Trip Report Lebeau Family Trip Report 2015: Universal Studios and a Disney Dream Cruise

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For the last few years, our big family vacations have mostly involved going to Walt Disney World. Last year, we made a special trip to check out Disney's latest additions in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom. At the airport on the way home, we got into an elevator with a guy carrying a clipboard with the Universal logo on it. He asked if we enjoyed our trip. We said we had. Then he asked if we got to visit "the fun place" and tapped his clipboard. We said we hadn't because the girls were still a bit young. He chuckled and said, "Those are good Disney ages."

This year, I wanted to do something different. For one thing, Disney wasn't offering anything new. But we were also getting a bit tired of the typical Disney World vacation which is simply exhausting. I didn't think the girls were old enough for Universal, so I looked into a Disney cruise instead. Over the course of planning the trip, we allowed a little time in Florida both before and after the cruise. When I realized that the day before we boarded the ship was Father's Day, I decided to spend a day at Universal to get a taste of what we had been missing.Before I get into the details of the trip, let me introduce the cast.

There's me obviously. Presumably you know a bit about me. It's my blog you're reading. I'm a middle-aged dad with a young wife and two daughters. I'm a theme park junkie and the primary vacation planner thus the repeated trips to Walt Disney World.

Mindy is my wife. She's been slowly losing patience with my "Disney obsession." She reluctantly agreed to my Disney cruise plan because it involved going to the Bahamas, something she had wanted to do for quite some time. She's also a Harry Potter fan. Not enough to own a robe or wand, but enough to have read all the books.

Josie is our oldest daughter. She's now a ten-year-old. Josie's a bit shy and tends to be cautious when trying new things. But when she gets to giggling, her silly side comes out. She's read some of the Harry Potter books and has recently become an avid viewer of The Simpsons.

Kara is our youngest. She's a real spitfire. At six years old, she's barely tall enough to ride most of the rides at Disney and Universal. But she's a bit timid about the scarier attractions. If it's possible for a ride to scare a kid, it will probably scare Kara. What sold her on our Universal day was the minions from Despicable Me and the promise that she wouldn't have to ride anything she didn't want to.

This trip report is going to be large, so I'm going to break it down into chapters. If you want to read specific sections, here is a table of contents:

Escape From Gringotts

Breakfast in Springfield and Men in Black

Mel's Diner and Minion Mayhem

Universal Monsters Cafe, Transformers and The ET Adventure

Lunch at Fast Food Blvd

Exploring Diagon Alley

Hogwarts Express and Jurassic Park

Hogsmeade and Seuss Landing

Marvel Super Heroes and Cabana Bay

Arriving at Port Canaveral in Style

Boarding the ship

Kids clubs

Setting Sail

Dinner at Enchanted Garden

The Golden Mickeys

Castaway Cay

The Midship Detective Agency

Dinner at Royal Palace

Princesses!

Anna and Elsa

Dolphin Encounter at Atlantis

Pirate Night

Another Day on Castaway Cay

Anyone Can Cook

Animator’s Palate

One Final Thing

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Before our adventures at Universal Orlando could begin, we had to get there. We flew into the Orlando International Airport on Saturday afternoon. I had arranged car service from the airport to the Cabana Bay Beach Resort where we would be staying for the weekend. Based on a recommendation from Mousesavers.com, I used Happy Limo. We had a driver from the airport to the hotel and another driver scheduled to take us from the hotel to Port Canaveral on the morning of the cruise.

On the whole, I was pleased with the service. The night before our flight I received a text message from our first driver, Jesus. He confirmed what time he was picking us up and indicated that I should text him when we had arrived at the airport. Unfortunately, it was storming when we landed. Due to thunder and lightning, we weren't able to exit the plane immediately. We sat on the plane for about ten minutes while the storm passed. Mindy is extremely claustrophobic but she managed to hold it together.

I texted Jesus to let him know about the delay. All the planes unloaded at roughly the same time so the airport was flooded with people all at once. By the time we got to baggage claim, it was about 30 minutes after the time we were scheduled to meet our driver. Jesus remained very patient and helped us get our luggage. The car service cost a little more than a rental car or some of our other options. But let me tell you, it was well worth it. The car was parked right next to baggage claim. From there, it was a stress-free ride to our hotel.

"This is soooo much better than Magical Express," Mindy commented in reference to Disney's shuttle service. I nodded in agreement. As we approached the hotel, we could see several of the attractions at Islands of Adventure including the Hulk roller coaster, Dr. Doom's Fear Fall and Hogwarts castle. I also scoped out the deluxe resorts for future visits.

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No sooner had our bags hit the curb then an attendant in a Hawaiian-print shirt was picking them up and carrying them into the lobby. I barely had time to tip the driver before the attendant ushered us into the lobby to check in. Check-in was smooth and the hostess was friendly. A few minutes later, we were wheeling our luggage cart down the long hallways to our room.

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I had asked for a room close to the lobby. The bus stop and the food court are located in the central building of the resort and I wanted to be close to both of them. The girl at check-in told me she couldn't get us close to the lobby because the hotel was completely booked. But she had a room that was close to the bus station. Since the bus station was next to the lobby, I wasn't entirely certain how we could be close to one without being close to the other.

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Our room was 6243. That meant we were in building six on the second floor in the forty-third room. Building six is part of the Americana section which is the closest to the bus station. But to get to building six, you must first walk past or through building five. Room 43 was at the far end of building six. So we ended up having quite a long walk from the lobby to our room. The girls began grumbling.

