To Dream a Dream on the Dream and Disney World and Universal

disneymommagic

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 26, 2013
To Dream a Dream on the Dream

This is really my first trip report so a little information and Recap about the trip. There where 9 of us on this trip 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 one niece 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 with a private guide. We used an amazing TA who helped me with all my booking I am sure I drive her nuts when I plan a trip but I just do not know if I could handle it without her and so here it is the start of my dream vacation 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.
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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 if the food was not 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 and so I keep the receipt. 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 time 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.
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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 large, 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 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 usually I see our room host daily so this was a change 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 shampoo and such 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 there 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 usually 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 this 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 ok or 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 looked where the ice cream and soda was this is in my option the best thing about Disney as much free soda juice coffee and tea 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 parks unknown and the rest of the family was off. 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. 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.
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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.
 

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