The 75% All New Trip! - All done! Bonus Material finished, Link to new TR!

[Pinkocto]

I'm here! Haven't checked online for at least a week, sorry I'm late. Must come back and read.

 

[franandaj]

Nice to see your latest trip report. Looking forward to hearing your adventures.

Glad you made it over here and congratulations on being the first!

Subbing in as well, Alison. back to comment in a bit....

Glad to have you here!

I'm here. Train wreck would have been funny to you if you knew 20/30 somethings that live like that, which sadly I do (and thus it makes me happy I've been in a relationship for so long)

Thanks for coming on over, and that explanation. I think I know why I didn't find it funny.

Looks like you had a nice travel day! Glad Fran got creative with getting you a bowl for your cereal

Other than I was so groggy in the morning that I barely remember it, the day went pretty well.

All your food looks like a great start to your trip for Airline/Airport options! I'll know it will just get better from here once you get to the Dream & WDW!

Hope you enjoyed Disney at Christmas Its truly magical!

It was fun and interesting, but I don't want to get ahead of myself!

I can't wait to hear your take on the ship. Dream was my first cruise and I thought it was great. Then, I cruised on the Wonder and thought Wonder was way better than the Dream. Since I'm on the west coast, I've been on Wonder ever since, but may be doing the TCM cruise on the Fantasy next year. I am wondering how I will feel about such a big ship when I am so at home on the Wonder.

Glad you made it over! Where are you on the West Coast? We are doing a cruise on the Fantasy in 2017. I don't want to say too much and get ahead of myself!

Great start. I haven't paid much attention to the happenings at WDW so I'm sad to hear the Osborne Lights are gone.

Well they have a couple weeks left if you want to hop on a plane and see them! But evidently half the world is doing that right now.

I enjoy SSR and th ed Tree houses too.

I better go back and edit that, it seems people are thinking we're staying at the tree houses this trip.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Glad you made it over! Where are you on the West Coast? We are doing a cruise on the Fantasy in 2017. I don't want to say too much and get ahead of myself!

I am in San Diego. Home to the worst cruise port!
It's been nice to drive half an hour to the port, but as you know, the San Diego port leaves a lot to be desired. I am hoping for some more short cruises close to home in the future, but would totally understand if DCL decided San Diego wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[franandaj]

I am in. I am looking forward to reading all about your trip.

I'm glad there are people here wanting to hear about it because no one else I know does!

I am going through much of the same thought process at the moment.

I try to stay about a day ahead of my postings.

I hope that everything is OK.

All in all, she just gets a little bit mad about losing out on several thousand dollars a month, and occasionally reminds me about it.

It is kind of ironic that this is one of our go to restaurants in Dubai, but we have never been to one in the USA.

There's one right down the street from Sue and her husband's house, we've been to that one a couple times.

That looks absolutely amazing.

I'm thinking some Chicken Parm would be awesome for dinner tonight!

Very excited to read about your most recent adventure!

Thanks for joining in!

Hi! I'm 75% in!

Sorry about the turbulent flight, but at least you made it safely.

I can't knock relaxing in the hotel room watching NCIS.

Yeah, the flight wasn't so good. Perhaps I should have had a drink. It was nice to be able to sit around just watching TV and not doing anything. Not many times that I get to do that!

Joining in! Can't wait to read all about your trip!

Glad to have you here!

Ready to follow along on the latest adventure.

Next installment coming up hopefully soon!

I love your trip reports as I travel vicariously with you. What a fun, exciting Disney life you are enjoying.
Your adventures make me smile.

Thank you for letting me come along for the ride.

Thank you, we try to make the most of our "Disney" lives!

 

[franandaj]

Can't wait to read all about your trip

Thanks for joining in!

Okay, I am definitely in, but I am still WAY behind on your other TRs, so I'll be back here in a bit to do the "in depth" reading.

And all caught up here as well.
Your packing frency sounds pretty familiar.
And those little screens on the planes are pretty fun. We love to watch some movies while sitting on a plane for 10 hours.

That was quick! I can see how those screens would be nice on such a long flight, I only got through 2 1/3 movies and the flight was over.

Staying at the airport Hyatt is just awesome. We have done it once and it was really great to be able to just not have to deal with traffic after a long flight. You were much luckier on the food front though.
We got in late and after trying to retrieve our Owners Locker box it had gotten pretty late and much of the airport restaurants were closed. We ended up with some "oldish" pizza.

