We took the kids on their first cruise on the Disney Wonder in June! While Vince and I have cruised before, we had never taken one with Disney. I am not a big fan of cruises, but I have to say, Disney does it right in every way! They have great food, the service is top-notch, and there is plenty of onboard entertainment for families. If you are feeling overwhelmed planning, here are all my tips on how to prepare for your cruise!

How to Book:

Vince and I like to book things ourselves without using a travel agent or a tour group. However, in times of covid we figured it’d be safer to use a travel company. We used Mousetalestravel and booked our original Alaskan cruise for June of 2021. Currently, Disney’s Alaskan cruises disembark from Vancouver, so you must adhere to Canadian travel guidelines. In March of 2021, Canada extended their ban on US passengers leaving from Canadian ports. Therefore, Disney had to cancel our trip. We then had the option of getting 100% of our money back in our original form of payment, or take a 125% credit. If you rebook for the future and get 125% credit, you can put that extra 25% towards on-ship activities.

We took the 125% credit for a future booking. I can’t stress this enough – that would not have been an option for us if we had booked this ourselves! We knew we still wanted to go on the Alaskan cruise, and we were willing to postpone it. We took the credit and rebooked for one year out. If you’re local in Colorado, we used Nicole Bennington and loved her! (I don’t get any kick-backs for recommending any of this by the way! I have no ulterior motives recommending her or mousetalestravel.com.) You do not pay extra to use this company! While they get a commission based off what you book, you aren’t paying any extra on top of what Disney is already charging you!

General Cost and What it Includes:

Disney Cruises are all-inclusive – to a point. Items not included are as follows: Alcohol, excursions, and certain on-ship activities (like the Bibbidi Bobbidy Boutique). Once you have booked, the Disney cruise line website will be your best friend. Create an account and then you’ll be able to access your reservation, register for excursions, and find out all the things required for pre-boarding the ship.

Other items included on the cruise:

Character Meet and Greets: The main reason your kids will want to take the cruise is to meet alllllll the characters, minus waiting in huge lines. The longest our girls ever had to wait was 5-10 minutes.

Onboard live entertainment. The Alaskan cruise is very Frozen-themed so there was a live show called “Frozen, A Musical Spectacular.”

First-Run Movies: You can see Disney movies currently being released in the theater in the on-ship theater. (One thing not included? Popcorn! So plan to buy that!)

Youth Clubs: While they say the youth clubs (the Disney Oceaneer’s Club) are included, you do get charged $13 per kid every single time you drop them off! We had no idea and dropped our kids of for literally 30 minutes the first day, just so they could see the lay of the land before we got dinner. That 30 minutes cost us $26.

Your food: This includes room-service, dinners at a different themed restaurant every night, and breakfasts and lunches eaten at the themed restaurants or quick-casual places. They have Daisy’s De-Lites – a place that serves wraps, sandwiches, and smoothies all day. And another option, Pinnocchio’s Pizza, which serves – you guessed it – pizza. They also have soft-serve ice cream stands by the pizza place which is next to the kids pool. Food not included: Items at the Crown Fin & Pub, food at the Cadillac Lounge, the coffee shop, and the nicer adults-only Italian restaurant, Palo. So just be ware you will be charged if you go to one of those places!

Other Items NOT Included: Tips obviously. Disney has a useful page here on the general gratuity guidelines to follow for each person that has served you over the cruise. We tipped extra on top of the recommended amount to our main servers because they were PHENOMENAL! We also gave extra to the guy who cleaned our room everyday. He’d set up the girls toys in different scenes everyday, and they looked forward to seeing what he’d do with them. And as I stated above, certain restaurants, all alcohol, the fee to watch each kid at the youth clubs, and popcorn for the movies were all additional charges.

Our daughters’ favorite activity that was NOT included but I highly suggest if you have a daughter: The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique! We chose the Castle Package which was $200 per girl and included: Hair styling, make-up, face gems, nail polish, and most importantly the princess gown of their choice and all the accessories for it. Plus they also get a cinched pink princess bag to hold all of their loot in, and get to keep the make-up pallet and nail polish used on them, extra hair accessories, and extra face gems.

