Disney Cruise

Our friend, Lauren Shields, recently went on the Disney Wish with her awesome family.  While on board, they visited the Teenage Club “Vibe” (Ages 14-17) and were kind enough to share pictures with us.  The Vibe is located on Deck 12 Starboard (right) side of the ship. read more

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I had the great privilege and honor to be invited back on my favorite podcast, Rope Drop Radio, to discuss the Disney Cruise Line’s recent news of what’s to come with the Disney Wish.

Derek and Doug, the hosts of Rope Drop Radio, are two dads who love Disney.  Their goal is helping you navigate the Disney Parks and never missing a rope drop!  They want to share tips and tricks, travel plans, and must sees to help you have an amazing Disney trip! 

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.   Make sure to follow them on Facebook and Twitter as well! read more

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Vibe Teen Club
Vibe Teen Club

Here are our pictures of the Vibe teenage club (for ages 14-17) on the Disney Wonder from our Southern Caribbean Trip taken in January 2020.  It was updated in Fall 2019 to a more open feel.  We have previously discussed what the club looked like before the refurbishment.  The club is located in the central smokestack of the ship.  There is an elevator that goes directly into the club as well.

When you enter the club, immediately to the right of the entrance is a set of video games, as well as the ever present canister of hand wipes.

Looking to the front and left of the entrance, is the elevator that opens into the Vibe.  The counselors also have their profiles on a board for the cruisers to read.

The central part of the club is focused on the main television, with lots of comfortable seating surrounding it.

There is a room in the back as well, with a Guitar Hero machine in the entrance.

The back room is just a quieter place away from the noise of the central room.

To the front of the central room is a smoothie bar!  There is also a new coffee machine there for everyone to enjoy. 

The front windows have been opened up so there is more light.  I believe the area in front is the concierge sun deck area.

Next to the bar is a small booth to sit and talk, or to enjoy a smoothie or coffee drink.

Overall, the club has been opened up and given a lighter feel.  If you would like to hear a teenager’s view on the available activities on the ship, my daughter has talked about the Vibe Club on Rope Drop Radio.

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

Vibe Teenage Club
Vibe Teenage Club

Here are our pictures of the Vibe teenage club for ages 14-17 on the Disney Wonder from our Spring Break Trip in April 2019.  The club is located in the central smokestack of the ship.  There is an elevator that goes directly into the club as well.  My older daughter went to register while we took some pictures. 

Here are some pictures of the main portion of the club:

If you would like to hear a teenager’s view on the available activities on the ship, my daughter has talked about the Vibe Club on Rope Drop Radio.

If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!
 
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Here are our pictures of the Vibe teenage club for ages 14-17 on the Disney Magic from our Spring Break Trip in March 2018.  It was updated in March 2018 to an urban loft theme.  We have previously discussed what the club looked like before the refurbishment.  The club is located in the central smokestack of the ship.  There is an elevator that goes directly into the club as well.  My older daughter went to register while we took some pictures. 

Here are some pictures of the main portion of the club:

There is also a back room to the club for watching TV or for smaller groups.

There is a smoothie bar in the front of the club, right near the window.

Near the entrance to Vibe is an activity schedule.  As our daughter said, ice breakers on the first night is definitely the one activity not to miss.  It is the time when friendships are the easiest to make and they will last the length of the cruise and beyond.

If you would like to hear a teenager’s view on the available activities on the ship, my daughter has talked about the Vibe Club on Rope Drop Radio.

If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!
 
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Credit Cards, Disney Cruise, Disney Gift Cards

When you embark on a Disney Cruise, you will be given a Key To The World Card.  The card will not only unlock your stateroom but also uniquely identifies you to the crew.  It has a lot of information embedded on the card as well.  I’ll try to breakdown the information as well to show you some examples of the card.

