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]

Wednesday 23rd October: Lisbon, Portugal (cont)

Next we visited Lisbon Cathedral. Beautiful

And the church of St Anthony of Lisbon

 

[MinnieM123]

Really enjoying your photos throughout this TR. You've visited some amazing places!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Really enjoying your photos throughout this TR. You've visited some amazing places!

Thank you. I really enjoyed visiting them all

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 23rd October: Lisbon, Portugal (cont)

While we’d been in the old town it had been easy to stay together as a group, the only traffic was the trams and some e-bikes. After leaving the cathedral we then headed into the newer part of the city and it became more difficult to walk together as a group, lots of traffic and narrow crowded pavements. It also made it hard to stop and take photos.

I did manage a photo of the Santa Justa lift. Apparently there are amazing views from the viewing platforms at the top but the wait to get up there is always very long so we didn’t go up. I would love to go up there if I ever return to Lisbon.

Past some monuments on the way to our next destination

We were supposed to be going on a funicular to the highest point of the city but unfortunately when we got there there was some building work being done and it wasn’t operating that day. Our guide said she could get us up there via a few escalators instead.

At this point we were about halfway through the tour and our guide gave us the choice of going up to the top of the city with her or go our own way. About half of us decided to split from the group. I’d really enjoyed the first half of the tour but wanted to explore on my own a bit. And there was a particular place I wanted to find that I didn’t think the tour would go to.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 23rd October: Lisbon, Portugal (cont)

After leaving the rest of the group I headed back across the town square

I’ve never seen a sign like this before

I loved this pedestrianised area with bustling pavement cafes

Then trying to find my way through the streets

And found the place I was looking for, the Livraria Bertrand, the world’s oldest operating bookshop. Not a very exciting destination for a lot of people but I love a good bookshop and couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit this one.

It was very busy inside so I only managed to take one photo, it was beautiful in there.

I spent some time looking around and found the small English language section. My second oldest daughter is a creative writing student so I wanted to get her something from here. Most of the English books were popular fiction which I didn’t think she’d like, so I got her this Virginia Woolf book. When you buy a book from here they will stamp the book to say where it was bought.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 23rd October: Lisbon, Portugal (cont)

I explored a bit on my way back towards the seafront. Lisbon is just stunning, it helped that the weather was gorgeous.

I found a tiny beach to walk across

Then back to the ship

The view from the ship

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 23rd October: Lisbon, Portugal (cont)

Before dinner I spent some time at my favourite people/character watching spot, and listened to Ellis Lucero on the piano.

Then off to Animator’s Palate for the regular menu there.

To start I had the black truffle pasta purseittes that Molly from Mammoth Club always raves about (photo from last cruise). I can confirm they are delicious, I could have eaten a double portion.

I had the beef for my main course and lemon icebox pie for dessert, both very good.

The ship had spent quite a long day in Lisbon, all aboard wasn’t until 9pm, and towards the end of dinner we could feel the engines start up.

Back at my room

I had a glass of wine on my verandah while enjoying my last views of Lisbon

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 23rd October: Lisbon, Portugal (cont)

A few more photos leaving Lisbon

I absolutely loved my time in Lisbon, it is a beautiful city and I hope I get to go back there.

Tomorrow would be the first of two sea days on the way to the Azores and I was keeping my fingers crossed for better weather than the first day of the cruise.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 24th October: Day at Sea 2

In contrast to the first sea day I awoke to calm seas and sunny skies with just a few clouds, it was a lovely morning.

I found it interesting to keep track of how far we were on our journey every day, not too far from land yet.

With the pleasant weather I planned to be outside as much as possible. I started with a walk around deck 4 and then a sit down just watching the sea.

Donald was having a meet and greet outside, there were some very cute interactions

Later that morning there was to be a presentation in the Walt Disney Theatre for Castaway Club members who were gold level and above. This only happens on cruises of seven nights and longer and I hadn’t been to one before so didn’t know what to expect. I was debating whether to go or not but I saw someone at breakfast that I recognised (it helped that he had his name on his shirt ) and I was hoping that he would be a special guest.

