It’s September, and the fall is creeping in. And importantly, September kicks off with Von’s birthday. This year marks her 40th birthday, and it was important to celebrate the milestone birthday with something Big. So we went on a cruise! A Disney Cruise, which should surprise no one reading this. We opted for the Fantasy, which had a 5 night sailing leaving on the her day.

Neither of us had ever been on a cruise before. My boat experience is limited to the Boston-Provincetown fast ferry, the occasional sunset sail on the harbor, and leisurely rides on Marcia and Will’s boats. This, obviously, is an altogether different beast. After lots and lots of research¹ and hand-wringing, we decided that yes, we’d give it a go. We were both worried we would get on the boat and learn that this sort of vacation was Not For Us, but there’s only one way to find out, right?

(Here I would like to plug my cousin Dani and her wife Tori, who have a YouTube channel where they have experienced and reviewed a great deal of the DCL fleet. Go check it out.)

Now, this is gonna be a long one, so buckle in.

I’m On A Boat

To cut to the chase: it was great. Thanks to a sale, we ended up switching to a room with a verandah for less than we were originally going to pay for an inside stateroom. That ruled, and I could never go back to a non-verandah life. The room was considered “obstructed view,” but I honestly didn’t find it to be an issue.

If you’re already into the whole idea of Disney Magic as an experience you have at one of their theme parks, I’m going to tell you right now that my experience on this sailing had that in spades. And in a way that I frankly haven’t had in the parks in quite a long time. You see the characters just roaming the halls! And they’ll stop for you! In one such instance, our guy was having a rough time—he’d skipped a nap, it was getting close to dinner so hanger was setting in—and a full toddler meltdown was beginning. Just then, Princess Jasmine happened by. She came over and talked to him, and it turned his whole mood around. Never before have I felt so indebted to a Disney Princess.

Another fun instance, with less tears at any point, was again by the atrium running into Cinderella. She wasn’t at any scheduled meet and greet, but stopped to chat with our boy, and walked with him for a while. It was very sweet. And these chance encounters gave things a sense of Disney Magic that is what they really sell you on, but don’t always make happen.

Everyone on the ship was great. From the characters, to the various folks working on and offboard, I can’t sing their praises highly enough. Our stateroom host, Kryzza, was so wonderful. She’d stop and chat with us, and really engage with our little guy. She even got a sweet Cars bedspread set for his bed. And the head server, Krasimir (aka Krash), was so wonderful. He came around to the tables at dinner every night, to chat with us, ask about our days, give us tips about the coming events and activities. It was just a nice touch.

Waitress, I Need Two More Boat Drinks

With very few exceptions, the food and drinks on the ship were outstanding. While I did think they oft-lauded chicken tenders were just good, the dinners at the various rotational dining restaurants, Cabanas buffet, and Cars-themed quick service spots were great. The young man discovered a deep love for the pizza at Luigi’s, and I would estimate ate anywhere from 5 - 10 slices a day. They were small slices, but he’s a small guy. To say nothing of the self-serve soft-serve machines available nearly all day and night.

I think the only subpar food I had was on the two islands we stopped at. Disney has two ports they own: Castaway Cay, a full island that Disney leases from the Bahamanian government, and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, a peninsula on the island of Eleuthera. While I’ll have more to say about each of Disney’s ports below, I will say here that the barbecue offered on both (it’s the same food on each) was really not great. Almost everything I had was overcooked. It ended up making sense just to go back on the ship for a late lunch and finish the day onboard.

On the complete other side of the quality spectrum was our dinner at Palo. Kids aren’t allowed, so the young man got to spend a few hours in the It’s a Small World Nursery playing and probably watching any number of Cars movies or related media. Meanwhile, Von and I enjoyed a fantastic, fancy dinner the likes of which we rarely experience. The prix fixe menu was, perhaps, too much but undeniably delicious.

I Took a Trip on a Sailing Ship

So what all did we get up to? I, naturally, immediately found the running track on deck 4, and did a few casual sunrise 5ks while onboard. The track was approximately 2/5 of a mile, and helpfully darted into a slightly air conditioned corridor at the aft end.

And of course, while it’s not a whole runDisney race anymore, there is still a 5k you can run on Castaway Cay, complete with a medal. So you know I got off the ship first thing and knocked that out. I think this means I can truly stop doing runDisney races.