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We eventually figured out that the zigzag pattern of the hallways made for an indirect route to and from the room. It was faster to exit the hallway and cut through the pool area.

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We quickly settled into the room. We wouldn't be staying here very long, so we only unpacked what we needed for the weekend. It was past our regular dinner time and everyone was hungry, but the girls didn't want to walk back down that long hallway to the food court. The hotel offers pizza delivery which we considered. But one way or another, I had to go to the lobby to use the Will Call Desk in order to print our theme park tickets. So even if the girls ordered pizza, I was going back to the lobby.

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Reluctantly, the girls agreed to accompany me because they couldn't make up their minds regarding dinner. I had been told by the girl at the check-in counter that I needed to get to the Will Call Desk before it closed. It turns out, that probably wasn't true. The guy at the Will Call Desk gave me a coupon book and then directed me to a kiosk where I printed up my tickets. It was a great convenience that would save us time when entering the parks the next morning.

Next: Bayliner Diner and City Walk

 

[lebeau]

You describe it just the way we feel! And I think I can imagine what you meant by the less stressfull and more relaxing experience. But for us Europeans WDW is so great! We have been to DLP for years and mostly a couple of times a year. I was in WDW when I was 18, but that was so long ago. We consider last October as our maiden trip. There is so much we haven't seen in WDW and its resorts. This year will be the first time we stay on side, last year was in a villa. In 2016 we also stay on the resort. But I think even after the two trips we have in future will bring us everything. We also wanna do a SW weekend someday, and maybe to California someday. So we'll see. Somewhere in time we will do a Disney Cruise

Updates are as great as always! Thanks for the share!

Yeah, you're in a very different position from us in that regard. We've been to WDW on average about every other year for the last 10 years or so. So we're a bit burned out on what they have to offer. But if you haven't been in a long time, there is bound to be a lot to see and do. You'll have a blast, I'm sure. It's still a great place to visit. Especially if you haven't been in a long time.

 

[FlaggNL]

Yeah, you're in a very different position from us in that regard. We've been to WDW on average about every other year for the last 10 years or so. So we're a bit burned out on what they have to offer. But if you haven't been in a long time, there is bound to be a lot to see and do. You'll have a blast, I'm sure. It's still a great place to visit. Especially if you haven't been in a long time.

Ohw it will be a blast Since we have been to DLP so many times it's great to see the difference between DLP and WDW. And we are now burned out with DLP

 

[Figgy1]

You describe it just the way we feel! And I think I can imagine what you meant by the less stressfull and more relaxing experience. But for us Europeans WDW is so great! We have been to DLP for years and mostly a couple of times a year. I was in WDW when I was 18, but that was so long ago. We consider last October as our maiden trip. There is so much we haven't seen in WDW and its resorts. This year will be the first time we stay on side, last year was in a villa. In 2016 we also stay on the resort. But I think even after the two trips we have in future will bring us everything. We also wanna do a SW weekend someday, and maybe to California someday. So we'll see. Somewhere in time we will do a Disney Cruise

Updates are as great as always! Thanks for the share!

I'm hoping you get to enjoy SWW as much as we have!

 

[FlaggNL]

I'm hoping you get to enjoy SWW as much as we have!

Well it will be 2017 at the earliest date I guess. Already 2015 and 2016 October trips planned as you know. As far as we are planning 2017 it will be during a SWW. I would love if Disney takes SWW across the ocean to DLP, but I think that always will be a dream!

 

[Monty]

Great TR!

Sorry we didn't actually get an opportunity to actually meet beyond the quick introductions Pam made. Being on different meal sittings really meant we would only see each other if we randomly ran into each other during the cruise.

We all seem to have enjoyed ourselves!

 

[lebeau]

Great TR!

Sorry we didn't actually get an opportunity to actually meet beyond the quick introductions Pam made. Being on different meal sittings really meant we would only see each other if we randomly ran into each other during the cruise.

We all seem to have enjoyed ourselves!

I definitely would have liked to have gotten to spend a bit more time getting to know everyone. My kids were kind of grousing during our little meet and greet because we hadn't eaten yet. So they were pushing for a short visit. After that, our schedules were opposite of just about everyone else. We were early risers this trip. Next time, I'm thinking we will try to do more in the evening. We were actually in bed before fireworks on Pirate Night.

Unfortunately, we can't make the 2nd annual event next year due to school conflicts. But if there is a gathering in 2017 that doesn't conflict with our school schedule, we're definitely open to the idea.

Glad to hear everyone had fun! We sure did.

 

[lebeau]

When we finished up the game, Kara really wanted to go to the kids club. Josie, not so much. Kara doesn't tend to want to do things without her sister. But she wanted to go to the kids club so bad that she actually went without Josie. As soon as we dropped her off, Mindy sprinted back to the stateroom.

Disney provides devices they call "wave phones". If a child needs to be picked up from the kids club for any reason, Disney will send a message on the wave phone so the parent knows to come pick them up. Mindy couldn't handle it if that wave phone rang and she missed the call, so she made it back to deck 11 in something like 3 seconds flat.

