We laughed...We cried...we over ate and had way too much FUN!

Hello all,

Thanks for checking in to my 2012 trip report.

This year's report will be slightly different. Instead of giving you a chronological, day by day retelling of our trip, I instead will be breaking it up in to categories with some pictures and some thoughts regarding our trip overall.

First off, the players...

That would be me, Tracy (Harveyt0206) and my husband, who also is named Tracy (true story).


Disney has become a tradition for me and hubby. We have been together for 17 years and the first ten years of our relationship were tragically Disney free because Tracy was under the very mistaken impression that he did not like Disney.

I have been going to Disney since I was a little kid. My first trip was in 1975 and my family took many trips in the years after. My husband on the other hand did not make his first trip to Disney until his late twenties....and he hated it.

We made our first trip to Disney together in 2003. He saw everything differently and he saw how happy it made me to be there and his attitude changed completely. We have been making mostly annual trips ever since that time.

This years trip was booked in September of 2011 on a bounce back offer. Initially,we had six nights at the Wilderness Lodge with free dining. Some time in early March, we decided to add an extra layer of happiness to our Disney trip by including a three day cruise on the Disney Dream.

I have never been on a cruise and was completely overwhelmed. I could plan a parks trip in my sleep, but a cruise posed a whole mess of new questions: Do we fly in the day before? Where do we stay? How do we book transfers? etc... So, after giving it some thought I decided to do the only rational thing a person in my position could do and that was to contact the experts.

I sent Tammy (Disneyfalcon) from Kingdom Konsultants with an email explaining what I was looking for and within hours (seriously, I think it only took her three hours total) she had EVERYTHING set up for us. It was the best decision I could have made. If you are considering a cruise, but are unsure of the process I WHOLE HEARTEDLY recommend using Kingdom Konsultants.

With everything planned, all we had to do was wait. Below is our itinerary. After that will be pictures and some general thoughts on our trip.

Dates: September 13th - 16th : Three night cruise on the Disney Dream
September 16th - 22nd: Wilderness Lodge
Two Halloween parties: September 18th and 21st

Regular free dining with Table service meals at:
Teppan Edo
Le Chef's De France
Kona Cafe (breakfast and Dinner)
Coral Reef
Via Napoli

Counter Service meals at:
Pecos Bills
Casey's
Cosmic Ray's
Columbia Harbor House
Sunshine Seasons
Roaring Forks

So, there are the basics....on to the pictures and report
 

harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Part 1: The Disney Dream really is a dream....

But I am sure that doesn't come as news to anyone.

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First of all, the ship really is gorgeous. Of course I had spent months looking at everyone else's pictures and reading all the great trip reports out there, but I was no prepared for just how beautiful she is in person.

And our room was the cleanest room I have ever had at any resort....ANYWHERE. And the bed was extremely comfortable. I was concerned that the room would feel small to me, but in all honesty, I thought there was more than enough room for the two of us. We spent most of our time sitting on our verandah. We had the most wonderful room Steward named Sigit. He would come to our room twice a day and clean up, give us fresh towels, make the bed, etc.. It was heaven. He was so attentive to us and we made sure to tip him accordingly because he definitely worked hard and earned his tips.

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harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
As most of you probably already know, your dining on the cruise is assigned to you before your arrival and is found on your Key to the World card.

Cruise advice : you must must must make sure you have your room key with you at all times. Every person in your party should carry their own key. It does everything for you. Without it things are a bit tricky.

We spent the night before our cruise at the airport Hyatt and did our cruise check in at the airport the morning of September 13th. It was very easy. It took approximately ten minutes to go through all of our cruise paperwork. Before we knew it we were walking on to the bus. We had a group #2 for ship embarkation, which I thought was amazing considering it was about 8:30 a.m.

Cruise advice #2: If you think you can wander around the port and take pictures while waiting for your embarkation number to be called, be prepared to feel frustrated. At least, that is how I felt. When the boarding for the ship started, we were standing at the opposite end of the port from where the ship's entry is. We heard them announce boarding for group one and started to get our things together. Before we knew it, they announced group number two. We started to walk towards the ship's entry, but NO ONE would move to let us through. We kept saying excuse us, we are trying to board...etc.... And everyone just stood there waiting for their number to be called. They called for groups 3, 4 and 5 before we finally made our way through the group. I was slightly frustrated with this, but it was only a minor frustration. I only point it out so that if you are a newbie like me, you know going in that you may not actually get to board the ship with your group number.

