My Photo Trip Review of the 4-30-11 Sailing of the Dream and our Vacation

[TeknikDC2]

Hello Everyone. I'm back with another one of my photo filled, very in depth recap of our recent cruise to the Western Caribbean aboard the Carnival Dream.

 

We had a wonderful vacation and were very sad to see it come to an end. The Dream was incredible and we loved every minute of our sailing. As with all my trips and reviews we never seem to be able to do only a cruise. We also spend a day at Epcot at Disney World on this trip as well as 5 days in Charleston, SC visiting my parents after the Cruise.

 

*Please take note now that I will cover MY ENTIRE VACATION in this review. Not only the cruise portion. I do this not only for my own record but to give pre or post cruise ideas to those who may be sailing out of Port Canaveral, Tampa, Charleston, or any other Port that may be located near these locations. To assist with this the Trip Recap will have 3 portions so to speak. Day 1 and 2 will cover our Orlando visit, Days 3-10 will be the Cruise portion of the trip, and Days 11-15 is our time in the Charleston area. I you'd like to get an idea of how I write my reviews please feel free to click the links to my past Cruise reviews located in my signature.*

 

Those you will see in this recap will be myself Jeff (28) and my wife Kiera (23). Our past two cruises we sailed with friends but this time we were on our own. Also at the end of the review you will see most of my family.

 

 

There really wasn't much of a reason for this trip. We were planning on going to see my parents who recently moved to South Carolina anyways. After missing most of our ports on the Legend last October we recieved a 20% discount off a future cruise. So with how expensive airfare is getting we decided to make the most of our visit back east as we could. And with Port Canaveral being only a 5 hour drive from my parents we decided to use our discount for the Dream and do a Do-Over cruise on to the Western Caribbean.

 

This vacation became even more special to us as we found out in Febuary (we booked the cruise in November) that my wife is expecting our first child this coming September. So this trip was kind of our final go while its still just the two of us.

 

Anyways the photos are uploading now for the Day 1 review so I hope to have that posted at somepoint later tonight. Thanks everyone for the support you give me in writting these reviews. Its what helps me push thru to get them done.

[boaterette]

Yeah. I love your reviews. Congratulations on your upcoming first child. That is awesome. Looking forward to more posts.

[crusin4funtimes]

First of all CONGRATIONS to you and your wife! How exciting!!!!:)

 

Looking forward to you review, my parents too live in SC (Bluffton, near Hilton Head) and I love going to Charlenston and Savannah(they are only twenty minutes from Georgia) so I am looking forward to that part of the report as well. Loved your last review, even though I am not a Harry Potter fan....gasp:eek::D! It was fun to read!

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

Congratulations to you & your wife! Looking forward to reading this review & seeing the pictures - I'm sailing the Dream for a second time next month! :)

[AndrewD65]

Yes I love your reviews I have read every one of them, and they keep me on the edge of my seat wanting more and more. I also want to send out a Congrats to you and your wife on your first expected child.

[mcampb2811]

Hello Everyone. I'm back with another one of my photo filled, very in depth recap of our recent cruise to the Western Caribbean aboard the Carnival Dream...

 

Hi Teknik, we were on the same sailing. I am looking forward to your review. I wish we were back onboard again :)

[Catrin]

Looking forward to your review.... we are heading on the Dream Western in August...

and EPCOT is my HAPPY PLACE!!

 

Congrats too!

Catrin

[islandwannabee]

Your reviews are right up there with my favorite book!! Let the reading begin and thank you in advance for taking the time to do this.

 

Cindy

[Elmo31]

I cant wait to read more. We will be on the dream in october. I love reading everything i can about the ship as it seems to help my countdown clock move quicker:)

[TeknikDC2]

Day 1: Travel to Orlando

 

This vacation started out quit differently then our past two Cruises/Vacations. In alot of ways our past two cruises had a lot in common with each other. Both we traveled with friends, we visited the Universal Orlando Resort prior to the cruise, and we had very early flights so that we could get to Florida as soon as possible. All that changed with this trip.

