Sea Day on Harmony of the Seas

Another morning that started with breakfast on the balcony. I’m really enjoying having a Central Park balcony. I chose it because I could see my son climbing on a table for a closer look of the ocean, and felt this was a better option for him. A nice surprise is that the Central Park balconies have a proper table and chairs which makes a perfect setting for breakfast. By contrast, the oceanview balconies have a smaller coffee table.

First order of business was the pool and splash pad. We have been working on potty training for years and I was worried he wouldn’t be able to use the pool at all since it’s only for potty trained kids. The last couple weeks he really turned a corner with it all so I felt confident in his abilities to stay “dry” while using the pool. We went to the splash pad first and my son noticed that the giant bucket wasn’t filling and dumping water. He asked the lifeguard why it was off and she responded that when winds are high, they turn it off otherwise the water rains down into Central Park. He accepted the explanation and went to use the slides because they were open. The small slides have a height requirement of 42”, but don’t have an area to measure at the bottom. He climbed the structure and the lifeguard measured him and he was too short. He climbed back down and I said that’s okay we can go to the other splash pad with even smaller slides. We went to enter this one and were told he couldn’t enter because he was potty trained. I felt so bad because I prepared him so he could use the splash pad and now he was too big for the small splash pad and too small for the larger one. It was disappointing for sure. My son handled this news very well, but I knew it would grow to a problem if we lingered too long. I took him back to the cabin so we could enjoy other activities instead.

One of my son’s favorite things onboard is the arcade on the Boardwalk. He had already played quite a bit utilizing an arcade card given to him for Christmas by grandma. The arcade card was loaded to his SeaPass and was very easy to use. The only problem was that there wasn’t a way to check the balance and at $2 to $5 per game it is easy for a four-year old to rack up a hefty bill. (Once the arcade card is done, it transitions to a charge to the room. Dangerous!) I went to guest services to inquire about his balance. It wasn’t as easy to find as you’d think. The lady told us the machine should give you a balance when you scan it. I didn’t see it but thought maybe I missed it. When we returned, I made sure to check again and it did not tell us a balance. Anyway, the little guy had $5 left. The situation had us looking at our accounts and we realized that my dad wasn’t showing the onboard credit promo that I booked for him. I went back to guest services while my mom took my son to the arcade. I spoke with the same woman and as she looked up the account she immediately said, “Do you know your son has spent $10 over his arcade card?” I guess Abuelita let him play to his heart’s desire! Anyway, it turns out the onboard credit was on my son’s account which is why no one else could see it. She transferred it and all was good.

What looks like giant Pringle potato chips are mounted on the side of the Boardwalk just past Johnny Rocket’s and before the Aquatheatre. A giant net hangs over the “potato chips” and children climb around them. My son spent the next three hours in here! At one point, he came down complaining that a big kid broke the net. I went over to look at the structure and all seemed well and good. So I told my son all is well, go back and play. A few minutes later I overheard another child telling his dad that something was broken so I started to examine things closer to find what they were talking about. My son came down again excited to tell me about his new “house” in the broken area. I told him to show me so he climbed back up. As he entered the house, another boy was examining the net and I asked him if what he was holding was broken, he said yes. I then went over to the crew member manning the slide to notify them of the issue. She said she would notify maintenance and within five minutes two members of the maintenance crew arrived. I helped them see what exactly was broken and the two men carefully examined the structure from the ground. It was rush hour in the playground so they didn’t take action right away. My son was the last man standing and when he jumped out, they immediately jumped in to tend to the structure. They fixed the area I pointed out and also added more clamps in areas that were missing them. I was impressed about how quickly they fixed the issue. As we walked to dinner, I noticed my son had a cut on his leg. I asked him if it was from the frayed cable and he said yes. I’m glad I spoke up to prevent other children from getting cuts and scrapes!

Dinner tonight was at the main dining hall. I started with a Caesar salad which was delicious and then had the lamb for my entree. The lamb was okay, but not my favorite. I’ve eaten lamb before, but I think this was my first time having a leg like this one. Cruises are the best for trying new things. If you don’t like it, you can just order something else! Although, I didn’t order something else. My son had the turkey which was far better in my opinion and I gobbled his leftovers. I had the apple pie for dessert which was the best dessert I’ve had so far on this ship.

Tonight’s show was a comedian, but based on the prior nights, I didn’t even try to attend. My son and I went back to the cabin to sleep while my parents continued onto the show.

Perfect Day at CocoCay

My son is absolutely loving ship life, but by the end of the night he is overly tired from the amount of stimulation. The good news is he sleeps really well, but the bad news is we haven’t made it through a show. One way I thought to ease the stimulation is to eat breakfast in our cabin. Continental breakfast is included via room service so last night I filled out the card and hung it on our door. My son was super excited for the glazed donut! We received a phone call notifying us when they were on their way and soon enough there was a knock at the door. We sat on our interior balcony which overlooks Central Park and enjoyed our breakfast. Everything except the donut was on our tray. We received a chocolate croissant instead so I’m guessing they ran out of donuts. My son was initially upset, but our tray had a colorful fruit plate, an apple, a banana, cereal, chocolate milk, and pastries. There was plenty on the tray for both of us to enjoy. It was a very peaceful start to the day and I think I will continue to do breakfast this way with my son. His breakfast back home is always chocolate milk and fruit so this is very close to his normal routine.

Today we were docked at CocoCay which is Royal Caribbean’s private island. This was the stop I was most looking forward to because I knew my son would love it. We walked to Chill Island and while my parents grabbed loungers, I walked over to the towel stand to checkout towels for our group. I chuckled a little when I saw the loungers my English dad chose. The four chairs had two umbrellas and four palm trees and were by far the most shaded loungers on CocoCay. This was good news for my red-headed and fair skinned child as well. The bonus with the area was that it also had several seashells near it which had probably been left there by the child to occupy this space on an earlier day. My son was in heaven. He spent the next two hours playing in the sand near the shore. We took turns playing with him and we relaxed in the loungers when it was our break.

My dad and I had booked a Kayak Adventure at 11am and at around 10am I explored to find out more information about it. The app said to check back later for the meeting location which was less than helpful. I found several kayaks lined up on the beach and then saw a desk for shore excursions. As I walked to the desk, I noticed another desk across from the shore excursions desk that was specifically for kayaking. I asked about kayaking and the lady told me that it was only open for advanced kayakers. My dad has owned a kayak for years and kayaks often down the rivers in Ohio. I have also kayaked quite a bit and it’s usually my desired activity on vacation. I’ve kayaked down the white-water Youghiogheney River, the Pacific Ocean off the shore of Mendocino, California, the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, and several other locations. I asked more questions about what she meant by advanced. In the end, she asked how old my dad was and then she said she highly recommended passing on kayaking today. We were refunded and my dad was happy sipping a Pina Colada instead.

Soon enough it was lunchtime and the buffet was directly behind our loungers. My dad and I went to grab lunch for everyone while my mom stayed with my son. I was really impressed by the options for lunch. There was a BBQ area with burgers, chicken and corn-on-the-cob; a taco station; a sandwich station; a fruit station; and a dessert station. We opted for tacos and for my son I got him a giant plate of mango, papaya, cantalope, and watermelon. The tacos were very tasty.

