I’ve had a Disney Cruise on my bucket list for years and with Covid happening, we finally got around to going on one this summer. We went on Disney’s newest ship, the Disney Wish and we set sail on a 5 Day Cruise to the Bahamas. I am SO thankful I didn’t book the 7 day cruise that went through Jamaica, etc. with hurricane Beryl being in that part of the Caribbean during our time at sea. We had very calm weather with little to no wind, so the boat was really still on our at sea days. So, thankfully hurricane Beryl didn’t affect our cruise, but I do feel for those that have been impacted by the storm.
We had a 5:10 a.m. flight, so that we could fly into Orlando and do almost a full day at the Magic Kingdom. We had to get up at 1:30 a.m. and it was BRUTAL. We have done this one time in the past and I should have remembered just how tough it was… but, I wanted to make this trip super magical. I think if we do a Disney cruise again in the future, we will still fly down a day early (this is recommended, so you’re there a day before the cruise ship leaves port), but we’ll do an 11:30 a.m. or so flight and then just look around the resort and have a nice dinner before leaving for Port Canaveral the next day. We did see a BEAUTIFUL sunrise on our flight out and the clouds were so puffy and pretty from the air.
ALSO… we kind of had a REALLY bad experience on our drive to the airport. Brian just got brand new tires for his car a few months ago and one of them blew out on us! So, at about 3:00 a.m. he was changing the tire on the side of the highway in the dark! Thankfully it was on the right side of the car away from the highway traffic, or we would have had to call AAA to tow or change it due to safety reasons and we would have missed our flight. Then, once he got the tire changed, he couldn’t get the hatch to close on his RAV4!!! It kept coming back up! Even with the suitcases all out of the car! So, he messed with that for a half hour and finally got it to latch to where the safety alert wasn’t sounding, but you could tell the door was not aligned properly. SO, he will be getting that repaired at Toyota this week. What a pain! I can’t believe we made our flight and I’m SO thankful we left the house extra early… you just NEVER know!
We decided to stay at a new to us Disney resort, the Contemporary. This is the resort that the monorail goes through and it is really neat! The rooms were also just renovated, so everything was nice and new!
After we dropped off our luggage (they didn’t have our room ready until the late afternoon), we took the short 8 minute walk from Contemporary over to the Magic Kingdom. I purchased the Disney PhotoPass, because I knew I wanted to get some family photos taken at the park.
Here is another photo of our family hugging!
Shop Cruisin’ Tank Here:
Then the photographer took a photo of me and my sweet husband and a photo of just me, because I wanted to show off my new Disney Cruisin’ Tank that I purchased off of Etsy!
And, of course I had some photos taken of the sweet teenagers and one of Autumn with Tinkerbell.
Autumn and I really love to look around in the Magic Kingdom Confectionery at all the delicious chocolate dipped goodies and we also love to look around the gift shops at what new offerings they have since our last visit. One of my favorite desserts is donuts, so of course I loved the donut Mickey Ears! I didn’t take a photo, but I purchased a crystal Tinkerbell ornament that Autumn picked out. I always bring home an ornament when we go on vacation (and a t-shirt or hoodie!).
Magic Kingdom has a Sunglass Hut! Both of my teens love sunglasses and trying them on. Not sure why we are in a Sunglass Hut inside the Magic Kingdom when we can look at sunglasses at one of these stores at home… but, here we are. I got my FAVORITE cool treat, the Dole Whip! I was extra bad and also had their Dole Whip Orange at the Sunshine Tree Terrace (its Dole Whip blended with orange).
After we stepped out of the Sunglass Hut, a parade started and we stayed and watch it. It made me tear up a little (I am SO sappy!), because Disney really is just so magical and we have so many sweet memories as a family at Disney over the years. My kids literally grew up every other year with a Disney vacation and now one of them is 15 and one is 18! Just unreal!
I enjoy trying new restaurants when we are at Disney and we had never tried The Crystal Palace. Ideally, this would be a great place for littles, because it focuses on Winnie the Pooh and Friends, but even my older teens really enjoyed the characters. The food is served as a buffet, which worked out well for us since our family has different tastes and the teens can be a bit picky at times. We really enjoyed the delicious salad buffet, hot entrees and sides and there was a huge dessert buffet too!
