Geek's Disney Dream Cruise Thoughts & Observations - Part 2

Contributing photographer Jason of disneygeek.com shares some of his thoughts and observations from a cruise aboard the Disney Dream back in December. Here is part 2 of his report. On his website he has a full set of pictures and extended thoughts in the Disney Cruise section.

Day 3: December 6, 2011

Today we were at Castaway Cay for the morning and afternoon. I was eager to go ashore and explore the island so I was done with breakfast and on my way fairly early. As you will see in the pictures there is some work going on near where the ship docks. I could not figure out what they were doing and I asked several cast members and they had theories but nothing sounded firm or final. Does anyone out there know the real deal?

Overall I really enjoyed exploring Castaway Cay. I am not a huge beach person so I did not go with the intent of laying around on the beach or playing in the water. I went to see the sights and walk the island. There were plenty of activities to choose from and seemed to be plenty of space if you wanted to claim some sand for yourself to relax (I have to note that I went back to the ship in the early afternoon so not sure if things were more crowded in the afternoon).

I was surprised by how much there was in the way of Christmas decorations on the island. Where the ship docked as well as the walkway leading the family beach there were a lot. I was expecting less. As you went further into the island things seemed to dwindle and by the time you reached Serenity Bay there was nothing to speak of.

Since it was my first time to Castaway Cay I decided I was going to “walk the island”. I walked from the ship all throughout the family beaches and then out to the airstrip toward Serenity Bay. I took a detour and walked out to the observation tower which is almost a mile round trip. Coming back I took a brief tram ride from Serenity Bay to the first stop then walked the rest of the way back to the ship. This added up to a little over 5 miles of total walking.

I really enjoyed my time out on the observation tower. For most of the walk and then the visit to the tower I had the place to myself. A couple families on bicycles passed by but that was it. As I was leaving a couple more groups were arriving and you could see the bike riders were finding their way out there. I thought the quiet time to look over the island was great though!

As I was walking around it seemed like the trams were always running and never looked full, so it seemed there was plenty of access for those that wanted to ride vs walk around.
It was extremely easy to move between the ship and shore. There were two gangways open and I never noticed a line. But I am guessing later in the afternoon when more people returned there was probably a minor wait for the screening. When you re-boarded the ship you had to send backpacks through an x-ray machine, just like at an airport. I thought this was a little odd since you were on Disney’s Island and everything there they brought but guess you cannot be too safe and it really was not an inconvenience.
One thing that really seemed odd to me was at the bars you had to purchase Coke products. The odd part was at all the dining locations there were beverage stations (as well as ice cream) so you could drink all you wanted there and it was included (free).

I finally made it onto the Aquaduck. Once back on board I headed up to give it a try and went on a handful of times in under an hour. The longest I waited was maybe 5 groups in front of me. After my last ride though the line was backing up and visible and it just kept growing as more returned from shore.
So what did I think of the Aquaduck? I really enjoyed it. This was the first water coaster I have been on (keep saying I need to visit Typhoon Lagoon but have not), so I really cannot compare to others. The ride itself has a nice little thrill with the couple upward thrusts, but really is not a thrill ride, so it was perfect for just about anyone. I did find that the information channel lied. It said the water was 87 degrees. There is no way that water was. It was substantially colder. The first time the water hits you it was cool.
As we were setting sail from Castaway Cay Captain Gus came on the loudspeaker to give us an update and say there had been a Medical Emergency so we may be heading back to Nassau or they were looking at other options (in the end we did return to Nassau in the early morning hours). He updated us the next day that the injury was a bike injury with a severely broken leg. The guest was in the hospital with their family and resting comfortably. I thought the follow-up was a nice touch.
The evening’s theme was Pirates Night. We were in Animator’s Palette for the evening, all three dining rooms served the same menu. I have to say I was not impressed with the menu and actually ended up eating very little at dinner. Luckily I had grabbed that snack earlier and did get some more food after so I did not go hungry… but I was disappointed with the offerings. Also was a little disappointed that our server or assistant server did not seem to take more of an interest in the issue. They did talk to me and said tomorrow’s menu was better. But on previous cruises the wait staff had gone above and beyond and if they noticed someone not eating they would offer to find something else and in one case went above and beyond and actually got me something from a previous night’s menu, even. Here there really was no offer made. I know I probably could have asked for another dish or something but decided it was not important to me.

The first show of the evening for me was Mickey’s Pirates in the Caribbean up on Deck 11. This show featured the Disney Characters and some Pirate activities. I thought it was a decent kids show but not something that inspired or really entertained me too much. I was a little disappointed that they had to cut a couple of things due to the ship’s movement.
In the Walt Disney Theater this evening was a comedy duo. The attendance was extremely poor but the team was good. We enjoyed the performance. It was very typical and not Disney but it still worked as a change of pace. Especially since we had it sandwiched between two Disney shows.