After lunch, I took my son on a walk over to Splashaway Bay. Here they had a giant splash pad with several small slides that ended in two-feet of water. My son began with the wide slide that is similar to the wide yellow slide at the Brecksville Pool. He went up and down several times on his own while I sat on a wall at the base of the slide. He also walked over to the middle slides several times, but then looked scared and went back to the wide slide. I asked him about it and he said he was scared and asked if he could have a lifejacket. We went over to the lifejacket stand and grabbed one. He went back to the middle slides and chickened out again. I think one of the reasons he was scared was because other children were also avoiding this set of three slides. Eventually, he went down the pink slide and loved it. He returned quickly and rode each one. As kids watched this four-year old brave the slides, more kids rode these middle slides and soon enough there was a short wait to ride these three slides.

The splashpad had stairs that led up to a drawbridge and my son wanted to check it out. I took him up the stairs, but there was so much spraying that I had a hard time keeping my contact lenses in place. I eventually had to retreat because I didn’t have an extra pair with me on the island and I’m pretty blind without them. I told my son that maybe Abuelita would take him on the bridge.

We went back to the beach and gathered our stuffed to head back to the ship. On the way back, we stopped at the pirate ship which is another playground for children. The ship contains two slides and areas to climb and explore. It reminds me a lot of the pirate ship that used to be at Sea World when I was a child. My son loved it and went down the enclosed blue slide a few times. I pointed out the taller pink slide. He attempted to ride it, but was scared because it was too dark.

We returned to the ship and got ready for dinner. Dinner was at the main dining room. I had the French onion soup, beef short ribs, and the chocolate custard. The soup and entree were delicious as always, but the dessert was not that great. My son had the chicken parmesan and he ate his pasta slowly, one noodle at a time. We brought his iPad today for dinner because he was very tired from the day and needed help with calming his brain.

The broadway show Grease was the entertainment for the evening. As we entered the theatre, I asked the crew member where the best seats were for being quiet. She advised that we sit all the way in the back. I also mentioned my son was on the spectrum and asked if it would be okay for him to watch his iPad if needed. She said yes. Before the show began, an announcement was made about no electronic use so the crew member was making an exception for my son which was nice. We were seated in a little booth at the very back of the theatre with our backs to the wall. It was the quietest place and perfect for the iPad to not be seen. My son made it through the first couple songs, but then asked to leave so we did. We headed back to the room to call it a night.

Nassau, Bahamas

We began our morning at the WindJammer for a buffet breakfast. It was packed and there was a little line to enter. We washed our hands and then found a table. There was a fruit/yogurt bar and also an area with traditional American breakfast food such as bacon, sausage, waffles, eggs, and pancakes. My favorite item was the croissant drizzled with a caramel sauce.

We booked an excursion for the day called the “See and Sea Excursion” and it was a land and sea tour. Our first stop was to the excursions desk on deck 5. Our App specified that we needed to stop here first because we were traveling with an unvaccinated traveler. At the desk they gave each of us a sticker and then we descended on an escalator to disembark. It was chaotic on the gangway. We asked someone where we should go for our excursion and were directed to the lady in the purple shirt. She gave us another sticker and told us to wait around. She was very vague with directions. Autism and vagueness do not go well together. My son was starting to lose it amidst the chaos. He began to cry and wail while yelling, “I hate the island, I don’t want to go to the island.” It was a rough transition for sure. Eventually we began walking with the lady with the purple shirt. She heard my son yelling and let’s just say Bahamians have a different way of dealing with disorderly children. Luckily, my son didn’t really understand what she was telling him. I carried him from the ship to our bus which was a decently far distance to carry a four-year-old. There were plenty of other young children on this tour and my son was the only one having an issue with everything.

Once we boarded the air-conditioned bus, my son was starting to find some peace. We waited on the bus for what seemed like an eternity as we waited for more guests to arrive. Once our bus was filled, we began the land tour of Nassau. Our heavy-accented Bahamian driver told us all about Nassau including a history of the area. I spent most of my time helping my son cope with the situation. (He has a difficult time doing new things so I knew when I booked this tour, it was going to be a challenge for him.) Our driver parked at a monument on Nassau where we were able to climb up Mary’s Stairs and get a Birdseye view of the area. There were cannons, a water tower, and shopping. I bought my son a little guitar and drum on a stick that you roll between your hands to use. I’m not usually one to buy knick-knacks but I knew the drum was just the fidget device that would help my son on this journey. He absolutely loved it and was starting to warm up to the island.

Our driver took us to a small dock where we began our second half of the tour. We unloaded off of the bus and walked towards the boats. I knew we were going to an underwater observatory to see fish, but I completely missed that this underwater observatory was on a boat. As we got to the dock, my mom said her phone fell out of her pocket on the bus. I notified our boat tour guide and he was quick to call the tour operator who then contacted the driver. I thought there is no way he’ll be able to return it to us with the logistics with everything else. He had already left. We were boarding a boat. My mom’s phone was gone forever, I thought. My son then informed me he needed to pee. We’re not usually the needy family, but today we were. Luckily, the boat was waiting for another group so we had some time. I took my son to use the restroom at the top of the dock and by the time I returned, my mom had already gotten her phone back. They were so efficient at finding the phone and returning it to her! I was so impressed.

Our group boarded an open-air pontoon boat and we headed off into the sea. Our captain told us we were going to go next to the other boat and jump ship to it. I thought he was kidding, but a few minutes later the two boats came together and they were holding ropes to keep the boats close together. The boats crashed against each other with each wave. The men held on tightly, but each wave pulled the boats a part leaving a gap large enough for a child. What could go wrong? Children were handed over the gap between the boats while adults carefully timed their step-over. Soon enough we all boarded the new boat which was already full of people. There wasn’t enough room, but then a guest that was already on the boat, told us we were to go downstairs. I had no idea there was a downstairs! We climbed down the stairs and here was the underwater observatory!! It reminded me of a ride I rode when I was in Disneyland, but this version was much more spacious.

We sailed away until we eventually reached a marine protected area and a new tour guide came down to explain what we were seeing. It was really cool and the highlight of the day. There were other children here as well so my son had fun hanging out with them. There were plenty of portholes for everyone and we saw a ton of fish and coral. It was like really good snorkeling without having to get wet. A perfect activity for small kids. My son really enjoyed this and he borrowed my camera and took easily 100 pictures of it all. Everyone clearly remembered us from the gangway and someone asked my son if he liked the island now. He responded with a thumbs up.

The return back to the ship was much smoother than departing. We transferred from the porthole boat back to the regular pontoon boat and then we sailed towards our ship. We circled around the Harmony of the Seas to dock right besides our ship. It gave as a chance to view our ship from a different angle which was awesome. Once we docked, we showed our SeaPass and photo IDs to security and they let us walk to our ship. This was a very short walk. We scanned our SeaPasses once we arrived back to the ship and sent all our bags through the X-ray machine while we entered through metal detectors. It was back up the escalator and we were back home.

