Southern Style DREAMs...Nov '23 Southern Caribbean Cruise and our 1st B2B (12/21 Update)

[kittylady1972]

It's been a while since I've done a trip report here, and for sure I'll probably forget to update it regularly, but for those like me finding very limited information about this DCL Southern Caribbean itinerary I'm hoping I'm able to help you plan!

Details: There are 6 adults doing this Disney Dream Southern Caribbean Cruise in November, and 4 of us are getting right back on the the 3-night trip from San Juan to Ft Lauderdale.

Experience: 2 of us are semi-seasoned DCL pros and this will be our 6th cruise, 3rd on the Dream. First cruise was with kids on the Dream, 2nd cruise was just adults on the Wonder (out of Galveston), 3rd Cruise was with kids on the Magic and 4th Cruise with kids on the Fantasy. Then there was a break and last October we managed to convince 8 other adults to take a Disney Dream Western Caribbean cruise with us out of Miami and we had the BEST time EVER. We still talk about this trip with our friends. Some were not Disney fans at all, some it was their first time cruise, others had one or 2 cruises before but not Disney, one couple had one previous Disney cruise experience. This was a Halloween on the High Seas cruise and we all dressed up for Halloween and Pirate Night.

This year we just couldn't get the gang back together for this trip, so it was just going to be me and DH and we would be celebrating our 25th Anniversary (right along with Disney) and it was all good. This is the itinerary that appealed most to us, with stops at Antigua and Aruba, places we've wanted to visit. Eventually we would convince one other couple to join us (for both) and recently we got another couple on board too. This won't be HotHS cruise, but I'm hoping we all at least participate in pirate night again and maybe even formal night a little bit.

This will also be our first cruise as GOLD members so we are super excited about that too. Wish we could have tried another ship with our friends this time, but that's okay. This will still be a different experience.

We are flying into San Juan 2 days before our cruise, so we'll have one day to spend there since we get in late the first evening. We've been to San Juan before (about 19 years ago) but we are looking for some fun stuff to do our one day there. Everybody is arriving on the same flight down and we have a hotel booked that hopefully will work out.

The challenge has been excursions, since by the time couple #3 booked this month there was not much left. We are looking at external excursions to try at several of the ports and I've joined a FB page for the cruise where hopefully there will be more information. We are looking for some semi-adventurous stuff to do as a group of 50+ year olds but not too adventurous.

I'll try to post as we solidify some of our plans and then report back right before, POSSIBLY during (but not likely) and HOPEFULLY after on our experiences. One thing I wish we knew? The staff there this time. I can tell you our last cruise we LOVED the person who ran the adult entertainment (as we lived in those areas each night) and my husband hopes his bartender from the adult pool is also still there. What I know we don't want in terms of staff...our wait staff last time. Instead of a true team, we really had just ONE guy and he REALLY struggled the entire time. It was so far from the previous DCL dining experiences we had in the past and it was both sad and comical at times just how POOR of a job he was doing with our group. From bringing out the wrong food, to forgetting things, to only serving some people food and others much later, to giving us terrible suggestions...I mean I know he tried but it was just NOT what it should have been so hopefully this time will be much better.

We are really looking forward to this adventure and yes even the 2nd cruise where we do our first B2B and get right back on the Dream as it returns to FL and makes a stop at CC only!

 

[bbn1122]

Have a fantastic cruise. DH and I are on the cruise that gets the Dream to San Juan. We cruise out of NYC on 11/04, stopping in Bermuda and Tortola before disembarking in San Juan. We are going to stay for 3 nights in PR, first time visiting. This is our 8th DCL, many without our sons who are now grown. 4th cruise out of NYC, since we live in NJ. Second cruise to Bermuda. We were on the Wish last fall and I remember are dining team was okay. But I loved the ship, The Wish is special.

Can't wait to here how things go. I definitely will post a short report after my cruise. Happy Sailing.

