DISNEY CRUISE LINE DAY ONE

DISNEY CRUISE LINE

Day one on the Disney fantasy was so much fun! it was a day at sea so we spent the day exploring the ship and just chilling by the pool and eating. a lot.

The buffet on the fantasy is great for breakfast with lots of options to choose from. we woke up pretty early before most people, so the ship was quiet empty t this item so it was perfect. no waiting time for us! we choose a table outside cabanas and chowed down on our big breakfast while enjoying the view.

After breakfast we continued with enjoying the ship. The fantasy has a lot to offer including goofy's sports deck on deck 13, an open activities area with miniature golf, basketball court and a virtual sports simulator. 

We had a go at the sports simulator but got a bit over it after about 20minutes. This area would be more for tweens. 

Note- the Fantasy is massive so don't get lost!

Next we saw the royal princess gathering in the main foyer. It was so magical, love all the princesses and it s cute to see everyones face light up as the entered.

Then we went to the cinemas with my pina colada!! The movie theatre aboard the ship shows all kinds of disney movies including new releases on the same day!

So did i mention animators palate? 

This animated themed restaurant is one of my favourites and so amazing! The walls are decked out in classic disney animations along with all the table decor. You even get to create and draw your own character and become part of the magic as your sketch is daubed on screen. neat!

and not to mention the food, it was so gooooddddddd.

 Keep reading for Day two aboard the Disney Fantasy. 

DISNEY CRUISE LINE

DISNEY CRUISE LINE

Ahoy there matey! and welcome board my Disney cruise line blog!

It wasn't long after our amazing experience at Disneyland CA that we decided to look into disney cruise line. I had watched Disney cruise line segments on the trade channel so many times and it was defiantly something we had to do!

So as soon as we got back from Disneyland (literally the next day) we jumped online to the disney cruise website to see what cruises they had available. Let me tell you, disney offer a lot. here were so many cruises and definitions to choose from! and there are also four cruise line ships, the Disney Wonder, Disney Magic, Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy.

My Fiancé and I decided to do a 7 night Caribbean cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy, which was disney's newest ship to join their fleet.
This itinerary left from Port Caravel Florida and travel to Mexico, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and to Disney's private island in the Bahamas- Castaway Cay.
Another reason why we choose this cruise is because Disney World is so close! we combined our trip to a land and sea vacation so we could spend 2 weeks in disney world after our cruise. How perfect!

So soon as we put our basic vacation itinerary together, we were off to the travel agent to book in our 3 weeks of Disney!

Our Disney cruise line adventure:
5AM and we were off to the airport, heading from Australia to Orlando Florida. it was a longgggg flight and we got stuck in tampa for a while but we eventually made it to Orlando. From here we got travel to our pre cruise hotel which was very close to the port and also offered a shuttle transfer to port Canaveral which as awesome. so on the next morning with a short drive we had reached our Disney terminal.

I was so excited being just in the terminal is was so beautiful! with easy check in and Mickey and Minnie there to great us! Disney cast member also take care of our luggage and you will find you luggage in your stateroom later in the day. It's so connivence. 

it was time to board the ship and as they announced "Disney cruise line welcomes you aboard" i was in awe. This ship was absolutely stunning! 

since our luggage was taking care of we were free run around exploring the ship before heading up to our stateroom. Everything was just so amazing. I loved the art gallery!

After having lunch at Cabanas (the casual buffet restaurant) we went to our stateroom to relax. But we must have relaxed to much because we fell asleep and missed the sail away party! oh no! but we we heard it was fantastic. 

The room we choose was an Oceanview stateroom with navigator veranda. It was perfect. this room was equipped with a double bed, split bathrooms, a tv, couch siting area, an iron, a safe. basically all the basic things you would need plus a little extra Disney magic. 

And the view...WOW.

Join me on my next post to hear about day one aboard our Disney fantasy cruise!

