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    Three Disney Cruises
    Three Disney Cruises
    Three Disney Cruises
    Ebook272 pages3 hours

    Three Disney Cruises

    By Steve Burns

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    About this ebook

    Let's go on a cruise! Come along with the Burns family for three different Disney Cruise Line cruises over ten years. These accounts are a mixture of travelogue, experiences, opinions, humor, and lots of photos.

    Have you ever thought about going on a Disney Cruise and wondered if it was right for you? Read about our adventures here, both without a child and with one, or both traveling with another family or just the two of us.

    Of course, the bottom line is that we had a great time, as you might guess since this isn't just about one Disney Cruise. But there is so much more to it than just saying that we had fun.

    Come join us on our adventures!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSteve Burns
    Release dateSep 23, 2013
    ISBN9781301058907
    Three Disney Cruises
    Author

    Steve Burns

    Steve Burns is a husband, father, son, and amateur photographer, and he has made several trips to Walt Disney World in Florida. His first Disney trip was in 1983, and he has been often since that time. He got his first camera in 1987, and has been taking pictures ever since then, especially on his Disney trips. He lives with his wife, Laura, and his son, Jaylin, and various animals in Williston, Tennessee.

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      Book preview

      Three Disney Cruises - Steve Burns

      Welcome!

      Let’s go on a cruise!

      When I was growing up, all I knew about cruises was what I saw on The Love Boat every week on television. Love, exciting and new, and all that stuff. It looked like fun. Well, not exactly the romance part of it, because I was only around 10 years old and I didn’t care about all that mushy stuff. But the ship looked pretty neat, and it looked like it went some interesting places. And the crew looked like they had a good time overall, too, as did the passengers as long as they weren’t moping about because the love part wasn’t going their way. But otherwise, I never really thought about a cruise all that much.

      Time marched on, and I became a fan of Disney in general and Walt Disney World more specifically. I had been on several trips there as a kid, as well as into adulthood after Laura and I were married. And then, Disney started announcing that they were building their own cruise ships, the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder. To be honest, I really didn’t pay much attention at all to those announcements, because I still really hadn’t given going on a cruise much thought at all.

      But then, Laura started getting interested in going on a Disney cruise, because she thought it looked like fun. I resisted at first, but I eventually gave on when our 10 year wedding anniversary rolled around. The more I started looking at it all, and the more planning that we did, the more excited I became, because it really did look like fun. And then the time for our cruise came, and the rest is history. Well, not really important history, but the rest is at least written down in the following pages.

      Since the time of that first cruise, we have been on two other Disney cruises, and they have all been fantastic. I wish we could go on one every year, but we aren’t always in a position to do so. And perhaps that slight unattainability is part of what keeps us wanting more. Or perhaps it is just the great times and great guest service that keep us wanting more.

      So here for your reading enjoyment are the tales of our three (so far) Disney cruises. There are several goals here. The first goal is to inform you about what all is involved on a Disney cruise. The second goal is to give you some tips on your upcoming Disney cruise, if you are planning one or even just considering one. And the third is to just entertain you with some hopefully humorous stories along the way.

      A note about the order in which these cruise stories are presented. The first story here is the most recent one. Why? Mainly because I feel as though that story is much better written than the earlier ones. Maybe that is just my opinion. But after wrestling with it a bit, I decided to go ahead and present the latest first, followed by the first second, and the second, third. Who’s on first? However, you are welcome to read them in any order that you want, which is the beauty of having them all together here in book (or eBook) format.

      Several photos are included, mainly because I like to take lots of photos, and also because I feel that photos can make a story even more understandable. Plus, if you see us in the photos, you have a little better feel for the people you are reading about. But while there are several photos here, these are just a few compared to the full amount that I took on each trip. What can I say? It’s my hobby.

      So enjoy reading these tales. And hopefully be entertained, too.

      Part 1: The 20th Anniversary Cruise

      If you didn’t read the introduction a few pages earlier, you might be surprised to find that the most recent of our three cruises is presented first. But it is.

      For our 20th wedding anniversary, we decided that we wanted to take another Disney cruise. Going back to Walt Disney World for our anniversary wouldn’t be quite as exciting, because we have been there so many times, including on several of our wedding anniversaries. Not to mention our honeymoon. A Disney cruise is still special enough to be a big event for us, so we were looking forward to our cruise.

      And our friends the Riedels were also celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary the same year as us. Which if you aren’t good at math means that they were married the same year that we were. So we decided to all go together and have one big celebration.

