This week was a big week in our family as we packed up and moved from Texas to North Carolina. I will write a blog post about the move soon, but in the meantime lets talk cruises. It had been killing me for quite a while that we didn’t have any cruises planned. Because of the uncertainty of the timing of our move, sale of our house, etc., it just wasn’t a good idea for a while to plan any vacations. But, in the last couple of weeks, our number of booked cruises went from 0 to 2! Our house sold, we were finally able to set a date for the move, and I decided that I wasn’t going to let life get in the way of planning fun things for our family to do. Since my recent battle with breast cancer (you can read my story here), I look at things a little differently now and don’t just assume that there will always be a tomorrow. If I want something to happen, I need to start now. Up first……
We have some serious Harry Potter fans in our family and we have been wanting to visit Universal Orlando for a while now. Orlando is quite a distance from Texas, but not so much from North Carolina. Now that we can drive there in a day, it is time to make it happen. I decided to wait until the weather cools off (anyone else agree that profuse sweating and broiling heat sort of put a damper on the theme park experience?) and chose mid-October. We were tossing around ideas for also doing Sea World and/or Discovery Cove, but finally decided to add a 3 night cruise on the Disney Dream to our plans instead. While my husband and I have been on the Dream twice (trip report here), our girls have not and we are excited for them to experience one of the larger ships. So, we will attempt to do both of the Harry Potter sections in one day (with the help of a VIP tour guide) and then make the short drive to Port Canaveral for the cruise. Because of the expense of the VIP tour, we decided to keep the cost down on the cruise and book 2 interior connecting rooms. We have never stayed in a room with a virtual porthole before and I am excited to finally check it out!
I am a little concerned about the fact that it is hurricane season, albeit the very end. Hurricane Sandy occurred in October and I know it is a risk but I am keeping my fingers crossed. We have so far cruised the caribbean storm-free during the months of September-November 3 times now so I am optimistic our streak of good luck will continue.
I admit that I feel a little bit intimidated by the whole Universal Studios experience. I have the Disney thing down, but have not done much research on Universal. If any of you have any tips or suggestions, I am all ears! Please leave them in the comments below.
Now about our next adventure……
We will be sailing on the April 23, 2017 Westbound Panama Canal Cruise! The itinerary was just released a few weeks ago and we booked it on opening day. A Panama Canal cruise has been on my bucket list for a long time. 2 weeks on a Disney ship? Under 400 kids onboard (i.e. swimmable pools)? Experiencing first hand one of the greatest civil engineering achievements of the 20th century? Yes, yes and yes. Next year I turn 40 and when my husband asked if I wanted to do anything special, this was at the top of my list and I am still a bit shocked he said yes. I can’t wait to start researching excursions and booking flights and hotels. Seeing as it is almost a year away I still have to wait awhile, but I CANNOT wait for this cruise. I have read so many wonderful things about the Panama Canal cruises on DCL and I can’t wait to finally experience it for myself.
Since we homeschool, I want this to be a learning experience for my girls and for them to really understand the canal and how exactly it works as we go through it. In order to prepare, I just ordered this DVD:
and this book:
The book gets mixed reviews, but many of them mention it is written for a 6-8 grade audience so I am hoping my girls will enjoy it and learn something. I will come back later and let you know their thoughts.
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Congratulations on your move! I have been wondering where you were at with everything. The trips sound so awesome! As for books on the Panama Canal, one that I have used with my kids is put out by Cobblestone magazine. They put out full-colour magazines for kids (ages 9 to 14) on a variety of American history topics, one of which was the Panama Canal. http://shop.cricketmedia.com/panama-canal.html
I wish you all the best as you get settled in your new home.
Thanks Michelle! I was thinking about you constantly last week while the movers were packing & loading. There are so many logistics involved and I know I would have felt totally overwhelmed if it hadn’t been for all of your cross-counttry moving tips. I went back and re-read everything the week before and I felt really organized and prepared for the movers. It is still a lot of work though! I am glad that is over. Well, the first half anyway. Our stuff is in storage & we are in a furnished apartment until we buy our new house on June 3. Then the movers will unload & unpack all of our stuff. That will be a lot of work as well but it doesn’t seem like it will be quite as much as the first part. Thanks also for the magazine recommendation, we will try those out as well!
I’m glad you found parts of it useful. I can’t believe I wrote that nearly 10 years ago. There are a number of changes I would make now…I wouldn’t advocate keeping your telephone book any longer…you can find everything online now. I also wouldn’t think rabbit ears would be helpful…technology has progressed past that. We also don’t use telephones any more, just our cellphones. CD changer? What’s that??? But yeah…a number of things still apply.