Keep dreaming x

photos included from my own person photos + one google image 

DISNEYS CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE PARK

DISNEYS CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE PARK

OK, I love this park! there is so much to do, so little time!
Disney's california adventure opened on February 8th 2001 and is located right across from Disneyland park.
This adventure park caters to the more thrilling at heart and is home to some of my beloved attractions such as Souring over California, Radiator springs racer, the Tower of Terror! and California Screamin' which is a full loop roller coaster which shoots of at a speed of 55 miles per hour. THE BEST.

Just like disneyland park, California Adventure holds many lands. when we first entered the park we walked through the old hollywood themed square and headed to paradise pier. This section of the park had a super cool feel and contained many different pier side carnival games, carrosles and super cute kids rides (which of course i rode anyway). check out Toy stories midway mania or the Silly symphony swings. Super fun for all.

My all time favourite movie is 'The Little Mermaid' so i couldn't go past Ariel's Undersea Adventure. This ride takes you under the sea to experience Ariels story, if your a fan do not miss this!
also not to be missed for those Disney princess lovers is a lunch or dinner character dinning at Ariels Grotto. We booked in for this lunch ahead of time and I'm so glad we did. we got too meet and greet  my fav princesses aside enjoying a so yummy 3 course lunch.

Other areas of the park that are good for kids or if you just like the films are 'Cars Land' and 'A Bugs land'. 

Im not a big fan of the cars movies myself but this area was pretty cool. I looked just like you had walked into radiator springs and had great themed attractions and diners.  We hung around this area for a while and did see the life size floats of lightning Mcqueen and Mador, which I'm sure if you have kids they would love. As for A Bugs land, Disney's Imagineers definitely had kids in mind when creating this area of the park. This area themed for the movie 'Bugs life' has many many children rides and stage shows. So if you have kids this area is fantastic, if you don't... it wouldn't hurt to skip it. 

Now I'm not done with themed areas yet there so many. 

Next we headed to Grizzly peak which a awesome cali wilderness themed area. Here we pick up our fast passed to WORLD OF COLOUR (more on that soon), and we purchased ponchos before riding Grizzly river run and yes you do need the ponchos unless you want to get soaked!

I should also mention this is the area of the park is where the private entrance for hotel stayers is located.  so cool. 

By this point i was ready for a snack so along with about the 3rd hotdog my fiancé ate (he loves Disney hotdogs) we grabbed a sundae at 'Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop at Pacific Wharf'

This was by far the best sundae i have ever had in my life. If you do not stop and get one of these while in the park worst mistake ever. They are just so good! 

Soon after taking a stroll through more of the park we decided to grab a spot for the Aladdin musical which was amazing. I won't go much into this one, you will just have to see for yourself!

once the show was over we headed for our last attraction for the day and OMG the best one yet- THE TWILIGHT ZONE TOWER OF TERROR! I absolutely am in love with the ride and even though my fiancé does not as he is afraid of highs, drag him on regardless. 

So Thrill seekers, please aboard this elevator! At 183-foot it is one of the tallest buildings in Anaheim. wow. 

The good thing about staying at a disney resort is you can head back to you hotel when ever you want because at this point we needed a rest. so with just a short walk back to our resort we got time to had time to chill and freshen up before heading back for our night time spectacular 'World of colour'. 

This water and lights show is amazing. It feature songs from all the best Disney movies!!! make sure you get a fast past for seating or get there early because it gets quite packed. 

Thats all of today. check out my blog for more disney vacation updates!




*photos used from personal photos + google images. 

DISNEYLAND

It's really is the happiest place on earth. The feel of being at disneyland compared to Tokyo disney was crazy. Both amazing parks but disneyland just feels more orthentic, more real, just magical! 

It was Halloween time when we visited Disneyland CA for the first time which made it just so much better! My partner and I love halloween so it was really special for us. 

We got to the parks early and since we were staying at one of the one property disney hotels we got access to extras magic hours (score!$ this means we could entry the park 1 hour before the park officials opens to guests. 

