Disney Twins Do DCL A Pre Trip Report

[SarahSnow]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Sarah, long time lurker, first time posting a pre trip report. My twin sister Shauna (@Shrfleen ) and I will be doing our first ever cruise on the Dream, December 10-14th 2018 on a Merrytime Cruise...We love Christmas especially a Disney Christmas! We will be staying in a Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah. We wanted a verandah because we weren't sure about sea sickness since we've never cruised before rather not risk it.

Now a little bit about how this cruise came to be. Back in September of 2016 we took or first ever Disney vacation, we had only been to Disney three times before that but they were one day only trips, this was our first time staying on property with all the bells and whistles. This trip included us, our mom and our little sister Hannah.

Me, Hannah, Mom and Shauna AK 2016​

We had so much fun on our vacation that we somehow convinced my aunt, her daughter and her two children to join us on our November 2017 vacation. Sadly our little sister didn't join us for this trip but our extended family made the planning experience crazy because we weren't use to booking dining for 7 people and planning for children was a new experience. The trip was a success with a few toddler tantrums and laughs inbetween. My grandparents also joined us at AK for a day which was great because they were able to drive me to the Disney Outlet for the first time haha

Everyone was happy except K who really didn't care for pre park opening breakfasts​

This brings me to our 2018 trip. The CRUISE! After doing WDW hard for the past 2 years I wanted to try something different. After talking it over with the family they decided that it wasn't best to do a cruise this year with K still being young. Our mom didn't want to go on a vacation this year because she is saving up to by a new car so that left just me and Shauna. We planned a December vacation because we love Christmas and it's close to our birthday. We couldn't pass up the chance to also vist WDW while we were in the Sunshine state so we booked a room at Coronado Springs for December 14th-16th. We plan to attend our 2nd MVMCP on the 14th and do a 4 park challenge on the 15th!

Me and Shauna at MVMCP 2017
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Well, I think that sums up post one. In my next post I will explain our current plans for the cruise. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!


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[Shrfleen]

To view trip reports from our previous trips, check out the links in my signature.

I will post some of our fish extender ideas in the next few days.

 

[disneycruise100]

Cool PTR! Looking forward to this!

 

[SarahSnow]

Cool PTR! Looking forward to this!

Thank you for following along @disneycruise100 Shauna (@Shrfleen ) will be making an update sometime later this week. Stay tuned

 

[Shrfleen]

Hello everyone! I am the other half of this twinship! I'm here to tell you all about our Fish Extender (FE) plans.

Here is a picture our Fish Extender I made.

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I used velcro for the names so we can switch the names out from cruise to cruise!

We are in a FE group with 10 other cabins with both adults and children. I am a huge crafter so I will be making as much as I can!

Here are some of our ideas of FE gifts to give:

• Magnets (I bought a file that looks like a Disney Cruise Line Name Tags)
• First Aid Kits
• Bottle openers
• Sand brushes
• Cups
• Glow sticks
• Small toy
• Ice cream sundae kit
• Activity books
• Magic towels
• Tic Tac Toe

Once I start working on the gifts, I will post them! Here is a sneak peak at our magnets that we will be giving away. I practiced with our names first!

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Stay tuned for more updates soon! - Shauna

 

[Shrfleen]

Fish Extender Update

I have been buying some small things for the children in our Fish Extender group and Dollar Tree had a bunch of Disney items out. We are looking for something to get the 0-3 year olds on our trip but I haven't found anything yet.

I have also been on a crafting spree. I've made the decals for the cups. One side has the cruise logo and the other side has a Mickey or Minnie anchor with the giftee's name. I haven't personalized them yet but I have all the decals made. I also put decals on a first aid kit that will be a cabin gift. The last project I made was tic tac toe bags.

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[Shrfleen]

Days until the Cruise: 269

We have made tentative plans for our upcoming trip.

• Day 0: Fly in late afternoon/early evening on Sunday and stay at the Hyatt Regency at the airport.
• Day 1: Be on an early bus. Avoid crowds at Cabanas and eat at the MDR that will be open for lunch.
• Day 2: We will most likely not get off at Nassau and we will use the day as a ship day and hopefully brunch at Palo, if offered and available. Also mini golf and Rainforest Rooms!
• Day 3: At Castaway Cay I would like to spend some time at the adults only beach and rent a couple bikes to explore the island.
• Day 4: Day at sea!
• Day 5: Get off the boat early and make our way over to Disney World. Rest in the AM and then make our way over to Epcot. Hopefully we can watch the Candlelight Processional.
• Day 6: 4 Park Challenge
• Day 7: Hollywood Studios (Toy Story Land) and Epcot (or Animal Kingdom) -- Fly out on last plane out of Orlando.

