A Hop, NO Skip, and Many Mishaps to a Disney Dream

Hello all! We just got back from a fabulous “Dream” trip on the Disney Dream, along with a stay at Residence Inn, Cape Canaveral, Pop Century at WDW, and Residence Inn near Sea World, with a few park visits to Magic Kingdom, Sea World and Epcot!

The dates of this trip were March 30th to April 6th.

Let’s get started with the introductions of who was SUPPOSED to go on this trip.

Me~ Jennifer~ The mom of 3 LOVELY Children (though they are not always lovely at the same time…or even all the time) I am a very BIG Disney fan and am always trying to think of a way to get there!

Skip~ My Wonderful husband of almost 9 years. He is a good dad, and he even puts up with my passion for Disney…though usually with a lot of eye rolling.

Claire~ a 6 year old girl who loves Disney very much and was very excited to take her first Cruise, as well as seeing and dressing like the Princesses.

My 2 other children are now adults and did not travel with us nor really want to for the most part. They are Michael and Paige.

As the title will tell you, we had a few mishaps, and there was a cast change…more on that in a bit.

Now for a little background info…….history. It is a little long, but I promise, I have a ton of pictures to post after all of this!

This is one of those trips that I thought just never would happen…I know, you’ve heard it all before, but HONESTLY, it really took a LONG time to get to this point.

We have gone to Disney with Claire in March of 2007, 2008 and 2009. I really wanted to go again in 2010. Skip had had a hip replacement in late 2009 and just was not ready to go back in early 2010. But believe me, I tried to convince him all the same. Claire and I then came up with the plan that we should go for her 6th birthday in December. Skip said he would think about it. Through out the year, we got a lot of “some days”, “we’ll sees”, and “maybes”.
In the mean time, Skip was still having troubles with his hip and had been sent to several different Drs…all of them claiming to have no clue what was wrong with him.
In Oct Skip started talking more about a possible Dec. trip. We had dates set, and places we want to go, etc.
Then he threw a wrench in my plans. “How much does a Disney cruise cost?”…. I was shocked! I had tried to convince him to do this in 2009 for my 40th birthday, but when it came down to it, he decided he would rather go to WDW. He had worries about a cruise with a little one with us.
I did some quick pricing, and the price for 3 nights on the Wonder, along with a few nights at WDW were almost the same as 7 nights at WDW. Before making it a done deal, Skip had one more Dr’s appointment he wanted to attend and see what was determined. This was with his hip Dr. who had claimed all year long that nothing was wrong with the hip.
Things totally changed this day. The Dr found that the implant had never adhered to the bone and the replacement was going to need to be replaced. It was scheduled for Dec 6th….2 days before we had planned to leave for our vacation.
Plans then were postponed and we decided we would go in March and still be able to catch the free dining. (I must note that even though we agreed on this, Skip sometimes doesn’t listen to me and just agrees anyways).
Mid January rolls around, Skip seems to be healing well, and I mention that we have to have Disney paid for soon to be able to get the free dining. Skip goes in panic mode and says, he doesn’t care about saving money (yeah right) and he would rather go in May now, but he WOULD NOT commit to any dates. Let’s just say that I wasn’t happy, and for a few days there wasn’t much talking going on at all in our house.

A few days later, Skip mentions he has called a Travel Agent and has looked at possibly going on the Disney Dream or going to Disneyland in CA. My job then, was to spend lots of hours on the computer pricing several scenarios, we chose the 3 night Dream, with a few added park days.
FINALLY a trip is booked!

 

[jenseib]

The pillowcase and bag came out sooo cute!! I love it!!

Mary Poppins is one of my all time favorite movies so I have to say that'd probably be my favorite part of the show as well. I love Claire's dress she had on that night! Super adorable!!

I was very happy wit hhow they turned out.
We love Mary poppins too. Claire has a fess that she will wear to breakfast later on in the TR, and she got so much attention from it.

 

[jenseib]

It was getting close to dinner time so we headed that way. We also set our bags outside the door before we left. We debated on doing it after dinner, but just in case we ran late, we decided to do it then.
We saw the many people were lined up for pictures this night. I thought we could stop after dinner, but when we were done everything was already packed up. I guess they pack up early since it’s the last night and they need to get all the pictures out for people to buy.

