disneyfaninaz
It takes faith, trust & pixie dust!
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
We just returned from our cruise. It was a bit of a different cruise than we've taken before, so I'll adjust my usual trip reporting style accordingly.
In the meantime, here's the beginning of our tale!
Background:
It has become somewhat of a tradition to take our DD on a Disney cruise after she graduates. In 2014, we took her to Alaska after she graduated from middle school. In 2018, we took her to the Mediterranean after she graduated from high school. Well, our DD graduated in December, 2022 from Northern Arizona University, so what cruise were we going to go on? That was the question.
A little background about my DD, we practically raised her in Disney parks and on Disney cruises. We did other things too, but those things are irrelevant for this story. Since she was old enough to know what a career was, she has wanted to work for Disney. DD was supposed to do the Disney College Program in the Fall of 2020 to start that ball rolling, but it was cancelled because of the pandemic. Fortunately, DD was accepted again and participated in the Disney College Program in the Spring of 2022 (she worked at the Flight of Passage attraction in Pandora). She absolutely loved it and came back to school for her last semester to finish her degree even more impassioned and determined to work for the Disney Company after she graduated. So, knowing that she is returning to the Disney College Program again for Spring of 2023, as well as applying to other Professional Internships within Disney, our time options were limited for a cruise.
Fortunately for us, the Disney Wonder was doing cruises out of San Diego; a mere 1 hour and some change plane trip from home. DCL also had a cruise that was stopping at Catalina Island. A place that none of us had been to before. So, it was determined that we would take our DD on her college graduation cruise out of San Diego on January 2, 2023. Thus allowing time for her to return to Florida and pursue her dream of working for the Mouse as soon as possible! DD is thrilled to be back on a Disney cruise, since the last one she was scheduled on was cancelled because of the pandemic in 2021. She planned to just spend time on the ship and visit Cove Café as often as possible.
Cast of Characters:
The usual suspects will be sailing this cruise.
DH and Me: Extremely proud parents of our college graduate with honors and future Disney Cast Member!
DD: Recent College graduate, future cast member and passionate fan of all things Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, etc!
Our dear neighbors; DNC, DNJ and DNM: DD has been treated like a third daughter by DNJ and DNC and a younger sister to DNM since she was born.
Planning
This cruise is probably the easiest I have ever planned. It is also the shortest Disney cruise we have been on, being only 4 nights. Basically, all we want to see is Catalina. So we will get off the ship and walk around, no tour planned. We also have no desire to see Ensenada, so we will stay on the ship and relax.
I booked flights with points, booked hotel rooms across from the port for before and after the cruise, purchased trip insurance, and booked a Chocolate & Liquor Tasting and Palo for dinner. Done!
Checking In On-Line
As with our Northern European Cruise, I had everything ready to go. I logged in exactly at 10:00 PM MST (12:00 AM EST) and got nothing. Unfortunately, neither the DCL website nor app was cooperating. No matter how many times I refreshed, I just got the wheel of frustration, spinning and spinning. As it turned out, all the ships in the fleet, except for the Fantasy, had departures on January 2, 2023. I can’t even imagine how many hundreds of people were trying to check in at once. I waited for 90 minutes before giving up and going to bed.
I got up about 2 hours later and was able to get in. I uploaded our passports and headshots and got our PAT of 11:15 AM with Boarding Group 5. DCL announced in early November that we would not need to show proof of vaccination any longer so I didn’t have to worry about Safe Passage. We also no longer had to have a negative Covid test. It makes things so much less stressful. However, it did take until about 5 days before our cruise to see the “pending” removed from our check-in. We were clear to sail!
Itinerary:
Day 1 - Sunday, January 1, 2023 - Travel from Phoenix to San Diego
Day 2 - Monday, January 2, 2023 - Embarkation
Day 3 - Tuesday, January 3, 2023 – Catalina Island, CA turned in to Sea Day
Day 4 - Wednesday, January 4, 2023 – Ensenada, Mexico
Day 5 - Thursday, January 5, 2023 - Sea Day
Day 6 - Friday, January 6, 2023 – San Diego, CA
Day 7 - Saturday, January 7, 2023 – Travel home
Next: Best laid plans and so forth. . .
