Cozy3701

I see you have a power strip... was there enough outlets in your room?

If we had not brought a power strip, no. There was 1 on the desk and 1 beside the bed. Those are the only ones I saw.

Did you go to any shows besides Golden Mickeys? One of my favorite things is to do the shows every night with my family...although it does get harder to tear them away from the clubs for family time as they get older.

The Golden Mickeys is the only show that we made it to see. I really wanted to see "Villains" but time got away from me. :(

Finale

So, this brings us back to where we started. Is the Disney cruise worth the extra money. The short answer is, “yes.” But, it is a more complicated answer than just that. If you are comparing a non-suite Disney cruise to a non-suite cruise on another line, the Disney cruise is heads and shoulders better. In fact, I’m not sure it is even a fair fight. Instead, it has been my experience that the service and experience on a Disney cruise was very similar to the experience of having a suite on Norwegian. And, not surprisingly, they seemed to be about the same price.

The biggest disadvantages that I saw to Disney is that the cruise was just too short. This was my longest vacation of the year and it seemed like that as soon as I was able to unwind, we were at the end of the trip. I would have much rather have had a 7 day cruise whether it was Disney or not. Also, I really do not like the set time for dinner. I would much rather have anytime dining like on Norwegian. And, in the end, even though I missed the extra room on the Norwegian Star, that extra space would just be a tie-breaker when I'm deciding on future cruises. But, really, If I'm DCL, I'm pretty happy if the biggest complaint some guy could find was that the cruise didn't last long enough.

In my mind, the biggest advantage that Disney had is that I did not feel “nickeled and dimed” the entire trip. Nothing on a cruise ship is cheap. And, you can just look around the ship and imagine how much it costs to operate one of those massive ships. Anyone who has ever owned a boat knows that it is a hole in the water into which one pours money. Well, the Disney Dream is an 1,100 foot long hole in the water. And, common sense would tell you that the cruise line has to make money to stay in business. But, on Disney, it appeared to me that they have made the decision to make their money on the cruise fare. Even the excursion in Nassau, which I booked through the ship, was cheaper than I would have been able to book outside of the cruise line. The drinks and souvenirs on board were more reasonably priced than I expected. And, it is hard to overstate how nice it was not to have to worry about paying for soft drinks. So, at the end of the day, I felt like the total price of the trip was reflected mostly in the cost of the ticket. I did not have to worry about budgeting for so many incidentals. And, at the end of the cruise, that is one of the things that I appreciated most.

After all this, I’m not sure that I have answered my original question at all. The answer may be that it depends on what you want from the cruise. The Disney Cruise is a great vacation and I’m glad I did it. The Dream was a great ship and I hope to sail on her or her sisters again sometime soon.

Sunset as we left Castaway Cay

The last night's towel animal (and, my personal favorite)

Day 5

This was our final day. For breakfast, we were scheduled to eat at the Animator’s Palate (the same restaurant we had the night before). Everyone on the first rotation was scheduled to eat at 6:45 am and the second rotation was set for 8:15 am. The other family at our table skipped breakfast to get on the road home, so the five of us were there alone. The breakfast menu was very limited but it was nice to get one last meal before spending the rest of the day driving.

Debarkation was a breeze. We walked off the ship and downstairs where we quickly found our bags. One of the porters helped us carry the bags through customs. We were on the road driving by 8:10 am. Just like with boarding the ship, leaving was simple and painless. The worst part was that I was not ready to go home.

Day 4

Day 4 was our day on Castaway Cay. After being profoundly disappointed by Royal Palace’s breakfast, we just went to the Cabanas buffet. After that, we lounged around the ship for a bit and rode the Aquaduck a few times. Since nearly everyone else was already on the island, the wait time for the Aquaduck was only 10 minutes. The ship was not very crowded. But, there was not much on the ship that was open.

Around 11, we got off the ship to go explore Castaway Cay. If you ever wondered what it would be like if Disney ran a beach resort, Castaway Cay answers that question. As with everything Disney, there is an official back story for the island. But, the real story is easy to find with a Google search. And, I think that the real back story is way more interesting than the one that Disney created.

We first went to the family beach and the little boys played on the play area until the tide went out and they closed it. Remember that I am from Florida and used to the Gulf of Mexico feeling like a bathtub during the summer. The water at Castaway Cay was COLD! So, there was not a lot of swimming for me. After the tide went out, we went over to Pelican Plunge and the boys rode those water slides. I did not do the slides (because I was a sissy about the cold water). But, the little boys thought that they slides were great.

