CampbellzSoup
Son. Husband. Father.
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2014
Day One: Arrival at the Port
Hello my favorite community of magical people and welcome to our first Disney Cruise as a family! We are first responders, and did not have one day off during the pandemic, and have been to Disney MULTIPLE times with the baby…so it was time for his FIRST CRUISE!
We stayed before the night at grandma’s house, changed into our “cruise attire”, and made our way to the cruise terminal. I’ll be honest, while I was confident that we didn’t have COVID the baby goes to daycare everyday – and comes back sick all the time! We said goodbye to grandma and grandpa, and made our way to the terminal for testing. I will say that the per doing these tests are extremely friendly and nice…however it is so awful sticking a swab in your 1-year old’s nose…but he was a champ about it since he had to get one THREE DAYS PRIOR as well…poor baby. You get your swab, and you await (nervously) while watching Mickey Mouse cartoons.
There is a BIG television that has your booking number on it, and would tell you when you are ready to sail…CHECK YOUR PHONE it’s much quicker! We got our results and we were CLEAR TO SAIL! …we made one error that we should have read more on! Before we go to the port we were aware that Disney allows two bottles of wine…assuming this was like TSA and they didn’t want liquid on our carryon, we put them in our checked luggage…worst decision ever! They took them!
We got through the security and that’s when the butterflies in your stomach start…you made it ITS ALMOST TIME TO CRUISE.
Our last cruise was aboard the Disney Wonder in 2020 RIGHT BEFORE the shutdown…and without a baby! This was such a moment for me…taking my SON my BABY on a cruise with me it’s like a Dream…well FANTASY come true! I let baby Marc roam the terminal and EVERYONE loved him in his little skipper outfit!
We had boarding group 8…and then…they CALLED US! AHHH! We then were ushered to an area to take cruise photos…. WITHOUT A MASK. The cruise right before us had masks even in phones and this was the BEST CHANGE EVER.
And then…. you get on the ship and your family name is announced…man what a feeling again surreal to be on a Disney ship again – and with my SON! I literally could not be happier. Mickey and Minnie were on the ledge above us welcoming us to the ship! No Sail-A-Wave party…which was disappointing, but what can you do about it…We then were ushered to our muster drill where we had to scan our muster station and watch the safety video…so so much better than the old way of doing it. ONE good thing that came from COVID. Let’s go to our room!
We originally booked an interior…but some Disney magic was bestowed upon us, and we were in a verandah…can you believe this, can this get any better? YES! Our room hostess…Maria was one of the most pleasant hostesses I’ve ever met cruising, ever. She got us a pack and play, a diaper genie, and was honestly to be the reason why I love Disney…Cast Members TRULY make the magic happen! We opened the APP and right on the APP it reminds you of the Future Booking Incentive where if you place $250 down you will get 10% off a future cruise! Awesome!
Off to the pool we went! Although I understand, but I didn’t know that children can’t go in the pool with swim diapers…he was allowed in EVERY pool at Aulani with his swim diapers, but alas I can understand so we were regulated to the splash pad! He LOOOOOOVED the Splash pad, it’s honestly the best feeling in the world living a Disney vacation through the eyes of your child…honestly until you see them so happy – you can’t replicate that magic!
It was time to don our sailor attire again and take some wonderful photos in the atrium! The characters were over the moon with my son, and again let me tell you taking your mask off and having these memories forever was one of the best things I could have ever hoped for. TAKE EVERY PHOTO YOU CAN is my only advise…it takes less than a half hour to sweep your way through most characters and backdrops – honestly give yourself more options at the end of what to purchase! Also tell the photographers give me some fun poses to do! They LOVE working with you, and that’s why I purchase the cruise photos because I think they are totally worth the time and effort they put into them!
The last cruise was the Disney Wonder…and I think Frozen was on the ship when we went, and I knew it would be on this too…but what I didn’t know was that ALADDIN would be on this ship! Totally amazing, and the genie honestly does steal the show. I was “meh” on Frozen because I think we were all Frozened Out by then…but this show was totally awesome, and I would recommend you guys go.
PRO TIP – GRAB YOUR MERCHANDISE ON THE FIRST DAY – All the sizes outside of small and 4x are gone within the first day. Also a trick I learned is that you can “hold” your merchandise for 24 hours before the put it back out on the floor! I was so disappointed that all the sizes for large were gone, but the cast member said people scoop up Large and X-Large on the first day…will without a doubt remember that going forward!
Enchanted Garden was our first night dining experience! I wasn’t too impressed with this location to be honest…it just didn’t seem very themed compared to their other restaurants to me! The food was also a sore point on this cruise…I’m so grateful to be on this cruise I just didn’t enjoy the food too much but my service team was OUTSTANDING I’ll tell you anytime my drink even was close to being empty it was refilled instantly, and our server team of Rebecca and Alton were FIVE STAR Disney magic, for sure.
With the nursery closed, and with a later diner, I didn’t have many options after our late diner was done…in the future I’ll pick early diner FOR SURE so we can do more activities in the interim. Also my son will be THREE next year he’ll be able to go in the Oceanears Club! Exciting! However, at the current time he was only one so we were very limited and they looked like they had a TON of exciting adult only activities!
We have a tradition on Disney Cruise that we always order a Mickey Bar and watch a Disney movie in bed, and this time was no different! Get your Mickey Bars ready and let’s watch Enchanted!
SO MUCH MAGIC and this was only day one! Hang in there for the rest coming up!
