5 Reasons Our Family Loves Disney Cruises

Spring break 2022 found our family back on our 4th Disney cruise, and it may have been the best one yet. The last time we took a cruise our youngest daughter was a toddler, and our oldest daughter was 11-still young enough to be in the kids club (1 of 3 clubs for kids/teens on the cruise.) I was worried that our kids may have outgrown Disney cruises, but knowing how great they’ve been for our family in the past we decided to go for it again and like I said, this may have been the best one yet. When it comes to booking an accessible vacation that works for everyone, a Disney cruise has always been a great fit for our family. Here are some of the reasons we love taking a Disney Cruise.

Top Notch Customer Service + High Quality Everything

Love Disney or hate Disney, it’s hard to dispute that they believe in top notch customer service and high quality everything. Their cruise line is no exception. From US News and World Report, to Travel Chanel.com Disney cruises are consistently ranked the #1 family cruise line. It starts from the moment you walk on the ship, as they call out your family’s name with staff clapping on both sides as you enter the boat and you take in the grand stair case and towering chandelier, and it only goes up from here. The food, entertainment, customer service and more. Disney doesn’t skimp on anything.

You will get to know the person who takes care of your room each day. They don’t just clean it up in the morning, they come multiple times a day including a nightly turn down service complete with chocolate and a new towel animal on your bed each evening. They murphy bed and sofa/bunk bed were put away each day and brought down each night.

There is always someone nearby to ask for assistance, and it seems like they never do the bare minimum, but always the maximum. And this isn’t a place that simply accommodates kids, it’s made for kids. There are literally hundreds of people on this ships who’s entire job is to make sure your kids are having a good time, at any given moment and they do it all while having a kind demeanor and a smile on their face. It’s the Disney way.

The Food
The food. It’s good. Like, really good.

First, there is room service available 24/7, with some items that you can only get on the room service menu (I see you key lime pie.) Next, you have the cabanas which are buffets you can eat at daily for breakfast and lunch. There is something for everyone–lots of different cultural foods available, not to mention food for people with dietary restrictions–and the food is so good and fresh! My girls LOVED eating at the Cabanas. There is also the snack/lunch counters on the pool deck which is a little quicker and even more casual than the cabanas. Think burgers, chicken fingers, pizza, fries, salads, fruit, etc. Ready made items day after day that are easy to grab and universal crowd pleasers for most kids.

Then there are 3 main restaurants where are you assigned to dine each evening on a rotating schedule. (You can also choose one of these locations for breakfast or lunch as well–but there is no assignment like there is for dinner. Choices I tell you!) Dinner is easily one of our favorite parts of the day. You will have the same wait staff the entire week no matter which restaurant you’re assigned to. They get to know you and your family and by day 2 will have your favorite drinks waiting for you at the table, not to mention crayons and coloring pages, and even riddles or magic tricks for your kids.

Admittedly, my husband and I confessed to each other that neither of us really liked our dinner the first night. And we both silently worried that perhaps we had over-hyped the food in our heads from our previous cruises. But after that first night our dinner ranged from really good to amazing. Phew! Yes there might be a miss here or there, but overall everyone agrees that Disney Cruise food is fantastic.

Lastly, there are even a couple of fine dining options on the cruise that are adults (18+) only. (The food collage above is from our adult only dinner at Remy.) These options cost extra, and you can usually only book one restaurant per cruise (or at least that was the Covid protocol) and my husband and I like to do this with just ourselves each cruise. It’s a date night just for us and a nice way to slow down and take it all in. (The kids can go to the clubs or stay in our room and watch movies.) If you don’t make your assigned dinner for the evening it’s nice to give your wait staff a heads up so they won’t be expecting you.

Active + Relaxing

I have done vacations where it’s nothing but go, go, go and do, do, do. I have also had vacations that involve laying around on a beach all day, doing as little as possible. Both types of vacations have their place. My ideal vacation is one where I get to do both. On the port days you can disembark and check out some local sights, or schedule an excursion that usually entails an activity like zip-lining or snorkeling. Regardless of if you book an excursion or not, there are plenty of things to do on a cruise–both on and off the ship.

Bracken and I both worked out nearly every day in the gym. There are also daily workout classes you can sign up for like yoga or you can hire a personal trainer if that’s your jam. There is a basketball court and even a mini-golf course that we totally forgot to do, dangit. Then we usually hit up the pool deck as a family where there are 2 different water slides, 2 pools (one of them a kiddie pool), a toddler splash pad as well as an older kid/family splash area. There is always a movie playing on the pool deck while you swim or sun bathe, and there are movies you can go to every day in the 2 theaters located inside. There are activities all day for the kids club (ages 3-11), Edge (tween club 11-14) and Vibe (teen club 15+), and lots of family activities like trivia games, karaoke and more. Characters are constantly roaming the boat and there are ample opportunities to get your photo with Mickey, Minnie and the gang, as well as plenty of Disney Princesses. There is a spa and salon on board (extra charge of course) as well as bars and clubs for adults only. Speaking of adults only there is also an adults only pool deck, as well as a private pool located at Vibe for teens only. Each evening there is entertainment in the theatre with 3 Broadway style shows throughout the week. My personal favorite this time around was Frozen–it was pretty amazing actually.

