Disney Cruise Trip Re-Cap

Whew! It’s been a busy couple of weeks. We took our big Disney Cruise Vacation, came home (with a cold as a souvenir), celebrated Easter, my daughter got a concussion, and then we had the eclipse – so yeah, it’s been a wild ride! I did want to take a minute to revisit our trip a bit and share what we loved, and what was really helpful to have with us. So here are the cruise tips and tricks that we will definitely use again (all links are affiliates).

We drove to Florida, which adds another layer of planning, but for us it was worth it because we were able to pack everything that we wanted to take without worrying about how heavy our suitcases were. I was also able to pack separate overnight bags for the road trip portion so that we didn’t have to touch our cruise suitcases other than getting them on and off the boat.

Since we drove, I also had to keep my 6 year old busy during the 16 hour drive. I shared before our trip that I had wrapped up 16 different treats and activities so that she would get one at the beginning of each hour of our drive. You can read more about this HERE. Overall, I found this super helpful – it gave her something to look forward and helped count the hours. Some of the items were more engaging than others, and some didn’t get used at all (workbooks, for example). This was her absolute favorite. There were definitely some activities that we didn’t end up opening, because she was sleeping, or we had stopped to eat. We used these for the trip back – but there was a clear difference between the trip to Florida (anticipation and energy levels), and the trip home (fatigue and general after-vacation-crash). Next time I’ll definitely spend a little more time planning for that trip home.

My travel vacuum sealer and the bags were the star of the trip. I originally purchased these to help pack my daughter’s princess dresses and her favorite fleece blanket and stuffed animals for the trip. I found that I could toss all of our dirty laundry in them at the end of each day, then seal these up at the end of the trip to fit everything for the trip home. I’ll never manage dirty laundry any other way! I kept one bag specifically for items that had stains that need treated (next time I’ll definitely take my oxy clean with me), so those were easy to find when we got home. I also sorted the bags the same way that I usually do laundry. When I got home, all I had to do was open them and dump them in the washing machine.

Another item that I found really helpful was our clothespin hooks. These made it so easy to hang wet swim suits on the clothesline in the shower – and to move them to the towel bar or closet when someone wanted to take a shower. I bought a pack of ten, and I regularly used 4 or 5, so if you’re worried about them taking up space, you definitely don’t need all 10.

We loved our door magnets and had so much fun pixie dusting others. Finding little treats in our fish extender pocket was a highlight of every single day for my daughter. Some of our favorite little gifts were a magnet stuck to our door proclaiming that we had earned a “door award” and mickey-shaped keys that doubled as bottle openers. My girl loved the Disney Princess Ring Pops and Disney Doorables. Pixie dusting was perfect for us – there was very little pressure and we didn’t spend a ton of money. I don’t think that I’ll ever feel the need to take the leap and do the true fish extender exchange because this really filled that little moment of joy for us. We also had a rule that any time we got something with a tag on it, we would pixie dust that stateroom back. This really helped it feel like we were giving gifts to those who had gifted us. It was magical and totally worth it.

There are truly so many things to do during a Disney cruise, but my girl LOVED the pool deck and we spent a ton of time there. She could swim and watch Disney movies at the same time, it was her heaven for sure. We also met so many characters, and we never stood in line for more than 10 minutes (except for Stitch, but that was the one character that she HAD to meet, so she was fine with that). Often we would just stumble onto characters, or they would just pop up. We have a great picture with Pirate Minnie because she came to visit the craft session we were in!

The shows were 1,000% worth it, they were amazing – even my Disney-ambivalent husband absolutely loved them. Definitely get the popcorn bucket at the first show so that you can refill it all week. Popcorn might be one of our main food groups, and we refilled ours before every show. If it didn’t get finished before the show then my daughter would finish it sometime the next day when we were hanging out in our stateroom. We also love that we can use it now at home to bring back the vibes when we watch a movie.

I could honestly go on and on about our trip and how wonderful it was, but these are the main tips that made the difference for us. If you have any specific questions please feel free to reach out. I’d love to share more!