Overall we had a great time on the Dream. This was my second time and first for the rest of the group.

Travel to port: we live in the Los Angeles area so needed to take a long flight to get to the port. We opted for a red-eye with arrival at 5:30 am the day the ship left. This is the third time I’ve done this and each time I swear I am never taking the red-eye again. We didn’t have any issues at all but arriving the day of the cruise doesn’t provide any cushion in case there are issues. And, let’s face it, taking the red-eye is terrible. At best you are only getting a couple hours of sleep. In my opinion if you have the time, travel a day early. Cheapest option to get to the port and provide us some flexibility was to rent a car. We found a coupon code for a great discount on Mousesavers.com for Budget car rental. We picked up the car at the airport and dropped off at Port Canaveral. Process was very easy and for a group of 4 was much cheaper than any shuttle service.

Embarkation and FTTF: Even though we all received an email not to arrive before 12:30 we got the port at 10:30 AM. One cabin had Fast to the Fun and the cabin opted not to pay the extra. Check in process for both cabins as the same, easy, fast, no lines. FTTF group was called about 11:00 to go to the second story waiting area. After about 20 minutes we were on our way to our cabin. Our cabin was ready as promised. The cabin that didn’t get FTTF boarded about 15 minutes behind us and although the cabin wasn’t ready they were able to store their luggage. Read more