Disney Cruise

Reagan National Airport
Reagan National Airport
  The time for our Spring Break trip quickly approached.  Our flight would be leaving Reagan National Airport at 6 pm, so we decided to pick the girls up from school so they could get changed and we could head out.  We were going to park at the airport to reduce our travel time there as well as for the trip home since we would be arriving back into Reagan at 11 pm at the end of our trip.  The daily rate to park in the garage is $25 vs the $17 in the economy parking.   We left the house at 3 pm and arrived at Reagan National Airport around 3:45 pm or so.  We pulled into the parking garage and found a spot on the top level.  I always photograph our parking spot so I can find it when we come back (although we’ve never forgotten where we parked). We grabbed all of our bags from the back of the car and headed towards the American Airlines check in line.  The lines weren’t long, so we dropped our bags off, got our boarding passes and quickly went through the TSA Precheck lines.  Since we had about 90 minutes to kill before our flights, we decided to head for the American Airlines Admirals Club.   The Admirals Club in Terminal C at Reagan National Airport is the opposite of exciting.  But it is quiet and out of the crush of people that are usually in the terminal.  We found some seats and went off for some refreshments . Nancy managed to get a beverage while the kids and I went to check out the snack offerings.   There are two different snack offering areas.  One has cookies, brownies, and bananas.   The other snack area has light snacks (cheese, olives, hummus, chips, etc) plus usually some sort of soup.  There is also a coffee machine that will make espresso type drinks as well.   The Admirals Club apparently also started doing made to order guacamole as well, so the girls and I decided to try it out.  We really enjoyed it (and may have made a few return trips).    After our snack and drinks, we decided to head out to the chaos of the terminal.  We were flying out of gate 45, so it was only a short walk.   Our flight was still listed as on time, but the flight before ours at the gate was delayed so the gate area was really congested.  That flight eventually got on its way and our inbound aircraft pulled up to the gate to let people off.  We grabbed some food to eat on the plane so we wouldn’t be hungry once we landed.  We really wanted to get going once we landed, since we had about two hours to drive before getting to the hotel in Florida. One of the best things about flying into or out of Reagan National Airport is the great views of downtown DC that you get.  One of the girls took these two great photos as we took off.  The first shows the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.   The second shows the mall, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, the Capitol Building and the White House. Our flight went off without any problems and we were soon landing at Orlando International Airport.  Nancy and the girls went to get the bags and I went to get the car from Alamo.  Last time we used Alamo, I stood in the line for about 45 minutes.  As I approached the line this time, I noticed it was pretty long.  Then, I noticed the self check-in kiosks.  There was no line for them, so I decided to give them a shot.  It took about two minutes to input my driver’s license and credit card information and pull up my reservation (made through costcotravel.com, of course).  Then we were off to pick up the car. I showed our documentation to the assistant in the Alamo area in the garage and they said we could pick any car from the full sized row (which is what we had rented).  Included in the row was several pickup trucks and minivans.  The girls really wanted a minivan for the extra space on the drive to Miami, so we picked one out.  It easily held our luggage plus we had tons of room.  We set up our phones for navigation and were on our way to our hotel around 8:45 pm.   We had moved the hotel from Miami to Stuart, Florida so we wouldn’t have to drive as far after we landed.  We arrived at the hotel about 10:15 or so and checked in.   The two queen bed room wasn’t exciting, but it was comfortable and clean.  We brought in a couple of bags that we needed and got ready for bed.    We got up the next morning and had breakfast at the hotel.  We then headed back out on I-95 south to get to Miami.    We stopped about 45 minutes away from Miami at a Total Wine so Nancy and I could grab some beer for the cruise.   Disney Cruise Line lets you bring two bottles of wine or a six back of beer for each adult.  You can also do this at each port stop.  We probably spent about 30 minutes here and at a nearby Super Target getting some last minute items.   We got to the ship around 10:15 am or so.  As we headed over the bridge to the cruise terminal, we saw the Magic!   We decided to park in the parking garage facing Terminal G.  The Magic was at Terminal F, which is a short walk away.  We had parked in the lot across from Terminal E during our Christmas cruise, but the walking route from the surface lot wasn’t easy to navigate, requiring us to walk through an area where there were a lot of trucks moving around.  The parking garage allowed us to walk down a sidewalk to get to Terminal F.   Here is the view down the sidewalk toward Terminal F.   We dropped our luggage off with the porters (and a tip) and headed to check in!   Once we entered the building, we had to pass through security.  There are two security lines you can choose from.   As you can see, the lines weren’t very long at this point.  It was about 10:30 or so at this point.   Once we cleared security, we headed upstairs to the check in area.  We showed them our passports and received our Key to the World cards and lanyards.  We were given our boarding number as well.     Once we got to the waiting area, we realized that they were already past our boarding group.  We immediately went to board the ship.   We skipped the standard welcome photo since we’ve never purchased any of the photos.  We presented our Key to the World card to get scanned onto the boat and headed on board. Next up, we’ll talk about our first night on board the ship!   Planning | Travel | Boarding | Key West | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Sea Day | Disembarkation   If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints as well as our cruise trip reports!     read more

