Trip Report Dreaming My Way Back to Disney. A First Ever Solo Trip

I’ve been back for over a month now and am finally getting around to writing about one of my best ever Disney trips. I spent 2 nights at All Star Movies, the first time staying here.

This was my first time back at Disney World since January 2020 when I did this:

But, I’m getting ahead of myself because the main part of the trip was…

A transatlantic cruise on the Disney Dream.

This has been a cruise I’ve wanted to take ever since my first cruise 11 years ago, so I was very excited to finally be able to do it.

So the plans were:

October 20th to November 2nd: 13 night Westbound Transatlantic cruise from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale with stops at Vigo (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal), Ponta Delgada (Azores) and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point.

November 2nd: Brightline train from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando

November 2nd to November 4th: All Star Movies resort only stay with lots of good food, resort hopping and fireworks

And I did all of this completely solo, which as a mum of four was not something I’d had the opportunity to do before.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 25th October: Day at Sea 3

Progress across the ocean

I’d mentioned earlier that the navigator app wasn‘t working properly at the beginning of the cruise. By the second day mine was working fine but for some guests it didn’t work for the whole cruise. Because of this we all had paper copies of the next day’s navigator delivered to our rooms every evening. It wasn’t the same as the old style glossy navigators that Disney used to give out, just an A4 sized piece of paper, but I liked having a physical copy and it made a nice souvenir.

Some of this day’s activities

After my morning deck 4 walk and sit I headed over to the theatre for the Ducky Williams presentation

I really enjoyed the presentation, he has a very interesting story of never giving up on trying to achieve your dreams.

On the way in everyone had been given a raffle ticket and at the end about 20 of Ducky’s sketches were raffled off. I didn’t win unfortunately . But a few days later all rooms received a limited edition lithograph

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 25th October: Day at Sea 3 (cont)

Lunch dessert with an ocean view, raspberry pannacotta and chocolate hazelnut cheesecake

It was pirate night that night which I was very excited about because it meant fireworks . On my summer cruise we’d had pirate night without fireworks, I think because of the rules of European cruises, and it was good but I definitely missed them.

Dinner was back in Royal Palace for the pirate night menu. Lime marinated shrimp to start

I‘m sure I had the grouper next but no photo then the coconut crème flan with fruit for dessert. All were very tasty

Before and during dinner there were starting to be rumours that we wouldn’t be getting fireworks because it was too blustery out on deck. I was keeping my fingers crossed that this wasn’t true.

The queue for the elevators is always awful after dinner on pirate night so I rushed up the stairs from deck 3 to deck 12 to try to find a good spot. I managed to find one just big enough for one person next to a pillar overlooking the stage, I had an excellent view of the show.

It wasn’t too windy for Captain Jack Sparrow

And then we had fireworks . I deliberately didn’t take any photos, these were my first in person Disney fireworks in almost five years and I just wanted to enjoy them. There were definitely a few happy tears shed

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 25th October: Day at Sea 3 (cont)

It’s become a tradition for me on pirate night to drink an espresso martini while watching Pirates of the Caribbean on funnelvision, so after the fireworks I headed round to Cove Cafe

Back on the pool deck the post fireworks dance party was still in full swing so, as I had an early excursion the next day, I decided to take my drink back to my room

Would be wrong not to watch some of the movie though (and I had to show my family I was sort of keeping up the tradition)

I was excited for the next day when we would be arriving in the Azores

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 26th October: Ponta Delgada, Azores

Because I’d booked the cruise at quite short notice there wasn’t a lot of availability left for excursions in the Azores. I definitely wanted to see some of the island and the only excursion left was a bus tour with a wine and cheese tasting at the end so I booked that. It wasn’t particularly expensive, I think about $70. I was a bit nervous about the tour as a few people who’d been to the Azores before warned me that the roads were a bit scary: very steep, narrow and winding. After meeting in the theatre everyone on my tour headed out to the buses and were on our way at about 9.30.

Our first stop was a viewpoint overlooking the ocean.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

It all looks lovely, I haven't been on a Disney cruise (yet). I'm glad you got fireworks, especially after 5 years.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

It all looks lovely, I haven't been on a Disney cruise (yet). I'm glad you got fireworks, especially after 5 years.

I highly recommend the cruises. It’s obviously much different from a theme park trip, very relaxed but still with Disney touches.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 26th October: Ponta Delgada, Azores (cont)

Our next stop was in a little village, mostly because it had public toilets. We were only supposed to stop for 20 minutes but with only one toilet in use for all the women on two buses it ended up being about 45 minutes. It did give me time for a little wander around.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 26th October: Ponta Delgada, Azores

During the summer months there are bright blue hydrangeas all over the island. There were still a few left, they must be stunning when in full bloom

A few more photos from the village