n8nally
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2013
- Messages
- 703
Hi all!
I am so excited to get to write this trip report! I never imagined in a million years that I would be able to take my kids on a Disney cruise! I am recently divorced (1.5 yrs) and there were some really hard times when I felt like I was never going to be happy again, or be able to do things like vacations with my kids. so this trip really meant a lot to me and my children. On a very personal level, it meant that I survived.
Also, I am so grateful for everything I learned here on the Dis and to all of you who helped me plan and organize my trip.
Now, on to the trip report! I am going to try to be really thorough so it may end up being very long!
We are local Floridians and live about an hour from Port Canaveral. My plan was to just drive out in the morning and park at Park-n-Cruise. I got a special rate ($5.99 a day) since I was originally booked at one of the parking lots undergoing construction. We had a port arrival time of 11-11:30 and I aimed for getting to the parking place at 10:30.
We made great time, but arrived to an extremely chaotic parking facility. I do not recommend Park-N-Cruise and will be searching for other parking options for our next cruise. Very crowded, stressed out employees and very disorganized process. Plus it was so hot and no A/C anywhere. The entire process, unloading, parking, getting on the shuttle and getting to the port, took 45 min and we got to the terminal at 11:20. I was bummed to be "late", but so excited!
The terminal was pretty packed and the line to meet Mickey was SO long. We checked in (easy peasy!) and received a boarding number of 5. Not bad.
Within five minutes of getting our KTTW cards and being all good to go, they started boarding! It went very quickly and we were able to get on the ship by 11:45!! So exciting! Yes, I cried when they announced our family, lol! And how wonderful that they have cast members there to help you out right as you get on!
Our cast member (Maria, from Mexico) took pics of us in the atrium and with the Donald statue and guided us to Guest services (actually, she wanted to take us to the concierge desk for tasting/dining reservations, but I saw there was no line at Guest Services so I opted for that). At Guest Services I dropped off our two items to be signed. We had a photo matte and a pink apron that my daughter chose. We bought it at Michael's and had her name embroidered across the front. The characters signed all around it. (She loves to cook!)
After Guest Services we knew to head up to Cabanas for lunch. On the way there, I passed the bar stand near the drink station and snagged myself the Drink of the Day in a souvenir cup!
Cabanas was amazing! So many wonderful choices for lunch and we were starved!
Desserts!
And tons and tons more but I didn't take pics, lol! Too hungry! But there was a carving station with roast beef and turkey, mashed potatoes, mac-n-cheese, pizza, grilled salmon, salad bar, fruit, fried rice, lo mien, chicken tenders, breads and rolls, fried chicken and on and on! It was nuts, lol!
When we were done eating it was about 1pm and decided to just walk a bit and take some pics while waiting for the room to be ready. Right at 1:30 they dropped the rope on the stateroom corridors and we found our room. Two of our suitcases were already outside the door waiting for us! We dropped our carry-ons off, unpacked and checked out our lovely 5A verandah room! After maybe 10 min, we went to leave, only to discover that our last suitcase had arrived. We went back in and unpacked and then out the door to check out the ship!
We took advantage of the open house hours and toured the Edge and Vibe. The kids played foosball and met the counselors and checked it out. Both spaces are really neat, but Vibe wins hands down. Just a great area! We also checked out the lobby atrium, walked outside on deck 4, checked out the pool and AquaDuck and window shopped the closed stores, lol! I also went to Royal Palace to try to change my rotation (I did not get my requested one) because I wanted two nights at Enchanted Garden as it always struck me as a little Alice and Wonderland-y and that's my favorite! They had a rotation I liked with two EG nights, so I asked for it, and they switched us over no problem!
At this point we headed back to the room because it was getting close to muster drill time and they were making an announcement. We located our life vests, tried them on, (left them in the closet), and headed to our station. They swiped our cards and we watched the cast members demonstrate how to put on a life vest. It took about 20-30 min.
We headed up to watch the Sail Away Party. From reading here I skipped deck 11 and went right up to deck 12 to grab a spot. The show was so cute and the horns made me cry again! We stood on the starboard side and waved at the Port Canaveral web cam and were on our way! (About 10 min late, not sure why).
We were pretty hot at this point so we went back to the room and ordered a little room service.
All Hands on Deck Platter
And some wings:
We really just relaxed in the room for a little while and got ready for the evening. We had second seating so we went down to the Walt Disney Theater for the show. The first night's show was "The Golden Mickey's" and it did not disappoint! Spectacular! Such talented cast members on those ships! We were thrilled with it. We got great seats even though we walked in after Darren the cruise director had already started talking.
We had more time in between the show and dinner than I had anticipated, so we did more walking around and taking pics. We stopped off at the room and found out first "towel" animal, which in this case was a lobster made out of the extra comfy blanket that's in the room:
Then dinner was at Royal Palace.
That's it for part 1. I'll try to get part 2 up tomorrow.
