/Cruising on a Dream Full of Frights and Friends: 10/12/13-10/19/13 TR completed 4/21/2014 - Page 13 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Thank you all so much for the sweet comments about those pictures. Every day is a learning experience, but I really do love it, even though if it now sucks up a lot of my free time. I'm also so sorry I haven't been on here in over 2 weeks. Two weeks! I don't want to make excuses, but between the holidays, pictures, and some other stuff that I would have rather avoided, I haven't been able to get on here like I wanted too. I'm here now though, so on with the next update.
Day Two: Sunday, October 13th
Part Two: Seeing Friends that Feel Like Family
That feeling of walking onto the ship and hearing your family’s name announced, is definitely a feeling like no other. It’s also a bit overwhelming because you’ve got everyone clapping, and then you’re looking around at everyone clapping, plus you have a CM walking over to welcome you onto the ship, and it’s all happening at once. It definitely feels like one big blur.
We were on the ship a little after 11:15am, and because the cabins aren’t available until after 1pm, we decided to just head up to the top deck and grab something to eat. Once we got up there, we had to walk past the Donald and Mickey pool, where people were already in their bathing suits and enjoying the water. I don’t really blame them because it was HOT up there in the sun.
I wasn’t hungry yet, but I grabbed a few snacks for Chad and Hope, and then we found a nice table outside in the shade. I sent Kelly a text letting her know where we were sitting, and she told me that after she was done checking the boys into the kid’s club they would be right up. I was so excited to be on the Disney Dream, but I was even more excited to see Kelly again, and to also be able to meet the rest of her family this time. It was almost like that feeling you get on your second date with someone. You remember what they look like and how it went, but you’re still nervous it won’t be as good as the first date.
A few minutes later I hear someone call my name, and of course I knew who it was…Kelly was finally here with me!!! I think I might have jumped out of my chair and tackled her with a huge bear hug, plus I couldn’t wipe the big cheesy grin off my face. Then we introduced the rest of our families to each other. I know it sounds cliché, but it honestly felt like we had all known each other forever. The kids were a little shy at first, and Mike was a bit quiet, but after hanging out with him for an entire week, I learned that was just all a part of his very laid back personality. After we chatted for a bit, I kept an eye on their bags for them while they went in and grabbed some food from Cabanas. Once they came back out, we told them that we were going to go explore the ship for a bit, and that we’d meet up with them at their stateroom for our private bon voyage party.
Hope wanted to go check out the kid’s club, so that’s where we headed off to first. I really had no idea what to expect from this area because after reading stuff online, I was still a little confused about they would split up the Oceaneer’s Club and the Oceaneer’s Lab. I found out they have two different outside entrances for each one, BUT they connect everything together from inside of the club. It doesn’t matter if you drop your child off at the club and decide to pick them up at the lab because it’s technically all just one big place.
We stuck to the Oceaneer’s Club for the open house, and even though it wasn’t really set up for the kids yet (no dress ups out, only a few monitors on for the games, etc.), you immediately became jealous that you weren’t that age anymore because it looked like it would be A LOT of fun in there.
Hope was all over the place, and the fact that they had computers EVERYWHERE made her even more excited.
As we were leaving, they showed her how to wash her hands, and then showed us what we had to do to get her in and out. They even told us that her wristband can track her in the club so they would be able to tell me exactly where to find her anytime I came to pick her up. Needless to say, I was impressed.
We kept on exploring, and this is where I apologize for the lack of pictures. Sometimes I’m so into the moment of taking everything in, that I completely forget to pick up my camera. The ship was beautiful, and after still not seeing all of it, we headed to our cabin since they had finally opened them all up.
Our stateroom was located on deck 6 towards the back of the ship (aft) on the port side, however, our captain always seemed to back into every port, so we became the adopted starboard side. When we got to our stateroom, we met our stateroom host, who was extremely nice, but who’s name I also can’t seem to remember. Our bags hadn’t been delivered yet, so once we dropped off our carry-on luggage, we decided to keep on exploring. I did take pictures of the stateroom, but the first day’s didn’t turn out as well as the pictures I took on the second day, so the following pictures were actually taken at a different time.
By now I was starting to get a bit , so while I went into Cabanas to grab a snack, Chad took Hope up to the sports deck where the miniature golf course was. After I had finished eating two, yes I said two, pieces of pumpkin pie (OMG it was delicious), I met back up with them, and then we headed back towards the aft area in order to explore the bars and clubs. We didn’t make it too far because as we were passing the D-Lounge, we noticed a DVC meeting was about to start, so we ended up heading inside. We got a nice little notepad and case, free drinks, lanyards and even an activity packet with crayons for Hope. The presentation was mostly about the new GF villas and Aluani, but they also spoke briefly about the new villas being added to the Poly, which is probably where we’ll buy into next. Then as everyone was leaving, each person was handed a DVC bag that was perfect for using at the pool. We later learned that Kelly and her family had been at the meeting as well, but we never even saw them.