Onboard, there were some great stage productions. We caught an abbreviated performance of Aladdin that cut down the movie to a breezy hourish. The Genie, while obviously no Robin Williams, did a great job capturing the character’s sensibility, breaking the fourth wall and throwing in all sorts of jokes and bits. The acrobatics from the Magic Carpet were especially fun.

We also saw Believe, a show exclusive to the ships that is kind of a greatest hits medley of Disney songs and set pieces, wrapped in a story about a dad having neglected his daughter’s birthday. We’d been led to believe this was going to be a big tearjerker, and even as soft as I’ve become in parenthood, it never really hit the waterworks button. It was fun, though. All those songs are great! And the Genie acts as the emcee, dragging the dad through the whole spectacle and giving a weird sort of continuity to the two performances. I wonder, had we caught Frozen on the day between, would there have been more connecting the three shows?

In addition to the stage, there’s a movie theater on board, which showed a whole host of movies, but the only one we went to see was Cars. Our guy has become a huge fan of the Cars franchise (except Cars 2. He can’t seem to make it through that one.) and when we saw it was being shown on board, we figured why not make this his first theatrical experience? He loved it. He reacted to the movie, and to the other kids watching it in the theater. I don’t know if this will instill a love for the communal aspect of art and movies, but I hope so.

We of course also met a host of Disney characters, both out and about as mentioned above, and at various photo ops scheduled throughout the days. Here the young man developed a deep love for Chip and Dale that he had never really had before, if for no other reason than he hadn’t been exposed to them. He was also very into the idea of meeting Pluto, which he was finally able to do on Castaway. Dreams really can come true!

Also worth mention: the AquaDuck. It’s a big ol’ water slide that swirls around the top deck of the ship and out over the sea. It’s pretty cool! The lad returned to the It’s a Small World nursery for an afternoon to give Von and I some time to explore the ship on our own, which included a stop in the adults only area at the fore for some cocktails, and to ride said slide. It was a blast! Slower than I expected, but worth the wait.

I Wanna Go Back to the Island

Now back to Disney’s islands. We hit Lighthouse Point first, and boy was that fantastic. There’s a pretty long walk from the ship to the tram across an oversea bridge (approximately half a mile) that I know some people complain about, but I didn’t think it was that bad. Especially since it was a beautiful day.

The island itself was gorgeous. Beautiful clear water, incredible beaches, and it never really felt crowded. Honestly, I could have just sat on the beach for an entire day.

The whole setup on Lookout tries to incorporate the island culture, from the Junkanoo performances to the shop where local vendors are selling goods². It’s nice, and adds a little bit of flair to what could easily be a generic beach. And of course, you get lots of opportunities for Disney-themed activities. We took our guy to a kids dance party, where he limbo-ed with Goofy, and danced with Chip & Dale. He had a blast, for sure. He was also much less critical of the food, happily eating hot dogs and ice cream. We stayed on shore until a little after lunch, when we went back to the ship to hang out and get ready for our dinner at Palo.

Two days later, over on Castaway, the vibes were not quite as immaculate, but this was in part due to our own planning: I wanted to get the 5k knocked out early, before it got too hot, and so we all disembarked bright and early at 8am. In retrospect, Von and I agreed that I should have just gone and done my thing, while she and the lad had a more relaxed morning and met me there after. As it was, he was a little cranky, having had to get up so early.

Still though! A good time was had. The beaches and waters were lovely, and our guy had a great time floating and swimming in the ocean. He’s really taken to the water, which I’m glad for. He even got to meet Pluto in front of Mount Rustmore, which he was very excited about doing.

Come Sail Away With Me

Like I said before, this vacation was great. Being largely forced to disconnect from the internet was a blessing. Our phones were basically just there to give us the schedule of events on a given day.

Have I fully become a cruise person? Not exactly. I don’t know that the other major cruise lines—your Royal Caribbean, Carnival, et al—hold any real appeal for me. DCL is of course expensive, but I do feel like we got our money’s worth. And not just because our guy ate the difference in pizza and soft serve. We’ll definitely do one again, and not just because we put the deposit down before leaving the ship.³

One thing I worried about was crowding. A ton of people confined on the boat would lead to feeling overwhelmed, right? But that was almost never the case. A few big events, like the sail away party to kick off the trip, or the character dance party in the atrium, got packed, but otherwise I never felt like there were thousands of people onboard.

Now that I’ve done this exactly once I am, of course, a full-fledged expert in all things Disney Cruise Line, so I look forward to planning your next vacation.

For real though, invite us on your next cruise.