Disney dream full review Feb 20-23 2014

It is time for me to write my dream review. My apologies in advance, I will be doing this in pieces. Also, I do not have a lot of the picture I would like to have, but more on that in the review.

The crew,

Traveling with me is my DD Megan (9), the love of my life Kristen (35), her daughter Ava (6), her mother Cheryl (60) and Cheryl's BF Joe (??). We were travels to celebrate cheryl's 60th birthday. This was the 1st major trip for my daughter.

I will save all the pretravel details, but on a funny note, Megan was all excited to travel on a plane, but was quickly bored after 20 minutes in the air. We flew from Providence to Orlando. Then we headed to the Disney Bus transfers. I would have preferred to rent a van vs the 70.00 a piece for the disney bus, but I was outranked in that decision. After a quick video in the bus, the dream was in sight

Airport shuttle

at the airport

the dream from the bus

the girls spotted the bus

good start... waiting for more :D

and the girls are adorable!

I was very surprised about how quick the check in process was. After a 5 minutes wait in the line, we had our key to the world cards and was in boarding zone 16. We waited in a short line to have our picture taken with minnie

We got right on the ship. I did find the announcement of the family name little odd. I imagine that if you hung out in the atrium, it would get annoying after a while. Since we boarded so quickly, our rooms were not ready. We headed up to Cabanas for some quick lunch. I was pleasantly surprised by the abundance of soda machines and the quality of the buffet food. I had some pictures of cabanas and the food to post but those are in the lost picture files (more to come on that)

glad you had fun! What was your opinion of the food in the rotational dining restaurants?

Looking forward to more. I myself love the announcing of the family name.

Nice start to your review....keep it up

glad you had fun! What was your opinion of the food in the rotational dining restaurants?

I was extremely pleased with the food in the dinning room. The food was quick, cooked correctly and always tasty

After lunch, it was still a little early before our room was scheduled to be ready. But since Cheryl book a suite for herself, we gambled and figured her room was ready. We were right. OMG is nice to see how the other half cruises. I have lived in apartments that were smaller then this room. Nice big balcony, two bathrooms, monster spa tub.

Based on some advice we received from the wonderful people here at Cruise Critic, we carried on swim trunks and decided to do to the aquaduck. Kristen was going to stay behind to change while I went with the girls. But since we were still in port, I decided to take my cell phone with me to call her when we finished up. The AquaDuck is fantastic. We were through the line in under 10 minutes. But this is where i made a mistake. I have my Droid Razr Maxx HD. the phone is made with Kevlar, Gorilla Glass and is deemed to be water resistant. So i figure it could stay in my front pocket as I went in the Aquaduck......Wrong! So that killed my phone and along with it, the precruise photos I took, since my phone only backs up to the cloud when I am connected to WiFi. Also to boot, I didn't bring my regular camera because I didn't want to lug it around. Sigh.

Can't wait to hear more!! We'll be on the Dream in 28 days!

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

After about 3 hours of pool and slide time, I decided to go check out our room. Kristen was hanging out while we were swimming enjoying a drink

I got to the room and my luggage was waiting for me. I was happy with the room size. It was about what I expected. But It got hectic at times only having one shower for 4 people, especially considering we were on similar schedules. Next time we will go with adjoining rooms. I got ready for dinner. I am extremely excited because the 1st dining room was the Animators Palate. When we got to the dining room, the 1st thing that surprised me that there was no wait to get in. I am used to waiting the the hallway for 10 minutes before the door gets opened on my other cruises. But this may have been due to this being the 1st time I have done early seating.

After lunch, it was still a little early before our room was scheduled to be ready. But since Cheryl book a suite for herself, we gambled and figured her room was ready. We were right. OMG is nice to see how the other half cruises. I have lived in apartments that were smaller then this room. Nice big balcony, two bathrooms, monster spa tub.

