Dream Maiden Voyage Trip Report, A Dream Come True = Completed

[Chilly]

That sounds like a pretty perfect WDW day to me (except the foot but we'll forget that happened).

 

[wickesy]

I loved the KTTK tour last year. I don't remember wearing Guest passes though - I wonder if that's new.

 

[Jets fan]

Another fab day with the most clear photos I have ever seen, absolutely brilliant.

Loved the different colour nail varnish, pink and red

Tina

 

[jockey]

Claire just catching up on your trippie.....awesome! I love your pics! Ak is one of our fav resorts we did not stay there last trip but it's on the cards next trip.... And the dream was just breathtaking I considered doing the keys to the kingdom tour but dh and I would have to do it on different days as the kids are not old enough!

 

[squitty]

Absolutely loving your photos Claire...they are lovely.

I loved the KTTKT when I did it a few years ago, like the new name tags too.

Ouch! Hope your foot wasn't hurt too bad.

 

[Pinky166]

Thank you all for your lovely comments.

Oh no ! I thought this trip was going to be accident free Claire, I hope your foot was OK

What a great day, the tour sounds like lots of fun, and your photos are lovely

I think the last time I had a Lapu Lapu was with you and Ms Tart, it looks so good

You know me Mand.....my tag should say "Clumsy Claire"


I love Lapu Lapu's....this one was so strong though! I made Lee have a sip and it nearly blew his head off, he hates spirits and I think all the drink in the straw was pure rum.

Another fab day with the most clear photos I have ever seen, absolutely brilliant.

Loved the different colour nail varnish, pink and red

Tina

Thanks Tina.......I'm confused about the nail varnish comment though? I was wearing the same colour - Pink. Are you looking at the Lapu lapu pic? Maybe it looks different because one hand was in the shade.

 

[Pinky166]

Tuesday 1st February 2011



We woke around 7.30am, unfortunately my foot was a little swollen but it wasn’t hurting – yet! We needed to do some laundry today so I decided to do that whilst Lee went for his run, he used the treadmill in the fitness centre rather than run around the resort. Once the laundry was in I popped down to Mara to get some drinks, then came back to the room and packed case number 2 - it was easily filled with more of my purchases. Lee came back from his run, he had stopped by the laundry room on his way and transferred the clothes to the dryer for me.

Lee showered and when he was ready we went down to Mara for some food, it was too late for breakfast so I guess it was brunch. Lee had a Chicken Caesar Salad and I had a Cheese Flatbread.

We took some photos of the lobby on the way back to the room:

We collected our laundry and took it back to the room then we got the bus to Epcot.

We looked around Art of Disney and MouseGears. Soarin and Test track with 30 minute waits so we headed over to World Showcase, we watched Off Kilter for a while before checking in for our 3pm ADR at Le Cellier.

We were seated about ten minutes later, Lee ordered a virgin Pina Colada and I ordered a Black Cherry Twist – Red Stag Black Cherry Bourbon, Cranberry Juice, Sweet & Sour mix and Sprite:

We both had the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup to start with lovely Pretzel breadsticks. (Sorry no photos of them as we must have been too busy scoffing it) For Main Course we both chose the Mushroom Filet Mignon – which was perfection as always!

We were too full for Dessert, so paid the bill and had a slow walk around World Showcase. We stopped in Japan and watched Miyuki:

Then we grabbed a seat and a Rosa Regale for me in Italy, where we watched the entertainment:

We carried on around World Showcase and came across the new Caramel shop in Germany….so many yummy looking treats!

We shared a Milk Chocolate covered Caramel Square and a Caramel & Marshmallow twist, both were very nice:

Once we had finished World Showcase we had another look at the waiting times for Soarin and Test Track, they were still 30 mins and we couldn’t be bothered to wait as we’ll be back in a few days. We decided to go back to the resort and relax for the evening as my foot was hurting so we got the bus back to AKL and just chilled out in the room watching TV and using the internet.




Coming soon – More Shopping!​

 

[jockey]

Lovely day and more great pics!! I love the shop in Germany ... Expecially the chocolate strawberries

 

[crabbie1]

Claire what an amazing TR.Its friday night and I have just sat for the last 85 minutes reading it. We are going on our first DC in november and it looks amazing. I lovvvvvve dooney and bourke and love your letter bag. I remember there being an uproar about the bags goin on ebay the night they went on sale.Like you said there obviously wasnt enough and then you get selfish individuals who buy all they can to make a profit. Why waste valuable time queuing when it can be spent browsing the ship.
We are hoping to stay at AKLV as well so lovely to see this in your TR. I am trying to write down some of the cocktails you had especially that cherry one at ohana-looks lovely. I had one there the last time with a blue cube light in it-was very nice.
Anyway cant wait to read more.Gonna crack on with my boring assignment now
One question,did you have a cat 9 stateroom? We have a cat 9 GTY as it was cheaper than the inside for some reason. There will be 3 adults and a child. Are they spacious enough? Only gonna sleep in it so hopefully will be ok. Can we upgrade at the port if we needed to?

 

[wickesy]

Off Kilter is always a must for me. Have you tried the Cheddar Cheese Soup recipe I posted yet?

 

[cannp123165]

We absolutely loved the KTTK tour - it was one of the highlights of our trip at New Year. Great photos - the caramel shop in Germany is great. The caramel corn there is delicious!

 

[mandymouse]

Mmm, a Rose Regale ... what more do I need to say

Another great day Claire

 

[jjk]

what a lovely day, I cannot wait to go to the new the caramel shop, i could eat caramel for breakfast,lunch and dinner !

