We also were on the Dream last week, here are our thoughts

[Anchors Away 2016]

Absolutely. I just wish there was more activities for actual adults. Even a 24 hour arcade or something. My husband is a bit of a game and the only gaming options they had were for teens

Definitely agree with both of you! I wish there were more late night activities for adults to compliment the late night teen activities. This was a good chance for my teens to stay up later than usual, and yet still adhere to whatever curfew we set. My wife and I just wished we had more choices of things to do while they were at Vibe late at night!

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

We are sailing concierge Deck 11, July/August 2018. The kids will be 8, 11, 14, 15 at this time. I have been kind of stressing about the design of this ship as well.....going to make my chickens go up/down and not through that "adult-only" pool. I would just die if someone said something, but it is the right thing to do.

Hey there. I think it is great that you are going to have your kids avoid going through the adult area! (Not disrespecting people who choose otherwise though). I have a suggestion for you that might be fun/educational. Depending how often your kids get to "do their own thing" maybe it would be interesting for them if you tell them that you will "meet them on the other side." You can go through the adult area and your kids can (without excessive mayhem) go down the stairs through the next deck and back up to meet you. Turn a hassle into a fun thing. The older ones are probably spending some time away from you on the ship anyway, so I'm sure they know how to behave, but it also gives the younger ones a chance to behave properly even when you aren't there and they may find it quite exciting.

Just a thought. Feel free to ignore it. Just looking for win-win type things to make it exciting instead of seeming like a hassle.

 

[woody64]

Thanks for the review. We are thinking of doing this cruise next year during the same week with our placeholder. What was the weather like? Water temp at Castaway Cay? Thanks again.

 

[sptfr97]

Even worse are the parents who blatantly ignore the rules thinking rules don't apply to their little darlings. One of my favorites was a mother who had her child in the pool with swim diapers on. She was told by the lifeguard that diapers were not allowed in the pool. She argued with him for quite a while. Finally left in a huff only to come back 10 minutes later with the kid in NO diapers. I doubt he was potty trained that quickly! Just disgusting.

That's what that annoys me - the arguing. They can't, but I wish they could just haul her aside and say, "Listen lady, the rules are posted. There is no arguing. It's not like I'm sitting here arbitrarily making up rules, they're posted rules that are there for the health and safety of everyone. No one wants to swim in your child's booty water."

 

[Dolby1000]

Thanks for the review. We are thinking of doing this cruise next year during the same week with our placeholder. What was the weather like? Water temp at Castaway Cay? Thanks again.

Temperatures in Florida and the Caribbean have trended well below normal this spring. The air temps only got to about 80-82 all four days and the evening temps well into the lower 60s, with a rather stiff breeze. At night, you needed long pants and a jacket (or wrapped yourself in a towel) to watch the movies on Funnel Vision. It was very windy all four days, most of the excursions for Castaway Cay were cancelled due to the high winds. Normal should be near 90 this time of year. I really have to credit the Captain of the Dream for the sea day he did a great job keeping the wind down on the upper decks. The pools on the ship were heated and very comfortable for swimming (at least the adult pools were). Getting out a night however, brrrrrrrrrrrr.
The water temps reflect this cooler trend are well below normal levels for this time of year. The water at Castaway Cay was probably between 76-78, pretty chilly but not too bad once you got used to it.
Being a Florida resident, these lower water temps are interesting in that they may delay the onset of hurricane season. It will depend on how soon they return to the mid 80s - near 90 temps that sustain the bad storms.
OWD

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Two shows and a movie that sounds disappointing. We are about to do a 4 night on the Dream.



Some of the personal navigators I was looking at had 3 shows and a magician for 4 night Dream sailings.

I guess it will be fine as we might want to skip the show a night or two anyhow, but still I was thinking we would have a choice between 3 shows and an entertainer.

We still had a touring live act on this 4-night. It was Voiceplay and they did at least 4 shows in one of the other venues, one of the shows was reserved for 18+. When we were on the Wonder where they did the extra showings of Frozen, there was a magician who also performed in another venue.

This change to extra Beauty showings is very recent and I think it has been reported will last through the summer.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Thanks for the review. We are thinking of doing this cruise next year during the same week with our placeholder. What was the weather like? Water temp at Castaway Cay? Thanks again.

The water at Castaway Cay was super-cold to me, but the air temp was perfection for relaxing on the beach. Beautiful!

