However, recently I took a not-so-pretty fall off my stairs at home (ironically, as a friend of mine put it, I was walking totally fine all night the night before in my 6-inch pumps!). So as a result? A spring with a possible fracture. I was on crutches for 2 days. I can't do much of anything but sit at home and veg. I know what you're thinking, "What? It sounds like you're complaining that you get to veg! What I wouldn't GIVE to have that!" Honestly, it gets really boring after about half a day. I literally couldn't do anything. Crutches are needed even to the bathroom. And I can't drink much water because, well, I don't want to pee so much! And it's hard when I see my poor husband who worked so hard all day coming home and do my job on top of his. I felt completely useless. Therefore, it's not that fun! Plus, the little bit of weight I lost previously is creeping back because I've been immobile this whole time. Pants.Are.Tight.Again. *sigh*
Anyhoo, so that's why I'm sitting here writing a long overdue post about our experience on the Bahamian Disney Cruise - from DECEMBER! Forgive me as I'm not getting any younger and can't remember all of the details. But I'll have most of the important info so you can still use my post as research!
Ok, first things first. When you're booking a flight that requires a transfer, and you have little kids, please, I repeat, please arrive at your transfer location a day before the transfer. We had to learn that the hard way when we went to Turks and Caicos last January. Long story short, AA cancelled our flight last minute, right before we left our house for the airport (I've since vowed to never, ever fly them again - I mean, it was so last minute, the airport shuttle was at our front door! Then we get a freaking voicemail for the cancellation?! WTH?!?), we were delayed by about 3 hours, we missed our connecting flight in Florida, had to find an overnight hotel so we can fly out the next day, and of course we lost our first night in Turks and Caicos. All in all, the extra amount of money we spent for the whole fiasco was about $2k. AA reimbursed me with free tickets. With expiration dates. Classy, AA. The whole experience would've been horrendous with just adults, however, you put two 6-year-olds and one 2-year-old in the mix, it was a complete NIGHTMARE. So, what's the moral of this story? Say NO to American Airlines!!!
So, since you have to board the cruise ship at a certain time, get to your destination a day earlier! Luckily in Orlando, there is a hotel right inside the airport. I'm telling you, those people know what they're doing! The hotel even arranges with the cruise to have your luggage brought on the ship the day of so you don't have to do it yourself.
Disney Dream
On the day of the cruise, we left our room for breakfast downstairs, and when we got back, the luggages were already picked up. We then headed toward the shuttles that would take us to the port. Once we checked in, we were greeted by people offering hand sanitizers left and right before you board the ship. And there were photographers taking pictures before you board too.
We were aboard the Disney Dream. It's one of the newer ones so we were very happy with our room and the whole ship in general. All the crew members are incredibly friendly. I felt like I was in another world. If you've been on a cruise, I'm sure you know there is plenty of stuff going on everyday. There's no way you can do it all. I'm really into live shows, so I watched the shows every night. Can I just tell you that, WOW! Disney really knows how to put on a show! They are absolutely amazing! Talk about being equivalent to Broadway! Even my daughter was completely engaged in the shows. There were also character meet and greets on certain days and times. We missed the Sophia and Jake one, but we had to attend the Princess one.
The kids club on the cruise is called the Oceaneer's Club. They have a fantastic technology where your child is assigned a wrist band; all they have to do to check in and out is hold the wrist band against a scanner. There are hand washing stations at the entrance/exit. A hand washing machine with two cylinders first spray water as you insert your hands, then soap, then water again. And voila! your hands are clean! Towel dry, then you're done!
One of the places we docked was at Castaway Cay. This is Disney's private Cay. We reserved a cabana so that our children can rest inside the cabana if they got tired. I don't know if this was a good idea. The cabanas are way off on one side of the island. I felt so remote from everything else. The fun water playground was located in the middle of the cay, and it was really far away from our cabana. We had to walk a ways to get food too. The only good thing I can think of is, if you want that privacy and serenity, that's what you get. Maybe for families that still have infants or children who must nap? It just wasn't ideal for our family. The lagoons in Castaway Cay were freezing the time of year when we were there. But that didn't stop us from getting ourselves wet. I think the best experience about the whole Cay was finding thousands of little hermit crabs crawling everywhere. What we thought were just shells, were all hermit crabs! Tiny, little, ones, millimeters long! They were adorable and we all got a kick picking them up. There's a rule though - no keeping anything found on the cay! That's a rule - they want everything to remain where their natural habitat are. Let me tell you, I totally would've taken some of those cute little things if I could. :)
Our second stop was Atlantis. We did a swimming with dolphins excursion there. That was really fun. Pictures will speak a thousand words! These dolphins did tricks for us as well.
