Disney Cruises

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So you’re contemplating a Disney cruise… fantastic!

Prepare to be amazed while making lasting memories with your family. If you’re traveling with toddlers… prepare too for some meltdowns. Just because you’re surrounded by constant fun and entertainment doesn’t mean your kids are not still out of their routine and in a new place. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… being comfortable and in our predictable routine does make life easier… it does not need to be the constant goal or reality (even outside of travel). We gain so much flexibility from traveling, so do our children, but we have to be prepared for the negatives that go along with this (just wait… these same negatives lead to long-term positives!). There are plenty of overstimulating moments, even from a hospitality and all-things-family-friendly guru like Disney. So, pack your patience, as always, and prepare for an unforgettable and gorgeous cruise!

Departure

We stayed at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale the night before our cruise (see my separate article on Departing (LINK) for Disney cruises) to ensure that we had a smooth and unhurried day. We were also traveling within hurricane season, so I wanted to take another variable off the table and minimize the impact of any possible delays. This worked great! I’m glad we had the flexibility to make this work.

After boarding the ship, we went straight to a buffet lunch on the top deck. Disney makes health a priority on their cruises, trying to keep germs to a minimum. One of the places this shows up is at their buffets. Each guest is directed to a hand-washing station upon entry, which adds some peace of mind.

Dining

We really enjoyed the food on our Disney cruise. We have been on a couple cruises with a couple different cruise lines and I would say that it was mostly comparable to the food we’ve had on other cruises. However, the staff in food services stood out as excellent. On our ship (the Disney Dream), I particularly loved the Enchanted Garden… such a gorgeous restaurant! I thought most of the desserts were excellent and it was fun to have lots of delicious options each night. We enjoyed breakfast at the Cabanas buffet (so so many options), but the coffee was unfortunately pretty bitter, which was the one flop in our opinion. Insider tip: the room service coffee is significantly better. The made-to-order specialty coffee at the on-board coffee shop was great, but pricey if purchasing as your daily drink. Since my husband and I are often drinking more than a cup of coffee per day, we didn’t want to rely on this as our daily coffee, but rather as a once-in-a-while treat and it was great for that. (You’ll pay extra for cocktails, mocktails, and specialty coffee. We generally knew to expect this.)

Food Allergies

I have two children with a mild food allergy and if you also manage a food allergy for your child, you may know that the way food allergies are accommodated varies widely at restaurants, so I wanted to be sure to highlight our experience in this area. First, Disney does a wonderful job of requesting this information ahead of time. We registered the allergy in the app before boarding. You typically dine with the same servers throughout the trip, which is very helpful as well. We did find a couple of interesting nuances here, though. Most importantly, Disney seems to be very cautious when it comes to food allergies. This showed up in a few helpful ways and in a few unhelpful ways. This may have been a unique misunderstanding, but for a child with a mild allergy (“may contain” foods are fine… if you know, you know), we were often given overly restrictive foods. For example, with a mild egg allergy only, our child was also served dairy-free cheese and Lactaid milk. I understand the aim to be conservative and safe (many thanks!), but in this case, it was overly restrictive and she had limited or no access to many foods she can safely eat. Luckily, we have flexible eaters who are not overly picky, but I must admit that the dairy-free cheese used on one of the pastas tasted pretty bad (and wasn’t necessary in this case… though I’m glad they also offer dairy-free options for those who need that). The kitchen typically made an allergy-friendly dessert option (the allergens are not identified on the actual menu items so you cannot choose among them and you typically don’t know what dessert they are bringing until it comes). Again, this worked just fine since my children were not picky or particular about having the same desserts the other children at the table had, but it’s not an ideal set-up. Overall, dining for the seated/menu meals was sometimes inconvenient with a food allergy (as caution was over-extended and therefore options were overly restrictive), but I felt very confident that it was safe and they made this simple to navigate.

Dining at the multiple buffet options was harder and at times frustrating. We’ve dealt with this food allergy for over four years now. Our allergy is mild and lower-maintenance than many. We navigate both traveling and eating out on a regular basis without many issues. We are very comfortable with navigating menus and making this particular allergy pretty easy to navigate. Our kids are not picky eaters and do not particularly resent the allergy restrictions. Despite that, this was challenging to navigate at the buffet. Buffet food items are not labeled with allergens (the easiest option for those okay with “may contain” foods, in my opinion), but the real issue was that the signage directed guests to ask about allergens when selecting foods. Our allergen is egg, so it can be tricky to take items at face-value. Things can be baked with egg, have egg in sauces or dressings, finished with an egg wash, the list goes on. Therefore, it really is necessary to ask whenever there are baked goods, items with creamy sauces, or any items where ingredients are unclear. Each time I asked about an item at the buffet, I chose items that are very rarely made with egg (again, we’ve dealt with this for a while now). Each time I was told “hmm… I’m not sure, I’ll check” and each time I was eventually told, after talking with several staff members, that yes, the item did contain “a small amount of egg.” Again, I think this was the staff being overly cautious when they didn’t know the answer, but it results in kids who are told not to eat a lot of items that would actually be safe for them. To be crystal clear: I’m so so glad they are cautious about keeping kids safe, but I do think this issue is easily solvable with better information for the staff about the ingredients in the foods at the buffet. It resulted in few options when going to the buffets, which was frustrating. Prioritizing safety is the right call (even when it comes at the expense of comfort and ease) but it feels like both can be possible with more knowledge and transparency.

