The cruise to end all cruises (Dream 5/14/15 Concierge)

[cashe]

HEY LADY YOU PACKED YET!?

UGH no. honestly i am so depressed about the weather forecast i have NO DESIRE to even pack. seriously cannot believe that the first time in 8 years we decide to try the caribbean again, it's the first year in 3 years that hurricane season has started so early. it's like mother nature hates me. it's showing warm and sunshine for the dates before AND after our dates and rain and a uv index of 4 for our days. OMG the UV index for my house in texas is that or higher! WTH?!!! so NOT happy.

 

[perditax]

UGH no. honestly i am so depressed about the weather forecast i have NO DESIRE to even pack. seriously cannot believe that the first time in 8 years we decide to try the caribbean again, it's the first year in 3 years that hurricane season has started so early. it's like mother nature hates me. it's showing warm and sunshine for the dates before AND after our dates and rain and a uv index of 4 for our days. OMG the UV index for my house in texas is that or higher! WTH?!!! so NOT happy.

Aw, I'm sorry. I'm still excited for you anyway.

(I really do think it's still a little too early to trust the forecast, but I'd be doing the same thing so I understand.)

 

[perditax]

Also...you've had a rough couple of weeks, really rough. It's not surprising that you're not able to get totally into it right now. I'm still hoping that, weather be damned and whatever, you guys are able to have some good times.

 

[cashe]

Also...you've had a rough couple of weeks, really rough. It's not surprising that you're not able to get totally into it right now. I'm still hoping that, weather be damned and whatever, you guys are able to have some good times.

thanks! me too. i just keep going over in my head how much this trip is costing and how that could have been 7 days in hawaii w/ sun. LOL. lesson learned.

 

[perditax]

Ok, this site is from Norway so the temps are in celsius, but I still think things are looking up.

http://www.yr.no/place/Bahamas/South_Abaco/Castaway_Cay/long.html

 

[cashe]

Ok, this site is from Norway so the temps are in celsius, but I still think things are looking up.

http://www.yr.no/place/Bahamas/South_Abaco/Castaway_Cay/long.html

oh i'm liking that site WAY better!!

 

[js]

well, my dh got a call today that his mother had collapsed and unfortunately she died instantly. we think it was an aneurysm. i am just in shock. i dread telling my daughter. i feel horrible for my husband and that it's just a week shy of mothers day.

hug your loved ones. there was nothing that could have been done. she was literally here one second and got up to go to the kitchen and gone the next. life is so fragile.

I am so sorry. Hugs.

 

[js]

How are your dh and dd.

Maybe if you start packing you may begin to feel a little better and start getting into the mood. Im with you, Im always watching the weather but it usually turns out much better than I anticipated.

How is your foot and leg?

Get packing and put some steel drum music on while you do it!

 

[cashe]

How are your dh and dd.

Maybe if you start packing you may begin to feel a little better and start getting into the mood. Im with you, Im always watching the weather but it usually turns out much better than I anticipated.

How is your foot and leg?

Get packing and put some steel drum music on while you do it!

well i just started to pack then gave up b/c i realized all the laundry is dirty LOL. so i'm resting the foot w/ ice and i'll try again tonight.

 

[cashe]

today's update:

the foot is swollen and very painful. ugh. i was getting better last week then my airrosti doc went to WDW for a week and it's definitely gotten worse since i haven't been getting treated w/ him gone. he comes back monday so i am going to see him before we fly out.

i managed to burn mac and cheese on the stove tonight. that's a first.

i'm 99% packed!
10 shoes. 5 dresses. 6 pairs of shorts. 8 bathing suits. a bunch of shirts. 2 jumpers. 2 hats. 3 go pros. 1 dslr and a bunch of accessories. that's just my suitcase LOL.

Apparently, according to my suitcase, I will be boarding a transatlantic cruise for a month on monday. geez. i can pack an entire 4 day stay in vegas in a carryon but 4 days on a boat and it looks like i'm moving.

hope DH has room in his backpack for vodka LOL.