A The dates of your cruise
The ship you are on
C Your name
D Your Castaway Club status
E Your lifeboat station
F Your dining rotation:

Fantasy

  • E – Enchanted Garden
  • R – Royal Court
  • A – Animators Palette

Dream

  • E – Enchanted Garden
  • R – Royal Palace
  • A – Animators Palette

Magic

  • R – Rapunzel’s Royal Table on Magic (Used to be C – Carioca’s)
  • A – Animators Palette
  • L – Lumiere’s

Wonder

  • TR – Tritons (Used to T)
  • TP for Tiana’s Place (Used to be P – Parrot Cay)
  • AP – Animators Palette (Used to be A)
G Your dining time
H Your check in line number
I Indicates you have a Disney Visa Card as your credit card (entitles you to additional perks)
J Your table number in every main dining room
K Your Castaway Club account number
L A for Adult, M for Minor
M P for Disney Transportation to the Port, A for Disney Transportation to the Airport, R for Disney Resort, PA for Port and Airport, PR for Port and Resort, and RPA for Resort to Port to Airport.

Here is our first card, which was for a cruise to Alaska.  The only difference here is that we didn’t have any Disney Transportation booked, didn’t have Castaway Club status, and Disney had not yet started to indicate if you were using a Disney Visa Card.

On our second cruise, we had obtained Silver Castaway Club Status.  We went on a Spring Break cruise on the Wonder.

On our third cruise, we got a star added to our card.  This was to indicate that we had visited the Immigration and Custom Officials before the ship docked in Key West.  This cruise was a four night Caribbean cruise on the Wonder.  

Nothing new on this card for our fourth cruise.  Although, it is interesting to note that there is no check in line number on this card.  I think my Key To The World card got demagnetized on this cruise (and wouldn’t open my stateroom door), so it got reprinted while we were on board.  This was a five night Western Caribbean cruise on the Wonder.

This was our fifth cruise and it was our first time on the Fantasy.  This was a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy.

Back on the Wonder for our sixth cruise, where we changed to Gold Castaway Club Members.  We also don’t have a check in line number for this cruise, but I remember that we did upgrade our stateroom in the cruise terminal.  This meant that our card got reprinted in the supervisor’s line. This was another five night Western Caribbean cruise on the Wonder.

For our seventh cruise, we returned to the Fantasy.  We also paid for Disney Cruise Line transportation from the airport and the port, so the card has a PA on it.  We also used a Disney Visa Card for the default credit card for this cruise, so they added the DV to this card.  We didn’t actually use the credit card, since all the charges were paid off using Disney Gift Cards.  This was a seven night Eastern Caribbean Star Wars Day at Sea Cruise.

Our eighth cruise was our first cruise on the Dream.  We again paid for round trip Disney Cruise ground transportation and used our Disney Visa Card.  This was a three night Bahamian Cruise on the Dream.

On our ninth cruise, we went on the Magic for a Very Merrytime Cruise.  We drove to and from the Port of Miami, so no annotation about Disney Transportation.  We used our Disney Visa Card as the default credit card for this cruise.  This was a 5 Night Very Merrytime Western Caribbean Cruise on the Magic.

On our tenth cruise, we went back on the Magic for a Sprint Break Cruise.  We drove to and from the Port of Miami, so no annotation about Disney Transportation.  This was a 5 Night Bahamian Cruise on the Magic.

Our eleventh cruise, where we were Platinum for the first time, was another cruise on the Fantasy.  We drove to and from Port Canaveral, so no annotation about Disney Transportation.  This was a 7-Night Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy.

On our twelve cruise, we went back onboard our favorite ship, the Wonder, for a Spring Break Cruise.  We left from San Diego on a 5-Night Baja Cruise.  This was the first time we had been on the Wonder since its refurbishment that added Tiana’s Place.  Disney Cruise Line changed the way the dining rotation was specified on the card to add two letters for the name of the restaurant so there was no confusion with Tiana’s and Triton’s. We actually didn’t sit at Table 57, as we discussed in the trip report, because we wanted to sit with our favorite crew member.   Since we took an Uber to and from the port (we had additional vacation days before and after the cruise), we didn’t use Disney transportation.

During some recent cruises, our daughter was old enough to go to the Vibe.  When the kids check in to the Vibe, they get new Key To The World cards printed on this special card to indicate they are allowed in the Vibe.  If they don’t have this card during a “Card Check”, they will be asked to leave the Vibe.  Our daughter indicated they do this check every so often.

