The Lovenerds' EPIC DISNEYMOON! BWV, Disney DREAM, and WLV!!!

lovenerds2012 · Nov 14, 2012

Our bags hadn't arrived yet, but we were pretty hungry so we headed out to find some lunch. We went up to Cabanas, and since we were on deck 9 and Cabanas (and the pool deck and hot tubs, etc) is on deck 11, we were able to skip lots of elevator waiting time by just climbing 2 flights of stairs. Cabanas was really busy but we found a seat and chowed down.

Then we did some exploring.

Eventually we went back to our room to wait for the emergency drill. Captain Gus came over the loudspeaker all through the ship, in our room included, and we were instructed to go to deck 4 midship and go to the area labeled with the letter printed on our key card. Ours (and all the other rooms in the vicinity) was H. We didn't have to put on our life vests fortunately, we just had to stand in rows of 8 or 9 people, stacked close together and we were told this is where we would come to board the lifeboats if there really was an emergency. There were some people that were pretty whiny about it but after the tragedy in the Mediterranean, I don't think their immaturity was justified. Just shut up and listen. It was over in about 15 minutes and we were free to go have fun!
We immediately headed to decks 11 and 12 to watch the sailaway party. I didn't take any pictures of that, but it is on the video I posted above.
When that horn blew and played "A dream is a wish your heart makes," we both freaked out...SO HAPPY!!! It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. The ship started moving, but I couldn't really feel it. They were playing the horn more so I called my parents to let them listen and to say goodbye for 4 days.

We decided to go back to our verandah (which became our favorite place on the ENTIRE honeymoon) and I took more pictures and video of pulling away from port.

sam_disney · Nov 14, 2012

omg! I am adoring this report! All the cruise ones currently- I am soooo jealous! i HAVE TO DO THIS!

It looked amazing staying at the boardwalk- what a view!

Can't wait to hear more about your amazing honeymoon! Congratulations to you both xxx

cfry06 · Nov 14, 2012

Loving your report!! Can't wait to read more!

We are staying at the Boardwalk next month and I absolutely cannot wait. Your photos and commentary hyped me up even more!!

Looking fwd to reading more on your adventures. Thanks for sharing

pumpkin7 · Nov 14, 2012

I am really enjoying your trip report! I can't wait for the rest

lovenerds2012 · Nov 14, 2012

We spent some time hanging out in the room and I put the door signs I made on our door. I printed them out on our printer at home, then stuck double-sided magnet tape on the back. It worked really well! We saw plenty of other people who had decorated their door and even saw Fish Extenders (a little hanging pouch where cruisers share presents with others.) Here is my handiwork:

Then it was time to get ready for dinner, and up first was the Royal Palace! We had the 5:30 seating.
We got dressed and headed down to Deck 3, walked past Animator's Palate and down the LOOOONG hallway towards the atrium to Royal Palace. We walked in and were blown away, it was so beautiful. We gave the hostess our tickets and we were seated at table 34. This was to be our table number at dinner every night of our cruise. Our table at Royal Palace was PERFECT. This was the view:

As we were sitting there, a Japanese couple sat at the table too. They would be our "table buddies" the next several nights and were on their honeymoon too. The husband spoke a tiny bit of English and I speak a tiny bit of Japanese, so we got along pretty well. Then our head server, Valter from Portugal came over to introduce himself, along with Yannis from Greece, the assistant server. They were WONDERFUL, and got to know what we liked to eat and even what we liked to drink.

The m

The plates, complete with Cinderella's carriage:

I ended up with the beef with lobster medallions- It was INCREDIBLE. SO GOOD.

I mentioned earlier that Chris has Crohn's disease and can only tolerate foods that are really easy to digest. He had mashed potatoes and was perfectly happy. DCL accommodated his diet needs very well.

Then it was time for dessert! Chris loves dessert, so this was the part he was looking forward to the most.
The dessert menu was a paper folded to look like an old wax-sealed envelope.