It really was perfect, but I could see where getting in late would not be quite as fun. I knew our flight would get us in right at dinner time and help ease us into the time change.

Okay, you may go on now. Nothing more to catch up on.

Alrighty then! Planning on getting to it hopefully in just a few minutes.

I'm finally here. Catching up!

All caught up.

Your hotel was in/attached to the airport? Tell me more.....

OK, that was fast! There is a Hyatt inside the MCO airport. You probably never see it because you go right to DME. It made things a LOT easier since we were just going to the port the next day and Disney had transportation leaving right from the airport. Some of the rooms have views into the Airport courtyard.

I like Macaroni Grill well enough. The chicken Parm looks yum! Might have to try that next time.

It was either Macaroni Grill or Chili's Too. There is a somewhat swanky restaurant in the Hyatt, but I knew that Fran would never go for that. There was also a bar restaurant in the Hyatt, I knew Macaroni Grill would be my easiest sell! I DID NOT want to end up at McDonald's!

Breakfast on the plane looks good. We are lucky if we get a second bag of nuts when we fly.

We are lucky to have all those miles to be able to travel like we do!

Yay! Another trip report! Love your trip reports! You are always so through with your descriptions and always have lots of photos and it looks like you are off to a great start here! I can't wait to see the tree houses!

I will have lots of photos and stuff, but if you want to see Treehouses, you'll have to be satisfied with old pictures. It was almost six years ago that we stayed there, and Fran and I by ourselves don't need a three bedroom tree house! But here's a few shots from when we stayed six years ago. I guess I didn't take shots of the bedrooms.

 

[franandaj]

I'm here! Haven't checked online for at least a week, sorry I'm late. Must come back and read.

I hadn't realized I was already to the second page either! Don't worry you're not late! There's plenty of updates to go! we're not even on the ship. yet.

I am in San Diego. Home to the worst cruise port!
It's been nice to drive half an hour to the port, but as you know, the San Diego port leaves a lot to be desired. I am hoping for some more short cruises close to home in the future, but would totally understand if DCL decided San Diego wasn't worth the hassle.

Well howdy neighbor! I'd like to see them come back to San Pedro, that's only 20 minutes from me!

 

[franandaj]

Day 2

I was up at 1AM, 3AM and 4AM. I gave up on my phone when I realized that 4AM was 1AM back home and that's the DIS Twilight zone time. I think I slept until 7AM but it was a rather light sleep. When I finally woke up for good, I commented on a few threads on the DIS including my own then got dressed, and ate some Honey nut cheerios, Strawberry Yoplait and a little can of V8. It was really foggy outside. We had no visibility from our room.



Then I started to rearrange our bags. Nothing major, but a few things not permitted in carry on bags on airlines are only permitted in carry on bags on the ship. Once our bags were settled, Fran ate her bagel and yogurt, I got some Starbucks from downstairs.





This is where staying at MCO works out very well for cruising. We called the bellman to pick up our bags, they came and got them and the next time we saw them was in our stateroom on the ship. Like Magical Express for the DCL!!!! All we had to do was head down to the area where DME was located, and they had a separate little check in area for the cruise ship. The scooter turned out to be a FP for the front of the line on the bus and next thing you know we’re seated on the bus which is boarding for the ship. The rest of the passengers boarded immediately after us and soon we were on our way. This was our first experience of wondering whether or not kids were going to be a problem for us on a Disney cruise. There was a kid screaming at the top of her lungs. I'm guessing that she was "special needs", as she was probably 5 or 6 years old. Once she moved into the front seat with her Dad she was able to calm down. I'm not sure if she talked much if at all. Our bus driver was a saint, and calmed down the kid expertly, while she talked to the girl, the girl never actually answered any questions, but she giggled and made other noises. It was sure better than screaming at the top of her lungs!

Soon we saw our first glimpse of the ship.



And there she is in all her glory.



The ride took about an hour and by 11:30 we were entering the port. It took us a while to get off the bus and go through security but we were checking in at the desk by 11:50AM. We got boarding group 3 and they were already boarding groups 1 through 10 so we were on.



We took the boarding photo and headed right for the ship.



