Are you DREAMing of a FANTASY cruise in 2013? Then now is the time to get started!

Well now is the time!  Disney just opened their booking window today for 2013 cruises on the Dream and the Fantasy.

As expected, the Dream will continue 3,4, and 5 night cruises to the Bahamas and Castaway Cay.  The Fantasy - whose maiden voyage is this spring - will continue 7 night cruises to the Eastern and Western Carribbean as well as Castaway Cay.

QUICK CRUISE TIP  #1- If you are thinking of a 2013 cruise, now is the time to book!  Prices on Disney cruises tend to go up and up as they reach capacity!

QUICK CRUISE TIP #2 - If you would never consider a Spring Break or Holiday trip to Disneyland or Disney World because of the crowds - think cruise instead!  The cruises have a fixed capacity and they always sail at or very near full capacity.  So a spring break cruise will not "feel" any different than a late September cruise in terms of crowds.  Prices are a bit higher during these peak travel times, but since you are a smart Disney shopper (and read tip #1) you already know that you can mitigate the extra cost by planning ahead.

As always, I would love to help plan your Dream-y Cruise!  Please let me know if I can help ginger@tmctravelonline.com!

Cruise News You Can Use & Friday's Mystery Announcement

Disney just made an exciting announcement about new itineraries and ports for 2012!

For the first time ever, Disney Cruise Line will set sail from three new ports in 2012 – New York, Seattle and Galveston – making the Disney family cruise vacation even more accessible to guests across the country. There are also more itinerary choices, including one special voyage to Hawai‘i.

If are a lucky Platinum or Gold Castaway Club Member, you get the exclusive benefit of booking a day early beginning April 7.  Everyone else can begin booking on Friday morning at 8:00 am.  As always, I am more than happy to help book your cruise experience.  Please call or send me an email if I can help!

 

Here is what future cruisers have to look forward to...

 

New York Sailings
Beginning May 25, 2012, the Disney Magic will sail a total of 20 cruises from New York.

•  8-night Bahamian cruises include a day at Disney’s Castaway Cay and a stop at Port Canaveral, gateway to the Walt Disney World Resort. As part of this itinerary, you will receive a one-day Park Hopper Ticket and roundtrip transportation between the ship and resort.
• 5-night Canadian/New England cruises will visit Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Saint John, New Brunswick.
• 2-night cruises are perfect for Clients looking for a quick getaway at sea over a weekend.

Seattle Sailings

 Beginning May 28, 2012, the Disney Wonder® will sail a total of 14 cruises to Alaska from the Port of Seattle, Wash.

•  7-night Alaskan cruises will call on Tracy Arm, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan plus Victoria, British Columbia.

Galveston Sailings

 Beginning Sept. 22, 2012, the Disney Magic will sail 12 cruises from the Port of Galveston, Texas.

•  7-night Western Caribbean cruises will visit Costa Maya and Cozumel in Mexico, as well as Grand Cayman.

Los Angeles Sailings

In addition to 7-night Mexican Riviera cruises, the Disney Wonder will set sail on Disney’s first-ever voyage to Hawai‘i on April 29, 2012.

• 15-night Hawaiian cruise departs from the Port of Los Angeles and includes stops at Hilo; Kahului, Maui; Honolulu, Oahu; Nawiliwili, Kauai and Ensenada, Mexico. 
• 7-night Pacific Coast cruises will call on San Francisco, San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico. 

The Disney Dream will continue to sail 3-, 4- and 5-night Bahamian cruises. The new Disney Fantasy will offer Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries, beginning with the maiden voyage on March 31, 2012. Sail dates for both ships are now available through December 2012.

 

The Mysterious Friday Announcement

Popular Disney message boards and the well connected Disney blogosphere are all abuzz about an announcement coming from Disney on Friday morning.  So what is the mysterious announcement?  Of course, the most obvious speculation is that a new round of discounts are about to be announced.  Free Dining for fall is the most repeated rumor.  Is it true?I don't know.  My crystal ball is currently out for repair.  While I will certainly be poised and ready to dial bright and early tomorrow if that is the case, I think it might be something else.  One possibility?  I think they might announce package prices for 2012 in April instead of waiting until August.  This would certainly make things easier for the Type A among us who want to get trips for early 2012 booked asap.   While I am certainly hoping for fabulous discounts for all, I would not be surprised at all if that is not the case.  So, if on Friday we learn 2012 packages are announced early, you can remember that you heard it here first!  If not, well, hopefully my crystal ball will be returned in working order shortly!

 

 

Sailing the WONDERful Seas with Disney! - Part II

I hope you enjoying reading about Lori Potter's cruise experience on the Disney Wonder as much as I am.  I think I must get a trip on the books for next year!  In case you need to catch up, you can read Part I of Lori's cruise experience here. 