We both ended up getting the Sweet Temptations, which gave you small samples of Peanut Butter Mousse, Mango Cheesecake, and Crème Brulée. It was wonderful.

After dessert, Valter and Yannis came over and had some fun with us. They were trying to communicate with the Japanese couple and Yannis got out a green crayon and started writing on the tablecloth. It was so cool!

Valter showed them how to write Hello and Thank You in Portuguese and they showed him in Japanese.

lovenerds2012 · Nov 14, 2012

Stuffed bellies and smiles on our face, we got up and made our way out. I took some pictures on the way out.

The back of a chair:

I am a huge fan of Art Nouveau, particularly Alphonse Mucha, so I absolutely loved these renderings of the Princesses.

We walked through the Atrium and towards the shops to have a look since we still had some time before the show started. When it was time, we headed to the Walt Disney Theater for The Golden Mickeys!!

The show was really good. I was impressed that these characters could sing and dance even when the seas were really rocky. For us it was calm but I could still feel the forward motion, but only when I was thinking about it-- it was hardly noticeable. Anyway, the Walt Disney Theatre:

The cruise director (we can't remember his name-Chris wants to call him Carlton because he did the Carlton dance one night) came on stage and told us about the activities that were happening all over the ship that evening. CLAYTON LYNDSEY! That was his name. I googled it and found him. Anyway, he also told us we couldn't record the show but I found it on Youtube so you can watch it HERE.

After the show I wanted my picture with the statue.

We bopped around the shops a little longer, and walked to the atrium. This was around 9:45 PM and I was thrilled to see how much bustle was going on...so much to do!!! We went up to deck 4 to take some pictures from above.

This ship is just indescribably beautiful.

We then happened upon an old friend:

Then we went down towards the clubs to check them out. We didn't end up hanging out in any of them because we aren't big drinkers (and didn't want to spend the $ on drinks!) but we explored anyway. It was kind of empty and the CM's down there must have been lonely because they kept trying to get us to buy drinks when all we wanted to do was look around.

We decided to head back to our room to get our swimsuits on and head to the pool. Our room hostess, Karina had turned down our bed and left a neat blanket sculpture!

And yes, those are chocolates with a picture of Sleepy on them. SIGH...
We got our suits on and went up to the pool deck. "The Lion King" was playing on the Funnelvision screen, so we sat in the shallow water of the Mickey pool and watched. We started the nightly tradition of having ice cream late at night (which is UNLIMITED). My favorite flavor was Strawberry-Banana twist!
Then we went to the adult pool area and got into the hot tub, which is lined with glass that overlooks the sea. It also has a glass bottom and part of it is over the edge, so when you look down at your feet you can see the ocean going by.
We were tired, so we headed back to our room. One of our favorite nightly activities was sitting on our verandah, totally silently, watching and listening to the sea go by. The motor makes bubbles, and there are lights that light it up, kind of like ground effects on a car. The lights make the bubbles a beautiful green. We watched the stars and the ocean and were perfectly happy, in our little spot of heaven.

lovenerds2012 · Nov 14, 2012

sam_disney said:
omg! I am adoring this report! All the cruise ones currently- I am soooo jealous! i HAVE TO DO THIS!

It looked amazing staying at the boardwalk- what a view!

Can't wait to hear more about your amazing honeymoon! Congratulations to you both xxx

Thanks!!!! I loved reading yours too, it gave me lots of tips on honeymooning at Disney! Are you coming to this side of the pond again soon?

lovenerds2012 · Nov 14, 2012

cfry06 said:
Loving your report!! Can't wait to read more!

We are staying at the Boardwalk next month and I absolutely cannot wait. Your photos and commentary hyped me up even more!!