For lunch, we went to Cookies BBQ Everything that I had was delicious. They had burgers, hot dogs, ribs and just about anything else BBQ that you could want. Tow Mater’s Grill was my favorite restaurant on the ship. But, Cookies BBQ was even better.

Dinner that night was at Animator’s Palate. I have to admit that I was extremely disappointed. I had read about the interactive experience with Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo) and I was so looking forward to seeing this for myself. But, our table was in the middle of the room. And, it was so loud in the dining room that it was very difficult to hear anything that Crush was saying. Also, I had heard about the staff asking everyone to draw a character that would then be shown to the rest of the room. But, it turns out that they only do that on the Fantasy.

It may have been that I was already cranky, but the meal that night was only average. I had the tuna steak. But, the steak was a lot thinner than I like it. It was done well and had a good taste. But, it was just not nearly as good as I had expected.

Day 3

The third day was our first port. We spent the day in Nassau.

When getting ready for this trip, I was looking for a review of the Disney excursions and was disappointed that I could not really find any reviews. So, I am going to post a separate review of the Catamaran Sail and Snorkel excursion on the Nassau page.

After we got back on the ship, it was Pirate Night. We had just eaten a really big lunch late at about 2:30. So, none of us were hungry at our 5:45 dinner time. So, we skipped dinner that night and just ordered late night room service. We did make it to the Mickey’s Pirates in the Caribbean party (in full pirate attire). It was a fun party out on the pool deck.

Ready for Pirate Night

Later in the night, there was another pirate party with Captain Jack Sparrow. After that, there were fireworks shot from the basketball court. I'm not ashamed to say that between the snorkeling, Nassau rum punch and fun of the first pirate party, I did not make to any of the other events. That will just have to be things that I make a point of seeing on the next cruise.

With the main Mouse himself

Cinderella

Stern

Aquaduck at night

In looking at my Photobucket page, I realize that I have already forgotten several pictures that I meant to add to the review. So, I'm going to hit a tangent and just post a few pictures.

The first night's towel animal

People waving good-bye as we leave port

Sunset over Cape Canaveral

Sail away party

Chandelier in the Grand Atrium

Day 2

Day 2 was Christmas Day. After the boys found their stockings and opened presents, we went down to the Royal Palace for breakfast. We were told at dinner the night before that the Royal Palace served a sit down breakfast with a menu. On this point, I am going to give Norwegian a huge win. When we were on that cruise, the suite passengers were able to have breakfast at the Moderno steak house. This was the best meal of the day – everyday. Because there were only a small number of passengers, we got to know the wait staff and they went out of their way to make breakfast great. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and I love breakfast food at any time. But, I was highly disappointed in the Disney breakfast. Even at Royal Palace, the breakfast food was highly disappointing.

This day was a sea day. After breakfast, the little boys went straight to the Oceaneer Club and DS1 went to Edge. So, DW and I went to the front of the ship to the adults only pool to hang out for a bit. It turned out to be a nice day to sit in the sunshine. The Captain was taking his time to get to Nassau and we were only travelling at around 8 knots. This was nice because the wind was not as bad as when the ship is going 16-17 knots. I’m a Florida native so 75 degrees was a little chilly for me to get in the pool. But, the deck chair worked nicely and allowed me to start writing this post. And, as the day wore on, the wind got stronger. It was blowing so hard that they had to shut down the Aquaduck.

Here is another point where I give Disney a big win. I never had trouble finding a chair at the pool. I might not have been able to get the one I wanted. But, there were always seats available. On Norwegian, it was not unusual for all the chairs to have towels laid on them. But, Disney seems to have figured out the answer to that problem. I also thought that it was a nice touch that an attendant put dry towels on the chairs whenever the chairs were vacant. It was nice to not have to worry about going to an attendant to get a beach towel.

For lunch, I went to Tow Mater’s grill. This is located on deck 12 between the family pools and the adult pools. This was my favorite restaurant on the ship. They have grilled treats like hot dogs and hamburgers. I thought that the cheeseburgers and fries were excellent.

