First of all, apologies for not taking any pictures until we actually pulled up at the port on the day of sailing. If my kids had been with me, I would have been snapping away from the moment we left the house but since they were not, I chose to take a break from my usual role as vacation photographer and just relax. Thus, the first part of my trip report will be straight information and no pictures.
Day one of our trip started out by taking a direct flight from Austin to Orlando on JetBlue the day before our cruise. The flight was uneventful, and before we boarded I received a text from our Happy Limo driver reminding me that he would meet us at baggage claim at 6:30. We usually like to stay at the Hyatt MCO (inside the Orlando airport) when we sail from Port Canaveral and take the DCL bus to the port the next morning (you can read my post about that experience here), but we booked this cruise at the last minute and the Hyatt was already sold out. I had read good reviews for Happy Limo so we decided to give them a try. As promised, our driver AJ was waiting at the correct baggage carousel for us at 6:30 and we introduced ourselves and started chatting while waiting for our 2 checked suitcases. AJ was professional, friendly, and we enjoyed chatting with him. He asked us to point to our bags once we saw them and when they arrived, he picked them up and led us to his car. We booked a town car and it was more than adequate for 2 people and 4 bags (2 large suitcases, a carry-on suitcase and a large backpack). We were quickly on our way towards Port Canaveral.
I didn’t time the drive, but it seemed to be about 45 minutes. We talked with AJ the whole way, mostly about our children and Disney Cruises (he had recently sailed on the Dream). Once we got close to Port Canaveral, AJ offered to pull over in a shopping center that had both a grocery and liquor store so we decided to stop and purchase a few things. Pretty soon we were pulling up to our hotel, the Country Inn & Suites Port Canaveral.
We chose this hotel because it is close to the port, was reasonably priced, provided shuttle service to the port ($5 per person) and had good reviews online. We thought it was clean, comfortable and more than adequate for a 1 night stay prior to a cruise. There were lots of cruisers staying there (various cruise lines) and it definitely had a vacation vibe to it. There is not a restaurant in the hotel, and we were hungry for dinner when we arrived. We asked the front desk what our options were and they told us that there were several places within walking distance, or we could order food to be delivered from a restaurant down the street called Kelsey’s, which is an Italian/pizza place. They handed us a menu to look at and we opted to walk to Kelsey’s. It was about a half mile walk straight down the street. The restaurant was not crowded and we were seated immediately. The food was really good. We walked back to the hotel and although it was already dark, we felt safe walking.
After a good night’s sleep, we woke up the next morning and went downstairs for breakfast. The complimentary breakfast was decent enough, although at the time that we went, the breakfast room was very crowded. All of the indoor tables were full but there were several empty ones outside by the pool, which is where we ended up.
As far as the shuttle service goes, it seemed to be fairly organized. The hotel web site says to call the day before arrival to reserve a place on the shuttle to the port. I did that and was assigned a spot on the 10:30 shuttle to the Disney Dream. This was perfect because when I did our online check in, I had chosen a port arrival time of 10:30. While we were checking in at the hotel, I told the employee helping us that we had reserved the shuttle and she added the $10 charge to our room account and told us to be in the lobby the next morning at 10:15. When we showed up at 10:15, the lobby was completely full of cruisers. They immediately announced that the shuttle for the Dream was ready and called out about 8 family names (ours was one of them) and told us to head outside to the bus. The bus had a trailer attached to it for the luggage, and the bus driver took our luggage and placed it in the trailer and then we climbed on board. After only about a 10 minute wait, we drove off towards the port. It took about 5 minutes to get to the port, and the bus pulled up at the curb. The driver told us all to wait on the bus while he unloaded the luggage from the trailer. When he was finished, he let us know that we could get off the bus and that we should go stand by our luggage, which he had neatly lined up on the sidewalk. After everyone was off the bus, a porter told everyone to gather around for a few instructions regarding our luggage. He asked everyone to make sure that their luggage had the Disney tags on it and told us that we wouldn’t see it again until it arrived at our stateroom later that day. He reminded us to remove anything that we would need before then, such as swimsuits. We were all set so we headed off towards the terminal. Here are some pictures that I took as we arrived on the bus:
I like this picture because it looks like the ship is parked in the parking lot:
And here we are walking toward the terminal entrance:
We walked up right about 10:45 as the terminal was opening, and we had to wait in a short line in order to get into the building and through security. Before we knew it, we were seeing one of my most favorite views ever!
