5 kids, 7 grandchildren, 50 years of marriage & One Amazing Cruise on the Dream!

disneygirl1 · Jul 7, 2011

OMG! What is it with you and running into lunatics this trip! Geese! :lol:

Cant' wait to read more!

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

tink65 said:
Great trip report so far! I can't believe the 2nd guy with the ladies camera! It's amazing how people act. Wonder what ended up happening to him? Hope he was banned from the parks.....

Can't wait to hear about the Disney Dream! We went on the Carnival Dream in March 2010 and also stayed at the Radison for the night prior to the cruise. Used their drop off & pick up shuttle service for our cruise! Couldn't have been nicer!

Can't wait to read more!

It was totally crazy, but as I mentioned, I just feel lucky that this was the first time I've ever seen such craziness. I feel certain the poor Cast Members have to deal with people like this on a daily basis - poor CM's!

The closest we've ever come to being at Disney in the summer was the first week of June in 2009. I have to wonder if it was just all the heat and crowds bringing out the worst in people? :shrug:

Also - thank you! Can't wait to write more. We're almost to the best part.

disneygirl1 said:
OMG! What is it with you and running into lunatics this trip! Geese! :lol:

Cant' wait to read more!

I know right? Next time I'm going to wear a shirt that says "If you're crazy - please stay far, far away." :lol:

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

Friday, July 1

Time for a sing along!!!!

C'mon everybody join in!

We are gettin' on the Dream today, Dream today, Dream today, Dream today, Dream today. We are gettin' on the Dream today. Doo be Doo be Doo Dah!

The day had finally arrived!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!

I woke up .............. at 5:00. That's right. 5:00. Now I'm an early morning girl, but that's painful even for me. I tossed and turned for about 30 minutes, but I was staaaaaaarviiiiiiing (I usually eat a snack before I go to bed, but in all the fuss of getting the laundry done and the kids in bed, I forgot to go find one before I dropped into bed. Mistake, because I hadn't really eaten all of my 'so-so' dinner.)

So I got up, put on my workout clothes and sought out a vending machine. Then on to the Fitness Center at the hotel! Run, run, run..... treadmill whirring....listening to my iPod, getting so excited! :sohappy: This guy comes in and turns on ESPN and we chat baseball for a bit (Cubs fan here...... painful season, I tried to avoid the subject.

He was a Cardinals fan.) and then we discuss cruises. He was on Norwegian.

Finally done with my run and it's time to head to Dunkin Donuts because............ it's my daughter's birthday!!!!!

Normally, we 'do up' birthdays at our house. When our kids wake up on their birthday, I've decorated the house for them and their chair at the dining room table has special decorations, their presents are waiting at their chair, etc. BUT we had taken special care to let our daughter know that while her birthday fell on the Cruise dates, this Cruise was NOT about her birthday, it was about celebrating her Grandparent and their 50 years of marriage.

We threw her a big ol' mermaid party 2 weeks before and she had been celebrated in every way, so she wasn't too upset about it.

But I still couldn't let the day pass without some sort of acknowledgement, so it was donuts with candles for us!

We all showered, packed one last time - rearranging everything into checked baggage and carry on baggage and headed to breakfast with the family!

Breakfast at the Radisson was rather nice. Omlet station, french bread french toast, variety of fresh fruit, cereals, pastries.

Breakfast finally over we packed up 19 people and started our journey toward the Port!

Outside was the rather nice shuttle bus that costs only $4 per person on the way to the port.

But of course we weren't riding in the shuttle - oh no. We hadn't signed up for the shuttle and the first available shuttle time wasn't until 2:00

So my husband and brother in law (who had a mini van) were serving as our personal shuttle. Ha!

Birthday Bear, Disney Dream thumbs up!

We're almost there!!!!

joanna71985 · Jul 7, 2011

Yay! Dream time!

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

Joanna - I know! It's so exciting!

--------

Gift card, Disney Dream Thumbs Up!

These next few pictures are almost a time lapse of our drive to the Port.
McDonalds just before/ after the port (for those driving in the day of, who may need a quick bite to eat before heading to the terminal!)

Dream was at Terminal A

Oh, I think I see her! Do I see her?

