4 Night Disney Dream 10/19/14 - Take 2!

[Minkyboodle]

Part 1 - Background

Starting a pre-trip report in order to prepare myself for the actual trip report!

Where to start…introductions? Sure!

There’s DS, Liam (4)

DH, Matt (35).

and me! Justine (33).

Anyway, this will be our second cruise with DCL and I couldn’t be more excited! Our first cruise was a 4 night on the Disney Dream in April, 2013. Matt and I weren’t exactly sure we were “cruising people” but we figured we’d give it a go. Luckily, some friends of ours decided to come along as well. At first we weren’t sure the trip would be for them, because although they are a married couple, they don’t have any kids yet. Long story short, we loved it, they loved it…we were hooked!

Here’s a little video I made of our cruise from last year! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdIn8O78jjc&list=UUszCQ4NLzhDFqVcn_pVeeNQ

At the time, I didn’t know about the onboard booking deals and we got off the ship unaware of the benefits. We did get a postcard in the mail a few weeks after, but my father had just passed away and we weren’t in the right frame of mind to contemplate a vacation.

Fast-forward one year later and we’re ready! But, the question arises, “which cruise should we take?” Knowing how much we all loved the 4 nighter, I was ready for a longer cruise and immediately went for either the Eastern or Western Caribbean. My wallet, however, was not. My line of work usually allows for 2 windows for vacations a year; April and October. That’s it. Well, April was here now and wasn’t happening and that left October….Hurricane season {dun, dun, dunnnnn}.

Living at the Jersey shore has forever traumatized me with October being hurricane season. Granted, we were lucky enough to not sustain damage from Sandy and only had to live without power for 9 days. But, it was enough to leave a lasting impression.

Anyway, the prices during October are easier on the wallet than other times of the year so that helped in the decision making process. Now, we needed to decide Eastern or Western. Reading the Disboards opened my eyes to the GT rates and the potential of saving money on a vacation we were planning anyway. Now, the conundrum. I’m a planner. I need to have every minute detail covered, every eventuality accounted for and all of my bases covered. That doesn’t mean that when I’m actually on vacation I can’t let go and relax. When I’m on vacation I’m laid back and totally open to spur of the moment activities or inactivities.

The planner portion of my personality made me hesitate to book the GT rate because I wouldn’t know what room we were getting ahead of time. Full rate was a little more than we could handle at the moment and so we compromised with another 4 night Dream cruise. We’d done it before, we knew what to expect, and we were comfortable with the price. Done!

The up-side to booking the 4 night meant we would be able to use the in-laws DVC points to spend a few days at the World. When they head our plans they decided to join us for part of our vacation in Disney. My MIL is too scared to take a cruise so that leaves them on dry land. They own points for OKW and we’ve stayed there every other year for the past 15 years that I’ve known them. This time we decided to try somewhere new…Yacht and Beach! I was so excited to get to try Storm-along Bay and the sand bottom pool. But…it was not to be. They were completely booked up and so was OKW for that matter. The only place we could find rooms to accommodate us was Saratoga Springs. No matter! We’ll have fun regardless.

So that’s all set!

But wait! We have some last minute guests joining us! Our friends from last year decided they were just as hooked as we were and wanted another go on the Dream. Plus, my brother and his girlfriend would also be joining us!

This is the emotional part for me. My family hadn’t been on a trip together in probably about 20 years. With my father’s death last year, it really brought home the importance of spending time together as a family. So, needless to say, I was over the moon with excitement that my brother would be coming along as well.

Well, that’s it for the background part. Let’s get into the planning!

Here's our itinerary:

10/18 leave NJ around 1am to drive straight through to Port Canaveral

10/19 Board the Dream!

10/20 Nassau, Bahamas

10/21 Castaway Cay, Bahamas

10/22 Day at Sea

10/23 Disembark the ship, head to Saratoga Springs and spend the day at the pool

10/24 Magic Kingdom

10/25 Epcot

10/26 Possibly Animal Kingdom (still undecided)

10/27 Hollywood Studios

10/28 Head back to Jersey around 7am and drive straight through

 

[Minkyboodle]

I'm going to keep it going...