Of course, I have to share some fun character photos with you!!
Here is my salad plate with a mixed greens salad I made and some various pasta salads, etc. and my dessert plate. I forgot to take a photo of the plate with the main entrees, oops!
Both teens wanted to try to pull the stone out of the stone. Neither were lucky! Apparently it pulls out of the stone every once in awhile, but most people are unsuccessful at it. While leaving the Magic Kingdom I got a photo of the balloons you always see on Main Street. I always wonder when I’ll be back at Disney while I’m walking out the gates.
We planned dinner back at the Contemporary Resort so we had some time to chill in our resort for the night. Our travel agent recommended Steahouse 71 and it was the perfect closure to a busy day. I enjoyed a cabernet and started dinner with a wedge salad (my fave salad!).
You’ll notice a lot of food photos from this trip… especially when I get to my next 2 cruise posts! Ha, ha! I think we ALL ordered the filet mignon and then you got to select a sauce (I picked the red wine sauce) and side with it (I got scalloped potatoes). It was excellent and my favorite steak I’ve had anywhere at Disney. For dessert I got the layered chocolate cake, which was so decadent.
Now, I’m getting to our SECOND day of the trip! The day we leave the Contemporary Resort and Orlando and take the Disney shuttle bus over to Port Canaveral where the Disney Wish is docked.
Shop Pink Audrey 2Piece Set:
Audrey set from Avara (Save 15% Off with Coupon Code CURLYCRAFTY15
The Contemporary Resort is by Bay Lake and Nathan and I walked out on the deck to see it in the morning before we departed. I’m wearing my pink 2 piece Audrey set from Avara (Save 15% Off with Coupon Code CURLYCRAFTY15). After that we loaded onto the shuttle bus and headed to the dock. It was SO exciting when we saw the Disney Wish from our bus window for the first time. What a massive ship!
Once we got on the ship, we had to wait a little bit before our room was ready. But, one thing I noticed was that everyone was decorating their door. Some people went ALL out with personalized magnets with their names on them, battery string lights, etc. But, the gift shop came to the rescue with some really overpriced door magnets! Ha, ha! Saved! After that we headed down for our first meal on the ship, a lovely sit down lunch. Every sit down lunch/dinner meal included almost 5 courses with soup AND salad! It was a feast!
You get several selections for each course, so it is really tailored to what YOU want to eat. I selected a marinara pasta for my main entree and a sundae for dessert.
Our first dinner was in the Frozen Dining Room and we got a private table for our family (we requested this) and we got to know our fabulous dining crew that would follow us every night to whichever dining room we would be assigned to (there is 3 dining rooms on the Disney Wish). I ordered a glass of champagne to kick off the vacation. One thing I noticed on Disney Wish is they do NOT push the alcohol (and we had the late dining time) and if you want a second glass, you have to wait till the drink lady comes by and request it. I kind of liked this, because I was less tempted to have that second glass (we never ordered a bottle) and I just felt a lot better on the trip drinking less, especially with two (sometimes moody) teens in tow. Now, if you really want to drink more you can… but, it is nice they’re not trying to push it to make more money, etc. We got to see an incredible live Frozen Show while we ate dinner and I will say Disney does above and beyond with their live shows and theater on this ship!!
The appetizer I had on the first night was my favorite the entire vacation! It was this puffy bowl that had scallops/soup inside. It was SO good! Then I had these cold potatoes in a sauce, cucumbers and carrots for my salad (it has a fancier name).
For dinner I ordered meatballs with egg noodles and some sort of flaky cake dessert with berries.
When we got back to our room it was turned down for the night and we had a crab towel creature. I’ll share more photos of the ship overall in my next two posts. The first afternoon/evening on the ship we were really trying to just figure out how everything worked, where we needed to be and how to navigate the huge ship!
I have 2 more Disney Cruise posts coming up… stay tuned!
