Trip Report T & E’s Christmas Wish: A Land and Sea Adventure! (12/7 - 12/17)

Howdy, All!

After many years lurking the depths of the forums, I have finally come to the surface. As you all have been so kind and generous to share your trips, I finally worked up the courage to pay my “trip tax” and return the favor. And what better time than an insane 10-day land and sea holiday adventure?

I might be in over my head.

Meet the Cast:

I’m E/Radiorae/Rae/anything but late for dinner. My travel companion is T – we are longtime friends, former roommates, and college program alumni. We complement each other well – I hold down Adventureland, while she has staked a claim in Fantasyland, and we both agree on the supremacy of The Muppets and Casey’s Corner. We don’t travel together often, but when we do it’s usually a thing. The last thing was our pilgrimage to the motherland, Disneyland Resort, almost ten years ago!

Look at us babies (E on left, T on right):

This time, we had two missions in mind. One: we both had never experienced a Disney cruise and wanted to see what the hype was about, and with the new Wish sailing short itineraries, it seemed like a time to try a brand new ship without locking ourselves into a week+ cruise. Two: we wanted to see Disney World at Christmas. I am more of a Halloween girl, but T is BIGGGG on Christmas. So a Very Merrytime Cruise seemed like the perfect fit. This would also be the first time in over ten years that I had been on property during the Christmas season, so I was excited to see the decorations (and snoap!)

Our travel dates were set – Dec 7th through Dec 17th we’d be walking in a Winter Wonderland. Part Disney Cruise sailing, part Disney World trekking. 100% holiday mayhem. Come along with us for the ride!

 

[cgersic]

Judgy gingerbread man indeed! And I thought that shirt was a baby onesie!

 

[radiorae]

That right there is a perfect example of why I am not tempted into spending much money on Disney shirts LOL. The shirts are either baggy, boxy, missing the lower half of the shirt, or just plain odd like this one. And IF I do see something that I like, then 9 times out of 10 they won't have it in my size because everyone else wants it too

It's the worst! And right now the big trend is that everything has to be cropped, which suckssssssss. I have a short torso, but not that short of a torso. It also completely defeats the point of making a sweatshirt when half of it is going to be left off, but that's just me. Admittedly, I am not a paragon of high fashion

 

[radiorae]

Day 1 (12/07): The Homecoming Continues

After a little more window shopping, we wandered back to Homecoming. We still hadn’t gotten our table text, so we sat in the porch chairs and relaxed for a bit. And then some more. And then we realized we may never get a text… so T went to the hostess, and it turns out they tried to contact us half an hour ago!!! T never got a text, and the hostess confirmed that they had the right number, so who knows what happened. In any case, they added us back in at the top of the list and in another 5 minutes, we were called inside!

T had never been to Homecoming, so she was pretty excited. I love Homecoming so I was pretty excited too. I feel bad because there are so many good restaurants at Disney Springs, and yet 90% of the time I find myself at either quick service… or Homecoming. We decided to split some apps and an entrée, and celebrated our first day of vacation by sharing a moonshine flight.

The flight included their Rumshine Punch, Blue Hooch, Strawberry Lemonade, Moonshine Margarita, and Sweet Tea Shine. T’s favorite was the Strawberry Lemonade. I liked the Blue Hooch and Moonshine Margarita most.

I did some modeling for the occasion.

For apps, we got the “Bunch of Puppies” (hushpuppies with pimento cheese and pepper jelly) and the spicy cauliflower wings. I didn't get a pic of them both because we were too busy inhaling them, but here's a picture of the drinks and puppies:

For dinner, we split the chicken salad sandwich. This thing was a MONSTER. A chicken salad sandwich for giants. We unhinged our jaws and quickly devoured the whole thing. It came with their “famous house made chips” – they tasted like fried potatoes with some seasoning. Not bad, just nothing to write home about. Tasted great with the leftover pimento cheese and pepper jelly though. We were so hungry that we may have eaten most of the food before I thought to take a picture. Oops. In my defense, it was the first real meal of the trip so I was still getting a hang on this trip report business. Suffice to say, they were both delicious.

(ooh but you can see a lone cauliflower wing on the middle plate towards the left!)

