20th Anniversary Trips - A PTR for a first ever Disney Cruise and a trip to California!

StarWarsMomofGirls!

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Hello Everyone!

My name is Ariella. I am the vacation planner for our house! And this is my fam!

Photopass with Walt
Andy (DH) is on the far left. Morgan (our oldest) is next to Andy, Me on the other side of Walt, and Gwen on the far right is our youngest.
We are seasoned Walt Disney World goers. We took our first trip when the girls were just 3 and 5. And now they are 14 and 16!

2025 will be our 20th Wedding Anniversary, and Andy and I have been bouncing all kinds of ideas around for what to do. We have floated a trip to Hawaii, an Alaskan Cruise, a trip to California among other less serious options.

Originally we wanted to go to Hawaii, that was going to be Andy's 50th Birthday trip, but covid happened and that didn't happen. So that was the top contender at first.... till I started to look at prices of things.... and well, 4 people and the things we wanted to do just started to sound like A LOT of $$$$$

So, then we talked about an Alaskan Cruise. This is a buck list item for me! BUT none of us have EVER done ANY cruises before. Would we like it? Would we bored? Would we get sea sick? Alaskan Cruise are not cheap, so we said we needed to try a short one first. (I will admit I am still thinking about this as a family option, depending on how things go)

So, that turned into a short Cruise just for me and Andy. We are also worried about whether the girls would like a cruise or not. No internet to them sounds like a nightmare! ha. Morgan is worried she will get sea sick, as she does get car sick.

But really a cruise by ourselves opened up times to go since we wouldn't have to work around school calendar. And well, I'll be honest, it will be cheaper! And Andy and I haven't been away by ourselves in a VERY LONG time!

The other part of the this trip report? I told Andy I still wanted to do something WITH the girls. So, for now we landed on a trip to California. We should have enough airmiles to fly us all out to California. And we had a trip to San Diego and Disneyland planned 2 years ago that we had to cancel for a family emergency. So, we talked about basically doing that trip. More on that all to come!

Trips:
Cruise in February just Andy and I
San Diego / Disneyland in July the whole family

My focus for now will be mostly about the Cruise but I will have to figure out the California trip at some point as well. So, follow along as I fumble my way through figuring out what I need to know for our first Cruise!!!!
 

20th Anniversary Trips: Cruise Edition


So, what I have so far....

We booked the cruise itself. We are doing a 3 night cruise in February on the WISH.
Screenshot 2024-08-31 at 8.52.16 AM

My sister is coming down to "hang out" with the girls while we are away, so for that reason, we choose a weekend cruise. I have heard that 3 night cruise are just not long enough but this will really be for us to get a taste of cruising and see if we like it or not.

We have a room midship near the elevators and stairs. I really didn't care too much where we were on the ship, as we have never been on the ships before. But the location was recommended to us, so we went with that. And it feels like mid ship makes sense? Where does everyone like to be on the ship?

We have also booked our flights down. We are flying down on a Wednesday afternoon / evening and flying back Monday afternoon after we come back to port. That means we will get 1 day for the parks!!! I basically insisted we do this. It should be Festival of Arts then, so we can enjoy some festival stuff. The plan is to have one day park tickets with park hoppers, so we can maximize the one day. Possibly hit MK, HS and EPCOT...
Screenshot 2024-08-31 at 9.11.32 AM

We haven't book a room yet in Disney World, but we are thinking Caribbean Beach Resort. We love it there and since we will probably spent all of the day not in the room, a deluxe resort would be a waste. I was suggesting Coronado but Andy wanted to do Caribbean Beach for the Skyliner.
Screenshot 2024-08-31 at 9.09.40 AM

So, the basic plan:
Wednesday:
Fly to Orlando, hopefully arrive around 6:00.
Thursday: Park Day
Friday: Board the ship
Saturday: Bahamas
Sunday: Castaway Cay
Monday: Disembark and head home
 

20th Anniversary Trips: Cruise Edition


So, questions for you guys? What should we do?

Andy wants to do an excursion in the Bahamas. We have never been. I know most people recommend just staying on the ship but Andy wants to see the island. Anybody have a recommendation for excursions to see the island?

What should we do on the ship?

I would love to do Palo but I don't know if we will have time to. Since it is a short cruise, we won't double up on restaurants and brunch would either run into an excursion in Bahamas or Castaway Cay....
 