As we were leaving the kids club, we saw Cinderella walking down the hall. I figured she was headed out for a meet and greet so I tried to keep tabs on her. I figured if we got there shortly after she arrived the line wouldn't be bad and I could get a picture of her with Josie. But Cinderella disappeared around a corner. We lost track of her after that. No big deal. We would be meeting with the princesses tomorrow morning and Cinderella would most likely be among them. I mention this because it will be relevant later on.

We didn't have a lot of time until dinner, so we just hung out waiting for the wave phone to ring. It never did. Everyone got dressed for dinner and then we went to pick Kara up from the Oceanographer's Club. Only one of us was allowed in to check Kara out, so naturally Mindy went. I could have tried to be the one to get her, but I would have been punched in the face for even suggesting it. When Mindy got there, she said Kara looked disappointed that it was time to go.

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It was immediately apparent that Kara had a great time at the club. She was very animated telling us about what she had done and how she had made a new best friend. She had this little mask with her which she had decorated. That gold glitter smeared on the left was originally much more globular and was not remotely dry when Kara handed it to me...

We had dinner at the Royal Palace tonight. When we arrived, we were handed sanitizing napkins. Any time you get anywhere near food, there is someone there handing you a sanitizing wipe. So I wiped my hands as always. But somewhere between the entrance and the table, I put my finger in that big glob of golden glitter. Naturally, Georgi was waiting at our table to greet us and he extended his hand for a firm shake.

Not wanting to glitterize our friendly waiter, I held up my hand to show him my fabulous make-over. Georgi went into action like I was the President of the United States and he was on the secret service. I have never seen anyone fetch a napkin with such a sense of urgency. Soon, my hand was glitter free and Georgi was pumping it in a firm hand-shake. Drinks were already waiting for us when we sat down.

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The Royal Palace has a princess theme, but it doesn't hit you over the head with it. Other than a few touches here and there, it just feels like a fancy restaurant.

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The breadbasket is shaped like Cinderella's carriage.

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And there are princess portraits hanging on the walls. The bigger ones showed the subject in their regular clothes and in their more formal attire.

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Regular readers know that Belle is my favorite princess.

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Here's a series of smaller pictures pairing each princess with her respective prince. I noticed that belly-bearing Ariel and Jasmine were absent from the restaurant. I imagine bared midriffs weren't regal enough for the Royal Palace.

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We weren't seated by any of the princess paintings. Once again, table 106 was next to a portal window. If you are a fan of private tables with an ocean view, table 106 is the one for you.

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Georgi came by to ask about our day and run through the menu. He said that this was a good menu with some inspiration from French cuisine. He recommended Gaston's escargot for an appetizer. Both Mindy and I considered it based on his recommendation, but we both chickened out.

Next: Dinner and a movie

 

[lebeau]

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I ordered the French onion soup. Georgi laughed and told me he wasn't sure how French it was. It turns out, he was right. As French onion soups go, this one was lacking in the overall French department.

I have to say upfront that I have a pretty high standard for this dish. In high school, we used to have an annual field trip to the local 5-star French restaurant, La Maisonette. The menu for the field trip was fixed and french onion soup was always on it. A proper French onion soup is covered in ooey gooey cheese with a big, soggy crust of bread in the bottom of the bowl. Getting the proper cheese and bread ratio is key to a successful execution of the dish. This version had some bread and some cheese. But the ratios were all off. I was left with a bowl of thick onion gravy.

Fortunately your old pal lebeau is a pretty resourceful guy. Or I can be when food is involved. I grabbed some bread out of that carriage-shaped basket and used it to soak up the soup. It wasn't five-star, but it was good enough.

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I had shown Mindy the menus before we left and this was the one she was least excited by. My wife is not a fancy girl and nothing much appealed to her. She decided to roll the dice on the deep fried brie when Georgi described it as "simply a fried cheese". He compared brie to several other cheeses and declared that they were all basically the same thing. Mindy had never had duck confit or escargot before, but fried cheese was a comfortable choice. And sure enough, she loved it.

I'd give you my opinion of the dish, but I wasn't offered a bite. So that tells you it must have been good.

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Georgi was very clear in his endorsement of the Chateaubriand-roasted filet steak for the main course. Well, in a way. He told a story about how many filets they made every night and how in-demand the entree was. There was something in there about cast-member meals. The combination of the ambient noise and his Bulgarian accent sometimes made it hard to follow all the details. But the intent was clear. Mindy and I both ordered the filet and enjoyed it.

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While we were enjoying our meal, Georgi came back to check on us. He asked Josie who her favorite Disney character is. You would think as many times as Josie has been to Walt Disney World, she would have a pat answer to this question by now. We had been asked to provide our favorite Disney character for fish extender purposes prior to taking the trip. Her answer there was Darth Vader or Olaf if Star Wars villains don't count. But Josie tends to freeze when asked a direct question. One time when she was little Snow White asked her who her favorite "little friend" was and Josie's head nearly exploded.

Eventually, Josie came up with "Olaf" as a response. Georgi fished around some more. Who else do you like? The line of questioning was going nowhere, so he asked her if she liked Minnie Mouse. Josie nodded that Minnie Mouse was okay. So Georgi folded her napkin into a Minnie Mouse bow and stuck it on her head.

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For dessert, Mindy ordered the creme brulee. This is one of her favorite desserts and she was not disappointed. She wanted to make sure I got a picture of this one so she could show it off later.

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I had the grand marnier soufflee which was light and airy. When it was served, Nigel poked a hole in the center with a spoon and poured in the grand marnier sauce. The dessert had a bit of a kick to it thanks to the orange liqueur. We were both very pleased with our dessert choices.

