Disney vlogs start tomorrow and as always, I wanted to share a little preview of the upcoming videos but this time I did something a little different!
We went on three amazing Disney vacations this year, a trip to Walt Disney World in April 2016, a cruise on the Disney Dream in August 2016, and a second trip to Walt Disney World in November 2016! To capture the essence of the magical year of travel we've had, I compiled a "Year in the Life overview to a song that I thought was perfect to capture the essence of how we feel about going on a Disney vacation! (It IS always a good time!!)
Included are clips from all three vacations and some of our most memorable moments! I hope you enjoy this sneak peek and coming up next on my channel are Disney World Holiday Vacation Vlogs!!
** This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.
Exploring our stateroom for the first time the day we arrived on the Disney Dream was an exciting time for our family of four that had never been on a cruise ship before this sailing! We didn't know quite what a stateroom would be like, but we quickly made ourselves at home in Stateroom 9530, located on the 9th Deck Mid-Ship. The location worked out great for our family and we would definitely stay on the 9th Deck again and also felt that the mid-ship location was great for our family. It was centrally located to everything we were going to numerous times (Oceaneer Club!!) and it seemed easy to find from all locations.
Our stateroom was an Oceanview Family Stateroom with Verandah and I really loved having the verandah to sit on while we were out at sea. It was a beautiful view and so relaxing to just hear the waves crashing against the ship! The bunk beds in our room also worked out perfectly for my girls, who loved the stars on the ceiling of the top bunk and novelty of having one bed over the other!
During our day at Castaway Cay, I took a Stateroom Tour video to share with my viewers on YouTube - and I'm so glad that I chose that day to take the video, as the view on the starboard side of the ship was just phenomenal! I loved capturing views of the island while we were docked and I would definitely stay on the starboard side of the ship again as well!
Check out our Stateroom Tour of Room 9530 on YouTube!
At night, we had towel animals greeting us in our stateroom!
The girls love the bunk beds!
Having champagne on the verandah!
Our door decorations:
View at Castaway Cay!
I've covered our trip in a series of wrap up videos, but all in all - it was a fantastic vacation and I look forward to taking another Disney cruise with my family! We loved all of the Disney touches and character inspirations on our voyage and it was a highlight of our year!
Check out our review of the Oceaneer Club, where the kid's LOVED spending most of their time!
And if you'd like to hear more about our trip... I have a number of review videos on my YouTube channel as well!
Disclosure: We sailed with Disney Cruise Lines as a part of a media event. All opinions are my own.
I will admit, I was a little bit nervous about taking our first cruise on the Disney Dream. I was nervous about being out of the country for the first time ever, and as a veteran Walt Disney World goer, I was nervous about an all new experience where I didn't know my way around!! I knew Disney would do things right, whether by land at Walt Disney World or by sea with Disney Cruise Line... but WHAT exactly was I in for?!? My girls were ages 4 & 6 at the time of this trip, and none of us had ever cruised before, nor experienced a vacation quite like this!
From the time that we arrived in Orlando and stepped onto the Disney Cruise Line bus transfer, and started to make our journey towards Port Canaveral, my mind started to ease. This was happening! And it was going smoothly! Once we were in the hands of Disney (and thankfully had no airline delays getting there!) I immediately felt like everything was taken care of and caught on to the process of what we need to do for our first ever embarkation on to the Disney Dream!
The girls were in awe of everything being all new, their eyes lit up with surprise as our bus rounded the corner and they saw the ship for the first time. Once inside, they were anxious to get on board and see what it looked like! As we stepped through the Mickey icon and up the ramp to get into the ship, I could feel their excitement building! When you arrive on board, they announce your family to welcome you and crew members clap as you walk into the ship - the girls didn't know quite what to make of it.
Check out the Embarkation Process in this video!
As we stepped into the main atrium area, one of the most magical moments of the trip happened, as they took in the ship for the first time and stood literally turning circles around themselves looking up! It was wondrous! We quickly were able to make ourselves at home and they both wanted to check out the Oceaneer Club quite immediately! (The Oceaneer Club would become one of their favorite parts about the cruise!) We headed to the club to check it out, and we were off on our adventure!!