Hello my favorite community of magical people and welcome to our first Disney Cruise as a family! We are first responders, and did not have one day off during the pandemic, and have been to Disney MULTIPLE times with the baby…so it was time for his FIRST CRUISE!
We stayed before the night at grandma’s house, changed into our “cruise attire”, and made our way to the cruise terminal. I’ll be honest, while I was confident that we didn’t have COVID the baby goes to daycare everyday – and comes back sick all the time! We said goodbye to grandma and grandpa, and made our way to the terminal for testing. I will say that the per doing these tests are extremely friendly and nice…however it is so awful sticking a swab in your 1-year old’s nose…but he was a champ about it since he had to get one THREE DAYS PRIOR as well…poor baby. You get your swab, and you await (nervously) while watching Mickey Mouse cartoons.
There is a BIG television that has your booking number on it, and would tell you when you are ready to sail…CHECK YOUR PHONE it’s much quicker! We got our results and we were CLEAR TO SAIL! …we made one error that we should have read more on! Before we go to the port we were aware that Disney allows two bottles of wine…assuming this was like TSA and they didn’t want liquid on our carryon, we put them in our checked luggage…worst decision ever! They took them!
We got through the security and that’s when the butterflies in your stomach start…you made it ITS ALMOST TIME TO CRUISE.
Our last cruise was aboard the Disney Wonder in 2020 RIGHT BEFORE the shutdown…and without a baby! This was such a moment for me…taking my SON my BABY on a cruise with me it’s like a Dream…well FANTASY come true! I let baby Marc roam the terminal and EVERYONE loved him in his little skipper outfit!
We had boarding group 8…and then…they CALLED US! AHHH! We then were ushered to an area to take cruise photos…. WITHOUT A MASK. The cruise right before us had masks even in phones and this was the BEST CHANGE EVER.
And then…. you get on the ship and your family name is announced…man what a feeling again surreal to be on a Disney ship again – and with my SON! I literally could not be happier. Mickey and Minnie were on the ledge above us welcoming us to the ship! No Sail-A-Wave party…which was disappointing, but what can you do about it…We then were ushered to our muster drill where we had to scan our muster station and watch the safety video…so so much better than the old way of doing it. ONE good thing that came from COVID. Let’s go to our room!
We originally booked an interior…but some Disney magic was bestowed upon us, and we were in a verandah…can you believe this, can this get any better? YES! Our room hostess…Maria was one of the most pleasant hostesses I’ve ever met cruising, ever. She got us a pack and play, a diaper genie, and was honestly to be the reason why I love Disney…Cast Members TRULY make the magic happen! We opened the APP and right on the APP it reminds you of the Future Booking Incentive where if you place $250 down you will get 10% off a future cruise! Awesome!
Off to the pool we went! Although I understand, but I didn’t know that children can’t go in the pool with swim diapers…he was allowed in EVERY pool at Aulani with his swim diapers, but alas I can understand so we were regulated to the splash pad! He LOOOOOOVED the Splash pad, it’s honestly the best feeling in the world living a Disney vacation through the eyes of your child…honestly until you see them so happy – you can’t replicate that magic!
It was time to don our sailor attire again and take some wonderful photos in the atrium! The characters were over the moon with my son, and again let me tell you taking your mask off and having these memories forever was one of the best things I could have ever hoped for. TAKE EVERY PHOTO YOU CAN is my only advise…it takes less than a half hour to sweep your way through most characters and backdrops – honestly give yourself more options at the end of what to purchase! Also tell the photographers give me some fun poses to do! They LOVE working with you, and that’s why I purchase the cruise photos because I think they are totally worth the time and effort they put into them!
The last cruise was the Disney Wonder…and I think Frozen was on the ship when we went, and I knew it would be on this too…but what I didn’t know was that ALADDIN would be on this ship! Totally amazing, and the genie honestly does steal the show. I was “meh” on Frozen because I think we were all Frozened Out by then…but this show was totally awesome, and I would recommend you guys go.
PRO TIP – GRAB YOUR MERCHANDISE ON THE FIRST DAY – All the sizes outside of small and 4x are gone within the first day. Also a trick I learned is that you can “hold” your merchandise for 24 hours before the put it back out on the floor! I was so disappointed that all the sizes for large were gone, but the cast member said people scoop up Large and X-Large on the first day…will without a doubt remember that going forward!
Enchanted Garden was our first night dining experience! I wasn’t too impressed with this location to be honest…it just didn’t seem very themed compared to their other restaurants to me! The food was also a sore point on this cruise…I’m so grateful to be on this cruise I just didn’t enjoy the food too much but my service team was OUTSTANDING I’ll tell you anytime my drink even was close to being empty it was refilled instantly, and our server team of Rebecca and Alton were FIVE STAR Disney magic, for sure.
With the nursery closed, and with a later diner, I didn’t have many options after our late diner was done…in the future I’ll pick early diner FOR SURE so we can do more activities in the interim. Also my son will be THREE next year he’ll be able to go in the Oceanears Club! Exciting! However, at the current time he was only one so we were very limited and they looked like they had a TON of exciting adult only activities!
We have a tradition on Disney Cruise that we always order a Mickey Bar and watch a Disney movie in bed, and this time was no different! Get your Mickey Bars ready and let’s watch Enchanted!
SO MUCH MAGIC and this was only day one! Hang in there for the rest coming up!
! I love the adult’s area but just being in the main area feels alive with the Funnelvision playing amazing Disney movies!