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When we got back to our room, there were more surprises waiting for us. Our fish extender was full of more wonderful gifts. And housekeeping had left us a pair of towel swans, some rose petals and little chocolates. Josie was a big fan of the chocolates. I think she ate them all herself.

The stage show after dinner was Villains Tonight. Kara had cringed during the brief villains segment during The Golden Mickeys. There was no way she was going to sit through an entire show of them, no matter how silly it might be. So I had expected to skip Villains Tonight. That plan was solidified when we looked over the movies playing during our trip. Inside Out had opened in theaters on Friday and everyone wanted to see it.

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We ran up to the concierge lounge and grabbed a bag of popcorn. They sell popcorn at the concession stand next to the theater. But the concierge lounge provides bags of it for free. The evening's snack selection had two of Josie's favorites, macaroons and chocolate mousse. Despite the fact we had just had dinner less than an hour ago, we had to stop so she could sample the desserts.

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I snapped an extra picture of the savory side of the buffet to give readers a look at some of the evening snack offerings in the lounge.

We arrived early to the Buena Vista Theater, but it was already pretty full. Let me reiterate that there are a lot of people on board the Dream and both stage shows and movies are very popular. So always arrive early if you want a choice of seats.

As for the movie, it started off very well. It had us laughing a lot for the first hour or so. But the last half was much more sad and intense than we were expecting. Both girls cried a lot. Kara's summation, "too sad". I don't think anyone would say they flat-out didn't like Inside Out. But it's definitely not a family favorite. I can certainly see why some viewers would be a lot more enthusiastic in their praise. But any time a movie makes your kids sob, well, that impacts your opinion of it.

At the end of the night, we were glad we had seen Inside Out. And especially glad we hadn't paid for our tickets.

Next: Dolphins and Princesses

 

[lebeau]

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We were nearing the half-way point of both our Disney cruise and our overall vacation. By this point, we were all aware that while there was still a lot of fun to be had, it would all be ending before long. For all intents and purposes, we had two days left on the Disney Dream and we wanted to make the most of them.

If you happened to miss the previous installments, you can read about our weekend at Universal Studios and the first half of our cruise by following the links.


Just as I have in the previous installments, I am going to include a table of contents for those who are only interested in specific topics:

Princesses!

Anna and Elsa

Dolphin Encounter at Atlantis

Pirate Night

Another Day on Castaway Cay

Anyone Can Cook

Animator’s Palate

One Final Thing

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We had a busy day planned, so we got up bright and early. I went upstairs and got my coffee from the concierge lounge while the kids were still asleep. When I got back, I looked out on the verandah and I saw we were approaching the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. We were docking at Nassau today and we had an appointment to do a dolphin encounter.

But first, we had two princess meet and greets scheduled. These were ticketed events and supplies were limited so we knew the lines would not be long. The girls had shrugged off meeting characters up to this point at both Universal and on the ship. But they were still excited about meeting the princesses. From a young age, Kara has held the belief that the only characters who are "real" are the ones who can talk. So the princesses were "real" and Mickey Mouse was not as far as she was concerned.

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We didn't have any firm lunch plans. We weren't sure whether or not we would be back from our excursion in time for lunch. Regardless of where we ate, we knew it was going to have to be a late lunch. Our excursion didn't start until 11:00 am. So the plan was for everyone to enjoy a good, hearty breakfast at Cabanas so as to not be hungry again until late in the afternoon.

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As I mentioned previously, Cabanas has a Finding Nemo theme. The "mine" birds from the movie are perched at various locations looking down as if waiting for a scrap of food they can claim for their own.

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But not everything in the buffet is all about Nemo. On one wall there are several clocks keeping "international time". For Disney, that means they show what time it is at each of the Disney theme parks around the world. While we were sunning it up in the Bahamas, Daffy Stardust was on Disneyland time.

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Nearby there is sand art depicting the castles (sand castles, get it?) of Disney's parks. These are the two you are probably most familiar with; Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World and the original Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland.

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There's a wide variety of options at Cabanas. I didn't have anything that blew my socks off. But it was good enough and plenty filling. Josie loaded up on pancakes and of course we had to get a Mickey waffle. If you put a tray of Mickey waffles in front of me, I'm going to take one. That's just not even a question.

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They had all of the things you would expect to find at a breakfast buffet; scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage. I find it's usually best not to go for scrambled eggs in a buffet line. They're just never very good. Instead, I got a serving of eggs benedict which wasn't fantastic, but it scratched an itch I had been having for a while.

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There were also less traditional (at least from the perspective of a US tourist) options like trays of smoked meats, cheeses and vegetables. Vegetables for breakfast?! Positively un-American.

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Most importantly, Cabanas had a Minute Maid juice machine. What's so important about that, you ask. The option to the far left is POG juice. POG juice is a sweet fruit juice blend that is very popular at O'Hana in the Polynesian Resort. We haven't eaten breakfast at the Polynesian in quite a long while, so I was very excited to taste POG juice again. The drink consists of passion fruit, orange and guava. I wondered if it would be as good as I remembered. Turns out, it totally was! Josie tried some too and she became an instant fan.

Next: Princesses!

