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

erstwo · Jul 8, 2011

And then....... The Golden Mickey's Are Tonight!

I thought this was so cute! And goes to prove that the early bird gets the worm - I guess they had selected these 'helpers' out of the audience earlier:

The performers were all amazing. It was a great show!

After the show, that gift card was burning a hole in my son's pocket, so he and my husband stopped by the shops to look around while I took my daughter to meet Snow White.

Now - here's where my cruise report begins to differ from any other report I've read.

This was a holiday weekend cruise and the ship was packed to the max - not a single room available. I have no idea if all of the other cruises that have been reported were running at half or 2/3 capacity or what, but every character line we stood in the entire trip was a 20 to 45 minute wait.

There were just that many people looking to meet the characters. Many times there would be multiple characters out at the same time - Minnie and Goofy, Stitch and Tinkerbell and we would have to chose just one to meet, because by the time we finished with one line, the other character's line was sure to be closed to guests.

Here's Snow White's line:

And there's Snow White way over there from our place in line:

But finally it was our turn!

When we meet Snow White, usually there is a great discussion of hairbows, but this time I think they discussed shoes:

erstwo · Jul 8, 2011

After meeting Snow White, I asked my daughter if she would like to go shopping with the boys, but she replied that she wanted some 'mommy time' - be still my heart! So 'mommy time' she would have!

It was still a while before dinner, so I decided to take her up to Deck 11 for a snack. Toy Story was playing on the big screen:

Still a little cloudy, but not quite as cold. My daughter said she needed to visit the restroom and I got my first glimpse of the Mickey mirrors!

As she came out of the restroom, my daughter saw me taking the mirror shot, so she asked for one of her own:

And then it was on to the french fries (and a cookie!)

We had Deck 11 almost all to ourselves and it remains one of my favorite memories from the trip - chatting over a plate of fries with Miss Priss and not a care in the world.

More to come!

HollyBelle · Jul 8, 2011

I can't believe the character lines were that ridiculous... I hate that for you. We always noticed that they were worse in the evenings between shows and dinner, but otherwise, there was never much of a line (except for the morning princess meet).

That is the most fabulous bathroom, I swear. The picture of your little Miss Priss twirling in the mirror with you in the shot is classic. Love it! Hooray for Mommy Time!

erstwo · Jul 8, 2011

HollyBelle said:
I can't believe the character lines were that ridiculous... I hate that for you. We always noticed that they were worse in the evenings between shows and dinner, but otherwise, there was never much of a line (except for the morning princess meet).

That is the most fabulous bathroom, I swear. The picture of your little Miss Priss twirling in the mirror with you in the shot is classic. Love it! Hooray for Mommy Time!

To be fair - we did have 2 great 'run ins' with characters that required no wait. One was a true, no wait experience and one was a 'got lucky' experience. But while you would say from your experience that there were little to no lines for the characters, I could never say that from my experience. BUT 45 minutes for a princess is a lot less than than most lines in the parks! I would compare the lines to the lines at Epcot in the World Showcase - not too bad, but non existent either. I wondered about my timing - I'd love to hear from others on the cruise about their character experiences. I know there were a few other wdwmagic-ers on the boat!

It really is a fabulous bathroom!

I am going to finish Day 1 before this day is over, I swear! :lol:

erstwo · Jul 8, 2011

After our snack, we headed back down to Deck 4, to get back in line to meet Tiana.

ETA - I can't believe I forgot this! I want to give DCL and the Dream it's due - there were long lines for the characters, but there were also some magical meeting moments too!

As we got off the elevator on Deck 4, in the corner of my eye I saw a 'swoosh' of seafoam on the stairs. I looked over and it had disappeared, but I knew that seafoam dress (we OWN that seafoam dress - lol) Up to Deck 5 we raced, and sure enough there she was!

One other family had stalked her down, and they met with her first.

Then it was our turn!

Hair things:

And a lovely picture:

And then she swooshed backstage. It was a magical moment!

