Disney Cruise With A Toddler: Day 7 Castaway Cay

by The Pike's Place

Back in February 2020 right before the world turned upside down we took an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon keeping our toddler involved. Yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever. We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise with our toddler was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family.

It has taken me a bit longer than expected to finish up this blog series, but new baby and 2020 then 2021 happened…. This post is about Day 7 on a PRE PANDEMIC CRUISE. Some things may be different now, but from what I’ve heard cruising in many ways has gone back to ‘normal’. This will give you a great idea about cruising with a little. I’ll let you know all the changes when we cruise again… anyways (more…)

Disney Cruise Line With a Toddler: Day 6 Star Wars Day at Sea

by The Pike's Place

Back in February 2020 right before the world turned upside down we took an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon keeping our toddler involved. Yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever. We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise with our toddler was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family.

It has taken me a bit longer than expected to finish up this blog series, but new baby and 2020…. This post is about Day 6 on a PRE PANDEMIC CRUISE THINGS MAY BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT in the future, I’ll let you know once we cruise again… anyways (more…)

Disney Cruise Line With a Toddler: Day 5 St. Thomas

by The Pike's Place

Back in February 2020 right before the world turned upside down we took an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon keeping our toddler involved. Yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever. We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise with our toddler was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family.

It has taken me a bit longer than expected to finish up this blog series, but new baby and 2020…. This post is about Day 5 on a PRE PANDEMIC CRUISE THINGS MAY BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT in the future, I’ll let you know once we (more…)

Meal at Disney World’s Newly Reopened Crystal Palace

by The Pike's Place

If you’re thinking about dining in Magic Kingdom and not sure you want to try Crystal Palace without characters I’m here to tell you to try it out!

Crystal Palace is an American restaurant in Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom theme park. It was previously a character meal buffet restaurant featuring Winnie the Pooh and friends. They have been closed since the beginning of the pandemic and reopened in December 2020. We happened to be at the parks the week they reopened and wanted a break from the park with a hungry toddler. We walked up and got right in! That is definitely not the normal, but extremely nice. We had a wonderful meal with fantastic service.

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Disney Fantasy Palo Dinner Review

by The Pike's Place

Palo is an adult only reservation recommended restaurant on board Disney Cruise Lines ships. You can find this restaurant on Deck 12 of the Disney Fantasy. It is a high end restaurant with an uncharge and dress code. It is currently $40 per adult for both brunch (on select at sea days) and dinner. On our last Disney Cruise we opted for a date night dinner at Palo.

Dinner at Palo

After checking in for our meal, we went to the outdoor section (more…)

Disney Cruise Line Eastern Caribbean Cruise with a Toddler: Day 4 Tortola

by The Pike's Place

We recently returned home on dry land from an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon keeping our toddler involved. Yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever. We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise with our toddler was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family. This post is about Day 4 where we docked in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. If you want to read about Day 3 first click here !

Day 4: Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Docking in Port

Since our son gets up earlier and we had a port side room, (more…)

Disney Cruise Line Eastern Caribbean Cruise with a Toddler: Day 3

by The Pike's Place

We just returned back home on dry land from an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon keeping our toddler involved. Yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever. We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise with our toddler was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family. This post is about Day 3, an at sea day. If you want to read about Day 2 first click here !

Day 3: Day at Sea

Morning Breakfast and Fun

I started off our second day at sea by sleeping in. I am pregnant and was just not feeling great this day. The kiddo was of course up super early so my rockstar better half took him to get breakfast in the buffet and then they explored the ship a bit while I took it easy. They played mini golf on the sports deck, caught about 20 minutes of one of the first run movies, Frozen II, in the movie theatre, and walked around.

After I was up and ready to go I met them up on the pool deck for more Nemo’s Reef splash pad fun. This splash pad is fully shaded water play area themed for Finding Nemo and perfect for the toddler set or in swim diapers. We also hung out in the small splash pool on the side of the pool deck overlooking the ocean. It has gorgeous views and just enough water too cool off and splash around in. If your child isn’t potty trained Nemo’s Reef is the only swim diaper allowed water play area on board. Our son is mostly potty trained, but we didn’t want to risk it in the main pools. We stuck to the splash pad and smaller side splash pool with lots of bathroom breaks. He had no accidents, but just in case we played in safe.

In Room Lunch

The guys played a bit longer at the pool then headed back to clean up. I headed to the rainforest room at the spa. The rainforest room is pretty busy midday, but I didn’t mind since I wasn’t using the hot tub or saunas. The rain showers and stone loungers were available for me to relax in. The fitness center and spa also have showers that any adult can use with normal sized showers with spa bath products. While the the toddler was playing in the bath back in the room, I was able to do the rainforest room and shower at the spa. When I went back to the room my husband swapped with me.