Our first stop on the ship was the spa. Fran had changed her mind on doing the Couples Choice treatment. I was a little bummed since they didn't have this offered on the website as a single treatment like on the Wonder. But it turns out they could do it. But at 8AM that next morning. I had big plans that morning. First Eggs Benedict then….. well? Turns out we found another treatment that I found acceptable and it could start at 9:30AM. Not ideal but Fran agreed that we could go to breakfast at 8AM and I could head off to the spa for my treatment so we scheduled me for that one instead.

Then it was off to Enchanted Garden. We could have gone to Carioca’s but we prefer the kind of buffet where they seat you at a table and then let you go to the buffet. They wait on you, remove your plates and all that stuff. I suppose we could have gone up to deck 11 and found a table and then had a similar buffet experience, but I think the enchanted garden was just a bit more civilized. Getting there was another story. Remember? We didn’t know where anything was. We had a map of the ship in our hands, but still it was a little confusing.

The gal at the spa told us to take the forward elevator from Deck 11 down to Deck 2 and just walk over to the restaurant. However when we arrived at Deck 2 it was roped off because the cabin stewards were still cleaning the staterooms. So we took the forward elevator up to Deck 3 and walked to the Midship elevators. There we found a HUGE line, so long that they had a Crew Member directing people to the elevators. Eventually we made our way down to Deck 2 where the Enchanted Garden was located.

They did think of all kinds of things on this ship. Even parking lots.





























Here’s my first plate





Fran’s first plate, she likes Mushroom Soup just as much as Strawberry Soup if not more.



My second plate



Dessert Offerings









Our dessert plates



On our way out I couldn’t resist a picture of this Mickey Fountain



[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

While we were at lunch we had our first opportunity to peruse the Navigator.













We took enough time at the spa and lunch that our room was ready by the time that we finished lunch so we headed up.











And our verandah

 

[pkondz]

Okay. Finally moseyed over here...

I'm sure there are some of you out there who are reading the title and scratching your heads wondering "What the...?"

Or maybe it's just psoriasis.
You might want to get that checked out.
Sorry.

Nope. Fleas.

I blame the wife.

Regardless of whether you’re wondering or not, I'm going to tell you anyways. You see this trip actually caused me a small amount of anxiety.

Not anything tremendous or that would require heavy medication, but just a slight feeling of “OCD planner’s” discomfort in the days preceding the trip.

I hear you. I'm having some right now, myself.

Two people don't need a three bedroom tree house!

Sure! Sleep in a new room every night!

a) Of the 10 nights, five of those we slept in places completely new to us. Of the five nights at SSR we were in a completely different section than last time. There are five sections where your room can be located, and each one has a different feel to it, so that counts as half new in my book, making it 75% new on the accommodations.

hmmmm...... okay. I'll buy it.

b) When I counted all the places where we dined of the 20 locations 15 were new. That kinda sealed it up for me 75% new.

Okay. Still with you.

c) Throw in the fact that I've never been to WDW during the Christmas season, this to me adds a whole element of newness.

So... maybe it should be 76 - 77% new, then?

Most of you know us, Alison & Fran. We’re basically fun loving, bonafide Disney Freaks.

emphasis on fun loving or Disney Freaks?

(Notice how polite I was to not just say Freaks???
Well, it applies to me, anyway.)

late June through September are pretty much off limits for us due to the heat and humidity in Florida.

Oh, sure. Now you tell me!!

So this has caused a sore spot for Fran that will come up later in this trip, but I get ahead of myself.

Uh, oh. Dun, dun, dun, dunnnnnnnn....

The rest? Well you’ll just have to read along to find out how it all turns out!

That's what I'm doing!!

And to get things started, here comes the first update, or maybe you might call it a pre-update.

I don't really care for pre-nups.
I mean I get the necessity of them, especially if one partner brings in considerably more financially to the relationship. But it almost feels like your setting yourself up for...

What?


Oh.


Pre-update.


Nevermind.

Saturday we had a HUGE list of things to do including a trip to Walmart to try and find shoes

I can help!
You can find shoes at the back in the aisle with all the shoes.

You're welcome.

We ordered delivery on our way home, and at this point, I don’t even remember what it was, pizza I think?

It was pizza. And you seemed to enj... uh... I mean.
I don't know. How could I? It's not like I have a camera...
Uh...

I do not know what you ate.

