You know your youth is long gone when...

cba · Oct 1, 2012

I'm not thinking, "Why didn't you go out to a Disney resort", considering I've never been on a cruise.

meeskamickey · Oct 1, 2012

Hooray another Sweetpee trip report!!! I love reading your reports! I married young too (20) and now we are at 16 years married. Time flies, huh! Can't wait to read some more...so hurry up and get writing

sweetpee_1993 · Oct 1, 2012

Thursday, Sept. 27

I set my alarm and got up at 6. Brutal. I hate mornings. Out of the room and on our way down into the airport at 7. Like I said, method to the madness here.

First perk! Starbucks for breakfast! This is how I know God loves me! Trenta iced skinny hazelnut coffee, light ice, extra non-fat milk, add 9 splendas & an oatmeal with 4 splendas, fruit, & nuts. Oh yes. All was right with the world. Please note: the Starbucks in the atrium area does take the touch-n-pay from the app but they don't honor the free beverage vouchers from the rewards program. Still, I got credit for my coffee which actually kicked me over to yet another free voucher which should be here soon. Yay!

Walked thru the Disney store in the main atrium area. Mostly the same stuff we've seen before or online. Meh. But then, there was a Universal store! With a whole section of Harry Potter stuff! That part of the store was so nicely themed! Immersive! And the merch was stuff we'd not seen before. So stinkin' cool! We ooh'd & aah'd over everything. Tracey took pics, I think. We debated buying some stuff for the kids but we decided we'd rather bring them back to the Wizarding World and let them do the choosing instead. But I digress....

We headed down to the Magical Express area at about 7:45. There was another couple there waiting when we got there, too! Here's where the "method for the madness" comes in. Disney Cruise Line's desk over there by the Magical Express does the cruise check-in for embarkation. It's not just to catch the bus out to the port. Nope, that's your check-in! When you get to the port you don't have to get in the big lines. Nope, you just have a seat and relax...or, as in our case, sprint like wild animals for the Supervisor's desk! I'll get to that some more shortly.

So the DCL check-in desk doesn't open until 8:30. No problem. We sat there patiently waiting and chit-chatted with the other nice couple. "Jack & Lisa". They were a bit older than us, retired & kids grown, but still a lot of fun to chat with. Definitely made the time fly by and added a ton of fun to what could otherwise have been long and torturous.

Checked-in right at 8:30. We got the "Goofy" bus pass. Goofy is going to be today's 1st bus character. Woot! We're ready!!!!

Now everything I'd read said that the first bus oftentimes starts boarding just after 9 or so and arrives at the port at approx. 10:30. This is significant because it would make the 1st bus people from the airport the first folks into the cruise terminal because technically the terminal isn't supposed to open to embarking passengers until more like 11:00. Stay with me here. Being first into the terminal is important stuff. I'll get you to that part soon. Today we didn't start boarding the bus until 9:45. And we were the 2nd onto the bus right after Jack & Lisa.

And YAY for boarding group #2! ((#1 goes to platinum Castaway Club members (I think) and concierge guests.)) We were still holding out hope to be swapping in this #2 card for that priority group once we got to the terminal...if we could just get there fast enough!

Anxiously and happily waiting to go...

Good grief! I have got to get in touch with the Botox chick the gal who does my waxing recommended. The butt-crack between the eyes is getting awful! Anywhooooo....

We got to the cruise terminal in Port Canaveral at 10:50. We jumped off the bus and took off as fast as we could. We weren't the first there by a really long shot. The place had a ton of folks already there including a pretty long line already at the Supervisor's desk. It was 5 families deep when we got there. We ended up in this line for 1/2 an hour or more before we got up to the desk. Our hopes of a port upgrade were seriously waning. We crossed our fingers for the families in front of and behind us as well. Of course we all nervously chatted to pass the time. I'm tellin' ya, we don't meet strangers! It's all such excitement, really!