 

The original plan was to fly into Orlando the day before the cruise. Spend the night in Orlando and then drive to the Cruise Terminal in Port Canaveral the following morning. While looking at airfare though we found it to be much cheaper (as in savings over $150 a person) to fly in Thursday instead of Friday. However that much cheaper flight wasn't in the morning like our past flights had been. Instead it was in the afternoon.

 

Although we wouldn't be getting to Orlando as early as we would have liked it was actually nice to have a later flight for once. We got to sleep in for a little bit before we had to leave and also had time to grab some breakfast before arriving to the airport. After a good Subway breakfast we dropped my car off at Kieras parents house where her aunt meet us to drive to Salt Lake International Airport.

 

I was very suprised how quickly we got our bags checked in and thru security. Its not as busy as it normally is early in the morning when we fly. We got to the airport around 11am to catch our 12:55pm flight. By 11:30 we were in the terminal waiting outside our gate. With an hour still to kill Kiera played around on our Netbook while I browsed the web on my Mytouch.

 

 

Before long our plane was at the gate and we were lining up to get on our Southwest flight to New Mexico where our layover would be before continuing on to Florida. We were soon saying goodbye to Salt Lake City and our vacation was beginning.

 

 

Those who have followed my reviews in the past know that I typically try to take alot of photos in the air from the plane. Unfortunatly you won't see much of that this time. With Kiera being pregnant she needed to sit in an isle seat. So with the exception of having an empty seat next to us on our flight to New Mexico we never actually sat next to a window on any of our flights.

 

The plane soon took off and we were on our way. The Utah mountains were very pretty as they are still snowcapped from our winter. I love our mountains here and they are very pretty from the air. It was kinda sad to see them slowly get smaller and smaller until we were over the New Mexican desert.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

The flight into albuquerque from salt lake is pretty short. The flight only took around an hour and a half. It worked out perfect as we were starting to get hungry. With the plane on the ground we unboarded and the search was on for food.

 

 

We soon found the Food Court and I decided to get Panda Express while Kiera got a Burrito from a Mexican Grill. We have a little tradition where we will get a Strawberry and Creame Frappichino from Starbucks wherever we layover at on our flights. However to our suprise there was no Starbucks to be found ANYWHERE in the terminal. We were shocked. I mean even Utah has Starbucks in our airport. Oh well. We figured we would just get it on our way home.

 

We made our way to our next gate where we would soon be boarding our connecting flight to Orlando only to find another suprise. High School kids. Lots of them. Everywhere. Seriously enough that they probably made up half of our flight. They were from a local high school heading to Orlando for the World Championship DECA competition or something like that. And judging by there shirts with some Harry Potter quotes to my jealousy it sounded like they would be paying a visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter while they were there. Oh well I already made my visit. I had Disney to look forward to anyways.

 

 

The flight was soon boarding and we found ourselves waiting in line amoungst all the High School kids. Funny enough the High School kids were subjected to random ID checks by TSA agents. I found it even funnier when a TSA agent asked to see my ID assuming I was high school kid part of the group. I just laughed. I guess I should consider that a complement.

 

We found our seats very far forward in the cabin which would be very nice for when the ship landed. It was also nice being at the opposite end of the Plane from all the High School kids. The flight to Orlando would take around 3 1/2 hours so Kiera and I watched the movie Juno on the netbook to kill the time. I gotta say the flight attendant staff on this flight were incredible. By far the best flight staff I've ever flown with. They were so helpful and to make it better they were Very, Very funny.

 

This Flight Staff even did what I considerd one of the greatest things we got to be a part of on our trip. There was a small child celebrating his Birthday on this flight. To celebrate the Flight attendant made him a birthday crown out of peanuts and cocktail swords. She also made him a birthday "cake" out the swords and a roll of toilet paper. She had the young boy come to the front of the plan where the cabin lights were dimmed and we all sang happy birthday dinging the flight attendant buttons as the kid walked back to his seat. It was so awesome. I have never experianced something so cool and sweet while traveling on a Plane. It was such a neat experiance that i'm sure the kid will never forget.