 

[lebeau]

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After breakfast, we headed down to the atrium tickets in hand. We had a princess-palooza. We would be meeting with four princesses in the atrium and then reporting to the nearby Animator's Palate for a second meeting with the Frozen sisters. We arrived about five or ten minutes before our scheduled time and were the second group in line for our meeting.

Since this was a ticketed event, there weren't a lot of people waiting in line behind us. Disney had staggered out guest's arrival times. There were also two alternate meet and greets going on nearby for guests who might feel slighted at not having a ticket. Minnie Mouse was meeting guests in her princess costume at the top of the stairs and Tinkerbell was off the the side.

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Each princess descended the stairs and then took a position in the lobby in order to meet guests. When they reached their designated spot, they did a little twirl and started waving to the expectant guests and passers-by.

The event had been described to us as a meeting with "all the princesses". Obviously, there are more than four princesses in the Disney pantheon. So we didn't actually expect to see all princesses. We expected any four princesses with the understanding that Disney uses the term very loosely. At a princess meal in Akershus last summer, we met Mary Poppins who is not a princess in any way, shape or form. When Disney promises "princesses" they essentially mean female characters most likely in fancy dresses.

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We were not concerned with which princesses we saw. We've seen most of them multiple times after several Disney World trips. For a while, Ariel was a favorite. These days, excluding the Frozen sisters, Belle ranks very high. But really, princesses are pretty interchangeable as far as any of us are concerned.

However, it should be noted, not everyone feels the same way...

The princesses came out in this order: Belle, Rapunzel and Snow White. You may have noticed that's only three princesses when we had been told to expect four.

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We weren't overly concerned by the AWOL princess. We'd waited in line for all of three minutes. Maybe eight if you count the fact that we had arrived early. Our investment was pretty low. Try meeting three princesses in 10 minutes at the parks without spending a fortune on a character meal. It just doesn't happen. So we were satisfied with the turnout.

Not everyone agreed.

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Immediately behind us in line was a mother and a little girl. I would say the little girl was maybe six or seven. She was wearing a blue Cinderella dress. When the mom saw that only three princesses had descended the stairs and Cinderella was not among them, she absolutely lost it. She was ranting and raving about how this would not stand. She was going right to Guest Services and they were going to have to have a private meeting with Cinderella for her daughter.

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The woman would not stop carrying on. Cinderella had a meet and greet the day before which anyone could attend. But apparently this woman had verified in advance that Cinderella was supposed to be at the ticketed event, so she skipped the meet and greet from the day before. There were no more Cinderella appearances scheduled for the cruise. And this woman was livid!

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She went on about it for so long, that someone else in line offered to give her tickets to see Anna and Elsa just to shut her up! Of course the woman already had tickets for the Anna and Elsa meeting as well, so she declined. She was on her phone doing who knows what trying to make sure that Disney knew she was upset.

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The daughter in the Cinderella dress did not seem all that upset about the omission. Gradually, as her mom carried on, the little girl seemed more distressed. But I suspect that had less to do with the absence of Cinderella and more to do with her mother throwing a conniption fit in the middle of the lobby of a very nice cruise ship. Despite the woman's frequent claims that "Cinderella is her favorite!" I had to wonder whether or not this little girl even liked Cinderella.

Moving on... for now...

Next: Anna and Elsa

 

[Figgy1]

That was so nice of you to offer the tickets for the enjoyment of the other guests.

 

[lebeau]

That was so nice of you to offer the tickets for the enjoyment of the other guests.

Just to clarify, *I* didn't offer this woman our tickets. lol. I may be a nice guy, but I'm not *that* nice. Someone else offered her their tickets. I had been through too much to get our tickets I wasn't about to part with them. Especially not because some grown woman was throwing a fit that my kids are too mature to throw.

My guess is, the people in line behind her just wanted to make the fit stop at any cost. But this woman would not and could not be satisfied. Cinderella did end up making other appearances during the cruise. I'm guessing guest relations pointed her to one of those.

 

[DisSplash]

Still following along! I sure do miss my Dream cruise from last year; your pictures just bring it all back! So glad to hear that you and all of your girls enjoyed themselves.

We have yet to do any of those scavenger hunt games, either onboard ship or at the parks. I am thinking we will give it a whirl on the Fantasy next January!

 

[lebeau]

Still following along! I sure do miss my Dream cruise from last year; your pictures just bring it all back! So glad to hear that you and all of your girls enjoyed themselves.

We have yet to do any of those scavenger hunt games, either onboard ship or at the parks. I am thinking we will give it a whirl on the Fantasy next January!

We haven't done the games in the parks. If I'm in the parks, I want to be experiencing attractions. But on the cruise, Midship Detective Agency was a fun diversion. And we could play it while we were doing fish extenders anyway.

Have fun on the Fantasy!

 

[lebeau]

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Getting back to our experience at the meet and greet, neither Mindy nor I could hear a word the princesses were saying. Parents were asked to stand in a very specific spot to the right of the photographer. This limited my options when it came to taking pictures.

If you have read any of my previous trip reports, you know I've taken more than my fair share of princess pictures. For convenience, I just take pictures on my phone. That can make getting a good shot under the ambient lighting a bit of a challenge. To compensate, I have learned to take extra pictures. Even if I think I have a good one, I'll snap just one more to be safe. I'm almost always glad I did because at least one of the two will turn out to be blurry when I get a good look at them.

This is especially true with the princesses who tend to move about quite a bit. They do a lot of rapid hand gestures which are just blurred motion on my camera.