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I really didn't care too much where we were on the ship, as we have never been on the ships before. But the location was recommended to us, so we went with that. And it feels like mid ship makes sense? Where does everyone like to be on the ship?
Sounds like you've got a great location! We like to stay mid ship, as well, because usually you will feel less motion. We also like a higher deck for that same reason.

Andy wants to do an excursion in the Bahamas. We have never been. I know most people recommend just staying on the ship but Andy wants to see the island.
Nassau can be a little sketchy to navigate around. There are warnings from the US Embassy about crime and safety. We usually get off and do just a little bit of shopping at the straw market and a few shops right near the pier. If you decide to go on an excursion, I would recommend booking a port adventure directly through DCL because if you should happen to run late, they will hold the ship for you. If you're late on something you booked independently, they'll leave without you! yikes.

My Mom and I are looking at two different Nassau excursions for our spring cruise--both include a short shuttle bus ride to different cultural stops and lunch, along with options to purchase straw goods, rum, etc.

That being said, you've only got the two full days to explore all that the ship has to offer!! So, if I were you, I'd probably not book myself on an hours long excursion. I'd get off the ship to explore a little and then head back onboard to enjoy all that DCL has to offfer.

I would love to do Palo
Palo is DELICIOUS!!! But again, with such a short trip, you might not want to spend a couple hours eating (even though it's amazing). Another thing to note, since it's your first cruise, your booking window will open last. Reservations to Palo can be really hard to come by on a short cruise, so it might be something to save for next time. (I'm confident you will love it and there WILL be a next time!!) :)
 
Oh how fun!! We love Disney cruises! We haven't sailed on the Wish yet, but I know a lot of people love it (especially first timers). When we were at Nassau we stayed on the ship (which I do recommend for a short cruise, otherwise you will never see and do everything on the boat! And to be honest, you still won't...even with a 7-day cruise!)

We also did Disneyland and a short cruise on the Wonder last summer plus a day in San Diego so I highly recommend this plan! I did do a trip report but can answer any questions you may have!

We love DCL, and I think you will, too!
 
Nassau can be a little sketchy to navigate around. There are warnings from the US Embassy about crime and safety.
Ohh! I didn't think about that...

If you decide to go on an excursion, I would recommend booking a port adventure directly through DCL because if you should happen to run late, they will hold the ship for you. If you're late on something you booked independently, they'll leave without you! yikes.
If we do one, it will DEF be a DCL one. I am too much of a nervous nelly about that kind of stuffl.

o, if I were you, I'd probably not book myself on an hours long excursion. I'd get off the ship to explore a little and then head back onboard to enjoy all that DCL has to offfer.
I was thinking of a short one for sure. I think Andy will be happy with a small taste of the island. I hope.

Palo is DELICIOUS!!! But again, with such a short trip, you might not want to spend a couple hours eating (even though it's amazing). Another thing to note, since it's your first cruise, your booking window will open last. Reservations to Palo can be really hard to come by on a short cruise, so it might be something to save for next time
Yeah, I think we will skip the fancy restaurants this trip. I think it will just make things easier. One less thing to worry about. Ha! And I do have a sneaky feeling this will just be the first one for us. So another time..

We also did Disneyland and a short cruise on the Wonder last summer plus a day in San Diego so I highly recommend this plan! I did do a trip report but can answer any questions you may have!
I think I need to hop back over to your trip report! I am pretty sure I started but people am behind.
 
Anybody have a recommendation for excursions to see the island?
We went to Blue Lagoon Island and did the dolphin swim. There is a nice beach included with the swim package. There is also a sealion package and just a beach package. Nassau is not pretty, so there is really not much I ever want to do there outside of Senor Frogs.
I would love to do Palo but I don't know if we will have time to
My only advice here is check the menu if there is a Pirate night. My friend and I regretted not doing Palo on our Pirate night. There wont be a brunch at Palo on a 3 day cruise, so not missing anything there.
 
We have a room midship near the elevators and stairs. I really didn't care too much where we were on the ship, as we have never been on the ships before. But the location was recommended to us, so we went with that. And it feels like mid ship makes sense? Where does everyone like to be on the ship?
I like to be in the middle of ship as much as possible. It might be in my head but I feel it doesn't rock as much. This will be the first cruise that we have a veranda room. We are usually in an inside cabin.
So, questions for you guys? What should we do?
If you do an excursion, go through DCL. I always feel safer their. I have been to Nassau once but it was a last minute change so we didn't book anything. We did walk around a little bit and then I got my hair breaded. I do not recommend this here. I had it done once at Costa Maya and it was very clean. Here not so much.
What should we do on the ship?
We never did Palo. We just did each of the dining rooms. Those are still really nice. Definitely go see the shows at night. They are really good. I also liked going to the Adult Only area of the pool. It was very quiet and relaxing. I also watched movies on the pool deck at night. Not many people where here since it was later at night. I would just snack on something, watch the movie and then head to bed.
 