Dinner was Animators Palate.

The décor was just so cute!

These bulletin boards turned into video screens after a bit.

 

[jenseib]

I took some video here and there, hoping to catch if Crush talked to us. That early video is on the lost card…..but the good news is, that during this dinner I changed cards so I have some video from later on in the meal. We also never were talked to by crush, which disappointed Claire. She did love this “show” and was mesmerized.

I see a hidden Mickey!

We discussed the kids club again and Claire decided she would give it a try, but once Crush had appeared that totally went out the door.

My specialty drink……Princess delight. It was non-alcoholic and tasted wonderful!

 

[jenseib]

And soon our appetizers arrived.

And they were delicious!

Claire’s main meal came at the same time that our soups came.

Every so often a Nemo character would float by on the screen. And Crush would come by every so often as well.

Soon the main course arrived.

Mom and I both got the same thing.

Claire’s ice cream arrived soon after.

Dessert was a hard choice, as usual. It all looked so good.

This Sundae was amazing! It had those wonderful chocolate chip cookies in it. I could go for one about right now!

The show continued. Srdjan and Brent also told us not to leave till it was over, so we stayed in place.

 

[jenseib]

While waiting for the fun to start, I took a few more pictures.

Soon a fun show started up with Crush. He wanted to call attention to everyone who was celebrating something. I had TOTALLY forgotten that when I had called to request a 4 top table that they had asked if we were celebrating. I had told her we were kind of celebrating Claire’s birthday belated, since we had to postpone the trip and that it was also my birthday gift, and that Skip was celebrating his 50th in May. I never thought to change it over to Mom when I changed the reservation…her b-day is in May as well.
Soon Srdjan and Brent came out with birthday buttons for Claire and I and a yummy mousse type cake. I took a picture of the cake and accidentally deleted it later on…another mishap.
But if you watch the video you can see it on the table.
Crush led us in some sort of chant. I honestly didn’t pay attention too much. Claire liked it, and I was surprised that Mom was really getting into it too.
I videoed more than what I am posting, but it was on the other card and I switched in the middle of the chanting.



After all the excitement we headed out. Many people still lingered in there, but we like to keep moving.

Here is a copy of the kids menu.

These little light up Dalmatians are on the floor of the restaurant.

We headed down to the Atrium. (bad picture here)

 

[jenseib]

The Atrium was pretty much empty at this point in time so I tried to get some shots of Claire on the stairs….of course none turned out great…most had a slight blur to them.

We started to make our way back to the room again, stopping off for another picture.
I told her to lay down here and pose…and this is what I got.

I told her to sit up and let’s try it again.

I tried a couple more, but they just weren’t turning out with the lighting and I was rushed a bit too. All of a sudden several people decided to walk down this hallway.

We got back to the room to find another towel friend. See Claire’s hand in action…she is going for the chocolate and I am telling her to wait.

We also found that our Cabin Steward had NOT brought down the bunk bed this evening. Why I don’t know. I am guessing he didn’t want to put it back up the next day when he had to prepare the room for the next set of guests. I asked Claire if she minded sleeping with me, if not I would call to have it pulled down. She was OK with being in my bed, so we didn’t bother calling.

Now I can’t remember the exact order of what we did the rest of the evening, but I know I left the room a couple of times. One time Mom and Claire went off to do some last minute shopping. I know I went and got a copy of our room charges and one for Mom as well. I wanted to be sure most was covered and not much put on my credit card.
I also took these pictures somewhere along the line.

 

[jenseib]

Claire came back from shopping with Adda and had gotten a little prize. She’s a good con artist. She got one a Minnie figurine set with the little plastic dresses…kind of like Polly pockets. The thing is, she has this same set already at home. We got it last trip. But she told me that some of the pieces were missing and if you left Minnie naked, she looked like Mickey, so now she would have Mickey and Minnie. That girl is always thinking. There was also something else Claire wanted, but Adda was NOT buying it for her. She said she would use her own money if I took her, so we headed out again.
I also forgot that Mom had bought Claire a watch the 1st night of the trip. Claire loved it and wore it off and on, but I can’t even tell you where it is now, but she probably knows.

