We just finished a five day cruise on the Disney Dream. I am going to give a day by day account of what we did and the things I learned a long the way. I read countless reviews about the ship and there are still things I wished I would have known and I would like to share those with you. Additionally, I have never been on a cruise before and I had no idea what to expect. At the end of my day by day accounts, I will give an overall review of the cruise and a list of tips.
We paid full price for our cruise and I am in no way paid by Disney for my review.
We drove to Port Canaveral the day before our cruise left arriving in time to have dinner. We stayed at the Residence Inn Cape Canaveral Coco Beach. (Disclaimer- we stay at Marriott hotels whenever we can to get Marriott Rewards points. I am in no way paid by Marriott). The morning of our cruise we woke up with an extra bit of excitement in the air. My boys kept saying, “Are we going to be late?” Rightly so since it seems we are late for everything. We had breakfast at our hotel. There was a line for the buffet. Turns out there were three cruises leaving on the same day from the same port so the hotel was packed. I was glad we ate early giving us plenty of time to get through the line to eat and get our bags back down to the lobby.
The Marriott offers a shuttle (for a charge) to take you to the port. It was operated by a private company. The shuttle (a motor coach) for the Disney Cruise arrived at 9:45 with a 10:00 departure. We were the first on the bus and we sat on the front row. Turns out this was a good thing since we were able to be the first off the bus and get in line faster at the port. If you do take something that does involve motor coach- keep all of your carry on bags with you on the bus and make sure all of your other luggage has their proper Disney tag on it. That way when you arrive at the port you don’t have to wait for the bus to unload your luggage to get your carry on bags or to put the tags on your luggage. You can just get off and head inside. The sooner you get inside, the sooner you get on the boat and your vacation begins. It was a little frustrating seeing how people that got there after us were able to get off their transportation before we did therefore getting inside before we did. They wouldn't let us off the bus until all of the luggage had been unloaded. Some of the other people were getting dropped off in vans or smaller vehicles so it did not take as long for them. Next time I might consider having a taxi take us and drop us off to help expedite things.
You enter the building and go through security first then you head up stairs to start the check in process. There were lines but Disney did a great job of keeping them moving. Once up stairs you are directed to the area where you check in to board the ship. Your entire family needs to be with you for this process. They take a picture of each family member for security purposes. When we were finished checking in I noticed another line on the other side of the room. I was told it was for the kids club and I thought I did not need to get in it since I had registered mine online already. However, this is where your kids get their wrist bands to enter the kids club. I think you can do it once on board but I had time to kill so I went ahead and got in line. While in line my husband got in line with the boys to have their picture with Mickey Mouse. A nice lady held my spot in line so I could join them and have a family picture taken with Mickey. After getting back in line I realized that I need my boys with me to get their arm bands so my husband brought them over to me.
The time went by pretty quickly even though we were there for about two hours. My kids got to have their picture taken with Mickey Mouse and Goofy and well as watch some old Mickey Mouse cartoons. Even though it was crowded we were able to find seats in front of the TVs. I was glad I had a snack for my boys since they got hungry. I didn't pack anything else to keep them entertained while waiting- the cartoons were enough. Before we knew it they were calling our number to board the ship. After another line or two we were having our name announced as we walked into the beautiful lobby of the ship.
I had read reviews that said to bring a bag with your bathing suit since it may be hours before your luggage arrives in your room. This was a good suggestion. Our room was ready after lunch but our luggage was not there. We ate lunch at The Enchanted Garden. I had read that you should try out the restaurants during the day since they have little different look. If I had it to do over again I would have gone straight to the pool and eaten at Cabanas (they had the same food as Enchanted Garden) or at one of the quick serves on the pool deck. By the time we were finished eating and got changed we didn’t have much time to swim before the going away party started and we had to get ready for dinner (we had the first seating at 5:45). Also, to pool was so crowed by the time we got to it. The line was long for the Aqua Duck- it seems that it the first thing people want to try. It will appear that the line isn't that long- it looks like once you make it to the top of the steps you get on the ride but there is at least a 1o minute wait once you get inside of the stairwell. Don’t waste your time riding it the first day unless you have to do it right then. I found the shortest line to be first thing in the morning right when it opens or late at night.
Side note: If you go to the side of the ship that the AquaDuck is on, you can see the launch pad for the space shuttle off in the distance.
After the party, since it takes me longer to get ready, I headed to our room while the boys stayed at the pool. As the ship was leaving port I went out on our balcony and to my surprise there were people lining the shore at the various restaurants and beach waving good bye to all on board. It was really neat and exciting leaving me with the feeling I was on embarking on something special.
Our first dinner was at the Royal Palace. The restaurant was beautiful however we were seated in a room right off of the main dining room. It only had four tables in the room so it was quiet but it didn’t have the beauty of the main dining room. It almost looked like an after thought and was bland by comparison. The food was good, nothing amazing. I read a review somewhere after we got home that Cinderella came around the dining room during their meal but we never saw her.
Note: The elevators are very busy during dinner time. There were several in a row that were so full we couldn’t even get on them so factor that into your time in getting to dinner. Most of the time we ended up taking the stairs.
After dinner my boys were dying to try the kids club so we took them there while we went to the ventriloquist show. There weren’t many people there for the show but it was very entertaining. We actually went and got our boys out of the kids club since we thought they would like it and it turns out they did. However, if they had not seen it they would have been fine.
That is the end of day 1. Tomorrow we stop at Castaway Cay!!