On our last trip we stayed in a cat 4A on deck 8 midship. We loved it! The verandah, the extra space, the rain showerhead. It was perfect. So, let’s do it again! Our friends are staying 10 rooms down from us and my brother is 4 rooms down from them. We booked main dining because 1. it’s just easier with a 4 year old and 2. last time we enjoyed swimming and riding the Aquaduck at night with no crowds.

Now, we just need to figure out how we’re getting there. At the time airfare was through the roof. For the 3 of us it would be $1500 to fly EWR to MCO. Not happening. So, let’s drive! We did it last time. Last April we left Central NJ at around 8pm, drove through the night and arrived at the Country Inn and Suites, Cape Canaveral around 11am. We were exhausted. Although we had 4 drivers rotating it was not easy on us. We tried napping, but with a stir crazy 3 year old it was not in the cards. I felt like it took Matt and I a good 2 days to recover and because of that I think we missed out on a lot onboard.

So, remember how I said I was planner? Out come the excel spreadsheets. I found a thread on Dis about people who drive 1,000 plus miles and in that thread was a great excel doc someone had posted with time calculations and formulas that helped make calculations easy. I really wanted to make it to the port in time to watch the ships sail out on Saturday so that meant we would need to leave NJ no later than 1am. With limited stops. Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I think this is the plan we’re going with. I’ll let you know how it works out for us.

Now, the groups we’re traveling with need to be home earlier than we’re staying so things get a little complicated.

Us
Driving down early 10/18 and driving back 10/28

Brother
Driving down with us 10/18 and flying back to PHL 10/26

Friends
Flying down ACY to MCO 10/18 and flying back 10/24

In-Laws (now including SIL and 3 kids)
Driving down 10/21 and driving back 10/28

Phew! So this means at one point we’ll have 13 of us down there. Our friends are going to be renting a car down there so they aren’t dependent on us to get around.

Last year when we went we stayed at the Country Inn and Suites and took advantage of their park and cruise package. We had 1 room with 2 queen beds that I think came to $145 split 2 ways was a very affordable option for us. This time around we’re doing the same, however, because there are more of us staying we booked the 1 bedroom suite (2 queen beds and a pullout queen sofa). Still at a price of $204 split 3 ways it’s still very affordable. The hotel gives the option of adding an extra vehicle to your room for $40. Done!

 

[Minkyboodle]

Last one for today.

This time around we decided to participate in an FE group. I get a little carried away so I immediately decided on 3,000 things I wanted to make. I eventually narrowed it down to 5 or 6 and got started. Which also involved an excel document. I have a problem.

I won’t say what I made in this report, because I want it to be a surprise! One thing I did make was an indoor snowball fight kit. I used to make yarn pom poms by the bucket when I was a kid. It was a fun rainy day activity that my grandmother taught me. Anyway I was thinking about how I could use those and came up with a Frozen themed indoor snowball fight kit!

Each baggie gets 6 “snowballs” and I plan on giving one to each stateroom in our group. Because I can churn out pom poms like nobody’s business I got 15 sets of these ready in about 3 days.

But once it was completed (along with the other FE gifts) I felt an emotional crafting void and took up another idea. I finally finished all of my FE gifts at the end of July and I’m promising myself this is it. I’ve already filled an entire suitcase, and with 5 people traveling in a Subaru Forester, space is limited.

I am debating shipping the gifts down ahead of time, but I am terrified something will go wrong and I won’t get them. Has anyone ever done this? Advice?

Onto the FE itself. I knew I wanted to make it myself, but I am definitely a novice at sewing. I make my own Halloween costume every year (yes, I’m 33), but Halloween is my #1 favorite holiday. Last year I made an awesome Cheshire Cat costume.

So after I decided that I would be making my FE I knew I needed a theme. Last year, my son’s favorite Disney movie was Finding Nemo and being that we’re out on the ocean I decided on a Nemo theme. This is the result.

Overall, I’m pleased with it. But, I can definitely see the flaws. Perfectionist here.

Now, I have mentioned that Halloween is my number 1 favorite holiday and because we’re sailing in October our cruise is part of the Halloween on the High Seas. This means COSTUMES! Hooray!

