Living with the Bug and the Bean: Our Disney Cruise

Why is it so hard to find the time to do what I want to do? I've been intending to ~~show off pictures~~ blog about our cruise and every night when the kids are finally in bed, I either spend some quality time with Netflix or succumb gratefully to sleep. But the moment has come and I'm finally writing about the first day of our cruise!

Not to flaunt my Florida resident status, but we're only about an hour from Port Canaveral, so I reserved a check-in time at noon. Checking in early helped us avoid long lines and gave us extra time to explore and eat on the ship. It turns out everything about a Disney Cruise is fun, even checking in at the terminal. We met Goofy and Mickey before we even boarded the ship!

Our check in process was quick and painless since I completed the paperwork online. All we had to do was show our ID's, take a picture for our Key to the World cards, and get an armband for The Bug to use the kid's program.

Our family was announced and applauded as we boarded the ship (a small taste of celebrity) and we were immediately awestruck with the beauty and grandeur of The Dream. While I always enjoy a good game of spot-the-tourist during a day at the Disney parks, we were pretty conspicuous standing and staring, mouth agape at the gorgeous ship. Everything was so clean and sparkly, I was in OCD paradise.

So. Much. Sparkle.

We would have to wait until 1:30 for our stateroom to be ready, so we started exploring the ship. We took pictures and autographs with Admiral Donald Duck, and then were graciously served luscious chocolate treats BEFORE lunch. We ate at Flo's V8 Cafe on the pool deck and then ate AGAIN at Cabanas. Seriously, we ate so much I think we made our money back before we even left the port.

It would have been rude not to.

Mommy is on vacation!

By the time our bellies were full, we decided to check out our stateroom and prepare for the mandatory lifeboat drill. That’s fun to explain to a five-year-old. “Why are we doing this?” “Once upon a time there was a ship named Titanic…” It was over quick enough (though not quickly enough for the toddler) and soon we were in our swimsuits by the pool for the going away party. Matthew and I took the gold in the childcare relay: one of us splashing with The Bug in the Mickey Mouse pool while the other ran through the Nemo splash pad with The Bean making sure he didn’t consume too much chlorinated water.

I made door decorations to help identify our room for the kids. Turns out The Bug memorized the number.

Party in our room!

Proof I was also on the ship.

Lifeboat drill!

Ready for the pool!

On deck for the Bon Voyage Party.

Before dinner, we went to watch The Golden Mickeys performance in the theater. The show itself was cute, but cheesy. The acting and effects were very high quality, but after the first few puns, I was spacing out between musical numbers. The kids were highly entertained though, right up until Ursula’s tentacles crept from the mist under the stage during the villains number… The Bug bolted from the theater and Matthew took her to childcare until the show was over. Before dinner, we squeezed in a family dance party, and boy do my kids have some good moves!

Family dance party!

Our first dinner was at The Enchanted Garden and everything was lovely. My main concern when booking the trip was that we had to select the second dinner seating at 8:15. This is usually pretty close to bedtime at home, so about a week before the cruise we started acclimating the kids and letting them stay up later. They did fine and were very well behaved for a multi-course meal in a formal setting. And of course, the food and service were excellent! Our servers were especially gracious to our kids, and at no point did I feel really stressed about trying to eat fancy food as a family, even though The Bean insisted on wearing his dinner napkin as a cape.

After dessert we picked up some souvenirs and returned to our stateroom for baths and bed. The room was transformed into bunk beds for the kids (which they LOVED) with a privacy curtain for mom and dad so we could watch TV without waking the kiddos.