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!

 

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Claire was very patient in line. It was HOT and long, but she just hung there with me. We chatted a bit and of course I took more pictures.

We got one of “those” families behind us ….. close walkers…you know the kind…you take one step forward and they take two. It was a little annoying. The line wasn’t moving very fast, so it wasn’t like I was lagging behind. I had actually turned a couple of times and bumped right into them. I guess they didn’t care, because they didn’t stop hugging us. I just get really annoyed by that. I was hot and sweaty and I didn’t need someone else’s sweat on me. I needed a little personal space.

Hey look…a milk can!

And we are getting closer!

 

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After 40 minutes of waiting…I don’t think so!

Claire and I got front row! And lucky me sat right in a bit of water.

 

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And we’re off!

We got a bit of a splash and I ducked to cover the camera…and guess what, that wet seat got wetter. All of the splash ended on my backside…rear to be exact…which Claire thought was really funny.

I really was enjoying taking pictures as we floated around.

 

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Now it’s been awhile since I have rode this ride…and I have only ridden it about 5 or 6 times in my life…so I can’t remember it all…but I was so wrong here. We got to the part where they tell us to go back, and the guy behind us is telling his kid “here it comes!” And I kept saying to Claire, “ I don’t think this is it. I think we have further to go”. I couldn’t have been more wrong. But luckily I did tuck my camera away before the big splash!

Of course I soon realized this WAS it and I ducked way down and covered all my goods too…. Which of course exposed my backside! I got a little wet again back there. But Claire took all the Splash she could and LOVED it.

 

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We exited and stopped to look at our picture. I tried to take the redneck version ,but a strong shadow was on each and everyone I took. Here’s about the best of them….and you can see, I am totally ducked down.

We headed off to Pirates. Claire was a little leery about it. She has ridden it every trip, but the last 3 she acts like it might be scary. The line was kind of long. We usually go when it’s practically walk on. I think we waited about 20 minutes.
We saw Pirate Goofy at the entrance and I asked Claire if she wanted to see him first, but she said no.

We got in line and guess what….MORE line huggers. This group was a Mom and several preteen girls. The one girl was really close. So much so, that her hair was CONSTANTLY touching me. ICK! She would turn to talk to her family, and it would brush against my shoulders. I tried my best to avoid it, but she would just get closer then.

The girls behind us were talking non stop. I kind of listened a bit here and there…it was hard not to when they were so close. Then the one girl….the one whose hair had become my new best friend, mentioned that she thought it was horrible how all these 5 year old looking kids were in strollers. Now for those who know me, you know that I couldn’t let that comment go. I do agree it is each family’s decision, but it also irks me when people cut those of us who use them down.
So I turned around…blew the hair out of my mouth…OK, might be exaggerating there. LOL… and said to the girl…. My Daughter is 6 and we have our stroller parked outside waiting for us. We can go longer days if she has one and we plan to stay till at least 2 AM tonight. I also told her that we don’t normally use it at home, but for trips like this, it was very helpful.
Her Mom piped up them. She said that her DD would be eating her words when she had children. LOL! And she went on to tell her that she was a stroller child as well and they had used the stroller with her for many years on trips like this as well.

 

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We soon we close enough to see the boats.

I think we were in the first row again. We seem to have a lot of luck getting front rows this day.

 

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We LOVED the ride. Claire wanted to ride again! I told her we would come back later. We decided to head over towards Space Mountain again. Of course I took a few pictures on the way out.

 

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We then decided instead of heading to Space we would stop off at the Castle and check if we could 1. Add Dad to our ADR and 2. get in earlier. I have a great Dis friend, Keri. We talk on facebook all the time. Her DD, Natasha, was working at CRT at the time. Keri said that Natasha was pretty sure we could get in earlier than our 9:30 appointment. And it shouldn’t be any problem to add my Dad as well.
Claire and I went up to the desk and did some name dropping. LOL! We let them know that Natasha had said to come early and check to see if both those options were available. They told us that there would be no problem what so ever to add Dad…and to check back after our BBB appointment to see if we could get in earlier. I then made a call over to Mom and Dad and let them know what was up. They were close to being done at AK and were going to head over soon.