      Was it fun? You bet. Read on to see why…

      Introduction

      First off, here is who we are:

      The Burns family – Steve, Laura, and Jaylin

      The Riedel family – Brant, Karen, Zach, and Katie

      The two of us Burnses, Steve and Laura, had been on two Disney cruises before, and we absolutely loved both of them. Because of all the fun that we had, we often talked about going back. And our 20 year wedding anniversary seemed the perfect time to do so. It just happens that our good friends the Riedels were also celebrating their 20 year anniversary the same year as us, so we decided to make it a group trip. We had talked about whether to make it an adults only trip, but in the end, it was decided that all of the kids would go along, too. It could still be a romantic anniversary cruise with the kids around, right? Well, yes and no. But that was the plan. So we had two cruise veterans and five first time cruisers, just in case you weren’t sure about all that.

      The next step really wasn’t a step at all. I suppose some people looking for a cruise would decide which cruise line they were going to cruise with. But for us, there was only one option, and that was the Disney Cruise Line. I hear all the time that the other cruise lines are just fine, and they may be. But after our fantastic experiences on our previous Disney cruises, I really can’t imagine cruising with anyone else. And the Riedels are big Disney fans, too, so that wasn’t an issue with them, either.

      Once we decided on the cruise line, we really didn’t have a choice as to which ship we would cruise on. We knew we wanted the 4-night Bahamas cruise, and at the time we could go the Disney Dream was the ship making that run. Previously, Laura and I had been on the Disney Wonder for both of our cruises, and it was just fine. So we would have been happy with any of the ships. But the Dream was to be our ship, and that was fine with us, too, because it was one of the two newer ships. That meant that it was bigger than the Wonder, and that meant that it would have that cool-looking Aquaduck water coaster going around the upper deck. Of course, we knew we would have to check that out. Even Jaylin was excited about that part. Mainly because they had made it look cool and fun on TV.

      With our general date and itinerary selected, it was time to actually book the cruise. We decided to use a travel agent, mainly because the Riedels knew someone who books cruises. In the past, I had booked our cruises online at the Disney Cruise Line website myself, and it never was a problem. But since they knew someone, I was fine with that, too, because it doesn’t cost any extra to use a travel agent. And it turned out to be a really good thing, because the travel agent took care of all the details associated with our two families travelling together – adjoining rooms, dinner seating together, and so on. That turned out to be a really big plus, although I didn’t necessarily realize it at the time. So in the future, would I use a travel agent for our next cruise? (And yes, there will be another cruise, at least for two of us. Foreshadowing the fact that we once again had a great time.) Yes, I believe I would. Because we really didn’t have to do much work at all. Besides working at our regular jobs to make money to be able to pay for the cruise, that is. These things aren’t free, you know. But as far as all of the travel arrangements, for us it was a breeze.

      Up next came the stateroom selection. On our first cruise, Laura and I had an inside stateroom, which means that we didn’t have any access to the outside world. No balcony, no window, nothing. Although we did apparently have a room close to the engines, because we had a nice soothing noise to help us go to sleep each night. Some people may have objected to that, but I found it rather relaxing.

      For our second cruise, we decided to spend a little more and get a window. That window was great, because we could look outside and see if it was day or night. Who knew one window made so much of a difference? We spent a good bit of time looking out that window, just seeing what all was out there.

      This time around, we decided to move up again and get a verandah. That was partly determined because of the number of people in the Riedels’ room, but with it being a special occasion (our anniversary, if you forgot from a few paragraphs ago), we thought it was worth it to splurge a little bit. Besides, on our past cruises our favorite place was the Deck 4 Promenade, where we could sit and watch the water. So a verandah would be even better because we could watch the water without the constant stream of people coming by. Not that the people were ever a problem on the Promenade. But at times I did feel a little self conscious about falling asleep in the deck chair while all those people were walking by. Just in case I was snoring or something. So we were really looking forward to our own private verandah.

      The rest of the getting ready stuff was just all the normal stuff. Getting Jaylin a passport. Figuring out where to stay on our way there and on our way back. Figuring out what to do when we got off the ship, because coming straight home just wouldn’t be right, would it? Making a packing list. Checking it twice. Making our final cruise payment (ouch). Waiting. Anticipating. Planning some more. And trying not to wish it away, knowing that it would go by really quickly when it arrived.