In the meantime, here's the beginning of our tale!
Background:
It has become somewhat of a tradition to take our DD on a Disney cruise after she graduates. In 2014, we took her to Alaska after she graduated from middle school. In 2018, we took her to the Mediterranean after she graduated from high school. Well, our DD graduated in December, 2022 from Northern Arizona University, so what cruise were we going to go on? That was the question.
A little background about my DD, we practically raised her in Disney parks and on Disney cruises. We did other things too, but those things are irrelevant for this story. Since she was old enough to know what a career was, she has wanted to work for Disney. DD was supposed to do the Disney College Program in the Fall of 2020 to start that ball rolling, but it was cancelled because of the pandemic. Fortunately, DD was accepted again and participated in the Disney College Program in the Spring of 2022 (she worked at the Flight of Passage attraction in Pandora). She absolutely loved it and came back to school for her last semester to finish her degree even more impassioned and determined to work for the Disney Company after she graduated. So, knowing that she is returning to the Disney College Program again for Spring of 2023, as well as applying to other Professional Internships within Disney, our time options were limited for a cruise.
Fortunately for us, the Disney Wonder was doing cruises out of San Diego; a mere 1 hour and some change plane trip from home. DCL also had a cruise that was stopping at Catalina Island. A place that none of us had been to before. So, it was determined that we would take our DD on her college graduation cruise out of San Diego on January 2, 2023. Thus allowing time for her to return to Florida and pursue her dream of working for the Mouse as soon as possible! DD is thrilled to be back on a Disney cruise, since the last one she was scheduled on was cancelled because of the pandemic in 2021. She planned to just spend time on the ship and visit Cove Café as often as possible.
Cast of Characters:
The usual suspects will be sailing this cruise.
DH and Me: Extremely proud parents of our college graduate with honors and future Disney Cast Member!
DD: Recent College graduate, future cast member and passionate fan of all things Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, etc!
Our dear neighbors; DNC, DNJ and DNM: DD has been treated like a third daughter by DNJ and DNC and a younger sister to DNM since she was born.
Planning
This cruise is probably the easiest I have ever planned. It is also the shortest Disney cruise we have been on, being only 4 nights. Basically, all we want to see is Catalina. So we will get off the ship and walk around, no tour planned. We also have no desire to see Ensenada, so we will stay on the ship and relax.
I booked flights with points, booked hotel rooms across from the port for before and after the cruise, purchased trip insurance, and booked a Chocolate & Liquor Tasting and Palo for dinner. Done!
Checking In On-Line
As with our Northern European Cruise, I had everything ready to go. I logged in exactly at 10:00 PM MST (12:00 AM EST) and got nothing. Unfortunately, neither the DCL website nor app was cooperating. No matter how many times I refreshed, I just got the wheel of frustration, spinning and spinning. As it turned out, all the ships in the fleet, except for the Fantasy, had departures on January 2, 2023. I can’t even imagine how many hundreds of people were trying to check in at once. I waited for 90 minutes before giving up and going to bed.
I got up about 2 hours later and was able to get in. I uploaded our passports and headshots and got our PAT of 11:15 AM with Boarding Group 5. DCL announced in early November that we would not need to show proof of vaccination any longer so I didn’t have to worry about Safe Passage. We also no longer had to have a negative Covid test. It makes things so much less stressful. However, it did take until about 5 days before our cruise to see the “pending” removed from our check-in. We were clear to sail!
Itinerary:
Day 1 - Sunday, January 1, 2023 - Travel from Phoenix to San Diego
Day 2 - Monday, January 2, 2023 - Embarkation
Day 3 - Tuesday, January 3, 2023 – Catalina Island, CA turned in to Sea Day
Day 4 - Wednesday, January 4, 2023 – Ensenada, Mexico
Day 5 - Thursday, January 5, 2023 - Sea Day
Day 6 - Friday, January 6, 2023 – San Diego, CA
Day 7 - Saturday, January 7, 2023 – Travel home
Next: Best laid plans and so forth. . .
Last edited: