Dream Review - May 1-5th

[m2inus]

Four nights to Nassau and Castaway Cay

 

This was our first cruise on Disney. We have done several on Royal Caribbean, plusa few on Carnival, Princess and Norwegian. My wife and I took our 3.5 yr. old daughter along. She loved it. Overall it was a great trip, so see below for more details (in noparticular order):

 

Check-in: We arrived at the port around 11 ish (our assigned check-in time was12:30, but no one seemed to care). Wequickly made our way through security and check-in, which took about 20-30 minfrom the time we arrived until we were issued a boarding number. While waiting in line, the first family wasallowed to board, which was probably around 11:30. After that, they boarded by number (we wereassigned #19) and had just enough time to wait in line to take a pic withMinnie Mouse before we could board. Onenew benefit, they gave us our wrist band for the kids club at check-in, whichmeant we didn’t have to wait in a second line to get the band and did not haveto do anything once on board to get our girl registered. It definitely seemed that things ran verysmooth.

 

Ship: We thought the ship was beautiful, it seemed veryclean and well maintained. Also, with so many kids on board, they took greatcare to ensure hands were sanitized or washed at every turn. We chose to go in early May to avoid thechaos of summer travel, and it generally worked. While the boat seemed full, and there weretons of kids on board, it never felt overly crowded or over-run with children. One thing that I noticed traveling with mydaughter was that there were bathrooms, virtually everywhere. It’s something that you don’t appreciateuntil you travel with someone who has a tiny bladder.

 

Cabin: We had a balcony (verandah) cabin near the aftelevators on Deck 7, port side. This wasa pretty good location, as the pools and buffet are on Deck 11 and mostactivities were on Decks 3-5. The cabinwas nice, the divided bathroom was a little clumsy, where you would have to goback and forth between them depending on what you were doing. Also, there were two closets with lots ofstorage. Our daughter slept on the couchthat converted to a single bed, and there was a curtain to divide the sleepingareas. The balcony was a nice size, with two chairs and a small footstool. Our cabin steward was awesome,and was in and out in what seemed like minutes.

 

 

Disney Cruise App: This App was amazing, and I stronglyrecommend using it for anyone with a smart phone. Not only can you text with anyone on theship, but we got texts from the kids club when our daughter wanted to bepicked-up. Which meant we didn’t have tocarry around the larger cell phones provided in the rooms. Also, the App easily lists all deck plans,activities and character appearances, and it automatically shows what’shappening at that very moment. I used itmany times throughout the cruise and it worked awesome.

[m2inus]

Pools: The pools were nice and we visited several ofthem. The two main pools on deck 11consist of a “kids pool” that’s about 2.5-3 ft. deep, and an adult pool about5.6 ft. deep. This was great, as thekids could stand and play in the little pool, and adults could dip in the bigpool. They were often crowded but theDisney lifeguards on duty did a good job of keeping the peace. On a side note, I witnessed a lifeguard jumpinto action at Castaway Cay when a little girl made it out too deep and was inobvious distress. Her mother got thereright in time, but the life guard would have definitely made a save if it werea second longer. Kudos to Disney and thelifeguards for taking this job seriously, with so many kids around I think itis a real added value. My daughter alsoloved Nemos Reef, which is the splash area. The area was great and all kids seemed to have fun. One issue was that it was nice to be soshaded (it is located under the overhang of deck 12), but did not have a lot ofventilation and got pretty hot and humid in there. We also jumped into the adult pool and hot tub,which were nice and not too crowded. Wedid the aquaduck water slide, which was a lot of fun too.

 

Kids-Club: We only used the kids club on a few occasions,for about two hours each. When we werein Nassau, we dropped our daughter off so we could explore the port for abit. The problem was once off the boatwe had no communication with the staff and didn’t know our daughter wanted toget out until we were back in Wi-Fi range. So I would recommend you don’t have this be the first time your kid isin there. There were always a ton of counselorsat the kids camp and they took security of checking kids in and out veryserious. My one issue would be that oncethe kids were checked in, it was chaos inside. There are many different areas of the club, with different activitieshappening in each, so your kid essentially chooses what they want to do. This buffet option is probably great forolder kids, but not knowing anyone and being a little shy, I think my daughterwould have preferred a little more direction and structure to the camp. We met some people that used the nursery, andthey seemed to be happy with it, but apparently you can only book 10 hoursahead of time and space is not guaranteed, plus it is an extra charge….sosomething to consider.

 

Shows/Entertainment: We went to the main show on the firstnight it was good. Disney definitelydoes high-quality entertainment. Myissue would be with the Fireworks on Pirate night, the event didn’t start till10:30. Also, the fireworks didn’t go offuntil after a 10-15 minute performance. With so many kids I am surprised that theydon’t move this event up to earlier in the evening, I was even tired when itgot done. We also enjoyed many movies onthe Funnel Screen by the pool, but it seemed like there was a lot of down timewhere they had trivia etc. on. I thinkthey could have shown many more movies.

