Unfrozen Winter Winners Enjoy Their Disney Cruise

You may remember the charming Hall family who won our Unfrozen Winter contest earlier this year by submitting a picture of their creative snowman. Check it out! 

Robinson Service Experts sent the Halls on a Disney Cruise and provided airfare for four. Mom and Dad (Rebecca and Bradley) took their two oldest children, Korbin and Brooke, on their Disney Cruise in July this year. Korbin and Brooke had never been on a cruise before and Rebecca and Bradley hadn’t been in about 10 years. 

“I can’t begin to tell you all the fun we had and how absolutely amazing everything was,” wrote Rebecca. “It was a trip we could have never taken on our own. Disney does cruising right!” 

The Hall family was kind enough to send over their itinerary and some pictures from their awesome trip. If you want to a Disney Cruise, or just looking to see what it’s all about, check out the highlights from the Hall’s experience. 

Monday

We were on the water for two days (Saturday and Sunday) and then ported in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We booked a Catamaran and went out with four different families all day. It was Korbin and Brooke’s first time snorkeling and they were in heaven. We saw turtles and stingrays – it was probably the most fun experience of the entire trip! 

Tuesday

We sailed from Tortola to St. Thomas in the American Virgin Islands, where we got to do more snorkeling, went swimming, and bummed around on the beach. The water was really that turquoise blue you always see in pictures – truly picture perfect. 

 

Thursday

We sailed all day Wednesday and then ported at Castaway Cay, Disney’s Private Island. The water was very blue and had amazing visibility underneath, so of course that meant more snorkeling! They placed a bunch of Mickey Mouses you could find underwater, which helped make up for the fact there weren’t as many fish. They also have an 18+ beach which we took advantage of while the kids played basketball, pool, and shuffleboard. They had staff everywhere to watch the kids so we (Bradley and Rebecca) hung out and had a daiquiri. It’s like a floating Disneyland! 

Aboard

I (Rebecca) get goosebumps reminiscing about everything on the boat – it was all so fun and amazing! They have a “Midship Detective Agency” where you pick the mystery you want to solve and Disney gives you a card so you can write down all your clues. When you hold the card up to a painting, the painting comes alive – it talks to you, tells you about the mystery you are solving, and gives you clues and directions. One mystery took us two hours because we were running all over the cruise ship. 

They are always playing first-run movies out by the pool so we got to see Big Friendly Giant, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Jungle Book, and Finding Dory. We also got to go on the Aqua Duct, which is a huge slide that shoots you up and down and swings you out over the boat! 

The whole group went Goofy Golfing and they also have other games and a Tween Club called Edge with things like scavenger hunts, ice breakers, and more. 

It’s really easy to see characters on the ship – you only have to wait three or four minutes versus a half-hour or more at Disneyland. We got to see about two each day, and one day we hit five in a row! They also have several versions of the characters, like Captain Mickey, Traditional Mickey, etc. 

The room was incredible! We had an ocean view room with a large porthole and window seat. The room was a really good size and all four of us were comfortable and never felt smushed. 

Dining

You rotate through three restaurants. Enchanted Garden has cool flower lights on the ceiling that open and close and the colors change on the ceiling during your meal and Royal Court was very elegant and made me think of Cinderella. The food is very gourmet and they have an awesome variety. Korbin tried everything, including escargot at the Royal Court. (He said it tasted like dirt!) 

Animators Palette is animation-themed and they leave markers on your table so you can draw a figure. They provide directions on how to draw a figure, then they collect the drawings and at the very end of dinner, they animate your drawings on these screens on the wall. You have no warning! They put them to music and put them in Disney movies. Brooke is our artist so she worked really hard on hers and was thrilled – the rest of us weren’t quite as polished 

“We can’t thank Service Experts enough for this once in a lifetime vacation,” Rebecca wrote after they returned from their cruise. “I tear up when I think about the whole experience. Submitting an entry I never thought would go anywhere, finding out we were a finalist, the stressful voting stage, the big reveal, planning and picking which cruise, the anticipation of going and finally experiencing an amazing vacation. It was such a fun time living it all. Thank you, thank you!” 

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