Disney Cruise - Without the Kids!

Disney Cruise - Without the Kids!

We are seasoned Disney Cruisers, but last fall we cruised a little differently.  We went without our kids!  I got a ton of questions from people before, and after our cruise, on why we'd choose a Disney Cruise if we weren't taking our kids with us.  The answer is simply that no one does it like Disney.  On our very first cruise, we chatted with a couple in their 70's as we waited to get off the ship on our final day.  They had sailed without any kids or grand kids and the woman said to me, "We've sailed every cruise line, and Disney is by far our favorite."  As if loving everything about our week on the Disney Magic wasn't enough, this woman's statement definitely sealed the deal for us.  We knew that we wanted nothing but Disney Cruise Line from here on out.

My husband and I were looking to take a little trip with just the two of us, and having fallen in love with cruises, decided to look at itineraries to see if anything caught our eye.  The service on Disney Cruise Line is absolutely top notch, so it is really hard to pass that up as an option just because we weren't traveling with our kids. It just so happened, that Disney had a brand new itinerary going from New York City (which had been on my travel bucket list for a long time) to Bermuda (which we'd never been to).  It was really appealing because the ship docked in Bermuda for two days, so we'd get some extra time to explore the island.  I immediately emailed my travel agent (find info on that here in Step #5) and booked our trip.

So, what is there for adults to do on a Disney ship?  So much!! We knew about some of these things when we went on prior cruises, but didn't get around to them.  We had so much fun checking out new things on the ship. 

1. Quiet Cove Pool

We've always loved hanging out on the pool decks on the ship, but hadn't ever ventured into the 18+ pool area.  We spent all our time there on our trip and it was amazing.  Pool, hot tubs, bar, Cove Cafe, comfortable chairs overlooking the water, and no children running around or splashing you.  An absolutely great way to soak up some sun and relax.  Take advantage of the Drink of the Day, which is a tropical themed drink, and is lower in price than others. Also, if you are a beer drinker, consider doing the mug program.  You pay around $20 for a 20oz glass mug (they'll give you a plastic mug while at the pool) and then each time you get it refilled, you only pay for a 16oz.  You don't have to carry it around with you everywhere, you turn it in with your poolside waiter or bartender and they'll exchange it for a chip that you'll just keep with you until you want another. At the end of the trip you can take the mug home. We have a nice collection of mugs at our house now. 

2. Nightclubs/Lounges

Each of the Disney ships is themed a little differently, but they all have a nightclub and lounges on board.  On each ship, you may register for wine/beer/liquor tastings, or take a Mixology class and learn how to make a variety of drinks.  They have cooking classes you can attend as well.

We went to several Trivia events in the lounges and had a lot of fun with that.  They give away little prizes and it is an entertaining way to spend some time during the day.  You can check your Navigator each day for a list of available events.

Later at night, you can find Variety Shows, Comedians, Piano Tunes, or DJ's in the nightclubs or lounges.  We enjoyed comedians, costume contests, and variety shows while we were onboard.

We enjoyed just hanging out in the lounges.  Most of the time we'd just grab a drink and sit and visit with each other.  We were able to catch a Denver Broncos game on the ship one day too!

We also love to catch some Bingo while onboard.  This is an additional cost, but it is fun to play!  My husband's name got selected on our trip and he had to go up on stage to help out for a bit.  He got some fun prizes for being a good sport!

 3. Adult Dining Options

On the Disney Wonder and Disney Magic, you can book a reservation at Palo (find more info in #9 of my post here), and on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy, you can book reservations at Palo and Remy.  We have always enjoyed getting dressed up and going to Palo. These restaurants are for adults only, require a reservation, are an additional cost, and have a dress code.  

4. Art of the Theme Tour

This was actually one of our favorite parts of the trip.  I'd never noticed it on previous cruises, but will definitely do the tour on each ship we go on in the future.  It is only for 18+ adults and it was such a cool experience.  We started the tour in Palo, which is one of the Adult Dining Restaurants on the ships. Our tour guide took us all over the ship while explaining the thought and planning behind all of the decorations, themes, and all of the little details on the ships.  Disney goes all out when it comes to planning and it was pretty incredible to have the ship details pointed out to us and have them explain the design process.  We've been on three of the ships, and never knew about this until our second trip on the Disney Magic.  The tour lasted about an hour and I'd highly recommend it.

5. Animation Classes

These aren't adults only classes, but we had never done them before.  We went to a couple of the animation classes onboard and had the best time.  We learned how to draw Pluto, Stitch, Jack Skellington, and Sally.  It was fun to have a little friendly competition between the two of us and see who could draw each character the best.  Next time we sail, I'll definitely have the kids join us for one of these classes!

6. Relax and Enjoy!

It definitely was a different experience with just the two of us than it is when we've taken the kids.  Both are amazing, but there is a lot to be said for being able to enjoy a vacation "kid free".  We didn't really have a plan going in to each day, we could just wing it.  We lounged around by the pool, grabbed a snack or a drink when we needed to, went to whatever activity we wanted to do that day, and just had an incredible vacation.   

DIY Disney Glitter Ornaments

DIY Disney Glitter Ornaments

I am a Disney Cruise addict, and with that comes my addiction to Fish Extender programs while onboard.  My husband and I are sailing again next week (with no kids!) and while I didn't want to do a full Fish Extender group, I couldn't resist some sort of exchange.  I joined a Magnet Exchange and an Ornament Exchange.  I made glitter ornaments for one of our other cruises, and wanted to make them again this time around.  I have had several people ask how to do them, so I am putting a DIY tutorial together.  They really are easy to do, and they are so pretty.  If you make your own, I'd love to see how they turn out!