We decided to head over and see if Tiana was out. She was due out soon, so we got in a fairly short line and waited. We had walked by the Dole Whip stand, and I asked Claire if she wanted to share one with me. I have YET to ever try one. She looked at the line and said no way. LOL!
Of course I took some pictures to pass the time while we waited.

Soon we saw the Princess and her Man approach the area.

 

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Finally it was our turn. I think we waited about 15-20 minutes total, so it really wasn’t too bad.

I’ll post photopass first because I have those loaded already.

 

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More photopass pictures.

And mine.

 

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I’m not sure why Claire is making all these weird faces.

I don’t think Claire wanted to leave.

Claire seemed to be having a good time with them. They did a lot of talking, but I have no clue what the conversation was about.

Next stop was a quick potty break and then we checked in for our BBB appointment. I let them know that we had our own dress and would need to get changed as well. The appointment was for 5:55. We checked in a little early.
I debated on actually doing this. Claire LOVED it when we did it in 2009. But we had limited time in the parks this trip and I wasn’t sure I wanted to try and fit this in as well. Claire talked about it all the time though as the trip approached. She was convinced we would be doing it. So a few weeks before we left I made the call. I figured a later appointment would work for us. At the time, I was going with the assumption that we wouldn’t be eating till 9:30 at CRT, so I tried for the latest possible appointment. 5:55 was the latest they could get us, and it actually worked out great.
I never wrote about it in my PTR, I decided I would let it be a surprise for my TR. I also never told Claire that it was actually booked. I told her we “might” try to do it. So when she got the note in that morning about her appointment, she was very excited.
While we waited I tried to take pictures of the current dresses. I got a few and then it became more crowded and I gave up.

 

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Claire spotted the crowns and wands. She “had” to have one of each. I let her know it would come out of her spending money and she was fine with that. We told them at the desk and they handed them to us.

A few more before getting called back.

Soon we were called back to the dressing room to change.

Warning…. There will be a LOT of BBB pictures……
Claire got changed and soon we heard someone ask if we were ready yet. We were almost done, and she said she would be waiting outside the curtain for us.
We put on Claire’s finishing touches and were led out to her chair. I just love Claire’s dress. We got it from another Diser and I fell in love with it when I read her TR. She was selling it as it no longer fit, and I was happy to buy it.

Claire picked the Diva style again. But this time I was relieved that she picked blonde hair instead of pink!

I believe they were picking out face jewels here.

At some point and time the Photopass photographer came over and asked for my card. I told her that I had set it on the work station of the FGIT. She acted surprised, and I asked if that was wrong to do. She said no that was exactly where it should go, but she never had anyone do that before. She wondered if I had been there before, and I said yes. And she thought it was funny. I told her (and the guy too) to take lots of pictures because I had pre-bought the CD and I think they did a fair amount.

And getting started.

 

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random shots

If I did this to Claire at home she would be SCREAMING!

A quick Video.

 

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Make-up was next.

Nails were done. I think she picked pink paint.

 

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And some eye shadow.

 

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Her make-up was little dark, but she loved it. I am scared how she will be as a teen with make-up because when she plays dress up at home and puts it on…. it looks horrid! LOL!

 

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A sprinkling of dust.

If you read my last TR, you will know I am NOT a fan of the cotton candy puff ball on top of the head. In the brochure they show it more spiky, which I like much better, but none of the FGIT will do it that way. So even though my DD is now a beautiful princess I cringe at the puff ball on top.

 

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Time for the royal crown!

And now the Sash.

 

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The anticipation is building!!!!

Time for the Big reveal!

For those who are not familiar with BBB, They never let the child see themselves in the mirror the whole time. So until she turns Claire to face the mirror she really doesn’t know what she looks like. I always love the look on her face when she sees it for the first time. Photopass can usually capture it pretty well too.