Goin' with the Flow- TCD's Disney Dream Trip Report

[DznyRulz 1]

:yaysmilesa-smiley: I'm all caught up. Since Thursday is my Friday I took an extra long lunch. Your TRs are so good I can't put them down, so to speak.

[MetalDad 33]

One of the things I really liked was that the wait staff followed you from dining room to dining room.

Knowing that I was one of them, our servers were a little more informal and free-er than they would normally be with regular guests and we became friends by the end of the cruise. We also got a little extra service. They were just fantastic and we showed our appreciation at the end of the cruise.

Would that make you an irregular guest?

You kids stay away for my porthole!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Here's the second show at AP on the Fantasy. These are placed at each seat when you come in for dinner. We had a red and green crayola marker. You have about 5 minutes to draw before the servers come around to pick up the papers. They rush them off to the back and then come to pass out the menus. The menu is a little different--one family appetizer for the table (nothing safe for baby so my server had to arrange for a salad) and you select one main entree. . . .

Thanks for the detailed explanation and all the photos!

That is really cool.

Amazing when you think that this is going on on a ship out at sea.

So is one of those your drawing?

Come on Andrew, the glamorous Mrs. TCD deserves better than that dark shot

One of the things I really liked was that the wait staff followed you from dining room to dining room.

Knowing that I was one of them, our servers were a little more informal and free-er than they would normally be with regular guests and we became friends by the end of the cruise. We also got a little extra service. They were just fantastic and we showed our appreciation at the end of the cruise.

Thanks Lou. Mrs. TCD does look better. I looked better in the dark.

I also like how the servers travel around with you. We had excellent servers, and even our head server, who most people rarely see on a cruise, checked on us every night.

TCD

[stefa70 205]

Very nice picture. It's great to see the Mrs with you in a TR.

I have to bust your.....um, chops though. Pink martini with a light up ice cube? Really? :hah:

Please don't make a habit of that.

The girls and their dinglehopper is too funny. That twin #1 is a pistol!

[Dollface...CindyC 18]

TCD you totally ROCK! thanks for the update.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

:yaysmilesa-smiley: I'm all caught up. Since Thursday is my Friday I took an extra long lunch. Your TRs are so good I can't put them down, so to speak.

Good man.

Seeing that new MH in your signature really makes me jealous.

You kids stay away for my porthole!

LOL!

Lou is the Rodney Dangerfield of ff.net.

Very nice picture. It's great to see the Mrs with you in a TR.

Agreed. She has been in a few of the camping ones. But not enough.

I have to bust your.....um, chops though. Pink martini with a light up ice cube? Really? :hah:

Please don't make a habit of that.

I know.

My poor street cred.

Maybe I should delete those photos?

In my defense, the drink was called a New Yorker. That sound manly, doesn't it? How was I supposed to know it was pink?

The girls and their dinglehopper is too funny. That twin #1 is a pistol!

Yes, just like her mother.

TCD you totally ROCK! thanks for the update.

Wow.

Thanks for that!

TCD

[Lou... 3,118]

Would that make you an irregular guest?

Why yes it does and I wear that title with pride.

You kids stay away for my porthole!

TCD thinks I said that, so I'm going to take credit for it.

It does sound like me.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Love this photo!

Another wonderful update!

[dvccamper 32]

They're free.

If you pay $10.50 for a drink.

They have these around WDW. I know at the Prime Time Cafe in Hollywood Studios, and probably a lot of other places.

One night we left the kids with my mother-in-law and we drank our way around the monorail resorts. I got a glow cube from each one. I highly recommend it. And for the record it takes a confident man to drink a girly pink drink like that

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

TCD thinks I said that, so I'm going to take credit for it.

It does sound like me.

No I didn't. I thought MD was saying that is what you say when you're on a cruise.

Did you see the photo he posted of you in his TR?

I forgot, you don't read those.

You should make an exception for his.

Love this photo!

Another wonderful update!

Really?

I post a couple of hundred photos and you love that one?

Thanks.

I think.

One night we left the kids with my mother-in-law and we drank our way around the monorail resorts. I got a glow cube from each one. I highly recommend it. And for the record it takes a confident man to drink a girly pink drink like that

Thank you.