Materials Needed

-Disc shaped plastic ornaments

I prefer the disc shaped plastic ornaments.  I don't have to worry about them breaking, and the flat front is much easier to lay a vinyl design on.

- Clear Polycryclic 

I used this and found it at WalMart. You should be able to get it at any hardware store as well.

- Extra Fine Glitter

Make sure you get Extra Fine Glitter because regular won't work well.  I've used brands from WalMart and Hobby Lobby and both have worked great.

-Small funnel (optional)

-Ribbon 

-Oracle 651 Vinyl and a Silhoutte or Cricut type cutting machine

You can also purchase premade designs from Etsy if you don't want to make them yourself.

Step One

Remove the cap from the ornament and pour some of the Polycrylic inside.  Swirl it around until all areas are coated and then allow all excess to drip out (I just pour it back into the can).  I also dab the outside edge with a paper towel to keep glitter from sticking to the top.

Step Two

Using a small funnel, pour glitter into the ornament.  I then swirl the ornament around until I've fully covered everything, lightly tap the sides of the ornament, and then I dump the excess glitter back into the bottle. I leave the ornament cap off and let them dry overnight.

Step Three

Choose what design you'd like for the ornament.  I've created my own in Silhouette Studio, but this time I purchased the SVG files from Etsy and then edited them and cut them with my Silhouette. They are usually $3 or less and it is so nice to not spend forever creating an image. Just search whatever type of image you are looking for and include SVG in the search text. For this project I purchased one pack that had a ton of Disney Cruise options and then bought the Mickey bats from another seller. You can choose how large you'd like the design to be, but there is a slight curve on the disc shaped ornament which can make laying it flat a little difficult.  I sized down the ship for these (around 1"x1.5") and then added the Mickey bats to fill the space.  You can play around with things and see how it works best for you.  Oracle 651 is your best option because it is a permanent vinyl.  

Step Four

Add ribbon to hang the ornament with and you are done!  

Check out my other blog entries for more Disney Cruise DIYs and planning tips! 

How to Start Planning Your Disney Cruise

How to Start Planning Your Disney Cruise

 

Our family has been on three Disney Cruises so far, and we've sailed on three of the four Disney ships.  I am pretty vocal about my love for Disney Cruises, and also about my obsession with research and planning. As a result, I get a lot of questions from friends when they are ready to start planning their trips. In fact, I have had four people message me this week, so I thought I'd do a new blog post with some basic tips on where to start the planning process.  I also have a handful of posts with planning tips here, here, here, here, and here. 

Step #1

The first thing that you need to do is decide when you want to sail.  I now try to select times when our kids won't have to miss a lot of school, but when they were younger, I had no problem pulling them out for a week. Now that my son is in 8th grade, it is harder for him to miss, so I minimize days off as much as I can.  One thing to know, is that sailing during common vacation times, also means higher prices. I've seen the same cruise itinerary vary by $4,000+ depending on the dates.  You'll definitely pay a premium at spring break, summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. 

Step #2

How many nights do you want to sail?  We've done a six night, and two seven night cruises.  I would never personally choose anything less (unless dates/itinerary were very appealing), but that's just my preference.  We don't live near any of the ports, so for us to make the trip worth while, we will always pick a longer itinerary.  Plus, we have yet to be able to do everything we'd want to do, even on a six or seven night cruise, so I know I'd feel like I didn't have enough time to enjoy everything on a shorter trip.  Knowing how long you want to sail, will also narrow down what ships you can choose from.  Typically, the Dream only does three or four night itineraries which is why the Dream is the only ship we haven't been on so far.  The Magic, Wonder, and Fantasy typically do 5-7+ night itineraries. The Magic and the Wonder are the smaller ships, and the Dream and Fantasy are the larger ships.  We've been on the Magic, Wonder, and Fantasy and I loved each of them.  I do love the smaller ships, and really love the Magic.  They are all incredible though!

Step #3

 Decide where you want to go and what port you'd like to leave out of.  We've sailed out of Port Canaveral (which is probably the most common) twice, and it is definitely my favorite port.  We sailed out of Galveston once, and it got the job done, but wasn't my favorite.  There are a handful of regular destinations, and then Disney will offer some special spots throughout the year too.  We've done the Western and Eastern Caribbean itineraries.  I absolutely loved the Eastern, and that was where were supposed to go again last month, but the hurricane destroyed a lot of those ports.  Once they are rebuilt, I'd highly recommend an Eastern Caribbean trip. 

Step #4

 You'll also need to decide what type of stateroom you'd like to have.  There are Inside, Oceanview, Verandah, and Concierge.  There is a small variety of categories within those, with Inside being the least expensive and Concierge being the most.  We've sailed in Inside staterooms twice, and have no problem doing that again.  We don't spend much time in our room anyway, so the extra cost for a window or a verandah isn't worth it to us.  I did find a great deal on a Navigators Verandah (means it could be smaller, partially obstructed, or have a white wall rail instead of clear) on the Disney Fantasy that I'd book again in a heartbeat.  Those rooms are typically less expensive than a regular Verandah room, and for our most recent trip, we loved our little verandah.  The kids could have totally done without, but my husband and I enjoyed having it. 