I am so excited to get to write this trip report! I never imagined in a million years that I would be able to take my kids on a Disney cruise! I am recently divorced (1.5 yrs) and there were some really hard times when I felt like I was never going to be happy again, or be able to do things like vacations with my kids. so this trip really meant a lot to me and my children. On a very personal level, it meant that I survived.
Also, I am so grateful for everything I learned here on the Dis and to all of you who helped me plan and organize my trip.
Now, on to the trip report! I am going to try to be really thorough so it may end up being very long!
We are local Floridians and live about an hour from Port Canaveral. My plan was to just drive out in the morning and park at Park-n-Cruise. I got a special rate ($5.99 a day) since I was originally booked at one of the parking lots undergoing construction. We had a port arrival time of 11-11:30 and I aimed for getting to the parking place at 10:30.
We made great time, but arrived to an extremely chaotic parking facility. I do not recommend Park-N-Cruise and will be searching for other parking options for our next cruise. Very crowded, stressed out employees and very disorganized process. Plus it was so hot and no A/C anywhere. The entire process, unloading, parking, getting on the shuttle and getting to the port, took 45 min and we got to the terminal at 11:20. I was bummed to be "late", but so excited!
The terminal was pretty packed and the line to meet Mickey was SO long. We checked in (easy peasy!) and received a boarding number of 5. Not bad.
Within five minutes of getting our KTTW cards and being all good to go, they started boarding! It went very quickly and we were able to get on the ship by 11:45!! So exciting! Yes, I cried when they announced our family, lol! And how wonderful that they have cast members there to help you out right as you get on!
Our cast member (Maria, from Mexico) took pics of us in the atrium and with the Donald statue and guided us to Guest services (actually, she wanted to take us to the concierge desk for tasting/dining reservations, but I saw there was no line at Guest Services so I opted for that). At Guest Services I dropped off our two items to be signed. We had a photo matte and a pink apron that my daughter chose. We bought it at Michael's and had her name embroidered across the front. The characters signed all around it. (She loves to cook!)
After Guest Services we knew to head up to Cabanas for lunch. On the way there, I passed the bar stand near the drink station and snagged myself the Drink of the Day in a souvenir cup!
Cabanas was amazing! So many wonderful choices for lunch and we were starved!
Desserts!
And tons and tons more but I didn't take pics, lol! Too hungry! But there was a carving station with roast beef and turkey, mashed potatoes, mac-n-cheese, pizza, grilled salmon, salad bar, fruit, fried rice, lo mien, chicken tenders, breads and rolls, fried chicken and on and on! It was nuts, lol!
When we were done eating it was about 1pm and decided to just walk a bit and take some pics while waiting for the room to be ready. Right at 1:30 they dropped the rope on the stateroom corridors and we found our room. Two of our suitcases were already outside the door waiting for us! We dropped our carry-ons off, unpacked and checked out our lovely 5A verandah room! After maybe 10 min, we went to leave, only to discover that our last suitcase had arrived. We went back in and unpacked and then out the door to check out the ship!
We took advantage of the open house hours and toured the Edge and Vibe. The kids played foosball and met the counselors and checked it out. Both spaces are really neat, but Vibe wins hands down. Just a great area! We also checked out the lobby atrium, walked outside on deck 4, checked out the pool and AquaDuck and window shopped the closed stores, lol! I also went to Royal Palace to try to change my rotation (I did not get my requested one) because I wanted two nights at Enchanted Garden as it always struck me as a little Alice and Wonderland-y and that's my favorite! They had a rotation I liked with two EG nights, so I asked for it, and they switched us over no problem!
At this point we headed back to the room because it was getting close to muster drill time and they were making an announcement. We located our life vests, tried them on, (left them in the closet), and headed to our station. They swiped our cards and we watched the cast members demonstrate how to put on a life vest. It took about 20-30 min.
We headed up to watch the Sail Away Party. From reading here I skipped deck 11 and went right up to deck 12 to grab a spot. The show was so cute and the horns made me cry again! We stood on the starboard side and waved at the Port Canaveral web cam and were on our way! (About 10 min late, not sure why).
We were pretty hot at this point so we went back to the room and ordered a little room service.
All Hands on Deck Platter
And some wings:
We really just relaxed in the room for a little while and got ready for the evening. We had second seating so we went down to the Walt Disney Theater for the show. The first night's show was "The Golden Mickey's" and it did not disappoint! Spectacular! Such talented cast members on those ships! We were thrilled with it. We got great seats even though we walked in after Darren the cruise director had already started talking.
We had more time in between the show and dinner than I had anticipated, so we did more walking around and taking pics. We stopped off at the room and found out first "towel" animal, which in this case was a lobster made out of the extra comfy blanket that's in the room:
Then dinner was at Royal Palace.
That's it for part 1. I'll try to get part 2 up tomorrow.
I also remember when we were posting our cabin assignments and how excited you were then too! 