 

[TeknikDC2]

Our flight soon landed in Orlando ahead of schedule. Because of the seats we choose on the flight we were able to get of the plane very quickly to make our way to the baggage claim. We wanted to get our rental car and get to our hotel quickly so we could get as much rest as we could for our busy day at Epcot the next morning. I also hoped to look at some of the theme park stores located within the airport as I was under the empression that they closed at 10pm. This was not the case though as they all close by 9pm. At the baggage claim it took forever but we were finally able to retreve our two bags that we checked in.

 

 

With our bags in our hands we made our way down to the rental car pickup area. I had reserved a sub-compact car from Budget since it would just be Kiera and I. Plus with the longer drive to Port Canaveral I figured it'd get the best gas mileage as well. The line for Budget was the longest of all the Rental Car agencies. But it didn't seem like it would take a long time. Especially since we would be waiting in lines at one of the busiest theme parks in the world and going on a ship that many people claim has very long buffet lines. Little did I know the longest line we would wait in the ENTIRE trip would be this line for the rental car. I waited in this line for nearly 50 minutes before it was my turn. I don't know what was going on. But they only had like 4 people working (dispite seeing 3 people standing around and 2 opening and closing randomly). It was frustrating but as I work retail I can understand sometimes. Once I got to the podium I was able to get checked in and handed our rental information very quickly and we were on our way to the garage to retrive our little Chevy Aveo.

 

Now that it was past 11pm we were starving again. We got the rental car loaded up and on our way out of the airport. After passing the few tolls that you have to go thru (don't forget your quarters) we decided to exit onto International Drive to try and find dinner. We finally decided on just grabbing Burger King drive thru so we could make our way to our hotel that was still 15 miles away located just west of Disney World. While we were on I-Drive though I couldn't help but drive past the Universal Orlando Resort where we could catch a minor glimpse of Hogwarts and some of the parks other attractions. It was kinda sad to think that after two prior visits that we wouldn't be going to the Universal parks on this trip. I almost felt like I was cheating on them. However with Kiera being Pregant I couldn't justify spending so much money for her being able to do pretty much nothing (Epcot is VERY pregnant friendly).

 

We soon arrived at our Hotel the Baymont Inn and Suites Celebration. I booked it thru Hotwire.com for only $45 a night. We were able to check in quickly and soon made our way to our 4th floor room. The hotel is pretty nice and for the price we were very happy with it when we saw our room.

 

Needless to say we were very beat from a long day of traveling. It was now nearly 1am and since we wanted to be at Epcot by park opening at 9am we quickly retired to bed. We have a huge day ahead of us. I get to make by Disney World return. The first time for me since 1994 and 1997 for Kiera.

[LBumb]

great start, ready for more

[star453]

Great start to the review:)

Congrats to you and your DW:D

[jre2505]

Awesome! Most definitely subscribing to this one... Cruisin' on the Carnival DREAM next Saturdayyyyy!

[jackdis]

Great review. Can't wait for more. We were on the Dream in February.

 

Congrats!!!!!!

[TeknikDC2]

Thanks for all the replys and Congrats everyone. Kiera and I are very excited to be welcoming a child into our lives. And also thanks to all those who will be following the review. The photos are uploaded and i'm just typing up the Day 2 portion of this recap right now. I hope to have it posted within a couple of hours so watch for it soon.

[hayesktrm]

Hurry!!:). Great review so far and can't wait for more. Congrats to you both!

[Rockypoint]

This is great, I was just getting ready to post a question on what to do prior to our Dream cruise. We are flying in on Wednesday and planning ot spend two days at Universal before the cruise. I had no idea on what to do for transportation. Thanks to your review, we will be renting a car. Can't wait to read more!

[rtw68]

Awesome start to your review!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed your previous review.

 

Looking forward to more as we cruise on Dream this December. :D

 

Congrats to you and DW! :)

[TeknikDC2]

Day 2: Epcot

 

The morning came quick. We didn't get much sleep. But with the Alarms sounding we knew we had to get up to make the most of our day. Because today we would be making our return to a Disney World park. We would be going to Epcot.

