I Wanna Be Where The People Aren’t: Finding Some Calm On The Crowded Disney Dream

[Piglet_the_brave]

We’ve been back now for almost a week from our cruise, and I’ve had time to gather my thoughts and photos. It was five nights on the Dream from Southampton to Northern Spain. I knew before going that it was going to be a different experience from our previous cruises, but I really wasn’t prepared for quite how crowded it would be.

It was just three of us on this cruise, myself and two youngest daughters Alice(17) and Lexi(15). This is us from our last cruise in January 2020, as I did not manage to get a photo of the three of us together this time

And the two of them, with one of their older sisters, on our very first cruise in December 2013

A little bit about us:
My four daughters pretty much grew up at Disney. We usually visited from the UK twice a year from the time they were babies. Myself and husband, Darren, had also visited a few times before they were born, even spending our honeymoon there. Our last visit was pre- pandemic in January 2020 when I ran the runDisney Dopey Challenge and then the Castaway Cay Challenge on our cruise. So with such a long break from Disney we were definitely very excited for this cruise.

This was our sixth Disney cruise, our first as Castaway Club gold members. We’d sailed on the Dream four times on the four night Bahamas itinerary and the Fantasy once for seven nights Eastern Caribbean. I’ve always looked at cruise as a time to relax after a busy parks trip. My favourite thing about cruising is just being at sea. I don’t need organised activities, just a quiet spot on deck with a book looking at the water. And it’s nice to do this while still being in the Disney bubble.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

My husband and I did our first Disney cruise on the Dream this past February. I absolutely LOVED it! Can’t wait to hear about your adventure

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

@wdwmagic can I ask why my trip report has been moved to the cruise line forum, I would prefer it stayed in the trip report forum. I’ve seen many other cruise only reports in the trip report forum along with Disneyland only reports, and assumed it was ok to post there

 

[King Panda 77]

Following along .

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday August 27th: Embarkation day


We’d stayed in Winchester, about 15 miles from Southampton, the night before so only had a short journey on the morning of the cruise.

The main road towards Southampton was reasonably clear until we got to the city itself. It’s then a very different approach to the port than that of Port Canaveral. It’s a couple of miles of 30 then 20mph areas through built up residential streets and really doesn’t feel like you’re anywhere near a port. Lots of speed bumps and traffic lights. Even with less than a mile to go, there were no signs of any port type activity and no view of water at all. Then suddenly, we round a bend and we are greeted with this beautiful sight.

We still had over an hour until our port arrival time so we turned off before the port and stopped at shopping area to kill some time.

Our port arrival time was 1.15 and we arrived about 15 minutes before that. There is a large, about 5 lanes, drop off area which was almost empty when we arrived. As we’d booked quite late we needed to get luggage tags which was a very quick process. Then we dropped off our bags and headed over to the entry area.

Check in was a very smooth process. There were three lanes with arrival times on them and even though we were a bit early ours was open. The queue moved quite slowly to get to the check in desks, the downside here was that there wasn’t a separate check in area for Castaway Club members. Straight after check in is the security area so no photos were allowed in either areas.
We were given wristbands and directed to an upstairs area very much like an airport departure lounge, and waited for our boarding group to be called.

Alice wore her Minnie ears the whole time

Lexi agreed to wear Minnie ears just for the photo

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday August 27th: Embarkation day (cont)

Our boarding group was finally called, we opted to skip the boarding photo, and we joined the queue to board the ship. Rather than a straight tunnel this one had switchbacks and moved quite slowly. We were watching the luggage being loaded as we waited

Finally we were at the front of the queue, our surname was called and we were clapped onto the ship. I love this every time, there may have been a few tears shed by me, it was just so lovely to be back on board after such a long time

A bit of foreshadowing here. This was probably the emptiest that we saw the atrium for the rest of the cruise.

It was almost 2 pm at this point so after a short detour to Enchanted Garden to check on a dining request we headed to our room. This is the usual view of Lexi when she’s walking anywhere with us, apparently we are far too slow

We’d booked the VGT category of stateroom where we were guaranteed a verandah but didn’t get to choose our own room. It was quite a big cost saving to book this way. I was a bit nervous about this but ended up being really pleased with the room we were assigned. Our room was 6518 which was forward of the stairways in a low foot traffic area. Apart from hearing our immediate neighbours a few times it was lovely and quiet.

We dropped off our carry on bags, picked up our room keys and lanyards and headed out to find some food. Quickly took some photos of the Castaway Club gifts first

 

[ChuckElias]

View attachment 813994

The girls are adorable in their ears!!

