A Funny Thing Happened While Planning Our Trip to Universal Orlando

[TheRichFam]

So here's the thing.

We already went on a cruise this year. In fact, it was on the Wish.

My wife and I started a fun tradition after the Covid restart: we go on a couples only cruise every year near our anniversary. It's our way of reconnecting and being intentional about carving out time for just us to keep our connection strong and prioritize our relationship. This February, we flew to Orlando two nights early, stayed at a resort at Universal Orlando, enjoyed the Wizarding World and then did a pre-night at the Riviera.





We absolutely LOVED the cruise, specifically the Wish itself. Mostly I found the common complaints we had heard about the Wish to be silly, especially in light of how much "good" was added to the new design despite the things people complained about. (You can keep the midship elevators in exchange for half a dozen places to get good coffee!)

BUT .... I found myself missing the kids in a way I didn't during our previous three cruises. We kept saying, "OH MY GOSH THE KIDS WOULD LOVE THIS!!!" While I honestly believe they would love a cruise on any of the ships in the Disney fleet, there was just something different about the Wish. It felt like exactly what I would have wanted when I was their ages.

Fast forward to last weekend ...

For some strange reason, our schools here in the DFW area give our kids the first two days of November off from school. We had long been planning to take them to Universal for a week with MAYBE one night at a Disney resort (if we hit the lottery, sold a kidney, came into an inheritance or all of the above). We are MASSIVE Disney World fans, but lately the experience in the parks has been (to be kind) less than wonderful, especially considering the vast price gap between WDW and UOR. All that to say, we were going to fly to Orlando on November 3, spend November 4-8 at UOR and then fly home. They'd miss a couple days, but we were ok with that. It was a wonderful plan. It was an exciting plan. It was a very meticulously planned plan.

:: Wifey enters the Chat ::

"Why don't you call DCL to see if there are any cruises in that timeframe that offer the military discount?"

Listen, people.

I love a good theme park trip, and I am probably the biggest Potter head you'll meet.

But she said the magic words!

I called DCL before the words had come all the way out of her mouth and found out there were two options: one on the Magic (we're booked on her for a Southern Caribbean r/t out of Puerto Rico next year) and ... One on the Wish.

The last I knew, the Wish didn't even offer military discounts yet!

I told her what I found out, we did some math, and before I was even sure what was happening, our trip to Universal had turned into a Four-Night Bahamian Cruise on the Disney Wish!!!

Even better: It is the VERY FIRST VERY MERRYTIME CRUISE of the year ... not just on the Wish, but on any ship in the fleet! We've never done a Christmas themed cruise, so we were thrilled.

Our sailing party includes Me, DW, DD16, DS10 and DD6. We have told the 16 yr old, but the younger two don't have a clue. We told them we're headed to the beach for a few days. In fairness we are.

We just didn't tell them which beach

Once we get to Orlando, we'll surprise them with why we're REALLY there.

We're over the moon. We got such an amazing rate that it really didn't make sense NOT to take it. We have a Cat 5C Verandah across the hall from a Cat 11B Inside Stateroom. This will be the first time we've ever had an inside stateroom, the first time we've ever had two staterooms on one cruise, the first time we have done a themed sailing and the first time DD6 has been on a cruise. DS10 went on the Wonder when he was less than a year old, so this is basically his first time, too.

So there it is. We're booked. We're paid in full. We're planning.

Next, we'll find out if there are any tastings, Palo reservations or excursions left at this point. I hope you'll follow along for what I'm sure will be a wild ride.

74 days!

 

[TheRichFam]

Chapter 2: The Ship is the Destination, Right?

It occurred to me that I didn't "properly introduce" our sailing party in the first post. I got so excited that we had booked a cruise that I kinda wrote that first post like it was a frenetic text to my wife

I did manage to post a photo of me and DW, which is a nice start. I'm a retired U.S. Marine currently doing contract work very part time in the web design/branding/marketing sector. I'm a musician, writer, coffee-obsessed foodie, massive Atlanta Braves and Florida Gators fan and I love traveling more than anything.

