Trip Report Our First December Trip! A Bay Lake Tower/ Dream Cruise Land & Sea Report COMPLETED

myhappyplace · Dec 18, 2016

We met in the Walt Disney theater, as it said on our tickets. In no time, we were off the ship, and following our guide to busses. We were off to Aquaventure!!! Some of the pictures were taken on my old cell phone in a waterproof case-they turned out better than expected! Of course, we did take our actual cameras for when we were done in the water.

After arriving at Atlantis, our tour guide led us on the most round-about tour ever. We had read a blog prior to this trip, advising to break off of the tour (which is allowable), and head to get a locker and get started on your day before the rides got busy. So we did just that. We rented a locker to put our camera bag in, and then placed our shoes and towels on a chair.

We started out, each on one of a pair of racing waterslides, that timed your ride. When we splashed down, we only looked at my side, so we don't actually know who won, but that was fun. It also helped me set aside some of my dislike of raftless waterslides. I'm always afraid that I'll scrape up my back, but this was fine!

We then climbed back up the same tower, but this time did a slide that takes you on a tunnel under/through the shark tank. I couldn't see a darn thing! But fun nonetheless. This was taken after our ride...see the tunnel?

Then it was time for the Rapids! I think we had both been looking forward to this the most. NOT a lazy river!! There are waves and rapids and basically no controlling your raft. We boarded separate tubes for the first bit. Well, it took us a minute actually, and the employee told us we were a mess, trying to each get up in our raft. She finally suggested "why don't you go over to the stairs to get on?" Right.

Bear in mind, that I couldn't really see the screen of my phone in the water proof case in the sun...

On these rapids, don't be shy about crashing into everyone, because it is inevitable. There was even one portion, where a man helped send my raft in the correct direction, and then he himself got stuck in a current, and shouted after me "tell my wife I love her!"

Also, watch your head and feet, you will be slammed a bit into the walls! While going round on these rapids, here and there, we'd spot an employee/ lifeguard. Let's just say they would NOT be up to Disney World standards, as they looked incredibly bored, and not always very observant. One was totally on his phone under a towel. Another employee at the top of a waterslide was drinking beer (I know different culture, it just made us laugh)

After going around once, we switched to a double raft. If you think of the rapids as a highway, there are "exits" here and there that you can take, to lead you to a waterslide. We decided to take some of them. The first one turns you around and takes you backwards up a conveyor belt. From this direction, we could see the port and our ship! Of course, I didn't capture that on camera.

There exists a video of our ride, though I fear it is only funny to DH and I. We still lose it when we watch it. At the bottom of the slide, I flew off of the front of the tube. DH floats away from me and I'm running to try to catch up, all while giggling.

We did another couple of slides, and then decided we'd had enough. We went and fetched our camera bag and returned our locker key, and went around the park taking some photos.

This was that first racing waterslide:

The birds were VERY bold!!

Sharks

myhappyplace · Dec 18, 2016

We could not figure out if this shark was real and just resting (or dead) on the tunnel, or was a fake. It didn't move at all.

DH and I are both only beginning photographers, and I was trying to show DH how you can manipulate shutter speed with water

Along with park admission, our excursion included lunch. There were several places around the park but all seemed to serve various combos of pizza, burgers, and hot dogs. Not exactly thrilling but it was something.

I got a hot dog and DH got the conch fritters, since he had never had this Bahamian staple before.

We sat our tray down on a table, while DH was showing me a cat he saw lying among the tables (we love kitties and it reminded us of one of ours), and remember what I said about the birds being very bold? A FLOCK of them swarmed our fries!! Several other people ran to our table to help shoo them away!

After our meal, we decided to explore the rest of the resort. We decided that their signage in general is not really up to WDW standards (which is of course always my basis apparently). It was hard to find where we wanted to go. Earlier, when we were looking for the entrance to the rapids, it took us forever, and we had to ask several people!