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Hold your hands still, Snow White!

Typically, characters will wait for the parent taking pictures to give them an "all clear" before ending the pose or interaction. Not so here.

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Snow White gave me three clicks (one of which I snapped while the professional photographer was taking pictures) and then wished us a "magical day" signaling that our time was up.

As we walked out of the atrium, Kara remarked "Snow White is kind of a talker." I asked Josie what she had talked about with each of the princesses. She said Belle asked what books they had read and Rapunzel asked what they liked best about the cruise so far. Snow White "talked about a lot of things." So we don't know what she said, but apparently she said a lot.

I do want to stress that the girls had fun meeting with the princesses this morning. Between "Cinderella woman" and my grumbling about taking pictures, it may sound like I am down on the experience. Not at all. We showed up to meet with princesses and princesses were met. Hugs were given. Autographs signed and pictures taken. As princess meet and greets go, this one required a minimal wait and took place in a beautiful setting. No complaints from me.

But not everyone felt the same way...

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Our next stop was the Animator's Palate where we were scheduled to meet with Anna and Elsa from Frozen. When we arrived, we asked a cast member if this was the right spot. He confirmed that it was and that when we crossed into the restaurant, we would be transported into Arendelle. Kara decided to test this theory by taking a big step forward. When she did so, the cast-member said "Welcome to Arendelle, princess" which was all the confirmation she seemed to need.

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The lights were dimmed and had a blue hue about them. The Frozen soundtrack was playing relatively quietly and the video screens were displaying imagery from the movie. It was far from a complete transformation of the restaurant, but it suggested Frozen more so than the usual Nemo theme of the restaurant.

Behind us, I heard a woman complaining about the poor lighting. I turned around and wouldn't you know it was "Cinderella woman". If she had arrived two minutes earlier, she would have busted us joking about how ridiculously she over-reacted in the lobby.

Mindy whispered to me that she was pulling the Cinderella dress off her daughter. I knew exactly what was going on. "I bet she has an Elsa dress in a bag," I whispered back. Sure enough, she was changing her daughter's dress to match the second set of princesses.

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"Cinderella woman" wasn't wrong about the lighting in Animators Palate. It created a nice atmosphere, but it was hardly conducive to taking decent pictures on your phone. I was kicking myself a bit for leaving my other camera in the stateroom. Oh well.

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I did manage to time this one when the professional photographer's flash went off. It's over-exposed. The others are too dark. Somewhere in the middle, you'd have a nice picture. I actually checked out the professional pictures later in the trip. The professional photographer had a very nice picture of the girls with Anna and Elsa but the price was ridiculous. I could buy a single print for $20. But I wanted a digital copy which could only be purchased as part of a package that included all the pictures from our cruise. Since this was really the only professional picture I had any interest in, I decided to make due with what I had.

I could actually make out some of the conversation at this meet and greet. Anna and Elsa immediately started making a fuss over the fact that Kara and Josie were sisters "just like us". From what I could hear in between snapping pictures, sisterhood was the overall theme of the interactions.

And that was that. Five princesses in approximately 20 minutes. Not bad at all. We were happy. The woman behind us, not so much.

Next: Port of Call: Nassau

 

[lebeau]

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We had about an hour to kill before we had to report for our excursion. When we got to the room, there was a message from Palo. Palo is one of the adults-only restaurants on the ship. Mindy and I had brunch scheduled for noon tomorrow. According to the message, we were the only ones with reservations for brunch at noon. Everyone else was scheduled at 10 or 10:30. They told us they would keep the restaurant open for us if we wanted to keep our reservations but asked if we would consider moving to an earlier time. We decided we didn't mind moving our reservation, so I ran up to the concierge lounge to do so.

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Danny was at the desk and he took care of the reservation changes very quickly. Whoever he was speaking to at Palo asked him to make sure we were aware of the dress code at the restaurant. I assured them that I was. And that was that. I didn't give the matter another thought.

But I should have because I had actually made a mistake.

​

While I was there, Danny gave me a couple of arcade cards for the girls. Each of them got 10 minutes of free play at the Arr-cade. I wondered whether or not I should actually give the cards to the kids. But as soon as I set the envelope down, they spotted it. The game room was now on our agenda. Thanks, Danny.

​

But first, we had to report to the D-Lounge for our excursion. We had a shallow water dolphin encounter scheduled at the Atlantis resort. We could have shaved a few bucks off the price of the excursion if we had made the reservation directly with Atlantis, but we went ahead and spent a little extra to book through Disney. The idea was that leaving the ship would be a little less stressful if we used Disney's transportation. In theory, it made us less likely to be left behind. Also, I had heard of some uncomfortable shuttles and cabs in Nassau, but the shuttles that Disney uses are clean and air conditioned.

​

There were several cast-members in D-Lounge organizing guests into different groups. We were given bracelets which identified us as qualifying for the dolphin experience as well as the Atlantis aquarium. The two cast-members applying the bracelets divided us into groups of two and then raced to see who could fasten them faster. Josie and I lost. We then sat in the D-Lounge waiting for everyone to arrive. Once again, some guests thought it would be a good idea to keep everyone waiting on them.

​

The Dream was docked next to another cruise ship. It was the Norwegian Sky. It looked nice, but not as nice as the Dream.

We were told to follow the cast-member with the Jasmine sign.

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After a short walk, we arrived at the shuttles. They were indeed clean and air conditioned as advertised.

