by Sean | May 20, 2016 | Favorite Food Friday
Our Favorite Food This Week: Cabanas Buffet
Location: Cabanas, Deck 11 Aft – Disney Fantasy
Cost: $Cost of Cruise
Welcome to this week’s Favorite Food Friday where we share our favorite foods with our friends. Last week we were cruising on the Disney Fantasy , oh how hard it is to get back into the “regular things” in life after spending a week at sea. Our son still expects – appetizer, soup, entree and dessert with each meal :). We had an amazing time as always, and we will be sharing more with you in the coming weeks. As we board the ship one of our first stops is always Cabanas. Cabanas is located on Deck 11 Aft and stretches across the ship from port to starboard side. Yes it’s huge, so much so that if you are meeting up with people it’s not enough to just say – “Meet at Cabanas”. We always see people trying to find their families. Cabanas offers a huge selection of different foods in buffet style, each side of the ship features a buffet with the same offerings. In the middle of the two buffets at the very aft (back) of the ship you will find the custom omelet station in the morning and the meat carving station at lunch and dinner. In our picture above you can see one of the buffets along with a plate of mashed potatoes, roll, steamed veggies, turkey, beef, and of course a cookie. Yummmm What’s your favorite buffet item or place to eat on a Disney Cruise?
by Sean | Jun 12, 2014 | History
As you stroll around the parks today pins are everywhere, there are entire shops devoted to pins and pin trading and most cast members are ready to trade their pins. But, where did this come from, what started this pin trading craze?
Pins have been sold at parks for many years, but it wasn’t until the 1999 Millennium Celebration that Pin Trading was introduced to Walt Disney World. After its introduction pin trading quickly spread to Disneyland and all Disney Parks including the Disney Cruise Line. During this introduction a book was published which highlighted the pins that were available (pictured above). This book listed all 450 pins that were available along with their pin number, year introduced, and cost (most only $6 at the time).
During the introduction and the Millennium Celebration (Oct 1999 – Jan 2001) pins could be purchased, they were also given as gifts with other store purchases, or obtained by trading with cast members. The “Pin of the Day” was given out with other purchases at select retail locations. This definitely got the craze started.
If you weren’t interested in seeking out the pins you could join the Millennium Pin Club. This club was limited to the first 2,000 people and cost $3,000 (around $4,250 in 2014 dollars). Members of the club would receive a framed pin set each month for 15 months during the Millennium Celebration. After joining you would also receive a free gift and signed certificate by Robert Silvers. Robert Silvers was an artist that helped to design pins that when collected over the month would form a “photomosaic” effect showcasing an Epcot location.
Pin trading continues to grow and is a fun addition to many on their Disney vacation. How many Disney Pins do you have in your collection?
Our post today is part of the FastPass to History Hop hosted by Frontierland Station and featuring other great Disney Bloggers – be sure to visit their posts below.
by Sean | May 29, 2014 | History
Hmm ever heard of Magical Cruise Company Limited? This is the legal name of the Disney Cruise Line, it is incorporated in the UK and cruise ships are registered in the Bahamas. Operational Headquarters for DCL are in Celebration, FL.
Disney Magic and The Big Red Boat
In the 1980’s Disney started paying attention to the cruise industry, but wasn’t ready for the expense of building their own ships. So in 1985, Disney partnered with Premier Cruise Line to provide seven night land and sea vacations on the Big Red Boat. This was a happy partnership for 8 years until 1993 when Premier announced that it would be removing the Disney characters and would start a new license agreement with Warner Brothers. Disney quickly contacted both Carnival and Royal Caribbean to replace the exclusive land and sea deal; these talks did not prove to be successful. This was a blessing in disguise, and in 1994 Disney announced that it would create its own cruise line.
After the announcement Disney commissioned two ships to be built at Fincantieri in Italy. These ships would go on to become the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder.
Disney cruise line was officially born in 1998 with the launch of the Disney Magic. July 30th 1998 a day I will remember well as my wife and I would board the ship for our honeymoon on the maiden voyage of the Disney Magic. Stepping on board was breathtaking for both of us. Disney quality showed through with a beautiful ship that was so clean you could eat off the floors. It was a bit ironic as we pulled into Nassau, Bahamas and docked alongside the Big Red Boat (picture earlier in this article).
