First ever trip report, (9/8-9/15) 3 days on the Disney Dream & 4 days at the world.

Well I hope this turns out ok, this is my first trip report of many trips to WDW.
1987 – With family 7 years old on my first trip with offsite lodging
1997 – With family offsite lodging
1999 – With friends after graduation from HS, at CS
2001 – With Family for Christmas trip at CB
2004 – With Family and my girlfriend now wife’s first trip to WDW offsite townhouse rental
2005 – With my girlfriend, Disney world, Universal Studious, SeaWorld trip stayed at the POP – I
proposed to her in front of the castle during this trip.
2008 – Honeymoon trip, 4 days at the world stayed at SS & 3 days on the Disney Wonder
2009 – December trip, Dec 5th – 9th at the world stayed at CB
2011 – September trip, (9/8-9/15) 3 days on the Disney Dream & 4 days at the world stayed at BLT.
We have a 2012 trip in planning mode now probably for an early December trip with our Daughter she will be almost 2 years old by then and it will be her first trip thinking either SS or the BW/BC.

Our trip started out on the Disney dream which is unbelievable, we had such a great time on the cruise as always. If you have never taken a cruise with Disney I highly recommend it. Our cruise was a 3 day, Port Canaveral to Nassau, Nassau to Castaway Cay, Castaway Cay to Port Canaveral. We had great weather the whole trip, considering a hurricane just passed before our cruise and one was churning towards the coast while we were on the cruise we were happy for great weather.

(9/8/2011) On board the Ship 2:30pm, departure at 5pm

Day 1 (9/9/2011) of the cruise was our in port day at Nassau, we stayed on board this time since we had already been to Nassau. We used this time to explore the ship and ride the Aquaduck several times, relax at the pool & hot tub. My wife scheduled a couples massage for us at the Senses Spa, as a guy I was not sure about it seemed like a girly thing to do but I went along for my wife. I do not think we could do another cruise without having the massage; it was fantastic we joked that we should get another one at the world to unwind from the trip before traveling home.

P1030105 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030116 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030117 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030128 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030129 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030132 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030199 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030206 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030223 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030313 by 87 GN, on Flickr

 

[87 GN]

Day 2 (9/10/2011) of the cruise was Castaway Cay which was again fantastic, you could see some of the plants & trees had been hit pretty good by the hurricane that passed by the week prior but considering everything I think that island looked great. The sun on this trip stronger then we remembered from our previous September trip in 08, we booked the jet ski excursion and both forgot to lotion the tops of our legs and our legs got cooked while out on the jet ski. Following the jet ski excursion we relaxed on the beach and enjoyed the clear blue water for the remainder of the day. We were getting ready to leave our stateroom to catch a movie when I heard a helicopter around 5pm just about departure time so I went back into the room to look out and there was a coast guard helicopter hovering, it landed to take someone off the ship I suppose, I never found out why I guess it was some kind of emergency.

P1030371 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030374 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030377 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030379 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030380 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030385 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030389 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030393 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030394 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030397 by 87 GN, on Flickr

 

[87 GN]

Day 3 (9/11/2011) we were back at Port Canaveral getting ready for the next leg of the trip 4 days at BLT. We had the later 7:45am breakfast which helped us get through customs fast and we boarded the bus to BLT around 9:30am. After a few other resort stops we arrived at BLT around 11:30am, and we were able to check in then which was great since our scheduled check in was 4:30pm. This was my first trip participating in online check in and what a breeze that was, we headed up to our room got our stuff set up and headed off to Epcot via the monorail. We spent the afternoon at Epcot, lunch at the electric umbrella and dinner at Via Napoli (Pizza is awesome here). After dinner we took the ferry back across the lagoon and hopped on the monorail to the MK for EMH’s and we closed the MK that night at 1am walked back to BLT.


P1030482 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030494 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030496 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030554 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030566 by 87 GN, on Flickr

 

[87 GN]

P1030651 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030657 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030711 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030757 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030877 by 87 GN, on Flickr
Day 4 (9/12/2011) Started out great we took the monorail to the TCC and got a bus to AK we were there at park open (first time for that) we spent most of the day there but around 2pm we were both dragging from our late night & early morning. My wife and I agreed on this trip not to be pack commandos we wanted to have fun but make time to relax, with this in mind we went back to BLT and hung by the pool.
The day was going great until dinner time, we had 7:45pm dinner reservations at the Rose and Crown pub in Epcot for our anniversary with a table by the water to enjoy illuminations with dinner & desert. We left our room around 6:15pm to get to Epcot early and hit a few rides before dinner, long story short (Monorails down) we got to Epcot at 8:00pm and by the time we got to the desk at the R&C it was 8:15pm with no tables left outside. We decided to eat indoors and were able to watch illuminations from the little area they have for the indoor guests it turned out ok but it was not the evening we had planned at all. We walked to HS from Epcot after dinner for HS EMH’s and stopped to checkout some live entertainment in the boardwalk area and we closed HS at 1am, another late night…


