tampabrat22
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2007
- Messages
- 410
It's official...in 7 days we will stepping onto the Wonder for our first DCL vacation! I just can't contain the excitement, so I thought I better start writing the trip report
! We've sailed on another cruise line 4 times and had many wonderful trips to Walt Disney World over the years! But I've been dreaming about taking my kids on a Disney cruise for many, many years. And this was/is the year, finally!!
Let me introduce our group:
Me- Jessica (32) Mom, over-scheduled, travel & cruise lover, obsessive planner, photographer (this will be my 5th cruise)!
Linda (58) Grandma, over packer, wrapped around Jaden's little finger, always along for the fun (this will be her 3rd cruise)!
Tristan (12) Son, tween weirdo
, super smart, gamer, reptile lover, black belt karate kid, mama's boy (this will be his 5th cruise)!
Jaden (7) Daughter, shy, family princess, sweetheart, girly girl, Princess Jasmine fanatic & Disney lover (this will be her 3rd cruise)!
A few pictures of us;
My kids, on our last trip to Downtown Disney...
Me & my Mom acting silly at Islands of Adventure!
So I guess I will start from the beginning. Like I mentioned before, I've been wanting to go on a Disney cruise for years, but I really wasn't expecting to go this year. I've always been a Disney fan and thought this would be the perfect mix of Disney & cruising...two things I love! We had just taken an 8 day cruise in Dec. 08 and a few weeks later I was in the process of planning a quick birthday trip to Orlando for my DD's birthday (TR link is in my siggy). I was surfing the Disney website looking for hotel deals when I stumbled on the cruises and decided to just peek at the going rates. Imagine my shock/surprise to find an Oct 09 sailing for (what I consider) dirt cheap on a Disney cruise! With the 50% off deposit deal and some Cat 12 GTY's available, I booked ASAP!
Yeah, it was a cat 12 and a Guarantee cabin...but at this price ($1445 for 2 Adults & 2 kids) it was worth it and something I knew I could work into the budget with 2 other trips on the calendar for this year already. Anyways, I was ecstatic and couldn't wait to tell everyone!! LOL! Over the next few weeks I talked my sister, cousin and a friend into booking as well! It was official, we were going on a Disney cruise with a group of friends & family! YAY!
Once I booked, I began reading everything I could find, these boards have been a HUGE help! We had so many questions and so much to figure out...like what will we do in port? What the heck is a FE & what do put in an FE? Will there be Halloween activities in Oct? How do I make all these fun magnets I see? But my biggest question at this point was "should I tell the kids or keep it a surprise"? I decided to keep it a surprise, which I later realized...would be no easy task!
So fast forward a few months, it was getting harder & harder to keep the cruise a secret. My kids were always around when the subject would come up when friends and I would be talking, I was really suspicious always watching & reading about DCL, and I was even having to intercept Disney mail before they seen it, lol! So I started thinking of ways to let the cat out if the bag. I decided Easter would be as good a time as any, since our cruise was in Oct and my kids birthdays were spread throughout the year (April & Aug) there wasn't really any other big events I could work it into, so Easter it would be.
So after reading here on the boards about another family who organized a scavenger hunt for their kids surprise, I thought I could do something along those lines. Over on the Creative Dis board I found a cute graphic that I personalized, then printed out (it said something like "I Wonder who is going on A Disney Cruise...Surprise You Are"). I glued it to some thick cardboard and cut it into puzzle shaped pieces. I put the pieces in plastic Easter eggs and on Easter morning I had their dad hide them. They quickly found them and began to put the puzzle together...
Ok, well this is just a start, I'll be back soon to post more about the planning before we depart. I've been taking pics each step of the way so I'll have plenty to share as we progress!
! We've sailed on another cruise line 4 times and had many wonderful trips to Walt Disney World over the years! But I've been dreaming about taking my kids on a Disney cruise for many, many years. And this was/is the year, finally!!Let me introduce our group:
Me- Jessica (32) Mom, over-scheduled, travel & cruise lover, obsessive planner, photographer (this will be my 5th cruise)! Linda (58) Grandma, over packer, wrapped around Jaden's little finger, always along for the fun (this will be her 3rd cruise)! Tristan (12) Son, tween weirdo, super smart, gamer, reptile lover, black belt karate kid, mama's boy (this will be his 5th cruise)! Jaden (7) Daughter, shy, family princess, sweetheart, girly girl, Princess Jasmine fanatic & Disney lover (this will be her 3rd cruise)!A few pictures of us;
My kids, on our last trip to Downtown Disney...
Me & my Mom acting silly at Islands of Adventure!
So I guess I will start from the beginning. Like I mentioned before, I've been wanting to go on a Disney cruise for years, but I really wasn't expecting to go this year. I've always been a Disney fan and thought this would be the perfect mix of Disney & cruising...two things I love! We had just taken an 8 day cruise in Dec. 08 and a few weeks later I was in the process of planning a quick birthday trip to Orlando for my DD's birthday (TR link is in my siggy). I was surfing the Disney website looking for hotel deals when I stumbled on the cruises and decided to just peek at the going rates. Imagine my shock/surprise to find an Oct 09 sailing for (what I consider) dirt cheap on a Disney cruise! With the 50% off deposit deal and some Cat 12 GTY's available, I booked ASAP!
Yeah, it was a cat 12 and a Guarantee cabin...but at this price ($1445 for 2 Adults & 2 kids) it was worth it and something I knew I could work into the budget with 2 other trips on the calendar for this year already. Anyways, I was ecstatic and couldn't wait to tell everyone!! LOL! Over the next few weeks I talked my sister, cousin and a friend into booking as well! It was official, we were going on a Disney cruise with a group of friends & family! YAY!
Once I booked, I began reading everything I could find, these boards have been a HUGE help! We had so many questions and so much to figure out...like what will we do in port? What the heck is a FE & what do put in an FE? Will there be Halloween activities in Oct? How do I make all these fun magnets I see? But my biggest question at this point was "should I tell the kids or keep it a surprise"? I decided to keep it a surprise, which I later realized...would be no easy task!
So fast forward a few months, it was getting harder & harder to keep the cruise a secret. My kids were always around when the subject would come up when friends and I would be talking, I was really suspicious always watching & reading about DCL, and I was even having to intercept Disney mail before they seen it, lol! So I started thinking of ways to let the cat out if the bag. I decided Easter would be as good a time as any, since our cruise was in Oct and my kids birthdays were spread throughout the year (April & Aug) there wasn't really any other big events I could work it into, so Easter it would be.
So after reading here on the boards about another family who organized a scavenger hunt for their kids surprise, I thought I could do something along those lines. Over on the Creative Dis board I found a cute graphic that I personalized, then printed out (it said something like "I Wonder who is going on A Disney Cruise...Surprise You Are"). I glued it to some thick cardboard and cut it into puzzle shaped pieces. I put the pieces in plastic Easter eggs and on Easter morning I had their dad hide them. They quickly found them and began to put the puzzle together...
Ok, well this is just a start, I'll be back soon to post more about the planning before we depart. I've been taking pics each step of the way so I'll have plenty to share as we progress!
. I had such good intentions of writing a huge review full of pretty pics, but life just got in the way! But I am going to make it my priority to finish this ASAP! Who knows, it may even help a future cruiser,
! LOL!