My son is always emphatic that he choose his own costume. Last year he was pirate Mickey and like I mentioned I was a Cheshire Cat. Here we are with Weird Al at a Chiller Theatre convention. Liam's ears were a little floppy at this point and Matt's costume was stashed on the ground.

Matt was dressed as Ralph Maccio from Karate Kid. You know, the Halloween scene where he’s wearing a shower? We put it together last minute, but everyone loved it! It was not easy to walk around a crowded convention in it, so he’s not wearing it in the pic.

Back to this year. My recently Star Wars obsessed offspring decided he wants to be an Ewok. Fine. The problem with this is that I don’t really want to make 2 costumes and I cannot have my 4 year old wear an entire fur suit in 80 degree weather. I’m still brainstorming on a solution.

Matt is jumping on the Star Wars theme with an alternate take on a Storm Trooper costume. Not spoiling that one here.

That left me. And I can guarantee there will be no Slave Leia here. Part of me wanted to reuse my Cheshire Cat costume from last year because 1. it was awesome and 2. I put a lot of work into it. But, because I am Halloween obsessed I needed something new. Again, being that we’re on a cruise I decide that I’m going to do an Ariel costume. And not a regular one. I’m going for the just washed up on shore with new legs wrapped in a sail Ariel costume.

I’ll devote a post later on to costume progress.

Back to the cruise.

Last time around we decided to skip excursions because not only are they pricey, but we figured that because the cruise was only 5 days we would be able to find enough to do on the ship. This time around we’re following the same mentality. The only think I booked for us was the Castaway Cay package where you can snorkel, bike ride and tube. That’s it. Last time the only thing Liam wanted to do was float on a tube. We wound up snagging one of the millions of tubes just floating around at the end of the day and he got his fix. We also did snorkeling last year and had a blast, so this year we’re going for it again.

Side note. It could be because we didn’t book an excursion and really had no set plans when it came to Nassau, but I hated it. We wandered around the markets and bought a few cheap souvenirs, but other than that it was not for us. This time around we plan to stay on the ship. That’s us, but from what I’ve ready, many people now do the same. Atlantis would be something we’d consider, but at those prices, forget it!

I guess this falls into the fun section so I want to take a second to talk about the Dis group and FB. Once we booked the cruise I immediately looked up our meet thread on here. I was excited to join the FE group and being it was my first time was a little unsure on how things actually work. There was some weird back and forth going on about FB FE groups and Dis FE groups and at first it took a little of the wind out of my sails. I decided to join the FB group and see what was going on over there. I know FB vs. Dis is a big debate on here and I don’t mean to start another debate, but I have to say that the vibe I felt in the FB group was drastically different from the one on Dis. I enjoy Disboards for the information provided and I know a lot of people have met lifelong friends through their Dis meet groups, but at least for me at this time, the group on Dis was not for me. I joined one of the FE groups on FB and have been happy with my choice. That’s all I have to say about that.

 

[Minkyboodle]

Because we’re Silver Castaway Cay now, our online check in was 8/21. So, of course I woke up at midnight to make sure I completed my check-in and book our excursions. I was able to get a 10:30 PAT and booked the Castaway Cay package that includes snorkeling, biking and tubes. Last year we just did the snorkeling package and had a great time, but the one thing my son wanted to do was float in a tube. At the end of the day there were tubes laying around everywhere. I felt a little bad about just helping myself to one, but there were hundreds just piled around the beach.

The only other booking I made was for a hot stone massage for Matt. I had gotten one last year and decided it was his turn for a treat. Although, I may help myself to one of the on-board discounts they offer in the spa...if something good comes up!

Because our friends are celebrating their second anniversary on board they decided to book a dinner at Palo. I'm excited to hear how it is. I was wavering back and forth between booking brunch at Palo, and when I finally decided to go for it, there was nothing available. Note to self: Next time, just BOOK it!

Our FB group also put together a mixology class for our day at sea. I'm excited for this! It's a great deal at 5 drinks for $15! Plus, it seems like a fun way to spend an hour during our full last day on board.

Fish Extenders
Last year I remember reading about fish extender groups on disboards and thinking it sounded like a TON of fun. But, that was our first cruise and I was already feeling a little overwhelmed by everything. Now, that I'm an expert {sarcasm} I thought it would be a fun thing for our family to participate in.

