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

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Genia,

we could have an aqua duck team! Drinking and riding.... still not so good.

What's not good about that?

I think that's a great idea!

The last day rush!! I don't care how relaxing your trip is, we all fall into the last day rush mode, me included!!!

You are right about that.

I tried very hard not to fall into that, but it always happens.

I love the bucket an shovel ice cream.

The medal thing is just hilarious but I have to claim.. Nancy won that one.

I think you need to make a spread sheet of DCL tips :rofl3: :rofl3: :rofl3:

Not ready for this to be done....

No, Nancy does not win. She begged for her medal just like the rest of us.

Don't hold your breath on me making that spreadsheet. You know me, I just go with the flow.

I wasn't ready for the cruise to be done either. But, one adventure must end before the next can begin.

Good job on all the medals, even though they weren't necessarily earned.

Poor Frank always seemed to be playing catch-up.

You got some really great family photos on this trip!

Yeah, I know some of the medals weren't earned. But what were the girls supposed to do, give them back?

Frank actually did have bragging rights on several things. Like Goofy Golf and eating ice cream with a shovel.

Tell me...how is the access to Ms White? Does she travel with handlers, or is she left alone to meet with guests? I'm just curious, of course.

well depends on if you want to get tackled in the atrium or throw off the deck.....

I don't know what you're talking about. I simply want to give her a delicious apple.

I'm glad Nicki asked. It did seem kind of creepy how you asked.

If you're just giving her an apple, then sure, no problem, access is pretty easy. Plus, I don't think WDW and DCL share their security databases, so your image probably isn't in DCL's facial recognition system yet.

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

The last day of a cruise is always so sad for me. Can't believe all you guys accomplished that last day and all the medals you came home with. You looked like you were having soooooo much fun.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

If you're just giving her an apple, then sure, no problem, access is pretty easy. Plus, I don't think WDW and DCL share their security databases, so your image probably isn't in DCL's facial recognition system yet.

yet...

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I'm glad to hear everyone came home with medals!! With all the effort you put in I think they were both earned and deserved!

Count me in with the group that hates the last night rush, I'm glad you were still able to get in some fun. Eating ice cream with a shovel is now on my LOF.

Can't wait to see what the rest of the night brings!

[Southern Blessings 4]

Wow! Y'all ended up with a lot of medals! Love seeing and hearing about all the fun!

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

Ice cream in a bucket/eating with a shovel is awesome.

Medals for everyone.

Please tell me there is one last room service order with a platter o mickey ice cream bars!

[mgsmom 9]

Believe it or not, I'm all caught up! Okay, I did some skimming... gotta do whatcha gotta do. I have learned that there is a LOT to do on a cruise - had no idea you could play mini golf! I hope you made it up to play!

I also think WSD looks like he's in his skivvies. Tighty whities. Underoos. That's just not right. :rofl2:

Good job on the medals - hilarious how you guys ended up with so many! You could string them together and hang them from your awning.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The last day of a cruise is always so sad for me. Can't believe all you guys accomplished that last day and all the medals you came home with. You looked like you were having soooooo much fun.

Since our last two cruises before this one were just three night cruises, we know how fast that last night can come. We didn't get sad. It is nice that the last day on most DCL cruises is the Castaway Cay day. And we did have a lot of fun.

yet...

Yes, yet.

You will just have one shot at Miss White.

To give her that nice apple, that is.

I'm glad to hear everyone came home with medals!! With all the effort you put in I think they were both earned and deserved!

Count me in with the group that hates the last night rush, I'm glad you were still able to get in some fun. Eating ice cream with a shovel is now on my LOF.

Can't wait to see what the rest of the night brings!

Thanks, Cherie.

We will finish up with the end of night five in the next post.

Wow! Y'all ended up with a lot of medals! Love seeing and hearing about all the fun!

Yes, it wasn't a bad haul.

I need to count up my career medals some time. I may have Michael Phelps beat.

Ice cream in a bucket/eating with a shovel is awesome.

Medals for everyone.

Please tell me there is one last room service order with a platter o mickey ice cream bars!

Room service ends at 1 am on the last night.

Do you think we made it?