 

[Shrfleen]

Update!

We have decided to stay an extra day at Disney! Day 7 will now be a Christmas Party in the evening! Then we will leave on an afternoon, early evening flight!

 

[SarahSnow]

Update!

We've official booked our pre cruise stay at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport with a great discount from Working Advanatage. We plan to use DCL transportation so this works out great for us. We'll be able to fly in the afternoon and not have to worry about getting to and from.

We are also waiting for Working Advantage to post their discounted MVMCP tickets to save some $$.

In non Disney news, we see Wicked tomorrow, woohoo!

 

[dnllmz]

Hi! I’m following along. We are going on the Dream in November so I thought it would be fun to plan along. We thought about staying at the Hyatt but wanted to stay a few days at Disney pre-cruise. No parks though .

 

[SarahSnow]

Hi! I’m following along. We are going on the Dream in November so I thought it would be fun to plan along. We thought about staying at the Hyatt but wanted to stay a few days at Disney pre-cruise. No parks though .

Thanks for following along! I don't think I could do a Disney stay and not go to the parks lol

Are you doing a fish extender group for you cruise?

 

[dnllmz]

Thanks for following along! I don't think I could do a Disney stay and not go to the parks lol

Are you doing a fish extender group for you cruise?

No FE. You’re stuff looks great. I’m not crafty plus I really want to relax this vacation. If we were doing a longer cruise I might do it. I did sign up for the mixology class.

 

[dnllmz]

We originally said absolutely no parks. First we weren’t going to stay in Disney. Then we decided to stay at Disney but no parks so we booked AKL. Since then I’ve looked up single day tickets at least 5 times but the prices are too high. It’s painful not going. If I didn’t have to worry about the kids’ school then we could spend more time & do the parks. Maybe we’ll do a water park. We’ve never done one.

 

[SarahSnow]

No FE. You’re stuff looks great. I’m not crafty plus I really want to relax this vacation. If we were doing a longer cruise I might do it. I did sign up for the mixology class.

It's been all @Shrfleen she's the crafty twin lol We plan to do the champagne tasting class! hopefully we can, we are first time cruisers so it might be booked.

 

[SarahSnow]

We originally said absolutely no parks. First we weren’t going to stay in Disney. Then we decided to stay at Disney but no parks so we booked AKL. Since then I’ve looked up single day tickets at least 5 times but the prices are too high. It’s painful not going. If I didn’t have to worry about the kids’ school then we could spend more time & do the parks. Maybe we’ll do a water park. We’ve never done one.

A water park would be fun.

 

[Shrfleen]

Hello everyone! We are 202 days out from our cruise!

We are doing an ornament exchange on our cruise and I was able to work on them the other weekend. This is what we will be handing out.

I won't be able to finish them until closer to our date but at least the majority of the work is done.

That is my only update right now but I promise to check in soon!
-Shauna

 

[dnllmz]

They look great!

 

[SarahSnow]

Personal Life Update:

Today my mom, aunt, cousin & her son and Shauna all went to the Indy 500 because I won tickets from a sweepstakes (my aunt and cousin both won tickets from the same sweepstakes too). Chris Hemsworth (Thor) was there to drop the green flag for the race and he walked the celebrity red carpet they had and well this happened....

I'm in the hat, my mom is in the back smiling and if you look by the guy with the blue phone you can see Shauna (she had to leave the line and wasn't able to get back up to the gates). We waited almost 3 hours for this picture and it was well worth it!

 

[Shrfleen]

Days until our cruise: 185 days

Updates

• We booked our flights! On opening day for Southwest we booked a round trip for about $250 (with early bird check in).
• Getting ready to plan for dining reservations next weekend! I think we are going to aim for a Via Napoli on Epcot night hopefully with a Candlelight Processional package.
• Sarah bought sun hats for the cruise!

Itinerary
December 9th - Fly in. Pre cruise stay at the Hyatt.
December 10th- Cruise
December 11th- Cruise
December 12th- Cruise
December 13th- Cruise
December 14th - End of cruise. Make our way to Coronado Springs. Epcot night.
December 15th - Four Park Challenge
December 16th - Hollywood Studios and maybe Animal Kingdom. Christmas Party
December 17th- Fly home.
December 18th- I took this day off to recovery haha


I will post a fish extender update in the next few weeks! Stay tuned!

 

[dnllmz]

I don't know about you but I always feel relieved after I book flights. I hate playing the airfare rate game. I still check to see if they go down almost everyday so I can get a credit. But at least something is booked.

Taking a day off for recovery is smart.

I want to hear more about your 4 park challenge plans.