The presentation started with an introduction from our cruise director, Anthony. He spoke about something I’d noticed on the ship which was the amount of Castaway Club members on board, by far the most I’d seen on any previous cruise. A transatlantic doesn’t tend to be a choice for a first cruise. Out of 2600 guests on board there were 500+ gold members, 500+ platinum and 100+ pearl. There was one lady on board who was sailing on her 140th cruise with Disney

Next Captain Zvonimir talked for a while mostly about the expansion in the cruise line fleet. It was interesting but not anything new if you follow news about DCL.

Then it was time for the special guest, I was so excited about this.

Don “Ducky” Williams

He did a short Q&A session, talked a little about his career with Disney and sketched while he talked. He said he didn’t want to give too much away because he was going to be giving a longer presentation the next day, I definitely wanted to go to that. I’m so glad I went to the presentation, it was wonderful to see Ducky. And I got a free drink

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 24th October: Day at Sea 2 (cont)


Dinner that night was back in Enchanted Garden and was the first of the themed menus that we had during the cruise. Each of the 13 nights had a different menu, usually one of those themed to the Mediterranean and Northern Europe cruises. This was also the only night that I was on my own for dinner, K and M were at Remy/Palo, and it did mean that I remembered to take photos.

The Frozen themed menu

A very nice Rioja. The blurry person in the background is our assistant server Luis wearing a frozen themed waistcoat.

Behind the wine glass is the liver pâté dip that came with the bread, I did not try it because it sounded (and looked) horrid.

Just a chair, I was finding things to do until my food arrived

To start I had the gravlax, it was very good particularly with the crème fraiche and lingonberries

I also had the baby field greens salad, very nice and fresh

For my main course I had the chicken, not the most exciting but well cooked and tasty

All my friends

It really was fine being on my own. My server Mike took very good care of me, we ended up having a lovely chat and he was showing me photos of his family.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 24th October: Day at Sea 2 (cont)


The dessert menu

The lemon mousse , I do love a lemon dessert

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

The Panakaken were very nice if I remember rightly.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

The Panakaken were very nice if I remember rightly.

They do sound good. Dessert was a difficult choice that evening and I was too full to get an extra one

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 24th October: Day at Sea 2 (cont)

After dinner back to the room for a while

After the first night of putting our clocks forward an hour, over the rest of the cruise we had six nights with an extra hour of sleep.

Then a wander around a very empty pool deck so I was able to get some photos of Nemo’s Reef splash area with no children in it.

Love the mosaic in Cabanas

This little guy makes me chuckle

 

[MinnieM123]

Been enjoying all your photos through your TR! The mosaics in the Cabanas are beautifully done.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Been enjoying all your photos through your TR! The mosaics in the Cabanas are beautifully done.

Thank you. I do love all the little details in the mosaics

 

[Go.Nijntje]

All caught up, great trip report so far. I'm loving all the pictures.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

All caught up, great trip report so far. I'm loving all the pictures.

Thank you. Still lots more to come

 

[erstwo]

I love those pictures of the empty Nemo splash area! Our first ever Disney cruise was on the Dream way back in its inaugural year. I remember all the excitement- it was the first new ship in a loooong time for Disney.
And after we boarded (and ate at Cabanas) we took our kids to the Nemo splash area - I remember it so clearly. My kids were so little then - great memories! Thanks for the photos.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

I love those pictures of the empty Nemo splash area! Our first ever Disney cruise was on the Dream way back in its inaugural year. I remember all the excitement- it was the first new ship in a loooong time for Disney.
And after we boarded (and ate at Cabanas) we took our kids to the Nemo splash area - I remember it so clearly. My kids were so little then - great memories! Thanks for the photos.

What a lovely memory. My kids were just a bit too old for it on our first cruise but it does look a lot of fun for the little ones, I love the theming