This is not a Disney sponsored blog post. All thoughts and opinions are based on my personal experience aboard the Disney Magic Cruise Ship. It does contain some affiliate links where I earn a small commission per click/per purchase at no additional cost to you. Thank you for taking the time to order through the links I’ve shared, just as I’ve taken the time to do the shopping for you. 

To set the tone for this blog post, let’s start with this short video clip.  

#HotMessExpress

Failing to plan tends to be my natural default so I figured I should probably start researching what to bring in an attempt to keep this crazy train from going off the tracks again. I’ll preface this by saying there are a lot of well-intended blog posts out there for the Pinterest Moms of the world, but that ain’t me. So here are my tips on what to bring – and what not to bring – for all the Okayest Moms of the world, like muah!

For starters, let me remind you that you are not going on an audition for Survivor; you don’t need all that extra shit they make you think you do.

• Laundry detergent to wash your dirty clothes in the sink. First of all, does it even come in travel size? Second of all, a tide stick and an extra pair of panties will do ya just fine. And in case of an emergency, they do have laundry services for a small fee.

• String to rig up a clothes line. Calm down, MacGyver, they have one over the tub that is sufficient enough.
• Post-it notes so you can leave requests for the cleaning crew. Disney’s customer services is top ranked in the world, they know how to do their job. Take the week off, Honey, you’re on vacation!
• Gifts for the Fish Extender Exchange. We can all thank Debbie for this one. Here’s my personal opinion on it: skip it unless spending money on other people’s kids and bringing an extra suitcase of shit no one needs is your thing. There are enough surprises around every corner that it seems a bit excessive and WAY more work than it’s worth, but you do whatever fills your cup, Mamas.

I’m not a seasoned Disney Cruise vet by any means, but here are some of the more practical things I brought and actually used:

• I may be slightly contradicting myself here with the no laundry detergent comment, but do bring this soap for your swimsuits. Chlorine, sunscreen, and sand can do numbers on a suit so give it a quick rinse and repeat every night to protect the coloring. It also came in handy when Carter peed his pants more times than I had brought pants for, but we’ll get to that story later…
• Downy Wrinkle Release Spray. Wrinkles can kill an outfit and they don’t have irons in the room. I used this bundle packing method so our clothes were 90% wrinkle free when we arrived but the spray still came in handy for touch ups.
• Tide Sticks for the bottomless ice cream machine at the pool deck. Enough said.
• Anti- Blister Block Stick. I swear by these to prevent blisters! Especially when we’re all breaking out our loafers and sandals for the first time in months.
• Portable Disco Light for spontaneous dance parties in the room. A total last minute throw in but it made for good entertainment! We traveled with 7 other families from our hood so the adults would hang in one room at night while the kids were in the adjoining room having a disco dance party. Fun was had by all!
• A DIY outfit for Pirate Night. You don’t need to spend a lot of money for something you’ll never wear again. Get creative. The only thing I bought new were these clip-on nose rings. Everything else came from my closet. 

• Sea-Bands and Anti-Nausea Patches. It hit me harder than I thought. I had the patches on at all times and then I also slept with the Sea-Bands on.
• Poo-Pourri because, tight quarters.
• Spontaneity. The rooms are small so too much time in there – especially around bedtime – and everyone got a bit feisty. My go-to solve was to grab one of the boys and say “let’s go on an adventure” and then we’d run out the door barefoot or in pjs and follow the sound of music. The highlight was when Carter and I stumbled upon the character dance party and he ripped off his shirt and started to rave with Mickey’s crew. 

#MovesLikeCarter

You don’t know what you don’t know, so here is a short list of things I wished I had brought once I was there:

• Clothes that my kids would ACTUALLY wear. If it even resembles handsome, my oldest will throw a fit so getting dressed for dinner was no easy feat. I read there was a dress code so we had agreed on what he would wear ahead of time in an effort to avoid the daily battle. To no surprise, he changed his mind when he got there and refused to wear any of the agreed upon clothes. I always felt the waves the most when we were crammed in the room all trying to get ready for dinner. Add a dose of nausea on top of a toddler fight and I was not at my best. Towards the end of the trip I gave up the fight entirely and let him wear whatever he wanted to dinner, and you know what? Not one person said anything about his sweatpants in the dining hall, so pick your battles. 