Explanation for those not familiar: When you book a cruise, if you book the higher stateroom categories (ie. large family verandah rooms, concierge level, suites, etc.) they can be pretty darned pricey. In fact, prior to sailing the 1-bedroom suites were at a rack rate of something like $3900. On the day of sailing, after you check-in for the cruise, you can go to the Supervisor's desk to see if there's any higher level rooms available for upgrading. The cost to upgrade will be discounted...the higher the stateroom category the deeper the discounts can go. The prices will be calculated on what category you are currently booked in and what category you are wanting to go to. Word of warning, tho. A lot of cruises do sell out so upgrades won't be possible. ALWAYS book a stateroom you will be happy with then upgrade if you can as a bonus. Don't book something you won't like then get stuck. You'll kick yourself on that big time.

Sooooo, we started out originally booked in a category 11b (inside stateroom on deck 7) at full rack rate. I think it was like $1200-ish for the 2 of us. In August Disney released a whole mess of Floriday Resident Rates so I was able to have Tammy move us up 6 categories to an 05b (verandah on deck 8) for $796. Yay for refunds! Woot! But today, we wanted to see how far up we could go. I knew the Royal suites were both booked already so the highest we could hope for would be an 00T (concierge 1-bedroom w/verandah). There were still a ton of them available prior to leaving home but with so many people already getting there before us I wasn't sure how the inventory would hold out. Ugh! We eventually got to the place where the magic happens:

And we SCORED!!!!!! Upgrade to the 00T for an additional $720! That made our 1 bedroom suite a total of right around $1500 for us vs. the $3900 we would've paid had we booked it to begin with. I was over the moon!!!! It's Golden Ticket time again:

Priority boarding had already begun so the gentleman who helped us with the upgrade called over a nice fellow, "Clem", who was to escort us onboard directly. Yay! It begins!

sweetpee_1993 · Oct 1, 2012

cba said:
I'm not thinking, "Why didn't you go out to a Disney resort", considering I've never been on a cruise.

Okay good! There's a great reason to do everything humanly possible to be the first person to hit the cruise terminal. Apparently, checking-in at the airport isn't the sure-fire answer either. Next time it's private transfers or my own car!

meeskamickey said:
Hooray another Sweetpee trip report!!! I love reading your reports! I married young too (20) and now we are at 16 years married. Time flies, huh! Can't wait to read some more...so hurry up and get writing

Yep! Sometimes it feels like a whole lifetime ago that I wasn't married but then sometimes it's like it all went by in a flash. It's the kids' fault! They aren't here! We'll blame it on them! LOL!

fractal · Oct 1, 2012

If you needed 12 hours of recovery sleep, it must have been a great trip! Kudos to Tracy for pulling off the surprise! Looking forward to more.

sweetpee_1993 · Oct 1, 2012

We went straight up to the concierge lounge. We walked in and ran smack into Andreia, the concierge CM who was assigned to us on the Magic in May! She made such a fuss, kisses on the cheeks & hugs. She was so excited to see us. Asked about the boys then laughed when we told her we left them at home. She said, "It feels like only yesterday you were here....." Right about then I noticed the rest of the room had gone dead silent and all the other guests were looking at us like, "Wow. Who are those people?" Not to worry, folks. It's just us. Nothing special. LOL! So we had a seat and ordered some (free!) cocktails. Woot! The lounge is so pretty! I had to be un-couth to the utmost and snap a pic of the skylight in the center of the room. It's so gorgeous!

Andreia came back over to explain all the concierge offerings on the Dream. She brought over Olivier from Remy to discuss the details for our upcoming dinner reservation there. He offered to hold a nice window table for us. So sweet! We also booked a Mixology class for tomorrow, Nassau day, at 4:00.

We didn't hang around too long. We were so eager to explore! Even tho we were on this ship just a year ago there seemed like so much we didn't see. There was no way we were going to stay nailed down to our chairs...not even for all the free drinky-drinks the bartenders were willing to fix us. Our first thought was to find some lunch but I was too excited to eat so we kept moving.

