Grown-up Birthday Wish: LIVEish trip report

Disney Cruise Line
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As any grown a$$ woman would, I gifted myself a Disney cruise for my upcoming birthday. My kids have half day on Thursday and all day off on Friday, so I figured why the heck not? They’d kill me if I went on the Wish without them, and DH is at a conference, so we off we go a month from now!

Who: me, DD5, DS10, DM (Dear Mama/Nene) – or, Hei Hei, Moana, Kakamora and Grandma Tala (yay Halloween costumes!)
When: Oct 26-30
Where: the night of my bday we are staying at POFQ, and then will take Disney transport to the Wish for a 3n adventure!

We are flying frontier, which is a gamble we took and lost on our 3n April 2022 cruise on the Dream that earned us a 14 hour road trip home. But that was during the Great Airline Debacle of 2022 (it was the entire year, right? Yeah), so I’m hoping we fare better this time.

After that cruise we had planned Homecomin’ brunch and DS before the airport, but we got the “sorry your flight is cancelled” text from Frontier on the way to DS, so this time we are hoping to do that before the cruise. I have a 2:15 ADR for Homecoming which is all I could get.

Our flight lands at 10:40a and I snagged the inflatable booster seat for DD so we can just Uber to POFQ.

From here, I’m not really sure what we will do. Part of me thinks we should just explore around FQ and POR until our 215 ADR and then hang out at DS? Though truthfully I don’t love DS and the only place the kids love is the LEGO store, and we won’t have room for purchases.

Then at 8:30, we’ll go see YeeHa Bob and order some apps for the kids if they’ve managed to get hungry again.

DD would love the pool but DS only loves the pool if he has a playmate, mainly because he has ear issues that pretty much guarantee he will end up in pain (the $150 custom ear plugs don’t work). Plus, we are packing WAY light, and our bathing suits would still be wet for embarkation day.

So, while I am happy with Homecomin and YeeHa Bob, not so much with what’s in between.

The other thought I had was grabbing some post 1p AK tickets because that’s obviously the best park. Maybe Sanaa lunch, then park time 1-7 (close), then checking out FQ on the way to Riverside for YeeHa Bob. But that gives such a short time to explore the resort and costs us more $$. And is a little rushed vs relaxed. But we will have 3 relaxing days afterwards so …

WWYD?

We have a Frozen themed balcony stateroom (there’s a spreadsheet that lists the theme of each room in case you want a particular one) and don’t plan to leave the ship since 3n isn’t enough to experience everything the Wish has to offer! (And we’ve done castaway and Nassau). I haven’t been able to find spots in the Enchante dessert experience but I would love to take my mom to that if we can get a spot! I DID manage to grab spots at Olaf’s Royal Picnic for me DD and DM but woof the price. $220 per kid, $69 per adult :exploding_head:

But I love warm hugs. And so does DD. So maybe we keep it? I’m gonna read some reviews first.

But anyway, follow along here and I’ll make some planning updates along the way and turn it live later!

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Tell me about the DCL transfers to port canaveral and back. I just asked about this somewhere else I’ve seen you :wink:

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It sounds like you’ll have about 2 hours (arrive at hotel at 11:10, depart for Homecomin at 1:45) in between at POFQ and Homecomin.

I would take your DD to the pool (and then pay the couple dollars to dry the suit at the laundry machine) and have your mom take DS to the arcade. This would kill some time and probably entertain both kids.

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I agree.

I feel like you might be trying to do too much, here, @FOMOm_VA There really isn’t a lot of time between when you’ll arrive at resort - even using Uber/Lyft - and when you’ll need to hop the ferry over to DS for Homecomin. You have two beautiful resorts at your feet here - take some time to take them in, get your nice late lunch (this takes you to about 4pm), browse a little at DS and take in a stage show there, and ferry back to get ready to head to POR for YeHaa Bob. Have you been to his show? You do want to arrive a bit before the show begins - the earlier the better to get a great spot :slight_smile:

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So you can add them but it defaults to MCO unless you call it in. I like them because you don’t have to wake up at midnight to get an early PAT. You just get there when the bus gets you there, which in my experience has been before boarding begins. They take your luggage before you board the bus and it magically appears in your stateroom. There are Disney cartoons onboard the bus. The price per person per direction just went up to $45 from $39.

