A Dream worth waiting for: Dream review June 19, 2010 sailing

[mom2girls]

I woke up relatively early on the day we docked in St. Martin. This is the view I saw:

 

 

 

 

 

The girls were still sleeping, so I went down to get breakfast. I brought it back for them, so we didn't have to deal with the lines in the buffet before meeting our tour. The lines weren't very long when I went.

 

Of course, we were docked next to the Oasis again!

 

 

 

This was the view from our cabin, so I couldn't get the entire ship in one picture.

 

We had a tour booked with Bernard's today. I was excited because I was greatly looking forward to going to Maho Beach.

 

It was pretty easy to find the information booth where we were supposed to meet Bernard. When we checked in they thanked us for booking with them, and gave us a DVD about St. Martin. They were very friendly. They asked us to sit down while we waited for the rest of the group to check in. We had a few people from our cruise critic group going on this tour as well.

[mom2girls]

This is the view of the ship once we got off:

 

 

I took this picture as we were walking toward the information booth.

 

Another view of the ship. As you can tell it was a very windy day.

 

 

[cruiseguys2009]

Loving every minute of this review. We are also booked with Bernards Tours and there are so many we know of on the Dream that are booked as well....the others have lots of kids.

 

One question about Bernards Tours if you know. Do they by-pass Orient Beach with kids? We want to go to Maho and Orient. Maho to see the planes and Orient to see the...well you know...lol!

 

As adults, do they separate us? I am not being a snob or anti-child, please don't misunderstand. Are there different "adult only" tours with Bernards or is everyone together?

 

Can't wait till October 9, 2010...99 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mom2girls]

Loving every minute of this review. We are also booked with Bernards Tours and there are so many we know of on the Dream that are booked as well....the others have lots of kids.

 

One question about Bernards Tours if you know. Do they by-pass Orient Beach with kids? We want to go to Maho and Orient. Maho to see the planes and Orient to see the...well you know...lol!

 

As adults, do they separate us? I am not being a snob or anti-child, please don't misunderstand. Are there different "adult only" tours with Bernards or is everyone together?

 

Can't wait till October 9, 2010...99 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just about to get to that part of the review. When we booked this tour, I e-mailed Bernard to see if we could go to Le Galion Beach with the kids. He responded quickly, saying that that was not a problem. The group with kids was dropped off at Le Galion. Then he took the rest of the group to Orient. When we got back on the bus, and talked to the rest of the group I was happy that we had made that decision because the others did see what Orient Beach if famous for.

 

I have a doctor appt today, so I will get back to my review later.

[DisneyNutMary]

I've been reading your review from the beginning, and I am loving every minute of it :D I am five weeks away from my Dream cruise, and your pictures and details are getting me very excited.

You have a beautiful family. Thank you for sharing your adventures with us.

[mom2girls]

Anyway, we start off our tour with a little shopping. Our driver dropped us off at a very large store, and told us he'd be back to pick us up in 30 minutes. We looked around the store. They had the typical touristy things, but there wasn't anything I was thrilled about.

 

After we were done looking we stood outside. You could see a lot of construction. It was obvious that parking is a major problem there. We saw an officer passing out parking tickets. Be careful of this if you ever go on a land vacation here.

 

 

This picture reminded me of similar pictures I've seen in Cozumel.

 

The driver came back, and we were on our way. He stopped at a couple of places so we could take pictures of the view.

 

 

 

 

[mom2girls]

 

 

 

 

We went to a lookout point that had wonderful views. There's usually a guy there who shows the tourists the urchins. But, for some reason he wasn't there. So, our guide went out and found some for us. I have to say he was an awesome guide.

 

 

[mom2girls]

 

Can you say windy?

 

 

 

 

[mom2girls]

 

 

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, we went to Le Galion Beach. This is the kid friendly beach. We were warned that we may see topless women, because the whole island allows that. But, we didn't. There were very few people at this beach, and we were extremely happy that we picked this beach to go to. We stayed here an hour and a half, but we would have liked to stay here longer.

 

 

[mom2girls]

There was a lot of sea grass in the area where we chose to sit, but it wasn't bad further down. The girls didn't really seem to mind after they got used to it. When we first got there Emily said "Mom! There's grass!" You would have thought she'd never seen it before! But, of course she was fine after a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mom2girls]

 

The girls had a wonderful time with their new friend. The third little girl in these pictures is a fellow cc'ers daughter. :) Isn't she a cutie?

 

 

 

Unfortunately, our time at this beach was over. But, the best was yet to come! I was certainly looking forward to Maho Beach. I had planned to have lunch there, but when we arrived we found out that we would not be there long enough to eat lunch. I guess we should have eaten while we were at Le Galion. I'll definitely plan better next time.

[sassy_mrsjay]

Thanks for this review!!! My family will be sailing the dream in August.

[LizaMM]

GREAT review! I love the pics of the Cove Balcony! I am considering this for a Dream cruise next March.

 

THANK YOU for your review!

[breezycruiser]

Of course I woke up early because I was so excited. You would think with the sleep number beds I would have slept like a baby, but I did not. I have to say that we were extremely excited to see the ship in the distance when we left the room to go to breakfast. The girls and I went to Zachary’s again. The food was really good. But, the biscuit I had was awesome. Our group was scheduled for an 11:00 shuttle. Since this was my first Platinum status I decided to head to the port at 10:00 in a taxi. The cost of the taxi was $11. I gave a $2 tip. The taxi driver seemed to go extremely slow. But, since I was so anxious to board the ship I figured that part of that could be my imagination.

