Trip Report Oh, the Places We go, The People We See

Welcome to my newest Trip Report. For those who don’t know me, I am Jen.

That’s my Daughter Claire with me.



We just got back from an amazing vacation with several family members.

We traveled Nov. 1st thru the 15th, 2012. We rested our headed at 6 different places on this trip, and though it wasn’t always easy to keep moving from place to place, I am happy to have tried some new resorts out and stayed at some familiar ones as well.



This trip came about over a year ago. My Mom’s cousin Vicki wanted to take a trip with her and my Aunt Mary. Her Daughter Katie also wanted to come along.

After some talking and planning it became a group of 16 traveling. I was elected ring leader since I have quite a bit of Disney experience.

Plans were made, some were changed, and some were a little slower at making decisions than others.

My husband Skip is what is known in the Disney groups as a resistor and he decided NOT to come along. He was not so happy about the amount of time I was going to be gone.



The dates for the cruise were set first, Nov 4 through the 8th on the Disney Dream. We all planned to arrive a day early and stay at the Residence Inn near the port. Soon I decided that I must add a few Disney days, and so did everyone else eventually. I thin decide…heck lets add some more, and Claire and I ended up staying 3 more days after the rest left.

Then after doing some research and with a heads up from my good Dis-friend Carey, I was alerted to the fact that the last Halloween party was on Nov. 2nd. How could I pass that chance up? So Claire and I decided to fly in a day earlier than everyone else to hit that party. Claire and I also decided to fly out of Columbus. My family lives near the Toledo, OH area, and the best direct flights are out of Detroit. My youngest sister, who was not going on the cruise, lives in Columbus, and I was able to get a decent priced direct flight from there, so Claire and I drove down Nov. 1 and spent the night before our early flight.



Plans were finally all set in stone and we just had to wait for our time to arrive. Not an easy task, but we all managed.



Let me introduce you to the crew. This is a picture of a picture. My sister has the CD with the actual digital copy, but hasn’t yet loaded it to the computer, so I had to go with this for now till I can get a copy.

In the back row, left to right, we have my parents, Joe and Paula, next to them is my Uncle Geoff. Next to Geoff is cousin Vicki and her son in law Thad. Next to Thad is Pete, Vicki’s husband and then me. Aunt Mary is on the end, she is married to Uncle Geoff and my Mother’s sister.

Down towards the front, left to right, is my nieces Alexis and Abby with their parents Rob and Gail. Gail is my sister. Front and center is Claire. Behind Claire are Jude, and Katie. Katie is married to Thad and is Pete and Vicki’s Daughter. And then we have baby Luke in the stroller. He is only about 9 months old and what a cutie he is.



This trip had the usual ups and downs that most every family will have, but I have to admit things went much smoother than I planned. We never felt the need to kill each other for the most part. LOL

We had several cruise newbies and several Disney World newbies as well.



Please join me in reliving a very magical trip with all the places we traveled and all the people we met along the way!

 

[jenseib]

Just caught up again--- loving this! I want to do a cruise :-(

Thanks. Cruising is so much fun

 

[jenseib]

After we all finished up with dinner, I took a few more pictures around the dining room. This is when we found that Rasheeta was extra slow. Our drinks did take quite a while to arrive with our meals, and those who had ordered specialty drinks had to wait for the bill. Many nights she just would tell us she would give it to us the next night as it wasn’t ready, and many nights the bills never showed up. Gail ended up going over hers with a fine tooth comb one night from the ship account and found several that were charged to her that she didn’t actually get.







We tried to get a picture of the girls in front of the fountain. Claire of course never looks at the camera.





We needed to get Abby in there.



Abby has a different idea on how to pose! She was lifting her dress up for all the world to see that she wears undies! Gail quickly ran over and told her she can’t do that here.

One more try.



We gave up. 3 squirmy kids does not make for a nice picture.

 

[jenseib]

After dinner, we headed out to get the kids their bands for the kids club. We had to go to the Fantasy Convention room to do so. And boy the line was LONG!



We finally got up there and the computers kept going down so it even took longer, but we did get them all officially signed and ready for the clubs.

A quick stop off in the bathrooms and it was time to head to the show.
I just love the different bathrooms on the Dream. This is one area where they are better than the Magic. Each area seems to have a different theme.



Golden Mickeys was the show tonight. This one is my favorite I think of all the shows I have seen so far. As you can see, Claire’s dress was themed for this night’s show.




It was Gail and I and our girls. Mom and Dad mentioned that they would be coming and we did see them walk in with Geoff, but they were on the other side and made their way to different seats.





The show was great. The girls did have a few moments of being scared, but they did fine. I had tears in my eyes at the end when Abby just gasped. It was so precious.

After the show, we headed out and found Donald. Mom, Dad and Geoff met up with us as well.

 

[jenseib]

Abby was not scared one bit.

She also did not want to leave.



We walked around a bit and spotted Chip and Dale.



Abby took a seat to watch them while we waited in line.

The line was kind of long, so Geoff and Gail took Abby and headed up to see Mickey while we waited.

 

[jenseib]

While I waited, I took a picture of the light fixture. You can never have too many of those!



Geoff took a couple of us while we were waiting.

We were getting close and they were done, so we waved to them to hurry so Abby could be in with the 2 older girls.

She made it just in time. Chip had walked off with the family in front of us. It was the girl’s birthday and I think he was giving her some extra attention, so for a while we only had Dale.