• A shit ton of extra underwear for my 3 year old who was on the tail end of potty training. I forced the issue before he was ready because it’s a requirement in order to register him for the Kid’s Club – and trust me when I say, you will want to take full advantage of this built-in babysitting service! I honestly think he would have done just fine if it weren’t for the bathroom incident on the plane to Miami. We hit some turbulence and he took a tumble landing between the wall and the toilet seat at the exact moment I flushed it. He did that silent scream where they start to turn blue before sound comes out. He eventually calmed down by the time we landed and I thought all was forgiven until we boarded the ship and he realized they had the same toilets. FML. It made for some maddening standoffs in the tiny bathroom stalls only this time I was the one doing the silent screaming and we were both in tears. To this day he still covers his ears in a public bathroom whenever someone flushes. 

• If you only remember to bring one thing from this entire list, let it be this: MORE PATIENCE AND A CAREFREE ATTITUDE.
  • They heavily stress the importance of being on time to dinner, but I can assure you everyone will get to eat even if you are a little late. Don’t sweat it. They serve pizza on the pool deck until midnight so you’ll never go hungry and you’ll all be living off the self-serve ice cream cones anyway.
  • They also clearly state that your child needs to be primarily potty trained to go in the Kid’s Club, but they also understand that accidents happen. They’ll call you and ask you to come change him/her and then they are allowed to go right back in to play. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. Pun intended. 
  • It’s highly likely your kids will throw fits in public and cry every night because they want to go home to sleep in their own beds. It’ll make you want to pull your hair out considering you spent the equivalent of 6 months of daycare tuition to take them on this “magical” trip, but I can guarantee you every child on that ship is having a similar outburst. Kids can be dicks so when you see another parent struggling just give them the Katniss three finger salute in solidarity and order yourself another drink. You don’t pay the bill until you leave anyway. Gulp.  

Lastly, here are a couple travel tips when booking that I would have done differently:

• Splurge for the balcony room if your kids are younger. We spent more time in our room than I anticipated. They were overstimulated and needed a break throughout the day. A major plus of the cruise ship over the park is that everything is right there so you can easily hit reset. We would put on a movie for the boys in the bunks, close the curtain that separated the room, and then the hubs and I would order room service and a cocktail and have our own little happy hour on the bed. You make your own fun! 

• The one thing I didn’t think through until we were going through it, was the travel days before and after. We took an evening flight out of Minneapolis the day before and didn’t get to the hotel in Miami until 10:30 p.m. The kids were exhausted and had a major meltdown. Not a great way to start the trip. The next morning we had to get up around 6 a.m. to shuttle to the ship, only to stand in line after line. It’s a LONG day with whiney kids who are running on fumes with the lucid thoughts of their dream vacation just around the corner. Make sure you have plenty of juice on the iPads and snacks in your carry-on.
• Coming home was a similar experience. Everyone has to be out of their rooms at the same time, but you can’t exit the ship until your group has been called so you basically camp out wherever you can find a spot in the hallway and wait. We thought we’d be ready to get home so we booked an evening flight that same day. In hindsight I would have stayed in Miami one more night to decompress and then fly out the next morning. We ended up spending 4 hours at a tiny airport with the kids running around like caged animals who just escaped from the zoo.
• Wait to take your patches off for a couple days after you get home. I ripped mine off at the airport and rode the waves for days.

When all was said and done, I can honestly say we made some of the best memories that completely surpassed the not-so-great ones! I hope you can say the same when you return. Don’t forget to find the magic in the moments and let the rest of the shit go! 

XO,

Amy

Coming soon to the blog: What To Wear On A Disney Vacation. Until I get around to it though, here’s some Disney Inspired Outfits compiled by The Refinery.