After lunch, there was more sun time. One of the smart moves DW made was to buy a cooler of beer on the first day. For $160, we got a nice little cooler and a case of beer. All we needed to do to get ice was to go to a bar and they would fill it up for us. That case of beer lasted us for most of the trip and it was a great purchase. We were also able to take the cooler of our beer onto Castaway Cay and it kept us from having to wait for a waiter or to get up and walk to the bar.

One fun treat that day was that the Captain announced that we were going to sail past Castaway Cay where the Disney Fantasy was docked for her day at the island. The rumor on the ship was that Bob Iger (the Chairman of the Disney Company) was on the Fantasy and the Dream wanted to show off that they have the horn programmed to play “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” from Frozen and the Fantasy does not have that feature, yet. The pessimist in me hoped that we weren’t going to have another Costa Concordia incident from trying to show off. But, the pass by went without incident. It was neat to see the Fantasy at the pier and the two ships had an air horn battle. I don’t know if the Iger rumor was true or not. But, if it was, I’m sure that he was as impressed as the rest of us on the ship.

Disney Fantasy moored at Castaway Cay

Dinner that night was at the same place we had breakfast – Royal Palace. Since it was Christmas night, one of the choices was a roast turkey dinner. I thought that it was really good. The turkey was done nicely and it was served with mashed sweet potatoes and vegetables. I thought it was definitely the best dinner that I had.

That night, we had dinner at Enchanted Garden. We had the early dinner seating (5:45) and met our table mates. They were a family of 3 from North Carolina and it was great getting to know them.

The service was great. On Disney, your servers rotate to the dinner spots with you. That was a nice touch that I really liked. It gave us an opportunity to get to know the staff.

Dinner the first night was good. For an appetizer, I had an Ahi Tuna Tower. That was exceptionally good. My main course was pork tenderloins. The sauce was good but the meat needed more flavoring. So, I certainly wouldn't rave about that. For dessert, I had a caramel ice cream dish. I love caramel. So, no one will be surprised that I thought it was great.

After dinner, we searched around for a way to spend our Christmas Eve. But, the boys all three went straight to the youth and kids sections of the ship and left me and DW alone to go see one of the shows. We saw the "Golden Mickey's." It is a spoof award show that was really good.

There are so many people that talk about the Disney Cruise kids activities. Our younger boys were in the Oceaneer Club and our oldest was in the Edge teen club. The three boys were addicted to these clubs. We had to force the boys to find time in their day to have some family time. Otherwise, we would've never seen them.

And, truthfully, the kids club did look cool. They had a replica of the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars. And, every time we walked in, the kids were always doing some sort of game.

Replica of the Millennium Falcon (I wanted to play, too)

R2-D2

Unfortunately, I never went to Edge or Vibe (the teen hangout). But, my oldest son told me all about it. Constantly. So, I can tell you on good authority that it was equally as great.

My gut instinct is that the Disney Youth programs blows away everybody else's. But, here is my caveat. On Norwegian, they have very strict age limits. And, because my two youngest are 19 months apart, they got separated. And, this threw them into open rebellion. So, really, they never saw the Norwegian program. Also, they are almost 2 1/2 years older. So, I'm not sure how they'd enjoy it now. Still, I'm going to go with my gut and give Disney a huge win on the youth programs. The level of addiction that they experienced speaks for itself.

The first afternoon, we just hung out on the pool deck. The rooms weren't ready until 1:30. As I mentioned before, we had a family veranda stateroom. There was a queen size bed, couch (that turned into a bed), a bed that pulled down out of the ceiling and a bed that pulled down from the wall. The bathroom was divided into two different rooms, and I thought that was a nice touch. The only bad thing about the room is that it was a bit crowded when all the beds were pulled down for sleeping and I missed the space of the 2 room family suite on the Norwegian Star.

This is the room with all the beds stowed away

This is the room with the beds made out for sleeping

The time we spent waiting for the room was a great time for Aquaduck rides. My boys rode it 4 times that afternoon. Once the ship is fully boarded, the line can be up to 30 minutes.

Pool deck and the Aquaduck

Entry to the Aquaduck

Aquaduck going over the side of the ship

I might as well say it now. The Aquaduck is a great water slide. I rode it 4 times. It is billed as a water coaster and that is probably pushing it a bit. But, as far as water slides go, it is fantastic. It's fast with turns and several drops. It is certainly worth the wait in line.