I think we spent the next hour working on Fran's carryon.

Whoa! It must've been really full if it took both of you an hour to close it!

he would need to randomize them himself and make sure they didn’t get too many cans of salmon on any one day. I can only imagine that I passed out almost immediately after.

I understand. The stress of ensuring a cat doesn't eat salmon twice in a row is enough to knock anyone out.

I remember seeing 4:45 when I was getting dressed, later Fran told me she had to rip the covers off of me and pull me up by my arms to wake me.

Our normal plan, drop Fran,

Poor Fran!!

We had these cool movie screens at our seats with on demand in flight movies.

In flight movies = good.
In flight movies that don't end until after you've landed = not so good.

Later I put on the movie Trainwreck. I thought it was supposed to be a comedy, but I didn’t really find it very funny.

You're not the first person I've heard say that.

That's a very interesting shot of the fake-o-rail.
I like it.

The gal at the front desk tried to get us a room with a bathtub, but that didn’t work out.

Oh? Usually rooms have bathtubs unless...

They're for disabled. Yup.
Been there, had that.

The delivery fee was about equivalent to the cost of the groceries

Can you imagine if you'd bought $300 worth???

No they didn’t have any cheerios in a bowl so she got me a box. The problem was how to eat them without a bowl?

Simple, silly.
Tilt head back, open mouth. Poor in cheerios. Poor in milk. Chew.

Plus, I totally forgot about utensils! We had cereal and yogurt and nothing to eat them with!

Yogurt in a tube.
There ya go.

We started off with a Caprese Salad that we split

OMG! Not again?!?!?

but more importantly we got utensils

score.

While at the food court, she noticed that Quiznos had soup and picked me up a bowl. She offered to buy it, but they were nice enough to just give one to her.

And that's the way it should be. Not like at Miriwa in Winnipeg on St. Mary's Rd. where they won't even sell you one... even if you're willing to pay for the meal that goes in it. And are rude about it to boot.


Not still bitter about that at all.

I was up at 1AM, 3AM and 4AM

Oh for Pete's sake. Just pick one!

Nothing major, but a few things not permitted in carry on bags on airlines are only permitted in carry on bags on the ship.

Such as?

This is where staying at MCO works out very well for cruising. We called the bellman to pick up our bags, they came and got them and the next time we saw them was in our stateroom on the ship.

Nice!

This was our first experience of wondering whether or not kids were going to be a problem for us on a Disney cruise. There was a kid screaming at the top of her lungs.

Oy. Always a joy. But... It happens.

Our bus driver was a saint, and calmed down the kid expertly, while she talked to the girl, the girl never actually answered any questions, but she giggled and made other noises.

Wow. That's really impressive, actually.

And there she is in all her glory.

Meh. Not impressed.
It looks like a brown Ford pick-up truck to me.

Oh! You mean behind the truck!

I had big plans that morning. First Eggs Benedict

Not ideal but Fran agreed that we could go to breakfast at 8AM and I could head off to the spa for my treatment so we scheduled me for that one instead.

Sounds nice and relaxing. Glad you got it. (Hopefully you did?)

we prefer the kind of buffet where they seat you at a table and then let you go to the buffet. They wait on you, remove your plates and all that stuff.

Ditto.

The gal at the spa told us to take the forward elevator from Deck 11 down to Deck 2 and just walk over to the restaurant. However when we arrived at Deck 2 it was roped off because the cabin stewards were still cleaning the staterooms. So we took the forward elevator up to Deck 3 and walked to the Midship elevators. There we found a HUGE line, so long that they had a Crew Member directing people to the elevators. Eventually we made our way down to Deck 2 where the Enchanted Garden was located.

Did you decide by that time that it was more of a disenchanted garden?

Here’s my first plate

Where's the Caprese salad????

Dessert Offerings

Okay, I'm back.
Had to change the keyboard.
Apparently these things can short out if you drool on them too much.

We took enough time at the spa and lunch that our room was ready by the time that we finished lunch so we headed up.

Nice room! So big!

 

[Steppesister]

Trying to unwind after a long day, and loved seeing all of your amazing pictures of VACAY!!! Beautiful ship; beautiful food.

 

[dizneeat]

Memories! We just love the Dream, so thank you for all those lovely pics of Enchanted Garden (which we prefer for our first lunch as well) and the room. Looks like the one on deck 8 that our friends stayed in with their daughter.

