A Canadian Family’s First Disney Cruise!

[shoppgirl]

My family has returned from our first Disney cruise, and I wanted to re-live the memories and share my story with all of you. So I hope you will enjoy my trip report, comments, opinions, and photos of A Canadian Family’s First Disney Cruise.

Let me introduce you to my family. DH and I have been on two cruises together before children. Both were on Royal Carribean. Ever since our first cruise together I have enjoyed cruising. We have two girls: DD9 and DD7. We took them to the wonderful world of Disney when they were 6 and 4, and they still believe in the magic of Disney to this day. They went on their first cruise (my third) last year, on Royal Carribean and thought it was almost as good as Disney World! When I heard that Disney was coming out with a new huge ship, I thought it would be fantastic to combine our two loves: Disney and cruising.

Here is a photo of my family from our trip to Disney a few years ago (outdated photo, but we look pretty much the same, although the girls have grown up quite a bit! ). After all, it was this trip that brought on a love of Disney!

I will begin my trip report with all my pre cruise/cruise planning notes. After all, I spent 15 months preparing for this trip of a lifetime!

 

[shoppgirl]

Pre trip planning:

I booked this cruise in April 2010…16 months ahead of sailing date. My original cruise date was in August, in a category 5D. I must have changed my cabin location, category, sail date about 6 times before settling on getting two standard insides on deck 8 ( category 11A) for July 29. We sailed in two interior promenade view cabins on the Liberty of the Seas and loved the space and bathrooms! We thought we would prefer the space of two cabins, to a verandah on the Dream. Besides, the virtual portholes were a hit with the girls. Our cruise was 4 nights, and we decided to do a precruise stay in Orlando visiting Sea World and Aquatica.


Our cruise was 4 nights, and we decided to do a precruise stay in Orlando visiting Sea World and Aquatica for four nights. I reserved our precruise hotel for at the Hilton Bonnet Creek in a deluxe 2 double bed room, non Disney view (cheapest room). I reserved early enough to get a great rate promotion of stay 3 nights, get the 4th free. DH and I stayed at the neighbouring Waldorf Astoria last year and loved it and talked about bringing the girls there when we returned. Rates at the WA were much higher than the Hilton, so I booked for the Hilton, hoping to get upgraded (fully expecting to pay for it even) to the Waldorf as they are sister hotels under the Hilton chain.

I also purchased our Sea World tickets through CAA when they had their visit Sea World, get Aquatica or Busch Gardens free promotion going on. With money saved on admission to Aquatica, I decided to reserve a pool view cabana for the day! Since I was going strong with all the preplanning, I decided to book us a tour at Sea World!!!! I booked the Family Fun Tour for us since this is our first trip there as a family.

Another pre cruise plan that needed to be done was the car! I found a great rate through Dollar that gave us a mid sized car for 8 days. I planned on keeping the car while we cruised and pay for port parking. Even with the parking fee, it was actually cheaper to pay for the weekly rental and extra day than to split it up into two rentals.

When it was time to do the online check in for the cruise, I signed us up for one excursion while in the Bahamas. This would be our first time to the Bahamas so I wanted to be sure we had something in place. My girls love the beach, so we decided to get in another full beach day and signed up for the Blue Lagoon Island Beach day excursion.

So with all the planning in place, the trip can begin! I hope that you will follow along with me as I re-live our magical land/sea vacation.

 

[breced]

Following! Nice TR.

 

[shoppgirl]

Day 1:

We flew out to Orlando in the morning. Here is an updated photo of the girls as we await the tram to take us from the parking lot to the terminal

Our plane was unfortunately delayed about 45 minutes but the plane ride was uneventful and we arrive at MCO mid afternoon. We reserved a car through Dollar and walked over to the garage to pick out our car. We were pleasantly upgraded to a full sized car.

After settling into the car, we turned on the GPS and headed towards the Hilton Bonnet Creek.

We left the car by the front door telling valet we were checking in first and then self parking. We brought in all our luggage and then DH went to do his magic. He asked if there were any upgrades to a suite at the Hilton and not surprisingly there were one bedroom suites to be had (for a fee). Then DH asked if we could get a suite at the Waldorf Astoria next door. The receptionist was pleased to tell him we could get upgraded to a suite at the WA for the exact same price! So naturally we took it and hightailed it right back to the car, loaded the luggage and drove off to the glorious Waldorf Astoria!

We checked in and the only thing about this suite was that it was on a lower floor (6th), with a king bed in the bedroom and a full sized pull out couch with a memory foam mattress in the living room. For the first time, the girls offered to take the pull out couch leaving the glorious King bed for DH and I!!! Normally we all have to squeeze into two double beds, with DH and I each taking a girl. But now we don't have to do that anymore and they are more than happy to sleep together in their own "room". Another plus to this room is that it came with a balcony and a Disney view (portions of Epcot's Illuminations can be seen from this side of the hotel).