Soooo excited for you!! We just did our first cruise on the Wish in March and we are so hooked. We did Palo brunch and while it was great, in retrospect we would have skipped it as we were there about 3 hours and there’s just SO much to do on the ship. If you do decide to go for it don’t get discouraged if you don’t get it right away as a first time cruiser - we snagged it on the app a few weeks before the cruise. Just keep stalking the app! Also I heard even the day of departure you can go up to the desk and see if they have openings for anything that was previously unavailable.

We stayed on the ship in Nassau (again, just wanted to experience as much of the ship as we could) so I’m no help on that. We loved Castaway Cay though!

Since you’re coming straight from Disney, highly recommend booking the official DCL transport from your hotel - this moved our boarding time up by about 4 hours!!
 
Hi Everyone!!!

Life has been crazy! Marching Band is kicking into full gear and work has been crazy. I have barely had a chance to even think about this trip! Which good news, cruises don't need too much pre planning. But I LOVE to plan!! I do need to start working out some possible summer trip details as well.

We went to Blue Lagoon Island and did the dolphin swim. There is a nice beach included with the swim package. There is also a sealion package and just a beach package. Nassau is not pretty, so there is really not much I ever want to do there outside of Senor Frogs.
I think I saw the dolphin one... I def would be intrested in that one. I feel guilty doing that one without the girls. I know they would love that. But I guess there is no rule that you can't do them more than once...

My only advice here is check the menu if there is a Pirate night. My friend and I regretted not doing Palo on our Pirate night.
I assume I see more info once I pay the final balance in the app? Do they do pirate night on the short cruises? I forgot about pirate night!

I like to be in the middle of ship as much as possible. It might be in my head but I feel it doesn't rock as much. This will be the first cruise that we have a veranda room. We are usually in an inside cabin.
that is what I was thinking, logically the middle seems like it was be the most stable. I don't think we could an inside cabin. I do think we will spend some time in the room and on the veranda. If wedid a longer cruise I could totally see Andy spending a day just reading out there.

If you do an excursion, go through DCL. I always feel safer their.
I def think we will do that. As a first timer, I DO NOT want to have to worry about missing the time to be back on the boat.

Those are still really nice. Definitely go see the shows at night. They are really good. I also liked going to the Adult Only area of the pool. It was very quiet and relaxing.
I def want to check out some shows and maybe some trivia stuff. Andy will probably want to see some of the live music.

I also watched movies on the pool deck at night. Not many people where here since it was later at night. I would just snack on something, watch the movie and then head to bed.
Do you know what time the boat starts leaving for the next destination. It sounds strange but I want to see us moving not just sleep through the travel. I have thought about a week day cruise to get an extra day but a weekend cruise was better for us this time around.

Since you’re coming straight from Disney, highly recommend booking the official DCL transport from your hotel - this moved our boarding time up by about 4 hours!!
Interesting! Yes, I think we will do DCL transport. We are big on not driving if we can! I didn't think it would help us get on the boat sooner. All the more reason to do it!

We did Palo brunch and while it was great, in retrospect we would have skipped it as we were there about 3 hours and there’s just SO much to do on the ship.
From what I have heard, it does sound like the longer cruises are better for Palo since you just have more time on the ship to do stuff.
 
Do you know what time the boat starts leaving for the next destination. It sounds strange but I want to see us moving not just sleep through the travel. I have thought about a week day cruise to get an extra day but a weekend cruise was better for us this time around.
It is different for different ports. You should still be able to see the boat move. We have always had a sea day or two on the cruises that we have done.
 
Let's talk Flying!

I don't think I mentioned but we booked our flights a few weeks ago. We had some credits to use with American from changing our flights back last April. So, we used those and at least it off set the cost a little. Flights are not cheap anymore! Or at least for us flying out of Philly.

This morning I got an email from American that they have changed our flight times. Hopefully this doesn't happen too much between now and the trip! One of our trips, I think the last time we flew Southwest, the times changed no joke like 10 times.

Originally we were to leave on Wednesday at 3:30 PM and now we are leaving at 3:55 PM. That really doesn't effect us too much. We weren't planning on doing anything special that night. Probably grabbing a light dinner at the pool bar or at Riva's counter service / pool bar. So no big deal.

