Here it is friends, tips for going on a Disney Magic cruise with a toddler:
Let me just open with honesty and full disclosure: the most important tip, my pro tip, is to not take your toddler on a cruise. Or any vacation in which you would like to relax, eat dinner, or participate in anything other than chasing and defending the life of set toddler against themselves.
Our personal toddler refused to go to sleep, and partied until he passed out every night, typically around 11 PM. Additionally, he requested personal boat tours each night from 3-5 AM.
And by requested, I mean demanded. Loudly.
He has since been excused from future family vacations and will be reevaluated for such activities once he is old enough to understand the words “Its bedtime.” This includes actionable follow through by putting himself to bed and engaging in a full night of sleep.
However, if you can’t weasel your way out of bringing your toddler, feeling really ambitious or maybe you’re as ignorant as we were, I’m hopeful these tips may be helpful. Lucky for us, we at least had both sets of grandparents. Disney also allows you to pre-book up to 18 hours in the Small World Daycare. All of these resources, along with the multiple spa appointments we indulged in, helped make our Disney Cruise on the Magic a great success.
This post was written in 2018, so please note prices and some details may be different in the future.
1. Alcohol
- If you don’t want to pay for wine every night, bring your own wine AND corkscrew. Disney allows each adult to bring two bottles of wine on the boat PER PORT, but make sure you can open them on your own because the uncorking fee is $25.00! So we waited until we were off the boat to drink our own wine.
2. Toddler friendly Room Accommodations
- Disney will provide a pack-n-play and a Diaper Genie to your room. I get that pack-n-plays are fairly standard, but I was amazed about the Diaper Genie. Not only that, our housekeeper emptied the Diaper Genie daily, which was wonderful, especially in such a small space.
3. Diapers and Wipes
- Don’t assume you will just buy diapers and wipes in the store on the boat, bring them with you! They only have about 10 diapers total down there. Don’t ask me how I know this.
4. Coffee
- If you’re addicted to fancy coffee, not that I am, but if you are, the Cove Café will provide you with your daily caffeine needs. The mochas and lattes are excellent. If you are OK with cheap coffee, that can be easily obtained for free in the Cabanas buffet or Lumineers restaurant.
5. Play Spaces
- There is a small toddler splash zone onboard the Magic, however since our cruise was through Canada, we didn’t play in it. If you are on a warm weather cruise, it would be a good play space option.
- Open Houses! The Magic has four play spaces for kids: Oceaneer Lab, Oceaneer Club, The Vibe and The Edge. Overall, there’s not a whole lot going on for the toddlers, but when any of the areas has an Open House it is open for free play for kids of all ages. You can find open houses listed on your daily navigator. You will still need to accompany your toddler to these areas (or get granny to do it like we did), but they do have some baby toys and will be welcomed change of scenery for your little one. Ray loved the play areas even if they weren’t toddler specific. The Vibe and Edge are geared mostly toward teens but our toddler was still able to enjoy both spaces and particularly enjoyed the oversized connect four game.
6. Themed Nights
- Be prepared for the themed nights (if that’s your thing). Our cruise had both and pirate night and a halloween night. Thanks to my talented friend Kristy for making our shirts for these nights! Disney is great about sending information about which themed nights will be taking place on your particular cruise, so pay attention to the information they send in the mail. You will also have an online portal where you can find out your cruise info and pre-book excursions.
7. Dinner and Milk Hoarding
- Every dinner was amazing, in taste, story and show. My favorite dinner spot was Animator’s Palate where you actually get to design your own character that comes to life on a screen!
- Our servers went above and beyond. Our head server Ms. Anita even cut my food up for me when my hands were full with my toddler, and at other times held the toddler so I could eat! Disney really does a great job with each dinner experience. Dinner is also a great time to stash some milk, should your toddler be a milk-addict like mine. Your server can bring you several milk cartons which can be kept in your fridge or you can load up on milk cartons at breakfast or lunch at cabanas buffet.
- Also dinner times are 5:30 or 8:15. I’m sure this is a no-brainer for you, but dont book the 8:15 time if you have a toddler. Otherwise you will want to cry pretty much every dinner, I know from experience.
- Dinner at Pavo – If you want to eat at the fancy Pavo restaurant on level 10, book it as early as possible. I mean really early. This dinner is an extra fee, as opposed to your free, ah hem, I mean pre-paid dinners, but it must be worth it because it fills up quickly. I can’t comment on the dinner experience as I didn’t have this advice.
8. Entertainment
- There are many entertainment options from Bingo to trivia to baby crawling races, yes baby crawling races! These will all be listed on your daily navigator for you to choose from. But my biggest tip here, which was given to me by my cousin, is to go to all the shows. The Disney shows are phenomenal and well worth a watch. They usually do an early show and a late show so no matter which dinner you have, you can catch the show. Shows are a great opportunity to enroll your toddler in the Small World nursery, so you can actually watch.
9. Photos
- If your toddler foregoes sleep, I promise you will not be in the mood to let the photographer people take your picture in front of the cheesy backdrops. But you should do it anyway. You will have a chance to buy pictures at the end of your cruise and the smallest package is 15 photos (for the bargain price of $200.00). You will want to have some picture options to choose from, to see which ones have the least noticeable bags under your eyes.
10. Money
- Just accept ahead of time that a Disney Cruise is just NOT your thrifty vacation option. This will help cushion the shock when your total is twice what your number-conscious significant other has guesstimated. If you’re wondering what the cost of any add on is, just assume its $200.00.
My final tip is to enjoy your cruise, despite how sleep deprived you may be, or how many meltdowns you may have endured. There is so much creativity and detail woven into Disney Cruises, take some time to notice and appreciate it. Enjoy the little moments and especially the horn blow which is to “When you Wish Upon a Star.”
I will conclude with the wise words a good friend told me after our first disaster vacation: “I don’t think of vacations with our kids as vacations. I think of them as adventures, that way no matter what happens, I’m mentally prepared.”
So here’s to enjoying your adventure, and all the magic it may bring!