As I mentioned in a previous post we decided to join an FE group. The one on the FB group worked best for us. At the time, there was a full group 1 and a recently started group 2. Today we have also have an almost full group 3 on there!

The first thing I started on were gifts. I wasn't going to post them on here at first, but oh well! Anyway, I decided on making individual gifts, but as most things in my life I soon started going overboard...

Here is what I came up with.

For the women and older girls I made glass panel necklaces:

For the men I made travel cups:

For the kids I made indoor snowball kits and goody bags with various toys:

Once I completed all of my gifts I felt a crafting void so that's when I started on wave phone holders. I didn't have enough material to make 2 per cabin so I settled on 1, which actually worked out well because I believe someone else in my group is giving 1 per cabin as well:

Still feeling the crafting void I decided to make dry erase boards as cabin gifts as well:

We did have some fallout in our group towards the end, so that allowed me to give extra travel cups to all of the adults in the group. Sorry guys, the ladies are getting them too now! There's still time though so who knows what else I'll end up with.

So far I've completely filled a carry on size suitcase and I know I need to stop. That's it! Done!

As of today we are T minus 35 days and counting. Let's hope time flies! :

 

[Minkyboodle]

Oh!

And I also want to say how jealous I am because so many people on our FB group have received their cruise docs. Even my brother and our friends got theirs. Maybe today!

 

[gjsusa]

Really good job on the FE gifts! So excited 25 days!

 

[Minkyboodle]

So we have hit the 3 week mark!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We started a paper chain for Liam at the 1 month mark and at the time it was dragging on the floor. Now I had to hang it from a string so he can reach to count and cut.

The paper chain was definitely a great idea. Every night after PJs and tooth brushing we let him cut a chain off and then we count how many days are left. He gets so excited it for it every time.

Not much has happened since my last post...

I had a minor moment when I realized I had missed an entire family in our FE group! Luckily, I made extras of everything so crisis averted!

Oh! I know...Our magic bands came in the mail on Thursday. Hooray! I had a little chuckle when we opened the boxes because the bands for me and Liam were in one box, and the bands for everyone else were in the other. Clearly Liam and I are the parents of 5 unruly adults.

I had some fun with setting our FP+...and by fun I mean stressful aggravation.

I've been hoarding Disney gift cards that I've purchased at Target with my red card. We had about $1,000 saved up to buy our WDW tickets. Because we were going to be doing 4 days we were shopping around to find the best deals on tickets. Let me tell you, there are no "best" deals to be had. Matt gets discounts with sparkfly through work and I get plum benefits. Neither of those had anything worthwhile. After taxes and shipping you were only saving about 12 pp. So we figured we'd save the 5% by buying Disney gift cards at Target and then using those gift cards to buy tickets at the Disney store. Now, here comes moment of crisis #2! I gather up all of our gift cards and head to the Disney store. I tell the lovely cast member that I would like 4 day passes for 2 adults and 1 child.

Me: "No, we won't need hoppers this time"

Cast Member: "Ok, that'll be $918.03"

Me: "Sure thing. I have it all right here."

Cast Member: Looks at my pile of gift cards. "I'm sorry, we can only do 6 of those per customer."

Me:

Ok...WHAT!? I'm sorry, I have NEVER heard this before. So I say to the cast member.

Me: "Ok.....well.....I guess I'll just buy one now. And come back tomorrow and buy another one. And come back after THAT and buy ANOTHER one!"

Now, I work in retail. In fact, to be specific, I am a customer service manager for what recently became an international department store known for it's customer service. I will never lose my cool on someone I know is just doing their job. I'm just shocked at this point. And standing there holding $1,000 that could potentially be useless to me is terrifying.

Cast Member: "Oh! That's a great idea...Why don't I just ring you up for all 3 separately now."

Me:

So, it turns out, that it is not a matter of 6 per customer. Rather, it is that the register can only process 6 gift cards per transaction. Thanks lovely cast member for giving me a stroke at an early age.

So, after about 45 minutes of entering gift cards and losing years off my life I leave the store, park tickets in tow.

