A DREAM come true cruise - Concierge and a Proposal! COMPLETED 2/13

[magicmommy]

Following along. We love sailing Concierge!

 

[FSU Girl]

I've been following along and I'm anxiously waiting to hear about the proposal!!!

Thanks for following along The proposal happens near the later part of the cruise so I'll just have to build up the suspense until then

 

[FSU Girl]

Following along. We love sailing Concierge!

Concierge is really amazing

 

[FSU Girl]

Exploring the Dream

I was really excited to explore the whole ship. It's what I like to do first thing after boarding, but we had to postpone it just a little bit to go meet our Concierge team. The location of the Concierge Lounge was really convenient to our room.



Here's a picture of our door. We were in room 12514, which was greatly located almost directly across from the side entrance to the lounge. It made it really easy to pop in and out throughout the cruise, we almost never used the front entrance.



A view down the hallway from our door. Our next door neighbors that we talked to a couple times were celebrating their honeymoon. I like how fancy the wood walls looks in the hall compared to the other deck rooms. Very fancy.

The lounge was really busy since everyone was getting settled into the cruise and talking to the three concierge hosts. They also had a couple other people there to help them out since it was so busy.



We grabbed a table and got some food. The food seemed pretty much the same offerings throughout the cruise. There were slightly different sandwiches offered at different times. We got the little salad and turkey sandwiches. Since we hadn't really eaten much today these tasted great.

So a word of advice if you are sailing concierge for the first time and don't know what you are doing. Don't go in the side door for this first meet and greet. Since we didn't go in the main door they didn't notice we came in and we were sitting around for a long time until we finally went over to the front desk and asked if someone could come talk to us.



Normally they only serve alcohol from 5pm-10pm, except on the first day when you arrive. They had champagne and mimosas. I was having the mimosas (orange juice gets you better right?)

The three hosts for our cruise were Alina, PJ and Danny. PJ came to talk to us and gave us a huge welcome packet with lots of information. It had an itinerary listed with events they thought we'd enjoy going to along with what we had prebooked. We got our tickets to our drinking classes and dinner at Remy later in the cruise. My boyfriend also wanted to run the 5k and they handled signing him up for the event. I don't run, even when I'm not sick.

We went back to the room to drop off the packet.



A quick picture of our mini fridge. They also have sodas and water bottles in the lounge, but it's nice having these in the room. More on that later.

Now it was time to explore. I don't if it's just me, but I just love seeing the entire ship on the first day. Especially if it's a new ship I've never been on. And since this was a short four night cruise I wanted to absorb as much as I could as quick as I could.

Our first stop was the concierge sun deck. My boyfriend has sailed in Disney concierge before, so I was letting him lead this tour. There are two different ways to get to the private sun deck. One is through the lounge, there is a door right next to the side door we would go in and it would open to a stairwell that went up to the deck. The other way to get to the sun deck was from deck 13. It was on the side as you are walking towards the adult only satellite falls. You have to scan your card to open the door.



We only went up through the lounge entrance. That glass bubble in the center of the picture is a sky roof into the lounge below. They have chairs under the covered area as well as lounge chairs in the sun. In the very back was a hot tub. I never saw anyone in it the entire cruise. My boyfriend and I went in it once.



Another part of the sun deck. There were glass walls all the way around, but there is a small part on the glass that you could actually look through and I saw some people peeking in to see what was in here. I think Disney does this so people get curious and decide to book concierge on their next cruise



We went out onto the public deck 13 and walked around. I'm sad I didn't get to try the satellite falls, but it was pretty cold most of the cruise and being sick I wasn't up for much swimming. I'll have to check this out next time I sail.



A close up to show the falling water. I think this spot was crowded throughout the cruise, you can hear the people out here when on the sun deck, but I'm not entirely sure they weren't just lounging around since there was a wall between us. ​

 

[FSU Girl]

Exploring the Dream

We continued on our tour towards the rest of the ship. Since concierge is all the way forward we had a lot of walking ahead of us to see everything.



I tried to get a picture where you could see the entire length of the ship. Compared to the Magic, which I had previously sailed on, this ship was huge. When walking from one end to the other you definitely felt that distance. Directly below where we were was the adult only pool.



If we didn't get free alcohol in the lounge we probably would have visited this bar a few times. We aren't big drinkers. I used to be in my party college days, but I'm now a mature 28 year old Some of my friends from college like to call me grandma since they still party like we used to and I barely drink now.



