Disney Dream: Day 1 - Boarding the Ship

On the morning we were set to board the Disney Dream, we woke up with a mission - to ride the Skyliner one final time. Disney's Skyliner quickly became my toddler's favorite "ride" at Disney, soaring even above Dumbo, the Tea Cups, and the Carousel.

Well, we had plenty of time to spare, so we took a quick ride from Pop Century over to Caribbean Beach Resort where we snagged breakfast at the Joffrey's kiosk.

Full disclaimer: I really do think the Skyliner is pretty darn neat, too!

While ordering our toffee flight coffee, Brayden happened to see the giant blue donut and well...vacation.

I ordered the Toffee Flight warm and Jason ordered it cold. We both agreed that the hot version had better flavor.

Before long, it was time to leave for the port. With our large group size, we realized that it would be more cost effective to take a Happy Limo over to the port and (bonus) with our own mode of transportation, we got to choose our port arrival time!

They even had an option to include a child safety seat (for a small extra fee).

We enjoyed having the opportunity to chat on the way to the port and while checking facebook, we soon discovered that official boarding time had been pushed back by an hour due to a coast guard inspection that morning. Whomp whomp. Although it was a little sad, we didn't let it ruin our great day!

By the way, Happy Limo comes highly recommended! They were prompt, had plenty of place to store our luggage, and super friendly!

Look at this madhouse!

One little disruption in our boarding process happened when we officially checked in. Since Jason and I were Castaway Club members, we went to a separate check-in line from our friends who were first time cruisers. Well, our two groups of friends were all given boarding group 7 and Jason & I were given boarding group 15. After asking around, we realized there was nothing anyone could do to help us or change our boarding group to align with our friends. We didn't want to board separate and it may seem like small potatoes, but when you're ready to be on the ship and your boarding time has already been delayed once, it kinda stinks to wait around and watch as everyone else boards. Our friends were nice enough to sit back and wait with us so we could all board together!

In all, that was really the only "issue" we ran into with our cruise. First world problems, right? :)

Our first stop after boarding the ship was Cabanas for a little lunch!

After lunch, we all took a little time to explore the kids club. Since this was Brayden's first cruise and he had all of this extra room, we were a little worried about how it would go for him. He loved Andy's room, though and didn't want to stop playing!

Before long, our rooms were ready and we were ready to drop off our bags.
 

This was our first cruise since becoming DVC Members and we were so excited to see the "Welcome Home" signage on our door!

We booked a verandah towards the front of the ship and didn't have any issues with our room.

It was so neat to see how they literally just flipped the couch over to form a bed for Brayden!

So simple and easy!

Around 2:30 p.m., we said goodbye to our friends for a few minutes to attend a DVC Member Celebration. Since we became DVC Members mid-way through our last cruise, we didn't get to attend all of the fun events, so we wanted to take advantage of as many as possible here.

It was also here that we discovered our adult cruise staff was Tisa! She has seriously been on at least four of our nine Disney Cruises (not intentionally on our part) and I was so excited to see her!!

After our DVC event, we reunited with our friends for the boat drill and Sail Away Party!

We were so excited to begin our cruise and 4 magical nights at sea!

I love waving to the port cast members as the ship sails away!

Dinner on our first evening was in Animator's Palate.

Brayden was zonked, so our head water got him a table cloth to use as a blanket. So sweet!

Mickey bars for dessert, anyone? :)

We deemed dinner on our first night as "romper night" so of course we had to take a picture!

On the way back to our room, we made a little pit stop at our friend Kim's room to decorate it for her birthday.

Last but not least, a lovely sand crab was waiting to greet us good evening!

Want to check out more from our Disney Vacation? Click on the links below!

Disney Travel Day: Wine and Dine Expo & Animal Kingdom
Disney Day 2: Wine and Dine 10K & Kids Races & Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Disney Day 3: Wine and Dine Half Marathon & Magic Kingdom
Disney Day 4: Boarding the Disney Dream
Disney Day 5: Castaway Cay
Disney Day 6: Nassau
Disney Day 7: At Sea Day
Disney Day 8: Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Up next: Castaway Cay!!

Disney World (November 2019) - Day 3: Magic Kingdom

Today, I'm picking back up with our most recent Disney trip at Magic Kingdom, which began after I ran the half marathon.

