We went on a 4 night cruise on the Disney Wish. It was my first cruise ever and I'm hooked! I came home and started looking up more Disney cruise things - the other ships, dates, places they visit. I want to do all the Disney cruises!
The Disney Wish ship was gorgeous, all the cast members were incredibly friendly and helpful, the food was delicious, and the kids were obsessed with the kids' pool and splash zone. I was also in love with our stateroom. We had a oceanview with a verandah. I've now been spoiled and I don't know if I'll be able to do a cruise in the future without one!
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Now how did the kids do?
Motion Sickness
No one got sick during our time on the ship. The first night I felt some movement and it made me feel weird, not nauseous though. I took some gravol before bed just in case. But that was it. The kids never got sick or complained of anything. This was my biggest fear about going on a cruise. My kids and myself get motion sickness easily so I thought we'd be in trouble. But we did good so now I feel confident to do more cruises!
Meet and Greets
If you want to meet Disney characters, a Disney cruise is the place to do it! There were character meets all day, every day. In the Disney Cruise Line app, you can see the schedule for the entire cruise, and that includes character meets. We were able to meet all the characters we wanted and we waited no more than 15 minutes for any of them which was great. My kids loved every character meet and greet and I may have shed a few happy tears.
The restaurants were incredible, the wait staff was so amazing and we were stuffed after every dinner. I wish we explored more of the food options for breakfast and lunch. We gravitated to the same things (because they were yummy and the kids loved them) but I've seen pictures and YouTube videos of food options that I definitely missed out on. We ordered breakfast to our room every morning (it's included in the price of the cruise!) of fruit, pastries, coffee and dry cereal. That was one of my favourite things. Then we'd hit up Marceline Market for a second breakfast a couple of hours later.
Naps
Our youngest, who's 2 1/2, still has an afternoon nap. We missed it the first 2 days while we were in Disney World so by the first day of our cruise, she was a meltdown mess. We had an early night and she slept a solid 12 hours. From that night on, we went back to our room mid-afternoon every day so she could nap for a couple of hours. Our oldest ended up napping almost every day as well. The fresh air, swimming and excitement just exhausted them. And it let us have some quiet time with a coffee and some snacks that we brought back from Marceline Market while they slept.
The naps helped the kids stay up a bit later without being miserable too. We were able to watch a couple of the after dinner shows and the kids stayed up till 10:30 PM on Pirate Night for the fireworks. I can't recommend nap time or some quiet downtime enough.
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Castaway Cay is Disney's private island in the Bahamas which we stopped at during our cruise itinerary. It's absolutely beautiful. There's a decent amount of walking to each beach, activity spot and restaurants. We walked to the first beach but our 2 year old wanted to be carried for most of it. If you have kids that will walk on their own, it's really not that bad of a walk. On the way back to the ship we were smart and waited for the tram so we didn't have to carry our toddler back. So depending on your child, you may want to take advantage of the tram on the island to get around.
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
We had plans to get both our kids an appointment for a Princess makeover. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique provides hair styling, accessories, and outfits for kids to become a princess, Captain Mickey or Minnie, a pirate or a knight. Lily was too young; it's for 3 years and up. So we still booked an appointment for Emma and bought Lily a princess dress on Amazon and brought it with us. It worked out so well!
So yes, the appointments are not cheap. I've read that you can bring your own dress and pay less just for the hair/makeup and experience. But we got Emma the Elsa dress there that she wanted. She loved every second of the makeover and the "fairy godmother" did an incredible job making Emma feel special and like she might actually have some ice powers. It was sweet. If your child really loves a certain character that they offer, I think the experience is worth it.
I found the Disney cruise fun and exciting but still relaxing. You could fill your days up with activities or spend the afternoon lounging on the pool deck, watching Disney movies and eating ice cream. I can't wait to book another Disney cruise vacation because it was such an amazing trip with my family.
Have you been on a Disney cruise before? Or a regular cruise? Did you like it?
xo Jen
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