Disney Dream embarkation smooth as a dream

[clwalkermn]

I've read many posts about how bad the embarkation experience was for Disney Dream. This was our 3rd Disney cruise, having sailed previously on the Wonder and the Magic. I was skeptical after reading on here about how it would go.

 

I will keep this brief. We had an arrival time of 11-11:30. Our car service dropped us at the curb at exactly 11am. We were on board the ship ready to have lunch at 11:30. Enough said.

 

The Dream is absolutely awesome.

[BonaireDoug]

After the difficulties with embarkation on the first few months of Cruises, Disney and the Port Canaveral people put ino place the port arrival time system to spread out the mob of cruisers who used to arrive at the port even before the terminal opened. This was especially bad with the new ship, since so many veteran Disney cruisers were on those first voyages. When it was open port arrival times, your boarding group number was directly related to when you hit the counter in the terminal, unless you were concierge level.

The assigned arrival times spread the cruisers arrivals at the terminal out over several hours. This appears to have done wonders for the entire embarkation experience. As well, they often open boarding up much earlier now. Just as the OP stated, we had a nearly identical experience, port arrival of 11am had us onboard, and in line for the Aquaduck when it opened at 11:30.

[SuzanneSLO]

Thanks for the updates! We are one of the ones who had the nightmare boarding experience on the Dream last May, even though we didn't arrive at the terminal until after 1 pm. We are sailing on the Fantasy this Fall and even considered upgrading to concierge just for the smoother boarding. Nice to know that Disney has fixed this issue. -- Suzanne

[Nana G]

Good to hear that things are better. Have been following the nightmare posts and not looking forward to our April 7th embarkation on the Fantasy. Now, seems like it has been solved at times.