Have a Happy Cruise

We booked our cruise about 6 weeks before sailing, through the Florida resident portal on the Disney Cruise Line website. Going on an family vacation had been a daydream during the tortured time I spent proctoring FCAT with my 8th graders and finding a good last minute deal was our first miracle. We reserved a family stateroom with a veranda and I stated scouring blogs for travel and packing tips. I really believe the things I learned helped us have such a great cruise experience.  While most of what I discovered can be found in various spots online already, here's a quick summary of my favorite tidbits: 1. Plan a reveal - We waited until I was finished teaching to tell the kids about the cruise. While it was excruciating to have to wait, it was definitely better than hearing them ask EVERY SINGLE DAY if it was the big day for six weeks. It also gave me time to figure out a special way to tell them about our vacation. Through the Disney Cruise website, you can schedule a phone call from the characters (we chose Mickey and Minnie) before your cruise. It's a scripted call, but the kids LOVED it. I also prepared a poem and ordered some special Disney branded beachwear for them to pack on the trip. It was a great surprise and it set the tone for how special our trip would be. I've always hated writing poetry.  Don't judge me. 2. Door Decorations - Staterooms have metal doors and many families use magnets to decorate them, especially for special occasions. You can buy decorations on Etsy or from Disney and even on board the ship, but I chose to make our own because (a) we didn't have that much time and (b) I didn't want to spend lots of money on door decorations when I could get paper, magnets, and stickers for under $5 at Michael's. 3. Pirate Party - On the second night aboard the Disney Dream, Captain Mickey hosts his Pirates in the Caribbean party. You will be given a red pirate Mickey bandanna, but it's fun to bring costumes too. We made our own basic costumes with black shorts and white t-shirts and lucked out finding foam swords, pirate hats, and eye-patches at the Target dollar spot. Since the fireworks show doesn't begin until after 11 PM, I also picked up glow necklaces from the dollar spot. The kids loved them, and it saved me from having to buy expensive glowing Disney merchandise during the show.  4. Be Beach Ready - You do NOT need to pack towels. When planning the big reveal, I ordered Disney swimsuits, flip-flops, sunglasses, and pajamas for the kids, but I held my ground and did not buy towels. Not only are towels too bulky to pack, you won't need them since the ship provides towels at the pools and on Castaway Cay. I do recommend bringing a good beach bag, cheap beach toys, refillable bottles, and large plastic bags.  The beach bag will help you tote your sunscreen, drinks, toys, camera, autograph books, and anything else from the ship to the sand. My bag had a separate zipper pouch that was perfect for holding our keys to the world.  The dollar spot is your friend again when it comes to beach toys.  Yes, buckets are bulky to pack (I stuffed socks and underwear in them, so we didn't lose suitcase space), but the cute Nemo branded sand toys on Castaway Cay aren't cheap. Rather than bring our sandy buckets home, we bequeathed them to another family when we headed back to the ship. Real life sharing + sand-free suitcase = win.  You'll want to bring refillable bottles (insulated if possible) for water on Castaway Cay.  Water and sodas are available for free, but if you don't bring your own bottles, you'll have to buy bottled water if you want it on the beach with you. A short walk to the restaurant areas feels a lot longer in the hot sun to a thirsty child (or adult), and a cold bottle of water prevents a lot of whining. I packed an extra gallon-sized Ziplock for each person in our family to bring home our wet suits and things when it was time to come home.  Even though we dried everything out overnight, our suits were still damp when it was time to leave and the plastic bags kept them separate from our other clothes. Keep your drinks icy cold! I ordered the Minnie Mouse cup from Disney, but had to get Mickey through Amazon.  Weird, right? 5. Personalized Souvenirs - This was one of my favorites. You can drop off two items per stateroom with customer service to have autographed by the Disney characters and then they will be delivered to your stateroom with all the signatures on the last night of the cruise.  A lot of people buy picture frames or pillowcases, but I'm a teacher by trade, so we brought books.  I figure the books will actually get used and I don't mind keeping them literally forever. The kids had no idea I had brought them, so they were a fun extra surprise at the end of our cruise. Seriously, so cool! I found the books at Kohl's and bought them with promotional Kohl's cash, making them less than $5 each.  A good cheap souvenir and we didn't have to wait in line for the signatures. 6. Keep Yourself Organized - A lot of blogs recommend buying over-the-door shoe organizers to store small items in your stateroom. Disney prohibits the use of these organizers because they can damage the doors, and there really is quite a bit of storage space in the room anyway.  We were maxed out with 4 in the room, but had ample space to unpack and store our luggage under the bed.  I would advise you to swing by the Dollar Store again (notice a trend?) and find some suction cup hooks.  We used these to hang our suits to dry after the beach and the pool because they didn't all fit on the clothes line in our bathroom. Plus it looked tidier. You'll also want a pen and a highlighter to help you plan your adventures on your navigator.  I had a pen, but was aching for a highlighter the whole time. But of course, I love office supplies. I also carried one of my larger purses during the cruise even though most blogs advised against it.  I found it worked well for toting the camera, autograph books, water bottles, and diaper changing wallet around the ship and on our excursions. There is a lot of cruising advice floating around on the internet with more details and better pictures than I can give you, but after reading through a lot of it, this is what truly helped us the most. (Read about our cruise here, here, and here.)  If you find yourself planning a Disney Cruise I hope it helps you a bit too!