We arrived at the port around 10:30. We went straight to the Platinum room, which was nice. Then we were seated in the Platinum area. We were told that we would board between 11:00 and 11:15. They were right on the money because we boarded the ship at 11:00. We were done eating, and hanging out at the pool at 11:30.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kelli Ann! Great review so far! I really wish I could have gone with you all! It would have been nice to finally meet all the people I had been chatting with for so long! I can't wait to see that view from the Radisson in December! That picture made me very excited! The girls are getting so big and I really think Emily is growing to be your twin!!! They'll be beautiful teenagers before you know it!

 

The girls and I headed to the Gathering for breakfast. Then, we went to the Aft pool to hang out for a while. The girls enjoyed this because they always saw some of their friends when we were at the pool.

 

We ended up meeting with some people who were in our group while at the pool. It started to rain, so we decided to go to lunch. (It only rained for about 5 minutes.) We went to the dining room for lunch. The choices were pretty good. Emily had clam chowder, Megan had the club sandwich, and I had the pork chop. For dessert the girls got some kind of brownie thing. They really didn't like it. I got the sundae. It was fantastic. The girls ended up ordering that as well. We had such a good time with our friends at lunch that they kicked us out of the dining room. (We were there shortly after they opened for lunch until they closed!) I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures from lunch.

 

Today was the day of the past guest party. If you had early seating you were supposed to go the party at 3:30. If you had late seating you were invited to the 5:00 party. This was also the day that many of my group were eating at the Steakhouse. So, it was a pretty busy day. After lunch the girls wanted to do a camp activity. I wanted to enjoy my balcony some, so I sat on the balcony for an hour or so reading my book. By the time the girls came back it was time to get ready for the past guest party.

This is summercruisin's little girl. She certainly loved her time on stage!

 

Is this Madelyn? She is such a little cutie!

 

 

 

Can you say windy?

 

 

This must be Mari aka Wild Thing! It looks like you guys had a great time!

[mom2girls]

Kelli Ann! Great review so far! I really wish I could have gone with you all! It would have been nice to finally meet all the people I had been chatting with for so long! I can't wait to see that view from the Radisson in December! That picture made me very excited! The girls are getting so big and I really think Emily is growing to be your twin!!! They'll be beautiful teenagers before you know it!

 

Thanks Shenika! Yes, the girls are getting pretty big. Many people do tell me that Emily looks a lot like me. They both do, in their own little ways. It is a shame that you couldn't go with us. But, I know you'll have a blast in December.

[mom2girls]

I'm sorry I wasn't able to continue my review yesterday. I'll try to do a little bit more today. I have a few things to do first.

[cruisienewbie]

I'm sorry I wasn't able to continue my review yesterday. I'll try to do a little bit more today. I have a few things to do first.

 

No, don't do other things. Finish the review, finish the review! LOL! Just kidding. Enjoying your review.:p

[mom2girls]

Ok, we're going to continue my review at Maho Beach. Acecombatmom got some really good video here. I can't wait to see it. I only took pictures, but they came out pretty good. As I said earlier I would have loved to spend more time here. The beach is gorgeous, and I would have loved to actually get into the water. Next time we go, I will do an excursion with someone who give us more time, or just take a taxi here. (I'm not saying Bernard's is bad though. They were fantastic! Now, that I've seen the island I would want to spend more time at Maho Beach.)

 

We were excited to see the first plane coming in:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, timing the pictures is not easy!

[mom2girls]

 

 

Even the little planes were exciting to see!

 

 

[mom2girls]

I think I did pretty well with the next plane that came in.

 

 

 

 

[mom2girls]

 

 

 

This was the last shot I got at Maho Beach because it downpoured about 10 seconds later.

 

We got in the bus, and headed back to the port. Our driver made sure that we all had drinks throughout the day. I decided to try some of the Rum Punch since we were at the end of our tour. I have to say that this was some pretty good stuff, but mighty strong!

[LizaMM]

Great photos!

[Joaljoe]

Loving your review and photos! Keep them coming!!!

 

We've been to that beach, it's quite the experience when the huge planes are taking off. Nothing we want to experience ever again!! LOL ;) :eek:

[acecombatmom]

That rum punch was pretty strong but it was also good.

[mom2girls]

We ended up going back to the ship when we got back to the port area. We were all very hungry, so we went up to the Lido deck to get some burgers. I was quite tired, so after our very late lunch we went back to the cabin. I decided to take a mini-nap while the girls went to a camp activity. I have to say it was very difficult to get up so I could get ready for dinner, but I did anyway. Megan came back a little early from Camp because she didn't want to do the activity they were doing. So, the two of us hung out for a while before dinner.

 

While we were at dinner Emily complained of an earache. This was the second day that she complained of this, so I was starting to get worried. She was feeling pretty bad, so I let her go back to the cabin without finishing her dinner. When Megan was done with her dessert we went to the gift shop looking for some children's tylenol. I was disappointed that they didn't have any, but Paula had said that she had some just in case. So, we went back to Paula's cabin to get it. It had been about 30 minutes since Emily had gone back to the cabin. When we got there we saw that Emily was fast asleep. I felt bad for waking her up, but I didn't want her waking up in the middle of the night in pain, so I woke her up to give her the medicine. I told her that we would see the ship's doctor in the morning. I had really wanted to go to the Mardi Gras party that was on the Lido deck that night, but I didn't want to leave Emily alone. I was very tired anyway, so it made sense.

 

 

Since Emily wasn't feeling well we didn't get a picture of her with our towel animal that night.