I remember being in temporary housing a few times. It is kind of nice in some ways because everything is relatively minimalistic, so your chores are dramatically reduced and you can just go out and explore your new area. We even stayed in corporate housing one time where they had a maid service come in once a week to clean, remake the beds, and change all of the towels. I was only responsible for meals and our personal laundry. Woot! On the other hand, it doesn’t really feel like home and it is hard to feel settled until you get into your “real” place.
You are spot on about the temporary housing. House work takes almost no time so we have so much more time to do other things, but it doesn’t feel like home. It has also made me realize how little we actually need to function and be happy. I got rid of a ton of “stuff” before the move, but I think I need to get rid of even more after we unpack. This experience will hopefully make me simplify our home and life for the better.
We could be kindred spirits. That was exactly my experience as well. I wasn’t joking when I said that the only thing we were “missing” in our first temporary housing situation was scissors. We had a kitchen for simple meals, beds, and places to sit. We had our clothes and a few simple toys. We had moved from Canada to California, so the weather was beautiful and we went to the park once every morning and once in the afternoon. We literally wanted/needed nothing extra. I, too, realized how little we needed to live happily and our days were much simpler. In fact, we were perhaps even MORE happy then, because our weekends were wide open. With no yard to worry about or other demands on our time, we often spirited off to the beach for the day or explored other local attractions. Now, we always seem to have something demanding our time one way or another.
Couldn’t agree more!!!
Congrats! I absolutely love reading your blog and getting some tips from you. I’ve been in Panama before, it’s amazing! You will love it! Have a great trip!
Thank you! So glad you’re enjoying the blog!
Congratulations on the sale of your house and on your move!! Must be very calming now to have that over with and have everyone back under the same roof.
And congrats on booking two cruises!!! So jealous of the Panama Canal cruise – the only thing from stopping us from booking is the fact our girls would miss 2+ weeks of school. One of these days, though!!
We now have two booked for 2017 as well! We had the Jan 2017 Bahamas cruise booked since Nov 2015, but as soon as the latest dates were announced we booked Alaska for August 2017!! Excited to be able to sail out of our home port of Vancouver again!
Let’s hear it for lots to look forward to for us all 🙂
Thanks Angela! So good to hear from you again! How exciting about your 2 cruises – I am so happy for you!!! I am also so jealous of your Alaskan cruise. Alaska is right up at the top of my list along with the Panama Canal. I plan to do everything within my power to make that happen in 2018. You must come back and tell me all about it!
Welcome to NC! Despite everything in the news about our state these days, NC is a great place to be and to raise a family. I grew up in Charlotte and now live in Raleigh with my wife and 3 boys, ages 13, 10 and 6. We love the mountains, and we love the beach; all of which are just hours away. And yes, Disney World is only a 9-10 hour drive away!
We were first introduced to Disney cruising 2 years ago on a trip similar to your upcoming trip. We spent 3 days at Universal and then had a 3-night cruise on the Dream out of Port Canaveral. We were hooked! We are so excited about our 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise coming up in April of 2017. I found your website while looking for trip reports to get an idea of the things to do on a longer cruise. I have enjoyed reading your past posts; you’ve given us great ideas!
Thanks for the welcome! I think that we will love NC. If I had to choose a different state to live in besides TX, I think NC would be my first choice! We have already been to Asheville and I can’t wait to visit the mountains again, as well as the beaches. I hear they are so much better than the TX beaches. We are already thinking about some weekend trips to both locations this summer. I know you will LOVE your 7 night eastern cruise. I think it is our favorite itinerary so far. If you have any specific questions about ports (we did St.Thomas, St. Maarten and Castaway Cay), please don’t hesitate to ask!
Will definitely ask questions as we think of them. At this point it just seems like it will never get here. We are reviewing the excursions now and trying to decide which ones we want to do. We’re stopping at Tortola, St. Thomas and Castaway Cay.
The NC beaches are great! We stay for a week every August down in Ocean Isle (between Wilmington and SC) with extended family. Great family beach but close to major attractions in Wilmington or Myrtle Beach. We also love going to the Outer Banks. A must-see for everyone at least once in their life!
I just came across your blog and am booked on the same WBPC cruise 🙂 I plan to have my daughter do a report on the Panama Canal over the summer. We just relocated from Florida to Virginia.
How exciting! I can’t believe we have to wait almost a year though. I don’t usually book cruises this far out so the waiting is going to be hard! So while I got a lot closer to Port Canaveral with our move, you got a lot farther. 🙁 Do you still plan to drive to port or will you fly?
We are going to fly this time. We were only 3 hours away before and now 12 hours away. It is a first for us to book so far out too. I will have plenty of time to over plan.