After a busy morning for the guys and a lot of splash pad fun, we decided to try out the room service for lunch. The menu isn’t huge, but there are a good variety of options. Room service is included with your cruise, but a tip is suggested. I recommend $1-$2 per item or people in your cabin. We ordered a chicken noodle soup, salad, BLT, steak panini and grilled cheese. Yes, we got kind of a lot, but we were HUNGRY and I hadn’t had breakfast. It took around an hour for our food to be delivered. We watched a movie in the room and relaxed on our verandah while we waited. The service was great and food hot and fresh once it did arrive, but if you are in a hurry the buffet might be a better option. The server did say the hour wait is not typical, but just an FYI in case.

Late Afternoon

After lunch, we all took a long nap. We napped almost to dinner and it was pretty amazing. With the small sway of the ship and blackout curtains afternoon naps are kind of perfect for tired parents. The cabin is set up nicely for naps. There is a curtain separating the main bed from the day bed or bunk beds. It is still one room, but the separating curtain makes it slightly easier to get a restless toddler or baby down.

Dinner in Enchanted Garden

We headed down to Deck 2 Midship for our dinner in Enchanted Garden. This dining room is themed like Versailles and has lighting that are shaped like flowers that blossom and change colors for dusk. It is a very pretty dining room, but not my personal favorite. The round booths in the center of the room are very cool facing a pretty fountain, but if you aren’t seated in one of those and 99% of the patrons are not, it is just kind of a pretty garden themed room.

For dinner, I had the cucumber roll, wedge salad, prime rib and chocolate garden torte. Matt had the mushroom tart, wedge salad, sea bass, sticky date pudding AND pecan tart. Our toddler had the kids NY strip which came with rice and steamed veggies. He thoroughly enjoyed his meal. We love that we can order him healthier options similar to what he eats at home instead of a typical kids meals if we wish. The highlight for me was the cucumber roll and for Matt the sea bass. We enjoyed all our food at this dinner and I think the only thing we wouldn’t get again was the pecan tart. Matt ordered two desserts anyways, so that wasn’t a big deal.

Rainforest Room Evening

Halfway through dinner Matt took Killian to the nursery. The nursery is for children under 2 and not fully potty trained. It is also a small extra fee. We calculated this into the cruise cost BEFORE deciding to sail, so we weren’t blindsided with the extra cost. After dinner he was still happily playing, so we decided to go back and relax at the Rainforest Room. We purchased the full week pass for the Rainforest Room in the spa, so we enjoyed visiting it daily. Tonight we were the only people at the spa. We had the luxury of spending some quality time together enjoying the different rain showers and stone loungers alone. Matt spent a bit of time in the sauna, steam rooms and hot tubs as well. It was extremely relaxing to be there by ourselves. I highly recommend a nighttime visit, since every time we went late at night it was empty or almost empty.

Once we picked up Killian we attempted the musical the night, Aladdin. Killian was just too tired from all the fun. We were able to watch the show in our room live on our TV and called it an earlier night! Day 3 was a wonderful and very relaxing day. This is a good idea to do at least 1 day on a 7 night cruise with a toddler who can get tired out easily.

Stay tuned for details from Day 4 and our first port of call, Tortola!

Disney Cruise Line Eastern Caribbean Cruise with a Toddler: Day 2

by The Pike's Place

We just returned back home on dry land from an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon, but keeping our toddler involved (yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever). We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise with our toddler was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family. This post is about Day 2, an at sea day and formal night. If you want to read about Day 1 first click here.

Day 2: Day at Sea & Formal Night

Morning Character Breakfast

We started off our first full day and day at sea with a Disney Junior Character breakfast. Now this was something we did on our previous cruise with our then 18 month old. It did not go well and we thought we’d give it another shot since he was older and could now sit through a breakfast. Well… bad news it still did not go well. We experienced bad service, poor food, and quick inattentive character interactions exactly like the last time we sailed. Skip the character meal! You aren’t allowed to leave your chair so the characters come behind you to get a photo. This just didn’t sit well with our toddler and he was very unhappy. Go to the buffet and leave the character meet and greets for later in the day.

After breakfast we wanted to meet Jessie at her scheduled time since Killian was in an adorable Toy Story themed outfit. He was still in a bad mood from breakfast, so this meet and greet really didn’t go well. Parent fail: don’t push an unhappy toddler. He will remain unhappy.