I like that idea of drinking around the monorail resorts. I'll bet that wasn't a cheap loop.

That is not a girly drink. It's called a New Yorker. New Yorkers are not girly. Well, most of them aren't.

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Yep, I love that one! (I also love all the others, but this one especially!) I've been on a lot of Caribbean cruises and always enjoy seeing photos. Happy families enjoying the sunshine and the indescribably blue water. Great meals and shipboard fun. Wonderful service. Love the towel animals and the servers' tricks. I'm having a serious case of cruise withdrawal here ...

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Just like that, the second night of our cruise had passed, and it is now Sunday.

You have to watch yourself on a cruise.

One thing to remember is that if it's a five night cruise, you only get five days on the ship. And the day you board counts as the first day. Your last day, you will be kicked off the ship before you realize what is going on. How else do you think they can have the ship ready for new guests to board at noon?

So, we have two nights under our belts, but this is day three already.

No worries, mon.

Go with the flow.

I tried to get up earlier today. Even this is day three, this is only the second morning I am waking up on the ship. I am normally an early riser, but it was 7:15 before I left the cabin.

I got some coffee and decided to do a little exploring.

I know the layout of the Magic and Wonder well.

But, there are parts of the Dream that I had yet to see.

I heard that there was a bar called the Outlook Lounge on the 14th deck. That's as high as you can go. It's in the mid-ship smoke stack and overlooks the adult pool. I couldn't find an elevator that went to the 14th floor, so I went to the 13th and found some stairs. When I got there, I found that there was one elevator that goes up to the 14th deck, but you have to remember to get on that one, as it is the only one of the four midship elevators that does.

So, here's the Outlook Lounge:

Nice view, but kind of boring if you ask me.

No bubbles.

No pink glowing drinks.

We never made it back here.

Maybe next time.

The girls had asked me to wake them early.

They had something to do early in the morning.

It was called the princess something or other.

There were going to be a bunch of princesses in the atrium like at 8 am.

And there were.

Here's three of them now:

If you want to meet all the princesses, this is where you would want to do it.

That was on the LOF.

So, the girls were here.

And just like that, they met the princesses.

First the fairest of them all:

Then Belle:

And it is Cindy:

And Tiana, again:

I told you Frank was competitive, right?

Well guess who was right behind our group meeting the princesses? :

Frank really liked Tiana.

The last princess was Ariel:

I think she could have spent a little more time with the dinglehopper today.

And just like that, in less than ten minutes, the princesses had been met.

Try doing that at WDW.

Next up was breakfast.

Back to Cabanas.

I ate about a pound of bacon.

I really wanted to eat more, but I just couldn't.

On our other cruises I remember pulling in to Nassau early.

On this cruise, we were just arriving a little after 9:

That's the shopping area you see there on land. There really isn't much to it.

These murals are in Cabanas:

The detail is amazing:

By the time we got done with breakfast, they were already setting up for lunch. That's how it goes on DCL- non stop food.

Eating sushi was on the LOF, and we found where it was for future reference:

Check out this big bowl of pistachio ice cream:

If you don't get the pistachio ice cream reference, you need to watch this (not the best copy out there I'm sure, but the only one I could find) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMe4vY5Duh8&feature=related

When we finally docked I noticed that there were already four other ships docked.

That's a lot.

Nassau isn't all that big.

Since we were the last to arrive, that meant that things would be crowded.

We hadn't really made any plans for Nassau. On our other visits here, we would walk around the shops for a while, and head back to the ship. Frank had mentioned a walking tour he had done and that there were a few interesting things we could see from that.

But, after seeing that there were already four ships ahead of us in port, none of us really felt like heading out into the hot sweaty mobs.

So we stayed on the ship.

Never left.

And we had a great time.

That was a good choice for us.

Here's a look at the ship next to us on the port side. It's a Royal Carribbean Ship. I can't remember what one. You can see it has a rock climbing wall there in the back:

One feature I like on the RCCL ships is the Viking Crown Lounge. It's the big circular area with windows around the smoke stack:

On the other side, right next to us, was the Carnival Dream. How ironic:

Note that they have a slide and movie screen on their top deck.

Here's another look at their slide:

I'll bet all the people on that ship were really happy with their slide and movie screen before the real Dream arrived.