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Brilliant. Didn’t even think of it.

I mean, this is my MO, right? :grimacing:

A who? There are shows?! We could also try the different Cokes and meet the bear!

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Cool - so I’ll call directly to set that up after identifying the pre and post cruise hotel reservations?

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Forgot about this part!! Yes, we must!!

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There’s almost always a band or something like that playing on the stage outside of World Of Disney, and sometimes I’ve seen stuff playing by Boathouse too (though that was a longer time ago)

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Yep!

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Dude I love Liners. I forgot about the arcade, didn’t think of just drying the dang swim suits, and forgot I’d need to grab an early table for YHB. thanks @NervousRex and @OBNurseNH

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So glad I could help :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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I’m green with envy!

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Almost always when I’m there. It’s fun waiting for cookies and hearing the competing music from there and the Irish pub (name is escaping me at the moment)

Looking forward to following along. Still on the fence about cruising :grin:

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Oh right! The pub, too!

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If you search for Olaf’s Royal Picnic on youtube you can see videos of families attending to get a better idea of whether you want to keep it. I watched one a while ago (maybe DisLyfeofOurs?) and I remember thinking it looked really cute.

If it was me, I think I would stick around the resorts and DS for the day.
I think there’s a good splash area at POFQ - if your DS is under the max height, would he have ear issues doing that that? If you can squeeze an extra swimsuit in your light packing, you could take the wet suits with you in a ziplock if they don’t dry enough by the next morning. There’s a carousel at Disney Springs in the Marketplace - my DD loved it when she was 5.

Looking forward to following along on your trip (love your costume choices BTW). We cruise on the Fantasy just a couple of weeks after your cruise.

@OBNurseNH we’ve also booked the DCL resort transfers and did have to call (and call again when I inevitably made a resort change :laughing:)

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I’ve been thinking about your trip and now I’m scheming about how I can talk my husband into this plan for my 40th :thinking: Im loving how you are choosing to spend your bday!

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My scheme was to schedule it when he’s at a work conference so he doesn’t have to go himself :stuck_out_tongue: He was very happy with that! Plus, he did a fishing trip for his bday so

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A birthday cruise sounds like the very best birthday present! I LOVE IT!

The price on that Olaf’s Picnic is RIDIC. But I’m very much wanting to splurge on it, so I’m eager to hear what you think. I hope you can score the Enchante dessert with DM, that would be really fun & special.

With arriving just the day before embarkation, I am going to join the anti-enabling club we’ve formed here & agree that fitting in a park with kids, even as relaxing as AK can be, is cramming in too much (I am guilty of it too!! Trust me!).

Also, I am glad there is some discussion here about booking a DCL ground transfer as I just started looking into it this morning for us on an upcoming cruise and I definitely could see that automatically it would be from MCO and anything else would have to be a call. Question though, I am seeing that they can only arrange the transfer if we book the resort through DCL. Does that apply for even onsite reservations we would make ourselves, i.e., if we booked an onsite resort with a discount ourselves, would they not be able to arrange for a transfer from the resort to port? And if we have to book through DCL directly, does that mean, we could or could not get a discounted rates that they are doing?

If it’s unknown, I’ll be calling in no matter what because we are doing back-to-back sailings so we’d need “one-way” transportation on the way in for the first leg & “one-way” transportation back after the 2nd leg, but just in case you do know, I’d love to be able to plan ahead of figuring it out on the call with DCL.

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Yeah this is a lie. You don’t even have to be staying onsite, really. You just call and book transfers from Boardwalk or wherever. Have clients staying at swan doing this next week. So many dvc members on these cruises it’s a lie that doesn’t even make sense lol!

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