Dinner tonight was back at the main dining room with our regular wait staff. I ordered the wedge salad, orange duck, and peach shortcake. The wedge salad and orange duck were both phenomenal. The duck was the best duck I’ve ever had. It had a really nice orange sauce with it and was cooked to perfection. The peach shortcake was not the best. It barely had any peach and was mostly cool whip and boxed chocolate cake. I love dessert, but I have yet to finish a dessert this trip. My dad had the apple pie which was far superior to the peach shortcake.

Tonight’s entertainment was an iceskating show at Studio B. My son and I found a seat and shortly after taking our seats, the show began. The announcer and music was incredibly loud and my son couldn’t handle it. We left pretty quickly and headed back to our room to sleep. My parents stayed for the whole show and they said it got even louder later so it was good that we didn’t stick around.

Boarding Harmony of the Seas

Last night I was given options for our shuttle time to the ship. We could either choose the 11:14am shuttle and arrive early or the 12:15pm shuttle and arrive fashionably late. We had a 12:30pm boarding time so I chose the 11:15am shuttle. The shuttle arrived at 11:20am and was packed. It was a short ride over to Terminal 1 where our floating hotel awaited.

We arrived a lot earlier than 12:30pm, but they allowed us through the process anyways. A man directed us to a much shorter line than everyone else. We had the VIP treatment and I wasn’t sure why, but we took it. While the normal line snaked back and forth in queues, our line was a straight shot to the terminal. When we arrived to the front, we were directed to an area for Covid-19 testing. My son had tested three days earlier and the rest of us tested two days ago. Because my son is too young to be vaccinated, he was tested a second time here at the port. We then realized what the VIP line was for all the young children. Three days ago, I entered the Pharmacy drive-through line at the Northfield CVS where a lady provided me with a bag of test stuff and closed the window. I asked myself: Am I supposed to swab my son? Does someone need to watch me do it? It was super unclear what I was supposed to do but in the end it involved me climbing out of the driver’s seat to get to my son while he screamed while I convinced him he wanted me to stick this thing in his nose. I apparently am not a good convincer and he trashed buckled into his car seat as I tried to gently swab the inside of his nose. It was not a pleasant experience for anyone. Fast forward to port testing and the images came back haunting me. I was worried about what was going to happen next. Would he freak out? Would we be turned away? Would he test negative and our cancelled flight was just an omen for what was to come? I was concerned. My son was calm and our swabber was the sweetest lady who was a toddler whisperer. She allowed my son to hold the swab with her so they could swab together. He was happy to do it and earned himself quite a few stickers. It was night and day from the experience three days ago. We then moved to a room where we waited for the test results.

The tests results would arrive by e-mail so I grabbed my phone to check my e-mail. My son had played with my phone the other day and when I went to open my e-mail the app wasn’t there. I thought he moved it so I searched for it and “Mail” wasn’t on the phone. He deleted it! Service was terrible in the area, but I was able to re-download the app. Of course, none of my email accounts loaded back and they all needed the passwords to re-login. Well my saved password didn’t work so that was a fiasco I wasn’t ready to handle. I remembered my iPad was with me, and lucky-for-me my Mail App was there and functioning. After 30 minutes, no e-mail and we began seeing people who arrived after us going through. I went up to ask about it and they too noticed that we should have received the results. They called back to the lab and within five minutes we had his test results and could move forward.

The next lady checked our passports, vaccine cards, and test results. My hands were full with all the different items we needed plus my backpack, plus my son’s backpack plus another bag. I couldn’t carry it all so I handed my iPad, the only functioning device with the e-mail that included my son’s test results, to my four-year-old son who had recently delated my Mail app on my phone. I’m a genius. We then went to one more check-point. This lady needed our boarding passes and also my son’s test results again. I grabbed the iPad from my son and the dreaded, “your device has been disabled” screen was there. Apparently, while I was showing all the documents, my son was trying every code possible to unlock my iPad. He did not unlock it and the iPad retreated to disabled mode so I could not unlock it either. My dad loudly pointed out how stupid I was for giving it to him. Thanks, Dad! We had to pull off to the side and wait the longest five minutes until I could unlock the iPad. Eventually the time passed, and we were able to move forward.

We could finally board! We made our way to our cabins where we found our SeaPass Cards. My parents are in an Oceanview Balcony while my son and I are across the hall in a Central Park Balcony. Our cabin is relatively spacious and our balcony overlooks the park. Crazy that they can have a park on a ship! My son saw a couple in a balcony across from us and wailed, “HIIIIII” as he waved frantically. The couple had decorated their balcony with a banner that said “Love” and they smiled and waved back.

The next order of business was food. We headed to the Windjammer which is the buffet onboard. We filled our bellies and then began to wonder the ship. Eventually, we found the English Pub in the Promenade and my English dad was all about having a Strongbow. We sat at a table and a waitress quickly came to take our order. As we sipped our drinks, a crew person informed us that we were sitting in a vaccinated guests only section. Oops! My son wasn’t allowed at the pub. He said it wasn’t a problem for today, but we couldn’t come back with my son in the future. Fair enough. Shortly after he told us this, my son fell asleep in my lap. Since he said it was okay for today, we sat there letting the tired boy sleep. Not long after we finished our drinks, the man came back telling us we need to leave. Two hours on the ship, and we were already being kicked out of pubs.

We arrived to the cabin with plans of resting. My parents and I discussed when we would rendezvous for dinner. We looked for our dinner time and realized it was already dinner time. So much for resting! We headed to dinner.

Our cabin reservations weren’t exactly kosher. I am a travel advisor and sometimes there are travel perks. Last year, Royal Caribbean announced that any travel advisor that joined ASTA (American Society of Travel Advisors) would be given a certificate for a *free cruise. Although it wasn’t quite free, it was still an amazing deal. The free cruise had conditions. One of the conditions was that your guest had to be vaccinated. My guest was my 4-year-old-son who could not be vaccinated which was a problem. So my guest was my mom. And my son and dad purchased another cabin for themselves. My mom and I had “my time dining” which I could not change and my dad and son had the early dining which I could also not change. My time and the early dining report to different decks for dinner. Although, I loved the idea of having a nice quiet dinner with my mom, my dad was less excited about a solo dinner with his grandson. I should also point that my son is autistic so new environments and new situations can sometimes lead to meltdowns. My dad wasn’t onboard. We first when to guest services to see if they could adjust our dinner times. They could not, but said that the dining room may be able to adjust it. There was a long line of people adjusting their times. A woman approached us and pulled us out of line. VIP treatment again! She quickly made the change and we were all on the early time now!

The early time meant we would have the same table and same servers for the week. This was welcome because the more consistency the better for my son and also I have food allergies so it’s easier on me. Our dinners were artfully presented and we ate a ton! We hadn’t learned to pace ourselves yet.

After dinner, we had scheduled the comedy show. My parents continued on to watch it, but it was clear my son wasn’t going to make it to it. I took him back to the cabin where he fell asleep quickly and so did I. After all our adventures with getting to our vacation, we could finally relax and rest. It was blissful.

My parents said the comedy show was okay and that the best part of the show was the opening band. It was a family-friendly comedy show and they said that many of this kids were laughing a lot. The highlight of their evening was listening to a guitarist in Central Park.