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Roughly ten minutes later, we arrived at Atlantis. The shuttles unloaded towards the back of the resort, but our driver told us very specifically that the shuttles to return to the ship would be at a different location. Instead, they would leave from "in front of the royal towers". He said if we had any trouble, any of the employees at Atlantis would be happy to point us in the right direction. Foreshadow much?

Next: Dolphin Cay

 

[FlaggNL]

Can't wait for Dolphin Cay! One of our once upon a time to do's

 

[lebeau]

Can't wait for Dolphin Cay! One of our once upon a time to do's

I will say up front that our experience was not as great as it should have been. For one thing, they were just incredibly unorganized. No one seemed to know or care what was going on. It was a stark contrast from the service we had gotten used to on-board the Dream. But then we drew the short straw so to speak and got stuck with a dolphin who would not cooperate. We ended up paying for pictures, so we have some really amazing pictures to show for the experience. But it was definitely not worth what we paid for it.

 

[lebeau]

​

We marched into Dolphin Cay, the man-made beach where Atlantis conducts all of its dolphin experiences. We were handed off to another Atlantis employee who was apparently late for his shift. He was gently reprimanded in front of us. "You can't keep bein' late, mon."

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We were all brought into the Dolphin Cay office where we were divided into groups according to what time our encounter with the dolphins was scheduled to begin. We were assigned to the second group which wouldn't actually be meeting for about another 20 minutes.

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They told us we could wait by the beach for our turn. From the beach, we could observe the group that went before us.

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There were orientation buildings nearby with lockers, towels and changing rooms.

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We weren't given any kind of supervision. No one seemed to know exactly where we were supposed to be. Only that someone would let us know when it was our turn. We decided to go ahead and get changed into our bathing suits.

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The girls played in the sand for a bit while we waited. They took turns burying each other's feet. Before long, an employee came along and announced that it was time for our group to gather.

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What followed was not-so-controlled chaos. We were each given a plastic souvenir bag and then they started handing out wet-suits. If there was any kind of order established, I missed it. I was standing next to the girls while they got their suits and then someone told me I needed to be in the adult line. I saw no lines, but stepped over where the employee was pointing. Once I was standing a few feet over, he handed me a wet-suit.

I was among the last to be given a wet-suit and when I had one I had to busy myself zipping the girls into theirs. Josie's was entirely too tight. I was about half in my wet-suit when the group began to move again. We walked down a hallway into a classroom setting. There we were given a small presentation which amounted to "we do not mistreat our dolphins" and "yay dolphins!" If there was more to it, I missed it while I was fiddling with my wet-suit.

As soon as I had my wet suit zipped up, I realized I had forgotten to remove my phone from my pocket. So I had to unzip myself enough to get to my phone and then zip back up. By the time I had completed all this, the presentation was over and we were moving again.

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Things didn't get any more orderly as we were walked back on to the beach. At some point, we were supposed to be given access to lockers. That never happened. We were standing on the beach with all our belongings (which thankfully weren't many). When we asked about the lockers, we were told we could leave our stuff on the beach. Not ideal, but we went with it because it was dolphin time.

Next: Meet Paulo

 

[lebeau]

​

Once again, we were divided into smaller groups. Each group had two instructors. Our instructors were very charming and funny. They introduced us to all the dolphins including ours. Our dolphin was a relative baby at four years old. His name was Paulo and he was born here at Atlantis.

If you look closely, you can see that Josie's wet suit is unzipped about half way down the back. It was the only way she could breathe in it.

​

When it came time for us to actually interact with Paulo, it was Mindy's turn first. We were given instructions to kiss him and "hug" him. The hug was more like touching his back and belly. Josie is demonstrating both tricks above.

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Unfortunately for us, Paulo didn't feel like kisses and hugs this morning. He took his powerful tail and splashed a spray of water in Mindy's face instead. His instructors looked both frustrated and concerned. They sent Paulo out to swim a few laps. This apparently was a way to reset his attitude.

​

The instructors kept testing Paulo to see if he was ready for us. After about five minutes of this, I began to wonder if they would switch out dolphins. After ten minutes, the other groups had already cycled through hugs and kisses and were on to other things. I was beginning to wonder if our group was going to get to do anything at all.

Eventually, Mindy was able to perform both tricks. The instructor then signaled for me. I looked to the girls to suggest that maybe they should go first. He gave me a look that said, "not yet". I took that to mean he wasn't 100% sure Paulo was cooperating yet and he didn't want to take any chances with little kids. So I hugged and kissed a dolphin. The kids later chided me for not giving Paulo a big enough kiss, but I wasn't feeling all that affectionate towards him at the moment.

​

Once Mindy and I had both gone, the instructors decided it was safe to let the children try. They got through their hugs and kisses without incident. Kara actually lingered much longer than she was supposed to. Things had gotten off to a shaky start, but I had to admit it was almost worth the price of admission to see Kara get to kiss a dolphin. Almost.

​

After everyone in our group had gotten a chance to do the hugs and kisses, there wasn't a lot of time left. The other groups were wrapping up their sessions. We moved on to taking group shots for the photo package. Can't leave those out. Gotta sell photo packages.

​

I was a little nervous about the group shot. I wasn't sure how our temperamental dolphin was going to react to the crowding. I was hunched near the girls in case I needed to... I don't know... do something. But Paulo cooperated long enough for all the families to get a picture with him.

