About a month ago we got sprinkled with pixie dust! On the day after my birthday this year, my little family of four will be boarding our very first Disney Cruise! We are sailing the Disney Dream to Nassau and Castaway Cay (pronounced key) and what’s more, it’s a special Halloween Cruise! To say I’m excited is an understatement. I am super geeked for all a Disney Cruise has to offer.

You already know we love to cruise. (pic above is from our last one) Kaya has only done one and has been asking to go on another for an entire year now lol. We have sailed on a variety of Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line ships, so having a Disney Cruise Line experience is going to be awesome. I’m looking forward to all the family time, fun, exploring, food as usual, but also happy about the Disney newness!

Here are a few things I’m already looking forward to that is different from the other lines we’ve sailed:

Pirate Night

We get to dress up and play pirates and party on the ship in our piratey best! I bought full pirate costumes for the kids, and pirate-esque tees for John and I. ….but I’m legit thinking of buying a full costume. I mean…just think of the pictures! I’m looking forward to saying way too many Arrghs and Maytees and Shiver me timbers and whatnot. I need to find an eye patch.

Castaway Cay 5K

Castaway Cay is Disney’s private island and as a 5K participant we get to leave the ship early to run (or jog, or walk) and then get to enjoy the island with the rest of the folks. All I do is win win win no matter what. So I’m ready to run this 5K and smoke John, like always. (I really hope he reads the blog today hehe) I’m so excited to do my next 5K on Disney’s private island! What a treat!

Character Meets

At Disney World meeting the characters is kinda hard. From what I hear, characters are roaming around on cruises freely and it’s so easy to bump into them and snap a quick pic. There’s also a character breakfast, and a princess meet and greet we can easily set up a time for. I can’t wait for Kaya to meet Princess Tiana! I’m gunna get her this lil outfit to wear that day. Bonus: she wont have to wear the costume all day like she would if we were meeting her at Disney World.

Halloween Party

So not only do we get to dress up for pirate night, we’re on a Halloween on the High Seas cruise so we also have a halloween party and can dress up in costumes another night! Yay!! I’m putting Ro and Kai right back in their costumes from last year, Doc Mcstuffins, and Catboy. Easy, free, and Disney! #momwins Not sure what I’ll be. I asked John what he wanted to do and he was like, I’ll just be a pirate that day, too. ::sigh:: I gotta work on him.

Palo  / Animators Palace

We always eat at the specialty restaurants when we cruise, just for the variety and the special service. I’m looking forward to Palo because John will be forced to dress up for it! Yay. I’m sure the food and service will be amazing, but I’m happy that I’ll be able to get John into “work” clothes while on vacay and get great pics.  Animators Palace is going to be a treat because they take a drawing you create and animate it for you on a screen. The kids are going to love that! (I mean, so will I, who wouldn’t?)

Serenity Bay

Remember Castaway Cay? Well there is an adult only area there. You can drop your kids to the kids only area, and then enjoy a lunch or some beach time with no shrieking rugrats little ones around! I hear there are massages on the beach there too. So that may be nice. I’m just looking forward to the peaceful beach experience, honestly.

Mickey & Minnie Phone Calls

You can go set up a phone call on the Disney Cruise Lines website where Minnie and Mickey call your kids to let them know that they’re so excited your kids will be coming to visit them. So cute! I’m going to surprise the kids with this on the Friday night before we head to Orlando, because I know once we hit the road they will be asking all sorts of questions and I will be bursting to tell them!

This is going to be such a fun family trip! We are spending a few nights up in the Disney area beforehand, and on my birthday we are going to Disney World. It’s a hard life, but someone’s gotta live it!

I’ve been reading and researching about Disney Cruises ever since we got the invite so I can’t wait for the experience to be here. Any tips for me? I want all the DCL Hacks!

Have you been on a Disney Cruise?