Step #5

 Book your Disney Cruise!  I've mentioned this before here, but I'll say it again because I believe so strongly in it. Book through an Authorized Disney Travel Agent.  It is FREE, and it gives me great peace of mind knowing that I have someone to answer my questions and to look out for me.  These trips aren't cheap, and I like to know that I am doing everything I need to do.  I have used Carrie Johnson with Small World Vacations for four of our Disney trips (3 cruises and 1 Disney World Trip), and I can't say enough good things about her.  She is an absolute delight to work with. She has extensive knowledge about rooms, ships, itineraries, etc.  To book a cruise, the deposit is typically 20% of the final cost.  They do run deposit promotions occasionally, but this is the standard that I always assume I'll be paying.  Once you book, they'll give you a Paid in Full (PIF) date, that average between 75-120 days before your sailing date.  This varies depending on the type of cruise you're taking, and you can cancel and receive your deposit back before that PIF date. 

Step #6

 Make your travel arrangements.  You can book flights and ground transfers through Disney Cruise Line, but I have never found this to be a good option for our family.  I've always been able to book flights and shuttles/rental cars much cheaper on my own.  One really important thing to note, is that you really should always fly in the day before the cruise.  I know people who fly in the morning of, but there is no way my anxiety could handle that.  If you have any flight delays, etc. you risk the ship leaving without you.  We always fly in a day or so prior, stay at a hotel, and then go to the port the morning of the cruise.  We've done transportation to the port a couple of ways.  We have done a package deal with a hotel that includes transfer from the airport, the hotel stay, and transfer to the port.  We've also rented a car one way, returned it at the port, rented a car one way afterwards and returned it at the airport.  You can take shuttles, book a Disney Magical Express transfer, or a private car, but they are all pretty pricey (upwards of $70/person each way).  On our last trip we rented a car at the airport and at the port and it was a fraction of what the shuttles would have cost us.  I'm a bargain hunter, so I keep an eye out for good deals on flights and car rental for a long time, and continue to check prices after I've booked so I can switch if I need to.

Step #7 

Once you are all booked, head over to my other blog posts to help you get ready for your amazing vacation!!  We love these trips so much, and we'll sail Disney till the end of time. :)

*These tips are all based on my opinions.  I do not receive any compensation for recommendations, etc.

How I Saved Money on Our Disney Vacation

My family has done two Disney Cruises and next month we are going to Disney World for the first time.  I've blogged several times about my obsessive planning (find Disney Cruise posts here, and the Disney World post here), and I've worked hard to make our trips really fun for my family.  I really love to plan, but more than that, I love to save money.  I swear, no matter how much money we ever have, I know I will always be on the hunt for a bargain.  I hate to pay full price for anything and Disney is no different.  Disney does not have any reason to discount things, so I had to do a little research and find out the best way to save money without actually changing our trip and leaving out things that we wanted to do.  The ideas that I'm going to share with you aren't going to get you huge savings, but I look at as anything I save can be used towards something else fun later on.  Disney is definitely not cheap, but being the frugal person I am, I'll take any savings I can get.

*Disney has recently done away with the Disney Vacation Account program.

Ok, here's first task at hand..Open a Disney Vacation Account (DVA) at least 120 days prior to your payment due date for your cruise or trip to the parks.  This is a free service, and acts like a savings account.  You set your goal amount that you need to save, add the goal date, and then can either set up recurring contributions or do one time contributions anytime you'd like.  You can make your final payment directly from your DVA.  So, why use this and not your regular bank account?  For every $1000 you pay out of your DVA, Disney will send you a $20 Disney Gift Card.  When we did our cruise, I just took those cards with me on the ship and had them add it to our on board account for any extras we did while sailing.  Our Disney World trip is costing just over $4000, so I'll get $80 in gift cards for us to use (because I know the kids are going to want souvenirs and that sort of thing) while we are in the parks.  $80 for adding money to an account? Totally worth it to me.

The next way that I saved can be done a handful of ways, but I'll only go into detail on the one that is tried and true for me.  I pay for our entire trip with Disney Gift Cards.  Say what??  One of the fun things about the DVA is that you can add funds from Gift Cards instead of from your bank or credit card.  I know you're thinking, "Why would she want to do that?"  Don't worry, I'll tell you.  Do you have a Sam's Club near you or a Sam's membership to shop online?  If so, you can buy Disney Gift Cards there at a discount.  They sell $150 in cards (three $50 cards per pack) for $142.98.  That means for every $150 in cards you buy, you save $7.02.  For our vacation, I bought 29 packs of cards which equaled a $203.58 savings on our trip.  I added all 87 of those cards to my DVA and then called my final payment in to Disney.  If you don't have a Sam's near you, I know there is another way to buy gift cards and save, but since I've not tried it I can't speak much about it, and it also seems like a lot more work.  There is a website called raise.com where people sell gift cards they no longer want at a discount.  You can purchase Target gift cards there at a varying discount (some even use their Target RED Card for additional savings), and then they go to a Target store and purchase Disney cards there.  I did the math when I was researching all of this for our cruise and it was easier for me to just go to Sam's and buy my gift cards there.  It was a small amount of effort on my part, but totally worth it to save over $200, plus get the $80 in bonus gift cards I will receive from my DVA account.  

Disney Cruise Stateroom Door Decorations

We've taken two Disney Cruise vacations now, and one of the things that my family loved to do was decorate our stateroom door.  It made it easy for the kids to find our room when we went down the hallway and it was really fun to see how others had their doors decorated.

The major rules that you have to follow is that you can't use any type of adhesive stickers on the doors or anything that goes over the top of the door (like over the door closet hooks, etc).  The doors are metal and everything must be hung using magnets.  You need a pretty heavy duty magnet and I've tried two different kinds.  On our first cruise I bought a roll of adhesive backed magnets that were labeled as heavy duty.  They were a little pricey, but I could cut them in the sizes I wanted and stick them on my projects (like these Fish Extender gifts I made here).  They didn't end up being quite strong enough to really hang well on the stateroom doors.  Sometimes we'd come back to our room and we would find a few decorations had slid down the door or were on the floor.  I found some adhesive backed magnetic buttons in the craft section at Walmart (only sold in stores) and used those for our next last cruise.  They worked perfectly and they were cheap at 18 for $1.97.  I added a little E6000 glue along with the adhesive sticker because I wanted them to really stick.  