Getting to Port Canaveral

My parents and my son are about to experience their first cruise! We started our day at 3am for our 6am flight to Orlando. As we packed the car, I became a little unsure about how our stuff would fit in our mid-size SUV rental car in Florida. We had three large suitcases and a stroller plus several smaller bags. I looked into upgrading our car, but an upgrade wasn’t available. I thought, we’ll figure it out.

We arrived at Park Place, my airport parking lot of choice, and proceeded to load into the airport shuttle with all our stuff. The shuttle took us to the side of the airport and it was a short walk up to ticketing. We saw one giant line and were relieved when this line was for Delta. I then saw an equally long line for Frontier. As soon as we lined up, the lady in front of us in line told us that the flight to Florida had been cancelled. My immediate thought was, “Good thing we aren’t going to Florida, we’re going on a cruise!” Eventually my brain caught up because we were indeed headed to Florida. My next thought was, “Maybe she’s wrong.” I looked to the flight board and saw it here too. Flights are cancelled all the time so I wasn’t worried.

The line was long and I had a tired and cranky family with me. It was already feeling like a long day. I immediately called Frontier Airlines to see what options were available because I thought this would be faster than waiting in line. I was right! A Frontier Airlines employee promptly picked up the line, and I thought, YESSS, we’re going to indirectly cut to the front of the line. The next available flight was at 4pm which perked up my mood, but then the rest of that sentence came out…tomorrow. A flight out tomorrow afternoon at the same time as we’re supposed to be leaving port was not going to work.

Frontier Airlines is just one airline. There would be plenty of other options with different airlines, I thought. Wrong. Yesterday’s ice storm and snow showers had cancelled a lot of flights yesterday so things were still backed up. The next available flights with other airlines weren’t until the afternoon and were also about $750 per person. We were worried about further cancellations and didn’t like the idea of missing the cruise. So, we wheeled our three large bags, stroller, tired toddler, and numerous other bags back out the door we came. We waited for a shuttle, rode back to our car, loaded it up again, and began our 15 hour drive to Florida.

I’ve taken a lot of road trips in my life, but this was my first long-haul with a four-year old. I took the first shift driving and made it two hours before my sleep deprivation was catching up to me. Everyone else slept while I drove so we switched drivers. We stopped at a McDonalds for coffee and a bathroom break and continued on our journey. We made as few stops as possible, but still ended up tallying 3 hours of stopping. Gas here, Walmart run for snacks there, dinner as well.

It was nearing 11pm when we finally pulled into our hotel in Port Canaveral. I had booked a hotel rate that included a shuttle to the port. The package also included parking for the week which was amazing since we now had my car to park while we cruised! My son was a champ for the road trip too!

Disney Springs {Day 6}

Today is the last day of the trip. I booked my flight in December during a Frontier Airlines sale and there were three options for a direct flight. The first was too early to work with a cruise, the second was a decent time but significantly more than the third option, and the third option was a late 9:15pm flight. The late flight gave us one more day in Florida and we decided to spend the day at Disney Springs.

Disembarkation and immigration was super easy. We basically walked off the ship to customs. The night before we were given detailed instructions for disembarkation on our television. Our room attendant turned the TV on and the announcement was playing in a loop. We had a choice to make. We could either tag our larger bags with a Tinker Bell tag and place outside at 10pm for the porters to pick-up and transfer to the terminal or we could keep our bags overnight and carry them off the ship ourselves. As nice as it would have been to have someone else move our bags, we decided to carry them ourselves. Carrying themselves also meant we could walk off the ship whenever we wanted versus having to wait for our character to be called.

Our assigned breakfast time was at 7:20am at Animator’s Palate which was way earlier than I would have chosen for myself. We ate a quick breakfast and then walked off the ship with our luggage. The process was super simple and we were back to reality within 10 minutes.

We rented a car for the day and the process of getting the car was incredibly easy. We waited for the shuttle right outside the cruise terminal and it came almost immediately. We stopped briefly at another terminal and then the driver took us to Alamo. This particular location was only for people coming off cruises which meant it was practically empty. We walked straight to the counter and within a couple minutes we had keys in hand for a Toyota Carrolla.

We drove to Disney Springs which was about an hour away. Our first stop here was to Gideon’s Bakehouse which already had a line at 10am. They are known for their half-pound cookies. We waited a decent amount of time in line so I decided to order a slice of cake and a cookie to try them out. I loved the decor of the inside! It had a steampunk/Lemony Snicket/Tim Burton kind of vibe. The line moved very quickly once inside and there was a lot to look at too. I wasn’t really that hungry, but we didn’t want to wait too long to come because the line quickly turns into a 4-5 hour line later in the day. I ate my slice of cake slowly throughout the day. It was very good. I packed the cookie for later.

We spent the day leisurely moving in and out of shops. Many of the stores here are Disney related, but there are also quite a few non-Disney stores too. I walked away with some new sundresses at the end of the day.

Overall it’s been an amazing trip. There were magical moments all around the ship and I’m looking forward to the day I bring my family onboard. If you have any questions about Disney or Disney Cruise Line, please let me know!

Castaway Cay {Day 5}

Too many of our mornings started early so today we were on Bahamian time. Our only time constraint was that breakfast ended at 10:30am. Breakfast was at Cabanas, the buffet. I had a ham and cheese croissant, French toast, and bacon. Cabanas is fabulous.

Castaway Cay is Disney’s private island. The water surrounding the ship was that aqua-blue color found in the Caribbean. It was an easy walk to the tram station and we loaded shortly after arriving. We decided to go to Serenity Bay which is the adult-only section of the island. We rode the tram to the main area and then got off to hop on another tram that took us the rest of the way. This truly was an adult-only area. No children within sight and none that could be heard either. It was the furthest area from the ship and a parent’s retreat. There were plenty of loungers and umbrellas for everyone and lots of chairs as well that many took to the shoreline. The beach was shallow and remained shallow all the way to the buoy. We saw fish, pelicans, and even a very large starfish! I overheard someone say they saw a stingray as well. It was just enough wildlife to remind you that this is nature, but not enough you wanted to leave the water. I know the majority of people love snorkeling and seeing colorful fish but that is not my thing. I’ve come across too many fish that didn’t understand boundaries. The water was crystal clear and we could see our feet the whole time which was amazing. No surprise fish kisses! 💕

We spent most of the time on the loungers. Hilary read while I wrote. There were servers on the beach and they were readily available for orders. Hilary had a Pina Colava and I had a Mango Mojito. The drinks were served in a paper cup, the same kind used at Disney World, and were strong.

Dark clouds began to roll in so we packed up. We made our way to the food area where Caribbean bbq was served. This area was here on Serenity Bay, but I assume there is a second location near the main beach too. I skipped the lunch because Caribbean food is also synonymous with allspice, my arch nemesis. Our waiter last night offered to put in an allergy-friendly option for me but I passed on the offer. Meals are huge on cruise ships with several courses so skipping lunch is not a big deal. We did grab a soft serve ice cream though. The cast member filled the cones and then placed them into a cone holder where we could grab it. It made me wonder why Disney World had yet to adopt the advanced technology of cone holders for their ice cream. (Disney World is not serving cones. Only cups or cups with a cone on top.)

