Our Dream Cruise - Day 1

So, we spent all day Christmas day, driving to Florida. We arrived in Jacksonville around 6:30, checked into our hotel and went for a lovely festive dinner at Waffle House. Monday morning, we woke up and got back in the car, and made our way to Port Canaveral. We arrived at the port around 12:15 and things moved very smoothly. We unloaded our bags, parked the car, and then made our way to the terminal to check in. When we got in the terminal, Mickey Mouse was there taking pictures, but they had closed the line to meet him, so we just had to look at him from a distance. You could see that Michael recognized him right away, but wasn't overly excited to see him. This was just the first of many chances he had to see Mickey during the cruise.

So, we checked in, got our welcome aboard picture taken, and then crossed over the gangway onto our home for the next 4 days!

As you walk into the atrium, they announce, "The Disney Dream would like to welcome the Wolff Family!" Very exciting moment. Then we just stood and took it all in. The atrium was beautiful! It was all decorated for Christmas, and looked incredible.

Lunch was at the Enchanted Garden. It was buffet style, so we all got our fill on whatever we wanted. After lunch, we went to check out our room. We had an inside stateroom, which was plenty big for the three of us, though the Pack and Play did take up a lot of room.

After dropping off our stuff in the room, we went to the DVC Member Party. You get a bunch of freebies, and they let you know what the special is, if you decide to add more points during the cruise. We went for the freebies...

We took some time to explore the ship, and check out the kids areas.

Then it was time for the Sail Away Party on the top deck! Michael just took everything in. Not too much excitement from him, since it was all so new. The party was fun, and the weather was so nice.

After the party, it was time for dinner. We had to be at dinner at 5:45 each night, which is a little early, but we were there until after 7:00, so we knew we had to do the early dinner with Michael. Our first night we ate at Animator's Palate, an animation themed restaurant.

After dinner we went back to the room to change clothes, and do some more exploring around the ship. We thought Michael would be ready for bed at some point, but he was wide open! So, we stuck around the atrium to see the characters!

He wasn't too impressed with the characters. He is not friendly to strangers, and to him, these characters were just strangers that he wasn't going to smile at. After a while, he did like looking at the characters, but once we got close to them, he put on his serious face again.

After all of the excitement for one day, we were exhausted and went back to our room to go to bed. Well, apparently Michael wasn't tired, and he was up running around the stateroom until 11:30, when he finally crashed!

Coming up...Day 2 - Nassau, Bahamas