Cruising the High Seas with Mickey and Friends

“Mickey’s Boat! Mickey’s Boat!” is my son’s response every time he sees a photo of the Disney Cruise Line ships lately (actually he calls Mickey ‘Mia’, so it’s “Mia’s Boat!”). After a lot of hesitation (on my part), and a lot of pleading (on my husband’s part- he’s been on 2 Disney cruises in the past), my family has booked our very first Disney Cruise Line (DCL) vacation for 2017. These vacations are not cheap- in the past when we have cruised, we have always cruised with Carnival, and so the price of DCL vs Carnival is a bit of a shock. But our family motto's have always been ‘tomorrow is never guaranteed’ and ‘you can’t take your money with you’, and so we are splurging and doing a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy.

(The Disney Fantasy- photo from www.disneycruise.disney.go.com)

Our early 2017 vacation plan had been to run the Star Wars 10k and Half Marathon in April 2017 for quite some time. I tried to book a 2-bedroom value villa at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge through David’s Vacation Club Rentals the day it became possible, but these villas were already sold out. Our friends that we were going to be traveling with agreed that we’d just wait a bit until we booked, so that we could take our time in deciding where we’d stay. While we were sitting on this, my husband somehow convinced me that a Disney Cruise would be even better than the Star Wars run. Our friends agreed that they’d like to do a cruise, and so my first stop was to my local AAA to pick up a DCL travel brochure, and from there, the planning ensued!

(Doing what I love to do- Disney trip planning!)

My mom has a good friend who is a Disney Cruise Veteran- in fact her most recent cruise just docked back in Port Canaveral yesterday! Her advice to my family was to cruise when school was in session in order to get the best fare. So I’m passing this onto you- we checked the cruise prices for January, February, March, and April 2017, and the fares SKYROCKET in March and early April- definitely avoid those times of the year if you can! The Disney Magic and Wonder are the ‘older’ ships (which have been refurbished), and so they are smaller and more intimate, whereas the Disney Fantasy and Dream are the newer, larger ships. Earlier this year, Disney announced that they are in the process of adding 2 more ships to the fleet, which I can only assume will be the largest ships yet.

(An inside stateroom on one of the newer Disney Cruise ships- photo from www.disneycruise.disney.go.com)

Another good tip is to avoid flying the day the cruise departs if possible- if it is wintertime, and you are flying from a cold-weather location, I encourage you to avoid flying the same day at all costs! If it is snowing or there is ice present and your flight is delayed or cancelled, you could easily miss your cruise. We will be flying out 2 days before our cruise departs, and we have a couple of nights booked at Port Orleans French Quarter (Edit: We switched to a studio at Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa when a sale popped up!) at Walt Disney World so that we can relax and get into vacation mode before our cruise departs. The day of the cruise, we will catch a shuttle from our resort over to Port Canaveral, and at the end of our cruise, the shuttle will take us to Orlando International Airport. Unlike the Magical Express which is free and takes you from the airport to your Disney resort hotel and back, there is a fee for the DCL shuttle. Since cruising with DCL is new to us, we have opted to use a travel agent to make sure that all of our bases are covered- we are using Tiffany at Paradise Falls Travel Company (love the name, inspired from the movie Up!) and she has been phenomenal in planning everything just the way I ask (I can be very particular when it comes to Disney!) and answering my 20 questions a day!!