The tram brought us back to the main area. We walked around admiring the Disney decor and shops. Here we found the spot where the 5k starts! We didn’t participate for a variety of reasons. 1) We wanted to sleep in. 2) It was hot. 3) No one was chasing me. We also found a bunch of cute play areas. There was an area with a mini water park and also an area with a pirate-like playground located in the water. When we first drove by this area earlier in the day, there were several characters out greeting guests to the island. This time around, they weren’t around. I’m not sure if it was because of the forecast or if they are only around in the morning. Either way, see the characters when you see them, they might now be around later.

There was a direct walking path from the main area to the ship. We opted to meander along this path which offered scenic views of the island and ship. As we neared the end of the path, the rain rolled in and we shortly found ourselves back inside the ship.

The coffee onboard is excellent and we used this opportunity to order a specialty coffee from my favorite area of the ship: Cove Cafe. This is in the adult-only section of the ship and is the coffee shop. The coffee shop with the most alcohol I’ve ever seen! I ordered the Salted Caramel Coconut Latte served hot and it was adorned with an image of Stitch in the foam. It’s the little things in life and characters in my coffee puts a giant smile on my face every time.

There were areas of the ship that were still unexplored so we made a point to find them. Deck 5 houses all the kid areas and we had yet to stumble upon them. This was no accident. Disney tucks the area away from everything else. We walked the corridor where we could see each welcoming entrance for the various kid’s clubs. The areas looked fun and they were actively entertaining kids. Since my son is at home, I couldn’t go inside to checkout these spaces closeup. We passed all the kids areas and then realized the corridor was a dead end so we walked by it all again. We also stumbled upon a character’s stateroom. If you call it, you get to hear some jokes and fun things. We forgot to call it, but it was cute.

At the beginning of the kids’ corridor is a kiosk for a scavenger hunt. We interacted with the screen and began our detective mission: Who stole the artwork from the ship? The kiosk provided us with detective training, a list of suspects, a map, and our detective badge. Off we went to find clues! The other day I noticed that some of the artwork randomly comes to life and I thought, “wow how magical!” It turns out that these magical artwork pieces are part of the scavenger hunt. When you hold your detective badge issued to you by Mickey Mouse to the artwork, it not only comes alive, but plays a short video. Most of the videos end with you interacting with the picture to uncover a clue. Your detective badge also doubles as various tools such as a screwdriver, brush, magnet, or magnifying glass. Most pictures uncovered clues allowing us to narrow down the suspect list. By the end, we had enough information to request a warrant to search the suspect’s cabin. The villain was then detained pending trial. This is designed for children, but we had a lot of fun doing this. My son will love this when he comes onboard!

Disney characters are plentiful on a Disney Cruise. We saw them on the island and we saw many of them on the ship too! Due to Covid-19 policies, they interact from a little further away, but they are still entertaining! Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Stitch, Belle, Jasmine, and Tiana are the characters we saw onboard.

Dinner tonight was at Animators Palette. 🎨 During the meal, friends from Finding Nemo came around to say hi. They popped up in the “fish tanks.” Every dinner so far has had characters. The first day at the Enchanted Garden we saw Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald. The second dinner at Royal Palace we saw Belle. Today’s characters were only on the screen but it was still enjoyable.

Tonight was Super Bowl Sunday so we had extra special entertainment onboard. Many of the bars were setup for the Super Bowl with extra snacks and things. We decided to enjoy the half-time show from the pool deck. At night, they cover the pool and the space is lined with lounge chairs and used as a giant outdoor theatre. Most nights you can find your favorite Disney movies on the screen, but tonight, it was Super Bowl LVI. We found two chairs and sat down and immediately a cast member came by with a blanket which was much appreciated. The weather has been nice on this trip, but it is a little chilly in the evenings. Not like home chilly, but brisk. We realized after sitting on our chairs that they were slightly wet from the rain from earlier. I walked over to a cast member and asked for towels and we used those to sit on. Super comfy. We enjoyed the half-time show and reminisced on songs from our high school years.

The end of a cruise is always a little bittersweet. We finished our the evening with a drink back at Pink and some shopping. Stores on cruise ships are only open while at sea so it’s important to get shopping done before you’re back in port. We headed back to our cabin to pack out bags. We had two options for our bags. We could pack everything up tonight and place them outside so that the crew would bring them back to the terminal for us. If we went this route, we were given character tags for our bags. We would then have to wait until our character was called to disembark. The benefit to doing this was that you didn’t have to bring your luggage to breakfast. The second option was to take your luggage off the ship. Doing this meant you can leave whenever. This was the option recommended if you had an early flight. We were torn on what to do, but ultimately decided to take our own bags. Once we packed, it was an early-ish night since we had an assigned breakfast time of 7:20am! This cruise is definitely not designed for night owls…there have been a decent amount of early mornings.

Chocolatiers in Bahamas {Day 4}

We started the morning at Royal Palace where our servers were expecting us. Last night, I ordered my meals for the day so that the necessary precautions could be taken to make sure my meal avoided my allergens. The first course was a colorful plate with mango, strawberry, raspberry, cantelope, and blueberries. For my main course, I had a Mickey Waffle served with strawberry whipped butter, bacon, and a small cup of fruit. It was heavenly.

Our port adventure was next on the agenda. We met at the Walt Disney Theatre where the cast members checked our SeaCards and government issued IDs. We were issued a Rapunzel Sticker to distinguish our port adventure. Our adventure was to Graycliff Chocolatier and a total of 10 passengers chose this activity. Once our group was all present, a cast member held up a sign with Rapunzel and we followed him Brazilian-style. We walked off the ship and over to the dock next to ours. There is construction in Nassau right not as they build a new terminal. For that reason, our transportation couldn’t meet us directly outside of the ship. It was a short walk and gave us the opportunity to see the front of our ship. We are on the Disney Dream and Mickey Mouse is sleeping on the front of the ship with his dreams of broomsticks surrounding him.

We made it to our shuttle and the driver introduced himself. He was proud as he showed us his identification. The first card was his health card that showed proof of vaccination and a QR code. The code contained his medical history and I thought wow the Bahamas are organized when it comes to healthcare. The next ID was for being able to drive a commercial vehicle. He mentioned how his driving record and police record had to be pristine to receive this card. The last card was his driver’s license.

It was a short drive to Greycliff Chocolatier. We passed pink and white government buildings and drove through a small town. Greycliff Chocolatier is a small chocolate shop that barely fit our group in the main area. We were taken to a second room where we were given a history lesson on chocolate. The cocoa plant isn’t grown in the Bahamas so the beans are imported from Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Trinidad. The history lesson was informative but also a little boring. After the lesson, we were given hairnets and hospital-like gowns to enter the chocolate production area. It is an active chocolate production shop so there were workers there making chocolate as we wove between them to learn. We were shown the chocolate temper machines and give three spoons: one to try each variety. We tried milk, dark, and white chocolate. We then moved into another room where we sat in front of a plate of rice krispies, crushed Oreos, coconut flakes, a strawberry, a stick, and a chocolate mold. We were then asked which type of chocolate we wanted and shortly later we were given a cup of chocolate for our creations. We started with the strawberry by poking it with the stick and dunking it into the cup of chocolate. We were then advised to sprinkle toppings on it and lay it on the parchment-paper covered table. Next, we filled our mold. We tapped the mold on the table to release the air bubbles. We then poured the remaining chocolate into the cups with toppings and mixed the toppings into the chocolate to make chocolate clusters. All our creations were taken somewhere to harden. They were returned to us to remove from the molds and we were given a box to place our confectionaries. The company that owns the chocolate company also owns a cigar shop and winery. We were asked is we wanted to see either. We chose to see the winery for a sample then back onto the bus. It was a short and sweet day in the Bahamas.