 

Epcot was scheduled to open today at 9am. After getting up and ready we were leaving the Hotel room at around 8:15am. However we still needed to get breakfast. Which lucky for us the Baymont Inn that we stayed in offered a free complementry breakfast to guests of the hotel. So we made our way down to the breakfast area to find an assortment of breakfast items such as Waffles, Muffins, Toast, Bagles, Cereal, and Juices. Its a good thing the breakfast was free because it was nothing to write home about. All the "warm" type items were cold and just weren't all that great. Even the juice didn't taist quite right. But as I said it was free so I shouldn't complain. This was also the day of the Royal Wedding in England and so they had that playing on the lobby TV.

 

Our hotel room brochers advertised that we would be able to buy Disney park tickets at the Hotel. So before we left we swung by the Ticket desk to see if they were the same price as the gate. Of course they wouldn't be though. They cost $5 more per ticket. Unless of course we did a timeshare presentation thing. They did all they could to try and rope us into it. Yeah it would have been a nice savings but we didn't have time and the lady told us you had to be 28 (I was still 27 at the time) to partcipate in it. They then tried ropping us into doing it the next day when we would be leaving for the Cruise and couldn't understand why we couldn't swing by before we leave Orlando. Urg it gets annoying. Its something I might have considered had we had more time but it just wasn't going to happen this trip. So unfortunatly for the Ticket Counter people we left the both empty handed and would buy our tickets at the park.

 

I was actually pretty suprised when we got in our car, punched in Epcot to my phones GPS, and left at how close Epcot was to us. The drive only took about 10 minutes to make. And 3/4 of the time we were on Disney property. If you've followed my last couple of reviews you know that We have visited the Disney property both trips as we spent and evening each time at Downtown Disney. However this was our first time since the mid to late 90's that we had visited a Disney Theme Park. Ether way though whenever you enter Disney property there is a huge gateway indicating your at Disney World. Its always so wonderful to see that sign and knowing your at one of the happiest places on earth.

 

 

On the way to Epcot we would pass by the enterance to the Hollywood Studios. And we could see the Tower of Terror off in the distance. Although we didn't go to this park it gets us excited to return and do a full Disney vacation someday.

 

 

Before long we were pulling into the Epcot Parking lot. Wow what an amazing sight to turn the corner and see the huge white Sphere that stands as Epcots Icon and houses the ride Spaceship Earth in front of us. It was exactly as I remembered it being as a kid.

 

 

After parking we made our way to the ticket stands. It was now 8:50am and the park would be opening very soon. To my suprise there was no wait for our tickets and $170 later our tickets were in hand and we could enter the park. We walked thru the gates and could see Spaceship Earth in all its glory. In front of it would be a series of Toy Story 3 themed Topiarys. We just so happened to visit the park while the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival was taking place so these Disney Topiarys would be scatered thruout the whole park. They were very cool and you can't help but admire the detail put into them.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

To survive the Disney crowds you have to go into the parks with somewhat of a plan. Thanks to touringplans.com I had a guide in my hand that would serve as an outline (no need to follow it to the Tee) for our day at Epcot. And if theres one thing you must know about Epcot that every single Disney Message board and touring plan recommends is..... You need to make your way to the Ride Soarin' before anything else. Not only is Soarin' the busiest, Most popular ride in Epcot. But it is also typically the buisiest ride in the entire Disney World Resort. So that would be our first thing to do for the day.

 

[TeknikDC2]

Before I proceed further alot of people wonder how Kiera was able to enjoy the park being Pregnant. Epcot is a very Pregnant friendly park. Although that Magic Kingdom park technically had more rides the Kiera could go on, Epcot had the least amount of rides she would have to miss out on. There ended up being three rides Kiera couldn't do at Epcot while Pregnant (Test Track, Mission: Space, and Sum of all Thrills) but she was able to go on and enjoy everything else the park had to offer. My only recomendation to those Pregnant girls is be prepared to walk alot. Epcot is HUGE so wear comfy shoes and drink lots of water which every food stand in the park will give you for free. Also make a note of where all the restrooms are located.