 

 

 

Based on some advice we received from the wonderful people here at Cruise Critic, we carried on swim trunks and decided to do to the aquaduck. Kristen was going to stay behind to change while I went with the girls. But since we were still in port, I decided to take my cell phone with me to call her when we finished up. The AquaDuck is fantastic. We were through the line in under 10 minutes. But this is where i made a mistake. I have my Droid Razr Maxx HD. the phone is made with Kevlar, Gorilla Glass and is deemed to be water resistant. So i figure it could stay in my front pocket as I went in the Aquaduck......Wrong! So that killed my phone and along with it, the precruise photos I took, since my phone only backs up to the cloud when I am connected to WiFi. Also to boot, I didn't bring my regular camera because I didn't want to lug it around. Sigh.

The photos may be on your memory card depending on how you set it up.

Also, I've saved wet phones by opening them up and placing them in a greenhouse window for a couple of days.

Don't forget the rice in the ziplock baggie trick!

And I travel with a waterproof bag phonecase. It's a must have...

The photos may be on your memory card depending on how you set it up.

Also, I've saved wet phones by opening them up and placing them in a greenhouse window for a couple of days.

The memory card was fine, but the photos were saved directly to my phone. I tried the rice when I got back, but it was too far gone. I didn't have a ton of photos that lost, it just limited me on the photos I could take

So for dinner at the Animators Palate all I can say is wow. I was super glad in the end that this was our 1st stop in our dining room rotation (more to come on that). 1st off, our waiters were top notch. They were very prompt, attended to all our needs and still had time to build rapport. The girls loved all the characters and game that were being played on the monitors around the room. The girls were amazed when Crush showed up to talk to them.

Crush: "hey dudetts"

Girls: (blank stares)

Crush: "Hey little girl with the Minnie Ears, Where are you from?"

Ava: (looks around)

Me: "he is talking to you ava."

Crush: "where are you from?"

Ava: (unsure voice) Cumberland

Crush: "whooaaa, Rhode Island. That is pretty gnarly."

There was a little more conversation and then crush moved on to the next table. Everyone at the table was thoroughly entertained. We were wondering how they did it.

Megan after the crush experience

One thing our waiter did each night was a magic trick for the girls. This night he took a crayon, broke it in half, and had megan give the magic words and the crayon magically repaired itself. This was also when they gave Cheryl a cake for her birthday.

So if you are on a 3 day cruise and are thinking about going to Palo or remy, I would not do it during this dinning experience.

This should tie off day 1. After dinner we went to see the golden mickeys. At this point I will sum up what I thought of the 3 shows. We enjoyed each one. The quality of the singing and performances were very good. We enjoyed the golden mickeys and the villains shows a little more then believe, but in the end we were glad to have seen all three. On our next trip we may decide to skip one or two depending on what else is going on.

After the show it was time to head back to the room. The girls were tired from the long day of travel and excitement. and after a brief debate on who got the top bunk, it was off to bed. Tomorrow is Nassau and Pirate Night!!!

Some random photos

Enjoying your review and photo's, thanks.

Sorry for the big delay in finishing this off. I had the death of my ex mother in law, my father and a family friend in the span of a few months. So I took a few steps back from some things. But I really enjoy these boards, so I couldn’t stay away forever 

Day 2 Nassau

I was very very excited for pirate night. Why? Because I has a 315 lb, 6’6” child. But more on that later.

One of the things that blew me away on this Cruise was the level of engagement by all levels of the crew. While eating at Cabanas the room attendant did this

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We decided to make this a ship day. All the adults have been to Nassau before and to me, Atlantis is not worth the price. Plus with so few days on the ship, we figured that this would be better to explore without all the crowds. The morning was spend touring the ship a little further, signing the girls up for the oceaneers club and many, many trips on the aquaduck and pool time. We never experienced more than a 15 minute wait for the aquaduck, even though a bunch of people decided to stay behind

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After a rough day of r&r, it was time to get ready for pirate night. So I popped up to the room to get ready. I packed a very basic pirate costume. Just a plain white button up shirt, skull cap with hair and sword and hook hand. It was a very weird experience dealing with long hair. I started to lose my hair at 17 and was bald by 23.

