Girls Weekend Getaway on the Disney Dream

I have never done a Pre-TR before, but since I am doing a few little things to get us in the mood, thought I would go ahead and start this one.

First things first - introductions and specifics

Sailing on this cruise will be one of my closest friends (since 3rd grade, which was 38 years ago!), Becky. And of course, me!

We will be sailing a 3-nighter on the Disney Dream, October 4-7, 2012.

Becky and me at our High School Graduation, 1984

Becky will arrive at MCO sometime on October 3rd (I will drive down from Jax and pick her up), and we will spend the night in Cocoa Beach, either at the Best Western Oceanfront (already have an oceanfront room secured there) or the Resort on Cocoa Beach.

This trip has been a few years in the making, ever since my 2010 Magic cruise when Becky announced a strong desire to sail on Disney. She tried (unsuccessfully) for about a year and a half to enlist a group of our girlfriends to make this a group cruise for us. I was in from the get-go and told them just to let me know when. This past April she finally declared she was booking the cruise regardless of who was in or not, and if anyone else decided they wanted to join us, by all means they could make their plans as well. We originally planned on sailing the last weekend in December, but since Becky was booking with DVC points (she has several she needs to use or lose this year) and that sailing was no longer available with points, we decided on the October 4th date. We had also planned on booking a verandah stateroom; I'm not sure if those were not available for us either as we ended up booked in a 9A GTY. No biggie - for a 3-night cruise this was not a deal breaker for either of us.

This will be Becky's first cruise ever, and my thirteenth (sixth on DCL - gold baby!). She has been a non-stop mom for the past 23 years to her seven kiddos, so her hubby is taking the reins for our weekend. Now, DVC has been a bit of a challenge with my Castaway Club, to say the least. They told Becky when she booked they could not add my CC number to the reservation. DCL says otherwise, but they cannot touch the reservation since DVC owns it. As of today, it's still not tied in so I will just take my CC card (yes, I have one from the old days when they issued those) in addition to a printout of my previous cruises so I at least get my returning cruiser gifts.

Obviously we did not get the luxury of checking in or booking activities at the 105 day mark (boo! as this would have been my first time doing so...I felt so cheated! LOL), but I still managed to book everything that was planned. Our stateroom was finally assigned today (I have been checking every day for the past few weeks!) and we were assigned a 9A cabin, 8008.

Things look like this -
October 3rd - Drive to MCO from Jacksonville; pick up Becky; drive to Cocoa Beach (hopefully getting there early enough to see the Carnival Pride sail out of Port Canaveral - it departs at 6:00 p.m.); eat dinner somewhere.
October 4th - Head over to the port for our 11:00 - 11:30 scheduled arrival time (yes, even at the 75-day mark I was able to secure the early arrival time...whew!); possibly try for an upgrade to a verandah stateroom; just goof off on board and enjoy a few FABs.
October 5th - Nassau, with no real plans. This is Becky's first time out of the country, so we plan on getting our passports stamped (not sure how many Nassau ones are in my current passport!), and then just wandering and shopping. Most likely we will spend a good deal of time just enjoying the ship as well.
October 6th - Castaway Cay. After Becky had mentioned how much she wanted to swim with dolphins, but would not do so without her kids (she and her husband plan on taking their family on a cruise possibly next year or the year after) I got in touch with her oldest daughter and we decided Castaway Ray's Stingray Adventure would be a good substitute for a surprise. Obviously I would not be able to keep this under wraps until the cruise which is what I wanted to do (considering it's right online under our activities), so I put together a little box of trinkets for Becky and sent it to her this week to coincide with the timing of our booking window. There were four items in the box representing each day, and a poem I wrote attached to each item (and I can’t believe I did not take pictures of the actual items, but I did take pics of the tags - of course I took the pics before I added the ribbon to the tags...ugh!):

(For item one, which included a DCL Bus pin - Becky had mentioned taking the DCL bus to the port but then we decided it would make sense for me to just pick her up at MCO)

Driving to the beachside port
Deciding where we should cavort;
A Disney bus is not our ride
But a car (and friend) are supplied.

Our trip begins with ocean views
(And let’s not forget there will be booze!)
This pin takes place of a magical express
Forever now a bus you possess!

