I haven’t been on a real vacation in a very long time. I have never in my life been to Orlando (besides the airport), Walt Disney World or any of its theme parks. I have never been on a cruise. This blog is all about the experience of Animal Kingdom and the Disney Cruise ship, the Wish, which is the newest of the cruise ships in the Disney line. It’s just an informational post, so not funny or sad or any of the big emotions. Just for the curious or those seeking more information about Disney World and Disney cruises.
I was nervous. I have anxiety anyway, so this was a whole new level of the unknown. I had no idea what to expect, and I had no idea if things would go smoothly or if I was headed for a nightmare. I researched Animal Kingdom ahead of time so I could be prepared. I bought a waterproof pouch for my phone, I bought a wristband Baby Girl could wear in case she got lost (with my phone number on it). I studied the map and figured out which rides were roller coasters so that we could stay away from that – none of us are interested in roller coasters.
I get terrible motion sickness so I bought a relief band. This sends an electrical signal to your brain to stop and prevent nausea. You put some gel on your wrist then tightly secure the band around your wrist. At level 1 I could barely feel the electrical current. At level 2 I felt like I was holding on to the electric fence on my property – my whole hand was vibrating with electrical current. I can’t imagine turning it up to level 3, 4, or 5! I stuck with level 1 on the plane, only turning it up to level 2 on the landing, and it worked like a charm. I didn’t get nauseous at all! I’m going to jump ahead here and tell you that while on the cruise ship I did not have to wear the band at all, as I could not feel the boat moving and never once got nauseous. So if you get motion sickness and that’s the reason you’ve never been on a cruise you can rule that reason right out. Buy a relief band just in case if you must. I even took dramamine and zofran with us on the trip and never used either.
At any rate, motion sickness aside, the flight to Orlando was uneventful. We used a travel agent for the entire trip except the flights, which I booked myself. She took care of the details like transportation and hotel which was a tremendous help. When we arrived at the airport we took the Mears Connect bus to the resort. This was prepaid but the Orlando airport is a nightmare and we had trouble finding where to make that connection. Ground transportation was in a different terminal than we landed in so we had to figure that out. We eventually got there though, with our luggage which I was sure would be lost (a theme for the entire trip – I was absolutely sure that our luggage would disappear somewhere along the way).
We chose to stay at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. A sprawling resort that covers a lot of ground we ended up in the Little Mermaid section which was at the very end of the property. Now, I’ll tell you we had been told to download the app “My Disney Experience” so that we could unlock the door to the room with our phones. I was dubious. We arrive at the resort and I don’t need to check in at the front desk because the room is prepaid and I can open the door with my phone – the app sent us a message saying our room was ready and we could get in at any time. So we trek about a mile with our luggage all the way to the Little Mermaid section. Surprise, surprise, the phone app actually works and we unlock the door. Simple! The room is, however, TINY. I assume they make the rooms small because how much time are you really spending in the room anyway? And they need to fit in as many rooms as possible. However, it is not an uncomfortable space and we throw our things in and quickly go back out in search of food. It’s 9 pm at this time and I think that the restaurant will not be open.
Thankfully, I am wrong and it stays open until 11 pm so we trek back through the resort, passing two large pools and other sections including The Lion King, Finding Nemo and another one I can’t remember. The Cars section is at the very front and it is the coolest section and the one I recommend staying in, not least because it is the closest to the front of the hotel. The “restaurant” in this resort is cafeteria style and extremely crowded. Shouldn’t all these kids be asleep?! I wonder. But no, they are everywhere and they are wet from the pool, cranky from being tired, and excited to be at Disney. In short, it is a madhouse. We find food then schlep back to our room to pass out. Baby Girl is enthralled by the huge resort pool and ready to skip Animal Kingdom altogether just to be able to swim in that pool. Unfortunately for her the tickets to Animal Kingdom are already paid for. And she IS excited, but pools are possibly her favorite thing in the whole world.
I did not buy Magic Bands. I researched them and couldn’t figure out what makes them so special. I had the “My Disney Experience” app which apparently can do all the same stuff. For example, the next morning I woke up early to buy the Fast Passes on my phone which allows you to skip the lines and get to attractions quickly. You can’t buy Fast passes ahead of time. Only on the morning of your park visit. And you have to do it early. The prices change each day so you never know how much it will be, except to tell you ours was $25 per person that day. So for $75 we got to skip the lines of TWO attractions and waltz right up to the front. Maybe doesn’t seem worth it? If we had stayed later we could have fast passed on another one or two attractions but Baby Girl wanted to leave early so we could swim. But I would tell you …. DO IT. I think it was worth it not to have to stand in line with an impatient 8 year old. We fast passed on the Na’vi River Journey in Pandora which was very cool and relaxing, and also on the Safari ride which was super cool. Baby Girl was very excited to see the White Rhinos up close as well as giraffes and other animals.