Our dining rotation was Enchanted Garden on night one, Royal Palace with the Pirate's Party on night two and Animator's Palate on our last night. Our servers for the trip were Anatha and Melissa.

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This was Melissa's last cruise so we also had a third person on their team, Budy.

Thoughts on our meals: (sorry, no pictures. I was too busy eating and forgot....sigh)

Enchanted Garden: We had a really nice meal here our first night. We chose the second seating for our meals, which meant that we had dinner at 8:15 every night. This is slightly later than normal for us, but in the end, I am glad we chose this seating. We felt slightly rushed the first night. I got the feeling that something wasn't going exactly as it should as our servers seemed slightly distracted. It wasn't horrible, but they just weren't as attentive as I had expected based on all of the other trip reports we read. We also chose Enchanted Garden for lunch on embarkation day. The lunch buffet was delicious. We actually were the first people in the restaurant and the first through the buffet line...SCORE!

Royal Palace: Best meal of the entire trip. Our service was perfect and the food was delicious. I had the Grand Manier (spelling?) soufflé for dessert and IT WAS DELICIOUS. Seriously, I would kill for one right now. Also, my spinach soufflé that I had as an appetizer was superb.

Animator's Palate: This was our least favorite restaurant. I don't know if we were just tired from spending the day in the sun at Castaway Cay, or if we simply ate too much BBQ while on the island, but we just were not thrilled.

Overall, I found the food to be good. I can not even begin to imagine what it takes to feed that many people in a single seating. When I really thought about the logistics of it all, I realized that what Disney does on here is nothing short of amazing. The people who work on these cruises work so hard taking care of us vacationers.

Motion sickness: I was so fortunate not to get sick. The first night of the cruise was interesting because the ship was definitely moving. But I took Bonine and it worked great for me. I do tend to suffer from motion sickness, so this was a real concern for me.

Decorate your door!! You will find that every hall way looks the same and finding your room can be a challenge.
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And try to stop and enjoy yourself. Yes, there is a ton of stuff to do, but remember to stop and breath. This was our sunset the first night:

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Castaway Cay is everything I was hoping it would be. We were blessed with perfect weather and the tuquoise water and white sand was just what the doctor ordered.

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See that lady in the bottom corner of my picture? She was reading "Fifty Shades of Grey". Jack Sparrow made an appearance some time around 11:00 am and he was kindly taking pictures with everyone. He stopped in front of this lady, pointed at her book and said "Naughty girl...I like that.." then just walked away. It was hilarious and the lady was an extremely good sport and played along.
 

harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Atlantis as seen from the Dream...

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This is the only picture of the two of us together from the cruise...funny how you go on vacation with someone but your pictures always look as if you are traveling alone.

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Sunrise on our last day..,

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The beautiful Dream....

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Just a few final thoughts as I finish up the cruise portion of our trip:

*I really wish I had remembered to go back to Shutters on our last day and purchase some of the professional photos that were taken of us over the course of our trip. We stopped in to view our photos on Saturday and were really impressed. We wanted to wait until the end so that we could see everything from the entire trip. But in the rush to get off the ship by 9:00 am, we completely forgot. I'm still kicking myself.

* The life boat drill on day one absolutely made me want to punch a kitten. I completely understand the need for it, and know that if there was an emergency I would have been happy to know where my meeting place was...but I was so excited to be on the ship all I wanted to do was go exploring. The life boat drill made me feel claustrophobic and no one in my group seemed to be listening, which made our presentation last longer than expected.

* Tour all the bathrooms on the ship. Seriously. Each one has a different theme and they are beyond gorgeous. It's the little things folks.
 

harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Part 2: The Parks and our stay at the Wilderness:

On Sunday, September 16th, we left the Dream behind, boarded the Magical Express and were at the Wilderness Lodge by 10:30.

When we checked in, we were told our room was ready (Woo Hoo!). Within ten minutes we had all of our paperwork and room keys (thank you online check in!). We were on the fifth floor with a woods view.

The best part, we could see Wishes from our room. This was a totally unexpected treat.

This trip we made the conscious decision to eliminate Animal Kingdom from our itinerary. We decided to focus on Magic, Epcot and to a lesser degree, Hollywood Studios.

I know that many may find the thought of excluding one of the parks to be blasphemous, but I have to admit, we simply didn't miss it. And even with it off the plate, we still did not have enough time to do everything we wanted.

Magic Kingdom: Our favorite park.