See the pen in Abby’s hand. Well that was my pen. For some reason she wanted a blue pen. Blue is her favorite color. Gail had given her a pen with blue ink and she threw a fit. We realized that she saw our blue colored pen so I handed it off to her. We had an extra pen or two and no need to fight that battle right now.



UH OH!!! We have a rebel passing the characters and trying to go up the stairs. Not allowed during character meets!



BUSTED!

 

[jenseib]

Chips back, but no one seems to notice.



Since He was going unnoticed, I guess he decided to eat Claire.

Once again, Abby didn’t want to leave.

 

[jenseib]

We said Good Bye to Chip and Dale.





We spotted Donald and he was giving us a little performance of his own.





We separated from the rest. I think Gail wanted to get Abby to bed.











Claire and I went off on our own and roamed around freely. I think we checked out the stores a bit and then we HAD to get a picture of her in the Golden Mickey dress with the Golden Mickey.

 

[jenseib]

Another bathroom stop, and I just had to take a few more pictures.





More exploring.









I just love how colorful the deck of the Dream is. The Magic was pretty, but this is better.





A stop for a drink.

 

[jenseib]

And we headed back towards the room for a minute. I don’t remember why for sure, but I probably wanted to drop something off, change my clothes or pick something up.







Claire’s bed all turned down.



We did whatever it was we headed to the room to do and then went back out again.
We ran into Pluto and stopped for a picture. The handler there noticed Claire’s dress and complimented it and said “You guys have sailed Disney before, haven’t you”. Yes we have!

We then headed up a flight of stairs and got in line for Captain Mickey.

 

[jenseib]

I need to get in the habit of carrying my big flash with me on the ship. I really think my pictures would come out better if I did.

We wandered a bit more, going through the art gallery.





And then we went into D Lounge to see what was going on there.

There was a game that was getting close to the end and we sat down to watch it a bit.

 

[jenseib]

I really was getting tired now. It was close to 11 and I swear I was nodding off as I sat there. I mentioned to Claire that we needed to leave, but she had seen Donald lingering out in the hall and wanted to see him come in first.



Donald was teaching Salsa Dancing.







He then went out on the dance floor with the kids. I tried to get Claire to go out, but she was too shy. She preferred to watch.



I couldn’t last any longer, so we headed back to the room.



Before I went in the room, I decided to get a picture of our door. I went the whole time on our previous Dream cruise and never once took a picture of out decorated room door.





And that was pretty much it for the night. We got dressed in our PJs and turned the TV on for a few minutes and laid our head down on the 4th pillow of the trip. Oh the Places We Go!
We also met some new friends! Oh the People We See!

 

[jenseib]

Nov. 5, 2012, Monday, Day 5

The nice thing about the short cruises is that you arrive at your first port pretty darn fast.
I woke around 6ish this morning and took a look outside.



What a beautiful morning. And this is one reason I love the verandah. It’s so nice to just sit out there and take in the early morning.

But you know me, I can’t sit still too long and I got dressed, cracked the connecting door from my parents room for Claire and I went off to explore.



Wow, Look at that sunrise!



A few others were out and about too, but really, not many people are out early in the mornings.



This is an adult area, and as you can tell by the ashtrays on the tables, one of the few smoking areas on the ship. I don’t believe this was smoking last time when we sailed, but I could be wrong. I do know another area that used to be smoking is no longer one though. I noticed a few things that had changed since last sailing this time around.



Who could ever get tired of views like this.



I continued to walk around and got a quick shot of this shower stall.







That’s the teen club. I still think Disney goofed with this one. This should be the adult area.

 

[jenseib]

I see land ahead.









The adult pool.



This area was poorly planned. So many people use this area as a walk through. It’s almost impossible not to at times. And as for the sun worshippers, well there isn’t much of an option to get a good tan here as most of it is in shadows.





I decided to head into the spa area and explore while it was quiet.

 

[jenseib]

A few were up and working out already.





Continuing through the spa and gym.

 

[jenseib]

This is the shower area. I have heard from others that some prefer to come here and shower rather than their rooms, as it is a bit roomier here. Also if you have several people in your room, this is a good spot to come too.



They had these plastic sandals to wear around. I have huge feet and I tried a pair on….um these are super narrow and tiny. I couldn’t even squeeze my foot in if I tried hard.

 

[jenseib]

Continuing on with my tour of the Spa area.

 

[jenseib]

I love to check out the salon as I am licensed to do hair as well.













I thought this was really pretty.





It’s amazing all the services they have onboard. They even had teeth whitening.

 

[jenseib]

I was done there and headed out to explore a bit more.

These are the pool bar stools at the adult pool.



I love the artwork all over the ship.



And a peek into the Quiet Cove Café.



I love this décor.





You could grab a quick snack here if you wanted to.

 

[jenseib]

I just love this blue color here in the Cove Café. When we toured suites on the ship in 2011, this was the color scheme in the room and I loved it there as well.







Onward now.



This is where you get the ice-cream ….when it’s open. The girls loved this spot.







I LOVE this shot.



Well, and this one too!

 

[jenseib]

This is one of those items that I just can’t stop taking pictures of. I have about 7 hundred and 50 zillion pictures of the Aquaduck sign.



This is where the Auqaduck spits you out at. Obviously when it’s running there is water and that gate isn’t covering the opening.





This area was smoking last time I sailed. I am betting they changed it because it had kind of a wind tunnel effect through here at times. ….just a guess.