All in all, it was a good experience, but I doubt I would want to do it again. I don't have much complaints, but the one thing that is important to me was just not up to par. Food. Oh, the food was just...not...very...good. I've been on another cruise with my husband when we went on our honeymoon years ago. There are no bad memories involving food. But this time, I was glad we only had 4 days on the cruise because I was really craving better food on land. Sorry Disney.
Disney World's Magic Kingdom
When we disembarked, we rented a car and headed to our next stop: The Magic Kingdom. Disney World has 4 main theme parks: The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and The Animal Kingdom. Disney World is huge. I mean, HUGE. It is the size of San Francisco. Yup! We were only going to be there one day so we only went to one park. The park was so crowded - I was so glad that my husband bought us the guided tour experience because there would've been no way we could've gone on more than 2 rides without it. We got to go on one of the newest rides, the Seven Dwarves Mine Train, and my daughter met Elsa, Anna, and even Ariel.
Needless to say, she was a happy camper!
However, the tour guide will exhaust you. I mean, they want to guarantee at least 10 rides. So you just go, go, go. We stopped briefly for lunch, but other than that, we walked until we finally dropped. All the kids were passed out on our way to our hotel.
As far as going back to Disney World, I don't know if I would do that again either. I can't speak on behalf of those people who have been to all the parks, but I didn't find the Magic Kingdom all that different from Disneyland here in So Cal. If you have more time to spare in Florida, I do recommend spending more time in Disney World. There are so many parks with so many experiences that you can't experience here in So Cal.
Universal Studios Orlando
Now, this is a theme park I would fly all the way to Florida again for! Oh! Before you read this, you must know, I'm slightly biased. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I mean, HUGE. I love the books so much, I'm begging my boys to read the series. Sadly, they lost interest at book 4. *sigh* And I don't let them watch the movies until they've finished the books. Luckily, they watched the first 3 movies to somewhat understand what's happening in the parks.
Oh how I LOVED Diagon Alley and Hogsmead. I breathed in every single detail, every sight, and every experience. From Hogsmead, where there was butterbeer, to the Hogwarts Express where there were interactive windows (and a dementor too!), to Diagon Alley where there was Gringott's and Ollivander's, everything was absolutely perfect. The show where the wand picks the wizard was fantastic. And after the show, you get to pick your own wand. There are two types. Priced differently. There are the ones that are just wooden sticks, and another interactive type where you can "do" magic spells in front of different shops throughout World of HP. Of course being the big fan that I am, we bought five of the interactive ones.
Now, mind you. Dragon Alley and Hogsmead are located in two different parks. And you need tickets to both parks in order to enter both. Hogwarts Expres will connect you from one park to another, but you still have to purchase the tickets to both parks.
We bought the VIP Tour package for this place too, again, we only had a day. As my good o'hubby knew I would be devastated if I couldn't see World of HP. It was every bit as fantastic as I imagined it would be, and then some! I'm SO glad that they're building one here in LA!
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| The Owlery |
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| Gringotts - the dragon breaths fire! |
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| Platform 9 3/4!!!!! |
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| Moving portraits! |
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| The Pensieve! |
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| Dumbledore's Office |
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| J "performing" a magic spell |
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| Butterbeer! |
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| THE castle! |
All the HP simulated rides are uniquely for Universal Studios Orlando. Our tour guide told us therefore some of the actors had to film for the simulation, since they were all originals, nothing was taken from the movies. There is also a stage in front of one of the rides; at one point (I'm sorry but I can't remember which park it was), there was a performance by the Durmstrangs and the Beauxbatons. It was beautiful. Everyone was in character. I was so excited when I saw them, I almost cried. I'm SUCH a nerd. I know.
When you order your butterbeer, expect it to be ridiculously sweet. Therefore, one was enough for my family of 5. We took a few sips and had to throw it away. It was like drinking a caramel candy. But at least we got the experience! There are different versions of butterbeer, you can have it as ice cream, as a slushy, or a drink. In hindsight, we should've gotten the ice cream instead of the slushy.
Our guide told us that when Diagon Alley first opened, to stay true to the book, park employees would act dumb when people asked for directions there. But since no one could find it, they finally just had to stop the acting. However, they till stayed true to the characters! For example, when we got to the train station, we were holding our wands. So the conductor, being a Muggle, told my boys, to be careful with those "sticks," since they have no idea what wands were! Ha! Little things like that made me happy. :)
Oh, of course, there were other rides like Transformers, Minion Crush, Spiderman, etc. Yeah, yeah, who cares if each one of those simulator cars cost about a million to make? I only care about my World of Harry Potter! :)
Please, if you have any questions, drop me a comment below and I'd be happy to answer for you! Until then, I think I've made up for my dry spell! Ta ta!
xoxo,
Lin
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