That night I decided to link the tickets to our magic bands and everything goes swimmingly!

In fact, while I'm at it, why don't I pick out our FP+ times. Click a link on the app and it brings me to the login screen...ok, sure, I'll log in again.

***Your login does not exist***

hahaha...silly Disney, ok stubby fingers on the iPhone typed the password in wrong.

***Your login does not exist***

Panic mode #3 starts to set in...What is going on?!

I noticed on FB people were saying that the site had gone down, but then I also heard that some people had lost their tickets entirely. GREAT!

After a stupidly stressful day I decided to just call it a night and check on it in the morning. Luckily enough, the next day, everything was back to normal.

So, here I sit 3 weeks out. Watching portcanaveralwebcam.com as the Disney Dream sails out into the beautiful blue and I can only hope that the next 21 days go by in a blink!

 

[Minkyboodle]

Really good job on the FE gifts! So excited 25 days!

Thanks! I started making little gift bags today to make delivery easier. I can't wait to give them out!

 

[Cheryl726]

Love the FE you made, and your gifts look great! Wish I had half your talent! Have a great cruise and vacation!

 

[Minkyboodle]

I've become a master at slicing and dicing my countdown any which way that makes our trip come faster. Examples? Well....Most people would say they have 2 weeks until they leave. I have 9 days until my vacation actually starts; 8 days of work left and 5 days of work actually spent at my store.

It doesn't really make the time go by faster. It just makes me feel better. Deep down (and because the DCL app tells me so) I really know that I have....

This week has been quiet on the vacation front for the most part. Aside from a ferocious case of vacation fever, most things are business as usual. Work has been crazy for me lately. I recently had a transition of employees and have gone from having a team who knows their job inside and out to having a group of completely new people who need to be shown pretty much everything! The good thing about things being a little cuckoo at work, is that time goes by in a blink while I'm there. It helps keep the fever at bay.

For me, vacation prep includes lots of Lists, Laundry and L-cleaning. I hate coming back from a trip to a messy house. Normally I do this the week before, but I figured I'd start on it today because I have a feeling I'm not going to have too much time next week.

Wow, I can actually say that! I am going on vacation NEXT WEEK!

Anyway, we're working on putting the finishing touches on our costumes for the ship and I'm excited with the progress.

I finished sewing together my Ariel wig.

I could't find a perfect wig online so I took a cheap one that I ordered from a website and an old red wig I had from a lobster costume...don't ask.

I also finished distressing the fabric I'm using to make the sail dress. Just a little twirl here and a yank there and voila. You've got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of fabric that resembles a recently legged little mermaid.

We also found the finishing touches for Matt and Liam's costumes. They agreed that they would both be storm troopers on vacation. I can't wait!

The last thing I need to work on are the bags I made to distribute our FE gifts. I mentioned before that I somehow missed an entire family in our group. So that also meant I was short 2 bags. No big deal really, but sometimes I can be the queen of procrastination. I'm either all over a project, or avoiding it like the plague.

Speaking of plague, I have to confess I am a little nervous about all these viruses going around at the moment. We just had a 4 year old in our state die suddenly and the CDC has reported back that they found he had Enterovirus 68. I'm not usually one to fall into what could be sensationalism by the media, but with Ebola coming to the US who knows what could happen. We'll be living by a strict hand washing mantra for the foreseeable future.

Well, that's enough doom and gloom...

I'll leave you with happy sight! A rapidly shortening paper chain!

 

[Love2Cruz]

Love your FE gifts and looking forward to your trip report! You're bebe is adorable!
I haven't started our countdown yet

 

[Minkyboodle]

Love your FE gifts and looking forward to your trip report! You're bebe is adorable!
I haven't started our countdown yet

Thanks! I think he's pretty cute myself, but I'n kind of partial!

When are you cruising?

 

[Minkyboodle]

We are officially 1 week out!!!

I have 2 days left of work!!!!

Last week was a fun one for me. Got a haircut and got some more work done on my tattoo!

I cut off about 8" of hair. A drastic change was needed. My hair was just feeling so dead. I love my stylist and she did an amazing job. It was exactly what I needed.

