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! 

Golden Seal 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 cannot begin to tell you all the fun we had and how absolutely magnificent everything was,” wrote Rebecca. “It was a getaway we could have never taken on our own. Disney does cruising right!” 

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

Monday

We sailed for 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) and then ported in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We booked a Catamaran and went out with 4 other families all day. It was Korbin and Brooke’s first time snorkeling and they had a blast. We spotted turtles and stingrays – it may have been the most fun experience of the entire trip! 

Tuesday

We traveled from Tortola to St. Thomas in the American Virgin Islands, where we got to do more snorkeling, went swimming, and laid out on the beach. The water was truly that turquoise blue that they show on TV – 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 perfect visibility beneath, so of course that meant more snorkeling! They had hidden Mickey Mouses you could look for underwater, which helped make up for the fact there weren’t as many fish. They also have an adults-only beach which we took advantage of while the kids played basketball, pool, and shuffleboard. Castaway Cay 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 thinking about everything on the cruise ship – it was all so fun and amazing! They have a “Midship Detective Agency” where you select the mystery you want to solve and they give you a card so you can keep track of all your clues. When you place the card up to a painting, the painting comes to life – it talks to you, tells you about the mystery you are trying to solve, and gives you clues and directions. One mystery took us two hours because we were running all over the 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 big slide that shoots you up and down and swings you out over the boat! 

We went Goofy Golfing and Disney Cruises also have games like basketball, fooseball, and a Tween Club called Edge with activities like scavenger huntsand more. 

It’s so 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 multiple versions of the characters, like Captain Mickey, Traditional Mickey, etc. 

The actual room was amazing! We had an ocean view room with a HUGE porthole and window seat. The room was a really great size and all four of us were comfortable and never felt squished. 

Dining

You alternate three restaurants. Enchanted Garden has cool flower lights on the ceiling that open and close and the colors on the ceiling change while you eat and Royal Court was very elegant and made me think of Cinderella. The food is very gourmet and they have a good selection. 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 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 experience as a whole. Submitting an entry I never thought would go anywhere, finding out we were a finalist, the nail-biting voting phase, the big reveal, planning and choosing which cruise, the elation of going and finally experiencing an amazing vacation. It was such a fun time living it all. Thank you, thank you!” 

Like Service Experts on Facebook to watch for our next great contest!