Kids Clubs
One thing that we really loved about doing a Disney cruise was the option to have the kids go the kids only area. They have it broken down into 4 areas: Teens, Out & About (especially for 10 - 13 year olds), Oceaneer Club/Lab and the Flounders Reef Nursery. My girls were all eligible for the Oceaneer Club/Lab. I think at one time the club was for ages 3 - 7 and the Lab for 7 - 12 but now either area is for all ages, 3 & potty trained and up. The Club is full of toys, games, a giant pirate ship, Disney movies, places for art and some computers. The Lab has games, tons of computers, a "kitchen" for cooking school and places for art and crafts. They have around 50 cast members that work in the kids club. When you check your children in they are scanned in with the wristband, given a squirt of Mickey soap and directed to the bathroom to wash their hands. They have scheduled activities in the areas as well as free play and the scheduled activities cover a variety of themes. My 7 year old loved the lab. She wanted to spend a lot of time there..in fact the last night we told her no, she had to come to dinner with the family! My younger girls liked it but they didn't beg to go there like the older one. The staff was very good about paging us if any of the kids wanted to leave. The staff was always extremely friendly and kind and the security system was great. Also, the last afternoon the kids put on a really cute show! My toddler was eligible for the Flounders Reef Nursery. It is for kids under 3 and is an additional charge of $6/hr, which, in my opinion, is a bargain! You can pre-book your time in the nursery (up to 10 hours on a 4 night) which I did. What I didn't count on was my toddler having extreme separation anxiety and hating the nursery! We usually don't have any issues with him but he was not at all happy about that nursery. The nursery seemed very nice, Disney shows playing and lots of Disney toys. They had an area in the back with cribs. It was sort of small but the cast members in there were extremely friendly and loving. And it always seemed to be the same people in there. They were very good about giving us updates on how my son was doing and when he clearly was too upset to stay in there they called us to get him which I really appreciated.


Ports
Our ports were Nassau and Disney's Castaway Cay. We didn't do much in Nassau - with our child to adult ratio and factoring in their ages we didn't think the money was worth it. We ended up walking around some but it got hot and the kids got whiney so we spent much of the day on the ship which was great. Castaway Cay is Disney's own island and we were completely blown away by it. We all loved, loved it and it topped everyone's list as one of our favorite things of the cruise. They have a separate beach areas for families, adults and teens. They also have lounge chairs for everyone as well as strollers and wagons available for use. There is a splash pad, a water playground and plenty of sports activities to keep everyone busy! There are two restaurants that bring a bbq to the beach for lunch! There also have a few bars and food is plentiful on the island. There are also a couple merchandise shops (it is Disney after all). They also bring the kids club to the beach, a separate area from the water, so the kids can play with their new friends while you lounge on the beach. The weather was beautiful the day we were there and again it was fabulous!

Time of Year to Sail
I can't say that I would necessarily recommend September, the peak of hurricane season as the best time to sail. The weather was great for us but, the seas were very, very rocky the first night due to a hurricane far off to the east. One of my children (along with many, many others) got seasick the first night. After that it was much better but in general, the ocean was rougher (or so we heard) then usual. The best thing about September is that the rates are low since it is hurricane season but if you get seasick you may consider another time of year!

Dress
I had read that dress for dinner is "cruise casual" and one night is an optional dress up evening. Cruise casual means no shorts or bathing suits. I packed pants for my husband and son and dresses/skirts. for the girls and I. What we found was a little bit of everything. There were certainly more people dressed up than others and plenty of people in shorts. I liked dressing up for dinner, my family..not so much but we did it anyway!

Characters
There are many, many opportunities to see Disney friends on the cruise! Each day in the Navigator they print the character appearances and there are many every day. We also happened upon a couple characters running through the lobby or hanging out on deck! Even if the appearance is supposed to be only 15 minutes they are very flexible about it and seem to do their best to give everyone waiting a photo opp! On the last night of the cruise the characters put on a very special program "Til We Meet Again" giving everyone one last opportunity to hug a character you may have missed. That was another highlight!

Debarkation Day
Sadly debarkation starts very, very early on the final morning. You set your luggage out the night before and you are given a time to go to breakfast based on your dining rotation (the late dinner seating gets a later breakfast time) Breakfast is with your servers so it's a nice chance to say goodbye to them and the other friends you made during dining. Did I mention it's early? Technically you are supposed to take all your things with your to breakfast but I hadn't planned that very well and had too much stuff so we left that in the room during breakfast and walked back down to get it before departing. Upon debarking you find your luggage (it's tagged with a color/character) and go through customs. We found the process to be very quick and easy. Sadly we were at our car by 8:30am. I just wished we could have stayed on board longer!

We definitely hope to another Disney cruise. They are unveiling a two new ships, the Dream and the Fantasy, in 2011. Both ships will be far bigger than the Wonder and Magic and with many new features - have you seen the pictures of the Aquaduck...the water coaster?? It looks amazing!! Can't wait to go again..in fact, my husband and I want to take a Disney cruise without the kids next year...shhh...don't tell them!

Thanks again to my old long time friend Lori Potter for her insights on the cruise experience.  (We have been friends since middle school, which makes us long time friends - we are not, I repeat, NOT old!)

Sailing the WONDERful Seas with Disney! - Part I

For the first time on The Mouse Connection, we are welcoming a guest blogger, Lori Potter.  Lori and her family just went on their first Disney Cruise and she kindly agreed to share her thoughts on her trip with us.  She is a mom to four kids, so she got to experience the ship through many different eyes.  I hope this helps you get a feel for the cruise experience, but Lori did warn that she doesn't want you to know every single thing that will happen.  In her words, "Some of it needs to be magical!"