Lookout Cay

One of our stops was at one of Disney’s private islands in the area. This location is known for its long walk from the ship to the tram station. The walk was about 10-15 minutes and it does makes sense to know about this beforehand, especially for people with multiple young children or mobility needs. Fortunately, they offer many red wagons for young children (free of charge, they had plenty). We used these and they were simple and easy. In our case, we were glad we didn’t bring a stroller for just this purpose (we didn’t otherwise need one on the cruise despite lots of kids in our party, ages 18 months to 6 years). We always loved baby carriers so we would not have brought a stroller with a younger child either.

They also had golf cart shuttles for adults or older children with mobility needs. After this walk, you arrive at the tram station. You then take a short tram ride to the beach, play, and lunch areas. Once you arrive, the beach is beautiful. The water is a stunning, clear turquoise color that looks unreal. The sand is fine and white. Our kids loved playing in the sand and getting in and out of the water at the beach. If you’re looking for beach toys (we didn’t budget the room for them in our suitcases for this trip), collapsible buckets come in handy for travel. Because we also traveled with a recently potty trained toddler on this trip, I was keenly aware of the convenience of bathrooms on this trip. I know that many parents share the need to know, “How close is the nearest bathroom?” at all times. At Lookout Cay, the bathrooms were a short walk up from the beach, a trek we made a couple separate times. :) They are closer to the lunch area, which made things easier while we were eating our meal there mid-day. There were some character photo opportunities at this stop as well, which was fun. Lines were not too long and we enjoyed meeting Mickey here!

Halloween on the High Seas

For this cruise, we actually went over Halloween, so we got to attend Halloween on the High Seas! This was tons of fun! Here are a couple unique things to know:

1. They have a Halloween party, which was great! However, they do not really have traditional “trick or treating.” You can wait in line to receive a bag of candy (the line moves really fast), so kids still receive candy if they want it. Some passengers also leave candy outside their stateroom doors as well for kids to pick up as they pass by. For young kids like mine, this was great! We didn’t miss trick-or-treating (we had already been to a Trunk-or-Treat before the cruise), but for an older kid with specific expectations, they might be a little confused or sad to miss traditional trick-or-treating, so best to consider this and/or set expectations beforehand.
2. As expected, there are lots of Disney group costumes among families. We did this and loved it.
3. Candy and the Halloween party happen quickly after our early dinner seating time (likely in order to fit this in between the two dinner seatings). You eat a little more quickly that night, but it works!

Other Tips and Gear

• Disney knows toddlers! Despite having small staterooms and even smaller bathrooms, they manage to squeeze in a small round bathtub (tub/shower combo). Yay! This reallyyyy came in handy after our beach day.
• Bring a lanyard or another easy way to store your Key to the World card (your stateroom card and your access to a lot of aspects of the ship). Having a lanyard like this one (LINK or LINK).
• The no-added-cost internet access allowed us to send text messages (iMessage, not able to receive or send photos) or WhatsApp messages and to operate all parts of the Disney app without issue. I was receiving email previews on my Apple Watch and lock screen but could not view the full message or respond. We did not pay for additional internet access (it was $20+ per day at the time we went on our cruise). This was no problem for us. It was nice to be partially off the grid!
• No need to bring floaties for kids. They have child life jackets in multiple sizes at the pools and at the beach.
• Though quarters are tight, we didn’t hear noises from surrounding rooms. However, when traveling with toddlers, bringing a sound machine is always a good idea. There is a firework show pretty late in the evening one night (Pirate Night on Caribbean cruises), where a sound machine can come in handy for younger children who are already asleep. We love this sound machine at home but we typically travel with this smaller one.
• Disney makes sleep easy for little kids. We packed nothing extra but instead requested one pack n play and one bed rail and had zero issues. We made this request in the app before the trip and it was all set and ready to go for us! You can also request a diaper pail if you’re traveling with littles in diapers (this was our first trip without one!).
• We brought no extra room-darkening gadgets on the cruise and our daughters’ partitioned off section of the stateroom stayed dark enough for overnight sleep. For kids who really struggle and need completely dark conditions for sleep, these are very popular:.
• Elevators quickly become crowded, especially after special events. Pack some patience here (or take the nearby stairs).
• The staff is attentive and every detail is taken care of. The ship was extremely clean and well-maintained.
• Our standard room was small and felt cramped with two young kids and two adults (we had an Oceanview Stateroom - the window is huge and gives a beautiful view!). This is okay overall since there is so much to see and do outside of the room. However, to reduce overall stress level, I wouldn’t plan to spend much awake time in the cramped quarters of the stateroom.
• Lots of families decorated their stateroom doors with cute magnets like these:
  • Captain mickey
  • Stitch
  • Ariel
  • Pirates
• Some kids brought around cute Pixie Dust for kids they encountered on the cruise, which is an adorable idea! My girls got some really cute trinkets… their favorite was this one! https://amzn.to/3Lm0G3u.

