We recently went on the Disney Magic for a 5-Night Caribbean Very Merrytime Christmas Cruise from Miami. We stayed in stateroom 2512, which is a Category 9C Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom. It is located on the forward (front) starboard (right) side of the ship on Deck 2, in front of the forward elevators. We had never stayed forward on Deck 2 before, but we really liked it. The forward elevators are very rarely busy and it was easy to get to almost everything.
Here are some pictures of the Castaway Club Gifts we have received over the years (Note: We just received some updated pictures from a recent Disney Alaska Cruise. We’ve added these pictures to the end of the article):
Of course, the highs of being on the cruise always come crashing down on Disembarkation day. We decided to carry our bags off the ship with express walk off, but still enjoy breakfast. We left our room and headed towards Animators Palette, which is where we had dinner the night before. Since we had late dinner, our breakfast was at a reasonable time.
Day 3 of our cruise was Castaway Cay, which is one of our favorite stops. Imagine if Disney had taken an entire Caribbean Island and turned it into a water park. That’s basically how I describe Castaway Cay to people. We aren’t beach people, but we love this port stop more than any others. We had managed to grab the last Cabana on the family beach (Cabana #20) when we checked in for this cruise, so it was going to be a great day. We invited our friends to enjoy the Cabana with us, since there was no additional charge for six people versus four people.
We were very excited to get on board the Disney Dream as this was our first time on the ship. As they called our boarding group, we walked through the giant Mickey ears and had our Keys to the World cards swiped for the first time on this cruise. We skipped the initial photo since we never buy the photos on board.
Disney cruises are one of our favorite ways to vacation. One of the few issues we have experienced while on the ship (and travel in general) is how to keep all of our electronic devices charged up. As a family of four, we have a multitude of cell phones, iPads, and Kindles that need a recharge. We used to travel with a bag full of wall chargers and cables that went everywhere. This was a real problem once we boarded the cruise ship, since there are a limited number of wall plugs available.
Once you are onboard and enjoying a Disney cruise, you might want to find a way to get right back on board. Disney has an onboard bookings desk right there on the ship. If you book onboard, they will offer you a few discounts. The first is an onboard credit to be used next time you sail ($100 for cruises less than 7 days, $200 for cruises 7 days or longer). The second incentive is a reduced deposit for cruises 7 days or longer (requiring only a 10% deposit instead of the usual 20%). The last discount is a 10% reduction in price for *MOST* cruises. Disney has started to black out that 10% discount on a lot of the popular cruises (for example, Spring Break, Christmas Break, and special itineraries).
