DCL: Stateroom Door Decorating

When I first started cruising with Disney I had no idea how popular it was to decorate your stateroom door, so I figured I would share that info with you all, complete with a few photos. While Disney doesn't necessarily promote this, they don't discourage it either, as long as nothing is damaging to the door. All of the stateroom doors are metal which means magnets are a big hit when decorating! (Tape is frowned upon for fear that it may pull the paint up.)

Aside from the pure fun of it, it's a great way to recognize your room while going down those long hallways where are all the doors look the same. This makes things pretty easy for the kids (or adults coming in from a late night in The District).

There are several place online to find files for decorations that will fit the "porthole" room numbers on the doors as seen above, or you could certainly be creative and come up with your own designs.

Some even go all out with beautiful wreaths. This picture shows it being hung with a wreath hanger. I'm told this is a "no-no" though because it could chip the paint. I've seen other use the strong magnetic hook for wreaths though, and those seem to be okay.

We had a lot of fun with our door on our last cruise and brought magnetic Scrabble. We started the game each day with a new word and used our magnetic dry erase board to ask others to play along. Imagine our surprise one evening when every single letter had been used! (We often caught our stateroom host playing!!)

Now, some of you may be worrying about magnets going missing. Unfortunately, it is a risk you take. We've personally never had any issue, but I've heard from others that they have. We don't take anything expensive (mostly handmade items), and we try not to get too worried about it. It's for fun!!

So, I highly recommend taking your hand at making some magnets for your door on your next cruise. Design something, print it, laminate, and glue a magnet to the back. Easy peasy!! It definitely adds some character to otherwise uniform hallways. Enjoy!

If you've decorated your door, please share photos with me on my Facebook page. I'd love to see!!


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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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Disney's Magical Express

Disney's Magical Express is a fabulous, free service offered to guests flying to Walt Disney World who are staying on property. Not only do they provide free transportation from the Orlando airport (MCO), but they'll also handle your checked luggage. You check it at home, and the next time you see it will be in your hotel room!

The service works on the way home, too! You can check in for your flight right at your hotel. They'll check your luggage there and give you a ride to the airport. You'll pick your bags up again at baggage claim at home.

If you are staying on Walt Disney World property, and plan to arrive by plane, you'll want to add Disney's Magical Express (DME) to your vacation package. You simply add the service to your package and you, or your travel agent if you book with one, will provide them with your flight information when you get it.

You'll receive yellow luggage tags for everyone in your party. (These are different than those that come with your Magic Bands.) They should come in the mail, or from your agent, a couple weeks before your trip and should be affixed to your luggage before you check it with the airline. If for some reason you do not receive them in time, it's quite alright. You would simply keep your baggage claim tickets to give to to the DME Cast Members upon check in.

A letter detailing what you should do before your trip and upon your arrival will accompany the tags. If you have your Magic Bands you can check in using those, but it's nice to have the letter with you for the handy map.

So, here's what this looks like in action...

Check your bag when you arrive at the airport. You'll want to have a day bag with you for your carry-on, as it could take around 3 hours for your luggage to arrive to your room.

When you arrive at MCO (Orlando airport) look for the Disney's Magical Express signs and follow them to Side B, Level 1.

Check in using your MDE letter or your Magic Band. You'll be asked here to confirm your return flight home, so have the info handy.

They'll direct you to the appropriate line for your resort motorcoach. The bus may make multiple stops, so allow 45-75 minutes for travel time.

The bus will drop you off at your resort lobby for check-in. If you've done on-line check in, you may be able to proceed directly to your room if you've gotten the info via text or email.


This is a great added value to your trip. In addition to DME, Disney provides transportation to and from the parks, resorts, and Disney Springs. There's no need to even rent a car- they've got you covered! What a savings!

We've had nothing but great experiences with Disney's Magical Express and recommend it to everyone!!


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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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Tip Tuesday: Stop for the Photo Booths

I'm what one might call "photo obsessed". I love capturing as many moments via photo as I can. So, if there's a chance to make a fun memory and capture it, I'm all in! Which is just what we did on our trip a few weeks ago!

Do you remember those fun photo booths where everyone squeezed in the little booth and tried to fit all of your heads into one little square and out popped a fun photo strip at the end? Well, Disney has a couple, and we decided to have some fun at the one in the Tomorrowland Arcade (at the Space Mountain exit) a few weeks ago. (There are actually two at this location)

Hop in the booth and have some fun. At the end you can pick a fun character border or commemorate your trip with a year date. Sure, at $5 for three strips, that's a pretty good deal- a keepsake for you and some to give to the grandparents, or split between friends. However, my tip, and the better value is- don't forget to scan your magic band!! These booths are compatible with Memory Maker!!

That's right, you can scan your band and all of your fun shots will be downloaded right to your account. If you've pre-purchased the Memory Maker photo package (which I highly recommend doing) you'll be able to download the digital images right to your device to share digitally or have printed.

It wasn't crowded (we were there late), and we were having a blast. We just kept switching people and getting back in. These are memories I'll cherish forever- cutting up and making faces with my kiddos. What a blessing.

Here's a list of the photo booth locations:

1.  Magic Kingdom- Tomorrowland Arcade (exit shop of Space Mountain)
2. Animal Kingdom- Games of Chance area in Dinoland (near Primaeval Whirl)
3. Epcot- PhotoWorks area (exit shop of Journey to Imagination or "the Figment ride")
4. Hollywood Studios- Pizza Planet Arcade

Check out some of the fun we had!

 Not only do you get the strips digitally on your Memory Maker, but they also include the individual photos! Win-Win!!

They also have some that come out as a single photo rather than photo strips

If you've done the photo booths I'd love to see some of your photos as well. Visit my Facebook page and share your photos with me!

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