Believe it or not, I'm all caught up! Okay, I did some skimming... gotta do whatcha gotta do. I have learned that there is a LOT to do on a cruise - had no idea you could play mini golf! I hope you made it up to play!

I also think WSD looks like he's in his skivvies. Tighty whities. Underoos. That's just not right. :rofl2:

Good job on the medals - hilarious how you guys ended up with so many! You could string them together and hang them from your awning.

Glad to know that you're caught up.

Kind of.

You will have to go back later to read the parts you skimmed.

That's a good idea about hanging the medals on my awning.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We left off with us closing down the Aqua Duck. We were the last riders for four out of the five nights. Not bad. I never did make it to 20 rides though. I lost count after 15. I think I made it to 18. It never got old. That ended up being more fun than I had expected.

We followed our normal routine after that.

Sort of.

Room service shuts down at 1 am on the last night.

So we had to place our order a little earlier than usual.

While we waited for our last free Mickey bars, we reviewed the LOF:

I had done most of it.

But there were some things I had missed. Like I didn't go and see Brave. It played in the big theater in 3D one night, and then again in the smaller theater a couple of other times. I just couldn't fit it in.

And, I never had my picture taken with Mr. Ray or Rex. I missed my chance with Rex the first day, when the clubs were open for tours. I could have had my photo taken with Mr. Ray, but I just never got around to it.

I should explain the waterskiing McDonalds toy thing. That refers back to an incident on a previous cruise. On that cruise, I had packed a few sand toys with the snorkel gear so the kids could make a sandcastle. They used to like to do that. We did it all the time on our beach trips. We would often decorate our sandcastles with figurines from McDonalds Happy Meals toys. One year, they gave out figures from the movie The Incredibles. So, I had some of those figures with us. For no particular reason, I had taken one with me when we went snorkeling, and left it in the treasure chest they had sunken in the lagoon. We all wished we could have seen who ended up finding it. On that same cruise, we decided that it would be fun to tie a Mr. Incredible character to a string and dangle him from the balcony in the atrium. Then we decided that we should see if we could make him waterski off the back of the ship. We didn't have enough string. So, we always said we would try again another time. On this trip, I actually brought a ball of string and the toy. But, when it came time for that, we all agreed that it probably was a bad idea. They have cameras all over the ship, and I'm sure they don't want people doing this. So, we decided to scratch that from the LOF.

As we examined the LOF, we all contemplated what we had not done. One thing jumped out at me. Gymnastics in the atrium. I hadn't done my traditional cartwheels. That was not something that it was OK to skip.

So, we headed to the atrium.

I did a couple of cartwheels.

Do you know how hard it is to get a photo of someone doing a cartwheel?

Apparently, it's very hard.

Because the DD's weren't able to get one.

I tried a couple more.

All we were getting was blurs.

So, I went with a couple of other moves that were easier to capture:

This might have been more impressive had the Olympics not just been on.

But, I'll bet none of those guys ate 5 1/2 pounds of bacon in the days before they competed.

After the gymnastics exhibition, it was time for some exploring of the ship.

Some places on the ship are simply breathtaking:

The last night of the cruise provides a good opportunity to see some of the behind the scenes places on the ship. There are stairwells and elevators used by the crew that are hidden from the guest areas. This is one of those areas:

But, there are also a lot of castmembers working late into the night. They have to move and organize all of that luggage so it can be offloaded at Port Canaveral early the next morning.

The last thing we did before heading back to our cabins was head up top to the very front of the ship. That is where I had begun this day before dawn. It was now pushing 2 am. There were a few other folks around, but not many. We could see the coast of Florida off in the distance. Barely. Mostly we just saw lights from the cities that dot the coast. And we saw stars. Lots of stars. There is nothing like the night sky at sea. We stood up there for a while enjoying the breeze and the stars, but then we knew we needed to go. So we did.

We know from past experience that the last morning of our cruise would be a blur. They need to get all of us off the ship as quickly as possible, because the next guests would be coming aboard around noon.

I am sorry to inform you that the next update will be the last.

Our cruise has reached the end.

But, I planned to squeeze just a bit more fun out of that last morning.

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

No! I can't believe the cruise is ending. Say it ain't so. Couldn't you have done a back to back cruise....for the sake of the trip report, of course?