After checking out the room, it was time to find something to eat. We had technically skipped lunch on the flight over so we were hungry! We drove to Uno's for an early dinner. When DH and I were here last year we ate at Uno's and it was great and the restaurant was packed! But this year at 5:00, the restaurant was empty and the food just OK. The girls got "make your own pizza" which they thought was kind of fun, and tasted just okay. Sorry, no food pictures here, but I assure you, I took pictures of everything I ate on the Dream! So please stay tuned for those!

After dinner, we drove to Walmart to pick up a few food items/snacks/breakfast foods for our 4 night pre cruise stay in Orlando!

Once back in the room the girls couldn't stop looking at the pool below us so we went for a fun night time swim. I think one of the best things the girls did the entire pre cruise stay was swimming in that pool! I will post more pictures of that later since I bought a new underwater camera just for this trip!

We swam for about 90 minutes and then headed up to get ready for bed. We were able to catch the Epcot fireworks at 9:00 from the balcony. What a great way to end our first day with many more exciting days ahead of us.

 

[shoppgirl]

Following! Nice TR.

Thank you for reading along.

 

[boundfordisney]

great report so far and am waiting on the rest! You have a lovely family, your girls are beautiful! Its interesting to see pictures and other reviews of hotels other then disney as we have only stayed on site and I have always wondered about different hotels that we have passed on the way

 

[shoppgirl]

great report so far and am waiting on the rest! You have a lovely family, your girls are beautiful! Its interesting to see pictures and other reviews of hotels other then disney as we have only stayed on site and I have always wondered about different hotels that we have passed on the way

Thank you for reading. I have plenty more to come, so please stick around! We also stayed on site for our only trips to Disney World because we loved the convenience and of course the Disney atmosphere! Since we were going to be totally immersed in Disney on the cruise, we decided to opt out of the parks and just visit Sea World and Aquatica this trip. We actually enjoy staying off site. The Waldorf Astoria is a beautiful hotel and if you are going to stay off site, I highly recommend this hotel! You can still see part of Illuminations, and you are minutes from Downtown Disney!

 

[shoppgirl]

Day 2: Sea World Day!

I prepurchased our Sea World tickets back in February when CAA had a promotion for Canadian residents to purchase Sea World tickets and get either Aquatica or Busch Gardens free. The cost of the ticket was still a little more than a regular Sea World ticket, but since it really included two parks, it was still a great deal. My family has never visited Sea World together, and I haven't been in 30 years, so I wasn't sure what to expect there. I read on their website about the tours and animal interactions. I thought that the tour would be a great way to see Sea World. I already posted a review on the Family Fun Tour on the Disboards' Sea World forum. Please click the link below to follow it if you'd like to read about it:

Sea World's Family Fun Tour review

When the tour was over the girls were anxious to go and pick out a souvenir from Sea World. They got plenty of souvenir money from their grandparents and they were itching to use it! They have an obsession with stuffed animals and they had to pick out another one to add to the growing pile at home

After the girls made their purchase we went to find a seat at the Clyde and Seamore sea lion show at 2:15. The stadium was pretty full and our seats were a little further back to the left of the stage. The show was cute, but I think DH was having a hard time enjoying it because it was just SO HOT and humid.

We started heading out of the park because storm clouds were approaching. We walked through the Penguin enclosure on our way out:

This penguin enclosure is really cool (and literally, so if you're hot, this is a great place to hang out in). You have the option of taking a moving escalator ride through the enclosure (this is to minimize the crowding by the window in the enclosure). If you want to have a longer look, you go to the an elevated viewing platform behind the moving escalator.

We made it to the car as soon as the rain started, so great timing on our part. The girls were itching to swim so we headed back to the hotel to wait out the rain and wait for the pools to open.

Day 2 to be continued.....

 

[Raeryan50]

I am in.... Loving your trip report so far.

Your girls are adorable

 

[Wadekind]

Good trip report so far.

 

[shoppgirl]

I am in.... Loving your trip report so far.

Your girls are adorable

Thank you for joining me and posting!

 

[shoppgirl]

Good trip report so far.

Thanks for reading!

 

[my4girls]

love the report so far.

 

[Nikki'sMommy]

more please!! Penguins always put a smile on my face..

 

[shoppgirl]

love the report so far.

more please!! Penguins always put a smile on my face..

 

[shoppgirl]

Day 2 continued:

We relaxed in the hotel room for a little bit until they reopened the pools (which was probably less than 30 minutes). We got changed into our swim suits and grabbed our inner tubes because we were going to try the lazy river at the Hilton. You can rent the tubes here for $5 a day, or you can bring your own from home and they will even blow it up for you! The walk over to the Hilton was less than 5 minutes.