As we entered the park we were just in owe of the park and the Halloween decor surrounding us! We admired sleeping beauty's castle which I found to be so beautiful and classic by far my favourite disney castle and then we head off to find out first attraction. 

Our first attraction we rode was matterhorn mountain. It was so much fun! But watch out for that nasty Yeti at the end ahhhh!!

I can't recall the order which we did everything else that day but we did get a lot of rides done that day, it wasn't such a busy day which was lucky hit we still did use the fast past system. Why not? 

If your are not familiar with the fast past system it's quite simple. You just find the fast past kiosk closest to the attraction you want to ride and. Then using your disney park ticket you scan the barcode and it prints out a fast pass with a return time for you to use. You then can return to the attraction at the time it states to have little or no wait time. 

Beats waiting in long stand by queues right? 

Any who, we made our way around all the lands that make up the magic kingdom. We started with fantasy land and then went throw tomorrow land, adventure land, frontier land and then New Orleans square, which has to be my favourite park of the park. Here lies my favourite rides-

The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the carribean. 

* Fun Fact- Pirates of the Carribean contains one real human skull in the ride. Spooky! 

 

After a fun filled day at the park we headed back to our amazing hotel (and I think we napped) and later heading to downtowns Disney's naples ristorante pizzeria for dinner. And I'm telling you it is the best pizza I have ever had in my life! So please do check it out!!

But wait there's more Disney to come!  

DISNEYLAND CA.

Disneyland in California was the only park to be built under the supervision of Walt disney himself opening on July 17, 1955 and my personal favourite. 

My first ever visit to the disneyland park was in October 2013, just two months after having traveled to japan to visit my first disney park in Tokyo and by that experience I was hooked. I  booked myself on the next plane to the USA to check out the original Disneyland! 

LETS TALK ACCOMMODATION

This time I decided it was a must that we stay on disney property, so we choose to stay one week at the Disneyland hotel. After the long 16hr flight from Australia to LAX we boarded the disneyland express shuttle bus to our disney hotel. And wow I was impressed with this resort hotel. All the staff were so friendly and helpful from as soon as we stepped out of the bus, they took our bags for us and showed us into guest services to check in. We got given a great room on level 5 in the fantasy tower. (There are three towers at disneyland hotel- fantasy tower, adventure tower and frontier tower) our room was fantastic! The view was great and the beds were so comfortable, it was gorges. The hotel is a short walk from downtown disney district and the parks so your could defiantly just stay in your disney bubble. 

I loved staying here, the pools are great, the gift shops are great and there is also charter dinning at goofus kitchen just down stairs! What's not to love! 

I should mention there are also two other disney resort hotel- Disney's grand Californian hotel and spa and Disney's paradise pier hotel. All hotels are in walking distance of the parks  and the grand Californian even has it's own private entrance into Disney's California adventure park! 

DOWNTOWN DISNEY DISTRICT 

I am in love with the downtown disney district CA. For those who don't know downtown disney is what you could call a shopping village full of great disney shops and restaurants and home to my favourite store 'World of Disney' which is a massive store selling, you guested it- disney merchandise galore! There is also a sevora (which I love because we don't have sevora is Australia) and even a two story build a bear store. I could spend hours in downtown disney alone. 

RESTAURANTS:

Mmmmm I do love food and downtown disney has that covered. There are a great number of restaurants located in downtown disney. Some which include  

naples ristorante pizzeria, House of blues, Rainforest cafe, Ralph brennan's jazz kitchen and so on. There are also a number of quick service restaurants included earl of sandwich, Starbucks and my favourite haagen dazs! 

Next up Disneyland park! 

TIPS FOR TOKYO DISNEY!

Here are just some quick tips I have picked up during my short stay at Tokyo disney. 

