A Dream Vacation on the Disney Dream Cruise Ship

To Dream a Dream on the Dream
Holly's Rating of Disney Dream: 3.5 out of 5

In December we along with our family took a wonderful trip on the Disney Dream Ship in total there were nine of us myself, my husband, our daughter 13 turning 14 on the trip, and our son 8, along with my grandmother, my little brother, my mother in law, and father in law, and our niece who was 17. We did a five day cruise to the Bahamas on the Disney Dream, three days at Disney world with a private tour guide and one alone, finishing with 2 days at Universal Orlando with a private guide. We used an amazing TA who helped me with all my plans and keeping everything in order this really was our dream trip.

Day One- We stayed overnight in Seattle the morning before we flew out we did a park,sleep,fly so that we had parking for our cars while we were gone, Originally I was looking at a car service to pick and drop off but there where 6 of us and a lot of luggage so I decided it was not worth the hassle. My in-law met us at the airport and we flew off to Florida, we had a hotel the night before the cruise at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport. I loved the pre-night hotel my husband and I walked around the terminals in the evening great exercise.

 We ate at McCoy’s that night,I was unhappy with the food it was cold, had little taste and was extremely expensive for horrid food. The only saving item was the craw-fish chowder this was amazing, No one in our group enjoyed anything besides this chowder. The food was bad enough they called up to our room telling us we did not pay believe me we paid, and I had the credit card copy of bill with tip was over 150.00 for the four of us . I told them this and they still insisted I did not pay. I had my husband check our online banking  and it was already showing as pending on our online banking I told them this and they finally let us go back to sleep. Needless to say I was unhappy about them calling a few hours when we were sleeping to try and get me to pay what I already paid. We will not be going back on our next trip even for the chowder.

Day Two- This was it we were finally boarding our ship I love to cruise so dose my family usually it is just the 6 of us so it was an adjustment added three other people to our vacation. After boarding all at different times this always seems to be the way it happens usually someone will need to run to a port store or something so we tend to never board all at once. After we got on we hit the Cabanas buffet for our lunch, the food was standard buffet food however I like the lay out of the buffet on the Magic more than the dream in fact there where many things I like more on the magic but we will return to that later.

After lunch everyone headed to their state rooms we had three staterooms and all where side by side so we were able to have to the verandas opened so we could go from room to room as needed. The openness was nice it made the verandas seem much larger, and the kids made good use of going from room to room. I love the Disney state rooms they offer plenty of room for the 4 of us and the bathrooms are amazing it is so nice to be able to have two people getting ready at the same time. Since we are returning cruisers we had welcome back packages waiting for us this was a nice treat and I got a lot of use from the tote bag and we all used our cast away club lanyards.

Our state room host was nice and we always had clean towels somehow he managed to know just where we got out of the room to clean it. I never saw him compared to past trips where usually I see our room host daily I understand the ship is bigger than the one we normal travel on but I do enjoy interacting with the host. There were some small issues our phone did not work when we boarded but a call to the front desk fixed this, and our safe was not reset this was also fixed in a timely matter. It seemed like we got less hair and body products this time around I usually do not bring any because the ones provided works so well. We only got one shampoo and one conditioner and they were never restocked, perhaps if I saw my room host this could have been taken care of.  Usually I am a big end of trip tipper outside the pre pay this trip that changed a bit.

Our children take full advantages of the kids club. I usually do not see my daughter on vacation unless we are getting off the ship she enjoys hanging out with the new people she meets and from the time she wakes to the time she passes out she is off and about. My niece who is 17 is not a highly social person she did not take advantage of pretty much anything outside the stateroom and shows.  I cannot say much about how the older teens feel about the clubs due to the fact my niece never did anything. My daughter was all over it and has a blast like always she was turning 14 on the ship so they allowed her to go right into vibe with the 14 and up teens she was extremely happy she was a bit sad because she wanted to enjoy it with her cousin but she got to the point where it stopped bothering her and she had fun.

         

   My son has some disability with speech and usually he does not take as much advantage of the clubs he does go but not  for a long time as it is hard for the other children to understand him. This trip however he spent a lot of time in the clubs on the ship. The first thing we did after lunch was taking him to the club and having him show me how to get back from the club to our stateroom. We always do this twice so I know he understands the way I know there is a lot of debate on letting kids sign out of the clubs before so and so age, but we allow our son to sign out and we trust that he will be alight and be able to receive help if the highly unlikely event happens that he needs it. This is our choice and everyone raises their kids differently. Beside to and from the club we checked out were the ice cream and soda was this is in my option the best thing about Disney as much free soda, juice, coffee, and tea as you want for free I wish other cruise ships would fallow this.

