Disney Cruise Packing List

 Hey there princess!

For my cruise this year, I had tons of fun planning our trip and getting all the "essentials" together. If you are planning a cruise for yourself and are looking for some inspiration, please enjoy my finds below!

This bag from Etsy was too cute, plus I love a custom item! Find it by clicking here!

I wore this quarter zip with my name on it on repeat during my trip! It was SO SOFT. This was another Etsy find, and you can get one for yourself by clicking here. 

I also purchased Niles and I a lanyard to wear so that we wouldn't lose our room card. I chose pattern 2 for both of us, but this shop had some fun options! You can find their Etsy shop by clicking here. 

To go with the lanyard, I bought these clear plastic sleeves from Amazon. You can find them here. 

Last but not least, I bought Dramamine - classic! I ended up not needing it, but my husband did when the boat got more rocky. It worked! You can pick one up for yourself here. 

Sparkle on!

Babymoon Aboard the Disney Wonder: Day 4, Day at Sea

 Hey there princess!

Day 4 aboard the Disney Wonder was our last full day on the cruise. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and we decided to focus on just resting, relaxing, and enjoying our time together. I think everyone should do their own thing on their vacations, and Disney provides you with enough options to be able to have whatever kind of vacation you want to have. I saw other passengers spending a lot of time at the pool, and others take advantages of activities onboard like crafts, bingo, trivia, etc. For me, I just wanted to sit outside and watch the water, and take naps. It was an incredibly restful trip!

I was still stuffed from dinner the night before, so for breakfast, I stuck with oatmeal and some fruit tarts from Cabanas. If you're interested in a larger, more lux breakfast, places like Triton's are open for complementary breakfast, but each morning I found myself just wandering to the buffet because they were open later in the morning and sleeping in was a top priority. Cabanas also offers fresh fruit, eggs, waffles, bacon, sausage, and other standard breakfast items. 

After breakfast, we took a walk around the boat and made a stop at the three gift shops onboard to make any final souvenir purchases. I got myself a spirit jersey and Niles purchased a t-shirt. We were also sure to pick up a Christmas tree ornament and some bathtub toys for baby boy to-be. 

The ocean was absolutely beautiful, and I spent several hours on this day just sitting outside enjoying the view. I was surprised that the rocking of the boat completely negated my pregnancy nausea. It is the best I felt the whole time I was pregnant. I absolutely love the ocean. 

Onboard, they also have "Dole Whips" available for purchase out by the pool. Now, I will say this had a smoothie consistency, so it was different from the Dole Whips that are available at Disney parks, which are more of a soft serve consistency. The flavor was exactly the same, though, and I loved this! I drank all of mine, and probably half of Niles' glass. Such a terrific treat! 

On our last night we got a little penguin on our bed as a surprise after we saw the evening show. I will say, all of the shows were incredible and so much fun. It was so wonderful to hear my favorite Disney songs and see the beautiful sets and talented actors. I love watching any kind of theater, and I looked forward to seeing the show every evening. Even if you're not that interested in Broadway, I would really encourage you to go to each of the shows. They are tons of fun, and had me feeling incredibly nostalgic. 

Dinner was at Animator's Palate, which was a really fun restaurant with TV screens on the wall that showed progressions of classic Disney pictures being drawn. For people going on longer cruises, you will have the opportunity to draw your own picture and have it be animated on the screens during the dinner show. Even without that, we had tons of fun at our meal, and as per usual - everything was delicious!

I ordered two entrees at this dinner, the chicken breast and the steak, because the meals are all you care to enjoy, and my Dole Whip was a distant memory! I have to say both were delicious! If you want two entrees, or two appetizers, or every single thing on the menu to take one bite out of to try - just ask! Your servers will be more than happy to bring it to you! 

I got the ice cream sundae for desert - fantastic! How cute is the little chocolate Mickey on top?!

Our servers wrote our initials in chocolate on a plate, which I thought was very cute!

Sorcerer Mickey came by for the dinner show, and went by each table dancing and posing. Once the show was over, we went straight to bed. The next morning, we were disembarking the ship, so we wanted to get ourselves packed back up, and enjoy our last night on the softest bed in the world! Seriously - the bed is so comfortable, and the pillows were divine. I slept so well on this trip. 

On our last morning, we got our luggage together and headed to Cabana's so that I could have one last Mickey waffle before heading home. This was an absolutely amazing trip, and I would absolutely go again! Once our little guy gets older (and potty trained) I would absolutely take another trip like this, or maybe do one of their themed cruises for Halloween or Christmas. There were tons of activities onboard for kids (though as two adults traveling without children I never felt like the experience was too kiddie), and I would love to splash around in the pool as a family. 

That is the end of my Disney Wonder trip! I want to do a follow-up blog to this with all of the items I purchased in anticipation of this trip from small shops (and other essentials I used from Amazon). If you have any questions, please let me know, I would love to answer them!

Sparkle on!

Babymoon Aboard the Disney Wonder - Day 1, Embarkation

 Hey there princess!

Before I found out that I was pregnant, I scheduled a surprise Disney Cruise for my husband, Niles' 30th birthday. Just a few weeks after booking the trip, I found out that I was pregnant and the trip turned into a combined birthday celebration and babymoon. This was the first time either of us had ever been on a Disney Cruise (I went on a Carnival Cruise in 2008 and Niles has never been on a cruise). 

Now, I will start off by saying that this cruise happened in January 2022, so there were a lot of COVID protocols in place, so for the most accurate information you should check the Disney website for the most accurate information. I will also say that the beginning of the Disney Cruise began at the port of entry (for us this was Galveston, Texas) where you were given a COVID test. It was at this test that I found out I had COVID and was not permitted to board the ship. I will put all of the information about what happened at the very bottom of this blog post for people who are interested, as I haven't seen a lot of information online about what happens when you test positive for COVID on the day you are supposed to set sail. Long story short - I rebooked the trip for three weeks later at no additional cost. 