There were already quite a few people in the terminal, but the line for Castaway Club members was short so that’s the line we chose. There were about 3 people in front of us, and after just a few minutes it was our turn to check in. Check in was quick and painless and we were assigned boarding group 11. When we were done, we headed down to the supervisor’s desk all the way at the end to inquire about upgrades. We were not interested in upgrading, but I was just curious to see if there were any upgrades available since this sailing had appeared to be sold out online. The supervisor said that there were “only a couple” of rooms available on the ship (none in concierge) and offered to price them for us, but I declined. We were already in a category 5A so I was pretty sure that the available rooms would be in lower categories. Next we went to find a place to sit and look at the Navigator. On the way I took a picture of the concierge check in area:
I never get tired of looking at the model of the Magic:
And another one of my most favorite views:
We found a place to sit, called our girls one last time, and before we knew it they announced that boarding would begin. I think this was around 11:15, which seemed really early to me. In the past it seems like boarding began closer to 11:45. Anyway, I think they announced boarding group 11 around 11:35, but we were still talking to the girls on the phone so we didn’t get up to board until around 11:45. We always skip the boarding photo and walk straight onto the ship. Once on board, the first thing we did was go to guest services to inquire about the champagne tasting. I have never seen it offered on the 3 night Dream before, so when I saw it in the Navigator in the terminal I was excited. At guest serviced they told us that there were 2 times to choose from: 9:30 that evening or 11:15 the following day. Since we had late dining, we would not be able to do the tasting that evening so we opted for 11:15 the next day. We had not planned to leave the ship in Nassau so it ended up working out great.
After we secured our tickets for the tasting, we debated about what to do next. I was really hungry, but I knew that Cabanas would be packed at that time and Enchanted Garden wasn’t open yet. We decided to brave the crowds and eat at Cabanas. If we had the girls with us I never would have done this, but I figured that with just the 2 of us, how bad could it be? It was bad. I think the first day at Cabanas is always the worst because everyone still has their carry on luggage with them. It was pretty much shoulder to shoulder, and we could not see an empty table anywhere. We prefer to find a table first and then take turns getting our food, so we walked through the entire restaurant but there were no empty tables anywhere. We picked a section and just stood at the edge, waiting for someone to leave. This is why we never eat lunch at Cabanas the first day when the girls are with us. We always go to the MDR buffet where a server shows us to a table and brings us our drinks. It is so much less stressful that way. Anyway, after about 10 minutes we saw some people getting up to leave and made a mad dash for the table. We got to it first, thank goodness, and a CM was right there cleaning it up for us. By the time we left, the crowds had died down considerably, so I suggest waiting until after 1:00 to go to Cabanas if possible.
After we ate lunch, we wandered around the ship for a while. We checked out the art gallery and walked around outdoors on Deck 4. We walked past some life boats that were open so we took a look inside. I was surprised at how large they were and how many people can actually fit inside them:
I also took this picture of the lobby as we walked by:
We must have walked around for about 30-45 minutes until our room was ready. At 1:45, we headed to our room. We were in room 9024 and you can read my stateroom review post here. We unpacked and relaxed in the room (and I signed up for our free internet package) until it was time for the safety drill at 3:45. Here is a picture I took of the terminal from our balcony:
At 3:45 we headed to our assembly station in the balcony of the Walt Disney theater and sat thorough the drill. I talk more about the drill (including a funny story) in my stateroom review post so I won’t repeat the details here. I took this picture during the drill. I think this theater is just gorgeous.
After the drill, we went up to the pool deck for the Sail Away Party. The weather was perfect. We came from Texas where we had been suffering through 100 degree temperatures and we were so excited to be outdoors and not sweating. There were just enough clouds in the sky to keep the sun mostly hidden, a nice breeze and the temperature must have been around 80. When the girls aren’t with us, we prefer to watch the party from the upper deck (12 on the Dream) where the crowds are lower. This is the only picture I took during the party:
The Sail Away party was fun as always, and then it was time to get ready for the show. Tonight was the Golden Mickeys which is one of my favorites. We had about 45 minutes so we went back to our room to change clothes. We arrived at the theater at about 5:45 (for the 6:00 show) and we had our choice of good seats. We sat about 5 rows from the front, right in the middle. The show was fantastic and when it was over, we headed to the gift shops which were now open (they are always closed while the ship is in port). We spent quite a while looking through all 3 stores and my husband bought a shirt. I never buy anything right away. I prefer to look through the shops each day and really think about what I would like to buy and then make my purchases on the final night of the cruise. When we were done shopping, we had just enough time to drop off our bag in the room before going to dinner. While we were there, we met our stateroom host for the first time. His name was Trifena (Trif for short) and he was great.
We had late dining and our dining rotation was AER, so at 8:15 we went to Animator’s Palate for dinner. We were at table 121 which was an 8 top but was only set for 6. We were the first ones to arrive, and after a few minutes we met our table mates, which were a couple from Pittsburgh and a brother/sister from California. We all got along great and we really enjoyed eating dinner (& breakfast on the final morning) with them every evening. This was our second time having table mates and both times have been great experiences. Our table mates for this cruise were so nice and easy to talk to. Our servers were Ali (head server), Ean (main server) and Lorenzo (asst. server) and they were all wonderful. Ean went out of his way to treat us well and surprise us with things he knew we would love, and Lorenzo was funny and charming.
After we finished eating we ended up lingering at the table, still talking with our table mates, and finally we realized that we were pretty much the only ones left in the dining room and they were starting to clean up all around us. Our servers never made us feel like we needed to leave, but we got up to leave anyway because we knew they were trying to get everything cleaned up. I had originally planned to go watch Match Your Mate at 10:30 in Evolution, but I was just too tired. We went back to our room where I went to bed, but my husband went to the 10:45 showing of Ant-Man. When we got back to our room, Trif had turned down our room and left us this:
You can find the Daily Navigators for this cruise here.
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Sounds like a great first day! I look forward to your next installment.