Full of tasty food and drinks, we headed out the door. We just got our text for Gideon’s Bakehouse, so it was off of the front porch and into the oven! (that’s how that saying goes, right?) T had also never been to Gideon’s. I am not a huge fan, but I do think it’s something everyone should experience once. Don’t be afraid of the line, the mobile waitlist is a big help. In the end, I don’t think we waited more than 10 minutes outside. Most Starbucks lines are longer.

While waiting we enjoyed the music across the way at Raglan Road. There was also some music around the bend from Gideon’s entrance at what the map calls “Waterview Park”. I was really impressed with the amount of entertainment throughout the evening. For the first time in a long while, it felt like the Springs was back to what it should be. It was nice to take in.

(musicians circled for your convenience. I swear they're there.)

Once inside, we stopped to appreciate the heavy scent of chocolate and cookies. Between that, the music, the flickering candles, and the décor, they really set the stage. T got the classic chocolate chip, while I got the nighttime exclusive chocolate coffee cake, and the banana bread.

Goodies procured, we headed back to the rideshare loop, stopping at the pin trading store so I could get a Magicband+. I’ve been against Magicband+ forever, least of all because they’re super bulky and uncomfortable, but because I was using a new myDisneyExperience account for this trip (long story) none of my current Magicbands were going to be usable. And because the Wish boasts this whole game at sea with the Magicband+, I figured I might as well give in. I didn’t ever think I’d own a Loungefly either, and somehow I ended up with one for this trip too. It was quickly becoming the trip of things I never thought I’d give in to (spoiler: this would not be my last trip to the dark side during this vacation).

Back at the hotel, we dug into our late-night cookies. T was pleased with her Gideon’s experience. I wasn’t big on the chocolate coffee cake; after a bite or two the streusel made it taste really dry. The banana bread cookie, on the other hand, was fantastic. It had a strong banana flavor base that held up well against the chocolate chips. After dessert, it was finally time for bed. We set an alarm for an early wake up, and within minutes were asleep. Tomorrow was going to be a big day!

Up Next: Seas the Day

 

[LeighM]

It's the worst! And right now the big trend is that everything has to be cropped, which suckssssssss. I have a short torso, but not that short of a torso. It also completely defeats the point of making a sweatshirt when half of it is going to be left off, but that's just me. Admittedly, I am not a paragon of high fashion

I got into a heated discussion about this very topic with an older cousin of mine. She was saying that cropped hoodies are sexy. I was like cropped sweatshirts could possibly be sexy on the right someone at the proper age and time of the year but it mostly looks stupid to wear bulky, cropped outerwear with a winter jacket on over it to stay warm. It defeats the whole purpose. The hoodie is a lightweight coat alternative meant to keep you warm. It's idiotic for it to be cropped LOL. Some pieces of clothing shouldn't be cropped. And I'm sticking to that

 

[radiorae]

I got into a heated discussion about this very topic with an older cousin of mine. She was saying that cropped hoodies are sexy. I was like cropped sweatshirts could possibly be sexy on the right someone at the proper age and time of the year but it mostly looks stupid to wear bulky, cropped outerwear with a winter jacket on over it to stay warm. It defeats the whole purpose. The hoodie is a lightweight coat alternative meant to keep you warm. It's idiotic for it to be cropped LOL. Some pieces of clothing shouldn't be cropped. And I'm sticking to that

We shall die on this hill together.

 

[radiorae]

Day 2 (12/8): Seas the Day

Today was embarkation day!

Our alarm went off bright and early at 6AM. We hauled ourselves out of bed to get dressed and pack up. Because we were using Disney transportation to Port Canaveral, we needed to have everything ready to go by 7AM. Bell services called to give us instructions – essentially, you leave your bags by the door and they come and pick them up between 7-8AM. You can wait in the room with the luggage, or you can leave for breakfast and they’ll pop in and grab them. It’s up to you.

We decided to live on the wild side and abandoned our luggage in pursuit of breakfast at the World Premiere Food Court.

It was a fairly quiet morning as far as All Stars food court mornings go. I got the kids oatmeal + cranberries meal because I am an old lady in a 30 year old body. It came with apples, which I stashed for later, and turkey sausage. It all hit the spot!