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The Disney Cruise Line Spring 2018 itineraries were released near the end of October 2016.  We started scanning them as soon as they came out because we knew our Spring break trip for that year would be a DCL cruise.  We eventually decided to go back on the Magic as a follow up from our Christmas Cruise planned for December 2017.  The cruise we selected was a 5 night Bahamian cruise that left from Miami with stops at Key West, Nassau, and Castaway Cay.  We had previously sailed to Key West on the Wonder and loved the port.  We were also excited because there would be a sea day after Castaway Cay.  All of our other cruises spent the last full day at Castaway Cay, which kind of made the stop bitter sweet. 

The cruise would leave on a Friday, thus forcing the girls to miss a half a day of school.  We don’t normally like to have them miss school, but this departure date would let us apply an onboard placeholder to save 10% off the cruise. 

Since we knew we would have annual passes by the time of the Spring Break Cruise, we needed to add on some additional time at the parks as well.

I sent our request to our travel agent, Michelle McKnight.  Michelle said she would book it as soon as the Gold Castaway Club window opened.  She booked the cruise and sent us the information.  We eventually re-booked the cruise to add an onboard booking that we made during our Star Wars Day At Sea Cruise in January 2017, thus dropping the price of the cruise by 10%. 

Flights

We waited until April of 2017 to start booking the rest of our arrangements.  We knew we would have annual passes, so we wanted to add in a visit to Walt Disney World.  Once the flight booking window opened, I scanned the various airlines sites that we have miles for.  The best deal appeared to be to fly American Airlines from Reagan National Airport into Orlando the night before the cruise. The return flight would be on the Monday after Easter, with the girls having to go back to school on Tuesday.  That would allow us to maximize our time in the parks as well.  The flights were really cheap, so we used the Chase Ultimate Rewards points to purchase them through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.  I believe we used about 60,000 points to get the round trip flights for all four of us.

The trouble with flying into Orlando is that we needed to get to Miami for the cruise.  We would have to get a rental car to get us down to Miami.  We would then drive to the Port, park the car and board the cruise.  Once the cruise was over, we could grab the car and drive to the parks.  We could use the car to get to the parks and eventually to return to the airport. 

Hotels

I had initially thought about getting a hotel in Miami for the night before the cruise.  Our flights were going to land in Orlando around 8 pm.  Once we got our bags and our rental car, we probably wouldn’t start driving until 8:30 pm.  That would put us in Miami around 12:30 am or so.  After a full day of work, I really wasn’t looking forward to driving 4 hours late at night.  I moved the hotel booking from Miami to a Holiday Inn Express in Stuart, Florida.  It was about 2 hours or so from Orlando, which meant we could leave around 8 am in the morning and still get to the boat around 10 am for boarding.   The hotel was free because we used our free night that comes with our Chase IHG Rewards Select Credit Card.  We’ve used this free night on several hotel rooms over the years, thus saving a lot of money.

We would also need a room at Walt Disney World for 5 nights.  Spring Break is an expensive time to visit Walt Disney World because it is so busy.  We wanted to stay on property, but didn’t want to pay on property rates.  Luckily, we had a large pile of Starwood Preferred Guest(SPG) points.  SPG is the hotel group that the Swan and Dolphin belonged to.  I say “belonged” because SPG was recently bought out by Marriot.  We booked the Dolphin for five nights on points and would only end up paying for parking and “resort fees.”  We chose the Dolphin over the Swan because I had exactly enough points for five nights at the Dolphin, which is cheaper than the Swan. 

Remaining Planning

We got our annual passes a bit early in August 2017.  We decided to skip out on excursions through Disney Cruise Line on this cruise to save a bit of money and just planned to do our own thing at each port.  After we returned from our Christmas Cruise, we just waited until our cruise documentation arrived in the mail.

Next up, we’ll talk about the trip down to Miami!

Planning | Travel | Boarding | Key West | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Sea Day | Disembarkation

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Luigis
Luigis

Here are the quick service locations on the Disney Fantasy.  All of these are located on Deck 11 and are grouped together.

Luigis serves primarily pizza.

Tom Mater Grill serves primarily hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and chicken tenders, as well as french fries.

 

Fillmores offers wraps, paninis and salads.

There is also a condiment bar for adding toppings to your selections.

