Can you share the brand of the luggage you have? I would be interested in looking at these since I do travel a lot internationally and even at home, the weight restrictions are getting so annoying.
For the packing cubes, I have also debated them over the years but held off due to price. How many would you say you need per person for a trip like this one? I saw the 3 piece set on amazon for just under $25 of the various sizes- but I'm curious how many sets you need per person?
Since this is your first cruise and you can't book until after the silvers, i would definitely book a private tour now. I have a feeling many of the excursions will sell out after the silver date since there will be many people onboard who've done at least 1
disney cruise before. Not many people start out doing a 12 nighter for the first cruise but I admire you for doing so! You can always cancel it if you do get in on the DCL one and want that instead. All of my tours allow you to cancel with no charge until a week or a few days ahead of time.
On another note, has anyone else been curious about the excursion 'myk 22 resort' or something like that on the Mykonos excursions? It didnt have pricing and it said it was sold out when I tried to look at it. I'm curious if this is similar to our St. John Resort day that we have privately arranged.
Luggage:
The luggage we have is called, Antler Liquis Super Lightweight hardside. You can find it many places on the internet, but Bergman Luggage is super easy to work with in terms of returns (if you get it and you aren't happy with the color, size, etc):
http://www.bergmanluggage.com/antlerliquis.html
Also, they "say" the regular retail price $800/$700/$600, but I have YET to see any place that sells it that high. It is always sold for the sale prices you see on this site ($399/$349/$299). I got our for even cheaper because I had a 10% coupon code, so I got 10% off these sale prices. I have also seen some on "closeout" on Amazon.com for really cheap (like a 27" for $179), but with luggage, I don't like buying "closeout" because it's a final sale, and I like the option of being able to send it back if I get it and it's not what I thought it was, etc. Also, the closeout sales, it's hard to get matching colors between the sizes, BUT if you don't care about matching colors, or it being a final sale, the closeout prices are the very best!!
I know Samsonite Cosmolite is a good lightweight brand, too (same weight as the Antler Liquis), but the Samsonite is more expensive. The Antler Liquis is a British made brand, and has very good reviews, and very durable! My husband travels internationally for work several times a year, and this luggage has been very durable.
One thing to know, though, is the size (22"/27"/33") is measured from the wheels, SO the inside packing space is actually more like, 20", 25", 31". So, the 33" case is the same size inside as a standard 28" case (the heavier kind), if that makes sense.
The only downside about the hardside is there are no outside pockets you can just quickly slip something into if you need. I do miss the outside pockets... but there are so many other "pro's" about this luggage that we are fine not having the outside pockets.
Cubes:
As for the Cubes (how many you need), it's really very individual (ie, depends on if you're naturally a light packer, or if you like to bring a lot of clothes, or how bulky your clothes are, or if they are super lightweight thin clothes (ie, cotton shirts take up more space than thin polyester shirts).
That said, for just me... I have 3 large cubes, 3 medium cubes and 3 slim cubes. But, I only pack for about 6 - 7 days, and I do laundry if we're on a trip for longer than 7 days. I put all my dresses/skirts/pants in one large cube, ALL of my workout gear in one large cube (shorts,tops,socks,sports bras), I bring cooler weather clothes (for colder evenings) and put those outfits in a large cube (I usually just bring like 2 or 3 cooler weather sets of clothes if we are going to a warmer destination for evenings, or just in case the weather ends up being unusually cool) I put all my tanktops/tops a medium cube, shorts in a medium cube, all my swim gear (swim suits, cover ups, saraongs, anything having to do with water/pools/beach) in a medium cube. Then, I use the slim cubes for all my undergarments and PJs, etc. I usually don't even fill the cubes to the max (there is always space left in each cube, but that is nice so if I buy anything on our trip, I know I have space to pack those items).
I also have 3 large cubes that are a different color for our overnight layovers for our entire family (4 of us), that I pack just for those nights/days, and I put outfits/clothes for all 4 of us in one large cube (I can fit 4 outfits total for all 4 of us in one large cube). So, we just pull that colored cube out for the overnight layovers. I also will re-pack those different colored cubes throughout our trip (ie, I don't pack for ALL of our over-night layovers before we leave initially). Once we've finished an overnight layover somewhere, I then re-pack that different colored cube for our next overnight layover, or 2-day stop somewhere. Or, if we have a long day trips planned, I'll pack our outfits plus everything we will need just for those long daytrips in the different colored cubes so the morning of the day trip, we don't have to spend anytime thinking about what to bring, or do we have everything.... the cubes also fit inside a backpack, so you can also just slip a cube in a backpack and bring it with you on a daytrip (if you think you might need to layer your clothes), but I usually don't bring the cube on the day trips.
My DH and kids have the same amount of cubes as I do (but we all have our own color).... we don't always use ALL of the cubes on each trip we go on... it just depends, but for the longer trips, we do use all of the cubes. For a 7-day trip, we use half of the cubes I mentioned above.
It's really just an experimental process... and it's really individual. Some people like only large cubes. Some like just the slim and mediums... some people like getting mostly mediums and not many large or slims... it just really depends on what you like to pack.
If you get them on eBags, they do free returns, if you get them and once you see them, you realize the size you got isn't as practical for you, so you can send them back and get a different size. Amazon might do free returns, but sometimes they want you to pay for shipping for returns. you'd have to look into that.
I don't know why I thought it was tonight. I signed on yesterday afternoon to double check what we were going to book and saw that I could actually book it then. Fortunately, I was able to get all our excursions. Missed the time I wanted for the couple massage...like someone else mentioned the only times left were at 8:00 AM each morning. Way too early LOL We really have no interest in Palo so I didn't have to worry about that.
How can I go on a cruise without my disfriends to plan with? I might have to jump ship!
). Before we used eBags Cubes, we'd get to our destination, and the kids would just start sifting through the suitcases to find certain things (swim trunks, or whatever), and then everything would be out of order. Or, sometimes things just shift when you are flying, and you get to your destination, and clothes are scrunched into one corner, all wrinkled or whatever... and the Cubes keep that from happening totally. 
and it's not warm enough here to wear our summer clothes, so I packed all of our cubes for our Fantasy cruise this past weekend, and just set all the cubes in our closet... so we are already 95% packed for our upcoming trip, but there aren't any suitcases laying all over the place with clothes just sitting in them.... all I need to do is pull out the suitcases on Thursday (we fly out on Friday), set the packed cubes in, and we're packed! So nice... so that way I can just focus on getting last minute things done around the house, for our trip, etc, on Thursday rather than madly trying to pack, and make sure everyone has what they need in the suitcases, etc. etc. Cubes have relieved so much pre-travel stress, too! 
(and we had a 10% off credit from a "dummy" booking, so we just used that, too)! 
We get PLENTY of shade here in Seattle... LOL!!! So, I definitely gravitate toward sun!