 

Food: On embarkation day we had lunch at the enchantedgarden where they had table service. Itwas not crowded and the food was good, I would highly recommend it. We had an early dinner seating and got teamedup with another family, our kids really got along so dinner was prettyenjoyable. The wait staff is great andthe food was better than most other cruises we had been on. We did breakfast mainly at the buffet whichhad a huge selection. One note is thatthe food repeats itself throughout the buffet, so we found a lot of peoplewaiting in line, and they only had to walk a couple feet to find the same foodagain with no wait. I tried the omeletstation one morning, where they take your order and then bring it to yourtable. It seemed like it took 10-15minutes for the omelet, and I was done with everything else when itarrived. So I would recommend you orderthe omelet first, then make your rounds to get the rest of your grub. The outdoor seating near the aft was alsovery nice, it was mostly covered and shady which was a plus. There is a “drink station” (fountain sodas,water and coffee/tea) located near the pool, just outside of the buffet. It is open 24/7 and seemed to get a lot ofuse. This is definitely a great idea,and also great if you bring a re-usable water bottle.

 

 

The food at castaway cay was a buffet of the usual (burgers,dogs, chicken, etc.) which was good. Since it was really hot with not a lot of shade, I would recommendgetting the bottle water deal (they offer it up right when you get off theship), where you get 6 bottles of water with ice in a cooler for about$20. It was worth it.

[m2inus]

Character Appearances: There always seemed to be some kindof character appearance happening. Theywere all listed either in the app or in the day’s activities. My daughter was mostly interested in theprincesses, but we stopped by to see Mickey and Minnie as well. The line for Mickey always seemed to be thelongest, but we never had to wait more than 15-20 min. If you really want to catch a certaincharacter, try and go later in the evening. Some characters were out after 10 PM, and it seemed like the lines wereshortest around then. The one thing Idon’t understand is the autographs. Iknow some people are into it, but having a guy in a costume with fake fluffyhands try to write out his name takes a long time and really slows down theprocess. The staff and characters weregreat though, they always took time to talk to each person and the encountersnever felt rushed. The staff are alsohappy to use whatever camera you have to snap some pics, so you don’t have toworry about spending a fortune on a photo package.

 

Nassau: As others have said, Nassau is pretty much a uselessstop. We got off the boat for only anhour or two to walk around the shops in town. A lot of people stayed on board,but the ship and pools were still relatively quiet. With such a short cruise, it pays to use thistime to hang around.

 

Castaway Cay: The Island was very nice and we really enjoyedit. There’s a tram that takes you fromthe pier to different beach stops. Iwould recommend getting off at the first stop and finding a spot by the firstsection of beech. We initially wentfurther down (by where the ocean waterslide was) and found it to bepacked. Once we backtracked we found aton of open spots, and most of the chairs have umbrellas already set up.

 

Disembarkation: We booked a 10:30 flight out of Orlando andknew it would be a tight trip. So wegrabbed breakfast at 6:30 and were in line to do the self-walk off by6:45. Around 7:05 they started thedisembarkation process and we raced our way off. We were in a cab by 7:10 and at the airportby 8. On a side note, the TSA screeningat Orlando is horrendous. It is alwayscrowded and chaotic. It’s like they justrealized that the largest children’s attraction in the world is located aroundthe corner. There are much busierairports that move people through security much more efficiently, so make sureyou leave plenty of time to make it through the fray.

 

I’m sure I forgot some stuff, but feel free to ask anyquestions you may have.

[Shmoo here]

Very nice. I'd suggest you submit the review to the Cruise Critic review section. That way others can find it easier.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/

[gometros]

Thanks for the review. Since I will be on her in two weeks, can you tell me (if you remember) what movies were playing? I'm assuming Guardians of the Galaxy premiered on your cruise?

[moki'smommy]

Thanks for the review. Since I will be on her in two weeks, can you tell me (if you remember) what movies were playing? I'm assuming Guardians of the Galaxy premiered on your cruise?

Since you are cruising in 2 weeks, you can get the scheduled movies for your cruise by calling DCL. This will be more accurate than asking what was showing almost a month before your scheduled date.

[CarrieAP]

Thanks for the review. Since I will be on her in two weeks, can you tell me (if you remember) what movies were playing? I'm assuming Guardians of the Galaxy premiered on your cruise?

 

 

We were on the same cruise. Guardians premiered the last night at 10:45 so certain it will still be playing. We did watch Beaty and the Beast in 3D which was lovely. Moana and Born in China were the others playing.

 

 

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[CarrieAP]

Thank you for the review! It was our first DCL cruise as well and I enjoy hearing others' perspectives. No children for us, which makes a somewhat different experience.

I can vouch that the adult deck areas and serenity beach at Castaway exceeded my expectations. I was impressed that Disney offers such diverse options.

 

 

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[gometros]

Since you are cruising in 2 weeks' date=' you can get the scheduled movies for your cruise by calling DCL. This will be more accurate than asking what was showing almost a month before your scheduled date.[/quote']

 

I'm aware of that, but since the OP was just off the Dream, their information would be as up to date as I needed. Thank you for your suggestion.