Breakfast finished, we wandered into the lobby. While bell services was super helpful about luggage drop off, actual details about what we were supposed to do/where we needed to go for DCL transportation was strangely sparse. No email instructions, no app instructions, nothing. I knew from extensive trip report reading and cruise forum searching that there was supposed to be a representative in the lobby at some point. So that’s what we looked for. But first, we saw this contraption:

It’s a free picture service that will take a few pictures of you and insert one of the Fab 5 of your choosing into the photo with you. A bit like a photo booth. Because I am a fan of both free pictures, and being a total goofball, I convinced T that we should try it out.

Gorgeous!!

We did one more for the 'gram:

And while we were hamming it up, the magic DCL man appeared! We checked in with him and got our marching orders; we needed to be back in the lobby by 10:15, where everyone would gather for a final check-in before heading out on the bus at 10:30. The only problem is that by this point it was only 8 in the morning. That’s a lot of time to burn without any luggage or quite enough time to go anywhere. So, we made do with a self-guided resort tour.

First was the OG Toy Story Land:

Followed by 101 Dalmatians (sponsored by Kanine Krunchies):

Fun fact: T said that when they built the 101 Dalmatians section, they made sure to include exactly 99 puppies to go with the Pongo and Perdita statues. Count them the next time you need to burn 2 hours waiting for a bus ; )

Next we passed through The Mighty Ducks section, where I confessed that I had never actually seen The Mighty Ducks before. T was aghast. In my defense, my family is definitely more artistically inclined than we are athletic From then on, every time Queen’s “We Will Rock You” or “We Are the Champions” played, she’d shoot me a look and say solemnly, “You NEED to see The Mighty Ducks.” (T if you’re reading this, I promise I will watch it one day!)

At this point, we made it back to the love butt. Our luggage was gone, which meant either that bell services did indeed come, or we were robbed. We figured (rightly) it was the former. But now we still had an hour to burn… and the energy was fading fast. So we did what nearly 80% of the adult population with children under 5 do at 9am:

It was nice to kick back and relax for a little bit instead of rushing to get to your destination. I started to doze off, but just before I could fall asleep completely my alarm woke me right back up. It was time! After one last quick room check to make sure we had everything, we returned to the lobby where a sizable group waited. The bus was here! Within five minutes, they were checking everyone off the list and sending us aboard.

Our bus got a gold star because everyone was there and loaded on time – no stragglers! At 10:30 on the dot – we were off to Port Canaveral!


Up Next: The 2nd Most Anxiety-Inducing Moment of the Entire Trip

 

[radiorae]

Day 2 (12/08): The 2nd Most Anxiety-Inducing Moment of the Entire Trip

Once onboard the bus we settled in for our hour-long journey to Port Canaveral. For anyone who has taken the magical/tragical express, you know the drill. Everyone watched cartoons. Some people napped. No one used the restroom on board (has anyone ever used the bathroom on board?)

I ate some purse apples:

And soon enough, the terminal came into view!

I see a boat!

Once parked, our bus was soon boarded by a cast member who gave us the run down, which was basically to follow the arrows. Keep your people together. We did just that.

We shuffled into the entry and filed into the line for checking paperwork. There was a good 25-30 people ahead of us. Not even two minutes after we got in line, there was a magical ping and a warm voice… “Welcome! We invite groups 1-2 aboard!”

We were group 7.

“Oh good,” I thought, “we won’t have to sit around too long before boarding!”

We inched forward by another 3 people. 30 seconds later, another ping.

“Welcome! We invite groups 1-4 aboard!”

“That’s fast,” I thought, “but it's okay! We still have some numbers to go!”

We sluggishly moved forward another few people. A new group piled in behind us. A full MINUTE later…

PING! “WELCOME WE INVITE GROUPS 1-6 ABOARD.”

I started sweating.

PING! “ARE YOU ON THE SHIP YET? GROUPS 1-8 SHOULD GET ON THE SHIP. YOU STILL IN LINE? LOSER. WE’RE GONNA RUN OUT OF UNLIMITED ICE CREAM SOON. YOU'RE MISSING OUT.”

PING! 1-10!

PING! 1-12!

PINGGGGGGGGGGGG!

The gentle ping became a thing of nightmares. All the while, we slowly slogged our way to the front. To be clear, the line was moving really quickly. But when you’re sandwiched in the dark underbelly of a terminal in a sea of people while an omnipotent voice tells you about how you’re lagging behind and all of the groups are going ahead of you…. It feels like an eternity. I know logically we weren’t missing anything but mannnnn my nerves were fraying with every magical ping.