These are what I used...

 

You can really do anything you want for your door decorations.  I wanted to keep with a Mickey Ears theme, so I found a template (I liked this one) and added my own designs to the inside of the ears in Microsoft Word.  I did one for each member of our family with their name and their favorite Disney character.  I also did a bunch of our favorite sports teams (and a CO flag) to show our Colorado pride.  I made one specific to our cruise for the second trip because I had someone from our cruise group (more on joining a group here) make one for us on our first trip that I loved having.  I had also seen a lot of cute character decorations to put around the round part on your door that has your stateroom number on it.  I found some really great templates on Pinterest and used this one to print a Pirate Mickey.  Really, you can do whatever you want.  I saw people with battery operated lights that they hung on their door, decorations for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  Get creative!

To design my decorations, I used Microsoft Word.  I inserted the picture template, inserted another picture for the design I wanted, added a text box, and then played around with sizes.  I saved one and then kept that size and used it for the rest that I made.  I printed them, cut the design out, and then laminated them.  Make sure you cut the paper to the shape you want it prior to laminating, then laminate, then cut the plastic down to the correct size.  If you cut the paper after you laminate, there won't be anything to hold the seal and it will separate.  I have this Scotch Laminator and absolutely love it.  I got it as a gift and then bought extra 5x7" and 8.9x11.4" sheets from Amazon (much cheaper!)  After laminating, I glued a few magnets on the back and then stuck them all in a ziplock bag to pack in my suitcase.  You can read about my packing tips here. 

I somehow forgot to take a picture of our stateroom door on the first cruise, but managed to remember to do it on the last night of our second trip.  Side note, I let my seven year old daughter arrange the door and had to stop myself from moving things around every time I looked at it.  I thought about moving things around for the picture, but this is how she wanted it so I left it be.  We were also gifted some fun magnets from our Fish Extender group (more info on Fish Extenders here) that we loved adding to our door.

Decorating your door just adds a little more magic to an already magical Disney Cruise vacation.  It can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it, but it adds a fun touch that my family really enjoyed.  If you aren't creative, I'm sure there are Etsy shops that sell pre-made decorations, or you could do simple stuff with Disney scrapbooking paper.  Make whatever you want and have fun with it!

More Things to Know About Your Disney Cruise!

I wrote some blog posts after returning from our cruise on the Disney Magic a couple months ago (find them here, here, here, and here), but have had a lot of questions about other topics since then.  I thought I'd add another post with some more things to expect and plan for.

1. Online Check In - If this is your first cruise, you'll be able to do your online check in at 75 days out, when your cruise is paid in full.  It is a really easy process, and you should do it as soon as you are able to.  You'll be assigned your port arrival time once all your information has been entered, and you can also register your kids for the kids clubs, make reservations for the adults only restaurants, and reserve your Port Adventures.  Some of the Port Adventures are really popular and fill up quickly, so if you know which ones you'd really like to do, now is the time to register for them.  You don't get charged with Port Adventures until you are on the ship, and I believe you have until 3 days prior to the cruise to cancel them if you change your mind.

2. Gratuities - You have several options with gratuities for the cruise.  You can prepay them, they can add them to your onboard account total that you pay at the end of the cruise, and you can also add additional tips with cash on the last night.  Disney has a set formula that they use for gratuities and it ends up being about $12 per person, per day.  Considering the absolutely incredible service you'll receive on your trip, this is a bargain.  They divide that out between your Head Server, Server, Assistant Server, and Stateroom Attendant.  If you don't prepay, you can always adjust the amount that you'll be billed by going to Guest Services, but there was no way we would have changed ours to less than that.  On the last night, your Stateroom Attendant will leave envelopes in your room for each of the people I listed above.  You can add cash to those and hand them out to each person.  The amount you leave is up to you, but our service was incredible and it never crossed our mind to not give them additional money.  These people don't have days off, work for sometimes a year straight on the ship, and provide service like no other you'll ever find.  

3.  Navigator - You can download the Disney Navigator App on your phone, but you'll also receive a Navigator (piece of paper printed on both sides) in your stateroom each night.  This lists all of the things that will be taking place on the ship the following day.  We took highlighters and would go over the Navigator each night and decide what we wanted to do.  It lists the character appearance times/locations, classes you can take, movies that are playing in the movie theater, evening shows, movies that play on the screen at the pool, activities in the kids club, Bingo, port arrival times, etc.  I had the app on my phone, but really enjoyed having the physical Navigator to look at as well.  

Here is a the front and back of one of our Navigators...

4.  Getting Items Signed - UPDATE - You can no longer drop items off at Guest Services to be signed.  Check the FAQ section on the Disney Cruise Line website to find out what items you can take around to each character to have signed.
You can bring two items per stateroom to Guest Services to be signed by the characters on the ship.  I've seen people bring a huge variety of things, but I chose to do photo mats  so that I could frame pictures of the kids from the trip.  I put them in a ziplock bag along with different colored Sharpies for them to sign them with.  You can choose to have them signed by Mickey & Friends or by the Princesses.  You just drop them off at Guest Services, fill out a little form with your info, and then your Stateroom Attendant delivers them to your room when they are done.  Great little souvenir items!

Here are the items we had signed...

