Florida Guide > Travelling
Our Disney Cruise
To break up our stay in our villa last August, we treated ourselves to a three day Disney Cruise. It was excellent! ! !
The weather was beautiful, hot and sunny, and the sea was extremely calm for all our three days at sea.
The Disney Wonder departs from Port Canaveral and the drive there from our villa on Eagle Pointe, Kissimmee, takes approximately 45 minutes. The first sight of the cruise ship is awesome! Words just cannot describe that first glimpse of the Disney Wonder. Crisp, clean, navy blue, white, with red funnels, shiny clean glass portholes reflecting in the sun, it was just waiting for everyone to board and depart.
The check-in was seamless, bags ticketed, taken away and delivered to our rooms with no hitches. Car parked and we were ready to board. The first impression was a large gilded atrium with elevators, grand staircase and of course the Disney characters. We were greeted by a member of the Disney cast – and there were so many cast members on the cruise and all were extremely helpful throughout the trip.
We explored all the decks and had a bite to eat at the buffet and then our room was ready – we were on Deck 6 – not too far away from all the action. We had a balcony which I would recommend, really nice to sit outside in the early morning and watch the ship dock. Our room was spacious, one double bed and bunk bed, separate toilet and shower, TV and internet access – great for keeping in touch and so nice to be able to email and say “Hey I’ve arrived in the Bahamas today…. ”!
As the ship leaves the port there are celebrations – streamers, Disney characters, dancing on stage and lots of singing – really does bring a tear to the eye! ! !
The Disney Wonder has so many facilities, children’s pool, adults only pool and spa area, football nets, pool tables, games room for the children, kids clubs, cinema – we saw “Wall-E” and treated ourselves to a large tub of popcorn! Shows, bars, internet area, photo gallery, 3 x restaurants, the list goes on…
All meals are included and for the three nights you sit at the same table with the same people, and then rotate restaurants. The “Animators Restaurant” was a real experience. The walls are black and white to start with and then as the evening goes on, the walls subtly change colour and by the end of the evening, cartoon characters appear and the walls are all brightly coloured and even the attendants have changed their waistcoats to more colourful ones! ! !
Our first port of call was the Bahamas. The sea there was turquoise blue. We opted for the Atlantis Acquapark excursion and we were really glad we had chosen that. The weather was scorcing hot so the thought of spending all day in the water was really appealing. The trip was well organised, a mini bus drove us to the Atlantis hotel, which is a huge, resort style place, lots of pinky/cream buildings and lots of sparkly blue water, which we couldn’t wait to get in as we were so hot! We had a great day there and it was especially good for my 9 year old son, who loved the tall, fast water slides. Light lunch was included and by 5. 00 pm we were ready to leave and return to the ship to get ready for our evening meal
The next day we docked at Disney’s Castaway Cay – their very own private beach in the Bahamas. The weather once again was boiling hot and we slowly walked to the beach area, and wisely chose sun loungers in the shade. Our excursion this day was a trip on jet skis and they were great fun. We also had a really good tour guide who pointed out the sights, history and fascinating facts about this small island. Lunch was included again and this was a really super BBQ – endless amounts of meat, salad and trolleys full of mouth-watering fresh fruit and of course ice-creams for the kids.
After a full day in the sun we were glad of the shade back at the ship and chilled out on our return.
The next day we were back at Port Canaveral and we were sorry to leave – but we had a great time and a three day cruise is a great introduction to the world of cruising and I would have no hesitation in booking again for a longer period next time.
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