And then coming back we were to come home at 3:24 PM on the day we disembark from the boat. Now we are flying out at 2:26 PM. I think this is still fine and possibly a little better. We should still have plenty of time to get to the airport. Hopefully it means less time for us to have to wait in the airport.

Anyone fly home the same day as dembarkation day? Is 2:30 still ok? What is the breaking point that I would need to change it if the moved it earlier again?
 
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2:30 is still great! They used to always recommend not booking a flight before 11:30 a.m. on disembarkation day, so 2:30 will be totally fine.

My Mom and I just booked our flights for our May cruise when Southwest released their schedule last week. We were able to get a 12:30 flight home. It's nice to not have to kill so many hours at the airport for sure. Everyone has to be off the boat by 9:30 at the latest, so you'll pretty much get off and head right to the airport.

I'm not sure what your plan is for getting back to the airport, but Disney just opened up booking for their ground transportation for our dates, which means they are already open for yours. You can just add it on to our cruise reservation, but it is $45 a person. Annoying, but it is really convenient and super easy when you disembark to just grab your bags, go through customs and walk right out to a bus waiting to take you to MCO.
 
We flew home on disembarkation day. We were at the airport by 9:15! We had a LOT of time to kill - our flight was at 3:30. There is a good amount to do at MCO - however, check how early your airline will accept checked luggage. We were flying Breeze which only accepts luggage 2 hours prior to the flight so we were kind of stuck sitting on a bench outside security since we had all our bags with us.
 
Let's talk Flying!

I don't think I mentioned but we booked our flights a few weeks ago. We had some credits to use with American from changing our flights back last April. So, we used those and at least it off set the cost a little. Flights are not cheap anymore! Or at least for us flying out of Philly.

This morning I got an email from American that they have changed our flight times. Hopefully this doesn't happen too much between now and the trip! One of our trips, I think the last time we flew Southwest, the times changed no joke like 10 times.

Originally we were to leave on Wednesday at 3:30 PM and now we are leaving at 3:55 PM. That really doesn't effect us too much. We weren't planning on doing anything special that night. Probably grabbing a light dinner at the pool bar or at Riva's counter service / pool bar. So no big deal.

And then coming back we were to come home at 3:24 PM on the day we disembark from the boat. Now we are flying out at 2:26 PM. I think this is still fine and possibly a little better. We should still have plenty of time to get to the airport. Hopefully it means less time for us to have to wait in the airport.

Anyone fly home the same day as dembarkation day? Is 2:30 still ok? What is the breaking point that I would need to change it if the moved it earlier again?
We just got back from our cruise. We went out of New York and flew home the same day. Our flight was at about 1. You should be fine. We didn't do the the disembarkation where we put our bags out the night before and have a scheduled time to get off the boat. We got off before everyone else and took our bags with us. I ended up sea sick and really need to just get off the boat.
 
Hi Everyone!!!

Miss me? Think I got lost? Well, I kind of did... I decided to focus on finishing my trip report. Which I did! yeah... But then things got messy. My mother passed away a the middle of November. And things just got away from me from there. I spent the last 2 months in a blur of trying to keep the holiday season festive and do the things we needed to do for my mother passing. Oh and I got the flu from my niece at the memorial for my mom. I haven't been that sick in a long time! Needless to say, it was ALOT. We are enjoying some time off doing nothing with the time between Christmas and NewYears.

And having some good down time can only mean one tihing!!! Vacation planning. I realized Christmas night that our cruise was only 40-ish days away!!! As of today we are 37 days away!!!! I forgot how nice it is to have a trip in Feb!

I haven't thought much about the cruise! Good thing that is part of the joy of the cruise!?!?

I pulled up the excursion options yesterday and had Andy read them. Andy selected 4 and then I choose from there. We selected a jeep tour, specifically the Chauffeured Funky Jeep® Adventure. It is was 3 hours long and we picked the 10:00 start time. So hopefully we will get a little glimse of the island but we figured that will give us time on the ship still.

I assume we don't need to book anything for Castaway Cay day? I saw that you can book floats for the day. And I think we would like to do that and snorkel. I assume we can do that day of? Should I add that on now? Andy doesn't think we will spend the whole day on the island. He isn't a big beach person. But I am secretly hoping ThIS beach will win him over.


So, an overview of the trip at this point....