We waited in line for the DINOSAUR ride, which Tony and I found hilarious – we almost hyperventilated from laughing – but Baby Girl found terrifying. It’s in the dark and at a high speed and she did. not. like. it. Because of this we next went on the tame (lame) tricera top spin which is for like 4 year olds but she enjoyed it so Momma plays along. We avoided the Kali River Rapids because we didn’t want to get wet, and the only real roller coaster here is Expedition Everest which we also did not do. I wish we had done the Avatar Flight of Passage but we didn’t. Baby Girl was more interested in the animal stuff so we did the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, Rafiki’s planet watch, and the Maharajah Jungle Trek.
We had a reservation for breakfast at the Tusker House Restaurant. This is where you can eat buffet style and meet Donald, Daisy, Mickey and Minnie. Imma tell you right now, it’s EXPENSIVE. $45 per person for me and Tony and I think $25 for Baby Girl. I’m sorry but we can’t possibly eat that much food to make it worth it. I barely eat as it is. I did not know ahead of time how expensive it was so that’s why I’m telling you. Meeting Donald Duck isn’t worth an over $115 breakfast for me. Especially as there are other places in the park where you can meet them for free! And there’s TONS of food available so unless you just want that ridiculously expensive experience I would definitely skip the Tusker House.
All that being said, we did enjoy our time at Animal Kingdom. We had arrived about 8:30 in the morning and left about 2:30. The resort has busses that take you for free to each theme park. Needless to say, we went swimming as soon as Baby Girl had her suit on and could get us out to the pool. Unfortunately, all her hair color (she had it done purple on the ends before we left) came out immediately in the chlorinated water which was a big disappointment for us. She swam until about 6:30 pm while Tony and I enjoyed drinks from the bar and relaxed. We had dinner at the cafeteria again – we had to pay for our food while at the resort in case you were wondering – none of that was included with the resort fees. And then we went to bed early in anticipation of boarding the cruise ship the next day!
The next morning we were up early and were told to leave our luggage right by our door (on the inside of the room) and it would be transported to the ship for us. We had been sent luggage tags ahead of time so I affixed those to our bags, we left them at the door and went to breakfast and then to catch the shuttle to the ship – again this was paid for ahead of time. I was nervous about our luggage so I just had to trust that it would work out and our stuff would be on the ship like they said it would. We had our swim suits and sunscreen and important stuff in our backpacks because our stateroom wouldn’t be ready until about 2:00 in the afternoon even though we would already be on the ship by then.
The ride to the ship on the bus took about an hour, we had spent about an hour in the hotel waiting for everyone to gather. There were nice representatives from the ship in the lobby answering questions and checking people in. So they knew if you showed up or not. This was about 9:00-9:15 in the morning. We got on the bus about 10, so a bit of waiting around. We had eaten breakfast at the cafeteria again so we were ready to go.
We could see the ship as we approached and it was HUGE. Mind boggling to me! And it was gorgeous. A brand new ship, less than a year old. I couldn’t believe we were lucky enough to get to sail on it. I had been worried also about being out on the open water but I want to reassure all of you that worry, that it really is nothing to fret about. It never scared me, I felt safe the entire time. Anyway, once we were in the terminal we had to go through security and show our passports and ID’s. We had to wait a long time. We were in boarding group 4. You can’t take open bottles of water or anything into the terminal. So make sure whatever you have is sealed, not open. All of us were pretty thirsty as we didn’t realize how long the wait would be. Again, every single moment was new to us. We had no idea what to expect. Finally we started boarding the ship. As we boarded they gave us Cinderella wands (cute) and called out WELCOME to the TULLOS FAMILY. Also cute.
But. Then. We had no idea what to do. We stood around for a few minutes. Found a cruise ship person to ask and she suggested we go to lunch or explore the ship. We opted for lunch. Went to the restaurant called Arendelle and relaxed and enjoyed ourselves for the first time that day. It was a lovely restaurant and I was very impressed by the service. In fact, I didn’t stop being impressed by the ship and it’s service the entire time I was aboard. After lunch we figured out where “guest services” was and we stood in line to sign Tony up for a Whisky Tasting. I also asked when we could go to our stateroom, because I had no idea when it would be ready or how to get our key cards. I was told by 2:00 the key cards would be ready and hanging outside the door to our room.
More tomorrow…. stay tuned…..
All that worry for nothing!!