 

[Tiggerish]

Looking forward to more of the story!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 27th August: Embarkation day (cont)

We then headed on up to Cabanas which was remarkably quiet, we were probably after the worst of the lunch rush. Even though there were plenty of tables inside, it was such a lovely day that we decided to eat outside

My plate of food, the fish was cod and salmon. It was tasty but not very hot

And dessert. On the right is a panna cotta, the left was called an Oreo cheesecake but it was more like a mousse. Both were delicious.

On the way out we stopped in at Vanellope’s for a look at the treats, but we were too full from lunch to buy anything.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 27th August: Embarkation day (cont)

Some more Vanellope’s photos

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 27th August: Embarkation day (cont)

We didn’t have much time to do anything before the muster drill, so headed back to the room for a while. We checked out the quieter family pool behind the funnel on the way back

And the view

Some room photos before we unpacked and messed it up

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 27th August: Embarkation day (cont)


The girls relaxed on the verandah

The toys got comfortable. Patch (African wild dog) and Speedy (panda) might not look very Disney but they were both adopted from the Jambo House gift shop many years ago.

We sent this photo to Darren. You need to be a fan of the Mammoth Club YouTube channel to understand the reference.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 27th August: Embarkation day (cont)

Our muster station was the main level of the Walt Disney Theatre on deck 3 at 4pm. Lexi then wanted to go to the Sail Awave party on the main pool deck 11, at 4.30. This was not something we’d done before as I try to avoid very crowded areas. We agreed to try and watch it from the overlook on deck 12, so 9 decks up the stairs.

Unfortunately we were one of the last groups out of the theatre, and had to try and join the crowds from the outside muster stations on deck 4 all heading up to the party.

By the time we got up there all the railing space was full and as I’m only 4’11 and the girls not much taller, there was no chance we would see anything.

So we went up another deck onto the edge of Goofy’s Sports Decks where we could hear the party and see part of the screen.

I stopped at Waves to get a mango mojito. Very yummy.

The view from the sports deck

We loved hearing the ship’s horn sound for the first time. There were a few happy tears.

We stayed up on deck for a while to wait for the ship to start moving but I think we must have been in a queue.

A container ship passed us

We eventually left because we wanted to get to the open house at the vibe teen club to sign the girls up.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 27th August: Embarkation day (cont)


Before the cruise, Lexi was very excited to be able to go to the Vibe. Alice not so much. A bit of an extrovert/introvert situation. She agreed to go to the sign up and have a look around. I wasn’t going to push her into something she was uncomfortable with but I wanted her to have options.

The entrance tunnel changed colours

I had a look around the outside space while the girls signed up

And just the one photo inside

The Vibe is a really nice area, I thought it was better than the Edge tween club that they went to on our last cruise.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 27th August: Embarkation day (cont)

After the Vibe we headed back to our room to see if our cases had arrived. They had so I partially unpacked before relaxing on the verandah.

And we were finally moving. The time on the photo says 5.12pm

Some photos as we sailed away from Southampton including a tiny canoe in the first one

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 27th August: Embarkation day (cont)

It was around this time that our room host knocked to introduce herself. She was wonderful the whole cruise. Spotless room, and always checking if we needed anything when we bumped into her.

Some more photos leaving Southampton.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 27th August: Embarkation day (cont)

We had the late dinner seating which meant we would be going to the early showing of the the live show in the Walt Disney Theatre. Tonight’s show was to be The Golden Mickeys and Alice and I were really looking forward to it. Lexi is not a big musical theatre fan but she agreed to go with us.

We didn’t mind where we sat so decided to just go to the theatre about 10 minutes before the show time and sit at the back of the balcony. It meant we could leave quickly at the end and not get caught up in the crowds.

The Mickey statue outside the main entrance so this isn’t all text.

The good:
We really enjoyed the show. The storyline is a bit cheesy, but the performances are excellent. I do love a montage type show with songs from different movies.

The bad (a bit of a rant):
Audience behaviour. Multiple parties arriving up to 30 minutes late. Despite being told no filming was allowed, a woman near us had to be told to stop filming. Children messing about. The worst example of this was a girl in the row in front of us repeatedly slamming the seat next to her into the seat back when two members of her party left for a while. Nobody told her to stop. I get that it’s Disney and that there are young children there, but I wish people would actually parent them (end rant).

We did our best not to let other people’s actions affect us and did overall enjoy the show. It was just very distracting.

 

[King Panda 77]

@Piglet_the_brave
We noticed an increase in poor etiquette during the shows on the Spain cruise previous to yours.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

@Piglet_the_brave
We noticed an increase in poor etiquette during the shows on the Spain cruise previous to yours.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such poor behaviour in a theatre before. It was very different from our previous cruises

 

[King Panda 77]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such poor behaviour in a theatre before. It was very different from our previous cruises

Same here.