Our cruise initially cost us roughly $10,000 for the four of us to take a 7-day cruise. Now, I will say – that was for TWO rooms. Having cruised before, Vince and I knew that putting us the four of us in one room would be a tight fit. So, we booked adjoining rooms and the kids got to sleep in one while we were in the other. Our room was on the second level of the ship.

I wanted a lower level room as I tend to get motion sickness. The higher your room, the more movement of the ship you will feel! Our rooms were great! We didn’t have a balcony and I didn’t want one. (I have the irrational fear that one of my kids will fall over the side of the boat.) Costs go up if you want a balcony or a suite so keep that in mind.

When we rebooked our trip for the following June, we then had an “extra” $2500 to spend thanks to our 125% credit! We used every penny for excursions, shopping, and tips for the people who made our cruise spectacular. (More on that in my next blog!)

Documentation Needed Before You Go

Canada has stricter covid guidelines than the US does currently. You must be fully vaccinated to enter Canada. If your kids are too young to be vaccinated, they need to have a negative covid within 72 hours of departure. If they test positive, you will NOT be able to get on the Disney Cruise, so keep that in mind. It’s another reason why using a travel agent, or getting travel insurance is your BFF!

12 Weeks Before your trip:

I hate to state the obvious, but I will make this dummy proof. If you are flying into Vancouver, you will need a valid passport for every passenger, including infants. So verify that your passports are up to date well in advance!

Six weeks before you disembark:

You must go onto Disney’s Safe Passage Website to fill out required documents. You need up upload current vaccination cards and fill out the required forms. Within a few days you will see your status changed in the website to “clear to arrive.” Once you’re all clear, you can move on to the next step!

4 Weeks before your cruise:

If this is your first time every cruising with Disney, I hate to say it, but you are low man on the totem pole. You check in for your cruise after everyone else who has cruised at least once before with Disney. That means that merely four weeks before your cruise, you are finally able to check in and sign up for excursions. Because of that – MANY excursions will be sold out already!! At first, we panicked, then realized there was no reason to despair. We googled the port of call we were going to be in, and what we wanted to do. (For example – “Dog sledding in Juneau.” And guess what? Pretty much every company Disney uses, always has openings if you book directly through them versus using Disney!

In fact, we got a better deal on our helicopter/dog sled tour than we would have through the ship. (By a couple hundred bucks and for the exact same tour with the exact same company!) Plus, every company we used guaranteed that they would have us back to our cruise ship on time. We used alaskashoreexcrusions.com for all of our tours. Not only were they cheaper, but we were on the same tours as people on our cruise ship. So don’t feel discouraged if all excursions are booked when it’s your turn to register! My other piece of advice is to print out your travel vouchers for any tours you book on your own so that you have all documents necessary before you arrive.

72 hours prior to your flight:

Flying into Canada will also require one more document. You fill it out through the ArriveCAN website. Ensure you print it and have it with you before your board your flight. It’ll allow the customs process to go a lot faster!

Where to stay the night before your cruise leaves:

Our cruise was June 6-13th. Airlines are extremely understaffed in this post-covid world, resulting in flights getting cancelled left and right. I would encourage you to fly out the day before your cruise and just spend some time sightseeing in Vancouver. We flew out on June 5th and landed in Vancouver from Denver around 3 pm. We checked into the Fairmont Waterfront and I can’t recommend them enough. First, you are directly across the street from the cruise terminal! Because of that, you can leave your luggage with the concierge and they’ll bring it to the ship terminal for you! I can’t express how helpful that is when you are travelling with young children!

If you don’t trust the concierge, you can walk your happy ass and all your luggage to the terminal yourself. It won’t even take you five minutes! The Fairmont had clean rooms, the food in their main restaurant was great, and the staff was incredibly friendly. You don’t have to stay at the Fairmont if you don’t want to though. Just research hotels that are walking distance to the cruise ship terminal to make your life easy!

What to Pack for your Alaskan Cruise:

We had a direct flight from Denver to Vancouver, and luckily our flight was on time. However, our flight home was cancelled entirely, causing us to be stuck Canada an extra night. United lost all 5 of our suitcases to boot, so we were there overnight without our stuff. Which brings me to my first point on what to pack.