I don't usually complain about things because I believe that for every "bad" thing I can think of at the parks there are twenty amazing things to counter balance that one bad item, so it really isn't worth it. But, for this trip, I will say that I definitely noticed all of the construction going on. Normally, things like this don't bother me, but this year it felt as if I was walking through an incomplete park. Fantasyland is nothing but construction walls and cranes. With that being said, once all this is done - the new expansion and the new offerings are going to be incredible. Period. Fantasyland is going to feel like a completely new park, in my opinion. Below are some pictures I took of the changes:

New Fantasyland bathroom construction
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Big crane #1

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Big crane #2 putting the lights on the castle

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I can not wait to see the new area once it opens. It really is going to change the park for the better.

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Fall is our favorite time to visit the parks. I love all the decorations they put up for fall and this year I thought the Halloween merchandise was phenomenal.
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harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Structural stuff for the new Seven Dwarves mine coater thingy...Hubby was way more interested in this stuff that I was since he works in construction. Me - just wake me when it's built.
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I swear the crane installing the Dream Lights is bigger this year than it was last year. I'm sure it isn't, but in my mind it sure seemed more intrusive than it years past. Usually it doesn't bother me, so I'm not sure why I was so annoyed with it this year. Enjoy your Christmas lights December travelers. All of us in September have nothing but castle+crane pics. (That wasn't intended to sound snarky...I know I have a choice of when to travel) :D

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And we rode the Peoplemover about 4,567 times for some reason. Love it.

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I love it when Cast Members play along...
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harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We had several days of rain during this trip, which meant not being able to take as many pictures. I am use to some rain during our trips - it is Florida in September after all - but these were some of the heaviest rains we have ever had.

It rained during both of our Halloween Parties. At the party on 9/21, it rained pretty much all night. They cancelled the first parade due to the rain. We did get to see Hallowishes and part of the second parade, which they started earlier than the posted time for some reason.

As for meals at Magic, we ate at Cosmic Ray's, Pecos Bill's, Casey's and Columbia Harbor House, which was by far my favorite meal at MK. The apple pastry dessert here is so yummy.

I am looking forward to seeing MK after all of the construction and updates are completed. It really is going to be a phenomenal park.

Next up...Epcot!

I could spend days and days at Epcot and still not feel like I have experienced everything. One of our days was almost a complete wash out due to about two hours of non-stop down pours. Ever other day was relatively good with only a passing shower here an there. We spent three days total at Epcot.

All of the booths were up for the Food and Wine festival and many of the stores were sporting the Epcot 30 merchandise.

This made me a little sad that we didn't plan our trip for a week later, but when we booked the bounce back offer last year, the offer didn't extend beyond 9/23. Oh well, maybe next time.

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During one of our rides on Soarin', we sat next to some nice gentleman who unfortunately did not speak English and apparently misunderstood the pre-flight video that explains how to put the belt strap through the loop for smaller aviators who don't meet the height requirement.

All three guys put the strap through the loop and the Cast Member in charge of our row was trying his best to explain to them that they would be "uncomfortable" and possibly in pain if they left the strap through the loop. They had no clue what he was trying to explain to them, which led to me trying to "act out" what he was saying with hand gestures and pointing in what I can only assume was an oscar worthy performance entitled "This WILL Hurt You If You Don't Unbuckle it!!". Eventually, they got the picture and released their buckles from the loop and buckled up correctly.
Disney should totally hire me.

My husband and I spent the next hour discussing how we will tackle overseas travel and learning a new language. In the end, I think my conclusion was that it just sounds too hard, so I will stay here for now.

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This picture drives me crazy because my shirt is flipped up showing my tank top...grrrr...
 

harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hollywood Studios

We only spent one day at Studios. Neither one of us is great with the "thrill" rides (getting older is not compatible with maintaining your equilibrium apparently - (See last year's Modern Family episode at Disneyland as a reference) - so we primarily go just to ride Toy Story Mania, Great Movie Ride and see Beauty and the Beast as well as walk through "One Man's Dream".

First of all, Toy Story Mania really should come with some sort of disclaimer about how you WILL get trampled trying to get Fastpasses and that you WILL develop wrist/shoulder/elbow injuries after two minutes of non-stop crazy rope pulling and how the ride moves so fast that seizures have to be a common side effect. We ended up riding twice and had a blast both times.

This was the result of our second ride. My one and only time beating hubby in all the years we have been going. Don't laugh...we are old geezers who don't play video games so I felt these scores were respectable for us.

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Thanks for all the amazing fun stuff Walt!!