(For item two, I put a DCL Konk Kooler recipe card inside a Sailaway Drink Cup)

As we begin our sail away
To islands not so faraway,
A drink or two in our hands
Looking forward to toes in sand.

Streamers, dancing, the party begins
I hope we spot some dolphin fins;
The adventure starts in the Florida sun
Off we go to have some fun!

(For item three, I wrapped up a Tortuga Rum Factory rum cake in DCL wrapping paper)

First we land on Nassau tides
Passport stamps they will provide;
Then a stroll in shops galore
(It’s nice to finally be ashore!).

Jewelry, purses, hats of straw
Some a knock off or with a flaw;
But for this treasure I would have swum
Finally a cake made with rum!

(And finally for item 4, which was a Castaway Ray's Stingray Adventure pin)

Our journey ends in paradise
Castaway Cay to be precise;
Beaches, bikes, there’s lots to choose
What a way to end our cruise.

But first we need to don a vest
To reach the day’s final quest;
Stingrays swim in a closed off pen
I booked us for a swim with them!

So, there you have it! We are all set! I was able to book us for a 2:00 p.m. stingray swim, although we may change that - all times were still available this morning when I booked.

 

[iloverags2]

Aww, I like it! The colors go really nicely together

Thanks! Yeah, it is just very DCLish with those colors!

Cruise docs arrived today!

 

[Disney Dreamer8]

We're going to be on the same cruise! Just me & my niece - both of our 1st times on a cruise. Have fun!!

 

[iloverags2]

We're going to be on the same cruise! Just me & my niece - both of our 1st times on a cruise. Have fun!!

Hope you both enjoyed the cruise!

 

[iloverags2]

We are back from an awesome weekend! I promise to get started on the trip report in the next day or so. In the meantime, I can finally post pictures of our FE gifts we handed out.

I made these post it note holders for the adults/ladies in our group. They are basically a magnetic frame with a piece of Disney scrapbooking paper inserted into the frame. The ribbon was purchased from an Etsy seller, and I ordered the post it notes from Vista Print.

Finished product

Paper

The adult baggies also contained World's Finest Chocolate (one piece for each adult in the room), which is made in my hometown Chicago, and a Land Shark Lager guitar pick with a magnet to attach if the person chose to do so. Land Shark Lager is brewed in my current city of Jacksonville. Everyone also received a postcard I had made up by Vista Print. The picture on the postcard is one I took back in 2008 during the Pirates Party; the backside of the postcard had the sailing dates and Ports of Call.

Assortment of gifts

WFC

Guitar Pick

Postcard Front

Postcard Back

I will sheepishly admit, I did not craft the kiddos things. Instead they received an assortment of goodies such as B&BW hand sanitizer (girls), Chap Stick (boys), gummi treats (Disney, of course!), Mickey hacky-sack type balls, pens and notepads, Pirate tattoos, etc.

 

[disneyfan28]

Love your door magnets...where these templates that you downloaded & customized? If so what website did you download them from?

 

[iloverags2]

Love your door magnets...where these templates that you downloaded & customized? If so what website did you download them from?

Thanks! Most came from another message board (pretty large one, although not sure I can put their name here on this board). Most were blanks, although a few had some writing on them that I had to erase. The name fills were made with Microsoft Word, using Word Art. I will be posting pictures of our stateroom door...there may be some additional graphics I used as well. If you see anything you like, let me know and I can send you the blanks I have.

 

[iloverags2]

And the report finally begins!

Not sure how to jump into this report since most of our visits are either last minute jaunts to WDW or some kind of celebration of something going on in our lives. This trip, however, was a good old-fashioned girls getaway! It started out as a plan for roughly six of us, but ended up with just Becky and me. No worries – we have been friends since the 3rd grade (and I am aging myself here since 3rd grade was smack dab in the middle of the 70’s!). Becky had been trying for the past two years to put together a trip to include several of our childhood girlfriends with no success. This past April she announced she was booking herself on a Disney cruise, and if anyone wished to join her, well they could do just that! She knew she had me onboard, and we decided even if anyone else joined in we were going to share our room alone and everyone else could fend for themselves. Enough said! (It had been almost two years of a headache to get this off the ground – she wanted things to be smooth sailing once she booked.)