 

[perditax]

That tropical storm is heading right at me instead.

 

[perditax]

Got my concierge email out on time, thanks for your help.

Hope your travel is going well, that you got packed and are not in too much pain. I'm not going to bug you with texts in case things aren't going so hot, but thinking of you!

 

[js]

Welcome back cashe! I cannot wait to hear all about your trip! I hope you and your family got to finally have a chance to unwind and relax and that your foot didnt give you too much trouble! Cant wait to read your trip report!

Perditax, how did it go with concierge? All mu requests were met and cant wait! Have our cabana on SB, our two night dining ressies and it seems I need to have them do the remaining two nights of dining, Rainforest full cruises passes, champagne tasting and CC 5k when we board but not worried since it should be fine

Ill carch up on our meet thread but wanted to wish cashe a welcome back sonce you have been so helpful on the cruise thread and following your story.

 

[cashe]

we are back. the room was fantastic but we did not have the "magical" experience everyone raves about. I felt like the experiences everyone just loves were overrated. Our servers the first night were plain rude. We didn't see our regular servers till the last 2 nights. Concierge told me all the wrong dining rotation options and didn't note my husband's food allergy. I found it very crowded and just like Magic Kingdom at sea. I think if you love the parks, you will love the cruise. All pools, including the adult pools were "people soup" so we were VERY lucky to have our room w/ the large balcony. it did get very annoying having people CONSTANTLY talking above us from deck 13. We also had kids in the royal next to us that used their hot tub as a swimming pool, which was less than relaxing.

My daughter had fun, but I'm not sure she had the kind of fun I expected her to have. She went to the kids clubs a couple of times and she's very independent so I wasn't worried about her, but I think if she were shy, she wouldn't have had so much fun. It was overwhelming.

Remy was good. I wouldn't call it the best meal of my life. The wines with the wine pairings were just mediocre. They were paired well but they aren't anything special. A lot of basic wines.

The bars were so packed we couldn't even find a seat at skyline and opted for Pink where NO ONE was and we sort of figured out why b/c the cocktails were just eh.

I'm glad we did it, but we won't be doing it again.

The food in concierge was good, we mostly tried to snack there because MDR food was just like park food.

The concierge lounge does close at 10pm. You cannot get anything after that, including drinks so you'll have to go to the pool deck to get that.

There was no hot breakfast on the last day. I believe even MDR told us it was continental so we just ordered continental to the room. Hot breakfast can only be delivered via concierge between 830 am and 930 am and it was all just blah. The Lox and Salmon was what i ordered everyday and it was ok.

 

[cashe]

oh and i did see many women at Remy in dressy flat sandals/flip flops so... just take that for what it's worth lol

 

[party-of-five]

Welcome back! Sorry it wasn't the trip you were hoping for.

Trying not to set my expectations too high for our first cruise in September. What excites one person doesn't always do it for the next.

Did you enjoy the shows? What was your experience on CC? Was that also very crowded? How did your foot hold up?

Thanks.

 

[js]

Welcome back and so sorry you had a less than magical time! Did your foot give you any trouble?

I understand what you mean about what some rave about just being overrated. We are from NY and I remember reading about
how wonderful Christmas decorations are at the park or fireworks and quite honestly, to me, they are okay, but nothing like
I see all the time where I live. I remember going to Disney for the first time seeing the Christmas decorations and I was like "is this
what everyone raves about"? Oh well.

We cruise often and usually different lines but sailed the Dream over NYE with my family, my sister's family and my mom so we had
a full ship. It was difficult finding loungers in the adult only area so we would go upstairs but never found the bars too crowded.
We usually, though, stayed in the one that had the dance floor since there was an awesome bartender that could make a mean mojitio
or margarita, very pleasant, so we usually just went there to hang and have our drinks. We did have a fantastic time but we were also
all together over NYE so that made it even more fun and we were all vacationing together. Booked RCCL for NYE this year since my
kids asked to change lines (my sister's kids are young so that is why we did DCL this year).