We arrived back on board and headed to Flo’s Cafe for lunch. I had a hamburger and French fries and Hilary had chicken tenders and French fries. The food was good, but pretty typical American fare. There were three counters here: one with pizza, one with burgers and chicken tenders, and the third with wraps and salads. I loved having a food option near the pool and also near the sunshine!

The weather was really nice today so after eating we headed to the pool. We relaxed in the sun and looked out to the Bahamas. We then headed to the Aquaduck which is the water coaster. We waited about 10 minutes to ride it. There is a two-person raft and the coaster takes you all around the top deck. There is an elevator for the raft too so no lugging it up the stairs either! It was a lot of fun! The first part of the coaster was drops and shoots and then it ended with a smooth and scenic finale. To one side we had views of the ocean and to the other side views of the pool deck. We then headed to the adult-only section and relaxed in the pool.

Sometime in January we logged into the Disney Cruise Line website to book port adventures and activities. We booked our chocolate port adventure at this time. There were also numerous alcohol tasting seminars such as Rum & Mojitos, Tequila & Margaritas, Mixology, etc. The only available alcoholic seminars were from liquors that provoked a less than pleasant memory from my past. No thank you Whiskey. No thank you Bourbon. Yesterday, when we arrived to the terminal, I was able to connect to the ship’s wi-fi and check availability. Many sold-out seminars were now available! I’m not sure if they open more up or it’s from people cancelling, but either way, we had options. We booked the Champagne Tasting for $38 each. “Savor some of the best bubbly from Europe and beyond, with a crash course in creating amazing Champagne cocktails.”

We headed to Pink: Wine & Champagne Bar for our seminar. We were escorted to a table that had eight glasses of champagne already poured (4 for each of us) and we waited for the seminar to begin. We then spent the next hour learning about the history and production of champagne. We learned that only sparkling wines from the Champagne area of France can be called Champagne. We learned that there are three variety of grapes used to make champagne and that two out of three of them were red grapes. We learned that the placement of the labels on champagne bottles are strategically placed on the neck of the bottle. Champagne goes through a second round of fermentation once it’s in the bottle and that can cause varying amounts of champagne left. Since people will buy the bottle with the most, they hide this unevenness with a label on the neck. You can turn the bottle upside down to compare instead though! Most champagne is served by itself but there are champagnes that are “acceptable” to include in mixed drinks. I didn’t ask this question, but mixing champagne with orange juice is always acceptable in my book. Anyway, the “acceptable” champagne for adding ice and other things to is Monet Ice. This has the highest sugar content of the ones we tried and was my favorite. It was a really nice seminar and we fully “tasted” five decent-sized glasses of wine. By the end, the ship was unexpectedly rocking way more than before but no one else seemed to notice but me. Weird.

What pairs well with champagne? Fireworks. Disney Cruise Line is the only cruise line to offer a firework display on every voyage (weather permitting.) We headed to the top deck and noticed that the AFT of the ship was roped off in quite a few areas. I thought we were going to an area at sea where we could see fireworks being set off from land. This was not the case. The fireworks are set off from the ship! They are displayed on one side of the ship so I recommend asking the crew which side of the ship is best for viewing. There were plenty of guests watching the show, but it was by no means crowded. It felt like our own private firework show and was amazing. It was timed to a Disney soundtrack and all. Pretty cool to watch fireworks in pretty much pitch-black with a full view of the stars too.

It was time for some good clean fun at the D-Lounge where Pixar Trivia was taking place. I’m terrible at trivia, but Hilary is a ringer. There were 25 questions and we got 19 of them correct which I thought was pretty decent. We were no where near the winners of that game. The winner had a perfect score and several teams had 23/25 or higher. How would you do? (These aren’t the official wording of the questions…just as I remember them now. )

1. What hand does Carl from Up use his cane with?

2. What does EAC stand for referring to the movie Finding Nemo?

3. Which princess was voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus?

4. Which of Nemo’s fins is his lucky fin?

5. Which Toy Story movie is Bo Peep NOT in?

6. What is the name of the talking dog in Up?

7. What is the name of the scout in Up?

8. What insect species are the villains in A Bug’s Life?

9. What kind of dinosaur is Rex?

10. What powers the city in Monsters Inc? (The 1st thing.)

11. Does Monsters University take place before or after Monsters Inc?

12. What is Merida’s dad’s name?

13. What country does Brave take place in?

14. What language does Dory speak?

15. How does Remy control the boy?

16. What is the name of the girl in Inside Out?

17. What is Lightning McQueen’s Catch-phrase?

18. What is the main character’s name in Coco?

19. What is the name of the costume designer in the Incredibles?

20. How is Jessie from Toy Story marketed? (What would be the descriptor on her box if she was in a toy store?)

21. What is Boo’s nickname for Sully?

22. What movie can you find Guestau and Collete?

Hilary helped me remember most of the questions but there were still three questions we couldn’t remember. Not too bad though!

We finished the evening back at the champagne bar where we ordered the specialty cocktails. They were served with a macaron which was extra magical. The passionfruit one is the best in my opinion.

Embark on Disney Dream {Day 3}

The transition between Disney Parks and Disney Cruise Line isn’t as seamless as I expected. We were staying at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and I booked a Disney transfer to take us from the hotel to the port. I had called a week before our trip to find out what time the transfer would pick us up. We wanted to eat breakfast at the hotel and I needed to know our transfer time to make our dining reservation. The cast member for Disney Cruise Line told me that the pick-up time was up to the resort and that we would find out during our stay. She also said that there were several pick-up times so we could go on a later one if the one assigned was too early. “Perfect!” I thought. I was expecting an envelope in our room with the details the day before we left for the cruise. We were at the parks all day and we returned to our room around 10pm. No letter. I saw we had a message on the phone. It was the front desk. I headed to the front desk and retrieved the letter. I opened it in the lobby. I had never been more disappointed for receiving free rounds of mini golf. 🤣🤣 I went back to the front desk and inquired about the pickup time. The cast member needed to ask a manager because only the manager has that information. She printed out the letter I was expecting and handed it to me. Our pickup time was 8:25am which didn’t work with our 8:15am breakfast reservation. I asked about taking a later shuttle because of the breakfast and the fact that our board time wasn’t until noon. The manager said this was the only shuttle and that if we needed further assistance we would need to speak with Disney Cruise Line. I walked back to the room to call Disney Cruise Line. They closed at 10pm so I was at a dead-end. I guess we’re waking up early!

