Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

Day Bag /deɪ bæɡ/   1. A flexible container of fabric or nylon with comfortable straps, measuring no larger than 22 inches wide, 14 inches high and 9 inches deep, carrying only the essentials passports or other allowed proof of citizenship, travel documents, completed and signed cruise documents, medication, valuables (jewelry, cash, purse) Disney Cruise Line Packing 101 2. A schoolbag or backpack of everything and anything that is not replaceable and a vacation essential. 3. An enormous load perfect for dad to schlep around all of the fun things you might use the first afternoon of vacation, including but not limited to: swimwear sunscreen cameras chargers phones, anything your kids can't cruise without (favorite snack or their stuffed bear, for example) necessary toiletries (contact lens solution) makeup sail away party items or anything else you don't want tossed around 4. Your lifeline until luggage magically appears midafternoon or early in t...

What is a Port Arrival Time? Isn't that when I board the ship? Can I show up  earlier or later? Don't let a few little questions make you miss the boat, so to speak.  Disney Cruise shuttle waiting at the Orlando International Airport What is a Port Arrival Time? If all 3,000 some odd passengers who are on a cruise together arrive at Port Canaveral at the same time, the terminal becomes rather packed. In order to try to spread out arrivals on embarkation day, the port arrival time, a kind of reservation of sorts was born.  If guests arrive spread out over a few hours on embarkation morning and early afternoon, these reserved time windows allow guests to experience shorter wait times and flow through check-in and boarding smoothly. How do I get a Port Arrival Time? When you are completing your online check-in process, you can select a port arrival time. Usual port arrival times span 10:00am to 3:30 pm on the half hour with some variation based on home...

Who wouldn't love an upgrade? Moving from an interior stateroom to a verandah or from a verandah to a concierge suite doesn't have to be only a Dream.  Live the dream. Upgrading is easier than you think! The question, of course, is when and how exactly to score an upgrade. Before the Sail Date There are two ways to score an upgrade in advance of packing your bags. 1.) Pixie Dust! Imagine logging in to your reservation one day and the stateroom number doesn't match your memories. You go to look up if they've moved you down the hall to an identical porthole room. No, the room is up a deck and seems to be a verandah stateroom. That can't be right. That's not what you paid for so you call up Disney Cruise Line only to find out "Surprise!" they've sprinkled pixie dust on your stateroom and you will be enjoying ocean breezes from the privacy of your very own verandah at no additional cost. More often you will shift staterooms to one withi...

We stepped forward and surrendered a key to the world card to the cast member at the supervisor desk as we asked if any upgrades were still available. She said that there were in fact two upgrades available. She said that an upgrade to a one bedroom concierge suite was available for a little over a thousand dollars. (That's about when the ridiculous grins broke out, because we were under our discussed budget and would be cruising concierge!) Then she scanned sideways on her grid and said that the Walter E Disney suite was available for a little over three thousand dollars. Ben and I discussed it in depth. In advance. So, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, we turned over all of our stateroom 5052 key to the world cards. (They let Kylee keep her old card after it was deactivated, just so she could have a card in her lanyard.) They charged the upgrade to our room, then they handed our new (gold) key to the world cards to a concierge cast member who walked us to the...

After taking their sweet time settling down to bed the night before, I was quite startled when Kylee woke up at four in the morning. Eastern Standard Time. When we're from the Central Time Zone. Well anyways, we were up. Chris stayed asleep, so I let Kylee crawl in on my side of the bed hoping that everyone else could stay asleep and maybe I could get some winks in too. By five-thirty it became painfully obvious that Kylee wasn't going to go back to sleep, so we grabbed her "embarkation day" Ziploc bag. (We always pack full outfits for the kids together with bows and accessories to make it easy to hand out clothes for the day.) While Kylee brushed her hair, I took a quick shower. Since we were still on the dark o'clock side of things, I dressed and got ready for the day because Kylee loves watching me get ready and it keeps her calm and quiet. Deluxe King Hyatt Regency-pardon the mess Ben admitted defeat and dressed as well and last of all, Chris rustled...

With all of the major players booked and the 120 day mark nearing, emails started trickling in. The concierge team contacted us to arrange for any reservations or port adventures we might want. The Facebook and DISboards groups began chatting away and FE groups formed. Pajamas-check, Dressy Clothes-check, Pirate Gear-check The cruise still sat far in the distance on the calendar, until, in a blur of holidays and parties packing finally began in earnest. I pack each child's things on a separate day so that I have time to remember whatever I've forgotten.  One outfit per bag. Super easy. The plastic bags that each days outfits stow in make convenient bags to shove their dirty clothes into for the trip home and protect my luggage from smelling like a gym locker.   Pirate Ships, Ghost Captains and Cutlasses. The perfect pre-cruise board game! All the bags squared away, we enjoyed an evening of "Catan: Junior." The next morning, I drove t...

How does a first day really go down? Do you need to eat lunch somewhere before you board? What do I need to do the first afternoon? What can my kids do? Are the clubs open yet? Come along on our typical embarkation afternoon to find out! The shuttle departs as the jubilant crowd moves onward, the sense of excitement nearly visible in the air. The majority of the luggage disappears rapidly and the vacationers tote day bags and paperwork into the terminal. Our family of four is down to a backpack of essentials . Paperwork, identification and some notebooks and crayons to keep the kids amused on the shuttle ride and during downtime. After slowly clearing security, more quickly clearing check in at the desks and retrieving the Oceaneer Club and Lab Mickey bands for children, we queue to meet Captain Mickey. While the kids peer at the model of the ship, I peruse the Personal Navigator to see where our afternoon will take us. The family of the day announced, the ...