Some sting rays and sharks

myhappyplace · Dec 18, 2016

We were impressed by the inside of the resort!

They have an aquarium called "The Dig" on the lower level

So, then we wanted to catch the shuttle back to the ship. They run every half hour beginning at 1:00 I think. On the way back to the port, our driver pointed out the hospital where Anna Nicole Smith died.

And we were back and on board in no time!!

myhappyplace · Dec 18, 2016

DH wanted me to point out that it was because of reading your previous trip report, @prfctlyximprct , that we wanted to try Aquaventure!

Here are some additional pictures from our day, that I forgot from DH's camera.

Do I look like a tourist or what?

myhappyplace · Dec 18, 2016

After showering, we did attend this evenings production, which was The Golden Mickeys. We had seen it last time, but there was a technical glitch during my favorite scene (Tangled lanterns), so I wanted to see it without the glitch. After that, it was dinnertime!

We were dining at Royal Palace tonight. I already knew what I wanted for a starter; it was the same that I got last trip, and DH got it as well this time. Baked brie with orange cranberry chutney.

DH also got the iced lobster and jumbo shrimp. He did say the lobster was a very very tiny piece.

He also got an Anjou Pear salad which he didn't care for as a whole

Another item that I enjoyed from last year, and so got again was the French Onion Soup

For a main, I got the lamb. I enjoyed the taste, but had a horrible time accessing said meat. Darcy, one of our tablemates, was encouraging me to just "go for it" and use my fingers to tear it, but I just didn't succeed very well

DH got the lobster pasta which he liked from last time, so got again

and crispy duck breast...he didn't really care for it either

We both got the Grand Mariner orange souffle for dessert, which was delicious

After dinner, Elegant Minnie was posing for pictures. We didn't stop, but snapped a pic between visitors

When we got back to our stateroom, Norman had left us this little fellow

We wanted to check out the Skyline bar for a drink. This bar was pretty cool. The screens/ "windows" behind the bar rotate between 5 city skylines, every 15 minutes: Paris, Rio, New York, Chicago, and Hong Kong. As the skyline changed, so did the music in the bar to match. The menu was divided up by city, with 3 drinks available per city.

It was Chicago when we entered. That whisky in the box on the lower left is the Johnnie Walker Odyssey compass box I mentioned earlier.

I ordered the Nine Dragon from Hong Kong

DH ordered the Stiletto Manhattan

On the :15, what we can assume is Tinker Bell (we hear the bells and see the pixie dust but don't actually see her) changed the skyline to New York City.

We only had the one drink each, but did get to see it change to Rio then

I'm such a lightweight, and was feeling that drink. I went to my favorite restroom nearby in the District (which is the whole adult bar area in general), in which the stalls are circular, there are mirrored tiles on the wall, and a mirror on the ceiling-which in my state was quite humorous to me.

myhappyplace · Dec 18, 2016

We walked around the rest of the District. Pink is the pink champagne bar, and the wall is covered in 3D bubbles, and periodically a pink elephant from Dumbo will show up in a bubble. I captured a pic of him on another day.

This is behind the bar in Pink

Entrance to the District

After that, it was off to our room for bed. For one of us, all night. For the other...well, he went on his typical late night/ early morning roaming of the ship, and captured these images:

Pink Champagne Bar again

This is called Evolution, where they hold a lot of trivia. It's designed to look like a monarch butterfly

And, sunrise

This pool that you can see is the Teen Club

myhappyplace · Dec 18, 2016

Day 7: Wednesday, December 7th- Gingerbread Houses & Castaway Cay

We headed to breakfast at Royal Palace again today, as usual, taking a few pictures before it was time to go in. We decided we liked the Merrytime Cruise decorations much better than the Halloween on the Seas decorations.

That's me in blur between the trees

Taken out the porthole-we were getting close to Castaway Cay!

We hadn't noticed that the mirror pays homage to both Snow White AND Beauty and the Beast. Clever

Crown detail above the windows

I love these chairs!

