Sorry for the late (nearly a year) review. A month after we got back from this trip, we lost our 29 year old son in a car accident. It has been a difficult year and I have only recently stopped to think about this trip.

My husband and I booked this cruise as part of a group of runners who were running at the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in 2016 called the Mickey Milers. We spent three days at the Beach Club Resort at WDW and then transferred to the ship on January 11th. This was our first cruise ever and it was an amazing experience. I had just completed the Goofy Challenge at Disney (a half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday). Disney also offered a special challenge on the ship called the Castaway Cay Challenge in which if you ran a race at Disney before the cruise and you then ran the 5K on Castaway Cay, you got a special medal.

Embarkation at Port Canaveral was pretty easy, even though it was crowded. We had arrived around 1:00 p.m. since we used the Disney shuttle service. Getting through security was a bit slow but once we lined up to check in, it went quickly. When we got onboard, our stateroom was ready. We thought doing our first cruise with a group would be a good idea. I was nervous about the trip. Our cabin was 6040 on Deck 6 midship and it was a verandah stateroom. The room was beautiful, clean and the split bathroom was a plus. We loved being able to have a glass of wine on the verandah and just listen to the ocean. My husband fell in love with the shampoo and conditioner, so much so that I had to order some when we got home. Read more