I also don't understand how some will only cruise Disney but to each their own. We are going using our DVC points, otherwise it would have been a park trip. Just my mom and me this trip so a whole other experience.

I love Disney but think DCL is just average, compared to RCCL and NCL and I do not think for a minute that DCL Concierge can even be in the same
category as having the concierge in the Haven suites on NCL. We sailed at different ages with my kids, when they were 2 and 6,
18 and 14 and again over NYE at 20 and 16. They always preferred RCCL or NCL clubs over Disney and my kids were (are?) Disney park
lovers/likers.

It is disappointing that the concierge sun deck is just that, a sun deck. You cannot even see the ocean, which I think is such poor
planning and has very little shade. Did you use the sundeck? Did you do the spa or get passes? Did you enjoy your cabana on CC?

What did you enjoy on the cruise and are there any tips you can give us regarding concierge?
Thank you.

 

[cashe]

Get to the port early or you can get turned away from the concierge lounge until it empties out.

We saw the sun deck during the private meet and greet which was pirate goofy. otherwise, we were in 12000 so we just used our veranda to lay out in the sun. it was never windy and a perfect light breeze.

we chose not to use the spa even though i bought passes beforehand because after seeing how everything else was just adult soup, the last thing i wanted to do was bother sitting in a hot tub in the spa or fighting for a lounger in there.

the cabana was nice. the stingray excursion was cool too. we were offered a golf cart escort from the ship to our cabana and return so i never saw the island other than when on that which was back roads. i did go to cookies 2 and honestly couldn't stomach much of the food. it really was just that awful. my daughter wouldn't even eat it. she ate the fruit in the cabana.

cookies 2 was packed at lunch time. we went about noon.

we had the stingray excursion at 9am and by 1030 the family beach (not cabana) looked like panama city or cancun on spring break.

the island was well maintained. best bahamian island we've visited.

i still (other than concierge hosts acting as cabana hosts and one really nice cast member by cookies 2 who carried my tray for me) saw many people who were just "hey! how you doing! welcome to castaway! so good to have you here!"

I still got that "caribbean" feel of "you're a tourist and we just put up with you b/c we need the tourism money" that comes along w/ the caribbean. It's so disappointing that the caribbean is that way (not all of the caribbean, we've only been to the western parts yet always felt that way)

I would HIGHLY recommend Disney, don't get me wrong. I think if someone told me that they just LOVE disney parks and were looking for something like that, i would definitely send them to DCL.

The cabanas (16-21) seemed to be drinking a lot and i saw a server a lot over there checking on them. We made one order and they screwed it up. DH was sick so we just gave up on drinking before we started LOL.

Weather was gorgeous.

I could never get a ride back to the cabana from cookies so DD and i just walked it, it wasn't that bad even w/ the ankle.

My ankle did take a beating on this trip and i think i complicated the stress fracture, but we are back to hawaii next year for 2 weeks again so i have a year to get better!

 

[cashe]

Plug in air fresheners!!! TAKE THEM!

We walked into our room and an OVERWHELMING smell of marijuana just smacked me in the face. no joke. I asked our room steward and he said "oh yeah! i totally smell that all the time in here, but there's nothing we can do"

I was so glad I brought them as I almost didn't. They helped the room immensely!

 

[cashe]

Welcome back! Sorry it wasn't the trip you were hoping for.

Trying not to set my expectations too high for our first cruise in September. What excites one person doesn't always do it for the next.

Did you enjoy the shows? What was your experience on CC? Was that also very crowded? How did your foot hold up?

Thanks.

We did not do the shows. I just couldn't bring myself to go fight for chairs. DD watched them in the room and loved it. My ankle is a mess. IT DID NOT, however, have ANY impact on whether i liked the cruise or not. i have traveled MANY times in the last year of all of this and had great trips. I just felt SO underwhelmed. Our trips to WDW have been SO MUCH MORE magical than this.