Our Amazing Servers
As with any industry that Disney enters, they re-Imagineered family cruising, one change was the introduction of rotating dining. This allows the guest to visit each of the ships restaurants while maintaining the same serving staff. This was an innovative concept at the time and we loved it as we still do today. To top it off, Disney also added its own island to the cruises. Disney purchased a 99-year land lease of a Bahamian Island called Gorda Cay which they renamed Castaway Cay. Find a bit of history on the island landing strip here.
Today Disney Cruise Line has now grown to 4 Ships with destinations all around the world including Alaska, Bahamas, Caribbean, Europe, and the Pacific Coast.
- Disney Magic – July 1998
- Disney Wonder – August 1999
- Disney Dream – January 2011
- Disney Fantasy – March 2012
What is your favorite ship and destination?
by Sean | May 27, 2014 | Disney Cruise
In just a few weeks the DisneyDayByDay Family will be headed to Alaska on the Disney Wonder. This will be our first time on the Wonder so I collected some fun trivia and facts on the ship.
- Maiden voyage – August 1999
- The ship has 875 staterooms
- Passenger Capacity is around 2,713
- Crew of around 950
- Tinkerbell is the Godmother of the Disney Wonder. Disney Cruise Line was the first cruise line to have an animated character as the Godmother of a ship.
- The atrium in each of the Disney Cruise Line ships feature a character statue. On the Wonder, Ariel sits outside her father’s, King Triton’s, restaurant.
- The bow features Steamboat Willie at the helm leading the way.
- On the aft you will find Donald doing his best to finish up the paint job name plate while under duress from his nephew Huey who found a pair of scissors.
- The interior design is art nouveau with a more natural whimsical feel, characterized by an art from nature feel, with whimsical, swirling wave design.
- The ship’s cruising speed is 21.5 knots, kick it into high gear and its maximum speed is 24 knots (about 28 MPH).
- The total diesel fuel storage capability is 20,000 gallons. At $3.90 a gallon that’s $78,000 to fill it up, a bit over my Visa limit.
- The horsepower of Disney Wonder’s five engines is equivalently to the power of more than 100 Formula One racing cars running at full speed.
- The Disney Wonder is 106 feet wide and 964 feet long making it almost as long as the Eiffel Tower is high.
- There are 5,390 pillows on board, these come in real handy :).
- The weight of the anchor is 14 tons (weight of around 3 elephants)
- The weight of the propeller is 18.8 tons.
- The ship can make 1,200 tons of fresh water from seawater each day. Drink up.
- The water used to operate the laundry is water from the atmosphere, collected as it drains from the air-conditioning system. Specifically, 280 tons a day are retrieved; the laundry uses 220 tons. This shows in Disney’s commitment to the Environment and their A grade in the Friends of the Earth Report Cards each year.
- 5500 square feet of Disney themed shopping and I’m sure you will check out every foot.
- 8,260 cups of coffee are served every day on board.
- In a month of cruises on the Disney Wonder, 15,776 cans of Coca-Cola will be consumed. Will you contribute to this?
Have any other facts to add, include them in our comments below.
by Sean | Feb 20, 2014 | History
When Walt Disney World opened in 1971 Eastern Airlines was “The Official Airline of Walt Disney World”. Eastern Airlines sponsored the first attraction I ever experienced at Disney, If You Had Wings. In the days of ride tickets, this ride was free and didn’t require a ticket, thus I can’t even count how many times my sister, brother, and I experienced it. If You Had Wings took you on trip to experience some of the travel destinations in the Caribbean serviced by Eastern Airlines. It even included the infectious song that I’ve included below.
In the mid 80’s Eastern Airlines began to have troubles and dropped the sponsorship and lost the tagline as well. Disney renamed the ride “If You Could Fly” and removed all the references to Eastern Airlines.
In 1989 “If You Could Fly” closed permanently and Disney gained a new sponsor, Delta. With the sponsorship Delta became “The Official Airline of Walt Disney World” and updated the ride system to become Delta Dreamflight. Dreamflight was the same ride system with new scenery and music. Delta’s dropped their sponsorship and lost the use of the tagline in 1996. This would also be the last company to use the tagline “The Official Airline of Walt Disney World”.
Disney reopened the attraction as Disney’s Take Flight, which only lasted a couple years before Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin moved in.
So today there is no “The Official Airline of Walt Disney World”, but there are a couple airlines that have some relationship. One of these is WestJet in Canada. We will be flying WestJet this summer as we head to Alaska on the Disney Cruise Line. WestJet has one plane with an amazing Disney inspired paint job. Check out the video below of the painting process and finished product. What a magically beautiful plane, would be amazing to see someday.
What airline do you use when you travel to Disney?