Entertainment and Shows

You’ll hear that you never run out of activities on the ship. This is true. Looking through the activities listed in the app will clearly show you that you could never make it to every dance party, craft activity, kids club open house, and character meet-up… even if you made it your full-time job while on board. The activities are really fun and generally really well executed. (We went to one craft activity that was a bit of a bust and one where the line lasted the entire length of the activity but these were the exception and the crew seemed to recognize the problem.)

We loved being able to meet a variety of characters on board with mostly pretty reasonable lines/wait times. Having them with scheduled times and set locations made it easy to plan!

My youngest daughter and I attended a character dance party, which was a blast. Kids of all ages were dancing, singing, following around their favorite character, and having fun. They give each character their own moment in the spotlight and then they bring each character through different spots in the audience so you get a chance to see them and dance with them up close. It was really fun and very well organized! Highly recommend.

Another can’t-miss opportunity for kids with any interest in princesses was the Royal Gathering. This is a free activity but reservations are required and it often fills up immediately. My strategy was to book this even before completing check in (same window) right when my booking window opened in the app, well in advance of cruise departure. I also selected a time that was far from the first slot, assuming they would mostly fill in order. Reserve for kids and adults, anyone who will enter the event. Those without a reservation will stand behind the roped off area but still have a decent view for taking a photo if not everyone in your party had an RSVP… in our case a grandparent was still able to snap a few good photos despite not having entry into the event. In terms of the event itself, this is an opportunity for people to get to meet a few Disney princesses one-on-one. They sweetly greet and talk to each child and offer plenty of photo opps and hugs, if desired. My girls loved this!

The evening shows are extremely well-done. The acting and vocals are excellent and our kids were very entertained! We did early dining, which meant that our time for shows was after dinner. These were pretty late for exhausted young kids. We changed into pajamas before attending one show, which helped make for a quicker bedtime when we got back to the room late that night. We attended two shows on our four night cruise (Beauty and the Beast and Believe)… both were wonderful!

Pools

There were two main family-friendly pools on the Disney Dream, in addition to a splash pad (for kids up through age 4 and the only option for those who are not yet potty trained/wearing swim diapers) and a small adults-only pool. The pools are great, but very, very small for the size of the ship. There was room to be in the pools, but they were pretty crowded at all times. One of the pools was very shallow, which is great for kids who are not yet confidently swimming. They do have life jackets in multiple child sizes available as well. The deeper pool on the Disney Dream was 5 feet 3 inches deep. They have movies showing at the pools at all times.

Pirate Night

Cruises in the Caribbean also have a Pirate Night on the ship. Both kids and adults dress up. Mickey’s Pirate Night show (on the top deck) is loud and late but tons of fun, entertaining, and interactive. They also do fireworks that night. This part was too late for our young kids after a long day, so we went back to the room after the main party.

Disembarking

We had breakfast early on the day we disembarked the ship (this is scheduled for you). You set out your luggage the night before and pick it back up after customs (this moves quickly). We booked a 9:30am private transport to ensure we had the necessary car seats and we got off the ship much earlier than that. There is not much space to wait once you get off the ship. Our transport service actually ended up arriving 40 minutes early and we left well before our scheduled departure time, which was perfect. With lots of kids in tow, we were happy not to have to wait in essentially a large parking garage. It was an easy short trip to the airport. Because we needed car seats but no rental car and had a late afternoon flight, we felt a little trapped at the airport. However, the time passed without too much effort and it worked out just fine (made easier by the fact that we had a direct flight home so this was the final leg of our trip). We ate at a restaurant and went to the play area in FLL (Concourse A in Terminal 1) - a cool cloud structure that our kids loved. Pro tip: there are two entry/exit points at this play area, so be sure to have eyes on both if you have kids who may wander or run to a new area without warning.

Overall Review

Overall, the Disney cruise was tons of fun, especially with toddlers. Disney has tons of activities and events that cater to children of all ages, as well as adults (several adults-only areas and dining). The child care was great and very reliable (we had one child go to the Small World Nursery and one child go to the Oceaneers Club). They both had lots of fun, but I think our younger child felt a little left out at age 2.5 years old (and potty trained), as she wanted to go with her sister to do more activities. The ship is beautiful and the rooms are small, but it’s easy to spend little time in the room. Just because your child is on vacation, keep expectations reasonable. If they (or you) are easily overstimulated, expect some overstimulated moments. Seeking out quiet spaces and activities may be just as important as the parties. The cruise was tons of fun and I would jump at the opportunity to go back! There are so many opportunities for fun family moments and making dreams come true as only Disney can. Happy sailing!

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