Well, I guess there is still breakfast to look forward to.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

No! I can't believe the cruise is ending. Say it ain't so. Couldn't you have done a back to back cruise....for the sake of the trip report, of course?

Well, I guess there is still breakfast to look forward to.

you are just upset because you can't gather more intel on Ms. White. Breathe but not too much.

I can't believe it's already time to end. Do you have another TR ready to go?

Love the Atrium Olympics!

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

I'm so sad this report is coming to an end. What an amazing trip. Thanks for taking us along on the ride. And now that my trip to WDW is only 40 days away, I've moved on to start planning a cruise!

[DznyRulz 1]

What?!?!? it can't be the end already. I'm sure you have another TR all queued up for Monday, right? I hope so. I don't know if I can handle the withdrawl symptoms.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

No! I can't believe the cruise is ending. Say it ain't so. Couldn't you have done a back to back cruise....for the sake of the trip report, of course?

Well, I guess there is still breakfast to look forward to.

The end of a cruise always comes faster than you think. This one did too. I was ready for it, but it still came too quick.

I would love to do a back to back cruise some day. But we didn't this time. We had to get off the ship.

That last breakfast isn't really something to look forward to. You'll see.

you are just upset because you can't gather more intel on Ms. White. Breathe but not too much.

I can't believe it's already time to end. Do you have another TR ready to go?

Love the Atrium Olympics!

Well, I have been thinking about writing a trip report for our 4th of July trip.

I didn't have time to right after, as we took this cruise just 5 days after we got back.

What I really need to do is take a trip to the Fort. I haven't had a FW TR since spring break.

I'm so sad this report is coming to an end. What an amazing trip. Thanks for taking us along on the ride. And now that my trip to WDW is only 40 days away, I've moved on to start planning a cruise!

Thanks. It was an amazing trip. That is great that you will be back to WDW in 40 days. I hope that time flies for you!

What?!?!? it can't be the end already. I'm sure you have another TR all queued up for Monday, right? I hope so. I don't know if I can handle the withdrawl symptoms.

I know. I wasn't ready for the cruise to end either. But I'm pretty sure they would have helped me off the ship if I didn't go.

I can't promise a new trip report that soon. I want my next one to be a Fort TR, so I have to make the trip first.

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

This weekend would be a good one to go to the Fort. Then again isn't every weekend....

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

This weekend would be a good one to go to the Fort. Then again isn't every weekend....

:bellringer:

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

Atrium Olympics looks fun.....watch out for the East German judge though.

Hmm...you would think last meal on the ship would be excellent so customers don't leave with a bad taste in their mouth.....so to speak.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Here we are.

The end of the line.

A few folks have commented that the last night of the cruise is tough. It is.

The last morning is worse.

You have to get up early and get off the ship.

No ifs, ands or buts about it- you have to go, and the sooner the better.

DCL does it better that the other lines we have been on. On some, you have to wait to be called before you can leave.

On DCL, the deal is that you will report to breakfast in the dining room where you had dinner on your last night. Main seating folks are assigned one time, and late seating folks are assigned another. You show up for breakfast, eat, and then get the heck off the ship.

Main seating folks have to go to breakfast pretty early. We didn't have to go until 8. That is the late seating.

Since this was my last day on the ship, I didn't plan to waste it sleeping until breakfast and then being shooed off the ship.

I would leave on my own terms.

So, I got up early again.

I would enjoy a couple of hours on the ship before breakfast.

This is the first thing I saw at 6:07 am:

That's the DCL terminal at Port Canavarel. We got here sometime in the middle of the night. They have already been hard at work lugging all the luggage in to that building so when we get kicked off the ship we can collect it and leave.