Maybe.....

Wait, no definitely! There's the Dream!

Ummmm..... would someone please move that other boat from out in front of the Dream? K? Thanks......

There she is!

Really!

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

Thank you very much directional sign

So pretty:

More directions

Guard shack - Disney Cruise Line buses to the far right of the photo:

Time to drop off the luggage!
The time is now 9:45, and here are all the cars and people at the pick up/ drop off. At first I assumed that all those people were dropping off. I quickly figured out that 95% of the people out there were being picked up!

We dropped off our bags with a luggage person (what do you call them bell hops? sky caps? I can't remember!) and he told us to go 'stand in the line between numbers 2 and 1.

Woo Hoo! Were either in 2 or 1!!!

My husband left to return to the hotel and pick up another group of family and luggage.

Now remember, at this point, I still assumed that everyone out there was headed ONTO the Disney Dream. So I made my way up to #2 - not trying to be pushy, I just hung out there for a few minutes until I realized that all the people around me were discussing their cruise experience. Ummm.... "Excuse me, are you DISembarking? Not embarking?" "Yes? Well, ummmm, guess I'll move over here into #1 then."

"Ummm..... Excuse me, (lady standing in #1) are you disembarking too?" "Yes?" "Well, where is the line exactly?"

The line was facing the opposite direction and it was only about 50 to 75 people long! :sohappy: Woot!

It was hot out there in the sun though. Always best to be prepared. Bring your water and your snuggly things:

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

I was trying to recreate my avatar only with the Dream in the background, but the kids were having none of it. They were waaaay too excited and antsy.

For those people standing in line who had gotten there so early (I'm guessing around 9 am??) that there were no luggage people helping them, the luggage guys were coming around and taking their luggage from them, so they didn't lose their place in line. I thought that was super sweet!

The gates opened at 10 am sharp. As the line started to move, I got more and more excited!.............. about being in the air conditioned terminal!!! :lol: It was another HOT one.

We got close to the gate and I realized they needed to see our passports just to get through the gate to the terminal. No problem, as we had ours with us. BUT we also had my husbands!

Soooo....... we waited for Big Daddy to drop off my mother in law and sisters in law and then handed him his passport as he went off to park the car.

Soon we were in the air conditioning (yay!) and headed through security.

You ride a tall escalator up to the second "main" floor of the terminal. The second you get off the elevator, they tell you to fill out that health form that Hollybelle mentioned in her trip report. Essentially they are asking you if you have any communicable diseases before you get on the boat. I guess if you have the sniffles or have had any tummy troubles, they'll evaluate you before letting you set sail with your germs.

It took a little while, but finally all 19 of us were present and checked in! We checked the kids into the kids clubs and they were given their "Mickey bands" (Essentially gps tracking devices for your kids.)

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

The kids club check in line was long, but we had plenty of time to wait and check them in.

I knew from all the fabulous trip reports on wdwmagic that Mickey would soon be coming out to meet and greet in front of the model ship. I wasn't the only one.

There were already a few people standing in a 'sort of' line, so I got in the back of the line. Met a really nice lady, also from Alabama, who turned out to be a Disney travel agent. She had sailed on the travel agent cruise eariler in the year and was back with her family to celebrate her daughter's birthday. We had the now obligatory 'Alabama resident' conversation, "Did y'all make it through the storms okay?" "Yes. Oh, that is wonderful." "Yes, we were lucky too. It completely missed us." And then we chatted about all things Disney - trips, parks we loved, things we were looking forward to in Fantasyland. And finally the Mouse himself arrived!

I got right back in line for Minnie. Took a loooong time, but she finally arrived!:

That outfit is totally worth the wait!

Now, someone in our group had been given boarding group #7. We all wanted to board together, so we inquired at the desk and that's the boarding group we all decided to go with. I forgot to look at the time when they started calling out boarding numbers

But I'm going to say it was sometime around 11:30, based on the timing of later events.

It really went by very quickly. From the time they called boarding group #1 to the time they called boarding group #7 was a span of only about 15 minutes. When they called group #7, it looked like such a bottleneck, I wondered if it wouldn't be a long wait:

But they moved us through very quickly, and soon we were on the bridge to the boat!