Adult Time, Playtime & Pool Time

After the breakfast and character meets, we decided to take Killian to play in the kids club open house. This was perfect for our restless boy. We played for a bit and then checked him into the nursery so he could continue having fun. Matt and I headed to the adult only section to lounge in the super comfy pool chairs, grab coffee in the adult coffee bar and relax before heading to the Rainforest Room. The Rainforest Room was PACKED this morning, so I highly recommend going later in the day and avoiding it in the mid morning or around lunchtime on at sea days.

Around noon we picked up Killian from the nursery and headed back to the family pool deck and Nemo’s Reef splashpad. This splashpad is fully shaded water play area themed for Finding Nemo and perfect for the toddler set or in swim diapers. It is actually the only swim diaper allowed water play area on board. Our son is mostly potty trained, but we didn’t want to risk it in the main pools. We stuck to the splash pad and smaller side funnel puddle. He had no accidents, but just in case we played in safe. Nemo’s Reef is and was basically his favorite thing on the ship. He loved the Mr. Ray waterslide and wanted to go on it endlessly for hours.

Pool Deck Lunch

Since our little fish didn’t want to give up playing in the water. I hopped in the buffet and got us all lunch and found a table on the pool deck for a lovely water view lunch. Cabanas has everything from American kid friendly mac and cheese, pizza, pasta, to a cold seafood buffet and some international cuisine. There is also always a few soup options and a salad bar. For lunch we had a selection of chicken tenders, burgers, fries, mac and cheese, pizza, fish, shrimp, cucumber salad, and steamed veggies. It was not our healthiest meal, but it was quick, tasty, and very toddler approved.

After lunch, we headed back to the room for nap time. The cabin is set up nicely for naps since there is a curtain separating the main bed from the couch or bunk beds. It is still just one room, but the separating curtain makes it slightly easier to get a restless toddler down.

Late Afternoon

After nap time we started to get all dolled up for formal night. We wandered the ship a bit getting some photos and checked out the merchandise stores for the first time before heading to the captain reception where Matt picked up a couple free beers, we met some of the captains crew and listened to live music in the atrium.

We decided to head up to the open house in one of the kids club and took the main elevator where we had one of the best character interactions EVER! Daisy Duck all dolled up in her formal attire got on an empty elevator with us and rode with us up to deck 5 then walked hand in hand with our toddler for awhile before hugging him goodbye. I think they was one of the most precious moments ever and will make this mama teary eyed for years! Just thinking back about how special it was is one of the many reason I will cruise Disney again. It was total magic that would never happen anywhere else!

Formal Night Dinner

After we played in the Oceanear Lab for a bit it was time for dinner. We headed down to Deck 3 Aft for our dinner in Animators Palate. This is our favorite dining room and on the first night you dine there there is a special show with a Finding Nemo favorite. Our toddler LOVED seeing Crush and his other Nemo friends on the big screens around the dining room and it kept him thoroughly entertained until he was done eating and we took him to the nursery.

For dinner, I had the black truffle pasta purseittes, arugula salad, pennette bolognese and chocolate fudge cheesecake. Matt had the sliced serrano ham, baked potato and cheddar cheese soup, grilled tuna steak, and deconstructed carrot cake. The highlight for me was the pasta purseittes and for Matt the baked potato and cheddar cheese soup. I really enjoyed my pennette bolognese entrees, but Matt was not a fan of the tuna steak.

End of Great Second Day

After dinner we thought we would have to pick up Killian from the nursery, because he was not very happy when I dropped him off, but when we checked on him he was very happily playing and did not want to leave. We decided to go check out one of the adult bar Skyline Lounge for a cocktail for Matt and mocktail for me. This is a stunning bar with different skyline city views every 15 minutes. They made me a delicious mock mojito and Matt had one of their signature drinks. We took our drinks to go and headed to adult only 80s music trivia where we failed miserably, but had a lot of fun. Then watched about 30 minutes of the nighttime show Believe before heading to pick up Killian.

Around 9:30 we split up and Matt picked up Killian from the nursery while I grabbed the first spot in line to meet Captain Mickey. This was one of my MUST DOs for my Mickey loving toddler and at 9:30pm the line is much more manageable. While we were waiting for Mickey who was running a bit late, rockstar Diasy Duck came over again and danced for a bit with Killian while we waited! Then we had a fantastic and adorable character meet and greet with the wonderful Captain Mickey before heading to bed with our very overtired, but very happy toddler.

Stay tuned for details from Day 3!

Disney Cruise Line Eastern Caribbean Cruise with a Toddler: Day 1

by The Pike's Place

We just returned back home on dry land from an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon, but keeping our toddler involved (yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever). We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family.

