Wow what a great time. We wanted to take the boy (4) to Disney, but didn’t know if he would appreciate the characters and we also want him to be more self sufficient for all the walking. So we thought we would try a 5 day cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. We have never been on a cruise, so we really didn’t know what to expect and didn’t have high hopes. We were pleasantly surprised by how well Disney crew took care of us. From the ease of onboarding, the cleanliness, helpfulness, friendliness, organization, they go out of their way to make it truly magical for the kids, but also a very enjoyable experience for the adults.

Castaway Cay, which is Disney’s private island is very well thought out, clean, with great food and drinks. Plenty for the family to do for 8 hours. Our boat held 4,000 guests and the island had 8,000 chairs, all with umbrellas for shade and the best blue water you could imagine.

I’m not big on crowds and I never felt crowded on the boat or the island.

We played hard and were completely wore out by 9pm.

I highly recommend this for anybody with kids 3-15.

Glad yall had a great trip!

Good to hear you guys had a great trip.

That's not a power line I see out in the water, is it?

Haha, that only in Mexico. That’s actually just decoration they placed out there.

Looks like a great time. Thanks for sharing the pics and trip report.

How was the food?

I heard a few years back that Disney cruises were great about including almost everything with the cost and upselling very little on the boat compared to other cruise lines. Is that still the case?

Sounds like a good fit for a grandparent looking to do Disney with the kiddos. Will file this away.

That's good to know!

BP, did you say your boy is only 4? He looks so tall and so much older. He's going to be a big boy!

Glad y'all had a great time.

Say what you want about Disney's ridiculous politics, but they do customer service right. We did all the parks in Orlando in early 2015 and even I thoroughly enjoyed it. My 10-year-old daughter did the princess makeover with the hair, etc., and not a single time was she not greeted with a "Hello, Princess!" at every ride or any time we encountered a Disney employee. To hear their cruise is legit is no surprise at all.

Nice!!! That does look like a good trip. He is getting big

Yep. 4. He’ll be 5 in August. Stands just over 49” and 52 pounds.

No idea. This was our first cruise.

Kids clubs are free. Dinner every night which is a 4 course sit down dinner is included and they are very good.

I don’t know what other cruises charge for.

The alcoholic drinks are expensive as they don’t have any cheap choices. The cheapest whiskey was Makers Mark, but they had a great selection of them and Scotch.

Damn Colt will be 6 in May and he just broke 41 1/4” and still holding strong at 35 pounds.


He’s working hard for his 42” booster seat in the vehicles. Boy probably eats 4 hard boiled eggs a day because we told him they’ll make him taller.

Ellie just got her big girl seat Friday. I thought it was based off weight lol. She has been 38.5 the last 3 months but we need to see how tall they are. Tall they are I just do not know how much.

sounds fun. I may have to take the GFs grandkids on this Disney cruise

look$ fun

Not my cup of tea but I’m glad y’all had fun.

As long as people are lining up to hand over money every day their political views are irrelevant it seems.
LOL. In BP's defense, it looks like a decent trip. I haven't been on a cruise either, so my opinions are also irrelevant.

Right on, good for you sir !

It took me 39 years to go one and we only went because of the kid. Telling me we will be stuck on the ship from 3pm Wednesday until 8am Friday sounded absolutely miserable. But it was in fact the exact opposite. There was so much to do onboard that we couldn’t do it all in the time we were on the boat. Wife and I agreed that we should’ve done the 7 day cruise instead.

A couple of things to note, be very clear of when to debark the ship. We were told from a friend that went a few weeks before us that you debark at 12pm, so we booked our flight for 4pm. In actuality we debarked at 9am, so we ended up buying a day pass at Margaritaville so we could use the pool and they will store our luggage. Check the weather, it rained all day and we never left the lobby, lol.

Secondly, so you’re own research and find your own adventures off the boat at each port. It’s extremely expensive to go through the cruise line for these adventures. First day off in Nassau, we were going to hit the public beach for a few hours. While walking there, we noticed the British Colonial Hotel had day passes, entire family for $180. If we had bought through the cruise, they had 2 options, Atlantis for $800, and some adult only hotel.

We took our first one last year. Drove to Vegas and then to Seattle. It went along the Alaska coast. Interesting deal and I might do another one. I know a house flipper. He renovated and sells. Then takes the profit and cruises dang near everywhere.

Glad you had a good trip. I’ve only done one cruise in my life and it was a Disney cruise out of Miami with my 4-ish year old.
In agreement with everything you said. Disney does go all out on making it about the kids.. Adult entertainment was meh but it’s not about us anyway. The food was superb each day. Never drank on the boat but did at the ports we stopped at. I’d go again in a heart beat.