Looking fwd to reading more on your adventures. Thanks for sharing

Thank you! I posted some video on the threads from each day, there is some boardwalk on there too! You are going to LOVE it, it is absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for reading!

lovenerds2012 · Nov 14, 2012

pumpkin7 said:
I am really enjoying your trip report! I can't wait for the rest

Thanks, I am glad you are enjoying it. I am loving writing it!

sam_disney · Nov 15, 2012

lovenerds2012 said:
Thanks!!!! I loved reading yours too, it gave me lots of tips on honeymooning at Disney! Are you coming to this side of the pond again soon?

awww thank you

I am coming back to florida in july next year 12th july- 26th july 2013 2 weeks! Yipee! I'll also be 26 on the 14th of july, so will be having my birthday there for the first time! I am very excited and cannot wait to be back! Little worried about crowds and the weather, but as we've been many times- I'm sure we will be ok!

Then maybe after florida, we may start thinking about expanding our family.. we shall see!

Anyway, loving your report, and in the future I have to do the cruise line, it looks amazing!
xxxx

lovenerds2012 · Nov 15, 2012

The next morning we woke up around 7:30 ish. I pulled the curtains back and peeped outside, and found that we were in Nassau and the Captain was in the middle of TURRRRRRNING the ship to back it into its parking spot. I don't really know what a place you park a boat is technically called, so let's just go with that. I was really impressed....talk about parallel parking! I went out on the verandah in my pajamas, along with tons of other people on their verandahs, and I took a video.
The whole day is uploaded here:

Hi people over there!

We pulled up alongside the Carnival Magic.

Eventually, there were four ships in Nassau that day: The Disney Dream, The Carnival Magic, The Carnival Ecstasy, and The Carnival Fascination. I know I am biased but the Dream was SO MUCH BETTER LOOKING than the Carnival ships. There was a little kid on a verandah on the ship across from us and I heard him yell "I wanna go on THAT ship!" I got ya, kid.
We got dressed and went downstairs to get some breakfast. We passed by the Royal Palace and they coaxed us to come in and eat there...we didn't need to be coaxed! There were really very few people in there, and the breakfast was delicious. Most people end up at Cabanas for breakfast, I suppose because it's a buffet. I just couldn't believe that EVERYTHING was included. You could conceivably eat 24/7 on these ships and not pay a penny more. You could also have any number of appetizers, main courses, and desserts- whatever you wanted. For this breakfast we both ended up ordering waffles, french toast, and bacon and I ate Chris's bacon.

The servers were EXTREMELY attentive. I have never been treated as well as I was on this ship, and this breakfast actually made us feel a little weird because we are not used to being doted upon. We still enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed being pampered.

We took our time, we weren't in a hurry to get onto land because the excursion we had booked wasn't until after lunch. We walked to the Atrium and the Princesses were out!

We went back up to our room and Karina had made up our bed really nice...and included Mickey and Minnie!

We just lounged for awhile!

Later on, we went up to deck 12 to get a good look at Nassau, and Chris took this cool picture of a "little black rain cloud." (HEE!)

We also took a dip while we were up there, and just left our swimsuits on for our excursion. Then we went back to the room and packed our backpacks because we were going SNORKELING!!!
We met the CM who was going to take us to our snorkeling cruise (The Caribbean Queen company) in The District, the club and bar area of the ship. During the day, anyone is allowed down there. We had to have our key cards swiped as we got off the ship so they would have a count of how many were in port. We walked through a market type area where there were lots of people trying to sell us water and stuff, and we ended up at our boat within a few minutes. We boarded and were ready to go. I would say there were around 20-some of us altogether from the Dream, and there were a few people on board from the Carnival ships as well.

Chris had changed his glasses before we left our stateroom because he didn't want donate his good ones to the fishies. These are his "Harry Potter" ones.

Here's the Atlantis. The boat driver told us that the thing that looks like a bridge is in fact a massive suite called the Michael Jackson suite that goes for $25,000 a night, but you have to reserve it for at least 4 nights for a grand total of $100,000. I personally can think of better ways to drop 100 grand.

