Disney Dream 2018

After checking out of our room at Pop Century, we drove from WDW to Port Canaveral, parked, and checked in for our cruise. Our boarding group number had already been called, so we were able get right on the ship without having to wait around the terminal!

Shirt of the day!

Yes, I brought all of these with me!

These shirts received the most
compliments from cast members!

#LoveIsAnOpenDoor
#ArrestedDevelopment

Last summer, I was so fortunate to go on a cruise on the Disney Dream with my mom, which completed my "grand slam" of cruising on all four Disney ships. However, C had yet to go on the Dream, so I actually booked this cruise while I was on the ship last August. On our previous three cruises – as well as the cruise with my mom – we've been spoiled with a verandah room, but as you might imagine, they are on the pricey side. So for this cruise, we decided to try an inside room – one with no window to the outdoors. To be honest, I was worried that I would not like it. One, I absolutely love the verandah rooms and being able to look out at the ocean for hours at a time, and two, I thought I might feel somewhat claustrophobic without any exterior views.

However, I loved it! LOVED it! Totally unexpected! I definitely attribute much of that to the room set up; as the pictures show, the bed was against the wall opposite the door, and that helped to maximize the space in the small room. But the BEST thing about the room was the Magic Porthole! During the day, it offered a view of whatever was happening outside the ship via a live camera feed and at night, it was animated – dark sky with stars. Just that alone would have been noteworthy, but it gets better. A few times per hour, some animated characters came across the screen and it was ADORABLE! There didn't seem to be a precise schedule, so if we had the porthole turned on and the pixie dust appeared, I tried to grab my phone to record the magic, which sometimes worked out and sometimes did not! I uploaded some video clips down at the bottom of this post to give you a sense of how cute this is! There were many others I was not able to record in time, but you get the idea! And whenever we needed a fix, we went to one of the outside decks and admired the ocean and the sky. Maybe not as convenient as simply stepping out onto our own verandah, but just as beautiful – and the awesomeness of the Magic Porthole coupled with the much more affordable price more than made up for it!

Our door magnets!
#Up
#Neverland
#San Fransokyo

The ship is stunning. That's all I can say. It was nice to have been on the Dream previously, so some of it felt familiar, but there were still many things that I hadn't discovered last summer! As with the other three ships, the Dream has a variety of horns that are Disney tunes: Be Our Guest; A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes; Do You Want to Build a Snowman?; It's a Small World; Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me); and the call and answer of When You Wish Upon a Star and Makes No Difference Who You Are. Love them!

After grabbing some lunch at Cabana's, we visited the kids' club because they offer an open house period before the ship sails just so I could go and take a picture of Slinky.  With the impending opening of Slinky Dog Dash at WDW, it seems like everyone is suddenly all about Slinky! This is not a bad thing…Dachshunds are awesome and to me, Slinky is the real hero of Toy Story! And then they get a real Dachshund, Buster! And in Toy Story 3, it seems like everyone cries at the end when Andy gives away his toys, but I always lose it long before then when the toys are in the incinerator and believe they are about to die and Woody and Slinky hold hands. I.cannot.handle.it. My family has had a total of 12 Dachshunds, with our first being Muggsi, who joined our family in June of 1995. Then Toy Story came out in November 1995. Pretty convenient coincidence for my Dachshund-loving family! I've always felt like Slinky has been underrepresented in the American Disney Parks (meanwhile there's Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin in Disneyland Paris and we spotted Slinky in severalplaces in Tokyo Disneyland), so I'm glad to see Slinky finally getting the attention he deserves! I love Slinky!

This was a five-night cruise with two stops at Castaway Cay and one stop in Nassau. We really enjoyed both days at Castaway Cay…what a beautiful place! We did not get off the ship in Nassau because it is so fabulous to be on the ship while many people are not! On the second day we spent at Castaway Cay, we were riding the tram to the adult section of the island and my beach hat blew away and onto the road. I watched it grow smaller and smaller in the distance and dreaded the long walk that would be required in order to get it back. Turns out that wasn't necessary because a cast member took a golf cart, retrieved my hat, and brought it to me as I was getting off the tram! How amazing was that?!?

We only ate in the on-board restaurants on two of the five nights – just the nights we were scheduled for Animator's Palate. There's nothing wrong with the other two restaurants, but we just preferred to hang out and get room service! Plus, there's snacks available pretty much whenever you want, so we just didn’t feel like formal sit-down dinners most of the time! The first dinner at Animator's Palate was themed around Crush, the sea turtle from Finding Nemo and the second dinner was on Pirate Night, so everything was pirate-themed. Both were so fun!

The entertainment options on the ship are almost endless. There are lots of characters around the ship; Disney and Pixar movies on the TV in the rooms, in the theaters, and on FunnelVision; karaoke, trivia, bingo, comedians, magicians, fireworks, musicians…the list goes on and on. We watched several movies in our room, saw Solo and The Incredibles 2 for the second time each, and enjoyed various performances throughout the cruise. The highlight, however, was Ultimate Disney Trivia. Why? Because I WON! And it was SUPER hard! I only got 13 out of 20 correct – and that should tell you something! You may recall how I was ROBBED on the Fantasy last year – and no, I am not over it! – so I was determined to win this trivia game! A few of the other people also seemed to be pretty serious Disney fans, which made for a pretty tense event. A proud day for a nerd with a lot of random and obscure Disney trivia rattling around her brain!

On our last night, we hung out at Pink, which is a wine and champagne bar. For about 45 minutes, we were the only people in there, and the amazing violinist was performing. It was so perfect!

We were certainly sad to leave such a beautiful ship, but we were anxious to get home to Ginny! We already have another cruise booked…next June on the Disney Wonder to Alaska to celebrate my mom's 70^th birthday! There will be ten of us going together, including C's parents! (Yes, we ARE those awesome weirdoes…everyone gets along and genuinely loves each other and there's no "in-law" business…we're all just one big family!)

I'll end with the clips from the Magic Porthole! Magical indeed!!! I wish I could have uploaded more of the ones I have, but some of the clips were too long!

Happy Tails to you!