A little dark, but our server today noticed me taking pictures, and asked if we wanted one together. Sure!

myhappyplace · Dec 18, 2016

I LOVE this bread basket

started off with a cherry-filled muffin (they bring around a big tray of pastries, muffins & donuts for you to choose from)

And I had the omelet with cheese, onion, ham, tomato and mushroom. I felt bad because I then asked for mustard, and DH said he probably had to go up to Cabanas and get it because I'm the only person who eats mustard on their omelets, and it took him awhile.

DH had some toast and fresh kiwi, and his Express Breakfast again

That's all I'm gonna post for today, I will continue with our next activity tomorrow, gingerbread house making! Thanks for reading everyone!

prfctlyximprct · Dec 18, 2016

Loving your trip down the Aqua Adventure! Aren't you glad you didn't think of it as a "lazy river" LOL! That thing is wild!!!! I am glad you had fun on it and didn't want to murder me after! Haha!!!

Love the sunrise pictures your DH took while sneaking out! So beautiful! Things like watching the sunrise on a cruise ship give me the goosebumps all over!! Loving all of this

I need to plan another cruise now!!!

DRD · Dec 19, 2016

First, I love Mr Happy Place's t-shirt selections. Well done, sir.

Great insomnia pictures of the empty ship and especially of sunrise.

Seeing pictures of the cruise line food takes me back to some great places... We loved Royal Table for breakfast. And it even looked like your Cabana's food was pretty good. I liked the duck at Royal Table, personally, but understand that it's not for everyone.

Interesting to see the differences from our trip 2 years ago at the kids' club.

Also enjoyed seeing the whiskey tasting. That is a pretty good deal. How many ounces were the pours?

Great pictures and report!

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

prfctlyximprct said:
Loving your trip down the Aqua Adventure! Aren't you glad you didn't think of it as a "lazy river" LOL! That thing is wild!!!! I am glad you had fun on it and didn't want to murder me after! Haha!!!

Love the sunrise pictures your DH took while sneaking out! So beautiful! Things like watching the sunrise on a cruise ship give me the goosebumps all over!! Loving all of this I need to plan another cruise now!!!

We definitely kept your warnings in mind about it being more intense than a lazy river the whole time!

He does do a good job doesn't he? I do wish he was able to sleep and relax more, but at least he has something to do when he can't.

DRD said:
First, I love Mr Happy Place's t-shirt selections. Well done, sir.

Great insomnia pictures of the empty ship and especially of sunrise.

Seeing pictures of the cruise line food takes me back to some great places... We loved Royal Table for breakfast. And it even looked like your Cabana's food was pretty good. I liked the duck at Royal Table, personally, but understand that it's not for everyone.

Interesting to see the differences from our trip 2 years ago at the kids' club.

Also enjoyed seeing the whiskey tasting. That is a pretty good deal. How many ounces were the pours?

Great pictures and report!

We really did enjoy going to Royal Palace for breakfast, and did so all three mornings we could (not the final morning, we always do express checkout)

I have no clue how many ounces, but the hubs might?

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

Time to make the gingerbread!! This was a cute, fun little activity. If we ever did another Merrytime Cruise, we wouldn't feel the need to do it again, mostly because space is limited, and I'd hate to take the space from another family. But we did want to do activities both here and at WDW that we could only do at Christmastime.

Our location:

Our materials:

Here are our cruise activity staff, ready to go:

We're ready to do this!

That's enough jolliness, time for serious business...

First, we laid out our pieces as the chef instructed, and applied some royal icing "glue"

And then we assembled the sides

When in doubt of its sturdiness, apply more icing

DH took over for a bit

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

Then it was time to outline and decorate with icing

And then we were done, so we had Matt, one of the activities staff, take our picture!

Then, we got to carry our house through the atrium back to our stateroom. We got asked by several people where we got it!