 

[kittylady1972]

Have a fantastic cruise. DH and I are on the cruise that gets the Dream to San Juan. We cruise out of NYC on 11/04, stopping in Bermuda and Tortola before disembarking in San Juan. We are going to stay for 3 nights in PR, first time visiting. This is our 8th DCL, many without our sons who are now grown. 4th cruise out of NYC, since we live in NJ. Second cruise to Bermuda. We were on the Wish last fall and I remember are dining team was okay. But I loved the ship, The Wish is special.

Can't wait to here how things go. I definitely will post a short report after my cruise. Happy Sailing.

THANKS! Same to you! That cruise was one I considered as well, because going out of NYC would be a first for us (and would be a bit closer). I'd still love to a cruise out of NYC one day since it would be an easy drive for us. The Wish is on my bucket list, but would like them to do at least 5 nights. If the 4 nights drop in price we may try it though.

Definitely would love to hear a report on your cruise! My DH is hoping his favorite bartender is there again from last year on the Dream (at the adult pool bar), I loved the adult activities director we had as well. It was just our rotational dining server "team" (that really was just one guy) that fell WAY short. I'm hoping that won't be the case this time.

Honestly I want to do another cruise again on one of the original ships (Wonder or Magic) sometime in the future. We do plan to do a future cruise deposit again as we used it for our 3 night cruise this time around.

 

[kittylady1972]

Yesterday I compiled a spreadsheet of our cruise so I can try to track all of our expenses and potential activities. There are still some things we aren't sure about right now. I don't feel a need to do as many drinking activities on the ship (we did quite a few last time) as I'd rather spend my $45 buying my own drinks on the ship. Palo is still something we want to do this time that we didn't do last trip, but timing on that is challenging as we hate to do it when we all can't participate together, especially on the first cruise when there are 6 of us. The second cruise we may just do that on our own. We'll likely have to check the dining desk when we get on the ship for potential dates and times that would work for all of us.

For now, these are the activities we have booked:

On the Ship Activities: Tequila & Margarita Tasting, Rum Tasting, Chocolate and Liquor Tasting, Prima notte at Palo
ALSO: Remy Dessert, Palo Dinner (we'll likely drop Remy and we have Palo on each cruise but we plan to drop the first one if we can't add our other 4 to it on the ship).

St Kitts: Beach Expedition (only 1 of 6 of use have this, so we'll be looking for something else outside of Disney or explore on our own)

Antigua: Ziplining Tour

Aruba: 4X4 North Coast and Beach Break (on the bubble, as only 2 of 6 have this)

Curacao: Looking at external tours or tour on our own options

Castaway Cay: Parasailing and Fishing

It's our first time at these Southern Caribbean ports, and we know we want to see many of the beaches and explore what we can while there. We are not afraid to explore on our own though, especially since we can't get all 6 of us on any of the Disney excursions.

I've got some external ideas via Viatours and other external companies so we'll see what happens.

 

[kittylady1972]

Two weeks and not much has changed. We have done our online check-in for both cruises but still await final approval. I hate that we have to move rooms between the 7 night and the 3 nights, but couldn't see forking over the extra money for a verandah for the shorter trip. Also we've never done an inside cabin, so that will be something new to us.

Joining a FB group for our cruise has been great, because there are so many valuable tips for people who have more familiarity especially with Puerto Rico. In sad news, I saw somebody was doing a Mixology class at the Bacardi factory in PR, reached out to my peeps to confirm interest, I was SURE there was time and a lot of availability but I may have read the calendar wrong OR it filled up very quickly. It is no longer an option. Bummer. I haven't told them yet, but we'll just have to find some other things to do in the Puerto Rico area at least for our ONE full day there.

So for port arrival times, we are all around the same timeframe between 12pm and 1pm. However I'm reading from others familiar with the port that don't expect it to be smooth like PC. Now we have sailed out of Galveston and Miami as well as PC, so it will be interesting to compare. I thought Miami last year was fine. It sounds like we should expect this to go very slowly though.

Also out of curiosity I pulled up the charges we had from last year's 5-night cruise, just to compare costs and maybe estimate for this one. We will essentially be sailing for 3 times as long this time, but we also plan to do more external excursions as last time we only stopped at Grand Cayman and CC and for Grand Cayman we explore on our own (5 of us) pretty cheaply and easily.