Safety drill I did like that on the Dream you go to a room instead of having to line up out side and all the noise and confusion it was easy to go to the room and be checked in hear the drill and go about our way. While our children where off to parts unknown and the rest of the family was off. doing their thing my husband and I decided to go to the top of the adult only area and watch the ship leave it was cold even in Florida it is December it was around 4pm when we set sail. It was nice to be away from the big party and noise since this was not our first sail away we knew how the party in the family area was and did not feel the need to see it again, we enjoyed the adult area watched the ship sail off in peace before heading back to get ready for dinner.

Speaking of dinner I love Disney Cruise line and the nightly dinning is the highlight of my trips which is not always good as I am currently on Weight Watchers, but hey it is a vacation and I intend to enjoy it all. The first night dinning was where I started missing the smaller ships, We dined at Animators Palate I know they have redone it on the Magic, but I have yet to go on the new ships to see the changes. I really did enjoy it on the Dream the interactions of the crush, and the moving artwork was an amazing place to enjoy your first night and if crush talks to you it’s all the better, he did not talk to use but I still enjoyed the reaction of the children he did talk to this is an amazing aspect of Disney to make people feel that little extra magic.

 I enjoyed the food when we finally got it or if it was remembered at all usually the first night is get to know you night, its busy there is confusion so I never expect perfect the first night maybe it was the extra three people I am not sure but I was really unhappy with the service this cruise. The food however was amazing as always the sodas, and tea free!!! Each evening I have one of drinks offered and this was no different, vacations are really the only time I drink and I do enjoy the Disney cocktails. Usually my son eats and is gone, and my daughter is the same so as soon as they were done they were off to the stateroom or their clubs so the adults were able to enjoy dessert and coffee this is a nice perk to cruising the kids can go off and the adults can enjoy.

After dinner we explored the ship shops a bit, and the ship itself we did not see the show that night I believe it was magic. We enjoyed a relaxing evening to prepare for the next day usually my husband and I go and get a coffee drink from the cove but we really did not go as much this trip. The beds where really nice and we did sleep well that is for sure. We did a lot of relaxing on the cruise and really that is what cruising is all about.

That’s the end of day one and two be sure to check back for the next portion of the trip report.

Day 3

                This was a sea day and while the kids where off doing what they do we were relaxing after a good night’s sleep we started off our day with Palo for an adults only brunch. Some things about Palo there is a dress code and it is enforced however my brother who forgot to bring long pants called ahead and was able to barrow a pair of pants from the ship just something to keep in mind of you lose your luggage or some other mishap happens. The food was good I will say that this was not the best the meal we had on the ship it seems like they could have had more flavor and options the eggs Benedict from what my husband and mother in law say where really good and I have heard that these are the best thing to get at Palo, I stuck with the eggs and bacon in an omelet with salmon and cheese on the side along with my mimosa.

                After brunch everyone headed off to do what they had planned for the day my grandmother and I headed to the shops I love the shops on the ship there is just so many cute items that I am lucky I did not have a larger suitcase or my wallet would be in bad shape. The first thing we did was have them pout a hole in our Stateroom cards so they could be hooked to a lanyard I am pretty good at losing my card a lot if I do not do this. We looked at the jewelry and mostly the Pandora like charms my grandmother collects charms for her bracelets so this was a long visit. They have some really cute choices and some expensive ones also so be aware that there are Pandora shops at each port so far that I have seen so you may want to wait and see what is in port first and try to save some money while there is no tax on the items on the ship they are still pricier than land I have found for most things.

                For lunch we hit the main dining room and enjoyed a nice sit down lunch my children where off with their friends and ate pizza for most lunches as kids do on these trips. I always enjoy the main dining rooms for lunch or dinners the wait staff is so attentive usually especially at lunch when there are few people than dinner and it’s nice to have a quite area to talk about what every has done so far for the day and what they have planned for later. After lunch I took my book to the pool area and ready while enjoying the warm sun and the drinks from the bar for the rest of the day and the ice cream I love that I was able to grab some cool flavors the banana ice cream is so good I had to stop myself for eating too much.

That night for dinner we were at Enchanted garden I love the look and the royal princess feel of this restraint you can see the Disney accents and it is just such a pretty place with a lot of Cinderella and beauty and the beast looks to it and the food was so good I had a sea food meal and it tasted so fresh and that is sometimes hard to find on a cruise ship.   I also had the temptations for dessert this is something I always order because I can never pick just one and like always it did not disappoint.  After dinner we went to the show of the night and I will be doing a post just on the shows soon.

We did bingo on this day and as usual had a blast it was just fun how the crew and people playing get into the spirit of bingo and have a blast. That night my son and i also the detective activity on the ship where you get to go around the ship with a special paper and solve a mystery. This was fun because you interact with the ship, there are cameras and scanners built into things around the ship that you use to solve the mystery we had fun and got a good work out going from deck to deck and side to side. The area where we got the stuff was over buy the kids club area and my 9  year old loved it.