We finally reached the front. And within two minutes, we were squared away and sent up the mousecalators to the main area of the terminal. For as dark and gloomy as the entry was, the terminal itself was bright and airy. And empty (likely because at this point Groups 1-25 were on board lol). We took a minute to take a deep breath and enjoy the moment.

Look at these super cute decorations:

And we spotted Tree #5!

We didn’t linger too long; we were too excited to get on the ship. So we joined the group of folks for their obligatory “welcome aboard” photos. I bought the photo package ahead of time and was determined to get as many photos as possible. The props were a little cheesy, but it was still fun to mark the beginning of our cruise with a photo.

Then, it was through the Mickey arches!

We wandered up the ramp and entered into 3rd floor Grand Hall where a cast member took our names and announced us to the ship. We also got wishing wands. (if you’ve ever dined at Cinderella’s Royal Table, you know the ones… apparently, she carries a stash for vacation too!)

We waved to Cinderella and Prince Charming.

It was time to begin our Disney Cruise on the Disney Wish!

But first…

TREE #6!

Up Next: Discovery and A(maze)ment

 

[radiorae]

Day 2 (12/08): Discovery and A(maze)ment
We had a couple of things on the list to do once onboard. First, we stopped at the spa to confirm our Rainforest Room passes for the trip. We also wanted to switch our dining rotation, but we had some time before they were handling requests. So we set out for a ship tour!!!

The Disney Wish is huge. The corridors were a little strange, but I never felt they were too bothersome. I think the weirdest part was the dining rooms, but we'll get to that a little later. Funnily enough, while I picked up on the layout of/what was on each deck pretty quick... I never could quite remember which number each deck was. I'm more of a "things relative to other things" person than a "Store A is located on Floor X" person. Which does not work so well on a ship. Luckily, T is much better at these things and could tell me where to go

General hallway pictures:

(I WANT that Alice in Wonderland carpet).

We wandered over to the Oceaneer Club. On embarkation day, they invite people of all ages to check out the kids' spaces, which are without a doubt the coolest parts of the ship. After that first day, only kids are allowed. You can either get to it by stairs, or a super cool twirly slide that I 100% went down and have no photographic evidence of. Here is a photo from disney cruise line blog to give you an idea:

The entire Oceaneer Club is covered in art from Joey Chou, who I love, so I was living my best life.

Here's the Oceaneer Club "hub", Marvel Super Hero Academy, Mickey and Minnie's Captains Deck, and Tree #7:

"It's a Small World" Nursery and the bathrooms (with bonus magic hand washers..I love those things):

More of the "It's a Small World" Nursery:

Fairytale Hall:

I was super impressed with the details of the spaces, especially Rapunzel's art room. It even had a jar of Hazelnuts for Hazelnut soup -- her favorite!

Star Wars Cargo Bay:

Walt Disney Imagineering Lab:

Finally, the Teen Spaces, Edge and Vibe, which are up near the Hero Zone and pool deck (aka far from the "babies" in Oceaneer's Club). Ooh and Tree #8 and Tree #9!:

(sorry for the backlit picture -- the sign is supposed to say "Tis The Season To Be Vibey" )
Up Next: A Magical (De)Tour

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

That artwork in the Oceaneer club is amazing. I like his work a lot.

 

[radiorae]

That artwork in the Oceaneer club is amazing. I like his work a lot.

I love how colorful and fun his work is. I really liked the stuff he did for the Contemporary refresh. And Tokyo Disney Celebration Hotel… come to think of it, they’ve really gone all in on him, haven’t they? I wish they would pull in more artists, especially since they have a bunch on roster.

 

[radiorae]

Up Next: A Magical (De)Tour

At this point we circled back to the Grand Hall.

Prince Naveen was now greeting guests. Hello, Naveen!

We also passed the Wonderland and Neverland Theater…

We set off to see about our dining rotation, and on the way, we ran into Captain Mickey!

I’m so glad we got a photo of him in his captain’s gear because man, do these characters have a lot of costume changes for a 2 day/3 night cruise. Don’t ever feel bad about overpacking… the Fab Five have approximately sixty bajillion outfits between them for the sailing. Not sure where they keep it all.

