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Old 10-25-2014, 10:39 PM   #1
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3/13/14 Dream cruise, first ever cruise!

Hello all! I've never posted a trip report before, so I hope this one ends up being ok. And I'm sorry it's VERY late, but better late then never. So, here we go!

Who went:

Me, AKA Mom. This trip was just a few months before my 40th birthday. I've never been on a cruise in my life, but the travel bug has really bitten me hard lately and our family has been traveling quite a bit lately. A cruise, especially a Disney cruise, has actually been a bucket list item for quite some time. So hubby and I decided there was no better time then the present and we went for it.

Hubby. He was just a hair over 40 at time of cruise. He has also never cruised. He lived a pretty sheltered life as a child and I've made sure to change that about him. We've gone on vacations before, but this is the first one he's ever sat down with me and planned things and visited those plans later and tweaked and changed things. That was awesome!

Daughter. She was almost 14 when we cruised. She loves Disney almost as much as I do. She was very much looking forward to maybe being able to get her nails done in the spa or something super special like that, and exploring the beach on Castaway Cay. This trip was her first time on a cruise, AND the first time on a plane! But she was super excited.

Son. He was almost 15 when we cruised. He likes Disney, but he's "too cool" to show it anymore. However, there was one day when I found out from Passporter that I could order a call from Disney about our cruise. It was a call from Minnie and Mickey. My phone started ringing, I knew who it was, so I had the kids come into the room before I answered it and put the phone on speaker. When the line picked up and he heard Mickey, he got that huge "it's Disney" grin on his face and I saw it for a split second, before he caught himself and smirked the smile away. But it was bliss when I saw it! This was also his first cruise AND first plane ride.

The Journey:

We actually spent the first 5 days of our vacation at Disney World. It was our first WDW trip also, and it was amazing! But that is for a different trip report. So skipping forward, we stayed at POP Century. On the morning of our embarkation, we were woken by the cruise line calling our room to advise us our bell hop was on the way and to make sure our bags were ready. And they were. We packed the night before so we could sleep in a little. So we put our bags out and then went back to sleep for a bit. About an hour later, our phone rang again, it was also the cruise line reminding us of our bus time. We decided we should probably get up at this point and get ready for the amazing day!

We boarded the MDE to take the shuttle to the Port. The shuttle was pretty awesome! The windows looked like port holes, the seats were plush and roomy, and they played cartoons on the tv's the entire ride. The bus ride was a little over an hour to get from POP Century to Port Canaveral.

When we arrived at the Port, it took all of about 30 minutes from the time we arrived, to the time we boarded the ship. We had time to take pictures in the terminal of the scale model of one of the Disney ships, we took pictures on the gangway, and we zipped through security lickity split.

We boarded the Dream, and it WAS a dream! It was simply magnificent. Beautiful details all around, and the service was outstanding from before we even arrived at the terminal. We took some pictures of the ship, and headed straight for our stateroom. We met our stateroom attendant George, he was very friendly and very personable and had some great information for us right off the bat. He would leave us chocolates, towel animals, and pirate bandanas to help us be ready for Pirate night. And from the first time we met him, he remembered all of our names and always asked us about our day and if we enjoyed ourselves.

Our stateroom:

We had an AMAZING stateroom! We'd researched a ton on this room and could find very little actual information on it. It was room number 5018. It was a handicap accessible room, so it was laid out very different then many of the other rooms, and it was huge to say the least. It was on deck 5, forward. It only had 1 very large bathroom which had a huge shower, and tons of floor space, and a very large counter, and a toilet of course. The bathroom was probably 10x10, it was just enormous. Our room had a queen sized bed, a sofa that turned into a bed, a bed that pulled out of the birth, a desk, 2 chairs, and 2, yes 2, HUGE portholes! Everyone in our family could fit into these portholes, they were so huge! A friend of ours and their family just took a cruise on this same ship, in this SAME room, and 2 of their children actually slept in the portholes, they were so huge. Anyway, I digress.... there was a significant amount of floor space in the room due to the size and layout of the room. I had heard many rooms of this similar style have a half wall in the center of the room kind of awkwardly breaking up the room, but we didn't have any such wall in our room. There was a very large closet space, and it was right down the hall from the teen club "Vibe".... where our kids spent most of their time.

