You may remember the precious Hall family who won our Unfrozen Winter contest earlier this year by submitting a picture of their creative snowman. Check it out!
Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning sent the winners on a Disney Cruise and covered airfare for four. Rebecca and Bradley (Mom and Dad) took their two oldest kids, Korbin and Brooke, on their Disney Cruise in July this year. This was Korbin and Brooke’s first cruise and Rebecca and Bradley had not been on a cruise in nearly 10 years.
“I cannot begin to explain the amount of fun we had and how truly incredible everything was,” wrote Rebecca. “It was a vacation we could have never made happen on our own. Disney does cruising right!”
The Halls were kind enough to send over their itinerary and some snapshots from their awesome trip. If you want to a Disney Cruise, or just curious what it’s all about, check out the highlights from the Hall’s cruise.
Monday
We were on the water for two days (Saturday and Sunday) and then docked in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We booked a Catamaran and went out with four different families for several hours. It was Korbin and Brooke’s first time snorkeling and they had a blast. We spotted turtles and stingrays – it may have been the most fun experience of the entire cruise!
Tuesday
We went from Tortola to St. Thomas in the American Virgin Islands, where we got to do more snorkeling, got to swim, and laid out on the beach. The water was really that turquoise blue you always see in pictures – truly beautiful.
Thursday
We were on the ship all day Wednesday and then ported at Castaway Cay, Disney’s Cruise Line Guest-Only Island. The water was so blue and had clear visibility below, so of course that meant more snorkeling! They hid Mickey Mouses you could find underwater, which helped make up for the fact there weren’t as many fish. They also have an adults-only beach which we took advantage of while Korbin and Brooke played with other kids. Castaway Cay had staff everywhere to watch the kids so we (Mom and Dad) laid out and had a daiquiri. It’s like a floating Disneyland!
Aboard
It gives me goosebumps remembering everything on the boat – it was all so fun and extraordinary! They have a “Midship Detective Agency” where you select the mystery you want to solve and they give you a card so you can write down all your clues. When you put the card up to a painting, it springs to life – it speaks to you, tells you about the mystery you are working to solve, and gives you signals and directions. One mystery lasted two hours because we were going all over the boat.
They are always running first-run movies out around the pool so we got to see Jungle Book. We also got to ride the Aqua Duct, which is a large slide that shoots you up and down and swings you out across the boat!
All of us went Goofy Golfing and Disney Cruises also have other games and a Tween Club called Edge with things like scavenger hunts, ice breakers, and more.
It’s very easy to see characters on the ship – you only have to wait three or four minutes versus a half-hour or more at Disneyland. We got to see about two a day, and one day we got five in a row! They also have several versions of the characters, such as Captain Mickey, Traditional Mickey, etc.
The actual room was amazing! Ours included an ocean view room with a HUGE porthole and window seat. The stateroom was a really good size and all four of us were comfortable and never felt smushed.
Dining
You go between three restaurants. Enchanted Garden has awesome flower lights on the ceiling that open and close and the colors on the ceiling change throughout your meal and Royal Court was very elegant and reminded me of Cinderella. The meals are very gourmet and they have a good selection. My oldest tried everything, including escargot at the Royal Court. (He told us it tasted like dirt!)
Animators Palette is animation-themed and they put markers on your table so you can draw a figure. They provide instructions on how to draw a figure, then they collect the drawings and at the end of your dinner, they animate your drawings on big screens. You have no idea it’s coming! They arrange them to music and put them in Disney movies. Brooke is our artist so she did really well with hers and was so excited – the rest of us weren’t quite as proud
“Our family cannot thank Service Experts enough for this amazing trip,” Rebecca wrote after they returned from their cruise. “I get emotional when I think about the experience as a whole. Submitting our picture to a contest I never thought would go anywhere, finding out we were a finalist, the stressful voting phase, the big reveal, planning and picking which cruise, the excitement of going and finally experiencing an amazing vacation. It was such a wonderful time living it all. Thank you, thank you!”
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