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My husband and I love cruising. We did our share of cruising before kids came along. Then it came to an abrupt halt. Partially because we lacked the energy. But mostly because we refused to pay such crazy prices for small children, babies really, who would never benefit from such a vacation. Then we found ourselves with two potty-trained, school-going kids, and we thought. Yes! Now is the perfect time to introduce them to this world on the water. Let's go!
We booked our cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy some 360 days out. You want to talk about depressing?? Yeah, how in the world was I going to start counting down, start looking forward to a trip 360+ days out?? I mean, we still needed to get through all our birthdays, Easter, summer, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Valentine's Day before we would even think about packing for this vacation. Of course, I follow everything Disney on Facebook, including the cruise line, so I had to endure day after day, reading posts about the warm climates, the fun activities, the drinks of the day, and on and on and on. But, amazingly enough, this thing called time (you know, the thing that ages us all without our consent, causes our children to grow and develop into wonderful people, that thing called time??) kept ticking along, and we finally found ourselves on the road (yes, we drove. From Texas to Florida. Crazy, maybe.), every mile getting closer and closer to that ship that was on its way back to port to pick US up. Whew! I thought it would never get here!
And all that anticipation? Was it worth it? Absolutely. Hands down. The cell phones and electronic devices were turned off and we were unplugged from the outside world. The only world we knew for seven days was the world aboard that ship and three magnificent ports along the way.
So, how was our first cruise avec les enfants? It did not disappoint. But then again. It is Disney. And, well, you know how I feel about Disney. In a nutshell, I would most definitely recommend cruising. To anyone and everyone. And, when cruising with kids, I would ALWAYS recommend Disney. Why? Here are my top ten Disney moments from our Disney cruise.
#10: The photos + the family = unforgettable memories. The photographers aboard the ship are great. They are clearly skilled in snapping just the perfect shot when the character(s) is in place, when all of the kids present in the photo are looking at (or towards the camera) and, when all else fails, creating laughter in the silliest of ways (like the one photographer who encouraged my child to say boogers to get him to laugh for the picture). The pictures, of course, are printed beautifully, with all of the Disney creativity, logos, etc., making it very hard to resist dropping $100+ on prints. But hey, memories are priceless, right?? (If you see my husband, mention that to him, OK?)
#9: Our over-sized balcony. Which was huge! I had every intent of "upgrading" our cabin when we checked in for the cruise. To the concierge level. Or hell, a suite, if the price was right. I have to admit, disappointment set in when I was told that there was nothing available. The only cabins still left were ones the same size as ours, but with smaller balconies. OK, OK, fine. We will keep the one we had. The very nice, friendly woman who checked us in said we wouldn't regret it. And she was right! Our balcony was huge! The perfect place for family deck parties before the evening entertainment kicked it. We enjoyed this very special family time, with the perfect backdrop - either water or island.
#8: Pirate Night!! Their themed "Pirates IN the Caribbean" night is definitely not to be missed, although unfortunately, I DID miss the only fireworks display at sea, due to two overly exhausted children, one of whom fell asleep at dinner. I guess I will have to catch those fireworks next time, because, yes, there WILL be a next time, folks. The early evening pirate show had Captain Mickey "fighting" off Captain Jack Sparrow to "reclaim" the ship. It was, of course, well done and highly entertaining. Great photo ops and memories galore.
#7: Castaway Cay. Disney's private island. Um, yeah. Truly a paradise island, not to be missed. And only accessible via Disney. This pristine, Disney-themed island is fun, beautiful and crawling with the likes of Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Donald and the rest of the gang. Paradise, Disney-style? Oh yes! Sign me up!
#6: The activities and the characters. The daily activities and the character appearances are phenomenal. And of course, you only get that with Disney. Mickey isn't appearing on any other cruise line. Our daughter chose, as one of her purchases, one of those Disney characters autograph books. She ran around that ship in search of as many characters as possible to sign her book, growing more and more excited with each signature and photo with them. The activities for both adults and children are just as phenomenal. I was sad to have missed a few of their cooking demos for adults -- tired, cranky kiddos had me monitoring nap time a few days. I was also sad to have missed some of the family activities (like family game shows and dance parties) that were probably a bit above the head of a three year old. We will save those for the next cruise! But I did hear that they were all great, enjoyable fun. We did have the chance to participate in all of the deck parties, including the sail-away party and the Disney Channel Stars party, both of which had the utmost, undivided attention of my children -- wide-eyed, mouths open sort of attention.
#5: The staff. In traveling with some of the other cruise lines, we did encounter some great staff members. However, we never encountered a staff member who actually read books to our son to keep him occupied and entertained while his sister ate breakfast. But Latoya did. She read him two books. And he sat there and listened. Attentively. We also had the great fortune of one of the youth activities crew members locating our lost (yep, I lost it! My fault!) file folder, which had our travel documents and nearly $1000 in Disney gift cards in it. She found it and returned it. Everything still intact. Our dinner servers performed magic every night for the six kids in our party. There were others. Many others who made our trip enjoyable. In short, they were all an integral part of the magic of our vacation.
#4: Animator's Palate. Disney does rotational dining, which is such a creative idea. There are three dining rooms, all themed, and you rotate your dinners each night. Our first night was in Royal Court, second night in Animator's Palate, third in Enchanted Garden. Repeat. Animator's Palate is Disney defined. In this dining room, the characters from Finding Nemo come to life, hosted by Crush (the turtle). During dinner on our first night, Crush, through the television screens, held a conversation with our daughter. He asked her name, where she was from, etc. And then repeated her answers! This was not some crew member dressed up as Crush. Crush was appearing before us on the TV. Talking to our daughter! She was beyond amazed! On our second night in the dining room, we were given place mats to draw -- create our own character. Adults and children! Later in the evening, they collected the drawings and brought them to life on the screens. Our characters became animated! The smiles on the kids' faces, the sparkle in their eyes. Again, sooooo worth it! This dining room was definitely the favorite of our entire party!
#3: The Mickey Pool. An odd one to make it to the list? And at number three?? Not when you insert my three and a half year old son. Who swam in that pool every day. This pool has a maximum depth of two feet and is shaped like Mickey Mouse himself. His confidence in his swimming grew with each passing day, thus bringing joy to him and to his parents, as we watched this little guy have the time of his life. This is where, as his swim teacher agreed, he found his breath. He put two and two together from his lessons and figured out the whole swimming and breathing thing. With Mickey there as his witness.
#2: The Broadway-style musical shows. Leave it to Disney to take songs from their animated flicks and recycle them for use in original story-line musical sensations, unique to their cruises. Five out of seven nights, we were entertained by, hands-down, the best singers and dancers on the seven seas. Disney even created an Aladdin mini-musical at sea! Nothing short of magical, Disney-style.
#1: The Princesses. The memories my daughter walks away with after meeting and talking to each of the princesses is, again, priceless. They engaged her in conversations. They hugged her. They created a magical sparkle in her eyes that reappears every time she talks about her spring break. And that, folks, is truly what it is all about.
Vacationing with kids, especially younger ones, is very different -- it takes on a whole new meaning. Maybe I'm just corny, but my eyes got all watery when I saw them having the trip of a lifetime. Yes, the adults had a fantastic time -- I did not want to get off that ship!! But seeing the magical time the kids were having -- well, that truly was priceless. And worth the 360+ days of waiting. Painfully waiting for our magical journey across the ocean.
