A Hop, NO Skip and Many Mishaps to a Disney Dream

[jenseib]

I went to take pictures of the other bathroom, the one with the toilet, but the light didn’t work. I called about it and they said they would send someone to fix it. It was working when we came back later. I don’t think I ever did end up taking pictures of that side then…but maybe I’ll find them later if I did.

[jenseib]

Obviously by the time on the clock, I didn’t take this picture when we were in the room at that time. I must’ve taken it the next day. It was on the waterproof camera. I have no clue why I used it for this, except maybe testing it out.

[metairiegal]

Best trip report ever!! :)

[cruzelovr]

Great report. Hoping to do the Dream in 2012.

[jenseib]

Best trip report ever!! :)

 

Great report. Hoping to do the Dream in 2012.

 

 

Thanks!! :p

[jenseib]

We unpacked a bit from what we had in the room with us so far. Claire and I decorated our door with magnets. I put out our Fish Extender.

Sadly I don’t think I ever took a picture of our door with the magnets or fish extender.

I took a look at the Navigator and saw that the Port shopping talk was going to start soon. I told Mom that we were going to go see it and she wanted to come as well. We looked on our ship map to see where The Buena Vista Theatre was, and made our way there.

I took a few shots as we passed the Atrium again.

And another shot. I just couldn’t stop taking pictures of it.

[jenseib]

On our way again!

I have no clue where this was….or what it was, but it looks pretty…even though I took it crooked.

We entered The Buena Vista Theatre from the top level on deck 5. But they had all the handouts at the deck 4 entrance, so I went back and picked those flyers up.

[jenseib]

Evidently I have bad balance or I am lopsided…here’s another crooked picture.

Soon Whitney started. She talked a lot about where to find jewelry. We oohed and ahhed. She would through out freebies, but honestly she mostly handed them to the same people in the front row. I was getting a little sleepy. Evidently Whitney has a soothing voice. I was actually starting to nod off and would catch myself. I didn’t think I could last much longer. I moved around in my seat and tried to stay awake, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I looked at Claire and she looked bored to tears…my escape! LOL! I asked her if she had to go potty and she said yes, very badly. I told Mom we were leaving and I was taking Claire potty and we would meet up with her later.

Once I got moving I felt back to normal. In search of a bathroom we came across Chip and Dale roaming around. This was not an actual meet and greet and it was hard to get a picture with them, as they just kept moving along. I actually didn’t like this. So many people would crowd the characters and try for a picture (who wouldn’t?) and it made it a little less magical to me.

Some kids were able to snag an autograph so Claire got her book out, but they never did sign hers.

I was able to take a very quick shot of Claire with Dale though. It was hard though as people were crowding and I just lifted the camera and snapped.

We then asked a nearby CM where the nearest bathroom was. He directed us and off we went. Now this may sound funny…but WOW. The bathrooms are so cool on the ship!

[jenseib]

We headed out and decided to work our way back to the room.

We went through the Atrium and I took a couple of shots of the elevator.

We saw Goofy and Pluto out for meet and greets. Claire decided to get in line for Pluto.

[jenseib]

The line wasn’t too long at all.

Pluto played a little with Claire.

[jenseib]

Claire decided she did not want to wait for Goofy. We headed up to the top. I wanted to see what the rain situation was. …Still raining. I did take a few shots between raindrops though.

I got my first look at the AquaDuck!

[jenseib]

And the cute Mickey Slide

We then headed back to the room where we met Mom. Another one of my bags had been delivered. Mom said she had seen us in the Atrium and had hollered, but we never heard her.

The Muster drill had been delayed to 4:30. Mom said she had heard someone Knock and run away while we were gone. So we took a look at our Fish Extender, and sure enough we had a treat! Claire was very excited. We decided to make our deliveries then as well.

We took our bag and list an went on our way while Mom stayed in the room.

One thing to remember while doing this…bring a pen! I didn’t and then I couldn’t mark off who we had delivered to and it made it a bit confusing. Another note, don’t use cheap dollar store bags to fill. Mine were ripping apart as I pulled each one out.

I was amazed at how long the hallways were. We just kept walking and walking and walking, and you would think you were at the end then it would do a little jog over and it would be just as long again. This ship was HUGE!

We made all the deliveries. One room did not have their FE out yet, and I set the bag on the floor next to the room. I hope they did get it.

This is some of the stuff I put in the bag. I added a few more small things after I had taken this picture.

We headed back to the room and decided to head down to Evolutions for the Muster Drill. As we opened the door there was someone standing there. It was lilliansmommy, Kelly and her DD Lilly, passing out their FE gifts. We said a quick hi and she even remembered that Mom was taking Skip’s place. She was really nice and Lilly was a doll. And she had on one of the same dresses I had brought along on the trip for Claire too.

After our little meet, we all headed down to Evolutions. This was the one and only time I ever went in there, but it looked like a neat place.