We walked along the beautiful WA golf course. DH was hoping to get in a round this year ever since seeing it last summer, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Maybe next summer!

The pool at the Hilton was much more busier and there seemed to be tons of families and children compared to the pool at the Waldorf. There is a water slide also, which my girls didn't even try,

and the lazy river was actually pretty long and fun. I bought a new water proof camera for this trip so I took tons of photos! Here are a few from the Hilton pool:

The girls were done with floating and wanted to get some swimming done so we walked back to the WA pool. They seemed to prefer the larger, more relaxing pools at the WA than the slide and river at the Hilton .

We swam until it was time to get ready for dinner. We drove to the Crossroads Shopping area where there are tons of restaurants to choose from. I had signed up on line for e-coupons for Sweet Tomatoes/Soup Plantation. I had my first taste of Sweet Tomatoes many many years ago in California, and remembered it to be pretty good. So when I heard there was one right in Orlando, I had to bring my family there. It certainly did not disappoint...with the coupon, the four of us ate for $19.99!!!!! Where else can you have a healthy buffet for under $20 for a family of 4??

I started to practice taking photos of my meals here in preparation for all the food porn I would be taking on the cruise!

I just bought a brand new DSLR in May and I am still learning how to use it! So far it has been on Intelligent Auto mode, maybe one day I will be brave enough to use it as it was meant to be!

After dinner, we decided to head to Downtown Disney. I bought the girls pins, to trade on the cruise ship, but I thought they could get started with some pin trading on land at DD. It was a Tuesday night around 7:30 and parking lots were full, it took us a while to find one, but DH always manages to luck out, and we parked near the TRex restaurant:

We passed the Lego store first. I don't have Lego fanatics, but they do enjoy browsing through the store and looking at all the cool things you can make with Lego!

We walked through the World of Disney where the girls did their first pin trades. We walked through the store and scoped out all the CMs from a distance and then when we saw a full lanyard we would swoop right in and the girls would ask to look at their pins. At Disney Pin Traders, I offered to buy the girls one souvenir pin and then they also did some more trading here.

After this shop, we walked into Once Upon a Toy and looked at all the cool toys. When we were first here in 2008 I bought the girls the My Little Pony fill a box, here is DD7 looking at the Mr. Potato Head:

DD7 traded another pin here on our way out:

It was dark now, and pretty packed with people. We decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel for the night. By the time the girls were in their PJs, we caught the tail end of Magic Kingdom's fireworks from a far distance from the balcony. Another fabulous day, with many more to come.

To be continued...Day 3: Aquatica!

 

[shoppgirl]

Day Three:

Today was our Aquatica day. I was really looking forward to our first outdoor waterpark visit. We have taken the girls to Great Wolf Lodge and other local indoor water parks, but never anything as large as Aquatica. Since our water park tickets were "free", I splurged on a cabana rental. It was definitely worth every penny and provided us with a nice, quiet place to rest in between activities.

We arrived at Aquatica around opening time at 9:00, and checked in for the cabana. We went to check out our "home" for the day.

As you can see, the cabana comes with two loungers, 2 chairs, and 2 low chairs. There is a large locker with key, a smaller storage cupboard, and in the center is the fridge. The fridge was stocked with 12 water bottles, and we were given four towels. There is also a nice ceiling fan!

Our first ride of the day was the Hoo Roo run. The line up was a short 5 minute this early in the day. Unfortunately, DD7 did not like it, so it was a one time try for her. We decided to do something that was not too thrilling and went to Roa Rapids. This was a huge family hit and I think we spent half our day floating along in the rapids. This is not your typical lazy river. You don't float lazily on an inner tube, but your are encouraged to don a life vest and move along the river quickly, floating along the quick currents, going through rapids and water sprays.

The great thing about this attraction is there are no line ups so you just enter and exit whenever you want.

Our cabana faced one of two wave pools, and so the girls went to play in there while we relaxed in the cabana.

It was time for lunch, so DH went to the Mango Market to pick up some food for us to enjoy in the cabana.

After lunch we went to explore more of the park. There is this huge play structure that looked interesting, and the girls went in and explored the area of a little bit, but the lure of the rapids kept calling them, and they left the climber to go back to the rapids.

We spent the rest of the afternoon going between the wave pool, and the rapids. The girls never did try any of the slides. They have never been slide people, and because of that, I don't go myself. DD8 did enjoy the Hoo Roo Run, but because the line up was 20 minutes long the second time we did it, she never asked to go back. It just wasn't worth it! I even managed to get a quick nap in while DH played in the wave pool with the girls. It was a very relaxing day.