We stopped at Shutters first, since I wanted to get some prints. Mom had a few picked out, and I had my eye on a few. Even though I had bought the CD, the borders do not come on them, so to get anything with a border, you have to buy a print. BUT, since I did buy a CD, the prints were 50% off.

I ended up getting 6 prints. Mom and I each got 3.

Here is what Mom got.

And these are the ones I got.

At the gift shops Claire led me to what she wanted to purchase. It was actually something I had looked at the 1st night while she was at the kids club. It’s a stuffed ship with stuffed characters sitting on top. Very cute. It had Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald. It was also $40! Claire said she wanted it though and was willing to pay for it out of her spending money, so we got it. But this thing was bulky and big.
This is a picture of it that I had taken when we got home.

She was very excited to get this and became a very prized possession to her.

We got Claire settled into bed then. It didn’t take long for her to go out completely. I made on last trip out, and not sure what it was for, but I found chocolate covered strawberries on the way back. I grabbed 6 and brought them to the room. Claire was out, Mom didn’t want any at that time, so I dove in. The 1st one was YUCK. I was full and really didn’t need more food, but who could resist strawberries with chocolate. But I guess I could, because that strawberry was mushy. I think I took a bite of another and again, not good and I just ate the chocolate and threw it away. The rest went in our mini fridge. I did try one more in the morning and again, YUCK, so the rest went in the trash after that.


I set the alarm on my phone so I would be up in time to get ready for the next big day and went to sleep very fast. I think I had given up writing in the journal at that point and time.

And that ends Day 4 of our trip. Another long, but fun day. I was sad we would be leaving the beautiful ship the next day, but we still had 3 more full days of fun in store for us as well.

 

[jenseib]

Day 5 ~ April 3rd, 2011, Sunday

I awoke before the alarm went off.
I went and looked out the widow to see if we were in Port…and we were. So I quickly got ready and turned my phone back on…no service. I walked up to the top and checked out the service and it was iffy. Not sure if it was taking my phone awhile to adjust back or if the ship was doing something to block service. On departure day, we never had a problem with service, so I found it weird that it was not working well now. I kept trying to beep Skip, but it would lose service. I was able to leave a message on the barn phone and a little later he called me back.
It was nice to hear from him again. He was missing us, that was clear. He even admitted it! Things were going OK at home, but he was having problems with his youngest brother who works for him. (he has since quit and no longer will even speak to any of us at this point and time) Claire got to talk to Skip too at some point and time and was happy to hear her Daddy’s voice again.
I headed up to Shutters pretty early so I could pick up our CD. It was pretty easy to get and I am glad I went before the mad rush.

The note for the day was this.

I think her gift was a muppets writing supply kit.

I think I took a few pictures with my phone this morning, but from what I see they are repeats from what I had taken already. I’m sure I posted them to facebook at the time.
We got all ready and everything packed and one last swoop of the room.
Mom had the TV on watching the debark talk playing over and over. She mentioned that they suggested a Porter, and I told her I agreed. Everyone I have talked to have had good things to say about it, so we decided we would get one. We tried to decide on a tip. I said at least $10, and Mom agreed, then she debated and said she would put a $20 in her pocket too and if he was really good, we would give him $20.
We made sure our forms were filled out and we had all our proper paperwork with in easy reach.
I am racking my brain trying to remember what time we were supposed to eat breakfast, but I am drawing a complete blank. I know we were 2nd seating, and it was in Animators palate. I’m thinking it was for 7:45 AM.
We gathered everything up!

Everyone had their share of things to carry, even Claire.

We got to Animators Palate and many people were lined up and waiting. It was kind of like a huge camp out. Bags all over, people lying around, waiting to get in. It appeared that the 1st session was running very late.

We all used the bathroom near there while we waited. It was pretty. I hadn’t ever been in that one before.
Finally they opened the doors and we were let in. They told us that if we remembered where our table was from the night before to just head there, which we did.

We got settled in and ordered. The strange thing, it was Brent doing everything. Usually we saw Srdjan 1st, then Brent would come around later.

Claire kept asking where he was. I told her I didn’t know, but maybe he had the day off. She looked hurt. She needed to see him one last time. I think she had a crush on him. She loved how he always called her Princess.