The adult only pool. It's a different design than the one on the Magic. The part closest to me is very shallow where you could sit in about an inch or so of water and they have bar stools in the water that go to the bar next to this pool, which I thought was pretty cool. In the middle of the pool was a very deep part and then it gets slightly less deep where you can sit around, but be half submerged in water. The pool I think is heated, but was still pretty cold to me. There wasn't many people swimming this day since the weather was freezing.



A picture of the poolside bar.

I was in need of food at this point and we wandered over to the food area by the pool and got some pizza. I forgot to take a picture of this, I get distracted when I'm hungry.



Yummy pizza! I really enjoy the Pizza on Disney cruises.



Also some yummy watermelon. My parents are health nuts so I took a picture of this to send them and show them I was eating healthy on vacation

After eating we decided to head indoors since it was windy and cold.



I wanted to go back to the lobby to get some pictures since we were whisked upstairs so quickly when we boarded. My pictures don't do this justice. That chandelier is incredible. I tried to show all the little crystals glimmering in the light, but my lowly iPhone just couldn't manage to capture it. This lobby was huge compared to the one on the Magic, but the setup was pretty similar.



Each ship has a different character in the lobby. On the Magic they have Mickey Mouse, on the Wonder they have Ariel, on the Fantasy they have Minnie Mouse, and on the Dream they have Donald Duck. Donald Duck is actually my boyfriend's favorite character.



Here's a different view of the chandelier from below.

I have a lot more pictures from exploring the ship that I will post later


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[wdwfan]

Love your trip report!! Great pictures! I can't wait to board the Dream this June!!

 

[luminousstarlight]

thanks for sharing your trip so far cant wait to read more!

 

[TestingH2O]

Great pictures! Danny has been on our team twice. He's great.

 

[poison ivy]

Great pics. We sailed the concierge only once and it was on the Dream so I love reliving the memories. Looks like the outdoor concierge area has changed a lot since we were there in 2013. We had the 4 cabins right next to yours on the left: 12506 12508 12510 12512
Perfect choice with budgeting for the 1 bedroom. That was our room too and it's incredible.

Sorry to hear you were so sick and I can't believe how cold and crowded it was in early Dec.
What a disaster at Roaring Forks. Not good. Hopefully this has improved.

Look forward to reading more.

 

[FSU Girl]

Love your trip report!! Great pictures! I can't wait to board the Dream this June!!

I'm glad you're enjoying it I'm a big picture taker, the 10 photo limit per post makes it difficult to get them all out right away lol. And you're going to have so much fun on your cruise in June. You won't have to worry about cold weather then.

thanks for sharing your trip so far cant wait to read more!

Thank you for taking the time to read it

Great pictures! Danny has been on our team twice. He's great.

Danny was great, he was helping my Fiance a lot with the planning for the proposal.

Great pics. We sailed the concierge only once and it was on the Dream so I love reliving the memories. Looks like the outdoor concierge area has changed a lot since we were there in 2013. We had the 4 cabins right next to yours on the left: 12506 12508 12510 12512
Perfect choice with budgeting for the 1 bedroom. That was our room too and it's incredible.

Sorry to hear you were so sick and I can't believe how cold and crowded it was in early Dec.
What a disaster at Roaring Forks. Not good. Hopefully this has improved.

Look forward to reading more.

What did the outdoor concierge area look like before? Those cabins were great, I'm pretty sure we are going to be sailing in one again for our honeymoon part 1, which if we do book will be leaving exactly one year from today I feel like the concierge is more worth it on the Fantasy/Dream since they have more carved out for concierge, whereas on the Magic/Wonder it feels like they have a smaller space? If we do a Disney cruise for Europe there's no way I could afford concierge. I was looking at 2018 and there was a room that was $35,000.
It was pretty terrible timing to get sick. I don't get sick often and hadn't been sick for a long time and it was just a really bad cold. There's been a lot of cold fronts this winter in Florida. It was 40 degrees here this morning, so it was probably a lot colder in Orlando. I hope they fix Roaring Forks, but from what I'm understanding is they just changed it all over so they took something that was good and made it worse.

 

[FSU Girl]

Exploring the Dream

I'm not sure if this cruise had a ship tour like the Magic did, if it did we missed it. I was having a lot of fun looking at everything that was different from our previous cruise.



These mosaics were so pretty. The attention to detail was pretty incredible. Although I kind of feel like Cinderella's face in this is a little bit off? Not the prettiest look lol.