Day 2 - Embarkation

Here, Disney deserves credit for the easiest boarding process. When you register, you can pick a time to board the ship. The bottom line is that 1 1/2 hours after arriving at the port, we were sitting on the pool deck of the Disney Dream. I can't think of anything that would've made boarding easier.

Be warned, the cruise terminal at Port Canaveral will be packed. I mean jam packed. But, the intimidating lines move fast. And, you can get pictures with a character or register for kids programs to help pass the time.

I love the model of the ship (Goofy was posing for pictures on the other side of the model)

The Dream seen from the observation deck of the cruise terminal

Boarding the Dream is everything it is built up to be. An officer announces your family name and you step on the ship to a round of applause. That's a very nice touch. Once we boarded, Belle was doing meet and greets so, we got pictures with her.

There are character meetings everywhere on the ship. And, there are better opportunities than at the parks. At the parks, there is an hour wait for Mickey. We got to Mickey within 10 minutes.

The boys with Admiral Donald

And with Belle

More Space Center photos

Space Shuttle Atlantis

Moon buggy

The launch control room from the Apollo era

Vehicle Assembly Building

Day 1

It is easy to forget how big Florida is. We live in Florida, but in extreme NW Florida. So, it took us right at 8 1/2 hours to drive to Cape Canaveral. We drove down 2 days before the cruise and stayed at the Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach. I travel for work a lot and was able to use points to get both nights free. So, this hotel was definitely worth the price. But, honestly, it was a solid hotel that is only 10-15 minutes from the port. I would highly recommend it.

Sunrise over Cocoa Beach

The first full day of our trip was spent at the Kennedy Space Center. It is not a cheap excursion. My wife is a teacher and she got in free. But, it was still almost $200 for the rest of us to get in.

Fountain at the entry to the Space Center

Still, you should add a day to your trip and plan to tour the Space Center. The Space Shuttle Atlantis display is amazing. The Saturn V pavilion is a great tribute to the Apollo program. But, the best part is that we left with 3 little boys all declaring that they want to be Astronauts when they grow up.

The service arm used by Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to board Apollo 11

Rocket Garden

Apollo era Astronaut van

Hello. I love reading these boards but I’ve never written a significant post. If I were on talk radio, I guess I would have to say, “first time long time.” So, here goes my first effort.

On the Disney page, it seems like there is one question asked over and over. Is it worth the money? So, I thought I would do a combined review and comparison to give my very narrow answer to this question.

First, let me give you a little background. I just finished a Christmas cruise on the Disney Dream. In fact, it is Christmas Day somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean as I am writing the first draft of the post. We left Port Canaveral on Christmas Eve and had stops at Nassau and Castaway Cay.

We are a family of 5. I'm 45, DW is 42, DS1 is 13, DS2 is 9 and DS3 is 8. And, we are not avid cruisers. This is only my third cruise. The first was a Carnival cruise that was miserable for reasons that had nothing to do with anything Carnival did or did not do. So, for the purposes of this post, that first cruise doesn't count.

Our second cruise was on the Norwegian Star where we lived the Suite life for a 7 day Western Caribbean Cruise. That cruise is my primary comparison. It may not be cool to talk about prices. But, that cruise (which left New Orleans on Super Bowl Sunday) was a bargain. The 5 of us got a 2 bedroom family suite for around $5,500. We visited Costa Maya, Belize City, Roatan and Cozumel. And, it was amazing. I loved everything about that cruise.

But, I've discovered that people that love Disney think that all other cruise lines suck. So, I boarded the Disney Dream curious to see if Disney could live up to the hype. This cruise cost the 5 of us was around $7,500 for a family veranda cabin. So, right out of the blocks it was significantly more expensive than the Norwegian 7 day suite.

Here's my thought on price. If you take out the fact that our Disney Cruise is over Christmas and our Norwegian cruise was at a time that they were trying to fill the ship, they are basically the same price. So, the question then becomes whether a 4 day Disney Cruise is better than a 7 day Norwegian cruise in a suite.

As I tell you about our Disney Cruise, I hope to answer that question.

In Belize, cave tubing is very popular. You'll find lots of companies on line and they will all tell you that they are better than the others. We used cavetubing.bz and had a blast. They take you to the owner's house for lunch and rum punch. I took my boys (ages 10, 6 & 5). The staff was great. Very friendly and very knowledgeable.