At this point, just unfollow me. I never meant for this to happen but the mouse has consumed my life. If I’m not talking about working out, it’s Disney. My next two vacations I have planned are to, surprise, surprise, Disney.  

One is for next year to conquer the runDisney Princess Half Weekend races so that's pretty far ahead. I'm actually worried about this one though because after that, my next goal up would probably be to conquer an actual marathon. I honestly don't know if I'll ever have the courage for that, let alone the Dopey challenge. But. It would definitely be something to attempt to conquer once in my life if I'm ever brave enough to rise up to the challenge.

The other one, I booked just last week and it's going to be my first Disney cruise!

I actually had intended to try and broaden my horizons by visiting at least one new country this year and had my heart set on Italy but a few factors played into my decisions to switch gears for a bit. First off, flights for the dates I wanted were not only tricky but costly. Planning an itinerary was a little frustrating. Every time I sat down and tried to research it to strategize it, it ended up stressful and overwhelming. I felt this way about Paris too but Paris was a little easier because it was just one city and everything simply fell into place nicely like puzzle pieces. For Italy, there are a few cities I want to visit and I would ideally like to hit them all up in one visit so the logistics of it is tricky. It also gets expensive trying to do a lot of cities in one trip with the various hotel stays as well as traveling from one spot to another in a matter of days. I also worried that I might be hopping too fast in between places. Like for Japan, I explored 3 cities in 2 weeks, which I enjoyed but I did feel like my experience could’ve been better had it not been so rushed. For Paris, it was just Paris and I was able to soak it all in and enjoy it at my own pace since it was just one city. If I didn’t get to do something, I simply just did it the next day. I don’t want to travel and visit these places just to quickly check it off my list. I want to be able to breathe and really take it all in. I don’t want to half ass it and then have to go back because I didn’t do everything I wanted. Especially because it wasn’t in the budget the first time around. Unfortunately, I think I will have to put Italy on the back burner for now. I’ll still go one day, but I’d rather that when I do, I’ll be able to do it fully the way I want to and not cut corners just to go.

Another reason I ended up giving up Italy for 2019 is because of my husband. He’s not fond of flying and preferred a vacation in which we didn’t have to fly anywhere. He also wanted a vacation where he doesn’t have to ‘work’ so much; he wanted something more relaxing and less running from place to place exploring and moving onto the next site so quick. This made me feel really bad and probably was the grain of rice that tipped the scale in Disney’s favor. I realized all the vacations we’ve been on, have been mainly for me. This adorable boy has been tirelessly chasing after me as I run from place to place and ask him to take photos for the gram for me. He follows me everywhere I want to go and does everything I want. I need to take a step back and let him have an actual vacation for once. I felt bad because we work such opposite schedules and rarely see each other and when we do and get to go on vacation, I’m really just making him work some more instead of being about to sit back, relax and enjoy his time off.

So this Disney cruise was the compromise that fit both our interests.

This idea was actually implanted by Zuckerberg in my Instagram ads. I swear that guy is trying to sabotage me. I saw an ad for a Halloween Disney cruise a few months ago and out of curiousity, I clicked on it. There were several routes, ships and sailings but one cruise in particular, I swear was put together to bait me. And I can’t even lie because at this point, I definitely bit. This cruise sails exactly a day after my birthday, leaves straight out of New York so we save on airfare and the husband’s preference of not flying anywhere is satisfied, stops at Castaway Cay and then in Port Canaveral so I can go do Disney World for a day. And surprise, surprise guess what day that is. You bet your bottom dollar, it’s exactly Halloween day in the parks.

The cruise ended up perfectly for my husband as well because it’s not a lot of stops in port anywhere so I can’t drag him anywhere to take so many photos for the gram so it’s maximum relaxing all week. It’s only one day in Disney so it definitely minimizes how much running all over the parks he’s going to be dong as well.

I’m disappointed there won’t be any new destinations on this cruise for me to add to my travel list but I mean, I can’t be too mad because Halloween in Disney, as well as the cruise itself is Halloween themed onboard. So it satisfies my favorite holiday needs. I mean, I’m also going to have unlimited Mickey bars on board all damn week, how much more can a girl dream? Hahaha. I’m also told that the ship I’m sailing on has mango soft serve. Hmmm. INSERT BIG HAPPY SMILE. It’s also supposed to have a Tangled themed restaurant as well so I’m excited for that too.