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This picture of Roy and the accompanying audio that goes with it in the exhibit always makes me tear up. It's just so amazing to me that Roy was able to carry on without Walt and that he executed Walt's vision in such a beautiful way.

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More to come...
 

SDisney90

Well-Known Member
Thank you so much! :).

The cruise really was wonderful and I am glad we did it.
I'd like to take a vacation on the Disney Dream, I've never been on any cruise in general. Few of my friends have went previously, I get mixed feelings on it, I.E. things to do without children. If I were to go it would probably just be my girlfriend and I (both in our 20s)
 

harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'd like to take a vacation on the Disney Dream, I've never been on any cruise in general. Few of my friends have went previously, I get mixed feelings on it, I.E. things to do without children. If I were to go it would probably just be my girlfriend and I (both in our 20s)

I can honestly say that while the ship does have some "Disney" touches, i.e.) character meet and greets, the merchandise in the stores, overall I thought the ship was so beautiful that it really had a grown up feel to it. And there are tons of adult only activities. I doubt I will ever try any other cruise line. When we were in port at Nassau, we were situated next too the Carnival Sensation. Honestly, there was just no comparison when it came to the aesthetics of the two ships. The Dream just looked so much nicer. I hope you get to try it at some point.
 

SDisney90

Well-Known Member
I can honestly say that while the ship does have some "Disney" touches, i.e.) character meet and greets, the merchandise in the stores, overall I thought the ship was so beautiful that it really had a grown up feel to it. And there are tons of adult only activities. I doubt I will ever try any other cruise line. When we were in port at Nassau, we were situated next too the Carnival Sensation. Honestly, there was just no comparison when it came to the aesthetics of the two ships. The Dream just looked so much nicer. I hope you get to try it at some point.

Thank you for the insight, it actually made me want to look deeper into it. Maybe even plan a trip for late 2013, or early 2014. My girlfriend actually went on a Disney Cruise years ago and loved it, maybe I can do some convincing :Dthanks again, wonderful pictures!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Yay, you're doing a trip report!

I totally agree, pictures can not prepare you for how beautiful the ships are in person.

I hate it when people won't move at the front of the embarkation line! It's absolutely maddening to me too!! If you're number hasn't been called, leave a path at least!

Hilarious about the Shades of Grey lady.

Did your servers get more attentive after the first night?

Punch a kitten? Haha!! So funny!

My word there were a lot of cranes.
 

harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yay, you're doing a trip report!

I totally agree, pictures can not prepare you for how beautiful the ships are in person.

I hate it when people won't move at the front of the embarkation line! It's absolutely maddening to me too!! If you're number hasn't been called, leave a path at least!

Hilarious about the Shades of Grey lady.

Did your servers get more attentive after the first night?

Punch a kitten? Haha!! So funny!

My word there were a lot of cranes.

Thanks for stopping in Tammy. :)

Yes, our service did get exponentially better by the second night. I think our service team was going through some sort of transition. As I understood it, this was our Assistant Server, Melissa's last cruise (for now) and they were training her replacement, Budy. So I think there was simply some confusion over who was doing what. The other component of this is that we had breakfast at Royal Palace on Friday morning and were seated with a different service team. Tony and Juan served us that morning and they knocked our socks off. They were amazing. But by that evening, our dinner team seemed back on the same page with each other and things were great.

And I agree, they need to figure out something for that embarkation process. It amazes me how many people can not or simply refuse to follow basic instructions. I am such a rules girl. The guy making the boarding announcements aid about five different times to stay seated until your number was called, but...well, you know how that goes. Lol...
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Thanks for stopping in Tammy. :)

Yes, our service did get exponentially better by the second night. I think our service team was going through some sort of transition. As I understood it, this was our Assistant Server, Melissa's last cruise (for now) and they were training her replacement, Budy. So I think there was simply some confusion over who was doing what. The other component of this is that we had breakfast at Royal Palace on Friday morning and were seated with a different service team. Tony and Juan served us that morning and they knocked our socks off. They were amazing. But by that evening, our dinner team seemed back on the same page with each other and things were great.

And I agree, they need to figure out something for that embarkation process. It amazes me how many people can not or simply refuse to follow basic instructions. I am such a rules girl. The guy making the boarding announcements aid about five different times to stay seated until your number was called, but...well, you know how that goes. Lol...

Yay! I'm glad it was better. I'd hate for you to miss out on that experience.

It is amazing!! No one listens to that! It's just like flying these days. Everyone lines up before their number is called and blocks the way! Makes me crazy.
 

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