We were eventually underway to the snorkeling reef, and the drivers played Caribbean music to set the mood.
Oh look, there's my yacht!

We got to the reef in about 30 minutes, and it was a really nice cruise. The drivers then passed out snorkeling gear for everyone. Here's Chris showing off his sexy getup:

We hopped in the water and we were at it! I can't even tell you how many pretty fish I saw. I recorded the snorkeling with my underwater video camera, which is in the video uploaded at the top of this thread. Sorry about the motion, it took me awhile to get used to videoing underwater! Chris had fun but couldn't see a darn thing...we should have bought him a prescription mask because he couldn't wear his glasses, and his eyesight is horrible and he hates contacts. He would say "Ooh, is that orange thing a fish?" and I'd say "No, dear that's coral." So he just kind of floated there and relaxed, while I pulled him around by his hand and chased after the cool fish. We were like otters that hold paws so that they don't float away from each other! <3

lovenerds2012 · Nov 15, 2012

We had an hour to snorkel, and Chris decided to get out, and he took some pictures of me:

I had SO MUCH FUN. I decided after this experience that I am eventually going to get certified in SCUBA and I want to dive in the tank at Epcot!

On the way back, the driver frequently came over the loudspeaker and pointed out the mansions that were along the cove. Among the most notable were Chuck Norris, Tiger Woods, Oprah, and Michael Jordan. I have that part in the video too.
The three Carnival ships and the Dream- 4 ducks in a row!

She is gorgeous...

We didn't waste any time since we were hot and sticky from the salt water, and headed back to the ship to hop in the shower.

These ropes were about the diameter of a can of soup. Impressive!

We showered and washed the salt water off, and by the time we were done it was time to go down to dinner. Tonight it was Animator's Palate! (Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I had forgot my camera in the room, so we had to take them with Chris's phone, and the room was much darker.)
We were seated again at table 34

Our table buddies were already there. This was the COOLEST place! There were huge HD screens all over the room, and characters from Finding Nemo were swimming around from screen to screen, so it felt like the whole restaurant was surrounded by a massive aquarium. The room itself had an artsy theme.

Chris loved the bread knife, which was shaped like a paintbrush -he's a graphic artist and went to art school so he loves all things pertaining thereto. (It's wider than it looks in the picture, he had it turned.) He eventually bought one in the gift shop.

Eventually Crush started swimming around the room and interacting with the audience, just like in Turtle Talk with Crush at Epcot. He swam over near us and told us that some people on the other side of the room had never caught a tasty wave before. He said that if we knew what a tasty wave was, were supposed to say "CHAAA!" Then we had to do the wave to send to the people on the other side of the room. Then he said if we wanted to join his most awesome club, we had to take the pledge, which included "Totally! Righteous! Awesome! Sweet!" There were also games, like guessing the shape the fish were making, like the school of fish did in Finding Nemo.
Menu!

I started with the Mushroom Risotto. It was pretty good. For my meal I got the veal...pretty good but not as good as the night before. I forgot to take a picture of it...snorkeling apparently made me ravenous and I scarfed it. Chris ordered potatoes again and was happy as a clam.

Dessert:

We both got the White Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake. It was AMAZING.

As you can see, we were still in Nassau. Our ship wasn't leaving port until 2AM!

We went back to the room for awhile before it was time to go to the show. Karina had left us another blanket sculpture, and it was wearing my sunglasses!

lovenerds2012 · Nov 15, 2012

We heard the horn of a ship outside and looked. The ship next to us had left, and the Carnival Fascination was getting ready to pull out of port too.

Hi Chris!

