Cruising with a Toddler. Our Photo Intense Trip Recap of the 9-7-13 Carnival Dream

[upstairsmama]

We will be on the Dream in about 73 days... Can't wait to read your review ! :)

 

Were with you:D

[Thad409]

On edge waiting for the rest. We sail in April out of New Orleans on the Dream with our 6 year old, cant wait to see what your little guy thinks as well as yourself of camp carnival if he stays at camp at all,on our cruise with our son at age 4 he liked the camp carnival but it was us with separation issue.LOL:)

[mamabird526]

Love your reviews. Leaving this Sat on the Dream

[Mistyhon]

Can't wait to read more!!

[toddsmom]

Was so happy to come upon this review......Have read all of your reviews,

So glad to see the Little one has become a Cruiser!!!!

[TeknikDC2]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Its support like this that makes me excited and motivated to get the next update done quickly. Thank you so much.

 

I love reviews that go over all aspects of the vacation. I can't wait to read more!

 

Thank you. I hope others enjoy seeing all aspects of the vacation as well. I know that there will be many who won't care about the time we were in the Theme Parks. Especially since this is a cruise website. But as I mentioned in the first post I write about these to give those who are flying in early or even those visting Port Canaveral as a stop an idea of things to do while there. Heck many people may be considering a land vacation and it gives them ideas too. I've learned alot by visiting these parks thruout the years and I like to share my tips to help others make the most of there vacations.

 

Not only that but I also share this same trip report on other Theme Park forums as well. So I share the same info and report across multipule websites. Its kind of interesting that i've found many people who cruise are not Theme Park people. However most Theme Park people are also Cruise people.

 

What's butterbeer? :confused::confused::confused::confused:

 

Butterbeer is a drink that is in the Harry Potter series of books. Since the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is located in the Islands of Adventure Park at Universal Orlando its the only place in the US (you can get it at the movie studio in England too) where you can purchase the drink. It is very delicious and very addicting. But I will talk about it more in later reviews.

 

On edge waiting for the rest. We sail in April out of New Orleans on the Dream with our 6 year old, cant wait to see what your little guy thinks as well as yourself of camp carnival if he stays at camp at all,on our cruise with our son at age 4 he liked the camp carnival but it was us with separation issue.LOL:)

 

Hopefully he has a great time. We never actually took Daniel to Camp Carnival. We went up there 1 day to see what it was about and if we could just stay and play with him in there for a little bit one afternoon but even though he was only 1 week away from turning 2 they would not allow him in there. So we never went back after then. Most morning they do have time set aside for children under 2 to come in to Camp Carnival. However it will cost you to do so or the parents must be there with there toddler. This time is pretty early in the morning though so we slept instead. But again more on this later.

 

Anyways thanks again everyone.

[WAHMto5]

Thanks for the review....can't wait to read more! Single digits off our next a Dream trip!

[SweetpeaOne]

Very nice review and pictures. Your son is so cute.. Thanks for sharing.

[cruisinsly]

I remember your reviews. Glad there is another review for us to read. Cant wait for more.

[RC Dancers]

 

Another try, hope this works

Edited September 19, 2013 by RC Dancers

[ch27088]

Ahhh, I can't wait to read more, hurry back please. By the way, thanks so much for sharing your review with us. Your family is just so precious. I believe taking child with you on a trip at a young age is great. He will get use to it and plus become a world traveler!!!

[TeknikDC2]

Thanks again everyone. Here is the next update to finish out Day 1 of our trip. I hope to keep up this pace of kicking out updates.

 

Day 1, Part 2: Universal Studios Florida

 

So why did we decide to buy Annual Passes to Universal? I mean we live on the other side of the country. We are much closer to the California park then we are the Florida ones. Well it really wasn’t a huge cost to pay extra for the annual passes. Kiera got a Power Pass which is the cheapest annual at $199. This pass has no discounts and also has black out dates. Not a big deal as we don’t plan to visit during blackout periods anyways. The pass that I got was the Preferred pass which costs $279. However mine has no blackout dates plus I get Free Parking (after first use) and a 10% discount on all Food and Merchandise purchased in the parks. We ended up visiting the parks 7 times on this trip so just do the math there and the cost difference was made up in the parking savings alone. Not to mention what we saved on food and goods. The longest Ticket Universal sells now is a 4 day ticket which costs $179 so forking out extra for the Annual Pass is a pretty good deal. Plus with my ticket you have the option to make payments over a year on it at no extra charge.

 

 

For those looking at doing a day trip though keep in mind that tickets are pretty pricey for a 1 day pass. A 1 day, 1 park ticket I think is $95 per person now. A 1 day, 2 park ticket is I think $130. However from there the price per day drops dramatically. Unlike Disney where there multiday tickets still get pretty pricey. I mean my Preferred Annual Pass at Universal cost the same as a 4 day NON park hopper ticket to Walt Disney World.