This lady scans your Key to the World given to you at check in:

So cute on the inside!

Next they had us all pose for group photos (something about needing a photo of everyone on the ship?) and then they FINALLY LET US BOARD!!!

We were on the Dream!!!!! :sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

I don't have any shots of our entry into the Dream. I was just trying to take it all in. The only shots I have are posed shots of the whole family, which I won't post here. There will be TONS of photos of the lobby to come though, don't worry! (Or you could just ready Hollybelle's trip report - her pictures are better than mine!

)

After we took our photos, we asked - where do we eat??? I finally looked at my watch - it was 12:15! Not too shabby for a group of 19 - honestly, when you're dealing with that many people, our goal was to just MAKE the boat, much less get on the boat early!

They directed us to Cabanas. Once off the elevator we oohhed and aaaahed at every detail and then walked right into the restaurant (after getting our hand wipes of course! They really push those hand wipes!) We decided to eat on the deck. It was another hot day, but we could tell it might rain soon, and we wanted to enjoy the outdoors while we could.

I don't know what this pose is, I think I'm dancing, but........ I'm on a boat!!!

They were walking around with these things on trays, making you think they were kind of giving them away, but of course after you took one and had a sip, they asked for your room key to charge you. :lol: My mother in law bought one for every adult though. I only took one sip of mine - I really don't drink at all and it was very strong stuff.

So pretty though!

I never really did take that many food pictures. The buffet at Cabanas is amazing though. The choices are endless and the freshness really can't be beat. They had everything from crab legs to sushi to mac and cheese and pizza and so much more!

My kids were dying to get in the pool, so we asked for directions to the nearest restrooms to change. The crew members (cast members?) in the stairway directed us to the restrooms one flight up. Which turned out to be the restrooms for Palo and Remy. Totally the nicest restrooms on the ship. Way to start out with a good impression Dream! I was honestly wondering if I could just live in those restrooms they were so nice. :lol: All the other restrooms on the ship were super nice and extremely clean, but these were the most opulent, if you will, that we saw on the ship.

When we were all changed my husband noticed it was almost time for our rooms to be ready - 1:30. He asked if I would like to drop off our carry on bag before we headed to the pool. Well, yes!

My kids noticed their first interactive art. Alice in Wonderland on Deck 9.

At about 1:35, they dropped the rope and we headed back to drop off our stuff!

Well hello 9604! So nice to meet you!

foreverbelle · Jul 7, 2011

Finally caught up thus far...First off. Great pics. Family is adorable.

Second, I can't believe your weird things that happened. In all the years I have been going I have to say I have never run into anything such as crazy. My mouth just about dropped. Both dudes just seemed really rude. Some people just need to learn to chill and keep their mouth shuts. I am glad you ladies got out safe. lol

Thanks for the Disney Jr. pics, we are thinking of bringing lil man to it when we head down there next week. He loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates so I am hoping he will sit through it!

And yeah for the Dream. I swear everyone is going on the cruise this year. Makes me soo jealous!! But I look forward to it. I just hope nothing strange happened from there on out.

Can't wait to read the rest.

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

I have tons of room pictures I took for friends, but if anyone needs to see them, I'd be happy to post them. I just figure most of you have seen them already. One thing I didn't know was that we would have a small fridge in our room. Score!

So far the view from our balcony wasn't what we'd imagined.

Then we headed up top to Deck 11 - Mickey pool!

It was already cloudy and you could hear the thunder in the distance. My husband and son headed straight for the Aquaduck, but they had already closed it due to lightning. I got a little nervous about the lightning myself, so we limited ourselves to the Nemo Splash area.

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

I loved all of the 4th of July buntings they put up.

My daughter just couldn't let the Mickey pool go. She was in L-O-V-E and she was getting in no matter how dangerous it was. I finally relented and let her in for a few minutes before the downpour began.

I'm not really sure where my boys were during this time - I'm thinking they went to try out the Aquaduck again, only to be turned away a few minutes later. When the rain started, we retreated (with the rest of the ship on Deck 11 at the time) to the hot tubs.

It was really coming down out there.

