Davis Family Newspaper

• Davis - Mark, Jeanne, and Ty

• Phillips - Dave, Beverly, Martha, Margarette and Clara

2011 Disney Cruise

 

• Dave and Bev keep the trip a secret from Margarett and Clara.  On the morning of departure they tell Margarette that they're going to McDonald's for breakfast.  When she sees us at the airport she's still a little sleepy, and seems disappointed that they aren't at McDonalds.  When we finally convince her that we're actually going to Disney World, she thinks its just for the day.

• The first sight of the Disney Dream was breath-taking.  The ship is huge and beautiful.  As we cross the gangway and enter the three-story-tall atrium, they announce our name over the loudspeaker.  "Disney now welcomes the Davis family!".  The staff give us a thunderous applause.  They do that for everyone, but boy did it make us feel special.

• We only felt the ship rock on three occassions during the entire journey.  In fact, most times we couldn't even tell when the ship got underway.  You would suddenly realize that we were moving and had been moving for some time - never felt it.

• The cabins were much larger than we were anticipating.  There are almost no inside cabins on the Dream (maybe 90% of the cabins are exterior and almost all of them have verandah's), so the cabins are larger than on most vessels.  We have room for five people very comfortably.  The rooms adjoin with the Phillips room, and the divider between the two verandah's could be opened so we shared the outside space as well. 

• The food was outstanding, and there was lots of it.  We had the same waiters for each of our dinners.  We are assigned to table 3 and assigned to the 8:15 dinner time.  We are also assigned to a restaurant rotation: Sunday night was at The Royal Palace, Monday at Annimator's Palatte, and Tuesday and Wednesday at Enchanted Garden.  The waiters followed us to each restaurant, and quickly learned our likes and dislikes; bringing the right drinks without ordering, knowing who wanted ketchup with their meal, and knowing that Mark likes an after dinner Sambuca.  They were also a lot of fun - joking, showing magic tricks to the kids, and making sure everything was perfect.  We often were the last table to leave the restaurant because it was so much fun.
  
  Our  head waiter was Reeza from Jarkarta, Indonesia.
  
  The assistant waiter was Wut from Thailand.  Martha and Ty seemed to really connect with Wut.

• The cruise stopped at Nassau, Bahamas.  We took a shuttle over to the Atlantis resort.  The aquarium was very nice, and Ty seemed to really enjoy it.  As is typical, we missed the friendliness and service-centered Disney staff.  While the resort was very nice, it was really spread out.  We decided that it would not be a place we would plan to vacation.  I'd much prefer to go to a Disney resort.

• The cruise then stopped at Castaway Quay - Disney's private island.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We enjoy the day just relaxing on the beach and in the turquiose water.  The food here was also terrific.

• There were three pools on deck 11, but they were small and a little crowded.

   

• Ty got his picture taken with Captain Henry.

• Following the cruise we spent two nights at Port Orleans Riverside. We got to do all four parks, but having only two days made us hungry to go again.  We didn't rush.  We took our time and let the kids determine what attractions they wanted to see.
  
  We caught a new show at Magic Kingdom.  They project a number of scenes and animations onto Cinderella's castle.  It is very cleverly done and the visual effect was quite remarkable.
  
  Ty and Margarette go on Expedition Everest 4 times, with the last several as single riders.  It was incredible to see them do that all by themselves. 

 

• Here is a link to the original 2011 Disney Cruise Planning Page and the original 2011 Disney Planning Page that we used to plan the Itinerary.  I didn't maintain the prior year's planning pages and I wish I had.
   

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