We had packed blankets and brought them up to the deck to watch movies on funnel vision in the evenings. It was pretty chilly once the sun went down.

 

[smiths02]

We still had a touring live act on this 4-night. It was Voiceplay and they did at least 4 shows in one of the other venues, one of the shows was reserved for 18+. When we were on the Wonder where they did the extra showings of Frozen, there was a magician who also performed in another venue.

This change to extra Beauty showings is very recent and I think it has been reported will last through the summer.

Thanks for that information. I know my daughter does want to see BATB...my DH and son, however, left at intermission at the local production, so they will be fine if there are only two Broadway-style shows to sit through (and the other two nights are a free night, an act in another venue, or a movie like Incredibles 2). I am kind of sad because I'm not sure we will ever spring for a Disney cruise again, and I would have liked to see all 3 "Disney" shows.

 

[princesspiglet]

I'm an adult who sort of feels over run with kids but not immensely. It mostly comes from the fact that it seems that there are more activities that run late for kids- which for me I would think it should be the opposite. Like don't these kids have bed times? lol. For me and my husbands cruise, the adult activities ended at 12AM and there were kids activities starting as late as 1AM. For some reason I would assume that the adults would be the ones with the later options. Also the only bar that stayed open past 12 was kind of lame and had a not so great DJ pumping out the same 5 top 40's songs. Of course we made it work and had a great time. We would end up just going to the room and watching movies and ordering room service.

My DD15 is a night owl. She would stay up until 4am and get up at noon if I let her. The cruise is really one of the only times that I let her stay up as late as she wants. I usually go to bed around 11pm and DH stays up late sitting on the veranda waiting for her to come in from the teen club.

 

[mevelandry]

Even worse are the parents who blatantly ignore the rules thinking rules don't apply to their little darlings. One of my favorites was a mother who had her child in the pool with swim diapers on. She was told by the lifeguard that diapers were not allowed in the pool. She argued with him for quite a while. Finally left in a huff only to come back 10 minutes later with the kid in NO diapers. I doubt he was potty trained that quickly! Just disgusting.

Ewwwww...!!!

Confession: I usually don't swim where kids swim for that reason.

 

[mevelandry]

I doubt Disney has any more "spoiled" children on board than any other line. The parents are an issue much more often. There were a few times I saw parents pressuring their very young kids into a photo op they didn't want because of how much the parents spent, with the kids crying in fear, and that's really the opposite of spoiled.

Tantrums could happen anywhere but...

Oh the stories I could tell...! The tantrums that my DH and I are still talking about were witnessed in WDW and on DCL.

 

[cadien]

Tantrums could happen anywhere but...

Oh the stories I could tell...! The tantrums that my DH and I are still talking about were witnessed in WDW and on DCL.

Tantrums implies the kids were at fault. I'm talking a child clinging to the parent and crying because they're being forced into something frightening. Not holding that against the child one bit.

 

[mevelandry]

Tantrums implies the kids were at fault. I'm talking a child clinging to the parent and crying because they're being forced into something frightening. Not holding that against the child one bit.

I was referring to spoiled kids.

 

[MomOTwins]

I'm talking a child clinging to the parent and crying because they're being forced into something frightening. Not holding that against the child one bit

I wouldn't rush to judge without the full story. We were at WDW with my toddler just before our cruise and he was NUTS for characters; hugging them, high fives, bouncing up and down with joy. His favorite movie is Frozen so we booked the frozen meet and greet on the ship. While we are waiting in line he seems super happy; pointing and cooing "Princess Elsa" (he pronounces it "sisssess essa") and "Ice castle" (eye sassle) over and over. Then when I carried him up to meet the princesses and .... SCREEAMMMS!!!! HORROR!!! DISASTER!!! I gave it about 10 seconds with some reassuring words to see if he'd change his mind, and then apologized to the lovely princesses and scurried out of there quick. You really never know as a parent what is going to set a little kid off--they get overwhelmed so unpredictably.

 

[cadien]

I wouldn't rush to judge without the full story. We were at WDW with my toddler just before our cruise and he was NUTS for characters; hugging them, high fives, bouncing up and down with joy. His favorite movie is Frozen so we booked the frozen meet and greet on the ship. While we are waiting in line he seems super happy; pointing and cooing "Princess Elsa" (he pronounces it "sisssess essa") and "Ice castle" (eye sassle) over and over. Then when I carried him up to meet the princesses and .... SCREEAMMMS!!!! HORROR!!! DISASTER!!! I gave it about 10 seconds with some reassuring words to see if he'd change his mind, and then apologized to the lovely princesses and scurried out of there quick. You really never know as a parent what is going to set a little kid off--they get overwhelmed so unpredictably.