And it had cooled off, but with the hot tubs help, we were finally warm enough for ice cream!

A decent picture of the Mickey band:

This was our first experience with the 'never ending supply of food/ beverage.' My kids quickly figured out they were able to help themselves to whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted and any time I lost sight of them on the pool deck, I was almost certain to find them at one these stations gulping down Sprite and Fruit Punch as fast as they could drink it before I could stop them! :lol:

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

After the ice cream, we decided we needed to return to our room and get changed in time for the muster drill. We weren't sure if we could wear our swimsuits to it or not.

When we first arrived in our room our television was playing a continuously running video about embarkation and muster drill/ life jacket information. We watched the video when we returned to our room, put on our dry clothes, consulted the map on the back of our door and arrived for the drill right on time.

It seemed some others weren't planning on being so timely:

(That's the glass bottomed hot tub on Deck 11 with people still inside, even though it is clearly time to be at your drill location.)

Muster Drill was quick and easy, if a little crowded and we were soon back on Deck 11 ready for more ice cream at Eye Scream!

Up next ........ We're sailing, we're sailing........ Away!

erstwo · Jul 7, 2011

foreverbelle said:
Finally caught up thus far...First off. Great pics. Family is adorable.

Second, I can't believe your weird things that happened. In all the years I have been going I have to say I have never run into anything such as crazy. My mouth just about dropped. Both dudes just seemed really rude. Some people just need to learn to chill and keep their mouth shuts. I am glad you ladies got out safe. lol

Thanks for the Disney Jr. pics, we are thinking of bringing lil man to it when we head down there next week. He loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates so I am hoping he will sit through it!

And yeah for the Dream. I swear everyone is going on the cruise this year. Makes me soo jealous!! But I look forward to it. I just hope nothing strange happened from there on out.

Can't wait to read the rest.

Thank you!

I think you are totally right - chilling out is key to survival during hot, crowded times at WDW. If they had just counted to 10, I think things would have been very different in both scenarios.

You are very welcome! We love Jake here too - I love that it incorporates classic characters - Hook and Smee & Tink into a current show.

It does seem like everyone is going! That was why I was so glad our inlaws gifted us with this trip! I know it's wrong to be envious, but I was sooo envious of all these cruise reports! :lol:

Nothing else strange I promise!

It was all good from here on out!

HollyBelle · Jul 7, 2011

Love, love, LOVING it! I'm all swept up in the embarkation excitement as I read along... and I'm giddy with anticipation for your upcoming posts! Your report has me totally ready to cruise away again - the Dream is such a beauty.

The pictures you took of the kids while trying to recreate your avatar really are awesome in their own right!

And thanks for the shout out!

Disneyfalcon · Jul 8, 2011

Yay, another cruise trip report!! I am loving all these that are popping up!

erstwo said:
It was going to be tight, but somehow we managed to do it. I rained all afternoon and on our drive to the Cape, it poured. But finally we arrived at our 'night before the cruise' hotel - the Radisson. It was fantastic! Thank you so much for the recommendation Tammy!

You're so welcome! I'm glad you liked it!

erstwo said:
We got close to the gate and I realized they needed to see our passports just to get through the gate to the terminal. No problem, as we had ours with us. BUT we also had my husbands! Soooo....... we waited for Big Daddy to drop off my mother in law and sisters in law and then handed him his passport as he went off to park the car.

Just for future reference, they would let him in with a picture ID. We do that often so someone can drop off a car and the rest of us can check in!

That picture of people in the hot tub during the sail away drill is hilarious!!:lol: It's possible they were on back to back sailings. They often let those guests skip the drill the second time. But still, hilarious!!

Your crazy people stories are cracking me up too!! That guy who actually tried to grab the woman's arm shocked me. I've seen people screaming at each other, but there's a pretty obvious line crossed when you touch someone else!!

disneygirl1 · Jul 8, 2011

YAY you are on the Dream!!!! Awesome update!!! Can not wait for more!!! :sohappy:

erstwo · Jul 8, 2011

HollyBelle said:
Love, love, LOVING it! I'm all swept up in the embarkation excitement as I read along... and I'm giddy with anticipation for your upcoming posts! Your report has me totally ready to cruise away again - the Dream is such a beauty.

