On the third of our five sea days in a row onboard our Transatlantic cruise on the Disney Dream, I woke up at 4:30am (a side effect of the constant time changes is waking up earlier and earlier each day) but thankfully managed to fall back asleep not long afterwards and woke up once again at a much more reasonable time of 7:30am.

It was an overcast morning with a little bit of rain in the air so we sat in bed with a cup of tea for a little while before getting dressed and making our way up to Cabanas for a light breakfast of Bircher Muesli and Fruit. One thing that was immediately noticeable was how empty and quiet the outside decks were – even the sheltered areas on Deck 11 – and this was a theme which continued throughout our entire day onboard as there were a handful of times when we wondered where everyone had disappeared to!

Once we had finished our breakfast we went to walk around on Deck 12 but it was incredibly windy at this time so we very quickly retreated back to the shelter of the lower decks.

Our next stop was the District Lounge at 9:30am ready for Disney Cruise Line Trivia as we were definitely interested to find out how much or more likely how little we knew after thirteen cruises. We definitely surprised ourselves by getting 18/20 and one of the answers that we missed was something that neither of us had ever heard of before.

We then walked towards the Lobby Atrium where both Minnie and Mickey were out in the hallway at 10:15am and I had to join the line to meet them which was a lot shorter than it had been a few days previously when they were last out together.

After waiting to meet Cinderella by the staircase I noticed that Stitch was on the balcony with only a handful of people waiting to meet him (which never happens as he is so popular) and we were also lucky enough at this time to see Pluto peeking out from behind the curtains.

We were about to visit the Oceaneer’s Club which had an open house when we saw Goofy wandering around on Deck 3 by himself so we quickly ran back down the stairs to see him and loved that he was playing hide and seek with the children that were there.

The main reason that we wanted to visit the Oceaneer’s Club was to explore the new Mobile WEB Workshop which had been added during the recent dry dock just before our cruise and had replaced the Disney Infinity room. Amazingly we were the only people there as everyone else onboard seemed to have disappeared once again.

There were so many details in this one area as well as a few Spiderbots dotted around but I will honestly admit that a lot of the details went straight over my head as my knowledge of the Spiderman universe is not great however I did spot a reference to “Project 687” – 687 being the shipyard hull number of the Disney Dream.

As the rest of the Oceaneer’s Club was also deserted we took a few more minutes to look around the other rooms including Andy’s Room, Pixie Hollow and the Millennium Falcon which we had never seen on our previous cruises onboard the Disney Dream which were all much shorter and busier sailings than this one so we had never had the time.

As we walked back towards the Lobby Atrium, both Captains Minnie and Mickey were on Deck 5 looking over towards the other decks and making sure that everything onboard was ship-shape. They were standing there all by themselves with no one else around – it really was such a quiet day on the Disney Dream.

Once again for the second day in a row, an overcast and rainy morning had turned into perfect blue skies and we listened to all of the ship’s horns which were blasted at Midday before heading to Cabanas for lunch. It was a little busy (we had finally found where everyone onboard was) so we took our desserts back to our stateroom to enjoy on our verandah.

At 1:00pm we made our way down to the Walt Disney Theatre for the Costuming Workshop which again is something that you will only ever find on a longer itinerary such as this one. There are four crew who are responsible for over five thousand costume pieces and three hundred wigs onboard and during the two week period known as “Crossover” (when the new entertainment cast boards before the old cast disembarks) there will be double that amount on the ship which is just mind blowing to think about. In that time the new cast will have dress rehearsals during the day whilst the old cast are still performing the shows in the evening so everything has to be kept organised and separated so they do not get accidentally mixed up.

They also demonstrated how they pull off all of the quick costume changes – mostly with the help of a lot of magnets – in the Beauty and the Beast show. I found it fascinating that there are approximately forty five quick costume changes alone during the Be Our Guest song and it was also great to be able to see all the details in some of the costumes as well – the bread basket dress with a skirt made of baguettes was simply brilliant!

Our next stop was Animator’s Palate as there was a Napkin Folding class starting not long afterwards at 2:00pm which we thought would be fun to try out. After being shown to one of the tables, we were taught how to make a hat, tuxedo, candle, banana as well as a Peter Pan shoe.

However it would have made so much more sense to use the television screens around the restaurant to demonstrate how to fold each of the napkins whilst they were explaining them as you were simply told what to do without any visual reference which was incredibly confusing to everyone and all you could do was just sit and wait until someone came round to your table to help you out.

Once we left Animator’s Palate we walked along the long hallway towards the Lobby Atrium and there was hardly anyone in line to meet Donald and Daisy so of course I had to wait a few minutes to say hello to my favourite ducks.

Once back in our stateroom we needed a little downtime for a few hours as we had dinner booked at Palo that evening. We also decided to pack away some clothes that we had brought with us on this trip that we would not need for our next two sea days or even our day at Lookout Cay. We started to do this a few cruises ago and it definitely helps to pack things away when you don’t need something anymore rather than leave absolutely everything out until the last minute – it also means that you can enjoy your last day onboard without having to rush to pack.