We passed by Royal Palace (which is just off the Atrium) and asked the host if he would take his picture. He took one, then backed up about 8 steps, then took another, then backed up again. We were secretly chuckling and muttering to each other "why is he doing that?"

The only thing is, you can't take it off the ship. So it must either be eaten or thrown away on board before your last day. We kept it in our room and broke bits off here and there to eat. Our stateroom attendant got a kick out of DH telling him the next morning "Norman, my wife doesn't believe me that it is you who keeps eating our gingerbread house!"

Next up, Castaway Cay!

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

These are a couple of photos DH took out of the porthole on the way to our Gingerbread House activity.

Last year on Castaway Cay day, I was in a big rush to get off the ship. I wasn't sure how to get to the adults-only section, and I wanted to be one of the first there. This year I don't know that we would have "rushed" off anyway, but the only gingerbread class they had was this morning, so we decided we'd just go out to CC after that. We do like to visit Serenity Bay (the adult section), especially at lunchtime, but we actually enjoy getting in the water more at the family beach.

We also did much better this year with not walking across creation and back. We got off the tram at the 2nd family beach stop (Pelican Point) swam a bit, hopped back on the tram to go to Serenity Bay for a wade and lunch, back to Pelican Point via tram to shop, then back to the ship. The family beach wasn't as crowded this time as last year. It was a windy day, and most of the activities were cancelled, just like last year. I will say, the water was cold at first, but felt refreshing once you got used to it...you just had to go in slowly.

The tree right off the ship

The tram stop nearest the ship

Of course, the island was decorated for Christmas all over

I utilized the waterproof case again with my old phone. I thought I was taking many more pictures with it, but turns out I apparently wasn't hitting the button...it's so hard to see in that case in the bright sun. Oh well.

Crazy hair

DH splashing me

A beautiful day!

A little crab we saw scuttling by

Then it was off to lunch at Serenity Bay! We were there just at or right after opening. They had the grills GOING. The smoke was crazy, my eyes were watering after going through the line!!

My plate

DHs lunch

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

Then we went to the Serenity Bay Beach

There were a couple of fish swimming all around us, and of course, I thought I was capturing pictures of them...but I wasn't. Just images like this:

And this

We were able to stand in the water easier this year, for two reasons. One, last year, the bottom seemed so rough and rocky, and we didn't notice that too much this time. Two, last year, the current was wicked! This year it didn't seem to be. We only stood in the water up to our chests for about 30 minutes, then went and got on the tram to Pelican Point. We bought an Olaf Castaway Cay ornament, and a pin.

Then we were ready to head back. We got off at the tram closest to the ship, and took some more pictures

The Post Office

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

We went back to the room then, and got cleaned up. We decided to take part in a tour that our tablemates Darcy and Brian mentioned the previous night, called The Art of the Theme. It was all about the choices made in the decorating and theming of the Dream. We really enjoyed this tour, and even though we went in areas that we'd already been, we got to learn about and see things we hadn't ever noticed before. Well worth the time.

We started in Meridian

The theming in here is all about world travel

We went into Palo

Something we knew already, but this glass sculpture is nicknamed "Spaghetti and Meatballs"

These pictures turned out much brighter and better than when we ate there last year, because it was so dark

Then we revisited Remy. You all remember the glass sculpture of Remy that we noticed when we visited on arrival day? Turns out there are SO many more direct images of him in there that we totally missed!

The fabric on the booths have two depictions of him. One is his head in profile. See his ear, nose, closed eye, and smile?

Then there is his whole body

He's on the wall

And on the backs of the chairs

This mural is a replica of the kitchen from the movie

And there is little chef Remy, with his chef's hat, whiskers and nose etched in the mirror

They have quite the wine closet, and in it are these Pixar wines, signed by John Lasseter

And in the movie Ratatouille, the food critic always asks for two bottles of this wine, and so the Disney Dream always keeps two bottles of the wine on board. If anyone buys it (which only one person ever has), they buy another to replace it. The cost? $25,000 a bottle!