A Carry-on:

Bring a carry-on with at least one outfit for each family member, pjs for everyone, and your toiletries. Have your kids bring one or two items that they need to sleep well. (A blanket, stuffed animal, what have you.) Also toss in your swimsuits so you can enjoy the pool right when you get on board. Air travel right now is a shit show and the likelihood of your flight being delayed/cancelled is higher than in pre-covid times so keep that in mind!

Another hot tip: Get Air Tags. Put them on your suitcases and that way if the airline loses them, you can at least track them yourself to see where they end up! You simply hook them up to your iphone. Any time an iphone user walks by your bags, it pings off their location to see live-time where the bags are. I bought a four pack for $100 here. I’ll never travel without them when checking a bag going forward! Bonus is you can buy these holders and watch bands and you can put the air tags on your kids! It’s an excellent idea for crowded places like amusement parks, water parks, airports, etc.

As I said, our cruise was in June but even in June, Alaska is cold! We were there during their warmer months but still needed heavy coats, boots, etc. Google is your best friend. When you know the month you are travelling, google “average temperature in Skagway in September.” Then you’ll get a general guideline of what the weather is like in each city.

Clothing:

No shit, right? But jokes aside, bring lots of layers. T-shirts, long sleeved shirts, sweatshirts, a rain jacket, and winter coat. Plus the basics like underwear, pjs, and socks.

Swimsuits:

There is a pool on the ship and your kids will want to swim in it. Even if it’s cold AF! So bring swimsuits and cover-ups too. If your kids need floaties or goggles, pack those as well. The lifeguards were fantastic and really on top of watching all the kids, although I always watch my own regardless.

Toiletries:

All rooms have shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, lotion, and a hair dryer. But you’ll still want to bring sunscreen, deodorant, a hair brush, make-up if you wear it, and medications. Do NOT pack your medications. Just like passports, driver’s licenses, etc. they should be in your carry-on or your purse.

Shoes:

You’ll need at least three pairs. A pair of tennis shoes, a pair of winter boots, and a nicer pair of shoes for the “formal” nights. I also threw in flip flops for us to wear to and from the pool. No one wants to cram wet feet into sneakers. Or maybe you do – you monster.

Workout Gear:

I know, I know. Workout when on vacation? F that! But in reality, you eat so much, you’ll be chomping at the big to use the gym. So bring whatever gear you like to hit the gym in. The gym is not large by any means, but it has the basics that you’ll need, and was never crowded when Vince or I went.

Outfits for the formal and semi-formal night:

If you have a seven-day cruise, one night will be formal and one will be semi-formal. On formal night, you’ll see guys in tuxes and girls in ballgowns. You’ll also see guys in khakis and girls in sweaters and jeans. If dressing up isn’t your thing, consider formal night your “business casual night.” I really feared we’d be out of place if we weren’t dressy enough.

As it turns out, you can fit in wearing pretty much anything. Photographers are everywhere at dinner time, so use the formal nights as an excuse to get a nice family photo where everyone is dressed up. On the semi-formal night, I wore a knee-length dress and my husband wore khakis and a sports coat. My girls wore Disney princess dresses to both the formal and semi-formal night. If your suitcase is stuffed and you really don’t want to pack dressy shoes, don’t sweat it! You will fit in, so long as you aren’t in sweats!

A backpack or crossbody bag:

We never needed our passports with us to get back on board at each port, but I thought we would. So I packed a smaller crossbody that I could hold them in just in case. We used our backpacks as our carry-ons and those were useful for excursions. Especially ones where we hopped on a boat, because I was able to bring snacks, my phone, sunscreen, extra layers of clothing, etc.

Personalized Magnets:

Sounds weird as fuck, am I right? Well apparently it’s a Disney cruise thing. I bought the personalized one below on Etsy. You stick them to the outside of your doors and some people go all out with it! You’ll see doors that are way more extravagant than ours was!

