Our Disney Cruise Trip- The Details - Part 1

I mentioned yesterday that we are home from our amazing vacation! Life is back to being fast paced since coming back home and before I forget some of the details, I want to document our trip here!

Let me start out by saying that I gave myself LOW expectations for this trip. While it wasn't last minute, it was a little spontaneously booked. Booking it early gave me lots of time to think about this trip and as Sam got older, the more I thought that this trip was going to be difficult. Schedules, naps, feeding, strollers, long waits...I began to worry whether we would actually have any "fun". Some people mentioned that they didn't even realize we were going because I hardly talked about the trip. A big part of that was because I was worried!

A large part of my worry was the flight. I packed a TON of fun things for Sam for both flights (there and home). The little stinker ended up sleeping on BOTH flights and these fun things were never even touched.

As I mentioned, we wanted to head down early in case of a storm. Being that the weather was good, we had a whole day to kill in Orlando. We decided since we all love Disney, to take that day and visit the Magic Kingdom. Again, our expectations were low. After much research I realized that there were lots of rides for Sam but I was worried that they would scare him. He can sometimes shy away from new situations like that.

We stayed at Disney's Contemporary resort which meant we could have access to the Monorail. This would mean we could travel easily and quickly (5 mins!) from the Magic Kingdom to our hotel. We were up bright and early the first morning so we could arrive right when the park opened at 9 am! That is always my biggest tip, get there early and head straight for the rides!! A LOT of people walk around the shops that are located right at the entrance and don't start lining up right away. We can usually get 3-4 rides in before the lines start to get busy!

A little photo op with the castle first though! 

It was a colder, rainy day at the Magic Kingdom which helped with the crowds. We headed straight to our first ride, Pirates of The Caribbean. It's a personal favorite but it's dark and I imagine could be a little scary to a small child. Again, Sam surprised us by yelling "WEEEEE" as we went down the little "scary" hill. And then proceeded to sing "Yo Ho" for the rest of the day.

We had so much fun at Disney that morning! Pirates, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Winnie The Pooh, It's A Small World and then lunch at The Liberty Tree. It was such a fun morning and within 5 minutes we were back to our room for Sam's afternoon nap!

On Little Mermaid 

In line for Peter Pan 

Riding on Dumbo

 After Sam woke up, we had a quick snack and then headed BACK to the Magic Kingdom! It was POURING rain at this point but decided to go on a couple more rides and grab the embroidered Mickey Ears for Sam.

That night we ate supper in our room and Sam went to bed. As he slept we snuck around the corner and were able to have a full view of the Magic Kingdom's fireworks show! It was amazing! We headed to bed ourselves knowing that the next day was a big day, we would be getting on our ship!

My parents had booked us in for Chef Mickey's buffet breakfast that is available at our hotel for the next morning. It is a GREAT opportunity to see all of Disney's favorite characters without having to stand in a long lineup to wait!! You get breakfast and each character comes around to your table!

Goofy was the first one by and I waited to see how Sam would react! A smile broke out in his face and he wasn't scared at all. Goofy was great and got some smiles out of Sam. Sam's eyes continued to follow goofy around the room for the rest of the breakfast!

Meeting Mickey was a HIGHLIGHT that I will remember for the rest of my life. Mickey swung Sam's highchair around and started playing and "talking" to him right away. Sam really warmed up to him and by the end of the visit was giggling and giving him lots of hugs and kisses. He then got upset when he had to say bye which meant Pluto's visit wasn't so popular.

Finally, we grabbed our bags and caught our bus to Port Canaveral. It was a 1.5 bus ride and Sam watched Wiggles the whole time. As we drove up to the port, we got the first glimpse of our ship, the Disney Fantasy. I can't even describe the size! Disney makes the transition SUPER easy and 100% look after your luggage. All you really do is sign up, go through security and check in! Once you are checked in, you head to your ship, scan your "key to the world" card and come aboard! As you are walking in there is are members of the Disney staff there to announce and welcome you.

We headed to our room right away and put Sam down for a nap, took some literature and enjoyed a peaceful couple of hours getting a handle on what the activities were for the next week! We just got more and more excited for the days to come! It was those few moments going over the schedule, menu's and signing Sam up for some on ship activities, that the realization of the amazing week we were about to have! 

xo