Rebecca Tobin
Rebecca Tobin, a former Travel Weekly cruise editor, is filling in for Tom Stieghorst, who was on vacation.
We were completing the check-in process to board the Disney Dream when a scenario occurred that's one of Every Parent's Worries: I turned around, and our child was gone.
Luckily, we didn't have far to look. Children appeared to be running from all sides of the terminal, pulled to the center of the room by a single, magnetic, irresistible force. "Mickey ... Mickey ... Mickey!"
There, indeed, was Captain Mickey Mouse, in a nautical-navy jacket and skipper's hat, with Minnie, his first mate, by his side. Before you could say, "ahoy there," a line for photos began to form. We pulled our daughter away, distracting her and promising that there would be lots more Disney characters to see once we actually set foot on the Dream.
It's sort of impossible to underestimate the emotional pull characters have on Disney park visitors. And character accessibility is one strong card the Disney Cruise Line ships have to play. It's a smaller footprint and fewer guests: The characters seem available and visible on the ships in a way that they just can't be in the parks.
Their appearances are scheduled in the ship's daily planner; the characters have their own timeline field, so I was able to say things like: "If we head straight to the atrium just after the show we can meet Minnie; do you want to wear your 'Frozen' dress?" And the lines were manageable. The scheduled photo op with Minnie, just after the main theater-show of the evening, was maybe about a 10-minute wait. (Just like in the parks, the characters are only available at certain times, and a friendly-but-firm castmember always caps the line, so guests don't have to wait in vain.) The characters also show up at the kids' club.
When we first boarded the Dream, our daughter started for a visible character. We split up so that I could get on another photo line. In this line, the crew (castmembers, even at sea) handed out timed tickets for specific meet-and-greets with special groups of characters. On this cruise there was considerably more demand and less supply for the photo op with the Disney Junior characters than with Anna and Elsa. We'd used a FastPass opportunity to meet the "Frozen" sisters back in the parks, so I was kind of hoping for the chance to pal with Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First. No dice, though.
As I was leaving the line, I hurried around the corner and almost collided with Cinderella.
Later that afternoon, the sailaway party in the atrium formally introduced the primary Disney characters to the passengers — that's Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto — plus Chip and Dale as a bonus. The crowd roared when Mickey appeared.
The author's daughter meets Mickey Mouse on Disney Cruise Line's private island, Castaway Cay. Photo Credit: Rebecca Tobin
If the characters are accessible on the ship, then Castaway Cay is like character heaven. We waited exactly no minutes for an audience with Mickey, who that day was sporting a beachy-themed shirt. Later in the day, Minnie and Goofy led a kiddie dance party. We picked the forward gangway to re-embark the ship and were rewarded with pierside appearances by Goofy and Stitch.
We didn't have autograph books to fill, so we just stood in line just for the payoff of a hug or a high-five. I don't know exactly how the Disney characters work their magic, but even I became a kid again in their presence. We have several snaps of our daughter with a happy, proud grin on her face as she's hanging with Stitch or Pluto.
Disney's photographers are always great about letting parents take their own photos of their kids and the characters. Still, we bought the ship's official copy of our family with Castaway Cay Mickey.