We got changed into pants and socks and shoes because I was a little chilly in the theatre the night before. The show tonight was "Villains Tonight." You can find that one on youtube too. It was really funny...the highlight was the contest of who could get the most booing: Maleficent or the Evil Queen from Snow White.
After the show we headed back to deck 11, had our ice cream and even some fries from Flo's while watching a movie on funnel vision, and later we hopped into the hot tub. We met another honeymooning couple and a CM who was enjoying her time off. She worked in the Oceaneer Lab and was enjoying some peace and quiet from all those crazy kids!
On our way back through Cabanas I took some pictures:

I LOVE this mosaic:

And yes that is real sand making these "Sand Castles" of each Disney castle...

MINE! MINE! MINE!
I was fortunate that these guys didn't swoop down and steal my grub during meals!

We were really tired so we headed up to bed. After a day of snorkeling and sunshine, we totally collapsed and slept like logs! We didn't even feel the ship pulling out of port. Next up: a day at sea and a PIRATE PARTY!!!!
Sweet dreams!

sam_disney · Nov 16, 2012

update

yippeee! x

sweetpee_1993 · Nov 17, 2012

Yep! Our bus driver (go figure!) told us the Michael Jackson Suite was named that because he was the first guest to stay in it. Cool stuff! Still totally lovin' all the details. I miss my Dream-y girl so much!

BTW, thank you soooooo much for the pic(s) of the Dream next to the Carnival Magic! The Carnival Magic sails out of Galveston which is like 20 minutes from where we live. We've contemplated her size and how we thought it would compare next to the Dream. I was soooooo right! I thought they were very close!

lovenerds2012 · Nov 17, 2012

sweetpee_1993 said:
Yep! Our bus driver (go figure!) told us the Michael Jackson Suite was named that because he was the first guest to stay in it. Cool stuff! Still totally lovin' all the details. I miss my Dream-y girl so much!

BTW, thank you soooooo much for the pic(s) of the Dream next to the Carnival Magic! The Carnival Magic sails out of Galveston which is like 20 minutes from where we live. We've contemplated her size and how we thought it would compare next to the Dream. I was soooooo right! I thought they were very close!

Actually when we pulled up next to the Carnival Magic, sitting on my verandah I thought it was bigger than the Dream. But then I saw them next to each other and they are about the same! Sigh, I miss her too....

lovenerds2012 · Nov 17, 2012

The next day, August 17, was Pirate Day and the Pirates IN the Caribbean show and fireworks at sea!

We slept in a little, and got up to go to breakfast. Waking up and opening the curtain to find myself in a completely new place became one of my favorite memories of this trip. This morning I looked to find us on a completely empty deep blue sea shimmering in the sun. I had seen pictures, but never knew that water could really be that color. We were in the middle of NOWHERE...just our ship, on a vast emptiness of blue glass. One of my personal dreams was to one day do this, to be able to look around me and find nothing but ocean surrounding me 360 degrees.
*I don't religiously follow horoscopes but I am a TRUE Pisces...in love with water. I love aquariums and anything like that. When I was little I was a pretty good swimmer, and loved being in the water more than anything else....I'd stay in until my lips turned blue, and I'd still scream when I had to get out. I wish I lived closer to the ocean!*
The ship was trolling along very, very slowly.

It was neat to see the water color change as we went over various sandbars and dropoffs. We followed this one for a pretty long time.
Anyway, we got dressed and decided to go up to Cabana's for breakfast. Breakfast is Chris's favorite meal of the day because he can find such variety to eat and can truly pig out! He loves waffles, pancakes, pastries, and fruit. We got a table right next to the windows.
Then we could see another cruise ship in the distance. GO AWAY THIS IS OUR WATER!!! GRRRR. LOL

Chris wanted to do a trivia contest called "50 Movie Quotes Trivia," which took place in the 687 Lounge in the District area of the ship. We took some photos on the way down.
The wall behind the information desk is a map of the world with all the Disney Parks marked, along with all the Disney Cruise ships!

I had wanted to sit in this royal chair since we arrived, and now it was finally empty!
You may kiss the royal flip flops...

I found a really cool bathroom near the Walt Disney Theatre!

We got to the 687 Lounge and sat down.