As soon as the presentation was finishing up, they started making announcements that they muster drill would be starting soon, but because we didn’t know where our station was, we first had to make a stop at our stateroom and then check in at station M on the 3rd deck. Once we were out on the deck, we found Kelly and her family again just walking around and enjoying the scenery. At first we thought they might be at the same muster station as us, but nope, they were lucky enough to be able to comfortably sit inside, while we were stuck standing out there for what seemed like forever. Thankfully we didn’t have to wear our lifejackets, because when Hope started getting a little clingy, I picked her up, and she immediately fell asleep in my arms. I was standing right next to a box where they store extra life jackets, so I sort of propped her butt up on that so I was still able to hold her without holding the full weight of her. In the middle of the drill they warn you to cover your ears because they are about to set off an extremely loud siren, and since she was sleeping, I had to use my hands to cover her ears instead of mine, so I had the pleasure of hearing the entire thing without any protection. Meanwhile, Hope jumped for a second, and then dozed right back off again. If only I had that problem.
After what felt like hours had passed, we were allowed to go back to our cabin, where we found out all of our luggage had been delivered. Yay! I was able to unpack a few things before we had to head over to Kelly’s stateroom, but I still had A LOT more to do by the time we were getting ready to pull out of port. Oh well, it would just have to wait…we had a bon voyage party to get too.
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You make me wish that my DH would even contemplate a cruise. He is terrified of water and will never go on one. I could always do a solo, but it's hard to tear myself away from WDW! You make it look slightly easier though.
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Pixie Dust
Deb
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
Liz 
Holly: 
I don't want to make excuses, but between the holidays, pictures, and some other stuff that I would have rather avoided, I haven't been able to get on here like I wanted too. I'm here now though, so on with the next update. 
It’s also a bit overwhelming because you’ve got everyone clapping, and then you’re looking around at everyone clapping, plus you have a CM walking over to welcome you onto the ship, and it’s all happening at once. It definitely feels like one big blur. 
I think I might have jumped out of my chair and tackled her with a huge bear hug, 
plus I couldn’t wipe the big cheesy grin off my face. Then we introduced the rest of our families to each other. I know it sounds cliché, but it honestly felt like we had all known each other forever. The kids were a little shy at first, 
and Mike was a bit quiet, but after hanging out with him for an entire week, I learned that was just all a part of his very laid back personality. After we chatted for a bit, I kept an eye on their bags for them while they went in and grabbed some food from Cabanas. Once they came back out, we told them that we were going to go explore the ship for a bit, and that we’d meet up with them at their stateroom for our private bon voyage party. 
I found out they have two different outside entrances for each one, BUT they connect everything together from inside of the club. It doesn’t matter if you drop your child off at the club and decide to pick them up at the lab because it’s technically all just one big place. 
Our bags hadn’t been delivered yet, so once we dropped off our carry-on luggage, we decided to keep on exploring. I did take pictures of the stateroom, but the first day’s didn’t turn out as well as the pictures I took on the second day, so the following pictures were actually taken at a different time.
, so while I went into Cabanas to grab a snack, Chad took Hope up to the sports deck where the miniature golf course was. After I had finished eating two, yes I said two, pieces of pumpkin pie 
(OMG it was delicious), I met back up with them, and then we headed back towards the aft area in order to explore the bars and clubs. We didn’t make it too far because as we were passing the D-Lounge, we noticed a DVC meeting was about to start, so we ended up heading inside. We got a nice little notepad and case, free drinks, lanyards and even an activity packet with crayons for Hope. 
The presentation was mostly about the new GF villas and Aluani, but they also spoke briefly about the new villas being added to the Poly, which is probably where we’ll buy into next. Then as everyone was leaving, each person was handed a DVC bag that was perfect for using at the pool. We later learned that Kelly and her family had been at the meeting as well, but we never even saw them.
Thankfully we didn’t have to wear our lifejackets, because when Hope started getting a little clingy, I picked her up, and she immediately fell asleep in my arms. 
I was standing right next to a box where they store extra life jackets, so I sort of propped her butt up on that so I was still able to hold her without holding the full weight of her. In the middle of the drill they warn you to cover your ears because they are about to set off an extremely loud siren, and since she was sleeping, I had to use my hands to cover her ears instead of mine, so I had the pleasure of hearing the entire thing without any protection. 
Meanwhile, Hope jumped for a second, and then dozed right back off again. If only I had that problem. 
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