Love the food pics and we have never tried the mushroom soup - guess we will next time we sail. And either I missed the ice-cream "bar" or they did not have one when we sailed on the Dream a few years back.

Like you we really enjoyed staying at the Hyatt at the airport. It is so convenient after a long flight. Bummer it was so foggy.

 

[afwdwfan]

I was up at 1AM, 3AM and 4AM. I gave up on my phone when I realized that 4AM was 1AM back home and that's the DIS Twilight zone time. I think I slept until 7AM but it was a rather light sleep. When I finally woke up for good, I commented on a few threads on the DIS including my own then got dressed, and ate some Honey nut cheerios, Strawberry Yoplait and a little can of V8. It was really foggy outside. We had no visibility from our room.

Yuck... you really struggle to sleep on vacation, don't you?

Nothing major, but a few things not permitted in carry on bags on airlines are only permitted in carry on bags on the ship.

I'm sure that never causes any problems for anyone....

The ride took about an hour and by 11:30 we were entering the port. It took us a while to get off the bus and go through security but we were checking in at the desk by 11:50AM. We got boarding group 3 and they were already boarding groups 1 through 10 so we were on.

Wow, perfect timing!

They did think of all kinds of things on this ship. Even parking lots.

Just like Disney World!

Fran’s first plate, she likes Mushroom Soup just as much as Strawberry Soup if not more.

Is there a soup that Fran doesn't like?

And our verandah

Looks fantastic!

 

[kid-at-heart]

New trip report! Awesome! Great way to start a trip, spending the night at the airport hotel and then starting fresh the next morning. We often do the same, either the airport hotel or one near by, same for returning home, if we have an early flight.

Kate

 

[dolphingirl47]

I'm glad there are people here wanting to hear about it because no one else I know does!

I definitely want to hear.

I try to stay about a day ahead of my postings.

I actually referred to your feelings about the size of the ship. Hopefully I will get around to updating my pre-trip report before the year is out and then all will become clear.

There's one right down the street from Sue and her husband's house, we've been to that one a couple times.

Ken and Sue seem to have made it their mission to introduce us to new kinds of cuisines whenever we visit them.

I'm thinking some Chicken Parm would be awesome for dinner tonight!

I could settle for this.

Fran had changed her mind on doing the Couples Choice treatment. I was a little bummed since they didn't have this offered on the website as a single treatment like on the Wonder. But it turns out they could do it. But at 8AM that next morning.

What a shame that a spanner was thrown in the works.

Turns out we found another treatment that I found acceptable and it could start at 9:30AM.

I am glad that you found an alternative.

Getting there was another story. Remember? We didn’t know where anything was.

This had not even occurred to me. I just had a look at the deck plans and this is a lot more different from what I had thought.

The gal at the spa told us to take the forward elevator from Deck 11 down to Deck 2 and just walk over to the restaurant. However when we arrived at Deck 2 it was roped off because the cabin stewards were still cleaning the staterooms.

It seems a little strange to have a dining room on the same deck as the staterooms.

Corinna

 

[PrincessInOz]

Finally made it here! Late, but here!

Food porn to start. Always a great way to start.

 

[ACDSNY]

Nice start to the cruise, great room and balcony. We enjoyed our Couple's Choice on the Wonder so that's too bad Fran decided she didn't want to go. I'm glad you found a replacement spa treatment.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Hooray! Another trip report! I am soooo in! Well, at least 75% in

 

[rentayenta]

Okay, how cool that the hotel is inside MCO! That makes so much sense.

I am sure I missed it but what ship were you on?

The Enchanted Garden buffet looks delicious. Next cruise I will definitely take more advantage of the buffets. I ate so much pizza on deck that I think I made it into one or two.

You room looks lovely. Love the verandah! Its a must.

Glad you found another spa treatment.

Thank you for posting the Navigators. I enjoy reading them so much.

 

[sarahk0204]

Yay, a new trip report!

WDW at Christmas is my favorite time of year to go. Sadly, the kids' school schedule is precluding December trips for the near future. I will gladly live vicariously through your TR.

 

[dhorner233]

Great start to the cruise! Love your stateroom! And another veranda!

Thanks for throwing in the pictures of the tree houses! I don't know how I got confused But I've never seen the inside of them. They look nice!