The only really major con to the cruise I would have to say is the biggest deterrent as to why I never cared to consider a Disney cruise in the past: the cost. Disney cruises are one of the most expensive cruises around, unfortunately. It’s funny because being a Disney fan, you’d think I would’ve been all for one already in the past but I actually had no interest in them because I thought they were overpriced and I wasn’t crazy about being on a Disney cruise because well it’s Disney. Disney is more family oriented and thus I assume it will have a higher percentage of families and kids on board. I’m not too keen on being on a ship with that many more kids than a regular cruise. But one of my retired coworkers actually did recommend me to try a Disney cruise one day in my life. I asked him about the kid factor and he actually said it wasn’t too bad on his trip and wasn’t something I needed to worry about. So this is definitely something I will have to report back on after I return. I am also curious and excited to experience the Halloween difference as opposed to a regular old cruise vacation since you know Halloween is my jam. I read Disney really does it up too for Halloween compared to other cruiselines that just celebrates the one day while on board. The whole boat is supposed to be decked out and different costumes and themes throughout the sailing. It’ll be so cute to see the characters all dressed up in their Halloween gear as well as opposed to their regular appearances. It’ll be a new type of Halloween experience to add to my list. Now, to decide which costumes I want to wear. Yes, that’s right. Costumes with an S. As in multiple.

So despite having to delay Italy until I can afford the dream trip I want, this fall we will be setting sail on our first ever Disney cruise! I won’t lie, I am a little disheartened about Europe but at the same time I am definitely excited about finally trying out a Disney cruise and seeing what all the hubbub is about. I’ve been told by a few followers they enjoyed their cruise and that Disney is simply incomparable to other cruiselines after that which can be both good and bad. Good in the fact that it’s worth the money, but bad in the fact that I’ll be in another Contemporary situation (Last year I stayed at the Contemporary for my birthday and balled out. Now that my husband’s tasted the finer things in life, we can’t downgrade in Disney hotels from the Contemporary. He refuses to stay anywhere else besides anywhere on the Monorail line.). A similar situation happened when we cruised with Royal Caribbean back in college and then with Norwegian for our honeymoon. Norwegian is so much better by far in quality, food, cabin space, service, etc. And we can’t go back from a balcony room to an inside cabin either. Once you tasted the finer things in life, you can’t go back. So with that said, I fear we may be making a grave mistake, hahahaha. I want this Disney cruise to be amazing to rationalize how much I have to pay, but I also fear that it actually might be too amazing and we’ll want to only go with Disney moving forward. But that’s the price we pay as we move onward to bigger and better things in life.

And speaking of the cruise price, yes that price tag is damn expensive, I’m not going to lie. Especially since like I said, we can’t go back to an inside cabin room after becoming balcony people. So that increases the base price of a Disney cruise even more. I’ll be spending my entire summer based in NY, working, to pay it off. If you’re wondering how you too can afford a Disney cruise, this is how I’m doing it. Booking Disney cruises unfortunately is a little different from booking a Walt Disney World vacation. I booked this trip again with my travel agent from Never Grow Up Vacations so she’s taking care of the logistics like best room, on board credit (which I highly recommend booking through a travel agent because booking directly with the cruiseline doesn’t always provide this. It’s free money for you to spend onboard on food, excursions, drinks, whatever so definitely take advantage because those things are not cheap and they add up) and other extras like birthday surprises and such. But in terms of payment for the cruise, it’s a little harder. For a Walt Disney World resort vacation, only a $200 deposit is required to book, and the remainder is due 30 days before your vacation starts. So you can make as many payments as you want in between that time. For cruises, you’re required to pay 20% of your whole fare to book, and the remainder is due somewhere between 75 and 120 days prior to your sailing depending on which cruise you book. Unfortunately for me, that means I’m required to pay it off by end of this month. I know. 120 days out is a lot sooner than the 30 days given for Disney World vacations so it doesn’t give me much time to save up especially since I just booked it and put down the deposit. So. How am I doing this? I looked it up and read around about the Disney credit card. Ultimately the card is a terrible card compared to other major credit cards and its perks, but the one thing the card does provide is 0% APR special vacation financing for the first 6 months from the purchase date when you book a Disney vacation/cruise using the card. So through the card, I’ll be able to give myself 6 months to pay it off, a longer extension than the 120 days due date. On a minor note, you also get shopping and dining discounts in the park and on the cruise using this card so there’s a slight perk I guess. I wouldn’t recommend using the card for regular daily expenses outside of these Disney perks.

So that’s how I’m financing another totally extra and unnecessary but necessary birthday vacation with Disney. All magic comes with a price, dearie. Just don’t tell my mom. She’s going to be furious this is what I’m doing as another year passes by with still no grandchild in sight for her. All I do is Disney Disney Disney nowadays.