Since Becky had DVC points she needed to use or lose, she opted to book herself on points and we would just pay cash for me. Turns out she ended up speaking with not one, not two, but THREE member services people (I will not call them CMs since none were of the pleasant variety) who just could not book our cruise properly. She gave in and booked us both on points and I paid her the cash equivalent. Yeah, yeah…more money than we should pay…blah, blah, blah. I could care less – I would be sailing with one of my best buds! No amount of money could stop me!

Becky had requested and thought she booked a verandah stateroom. Turns out we were booked in a 9A guarantee. I’m thinking this particular cruise was out of the DVC allotment of verandah staterooms. No biggie – considering there are only, what…6 or so 9A cabins on the Dream; we stood a pretty good chance of an upgrade. Turns out we weren’t so lucky and were assigned 8008 which is one of those incredibly few 9A staterooms. Not the end of the world, although Becky still thought we had a verandah since that is what she asked for and the Member Services person (again, not all that pleasant) never explained there was no verandah for a 9A. (This was Becky’s first cruise ever, so she really was treading new waters with this all!)

At this point all we had to do was wait. And what a loooooooong wait it was!

 

[iloverags2]

(I promise the next installment will include pictures!)

 

[iloverags2]

You know, I just realized there were no introductions to this report! Short and simple – Becky, one of my closest friends since 3rd grade, and Me, well…me! Becky’s first cruise ever, my umpteenth cruise and sixth on Disney.

Back to reporting!

After picking Becky up from MCO, we made our way over to Cocoa Beach where we would be spending the night at the La Quinta Inn Oceanfront. I will pause here and say we loved it! What a great location, with an oceanfront view (must book that type of room to make this worthwhile!), and just steps from the Cocoa Beach Pier. I’m not a fan of hotels/motels with exterior entrances, but the oceanfront locations in Cocoa Beach are limited, and those that have balconies to sit on are even more limited. We had just a handful of choices and decided on La Quinta based on Trip Advisor reports.

So, being just steps from the pier, we decided to schlep ourselves over and grab a bite to eat. We had seen the Carnival Pride in port as we drove over the waterway, but alas it never did pass in sight. Possibility that we just missed it altogether, but at least we did see her sitting in a berth. Now, having little knowledge of the pier and where all the restaurants were located, we just grabbed a seat in the outdoor venue, which turned out to be The Boardwalk. Simple fare, great service. I had a grilled cheese and fries, while Becky had tuna salad…she gave it a big thumbs up. We were there more for the view anyway. It did start storming a bit while we were eating, but cleared up for our walk back to the room.

I won’t bore you with minute details for our evening and morning routines of talking, talking, and more talking, but I must include a totally unexpected and fun moment shortly after we woke up on Thursday morning. Becky was still lying in her bed, and I was more sitting up and reading in mine. We had just begun chatting away when the room began to shake a bit and it sounded as if one ginormous plane was about to crash into our building. Becky’s face said it all – “What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is that???” Before I could get much more out than, “What is th…..OMG! ROCKET LAUNCH!” We both flew out onto the balcony, and yep – there it was! Right. Outside. Of. Our. Room! And I had no camera. And the thing was already hurtling towards space. Crap! Well, we missed the initial launch, but we saw her go up and out of sight. I was able to run back in, grab my camera, and get a shot of the contrail at least.

Huge mistake on my part. I had every intention of checking out the launch schedule before we left, and then just totally forgot to do so. Becky did point out that it would have been nice if the front desk had said something the night before. Not sure they can remember the schedules, but yeah…having them posted at the front desk might be a good idea. At least now I know where to go if DH and I decide to drive down for a launch!

Before leaving, I did manage to take a few shots of our view…

Looking north

Looking south, towards the pier

And no storm clouds today!

Another thing to add about La Quinta…they include a nice breakfast, which consists of eggs, sausage, toast, bagels, pastries, waffles, hash browns, cereal, juice, and coffee. Considering we paid $98 for the room, which included a great view, rocket launch, and hot breakfast, I was a happy camper.