 

We made good use of the Annual Passes on this trip however the big savings will come next year. Really the whole reason we bought the Annual Passes on this trip is because we plan on returning next June to Orlando when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion is completed. So we paid a little extra now to save a significant amount of money next June when we return.

 

Those who follow my reports and are not in the loop of the Theme Park world likely don’t know the massive expansion and renovations that the Universal Orlando resort is going thru right now. The parks are only a shadow of there former selves that we first experienced back in 2009. Harry Potter has done wonder for the parks and the new owners Comcast are investing 1.5 billion dollars into the parks over the next 5 years. To give you and idea of how much change has happened in just over a year. We visited the parks last in April of 2012. In the 17 months since then Universal has opened 3 new rides (Despicable Me, Transformers, and Kudos and Kang’s Twirl and Hurl), Opened the New Springfield Mini land, Debuted an all new Night Time Show in the Studios Lagoon, and debuted an all new Parade. That doesn’t include the refurbishments other rides have received or general park upkeep as well.

 

 

And there not done yet. As I mentioned the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is expanding. Currently on the former land where the Jaws ride was located they are building London and Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter books and Movies. Gringotts Bank will be the big new ride and supposedly the most technologically advanced ride out there. But the interesting thing Is that Diagon Alley is being built in the Universal Studios Florida park. The current Wizarding World is in the Islands of Adventure Park. In a groundbreaking attraction they will be connecting the 2 parks and 2 Wizarding Worlds with an actual Hogwarts Express ride that will transport you between the 2 areas. This is an expansion that will have any Harry Potter fan jumping for joy and it will be open in less then a year from now.

 

But that’s not all. Insiders say There is also a Jurassic park expansion in the works. As well as a Lorax Ride, Kong will be returning in place of Disaster, and rumors of a Kidzone remodel and Toon Lagoon replacement. And yes that is all within 5 years. it’s a very exciting time to be a fan of Universal Orlando. Theres much going on and each year the parks change more. If you havn’t been in a while its really worth checking out if you have a couple days to spare.

 

 

With that said lets move on with the actual review. By the time we got to the parks gates we only had about 35 minutes until it would be closing for the night. Our number 1 goal for the night was just actually getting there and getting the Annual Passes activated. Anything else we did would be a bonus. The sky’s still looked like the rain could start again at any time but that wouldn’t damper our spirits as we were now in one of our happy places.

 

 

We did have one ride on our mind that we wanted to do this night. Its right at the front of the park and one of the rides that has opened since our last visit. That ride is Despicable Me and we were very happy to find it with only a 20 minute wait. Although its not the newest ride anymore this thing will still typically pull very long waits do to it having fairly low capacity. It opened up last summer and replaced the old Jimmy Newtrons Nicktoon Blast ride. The ride still uses the same ride system as Jimmy Newtron as it’s a basic motion simulator. But with Despicable me they redid all of the pre show rooms and added 3d to the ride.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

Daniel is a huge fan of the Minions and we figured we would love this ride. Although it does have a 40inch ride height so he wouldn’t actually be able to “ride” it. Instead they do have stationary seats where you can sit with younger children and watch the ride video as if it’s a movie. Obviously this is what we had to do. The plot of this ride is that Gru has recruited you to become Minions and in the ride you get turned into Minions as chaos ensues. It is a very fun little ride that any fan of the movies will enjoy. There’s not much to the outside que but the indoor pres how rooms look like your inside Gru’s house and are very detailed and cool to see. After the ride is a Minion dance party area that many kids seemed to enjoy. This is also where you can meet 1 of 4 different Minions however being so close to park closing none of the Minions where out at the time. This is a ride that should not be missed. And the Pre Show videos are very funny. Daniel really seemed to enjoy the video but we couldn’t get him to keep the 3d glasses on as it would have made it even better for him I’m sure.

 

[TeknikDC2]

By the time we finished with Despicable Me we had less then 5 minutes until the parks official closing time. So I got the idea to quickly run to the other new nearby ride. Transformers. Now this ride is new to Orlando but I rode it in Hollywood this past December on our California trip. I wasn’t sure if we’d make it before closing but I was gonna at least try. Kiera just told me to go ahead as she didn’t really care to ride it that night. So I walked quickly and made it to the ride right as they were about to close the doors and shut off the lights for the Night Time show on the Lagoon. I’m pretty positive that I was the very last person of the night to ride it.