Our Special Plans:

Since this was our first cruise, we decided to spend as much time as possible enjoying the ship, and the island. Our cruise docked at Nassau, and Castaway Cay. We attempted to get off at Nassau, but didn't make it very far before we turned around and got back on the ship. Castaway Cay though, we booked some fantastic excursions! We all did parasailing, even the kids. And hubby and I had a couples cabana massage that was just to die for! We got a great deal on the massage also by booking it on embarkation day while taking a tour at the Senses Spa. We originally just went in to the spa to book a mani/pedi for daughter and I, but hubby surprised me and booked the massage since he got it for the same price as if we'd done it on the ship, but we got a cabana and all.... who could pass that up?

The mani/pedi was so nice, the room had a wall of windows where we could just sit and get used to being on a ship. The sun was going down, it was a great view and such a relaxing experience. We watched a movie afterward, had dinner at Enchanted Garden, and had to convince the kids to come back to the room by 11 for bed time.

The 2nd day we were at Nassau, where we pretty much stayed on the boat. My favorite highlight from that day was being in port with some other cruise ships. We were there first, then a Carnival ship docked next to us, another ship docked on the other side of us, and the Wonder docked a little wile later on the other side of the Carnival ship. After the Wonder docked, our ship and the Wonder were blowing their horns at each other, one would start a song, the other would finish it, and back and forth they went for a good 10 minutes or so. We had a good chuckle imagining how this must make the other cruise lines green with envy as their horns only have one tone it seemed.

That night we had dinner at the Royal Palace. I loved all the princess touches!

The 3rd day was Castaway Cay. It was incredible! We rushed off the boat after breakfast to get to our couples massage, what a perfect way to start the day! The weather was perfect for our entire trip, but to just lay on that massage table and hear the ocean lapping on the beach, and the wind rustling through the trees, was just bliss! It wasn't too hot, nor too cold, just perfect for a massage in the cabana. I took lots of pictures before and after our massage too of our surroundings, one now prominently hangs on my bedroom wall so I can see it every day when I wake up.



We then headed back to the boat to pick up the kids and head off for parasailing. We were on a boat with just 2 other people who were parasailing, and the 2 people who worked on the boat. The 2 people on the ship went first, they came back down and told us it was amazing and not to worry. Then my husband and daughter went. My daughter was nervous, she's afraid of heights, but she was very brave. When they came down it was son and my turn. We went up, and it was so quiet and peaceful and calm up there. It was really not what I was expecting. I expected it to be loud, and a rush, but it was very peaceful and serene. I could see the bottom of the ocean, the water was so clear, and we had to have been over 20 foot deep water. I took tons of pictures, I didn't want it to end, but sadly it had to. When they brought us down, my husband convinced the captain to lower us close to the ocean and dip our toes in the water before bringing us back onto the boat. It was breathtaking!

We did some geocaching while on the island, had lunch at Cookie's Too, and spent the bulk of the time at Serenity Bay laying in the hammock and looking for seashells in the ocean. It was time to get back on the ship, so we headed back, stopping by the post office to mail some post cards (which took a full month to arrive, lol).

That night I took some pictures of the most amazing sunset I have ever seen in my life, and I notice every sunset.

We spent the rest of our cruise watching shows, eating, shopping, wandering the ship, and just being in love. It was a magical vacation and we can't wait to do it again... so we are going next March too!

I hope I didn't bore you, and I promise, the next report will be much sooner than this one was. Have a great day!
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Old 10-25-2014, 10:52 PM   #2
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Not boring at all! Sounds like you all had a great cruise. You almost had me smelling the salt air with your description of the Castaway Cay massage!
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Old 10-26-2014, 01:14 PM   #3
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Agree - your report isn't boring. It sounds like you had a great time. We do the same as you did - stay on the boat at Nassau, and spend the day at the beach on Castaway Cay.
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Old 10-26-2014, 07:33 PM   #4
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Thanks! We are looking forward to our next cruise though, we will be getting off at Castaway and at Grand Cayman this time. We have excursions planned for both places so I hope it turns out better than Nassau.
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Old 10-26-2014, 09:44 PM   #5
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Any port is better than Nassau!
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Old 10-27-2014, 07:18 AM   #6
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We cruised on the Wonder last year to Grand Cayman - there are lots of things to do there, and I think it has better options than Nassau (or Cozumel).
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Old 10-27-2014, 10:25 PM   #7
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Loved your report. Sounds like so much fun! Glad you were able to book another cruise to look forward to
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Old 10-29-2014, 10:10 PM   #8
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Sounds like a wonderful cruise!
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Old 10-29-2014, 11:25 PM   #9
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That was beautiful! Thank you for sharing![emoji3]


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Old 12-13-2014, 01:31 AM   #10
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I needed a little reminder of our time on the Dream and I came across your TR. Nice report - thanks for the memories!
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