Above is a photo of what the waiting area looks like in Galveston while you wait for your test results. As you can see, the place isn't packed at all. In fact, the whole ship was pretty empty. Our cruise was only booked at something like a 20% capacity, which is terrible for business, but was incredible for our experience. There was no waiting in line, we got great seats for the shows, and we felt incredibly cared for. 

Once we boarded the ship, there was a little performance put on by Mickey and Minnie to welcome us on the ship. As you can see, mask policies were very much in place, and we were required to be masked in all areas of the ship unless we were in our stateroom, outside, or actively eating or drinking. You guys know the drill. The show was super cute, but if I am totally honest after the anxiety of waiting for the COVID tests to come back negative, and the exhaustion of being 4.5 months pregnant... I mostly just wanted to go to the stateroom and crash.

Before you know it, we had completed our safety drill and were able to go to our room to put our things down and relax a little bit. However, being the pregnant woman I was... by then I was hungry! Thankfully, no matter what time it is, there is always food to be found onboard a cruise ship. We made our way to Cabanas, the buffet onboard and loaded up on chicken nuggets and French fries. 

Above is a photo of the buffet (notice... no line!) and you can also see a photo of the classes that they give you to drink out of which have little Mickeys on them! So cute! Here is what I will say about the buffet - the food is great! There is something for everyone, and each meal rotates out the food so you don't ever get tired of anything. However, there is always something available for picky eaters as well, which is great because as a pregnant lady there are just some days where you want to eat something safer. There is also a fresh fruit stand open all the time in Cabanas so you can get in your vitamins. 

Negatives for me would be the size of the glasses that they give you. I love the little Mickey heads, but I am from Texas where we do everything bigger - most certainly cup sizes (I mean have you been to Whataburger?). After lunch, I had to run myself to the gift shop and purchase a large Tervis tumbler to use throughout the rest of the trip. It was easily the best thing I purchased! While I didn't need it in the main dining room, it was essential the rest of the time. 

After my very necessary trip to the gift shop, we took a stroll around the rest of the ship to get our bearings. Look at this place - totally empty! Now, keep in mind, this was the end of January/beginning of February and the weather was a little chilly (chilly to me is high 60s/low 70s). The weather was still gorgeous, but I understand why this wasn't prime cruise time for the average person. The boat was meticulously clean and there were tons of cast members available to answer any questions. 

we went and listened to a live jazz band play before being seated for our dinner hour. All of the performers on the ship were absolutely wonderful. But who am I kidding? I was there for the food. 

Our first meal on the ship was at Tiana's Place, which is a New Orleans-style restaurant complete with live jazz music and an end-of-meal parade. On Disney Cruises, they do something called rotational dining, where your servers in the dinner hour go with you from one restaurant to another (there are 3 different restaurants onboard the ship, so we transition from one style of cuisine to another, and the staff move with you). 

Something else of note is that all of the food is included, and guests are encouraged to order as many items from the menu as they wish. The people seated next to us were food bloggers and ordered one of everything! On this first night onboard, I ordered the barbecue shrimp and grits as my appetizer followed by a salad. The real showstopper was dinner, where I ordered the pork chops and niles ordered steak. The servings were enormous and we were absolutely stuffed by the end of our meal! Everything was divine, and we were even given little Mardi Gras beads as a souvenir from the meal!

After that, I absolutely had to go straight to bed to sleep off our enormous meal in preparation for the next day. It was truly a 'wonder'ful day!

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Now - on to the story of what exactly happens to you if you show up to a Disney Cruise and test positive for COVID. The day of our first scheduled cruise, we showed up and took our COVID tests (these are PCR tests that you administer yourself, testing inside the nose). We then went to the waiting area which is pictured above, prior to boarding. I noticed that a lot of the people in the room had gotten the green light to go upstairs to the boarding area, except for us and a few other families. 

At that time, we got a notice on our app to approach a staff member who would give us directions - my heart immediately sank and I knew in my gut what was happening. Immediately, one woman began yelling her grievances to the cast members working at the desk, which was rather upsetting. I waited behind her for her to finish speaking her peace, and another cast member approached us and another couple (there were 3 groups in total who tested positive on this day), and told us that our COVID tests were inconclusive and that we needed to follow them to retake the test. 

We did follow this cast member out of the room and down a long hallway (note that everyone was masked this entire time), and went into an area of the pier that I now know is where luggage is transported on and off of the ship to be sorted. It was around 12:00pm at this time. A doctor in full gear (think hazmat suit) came into our area and told us that I had tested positive for COVID and that we would not be permitted to board the ship. A few minutes later, a cast member came by and asked if we would like any snacks and water while we waited for our luggage to be returned to us. 

I thought this was super weird... how long could it possibly take to find our luggage? Either way, he came back with a water bottle for each of us about six single-serve bags of Lays brand potato chips. He explained that we could have a full refund on our trip, and I said that was totally ok and signed off on the paperwork he presented to me. We then proceeded to wait in the terminal until 3:30pm when the boat was scheduled to depart. At that time the same man came back and walked us from the terminal to the parking lot and that was the end of our little adventure. I admit, I shed a lot of tears that day and in the following days. 

I still don't understand why we had to wait in the terminal for three and a half hours, and why I was told that I was being taken back to retake the COVID test when that was obviously not what was going to happen, but either way the experience didn't disturb me so much that I didn't rush to rebook the trip as soon as I could.

In all, I had an absolutely fantastic time! I just wanted to share that experience, since I haven't been able to find anyone else online who went through the same thing. If you have any questions about it, please don't hesitate to ask!