So fun!! We just got back from a week to the Western Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy and my kids are already dreaming of their next cruise (and yes I’ve already been dreaming some too!) The Panama Canal one is on my bucket list as well! My husband is from Colombia and we have been to Cartagena but it would be so cool to go all the way there on a cruise and stop in Panama and Mexico along the way! We usually drive from NC to Port Canaveral. Are you going to fly there and then fly back from San Diego?
Hi Ashley! Right now the plan is to rent a car and drive it to Port Canaveral, turn it in the morning of the cruise, and then fly back to NC from San Diego. Renting the car for the trip down should save us quite a bit of money over flights for 5 people. You should totally join us on the Panama Canal cruise! I have heard they are awesome!!!
We are also on a mid October 3 night this fall! I’m very excited for Halloween on the High Seas and my mother’s first cruise.
For Universal – definitely check out http://www.universalinformer.com for UO information. They are very informative. And the VIP tours are AH-MAZING with UO! We’ve participated in a VIP tour for their Halloween Horror Nights and its worth every single penny.
Thanks so much for the tips! I will check it out!
Hi! Now that you are closer to Florida, you can experience all it has to offer! I’m responding because you mentioned Discovery Cove in your post. We are booked on a 4 night Bahama cruise Thanksgiving 2017. We plan on adding 5 days in Florida in advance of the cruise. We will go to Busch Gardens Tampa for 2 days, then Aquatica, then Discovery Cove and finally a day at Sea World before we board the Disney Dream. We have done the Discovery Cove package 3 times before and we love it. When you purchase your Discovery Cove ticket they will seem expensive for just one day but they are well worth it! You can purchase an add on package that includes the other 3 parks for unlimited visits over 14 days. When we went we only paid $35 per person to add on Tampa, Aquatica and Sea World. I recommend doing this at Thanksgiving since unlike Disney parks, if you time it right, the Seaworld parks aren’t busy at all! And Seaworld’s holiday decorations are beautiful! We have been to Disney twice at Christmas and I actually prefer Seaworld! We drive from Pennsylvania to Florida for these trips. My husband prefers to drive and actually just drove to Vancouver this summer for the Disney Alaska cruise on the Wonder – absolutely beautiful!
Hi Kimberley! Thanks so much for all of the great advice! Since this post, we changed our plans and are not doing Discovery Cove on this trip after all but I am still dying to go and hope to very soon. I will definitely look into all of your suggestions, they sound great! And let me add that I am so jealous you just cruised to Alaska with Disney – I have been trying to do this for years but the timing hasn’t worked out yet. Hopefully soon!
An one other thing – how long did it take you to drive to Vancouver???
We left PA on Tuesday morning and arrived in Vancouver on Saturday night. We did stay at my sister’s house in Wisconsin on Tuesday and Wednesday night. We then drove to South Dakota and went to Badlands National Park and Mount Rushmore. We then drove through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho to Washington, spent 1 day in Seattle and had 1 day in Vancouver before we boarded the Disney Wonder. We took our time driving home and visited 4 more national parks. My favorite part of our 3 week trip was the Disney cruise of course! When you book your Alaska cruise, email me. I have good info on shore excursions!
I will definitely do that! The Alaska excursions intimidate me a bit because there are so many choices, so I would love your advice. Hopefully 2018 will be our year! BTW, that trip sounds amazing!
Alaska intimidated me too! So much to do! I’m happy with the choices we made but we only did 3 excursions. The family we ate dinner with did 6 excursions. I also read a lot of reviews on shore excursions on cruisecritic.com. There were a couple of excursions that we would have booked but changed our minds because of the reviews. Disney recently added an excursion in Tracy Arm or Endicott Arm too!
Your blog is awesome! Thanks for the tip about cruisefish. I’m a numbers girl too and I love seeing all the itineraries listed for each ship!
In regards to Universal…we added a four day ticket after our Disney cruise in 2014. The tickets get very cheap the more days you add on and my daughter was old enough to go on all the rides. We had also been to Islands of Adventure only when they first opened the Harry Potter area. My daughter wore her Halloween Hogwarts robes and was chosen to participate in the wand show at Ollivanders. I can see your reasoning in only doing one day. With the height restrictions on many of their rides, you may be limited with your younger children. But both sections of Harry Potter are so amazing that you can have a totally awesome experience without stepping foot on a ride! The train between the two parks in super fun too! Some things to consider are staying at a Universal hotel so that you can enter the park early. Last time, we stayed at Cabana Bay in one of the tower rooms and it was a great room at a great price. Try googling hidden secrets of the wizarding world of Harry Potter and you can find somethings that you probably wouldn’t notice on your own.