And then out of no where he appeared and we had a happy little girl. They got a few pictures together and then he gave her a kiss on her cheek.

At some point and time I had asked both Brent and Srdjan how long they had been working with Disney.
Srdjan was working his first contract, and we were amazed at how good he was and how well he and Brent worked together. I think Brent had been with Disney about 9 years, if I remember right.

 

[jenseib]

Food started to arrive and we dove right in.

Once done with breakfast we headed out. No need to linger, we had another busy day scheduled.
Mom decided to use the bathroom before we got off, so Claire and I stood with our bags and I gave Dad a call. He was in the area. He had parked at Residence Inn to wait for our call. I let him know that we were now heading off the ship and I would estimate about ½ hour till we were out. He said Ok and we hung up and headed off the ship. It was depressing, but at least we weren’t going home.

We walked down the stairs and several Porters were standing there. We said yes, we would like help and a young guy came over to us. He was super nice…and ironically his parents used to live near us. We found our big bags and loaded them all and went through the line. It was long, but kept moving steadily. The porter was super friendly and we talked about several different things while waiting. He told us some stories of things people have tried taking through the line and not claimed. It was kind of funny. And then of course we talked about Ohio and some of his family that still lived there too.
We breezed through customs. The agent barely even looked at our stuff. I mean just a glance at best. We were on our way. I gave Dad a call and told him which pick up number to find us. Our Porter (I can’t remember his name, but I think it was Steve), dropped the bags off in front of that number and we waited for Dad. He was great, so we did tip him $20. Dad had come around once, but since we weren’t there he made the loop again.
Of course as soon as we dropped our bags on the side walk a stretch limo comes and parks there and just sits and waits. And then someone in a van didn’t seem to have a clue what they were doing and just parked in the middle of the roadway.
Dad pulled to the curb, but way down at the other end, as he couldn’t get closer, so we dragged our bags down to the van.
We got the van loaded and I took the drivers seat. I had to dodge some crazy drivers on the way out…like that other van that had just parked in the middle of the roadway and then just started driving without looking to see if anyone was near them….and off to the highway we went. I kept glancing back at my ship. She was so beautiful sitting there, and she looked so sad to see me leave!
I want to say it was around 9:30 when we got on the road, heading to our next destination…..Pop Century at WDW.
About halfway there, Claire needed a potty break, so we found a gas station and stopped. Word of warning, there are NOT many places to stop along the way, so be sure to go before you make the trip. Claire’s tummy was hurting which means she need to go potty or at least give it a try and then she usually feels better, and sure enough, she was back to he perky self as soon as she got back in the Van.
I also was keeping my eye out for a Walmart. I needed to either buy a new CF card, or get pictures put on a CD. As we got closer though, it just became to hard to follow directions to Pop and try to locate a store, so I gave up for now.

The drive itself was quite educational. Dad gave us a play by play of his few days with his sister…I am guessing he could be the king of TR’s if he could remember long enough to write one. LOL! And when I say play by play, I mean it took ½ hr to get through to half of day 1 of his time there…including his bathroom schedule…ahem…yes, I learned more than I ever needed to know that trip.
At 10:30 this sign came into view!!!

And then this one!

And then this one!

And then this one!

 

[jenseib]

Ugh! Double post

 

[jenseib]

We pulled into the parking lot and I went in to check in.

Claire and Mom also went in with me, and Dad stayed in the van.

The line wasn’t long. I pretty much walked right up and checked in. I had requested 1st floor, 50’s poolside. I asked the girl if that is what I got and she said no, it was in the 80’s. I said, No thanks, that’s the last place I would want to stay, can you move us. So she looked and looked and looked. She really seemed clueless. I told her if I had to, we could wait for a room. It didn’t need to be ready that exact moment. She said she found 1…..in the 50’s I asked, and she said yes. And I said, ground floor, poolside, and again she said yes. She circled the area on the Map. It looked good. Sure, that will work. So Claire, Mom and I went to check out the room.