 

We made it to the Innovations courtyard just in time. A crowd was gathered but it wasn't huge. They were just about to do the rope drop. All the Disney characters were out to open the park and our day would soon begin. Once it did we followed the rest of the crowd all to the same place. The Land Pavillion where the Ride Soarin' is located.

 

 

Soarin' is indeed a very cool ride. The Ride is the exact same ride you will find at Disney's California Adventure on the West Coast. And although it doesn't have the full name yes you still "Soar" over California landmarks even in the Florida version. Most of the guides say to grab a fastpass for the ride and them come back to ride it later. However with the large crowd behind we decided to just hope in line. The wait already said 25 minutes but it was nowhere near that. Infact we think we may have been amoung the first group in theater 2 for the ride. Soarin' is basically a very mild Motion Simulator that makes you feel as if you are hang gliding over California. You will feel the wind in your face, the cool breeze of the ocean, you will also smell the Orange Groves and Pine Trees that you pass thru. The ride is a ton of fun and nowhere near extreme. Its not the best simulator ride in the world (Sorry but the Simpsons Ride at Universal claims this title) but its the best mellow simulator out there. The ride is good but not good enough for the lines it gets (it peaked at 2 hours at one point the day we were there). I wouldn't wait in line for over an hour to ride it but thats just me.

 

 

Upon exiting Soarin' we now decided to grab Fastpasses for the ride to come back and use later in the day. A plan to ride and then get fastpasses to ride again later worked out much better for us then the touring plan suggested. We then left the Land pavillion to make our way across Epcots Future World. Still following the outline of the touring plan and figuring it would be best to not only get the most popular rides done before the mass crowds start to show up, but also to get the rides done that i'd be going on alone due to Kieras pregnancy.

 

However before getting to Test Track we were told that the Character Spot had no wait so we decided we should go get our pictures with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy before the line got long. I'm glad we did as we were quickly in and out.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

We soon arrived at Test Track. A ride that me being a huge automobile fan has been looking forward to riding for quite some time now. Kiera found a bench to sit on and I made my way into the Single Rider line that was posting only a 10 minute wait. And the wait was just that. The que is pretty cool as it looked like an actual auto testing center. Within 10 minutes I boarded the ride vehicle and the ride began. I LOVED THIS RIDE. It was one of the best i've been on. Basically it mimics as if your a cash test dummy in a preproduction vehicle that is having numorous tests done. Some of these tests included a hill climb, suspension, brake, cornering, heat and cold, and other tests used to check parts on a vehicle. The ride concludes with what looks to be a head on crash test turning into a highspeed test that actually takes place outside the building. Test Track is said to be the fastest ride in Disney World reaching speeds of nearly 70mph. Its quite the rush as the vehicle acclerates quickly. Do not miss this ride if you go to Epcot.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

The next ride we went to is located right next door to Test Track and would be another that Kiera would have to sit out on. This ride is Mission: Space. A ride that was so intense when it originally opened that they have had to tone it down not for just the normal riders. But they had to make an even more toner version for people to ride. I'm no wimp though so to the extreme side I went which only posted a 15 minute wait. The two sides are distinqushed by Green Team (tamer version) and Orange Team (more intense version). Unfortunatly once inside the building the ride broke down momentarly so that 15 minute wait turned into nearly a half hour before I was finally able to board. Mission: Space is essentially a Space Shuttle Type Simulator. I don't know how to really discribe it but wow is it intense. I have never felt So many G forces on my body in my life. And this was tamed down from the orginal. To get the G Forces the ride spins in a circle very, very fast but I never felt like we were spinning. You are inside a very small cabin (if your clostrophobic you might want to avoid this ride) and because you are an astronaut you have certain buttons you need to push at certain points of the ride. Which can be hard to lift your hand with how much G force is being put on you. Its a very unique ride that you shouldn't miss if you think you can handle it.