Day 1 of Our Cruise

Arriving at the Port

Since we live near Port Canaveral, my Dad actually dropped us off at the cruise terminal. We opted for the earliest port arrival time we could get, so we could enjoy almost a full day on the ship with fewer crowds. This worked well for our first Disney Cruise and would happily do it again. We arrived around 11:30am and boarded in group 12. The boarding groups go FAST, so by the time we checked in and meet Goofy we were getting on the ship.

We saw Goofy almost immediately after entering the cruise terminal. Killian ran straight to him and gave him the biggest hug, I wish I’d had my camera ready to get a video. It was the perfect way to start the vacation!

After Boarding

Once we boarded the ship, we picked up daily navigator at guest services (or the daily itinerary) to see what was happening on our first day. They have an app we used also, but I really enjoy the paper navigators. Then we headed to add myself to a character meet and greet we weren’t able to get in advance and add the character breakfast. We waited just a few minutes before securing both slots I wanted.

I headed to the spa to get rainforest room week pass for Matt & I. The rainforest room is a relaxation part of the spa, which is an add on service that cost $229 plus tip for a couple for the week during our sailing. The rainforest room has different aromatherapy showers, steam rooms, sauna, hot tubs that overlook the ocean and hot stone loungers. It is incredibly relaxing!

Lunch on Board

We skipped the buffet and had a delicious sit down meal in one of the three main dining rooms, Animators Palate. I like having our first meal in one of the sit down restaurants rather than the hustle and bustle of the buffet, plus I think the food quality is slightly better. Not that I don’t enjoy a buffet.

After lunch, roughly 1:00pm we headed up to register and get Killian acclimated to the nursery and kids clubs before heading to our cabin on Deck 9 to unpack and take naps. The cabins are typically ready around 1:30pm and they open our section almost exactly at 1:30pm. Anything you bring on board you do need to carry with you until the room is ready.

Late Afternoon

Around 4:00pm it was time for the Muster Drill (emergency drill), our station was in the theatre balcony. After the short boring drill, we headed up to Deck 11 for the Sail Away Party to wave goodbye to Port Canaveral for a week of sailing bliss! The Sail Away Party is an awesome send off with Mickey and friends and lots of fun dancing.

First Dinner on Board

By the time we got out of the port, it was time to get ready for our early dinner 5:45pm. Royal Court was our first dining room and where we met our amazing servers. We had the BEST serving team and already miss them. For dinner the highlight was the french onion soup for me and the Grand Marnier soufflé for dessert. This was not our favorite dinner of the cruise, but still very good and the soup was absolutely my favorite.

Halfway through dinner, I took Killian up to the nursery to play and Matt and I finished dinner with incredible desserts then we went to the Rainforest room in the spa to relax sans toddler. The hot stone chairs are my favorite part of the Rainforest room and I could send an entire day reading on one.

End of a Great First Day

After dinner we caught about 15 minutes of the first nighttime show, “A Fantasy Come True: Welcome Show” before it was bedtime for a very tired and excited toddler and parents. This was basically our only early bedtime and much needed for the week ahead!

Stay tuned for details from Day 2!

Disney World Gender Reveal

by The Pike's Place

Prince or Princess What Will It Be?

We wanted to surprise our family with a gender reveal and do something a little different for our second baby. We had just found out the gender of our baby the week before a family vacation to Walt Disney World, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to change it up with an exciting reveal. We had done a pregnancy announcement photo at Disney, so why not do a Disney World Gender Reveal too!

Our Reveal Idea

I had a million different ideas for a reveal and looked at a lot of different articles. I needed something that would be easy and quick since my family had no idea we’d be doing this! We had just found out days prior to this trip, so I really didn’t have time to order anything or prearrange something either. Ordering a cake was out and we had done that for our last gender reveal. We really wanted to do it while my family was all together. We decided on using Mickey balloons since they come in pink and blue and we could do the reveal at any opportune moment with the help of a Disney PhotoPass photographer. We could make it pink or make it blue and let everyone know!

How We Did the Reveal

This idea worked out perfectly! I told my family moments before the reveal so they were totally shocked. I found a photographer, named Mae, who wasn’t busy and she was so excited to help out! She helped me pick out a location that wasn’t busy while the parade was happening just off main street, so it would be a private moment for my family. My husband purchased the two balloons totaling $28. My niece was going to get the pink one after the reveal and our son was going to get the blue one, so no balloon went to waste either.

It was extremely extremely windy, so besides the wind blowing the balloons around the moment turned out exactly how I imagined it. We took some photos with both balloons then for the “reveal” I handed my mom the balloon of the gender our baby was not and kept the balloon that our baby was. In this case we are having a baby boy, so we kept the blue balloon to take photos with the blue one. Then we went over in front of the castle to snag some more photos with our blue balloon for our new little prince!

This was super easy fun way to announce we are having a little boy and my family was so surprised!