Tip Tuesday: Drink of the Day Glass (DCL)

When boarding a Disney Cruise, especially if you get an early port arrival time, you'll have plenty of time to hit the deck and lounge around, or grab a bite to eat. You'll be greeted as you come out on deck by many cheerful cast members offering several beverage options for purchase.

They'll be offering beer packages (delivered to your room), wine packages for dinner, adult beverages to drink now, and the "Drink of the Day" or beer mug. All of these options are, of course, an additional charge which will be added to your stateroom bill. Soda machines will also be found on deck and are included in your cruise fare. Feel free to bring those Yetis and fill 'em up!

Our favorite is the "Drink of the Day" (DotD) cup which we find to be a pretty good value. Each day a new Drink of the Day will be listed on your Personal Navigator. The DotD is a 12oz serving of yummy beverages like a Bahama Mama or Yellow Bird for only $4.75 (plus tax and 15% gratuity).

For around $12 you can purchase this cup (filled with the current DotD), and the cup is yours to keep. The perk or value, you ask? For the remainder of the cruise, when purchasing the drink of the day you get a larger 16oz refill (only when using this cup) for the same low price of $4.75!

When lounging around the pool, servers will take your cup and bring you a fresh new glass each time you order. Though, I will say, we've found the better beverages are from the real bars throughout the ship. Most of them don't have the DotD made in large batches like they do around the pools, so you may get a heavier pour there. We did on several occasions.

Enjoy!

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Disney's Mousekeeping

If you're new to Disney, you might not know that housekeeping at a Disney Resort goes by a different name... Mousekeeping. Clever, right?

Well, we love Mousekeeping. While we try to keep a pretty tidy hotel room when we travel anyway, we do appreciate them coming in each day to freshen things up for us. Things like taking the trash out, making the beds, replenishing those fun little soaps and shampoos, and getting new towels. Sometimes it's just adding a little touch to an already clean room.

Everyone has a different opinion on tipping Mouse/housekeeping. Some tip, some don't. Some tip daily, some tip at the end. I'm not here to tell you what you should do about any of it. That's a personal choice :-) To each their own, but we're a family who tips daily just in case we get different Mousekeepers throughout our stay. Like I said, we keep things pretty straight around the room, so we usually leave $1 per person, plus $1. Then at the end we leave a little extra to the person who is doing the full clean once we leave.

Mousekeepers are sometimes known to leave some fun surprises in your room while you're away like towel animals or rearranging little lovies.

My kids like to do something special for our Mousekeepers in hopes to motivate them for a little fun. It's not a guarantee, but either way, my kids enjoy doing something nice for the people helping to take care of us while we're away. We like to think it might bring a smile to their day at least.

Those were some certificates we'd found at the Dollar Store when my daughter was young. She colored them and left one each day in an envelope I colored. We've done things like that and notes, and this last trip my daughter decided to draw some of her favorite characters on our tip envelopes. There were a couple I really wanted to keep, but they weren't for me :-(

 She did them all free-hand, too!!

Well, they paid off. We got some fun at Art of Animation for my mother-in-law's birthday.

We also got some nice treats when we switched to Coronado Springs.

Again, this isn't a post to encourage you to tip or do anything special. I just wanted to share a little something my kiddos do to get ready for our trip and spread a little magic of their own while we're away. Hope you enjoyed!


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Foodie Friday: La Cantina de San Angel

La Cantina de San Angel

in the Mexico Pavilion of Epcot

I don't know about you, but I love Mexican food. Tacos, burritos, nachos, chalupas... you name it. So, on our trip in September I had to stop in Mexico and grab a bite to eat. Seeing how we could eat "anywhere in the World (Showcase)" my husband opted for fish'n'chips from the UK.

This is a popular Quick Service restaurant located on the lagoon side as you walk around World Showcase. Tables can be hard to come by because of its popularity. It's a good idea to have someone grab a table while someone else does the ordering.

Here are some shots of the menu (click on them to enlarge)

Oh, and we can't forget about the margaritas!

I wish I'd been able to snap some pics of the food coming out of the window before mine. They not only looked delicious, but the portions were huge. This is definitely a QS meal to share!

I went for the nachos (minus the tomato) and a sangria. You get plenty of chips, a heaping helping of nacho cheese with seasoned beef and beans, and they add some sour cream and jalapenos... I'm in heaven. Handling my tray I wasn't able to get a picture of the salsa bar, but they have an area where you can help yourself to various salsas to spice up your dishes.

These were pretty good for what they were, but after having seen some of the other items come through the window, I wished I'd have tried one of the taco meals or the Pollo Cascabel. The sangria wasn't the best I've ever had, but it was certainly refreshing on a hot September afternoon.

These nachos could definitely have been shared, as could all of the dishes I saw. Actually, I would quite recommend sharing all QS meals you might have walking around the World Showcase. This little tip not only saves you money or a QS meal credit, but this way you can also sample fare from multiple countries as you make your way around.

Being a QS restaurant, these items (minus the alcoholic beverages) are covered by all of the Disney Dining Plans. Those churros would make nice use of a snack credit, too!

Enjoy!!

Let me know if you've been in the comments. What did you get?

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Tip Tuesday: License Plate Game

We love the license plate game when taking road trips. You know, where you try to spot as many of the 50 state plates as you can. On our last road trip we downloaded a really cool app to help us keep track (rather than writing them all down or checking them off our paper list).

This one, called "Plates Free" in the Play Store, not only included Canadian and Mexican plates, but it also showed pictures of the most common plate for the state! It put a star next to the ones you've seen and keeps count of them, too!

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Tip Tuesday: Passing the Time in Lines

Those wait times can get pretty lengthy in busy months at Walt Disney World, so why not make passing the time a little more fun...

Ever heard of the game Pictopia? It's a fun picture-trivia game using 2-sided cards with questions and pictures. Guess what?! They have both a Disney edition and a Star Wars edition!!

We have both! We pack the cards into ziploc bags and put them in our park bag. We pull them out when it looks like we may be in line a while, or are waiting for our name to be called at a restaurant.

We each take turns asking each other questions, and before you know it we've made it through the lines with lots of laughter and fun no complaints or fighting.

Sometimes we let the person who gets the most correct pick the next ride! You could also let them get a snack or get another fun treat. It's a lot of fun!


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