 

[robin19871]

I look forward to reading your trip report every day.. Your pictures are absolutely beautiful. Can I ask what kind of camera you use? I am looking for a new one now that I see how amazing and crisp your pictures are.. Thanks.

 

[clairelly]

Hi

Thanks for the reply...just one other quick cruise question please!! - are we best getting there early to the port? Was thinking of getting there at 9.30am? what time should we get on?

Thanks again

 

[squitty]

Yummy report Claire

I can't wait till we're standing in that Karamell shop sampling some of those sweet things for ourselves.

 

[Pinky166]

Lovely day and more great pics!! I love the shop in Germany ... Expecially the chocolate strawberries

The Strawberries looked so yummy but they were $4 each! To be honest everything was $4+ which I thought was a bit over priced.

Claire what an amazing TR.Its friday night and I have just sat for the last 85 minutes reading it. We are going on our first DC in november and it looks amazing. I lovvvvvve dooney and bourke and love your letter bag. I remember there being an uproar about the bags goin on ebay the night they went on sale.Like you said there obviously wasnt enough and then you get selfish individuals who buy all they can to make a profit. Why waste valuable time queuing when it can be spent browsing the ship.
We are hoping to stay at AKLV as well so lovely to see this in your TR. I am trying to write down some of the cocktails you had especially that cherry one at ohana-looks lovely. I had one there the last time with a blue cube light in it-was very nice.
Anyway cant wait to read more.Gonna crack on with my boring assignment now
One question,did you have a cat 9 stateroom? We have a cat 9 GTY as it was cheaper than the inside for some reason. There will be 3 adults and a child. Are they spacious enough? Only gonna sleep in it so hopefully will be ok. Can we upgrade at the port if we needed to?

Thanks for reading.
We had a Cat 8c room, which I think are the same size as a Cat 9 just different decks/location. I am sure it will be big enough for 3 adults & 1 child.
I believe you can pay to upgrade at the port if there is availability but i;ve never tried.

Off Kilter is always a must for me. Have you tried the Cheddar Cheese Soup recipe I posted yet?

To be honest I totally forgot about it, I'll have to have a look for it & give it a go.

I look forward to reading your trip report every day.. Your pictures are absolutely beautiful. Can I ask what kind of camera you use? I am looking for a new one now that I see how amazing and
crisp your pictures are.. Thanks.

Thank you for your lovely compliment. We have a Canon 550d and also a small point & shoot - Panasonic Lumix TZ10.

Hi

Thanks for the reply...just one other quick cruise question please!! - are we best getting there early to the port? Was thinking of getting there at 9.30am? what time should we get on?

Thanks again

The terminal usually opens at 10am, the earlier you arrive the earlier the boarding card number you will get. However there isn't much to do in the terminal other than get a photo with Captain Mickey. It really is up to you whether to get there early or not. We went early for the Dream as it was the Maiden Voyage, however for future cruises we won't bother arriving until about 1pm so that we can check in and get straight on the ship.

 

[tink too]

I've just read your entire TR so far - WOW! Your photos are fab!

I'm hoping that DCL have all the queue/shop issues ironed out before we sail on the Fantasy MV. I've noted your comments about the RSP and the shops being re-stocked later in the trip, so hopefully it won't be such a hectic event. We've only ever experienced long lines for debarkation though, so that won't bother us too much (just means I get to take more photos onboard the ship ).

I've decided that I must try a cotton-tini the next time we visit T-Rex - it looks delicious!

 

[Muscateer]

Ouch the foot incident sounded sore.

Parades, Rose Regale and Caramel, some of my favourite things.

We have just bought a Canon camera for our trip in June and I am taken shots of everything at the moment to get used to the camera. Its a big step up for me as I usually take photos with my iphone.

 

[Pinky166]

Wednesday 2nd February 2011


We woke around 8am after a fairly good nights sleep. We showered and dressed and I drove to Wal-Mart, we did a bit of shopping, drinks & snacks etc.

We then drove to Celebration, we’ve not been before. I’ve wanted to go for ages but it just is one of them things on the To Do list that you never seem to get around to. We were starving as it was almost lunchtime and we hadn’t had anything to eat yet, we looked at the menus for both Market Street Café and Celebration Town Tavern and decided on the Tavern, we were seated immediately at an outside table so we could watch the world go by.

Our server soon came over and took our drinks order – a Coconut Pina Colada for me and a Tiger Beer for Lee:

To start I chose the Potato Skins with Cheese & Bacon, Lee had Buffalo Wings:

For Main Course I had Boston Scrod (a bit like cod) & fries:

Lee had New York Strip Steak, Jumbo Shrimp and Mash Potato:

They bought out a Caesar Salad for us to share too:

After lunch we had a walk around the shops, I bought a few things in the Hello Kitty shop for my Niece and then we went in……

Where we spent a fortune on Organic Doggie treats for our spoiled pups!


Some more photos of Celebration:

Once we had finished in Celebration we drove back to AKL, on the way we made a quick stop off at Krispy Kreme and got some Donuts – they were too fresh (if there is such a thing) they literally dissolved in your mouth! We got back to AKL and chilled out for an hour or so.

After a while we decided to go to the Mall @ Millenia, Lee bought some running clothes in one of the shops and I got a few things from Yankee Candle, then we went to Premium Outlets and I stocked up on some Elizabeth Arden creams. We were getting a little hungry so we stopped off at McDonalds on the way back to AKL. We got back to the room about 10.30pm and just chilled before bed.



Coming soon – Animal Kingdom​