One month ago, I set sail on my Grand Slam Disney Cruise, meaning that I’ve now sailed all 4 existing Disney ships! With that, I’m super excited to share with you the following 4 tips for your future Disney cruises! The fourth is kind of a jam-packed bonus!

Tip #1: Install The Disney Cruise Line (DCL) Navigator App!

Through the DCL Navigator App, I enjoyed a fun countdown to the cruise each time I opened the app, and more importantly, I was able to plan ahead for Palo Brunch, Palo Dinner, beverage tastings, and more, well ahead of the cruise. As I sailed solo during this cruise, I wanted to experience Palo Brunch, Palo Dinner, and a number of different beverage tastings, and although the DCL Navigator showed that brunch and all the tastings were sold out at one point, constantly checking the app each day, especially as it got closer to embarkation day, allowed me to see when space opened up for Embarkation Day Champagne Tasting, plus Palo Brunch and Chocolate and Liquor Tasting on Day 2. The reality is that, closer to embarkation day, guests cancel, so slots for certain events will open up, and the DCL Navigator is the most convenient way to see when that happens, and to snag a spot for an event you’ve been looking forward to.

Another major pre-cruise highlight of the DCL Navigator App is…

Where To Stay During A Disneyland Family Vacation: Tropicana Inn & Suites

As a person who prefers to stay on property at Disney World, and highly recommends Disney World hotels, I am in awe that I am now excitedly and highly recommending the off-property Tropicana Inn & Suites at Disneyland! It was the perfect place for our family’s 5-day Anaheim stay and 4-day Disneyland vacation! Truth be told, when researching places to stay near Disneyland, off-property hotels/motels come highly recommended.

Here are some reasons why I specifically recommend the Tropicana Inn & Suites if/when traveling to Disneyland.

Disney World's 50th Anniversary Or Disneyland: Help Me Choose!

While many Disney fans will be flocking to Walt Disney World to be present for the 50th Anniversary Celebration, starting on October 1, 2021, we just returned from Disneyland, and encourage you to consider Disneyland instead. Now, don’t get it twisted, we love Disney World too, and it was the last big vacation we had before the p a n d e m I c alongside our Disney Fantasy cruise! However, if you are wanting to experience Disney this year, but you are concerned about crowds, long lines, the overall pace, and even the price, we think Disneyland is a great option! Quite honestly, one won’t go wrong with a Disney vacation! Nevertheless, here are some reasons that we find Disneyland to be the Happiest Place on Earth while Disney fans flock to the World’s Most Magical Celebration!

Disney California Adventure Park, Again!

After our first day at Disney California Adventure (DCA) just three days prior, and an overall three days total of Disneyland parks already under our belts, we were prepared for a fun-filled Day four of four! Hoping this overview of our itinerary for a leisurely day at DCA is helpful to you if you’re considering and/or planning a Disneyland vacation

Disneyland Park Itinerary With 10-Year-Old & 6-Year-Old Sons

Need help mapping out your day at Disneyland Park with two young children? Let this blog article help! It’s intended to (1) give you a feel for what you can fit in a day at the park and (2) serve as a flexible itinerary to assist similarly situated families with mapping out their visits to Disneyland Park.

Our family consists of Grandma, Mom, Dad, 10-year-old AJ and 6-year-old LJ, and it should be noted that LJ doesn’t like rides with drops or any ride that’s on the scarier side, so he sat out some rides that the rest of us chose to ride, and when he would do that, one of us would stay with him and then go on the ride right after if we chose to. Disney offers ride-swapping to accommodate that. We also simply chose to forego some attractions that were “maybes” on our list just because we thought it better to repeat rides that we enjoyed. Despite the dark and the drops on Space Mountain, our brave boy LJ even chose to get on it again in order to get a good photo of him on there because Allan’s head was blocking him in the photo from the first day on Space Mountain. So, little things like that can definitely alter your planned itinerary for Disneyland. During the time we were there, that was just fine, as the entire visit was a nice, self-paced experience we all found to be enjoyable. In other words, we weren’t stuck to a rigid schedule.

Our First Day At Disneyland: Disney California Adventure Park

First day in California for all five of us, and we went to Disney’s California Adventure Park (DCA)! Initially, we had a touring plan to guide us in getting to all the major and not so major attractions on our list, but having gotten to our hotel in the wee hours of the morning, after flying from New York, then staying up to sanitize surfaces throughout the suite, unpack, and having our sons refusing to sleep, I said that I needed decent sleep. Since I went to sleep at about 4 AM, I decided we would not go to the park until about 1 PM. So, my previously scheduled touring plan starting at 8 AM was out the window. However, we had a great, well-paced experience, hitting most of what we had on our original list, plus photo ops and shows we didn’t have listed at all! Technically, we accomplished more than I’d actually planned

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