We fly in on a Wednesday. We should land in orlando around 6:00 PM. SO we figure we will get to property around 8. The plan will be to either go to Disney Springs for dinner. Either to go to Eat or Polite Pig. Or if we are feeling lazy, we are staying at Caribean Beach, so we can do the pool bar there or go to Bar Riva at Riveria for dinner as well.

Then Thursday is a a Park Hopping Day!!! The general plan is to start at Hollywood Studios then go to EPCOT for some Festival of the Arts fun and snd the day at Magic Kingdom.

So, I just had to look at what the tiers were for Hollywood Studios.(I feel so out of practice!!!) I am going to hope and try to get Slinky Dog as my Tier 1 and then Toy Story Mania and Tower of Terror as my Tier 2s. Not sure how that will work since I won't have a lead in for my booking. We haven't ridden Slinky in forever. The old system was never kind to us getting Slinky. But I will want ideally all 3 before noon.

I am tempted to get ILLS. Possibly for Rise and Guardians. I think def Guardians... Andy says "we don't need to do Rise" He says this each trip... and then we go on it. Granted we usually just wait in line. We will see.

I am waiting for the food booths to be announced for Festival of the Arts. That will probably be lunch and possibly dinner before we head to Magic Kingdom to finish off the day.

Friday will be getting on the ship. We will be doing Disney transportation from Carrbean Beach to the boat. Anyone know about what time we would be getting on the bus? I don't have plans for the day, but I was wondering if I should plan a sit down breakfast this morning?

Then it's the cruise. And then we fly home the day we come back.

I am very much ready for this mini trip. I feel slightly guilty cause the girls aren't coming.

BUT that leads me to our other trip for the year!!! California!

It's our wedding anniversary end of July. So we decided to go to California then. Ever since Andy went on his improt to visit to Disneyland. I have been hangering to go again. And we have enough miles to fly all of us there with miles. (I think,,, hopefully) So, California it is!!!

I have to book flights soon. I want to make sure we can use just miles.

We plan to do San Diego first and then head to Disneyland. They will be celebrating the 70th there. And I am excited to be there for it!!!

Other possible trips.....
Over the holidays, we were chatting with my middle sister and her husband. They love to travel. (AKA not Disney Adults) But we talked about doing an Alaskan Cruise. We are very tentatively planning to do a cruise Summer of 2026!!! It won't be a Disney Cruise... sadly, those are WAY to $$$$. But seeing Alaska is a bucket list item for me for sure.

We also realized that the girls spring break falls over Andy's birthday. I would love to do a short trip to Disney World during that. But we might need to go visit colleges then. I am trying to really lean into the fact that Morgan will be in college soon, and a full family vacation is going to get harder and harder!!! AAK! We will end up somewhere that week. Possibly Boston to look at schools.... But Disney sounds so much more fun than Boston...

My other thought was a Christmas trip to Disney. But that is also a long shot. But I am plotting!!! I want 2025 to be a great year!!!
 
I am trying to really lean into the fact that Morgan will be in college soon, and a full family vacation is going to get harder and harder!!! AAK!

Listen to your very smart instinct on this and do as much family travel NOW!
Once both my kids were in University we have yet to have another family vacation and now they have life partners who need to be included. It is just not the same, do it while you can!!!
 
I am so so sorry to hear about your mom. I bet that is a LOT. I hope you had some much needed downtime over the holidays (with more to come on your cruise!)


For Castaway day, we booked a stingray swim that ended up getting canceled. We were with 3 little kids so didn’t worry about floats or snorkel. My guess is everything is pretty available on the island without prebooking but maybe someone will correct me on that.


Your park day sounds amazing. If you don’t get Slinky on your booking day, look into Standby Skipper to snag it day-of.

When we did DCL transport, our luggage had to be ready by 7:00, and we had a 9:15 meeting time for a 9:45 departure. We did a 7:30 breakfast at the hotel which was perfect - don’t want anyone getting hangry on the bus or during the boarding process!

Possibly Boston to look at schools.... But Disney sounds so much more fun than Boston...


I fully support making the most of your family vacation time before Morgan goes to college! I was a little flabbergasted to receive a letter about C’s absences so far this year - he’s in first grade!! 🙃 We just did a trip the first week of December to hit all the Christmas festivities and it was pretty amazing. I would definitely aim for that time of year again! Except it was definitely not swimming weather.


And hey…Boston is no Disney but it’s still pretty good 😆 Lifelong MA girl, would be happy to give you guys any tips on your trip here (unless Morgan is looking at BC, in which case you’re in your own, I’m a BU alum! 😝)
 













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