Breaking news, ladies and gentleman:
We’re going on a cruise!
And not just any cruise, of course – a Disney cruise!
We’re booked on the Dream!
This has been something on my bucket list for quite some time. The problem is, we love being at WDW so much that it’s hard to pull the trigger to do something else, even if that something is still Disney related.
What changed?
Well, as a fundraiser I spend a lot of my time travelling, and each year around this time I have to set a preliminary travel calendar for the next fiscal year. Since I’m plotting my work travel, I figured it was a good time to think about our vacation travel. We have a WDW coming up in August, but we’re of course always thinking about the next trip. And then I got to thinking about how nice it would be to spend some time in Florida in the winter. And how we both need some real relaxation; as much as we love visiting WDW, we tend to do rope drop every morning and walk about fifteen (literally) miles a day. Fun, but not usually restorative.
So, as I sometimes do, I called up the Disney Cruise Line website and started playing around with some dates. And played around some more. And some more. I started running ideas by CP, and her eyes lit up. She was in.
Since neither one of us have ever gone on a cruise before, we’re dipping our toes in with a 3-night Bahamian cruise on the Dream next February. Beforehand, we’re going to spend five or six nights in the park, so we’ll get the best of both worlds – rope drop and long park days and staying in one of our favorite resorts, and then a relaxing cruise to wrap things up. It will be nine days of fun, but we’ll only have to take a week off of work. I can’t wait.
In the meantime, this gives me an entirely new area of Disney to familiarize myself with, and lots of new things to research and plan. If anyone has any tips in the meantime, I’m all ears!
Nerds in Wonderland 
We loved the Dream when we sailed in march 2012. We did a 5 day, 4 night. We stayed 2 nights before the cruise at Saratoga and 2 nights after the cruise at Wilderness Lodge Villas.
Some tips: make sure you get a balcony on a high floor and midship is better if you are prone to sea sickness. (I didn’t think I was until we got off the ship in Nassau and I felt like I was still on the ship!) we had room 9068 and it was a great location.
Do the late dining…8:30 pm…you will see the show first then have dinner. Not a lot of kids at this time. Make sure you visit Palo, an up charge of only $20 per person.
Don’t bother spending the high amount to tour Atlantis in Nassau Bahamas, it’s not really worth the $169 pp. (we stayed here in 09 and visited again on this cruise and for the money it wasn’t worth it).
Castaway Cay is heaven on earth, make sure you go to serenity bay (adults only beach). Castaway Ray’s stingray adventure is a great excursion on CC.
Don’t miss the aqua duck!!!!!
Have a great time!! You will love it!!!