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What is a Fish Extender | Disney Cruise Recap

By sunshineandholly on June 14, 2019

As you’d expect from a brand like Disney, a Disney Cruise has about 6.4 billion fun things to do onboard. Shows, parties, waterslides, shopping, pools, mini-golf, tea parties, splash pads, character greetings, you name it, they’ve got it! There’s also an extra gift exchange program called the fish extender program that’s not sponsored by the Disney Cruise Line, but organized and run by passengers. We LOVED participating in the program. My kids had a blast helping pass out gifts and were so excited each time they received a gift.

What is a Fish Extender?

A fish extender (FE) is a pocket organizer that you hang on the fish hook outside of your cabin on a Disney Cruise. The hook was originally used by the cast members onboard to hang information about your cruise. Kind of like a cruise mailbox. But these days, most of the cruise information is delivered via the Disney Cruise Line app.

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Food on the Disney Dream Cruise – Disney Cruise Recap

By sunshineandholly on May 31, 2019

One of the things we were most looking forward to experiencing on our Disney Cruise (besides the all-day childcare) was the food. You know we like to eat!

The Disney Dream ship has 3 main sit-down restaurants, 2 adults-only restaurants, a buffet, and a quick-service style casual dining area near the pool. There’s also 24-hour complimentary room service. Lots to choose from!

For dinner on a Disney cruise, you’re assigned a dinning time – either early dining at 5:45 or late dining at 8:15. You rotate through each of the 3 main dining restaurants, which is great since you get to try them all! On the Disney Dream, the 3 restaurants are the Royal Palace, the Enchanted Garden, and the Animator’s Palate. Each restaurant has its own theme and menu, and your wait staff travels with you to each restaurant so you’ll have the same waiters each night.

For breakfast and lunch on the Disney Dream, you can either order room service, eat at the buffet called Cabanas, grab a meal from the quick-service counter called Flo’s Café, or have a sit-down meal at the Royal Palace or the Enchanted Garden.

The two adults-only restaurants are Palo and Remy. These require reservations and aren’t included in the cost of your cruise. We didn’t try Palo or Remy on this cruise, but they are on my bucket list for next time!

There’s also all-you-can-eat complimentary soft service ice cream on the ship. Yum! You can also purchase other ice cream treats at Eye Scream ice cream parlor or grab a smoothie from the smoothie shop called Frozone’s Treats.

Specialty coffee is available for purchase at the Cove Café and the Vista Café. You can also pick up a few complimentary pastries to enjoy with your coffee.

We had a blast trying lots of different foods on the cruise and were pleased with pretty much everything we ordered. Unfortunately, I came down with tonsilitis on the second day of our trip and was sick for the rest of the cruise. So I didn’t get to enjoy the food as much as I was hoping since I felt so poorly. (So not fair!) But Josh and the kids took full advantage of trying everything and loved it all!

Food on the Disney Dream Cruise – Disney Cruise Recap

Our first meal on the cruise was lunch at the Animator’s Palate:

10 Reasons We Love Disney’s Bay Lake Tower

By sunshineandholly on April 11, 2019

When booking accommodations for Disney, there are lots of things to take into consideration. Price, location to the parks, and amenities for example, but there are other things that can make an otherwise average hotel stay at Disney into an exceptional one. We’ve stayed at several different hotels over the years, both on-property and off, and our favorite so far has been the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort.

Bay Lake Tower is part of the Disney Vacation Club, a timeshare program run by Disney. However, there are ways to book Bay Lake Tower rooms without being part of the club. We booked a trip through DVCrentals.com and had a great experience! (And saved $$$ too! Find out more about DVC Rentals below.)

Bay Lake Tower offers studios, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom villas. There’s a pool with a water slide, access to the monorail, and (by far the best part in my opinion) the resort is WALKING DISTANCE to the Magic Kingdom. You heard that right! No need to wait in the long monorail or bus lines. It’s wonderful to be able to walk back to your hotel after a long day at the parks, and not waiting in the long lines for transportation.

Disney Cruise Fish Extender Gift Idea for Adults – Coffee and Donuts

By sunshineandholly on March 28, 2019

Fish Extender Gift Idea for Adults - Coffee and Donuts | sunshineandholly.com | tips for disney cruise | disney dream | disney wonder

Looking for a cute fish extender gift idea for adults? Check this out!

We’re leaving in 5 days for our first cruise ever – and it’s a Disney cruise! You know how obsessed we are with Disney and we can’t wait to experience all of the fun. We’ll be sailing for 5 days/4 nights in the Bahamas with a stop in Nassau and a stop at Disney’s private island – Castaway Cay. This is a dream vacation for us – something that’s been on our bucket list for a long time and I feel so blessed that we’re at a point in our lives where we can swing this financially. (I guess all that solo parenting while my husband travels has finally paid off! Seriously though – Josh works so hard to provide for us and I’m so grateful for him.)

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10 Tips for Staying in a Hotel with Kids

By sunshineandholly on February 21, 2019

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We’ve stayed in lots of hotels over the years with our kids. These days, we’ve got our routines down to a science, and our kids (mostly) understand the rules and what’s expected of them when we’re away from home. I’ll admit though, we stopped traveling for a while after Maddie was born. She just didn’t like to sleep in general, much less when we were in a hotel room. And toddler Graham was just too wild to keep calm and quiet! But now that the kids are older, we love taking trips together. I’ve got a few tips and tricks that make staying in a small hotel room easier with kids.

Check out these 10 tips for staying in a hotel with kids:

Luggage Carts Are Your Friend

Before kids, the hubs and I packed pretty light and would just carry our bags with us to our hotel room. But traveling with kids requires a TON of more stuff. We quickly learned to grab a luggage cart after we check into the hotel to make it easier to get all the luggage to the room. The kids love taking a ride too!

Unplug the Phone

The first thing we do when we get into the hotel room is to unplug the phone. TRUST ME on this one. Kids these days are fascinated by a phone that plugs into the wall. (Or basically, any phone that’s not a cell phone.) My kids always want to play with the hotel phone, which is fine with me, as long as it’s unplugged!

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