Hi All! We're about 10 days away from our very first Disney cruise (on the Disney Magic if you hadn't guessed!) and I can hardly contain my excitement, so thought I would start my very first pre-trip report!
We have been to WDW plenty of times, but have always wanted to go on a Disney Cruise. Every year we say that we're going to, but end up choosing WDW instead or a non-Disney vacation.
Our typical WDW vacations consist of myself (Chris), my husband (Brian) and our daughter (Emily) who is 14.
Brian and I on our own cruising vessel (aka our pontoon boat
):
Emily - the TYPICAL 14 year old teenager:
The three of us together (which is a rarity to have the three of us in the same photo since I'm always taking them!) on our last trip to WDW in June of 2015:
This trip will be very different, not only because of the cruise, but we are also going with my husband's entire family - mother and father-in-law, two sisters and their husbands and they each have two children, so 13 total! Brian's parents are taking the entire family on this vacation to celebrate their upcoming 50th wedding anniversary
Our cruise leaves Miami on Sunday, February 25th at 4:00 p.m., so we are flying into Miami on Saturday afternoon. A long day of travel too - we leave Madison at 6:45 a.m. (but we'll drive down to Madison Friday night since we're about an hour and 40 minutes away) and don't get into Miami until 3:00 p.m. But we do have a three hour layover in Chicago, so we'll have time to get something to eat before our flight to Miami. We are staying at the Intercontinental, Miami Saturday night so we'll be very close to the ship port even thought our boarding time isn't until 1:30 p.m. We will have time to explore Miami Saturday evening and Sunday morning before we board!
Our five night cruise stops in Grand Cayman and of course Castaway Cay. Since we don't have to plan FP's, dining reservations and which park we're going to on any given day, there isn't a whole lot we have scheduled for the five days, which seems odd not to have to plan ahead! We are choosing not to dine in any of the adult-only restaurants this trip since we'd like to experience the entire trip with the kids. We do have the Dolphin Swim and Stingray City excursion booked in Grand Cayman, so if anyone has done this - any special tips you could pass along? We are super excited for this, but I will admit, I'm not a huge fan of salt water, so it could be interesting!
As for Castaway Cay, a couple of us would like to run the 5k and I have read that this is something you sign up for when you board the ship? Any tips for this as well?
Any other must-do's on the ship? I did buy pirate t-shirts for Brian and I for Pirate Night (of course Emily said "no" when I asked if she wanted a t-shirt or any other pirate night gear - as I said, typical teenager!). We do have full blown pirate costumes from prior Halloween parties, but that's just too much to take along with us, so we're going subtly instead with t-shirts! Oh and I did buy pirate mouse ears from Etsy - for myself, not Brian!
So I guess that's it for now!! Any thoughts/tips/advise that anyone would e willing to give, we would be very grateful
We have been to WDW plenty of times, but have always wanted to go on a Disney Cruise. Every year we say that we're going to, but end up choosing WDW instead or a non-Disney vacation.
Our typical WDW vacations consist of myself (Chris), my husband (Brian) and our daughter (Emily) who is 14.
Brian and I on our own cruising vessel (aka our pontoon boat
):Emily - the TYPICAL 14 year old teenager:
The three of us together (which is a rarity to have the three of us in the same photo since I'm always taking them!) on our last trip to WDW in June of 2015:
This trip will be very different, not only because of the cruise, but we are also going with my husband's entire family - mother and father-in-law, two sisters and their husbands and they each have two children, so 13 total! Brian's parents are taking the entire family on this vacation to celebrate their upcoming 50th wedding anniversary
Our cruise leaves Miami on Sunday, February 25th at 4:00 p.m., so we are flying into Miami on Saturday afternoon. A long day of travel too - we leave Madison at 6:45 a.m. (but we'll drive down to Madison Friday night since we're about an hour and 40 minutes away) and don't get into Miami until 3:00 p.m. But we do have a three hour layover in Chicago, so we'll have time to get something to eat before our flight to Miami. We are staying at the Intercontinental, Miami Saturday night so we'll be very close to the ship port even thought our boarding time isn't until 1:30 p.m. We will have time to explore Miami Saturday evening and Sunday morning before we board!
Our five night cruise stops in Grand Cayman and of course Castaway Cay. Since we don't have to plan FP's, dining reservations and which park we're going to on any given day, there isn't a whole lot we have scheduled for the five days, which seems odd not to have to plan ahead! We are choosing not to dine in any of the adult-only restaurants this trip since we'd like to experience the entire trip with the kids. We do have the Dolphin Swim and Stingray City excursion booked in Grand Cayman, so if anyone has done this - any special tips you could pass along? We are super excited for this, but I will admit, I'm not a huge fan of salt water, so it could be interesting
!As for Castaway Cay, a couple of us would like to run the 5k and I have read that this is something you sign up for when you board the ship? Any tips for this as well?
Any other must-do's on the ship? I did buy pirate t-shirts for Brian and I for Pirate Night (of course Emily said "no" when I asked if she wanted a t-shirt or any other pirate night gear - as I said, typical teenager!). We do have full blown pirate costumes from prior Halloween parties, but that's just too much to take along with us, so we're going subtly instead with t-shirts! Oh and I did buy pirate mouse ears from Etsy - for myself, not Brian!
So I guess that's it for now!! Any thoughts/tips/advise that anyone would e willing to give, we would be very grateful
