Saturday morning we were up and out of town in the wee hours of the morning. I was SO excited. We had a really long travel day ahead of us. We arrived in Miami around noon, and finally made it to the port around 1:00pm. Since we have cruised with Disney before, we’re members of the Castaway Club. One major benefit? A separate check-in line. For all first-time cruisers, the line was SO long…but as members of the club we only had to wait about 5 minutes for the 4 families in front of us. We practically walked onto the boat...amazing after a long day of traveling. Another benefit to the Castaway Club is a stateroom gift. We now have a backpack (which came in handy on port excursions)…and it had snacks in it too!
After a quick stop in our room and to the buffet lunch, we spent some time walking the decks, taking photographs, and making our last phone calls home to the kids. One of the best things about a Disney cruise is the sail away party. On our first cruise it was rainy in Port Canaveral, so we had to enjoy the party inside…this trip Miami was beautiful and perfect for a sail away party. Right before sailing, the main decks become alive with all the cruisers. The staff and activities directors are excited and dancing, the music is fun and loud, streamers and ribbon wands are passed out…it just makes you SO happy to be leaving the worries of the world behind and looking forward to the next few days of carefree living. (Another favorite of mine? The cruise horn. It sounds like the tune of “When You Wish Upon a Star”. LOVE it!) I was much more emotional than I had expected when we were celebrating the beginning of our cruise. I felt excited about time away with Carl, but I also was thinking of how much our kids would enjoy the party…and I was missing them both incredibly. I was exhausted (at that point we’d been awake 16 hours) from travel, so I’m sure some of my emotional roller coaster had something to do with that. I wanted to cry and smile all at the same time.
After the party we stood on deck and watched us sail through the small channel of Port Miami and into the ocean. It was sunset, so it was also beautiful. We passed a Carnival cruise liner still in port…our ship’s captain played the horn for those “other” cruisers as well…I really think just the horn makes you think a Disney Cruise is something special to be a part of. It was really a fun experience because there is a main road that travels right along the shore and people were stopping their cars on the side to get out and wave to us and take photos of the ship. It was special.
After we survived our exhausting first day, my emotions about the kids subsided and we kept busy. Honestly I had thought about how much sleep I’d get on the cruise, but we were up before 8:00am every day! There is just so much to enjoy on the ship that you don’t want to sleep. The food is incredible. In addition to our “rotational dining” (same dinner guests at our table each night, servers rotate among the main restaurants with us also), breakfast and lunch were exquisite. We ate like royalty…and if we were hungry between meals we just stopped at one of three restaurants on Deck 9 for soft serve ice cream, hamburgers, gourmet pizza (pear, gorgonzola, and prosuitto – yum!), chicken tenders…the list is pretty long! We also could grab a quick drink on Deck 9 (everything except alcohol is free)…so coming back to reality where food isn’t gourmet and available instantaneously is pretty disappointing. Darn Disney for doing things so amazingly!
On the first night I was pretty excited to meet our dining table. One of my most treasured memories from our first cruise is the friendships we made with the two other couples we met on the cruise. We all share the same wedding date and have remained close over the years. This trip we sat with 3 other couples. It was delightful meeting them all…although we were the only couple with children at home. We also were the only ones from anywhere besides Florida. Apparently Disney was offering so pretty amazing deals for Florida residents because it seemed like just about everyone we met was from somewhere in Florida.
The shows on the ship are just as I remember – Broadway quality and attention-grabbing. I was brought to tears (what kind of crazy emotional person am I?!) twice during the shows. I loved the magic behind the Disney stories, and again I kept thinking of how much my kids would love the magic too.
Our port excursions turned out to be not at all as we’d planned. The horseback riding in Cozumel was cancelled due to low participation…so we went to the Guest Services desk to see what else was available. Although I was a little bummed about not getting to ride horses, we did something I think is much more unique to the South. We swam with dolphins! I thought I’d be nervous about swimming in water with other sea creatures (I hate fish swimming around me), but I was completely comfortable. The park where the dolphin adventures were held has a few ocean corrals for their dolphins…so we were in the ocean with the dolphins…no simulated pool. We each were able to kiss the dolphin, shake hands, and hold a hand target up while we stood on the deck along the corral. Then we each got to swim out into the ocean for some pretty unique experiences. The first experience was to tread water and hold our arms out straight in front of us, under the surface of the water. Then the dolphin (ours was named Noel) would swim out to us and lay across our arms like a baby. We were able to hug the dolphin. Then we gave a signal (they taught us all ahead of time) and the dolphin would swim around one side of us and come up next to us, lying on its back. We held onto her flippers and she started swimming, pulling us along. By far the most exhilarating experience was the boogie board. We would swim out into the middle of the corral with a boogie board. Once we were out far enough we’d climb on the board so that our feet were still in the water, then Noel would swim to us and use her nose to push on one of our feet. We were told to lock our knees and hold on…she pushed us SO fast. It was amazing. I definitely had an amazing time with the dolphins…we think we’ll take our kids to do something similar when they are older and can remember it…I will treasure those memories.