Accommodation- I think accommodation is a key part of your experience, it's not just somewhere to sleep it can impact your whole overall stay so it is important to choose somewhere that's right for you. As mentioned earlier I decided to stay at the Hilton which was a disney recommended hotel. This hotel is affordable was a close distance to the park. I chose the happy magic room which was super cute and was good change from just a boring standard hotel room. BUT If I could do it all again (and I will) I would of defiantly stayed at one of the Disney resorts. Either the Disneyland Hotel, Disney Ambassador hotel or Disney's Miracosta hotel which is close to DisneySea. All of these disney hotels look AMAZING and staying at a disney resort hotel just surrounds you in the disney element a bit more. So I would personally recommend if you have the extra funds use it and choose one of these hotels. 

If not there still are plenty very nice and very affordable hotels close by Tokyo Disneyland. 

Language- So naturally in Japan the most dominant language is Japanese, but luckily for English speakers a lot of the park is in English so you don't have to worry to much. I would though recommend learning I few Japanese words and sentences just to help you out in common situations. Things like hello, yes please, thank you etc. I know a pretty basic Japanese and it did help me a lot. 

Planning- ok so this is something we did not do and I wish we had of seeing that we only had a short amount for time in the park. Now with my new disney experiences I have had I realised planning in essential and I don't exact mean having to make a whole itinerary with time scheduling and all but I do mean just have a basic plan for your day. Decided on the most important things that you wish do and just have a basic outline of how your day will play out. Use the fast pass system, decide where your going to lunch and know what areas of the parks you want to spend the most time in. This will cut down your time of mindlessly wondering or getting lost. 

Food- Japanese food. Yoroshii! I mean so good! I love Japanese food and there are plenty of Japanese but also westerner option of food at the disneyland park. You'll find a number number of quick service restaurant including tomorrow land terrace if you'd like to bit on a cheese burger and fries Or try a ice cream stand for a shell shaped salted icecream yum! 

Attractions- Rides and attractions are a must at any disney park so make sure you have those fast passes in hand as the lines can become CRAZY long in the Tokyo Disney parks ! 

Shopping in also very important in my eyes! Tokyo disney offer so many different types of merchandise also different form the merchandise they have at the American parks. So make sure you have enough spending money to buy all the cutest merchandise you want! And don't forget your Mickey or Minnie plush! 

Overall I'd say generally plan, also explore and enjoy your time at Tokyo Disneyland resort!!  

Until my next blog, kelp dreaming! Xxx

DAY TWO: DISNEY SEA

Ohayo gozaimasu!

Oh DisneySea what a fantastic place! Has said earlier this was my first visit to the Tokyo disney parks so I had no idea what the parks held. Disney sea is situated around a large lake in the middle of the park and is home to many classic attractions. 

Our plan for the day was just to explore and go wherever DisneySea takes us. 

As I can recall our first stop was Ariels grotto and mermaid lagoon. Ok so the little mermaid is by far my favourite Disney animated film so this was so special to me. This themed land- Palace of King Triton is a large indoor 'play' zone which takes you under the sea! It includes many fun kiddy rides (which of course I went on!) like Jumpin' Jellyfish and Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster. Also inside the mermaid lagoon there is Ariel's playground which I had to check out. As I explored all the caves and crevices  of the lagoon I came upon the secret area where Princess Ariel kept all her gadgets and gizmos, but the best of all was of course the statue Prince Eric. I'm in love! 

Next we headed for the journey to the centre of the earth attraction which was great! We just wanted to ride it again and again!   

For lunch we headed to Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen for some 'sea' food. I lunched on - Creamy scallop croquete sandwich. Totemo oishii desu ne!

Toy story land was next. The lines were huge for a lot of the toy story attractions so we decided to skip them and go into the theatre instead.  We watch a live stage performance including Mickey and friends! Super cute! The stage performers were also very talented. 

After wondering around for a while we ended up in the Alladin themed section of the park which was super cool. We even rode on genies back!

A decision was made that we would wait in an hour long line to watch the Alladin show which featured a 3D genie. It was quite good. 