The pictures you took of the kids while trying to recreate your avatar really are awesome in their own right!

And thanks for the shout out!

Thank you - it really is such an exciting day!

And you're welcome.

Disneyfalcon said:
Yay, another cruise trip report!! I am loving all these that are popping up!

You're so welcome! I'm glad you liked it!

Just for future reference, they would let him in with a picture ID. We do that often so someone can drop off a car and the rest of us can check in!

That picture of people in the hot tub during the sail away drill is hilarious!!:lol: It's possible they were on back to back sailings. They often let those guests skip the drill the second time. But still, hilarious!!

Your crazy people stories are cracking me up too!! That guy who actually tried to grab the woman's arm shocked me. I've seen people screaming at each other, but there's a pretty obvious line crossed when you touch someone else!!

Yes, thank you - we loved it! Originally, the last shuttle was supposed to launch the day after we sailed. When my mother in law checked with the Marriott, not only were they 100% booked, they were also charging $328 a night for a standard room!

So I checked into the Radisson on your recommendation, and they were still only charging $99 per night, so I quickly booked 6 rooms for my MIL. So, so glad we chose that hotel.

You know, you might be right about the back to back sailings. My sisters in law were on Deck 8 and they told us their next door neighbors informed them they were on 3 - that's right THREE - back to back sailings!

Ours was their second cruise. They hadn't been off the ship in 6 days at that point. Must be nice!

disneygirl1 said:
YAY you are on the Dream!!!! Awesome update!!! Can not wait for more!!! :sohappy:

I know - finally there! It is taking so much longer to type this all out than I ever expected. I guess all my previous TR were more like Cliff Notes than I ever realized.

erstwo · Jul 8, 2011

I forgot to mention in my previous post that by the time we got to our room to change for the Muster Drill, our luggage had arrived. Kind of weird - they put your luggage OUTSIDE your door, not inside your room. I'm sure there's a reason for this, but if you have any valuables, you'd want to be sure to put them in your carry on luggage. Not that you wouldn't anyway and not that anyone would be able to open up your suitcase in those narrow hallways! If you did, everyone would know and remember who you were! :lol:

It was time for the Sail Away Party and our whole group was really on the steep upward climb of figuring out how to communicate with each other via the Wave Phones.

I thought I had it figured out, but in reality had only figured out how to call my husband via the same room to same room sequence. I really had no idea how to call other rooms on the ship yet. My husband and son had returned to the room to change back into their swimsuits and try their luck at the now open Aqua Duck again.

I arrived on Deck 11 and saw no one familiar and since I had my husbands phone with me AND my little companion had conked out on me:

I was all alone for the Sail Away Party. I really wasn't too bummed about it, as by now I was feeling a little sleepy myself and probably wasn't the most enthusiastic participant in the Sail Away Party.

I thought I would go up on Deck 12 and grab a quieter spot for my daughter to rest and myself to watch.

Only it was NOT quiet up there! Not by a long shot. It was honestly way too loud. It had been too loud all morning, but now it was just annoying.

The show was really cute though and when it was about 75% through, I made my way over to the other side of the boat to take some sailing away photos:

erstwo · Jul 8, 2011

So funny because this terminal bridge looks so cute on the inside, but so plain and usual on the outside! Typical Disney Magic I guess:

And then we really were sailing away!

And the horn played:

And I think that was the moment I fell in love with the Dream.

Right about then, my sisters in law found me and we stood and chatted for a bit. They had been hanging out in the adults only area. Then I spotted my in laws from Maryland and finally my husband and son found us. The line for the Aquaduck during the party was over an hour long

so they had opted for the Mickey slide instead. They were now a little chilly, so after a little soak in the hot tub and a snack for us all, we headed back to our stateoom to change for the show and dinner.

Tonight was the Golden Mickeys. We missed almost all of the preshow, but I wish we hadn't! It was wonderful! They really do it up Disney style as if you are arriving on the red carpet at the Oscars - love it!

Inside the theater they have a live feed of the red carpet:

Then it was almost time for the show! But first, our Cruise Director came out and gave some general info and introduced the Captain and his crew.