Time to meet Tiana! Snow White was still meeting and greeting, but the character attendant told us Tiana would be out shortly. The lobby was already crowded with people around The Royal Palace, ready for their dinner seating:

The performer above was fabulous, I have no idea how she kept sining for I guess, 3 hours, but she did and I loved it every time we passed her!

Eventually, we had to get out of line for Tiana, it was just taking too long and we had a dinner seating to make.

It was Canada Day!

Who knew? Besides the Canadians, I mean......

Is that a totally American thing to say???? :lol::animwink:
Well, Disney knew, and they did it up right:

erstwo · Jul 8, 2011

Dinner was at Animator's Palate and I was super excited!

During 'mommy time' my husband called to ask if he could pick up a present for my daughter to give to her at dinner. We had some discussion back and forth and finally settled on - yes, you can buy her ANOTHER princess dress.

I have no idea what it is about my daugher :lookaroun but everyone wants to buy the girl a princess dress :lookaroun It's gotten to the point that I really don't let anyone give her princess dresses anymore because we have soooooo many.

But during our December trip to Disney, she gave some serious consideration to investing ALL of her spending money in a Belle dress. She loves Beauty and the Beast, but for whatever reason, has never had a Belle dress. I think Belle is the hardest of all the dresses to find, because it's difficult to make a cheap version of it to sell at Target or Wal Mart. Eventually though, my daughter decided against spending all of her money on one item, and bought a Belle dress for her American Girl doll instead. Many times since then, she has wished for a matching Belle Dress for herself and my husband couldn't resist getting her one.

Dinner was fantabulous! The only thing about having dinner at Animator's Palate first was that Crush hadn't had time to meet any of our kiddos in the Kids Club yet. But he still interacted with our table very well and we had quite a few laughs over some spectacular food!

Shrimp Cheesecake appetizer - savory, not sweet

I've forgotten this one's name so we'll just call it - yummy salad

You could really feel the boat moving along. This being my first cruise ever, I kept asking everyone, "Did you feel that?" "Do you feel like we're leaning forward one minute and then back the next?", etc. Until they finally asked me to stop. Ha! But you really could feel the movement. Lucky for me, it turns out I have sea legs and so do my kids. I brought prescriptions for us all from our pediatrician and family doctor, just in case, but we never needed them.

Dessert!!!

After dinner we gave the Aquaduck one last try, but the weather had forced another shut down. So we headed to the hot tubs and then went to our 'magic room' as the kids called it for some much needed rest!

Up next - Day 2 - Nassau

jhoff3405 · Jul 9, 2011

What a great way to start a Saturday morning.....with a fantastic TR!

Never cruised either, so I am loving your report.

The mirror pic with your little princess is to die for! Belle dress as dinner "dessert"....awesome!

foreverbelle · Jul 9, 2011

Ah so there is a crowd during the TR. Most of the ones I have read lately make it seem as though they are one of the few that are on the ship....

And I am such a sap here, reading about your Mom/daughter time just made me tear up seriously. Yep I admit it. Its just those precious moments that don't last no matter how much you may try to make them.

And she is dif. A girl after my own heart I absolutely love Beauty and the Beast!!

I am so enjoying this report, and once again it is making me want to take a cruise really soon!!

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

jhoff3405 said:
What a great way to start a Saturday morning.....with a fantastic TR!

Never cruised either, so I am loving your report.

The mirror pic with your little princess is to die for! Belle dress as dinner "dessert"....awesome!

Thank you! You are too kind. If you've never cruised before either, I do suggest you start with Disney, although it will spoil you for other lines forever!

And she does love that dress - I've washed it twice since we've been home, so glad my husband got it for her!

foreverbelle said:
Ah so there is a crowd during the TR. Most of the ones I have read lately make it seem as though they are one of the few that are on the ship....

And I am such a sap here, reading about your Mom/daughter time just made me tear up seriously. Yep I admit it. Its just those precious moments that don't last no matter how much you may try to make them.

And she is dif. A girl after my own heart I absolutely love Beauty and the Beast!!

I am so enjoying this report, and once again it is making me want to take a cruise really soon!!