Lastly was waiting for Fantasmic to start! we got a viewing spot super early since everywhere was filling up so quick. As we sat and waited I could help but notice there was screaming sounds coming from behind me. As I looked up to investigate, I spotted it in all it's glory- THE TOWER OF TERROR. Can I just say one of the best rides ever created. So naturally I couldn't help myself. I told the other to hold my place while I ran off to ride it! One of my friends decided to join me and we had a blast. Tokyo's story of the tower of terror is a little different to the ones in California and Florida. It tells a tale of an traveller who collects a cursed idol by the name of Shiriki Utundu. It is quite exciting. 

Once our ride was over we quickly ran back to our spots to watch FANTASMIC. The show was such a joy to watch with all the lights and water effects. Truly fantastic. 

Shorty after we had to say goodbye to Disney and head to our hotel.

Even though my my time in Tokyo Disney was short and sweet it was still an amazing experience. It defiantly got my hooked on disney parks and I would recommend any disney lover to got check it out! 

Until my next blog, keep dreaming! xx

TOKYO DISNEYLAND

Tokyo Disneyland, my first disney park visit EVER! You couldn't imagine how ecstatic I was to be here! I didn't have much of any idea about disney parks of what to expect but I was about to find out!

Let's talk accommodation: 

Seeing I was oblivious about how amazing it is to stay on disney property we did not stay in one of the two disney hotels at Tokyo disney, but we did say in the Hilton which was a disney recommended hotel. The Hilton was still great as it offered a disneyland shuttle to the parks as well as having themed rooms. We stayed in the happy magic room! So cute! This hotel is a great choice when wanted to stay close to the disney park and also an affordable choice but I think now from my experience of staying in Disney hotels I would pay the extra to stay at the Tokyo Disneyland hotel or DisneySea hotel Miracosta. Just so I stay in my disney bubble a little bit more. I would also recommend spending more then one day at each park. We only did one day at disneyland and one at DisneySea and it was not enough! If you are a hard core disney fan I would say stay a week. 

DAY ONE: TOKYO DISNEYLAND RESORT

We started out day with breakfast at the Hiltons buffet breakfast but I could hardly eat I was too excited! After breaky we headed of the disney shuttle bus outside out hotel. We arrived at disney just after the park open time (so around 8:30am) and lucky we already had out pre bought tickets because the ticket line was HUGE. We entered the park and the magic. One thing to day about Tokyo disney is that it's packed! I mean the population is incredible but this didn't bother me at all you'd have to except it in Japan. 

Our first stop- Cinderella's castle of course! It was so beautiful! We then headed for Tomorrow land. The first fast pass we got was for space mountain as that is one of the most popular rides. I'd defiantly recommend learning the fast pass system and using it! Then we just explored. Tokyo Disney has the cutest merchandise Iv ever seen!

After a few attractions we stopped for a snack at tomorrow land terrace where we had mini Mickey head chicken nuggets! 

Then it was off to Fantasy Land for flying dumbos and its a small world. The line for its a small world was surprisingly not ridiculous, and as we waited I noticed people throw yen into the water (for luck I guess) so I though my coins too. Maybe just like a the Trevi fountain it means I might one day return to Tokyo Disney!  

After that we decided to lunch at Alice in wonderland cafe. It's the coolest looking cafe which ended up being a quick service restaurant. 

Next stop- Frontier Land. Splash mountain was said to be a not to miss so we waited and waited and waited and waited. 110 minutes for splash mountain. *Note most of the queues for the large attractions are incredible long. 

As we explored adventure land and made our way back to fantasy land I spotted Mary Poppins! A swarm do people started to crowed around her but i ended up getting a photo with her and also had her sign my hat. I was super happy about this because Mary Poppins is one of my favourites! 

After a little bit more shopping and a giant Dumbo plush purchase later, we headed to find a spot for the parade. 

We ended the night with the Tokyo Disney Electrical Parade! It was so amazing! not to be missed! The floats were just awesome and left me and awe.

Once the parade was over it was time to leave the magic and we heading back to our hotel. 

Tomorrow we would be off to DisneySea!