Day 4 Nassua

                We got in early and started off our day in the sunny beautiful Bahamas with breakfast at the buffet. We all decided to get off the ship together on this trip we did not pick excursions instead we just got off to explore on our own. After we got off the ship we went to Atlantis to look around we did not go into the water-park or any of the other options I wish we would have but some of the people in our group did not want to so instead we looked around the hotel and found a Starbucks!!!!  The area around the Atlantis has lots to keep you busy not only is the hotel lovely outside there are shops and little places to eat I was sad that the sweet shop was closed but that happens sometimes.

After looking around the hotel and grounds we headed back towards the ship and did some shopping and split up some people went back to the ship and my husband and I wandered around to look at the local offerings and went into the flea market area where there were a lot of vendors selling their wares I found some little trinkets to give to the people back home and a few things for our kids who had gone back to the ship I will point out that this stop has a lot of locals trying to get money and there is a lot of the school kids made these no charge and when you say no they keep trying to get you to take it and when you do suddenly its 5.00 I understand this is a part of ports and really it is not something to complain about but should be known to someone not use to the ports. We finished our stop off at Senor Frogs to relax before getting back on the ship for pirate night we had a simple snack chips and dip with beer and a margarita it was lively and busy.

That night back at the ship we were in enchanted gardens again for pirate night and also a very special birthday my daughter was turning 15. Like the night before the room and the food was amazing with the added bit of magic with the servers and crew-members dressed in their pirate garb. At the end of dinner we did gifts and the wait staff came to sing my daughter a very magical happy birthday she got a special chocolate cake slice and loved and was equally embarrassed by everyone singing happy birthday it was perfect. After dinner we headed up to get ready for the party one year I am going to go all out with the pirate look.

The party was fun as always we have had it in the past but this one was just as fun we loved pirate stitch and captain jack is always a hit. There was a lot of fun and dancing just what you expect on a Disney ship my kids where in the mix and dancing the night away with their friends while the parents dance right along with their nightly drinks then the best part of a Disney cruise that you do find on other ships the fireworks show at sea we were able to find a nice place to see them and loved the sight of the fireworks in the sky of the Bahamas with our family it was all that could be asked for. After the fireworks and dancing we headed back to our room where we soon left to do our nightly coffee and walk we like to do on the top deck this is something we do each night and it was just a little extra special with how lively the ship was that night.

Day 5 Castaway Cay

We love the Disney Island we did not get our own cabana or anything on this trip we just grabbed some chairs and a spot on the beach and had a blast. My daughter did the excursion with the teen club she loved it and it was nice that she could go off and enjoy that time with friends in a safe fun environment. The first thing my son wanted to do was the water slide it was huge and they loved it so much fun by the time we got to our area on the beach and got settled he was ready to go off and try it my husband also wanted to try it out so they went off while the rest of us enjoyed the sun and got a few drinks and looked at the sea. We rented some Tubes and played in the ocean the thing I like is that there are no real waves so the kids can play and float and not worry about the current or waves making it unsafe. We also tried the water bikes so fun but a real work out and ours had some peddle issues but it was still fun and something we have not done before.

Lunch we had on the island they have a BBQ area that is set up with hotdog’s, burgers, chicken burgers, chips, and salad, also corn on the cob we love corn on the cob in my house so this was a nice treat there was not a big selection in the food but that is fine since we were not expecting a real restraint kind of set up. There was a soda and ice cream area including more banana ice cream by where the BBQ hut was we had ice cream for dessert all in all it was a nice relaxing way to enjoy lunch on a private island with the beach as the back drop.

This was our last real day since in the morning we would get off the ship and start our land portion of the trip. This night we ate in royal palace it was so pretty and whimsical with amazing food and desert really all the food on the ship is amazing and the decor is Disney without being to Disney it is whimsical and you see touches of your favorite Disney stories all around but it’s not over done.  They really do try to make each person feel special and with so many people on one ship this is an accomplishment we will do Disney again.

A rundown of the best and the not so best of the Disney cruise:

Best
     Soda, juice, coffee, and teas all you want for no cost as long as you use the dispensers

      Real interaction with characters without the park wait times we saw everyone we wanted to in little to no time and never felt rushed.     

 Bingo the best on any ship so much fun for the family and a must for a family it is not cheap but so much fun

     Dinning all the food is amazing and I have a hard time finding something in the food I do not like there was something for everyone and they always brought you more. If you ask they will bring you small appetizer of what you want to try.

         Kids clubs

Not so best
   The elevators take forever and are usually packed we take the stairs every where

 The service was not what it was on the smaller ships it was not bad but it was not magical    

   There were a lot of unruly kids that parents just let go crazy because they are on a Disney ship I have kids and understand they are not perfect and I do not expect them to be but some of the kids where jumping over people kicking over drinks and just all around being disrespectful.