Our other excursion was supposed to be a catamaran boat trip out to snorkel around Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island). The day we arrived at Castaway it was pretty windy, so unfortunately the catamaran wasn’t allowed to sail. In the end, Carl rented snorkel equipment and explored the snorkel lagoon at the island. He swam for quite a while out there while I read a book on the beach. He found all kinds of “buried treasure” out there…
We stayed at Castaway for the morning and then returned to the ship a little early to pack everything up and swim in the ship’s pools (they are the most empty on port days). Castaway is such a big perk of cruising with Disney. All of the food is included in the cruise, and it is just your ship’s group of people on the island. When we had honeymooned, we only explored Serenity Bay (only guests 18 and over are allowed in that section)…but we used this cruise as a way to “research” the benefits to family cruising. I am extremely pleased with the family beach experiences. Disney has created a “wall” of rocks to break all the waves and rough waters, and then placed 5 lifeguard towers in the middle of the swimming areas. The beach front is the perfect setting for adults to sit in low chairs at the water’s edge, while the kids play in the water. There aren't any waves to knock little ones down…it is just like a swimming pool. I think I will feel so confident in my kids’ safety when we revisit Castaway with them.
Another perk we took advantage of this time was the onboard activities that were offered. We saw two movies while onboard – Lincoln and then Wreck It Ralph in 3D. There were others offered, but we just didn’t have time to see more movies! Honestly we were so busy and tried to get so much in – we thought a 3 night cruise wasn’t long enough…this cruise was 5 night and we still want a longer one! We played Disney trivia one afternoon with the same group with ate our meals with. They all were so much better at the trivia…they ended up winning, but they have cruised 9 times and 44 times (SO jealous!) and already had the prize for winning (Disney Cruise Line ball caps), so they gifted them to us. Another fun activity is “Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer?”. When you enter the studio to play, the hosts give you a random number. Then the computer randomly selects a number and that person gets to come on stage and attempt to answer 5 questions about Disney (movies, parks, anything Disney). If you are picked to go on stage you automatically receive a special pin (only available on the cruise ships) and then if you answer all 5 correctly you win a trophy. The first night I didn’t want to get numbers to try to play – I had no idea what to expect and I’m not really one to go on stage. Well, the next night we decided, “What the heck, we probably won’t get picked.” We were wrong! Carl’s number was picked, but he made me go instead of him because he said I know more about Disney. Much to my embarrassment, Carl has the whole thing on video…I did get a nice pin and trophy though!
The character experience on the ship is unprecedented. Of course there are scheduled times to meet and greet for autographs and photos, but there are also lots of other times you will just happen to see a character. One special memory for me happened at our first day at sea. I was half-sleeping on a deck chair on the top deck. This is a quiet spot that has lots of sun. Carl had been next to me, but decided to go grab a drink. A little while later I heard rustling near me and some voices walk by (but we were on a ship, people are always walking by)...I assumed Carl was back and just kept sunning. WELL. Thirty seconds later I hear Carl's voice, from the opposite side of me that I thought he was on...he said, "Did you see you sun-bathing partner?" I sat up and turns out it hadn't been Carl to settle in a chair next to me...it was Goofy!! It was just me and him, hanging out, sunning. No cameras to follow us, no children hanging on him...just us! Carl teased him about trying to take his lady - it was just such a unique moment. The only sad part was that we didn't even have OUR camera - I didn't expect anything nearly so exciting to happen while sun-bathing. Lesson learned - on a Disney cruise always carry a camera!
There is also a Pirate Night. The food is pirate themed - delicious! After the last dinner seating they have a pirate party at sea which ends with Mickey setting off fireworks...magical! After the fireworks there is a pirate food buffet, just in case you didn't get enough at dinner! The turkey legs were humongous!
During dinner on our last night we were talking about the pin I had received at "Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer?" and asked our dining partners about pin trading…I see a future for us in that. I am excited to begin my collection. Upon hearing Carl and I talk about it, one of our dining mates (the group that has cruised 9 times) handed us a pin that said “Pin Trading”…they said they had more than one and it would get me started. So very cool. I look forward to building my collection and keeping track of all the fun ways I get pins.
So after cruising without our kids, Carl and I have discussed our thoughts. We absolutely do not regret leaving them at home. We are exhausted and we’re adults. Our kids would be worn out by the end. They wouldn’t remember it and I saw SO many other kids in the middle of meltdowns on the last day. They are just too young. We were able to enjoy one last trip without them…but we also cannot wait until they come with us again. With DCL, if you book your next cruise while onboard, you get special perks…so we booked a “placeholder” cruise. That means that we can rollover our benefits of booking onboard as many times as we want until the right cruise comes along. Our benefits include only having to pay a 10% deposit instead of 20% (which is fully refundable if we decide not to cruise again afterall – fat chance of that happening!), we pay 10% off the prevailing rates for the cruise we select in the end, and we will get a $200 stateroom credit…and we were able to book two rooms with those benefits…so we booked a room for my parents too. Right now we will probably roll our benefits until January 2016…Luke will be almost 4, Savannah almost 7…perfect ages. Both potty trained, not taking naps, and able to swim. I am SO excited for that trip…all of the waiting for them to be old enough will finally be over!
On the first night of our cruise, someone at the dining table asked the other couples, “Why Disney cruise Line?”…my response, “Why NOT Disney Cruise Line?”. I can’t think of any reason not to cruise DCL.
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