This was the start to our magical vacation, and now that we are back home and reflecting on our time aboard the Disney Dream - I can say it absolutely went better than I had ever imagined and was a great experience we hope to do again in the future! I have been asked, "What age is a good age to take our kids on their first Disney cruise?", and honestly I can say after seeing and experiencing the ship... When you are ready to take one. It's a very "doable" vacation at all ages, but especially from preschool age on up. They truly have something on board for all ages, whether it be babies or toddlers that can go to It's a Small World Nursery, or ages 3-12, that are able to go to the Oceaneer Club & Lab... and older kids have Edge and Vibe clubs as well. Disney has thought of ways to make the cruise family friendly.
That being said, I think preschool age is a GREAT time to go! Here are a few reasons why!
1. Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab
Age 3 and up (as long as they are potty trained) can use the drop in Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab, as much as they and you want! The children are able to come and go based on your schedule, in this secure and supervised children's activity area. This is a great way for them to participate in kid specific activities while you get some adult time in, catch a show, or just get a quick bite to eat! The kids love the independence, and it gives you a chance to unwind as well! We loved the Youth Team aboard the Disney Dream and all of the actives available in the Oceaneer Club!
Check out my full review of the Oceaneer Club and the process for checking in & out!!
2. Starting a Family Tradition of Cruising!
As we talked to the crew aboard the Disney Dream, one theme stuck out to me that kept coming up in conversation... that some kids that started cruising as young children, and started out going to the Oceaneer Club literally grow with the clubs and look forward to advancing to the new activities and new clubs as they get older and meet the new age brackets. What a neat family tradition to plan a Disney Cruise every year, every other year, or as your schedule allowed... so that your kids could look back on their previous trips and compare how much they had grown, and what they were able to do now that they were "a little bit older"!
3. Where else can you play and interact directly with Disney Characters?!?
One of the coolest surprises aboard the Disney Dream for us, were all of the unique opportunities to interact with characters! At certain times during the day, there were activities in the Oceaneer Club that were open to families, Mickey's Puzzle Playtime for instance was perfectly geared for the preschool aged children, where the kids put together large puzzles on the computer screen and once they "solved" the mystery of the puzzle... the character that it was referencing popped out! And THEN they didn't just wave and go home... they stuck around for a game or song with the kids and they all got to play!! HOW COOL!!
I thought this was a great element and really made the Disney Cruise experience different from anything else we had done on previous Disney vacations. We loved our characters! (Check out the Natalie's Best Character Moments video - if you haven't seen it!!) So this was a huge plus for us!
4. Bunk beds in the Family Staterooms were a neat experience for preschoolers!
So my girls were 4 & 6 on this trip, and they had never slept in bunk beds prior to our cruise. I actually had forgotten to tell them about the bunk beds before we arrived, so when we first got into the stateroom and they saw the couch - they thought that was where they were sleeping!! ;) So it was a magical surprise that first evening when they walked in to the room and that side had transformed into a sleeping area... complete with star formations on the ceiling! They loved having their own individual bunks and the lights in them.
My 4 year old (who is tiny, about the size of an average 3 year old at 38" tall and 32 lbs) slept on the bottom bunk - and my 6 year old slept on the top bunk. They were both able to maneuver the ladder no problem though! This was a neat surprise for them and I think another one of their favorite parts.
5. Making magical family memories that last a lifetime, at the pace that you want!
I loved that this vacation was so relaxed, that it felt so planned out for me, our Key to the World cards told us where to eat dinner, we could visit quick service anytime the girls got hungry, and our Personal Navigator put in our rooms each night helped us to pick and chose what events we felt like doing on each particular day... Above all though, I very much loved that we made magical family memories together, that will last a lifetime, and a relaxed pace! We loved just hanging out by the pool and letting the girls use the splash pad and water slide, or taking a moment to walk down the beach. Castaway Cay was an amazing experience for all of us. All of the R&R time was really great for our family, and the Disney magic immersed in the experience was just right!
All in all, this is very much an experience that I would recommend trying as a family, if it is something you've been curious about. We loved all of the Disney magic aboard the Disney Dream that we've come to expect from a Disney vacation, and just packaged a little bit different from what we had been used to from prior Walt Disney World vacations. After having done it once, it of course isn't as daunting to try it again! I would say go prepared - check out my Cruising with Preschoolers video if you haven't already, for my tips and what I would recommend bringing along just in case - but also be prepared to have a MAGICAL time!
