MouseFan88
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2014
I am admitted life-long Disney freak, and after just 2.5 years of marriage, DH has adopted most of my Disney-loving ways. Our first anniversary trip was a week at WDW, and we managed to sneak in another long weekend at WDW later that same year. Our home office is fully of Disney books, stuffed animals, and wall art along with other souvenirs from our trips. The place mats on our kitchen table are Mickey and Minnie themed. We've even made the pilgrimage to Marceline, MO to see Walt's boyhood home, dreaming tree, and barn!
DH turns 30 in December, and I knew after he threw me a surprise party for me for my 26th birthday this year, I needed to come up with something big to celebrate this first "big number" birthday for him. We love travelling (we spent 2 weeks in New Zealand earlier this year), so I knew that a surprise vacation to somewhere he's never been before was what needed to happen. I knew a surprise vacation in the middle of December needed to be somewhere warm, and I wanted something relaxing. We've never cruised before, but have talked about it being a possibility, and of course my first thoughts led me to the Disney Cruise website. A quick search immediately yielded the results I was hoping for - a Dec 15th-19th Bahamas cruise on the Disney Dream!! DH's birthday is December 16th, so this was the perfect getaway for us.
Besides being obsessed with Disney, I am addicting to planning vacations. So, of course, I had to do all of my research to make sure I knew what I was getting us into, and to make sure we were getting the most out of this experience. A 4-night cruise seems like the perfect length for first-time cruisers, and we know Disney will take good care of us, so this was an obvious choice. Online advice says to arrive a day early, so I booked flights for Dec 14th and Dec 19th and planned on a one-night stay somewhere on Disney property. Thanks to the aforementioned New Zealand trip, vacation monies are pretty much all spent for the year, so I wouldn't be splurging on a veranda room. But, thanks to my ridiculous fear of drowning/sinking in a ship, I did NOT want to be on a low-level deck. So, an inside stateroom on Deck 8,9, or 10 sounded reasonable. I've already read pretty much everywhere that getting to the port early is a must-do in order to enjoy a less-crowded embarkation process, so Disney transfer from the resort to the port was out. I emailed my friends at MouseFan Travel and got us all set - Stateroom 8527, a room at Pop the night of the 14th, a Happy Limo town car getting us to port by 10:30 am on embarkation day, and a DCL transfer to the airport on the 19th. Yay! Thankfully, I take care of the finances in our family, so DH didn't notice the significant hunk missing from our bank account
But an official booking meant the planning had just begun! There was so much more to research and plan! Yay! I logged into the reservation center and saw the option for having a Disney character call a phone number to let you know about your cruise. Perfect way to reveal the grand surprise! I scheduled a call to DH's cell for December 12th at 5 pm, when he gets off work. If all goes according to plan (so far it has), he won't find out about the cruise until 2 days before we fly to MCO! I spent many hours looking at shore excursions, dining options (on-board and at WDW), and cruise trip reports in order to figure out what elements would make the best surprise birthday trip. I finally decided on lunch at Beaches and Cream and dinner at Sanaa the day before embarkation, the Discover Atlantis tour in Nassau (DH loves aquariums, and I've heard they've got an awesome one), snorkeling and parasailing at Castaway Cay, and two (two!!!!) Palo meals - dinner on his birthday, and brunch on the day at sea.
This is where I got very clever. My family really enjoys giving 'experiences' as birthday and Christmas presents rather than things, so I figured they might appreciate the opportunity to 'sponsor' various cruise activities for DH rather than getting him presents this year. So, on a whim, I put together a birthday present 'menu' of all of the things I listed above and sent it out to his family and my family. I was blown away by the generosity of everyone - within a week, I had volunteers to pay for everything except the parasailing!! So, we get to enjoy Beaches and Cream, Sanaa, Atlantis, two meals at Palo, and snorkeling all for free thanks to the kindness of our families.
I learned about Fish Extender Exchanges on the DISboard forums, and was immediately hooked. How awesome that DH could get little presents every day while on the cruise? I joined up and managed to just beat the deadline for signing up and got myself in an awesome group. I'm a moderately-crafty person, so I sewed my own Fish Extender. I've also heard that it's a little tricky to find your luggage on debarkation day, so I took everyone's favorite character from our Fish Extender group, got some fabric with that character featured and made luggage handle covers I'm so excited to pass them out and see what we get in return!
Since my sewing nook is full of supplies anyway, I've been able to keep the Fish Extender and luggage handle covers hidden from DH so far. I also had to order 2 new swim trunks for DH, and had them shipped to my mom so that he wouldn't get suspicious. I contacted his boss prior to booking the trip and made sure he could have the week off, so his work is in on the secret too. Now the only hurdle may be the MagicBands coming in the mail while I'm out of town for work!! I'm seriously considering stopping our mail for that week and picking it up when I get back.