Around 10:30 we decided to head out as neither of us could contain our excitement much longer. We had an 11:00-11:30 arrival time, and I figured with the drive to the port and parking we would be close to arriving when we should. I had made the decision to park right at the port since this was Becky’s first cruise and I wanted it to be as awesome as possible, with little hassles. If we had stayed at CIS or Radisson, we would have paid the difference of the port parking for the park and cruise package so it wasn’t a big deal in the long run. Plus it was super convenient! As I did in May, I parked on level 3 of the garage and was happy to see it was nowhere near full. Not only were we early, but we were there before many others! (Oh, another interjection here…we dropped off our checked luggage at the curb with the porters before heading into the garage.)

And there she is – the Disney Dream! All ready and waiting for us!

And Becky is looking mighty happy to see the Dream at last!

 

[iloverags2]

So, let's see...where did I leave off? Oh yes, we were just entering the DCL terminal! Let me tell you, this was totally an awesome morning. The third floor security area? Literally no line! Well, not literally...there was one family in front of us, but they were already heading through and by the time we were at the scanner, we were walking through. The timing could not have been more perfect. After a quick walk-through, we entered that beautiful terminal that only Disney could have imagineered, grabbed our health form, completed it as we walked, and marched right into the Castaway Club line! Now, after the lineless security area, we found where everyone was at...in the terminal! It wasn't too terrible though, and our wait to check-in was maybe two or three minutes tops. We had a wonderful CM checking us in - very quick and efficient!

Seeing how this was her first cruise, Becky pretty much just blindly followed me wherever I went...which of course my next stop was the Supervisor's desk. While checking in I noticed several people over in this area, but by the time we meandered over, there was no line and we walked right up to the counter. My only request was a verandah stateroom. Poor Becky - at this point she really thought we had a verandah (based on her convos with the DVC member services folks). Not to worry though, there were plenty of verandahs available! The CM gave me a choice between a 5E and a one-bedroom suite. I wasn't interested in a suite, and the 5E's are not on my radar, but I asked where those 5Es were located - right above the adult area. Ummmmm, no that's not going to work. What else ya got? She then said there were some category 4's available. Ok, those are promising. The CM began scanning her list and then said, "Oh, I have some 5B's available!" Sign me up! We picked out stateroom 8084, which is midship and just off the lifts/stairs. Nice location! $180 later, and we were good to go with our verandah stateroom!

Since we had Boarding #5, and they had not yet started boarding, we decided to grab a seat and get ourselves acquainted with the day's Navigator. Soon enough boarding began and we were on our way onto the Dream! (Another interjection here...I took NOT ONE SINGLE PICTURE of the terminal. Horrors!) After being announced and applauded, we chose to tour the ship rather than eat. (Horrors again!) We had just eaten a fairly decent sized breakfast and figured lunch would still be served for some time. While others were getting their fill of crab legs and shrimp, we would take a gander at some of the adult and kids areas. Becky wanted to take as many pictures as she could in order to convince her DH he would love cruising!

First up then, The District! Don't ask me why, but I love the lifts bank area here.

Taittinger! Yum, yum!

No picture does Pink justice. I thought I would hate it the first time I ever saw pictures of it, but it really is so pretty in there.

And that ends my photos of the area! Geez, I came home with just over 300 pictures on my SD card - seriously slacking! Anything under 500 is a major disappointment for me. Here's the thing though...I wanted to give Becky as much of a low-down on everything that I could. As we visited different areas, I talked and gave as much info as I could while she snapped away with her camera. That is all good with me as I had toured the Dream before and had more than enough pictures from then. This was Becky's moment to really take it all in!

Our next area to tour would be the Kids Clubs. Somehow we ended up passing through the lobby area again (my one and only photo of Donald!)...

And my one and only photo of the clubs!

And we did not even scratch the surface of the kids clubs. I totally missed the cool area with the touch air hockey and such, and we never made it to Vibe. At least I got to see giant Mr. Potato Head (and no, he didn't leave with me, but someday I would like to figure out how to sneak him off the ship!).