We woke up at the crack of dawn to pack our bags so they were ready for the 7am bellhop pickup time. We then headed to breakfast an hour before our reservation. Luckily, the restaurant wasn’t crowded at 7:30am so moving our dining reservation was easy. Our server was full of spunk and jokes and it was a fun breakfast. The restaurant is called Whispering Canyon Cafe and is one of my favorites at Disney. They are known for their all-you-can-eat platters, but I opted for a couple biscuits and bacon. It was too early for me to be stuffing myself with breakfast. My body was still in sleep mode!

The bus was decorated for Disney Cruise Line and the side of the bus had pictures of portholes along the side. There was no question which bus was ours. It was a huge coach bus for the handful of people it was transferring. We stopped at The Contemporary Resort and Port Orleans Riverside to pickup more guests. There were less than twenty people total on the bus. We had lots of space. Cartoons played on the TVs in the bus, but I was drifting in and out of sleep. I would fall asleep and then snore myself awake. 🤦🏻‍♀️

We arrived at Port Canaveral at 10am and I was concerned because our paperwork clearly stated not to arrive earlier than our allotted arrival time which was noon. It wasn’t an issue at all. Our first stop was the screening tents. I picked up a test tube which was inside of a bio bag and headed to a partition with a nurse. She walked me through the steps which was to basically open the tube, open the swab, swab each nostril, break the swab into the tube, and seal everything back up. We then moved to a waiting area where they wrote down our reservation number and names. They told us it normally takes 45 minutes for results. We headed to the “Royal Toilets” which was a portable bathroom trailer. We made fun of port-a-potties being called Royal. We were surprised when they were actually very nice. It was the nicest portable toilet I’ve ever experienced.

The 45 minute estimate was spot-on and we were cleared to enter the terminal. If you’ve never cruised, the port terminal is pretty similar to an airport. We went through security and couldn’t bring liquids through. I had to throw out my water bottle. They checked our boarding pass and passports and then we made our way to the giant waiting area.

Boarding began at 12:05pm with boarding group one. We were group 17 and our anticipated noon boarding time wasn’t looking good. Every few minutes a new boarding zone was called. When the screen said boarding zones 1-7 I made a joke that we should go and then say we misread the sign. 🤣 Turns out it was our boarding time! A cast member approached us and told us we could board so we did.

We only had our carry-on bags since our bags we gave to the bellhop at the hotel would be delivered straight to our cabin. That was pretty awesome! We went to Cabanas which is the buffet. It was amazing and I had mac and cheese, spinach orzo pasta, lamb, beef, and green beans. Everything was delicious and it didn’t taste like buffet food.

After lunch we strolled the ship until 2pm which is when our cabin would be ready. I was on day three of practically no sleep and it was catching up to me. I wanted so badly to take a nap but my schedule had other plans. I had a work meeting at 3pm so I did that using my phone to connect to the internet.

The cruise schedule said we would leave at 3:45pm so we headed to the top deck to watch us as we sailed away. The more cruises I’ve been on, the more I realize that cruise ships have the punctuality of a sloth when it comes to leaving port. It was 5:15pm when we were finally moving.

We were in the main dining which meant our dinner time was 6pm. Instead of one giant dining room, Disney has several smaller rooms and you and your wait staff rotate between them. The Enchanted Garden was our assigned restaurant for tonight. One of the things I love about Disney is their accommodations for allergies. They always ask and write down everything. It turns out on a Disney Cruise that the paper that the servers uses is considered a legal document and the cast members are required to adhere to it. This is good news for allergies. My allergy is to peppers which is complicated for restaurants. I specify peppers and also common spices that are peppers such as paprika, red pepper flakes, and allspice. Allspice is the problem child. The name is confusing and many people think that allspice is a mixture of several spices. This is not the case. Allspice is a very specific Jamaica pepper, but even after explaining this, sometimes servers only hear “all spice” versus “allspice.” When this happens, I get the most boring meal of steamed vegetables with a meat with literally no seasoning. Edible, yes. Avoiding the allergy, yes. Crushing my desire to eat a scrumptious meal that I didn’t have to cook, yes. This is what happened this meal. I asked to speak with the chef to clarify the allergy since something was clearly getting lost in translation. Verbally the crew seemed to understand what I was saying, but the food brought to me made it clear that they did not understand. Steamed vegetables are the worst.

The show tonight was Beauty and the Beast and the 8:30pm viewing was surprising sparse. They seated each group with three seats between parties. The social distancing and mask wearing on the ship has been really good. The show was nothing short of amazing. They didn’t use a ton of props, but they really transformed the stage with what they used. The choreography and seamless transitions between sets was impressive. I’m not really a show person, but this show was incredibly entertaining even though I knew the plot. The actor who played Lumiere was probably my favorite. Overall I was impressed. Hilary who lives in New York and grew up going to Broadway also said the show was amazing.

Testing Genie+ With Park Hopping

Our alarm clocks rang early and I immediately hit snooze. Hilary reminded me that we needed to book our lightning lanes and all of a sudden I was way more awake than I wanted to be. It was 7am and I realized I forgot to buy Genie Plus for today. I had planned on buying it at midnight, but fell asleep and forgot. It took me a couple minutes to buy and at 7:05am I was booking our first lightning lane. Those 5 minutes make a HUGE difference in selections. We wanted Tower of Terror for our first choice and the first time available was 3:20pm. A bummer since we had dining reservations in another park at the same time. I was able to push back our dining reservation, but it was much later than we wanted.

This morning was extra magic hours for all Disney Resort Guests. This allowed us to enter the park 30 minutes before opening. We were slow moving and so was our bus so in the end we arrived to the gate five minutes before the official opening time. Those five minutes were golden. The front of the gate was already packed with people waiting to get in. We entered through the resort guest line and bypassed the crowd completely. We headed straight to Slinky Dog Dash and the wait was already 60 minutes. We waited in line. We were expecting to book our next lightning lane at 9:05am, but apparently the next one isn’t until 2 hours after opening. We couldn’t book another Genie+ lightning lane until 11am! We were able to purchase a lightning lane for Mickey’s Railway though.

After Slinky Dog we walked to Toy Story Mania where it was another hour wait. The line moved quickly and I think we waited about 45 minutes. It’s always nice when the line moves faster than expected. Toy Story Mania is a family-favorite. You basically play a series of carnival games and your score and accuracy is recorded. Hilary outscored me on every game. Makeup for beating her yesterday on Buzz.

The lack of sleep the past couples nights was catching us to us so we headed to get coffee. We originally planned on Starbucks which is located at the Trolley Cart, but we decided to give Joffrey’s Coffee a try instead since it was closer and the line was shorter. I ordered the Valentine’s day special which was a latte with coconut. It was fabulous and better than Starbucks in my opinion. Hilary had a cold brew, and she preferred the Starbucks one over this one. We found a bench to sit and relax and to figure out our plan for the rest of the day. We looked for a lightning lane for Soarin’ in EPCOT, but the time was too early to work with our Tower of Terror one. We opted for Star Tours instead.