At some point we bumped into another familiar friend:

I was dying to see the inside of the Oceaneer's Club during open house. No, we had no kids with us and even if we did they were way too old for these spaces. But, it's open house so anyone can go check it out...even big kids like us! This was my goal: Tracey and his favorite character to channel...

And a nice CM was onhand to snap a pic of both of us with Rex:

Hey! It's Mike Wazowski! With ONE EYE!!!

Oh and there's a Nemo's submarine room! Yes, ladies. This one is....

...wait for iiiiiit...

Mine! Mine! MINE!

LOL! I couldn't not do it. Sorry.

Oh! Can ya see anything in there, Tracey?

It's actually a live webcam view off the bridge!

I bet if Tracey could get in here when we're docking at port he'd be the big kid hogging the periscope. Ha!

Then we went up to the Outlook Lounge. This is the top-most spot you can go on the ship. It's midship, deck 14. The space is used for weddings, receptions, and the Friends of Bill W. meetings every morning. I jacked with the color on this one so you could see the room decor and not just the bright sunlight outside:

Looks like they were all set for the morning meeting because there was a copy of this book on each table.

How do I know the significance of all this? My Grampa was a veeeery long-time friend of Bill W. & Dr. Bob. He had over 40 years with them when he passed. I have been to many meetings with my Grampa and on my own in my younger years. Bill W. & Dr. Bob are important fellows in our family, for sure.

We did stop long enough to eat a light lunch at Flo's V8 Cafe but I didn't take a picture. Wish I had. I loved my Greek wraps and panini. Mmmmm!!!!

Then, it was time for the staterooms to be READY! Here we goooooo....stateroom 11006 on deck 11 (behind the gate)...

We scanned our key and the door swung open all by itself! Whaaaaa???? Here's the video tour I took a few minutes later:

I know I sound awful. Took the video mostly because when we called to tell Chandler we got the upgrade he demanded we bring him a video of it. LOL!

sweetpee_1993 · Oct 1, 2012

fractal said:
If you needed 12 hours of recovery sleep, it must have been a great trip! Kudos to Tracy for pulling off the surprise! Looking forward to more.

Oh yeah! It was amazing! We discovered in many ways that we just ain't the spring chickens we were 19 years ago. LOL!

sam_disney · Oct 1, 2012

loving this!

Pooh'sBuddy · Oct 2, 2012

Oh my goodness! That stateroom is to die for! So roomy!

wiigirl · Oct 2, 2012

Awesome!

s&k'smom · Oct 2, 2012

OMG is right the room is gorgeous. Loving the Bill W. reference was also raised on 12 steps, my dad was 45 years when he passed. Now I'm just dying to go on a cruise. Keep up the reports I'm really enjoying them so thanks so much.

sweetpee_1993 · Oct 2, 2012

sam_disney said:
loving this!

Me, too! I wanna go back!

Pooh'sBuddy said:
Oh my goodness! That stateroom is to die for! So roomy!

It was! I was kinda disappointed at it being handicap access because we didn't get the big soaking tub but it was so nice to have the space.

wiigirl said:
Awesome!

Thanks!

sweetpee_1993 · Oct 2, 2012

s&k'smom said:
OMG is right the room is gorgeous. Loving the Bill W. reference was also raised on 12 steps, my dad was 45 years when he passed. Now I'm just dying to go on a cruise. Keep up the reports I'm really enjoying them so thanks so much.

Absolutely!

My mom wrote my Grampa's obituary and she sent a shout-out to all his friends including Bill W. & Dr. Bob. I used to love hearing stories about when my grandparents moved from Michigan down to po-dunk Alabama and a "meeting" was my grampa & 2 other old guys in a booth at the City Cafe. That's so surreal to me! Grampa had Alzheimers so in the later years he moved a lot of things around in my grandparents' house. Poor Gramma has been finding his chips & tokens in all sorts of strange places in the 8 years since he passed. When she finds them she puts them in a small box in her dresser. It's so funny to imagine.