Here is beautiful Port Canaveral at dawn:

The Kennedy Space Center is right up here to the north, one of the buildings you see lit up there to the left is the giant Vehicle Assembly Building:

There were quite a few clouds this morning, and they were blocking my view of the sun:

I enjoyed the peace and quiet and didn't think about the mad rush that I was about to experience:

There was a crew of workers already at work here on the deck. They were driving a lift over to the Aqua Duck. I didn't see it, but I'll bet one of those guys had a big roll of duct tape:

I kept waiting for the sun to show itself, but it didn't:

I decided to take a walk around the promenade deck:

This was an area I had stumbled upon one night, when it was too dark to take some photos. This is a seating area outside of the District Area. I think it is for folks to use if they want to smoke and have a drink. There is no smoking allowed inside the ship:

This is a piece of artwork just inside the doors that lead out to that area. It shows how to get to Pink and the Skyline Lounge:

I mentioned earlier that I wish I had looked at more of the artwork. It's all over the ship, and all of it is interesting.

I remembered that there were a few photos I wanted to take in Cabanas, so I popped up there.

These 5 clocks are displayed on one of the walls in Cabanas. They show the current time in each of the Disney Theme Parks around the world:

This mural showed sand castle renderings of the castles at each of the theme parks:

I snapped one last photo of part of the big mural in Cabanas:

And I needed a photo of the Cabanas sign:

Then, I walked across the pool deck to the aft elevators so I could head back to our cabins.

The sun was up:

Soon, these chairs would all be put in place for the guests who would be arriving right after noon:

I headed back to the cabin and made sure everyone had packed up the stuff they left out of their suitcases and was ready to go.

The view from my porthole this morning was not of parasail and fishing boats on Castaway Cay, but of forklifts busy at work:

We headed to breakfast at 8.

We saw Nayla anxiously heading in to our cabins as soon as we left. He had to get them ready for the next guests.

We went to breakfast.

It was a blur.

They have a menu with three choices on it. Pick one. They bring it to you. They'll give you some coffee and juice too. No time for small talk. Just eat and go. So we did.

We headed off the ship, and into a big warehouse. Not very Disney-ish either.

We found a porter and had him help lug our bags to the parking garage.

And here we are at 9:30:

This is the last photo from our trip. I took it from there in the parking garage. When we had arrived just a little after this time five days before, I had looked at that ship with a sense of amazement. I could see the Aqua Duck up there and all the windows and decks. I couldn't really imagine what it would all be like. Well, now I know. I still look at the ship with a sense of amazement, but now I also have a sense of longing:

From here, we hopped in to the good old TCD Excursion and headed West.

We were home before noon.

That was a strange feeling.

We had just eaten breakfast on the Dream, and now we were home.

And our trip was over.

And so is this trip report.

TCD

[Lou... 3,118]

The worst part is knowing that somebody else will be in YOUR Stateroom that same day.

They'll be sleeping in YOUR bed, eating YOUR food, and having YOUR fun.

I'm going to skip the last day of the cruise next time.

[Lil Lisa 53]

Awesome as always TCD! If they ever start pet friendly cruises, I'm in. So does anyone just skip breakfast and skedaddle off the ship, or don't they allow that?

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

Found the hidden Joker.

I am sad to see it end.

When do you go to the Fort next.

TRIP REPORT! TRIP REPORT! TRIP REPORT!

TRIP REPORT! TRIP REPORT! TRIP REPORT!

TRIP REPORT! TRIP REPORT! TRIP REPORT!

TRIP REPORT! TRIP REPORT! TRIP REPORT!

[mikmouse 3]

Awesome report, loved it! I had the chills at the end

When we came off our cruise last September of 7 days on the Magic, we were staying the night of our return in our DSL condo in Cocoa Beach. So we all went for dinner at Fishlips and watched OUR ship and OUR room sail right back out that night. Yes, it is strange. We can't wait to go on the Fantasy next September. Thanks for the journey, it was really fun.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I also found the hidden joker! Excellent placement, sir.

Sad to see this trip report end...but I stand in anticipation of wonderful things to come! I'm referring to your next TR of course.

[caveat lector 181]

Awesome TR sir.....as usual.

The way a vacation meanders and then comes full circle at the end is deflating. For all the money,time, and miles, you are left with memories. If those memories are fond and often recalled , there is little doubt that the trade off is worthwhile. In your case, I believe the scales are tilted heavily in your favor.

Not get to theFort!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Found the joker!!

I want you to start it over. Add new pictures...

Can you give us the list of things that didn't get done on the LOF? Maybe we can make it a fiend challenge to get one of those items done on our own cruises....