Cara's Creations: sailing away

Okay, so you like walk thru the mickey years, onto the 'gangway' and up to the ship...and there are a dozen or so finely dressed crew members to welcome you...literally...they asked our family names, and then over the ship's PA system say:

"The Disney Dream welcomes the Baker,

Cron and Martin families!"

and then you are escorted to the elevator so you can go to your stateroom and lunch.

**yes, this made me verkelmpt....why!?!? because I drink the Disney kool-aid and i LOVE IT - if you are looking for an unbiased recap of our vacation, stop reading now...***

We quickly deposit our carry-ons in our state rooms (3 side-by-side rooms on deck 7) and head to the buffet, Cabanas (deck 11 - with the pools!) for lunch...on our way, one of the windows is decorated with the pelican from "Finding Nemo"....this clearly entertained the children :)

There is, of course, anything and everything you could ever want on a buffet in this restaurant, except, sushi, which jason mentions he is looking for and a crew member sincerely apologizes that sushi will not be available until the next day! I start with a pesto, mozzerella and tomato sandwich, shrimp, crab claws, and a small helping of mac & cheese (which porter ate at EVERY lunch, and ordered for EVERY dinner...this was his ideal vacation as far as food was concerned!)

We finished up lunch and it was time for the tedious, but required, muster drill...every guest making their way to their life boat station...it was hot...but the kids were happy to learn that unlike the titantic, our ship had a lifeboat for everyone, and we knew where to go to get in ours "in the extremely unlikely event of an accident" - i put that in quotes, because the children repeated that portion of the announcements over and over, with the crew members accent....

Then it was off to the pool and the "sailing away" deck party! Note celia taking in the mickey pool in true celia fashion :)

The music was blasting, the crew was dancing (as were the kids!) the pools were packed and there were people everywhere...and yet, it was still very fun. the ship has thousands of people aboard, and yes, there were definitely times that it was difficult to move about and get where you wanted to go...however, I can truly say that there really never was a time that we didn't do something because it was too busy...

I think the look on the kids faces in this picture says it all...they are watching the "funnelvision" and the crew dance around and are clearly ready for a great vacation!

It was time to 'sail away' and we gathered with my parents at the windows to watch the ship leave port...and unlike other ships that just blast their horns, the Disney ships blast Disney tones...so "when you wish upon a star" and literally a half-dozen or so other little ditties blasted us into the open ocean...awesome?! yes.

We had the late dining (8:15pm) each night, so that meant that if we wanted to see one of the shows, we went to the early show (6:15pm) while the first dinner seating was going on...we knew we wanted to see them, so we packed into the Walt Disney theatre for the first night's show - Villian's Tonight - which the kids sang the theme song to for the rest of the cruise, and watched a couple more times on their stateroom TV...so, um, needless to say, they enjoyed it. The shows were true Disney magic...over-the-top sentimentality and cheese - with incredible sets, costumes, pyrotechnics, flying, and so much more it's hard to believe they can fit it all into this one theatre - but they do, for 3 distinct shows - with a cast of less than 20 that pull off many major characters with incredible voices that duplicate many of your favorite songs

After the show, it was time to get ready for dinner....so I got a couple of shots of the main atrium of the ship, as our first night's restaurant was off the lobby...


Looking up at the atrium chandelier

Now, it's nearly 8pm...we'd been up before 6am, since our flight was so early, and the level of activity and excitement had, thus far, been thru the roof....what does one do with their tired children?! Well, porter found a port hole to take a break in ;)

Our first dinner was in the Royal Palace - the prince and princess themed restaurant with french based cuisine.

It was Friday the 13th, we had 13 people in our party, we were seated at Table 37 and it was my 37th birthday...coincidence? our head waiter made a joke that it was the magic of disney ;)

The carriage shaped bread baskets made me ridiculously happy...

Our waiter seated all the children at one end, with personalized cups, and then told us about "Dine & Play" - a program available to the late seating of dinner, where the children get fed first (while adults only make it thru the appetizer and salad/soup course) and then get picked up by the fantastic counselors from the kids' club to be signed in and taken upstairs to the kids activity area while the adults finish dining - WHHAAAA?? however, for the first night, we were too far behind schedule to get in on that action, but we told our lovely waiter that we would certainly do it for future dinners!

my napkin....


Dad and I both opted to take advantage of a "wine & dine" package...we found disney's verbage a little, well, undisney-like ...it provided great adult entertainment!

So then we move on to the food - everything you would expect on a cruise ship...I ordered a shrimp and lobster appetizer, some sort of beef tenderloin for dinner, jason had wild boar, etc, etc..

the children discovered that if they wanted ketchup with their french fries, this is how it was served (poured directly from the glass bottle). needless to say, all of the children ordered ketchup each night, whether they liked it or not...

I'm not sure why folks complain about the food on the ship...were they the best things i've ever eaten...not necessarily. there was only one thing i disliked enough to not eat. overall, the food was definitely good and great to try new things (both of the older girls had escargot this night!)

disney takes their themes to the extreme, as you would expect, so i even enjoyed the menus...

a beautiful leather bound dinner menu

with a dessert menu that arrives like an invitation to the ball...

The kids had their own menus (but they could order off the adult one...) but truth be told, why would they - we didn't have mac & cheese or the mickey ice cream bars on our menus!

i ordered one of my all-time favorite desserts - creme brulee, and jason had the sweet temptations - a small sampling of 3 of the desserts.... every dessert menu had the sweet temptations option, so it became a popular dessert choice the other nights...