There was actually a crowd, but never a crush of people if that makes sense? Just some lines at popular events and a little of that usual 'hurry up and wait' Disney feel. We don't know anything different (other than the TRs we've read) so it really wasn't a problem at all.

I thought you might like that Beauty and the Beast reference! My poor daughter really has to fight to watch that movie - for whatever reason, my son doesn't like it very much, but my daughter loves it, so she watches it as often as she can win control of the DVD player.

You are totally right about those sweet moments flying by!

And thanks again - I hope you get to book your cruise soon too! There certainly were a lot of DVC members on our cruise, made me think it was a great way to use your points!

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

Saturday, July 2

Around 6 am, my daughter got down off the top bunk and got into bed with my husband and I

Try as I might, I could not get back to sleep. You could really feel the boat moving along and rocking from side to side. The night before at dinner, my sisters in law from Texas had mentioned that a Cast Member told them that the Captain would put the boat in 'full speed ahead' mode around 2 am - once everyone had gone to bed- in order to get us to Nassau by 9. We must have still been in high gear, because you could certainly feel the movement!

I got up and dressed in my workout clothes and was on Deck 11 just after 6:30. I wish I had had my camera with me!!!! It was still a little cloudy, but it was so quiet and relaxing at that time of the morning! (This reminds me that I forgot to mention earlier - the night we were in the CRUSH of people trying to watch Wishes in the Magic Kindgom - somewhere along the way, I lost the camera battery to my point and shoot Cannon Powershot.

I assume the camera got caught up against another person and somehow the battery compartment slid open. The good news was, my SIM card was still in there! :sohappy: Since the SIM card is located in the same compartment as the battery, I felt so very lucky!!!!)

So, all that to say, I didn't bring my big Nikon with me to work out.

You'll just have to take my word for it, it was nice.

I wandered around, trying to find the Fitness Center, and finally figured out it was located on Deck 12 in the Senses Spa area. Once again, I wish I had my camera! It was soooo nice. The machines were awesome, but the best was the row of treadmills right up against floor to ceiling glass windows looking out on the water. Made you feel like at any second you were going to jog right off the boat and start running on water. You could watch TV on your treadmill, but really who wants to watch TV with a view like that??? :king:

A few things to note - you will want to bring your own bottled water as there was none there and none for sale that early in the morning. There was a water fountain inside the fitness center, but I didn't see any cups for it. Also, there really weren't any Crew Members there that early in the morning, so if you think you will need some help figuring out the machines, stop by in the afternoon/ evening of your first day on the ship. Not that I needed any help or anything.... :lookaroun

Eventually, I finished my workout and headed back to the room for a shower, stopping on Deck 11 for a coffee. There were several people in the Adults only area enjoying a quiet cup of coffee as the sun came up. I thought about joining them, but there was a whole ship of fun awaiting me!

View from my balcony when I got back to the room:

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

Land Ho!

Everyone was still sleeping in my stateroom, so I drank my coffee on the verandah, and then went in to take a shower. Did I mention that I think the separate shower room/ toilet room each with their own sink is THE BOMB? No? Well I do!

I was worried about waking up the kids and thus far I had only seen a plug for the hair dryer in the wall above the desk where my kids were sleeping, so I decided not to dry my hair (later in the trip, my husband would mention that there were plugs in the ceiling of both bathrooms for that - now he tells me!

Would have saved me some time later!)

Everyone was starting to wake up and was HUNGRY, so we dressed and headed down to the Enchanted Garden for breakfast.

Some of us were dressed a little better than others:

I loved this hallway and it was always empty! Although, I told my husband I felt like a living Algebra word problem every time I walked down it:

If the Disney Dream is moving forward at a speed of 40 miles an hour and I am walking backwards at a speed of 2 miles an hour, how long will it take me to walk a mile? :lol:

Such a pretty view out of the portholes though!

When I had passed through Cabanas on my way back to my room from my workout, people were already filing in, so we decided Enchanted Garden was the way to go.

We got there right as they opened at 8.

And our dining room server was the host that morning! So we got one sweet table:

(sorry, that one was so dark I had to doctor it a lot!)