So we actually leave 3 weeks from today! Very excited!

 

[disnygirl55]

Looking forward to your report - sounds like you are doing a lot of juggling with three couples, but you appear to be doing it admirably and I'm sure you are going to have a blast. Following along since I also don't see a lot of information on Southern Caribbean cruises - we have one scheduled next July. I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures! Have a fantastic time!

 

[kittylady1972]

Looking forward to your report - sounds like you are doing a lot of juggling with three couples, but you appear to be doing it admirably and I'm sure you are going to have a blast. Following along since I also don't see a lot of information on Southern Caribbean cruises - we have one scheduled next July. I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures! Have a fantastic time!

Thanks! This is a bit easier than coordinating with 10 of us like last year. I agree that it's harder to find info on the Southern Caribbean cruise so I'm happy to share our experiences. We have really struggled to book Disney excursions at the ports for all of us, in fact I'm not sure all 6 of us have been able to do the same tour in ANY of the ports so far. We may have to just contract out via a local company for some of the places or tour on our own.

 

[kittylady1972]

SO...we are back! We had a great time overall, and I promise to try to get around to doing a more in depth update really soon. If you have any questions, please ask away.

For now, a quick recap:

Puerto Rico: Our stay at the Doubletree was really nice, great hotel, walking distance to many places. We had a meal in San Juan that was also really nice.

Port of Puerto Rico: Hot mess express! I cannot even begin to describe the chaos that was happening when we arrived at this port! Eventually we did get onto the ship, probably a good hour plus past our PAT but we did arrive a bit late.

Disney Dream Cruise: Still love this ship, even though this was our 3rd (and 4th) time sailing her. I am happy to report our serving team for our 7 night for the 8 of us was FABULOUS and made up for the cruise last year where it was terrible. The 4 of us who back to backed had the same serving team, and we were seated with another couple...and it was clear that the same team was slammed for that cruise. I'm so glad we got to experience the team at their best first. While the back to back process went very smooth (there were I think over 100 of us doing B2B), the 3 night cruise after that...TOTAL CHAOS. NEVER AGAIN will we do that. It was night and day. We were told the 7 night cruise was about 75% capacity, the 3 night was FULL capacity with 1 adult to 1 child ratio...and it SHOWED! I mean we have kids, we have raised 3 of them, but this was MADNESS.

Ports:
St. Kitts: We liked it...and managed to find a great cab driver snagged while walking the streets to take us to the beach and do a quick tour along the way. We went to the Carombola Beach Club per his recommendation which was nice. Typical tourist trap at the port, just crazy aggressive people but NOT as aggressive as Aruba.

Antigua: Probably our least favorite. I did the the ziplining tour booked through Disney, which was fine. We then made our way to a nearby beach after flagging down a driver that was near the area the tour that morning had commenced. Just finding him was good, as the other aggressive people at the port was just madness. Driver James was GREAT...super nice. Just driving around the area is sad. The beach he took us to, and waited for us to finish, was one I requested and was very lovely...Dickenson Bay...and if that's all you ever see of Antigua you would probably think it's great. It was a very happening touristy spot for sure and beautiful

Aruba: We did a 4X4 tour via Disney for this one, and the tour guides were great, it was quite the adventure and honestly the Ostrich Farm we visited and toured as part of it was better than I had expected..very interesting. The beach they dropped us off at for the end of the tour...total madness. Many other resort guests and cruise guests were there and it was quite busy. Beautiful also though. Drinks at the bar seemed strong, food was just typical american bar food which was disappointing...would have liked some local flair.

Curacao: Disney's first time porting here, a nice area to walk around in and we also did a Disney tour here. The tour bus navigating those narrow streets...amazing. The tour...somewhat interesting. The Curacao factory visit (first stop) was a bit too short to really enjoy. The museum we visited...okay. The Hato Caves...cool. Only port we did not get to visit a beach.