5.  Go to the Shows - There are shows in the Walt Disney Theater every night.  Depending on how long your cruise is, they are a mix of big musical productions and smaller acts.  We went to all of the big shows and they were fantastic.  My daughter is still talking about them!  They really are top notch, and I'm really glad we took the time to go.  They do two shows per night to accommodate both dinner seatings.  We had late seating for dinner, so we'd go to the early show around 6:00, and then have a little bit of time between it finishing and our dinner seating at 8:15.  You can do it in reverse if you have early seating for dinner.

6.  Dinner Seating Options - You'll either be assigned Main Seating or Second Seating for dinner. Main Seating is at 5:45pm and Second Seating is at 8:15pm.  You are assigned the same table number for dinner each night, so you'll never be waiting for a table to open.  People line up outside the restaurant and then they open the doors right at the scheduled time.  The line moves really fast for you to be seated, so there really isn't any point in lining up really early.  Your servers also travel with you to all of the dinner restaurants throughout the cruise, so they'll get to know your family and what your likes and dislikes are.  I asked for lemon with my water on the first night, and from there on out had a little bowl of lemons waiting for me when I arrived.  Little things like that were really great.  They also bring the kids food out first, and then will take them to the kids clubs when they are done if they don't want to hang out and wait for the adults to finish eating.  Our servers were so amazing, and it was really hard to say goodbye to them on the last day.  

Omar was from Jamaica and was our Server.  Jasna was from Montenegro, and was our Assistant Server.  Loved chatting with them each night!

7.  Pools - The pools and slides are different depending on the ship you are sailing on, but if you think you are going to find a giant swimming pool, you will certainly be disappointed.  We were on the Magic, so we had the Aqua Lab (smaller kids slide, pool, and splash pad), the Aqua Dunk (water slide with 48" height requirement), Goofy's Pool (very small 4' deep pool that is always full of kids) which has the giant movie screen, and then the pool in the Adults only area.  We camped out around Goofy's pool a lot because we loved lounging and watching movies while the kids went on the slides.  The actual pool though?  I never touched it.  It was packed with kids at all times, and wasn't appealing to me at all.  We enjoyed hanging out there so much, that we never went to the adults only pool. I've heard it is really quiet and enjoyable though!

8.  Kids Club - My kids absolutely loved the kids clubs.  At first I thought I wouldn't let them hang out there that much, because we should all be together, but I realized quickly that they really had a great time there.  It was fun for them to get to know other kids ("Mom!  These boys I hung out with were from England!") and have some independence.  My son was 11, so he was old enough to go to Edge (11-14 years old), and my daughter used the Oceaneer's Club and Lab.  In Edge, the kids can check themselves in and out, which my son thought was incredible.  He is really responsible, so he'd take the Wave Phone from our room so he could call us if he needed to, and we'd just set rules about being back to the room at a certain time.  Watching him enjoy that independence was great.  The counselors in the Oceaneer's Club were great and really interacted with all the kids.  Security is also top notch.  The kids wear a wristband that scans them when they enter and exit the club.  Upon exit, when their band is scanned it pulled up our pictures on the computer screen so they could verify that we were the people allowed to pick her up.  We also had a password we had to give them before they'd release her to us.  The wristband also tells their location in the club when you get there so you can know right where to look for them.  If you have kids that can go to the Oceaneer's Club, keep an eye on your Navigator and be sure they go to Pluto's Pajama Party.  They get to wear their pajamas, hang out with Pluto, and they get a pillow case to color.  The kids can't wait for our next cruise, and they are probably most excited about the clubs.  

9.  Movie Theater - There is a beautiful movie theater onboard that shows a lot of recently released movies.  It also shows any Disney movies that are released during the that sailing, which we loved.  We had been looking forward to the release of McFarland, USA and it happened to be released the week we were on the ship.  It was really fun to be able to watch it onboard.  The movie theater has a concessions stand outside, which they do charge for.  You can pack your own snacks or drinks though and bring them to the theater with you.  

10.  Book Another Cruise While Onboard! - We knew ahead of time that Disney offers some incentives for booking another cruise while you are onboard.  We'd never cruised before, but decided that if we liked the trip, that it would be worthwhile to go ahead and book another trip.  Disney offers a 10% discount, up to $200 Onboard Credit, and a deposit of only 10% (instead of 20%).  There are some blackout dates that aren't eligible for the discounts, but we didn't have trouble with the date we picked.  You can also book a "placeholder" cruise, pick the dates later on, and still receive the discounts.  I loved getting off the ship knowing we had another trip in our future!

Packing for a Disney Cruise

Our recent cruise on the Disney Magic was absolutely amazing (for help planning check out my Tips for Planning a Disney Cruise post), and a big part of how smooth it went was because I packed almost perfectly.  I am a habitual over packer, so to actually use almost everything I packed was quite the victory for me.  Here are some of my "musts" for your Disney Cruise as well as a list of of what kind of clothes I took for our family.  Keep in mind, we participated in all of the theme nights on the cruise, which I highly recommend doing, even though it does add quite a bit to your suitcases.  Our family of four took two large suitcases, one carry on size suitcase, and each of us had a back pack or bag that we carried on.

1.  Organize and Label the Kid's Outfits
This is where my OCD tendencies really paid off.  There are a lot of things you have to pack, and my kids never keep anything organized once we are on a trip.  I knew our stateroom was pretty small, and the thought of having clothes everywhere made me have a minor panic attack.  I put the kids stuff in ziplock bags and labeled each one with things like "Daytime", "Dinnertime", "Formal Night", "Swimsuits", and put all the matching accessories in each bag.  I kept the clothes in the bags in the drawers in our room so the kids could just grab one and get dressed quickly.  It made checking things off my packing list really easy as well.  We took the used ziplock bags to store wet swim suits or clothes on the port adventures we took.