After waving goodbye, we headed into Luna Lounge to speak with a cast member. We had booked Prima Notte at Palo that evening, and since we were gonna be dressed up, we wanted to see if we could switch our dining rotation to 1923 first – not because you have to be dressed up for any meal, but it felt like the more “fancy” of the dining rooms and we thought it would be nice for the first night. The guy helping us was very nice; he looked up our seating and informed us that he could switch us… but he would recommend we didn’t because we had “really good seats” in our current rotation. Naturally, because we were riding high on Disney Cruise vibes, we immediately took him at his word and didn’t second guess this information at all. So we left with our original seating intact. Would it turn out to be a good decision? Stay tuned for another *checks thread post timestamps* three months to find out!

By now it was around 1:30, so we headed up to Marceline’s Market for lunch. The online reviews are not wrong, it is a smaller space than you would expect, but the food was good and the cast members were friendly.

Pretty flower lamps!

I had a chicken salad, some fruit, marinated carrots, focaccia, cucumber and tomato salad, a single gyoza, and two strips of chicken katsu. T & I also shared a charcuterie plate between us. It was an eclectic but tasty lunch.

I loved the glasses they had. They have little mickeys in them!

After lunch we headed outside to check out the pools. I know people have a lot of heartburn over the different wading pools, but I kind of liked it. I’m much more of a “stick my feet in the water” kind of person, so the layout worked for me.

We headed up all the way to the top to check out Slide a Saurus Rex.

And AquaMouse!

Spoiler: I never got to ride AquaMouse. The line was always long, and then there were high winds that meant you needed two people to ride, but I had no one to go with (T is not a heights person, and she is definitely not a “clear fiberglass tube over the nothingness of air and ocean” person). Ah well. There’s always Youtube!

At this point, a magical chime and warm voice informed us that our rooms were ready! So we headed down to deck nine to check things out.

Up Next: Door Décor and Plenty More!

 

[radiorae]

Up Next: Door Décor and Plenty More!

On Deck 9 we were greeted by a relaxing green motif and gentle Disney tunes playing over the speaker. It was very relaxing and a huge contrast to the busy atrium and pool deck. Our room was 9030; the entire floor is comprised of Sleeping Beauty and Princess and the Frog rooms, and due to some sleuthing we knew were in a PotF cabin.

Isn't it pretty?

Here's a combined pic of the two bathrooms.

We had a balcony that currently overlooked the rest of the port. I will spare you the gloomy picture of the people at the terminal next to us in a "Figment Popcorn Bucket" level line snaking around their building and instead give you another room picture with the lovely T.

Our luggage came almost immediately, which meant my moment had arrived. It was door decorating time.

A little background on me, I'm one of those artsy types. I love to draw, and I love a good project, so when I learned about the underground fight ring of Disney cruise door decorators, I knew I had to take part. (okay they weren't really fighting... but they are INTENSE).

T gave me free rein to do whatever I wished, but we agreed it should be something Christmas-y since we were on a Merrytime cruise. I researched HARD. I looked up door dimensions, and emblem dimensions, and even scoured the internet for photos to figure out what side the door handle was on. It was a full Sherlock-level investigation. Information acquired, I set out to make a design. We went with a "Minnie & Daisy's Gingerbread Bakery" kind of theme.

Over a few weeks, I made Baker Minnie and Daisy, and gingerbread "cookies" of the other characters.

My roommate graciously let me tape an outline of the door onto the apartment floor and let it live there for the entire duration of the construction. It really helped to visualize how big everything needed to be because those doors are NARROW.

A lot of people also do a "fish extender" exchange where they hang a little pouch off of their door emblem (a fish on all ships except the Wish, hence the name) and exchange gifts with other cruisers. T and I knew we would be too busy to take part on this cruise, but I did want to hang something off our "fish" (ours was an owl as a nod to Sleeping Beauty... the Wish also has Pumpkins, Shells, and Corona Suns for the other floors). And since we were on the Wish... why not a nod to one of the greatest nighttime spectaculars in Disney history?

Altogether, it ended up looking like this:

I really liked how it came out. Some people go crazy insane on their doors and make full coverings and have all sorts of banners and hangings and cool stuff, but I thought we did pretty well for our first time!


Up Next: Muster? Don't Let's Be Silly

 

[erstwo]

Okay - first of all - WOW on your door decor! And your fish extender.
Next - love all of you compilation photos of the different areas/ decks of the ship.

 

[mpaulam]

Nice job on your door!!

 

[Tuvalu]