We kept walking and walking…it was quite a ways and when we got to the jukebox, I turned right and started looking for the number. That’s the area she circled. Soon we were out of pool range…and then to the end of the row and our number wasn’t even close to these????? So we headed back to the juke box and realized it was down the hallway behind it. Now this is NOT poolside in any way shape or form! We walked and walked…. all the way to the end. We were the 2nd to the last room, right by the parking lot. How far could I possibly get from the pool? Mom told me not to worry about it as we were only staying 1 night here. But it really irked me a lot. I was half tempted to go wring that CM’s neck…and then change it. She obviously was misinformed…..by her own mind! LOL!
I then went to go get Dad. I noticed the 50’s pool was closed , so I guess being poolside wouldn’t matter anyays.
I stopped and got 2 new refillable mugs on the way and filled them up. I got a pink lid for Claire and a turquoise blue for myself.
Dad was sitting patiently waiting. We drove over to the 50’s parking lot and parked near our room. And then hauled all the bags in. We have way too much stuff! LOL!

I quickly shot some pictures of the room, so I wouldn’t forget to later.

 

[jenseib]

On the way to Pop, we had discussed a bit on what we were going to do. Mom and Dad were going to AK, and then meeting us later at MK for dinner. Claire did not have a hopper, but I did. I had old tickets from way back when hoppers were included and they had no expiration date. I debated on adding the hopper option to Claire’s ticket and going to AK too. But I knew we would probably only use the hopper for that 1 day only, and I was having a hard time justifying the cost to add it. I left the decision up to Claire.

After we got settled in, Mom and Dad took off for AK. I kind of forgot that I would have to explain the bus system to them, and really didn’t. I just told them to find the bus stop for AK and go, and when they came to Mk, there would be a bus stop for that at AK.
Claire wanted to swim, as it was getting very hot already.
I told her we could, but only for a short while and she was fine with that. We walked over to the hippy dippy pool for the swim, since the 50’s was closed.
She got a life jacket on and went in. I sat on a lounger a little way back under the shade and called Skip and talked to him a bit, and then wrote a bit in the journal.
I had a family come and sit directly in front of my, blocking my view of Claire. There were empty chairs all over the place, but they decided in front of me was best I guess. And they even moved one chair to make it even harder for me to see her. I moved then, so I could see her.

I took a few shots from the area too.

 

[jenseib]

After about 20 minutes of swimming, I told Claire it was time to get out, so she did a few more swims and splashes and got out.
We ran into these cute little buggers. They were up by the smoking section, ironically. I guess Momma Duck needed a little smoke break.

We headed back to the room and I called Mom and Dad to be sure they made it. They did. They were looking for a spot to eat and said the park was very busy.

I gave the choice to Claire and she decided on MK. I knew it would be busy there too, but we would just make the best of it.

While I got her changed I quickly plugged my phone in and let it charge for an extra 5 minutes. I had been using it a lot at the pool and it had already lost a lot of the precious charge I would need to get through the day. Once she was changed we headed out to the bus stop and made our way to MK. There were a group of young adults going to. They had just arrived as well and they were fun. The one guy was familiar with DL, but never been to WDW and they were telling him all about it. They also had a Doug plush with them and were taking pictures with it through out the trip. I Love it when people do it. I always say I will someday, (with Claires lovey Penelope) but have yet to do so.

We arrived at MK and we were both very excited.
I tried to take a picture of Claire and that little tried to pull the stroller cover over her face.

We stopped for a few photopass pictures as well.

I also had to go and check to be sure that my old ticket didn’t need to be upgraded…and it didn’t.
My first order of business was not really all that fun when we entered. I was on a mission to see if I could buy a CF card. I asked at one gift shop and the guy directed me to the photo center, but he also said he thought the only cards the park sells are the SD kind.
We headed to the photo center and talked to 2 nice photopass photographers working the desk. They confirmed that I could not buy a CF card, but they could put the pictures I had on a CD or DVD. I think they were a little iffy on how to do it, but one girl seemed to know more than the other.
I don’t know why, but they didn’t put both cards I handed to them on the same DVD. I’m not sure if it was possible or not, but I had to get 2 DVD’s one having twice as many pictures as the other. They also linked the pictures to my photopass card. But for some reason when I loaded the cards on the site, about ½ of the pictures were missing. But it didn’t matter, as they all were on the 2 DVDs. I want to point out that I had the option of CD’s too, but they don’t hold as many pictures and it would’ve cost me over $100 to do it that way, while the DVD’s were about $30 total.