Of course, right around 4:00, the storm clouds pulled in and lightning could be heard. They closed down the water park while we were still in the Rapids, so we were quick to get to one of two exits from the river. We walked to the cabana to wait out the lightning/rain. Or so we thought. The cabana attendants said that we had to vacate the cabana when there is lightning because of the metal poles surrounding us, and that ideally we should seek shelter in a building! There is definitely not enough building space to house everyone at the water park! We took this as a cue to leave Aquatica. We were able to walk through the entire park to the parking lot before it even rained. We saw so many people waiting under the umbrellas all over the park...so much for not standing near metal poles!

We drove straight back to the hotel to shower and change for dinner. Tonight's destination would be the Olive Garden!! We used to have plenty of Olive Gardens and they were always so popular here. Now they have all shut down. The girls saw plenty of Olive Garden commercials on TV when we first arrived, we promised to take them here since it was a restaurant DH and I enjoyed many years ago.

There was a 20 minute wait for our table at 6:00...it is still as popular as ever in the US obviously!. We enjoyed a huge, and very filling dinner. We were so stuffed, we just went straight back to the hotel room! The girls got ready for bed and we watched the Epcot fireworks once again:

Up next: Shopping and a visit to Beaches and Cream!

 

[shoppgirl]

Day Four:

I am going to make this one a quick one so that I can finally get to the Dream report!!!!!

Today was going to be my day! We would finally get to go outlet shopping. I think Orlando has the best Outlet malls! We woke as usual, and this time we went to McDonalds for breakfast on our way to the outlets.

We went to the Premium Outlets at International dr first. I did some serious shopping at North Face and Uggs!! Found some nice things at other shops and was done!

It was time for lunch, and we decided to go to Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club Resort. I have always wanted to go here for dessert, and never made it on my last three trips to Orlando. This time we were going!

We pulled up to the gate house and told the gentleman we were here to have lunch at Beaches and Cream and he told us to go ahead and park anywhere (yippee to free parking!). We walked through the Beach Club, soaking in the Disney atmosphere.

It was around 2:00 pm and we had a 10 minute wait for our table. Once inside we decided to order a small lunch to share so that we would have room for our desserts!!! I read about the kitchen sink here and watched videos and saw photos on the internet about this infamous Kitchen Sink! We did not order one, because that would be just too much. Instead, we had a banana split and the strawberry shortcake.

The desserts did not disappoint, and neither did our lunch of a hamburger, hot dog and onion rings!!

After lunch we walked through the resort on our way out to the car, looking for CMs to pin trade with. We talked to the gentleman at the door who greats everyone coming into the beautiful resort and traded pins with him. He asked if we were enjoying our visit to Disney World, but we told him we were not there to enjoy the parks but to get ready to board the Disney Dream. He was very excited for us and assured us that we would love our cruise experience! This made us even more excited for what awaited us in one more day!!

After walking through Storm Along Bay (the Beach Club's pool area), we quickly headed back to our own hotel for a lovely swim in the pool. We spent a lot of time here, enjoying our first day of sun! The weather had been pretty much overcast the previous couple of days, so it was nice to be able to swim under the sun for a change.

They serve frozen grapes on a skewer here! What a great treat by the pool.

After a great swim, we got ready for dinner. The girls wanted to go back to Sweet Tomatoes! They loved their first experience here two nights ago, they were happy to go back. We wanted an easy meal close to the second Premium outlet mall on Vineland. After dinner, we dragged the girls back to the mall for a little more shopping. Ever since discovering the Disboards, I have been reading about the best bag to wear while at Disney. Everyone talked about their Vera Bradley bags! I just had to get one for myself! I found a Vera outlet in Chicago back in May and bought myself a cute little purse. My mom and mother in law saw it and wanted one for themselves, so I headed straight to the Vera Bradley outlet to pick up a couple of cute purses! DH found some great suits at the Barney's outlet, and we also visited the Lululemon store for a few items. There is a lululemon outlet near my house here, but the prices and selection at the Orlando store are much better!

We decided that we had dragged the girls through enough malls for the trip and headed back to the hotel to start packing. We still had 4 magical nights ahead of us!!!

Up next: Disney Dream....here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SLM]

Your girls are darling! I'm really enjoying your take on things "outside" the World. And starting the cruise so relaxed is a great idea! Looking forward to the rest of your report.

 

[shoppgirl]

Your girls are darling! I'm really enjoying your take on things "outside" the World. And starting the cruise so relaxed is a great idea! Looking forward to the rest of your report.

Thank you for reading and posting. DH and I had debated on whether we should do a pre cruise stay or post cruise. We felt that we would probably be more rested for the cruise if we flew into Orlando and spent a few days there before cruising. Keep reading, I have 4 magical nights to report on with tons of photos!