P1030967 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030971 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1030984 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040026 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040133 by 87 GN, on Flickr

 

[87 GN]

P1030877 by 87 GN, on Flickr

Day 5 (9/13/2011) We started out at the Poly for breakfast at the Kona Café which was probably one of the best sit down breakfasts I have ever had at WDW from there we walked to the TTC and took a monorail over to Epcot to hit some EMH rides and a few countries when they opened at 11am we were able to get to everything except the film in France due to the time. Instead of waiting for the ferry we got a bus to HS to continue we had left off the night before. Our goals for the day were to ride RRC, TOT, TSM and see the LMASS with the changes made adding Lightning McQueen we went to the 1:20pm stunt show and then to TOT, my wife’s first time riding it not sure if I will ever get her back on that ride. Following TOT we had lunch and went back to BLT to relax before the MNSSHP at the MK. We walked to the MK and we were there at 7pm for the start of the party, we ended up staying at the main street train station to watch the parade and then just about ran to Pecos Bills for dinner since we were starving and hoped to get back to main street by 9am for Hallowishs which we didn’t make; so rather than try to get back and just see the end of the fireworks from main street wee just watched from frontier land. The wife and I had another great night, we left around 1am walked back to BLT another later night.


P1040164 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040167 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040175 by 87 GN, on Flickr

 

[87 GN]

P1030579 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040183 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040197 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040216 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040249 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040202 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040224 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040238 by 87 GN, on Flickr

Day 6 (9/14/2011) Early day! Walk to MK by 7am for the 7:15am behind the steam train tour, if you are at all into trains or WD check this tour out. Our guide was Joe and he was terrific, the tour ran until 11:30am we were told it would end around 9:30am which was no big deal since we enjoyed but we missed out Crystal Palace breakfast reservation. It was now around lunch time so I checked and we were able get a table at the Plaza for lunch, we spent the remainder of the day in the MK and headed back to BLT around 3:30pm to relax and be able to get ready for dinner at Narcossies at 5:30pm, after Narcossies we took the monorail to MK and caught the main street electric light parade (while I enjoyed seeing this parade I still prefer Spectro) and wishes then quickly jumped on a bus to Saratoga Springs and walked to DD for some shopping.


P1040256 by 87 GN, on Flickr


P1040463 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040487 by 87 GN, on Flickr

 

[87 GN]

P1040489 by 87 GN, on Flickr
I have no idea what this is for, it was backstage at central shops.

P1040497 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040499 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040515 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040525 by 87 GN, on Flickr
Day 7 (9/15/2011) While in Tomorrow land on 9/11 we made a 8am meeting with DVC, we had been to the DVC information session before on our 2008 trip at SS but the timing wasn’t right for us. However after re-thinking everything including our past trips, current trip and future trips we bought into DVC at SS. After finalizing everything we were able to quickly check out the top of the word lounge at BLT and make our 11am checkout. We dropped our bags grabbed lunch at the contemporary and hopped the monorail to explore the Poly area a little more before catching the 1:55pm bus to the airport.


P1040569 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040572 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040581 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040694 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040695 by 87 GN, on Flickr

 

[87 GN]

P1040696 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040704 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040707 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040711 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040712 by 87 GN, on Flickr

P1040713 by 87 GN, on Flickr


All and all a great trip with great weather, we are planning a 2012 trip right now which looks like would be good timing with openings on the fantasyland expansion expected by then.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

GREAT TR and awesome pictures!!! Glad you missed out on the hurricane on your cruise.. And congrats on becoming DVC members!! I see many more WDW vacations in your future!!! :wave:

 

[Adventure]

Your photos are all beautiful but the cruise ones are my favorite! Great report!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Great pictures! I love cruise trip reports! And congrats on the DVC purchase!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Congrats on your DVC purchase! Love love looooved your cruise pics! We were just on the Dream for a 3-day, too. I miss it so much. I would've gladly given up the 6 nights at WDW after to stay on the ship. LOL! Sounds like y'all had a blast with some busy days. Gorgeous pics. Thanks so much for sharing all that! :wave:

 

[tiaragirl]

What a great little TR - Dream and other pictures were fab =) Congrats on the DVC - take me with? Or.. my mom, SS is her dream resort!