Disney Magic - 2/7/2016 - FIRST CRUISE!

[Brandy Fossett]

Okay, so my DS who is currently 9 is not in on this, buuuuttt.....

I BOOK OUR FIRST CRUISE!!!!!

I am a single mom, so things aren't always easy. I'm stepping out in faith and I put the deposit on a cruise for us yesterday! He will be 10 when we go, and the cruise falls close to between our birthdays (his is in January, mine is in February). I don't know how long I will be able to keep this from him, but I am just so excited! Also excited to be here and learn as MUCH as I can!!

Also - while I have been to Disneyland in California, I have never been to Disney World, and my DS has never been to anything other than the Disney Store, so I think his mind is going to be a bit blown!

Any advice for a first time cruiser? I'm going to go scour the boards for pics!

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Okay, so my DS who is currently 9 is not in on this, buuuuttt.....

I BOOK OUR FIRST CRUISE!!!!!

I am a single mom, so things aren't always easy. I'm stepping out in faith and I put the deposit on a cruise for us yesterday! He will be 10 when we go, and the cruise falls close to between our birthdays (his is in January, mine is in February). I don't know how long I will be able to keep this from him, but I am just so excited! Also excited to be here and learn as MUCH as I can!!

Also - while I have been to Disneyland in California, I have never been to Disney World, and my DS has never been to anything other than the Disney Store, so I think his mind is going to be a bit blown!

Any advice for a first time cruiser? I'm going to go scour the boards for pics!

Google navigators for your ship and cruise see what's on offer. Look into the ports of call. Read up and ..., relax.

 

[JackieB10]

What an awesome surprise!! But, not so easy to keep it a secret. I have a cruise booked for January and it is a Christmas gift for my children. Only 246 days left to keep my secret, ughhh! I have almost slipped up many of times already.

There are a lot of fabulous tips and stories here. Have fun planning!

 

[Four Swampers]

Congratulations!! Welcome!

 

[emilyann415]

Relaxing is easier said than done I remember our first cruise.....I was like a small child I was so excited! Heck, I still get crazy excited....hope that never goes away! What I found most helpful before my first cruise was to read lots and lots of trip reports prior to our sailing. As I knew NOTHING about cruising, I didn't know which questions to ask. I find reading trip reports really helped set my expectations and then helped me think of good questions I wanted the answers to. Best of luck....we've been on 7 Disney cruises now and the first will always have a special place in my heart....it's hard to beat!

 

[DIS fever]

That is awesome! Enjoy reading the boards. Welcome!

 

[Miss_shortie5]

I understand how you're feeling. In March I booked for me and my daughter to go to Norway in June. She's three so I haven't kept it a secret (would never have been able to anyway!!!) but I'm also a single mum and yes it can be tough but wow having something to look forward has made life a lot easier this last month. I need to book something for the summer though (cheapo holiday) because I really feel like I'll have a huge post Disney cruise slump when we get home. I'm sure you'll both have a wonderful time. I really don't know how you will keep all that excitement in for so long though (maybe others can advise?!). I've been devoting waaaaay too much time to preparing for the cruise and researching. It's possibly the least productive I've ever been (but it's an amazing feeling and I really don't care!!). So good luck with not exploding with excitement!! It's HARD!!!

 

[runnerchick]

Oh what fun! Just got off the Wonder yesterday (I have two daughters, 9 and 10). The shows are great and there is lots to take in. A couple of our favs - BINGO! It was so much fun - the staff was very entertaining. You can get "punch-type" cards and they offer an automated handheld that keeps track of the numbers that have been called. It basically flashes BINGO if you are a winner!

We also took one of the animation classes (free). We drew Mickey Mouse and our instructor was excellent! At the end of the class he asked a Disney trivia question - which my daughter answered and won the picture that the instructor drew (it is incredible and he signed it). I am going to have it framed and hang it in our home.

I booked our trip and had to keep the secret for about 8 months. Congrats and have a blast planning!!!!

 

[Brandy Fossett]

Oh what fun! Just got off the Wonder yesterday (I have two daughters, 9 and 10). The shows are great and there is lots to take in. A couple of our favs - BINGO! It was so much fun - the staff was very entertaining. You can get "punch-type" cards and they offer an automated handheld that keeps track of the numbers that have been called. It basically flashes BINGO if you are a winner!

We also took one of the animation classes (free). We drew Mickey Mouse and our instructor was excellent! At the end of the class he asked a Disney trivia question - which my daughter answered and won the picture that the instructor drew (it is incredible and he signed it). I am going to have it framed and hang it in our home.

I booked our trip and had to keep the secret for about 8 months. Congrats and have a blast planning!!!!

I soooo hope they do an animation class! That is if I even get to see my son for more than an hour a day. I've been assured that the kids clubs are incredible and he will adore them. They have a super hero one where kids go on missions to save super heros like Iron Man. My son will DEFINITELY be doing that one!

I understand how you're feeling. In March I booked for me and my daughter to go to Norway in June. She's three so I haven't kept it a secret (would never have been able to anyway!!!) but I'm also a single mum and yes it can be tough but wow having something to look forward has made life a lot easier this last month. I need to book something for the summer though (cheapo holiday) because I really feel like I'll have a huge post Disney cruise slump when we get home. I'm sure you'll both have a wonderful time. I really don't know how you will keep all that excitement in for so long though (maybe others can advise?!). I've been devoting waaaaay too much time to preparing for the cruise and researching. It's possibly the least productive I've ever been (but it's an amazing feeling and I really don't care!!). So good luck with not exploding with excitement!! It's HARD!!!

So far I have managed to not say anything, but we have other really big things going on that are things I can tell him about so I'm just going to go with hoping that I can keep my mouth shut! lol

 

[JTBE]

I accidentally typed this video into another thread, meant it for here. But after my friends and I booked our cruise for the Dis Magic, I watched this video from Destination America on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_vbuR9iB2o. It is ~45 minutes long. So you may want to watch when you have nothing to do. Hopefully this will give you some nice pictures of the re-imagined Disney Magic cruise line. Excited for you and your son.

 

[mhingher]

We went in our first cruise this past December and booked it in February. Somehow I kept it a secret and we surprised them the night before we left! It was not easy to say the least but completely worth it to see their smiling faces! They were 7 and 4 and we just booked our next cruise on the Dream in November!