I hope that you've been able to gleam some valuable information here and that my videos help to make a Disney cruise seem less daunting with preschoolers! As always, let me know if you have any questions! And if you've been on a Disney cruise before, let me know what YOUR favorite part about the cruise was in the comments!
** We cruised with Disney as a part of a media event. We received complimentary airfare, cruise stateroom and activities as a part of the event. All opinions are my own.
This recap has been WAY overdue! We went our family vacation to Walt Disney World in April 2016 with our girls - then ages 4 & 5 (Bella has since turned 6) - and had a fantastic time! I feel like I definitely learned some things from our previous trips, so I will share those in a future post - but really above all I can sum my advice up in one tidy package... DO LESS. Which sounds crazy when you're talking about going to Walt Disney World... do less? But down time really is more sometimes, especially when you're crazy exhausted!
Chef Mickey's - A Mommy Favorite!
On our November 2015 trip, I just tried to put TOO MUCH into a week time span. Too many reservations, it was incredibly hot (abnormally so for that time of year), too many videos to complete while I was there, and we were feeling the effects by the end of that week. I tried to take all of this into account when going into our April 2016 trip, and scaled back. The interested part was though, it didn't FEEL like a scaled back trip! We still did Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for BOTH girls at the same time, for the first time ever! We had a number of dining reservations, and new on that trip, Bella was tall enough to ride the "big" rides... so we had a blast riding tons of new (to her) things! It all came down to not being afraid to skip a Fast Pass, stopping to take plenty of breaks, and not over scheduling.
We started out the trip at Downtown Disney/Disney Springs, as per usual and then due to Florida Annual Passholder dates having a blackout on our first park day, I switched around our park days and we ended up at Animal Kingdom on our first park day instead of Magic Kingdom. It worked fabulous for our family and in fact, because we love animals and zoos so much - Animal Kingdom is probably our second favorite (if not top favorite, depending on the crowd level at MK...) theme park at Walt Disney World! We went through Animal Kingdom in the rain and had a great time splashing through the park! Bella rode Expedition Everest for the first time - and thus, a love of the "big rides" was born!
On our second park day, we went to Magic Kingdom and both girls had Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique reservations inside the castle. We also had a dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table, which in my opinion is a MUST DO for any Disney enthusiast. There is just something so magical about being able to eat, inside the castle! And we had a great time playing in the park until dark!
Although after our November trip, I had said "Never again" about EPCOT with small kids.. we revised that and did give it another shot. We had a great lunch at Akershus, and it got hot walking around the World Showcase, but being there during Flower and Garden was fantastic, decidedly our favorite time of year for EPCOT. (I'm undecided on our upcoming trip while Food & Wine is still going on whether we will go to EPCOT or not.) It was a fun day, at Bella rode Test Track for the first time which was fun to watch!
Noticeably missing from this trip is... Hollywood Studios. I did make the executive decision to skip that park on this trip. Because of a large amount of construction, and that we had just done (almost) everything we would want to do there on our November trip - I opted to save that one for later and hopefully there will be more completion on new projects by our end of the year trip. The only thing we missed out on that I'm slightly bummed about, is that Lights, Motor, Action closed after that trip, so the kids will have never seen that one. (I didn't get show time to work out for it on our November trip.)
Our last theme park day was at Magic Kingdom, and I think that's always a fun way to end a trip! The girls had a ton of fun riding rides, and I am already noticing a shift from the trip being "character focused" to being more "ride focused" as they get older. We had a number of great dining reservations, most notably Tusker House in Animal Kingdom has been stellar every single time we dine there and this trip was no exception - as well as some great food too.
Tusker House in Animal Kingdom
I thought this trip was a great balance and gave even more insight into how we might want to run future trips. On our end of the year trip, we did make the decision that we wanted to go "FULL OUT" and do a completely on property trip for the experience - to see if not having to rent a vehicle and if using Disney transpiration is indeed easier for our family. I'll report back on that. For now, I'm happy to look back on our pictures and video from our spring trip and looking forward to planning the next one!