I wish everyone could go on a Disney cruise! They're so much fun. You can't imagine that there could be so much to do on a ship but there is. The best part is that it's all infused with the Disney magic that we all love so dearly. It's practically perfect!

corey154 · Oct 2, 2012

Congrats you two kids! Can't wait for more!

Disneyfalcon · Oct 2, 2012

You beat me!! You are so fast with your trip report this time! Yay!

Your bed wasn't comfortable? That's too bad. Last time I stayed there it was great. But maybe I was too tired to notice.

I can't believe your bus didn't leave until that late!!! Were you dying?

So so glad they still had upgrades! Golden ticket!! I love your room!! I'm so glad you took a video of it!! Did I miss the verandah? I want a video of that too!

miriamsolana · Oct 2, 2012

Another sweetpee TR!!! Yaaay!!! Can't wait for the rest...Tracey is the best! I wish I had a surprise like that! And your room is to die for! I'm so happy for you, congrats on your anniversary!

sweetpee_1993 · Oct 2, 2012

As if the video of our killer stateroom wasn't enough, here's a bunch of pictures. The door. The only drawback to the concierge level doors is that they are not metal. Our lovely stateroom door magnets don't stick.

The walk-in closet. My favorite thing about the closet was that there wasn't a light switch. When you stepped inside the light automatically came on! No, not when the door opened (that would be easy, you just put the switch in the door like a refridgerator). Nope, it was when you stepped inside that the light popped on. Open the door and it looks like this:

Stick a foot inside and it looks like this:

There was actually two doors out to the verandah but we only used the one by the dining table as it was easier to access.

Such a plushy sofa. Yep, it's a sleeper. I don't think we ever sat on it. Our suitcase thoroughly enjoyed it's 3 days perched here, tho!

The fridge was tucked into that corner cabinet on the far right above. Here's the inside of the fridge. Just like the Magic's 1-bedroom suite, there's drinks stocked that are included but if you have the fridge restocked during your stay you pay for the new stuff.

I thought the Murphy bed placement was much better on the Dream! That was the one thing I did not like on the Magic, having the Murphy bed in the bedroom. It was a hint of a bummer knowing one of our kids was racking in the same room as us when we'd payed for that upgrade. The whole point to having seperate rooms would be to NOT be in the same room as your kids, right? Well, not that we had kids to even worry with on this cruise.... Yaaaaaayyyy!!!

So right now I'd like to take a moment to talk about the layout(s) of the dining & living room(s). I found it kinda odd that the fridge was tucked over there in the corner of the living room when it'd make more sense to have it closer to the dining table. Yes? I kept looking at it thinking it'd make more sense if these 2 rooms were flipped so the dining table was where the living room was and the living room was where the dining table was. Later in the cruise I would see a rendering of a layout of the 1-bedroom suites. The way I imagined they should be is exactly how they are. Ours was different to accommodate the wheelchairs because, remember, we're in a handicap access room.

We both noted that the true "wet bar" on the Magic was a perk over the Dream's lack of true defined kitchen-y area. No sink w/fridge or cabinets with glassware all tucked into a central spot right next to the dining table. The glassware was all tucked into cubbies over by the Murphy bed which I thought was a little strange but that's just me. I was mildly confused as to which surface to perch our liquor bottles on: the credenza by the Murphy bed or on top of the cabinet that held the fridge. Decisions decisions. Oh the stresses of vacationing, right? LOL! Just kiddin!

Also important to note, the automatic door we had is another feature for the handicap access rooms. Very nice to know, huh? We loved the automatic door, tho. It was so neat!

Moving right along....