Fish-extender Gift Exchange:

If you just read that heading and went, “What the actual fuck is that?” You aren’t alone. We did not partake in the gift exchange but lots of people do. It is a program where you can swap gifts with other passengers. Usually it’s orchestrated through a Facebook group. After we booked, I went into Facebook and typed, “Disney Wonder June 6-13th” and saw the groups that popped up. Sure enough, every cruise has it’s own Facebook group you can join for the week you are cruising.

In that group the admins will arrange the gift exchange program. You hang a fish extender outside of your room. (Hooks are on the outside of your cabin doors for this purpose.) Then people fill it with trinkets. Usually there is a theme to the gifts like items from your hometown, Christmas ornaments, etc. I didn’t have us partake because I didn’t want to mess with bringing even more shit. But I’m sure it would be fun to participate in if that is your thing!

Credit Cards:

Bring a credit card that doesn’t charge you a fee for international charges. Apple cards do not, so we brought those. You are allowed to leave tips for the staff at the end of your trip on a credit card. There is no need to bring cash for tips!

Extras that aren’t necessary but nice to have:

Water bottles – I got personalized Disney water bottles just for kicks. You will be charged for bottled water, so it’s nice to have your own bottle to refill. There are water bottle filling stations, as well as soft drink stations with soda, coffee, and hot water for hot cocoa and tea. Those are free and there are disposable cups at the stations. There are 2 on the Disney Wonder – both on the main level where the pool is. I’d refill our bottles the night before so we each had them on our nightstands just in case. I also used mine for the gym too.

Pins for a pin swapping night. Our cruise didn’t have this, but in non-covid times, you can exchange decorative disney pins with other passengers. Don’t break the bank buying them from the Disney store. I got a big pack like this off of Amazon. I also got us Disney lanyards to stick them on. It was all in vain since our ship didn’t have a pin swapping night, but I was glad I came prepared just in case.

A lanyard to hold your “key to the world.” When you arrive at the ship terminal, you’ll go through a long check-in process. Part of that is receiving your Key to the World. It’s just a digital card that allows you to get into your room, but it is also how you charge everything to your room. You won’t use credit cards, you’ll use your key to the world, and then settle your bill at the end on your credit card of choice. Because of that, people like lanyards to hold them in. I found it unnecessary and just kept mine in my wallet. But I am nothing if not thorough AF in this blog!

Dramanine if you’re prone to motion sickness. I also brought children’s tylenol and ibuprofen. It’s better to come prepared than frantically try to find shit when someone gets sick.

An important thing to note – on our itinerary we were at sea the first few days of our voyage. Day 1 was at sea, day 2 was at Icy Strait Point. While you can get off the boat there to get on a smaller one to take you closer to the glacier, you never hit land, and most people stay on the main ship. Day 3 we technically got off the boat at Dawes Glacier to get on a smaller one to go whale watching. Once again, we never hit land for that day.

I’m telling you this to warn you, if you forgot something, you will not see a general store or shop of that nature until Day 4 of your trip! Therefore, if your luggage was lost, or if you forgot a basic like underwear or pajamas, that kind of shit is not for sale on the cruise ship. They have stores with toys and souvenirs, and stores with princess gowns, but they don’t have a mini-Walmart or grocery store to help you out. So pack a couple necessities in your carry-on just in case!!

Other Hot Tips:

I researched insider info on Disney cruises for MONTHS. One tip that was extremely useful was to order Smuckers Uncrustable Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches from room service the day before your cruise ends. You have to de-board the ship fairly early in the morning once you arrive back in Vancouver. So, order some room service (which is included in your cruise) the night beforehand. And while they won’t be listed on the menu, ask for Uncrustables. Put them in your fridge overnight. Then the morning you leave, stash them in your backpack. Chances are your flight will be much later after you leave the ship, and your kids will be starving when in the long lines to disembark. I was thankful to have snacks stashed for this very reason!

We tended to order the cheese and fruit plate everyday and we would store it in the fridge for when the kids needed a snack. You eat legitimate meals but with young kids in tow, it’s never a bad idea to have backup snacks!

My next blog includes the details of everything we did on our cruise, what I’d do again, what wasn’t necessary, etc. check that out here! For other vacations we’ve taken as a family, check out my blogs here and here.