Before it got too late, we wanted to grab a bite to eat. Cabanas it was! We were fortunate to be cruising with folks who got how the stations in Cabanas work. Each one is its own separate entity...rather than one long continuous line going from station to station. There were no funny stares by anyone when someone would just walk up to a station, and everyone was respectful of those who were already standing at a station ready to grab their grub. Even newbie cruiser Becky eased into the Cabanas routine. Now, what I had to eat here? I have no clue! I do remember some yummy pasta, and great tasting potatoes. Beyond that? No. Clue. Oh, I do remember chocolate mousse for dessert.

It was now after 1:30 and staterooms were ready! We headed down to our room for the next two and a half days!

 

[iloverags2]

Walking into our stateroom did produce a "Wow!" from Becky...keep in mind, first time cruiser here. She was quite surprised at how small the stateroom was! She wasn't upset, worried, or any of the like...she was more like, "Yep, they are as small as everyone says!" Following my already set-in-stone lack of photo taking, I did not take any pictures of our stateroom. Instead, I will just post a few from a previous tour of the ship.

The only difference between the picture below and our actual stateroom was the layout...our bed and couch were to the left, and the desk/dresser to the right (flipped from pic below)

With the lack of a split bed option (which is probably one of my biggest beefs with the new ships), I immediately called the couch. Like I said, I wanted this to be an awesome experience for Becky. Our luggage had not arrived, so we spent the time unloading carry-on bags, taking pictures of the stateroom (that was Becky obviously because I have none!), and figuring out how to open and close the verandah door. What a sight that must have been...us trying to pull that thing closed! Not sure how we finally figured it out, but we managed to determine the door handle had to be in a certain position to pull the door. Hope I remember that for next time!

At 2:30 we headed off to the DVC members gathering, in hopes of winning the OBC given away (alas neither of us won) being held in Evolution. Nice touch here as they passed out champagne, mimosas, and champagne cocktails. Officially our first drink on board! Other than DVC trying to sell more points to current members (and recruit those who are not already in DVC), it was a fun gathering! There were several giveaways of DVC trinkets (again, neither of us won any!) and they had a cute hula dancing contest between two selected audience participants. The woman chosen from our area I believe had one too many of those champagne cocktails! She was a hoot!

By the time all this fun had ended we needed to prepare for heading to our safety drill meeting spot - the Buena Vista Theatre. I know by now I sound like a broken record, but I really do not care for the fact cruise lines have done away with having guests wear their life vests to the drill. Yes, I have cruised more than enough times to know how these work, but others have not - Becky included. It's a huge disservice to cruisers to pass this off as an insignificant part of the process. And secondly, I would much prefer to muster near an actual lifeboat, thankyouverymuch! Seriously, if there is an emergency do you think people are going to actually muster in an indoor theatre? I doubt that! Folks will be heading to the nearest lifeboat! I have often stood in blistering heat during muster drills, and I am perfectly ok with that. 15 minutes of somewhat uncomfortable conditions isn't going to make or break my vacation. Ok, getting off my soapbox and back to the fun!

We were next off to the Sailaway Party! One of the things I noticed on this cruise was the lack of pushiness from the drink servers on deck. Definitely a good thing...unless you are actually looking for a drink server! No problems though...we went up to Deck 11 and I spotted a guy with a tray in hand. "You!" I shouted and pointed and probably looked like a half-baked idiot (or lush!). We grabbed a couple of drinks, then headed up to Deck 12 where we watched the fun below.

Cool look at the AquaDuck (which I sadly did not get a chance to ride! Horrors!)

Becky enjoying her sailaway drink

"There's a party going on right here"

After watching quite a bit of the party, we moved to a quieter location, just at the base of the forward funnel. There was pretty much no one else near us along the railing. I called my mom and conferenced in DH (love the merge feature on the iPhone) and gave them our coordinates on the ship. They watched the webcam online and were disappointed all that was being shown were the folks forward near the bow. I reiterated we were at the forward funnel so they should just keep watching, when Mom finally squealed, "I see you!" Laughing and waving, I then received a text message from my co-worker and good friend, Tina..."OMG! I see you!" That was such a fun moment. After seeing people breeze past on the webcam, I wasn't sure they would be able to pick us out in the crowd. Here we were pretty much alone...and according to Mom, DH, and Tina the camera stayed trained on Becky and me for several seconds in a close-up shot. What made this special for me was mainly for my mom. We do not see each other nearly as much as we would like (she's back home in Chicago), so she was just tickled to pieces to see her baby. Fun moment for sure!