I think I like this one a little bit more.



Next we wandered over to the gingerbread house. It was so big and pretty! It was like an actual house with lots of things going on inside.



Mickey and Minnie in bed together (how scandalous!) with Pluto guarding the door.



Olaf was in the chimney.

After wandering around the lobby and watching people boarding the ship, we decided to head all the way up to the 12th floor to look around at the specialty restaurants.



Palo and Remy were across the hall from each other. Palo is the least expensive of the two. I think it's $30 a person, or at least that's how much it cost when we went on the Magic. It has really good Italian food. I recommend not going to these types of restaurants until the end of your cruise. Going back to the MDR after eating here just shows how sub-par the cruise food is because these restaurants are amazing.

Since we had been to Palo and Remy wasn't an option on the Magic I wanted to try Remy on this cruise.



In between the two restaurants is the Meridian bar. I think it's a cigar lounge or designed to look like one. Both of our drinking classes were held here. It has a nice view of the ocean.



This was on the ceiling.



And the restaurant where all the magic would happen

I consider myself a bit of a detective. I'm really good at figuring something out and it's really hard to surprise me with anything. I was a little suspicious before our cruise when I was having second thoughts on dining here. It's a very expensive restaurant at $95 a person and I wasn't sure it could live up to Victoria and Albert's, which it's very similar to. So I mentioned this to the boyfriend that I was considering cancelling it. He said he was really looking forward to going and wanted to keep it. It was a little curious since I do all the planning and normally change dining around like crazy and he never cares what I do.



Quick peek inside the Meridian.

More in next post I've reached the picture limit.
​

 

[FSU Girl]

Exploring the Dream



The pretty carpet in front of the elevators. This was different from the rest of the carpets, probably to let you know you've entered a world of elegance.

We then headed all the way down to deck 3 to look around the adult only area.



It's call the District and has a bunch of bars and lounges located inside. I think it only becomes 18 and up after a certain time at night. If I wasn't so sick on the cruise we would have spent our entire time here. On our last cruise we were always in the adult only area.



The Skyline bar. I'm really disappointed we never hung out here. First, it's their martini bar and that is my go to drink. Second, this bar is really cool. The background behind the bar changes every 15 minutes to a different city skyline. Depending on which city they will have a martini from that region.



The Champagne bar is very pink and bubbly.



It was really dark in all these bars. There weren't any windows to the outside and the lighting was kept dim.



I bet there was nice music played here at night.



I don't remember the name of this lounge, but I think this is where the adult entertainment was held.

We went to Match Your Mate, because I love this show and I didn't care how crappy I was feeling I was going to see it. I don't think I took pictures at it, it was hilarious. If you've never watched, it's like the newlywed game, but they have three couples: one newlywed, a medium amount of time married, and an old couple who's been married a long time.

For this show there were A LOT of people who wanted to participate. There were two newlywed couples that had both been married three days. So they had to do a dance off to pick who'd get to compete. Then there were like 20 couples for the middle couple so they did a massive dance off for them. The old couple they went around asking who had been married the longest. These question and answers are hilarious and when we go on our honeymoon cruise we are totally going to compete in this.

**We are going to be booking our part one honeymoon cruise this week. Since we really want to do a European cruise and those aren't until the summer, we are doing a mini moon cruise January 5. Really excited, we are going to go on the Fantasy and this time next year I'll be on my honeymoon cruise **



Another bar. I walked by this bar later in the cruise and they were holding a Mixology class here. I think since the cruise is so big they had to have multiple classes for everything and in different locations. This location didn't look as fun as the one we had.

They have these portholes you can sit in and relax.



It was fun, but not the comfiest spot to sit.



The movie theater on the ship. We didn't watch any movies here. I think I've gotten spoiled with the big recliner chairs my theaters have at home, it's hard to sit in these little chairs. I had watched most of the movies showing here before the cruise except CoCo, which my boyfriend was refusing to go see. Womp Womp

They really need a higher picture limit. Continued next post.











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[FSU Girl]

Exploring the Dream



They apparently were going to have a class on how to shop.



I love the Mickey hand showing the floor the elevator was on.

That concluded our ship tour. We were going back to the room to relax.



The view of our room from the bed. I always make my boyfriend sleep closest to the door to protect me from intruders



Had to take a picture telling me I'm officially on vacation.



View of the lovely parking garage.