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Disney Cruise

Note: This post is out of date.  To see the latest prices (that we update once a month) go to our homepage and find the latest pricing posts from there.  Or subscribe to our email list and get updated delivered to your inbox at the beginning of each month!

Here are the ten cheapest (per night) cruises you can take with two adults and two children in a Concierge stateroom as of October 1, 2018.   These prices include the newly released Spring 2020 Itineraries!  Some of them have already shown up in the list.   There are three Halloween on the High Seas and three Very Merrytime cruises on the list!  The only ship that didn’t make this list is the Dream. 

Cruise Name Number of Days Date Ship Departure Port Concierge Price Concierge Price Per Night
5-Night Western Caribbean Cruise from Galveston to San Juan 5 Jan 9 2019 Disney Wonder Galveston $6029.00 $1205.80
5-Night Bahamian Cruise from San Juan to New Orleans 5 Feb 2 2020 Disney Wonder San Juan $6044.00 $1208.80
6-Night Western Caribbean Cruise from Galveston to San Juan 6 Jan 13 2020 Disney Wonder Galveston $7410.00 $1235.00
5-Night Very Merrytime Eastern Caribbean Cruise from New York to San Juan 5 Nov 10 2019 Disney Magic New York $6672.00 $1334.40
7-Night Halloween on the High Seas Western Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral 7 Sep 14 2019 Disney Fantasy Port Canaveral $9632.00 $1376.00
4-Night Very Merrytime Western Caribbean Cruise from Galveston 4 Dec 16 2019 Disney Wonder Galveston $5544.00 $1386.00
7-Night Halloween on the High Seas Eastern Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral 7 Sep 7 2019 Disney Fantasy Port Canaveral $9788.00 $1398.29
6-Night Very Merrytime Western Caribbean Cruise from Galveston 6 Dec 6 2019 Disney Wonder Galveston $8426.00 $1404.33
7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral 7 Aug 31 2019 Disney Fantasy Port Canaveral $9842.00 $1406.00
7-Night Halloween on the High Seas Western Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral 7 Sep 28 2019 Disney Fantasy Port Canaveral $9926.00 $1418.00

Note: This post is out of date.  To see the latest prices (that we update once a month) go to our homepage and find the latest pricing posts from there.

If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints as well as our cruise trip reports! read more

* Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Email!

Disney Cruise

Note: This post is out of date.  To see the latest prices (that we update once a month) go to our homepage and find the latest pricing posts from there.  Or subscribe to our email list and get updated delivered to your inbox at the beginning of each month!

Here are the ten cheapest (per night) cruises you can take with two adults and two children in a Verandah stateroom as of October 1, 2018.   These prices include the newly released Spring 2020 Itineraries!  Some of them have already shown up in the list.   Every ship in the fleet is represented on this list!  There are two Halloween on the High Seas and three Very Merrytime cruises as well.  Some of these are repositioning cruises (the ones on the Magic and Wonder), but there are a number of cruises on the Fantasy and the Dream.

Cruise Name Number of Days Date Ship Departure Port Verandah Price Verandah Price Per Night
5-Night Bahamian Cruise from San Juan to New Orleans 5 Feb 2 2020 Disney Wonder San Juan $3314.00 $662.80
5-Night Western Caribbean Cruise from Galveston to San Juan 5 Jan 9 2019 Disney Wonder Galveston $3389.00 $677.80
6-Night Western Caribbean Cruise from Galveston to San Juan 6 Jan 13 2020 Disney Wonder Galveston $4134.00 $689.00
7-Night Halloween on the High Seas Western Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral 7 Oct 13 2018 Disney Fantasy Port Canaveral $4984.00 $712.00
13-Night Eastbound Transatlantic Cruise from Miami to Barcelona 13 May 12 2019 Disney Magic Miami $9554.00 $734.92
7-Night Very Merrytime Western Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral 7 Nov 24 2018 Disney Fantasy Port Canaveral $5194.00 $742.00
4-Night Very Merrytime Bahamian Cruise from Port Canaveral 4 Nov 26 2018 Disney Dream Port Canaveral $3009.00 $752.25
10-Night Westbound Transatlantic Cruise from Dover to New York 10 Sep 15 2019 Disney Magic Dover $7667.00 $766.70
4-Night Halloween on the High Seas Bahamian Cruise from Port Canaveral 4 Oct 22 2018 Disney Dream Port Canaveral $3097.00 $774.25
5-Night Very Merrytime Eastern Caribbean Cruise from New York to San Juan 5 Nov 10 2019 Disney Magic New York $3872.00 $774.40

Note: This post is out of date.  To see the latest prices (that we update once a month) go to our homepage and find the latest pricing posts from there.

If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints as well as our cruise trip reports! read more

* Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Email!