Our lightning lane window for Mickey’s Runaway Railway was up so we headed to the ride. This ride is a revamp of the Great Movie Ride. I was disappointed that they had to get rid of the Great Movie ride, but the new ride is better than I expected. You are on a trackless train that takes you through the ride. The walls are filled with color animation. It’s the only ride at Disney that features Mickey and Minnie Mouse and I was smiling the whole time. It was cute and in some parts unexpected. While the space reminds me of the Great Movie Ride, the ride itself is it’s own thing entirely. This was a good use of lightning lane and was worth it for me!

Now it was time for our Star Tours lightning lane. This is a ride I usually skip because it’s terrible for motion sickness. Medicine and a successful tea cups yesterday gave me the courage to try it again. Even with the medicine, I still felt queasy so this was probably the last time I’ll ride it. I thought this was my first time riding this ride, but as soon as we started to jump through hyperspace the memories flooded back. I recommend skipping this one if you are prone to motion sickness.

We then meandered through Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Hilary and I have both ridden the two rides here on other trips so we opted to pass this time around since the lines were so long. We headed into Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities where you can find kyber crystals and holocrons. I personally had never heard of any of this before, but a cast member give me a crash course. The holocron was essential a fancy plastic box that changed colors and talked to you when a crystal was inserted. It looked like the kind of toy my son would love! The holocron was about $50 and the crystals were $20 so it was a pass for me for this trip, but something I think my son would love to do on our next trip. There is also a rare crystal that you’ll want to get if you do buy it!

It was lunchtime and we were hungry, but we wanted to save room for snacks at EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts. We decided on ice cream for a snack. We headed towards Tower of Terror where we found Hollywood Scoops. I had strawberry ice cream served in a cup with a cone on top. Apparently, Covid-19 has killed the normal ice cream cone. It was decent ice cream, but not up to my snobbish Creamery ice cream standards. The cone was delicious though.

We still had some time to kill before our Lightning Lane for Tower of Terror so we took a detour to the Lightning McQueen show located near Rock N Roller Coaster. It was a cute show geared towards kids featuring the Cars characters. Most of the show was a video, but Lightning McQueen was there in physical form too. The kids around us loved it and this is a good option if you’re in the park with small children. In my opinion, the show was a little too much stimulation. If you are looking for a sensory friendly-show, this isn’t it.

The time had finally come for the ride of the day: Tower of Terror. This is Hilary’s favorite ride in all of Disney and also one of my favorites. The standby line for this ride was 120 minutes so I really appreciated having a lightning lane for this one. Something unusual happened to me on this ride, but I don’t want to spoil the fun. Maybe one day you too will experience this! Until then, you’ll just have to wonder. It made me laugh and smile. As always, this ride was amazing. It does physically drop you so definitely a ride for the thrill seekers. The cool thing about it is that the algorithm for dropping is always different. It makes the ride suspenseful even if you’ve been on it before. I highly recommend this one! Also, fun fact, you can see the ride from Morocco in EPCOT which is why it’s the pink hue that it is. It needed to match Morocco! Hilary told me this in line. I thought it was pink to match the haunted Galvez Hotel in Galveston, Texas! That hotel reminds me so much of this ride!

We had originally planned to head to EPCOT at around 2pm, but our 3:20pm lightning lane threw a wrench into that plan. We had made another lightning lane earlier in the day for Soarin’ for so we headed there immediately after Tower of Terror. It’s an easy Disney Skyline ride from Hollywood Studios to EPCOT which is my favorite mode of transportation at Disney. You’re in a pod floating through the sky. It’s scenic and peaceful, and a nice sensory break from the parks. The Skyliner takes you to the International Gateway entrance of EPCOT which is the entrance near France. It was a quick Magic band scan to enter and then we headed to Soarin’.

Soarin’ in my opinion is one of the worst rides to wait in the standby line, and one I great candidate for a lightning lane. The wait time isn’t necessarily longer than other rides, but it seems to move slowly and feels longer than it is. This is usually my first choice for lightning lane with Frozen coming in a close second for EPCOT. Next week, I’m going on a cruise so on this trip to Disney I’ve been extra vigilant with wearing my mask. It is required for indoor locations at Disney, but I’ve been wearing mine outside too. I’m wearing a KN-95 and overall have felt pretty good about how much it minimizes the chance of catching something. Nothing made me feel less confident with the mask’s ability to block disease transmission than riding Soarin’. If you aren’t familiar with this ride, it is basically a hang gliding adventure all around the world. Your seat lifts in front of a giant screen and you watch the world go by as you feel like you’re flying high above it. Throughout the movie, there are smells that correspond with what you see. In line, I was thinking that this ride may not be as cool with masks on because it would limit how much you could smell. My mask did not affect this at all! All the scents were strong and unaffected by the mask. If the smell can get through, what else can? I’m still wearing my mask all the time and trusting the science, but it really makes me wonder how effective they are.

We headed over to Test Track with the intention of waiting in the single rider line. The line was long so it was clear it was either going to be the ride or checking out the Festival of the Arts before our dinner reservation. We decided to divide and conquer. Hilary went into line and I went to find snacks. I was also really hungry because ice cream was the only thing fueling me at this point. My first choice of snacks were all the way in Germany and the American Pavilions which are both far from Test Track. I decided I’d try a petite donut first to hold me over. The presentation was artful, but the donut was terrible. It was too hard to cut with a fork and a lot smaller than I was expecting. It came served with a sugary melting puddle of sorbet. I rarely think anything is too sweet, but this was. Skip this one! There are so many much better snacks at EPCOT.

At this point, Hilary texted me saying she was bailing the Test Track Line. It hadn’t moved at all so we met back up, and headed to the Creperia for our dinner reservation with the hopes they could seat us early. No such luck. Hilary found a bench to relax on and I went on a quest for a more substantial and delicious snack. Off to Artist’s Point in the American Pavilion! There was Beef Wellington here which sounded amazing. It was everything and more that I would want from beef wellington…a nice flaky pastry wrapped around the perfect juicy beef tenderloin. It was served with a little dollop of sauce and.a tiny carrot. It was perfection and I could have eaten ten of them. After my snack, I returned back to France for dinner.

The Creperie offered a prix fix option that included hard cider, soup, a savory crepe, and a dessert crepe. I had the sweetest option of the hard cider which was very satisfying. The soup was delicious and tasted extra buttery. I chose the ham and cheese crepe as my entree and the pear chocolate ganache crepe for dessert. The ham on the crepe was much different than I expected and looked more like prosciutto than ham. The crepe tasted nice, but had a repulsive smell to it that I couldn’t get passed. The ham and cheese occupied the center of the crepe and left a lot of crepe left plain. I probably wouldn’t order it again. The pear crepe wasn’t my favorite either. The pears were juicy and didn’t blend well with the crepe. It left the crepe a little soggy and watered down the chocolate. The chocolate on the crepe was by far the best part. It was really nice to try a new restaurant, but overall I was expecting more.

We had two long days and as much as I wanted to see the fireworks, it was time to head “home.” We walked to the front of the park to catch our bus back to the resort. We returned to our room to discover that the door was ajar. I’m not sure how we didn’t notice it hadn’t closed, but luckily our room was undisturbed and everything was exactly as we left it.

Tomorrow morning we head to our Disney Cruise!

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started