We didn't do too bad! We got 3rd place overall.
After the Trivia game, we went up onto deck 4 and came back out towards the Atrium because we wanted to stop by Shutters and check out our photos. A crowd had gathered and we witness the CUTEST thing ever...there was a crawling race for babies called "Jack-Jack's Diaper Dash." It is in the video above. One little girl crawled halfway, then sat in the middle of the mat and started screaming. Another crawled a little way and then stood up and ran away!

We went back up to our stateroom to find our Pirate Party gear!

There was also a card explaining the day's Pirate-themed events, and four envelopes with instructions on how to leave tips for our room hostess, head server, server, and assistant server. We sat on the verandah for awhile and took some pictures.

This little guy must have joined us in Nassau.

We decided that since today was a sea day, we wanted to do the Midship Detective Agency. We ended up doing the search for the missing paintings. On the way down, we took some pictures of some of the art on board.

lovenerds2012 · Nov 18, 2012

The Midship Detective Agency was totally fun, and like I said before, we chose the missing paintings quest. As I was waiting to get my card, Captain Hook and Mister Smee showed up. Mister Smee waved to me and pointed out the fact that we both had glasses.

Chris recorded some of our detective adventure on the video I posted. The idea was that you were supposed to find out which villain stole the paintings by finding clues on the interactive paintings that are all over the ship. We found the villain and then did some shopping, since the next day the shops would be closed. The shops have to close when the ship is in port because of international law of some sort...taxes or something.
Anyway, we then went up to the room and got into our Pirate gear. We went down to dinner this evening at the Enchanted Garden. I have eaten in the real gardens of Versailles and this truly feels like it!
Here's me not paying attention, in my Pirate shirt. (We are baseball fans but our team flopped in the second half of the season this year.)

Here's a better Pirate face!

I gave Chris a pirate name. Here's "Stinky McScruffybritches." He would later keep it when we got back to WDW! You'll see that later!!!

I loved that dinner, all of the CM's were decked out in pirate outfits and were screaming "ARRRRRR" at everyone. So fun!
The front of the Pirate-themed dinner. On Pirate Night, all the menus at all the restaurants are the same, and you always eat in the restaurant you have Pirate Night in twice, so that you are able to experience its normal menu.

I ended up with the chilled watermelon soup...it was actually delicious! Chris had it too and loved it. For the main course, I got the sirloin. It was yummy!
After dinner we had a nice walk.

This looks a bit like Monet's Japanese bridge at Giverny...

We explored the outside part of Deck 4 a little bit...so pretty.

Oh Dream, you are so dreamy....

When we got back to the room, we found a turtle!!! So cute!

We sat on the verandah and waited for when it was time to go up for the Pirate party.
Sigh...

lovenerds2012 · Nov 18, 2012

We went up on deck and it was almost time for Mickey's part of the Pirates in the Caribbean party.

We took video of this part, in the link in the first thread from this day.

After Mickey's part, we scoped out a good spot to watch the real pirates show up and blast off those fireworks! (Again, in the video...)

The pirate show was a blast, and Jack Sparrow rappelled from the funnel. He was the one to shoot off the first firework! As always with Disney, there was a story...Jack Sparrow had to get back the Golden Gauntlet, which shot off explosives. After fireworks was a full-on pirate dance party. We watched from the railing for awhile, but my dancing shoes were itching, so I dragged Chris down to dance with me. There were CM's dressed as pirates all over the place trying to get people to dance...only Disney, really. LOVED IT!
After the Pirate party, Cabanas had a huge dessert party. We went and had the most delicious cakes and cookies and things.

We went to bed because we knew that tomorrow would kick our butts....Castaway Cay coming right up!!!

kings&giants · Nov 19, 2012

Congratulations to you both! You look like you had so much fun!
Great TR! Love all the pictures!

The Lovenerds' EPIC DISNEYMOON! BWV, Disney DREAM, and WLV!!!

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