I enjoyed sleeping in almost every day, working out, then perhaps going to the pool or seeing a movie, a family trivia game or magic show, and then relaxing some more. I got through 2.5 books on the cruise, spent time with all my kids and with my husband as well, and had alone time as well.

We did one excursion this time, going to an all inclusive resort in Mexico for a day. We walked around the port in Falmouth, Jamaica and spent time on Disney’s private Island, Castaway Cay as well. Also having the kids so much older this time around meant a lot more autonomy on their part, and Bracken and I found ourselves with even more free time than usual. Bless.

Accessibility + Ease
For a family with a wheelchair user, accessibility is what puts a Disney cruise over the top for us. It’s just so easy.

Booking a vacation takes a lot of work for every family. There is research involved in every aspect, from where to go, what to do and where to stay. However, when planning an accessible vacation all of this research takes 10 times longer. As I’ve shown on Instagram, booking an AirBnB that is accessible is anything but straight forward and easy. You are searching for photos, sending emails back and forth and still clarifying that “an accessible entrance means there are 0 steps to the entry, can you please send me a photo so I can double check?” And then there are sites, attractions and accessible vans and on and on. For every little thing you want to do you are constantly checking and double checking to see if it is wheelchair accessible. It’s a lot.

A Disney cruise is accessible. I book it and boom–trip planned. (Other than excursions should you choose to do them.)  You can book an accessible state room which gives your chair plenty of space to maneuver, and has a wonderful accessible bathroom as well. Every place on the ship is accessible–at least we have yet to discover a place that isn’t. There are many elevators to take you from floor to floor, as well as many ramps for places like the pool deck that is only a couple steps up from the main floor, or to the splash area. The theaters also have accessible seating (Although this is the one area that I also have a complaint when it comes to accessibility. They need to do a better job at reserving the accessible seats AND the seats around them for wheelchair users and their families. Most people have a choice of hundreds of seats in the theatre. Our family has an option of 4 different accessible seats–we shouldn’t be worried about having to go a full hour ahead of time so that non-disabled people don’t take those seats. They took care of us after the first night, but there still seems to be a gap in understanding.)

When it comes to ports and excursions accessibility can get a little trickier. We recently purchased a travel wheelchair for Lamp and this made all the difference for this cruise, and for future travel. Not only are we less worried about this chair getting damaged at the airport (still worried, just less worried), we don’t have to get an accessible van for transportation. This can be difficult to do in the states, much less abroad.

We did one excursion this time, and it was in Mexico. We went to an all inclusive resort for the day and took a regular mini van taxi, and her chair was folded up and put in the trunk. Easiest wheelchair transport ever. I shared more about her new foldable power wheelchair here.

Something for Everyone

This one goes hand in hand with accessibility in my book. The cruises have proved to be an equalizer for our family in that Lamp doesn’t get left behind because things aren’t accessible, and our other kids don’t miss out on not getting to do things because we skip things that aren’t accessible. There is something for everyone and everyone can participate.

I mentioned the kids’ clubs above, let me break it down for you a little more.

Parents, and specifically MOMS, you can actually relax and have a little “you” time because YOUR KIDS AREN’T WITH YOU 24/7. This is especially true if you have kids ages 3+ who are potty trained as they can go in the kids club anytime. Literally this place is open until midnight. Now if your kid is having a meltdown or they want you to come get them, they will contact you. But sometimes they hang in there for hours and it’s awesome. As I said, the kids club is for ages 3-11 with a wide variety of activities looping constantly.

 

Then there is Edge, and that’s the club for tweens, ages 11-14. And perhaps you noticed that yes, if a child is 11 they can go to both the kids club and the tween club, which worked out great for us this year as Lamp was 11! She liked spending time in the kids club with her little sister, but also had fun going to the tween club on her own. That said, I was really surprised at how small Edge is compared to both the kids club and Vibe (the teen club). At least on the Fantasy Cruise ship it was small, I can’t vouch for the others. But they still had plenty for kids to do including video games, movies, group games, crafts and more. There is still plenty of fun to be had.

Lastly, Vibe–the teens only club. There is an open house on the first day so you can check out all the clubs and this place was impressive. It’s pretty big with a smaller movie/gaming room, a lounge area, a bar for drinks (non-alcoholic of course), foosball and some other games, and even a private pool area! Our oldest really enjoyed hanging out at Vibe and made a new group of friends for the week that she’s still keeping in touch with! (In fact, before the cruise she was in a text chat with a group of kids also going on the cruse so they could get to know each other a little before hand. I think my husband found out about this through a FB group.)

And again, there are plenty of adults only spaces–bars, pools, restaurants, etc. Yes a Disney cruise is a dream for kids, but it’s not just for kids.

It was such a great vacation and our kids are still talking about it. So many good memories and such a great reset. Additionally, we felt very safe on the cruise as everyone 5 years+ had to be vaccinated. Kids under 5 had to provide a negative test 24-38 hours ahead of time AND before you could board Disney required another test for every single passenger. Additionally the ship was only at about 60% capacity–that alone made a huge difference in enjoyment as it was much less crowded than our cruises in the past.

I’m happy to answer any other questions or share any other details in the comments below.

XO,
Miggy