2.  Storage Containers/Hanging Organizers/Clothespins/Magnetic Hooks
The staterooms are small and space is valuable.  I read a blog recommending that you bring a hanging shoe organizer attached to a hanger (you can't use any over the door type hangers), and this was very helpful!  There was a knob on the wall by the bathroom to hang it on and we kept our cups, kids shoes, sunglasses, and snacks in there.
Ladies, I also highly recommend taking your makeup/toiletries/jewelry in a hanging bag.  I found an awesome one at a local boutique for $7 before our trip and it was perfect.  I hung it on the towel rack in the bathroom.  You have almost no counter space in the bathroom, so a hanging bag is a must.
I also got a fabric pop up storage box at the Dollar Tree and used it on the desk.  We put all our Fish Extender gifts we received (check out FE posts here and here), tickets for port adventures, the kids journals, and anything else that would have cluttered up the desk.
There is a clothesline in the shower and I was so glad someone told me to bring clothespins to hang our swimsuits with!
I used magnetic hooks on the inside of our door to hang our lanyards from.  Oh yeah, bring lanyards too!  They hold your "Key to the World" which gets you in your room, on and off the ship, and is used to charge stuff to your account as well.  I found cute Mickey lanyards at Dollar Tree the day before we left.

3. Over the Counter Medication
One of the ladies from my cruise group mentioned that she packs something for almost any type of situation.  I threw in ibuprofen for kids and adults, Pepto for kids and adults, and kids cold medicine.  I didn't pack Dramamine because I learned that you can get it for free at Guest Services.  The family that we sat with at dinner each night had one of their kids encounter some stomach trouble and went to the staff for some Immodium or Pepto.  They were told he had to see the doctor, and then had his Key to the World deactivated and couldn't leave the ship for 24 hours because he wasn't feeling well.  If they'd brought their own, they wouldn't have had to miss out on one of the ports.

4. Water Bottles or Cups With Lids
This was another idea I got from all the pre-cruise research I did.  There are soda machines (they have water too) available all the time, but they only have small disposable cups.  I brought Tervis cups for each of us to use and one sports water bottle.  They also let you bring your own beer and or wine on the ship, so having a cup to make drinks in our room was really nice.  Make sure you check the Disney Cruise Line website to view their new policy regarding bringing alcohol on the ship.  It has changed since we last sailed.

5. Decorations for Your Stateroom Door
Lots of people decorated their doors and it was really fun to see what everyone did.  The kids loved having our door decorated because they could easily find our room.  You can buy decorations on Etsy, or make your own.  I found some templates and printables on Pinterest to make ours and had so much fun putting together things to show off our family's interests.  You can really do anything you want, they just have to be magnetic because no adhesives are allowed.  I somehow got home without ever taking a picture of our door.  I'll put together the things I made and take a picture and post it soon.

6. Laundry Bag
I didn't ever do laundry on the ship (although you can if you want to), but I found it really helpful to have a bag to put dirty clothes in.  Some things I read said to bring a pop up hamper, but that seemed like it would take up more space.  I got a drawstring laundry bag at Dollar Tree and hung it in the closet in our stateroom.


What kind of clothes to take?!?

I started making my packing list about a month before the trip.  At two weeks out, I started adding things to suitcases.  OCD tendencies aside, I am a professional procrastinator, so to have everything packed so early was nothing short of a miracle.  My husband likes to say "It wouldn't be a vacation unless you were up till 3am packing before we leave."  This trip was the first time I've ever been packed ahead of time and gone to bed at a reasonable hour. I attribute that to researching and knowing exactly what to pack, and also to knowing I'd be on a ship and forgetting things wasn't really an option.  That being said, I forgot to pack myself any pajamas and had to steal things from my husband.

Here is general breakdown of what I packed.  Hopefully this is helpful!

Myself
-Toiletries/Makeup
-Jewelry to match each outfit
-Undergarments
-Casual clothes for each day on the ship
-Casual skirts and dresses for "Cruise Casual" dinners
-Lightweight sweater (only ended up wearing this in theater)
-Knit sundresses for Port Adventure days (our adventures required you to be in your swim suit as soon as you got there, so I just threw a matching dress on over it to wear afterwards)
-Dresses for Formal Night, Semi Formal Night, and our Palo Brunch
-Pirate Costume
-3 Swim suits (this was hard, I usually pack one for each day of a trip!), 2 Cover ups
-Shoes - 1 pair of heels that matched all 3 dressy dresses, 1 pair of nude color sandals, 1 pair of black sandals, 1 pair of flip flops, and the Converse that I wore onto the ship.  Again, so hard!  I usually pack way more shoes
-Sunglasses
-Workout clothes (One of the few things I never wore on the trip)

Kids
-Toiletries
-Swim suits & Swim shirts (3 suits and a cover up for my daughter, 2 suits for my son)
-Casual clothes for each day on the ship
-Casual skirts and dresses for my daughter, and nice shorts and shirts for my son for "Cruise Casual" dinners.  My son could go from day to night in what he wore a lot of times.  I brought separate day and night outfits for my daughter.
-Formal Night outfits (dress for my daughter, slacks/vest/tie for my son)
-Semi Formal Night outfits (dress for my daughter, khaki pants, button down shirt for my son)
-Pirate Costumes
- Shoes - My daughter took 1 pair of flip flops, 1 pair of white sandals, 1 pair of black sandals, water shoes, and the Converse she wore onto the ship.  My son took 1 pair of flip flops, water shoes, 1 pair of canvas boat shoes (for dinners), 1 pair of dress shoes, and the sneakers he wore onto the ship.
-Pajamas
-Sunglasses & hats

