our first time driving that stretch of I-4. Umm, yeah, that was an experience.




(DD caught up on sleep after her 4:30 wake up.)

We got to MCO though and picked up our car with no trouble whatsoever. The drive to Merritt Island was smooth, and we were in our AirBnB by 5:00.

After unloading our bags, we headed for the grocery store and to grab some takeout for dinner. We don’t have Carraba's where we live, and I always enjoyed it when I was in grad school in Texas. The food was ready on time and tasted great. The portions were so big!

After dinner, we sat in the hot tub for a while and the watched basketball. Both of us fell asleep by 11:00.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

Love your reports! Question where did you find the kid size kn95? Our girls are 9 too and I want to find some that will fit them for when we fly.

 

[TestingH2O]

Love your reports! Question where did you find the kid size kn95? Our girls are 9 too and I want to find some that will fit them for when we fly.

We ordered from Bona Fide Masks. (https://bonafidemasks.com/ - I don't know why I can't make it a hyperlink on my laptop.)

 

[Mich123]

I’m looking forward to your report! We had a similar SW experience—if my DH didn’t watch for our flights on a flight tracker app, we wouldn’t have known until we got to the airport. Generally, I’m a fan of SW but I do think the pandemic has been hard on the industry and it shows.

 

[Jenlynn3]

Love your report so far, best wishes to your mom! Was there a sail away party?

 

[TestingH2O]

Love your report so far, best wishes to your mom! Was there a sail away party?

No. We didn’t have the party OR the atrium show. That was disappointing to be sure.

 

[TestingH2O]

3/17 - Hanging Out in Florida

We were not in any hurry today. We slept in, ate a little breakfast, and hung out in the hot tub to start the day. Around 10:30, we got dressed and headed to Target. Since we had just done carry on bags, I wanted to get cheap water bottles to use on the ship and we needed sunscreen. While there, DD saw tropical Peeps. My husband loves Peeps. I think they are gross. But we bought a package for him because we’d never seen them at home.

Our original plan had been to go to the manatee viewing platform, but after the long drive the day before, we didn’t want to spend that much time in the car. So we drove over to Cocoa Beach to see the water and do a little exploring.

The drive was super easy and we ended up spending much more time on the beach than we’d originally planned. The sand was so soft and the water felt nice to wade.





After the beach, we headed to Ron Jon. Super fun.



Then we drove over to the port area.



I’ve read on here for years about eating a Fishlips and watching the ships, and I’m so glad we got to do it. When I was looking up how to get to the restaurant, I saw information about Grills too and kept that in the back of my mind. When we arrived it wasn’t as crowded so we decided to go there instead. It was delicious!





There were two ships in port on this day: one Royal and one MSC. We were near the Mariner of the Seas and got to see her pull away. It was super cool! DD was very interested in the exciting water slide and on deck activities.



After the ship pulled away, we headed out.



I thought seeing all those boats in storage like that was mind blowing. Boats in the air!

Since we were so close and, you know, I wanted to be prepared for the next morning, we drove over to CT8.



We’ll see YOU tomorrow.

We headed back to the AirBnB, watched St Pete do serious damage to my bracket, and enjoyed some more time in the hot tub.



It was a really fabulous and laid back day to get used to being on vacation. I’d love to go back to the area and explore some more.

 

[bcwife76]

Yay! Welcome back to cruising
I'm sorry to hear about your mom and hope that she is doing well.

 

[bcwife76]

PS. Judging by our signatures I think we get off the Wonder from Alaska the day you get on ;-)

 

[TestingH2O]

PS. Judging by our signatures I think we get off the Wonder from Alaska the day you get on ;-)

Man, I keep hoping we’ll be on the same ship at some point.

 

[TestingH2O]

3/18 - Boarding The Ship!

(I forgot to take a photo of the countdown the morning of!)
We woke up comparatively early at 8:00. We had breakfast snacks and packed up the things we’d gotten out during our stay. As a side note, I split our stuff between the two suitcases so that we only had to open one during our pre-stay.

10:15 am
We had the earliest port arrival time and ended up being the second car that started the process. Once we arrived, they sent us to the porters even though we weren’t checking bags. A supervisor checked that it was really our time and sent us to the garage to start testing.


Testing was easy and we proceeded to level 3 of the garage. We opted to park right by the door to the walkway. We didn’t have anything pretty to look at while we waited, but it was nice knowing we didn’t have to roll our bags very far.


It took about 35 minutes for our results (PCR,) and we were off. People in the garage who were still waiting cheered us on.



11:00
We walked over the bridge and towards check-in. The platinum line was empty, we were the second people in gold/silver, and there were quite a few people in the new cruiser line. Check in was fast and we were off to security. That was also quick. We had empty water bottles and, even though we told the person working there that they were empty, she checked them any way.






11:15
We got in the terminal for a few minutes to take some waiting photos.



11:43
We were on board, waving to Mickey, and heading to our muster station. I really can’t imagine the process going any smoother. (Well, they did make us go up to deck 4 even though I knew we had 1 of 2 muster stations on deck 3, but that is seriously not a big deal.) I LOVE the new muster procedure!



11:57
As is our custom, we had lunch at the sit down restaurant. We ate at Enchanted Garden and had wonderful food and service. I ordered a drink of the day and it really felt like vacation.

After lunch we checked out the kids clubs. The Star Wars stuff is new since we were last on the Dream.




We also played on the magic playfloor. I have seen it in the Navigator so many times but never really knew what it was. It. Was. So. Much. Fun! Basically you jump around on controller foot pads and try to play simple video games. It definitely has some dance dance Revolution vibes to it. We had a blast and played like 5 games. The counselors were so fun and said I was the only mom who came in and played it. They played against us too, but we reigned supreme!

 

[bcwife76]

Man, I keep hoping we’ll be on the same ship at some point.

I know How did we do this again?!

 

[lizzyb]

Great start! Joining in!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Loving your report, can't wait to read more! Thanks for doing this.

Lots of prayers for your Mom and your family.

 

[Jeepdisney]

Wow I bet you two were so ready to get back to cruisino!

 

[Timon]

I'm so sorry to hear about your mum! Prayers and best wishes for her!

What a crappy start to your trip! Oh man, that must have been so stressful!! They didn't even tell you it was cancelled!!! GRRRR!! Glad you figured everything out fast and it didn't impact your trip too much!

Those boats, right!!!?

Looking forward to reading the rest!

 

[tee11]

Following your trip report, thanks so much. One of my kids is your daughter's age. Great pictures and looking forward to more. Best wishes for your mom to get better.

 

[ukintheus]

Just found this, so following along! Sorry to hear about your Mom, I hope she does well with all of her treatment. Looks like you weathered the cruddy flight logistics fairly well, looking forward to the rest.

 

[TestingH2O]

Room 5020

I have been desperate to sail in one of these “mini suite” 8A cabins for several years. In fact, we’ve booked them twice before and we either rescheduled or the sailing was canceled. Anyway, I was very excited for this trip.



This is the view when you walk in the room. While you can’t close a curtain between the sections, we had no trouble with one of us being awake when the other wasn’t and having too much light.



Queen bed side.



Living room/food out bed side. These rooms sleep 3.


HUGE closet.



Single bath.

I don’t think I can do justice to how big this room is and how much storage there is. The space between the wall and the closet was almost 8’. The desk area stretched the whole width of the room and had TONS of shelves and cubbies.

If you are sailing as 2-3 people, I would 100% recommend these rooms. It was also great for DD because it was super easy for her to get to and from the clubs. This was her first trip with checkout privileges and I liked knowing that it was a straight shot form the club to our room.