Also, my best friend's husband is a tattoo artist. He's been working on my arm for about the last year and a half. It's been a while since I had anything done to it, and this is his quiet time so I went in for a little work.

I am a huge Hayao Miyazaki fan. I would say Studio Ghibli in general, but Miyazaki through and through. This time he colored in the susuwatari (little black soot sprites), Turnip-Head (the scarecrow looking guy from Howl's Moving Castle), the kodama (white tree spirits from Princess Mononoke) and Yakul (the red elk from Princess Mononoke).

The last parts I need done the background fill, Howl and Sophie (Howl's Moving Castle) and Catbus (My Neighbor Totoro). Howl, Sophie and Catbus are on the inside and I had a tough time sitting through the outlining. I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I was just not ready for that yet.

I'm thrilled with how it came out even though they look kind of blurry and weird in the pictures...Stupid iPhone. The only bad part was my timing. Swimming will be fine because I'll be all healed up by the time we leave, but I'll need to keep it out of the hot tub.

This last week I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 10 day forecast! Vacations become so much more real (grammar?) when you can see them arrive on the weather outlook.

This is what we've got...

Sail Away! GORGEOUS!

Nassau! Not looking as pretty...

Castaway Cay! Oh boy...

This is not the picture I wanted to see. Now, I know the weather gets finicky this time of year. And I know that most days feature a shower, storm or something of the sort. But that's when I saw this...

Invest 90L is coming to RUIN my cruise. Well, that was my initial reaction anyway. I told you something was brewing.

I am by no means a meteorologist or even a weather buff, but I'd be lying if I said this doesn't make me a little nervous. I'm not worried about being on the ship in a storm because I trust them to keep us safe. The one thing that would really be a downer is missing Castaway Cay. I'm grateful just to be on the ship and I know we'll have a great time regardless, because honestly; how could you not?

Oh well, I'm just going to try and take a positive approach and hope for the best.

So, like I said before, I have 2 more days of work left. I have to make sure I start my team's schedule for November because I won't be back there until 11/3 and my assistant will have to finish and distribute it for me.I also have to square away a business plan for while I'm gone so they know what needs to be accomplished. But, the number 1 thing I'm looking forward to? Setting my out of office assistant on Tuesday afternoon telling everyone that emails me that I will be G-O-N-E for the next 2 and a 1/2 weeks!

Most of my packing is done! Things have taken a turn for the chilly here at the Jersey Shore. It is currently 45 degrees this morning and the frost is starting to form on the ground in the AM. That means no more shorts and t-shirts, so in the luggage they go. FE have been done, I finished the last few projects I had laying around and we did our traditional trip to Harmon to buy any "necessary" (and I use that word VERY loosely) vacation items. The last outstanding chore is to pick up snacks for the ride down.

The plan for this week is to finish work and get the house spotless. We'll be dropping off our dog Maisy

with Matt's uncle on Friday. She usually stays with him when we go away. They love each other. It's hilarious.

Then, the last loose end to tie up is my brother and his girlfriend. They live in Philly and as I mentioned earlier are not staying the entire time we are. They'll be driving down with us, but then flying back to Philly the Saturday after our cruise. The problem is my brother can't really drive out to our house because then his car will be stuck here. He's been trying to get a friend to give him a ride, but I don't think it's working out. Worse case scenario is that I'll have to drive out there and pick them up Friday after they get off work. It's 1.5 hours one way which means a 3 hour drive before our 16 hour drive...something I REALLY don't want to have to do. Which most likely means I'll wind up doing it.

Phew! I feel like this was a very wordy post this week. I guess it's because I'm excited and it's basically crunch time.

Anway, I guess that's it for now. I suppose this will be my last big post before we leave!! How cool. I may post one more time before we go, but if not...look for my Trip Report when we get back!

Last but not least, I leave you with this week's paper chain.

 

[Ntrain]

Just found your pre-trip report. Those are very nice FE. Have a safe trip and will be looking around for your trip report.

 

[Minkyboodle]

Today is the day!

For some reason I thought I could post a real update...overly ambitious!

Stay tuned for the full trip report.

 

[Christina Blanco]

Great fish extender gift ideas!!! Thanks!!!