My Husband
-Toiletries
-2 Swim suits
-Casual clothes for each day on the ship
-Nice shorts/shirts for "Cruise Casual" dinners
-Formal Night outfit - Slacks, button down shirt, tie
-Semi Formal Night & Palo Brunch outfits - Slacks, button down shirts
-Pirate Costumes
-Shoes - 1 pair flip flops, 1 pair dress shoes, 1 pair running shoes, 1 pair water shoes, and the Converse he wore onto the ship.
-Workout clothes
-Pajamas
-Sunglasses & hat

My Top 10 Disney Cruise Planning Tips

We recently went on our first Disney Cruise (actually our first cruise of any kind), and being the compulsive over researcher that I am, I did an insane amount of research.  We booked our trip in August to sail in February, and in that time I read countless blogs, talked to as many people as I could, and planned, planned, planned.  Our trip was incredible, and I almost died of happiness when my husband said "You really nailed this.  I really appreciate the amount of work that you did for this trip."  Totally validated my OCD, folks. :)  I didn't want to blog before the trip, because I wanted to see what was worth my time and what wasn't before I gave any advice to anyone.  I'm not getting compensated in any way for this, I just want to share my thoughts and experience.  So, without further ado, here are my top 10 planning tips.

1. Book Through an Authorized Disney Travel Agent

We were spending a large chunk of money on our trip and I was really hesitant to do that on my own. Through my research, I learned that a lot of agents will give you onboard credit (to use towards anything on the ship...dining, port adventures, spa services, etc) if you book through them.  They charge you the same price as you'd pay if you booked it yourself, but you get the onboard credit, plus someone to help you with planning and questions along the way.  Carrie Johnson at Small World Vacations was fantastic and I'd highly recommend booking through her.

2. Read Blogs and Utilize Pinterest

I found so much helpful information on Pinterest and through other people's blogs.  If you search "Disney Cruise" you'll find countless pins and sites with great information.  I created a Disney Cruise board on Pinterest and added things all the time.  You can check out my board here... Janae's Disney Cruise Pinterest Board

3. Do Fish Extenders!

This was one of my favorite things about our cruise.  My kids loved checking for goodies each time we'd go back to our room, and I loved putting together the gifts that we did.  You don't have to be crafty, we received plenty of gifts that were not handmade and we loved them just as much!  You can read more about Fish Extenders (FE) in my posts for Adult Fish Extender Gifts and Kids Fish Extender Gifts.

4. Stick With an Inside Stateroom

Our stateroom was on the inside, which meant it didn't have a window or balcony.  I thought I might regret this, but I am really glad I didn't spend the money for a different type of room.  We were very rarely in our room, and we didn't miss having a view at all.  Also, we did have a little trouble with motion sickness, and I think it would have been worse if we could have seen the water moving outside the room.  The rooms aren't large, and there is so much to do on the rest of the ship and at the ports, so we really only used our room to change clothes and sleep.

5.  Join an Online Group for Your Sailing Date/Ship

I've used online groups and social media for as long as I can remember, so joining a group for the cruise was a no brainer for me.  The Disney Cruising page on Facebook can help you find groups already made for as far out as you can book a cruise.  That page is full of information and and is a great way to find your exact cruising group.  The Facebook group was incredible.  I got to know a ton of new people, many of which had cruised with Disney several times before, so they were a wealth of knowledge.  We chatted for months leading up to the cruise, had a meet and greet on the ship, and have kept in touch afterwards as well.  I even found a gal who went to the same school as I did, but we had missed each other by a year or so.  We had a ton of stuff in common and it was great to meet her on the ship.  Also, this is how you'll join an FE group as well!

6.  Know What is Included in "All Inclusive" and What Isn't

The ships are "all inclusive", but there are plenty of things that you can pay for if you choose to.  Know what is included in your cruise price and what isn't ahead of time so that you can plan accordingly.  For example, alcoholic beverages aren't included, but I knew that we could bring our own liquor onto the ship.  Do your research and plan ahead.  We had a good idea of what extras we'd be doing so we'd planned ahead for the extra charges we'd be getting at the end of the cruise.  If you didn't know about the extras like gratuity, port adventures, professional photos, specialty drinks, or adult dining, you'd be in for a shock at the end of the trip when they slide the bill under your door. 

7.  You Have to Book Ahead for Princess Meet & Greets

This was one of the things I learned from the Facebook group that was incredibly helpful.  When you are on the ship, there are lots of opportunities for meet and greets with the Disney Characters.  You get a list of the times and locations for each character in your Personal Navigator each night and then just show up (and wait in line) to meet them.  You have to get a ticket (this is free) to meet the Princesses though, and I thought it was brilliant.  No big lines, and you are guaranteed to meet each one.  I knew of this ahead of time and went straight to guest services when we got on the ship to reserve our spots for Anna and Elsa, and the Princess Gathering.  You are now able to book these online when you do your check in for your cruise. I highly recommend reserving them online before hand. I found throughout the week, that a lot of people didn't know about needing the tickets, and there weren't any available by the time they went to get them.  Totally worth doing if you have a little girl.  

8. Dress Up for Pirate Night, Formal, and Semi Formal Night!

This was another really fun part of the trip for me because we got to do things we don't normally do at home.  The theme nights aren't required, but are something I highly recommend!  We loved Pirate Night, and went all out.  There is a Pirate Deck Party that night too which the kids (and the adults) loved.  I loved getting dressed up for Formal and Semi Formal night too and taking pictures all dolled up.  I mean really, how often do you get the chance to be a pirate and take pictures with Captain Jack Sparrow?!?  All the characters were dressed up as pirates that night!