And after giving our drink orders, we were off for the buffet.

Just one picture, sorry - after that I was carrying two full plates of food.

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

Soon there was land outside our window.

After breakfast, my husband and daughter headed straight for the Princess meet and greet line and I took my son for his first visit to the kids club!

Some shots while waiting for the princesses:

The DCL photos worked just like photopass - you give them your KTTW card though.

And then finally they arrived!

There were 6 princesses: Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, Tiana, Ariel and Snow White. I won't bore you with a million princess pictures, but here is my favorite of the morning, because of the dress of course!

More to come!

HouCuseChickie · Jul 9, 2011

erstwo said:

OK- I immediately teared up when I saw this pic!!! :cry:

It also gave me an idea. I don't think DH wants me to get any more "ideas." :lookaroun

Too funny with the algebra thoughts! ...but I can TOTALLY see what you mean. :lol: ...and I could see my DH doing the same thing with the outlets.

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

HouCuseChickie said:
OK- I immediately teared up when I saw this pic!!! It also gave me an idea. I don't think DH wants me to get any more "ideas." :lookaroun

Too funny with the algebra thoughts! ...but I can TOTALLY see what you mean. :lol: ...and I could see my DH doing the same thing with the outlets.

It is a great pic! I have to credit my husband with this one, as I was upstairs waiting in line for Peter Pan. Sadly, I had to meet him alone, without the camera, because the Princess line didn't move quite fast enough.

Husbands are funny like that - holding on to useful information - as if they can pass it on telepathically! :lol:

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

Well, I finally put the suitcases away, so I guess this TR is officially the only way to keep living the "Dream" now.

So here we go......

After the princesses, my daughter decided she wanted to visit the Oceaneers Club herself. I was a little worried that we wouldn't be able to leave her by herself. She's the more reserved of my children, and I thought she might need me to hang out with her. Boy was I wrong! She made a beeline for the Fairy area and gave me a good bye hug and that was it! Cracked me up though, because for the rest of our cruise she referred to the Oceaneers Club as Pixie Hollow. Apparently it was her favorite part, and anytime she wanted to go to the kids club she would ask me to take her back to Pixie Hollow.

We checked on our son, who was having a blast and then headed toward the Adults only areas to check them out. We toured the lounges and the bars before heading up to Deck 11 and grabbing a beverage and enjoying the ocean view. It was soon time for lunch and we headed to pick up the kids so we could all eat before getting ready and getting off the boat. (Later we figured out that they would feed the kids lunch and dinner in the Kids Clubs if we wanted.)

When we got off on the 4th floor we spotted Goofy walking around in his jammies! His character attendant explained he had been up late with the Golden Mickey's after party and had just gotten up! :lol: We tried to get a picture, but he was out and about just for giving high fives and 'talking' to guests, not meeting and greeting, so I settled for this pic:

and made a big fuss about how cute his jammies were, etc.

Then I guess I stopped to watch some kids doing the Detective Agency thing, and next thing I know, I look over and there is my husband sitting at the 'book your next cruise' desk! :lol: Ummmmmm....... honey..... we've only been on this boat for less than 24 hours..... :lookaroun

I drug him away and we spotted Goofy again. My husband takes the same picture with Goofy every trip, and I asked very nicely if he could pretty please take a photo with Goofy in his pajamas and his attendant relented and said yes:

Yay! My husband does this same pose with Goofy every time and it seemed like it made more sense with this outfit than with any other. So glad we got this pic!

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

We had a great lunch at Cabanas. All the window seats were taken inside Cabanas, so we sat outside nearer to the pool and beverage stations.

Yeah, so you've got a slide - but do you have an Aquaduck????

And speaking of the Aquaduck, my son could see that it was open and the line looked to be less than an hour. We needed to be off the boat by 1:30 because my inlaws were renewing their wedding vows! :sohappy: at a church in Nassau at 2:00. I think it was around 11:30 when we finished. I only needed to do my hair, so we said okay. Everyone, but me, changed into their swimsuits and we went back up to Deck 11.

It was a perfect sunny afternoon!

