I am excited to be able to bring you another guest trip report from Cynthia, who recently sailed on one of first few sailings out of San Diego on the Disney Wonder (trip report here). This time, she and her family sailed on 2 back-to-back cruises on the Disney Dream, with the first one departing on Christmas Eve! Yes, she got to spend Christmas Day onboard the ship and I am so glad she is sharing the experience with us! After summarizing her cruise, she will also be sharing detailed information about both the back-to-back experience and the Covid safety protocols so if you interested in either of those, be sure to stick around until the end.
Guest Trip Report: December 24, 2021 3 Night Christmas Sailing on the Disney Dream
Part 1
I am so happy to be able to bring you this blog and share all my thoughts regarding our recent Back-to-Back Holiday cruises on the Disney Dream. Let me start by saying that we did not choose these cruises based on the itineraries as we have enjoyed these ports on several previous Disney cruises. Instead, we were bound and determined to complete the Disney Cruise Grand Slam (sailing all four ships) before the Disney Wish began sailing. What better time to accomplish our goal but Christmas! So it was decided that Christmas 2021 would be a unique family celebration and the ultimate family Christmas gift – a Merrytime Christmas Cruise.
We decided to begin our adventure with two days of relaxation in Cocoa Beach. After Cocoa Beach, the first leg of our B2B was a 3-night sailing from Port Canaveral departing on Christmas Eve and returning on December 27th after a day at sea and a day on Castaway Cay. The second leg was a 4-night sailing departing December 27th from Port Canaveral and returning on December 31st after a stop at Nassau, Castaway Cay and a day at sea. The first installment of this guest blog will cover our two day pre-cruise stay in Cocoa Beach and our 3-night sailing on the Dream that departed on Christmas Eve.
This 3-night cruise was DCL cruise number eight for our family and was the first cruise where we were traveling from different home states and meeting in Orlando. My husband, youngest daughter, and myself left Las Vegas late the evening of December 21st on a non-stop flight to Orlando. The Las Vegas sky before departure was amazing.
Our oldest daughter is attending college in New Jersey so she left Newark the same evening as soon as her final exams were over and flew down to Orlando. The travel gods were on our side because with great luck (and planning) our flights literally landed at the same time – 1:30 a.m. on December 22nd. Instead of traveling to Cocoa Beach so early in the morning, we reserved a room at the MCO Hyatt so we could get some sleep and start fresh at a reasonable hour.
Our plan was a success. We met at the elevator to the hotel, greeted our college daughter after not having seen her for over four months and headed to our room. We got a great night’s sleep and woke up about 10:00 a.m. ready to head to Cocoa Beach.
For our trip to Cocoa Beach, we reserved a car service – Happy Limousine – for a comfortable ride to our hotel. We have used Happy Limousine on numerous occasions and have had nothing but good luck. We normally reserve an SUV so there is plenty of room for 4 plus luggage. The drivers are always on time and courteous. This trip was no different. Our driver arrived right on time and got us to the Sheraton Four Points in Cocoa Beach without any problems.
Our stay at the Sheraton was very comfortable. The hotel, although a little older, was clean and centrally located. The staff was pleasant and our stay came with a hot breakfast each morning. We did not have a car during our stay, so we were happy to be in a location that was conducive to walking. We were very close to the beach, so we were able to take sunset walks on the beach.
My youngest daughter and husband got up one morning and watched the sunrise over the ocean. This was a great adventure for my daughter because she is used to seeing the sunset below the Pacific Ocean. She loved her morning outing.
My husband and youngest daughter also went on a day trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (this trip will pay dividends later in our trip!) They had a great time and are so thrilled they went.
After a couple of days of fun and relaxation in Cocoa Beach, embarkation day finally arrived! What a great way to celebrate Christmas Eve. Our port arrival time was 10:45 a.m., so we were up early and ready to go. After a short Uber ride, we arrived at the Disney Cruise Terminal.
I will talk more about the Covid testing and safety procedures in the next blog installment. For now I will simply say all went well at the port and we were cleared to board right on time at 12 noon with the rest of boarding group #6.
After being welcomed on board the Disney Dream, we were greeted by Captains Mickey and Minnie in the Atrium and then directed to Deck 4 to complete our virtual muster station check-in. I hope DCL continues with the virtual safety drill. It is so easy to check-in on the Navigator app and not have to stand shoulder to shoulder on Deck 4 in the hot sun.
After we completed all the mandatory safety drills, we headed off to find some lunch and explore the ship.
As you can imagine, the Dream was beautifully decorated for the Christmas season. The Atrium tree and decorations were stunning. I particularly enjoyed the Atrium for its true beauty when it was empty and quiet.
After some eating and exploring, we headed to our cabin so we could unpack and get organized for the evening. We booked a family deluxe ocean view stateroom with a verandah on Deck 10. As we booked only one cabin, I was careful to request and book a cabin that had a fold down wall bed (the top bunk that pulls down from the ceiling is not comfortable for my girls). I was also careful to book the same cabin for both cruises so we did not have to pack and move after three days. Unfortunately the cabin we booked ended up not having the wall bed. I knew that the ship was only sailing at about 50% capacity (there were just about 2,000 passengers on board) so I felt there was a pretty good chance we could move to a different cabin. I went down to guest services and told them our issue. They were more than willing to move us to a new cabin. Their hope was to find us a cabin that was also available on leg 2 of our adventure. After about an hour or so, we were contacted by guest services and told that they were able to move us to a cabin just down the hall from our original cabin, but they were not able to find a cabin that was available on both cruises, so unfortunately we would have to pack up after three days and move to a new cabin. We were fine with that and simply grateful that we had the cabin configuration that worked best for our family. Let me add here that the Disney service on this issue was wonderful. In fact, the head of hotel services stopped by our table at dinner to apologize for the mix up. We assured him all was well!
After unpacking, we all headed out in several different directions: my youngest went to explore Vibe, my other daughter and I went exploring and character gazing and my husband slept!
We had late dining so we were able to do some Disney Trivia (we won), eat a snack, take some pictures, and rest a bit before dinner at Animator’s Palate. The menu had many of my favorites such as baked potato and cheddar cheese soup, chicken and walnut salad, garlic and herb focaccia, herb-crusted pork chop and the chocolate fudge cheesecake. We enjoyed a delicious dinner!
Following dinner, we watched the Merrytime Fireworks.
When we returned to our cabin, we found a special holiday print given to all passengers as a gift from Captain Daniele Aschero. What a nice surprise.
My husband ended his day by attending the late night cognac tasting class held at Cove Cafe. This was the second time he has taken this class and he was not disappointed.
In the next post I’ll share about Christmas Day on the ship, as well as our day at Castaway Cay!
Up Next: Part 2
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.