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Overall dinner was good. The Enchanted Garden was a little step down from the Animators Palate, but that was to be expected.

I have to admit that getting dressed up was more fun then I expected. I had a whole collection of pirate jokes on hand to sling at people. Like really bad jokes. "what's a pirates favorite article of clothing.......arrgghhyle sweater!" mimis boyfriend joe has a great captain hook outfit. On our way to the deck party, many people stopped him and I to take pictures with. Next time, I am going to get a legit costume.

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after the show was over, the girls were going with mimi to spend the night so that Kristen and I could check out some of the adult areas of the ship. Because the girls were getting tired, they didn't stay up to see the firework show. So we returned to our room to get changed and head to the clubs

This is where things went downhill a little. The clubs were ok. There was a severe lack of people in the clubs. We 1st stopped by the lounge to hear some live singing which was very good, but it was just us and one other couple. The city bar and pink champagne lounge were totally empty. We finally make our way to the bar that had karaoke and we settled in there for a while. We were there until it was over which was 1am I think. We got back to the room just in time from a phone call from mimi. Megan was complaining of stomach pain and was throwing up. So once I got to the room, I decided to take her down to the doctor. They have her a shot and she started to feel better. but since she had the combo of throwing up and stomach pains, she was required to be quarantined for 24 hours per CDD rules. This was the official end to the cruise. We would miss castaway key and the 24 hours would be done just in time for us to leave. I got her back to my room and she passed right out. which was the end of day 2.

That is awful. What bad luck for all of you. I managed something similar on my first cruise: broke a bone in my foot stepping up to rhe railing and not realizing there was a small gutter there. Spent the next 6 days trying to get my foot xrayed in Mexico and hobbling on crouches.

That is awful. What bad luck for all of you. I managed something similar on my first cruise: broke a bone in my foot stepping up to rhe railing and not realizing there was a small gutter there. Spent the next 6 days trying to get my foot xrayed in Mexico and hobbling on crouches.

Thanks. Your experience sounds a lot worse than mine.

day 3 Castaway Key.

After getting some rest, we woke up to the ship pulling into port. I stepped out on the veranda. Boy, did the island look absolutely stunning. Megan was feeling 100%. I called to double check to see if we could roam the ship now that she was feeling good, even saying they could check her out, but they said no. And since I don't want to possible endanger the public, megan never stepped foot out of the cabin. I have to admit, that she did well. Kristen came to the room and i headed to Cabanas for breakfast for the two of us. One of the saving graces that we had was that there was a lot of on demand content free. We watched many movies and shows to keep us occupied. We also received free gatorade from room service because she was under quarantine. After Kristen came back from the island, I headed down to the shops to buy some gifts for the night. When I got back to the room, Kristen and Ava left to go get ready for dinner and the show. I remember reading on the boards, that they would deliver food from the restaurant if you were room bound. So I called to place an order and the operator said that they do not do that. Sigh. So I decided to order a light dinner and get some more later if needed. So dinner came and then in about 15 minutes, I got a call from our server. He said that he was sad that we could not join them tonight in the royal palace. So he read off the menu and asked what we wanted. I was so excited. The assistant waiter delivered the food. it was excellent. We tipped the wait staff well on top of the normal gratuities. We watched Believe on the tv. It was ok. Not the same as being in the theater.

So we made the best of a non optimal situation. Megan had her moments, but she was a trooper.

Here are some random pictures that I didn't take lol

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That night we packed up and I brought the suitcases to mimis room. She was in a suite so we put out all our bags with her tags so that they would be together. That morning megan was glad to get out of the room. She said that if there is a next time, she would like more time in the kids clubs. We headed up for breakfast. when it was time to disembark, we were out in no time flat. very very smooth experience.

So to wrap things up, I was very happy with the Disney experience. Totally worth the difference in price. I also wrote a comparison thread summing up each category and how it matched up to my experiences with carnival. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2014896

Feel free to ask any questions and sorry about the complete drag out of this review.

Thanks for taking the time to write your review and nice pictures.