My daughter was aiming for the Mickey pool, but for some reason it was closed along with the Mickey slide. The place was PACKED, so the only thing I can assume is that someone had gotten sick in the Mickey pool and they were doing a complete clean out. Otherwise, considering all the problems we'd had with the weather and the Aquaduck, I don't think they would have closed the pool.

Most of our family was gone on excursions. One family did the glass bottom boat tour and one family did the dolphin experience. They both raved about them!

Donald pool:

Wall-E on the big screen:

I spied Minnie up on Deck 12 and couldn't resist dragging my daughter out of the pool for a picture! (Well, she had to come with me. :lookaroun No lifeguards.

)

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

Around that time, my son and husband caught up with us. They were now official Aquaduckies!!!!! :sohappy: Woot!

It was time to go change and get presentable for my in laws vow renewal. We rushing around trying to get ready in time. We heard from my sisters in law that they had been out and about in Nassau and stopped by the church already. Score! Someone who knew where we were going! That would save us some time. Once we all looked presentable, we headed downstairs to Deck 3, thinking that would be where we would disembark (that's where we had boarded the ship the day before at Port Canaveral.) There was Stitch! My son loves Stich:

My son and Stitch played around a bit with his sword - thus the pose. Right after this picture, Stitch fell on the floor as if my son had mortally wounded him. I love it when characters interact like that!
Luckily, we also have nicer members of our family:

We finally figured out that you actually get off the ship on Deck 1 in Nassau and we disembarked. When we got off the ship we ran into my very frazzled mother in law who was trying to get back ON the ship to change her clothes. It seemed that the glass bottom boat tour that had herself, my father in law and my in laws from the Philippines aboard was supposed to return at 1:00. Well, at 1:30, they were no where near finished and my inlaws had to 'rent' another boat to bring them back to the ship!

But they were all there now, if not a little rushed. We headed to the 'main' area of the port past the straw market to find a taxi to transport all of us.

Finally, we were all present and accounted for, except for the dolphin excursion people, who were meeting us at the church.
On our way!

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

I can't remember the name of the church, but it was beautiful (and air conditioned!) My mother in law had inquired about a vow renewal on the ship, but the price was outrageous, and my brother in law contacted the local parish and they were happy to set up this renewal for us.

This was the new building. What I really wanted to see what the inside of the original church building!

It was soooo beautiful! Those doors - couldn't you just die? If we had had even one second of spare time, I would have had a family portrait done against those doors.

We were finally all there and all changed, and it was just so lovely and perfect to be there with my inlaws and celebrate their marriage:

Now on the way TO the church there were 3 different taxis that transported our 19 people to the church, but only ONE of the taxis returned - luckily it was a minivan type taxi.

So. All 19 of us. Yes. 19. Piled into one taxi! It was hysterical. My brother in law took a video of all 19 of us exiting single file. It is so much fun to watch. :lol:

I was really the only one who was freaked out by the whole - 19 people in a taxi designed for 7 with no seatbelts and 7 children thing. All of my inlaws are world travelers, so they are totally used to things like that and one of my sister in laws is Chinese Jamaican (yes - that's right Chinese Jamaican) born and raised in Kingston, so she was just happy there weren't any animals in the car with us! :lol::lol::lol:

Great memories.

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

On the way back to the ship we saw some familiar sights:

And just in case you aren't sure if you are on island time:

Be prepared for Hurricane Season 2003! :lol:

We got back on the ship just in time to catch the 3:30 showing of Cars 2!

Hysterical! "My condolences" :lol:

When we exited it was almost time for the early dinner seating.
Daisy!

We tried our hand at the Detective Agency, case of the missing puppies:

erstwo · Jul 9, 2011

But I think we got hungry somewhere in the middle. Time to head to Deck 11 to eat!
That 8:15 seating time really is ridiculous.

Our view from our table:

Clearly, we were traveling with one of the best cruise lines out there!

Then we went exploring on Deck 13. I think at some point we let my son go back to the Oceaneer's Lab, because he's not in any of these photos.

Lucky teens:

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

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