This was the first cruise for everyone except me and DH (we cruised with Carnival 4 years ago and enjoyed it without kids). We chose Disney Dream because my 2 boys really wanted to cruise on the ship with the aqua duck. My DH wanted to save money and cruise with Carnival again, but as usual the kids won. I did a lot of research on here prior to our trip, so this is my attempt to give back.

We drove down from WV on Friday (13 hours) since DH hates to fly. Trip was not too bad. We went to Downtown Disney and played at Lego land shop on Saturday and then drove over to the port. Me and DH then went to Fish lips to watch the Magic sail out while the kids swam at the hotel pool. I would highly recommend Fish lips. We sat out back along the channel and had a wonderful view of the ship as it passed. It was nice to sit and relax and the key lime pie was amazing. We stayed at the Holiday inn at Cocoa, FL for the park and ride. While the hotel was clean and well maintained, I cannot recommend this hotel to anyone and left my review on trip advisor. They did not schedule a shuttle for us the night before despite reassuring me 3 different times that it was taken care of. I called down the next morning at 9:30 am to confirm our shuttle for 10:30 am and the front desk said they would try. We paid extra specifically for the park and cruise package so this was frustrating. They then told us to come down it would be there at 10:30 as promised, but no shuttle ever came. We ended up with a small refund and repacking our gear for the trip to the port 1 hour later than planned. Very frustrating to say the least.

We ended up parking at the cruise terminal which turned out very nice despite the price. I liked just walking off the ship to our car at disembarkation. Read more