I walked up to Deck 11 to get us both a cup of tea as we were in desperate need of some caffeine and everywhere was deserted – even the comfortable chairs at the Quiet Cove were empty! Back in the room we also noticed that the Disney Treasure was showing on the map on the television as she had left Eemshaven in the Netherlands and was following our footsteps and making her way across the Atlantic towards Port Canaveral.

Another thing that we had been meaning to do on our last two cruises onboard the Disney Dream but had never got round to was to have a drink in the Skyline Lounge so that was our first destination of the evening. The theme of the day which we called “Where the hell is everyone?!” continued in the weirdest way possible as we did not see a single other passenger from the time that we left our stateroom at 6:20pm to arriving at the bar a few minutes later.

We walked from our stateroom on Deck 8 forward, used the elevators to go down to Deck 4, walked all the way along Deck 4 inside from the forward elevators past the Lobby Atrium, the D Lounge and the District Lounge all the way to Skyline at the aft of the ship without seeing anyone else apart from a few crew members. It was so strange as there are always people around at that time of the evening as not everyone goes to the Walt Disney Theatre during showtime and not everyone visits the dining rooms every night but everywhere was completely empty and it was slightly spooky.

Once we arrived at an empty Skyline Lounge, we each ordered the Zen-Chanted cocktail (made with Kissui Vodka, Patron Citronge, Lime Juice, Guava Juice and Sparkling Sake) from the Hong Kong section of the menu. The view from all of the “windows” around Skyline changes every fifteen minutes to one of five different locations around the world which are New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Chicago and Rio de Janeiro. It was so peaceful (there are no Happy Hours offered in this bar) and as travelling around the world is what I love to do the most, the Skyline Lounge is now one of my favourite places to be onboard the Disney Dream and I kick myself for not visiting sooner.

I used to be a very frequent visitor to Hong Kong and often made one or two trips there a month for many years so I always called it my second home however I have not been back since the beginning of 2020 – I wonder what happened there?! So I got quite emotional when the familiar Hong Kong skyline appeared though the windows behind the bar as it’s a view that I have seen in person so many times before and we both decided there and then that we will be returning to Hong Kong in the very near future as it has been far too long and we both miss it so much!

Once we had finished our cocktails and chatted to the wonderful bartenders at the Skyline Lounge we slowly made our way up to Palo where we had a dinner reservation at 7:30pm. Even though we have had brunch at Palo onboard the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy many times before, we had never had dinner there (we have however had dinner on the Magic, Wonder and Wish) so we were both really looking forward to this experience. Once again the amazing Grace was looking after us and I began my dinner by ordering a Palo Spritz – their version of an Aperol Spritz – to drink.

Our dinner started with a beautiful Mushroom Gnocchi amuse-bouche (gnocchi and mushrooms are food heaven for me and one of the best food combinations ever) and Grace also brought us out a basket of amazing freshly baked breads which I always enjoy each and every time we visit Palo.

For my starter I ordered the Fritto di Calamari e Gamberi as it has always looked so good whenever my boyfriend has ordered it on our previous visits to Palo and it was delicious. As I had loved it so much when I ordered it on our cruise on the Disney Wish, I made sure to get the Butternut Squash Agnolotti with Sage Brown Butter for my main course and it was every bit as good as I remember.

I have always dreamt about the Palo Warm Orange Almond Cake for dessert since the first time I ever tried it on our first Transatlantic cruise nearly ten years ago and I had been lucky enough to have it once again on our Hawaiian cruise in 2022. However it was not on the Palo dinner menu on the Disney Wish so I was overjoyed to be able to order it once again on this cruise. Sadly it was unrecognisable to how it used to be (it now looks as well as tastes completely different) and it was just not the same.

After our dinner we got ourselves a cup of Peppermint Tea from Deck 11 and made our way down to Deck 4 where we walked a few laps before heading to Evolution as we wanted to try 80’s Music Trivia which was due to start at 10:00pm. It was really quiet when we got there and we had no trouble getting a table although it was standing room only just before it started when Mauricio and one of the other entertainment staff danced the entire proper choreography to “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing which was simply brilliant to watch.

For 80’s Music Trivia you earn points for getting both the artist and the name of the song correct and we ended up scoring 23/40. Most of the music that I listen to is from the Eighties but whilst there were songs that you knew instantly, there were others where your brain went completely and annoyingly blank!

An amazing towel snail was waiting for us on the bed when we got back to our room that night and I think I was once again asleep within minutes of getting into bed. I would simply love to be able to fall asleep as quickly at home!

It had been another great day onboard the Disney Dream and the best part was knowing that we still had another two sea days to go before we reached Lookout Cay in the Bahamas and they were going to be awesome!

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