Sideways glance, smile, twinkle. Got it!
I am now SO excited for our Disney Dream cruise in Nov 2012! Yep, I too booked a Disney cruise more than a year out. But we're smart because I hear that the prices go up based on availability. I booked mine literally the day the rates came out. My travel agent rocks!
I can't wait to see more of the Disney dream! You both look so blissfully happy it brings a tear to my eye
Yeah, I’ve recently looked into booking one closer to the current date and the prices are ridiculous. It doesn’t help though, that the Dream only has a really small number of inside staterooms, and once you get out of that category the prices are crazy. So, of course they all book up first.
More Dream coming up soon!
Shows were amazing....and we are planning our next trip for the Fantasy also...I do not know if I could ever cruise on another line ever again!..
Oh and I posted a somewhat trip report here with links to my pics..
Where’s your report, Dana? I’m off to find it! Who else have you cruised with? I really fell in love with Princess when we cruised on the Emerald last May. No, it’s not Disney, but then again neither is the price. :lol:
Also, we had a 11:30-12:00 arrival time for the Dream and were in boarding group 5..we got there around 10 and no one was there..
So they let you in the terminal early even though you had the 11:30 arrival time? That’s a great boarding group assignment!
Glad to hear that the move went okay...moving is just THE WORST.
Great update! I can just feel the excitement looking at your pictures...you both look thrilled!
Awesome job with the character meets...4 already and you just got on the ship! I am impressed.
It really was so exciting!! Yep 4 already, and many more to come. I swear, but the end of the cruise we had met EVERY character, in each of his/her different outfits. We’re not weird, I promise!
Oh yeah, and I LOVE the new avatar!
Your update has put me in a good mood before work! I adore how much you guys love character interaction. I may have mentioned this before that we never meet characters because I always feel so awkward. I think I have taken my picture a total of 2 times with Mickey as an adult (I know..crazy!) I never know what to do with them! Can't wait to see what other characters you guys find on the ship.
Add me to the short list of those who don't really have the desire to do the cruise, but not because the DCL ships look nothing short of amazing. Since our trips to WDW are becoming quite infrequent, I'm afraid I'd miss the parks way too much and would regret spending the money on the cruise instead of a week long parks vacation....haha does that make sense?
Bring on more of the Dream!
I’ll admit, I sometimes feel rather awkward meeting the princesses, but not the rest of the characters. One thing to remember is that the *characters* are adults. And something has clearly drawn them to that role, probably their own love of characters in a lot of cases. So I really do feel like they get it. Mickey’s one of the more difficult characters to get an *interesting* reaction out of. Chip and Dale on the other hand… go find them. They’ll fawn all over you and Chris can take the pictures. :animwink:
Makes total sense. In fact, with Brett’s new job our vacation time is going to be extremely limited, so I fear the infrequency that you mentioned. If you do ever get curious enough to try the cruise, start with a three day, that way you can follow it with four days in the parks.
Holly, I'm also enjoying your report of your cruise. We haven't booked one yet but thinking about it for sometime next year. I really appreciated the detailed boarding report. I'm wondering how it would've been if you hadn't received the "special" pass. Is it first come first serve with that? In other words, I'm wondering how to get to board the earliest. Because let me tell you....I'm LOVING your empty ship pics. That's SO something I would want to do!
One other question: since you've cruised a bunch on other ships (non-Disney), would you rank theme for me against Disney. I'm sure Disney is numero uno but I'm having a difficult time convincing some of my family to cruise Disney vs. the others b/c of the cost. They've found cheaper cruises and can't understand why we should sail Disney and pay more. Of course, I have no desire whatsoever to EVER cruise any other ship but Disney. No one in my family has ever cruised on any cruise line so we have no point of reference. I've already told them about the good points (the shows, the kid's only areas, the adults only areas, the aquaduck, the terrific restaurants, the virtual porthole, Castaway Cay) and they think they can be just as entertained on other ships. Any words of advice in comparing the ships? Thanks so much in advance!