 

 

Just by comparing the 2 building between Hollywood and Orlando its pretty obvious that the Orlando building is themed much better. The whole building is themed to a military type base but the best part is the Life Size statue of Optimus Prime standing over the entrance. In Hollywood the ride is clearly in a Soundstage with a Mural of Optimus Prime and Megatron. Nothing too special about it. The indoor ques are themed the same and have the same props inside. However this was the one area where I think Hollywood was better as there que is much longer and felt more like you were going dip into a secret military base.

 

[TeknikDC2]

There was no wait when I got to the Loading platform for the ride and being basically the only one in the building I got a ride vehicle completely to myself. It was very interesting to go thru and experience such an amazing ride by yourself. The ride itself is exactly the same as the Hollywood version. With the exception that you could tell that Orlando had newer and better projectors and it seemed like to me that Orlandos set pieces had more to them then Hollywoods. But I could be wrong there. This ride is an absolute do not miss at Universal Orlando.

 

 

However you can’t help but compare it to Spiderman right next door in Islands of Adventure. Transformers uses the same ride system as Spiderman and was suppose to be the “superior” version. When Transformers was designed it was designed specifically for the parks that didn’t already have Spiderman. So it was ment for Singapore and Hollywood. In Florida instead Spiderman got a major upgrade last year where they completely reanimated the ride video and went to 4k HD like Transformers. Apparently Universal Orlando made too much money last year and instead of paying a huge Tax they fast tracked Transformers for there park as well. From the teardown of Soundstage 44 to the opening of Transformers was only about 11 months. A build time that is unheard of for such a major attraction. So which do I prefer? Well honestly I think Spiderman is still the much better ride. Especially after all its upgrades. But Transformers is a ride that the Studios desperately needed and it really livened up what was once a dead area of the park.

 

When I finished with Transfomers the park was officially closed and the Nighttime Show was going on. In my original plan I wanted to stay this night and watch the show. But getting to the parks much later then we originally planned and having now missed the start of the show we decided we would do it another night. I meet up with Kiera and Daniel and we made our way to the parks exit. We would be spending the next 2 days at the parks prior to the Cruise so we would have plenty of time to spend in them later. Plus we still needed to find dinner, check into our hotel, and go get some groceries.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

You would think there would be a ton of Fast Food places on International Drive. But we’ve found over the years that there really isn’t the best selection. Instead if you go down Sand Lake Drive you will find many Fast Food places at None Touristy prices. We decided tonight just stop at Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Plus they had a Play area where Daniel would probably like to stretch his feet for a bit after a long day of travel. Unfortunately for him though he never did get to play. He yet again didn’t want to eat anything (really hadn’t ate much all day long) and trying to teach him there’s consequences for his behavior we didn’t let him play unless he would eat. We did feel bad about it as you could tell how sad he was to not be allowed to play. But we are hoping that following thru with what we tell him will teach him later on.

 

We then drove over to our Hotel located just off I-Drive on Universal Blvd. We would be staying at the Best Western Plus Orlando Gateway for our pre cruise stay. I got this 3 star Hotel off Hotwire.com for $44 a night. And as with almost all of my vacations in the past 2 years I was able to figure out what Hotel it would be by using Betterbidding.com. As many of you know with Hotwire the hotel isn’t revealed to you until after you book and pay. However based on the area, star rating, trip advisor rating, and amenities list you can go to Betterbidding.com and typically narrow it down to what Hotel it would be. I’ve done this in both Florida and California and so far I have never got a hotel that I wasn’t expecting. It is extra work but to me its worth being able to find what hotel it is and read reviews before actually booking and being stuck with it.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

As for the hotel itself we thought it was pretty decent. Typical of what you would expect from a 3 star hotel. We especially loved how close it was to Universal as it was less then a 5 minute drive from the hotel to the parking garage. Our room was located on the 3rd floor and had a view of the Wet and Wild water park across the street. The room was nice and clean and had a microwave and fridge. It also had free wifi. We were very satisfied with this hotel and would stay there again. Especially when only doing a Universal trip or staying in Orlando before a Cruise. The following pictures are from multiple days. The Pool area was large and nice and they had 2 hot tubs and a sun bathing deck.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

After getting our luggage and settling into the room for a bit we ran back out and down the street to the Wal-Mart on Turkey Lake Road. One of the bad things about this hotel is that it did not offer a free breakfast (not many resort area hotels do though) so we wanted to grab some breakfast items to save that expense in the parks. For being almost midnight I couldn’t believe how packed this Wal-Mart was. I’m sure it was mostly tourists doing the same thing we were. Its also funny how much Disney stuff they have right up front for those not wanting to spend that money in the parks.

 

We got all that we needed (and then some) and headed back to the hotel. We’d have a full day in the parks ahead of us tomorrow and needed to get our rest. One thing that was nice about having the Annual passes though was that we wouldn’t be in a rush to get to the parks. We would just got whenever we were ready to go. No need of doing any open to close touring on this trip.

