Our First Cruise – Part I – Choosing and Getting to Orlando

by | Jul 3, 2017 | Disney Cruise, Travel Without Children | 0 comments

Our first cruise was on the Disney Dream.

When my husband and I finally decided it was time to give cruising a try, we chose Disney. We chose Disney not only because we love Walt Disney World, but because we had heard so many good things about Disney Cruise Line. I don’t remember hearing anything bad from anyone who has ever been on a Disney Cruise. It was all good. So, our very first cruise was a Disney Cruise!

While riding in a boat (motor boats) and being on the water was something I did as a child, the only time I was overnight on a ship was when I was a teen and we rode an overnight ferry from Maine to Nova Scotia. I also went on a fishing trip on the Atlantic once. I didn’t have any problems with seasickness, so I wasn’t very worried about me. However, that was a LONG time ago, so it was in the back of my mind.

My husband, on the other hand, never had those experiences. Would he have a problem? Also, would we even enjoy a cruise?

A cruise, in and of itself, isn’t really that expensive when you compare it to other vacations (it includes meals, entertainment, hotel, etc.). However, spending a lot of money for something you may be sick on the whole time, or just don’t like, can make you a bit apprehensive.

To ease that feeling, we decided to choose a cruise that was less than a full week. We chose a four-night cruise, because we wouldn’t have to take time off from two separate weeks. Since my husband’s work requires him for a full week, he would have had to take off two weeks – one for the Friday it left and one for the Monday it returned – for the three-night cruise. That didn’t sound good to us, so we decided that leaving on a Monday and returning on a Friday would work best for us, so we chose the four-night cruise. This would help us know if cruising was for us, without having to worry about being on it for what would seem an eternity if we got sick or didn’t like it.

The only choice we had was a cruise to the Bahamas. That was ok with us, since we were going on vacation after a long time without one. All we wanted to do was relax, and not have to do anything if we didn’t want to.

We decided to arrive in Orlando two days ahead of time (on a Saturday). I highly recommend you arriving at least a day ahead of your cruise. This will give you time in case of a flight cancellation or delay. You don’t want to miss the ship! This also gave us time to relax. Here we were in Orlando and didn’t go to Walt Disney World! That didn’t make sense for us, but we wanted time to relax.

To be continued…

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