Claire was anxious to get moving…I don’t blame her, but she was very good while we waited. It took a little longer than I expected.
We then looked at the wait times for the Princesses and Mickey, since they were in that same building. 15 minutes for EACH! Wow….but Claire said no, she didn’t want to see any of them. Bummer…I did!

We headed to Tomorrowland then. I wanted to try and get fast passes for Space Mountain. Claire was finally big enough to ride.

I never even took a first glimpse of the castle picture. It was hot and busy and I guess I didn’t think of it.
I did turn around and get this one in tomorrowland though.

 

[jenseib]

We got fastpasses for later in the day. I think around 6:30, but I can’t remember for sure the exact time and I didn’t write it down.

Claire declared that she was hungry. I was too, so I said we would head over to find some food. But Claire wasn’t only hungry, she was about to drop dead from starvation. She couldn’t walk another step hungry…You know that hunger….the kinds that kids get sometimes and if they don’t eat soon life is going to be miserable for all around. YEP! That was her. I had planned on going over to Columbia Harbor house for a tuna sandwich, but that planned was scratched right then and there. So we headed over to Cosmic Rays. The closest place to us.

We just randomly chose a Bay and got in line.

I gave Claire choices and she chose PB&J…??????? She almost never wants this even at home, so I thought it was odd. I double checked and triple checked and she said yes, that’s what she wanted. I debated over so many things. I was hungry, but not super hungry. Did I want to stuff myself or just get something smaller? I finally decided on the nuggets. I should’ve gone with the kids portion. There was WAY too much for me to eat and I threw half away.
The lines were long, but moving fairly fast. We got up to the CM and she was taking the order of the people on the other side…and it was taking FOREVER. They couldn’t make up their mind (why didn’t they decide in the long line????) and it was becoming irritating and even Claire was loudly asking why we hadn’t ordered yet…remember she was about to die of hunger….
Then they changed out CM’s and of course cash drawers, etc. The new CM goes to the next person in line on the other side!!!! WAIT!!! It’s our turn next!!!!!

Luckily those people were nice and told her we were next! We ordered and found a friendly CM up at the counter.

We found a small table down near Sunny Eclipse and had a seat.

Claire was mesmerized by Sunny. She says she doesn’t remember him from previous trips, but she has dance to his tunes before!

 

[jenseib]

Claire ate pretty well, and even had one of my nuggets. We had WAY too many fries. And I could only eat half of my nuggets. I felt bad about wasting food, but I would’ve been sick if I ate it all. I know for this upcoming trip that I will be ordering kids meals here and there when I’m not feeling super hungry, but need a bite……or maybe just Mickey Bars! LOL!

After we ate, we decided to head over towards pirates.

We stopped for a few photopasses on the way over. This is one of my favorites!

I finally made the time to get a decent castle picture.

 

[jenseib]

Claire decided she “needed” to ride a big ride. So the decision was to head over to Splash Mountain area and check out the waits. Everything looked busy, but I guess we would just suck it up. I took several pictures on our way over. The parade was also getting ready to start, so we had to fight the crowds to get through.

Splash Mountains wait was 40 minutes. Claire said to go for it, so we did. I think we had no choice. Everything was pretty busy right now and we would just do a lot of walking in circles if we looked for something with a short wait. So what do you do when you have to wait for 40 minutes…..take about 40 pictures!

 

[jenseib]

 

[jenseib]

I posted this one to facebook from my phone.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

In regards to the people in line at Cosmic Ray's who didn't know what they wanted.... That makes me soooo frustrated!! There's a huge menu board.. look at it while you're waiting or let someone else go first... simple as that! UGH!!!

Love the pic of you two with the balloons We got one like that when we went in May and it came out pretty good!

 

[jenseib]

In regards to the people in line at Cosmic Ray's who didn't know what they wanted.... That makes me soooo frustrated!! There's a huge menu board.. look at it while you're waiting or let someone else go first... simple as that! UGH!!!

Love the pic of you two with the balloons We got one like that when we went in May and it came out pretty good!

Its so frustrating. I don't know why they can't look at it prior to getting the the CM. :brick:

I loved the balloons picture too. That was my goal....to get one of those.