9. Plan on Palo

I went back and forth on whether or not to make a reservation at Palo, the adult only restaurant on the ship, but am so glad that we did!  You can choose either brunch or dinner (or both!) and there is a dress code.  We did brunch on our last sea day and it was amazing!  I've heard the dinner is incredible as well, but that you shouldn't miss the brunch.  Brunch is more my style of food, so that's what we went with.  It is an additional cost (On our trip it was $25 per person, plus gratuity, but I believe it is now $30/person), but it was well worth it.  I made our reservation when I did our online check in, but you can do it at Guest Services on the ship as well.  

10.  Plan on Doing Some Planning

I had seven months to think about and plan our trip, which I loved.  As I mentioned before, I over research everything, and that gave me plenty of time to do that.  I felt like we got to really enjoy our trip because I had planned ahead and could pack accordingly (packing post coming soon), knew what to take advantage of on the ship, and what port adventures were worth while.  Can you hop on a cruise ship with little planning and enjoy it? Sure!  However, I like to get the most out of my money and am glad that I spent time planning everything out.  

I've also added another post with more cruise info here!

Disney Fish Extender Gifts for Kids!

These are the Fish Extender gift bags I put together for our upcoming Disney Cruise!  If you aren't familiar with Fish Extender gifts, you can read more about it in the post I wrote about the gifts I did for the adults in our group here.

We had 25 kids in our group to do gifts for, and their ages ranged from 10 months up to 13 years old.  It was a little tricky trying to come up with something that most everyone would like without having to do a lot of different things.  I also wanted to incorporate each child's favorite character (this was provided in the list for our group), and again wanted something that wouldn't take up a huge amount of space in our suitcase.  In the end, I decided to make some little personalized notebooks for each kid as the main gift, and then throw in a couple little items to go.  

I got 3 packs of spiral notebooks for $1 each at the Dollar Tree store.  The covers were tinted plastic which I knew I'd need to cover.  I cut rectangles out of cardstock paper and attached it to the outside and inside of the plastic cover sheet.  I used spray adhesive to glue the paper on because regular glue won't adhere to plastic.  Once thaMt had dried, I cut out the Mickey Mouse head shape from black cardstock and glued it on with a permanent glue stick.  I made each of the kid's name tags in Microsoft Word by typing their name in the Disney font and then adding an image.  I just printed them, cut them out, and then glued them on top of the Mickey head.  I also added a strip of paper at the bottom that I cut from some Mickey Mouse scrapbook paper.  

For the extra goodies, I did a small sheet of stickers for each kid, and also a little Mickey Mouse ball game that I got at Dollar Tree in packs of four in the party favor aisle.  For the couple of teenage girls in our group, I got itty bitty bottles of nail polish in Mickey colors and then added the Mickey stickers to the top.  My kids wanted to be part of the process (or I may have told them they needed to be...), so they made a Rainbow Loom bracelet for each of the kids using this pattern from Loom Love.  I slipped the bracelet around the notepad, added the stickers and game to the bag, put on a label that I made, and that was that.  

I had so much fun putting the Fish Extender gifts together!  I can't wait to see the gifts we get from our group, and I definitely will do this again when we do another Disney Cruise!

Disney Fish Extender Gifts for Adults

We are going on our first Disney Cruise this week, and I have done a ridiculous amount of research for the trip.  When I read about Fish Extenders, I knew we had to do them.  One, I love to craft, and two I love to give gifts, so it was a win/win for me. 

The first thing you need to do when you decide to to do a Fish Extender (FE) program is join a group.  If you skip this step, you'll end up leaving gifts for other people and not receiving anything.  If you go to the Disney Cruising group on Facebook, you'll be able to locate your specific cruise date/ship and join a group.  I love our group on Facebook where we can all chat, ask questions, and get to know each other.  It has been a very valuable tool for me.  I can't wait to meet everyone on the ship!

You'll also need to have a FE to hang outside your stateroom door.  You can buy them already made (tons on Etsy), or you can make your own.  I sew, but hate making patterns, so I bought a pattern on Etsy for $4.50 from The Rabbit's Hole Shop and it was worth every penny.  

Here is a picture of the one I made...

For our group, I made gifts for the kids and for the adults.  In this post, I'm going to show you the gifts I made for the adults.  Kids FE gift post can be found here.

I wanted to make gifts that were functional, but also could be kept for souvenirs from the trip.  I also wanted something that was light weight and easy to pack.  The doors on the Disney ships are magnetic, so for one gift I made a little dry erase board to hang on the door and added a magnetic dry erase marker with it.  I cut 5x7 sheets of white paper, got the Disney Cruise Line logo online and added the text to it I made these into stickers), and then cut some Mickey Mouse scrapbook paper to add as trim to the bottom.  I got a Scotch Laminator for Christmas (Thanks brother!) and used 5x7 sheets to laminate the boards I'd put together.  

 I bought a roll of adhesive magnets, cut them and attached them to the backs of the boards.  

The other item I decided to make was a Christmas ornament.  I thought it would be a fun thing to hang on the tree each year and to remember the trip by.  I bought some wooden rectangle plaques that  already had holes drilled (ArtMinds brand at Michaels that came in a pack of 8 for $1.99).  I painted them, cut out squares of scrapbooking paper (from the same Mickey Mouse pack I used above),  made the Mickey ear shaped logos with the cruise ship name and date, and used Mod Podge to attach everything.  I then cut ribbon, threaded it through the holes and knotted the ends.  I finished the ends with a fray stopper, but you could use heat to seal the ends as well.  

I got clear bags from the Dollar Tree store and packed the gifts up with some little labels I made.