My family and I will soon be sailing on our first Disney Cruise, a 5 night Western Caribbean on the Disney Wonder. We have previously cruised before on a Carnival Cruise so this is still a somewhat new experience for all of us.

As a Travel Agent who specializes in Disney vacations, I am a certified graduate of the Disney College of Knowledge. The courses are informative and I have studied the Disney Cruise Line, but nothing beats first hand experience.

I love to travel, but cruising wasn’t really on my radar. My first concern was for my family and how they would react to the motion of the ocean, would we get seasick? The next, is there enough to do on a cruise, you are essentially stuck for a few days. And lastly, safety. The media will never pass up a story about a ship without power or damages and even personal tragedies. I don’t believe all these worries are uncommon for many travelers, but we decided to try it out anyway.

I am happy to report that after our first cruise we had none of these issues and ended up having a FANTASTIC time! So almost a year later we were ready to go again! On our previous cruise we did a 5 night Bahamian and wanted to do something different. As I said we are doing another 5 night with stops at Cozumel, Mexico and Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island).

So far we haven’t booked an excursion for Cozumel for a few reasons. The first is that we are traveling with a 5-year-old and there are a number of excursions that have age requirements. In some ports children can be left in the kids clubs so that is an option if your child is still young. But I love to travel to see new places and try new things and I want that for my child as well. We are not into snorkeling and prefer to make our beach day the day we are at Castaway Cay so those are out as well. One thing that interests me the most is visiting San Gervasio; a Mayan archeological site, being a historian it is high on my list. Also, being a big fan of Mexican food, my other plan is to get an authentic lunch.

Our other day off-ship is at Castaway Cay. I have a feeling this will probably be our family favorite. On our previous cruise we stopped at Little Stirrup Cay and we loved having the beach day, especially coming from Michigan in December! Castaway Cay is so much better, as well, with kids activities and play areas, adult only beaches, and bike rentals. My plan for this day is low-key: play on the beach and have some fun!

On our cruise we have two sea days plus our departure day, I am sure that we will spend plenty of time exploring the ship, swimming, watching shows and movies, meeting characters and of course playing in the kids club. Since we are going before Christmas we will have a Christmas Ball and a chance to meet Santa!

Another thing I had to do was make a reservation for dinner at Palo for my husband and I. Since I have heard so much about it and I had such a hard time choosing between brunch and dinner but since I decided to count it as a date night I decided on dinner. But I’m not ruling out brunch either just so I can compare for myself.

I am so excited to try cruising with the Disney difference and of course will be sharing my experience here with all of you here at Dole Whipped!