Meals and Cruise Events: We did a few tastings...probably done with those for the future. Champagne was okay. Champagne and chocolate also...okay. The Prima Notte at Palo was interesting...we enjoyed that overall. The rum tasting...also good but by then we were done learning the history of all the alcohol. Our meal at Remy...was fabulous! Our Palo Brunch...also fabulous and I'd definitely do that again and again.

Food: Our main dining room food was overall good...not GREAT but good. Some nights better than others and with the B2B we had repeat menus. Cabannas was good as well, they had crab legs EVERY single day, but also many other good dishes. I wish we could just do Cabannas for dinner as well....in buffet format. I think that would be good for us too. Loved snagging some charcuterie in the evening at Cove Cafe. Room service wings and charcuterie also ordered a few times...so good...to hold us over until our late dinner.

Adult entertainment: If they ever lose Mauricio I'll be so sad, just LOVE LOVE LOVE him! I think Samantha lead our adult events for the 3 night...and she was also great. Enjoyed lots of time at trivia, won a few Disney "medals". Loved the other adult entertainment events.

Shows: Sadly didn't see too many. I caught the Golden Mickey's for the first time, saw Beauty and the Beast last year, we had an adult magician one night that was okay.

Any other questions let me know!

 

[mama&me]

Looking forward to the rest of your report. Mom and I are doing a similar B2B in the Spring on the Magic. For our first leg we will visit St Kitts and Antigua but not the other ports you visited. Our second leg will be a 5 night. Kinda scared about it now. Lol
Will wait to read your report so I know what to expect.

 

[kittylady1972]

Looking forward to the rest of your report. Mom and I are doing a similar B2B in the Spring on the Magic. For our first leg we will visit St Kitts and Antigua but not the other ports you visited. Our second leg will be a 5 night. Kinda scared about it now. Lol
Will wait to read your report so I know what to expect.

I'm not sure I'll ever get around to a fully detailed trip report at this point. However I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about the trip or the ports or anything.

We LOVE the Magic too, but it's been many years since we've sailed her. I'd love to do another sailing on one of the original ships. Wonder was also nice.

So what is your fear about the trip?

I can say the back to back was very seamless and organized. We apparently had a rather large group of B2B people. The final morning of the cruise we had all of our luggage packed and left it in our room and went to breakfast. After that, we all met up in one of the lounges where they verified all parties were there. Once the other passengers were cleared, they walked us all off the ship, back into the terminal where we all checked in again after a short wait. Then we got back on the ship which was mostly empty at that point. It was super nice.

Are you going out of Puerto Rico or elsewhere?

 

[mama&me]

Yes our trip is out of San Juan. I am glad to hear your B2B was smooth. I read on another thread that the second portion of their B2B out of San Juan was not a good trip for some reason and they will never sail a repositioning from there again. I will just take that with a grain of salt and make the best of the time I will have with my mom. We are looking forward to it. Thank you.

 

[kittylady1972]

Yes our trip is out of San Juan. I am glad to hear your B2B was smooth. I read on another thread that the second portion of their B2B out of San Juan was not a good trip for some reason and they will never sail a repositioning from there again. I will just take that with a grain of salt and make the best of the time I will have with my mom. We are looking forward to it. Thank you.

I don't think it was the fact that it was a repositioning cruise for us. It was really a combination of several factors that I think made it less enjoyable.

Timing: Friday to Monday cruise...so a long 3-night weekend PLUS the weekend before Thanksgiving...I think this added up to being very popular, and the initial price wasn't horrible either. Just the CC stop on this cruise so no other ports so you really were only spending money on the cruise itself, not in ports, or additional stuff since the food at CC was free.

Crowds: This was a VERY VERY kid heavy cruise. This meant CHAOS especially in the family areas. The adults areas were fine for the most part, as kids were chased out of there when they tried to get there. The main dining rooms were much louder than our first cruise. Our wait staff was much more overwhelmed.

So I'm not sure I'd blame it on the repositioning itself. I'd certainly do another reposition cruise just would pick the dates and the timing better.