When my family bought into the DVC we were "given" a Disney cruise as an incentive, a 5 day/4 night on the Wonder. We were thrilled to say the least as we'd done a cruise for our honeymoon and always wanted to do another one, add a Disney twist and it seemed like a perfect combination. The list of available dates was somewhat limited but we settled on a week in September since my older two kids were due to be out of school. We have a large family, 2 adults, 4 kids (ages 7 - 2) so we had to book 2 rooms (one drawback, in my opinion, is that they literally don't have space for a family of 6). We used our DVC points to book our 2nd room - and we were set! The anticipation of the trip was exciting and I literally spent hours and hours reading forums and blogs to make the most of our trip. All in all we had a WONDERful time. Probably one of our best vacations ever. I can't say enough good things about Disney Cruise Lines. It's clear that service is the top priority. I also loved the family feel. There is no gambling on the Wonder (with the exception of Bingo) and though there were many adults traveling without children a majority had kids. I loved that you could have a nice dinner in the dining room and not feel bad if your kids got loud or got up from their seat. I loved that they had activities for every age group and how organized the entire staff was. And though the boat was full it only seemed really crowded at the Pirates In the Caribbean party. But of course every passenger wants to see fireworks! Here are a few tips/things we learned about sailing with Disney.

Embarkation Day
My advice is to get to the port early. They officially open at 10am and that's when we got there. You leave your luggage (they send you luggage tags preprinted with your room number) with a porter and get in line to go into the terminal. You will need to keep a day bag with you with things like sunscreen and bathing suits as your luggage may not arrive in your rooms until late afternoon. We walked right into the terminal and got immediately checked in. You are assigned a boarding number (we got group 2) and the lower your number the earlier you will get to board - of course Disney does it all very organized! You can then check the kids into the kids club - they get wristbands and parents get a pager. That just saves you time once you get on the ship. The wait time goes very quickly - some special friends come out to greet passengers and that certainly helped the time go by! Official boarding time is 1pm but as soon as they get the ship turned over they will begin boarding however, you don't have access to your room until 1:30. Once you get boarded you are directed to one of the restaurants for a fabulous buffet lunch! We were lucky enough to see some special friends at lunch too! The mandatory muster drill is at 4pm and the stateroom hosts do an awesome job of ensuring you have the right life jackets for the people in your room. The muster drill is painless and pretty quick and immediately after you should help up to Deck 9 for the Sail Away Party.

Staterooms
We opted for Deluxe Oceanview Staterooms on Deck 2. Deluxe means you have a split bath - meaning there is a tub and sink in one room and a toilet and sink in another. I thought the room was nice. I remembered from our previous cruise (not Disney) how tiny the rooms are but it was not bad at all. We had a queen size bed and the sofa turned into a single bed. We also had a bunk bed recessed into the ceiling which the stateroom host set up for us each evening at turndown. He even added a special touch putting princess sheets on the beds! My girls loved it! The closet was large enough to store our luggage and really space was not at all an issue. The stateroom service was fabulous and towel animals adorned our beds each night at turndown as did some yummy chocolate!

Dining
I thought the food was great. Always plenty of choices on the menu. And there was a special kids menu/activity sheet each evening. For breakfast and lunch there was always a couple buffets and an ala carte option. For dinner you are assigned an time (main or late) and you are on a dining rotation as there are 3 dining rooms. One night is Pirate Night and there is a special menu which is the same in all the restaurants, that evening. You are also assigned a table number which remains the same and servers who follow you to the different dining rooms. Our family being somewhat large had a table all to ourselves but we did dine around the same families each night so we did get to meet some great folks. They do have pizza open late and on Pirate Night there is a late buffet. Room service is available 24 hours a day and they do have a beverage station where you can get sodas, milk and water all the time. The Wonder has an adult only restaurant, Palo that is available for brunch and dinner for an additional charge. I hear it's fabulous but we did not do it this time. Maybe next time! One interesting note about dining is that there is a cast member stationed outside each and every restaurant handing out sanitizing wipes before you enter any dining room. They are all about the hand washing!

Activities & Entertainment
Each day the cruise staff prints a Navigator which is your guide to all that is going on for the day. The guide is full of great information - about shopping, the evening entertainment, dining options and a full schedule of the daily activities. The activities are broken down by theme - Special, Characters, Entertainment, Family, Adult, Kids. They have activities from 9am until 2am (or something like that!). There is literally something for everyone! The evening entertainment was great - we saw 3 Broadway style shows and Toy Store 3 in 3-D. Disney Cruise Line boasts they are the only cruise line that can show first run movies since they own them! There were several showing throughout our cruise. One highlight is Pirate Night. They have special character appearances with the characters in pirate attire and they encourage all the passengers to dress up too (we didn't but plenty of people did). There is a big party on the deck complete with fireworks and a special buffet.

I hope you enjoyed Part I of Lori's post.  Check back in a few days for Part II.  And on a personal note, thank you Lori for taking the time to share this with us!