Overview Over a school break in February 2010, we decided to take a family Disney cruise. None of us had ever cruised before, so it was a totally new experience. We chose a 3 night Bahamian cruise to use as a "test of the waters." The sail date was Thursday, February 11th, 2010. The ports-of-call were Nassau and Castaway Cay (we missed this port).

Pre-Cruise We were scheduled to take a morning flight from Philadelphia to Orlando on Wednesday, but because of the snow warning, we changed our flight to Tuesday morning. AirTran was nice enough to not charge us for the change because they had already canceled the Wednesday flight. We got to Orlando at about 3 and it was raining so hard, we had to take the rental car shuttle across the two-lane street. We picked up the car (free upgrade to a minivan, thanks Alamo!) and went to the hotel we had reserved that morning quickly on priceline. The hotel was the Radisson Lake Buena Vista right outside of the disney resort. We got two rooms. They didn't have any connecting rooms available, to they upgraded us to mini suites for free! One of the rooms equaled the size of the two rooms on the ship we had. We went to Red Lobster for an early dinner with my four-year-old and my three older ones, 17, 15, and 13, went to the Denny's in the mall behind the hotel. The next day, the kids and I went over to universal. NOT WORTH THE MONEY! Due to time restraints, we could only be there for two hours. Last year when we went to the park they let us buy tickets in different hourly increments. This year, they changed it so you have to buy the day pass. It was $56.99 per person! At about 4, we drove down to the Radisson Resort at the Port next to Port Canaveral. We decided to get only one room, because the price of the trip kept increasing. This was one of the worst decisions I have ever made. Sleeping in the same small (yes, only about 150 sq. ft.) hotel room with two parents, three teenagers, and a four year old is much harder than it seems. I ended up on the floor between the beds. My 13 and 15 year olds were on one bed (attacking each other non-stop), my wife and 4 year old were on the other bed and my 17 year old was seeping in the bathtub (seems like the best place in the room).

Check-In and Embarkation On Thursday morning, we took the 11 am shuttle to Terminal 8. We got out of the shuttle and gave our luggage to the porters. The terminal was under construction to accommodate the new Dream-class ships so it looked like a construction zone outside. The inside, however, was nicely decorated and had the stereotypical disney look that all disney things have. The greeters were wearing mickey mouse hand gloves. We got to the check-in line and were given boarding group 5 cards. Check-In was smooth except for the room assignments. To book a room just for children under 18, you have to have someone over 18 booked in the room also. We booked one room, 1043, with myself, 17, 15, and 13 in it. Our other room, 1045, was booked for my wife and 4 year old. The check-in counter person wasn't allowed to change our rooms, so she had to call for a supervisor who did it with no questions asked. I think there would have been problems if our rooms were not booked next-to each other. After check-in, we had to have our Key to the World card pictures taken. Only took about 10 minutes. We were handed the personal navigator and our number was called. We headed through the mickey portal and waited in the boarding queue. We boarded the ship and the little man from England announced, "Ladies and Gentleman, Please welcome, all the way from snowy Philadelphia, the ***** family!" He then told us that the cabins would be ready at 1:30. He recommended we go to the Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch before more people started to board. Good advice on his part. The Buffet was already MOBBED. We got there at about noon. We found a table for 6 and sat down to an amazing meal. After our meal, it was already 1 pm (we talked about rules like curfew, using the change cards, and manners). We headed down to deck 4 and walked around the promenade. At 1:30 we headed down to deck 1 to "move in" to the cabins. Read more