Some friends sailed in a Concierge Cabin and were kind enough to share their Key To The World card with us.  As you can see, they had Port/Airport transfers and also used their Disney Visa Card as the default payment.  The card is gold because they were Concierge guests and had access to the Concierge Lounge.   There are two interesting items to note with this card.  One first is the Concierge check-in desk number “993”.  The second item is the crossed Mickey Keys in the bottom left, which also indicates a Concierge guest.

We just added some information on how you can store your Key to the World Card as well, talking about Lanyards available from both Disney and Amazon.

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

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Disney Magic Atrium
Disney Magic Atrium

 One of our favorite parts of a Disney cruise is having the staff announce your family as you board the ship!  We entered the atrium to this beautiful sight:
 

The large chandeliers of the past on the Disney ships have been replaced to open the space up a bit more.  This is the one on the Magic:

We were really hungry after the trip down, so we immediately headed for Lumiere’s to get some lunch.  Lumiere’s is one of the main dining rooms for the Disney Magic, located just off the atrium.  Lumiere’s has a Beauty and the Beast theme (Lumiere is a candelabra in the movie).

Here is the menu:

Nancy and one of the girls ordered the Sliced Smoked Salmon and I ordered the Beef Empanadas.

As we continued our meal, the dining room slowly started to fill up as more people boarded the ship. We ordered the Salmon Salad and the Pennette Pasta as our entrees. 

We decided to get the Cookies N’ Cream cheesecake to try it out.  We really enjoyed it.

Because we were so late to board the ship (versus when we normally board), by the time we finished lunch the staterooms were available.   I went next door to the Promenade Lounge to switch our dining rotation. We wanted to switch to be with Viand, who was our server on board the Magic during our Christmas cruise.  The restaurant manager said Viand was already on our rotation.  The manager said to speak to him when we showed up to dinner, he would put us at one of Viand’s tables.  I headed to the stateroom to let everyone know.

Nancy and the girls had already headed to the room to look it over.  We were in room 2612, which is an Ocean View Stateroom.  We’ve previously stayed in 2612 on the Disney Wonder, which is exactly like the Magic.  Nancy decided to stay in the room to wait for the luggage and get everything setup for us.  The girls and I decided to go off to explore the changes to the ship since its recent refurbishment.

The first place we headed was to the Oceaneer’s Club.  There was a change to part of the Club to add Disney Club Junior.  This is one of the themed rooms in the Club.

We then went to the Vibe, which is the Disney cruise line club for teenagers 14 through 17.  The club is located in the mid-ship funnel on the Magic.  The area has now been transformed with an urban loft theme.  My older daughter went to register while we took some pictures.  She has talked about the Vibe Club recently on Rope Drop Radio.

Here are some pictures of the main portion of the club:

There is also a back room to the club for watching TV or for smaller groups.

There is a smoothie bar in the front of the club, right near the window.

Near the entrance to Vibe is an activity schedule.  As our daughter said, ice breakers on the first night is definitely the one activity not to miss.  It is the time when friendships are the easiest to make and they will last the length of the cruise and beyond.

After checking out the Vibe, we headed off to see The Crown Jewelry, which is a new store that was opened in part of the space formally occupied by Shutters (the photo shop on the ship).  There were a lot of expensive items, but we managed to refrain from purchasing anything.

We then headed up to Deck 9 to see the changes up there.  We noticed this new hand washing station outside of Cabanas.  You can use this or the standard hand wipes to help stop the spread of germs. 

One of the quick service food stations, Daisy’s De Lites, got the addition of a Build A Bowl Station.  It looks like you can build your own salad or soup.

We found a great crew member that helped explain it to us!

They still have the soups, if that is what you are looking for.

The Build a Bowl portion is setup so you can tell the Crew Member what you would like in your salad and they will assemble it for you.  Here is some of the items you can add.

The Signals Bar in the adult section also received a make over in the form of a covering to help keep the sun off the crew members and the guests.  Nancy and I haven’t spent a lot of time here, but I’m sure the change will help.

While we were in the adult section, we also went into the newly remodeled Cove Cafe.  The Cove Cafe is the coffee cafe onboard the Disney Magic.  The Cafe got a lighter interior. 

As before, there is still a display case that contains snacks.  You will have to ask the crew member working in the cafe to get the items for you.  They are still complementary though.