 

One other thing I didn’t like about the hotel I didn’t discover until we were asleep. I really didn’t like any of the pillows. None of theme were soft enough to my liking. But I delt with it. Also in the middle of the night though Daniel made it a hotel stay now 2 for 2 of falling off the bed while sleeping. We really don’t understand where at home in his Toddler bed he won’t move an inch. But put him in a full size bed and he keeps falling off. He was just fine, a little startled, but fine and fell right back asleep. After this we made a barricade of pillows around the bed and he didn’t fall off again.

 

 

 

Alright and that once again concludes this update. Tomorrow's update will be about our time at the Islands of Adventure park. 2 days to get thru until the cruise portion begins. Thanks again everyone for your support. Please feel free to ask any questions or comments you have and I will try to answer them quickly. I appreciate the support. Thank you.

[OSUKNIGHT]

It's really interesting hearing of your visit to Orlando for someone who lives here. I can understand about the annual pass because my entire family has the annual pass. Thanks for visiting. Can't wait for the rest of the review.

[amc80]

I will be following this thread! We are cruising in November with our toddler (he will be 15 months). He is very active so I'm curious to see how your son did on the ship. Also, I'm hoping you will address night time activities (no, not THOSE activities, ha). We love going to the shows but our son goes to sleep by 7:30, so we aren't sure how that will work. Did you eat in the main dining room?

[Robkatcruisers]

It's really interesting hearing of your visit to Orlando for someone who lives here. I can understand about the annual pass because my entire family has the annual pass. Thanks for visiting. Can't wait for the rest of the review.

 

 

I agree.

 

We live in Brevard County about 30 minutes south of Port Canaveral in Palm Bay. My husband loves loves loves Universal Studios and we have the annual preferred pass and have done it for several years not all in a row but many a different year.

 

But living here for me I would never ever ever and we never do go to Universal June, July, August or September, it is way to hot and humid for me...to wait in those lines and sweat pouring down my face for hours on end is horrible...and the lines are long then as kids are out of school.

 

I only say this because we have done it in the past and I get horrible headache throwing up etc no matter how much water I drink or how much shade I stay in all without going on any rollercoasters....I do love the mummy though....

 

Love going around Mardi Gras sometimes because of the music etc...and I know we will try in October...

[skoi13]

Great review-- and I read your Dream Western this morning as we're doing that (our first CCL cruise) in October.

 

You've totally sold me on trying Universal/IOS on our next trip to Orlando. We were (well oldest daughter still is but she's in college now) totally brand loyal to Disney-- cruise, parks, own the Disney timeshare (which is great), but the bloom has come off that rose due to the new ships, and other issues (don't get me started on their horrible military discounts vs Carnival corp across the fleet and RCI). I'm now itching to spend a few days at Universal when we head back down to Orlando in 2015-- hopefully our thrill seeking youngest daughter will be tall enough for everything! Besides Princesses, she finds Disney a little boring, I think.

 

Looking forward to the rest.

 

ETA: Oldest Hordette and I went on a CCL cruise (the Sensation I think-- the atrium looks like Nar Shaada from the old Star Wars Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games-- which was a huge plus-- Oldest Son says the Dream reminds him of Cloud City so it's a go all around). It was short-- maybe four nights-- a quick getaway as a reward for her help when her dad was deployed to Afghanistan and I had many issues to deal with-- homeschooling, special needs newly adopted (two months before dad deployed) little brother. So some of us have been on CCL. She had fun though took many pictures of the Wonder when we were docked side by side-- though our Wonder experience the next year would be less than wonderful. I liked the Sensation. I liked the cruise. Saw more rowdy/ rude/ drunken behavior on the back to back (in the off season) cruises we took on the new Disney Dream than we did on Sensation. And oh, no military discount on DCL-- even though husband served in A-stan and is a government certified disabled vet due to combat injuries. (Sorry-- I'm bitter.)

Edited September 20, 2013 by skoi13
Historical inaccuracy

[boaterette]

Welcome back. I have missed your reviews.

[cruisecraze96]

Looking forward to more. We are also huge Universal Orlando fans and stop for 3 or more days every trip. We got spoiled with staying on site so we plan that but the annual pass helps with the costs. Can't wait until the new expansion too and the I agree with the new transformer ride. It was pretty awesome!!!

 

I am taking my 2nd cruise next March,first will be in November, on the Dream with a 4 and 11 yer old so hearing how your toddler did will be great info.

[wrigley80]

Awesome Review...I am subscribing :) We just booked the 9-day repositioning cruise on the Carnival Dream for April so I'm checking out all the Dream reviews.

 

I love your pictures and detail in your review :) Can't wait to read more of your review