DW is a mental health professional with more than a decade of experience in her area of expertise who is currently working on her PhD. She is also a writer, speaker and conference presenter who is working on writing her first book. (Basically, she's a major baddie who is WAY out of my league). When she's not taking over the world, she also loves traveling, uncovering the connective tissue between Taylor Swift songs, writing breathtaking poetry and she loves a good spa day!

DD16 is our creative, thoughtful and hilarious child who wears her heart on her sleeves and would do anything for anyone, but if you cross her or someone she loves, she will come for your life. (In a non-literal way, of course) This will be her third cruise. She's been on the Fantasy and Wonder, but this is her first sailing in nearly 10 years!




DS10 is brilliant beyond words. He's empathic, insightful and will probably the most genuinely kind kid I've ever been around. We joke that he's an 80-year old man trapped in a 10-year-old's body. This will be his second sailing, but his first was when he was 10 months old, so this is basically his first.



Lastly, DD6 is our baby. (5th in the series!) She is the human embodiment of love and is the closest thing to a human Olaf I can possibly imagine. This is her first sailing. She knows about the Southern Caribbean we're taking out of Puerto Rico next year, but this one is a surprise. When watching videos of the Magic on Youtube, she gets upset because she "wants to go on the one with the wishing wands and slide to the kids club." I CANNOT WAIT to see her face when we pull into Port Canaveral and she sees the Wish!




Now that we have that out of the way ... back to the PTR!

As soon as the payment posted to our Disney Cruise account, I jumped in the app to try to get adult dining, excursions, spa appointments, etc. Since we have the kids on this trip, we want to be at dinner with them each night. Since we just did Enchante on our cruise is March, we didn't feel drawn to do it again. We did, however, very much want a Palo Steak brunch reservation.

Welp.

No Palo Brunch. There were a couple dinner spots open, but we stuck to the plan: dinner with the kids.

We also weren't able to secure BBB reservations for DD6, either. The only slots they had open were in the morning of Castaway day. Honestly, that's such a ridiculous concept that I'm surprised it's even an option! Who in the world would want a princess makeover before heading to the beach for 8 hours?

We WERE able to grab a whiskey tasting for embarkation day, but it conflicts with dinner. However, we were assigned to late dining and waitlisted for early dining. If we get moved to early dining, we'll keep the tasting. Otherwise we'll cancel it. I was surprised at how easy this was to get-- it was available multiple days-- considering in March it was impossible to pre-book for any day even 90 days out or onboard! To be fair, the new classes that everyone is freaking out about (World of Gin and World of Old Fashioned) were not being offered yet to my knowledge? Either way, we grabbed it. I just checked as I'm typing this and the Whiskey tasting is available three out of four days. World of Gin and Old Fashioned are fully booked for every day.

We were able to add the Aquaventure excursion in Nassau, but from what I read on this site from you fine people, it's much cheaper to book directly through Atlantis. I haven't looked into that yet, but if that's the case we'll plan to do that. If the money difference is mostly negligible, we'll stay with DCL for the security factor.

So, to recap-

As soon as we embark, we'll split up. DW will take DD6 to BBB to try to score an appointment for a reasonable day and time, then head to Senses to try to score a day pass for us to use the spa without having length of stay passes. DS10 and I will head to Luna to try to grab a Palo brunch reservation for the sea day and try to move to early dining if the waitlist hasn't cleared yet. And if none of these things happen, our experience won't be negatively impacted in any meaningful way.

All in all, we're approaching this cruise differently than the last three that were "Mom and Dad only." This one is for the family, so we will prioritize things like the nighttime shows, pool deck time, Joyful Sweets trips and dinner in the MDRs over spa passes, smoked old fashioneds at every bar onboard and Adults-only dining reservations. Especially considering how amazing the Wish was, and how much the kiddos will love their respective clubs, we really feel like the Wish is the destination, and everything else is an added bonus.

53 days!