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

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

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

The village we‘d just visited was next to a lake which had formed inside a caldera. Our next stop would be a viewing point looking down on this lake.

Up the slightly scary winding roads.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, our driver was excellent. Other drivers were crazy though, I would not be overtaking on those roads.

The viewing point was basically a road with very steep drops either side

The lake with the village

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

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

And then the lake on the other side of the road. My photos do not do justice to the view, it was absolutely amazing.

I took this photo of the wall just after someone had been balancing their toddler on it. Crazy, you can see how steep the drop is.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

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

Then our bus took us on a road around the top of the caldera to our next viewing spot

More stunning views, our guide told us we were really lucky because often the clouds are too low to get views like this.

The lady in the woolly hat on the far right of the photo makes me chuckle. Even though it was overcast, it was about 70 degrees and I was in shorts.

Just across from the viewpoint was a creepy abandoned hotel, apparently it was only ever open for a short time because it had so little business

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

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

One more stop for some views across the island

Then back to the port. We could just about see the ship from the bus

I loved the tour around the island and would definitely go on that part of the excursion again.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

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

The wine and cheese part of the excursion was in a hotel back at the port. When we arrived our guide told us we would have 30 minutes inside then get back on the bus to return to the ship.

The view of the ship from outside the hotel. I decided I could walk, but it is good for anyone with mobility issues that they take you back.

I liked the decoration of the hotel lobby

There were tables laid out with bread and cheese with labels to tell you what you were eating, and servers giving out wine. Everything tasted lovely but I guess I was expecting some sort of talk from someone telling us about the offerings. It all felt slightly awkward as there weren’t a lot of tables so I was just standing there, and I couldn’t take photos because my hands were full. It probably would have been less awkward if I wasn’t on my own, and this was one of the only times I felt very self conscious about it. I decided I would be happier leaving and exploring the port on my own for a while.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

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

A little wander around the port seeing some beautiful buildings

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

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

Along the seafront

Back to the ship

I got back just before Cabanas stopped serving lunch.

I think it’s a tropical fruit pannacotta

 

[Go.Nijntje]

Wonderful pictures of the view and the village. It looks like a beautiful place.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

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

We were back in Animator’s for dinner that night and I was very excited because it was the first of our two lobster nights. I do love

Over dinner we chatted about our excursions that day, K had been whale watching which was something I had debated doing. While they’d seen lots of dolphins, they only saw one whale for about five minutes. I definitely made the right choice going on the island tour.

The menu

I had the scallops to start but no photo, and then for my main course

This was so good, really well cooked.

Dessert menu

Unsurprisingly I had the lemon dessert

This was one of my favourite meals of the cruise

Later back in the room

I was looking forward to the next five days at sea.

 

[Tiggerish]

I would have been very hard pressed to choose among those appetizers. Each one of them sounds great.


There's nothing like sea days!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

I would have been very hard pressed to choose among those appetizers. Each one of them sounds great.


There's nothing like sea days!

I was tempted to have more than one but wanted to save room for the lobster!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 27th to Thursday 31st October: Sea Days Overview


These five days followed a very similar routine and were so relaxing. After breakfast I would take my morning walk around deck 4 and then sit there overlooking the ocean for a while. Then up to the adult pool deck (because nice people bring cocktails) where I liked to sit at the front of the ship overlooking the ocean. Four of the days were absolutely gorgeous weather, the middle day was too windy for the adult pool deck to be open so I spent some time on the family pool deck which was surprisingly pleasant because there weren’t a lot of children on board.

I like to spend most of my time on a sea day outside if possible but for those who don’t there was so much to do. As well as the usual animation classes, arts and crafts and trivia there were a pair of professional dancers on board giving lessons a couple of times a day. There was also a chef giving cookery demonstrations, there were free food seminars as well as the usual upcharge drinks seminars. There was definitely a lot more going on than on any other cruise I’ve been on, it would be very difficult to be bored.

As we were sailing westbound there were a lot of beautiful sunsets to be seen

The hardest decisions I had to make were when and where to have lunch and should I spend my time before dinner going to the show, sitting in a bar or chilling on the verandah.

I didn’t have any internet connection until the last few days and only got it then because I wanted to check my emails to make sure my reservations after the cruise were all ok. It was so nice being disconnected like that, I only looked at a little bit of social media on the port days and I didn’t read any news the entire cruise. I obviously missed my family but I was able to keep in touch with them via WhatsApp which worked on the ship’s free wifi.

I ate far too much food, I had dessert at every meal which I very rarely eat at home. I put on five pounds over the two weeks I was away but I regret absolutely nothing, it was worth it.

It really was the most wonderful five days and probably the most relaxed I’ve been in a very long time.

I’ll do some posts for each day with the few photos I have, I just didn’t want to do a detailed account for each day because they were so similar.