We walked through many of the areas we've shown you in previous days' posts, but Matt just discussed the themeing choices more in depth, it was very interesting. We went through Pink again, and Evolution.

We went outside on the deck to talk about the ship's colors and deck. The ship was painted to mimic Mickey Mouse's colors. Disney had to campaign the Coast Guard and have maritime law changed so that they could have yellow lifeboats (Mickey's shoe color) instead of the industry-accepted orange. It took several years and a lot of convincing, but finally Disney were able to prove that the yellow lifeboats are just as visible and safe as orange. What we think as the black in the Mickey Mouse color scheme of the ship, is actually a very dark navy blue, now called "Monica Blue". Apparently, when they were trying to figure out what color they wanted for the ship, a woman named Monica entered the meeting, and the guy in charge said "your pants! I want your pants!!". She was compensated for her pants, and that's the color they used.

While we were outside talking about all of this, the people still out on Castaway Cay were getting rained on!

Our tour ended on Deck 4, above the Atrium. Just as it finished, Stitch wandered over to the railing, and had only one dad and kid in line, so both DH and I, and Darcy and Brian jumped on that opportunity! He was dressed so adorably! He stole DH's hat!

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

Down below, in the Atrium, Santa was meeting. I was able to catch a picture or two in-between guests. Some of the kiddos were NOT having it; it was so cute to watch!

Then, we noticed on our app that Peter Pan would be meeting soon, we had nowhere else we needed to be, and the line-while already forming, wasn't long. While waiting, these nice people offered us hot chocolate and cookies.

Looking back the hall while waiting in line...I like the tree way in the distance

While we were in line, we noticed Goofy and Max walking along the corridor on the next deck up. I had never seen Max at WDW or anywhere else before, so DH stayed in our Peter Pan line while I ran up the stairs and was second in line there. (We think they had extra characters out because of the rain on CC)

Then I came back down, and it wasn't long before we were meeting Peter Pan!

After that, we decided to go to the DVC presentation, to see if we could win the onboard credit. We didn't. But hey free drinks, and a pin!

Afterwards, we encountered a little girl, about 4, coming off of the elevator all by herself. She looked around, and her face screwed up and she started to cry. The teacher in me kicked in, and I introduced myself, and took her by the hand, and asked her what happened. She was sobbing, but started to lead me down one level. As I was walking with her, DH started to go up the stairs, and sure enough we heard a man calling for "Brooklynn", and DH called up that we had her! She ran to her daddy apologizing profusely for leaving him, and he looked so relieved! It was very touching.

***One more note from earlier on this day...after our Gingerbread course, we stopped by the Future Cruises desk, and booked a placeholder for a future cruise!

Next up, dinner. It's Pirates Night!

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

Tonight we were dining again at Royal Palace, but no matter which of the three restaurants you dined at this evening, the menus were all the same, because it was Pirates in the Caribbean Night! Some people went all out dressing up...DH and I are not those people but it is fun to see.

I haven't yet introduced our head waiter and assistant waiter this trip! This is Benedict and Chantal, and they were wonderful!

Bread service tonight was johnny cake and a mango dipping sauce. The cake was good, but I wasn't too keen on the sauce.

For a starter, I had the Boucanier Smoked Saucisson, Baked Brie and Honey, with figs and orange. It was very interesting. Warm, and sweet. It seemed weird to have it for a starter because it could have been a dessert had it not had little bits of sausage in it

I also had the Romaine wedge salad

DH had the Davy Jones Locker Rock Crab Cake

and the (blurry) Chilled Mango Soup

For mains, DH had the Jack's Treasure of the Seas (seafood pasta)

and I had Tia Dalma's Jerk Chicken. Nice flavor, but very spicy salsa!

For dessert, I went with the rum soaked chocolate cake, which was VERY rum soaked, it made my tongue numb!!