Our neighbors extended balcony. I'm trying to decide which room to book for our cruise. Should we book the exact same room we sailed in before? Or try out one of the extended balconies?



I tried to capture the pretty sun, but my iPhone couldn't really show how pretty it looked.



And we're off! There were a lot of people waving us off from shore as we headed out towards the open ocean.



The big ship needs help from the little boat to get out to the ocean.



Nothing ahead of us but ocean ​

 

[poison ivy]

Great update and pictures. the Disney Dream is such a beautiful ship.

I'm glad you're enjoying it I'm a big picture taker, the 10 photo limit per post makes it difficult to get them all out right away lol.


What did the outdoor concierge area look like before? Those cabins were great, I'm pretty sure we are going to be sailing in one again for our honeymoon part 1, which if we do book will be leaving exactly one year from today I feel like the concierge is more worth it on the Fantasy/Dream since they have more carved out for concierge, whereas on the Magic/Wonder it feels like they have a smaller space? If we do a Disney cruise for Europe there's no way I could afford concierge. I was looking at 2018 and there was a room that was $35,000.
It was pretty terrible timing to get sick. I don't get sick often and hadn't been sick for a long time and it was just a really bad cold. There's been a lot of cold fronts this winter in Florida. It was 40 degrees here this morning, so it was probably a lot colder in Orlando. I hope they fix Roaring Forks, but from what I'm understanding is they just changed it all over so they took something that was good and made it worse.

I hear you. Been running up against that 10 photo limit as well.

I did a little digging and pulled up some pics from 2013. It was nice to visit that trip again.

This was the outdoor concierge sundeck 4.5 yrs. ago. (can't believe it's been that long since we've sailed the Dream let alone concierge.)





no shade overhangs.






They had a foot mister. (didn't look all that comfortable).



But you really were directly in the sun.

 

[poison ivy]

I would definitely book that bump out cabin next door if you can get it. We enjoyed that balcony.

 

[dnllmz]

All caught up! I really enjoyed the tour of the ship. We're doing a 4 night cruise on the Dream in November and your tour has put me in the cruise planning mode. I've been so busy with Disney World trip planning and holiday stuff that I didn't give much thought to the cruise. I know you don't need to do much planning but I still like to do some planning.

 

[FSU Girl]

This was the outdoor concierge sundeck 4.5 yrs. ago. (can't believe it's been that long since we've sailed the Dream let alone concierge.)

It does look really different. It looks like they added the awnings to block out some of the sun and added the hot tub. You'll just have to go back now to experience the changes.

I would definitely book that bump out cabin next door if you can get it. We enjoyed that balcony.

I picked the bump out cabin closer to the front of the ship, the room directly next to our room wasn't available. I watched a couple YouTube videos on the room and it's the same layout as the one we had, just the balcony is a lot bigger. I'm excited to have this room for a full week this time.

All caught up! I really enjoyed the tour of the ship. We're doing a 4 night cruise on the Dream in November and your tour has put me in the cruise planning mode. I've been so busy with Disney World trip planning and holiday stuff that I didn't give much thought to the cruise. I know you don't need to do much planning but I still like to do some planning.

I'm glad you enjoyed the tour You are going to have so much fun on your cruise.
I'm an over planner and constantly planning and changing things around. I think planning for a trip is just as fun as going on the trip The cruises definitely require less planning than Disney World, but there are still things to plan out. I like to request a certain dining rotation. If you're planning on doing one of the specialty restaurants you have to figure out how to fit it into the schedule. I wish Disney would tell you your rotation ahead of time to make it easier.

 

[dnllmz]

I'm glad you enjoyed the tour You are going to have so much fun on your cruise.
I'm an over planner and constantly planning and changing things around. I think planning for a trip is just as fun as going on the trip The cruises definitely require less planning than Disney World, but there are still things to plan out. I like to request a certain dining rotation. If you're planning on doing one of the specialty restaurants you have to figure out how to fit it into the schedule. I wish Disney would tell you your rotation ahead of time to make it easier.

I loved the tour and I hope you keep the pics coming! So if you did a brunch at Palo, would you skip dinner that night (we have the earlier dinner sitting)? I guess it would depend on the time of brunch so maybe a silly question. It will be our 10th year anniversary while on the cruise so I'm thinking about booking a brunch at Palo for just me and dh. We're also traveling with our kids, his sister's family, and my mother & father in law. So it's dependent on my kids liking the kids club enough to hang there while we have brunch and also my inlaws not caring if we do something by ourselves which I'm sure they would all be fine with.