Disney Travel Day: Wine and Dine Expo & Animal Kingdom
Disney Day 2: Wine and Dine 10K & Kids Races & Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Disney Day 3: Wine and Dine Half Marathon & Magic Kingdom
Disney Day 4: Boarding the Disney Dream
Disney Day 5: Castaway Cay
Disney Day 6: Nassau
Disney Day 7: At Sea Day
Disney Day 8: Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

My friends ventured over to Hollywood Studios while I was running so they could explore Star Wars land a bit more. After running, I snagged breakfast at the Pop Century food court (Mickey waffles, of course), then showered and made my way to the bus stop. By this time, my friends told me they were finished with Hollywood Studios and wanted to head over to Magic Kingdom which was fine with me!

Seeing the Christmas decorations was so exciting, especially so early in the season!

Our first few rides included several in Fantasyland along with our fast passes for Mine Train. Brayden loves the carousel, so that's where we started.

We also rode the Tea Cups which was hilarious because we had two separate vehicles for our group - the ones who wanted to spin and the ones who wanted to remain tame (me)! With three gown adults and one child, it was a tight squeeze but oh so much fun!

We also had fun waving at people from the TTA!

After posing for a few medal pictures with the castle, we boarded a monorail for the Polynesian and our dinner reservation at Ohana!

If you've never been, you need to go! This restaurant and all of the food offered there is DELICIOUS!

My favorite are the fried dumplings. I could eat them all day!

The assortment of meat is wonderful, too. Dinner here is served family style and all you can eat. The starters are placed at your table and the meat is delivered on skewers from the wait staff.

My mouth is seriously watering right now just thinking about it!

The best part and literally my favorite dessert on property is the bread pudding with bananas foster sauce and ice cream. It's seriously SO delicious!

Our dinner was scheduled early on purpose, so we would have a chance to return to the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks.

We had to stop for a purple wall photo first, though!

...and poor Everett got to hold all of our bags!

The castle lights were gorgeous as always and I was so excited to see them once again!

This was the first time for several in our group to see Happily Ever After and they all loved it!

We somehow thought the MK was open until 11 p.m. that night, but it actually closed at 9 p.m., so we joined the mass exodus to take a bus ride back to Pop Century. Brayden was handed these stickers by our sweet bus driver on the way! So cute!

An early(ish) night was in order because we had a big day coming up - the Disney Dream!! Stay tuned for more!

Day 4: EPCOT

For our final day at Disney World this past August, we spent a half day at EPCOT. Luckily, we were able to book our fast passes back to back, which enabled us to go from ride to ride without any difficulty.

We woke up bright and early and had a breakfast of leftover pastries in our room!

It was all delicious, even on day 2!

After breakfast, we dropped our luggage off at baggage claim, then hopped a bus to Epcot. Magical Express was set to pick us up around 1:30 p.m., so we had plans to stay at Epcot until around noon.

We visited the Spaceship Earth first, followed by The Seas with Nemo and Friends. After a little Journey Into Imagination with Figment, we decided to visit the DVC lounge at the top of the Imagination Pavilion. We still had a good 45 minutes before it was time for our next fast pass (at Frozen), so we decided this was the best way to pass a little time!

It was definitely a nice way to recharge our devices and get out of the summer Florida heat, too!

While there, a cast member came around with a cart to deliver snacks. This has been hit or miss for us in the past, but it was nice to have this time around!

After cooling off for a bit, we stopped for a quick potty break where Brayden had his first "wall" photo taken! I definitely giggled at this a bit!

Frozen had been down, but it was reopening just as we walked up! Another bonus: this meant zero line for us!!

Brayden loved this ride, too because he loves Olaf!

Before leaving the park, we decided to stop for a snack of a cronut! These are currently available at the Electric Umbrella but I'm not sure for how long!

Also for anyone who's curious, this was our first Disney trip to travel with our Summer Infant 3Dlite + stroller and we LOVED it! It's basically a heavy duty umbrella stroller with all the perks. I seriously recommend this one!

Although we were sad to say goodbye, it was time to leave Epcot and make our way back to Old Key West for Magical Express! We did have a small bit of a wait for our resort bus which left us wishing we had taken a Lyft, but we made it without any problem.

Thankfully, we had about a 10 minute wait for Magical Express which gave us just enough time to snag our luggage! While Jason was off doing that, Brayden and I did a little exploring, where we discovered a color table! Fun times!

...and with that, our magical, quick, extended weekend trip had come to a close! We loved being able to visit and spend time with just our little family. It was such a special time for all three of us!

Oh yes, and last quick note - these are delicious...and by delicious, I mean freaking good! Needless to say, the bag didn't last long at my house!

Thanks so much for following along! Our next magical adventure will be just ahead! We are visiting Walt Disney World for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon, boarding the Disney Dream for a 4 night cruise, then returning to Walt Disney World for the very first Christmas party of 2019! As an added bonus, we get to do all of that with our friends! I'm SO excited and cannot wait!

Have a magical day!