And DH had the Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake Tart

When we returned to our stateroom, we found this guy

For the fireworks, we headed up to the Meridian deck, where we viewed it last year after our Palo meal. This year, it was much more crowded

Next year, we think we'll venture to the 11th deck, midship, where the actual show with Pirates happens.

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

Day 8: Thursday, December 8- At Sea Day

So I've been pretty well chugging through this report, trying to get it done before Christmas, but I can't believe I'm already on our last full day! We breakfasted as usual, at Royal Palace.

DH got the omelet and a blueberry muffin, and I had the oatmeal and Eggs Benedict again.

Afterwards, we headed to a presentation called "Building of the Dream" in Pub 687 (that's the sports bar on board. As we learned in this chat, it is named 687 because that was what they called the Dream as it was being built in the shipyard. It was the 687th ship built by the company. It's sister ship, Fantasy was 688th)

This plaque at the entrance shows the stages in building the Dream

I didn't take any other pictures because it was a video/ powerpointish presentation, but very interesting.

As we were leaving Pub 687, we peeked into Skyline, and got to see Hong Kong! That makes 4 of 5 cities, would we see the 5th??

Back through Pink, and this is the best I could capture the pink elephant that appears in the bubbles on the wall

We peeked in the D-Lounge, which was for the time being, empty. This is where they hold karaoake competitions, and also where the DVC presentation was held.

Then it was time for a cute event. Jack-Jack's Diaper Dash! Anyone with a crawling-age baby can sign up. Each baby can have a coach on either end to encourage crawling, and anything is allowable. One baby crawled toward a cell phone. One baby crawled toward grandma. Several babies wouldn't crawl for anything. So funny.

One activity for today that we knew for a long time we wanted to do, was to see Doctor Strange in 3D on the ship. The ship has amazing 3D! I think that was at 1:00?

Afterwards, I guess we went up to Flo's Cafe for some chicken tenders, pizza, and a hot dog. Oh and a cheesesteak. (I ate the pizza while in line, so no pic, oops)

That evening was the Captain's Pin Trading event...we enjoyed this last year too. The various captains on board come down in front of Walt Disney Theater, and are given lanyards of pins to trade with guests. It seemed each captain got on his or her lanyard, a rather large Star Wars At Sea exclusive pin. We tried to get one, but in the end weren't fast and aggressive enough, though we didn't really need it. We did trade for several pins we liked.

While pin trading, look who walked through, with no handler!

We then went to the room, and probably napped. Or maybe we did that before the pin trading, but I'm sure we napped sometime. Then, we changed for dinner. Before going in, we met Cruise Minnie. We were trying to do her Minnie pose, but afterwards, DH said "why did she have me protecting my crotch?"

myhappyplace · Dec 19, 2016

Dinner tonight was at Animator's Palette. Bread service:

Darcy and Brian had some fancy wine brought down from upstairs, and so the Head Waiter, Selo, poured it into this decanter (we are not wine drinkers)

Goat cheese/ tomato/ radish & onion tart for me

Dave and I both got the black truffle pasta pursiettes. Me a regular portion, and DH a double portion

DH also got the Baked Potato & Bacon soup

We both got the breaded pork chop for mains

For dessert we both got the crunchy walnut cake, and then DH also had the white chocolate cheesecake

A group picture of our table #101

And Benedict and Chantal

Afterwards, Table #101 helped form the winning team in the 80s music trivia in Evolution! After that, was a physical comedian

And with that, we went to bed. Woke up the following morning, and joined the line for express walkoff around 7am. Then they made us leave

We were literally the first people through customs and out of the parking area.

And that, my friends, is our vacation! I hope you enjoyed!

Trip Report Our First December Trip! A Bay Lake Tower/ Dream Cruise Land & Sea Report ***COMPLETED***

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Trip Report Our First December Trip! A Bay Lake Tower/ Dream Cruise Land & Sea Report COMPLETED