Deciding on Disney

If you've never looked into Disney Cruises, I highly recommend at least checking out what you are getting for the price. If you are traveling with small children, the higher price might not look so high once you see what you get. Now, this is all based on looking at the Disney Magic, so some info might be different for other ships in the line, so do research!

Pros

• Bathtubs--every room has one. Ideal for traveling with infants, toddlers. It's tough to get a bathtub kid to take a shower in a weird environment.
• Split bathrooms--in one you have a sink and tub, in the other sink and toilet. Awesome.
• Larger rooms--compared to most other cruise lines, the rooms are larger. Basic interior rooms are 184 sq ft, the deluxe are 214. Seriously, when traveling with kids, the more room the better!
• Kids programs--we've never been on Disney, so I can't rate these, but they look pretty awesome for the 3+ crowd.
• More kid-focused--most of the cruise lines cater more toward adults. But Disney is really focused on the entire family having a good time, not just the 18+ crowd. Not sure how much fun teens would have, it seems more 10 and under would enjoy, but that's just based on what I see online.
• Small splash area by the pool for diaper wearing babies/toddlers. This is great, because I know Simon will want to get in the water if Max is in the water. And really...no one wants to swim with babies in diapers in the water. Gross.
• Castaway Cay--private island with free food, family beach, adult only beach, childcare. Yes please!
• Pirate party AND FIREWORKS! Fireworks at sea. How cool is that?!

Cons

• Price--definitely costs more than pretty much any other cruise line that we looked at. 4 day cruise is almost the same as a 7 (or more) day cruise on Carnival
• Have to pay for nursery time. $6/hour for the 1st kid under 3. And (this is from what I've seen, I'm not sure about actual limits) looks like there's a 10 hour limit on 3-4 day cruises. That's not even enough to have dinner and a show each night. I have heard that if they have room in the nursery, they will fit your child in, but you can't rely on that.

There are more pros and cons for us, but those are the big ones. The pros definitely outweigh the cons in our case, but when you are paying so much for a cruise, it's a really good idea to make sure that there are more pros!

So, after a few days of research, not only on the Disney site, but also reading reviews, deck plans, and such on other sites, we decided on Disney.

We will be cruising Disney Magic in April for 4 nights. We booked a Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah . The price is just over what our budget allowed, but we figured it would be worth it. A bigger room would have been nice, but that would be so much out of our price range. Those suites are insanely priced on Disney. (or...I'm cheap. Either way, we can't afford it!)

We did include travel insurance. April isn't part of Hurricane Season, but after the insanity that occurred this year with Hurricane Irene messing up cruises, we aren't about to take a chance.

So...once you book, then what?