Jumping back in the saddle with an anticipated review of our Disney Cruise! Sorry in advance about the length of this post, but I don't want to miss anything although I'm sure something will get left out. First let me preface by saying this was not my first cruise. I have previously cruised on Royal Caribbean and Carnival and Disney was by farrrrrrrrr my favorite experience. Their attention to detail is immaculate! So let's get started with the basic deets....
Cruise Dates: August 5th to August 8, 2016
Port: Port Canaveral, FL
Ship: Disney Dream
Ports of Call: Nassau, Bahamas and Castaway Cay
Cruisers: Mom, Grandma, my Uncle, sister, niece (age 9), my two girls (Amaya- 6, Khloe-1) and of course ME!
Simply pulling up to the port was an experience and the magic starts there. We arrived around 12:30 pm and was able to pull right up to the line to show our documents and to proceed to have our luggage taken out of the car. And as the lady returned our documents she said, "I will inform Mickey that you are here." This got the girls even more excited! And since Disney has their own terminal....yes, they have their own freakin' terminal just for them, checking in was a breeze. They have men lined up to unload the luggage to get it onto the ship, which literally took about 5 mins. Next we entered the terminal to get our carry on bags checked and to go through security, which took 10 mins max. Then we headed upstairs where Mickey was taking pictures and greeting guests.
Of course before you board, you must take the obligatory family picture and then we were set to board. Right before you do, they have crew members right at the door that ask for your family's name and they introduce your family on the mic to the entire ship! Of course we cheered, we clapped, we danced...you know how we do!
We were not able to go to our stateroom until 1:30 so we just used this time to take some pictures since we had a few minutes to kill. That tells you how fast everything went since we pulled up at 12:30 pm and was on the ship ready to go in less than a hour. Super fast!
Yep, even the chandelier had Mickey on it!
Once inside our room I immediately noticed how much bigger it was than other rooms we have had on other ships. Granted for this cruise we did get a room with a balcony so it was bigger in general, but the set up was amazing and perfect for families.
First they have two separate wash areas so that multiple people can get ready at once. The first door immediately to our right had the sink and toilet and the next door had the tub/shower combo and another sink. This set up was sooooo helpful when getting ready every day.
Oh and I should note here that in order for the electricity to work in the room, you have to place your key card in a slot next to your door. I read this on another blog before we left so I was prepared and just slid my Ulta rewards card in the slot and left it there the entire trip so we didn't have to worry about leaving the room card by mistake.
Our room included a bed, a couch, a desk, closet and drawers, safe, TV, phone, travel phones (to use with your party on the ship and at Castaway Cay) and a mini fridge. *And I should also note here that Disney thought of the genius idea to lift the beds off of the floor so you are easily able to slide strollers, bags and luggage under it.* My mom, myself and my two girls stayed in one room and everyone else stayed in the adjoining room. When housekeeping came in every night to make our towel animal they also converted the couch into a bed and a bunk bed is housed in the ceiling that they took down every night. So at night we were all comfortable and did not feel squished at all. Khloe and I slept in the bed, my Mom slept on the bottom bunk and Amaya slept on the top.
August 5, 2016
Ok, back to day 1....
After we were able to get to our room, we set our bags down and of course Miss Khloe needed a wardrobe change already since she decided to pee through her clothes smh! So we did that and then headed to the Cabana to eat some lunch. OMG, lunch!!! It was my absolute favorite meal of the day every day! They had so many options, pizza, fries, chicken tenders, soup, vegetarian options, steak, Chinese food, king crab legs, shrimp, pasta, etc. And everything was sooooooooo good!! I don't even like lo mein and the chicken lo mein they had on the first day was delicious. I maybe went back to the line 2 or 3 times, but who's counting! And the crew was helpful from day one. We hadn't found a table yet, so I was pushing the stroller and trying to balance the food tray at the same time. You know, trying to be super Mom! One of the crew members saw me and took my tray for me and allowed me to fix our plates and then carried it to our table. The dining area was huge inside and spanned in a semi circle right behind the pools (but indoors of course).
We ate and then went outside to relax while we waited for the sail away party to start. And it just so happens that where we were sitting is where the characters all came out to head to the stage for the party. So the girls (minus Khloe, she was napping) went with my sister near the stage to see everything and they were able to get on stage...YAY! And since the characters came from that area I was ready when they came back and I was able to get a selfie with the man himself!
Next we headed to our muster station to go through our lifeboat drill. Now I haven't cruised in about 6 years, so I'm not sure if this is protocol for all ships now but for the drill we did not have to take our life jackets from our room. They simply had the information told to us and crew members were present to demonstrate everything to us. This was so nice and convenient since we didn't have to bus everyone back to the room to get the life jackets. After that we were ready to leave the port! Bye, bye Florida!!
After we left there, we wandered around the ship and jumped in a few lines to get some pictures and autographs with some of the characters. And because both of my kids weren't exactly in love with meeting some of these folks in real life, mommy had to take pictures with most of them and I didn't mind. Hahahahahaha!
Next we went to the first show of the trip which was titled, The Golden Mickey's, which was like an awards show of course. Let me break here and say, all of the shows every night were AMAZING and like a Broadway production. Unfortunately you are not able to take video or pictures during the shows so I don't have any footage, but they were all great for both the kids and the adults.
We didn't head back to our room until almost 7:30 to get ready for dinner since we had second seating dining which started at 8:15 pm. When we got back to our room, our luggage were the only bags still left in the hall and our housekeeper said she started to wonder if we made it on the ship. Of course we did, but it was just so much to do that the bags were the last thing on our mind. We quickly showered and changed clothes to eat dinner and headed back out.
The Disney Dream has 3 dining rooms and throughout the cruise you rotate between the different rooms so you are able to experience them all. Our first night we ate at The Enchanted Garden, night two was at The Royal Palace and night 3 was at Animators Palate (which was my fav!!). Upon arriving in the dining room, the hostess took us to our table and once there we noticed that for the kids they already had their cups there with their names written on them so they knew where to sit. They also gave the kids a cute little kids menu every night with crayons to color and they always took their orders first so they didn't have to wait so long to eat, which was great! Moms and Dads can I get an AMEN?!?!? They had about 5-7 dinner options for the kids every night and about 10 entree options for adults (including vegan options and lighter calorie options). And these options are excluding appetizers, soups, salads, and of course dessert :).
After dinner we came across a little mystery type interactive game that we turned into a little competition between the rooms. The mystery game we had that night was to find out who stole the dalmatian puppies from a list of villains. We activated our cards, got our maps and off we went while Grandma and Mom took Khloe back to the room to get ready for bed. The way the game works is that all around the different floors of the ship, Disney has interactive photos. If you don't have the little card and aren't playing the game, the pictures just look like ordinary photos on the wall. But when you hold your card up to it, it turns into an interactive photo and gives you clues to find out who stole the puppies (well for our game anyway, this was the goal). I thought this was fun and a great way to get the kids active since the photos were on about 5 different floors. We had a great time doing this activity and of course me and Amaya won for our room!
Whew....finally I think that's all for day one and the more I think about it I think I have to make separate posts for each day so I don't turn this into a book lol! So..........on to day 2!
XOXO,
~Tasha
No comments:
Post a Comment