Oceaneer Club

Disney offers childcare while onboard on in port.  One of the first things we did when we got on the ship was to go check it out.  It seems like they offered a lot of really cool things, but Emily didn't even want to wear the bracelet the kids needed to wear!  It was one of those plastic bands with a large (for her) tracking device meant to keep the kids safe.  She tried it on her ankle, she tried it on her wrist, and finally settled on her tank top strap, but we never ended up leaving her there by herself.  Maybe next time?

Andy's Room from Toy Story

dance floor that changed color

art room

Andy's Room

Andy's room

Fairy Room

blocks with the Disney staff

Monster's Inc. Room

Onboard the Dream

The Dream is the newest ship in the Disney cruise line, and it was great.  We ate at three restaurants: Enchanted Garden, Animator's Palette, and the Royal Palace, all of which had a different theme.  However each night we had the same wait staff who were fabulous at making sure you had a good dining experience.  There were three different shows, but we missed one, had to leave the second (it was called Villians, and the first few minutes were scary to Emily), and the third was called Believe.  In it were a variety of characters that Emily would have loved... if she hadn't fallen asleep in the first 10 minutes!

We made it to the pool a couple of times, but they were pretty crowded with kids.  We also made it to Nemo's reef, a toddler splash area.  She had a great time until she fell down and bumped her chin pretty good.  We were most excited to ride the Aquaduck, but we found out that there was a height limit that Emily didn't quite make and she was SO very disappointed.

The Aquaduck is overhead

Our room was a stateroom with a nice veranda to sit on and enjoy.

And before the ship set sail, the was a practice emergency drill where we had to check our life vests and find our meeting point for our life boats.

 One of Emily's favorite places on the ship would be the self serve ice cream station!

And another favorite part, getting to sleep in the bunkbed that would magically appear at the end of the day, and disappear during breakfast!  It fit nicely up in the ceiling during the day to give us more room, and our room host Benny did a great job keeping things clean and also leaving up funny towel characters and chocolates on the bed.  The service on the Dream was fabulous!

Meeting the Characters!

No surprise, this may have been Emily's favorite part, and Disney has it figured out like a well oiled machine.  Every day you would receive a Navigator, a newsletter of the day's activities, including which characters would be where.  And as long as you were on time, the wait wasn't too bad!

Her first meeting was Pluto, and she needed Dad's assistance on that one...

Sometimes the characters would just appear out of nowhere... like the first time she met Chip and Dale.

But, by the end, she was a Character Meeting Pro.  She would run to them and give them all hugs, and usually a kiss on the nose.  I think in the end Chip and Dale might have been her favorite, they were quite comical to watch.  On her last meeting with them (where they are in formal attire) the fought over her and in the end gave her a big Chip and Dale hug, making her an Emily sandwich as she states!
However, if you ask her who is her favorite, it will change every time!

Embarkation

After breakfast on Thursday morning, we boarded a Disney Cruise bus that would take us on the 50 minute drive to Port Canaveral.

Our first good view of the ship we were to sail on, the Disney Dream!

 Emily holding her Key to the World card, a credit card of sorts for all of our onboard purchases, but also her "ticket" off and on the boat (also needed for all of those photo ops to keep it all straight!)

Spring Break 2013

We left Boise at 7 in the morning and arrived in Orlando after a layover at the Phoenix airport.  Disney made all of our arrangements for us, so we were to spend the night at the Hyatt which is conveniently located at the airport.

At the spur of the moment, we decided to rent a car and head to Downtown Disney to eat dinner and spend the evening looking around.  Emily didn't like the car and rented carseat, it's too uncomfortable she said!  I truly believe she would have been completely content spending the evening walking around Orlando International Airport riding the escalators, elevators, and moving sidewalks (and looking at all the Disney souvenir shops and Hello Kitty stores!)

But, alas, she had a great time once we got to Downtown.  All the trendy, cool places to eat had a wait that was hours long, so we settled on an Irish Pub.

And then headed to the Lego store and played and looked...

Then brave Emily wanted to go on a train ride all by herself, well, her and Pooh, her new treasure that she picked up in one of the stores.  Then it was off to the carousel with Dad.  And that was all after a stop at the very crowded Godiva chocolate ice cream stop (one of many ice cream treats on the trip!)

It was midnight before we got the rental car back and got to our room, but we had a great time at Downtown Disney!