I'm really excited to get to experience our first cruise together, enjoying the Disney that we know and love, and surprising DH! I certainly welcome any feedback or tips that anyone has to share - I'm ready to soak it all in
DH turns 30 in December, and I knew after he threw me a surprise party for me for my 26th birthday this year, I needed to come up with something big to celebrate this first "big number" birthday for him. We love travelling (we spent 2 weeks in New Zealand earlier this year), so I knew that a surprise vacation to somewhere he's never been before was what needed to happen. I knew a surprise vacation in the middle of December needed to be somewhere warm, and I wanted something relaxing. We've never cruised before, but have talked about it being a possibility, and of course my first thoughts led me to the Disney Cruise website. A quick search immediately yielded the results I was hoping for - a Dec 15th-19th Bahamas cruise on the Disney Dream!! DH's birthday is December 16th, so this was the perfect getaway for us.
Besides being obsessed with Disney, I am addicting to planning vacations. So, of course, I had to do all of my research to make sure I knew what I was getting us into, and to make sure we were getting the most out of this experience. A 4-night cruise seems like the perfect length for first-time cruisers, and we know Disney will take good care of us, so this was an obvious choice. Online advice says to arrive a day early, so I booked flights for Dec 14th and Dec 19th and planned on a one-night stay somewhere on Disney property. Thanks to the aforementioned New Zealand trip, vacation monies are pretty much all spent for the year, so I wouldn't be splurging on a veranda room. But, thanks to my ridiculous fear of drowning/sinking in a ship, I did NOT want to be on a low-level deck. So, an inside stateroom on Deck 8,9, or 10 sounded reasonable. I've already read pretty much everywhere that getting to the port early is a must-do in order to enjoy a less-crowded embarkation process, so Disney transfer from the resort to the port was out. I emailed my friends at MouseFan Travel and got us all set - Stateroom 8527, a room at Pop the night of the 14th, a Happy Limo town car getting us to port by 10:30 am on embarkation day, and a DCL transfer to the airport on the 19th. Yay! Thankfully, I take care of the finances in our family, so DH didn't notice the significant hunk missing from our bank account
But an official booking meant the planning had just begun! There was so much more to research and plan! Yay! I logged into the reservation center and saw the option for having a Disney character call a phone number to let you know about your cruise. Perfect way to reveal the grand surprise! I scheduled a call to DH's cell for December 12th at 5 pm, when he gets off work. If all goes according to plan (so far it has), he won't find out about the cruise until 2 days before we fly to MCO! I spent many hours looking at shore excursions, dining options (on-board and at WDW), and cruise trip reports in order to figure out what elements would make the best surprise birthday trip. I finally decided on lunch at Beaches and Cream and dinner at Sanaa the day before embarkation, the Discover Atlantis tour in Nassau (DH loves aquariums, and I've heard they've got an awesome one), snorkeling and parasailing at Castaway Cay, and two (two!!!!) Palo meals - dinner on his birthday, and brunch on the day at sea.
This is where I got very clever. My family really enjoys giving 'experiences' as birthday and Christmas presents rather than things, so I figured they might appreciate the opportunity to 'sponsor' various cruise activities for DH rather than getting him presents this year. So, on a whim, I put together a birthday present 'menu' of all of the things I listed above and sent it out to his family and my family. I was blown away by the generosity of everyone - within a week, I had volunteers to pay for everything except the parasailing!! So, we get to enjoy Beaches and Cream, Sanaa, Atlantis, two meals at Palo, and snorkeling all for free thanks to the kindness of our families.
I learned about Fish Extender Exchanges on the DISboard forums, and was immediately hooked. How awesome that DH could get little presents every day while on the cruise? I joined up and managed to just beat the deadline for signing up and got myself in an awesome group. I'm a moderately-crafty person, so I sewed my own Fish Extender. I've also heard that it's a little tricky to find your luggage on debarkation day, so I took everyone's favorite character from our Fish Extender group, got some fabric with that character featured and made luggage handle covers
I'm so excited to pass them out and see what we get in return!Since my sewing nook is full of supplies anyway, I've been able to keep the Fish Extender and luggage handle covers hidden from DH so far. I also had to order 2 new swim trunks for DH, and had them shipped to my mom so that he wouldn't get suspicious. I contacted his boss prior to booking the trip and made sure he could have the week off, so his work is in on the secret too. Now the only hurdle may be the MagicBands coming in the mail while I'm out of town for work!! I'm seriously considering stopping our mail for that week and picking it up when I get back.
I'm really excited to get to experience our first cruise together, enjoying the Disney that we know and love, and surprising DH! I certainly welcome any feedback or tips that anyone has to share - I'm ready to soak it all in