The verandah! O.M.G. is all I can say. We did find someone's shirt draped over a chair out there. It was the exact same color as the chair so it's easy to see why someone missed grabbing it when packing up and the room steward didn't spot it when tidy-ing up the room. Anywhoo, I had read about the awesome-sauce of bump-out verandahs and we had a major score with this one! Take a step out the door and look left:

Now walk over to that corner in the pic above and look back:

But then, walk over to rail and see what the views are really like and you find the reason bump-out verandahs are the shizz...

The verandah is literally bumped-out further than the rest of the ship so when you look aft over the rail you see the entire length of the ship!

WishIWasAtWDW · Oct 2, 2012

woo hoo! so excited you already started your trip report!! i saw your pictures on instagram and was super jealous! you guys are so good at getting those upgrades! you have it down to a science. can't wait to read the rest of your trip report.

sweetpee_1993 · Oct 2, 2012

Disneyfalcon said:
You beat me!! You are so fast with your trip report this time! Yay!

Your bed wasn't comfortable? That's too bad. Last time I stayed there it was great. But maybe I was too tired to notice.

I can't believe your bus didn't leave until that late!!! Were you dying?

So so glad they still had upgrades! Golden ticket!! I love your room!! I'm so glad you took a video of it!! Did I miss the verandah? I want a video of that too!

Well, Tammy, I didn't have a kick-@$$ Disneyland report to finish up before doing the cruise report! I'll trade ya and have your dilemna anyday! LOL!

I think we're just spoiled when it comes to beds. We have a (knock-off) Tempurpedic at home so we're used to that absolute comfort of the bed conforming to our bodies. The closest thing to the comfort of our bed is the Disney cruise beds. Seriously. Those beds are super plushy! So, yeah, I think with the Hyatt bed it's not so much that it was that awful because most of the world probably thinks the beds are great. It was more firm and not as giving. Not at all a pillow-top or anything. Still, for $100 I won't complain. The convenience was fantastic! Oh! Meant to tell you! We didn't use the Hyatt's luggage service so I have the info sheet they give you when you check-in untouched. I saved it to scan or send to you for your information database!

I know! The bus was killin' me! Jack & Lisa kept saying it was waaaaay late. Tracey was freaking out more than me. He kept saying (with a lot more profanity added for color), "Great. They're not going to have any upgrades left. We don't have a prayer." I kept shooshing him. I knew there was still at least 8 of the regular concierge staterooms and 8 of the 1-bedrooms available before we left home. While in line at the supervisor's desk the folks behind us had a platinum member amoung them. They had tracked the availability, too. They were telling us that prior to sailing only 3 of the 1-bedrooms had been booked prior to embarkation day. Hello! According to my calculations we were looking at 16 staterooms to shoot for. I truly felt the chances of all 16 being scooped up prior to our arrival in line weren't that great. Plus, it's intuition to a certain extent. I just knew it was okay. In the end, even without an upgrade I was going to be happy. In fact, part of me was almost a little sad because I think the intimate space and magic porthole from our original inside stateroom would've been sweet on this trip.

You didn't miss the verandah. I didn't walk out there in the video. Just uploaded pics. Man, that was a killer verandah. We didn't discover we were in a handicap access room before we got in there. The guy at the supervisor's desk didn't tell us that. When I got there I was sorta miffed because I wanted the bathtub! We started discussing looking for a room switch with Andreia but then we walked out on the verandah. Tracey said, "You still want to switch?" I said, "Nope. I'll take the verandah over the tub anyday!" LOL!

miriamsolana said:
Another sweetpee TR!!! Yaaay!!! Can't wait for the rest...Tracey is the best! I wish I had a surprise like that! And your room is to die for! I'm so happy for you, congrats on your anniversary!

Tracey is the BEST! You just wait! He gets even better in the days to come.... Thanks for the congrats. I'm so proud of us and our 19 years. Just think, we were the couple everyone laughed at and said things like, "That's never going to last." Goes to show what they knew, huh?

You know your youth is long gone when...

cba

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