They were several yards away from the lines. The parent was telling the kid (who was maybe 4 or 5? younger than my 6-year old) repeatedly how selfish they were for refusing to get in line for a photo. It wasn't a 10-second thing.

 

[Spotthecat]

My 4 year old was so gung-ho on meeting Chewbacca on our SWDAS cruise in March. But when we turned the corner, and he actually saw him, total freakout. So yeah, there was no forcing...but he was sooooo looking forward to it, that before you leave that line you have to make sure. Because the upset on the other end when he realises he can't go back when he's ready is just as worse.

 

[cadien]

Our own kid chickened out in several character lines at the last minute. It was frustrating. But we didn't spend 15 minutes telling him how selfish he was and that he needed to suck it up and do it for the photo.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

When to let it go and when to encourage/cajole is one of the hardest tasks in parenting. Sometimes, trying to get a kid to overcome their fear only makes them dig in worse. Other times, once you get them to do it, they can't wait to "do it again!"

One thing I do know is that my kids would almost always rather do "exactly what they are doing" then go do anything else, so it often falls to me to encourage/cajole them into something new, to which (after they are done griping at me) they almost always thank me for a great experience.

Not advocating any of the bad behaviors mentioned here. (Cajoling/encouraging is usual best done in private anyway.) I'm just marveling at the fine line between making things worse, and showing them that it can be done. Ah, parenting!

My kids are teens now, so the issues have changed, but the dynamics are basically the same as they ever was.

 

[MomOTwins]

When to let it go and when to encourage/cajole is one of the hardest tasks in parenting. Sometimes, trying to get a kid to overcome their fear only makes them dig in worse. Other times, once you get them to do it, they can't wait to "do it again!".

This is so true! I'll never forget one time years ago we got fastpasses to meet Rapunzel at Disney World and one of my then-4-year-olds was super grouchy in line and said he didn't want to see Rapunzel, so we left the line. Then, on the flight home days later, he bursts into tears, sobbing and wailing. When he finally calms down to tell me what is wrong, he says "I'm sad I told you I didn't want to see Rapunzel. I wanted to see her but I was embarrassed and NOW IT'S TOO LATE."

 

[smiths02]

Upon check in, we had our first disappointment. There were only 2 live shows. I had been looking forward to those shows as I think that is what Disney does best. I had expected a schedule of Golden Mickeys, Believe, the Avengers movie and Beauty and the Beast, with an added 2PM showing. Being that Avengers was still pretty new, I figured instead of some sort of touring live act, one night would include the movie. The actual scheduled ended up being Believe, Beauty, Avengers, Beauty (again). Personally, I found this to be a bummer. I felt that Disney cheated us on a show. We saw Beauty on the second rotation and the theater was about 50% full, so the explanation that they gave of giving everyone a chance to see the show seemed weak to me. I also didn't understand why Avengers, which had already opened world wide didn't play until night 3. In the Buena Vista theater, the first 2 days were Wrinkle in Time and Coco. Why they held Avengers back is a curiosity.

So apparently this is the new norm and Golden Mickeys is on hiatus for the spring/summer.

I just found a navigator from the cruise before yours and Black Panther movie. The main shows were BatB, Believe, BatB, Black Panther (I forget the order).
At that point, Black Panther was a PG13 movie that had been out for quite some time.

So on a 4 night, for my family (MIL, FIL, me, DH, DS-12, DD-5, DS-5), we really only have two nights we could go to the main show (same with Avengers). My MIL does not want to see a violent superhero movie and my twins are too young for that (especially in a theater).

We are spending a lot of money to go with Disney because we have young and old in our party. We thought the premium would be worth it partly because of the shows we could attend as a family. I don't even mind the repeat of BatB, and I understand we can go see the juggler/musician/magician in another place, but really 2/4 nights of main show entertainment when we paid for a 4 night cruise (in peak cruise time)?
Incredibles 2 comes out just before our cruise, so here's to hoping that if one night main show is a movie, it is that movie as at least my whole family can watch that.