Guest Trip Report: December 24, 2021 3 Night Christmas Sailing on the Disney Dream – Part 2

This is part 2 of Cynthia’s guest trip report.  You can read part 1 here.

Guest Trip Report: December 24, 2021 3 Night Christmas Sailing on the Disney Dream

Part 2

Day 2 was Christmas Day.  Santa Claus arrived safely aboard the Dream and was more than willing to take family holiday pictures.

He even filled the girls’ stockings and left a few small presents in the cabin.  The girls, even at 20 and 17, love Christmas morning and were thrilled that family Christmas traditions were not skipped even though we were in the middle of the ocean! 

Throughout the day we ran into many characters all decked out in their holiday finest.

We also had a special treat for our 20 year old – her first Palo dining experience – Christmas Brunch.  We enjoyed the tomato and basil soup, the meat and cheese antipasti, calzone, parmesan-crusted chicken breast, lasagna bolognaise (OMG!) and the chocolate dessert.  She absolutely enjoyed herself (especially the desserts) and could not wait for Palo dinner on part 2 of our adventure.

After brunch we did some more exploring and game shows.  I decided to go to the 6:00 p.m. performance of Beauty and the Beast while the others went to watch a movie.

Before dinner we were able to enjoy the stunning sunset.  I love a sunset at sea!

Dinner was in Enchanted Garden and featured the “Happy Holidays” menu.  The menu included selections such as Winter Squash Soup, Harvest Corn Chowder, Sea Bass, Pumpkin Ravioli, Baked Ham, Standing Rib Roast, Apple Pie and Double Chocolate Yule Log.

We all enjoyed our meals and the surprise guests that said hello.

After a very eventful day, we headed to bed so we could get up bright and early for our day at Castaway Cay.

Day 3 was beautiful.  The weather could not have been any better (in fact, the weather for our entire trip was fabulous.)  We spent our day exploring the island, eating lunch and simply lounging at the family beach.  Because the ship was at half capacity, there were no issues finding lounge chairs and plenty of room to relax and enjoy the sights.

After our day on Castaway Cay we headed back to ship so we could pack and get ready for the evening events.  Even though we were moving cabins, we did not have to put our luggage outside our stateroom.  Our cabin steward told us our cabin for the second cruise was just a bit further down the hall.  He told us to leave our luggage in the cabin and he would move it to the new cabin for us the next morning.  Another example of great DCL service!

Our final dinner of the 3-night cruise was in Royal Palace and was the standard dinner menu that included wonderful options such as escargot, fried brie, french onion soup, duck breast, lamb, chateaubriand, grand marnier souffle, and creme brulee.  We had a wonderful meal and were thrilled to find out that we were going to have the same server and assistant server on part 2 of our adventure.  

After dinner we did some final exploring of the ship and then enjoyed some of the late night entertainment.  Again, because the ship was only at 50% capacity, we found that there was lots of room in the entertainment venues, but that also meant that the “enthusiasm” level was not as high as in past cruises.  Smaller crowds equated to quieter crowds on this cruise.

When we returned to our cabin, we found our instructions for the next morning.  One of the benefits of going on back to back cruises is you don’t have to get up and get moving at the crack of dawn.  We simply had to arrive at Pub 687 at 9:00 am with only our important personal items and we would then be escorted as a group through the disembarkation/embarkation process.  It was nice to know we did not have to be up at 6:00 am!

Our 3-day cruise on the Dream came to end on December 27th.  We all enjoyed getting to know the Dream and its crew and were so excited to get right back on board for four more days of fun and relaxation because three days is simply not enough time.  We packed a lot into three days but were looking forward to seeing even more and having new experiences over the next four days.

Up Next:  Disembarkation/embarkation and Covid safety protocols onboard the Dream