We just got back from our first Disney cruise. We went on a 5 day trip to Key West, Nassau, and Castaway Cay.
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| Fun at the airport since our flight was delayed! |
The Magic from afar. We flew in the night before we departed so that we didn't chance missing it.
We met up with these special friends at the hotel and took the bus together to the port. The girls were pumped to see each other!
Getting on board - I had read that the boarding process was much more hectic on Disney than other cruises (but I have nothing to compare it to since this was my first cruise). However, I will say it was definitely hectic. We had one of the first boarding times so we didn't have to wait long but there were people, kids, and suitcases everyone. And, of course, as we have determined in past posts, I'm not a fan of lots of people in confined places so I was happy to get out of there and on to the ship!
One kid pool where they play the movies! All in all, the pools were pretty small and kids were basically on top of each other. Of course they loved it! And, they loved the slide!
Shook discovered the ice cream first thing and proceeded over the 5 days to have a lot of them!
And then you get the Mickey ice cream bars at dinner! He loved it!
We did the first rotation of dinner because that is what everyone recommended but I actually kind of wish we had done the second because after an hour they come and get them and take them to the kids club. Otherwise, dinner lasts about 2.5 hours! That's a long time for kids. But, I did love Animator's Palace. The drawings and things were fun. And, so was pirate night and the pirate march the kids got to do.
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| She ordered this same exact meal every dinner - whole wheat pasta - (minus the pizza) and usually with double broccoli! |
Mickey comes out at Animator's Palace.
She made a lot of these necklaces in the kids club!
And, we danced a lot after dinner. Basically, after 5 pm, they have live music all over the ship.
And, characters are pretty much everywhere all the time though my kids did not give a hoot about seeing any of them this time. We would pass them and they had no line and they still didn't want to see them. A little disappointing but I guess they are growing up. Now, if they had a Pony cruise, Jules would be all over it!
We left the kids in the kids club while we walked around Key West. The kids club was a great part of the ship because the kids loved it! (minus 1 text from Jules (on your 1980s "wave phone" they give you to communicate) asking us to pick her up but she says its because she had to potty and didn't know they had a place there and then another after she had been there awhile one day).
Key West was a little disappointing for us. We thought we wanted to go there for an adult vacation but the beaches aren't that great and its basically just a bunch of bars! So, we got to see the important sights.
I went straight for the Key Lime pie as it is one of my all-time favorites. The Key Limeade was pretty good too.
The line for the Southernmost Point was ridiculous so I got Michael's picture with it from the street!
Our room was on deck 5 and it was an adjoining room with my mom with a "secret porthole". Basically, it's the price of the regular staterooms but a little better because the portholes are "obscured" and people complained so Disney had to drop the price of them. In the next picture, we were right where the white barrels are but you can see the porthole windows. I was deathly afraid of someone falling out of a veranda (aka Shook) so this was the next best option. I actually loved our room because it was on the same floor with all the kids club stuff and it was right near the elevator - it was very easy to get to.
My easy to get to is coming from our fish extender adventure we had. This is where you hang a pocket on your metal fish outside your room, sign up in a group, and pass out gifts to everyone in your group (and you get gifts back). I had read that the kids love it because it's like getting presents everyday. That did not deter my kids from wanting to go to the gift shop still!! And, delivering our gifts was a pain. The rooms in our group were all over the ship and some of those hallways to get to rooms are utterly ridiculous! And, our kids were disinterested after about the 2nd gift we passed out!
Our waiters were great with the kids and the buffet was decent too. We basically ate breakfast there every morning and then went swimming. I mean, the view is gorgeous!
At the Bahamas stop, mom and I took Jules off the boat to go to the Straw Market. Michael's brother went on the cruise as well and they went to the waterpark there and swam with the dolphins but I had heard that it has gotten really dangerous there plus from what I had read the waterpark and dolphins were very expensive for just the short time you could go, so we opted out. But, they had a blast!
We got Jules a hair wrap and some dresses so she was happy!
Pirate night was really fun for the kids! We dressed up with Izzy and Jake, had the pirate dinner, and then went up to the top deck for fireworks and the party.
Castaway Cay was by far our favorite stop! They could have just docked the boat there forever! The water was so pretty and the beach was made of little sea shells (which did hurt our sensitive feet). White fish would just swim up to you in the water. And, Disney had built the lagoon up so the water was almost always just up to your knees or hips (until the tide came in later in the day). But, we had so much fun here. Jules, Michael and I also fed the stingrays (stings removed) and we snorkeled with them. Loved it!
Lunch is on the island too!
As you can tell, Jules got a lot of stuffed animals on the trip. Shook got a lot of bath toys - one of the ship which is pretty cool. After we ported, we tried to go to the Kennedy Space Center but it was so expensive and we had planned to only stay a couple of hours before heading to Disney so that was a real damper. So, we just headed to Downtown Disney to wait on our room to be ready. After that, we headed to the room to REST!
The kids were out before we even barely got the rental car in drive!
After our rest, we went out to swim at the pool and watch the Electrical Parade on the beach.
The next day we headed out for 1 day at Magic Kingdom! We had lots of fun riding rides but we had to take a break mid-day this time!
I think the splash mountain pictures were my favorite from the whole vacation. The kids wanted to ride it over and over again. Michael, not so much!
And, they both loved the Railroad Rollercoaster!
We had a blast! I would definitely do a cruise again. I think since the kids are over the characters, I would consider something other than Disney, even though the kids club probably can't be beat. The food wasn't my favorite but it wasn't awful. The rooms and bathrooms do start to get a little small over the time period so I definitely wouldn't do much longer than 5 days. I wish the pools on the boat were bigger too and I wish there was more docking at places like Castaway Cay!