The boarding process is in flux right now, if I understand correctly. They’ve been trying a couple of different approaches to keeping the terminal from being overcrowded. When we boarded it was first come/first served. Now, they’re having cruisers pick a “port arrival time” and reports seem to be mixed. I’ve heard that your port arrival time is tied to your boarding pass number so if you have a late port arrival time, showing up early won’t help you in getting on the ship any earlier. But then I’ve also heard that they aren’t enforcing this. So, who knows?!
I can completely understand why it’s difficult for your family to find the value in Disney when they aren’t Disney fans. You can usually take comparable cruises (in terms of length/itinerary) for a third the price of Disney. That’s no small thing. We’re crazy fans of Disney, but I’m sure we’ll continue to book on other lines, too.
Ranking the other cruise lines is pretty easy for me: Princess (by a landslide), Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian. But it’s not fair to rank them without a little description. The ships, length of cruise, and ports of call definitely factor into my opinions.
We took a 7 day eastern cruise on the Emerald Princess last May and I was completely blown away by the ship. Overall, Princess did everything right. I can’t remember the exact numbers now, but there were 4 or 5 decent sized pools on the ship and something like 6-7 hot tubs. It’s the only cruise I’ve been on where I was able to get even remotely close to the pools throughout the week. And the décor of the ship was understated in comparison to the over-the-top gaudiness of some of the other lines. In fact, I even commented in my cruise report that the attention to detail reminded me of Disney.
My experience with Carnival was on the Liberty, another decent sized ship, and another 7 day cruise, this time the western route. Of all the lines, I think Carnival had the best food and may have even had the best entertainment (still a far cry from Disney). Bear in mind, we don’t usually attend the shows on the ships. The ship décor was garish and hard on the eyes… but easy to overlook because it was incredibly well maintained and clean. Plus, the staff was amazing. And even though I don’t have kids, I hear really great things about their kids’ clubs.
RCI and NCL were at a disadvantage to begin with because these were shorter cruises (5 day and 3 day, respectively) and they were on some of the oldest ships in each of their fleets. Plus, in both cases it was just Bahamian ports. My opinion may or may not differ greatly if we’d cruised different ships/itineraries. One thing that I don’t think would change is the food quality. I wasn’t real impressed with the food on either of these lines. Although, NCL offers the “freestyle” dining which is pretty nice if you’re not as interested in getting dressed up and going to dinner.
I’d recommend Princess without hesitation and in fact, they’re easily at the top of our list. When we choose cruises in the future, if itineraries and price are similar among a couple of lines, there would be no question that we would go with Princess. It felt much classier than all the others. I’ve written reports for all of our cruises and they’re linked in the first post of this thread. If you check out the Princess one, I do some comparing/contrasting throughout the whole review. In fact, I did this in all of the reviews, and true to form there are a bazillion pictures to go along with the reporting. We always book inside staterooms and there are pictures of those in each of the reviews.
If you check it out, and have any specific questions about lines, please let me know.
So glad I didn't miss much since I've been on my HONEYMOON!!! How weird is that?! We were parked next to the Dream in Nassau, and I was contemplating ways to stow aboard. I love love love the horn! I got a pretty sweet panorama picture of it from my balcony too! Can't wait to hear about your ports of call!!
YAY! Megan, congratulations to you and your new hubby!!! I’m so excited for you. Which line did you cruise on? Last summer I was on a Norwegian cruise and did the same thing while in Nassau (I think it was the Magic). I kept drooling over it from afar.
Yay! I'm so glad the honeymoon report is starting!
First off I've got two words for you: POG juice!!! :slurp: I swear, if Brandon and I end up going this December (fingers crossed) I will meet you at the Poly and treat you to an Island Sunset. I miss POG juice so much...I haven't had it since I lived in Hawaii.
The Dream looks absolutely breathtaking! I can only imagine how excited you guys were heading onto the ship. Aww...And how awesome are Chip and Dale? Those chipmunks are just too cool. You and Brett definitely have the best character stories.
Can't wait to read more about the Best Cruise Ever.
I’m so afraid the POG juice is going to be overpowered by all the other ingredients in an Island Sunset. But I’ll gladly take you up on your offer and meet you at the Tambu Lounge in December!!! We’ll each buy a round.
More about the best cruise ever coming up shortly!!