Incidentally, Mindy wants it to be known that her hair is a mess because Paulo splashed her. Only she used a word I can't repeat here because this is a family website.

By the time the pictures were done, we were the only group left in Dolphin Cay. One instructor asked the other what to do next. His answer was to have us all touch Paulo's tail. He told us dolphins don't like to have their tails touched, but Paulo needed to get used to it. Wonderful! So we all took turns touching his tail as a group.

Incidentally, dolphins don't feel at all like you would expect. They aren't soft to the touch. Their skin is smooth, but not exactly slick. I don't know. It was a unique textural experience. After everyone touched Paulo's tail, that was it. Show's over.

The obvious question is: was it worth the money? I'm going to say that in our specific case, no it wasn't. We paid approximately $250 each. That included transportation to and from the ship and the freedom to explore the rest of the resort. But the main draw here was the dolphin encounter and ours was pretty bare bones. I get that animals are unpredictable, but I'm not sure that Dolphin Cay should be using a four-year-old dolphin in their program if this is likely to be the result. Frequently, the trainers would sigh and say this was just "Paulo being Paulo." So clearly, they knew some guests could get short-changed.

From my observations of what the other groups got to do, it may have been worth the money if our dolphin had been more cooperative. If you have people in your group who love dolphins and want a rare experience with them, the high cost may be justifiable. Although I have got to say, the organization of the entire operation left a lot to be desired. The left hand never knew what the right hand was doing. In fact, the left had seemed completely unaware of the existence of the right hand.

When you sign up for the shallow water dolphin encounter, you're really signing up for a photo shoot with dolphins and an amazing backdrop. You won't be able to take your own pictures. For a reduced charge, someone in your party can be an observer and take pictures from the beach. I considered doing that for our party but thought it would probably be best if I was hands on. We weren't sure how Kara would react to the big animals in person. Your other alternative is to shell out for a pricey photo package.

Any guesses what we did?

​

Cha-ching!

Yeah, we bought the package. It was about $130 for a CD with all of our pictures on it.

After the encounter, we gathered up our stuff and chaos resumed. Other groups were coming out for their encounters. There were showers set up so people could clean the sand off of themselves and their wet-suits. I don't fully understand why, but guests were scrubbing their wet-suits clean as though they were worried about getting back a deposit. I heard a mother scolding her child for not getting all the sand off. Who cares? They are going to clean them when we drop them off, aren't they?

Mindy and the girls went off to change into their dry clothes. Only after they left did I realize that no one had unzipped me. This left me a choice. I could ask a complete stranger to unzip my wet-suit or figure out a way to be a contortionist and unzip myself. Amazingly, I accomplished the latter without dislocating my arm.

When the girls returned, we had a couple moments of drama. First, I could not locate the pouch which contained our IDs and keys to our room both of which were necessary to return to the ship. After about 60 seconds of escalating near-panic, I found the documents. But then it was time to put Kara's earrings back in.

She had been required to remove them for the encounter. No jewelry was allowed (although we saw other families disregard this rule). Sometimes, Kara has trouble getting her earrings back in and this turned out to be one of those times. Making matters worse, Mindy was using a medicinal patch to prevent motion sickness. Once of the side effects of the medication turned out to be blurred vision which made replacing the earring challenging. After several tearful attempts, we gave up on it.

Once everyone had changed into their dry clothes, the important documents had been located and the earring given up on, we had to go pick up our photo CD. This took about 20 minutes in the Dolphin Cay gift shop. Then it was time to make a decision. We could either explore the premises or head back to the ship. It was approximately 2:00 so lunch was a consideration. If we stayed and checked out the aquarium, we were going to have to buy lunch here.

The girls weren't keen on the idea of checking out the aquarium. Kara was afraid there would be sharks. Mindy was nervous about getting back to the ship in time. So there were no votes in favor of sticking around Atlantis. We decided to locate the royal towers and hop on our shuttle home.

We tried following signs to the royal towers, but they were frustratingly imprecise. We had to ask employees for directions. We had been told any of them would be "happy" to direct us to the shuttles. But "happy" isn't the word I would use. Most of them seemed "obligated". I say "most of them" because we ended up asking a lot of employees for directions. The route back was not at all a straight shot and involved doubling back part of the way we had come.

Like the signs, employee directions lacked precision. They would point us north or south, but not tell us that we had to follow a specific path or take a turn at the end of it. After the level of service we were used to on board the Disney Dream, the lack of engagement was extremely apparent. Most of these people didn't give two hoots whether we found our shuttle or not.

We had about another two and a half hours to find a shuttle. So we weren't all that worried about it. But shuttles were scheduled to arrive every 30 minutes and a shuttle would be departing soon. I didn't want to have a half hour wait for the next shuttle. Fortunately, that wasn't necessary. We located the shuttle right at 2:30. It was waiting for us. We boarded the shuttle and were on our way back to the ship in no time at all.

The shuttle dropped us off a relatively short walk from the boat. For all I know, it dropped us off in the exact same spot where we had been picked up in the morning. But for whatever reason, the walk back to the ship seemed seedier than the original walk to the shuttle. I know we were solicited a lot more in the afternoon than we had been in the morning. Overall, we didn't love Nassau. Compared to the experience on Castaway Cay, I could definitely see why some guests choose not to leave the ship when it docks in Nassau.

Next: A concierge reception