DISNEY DREAM MAY 16 SAILING ~ REVIEW

[vadersprincess12]

Hello All ~ we sailed on the 5/16 Dream 4 night cruise. Overall we had a great trip.

We used Goports for our overnight hotel and transportation to and from Port Canaveral ~ most of this worked very well with the exception of a slight delay getting to the Dream because either the driver didn't communicate well or several passengers just didn't listen, but after our second stop to drop people off at the Royal Caribbean ship, we ended up going back to the first stop to drop about 6 people off who missed the stop at the Carnival ship. Delayed about 20 minutes, so nothing major. Just a lesson in communication.

Didn't like when we debarked the motor coach and one of the porters was telling people they don't work for Disney and work only for tips. We had only carry-on, but we still heard the comment. Not professional at all.

The Covid testing went very smoothly although it's a walk from the debark point and moving between the outside tented areas. We were tested and cleared in about 15 minutes.

We didn't sail during the "sailaway" party and while walking around deck 4 we saw that we were delayed as they took a woman off the ship. Not sure exactly what happened but there were cops there. She took her sunglasses off once she was off and it looked like she had some type of injury. EMT's arrived to treat her and the cops were taking pictures of the injury, and then they came off with her luggage. Sure hope she is okay. Then a family of 4 was taken off the ship with their luggage. We were delayed about an hour.

We sailed with just over 1/2 capacity.

We had a verandah cabin on deck 6 and our steward Margaret was absolutely great. The cabin was spotless and everything was in excellent shape and working order. Check out the "towel animal" for Pirate Night.

Cabanas was never crowded and food there and in the main dining rooms was good; nothing exceptional for us but we did enjoy our meals. Our servers Jeet and Dwi were terrific.

We did have Pirate Night and Fireworks. We were a little bit disappointed in Pirate Night as the show has been changed from our previous sailings; Captain Hook and Smee are involved but there is no pirate invasion anymore and Captain Mickey does not come to "save the day". Thinking this is an attempt to curb any indications of "violence" ~ it was more about "how to be a pirate". Just not as exciting.

We watched the Fireworks from our verandah and it was great! Saw a beautiful rising moon ~ the picture is a little fuzzy but it was breathtaking in person.

We've been to Nassau so many times that we chose not to get off the ship and spent some time at Satellite Falls.

Serenity Bay at Castaway Cay was as beautiful as ever.

The highlight of the trip was the production shows. We saw the Golden Mickeys, Beauty and the Beast, and their signature show Believe. Disney has top-notch performers. We had the opportunity to speak with the young woman who portrayed Belle (she had other roles as well) and tell her what a magnificent job she did.

I was happily surprised to find the Cinderella popcorn bucket at Preludes. I have read on these boards that they were only available at Disneyland. I grabbed one up right away for our Disney Princess guest room at home.

If anyone has any reservations about taking a Disney cruise, we can unequivocally say TAKE THE CRUISE. This was our 5th Disney cruise and we will be taking our 6th on the Wish in November. You won't regret. it.

[Tee & Chilli]

@vadersprincess12Thanks for the review. Can you drop off items to be signed by the characters?

[jalves]

Nice review!  We were on the same sailing as part of a very large (~400) group.  Like you we didn't get off in Nassau.  Later in the day then there was quite a little thunder storm rolling through.  Could barely see Atlantis from our balcony (deck 12) during the worst of it.  

 

We had Palo brunch on Nassau day which we enjoyed.  But I still prefer the buffet style brunch they used to have.  We did Palo dinner on Pirate night as is our habit as we normally don't care for the pirate menu/antics in the MDR.  Palo dinner was as good as always but again we were disappointed that its been dumbed down from what it was several years ago.  

 

Disembarking the ship was super smooth!

[vadersprincess12]

1 hour ago, Tee & Chilli said:

@vadersprincess12Thanks for the review. Can you drop off items to be signed by the characters?

They aren't doing this.  Not sure if it's ever going to come back.

[vadersprincess12]

55 minutes ago, jalves said:

Nice review!  We were on the same sailing as part of a very large (~400) group.  Like you we didn't get off in Nassau.  Later in the day then there was quite a little thunder storm rolling through.  Could barely see Atlantis from our balcony (deck 12) during the worst of it.  

 

We had Palo brunch on Nassau day which we enjoyed.  But I still prefer the buffet style brunch they used to have.  We did Palo dinner on Pirate night as is our habit as we normally don't care for the pirate menu/antics in the MDR.  Palo dinner was as good as always but again we were disappointed that its been dumbed down from what it was several years ago.  

 

Disembarking the ship was super smooth!

Guessing you were part of the podcast cruise?  Personally, I enjoy a good thunderstorm so wasn't bothered by it.

 

We were at Serenity Bay on Pirate Night day and the heat just makes me so tired so we took a nap and then grabbed something for dinner on the pool deck before the Pirate Night show.  We would have repeated Royal Palace that night anyway so it didn't really matter to us.

 

We did self debark and had no issues at all.

[jalves]

On 5/26/2022 at 9:38 PM, vadersprincess12 said:

Guessing you were part of the podcast cruise?  Personally, I enjoy a good thunderstorm so wasn't bothered by it.

 

We were at Serenity Bay on Pirate Night day and the heat just makes me so tired so we took a nap and then grabbed something for dinner on the pool deck before the Pirate Night show.  We would have repeated Royal Palace that night anyway so it didn't really matter to us.

 

We did self debark and had no issues at all.

Yes, we were part of the podcast cruise.  Several extra features for us including a performance by Jodi Benson.  

 

At Castaway Cay we had a cabana (#11) for the day along with several friends.  Very nice way to spend the day.  We headed back to the ship mid-afternoon for a nap and getting dressed for dinner.  

 

At the end of the cruise we waited for our group to be called.  We were concierge so it was the first group after the self debark.  Very easy process as you say.  The only thing that could improve it would be the addition of the face-recognition system like Royal uses there.  Still we waited for and chatted with the customs guy for less than 1 minute.  From there it was off to the garage and on our way home.