After the show we headed up to Deck 12 to find a spot the for Buccaneer Blast Fireworks. Disney is the only cruise line right now that does routine fireworks on its cruises. The show itself is fairly short but fun. I had a tough choice to make. Did I want a spot to see the stage portion or the fireworks. I opted for the stage which meant I could see the fireworks but all the pictures came out kind of boring, just fireworks in the air. I would have really wanted to shoot them from the other side where I could get a funnel or something in the shot to show we were on a ship. Following/during the fireworks was a Captain Jack Sparrow skit/performance.
After the Buccaneer Blast Fireworks Deck 11 became Club Pirate and was a dance party featuring the performers. I thought this was a fun activity and seemed well-attended. I felt bad for anyone with a room on Deck 10, one reason you never want a room right below a common deck if you can avoid it. I am assuming it was quite loud down there.

Day 4: December 7, 2011

Today was Pearl Harbor day. I thought it would have been appropriate to show the film in the theater but no such luck.
Our morning started off with the thrusters below again as we pulled into then out of port during the 4am hour to drop off the injured passenger. Usually I am not that light of a sleeper so curious why these woke me up.
Since I was heading to a movie at 8:30 my breakfast choices were a bit limited. The buffet in Enchanted Garden did not open till 9am and the sit down service in Royal Palace started at 8:00am which would be cutting it close. So I opted for Cabanas and again had a great breakfast and since it was early it was peaceful too.
I made my way down to the Buena Vista Theater and found a seat. They ran into some minor technical difficulties and had to restart the trailers. The second time through everything was good. I thought it was great that the theater on board had first run movies, like the Muppets that was only out for a few weeks in theaters. It could also do 3D, I stopped by to see a bit of Cars 2 and it looked great! The Muppet movie itself was ok. I enjoyed it because I like the Muppets but the film itself was nothing spectacular. I really enjoyed the Small Fry short at the beginning. It features Buzz Lightyear as a happy meal toy and is a fun short.

At 11:30am a crowd gathered in the lobby atrium for Jack Jack’s Incredible Diaper Dash. This was a fun event, what’s not to enjoy about baby racing?? The idea is to see who is the fastest crawler onboard.
For lunch we did not know what we wanted so we stopped by the Enchanted Garden and were not impressed so we ended up at Royal Palace ordering off the menu. The food was good but the service was a bit slow. They had a bunch of Cast Members, it appeared they were training servers.

There were three showings instead of two of the main stage show for the day. We opted to go the first one to free up some of our evening, so it was an afternoon, 3:00pm show time of Disney’s Believe. They had some technical issues with the show and it was slightly delayed. Also they had some A/C issues going on too. The show itself was top-notch just like the other two Disney productions. I thought the story line was a bit hokey but the performance numbers more than made up for it.
In terms of ranking the shows… for sure I would put Villains Tonight on the bottom. And it’s a toss-up of Golden Mickeys or Believe at the top. I liked parts of each. I guess the wise cracking Genie of Believe would put it a bit above the Golden Mickeys.
After the show we gathered in the Lobby Atrium to see the Sea Ya’ Real Soon! character send off @ 4:15pm. The characters came out for autographs then did a brief little good bye. The show was repeated later in the evening at 10:!5 also. I like how they have the little touches, such as the screen that drops down to play some clips and the confetti blast near the end.
Here is some video from the send off:

Dinner this evening was at Animator’s Palate. Tonight was the regular Crush show. I was a little disappointed by the Crush interaction. He made his way around the room but really did not spend that much time in each area. I would say under 5 minutes in each. I understand that you cannot have him in two spots at the same time as that would be bad for guests to look across the room and see him. I thought they could have done a better job of segmenting the room so you could have more than one Crush out. This would give more face time with the character. I think he talked to no more than three or four people in our section.
The food tonight was slightly better than last nights, but still a disappointment to me. Again no real steak on the menu!
Since we had our evening open after the show we went to catch the Adult Exclusive Wilde and James show in Evolution. This was a repeat of a show they did earlier in the cruise but different than the one they did in the Walt Disney Theater last night. Again we found them very entertaining but their show was short as they needed to wrap up within half an hour for those that had a late seating for dinner. The show was very sparsely attended. Not sure if that was because of the time, that it was a repeat, or what.
I was curious why they did the Cruise Staff Farewell so late…it was 11:00pm. I did not make it there due to this and the fact that we had a 6:45am breakfast time tomorrow.
I made one more night time pass around the decks to see what was going on and everything was very peaceful this evening. I was surprised that even with the amount of sitting I did at the shows, movie, etc today I still managed to walk nearly 4 miles!

Day 5: December 8, 2011

The ship pulled back into Port Canaveral very early. Since we had early seating for dinner our breakfast time was at 6:45am down in Animators Palate. We instead opted for a little extra time to pack up our stuff and went up to Cabanas for the buffet.
I was disappointed that the breakfast this morning up there was scaled down from the other mornings. For example no Mickey Waffles today. Why??
One shock of the morning for us was when I opened the door to go outside and look around it was freezing… temperatures were in the 40s. It would have been nice if somewhere they had told us that. My extra sweatshirt, pants, etc.. were all in my suitcase which meant I could not get warm clothes till after customs.
Exiting the ship, customs, and getting a ride back to Walt Disney World were all uneventful. I thought the process to find your bags and go through customs worked very smoothly but then again we were early. Not sure how it was later in the morning when the crowds were heavier.