Leaving port

Cocoa Beach (I love the bird flying just to the right of center)

Cocoa Beach shoreline

After our final goodbyes to family on the phone, we needed to make our way back downstairs for dinner. We had first seating (first time I have ever done first seating on a cruise) and were expected in Royal Palace this evening. We arrived after Rich and Annabelle (who were celebrating their 20th anniversary) and just before Tammy and Chrissy. Our six top table was filled all three nights since none of us took advantage of any of the other dining options.

Becky started off dinner right with an Imperial Illusion

Holy smokes was this drink good! Absolut Mandarin, Apple Pucker, Blue Curacao, and Pineapple Juice...good stuff! I should have went with that, but chose a glass of Merlot instead. Dinner for me was the Avocado Citrus Salad for an appetizer/salad, and Pan Seared Tofu, Roasted Zucchini, Eggplant, and Red Peppers. The salad was absolutely wonderful! Enough zip in the citrus to give it a good kick. As for the tofu, I did not care for it. I'm not a fan of tofu in the first place, and on top of that it really needs to be prepared just so. I wanted to give it a shot though, and was grateful the veggies on the side were wonderful. I ate those, and they really gave me my fill so all was good. Becky tried the Rack of Lamb as she had never had it before this day and was so impressed with it at lunch (on the Cabanas buffet) that she wanted to try it here as well. She was equally impressed! For dessert I had to have the Grand Marnier Souffle, which is my fave! Becky had the Creme Brûlée. Both were outstanding!

Stuffed to the gills, we decided to walk off dinner...in the shops! Yep, we could walk around and shop all day if given a chance. This go-round was more to browse and see what was available and take it all in. Soon enough it was time for the evening's show, The Golden Mickey's. I have not seen this since the revamp, and must admit I miss Roy Disney. The show just seems to be missing something now, and I was not as enthralled with it as I have been in the past (which is saying something as this had always been my favorite of all the DCL stage shows). *sigh* Afterwards, we browsed the shops a bit more and did some more sightseeing of the ship, while contemplating if we should give Midship Detective Agency a go. Finally deciding against that, we ventured over to Evolution for Match Your Mate. It was already quite crowded but we managed to find a good spot. Two couples were chosen rather quick, but a dance-off for the final spot ensued between four couples before one was chosen. The show was 'meh. Funny, but not overly hilarious. This really has to do with the couples themselves. One couple really could have been hilarious, but they were overshadowed by another couple's husband. He was a riot! It was too bad his wife was stoic as could be. Bummer! They would have made the show. The other couple, very low-key, got all six questions correct and won. Such an odd mix-up of couples! LOL

 

[iloverags2]

By this time I was itching to at least start handing out gifts for our FE exchange. We had close to 30 staterooms - and with such a large ship, this would take some work. Becky went back to the stateroom to enjoy quiet time on the verandah, while I handed out gifts for about half of our group (I did decks 5, 6, and 8 this evening...7, 9, and 10 would be taken care of tomorrow...and thank goodness I did not have to run down to deck 2 as we had no one down there!).

We returned to our first towel animal of the cruise, a swan

In addition, on our bed was Becky's DVC gift...a box that contained two DVC lanyards - the same, exact lanyards they were giving away at the DVC member gathering...odd! My second Castaway Club gift was also waiting on the bed, a photo memory book. (I was looking forward to the passport/document holder...apparently they have changed the Gold level gift...no biggie - both are nice!)

My bed turned down (obviously I had already messed it up a bit!)

Oh, this is what our stateroom door looked like, for those interested...

And a close-up of our FE

Close-up of magnets

The magnet to the left, above the door handle and key scanner, was one given to us in our gift exchange

After handing out gifts to the first three decks, Becky and I stayed up chatting away until we noticed it was close to 1 a.m.! Becky needs her sleep, otherwise she will end up with splitting migraines, so we forced ourselves to sleep for the evening with thoughts of Nassau (and shopping!) in our heads.