I do really love the planning and constant updating of my WDW trips but this past November's trip stressed me out. I ending up helping my cousin with her last minute bookings and even though they were fine with doing whatever, I took it upon myself to make sure they got to do all of the stuff they've missed out on. I think that combined with my last minute changes put me over the edge (I never did get that BOG dinner that I searched for over and over). Right now I'm planning a summer trip and it's a lot less stressful, thankfully!

 

[FSU Girl]

I loved the tour and I hope you keep the pics coming! So if you did a brunch at Palo, would you skip dinner that night (we have the earlier dinner sitting)? I guess it would depend on the time of brunch so maybe a silly question.

There are lots and lots of pictures ahead I've never done the brunch, I've had dinner at both Palo and Remy. I don't think I'd skip dinner though on that day. Try and get an earlier time for the brunch. You'll still have a good couple hours before dinner. You also don't need to decide now. If you are feeling really full, skip dinner then. It's not like Disney where you'll be charged a no show fee. You could also eat a light dinner. I like seeing the restaurants and try not to miss them, even if it's for a quick bite to eat.

It will be our 10th year anniversary while on the cruise so I'm thinking about booking a brunch at Palo for just me and dh. We're also traveling with our kids, his sister's family, and my mother & father in law. So it's dependent on my kids liking the kids club enough to hang there while we have brunch and also my inlaws not caring if we do something by ourselves which I'm sure they would all be fine with.

Since it's for your 10th anniversary (congrats!) I think you definitely deserve a meal alone to celebrate. If your kids don't want to go to the kids club that day have the in-laws watch them.

I do really love the planning and constant updating of my WDW trips but this past November's trip stressed me out. I ending up helping my cousin with her last minute bookings and even though they were fine with doing whatever, I took it upon myself to make sure they got to do all of the stuff they've missed out on. I think that combined with my last minute changes put me over the edge (I never did get that BOG dinner that I searched for over and over). Right now I'm planning a summer trip and it's a lot less stressful, thankfully!

Trying to plan with other people is super stressful! I'm dealing with that now, trying to coordinate meeting up with my fiance's cousin this weekend and he has no plans and trying to fit ours to his is just not happening. We're just going to have him call when he's in the same park as us and we can meet up for a quick hello and maybe a ride depending.

(I never did get that BOG dinner that I searched for over and over)

Next time if you're struggling to find something sign up for a reservation finder. It's free. It's helped me find hard to get reservations. The first time I got BOG dinner I was checking like a crazy person and happened to be awake at 3am and a reservation popped up.

 

[dnllmz]

There are lots and lots of pictures ahead I've never done the brunch, I've had dinner at both Palo and Remy. I don't think I'd skip dinner though on that day. Try and get an earlier time for the brunch. You'll still have a good couple hours before dinner. You also don't need to decide now. If you are feeling really full, skip dinner then. It's not like Disney where you'll be charged a no show fee. You could also eat a light dinner. I like seeing the restaurants and try not to miss them, even if it's for a quick bite to eat.

Since it's for your 10th anniversary (congrats!) I think you definitely deserve a meal alone to celebrate. If your kids don't want to go to the kids club that day have the in-laws watch them.

All good points! I think I'll try to get an early brunch and play dinner by ear. I don't want to miss any of the restaurants because like you mentioned I'd like to see them all too.

Trying to plan with other people is super stressful! I'm dealing with that now, trying to coordinate meeting up with my fiance's cousin this weekend and he has no plans and trying to fit ours to his is just not happening. We're just going to have him call when he's in the same park as us and we can meet up for a quick hello and maybe a ride depending.

WDW planning with others is REALLY hard. I'm hoping that pre-cruise planning, we can just do our own thing and not worry about meeting up with anyone. We can only do 2 or 3 nights before the cruise anyway.

Next time if you're struggling to find something sign up for a reservation finder. It's free. It's helped me find hard to get reservations. The first time I got BOG dinner I was checking like a crazy person and happened to be awake at 3am and a reservation popped up.

I find a lot of reservations in the middle of the night like that, insomnia pays off sometimes. For some reason this BOG really gave me a hard time. I kept missing them touring plan texts or would get an error message when I found an ADR. It was like it wasn't meant to be. But instead of BOG, we did Teppan Edo which ended up being my son's favorite of the trip so I guess it all worked out. I was just obsessed with finding that BOG. I was able to book a BOG for our summer trip so Yay for that!