kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
- Messages
- 4,484
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!
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!