      But after all that waiting and planning (and paying), the time to depart did arrive…

      Boarding the Ship and the First Day

      Before we get to the actual boarding, I want to talk about one of the changes that happened sometime after our previous cruises. For our previous cruises, you could show up at the cruise terminal pretty much whenever you wanted to arrive. Once you were all checked in, you could board the ship. No big deal at all, and no real time pressure, either. And we didn’t have a problem with it either time. But apparently that changed when the newer ships came along, and now in the online check-in process you select a port arrival time. And when you arrive and get checked in at the terminal, you are assigned a boarding group number based on your pre-selected arrival time. We didn’t realize that fact all that early, and by the time we checked in online, the earliest arrival time available was 1:30 to 2:00 PM. That was a little later than we wanted to arrive, because we were planning on eating lunch on the ship once we had boarded. Oh well, now we know for next time to check in online as soon as we can so that we can get the arrival time that we want. But now, on to our arrival.

      We were driving down from Tennessee, so we had spent the previous night in Lake City, Florida, which meant that we didn’t have all that far to drive on the morning of our cruise. And since we didn’t have to arrive until 1:30, we could have a leisurely pace in the morning. We still didn’t dawdle, however, because we wanted to make sure that we got there in plenty of time. So after driving on some of our favorite Florida toll roads and stopping every few miles to pay $1 or more, we arrived at Port Canaveral around noon. Too early? Not really, because that had been our plan all along. My friend Connie had been on the same cruise a week earlier, and she had arrived before her arrival time. She figured out that her family could board before their boarding group number was called when there weren’t many people in the boarding line. We had thought about trying that, but we decided against it. Instead, we went to eat lunch at Wendy’s in the town of Cape Canaveral to pass the time. It wasn’t quite the same as eating lunch on the ship, and it wasn’t included in our cruise price as a ship lunch would have been, but we also didn’t want to wait until who knows when to be able to eat our lunch. So it wasn’t that bad. And depending on where you were sitting in Wendy’s, you could look out the window and see our ship in the distance. So that was cool.

      Once our hunger was satisfied, we got back in our cars and made our way to the cruise terminal, which of course was a short drive from where we were. We did the usual thing of dropping off our bags at the terminal before going to park our car. The attendant said that we could park closer to the ship for an extra $20. Where is the cheaper lot? I asked him. He directed me across the street to the parking garage. So for $20 less, I could park so that the car would be under cover the entire time? Sounds like a deal to me. And besides, we didn’t have to pay right then. We just got a ticket from the machine when we went in, knowing that we would have to pay when we left.

      I really liked being able to park in the parking garage, which they didn’t have on our previous cruises. Of course, that made the cost to park go from $40 on our first cruise to $48 on our second cruise, and then up to $75 for this cruise with the parking garage. But on those previous cruises, I was always slightly concerned about leaving the car out in the open. I wasn’t worried that anyone would steal anything from it. Instead, I was concerned about what nature might do to it. You never know when a hurricane or tropical storm might show up in that part of the world, after all. Of course, I suppose they could also get a freak earthquake that would collapse the garage on top of our car, too. But that isn’t as likely in Central Florida as they say it is back home in the Memphis area. Parking out in the open hadn’t been a problem on our previous cruises, but I was glad to have the garage there, just in case.

      Up next was the security check with the metal detectors and bag scanners. I never am a fan of all of that, but I do understand why it is necessary. Fortunately, this security check always seems much more relaxed than the air travel security check. And I haven’t even done any air travel in the last couple of years when things got even more strange and, um, personal. No touchy feely stuff at the cruise terminal, fortunately. And I didn’t even have to take off my shoes like I thought I might have to do. So that was all a breeze.

      From there, we were on to the major step of checking in. Of course, we had filled out all of the forms that we could fill out online. I got the impression that the online forms were almost a requirement now, so I made sure I had done all of it and printed out the form to sign, which we had signed that morning, just so we would be all ready to go.

      There were two check-in lines, a general line and a Castaway Club line. We got in the second line, because cruising before had made us Castaway Club members, and of course it was the shorter line. But then the gentleman manning the lines instructed the Riedels to follow us in the Castaway Club line. But we aren’t Castaway Club members, Karen said. That’s okay, he said, You can go with them. So they did. And neither of our families had a long wait before being called up to the counter. Just as had happened on our previous cruise, they had a slight problem with my passport, namely a problem with their machine reading the passport number. But it didn’t take the lady long to get that worked out. Laura and I also got Castaway Club lanyards as a gift. After a quick family photo for their records, we were all checked in and given a boarding group number of 29, and the Riedels had gotten the same number. That wasn’t going to take long, because they had just called for group number 27.

      We stood around and waited for a few minutes, watching others get a photo with Minnie Mouse in front of the large ship model in the middle of the terminal. We took a group photo of our own, even if it didn’t have Minnie Mouse in it. Or me, for that matter, because I was the one taking the group photo. Someone always has to be the photographer, after all. Our

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