I call this photo two Dreams:

Here we are looking down to the dock where folks were getting on and off the Carnival Dream:

Here we are looking away from the harbor and out to sea:

It was a nice day, and we grabbed some chairs up top overlooking the Donald pool. I got some ice from the drink machines to keep my beer cold. While I was there I snapped this photo to show the drink choices on the Dream:

The coffee is the same NesCrape that you find at the Fort:

In case you don't know, the drink stations are free. No need to bring your lifetime mugs from Dixie Landings.

This is where we were set up for the day, right under the Aquaduck:

The Aquaduck line wasn't bad, so we all got a few rides in.

I didn't get my tenth ride in, though. I was going to save that for tonight.

At 1:00, the castmembers came out and led us in a movie trivia game:

The TCD gang teamed up with our buddy, Jerry. Jerry was happy that Frank didn't try to pick him up:

The way this went is that they played a short movie clip on the big screen. You had to guess the name of the movie. If you had that movie on your card, you could put one of the big magnets on it. Like Bingo.

We won the first round.

We found out that what we were playing for was to choose what movie would be played on the Funnel Vision that afternoon.

The winners of the first round got to choose the category that the movie would be: It was classic, live action or animated feature.

We chose animated feature.

Then we played another round.

We didn't win that one.

The group that the host was helping won.

I think it was fixed.

They chose Monsters, Inc.

That was fine with us.

Good movie.

And sure, enough, right after that, the movie began.

I am getting close to the photo limit, so I will stop the post here, and continue with the rest of our afternoon in the next update.

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

WHAT??? No Coke Zero??

What the heck is that all about? That's it...no Disney Cruise for me.

Although I guess all you can eat sushi would be enough to overcome the lack of Coke Zero.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

WHAT??? No Coke Zero??

What the heck is that all about? That's it...no Disney Cruise for me.

Although I guess all you can eat sushi would be enough to overcome the lack of Coke Zero.

Just bring more beer, mon.

Go with the flow.

TCD

[LONE-STAR 370]

WHAT??? No Coke Zero??

What the heck is that all about? That's it...no Disney Cruise for me.

Although I guess all you can eat sushi would be enough to overcome the lack of Coke Zero.

Just put some of the sprite zero in the diet coke and then you have coke zero. Simple

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

Just bring more beer, mon. or VODKA!!! :jumpforjoy

Go with the flow.

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Wow! This report is flowing pretty good at this point.

1. Love the Toothpick Fork Photo

2. I think the Twins should have showed Ariel how to use the dinglehopper.

3. my head is spinning at the amount of photos you have posted in the last few days.

[LONE-STAR 370]

Great report Andrew just hard to keep up with.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I understand go with the flow. BUT my flow would never get going at 7:15 a.m.

i have to agree the Outlook Lounge is pretty bland, do you think they may use it for receptions? That would make sense to me, keep it neutral so it doesn't clash with the bride and groom.

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

Whew, caught up! Glad to know I don't have to try to find my Dixie Landings mug if I decide to go. Dixie Landings was the first resort I stayed at, kind of sentimental!

Your girls are just awesome. I have noticed that about Fiend kids, they are so much fun! Like Leslie's kids with their funny faces and here are yours with funny faces, a LOF and a dinglehopper!

[stefa70 205]

What? No mingling with the Bahamians?

I :heart: Monsters Inc.

Boo!

Kitty!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

What? No mingling with the Bahamians?

I :heart: Monsters Inc.

Boo!

Kitty!

i had not seen it until recently

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Great Update......again.

Not going into Nassau and staying on the boat seems like a good choice.

I have always heard there is so much to do on the DCL ships that you do not need to get off at some of the ports to have a great time.

Everyone always says Castaway Cay is the exception to that though.

Good job winning the first round and getting to pick the type of movie. Type of movie? Medal? What's the difference?

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Whew, finally caught up.

I really want to go on cruise. My eldest is now going to start saving up. 24 hour FREE room service convinced him he needs to gain 24 pounds.

[BassMaster 7]

That sushi has peaked my interest in more ways than one. First, I really like sushi. Second, I can slap some on a hook and fish for more. How cool is that? Oh, and the pink drink, dude you almost had to give up your man card.