We found a seat and waited. We had to listen to instructions and what to do in an emergency, etc. They had to check off everyone s name. We then found out that they were still waiting for more people to board the ship yet. Because of the storms many planes were delayed and so they were holding off on sailing till they got there. I assume because they had Disney transportation is why we waited. We also found out that the wind had been so strong at one point during the day that many passengers had to board on deck 1 (right off the dock) because it was not safe to go in the gateway. I actually heard a few people grumble about it here and there, so I guess it was not a very magical experience.

Again, there was a lot of sitting and I had to fight to stay awake a few times. Once they got going I was back awake again. And they played the emergency tone of the horn, and that would wake anyone up!

Once we finished up there we were free to go. The Sail Away party was now scheduled for 5 in the Atrium. We decided to head that way and get a spot.

[pcrum]

Love all the photos. Was the gifts in the FE something your roll call came up with or is it something that is customary with DCL sailings? What a neat idea, especially with little kids.

 

Looking forward to the rest!

[jenseib]

Love all the photos. Was the gifts in the FE something your roll call came up with or is it something that is customary with DCL sailings? What a neat idea, especially with little kids.

 

Looking forward to the rest!

 

Fish Extenders are very common on the Disbaords. I joined a roll call group for my sailing date there and then we had a bout 13 of us doing the FE exchange. I'm not sure if other boards do them or not, but I know that many other boards are aware of them. I think DCL is the only cruise line I have read of this being done on.

I debated on doing it. But in the end, I knew that it would be something Claire would enjoy. And DID she. She was excited to look in it each time we came back to the room to see if another prize was in there.

[DeMom]

What a great review!! Thank you for sharing with us.

MORE, MORE, MORE;):D

[uziel5000]

Jen since you are doing such a great job with this detailed review, (not to mention the food review which was awesome) I thought I'd help you fix those crooked pics you posted.

 

 

[jenseib]

What a great review!! Thank you for sharing with us.

MORE, MORE, MORE;):D

 

OK! :p

 

Jen since you are doing such a great job with this detailed review, (not to mention the food review which was awesome) I thought I'd help you fix those crooked pics you posted.

 

 

 

Thanks. It's funny you did that. I just took out my photoshop book today and figured out how to do it too.

[jenseib]

We entered the Atrium on the 3rd level and decided to just stand against the railing there. Claire kind of complained that she wouldn’t be able to see the stage, but I had a feeling that many of the characters were going to be on the 2nd level, and I was right!

Of course while you wait for the show to start, you take some random shots!

This carpet was on the 2nd tier balcony. This is where I figured part of the show would be as they had it roped off.

And trying for some artsy shot of the chandelier, but again, I am slightly crooked.

[jenseib]

OH!! And I had that update written out and pictures edited and loaded before I learned to fix the crooked pictures!

[jenseib]

More details around the stairs and balconies.

I spotted Kelly and Lily in the crowd on the main floor and took a couple of shots of them as well. I won’t post those here though.

Soon the show started. I did take some video of it as well…and we all know that that card is sadly lost in Wonderland somewhere.

A CM had gone around and handed out shaker sticks with little Pom Poms on the end. We got blue.

[jenseib]

[jenseib]

Daisy was right below us!

[jenseib]

The party was fun, though I suspect it was either altered and/or shortened.

They had a countdown during the song and then the ships horn plays. I believe it played “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes”. It was so exciting to hear the horn.

We had a good time.

We then made our way back to our room to get changed. One tip I give you. The elevators are always jammed packed after any kind of party. So if you are going down, take the stairs! That’s what we did anytime we had to go down a couple decks…..going up is a little harder on the body though.

[DisneyKidsDad]

We need more!! :(

[jenseib]

Back at the room we got dressed in our nicer clothes to get ready to go to the early show. Claire was wearing her Rapunzel dress. We also brought along a hair piece to wear with a long braid. I put it on Claire’s head and pinned it on…..ow.ow.ow! She said it hurt too much. Now when we bought this, I had asked over and over, “are you sure it doesn’t hurt? You are going to wear it right?” And she said it felt fine and yes she would wear it. Well she didn’t. I wasn’t going to have her complain about pain all evening so I just put it back in the bag….BUT she WILL be Rapunzel for Halloween and she WILL wear that braid thing! LOL!

I called Skip one last time. We still hadn’t set sail, (still waiting for 1 more bus) but I knew we would be soon. We said our goodbyes and then I pulled the camera out and took a few more shots from the verandah.

I bet this would be pretty on a sunny day.

Now the memory is a little fuzzy and I didn’t write this down. I must’ve left the room for some reason. I have several pictures and I remember taking them and being by myself when doing so. So I must’ve just gone for a quick walk, or went to get something that I now can’t remember. The order of the pictures make no since as to why I did this at this time, but I guess I did for some good reason! LOL!

AH HA!!!!! It just hit me! I hadn’t received tickets for our shore excursion for the next day in our room. So I ran down to Guest Services to see if I needed them and they reprinted them for me and said they should’ve been in my room and the originals probably would show up by the end of the night. They never did show up though.

This is behind the Guest Services desk.