(One of the first things we'd like to do on our cruise is check out the waterslides onboard the Disney Fantasy- photo from www.disneycruise.disney.go.com)

So what am I most looking forward to on our cruise? Well for starters, I hear the food is delicious! One neat thing about cruising with Disney is that you rotate through several different dining rooms for dinner, but your servers rotate with you (my husband and I love getting to know our servers on our cruises!), so you get several different experiences at dinner. My husband and I have been excitedly talking about the ‘AquaDuck’ water coaster onboard, and I just know that our son is going to love the kid’s water play area, Nemo’s Reef. Of course exploring the Caribbean Islands we’ll be docking at is always exciting, and though my husband has been there before, Castaway Cay, Disney’s own private island is someplace I’ve been wanting to check out for quite some time. I am hoping that the ‘Castaway Cay 5k’ is still offered- currently, this is available free-of-charge to any guest wishing to participate the morning the ship arrives at Castaway Cay! Finally, I can’t wait to check out the stage shows offered onboard- at this time, there is an Aladdin stage show, and I am REALLY hoping this is still showing- as an 80’s baby, this was one of the ‘3 Disney Princess Classics’ of my time (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin are the 3 ‘classics’ I speak of).

(Animator's Palate dining room- photo from www.disneycruise.disney.go.com)

(Nemo's Reef children's water play area- photo from www.disneycruise.disney.go.com)

(The Aladdin Stage Show currently showing on the Disney Fantasy- photo from www.disneycruise.disney.go.com)

There are multiple options when it comes to cruising with Disney. You can choose to do what we did and book a 7-night out of Port Canaveral, or you can do a 3-night or 4-night and combine it with a longer stay at Walt Disney World. The option to cruise out of Miami is also available- my family had strongly considered the 5-night cruise out of this port, combined with several nights at Walt Disney World- in the end, however, we decided that it would be too much to rent a car with a car seat and make the trek to Miami with our then 3-year old. DCL also has multiple European cruises, Alaskan cruises, and Hawaiian cruises- some which are round-trip, and some which are not (e.g. Transatlantic cruise from Barcelona, Spain to New York). Finally, rounding out the mix, DCL has cruises departing from Puerto Rico, New York, Texas, and Canada. As you can see, there are MANY different itineraries offered throughout the year, and I highly encourage you to look into them all before making a decision regarding which cruise you will take!

(A DCL ship docked at Castaway Cay, Disney's own private island- photo from www.disneycruise.disney.go.com)

A few more things which set Disney Cruise Line apart from other cruise lines that I have been on are the interior rooms with ‘magic portholes’ on some of the ships- these are screens that look like portholes, which come to life with animation and real-life images! Most of the staterooms have split bathrooms with an actual bathtub, which is unheard of on most other cruise ships, truly making DCL one of the most family-friendly cruise lines out there. One of the nights I am most looking forward to is the Fireworks at Sea night on the cruise- yes, Disney actually puts on a fireworks show while sailing in the middle of the Atlantic! Yet another cool thing is that if a new Disney movie is released in theatres while you are onboard DCL, you can see this movie for free on the ship! I am hoping that my son will enjoy the children’s ‘Oceaneer Club’ so that my husband and I can check out the European-inspired bars on the ship, if even for only an hour or two one night!

(Fireworks at Sea- photo from www.disneycruise.disney.go.com)

(Ooh La La, a French boudoir-inspired champagne bar- photo from www.disneycruise.disney.go.com)

I love to meet fellow Disney-lovers, and so I have joined a Disney Facebook group for my cruise, and through this group, I have learned of a fun DCL tradition called ‘Fish Extenders’. Basically, a volunteer on the Facebook cruise page creates groups of cabins (about 10 cabins per group) who wish to participate in the Fish Extender. Once on the cruise, participants place some kind of gift holder outside of their cabin door (the hook for the holder is in the shape of a fish, hence the name Fish Extender), and throughout the cruise, the cabin will receive a small gift from each of the other 9-or-so cabins in the group. I am planning on making a small cabin gift, and then I will probably give a small inexpensive gift to each child as well. I am really looking forward to making AND receiving the Fish Extender gifts!

(Just one example of a Fish Extender- photo from www.Etsy.com)

Next year after we cruise, I will write a recap post highlighting all of my favorite experiences on the ship, and of course posting lots of beautiful photos from the ship and the Caribbean islands that we visit! Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments at dana_aimee@hotmail.com. Until next time- Happy Travels!