A little late for our summer posts, but better late than never….especially when it comes to posting about Disney Cruise! 🙂
We’re always excited to welcome summer for many reasons….longer days, late bedtimes, a ton of free play, farmers’ market, and most of all, having Mimi and Brianne in our home for 2 whole months. Ofcourse, there’s always our one big annual trip in the summer to look forward to, and this year, it was even more exciting because we would be traveling to Alaska with a large group of friends!
Mimi and Brianne arrived on Bridgette’s last day of second grade and immediately the next morning, we embarked on our trip to Alaska. First stop was Vancouver for the weekend where we enjoyed the delicious food, night market, and pool time at our hotel.
After a day and a half in Vancouver, we were ready to embark on the Disney Wonder for our 7 night Alaska cruise! Even though this was our third Disney cruise, the excitement definitely did not dissipate one bit!
Our group consisted of 5 families and a total of 6 kids. Once we were on board the ship, the parents wanted to take their time to get oriented a bit….but the kids had other priorities, such as hitting the pool and the kids’ club right away!
The sail off party was excellent as always, hyping up everyone’s energy even more (if that’s possible!). We danced, sang, and cheered as Mickey, Minnie and the gang officially welcomed us on board.
After that, we spent the afternoon touring the decks, getting familiarized with the kids’ club, and generally doing a lot of eating, singing, and dancing. That’s pretty much the culture on board a Disney cruise. 🙂
Since we all booked our cruises separately, we were assigned different meal times and tables, so one of my first priority when I boarded the ship was to arrange for all of us to sit together at meals. Cruising with a large group wouldn’t be half as fun if we didn’t get to eat together! Fortunately, the Disney crew is quite good at pulling magic and making things happen, so in the end, we were able to rearrange our meal times and tables to be together. Yay!
The first two days on board were sea days, and were quite relaxing. The kids hung out at the kids’ club a lot except when there were specific activities they wanted to join. The parents hung out together chatting and eating, and would resort to our own rooms for a quick nap or two in between. Some of us would hop into the theater for a movie viewing, or lounged around the deck to read. We would always meet up as a group for the daily show (one of our favorite parts of the cruise!) and for dinner, which was a lot of fun!
Since we all installed the Disney cruise app on our phones, we were able to text each other while at sea. The stateroom phones that we got were also helpful if we needed to call one another. We made a huge move this time by entrusting Brianne and Bridgette to check themselves in/out of the kids club. They promised to always stick together and to call us on the stateroom phone to let us know their whereabouts whenever they left the club. Bridgette’s friend, Karina, got the same privilege from her parents and all 3 girls did not let us down. They loved their newfound freedom, and we were proud of their bravery!
When we arrived to Tracy Arm, we weren’t allowed off the ship, but we got our first glimpse of the beautiful glaciers on board. Though it was pretty cold, the fleece blankets and unlimited hot cocoa supplied by Disney kept us happy and comfy!
Stay tuned for our first official port coming up….Skagway!
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