It was a slow ride and the boats were starting to get backed up in the Africa room.
My animatronic soul mate
It ended up being a 30 minute cruise. Slightly longer than anticipated…
So it was time to head on out, the grand plan being stopping in on Main Street for breakfast at Starbucks
But it was such a glorious day that we took a slow walk down by the castle. The moat was drained on one side, but on this side the water had been refilled so it didn’t look all icky.
People though! All those people were waiting for regular rope drop.
We were even treated to an early morning viewing of Disney bunnies
it really was just the most gorgeous morning
We got to Main Street Bakery at 8:45 to find the line out of the door. Of course, so many people were just arriving, wanting their morning coffee as they headed into the park. We waited for a little while but the line did not move at all so we decided it was time for plan b. We hopped back out of line and down Main Street, heading out of the park and onto the monorail round to the Grand.
We landed at Gasparilla Island Grill when we got back to the Grand for a couple of rather delicious croissant sandwiches with tater tots, and the most heavenly disgusting sugar filled nightmares of iced coffees. That would keep us going!
My croissant was filled with cheese and eggs, R’s had bacon in addition.
We were sat next to the sweetest family in Gasparilla’s who had the cutest little girls who loved my skirt. They were adorable.
Once our tummies were filled with cheesey goodness, we headed back to our room to pack up our last few bits and pieces. We called bell services to take most of our luggage – they would pop it in their luggage storage until we got back to the Grand. If you are heading to another hotel they would arrange for it to be transferred over there too (as long as its on property of course) – so handy.
We called a Lyft (who we find generally much more reliable than Uber) a little before 10am and headed on down to the port cochere at the DVC building to wait for our driver. Now you can arrange for a transfer to the port directly with Disney, however you are then tied to their schedule. We did this on our first cruise back in 2014 and ended up waiting around the hotel lobby for hours, not arriving at the port until after 2pm. We agreed that next time we would make our own way there, so 5 years later almost to the day we were hopping in a car and heading directly to the port at a time that suited us.
At 10.05 Jose pulled up, loaded our bags into the car and we were off. It’s such a strange journey – going from the super built up area around Orlando, too some super rural areas where it feels like you don’t see any signs of civilisation for miles.
I checked on the Disney Cruiseline app as we travelled. Look – its finally happening!
It gets exciting when you start going over the bridges that criss-cross over to the Port, and then it becomes a game to see who can spot the Disney Dream first. R won this time.
Even from a distance she is a glorious ship.
The lovely Jose dropped us off at 11.15am. It took a little longer than anticipated as we got snarled up in traffic back in Orlando, but we were still here in good time. With a decent tip the journey cost $77 – cheaper than the $45 per person charged by Disney and gave us that much needed control over our plans.
We dropped off our suitcase with the porter, keeping our carry on case as it had my other lenses. I just don’t trust that cases won’t get thrown around as they are moved onto the ship. The lenses are pretty fragile and kinda pricey, having one smashed at the start of our trip would be heart breaking.
Once we had handed off our case, we hopped in line to get into the cruise terminal. First you need to show your cruise documents and ID to the security guard on the gate, then join the line to get into security at the building where they scan you and your luggage, like a simplified airport arrival. The security line was a little crazy, we had arrived before a school group – about 30 17/18 year olds who were all very excited to get on board. We would be avoiding them once on the ship…
Finally we were through security and heading up the escalators to check in to the cruise proper. As this was our second cruise we got to skip the longest line and head to the Castaway Club check in area. We were given a form to complete as we got in line to confirm that we were not ill, but did not have time to finish completing it before we were being called over to the check in desk. The CM was lovely and had us checked in quickly, but then had issues with printing our key cards so we had a little bit of a wait whilst she sorted that out. It didn’t take long before she was handing over the key cards and our shiny lanyards proclaiming our silver status in the Castaway Club, and the little card confirming our boarding group. We were issued with boarding group 2! Perhaps a little pixie dust for being patient with the key card issue? I don’t know, but it was a lovely surprise and meant that we would be boarding very soon indeed.
No one was boarding as yet and the terminal was super crowded, the line to meet Mickey was crazy and it felt like there was nowhere to move – it tripped my anxiety and I ended up in a bit of a tizz, to say the least. It wasn’t long until the family of the day was opening boarding, and then group 1 was called.
Moments later it was our turn to walk through those ears. The whole process from getting out of the car outside and our names being called as we walked onto the ship was 40 minutes.
It would only be late at night when we saw this area as quiet again
We decided to head on up to the top deck whilst it was quiet and get some lunch.
To Cabanas!
We found ourselves a nice quiet table by the window where this was our view. Not so shabby!
Firstly, did we all know that you can get POG juice in the dispensers at Cabanas? This was a very exciting discovery for me, I don’t remember it being an option back in 2014, but you can bet I would be taking advantage whilst we were here.
R headed up for food first whilst I sat and calmed down with my cup of delicious POG juice, watching the world go by outside and pinching myself that we were back on DCL.
R returned with this little plate of delights from the buffet
And I decided to take another photo of my POG juice. No regrets.
I wish they sold those cups on board. They have little Mickey heads all over.
I wandered up to the buffet next. It had got busy whilst I was faffing, but I took a full walk around to see what was available without meat and ended up with a plate of carbs, veg and cheese. Sounds about right.
The veggies and rice were delicious, as was the mac n cheese. The mashed potatoes not so much – American mash tends to be too lumpy for me and this was no exception. What can I say, I’m a fussy mash eater.
You might have noticed additional drinks in that last picture. Whilst I was touring the buffet R had succumbed to one of the cast members wandering around with the first drink of the cruise in its specialty mug. Of course she bought a couple for us, and those mugs are now sitting in our kitchen cabinets. The drink wasn’t too bad either, fruity and surprisingly boozy.
You can see the CM hawking the drinks in the background there.
Fed and suitably boozed up, we headed on out for a bit of a wander around the ship. First up, the cutest little Mickey statue that lives outside the theatre
so cute
The ship was still pretty quiet as long as you avoided the lobby, so we took a little while just wandering to get our lay of the land. Or sea, as it may be. It was slightly like being through the looking glass – we have only been on the Fantasy, which is the Dream’s sister ship. Everything was very familiar, but just slightly different, slightly different décor, different names, things moved just a little.
Whenever you got near the lobby you could hear the cast members announcing the guests onboard, and lots of excited voices. It was rather lovely.
Can we take a moment to appreciate that chandelier? Its gorgeous.
with lots of hidden Mickeys too!