We decided to look into the Senses Spa as well since it received an update in the recent dry dock.  We decided to do a self-guided tour since the spa employees were busy with other guests.

This is the main hallway to the spa, leading back to the fitness center.

Here is one of the couple’s massage rooms in the spa.

The Rain Forest room, which is a new addition to the Magic, wasn’t quite ready for guests when we checked in on it.

Once we finished up at the Spa, we grabbed Nancy a soda and returned to the room.  It was time to decorate the door with our magnets and lights.  It was also close to time for the muster drill.  The muster drill is a mandatory drill for everyone.  We head to our muster station (locations for which are detailed on your Key to the World card as well as on the back of your door).

As you head to your muster station, there are crew members everywhere that will direct you to the correct location.  We were at muster station M.  Luckily, we were not located in the sun.

The muster station will slowly get more crowded as everyone starts to arrive.  The crew members will line everyone in your cabin up in a single file line and put other cabin occupants next to you.

The muster drill takes about 15 minutes, and then you are done!  We headed up to Deck 10 to watch the sail away party!  The sail away party is usually the same (I haven’t seen it change in a number of years) but it’s a nice way to kick off the cruise.

After a quick party, the ship was on its way out of Miami and headed towards Key West!

We didn’t go to the opening night show that first night.  We have been to quite a few of them and decided to spend our time looking over more of the ship.  We were excited to check out the shops to see if there was anything new.

Dinner tonight for us was in Lumiere’s, the same dining room we’d had lunch in.  Upon going in, we asked for the dining room manager I spoke with earlier.  He assigned us to table 68 and led us there.  We immediately saw Viand and he remembered us from Christmas.  We got seated and looked over the menu.  We noticed another family headed towards our table.  They were intercepted by the dining room manager, who directed them to a nearby table (probably the one we originally had).  This happened to us on our first cruise as well, but I didn’t realize at the time what was going on.

We looked over the menu to order.  This menu is one of my favorites, especially the dessert.

We ordered the Leek and Potato Soup and the French Onion Soup.  I know we ordered the Escargot as well, but don’t have a picture of it from that night.

For entrees, we ordered the Duck, the Steak and the Wild Mushroom Pasta.

The best dessert ever, the Grand Marnier Souffle. 

After dinner, the girls headed off to the Ice Breakers activities for their clubs and Nancy and I decided to call it a night.  We headed back to the room to find this guy:

Up next, we explore Key West!
Planning | Travel | Boarding | Key West | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Sea Day | Disembarkation
 
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Vibe Club Direction Signs
Vibe Club Direction Signs

During a recent August 2018 sailing on the Disney Fantasy, we made a special trip to visit the Vibe, the club for 14-17 year olds. We made sure to go during open house when anyone of any age can visit.  Otherwise, the club is strictly limited to the 14 through 17 year olds. 

The Vibe is located on Deck 5 all the way forward.  The entrance to the club can be found by going on the Deck 4 jogging track.  Head forward on the Port (left) side.  Eventually, you will go “inside” the superstructure of the ship in the front.

Right before you head across the ship from left to right, you will see the following sign near a staircase.

This is the staircase that will take you up to the Vibe.

The staircase will lead to this door and the hallway beyond.

Once you get past the hallway, you will see the registration desk.  I skipped taking a picture of the registration desk because my oldest daughter was in line registering and I was forbidden from acting like I knew her in front of the other kids.  I’m sure other parents of teenagers will understand.

Once you pass the registration desk on the left, you will see the smoothie bar. 

The center of the main room is dominated by this circular seating area that surrounds a screen.  A lot of the group activities take place in this area.

The back of the main room is taken up with these “media” pods.  Cruisers can sit here and listen to music.

There is a back room to the club as well.  The room has additional seating around another screen as well as some foosball tables.

The last part of the club is the best part.  There is a door in the main room that leads to the Vibe sun deck.  The sun deck has lots of loungers and three small pools.

On the right side, there is another foosball table as well as some seating.

When we went during open house, the pools were closed off.

Here are the sun loungers.

Here is a view from the front of the ship looking back at the bridge.  You can see additional seating as well against the wall.

There is also a shower for rinsing off before and after using the pool.

The front area of the sun deck has a large number of seats around an open area.

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