Trip log, day one. Port Canaveral, Florida.
7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Treasure
December 28, 2024

Guests Onboard: 3:45 pm
Personal Navigator – Day 1

Our Christmas decorations are packed away and subjectively cold weather has descended into Central Florida, time escape to the Western Caribbean in search of the real treasure… HEAT. Thanks to our amazing chauffeurs, we were whisked away to Port Canaveral to embark on our next adventure aboard the brand new Disney Treasure, which just completed her Maiden Voyage. We are setting out on the Disney Treasure under the command of Captain Marco on the ship’s first 7-night Western Caribbean revenue sailing. During this voyage, we will be counting down to 2025 while visiting the ports of Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, and Castaway Cay. Our cruise director for the week is Darren McBurney.

We arrived at the port just about the time of our port arrival time which due to our Castaway Club status was anytime, but no earlier than 10:45AM. After recently embarking from Vancouver and Fort Lauderdale it was a joy to be back to the well-oiled machine that is Cruise Terminal 8 at Port Canaveral. Curbside drop-off and parking is a gold standard in my opinion which includes experiences at 2 other terminals on the other side of the port.

The festive holiday decor was still on display inside the terminal.

We still had about 15 minutes before boarding and took the opportunity to head outside to get a closer look at the Disney Treasure from the cruise terminal’s observation deck.

If you are in the terminal looking at the ship, in the back right corner you will find the Photopass photographers set up for embarkation photos. I like how it is set up as a side option versus part of the actual embarkation line to the ship.

Not that we were looking, but there were no upgrades available, at least not as of 11:00 AM.

[Music cue: “Escape from the Temple” John Williams]

As much as I appreciate the efficiency at Cruise Terminal 8, there remains a bottleneck across all embarkation ports at the entrance to the embarkation line. Essentially, it is the same issue you’d encounter boarding a flight where passengers stand by the gate well before their boarding group crowding the entrance. The only difference is there are a lot more guests waiting and some impatiently waiting to board a cruise ship compared to a single gate at the airport. The queue system set up outside the terminal works really well with time based lines, but once inside it tends to be chaotic as the terminal fills up with passengers. There is an advantage to arriving later after the boarding groups are called and it is open boarding.

[Music cue: “Flight from Peru” John Williams]

A few minutes before 11:30 the embarkation process started with the welcoming of the family of the day. Roughly, 10-15 minutes later the first boarding group was called and maybe 5-10 minutes until group 2 was called. We then made our way through the Mickey entrance, walked up the gangway where we were treated with our first look inside Grand Hall as the Cast and Crew welcomed guests onboard in the traditional fashion of announcing your party’s name.

While this voyage and the previous Maiden Voyage were not promoted as Very MerryTime sailings, the ship did receive the holiday decor for the two week period. We headed down the path less traveled and passed the gorgeous mosaic tile Treasure logo just outside Skipper Society on the starboard side. In the background, you can also spot the large cutaway of the ship showing the various venues and staterooms across the ship.

We headed up 8 decks to 11, and settled in at table tucked away in the corner to hang out and eat lunch from the offerings at Mickey & Friends Festival of Foods which of course means I’m heading to Donald’s Cantina.

We kicked off this adventure with our first souvenir purchase, the commemorative Disney Treasure bottle of Ferrari Prosecco, which pairs nicely with the offerings at Mickey’s Festival of Foods. We also purchased the Disney Treasure cooler bag with a six pack of Smart Water, as I like having water on hand in the stateroom rather than having to run up to the drink station or stop at a lounge. It is also great to take ashore.

It was nearing the time for the staterooms to become available, so we started to walk around the ship a little bit on our way to our room. The art across the fleet has always been enjoyable to explore and the Disney Treasure features some incredible works of art like this Moana and Te Fiti mural made from preserved moss by the South Florida design studio, Plant the Future. The installation is incredible. the studio also created a similar installation in the stairwell outside Marceline Market.

I am not the first, but add this trip report to another source that confirms there are not just one, but two Peloton bikes in Senses Fitness aboard the Disney Treasure.

The Disney Wish debuted a centralized laundry facility, Fairytale Fresh Laundry. However, due to the short sailings, we’ve not encountered the need to do laundry onboard. Things will be different on this longer sailing, and I guarantee we will be putting the laundry facility to the test this week. We always pack for a cruise with the idea we will be doing laundry multiple times during the voyage. It was a harsh wakeup call during our sailings on the Mardi Gras and Wonder of the Seas as Carnival and Royal Caribbean do not offer self-service guest laundry facilities onboard. Those ships only offered tiny paper bags to send off for full service. It may sound trivial, but this is a big deal based on the way we pack.

Staterooms are accessible typically at 1:30 PM, but can vary from sailing to sailing depending on when the ship was cleared and can also vary by deck and even section of the hallway on a deck. Pro tip, just be patient. Our accommodation for the week is 8531, an 11B standard interior stateroom on deck 8, conveniently located just a short walk from Fairytale Laundry and the forward stairwell.

I will eventually share a stateroom video tour, but for now just the highlights. Starting with the lights. I need to check to see if this was a feature on the Disney Wish but I do not recall seeing a “hold to dim” sticker on the cabin light switch just inside the stateroom. Cool feature, but this was the only time we used the feature. The bathroom nightlight feature remains the pinnacle of stateroom evolution in my book.

Compared to our experience on the Disney Wish, the stateroom TV in our room on the Disney Treasure features a swivel mount allowing for a better view from the couch and pull-down bunk.

Below is a look at the Pearl level Castaway Club stateroom gifts for the Inaugural Salings of the Disney Treasure. The entire lot was waiting for us in our room on the couch packed into the light yellow bag. You can read more about the various Castaway Club level gifts here.

Additionally, we called room service to order our complimentary Castaway Club gift of a bottle of Prosecco. Not sure if this is now the norm, for a long time it has been Santa Elvira Prosecco DOC, but today it was Bottega Gold Prosecco DOC, which was nice to see. I’m not going to question it!

Every once in a while, I learn something new. Thankfully, we discovered this in the safe confines of a cruise ship at the Jade Cricket Café and not in Italy. It turns out, Italians won’t drink cappuccino after 11am because it is a heavy drink that’s best enjoyed in the morning. Just like when it comes to your preferences at a bar, I say enjoy what you enjoy when you want to enjoy it. Besides, the Treasure logo is not automatically printed on your cappuccino in Italy. Regardless, it looks great and one of the nice options you receive when you order-in vs to go. Isabelle ordered an iced mocha latte. Both were served with the biscotti.

Once caffeinated, we continued our superficial tour around the ship. Consider this a teaser of things to come. Our primary plan was to walk around and avoid the crowds and see what we could see. As the week progresses, we will return with more in-depth details in the upcoming daily trip logs and in some cases, separate articles.

Being fans of cats, our first stop was Scat Cat Lounge. It is a truly lovely looking venue and while not pictured here, the exterior bar offering service from the Grand Hall is a nice upgrade from the layout of Nightingale’s which occupies the same space on the Disney Wish.

I had mixed feeling about the ship being decorated, because I am not a fan of the gold tree and garland on the Disney Wish, but the decorating team did an amazing job with the Disney Treasure’s holiday decorations and it was nice to see they went back to traditional decor.

Very MerryTime offerings continued with a select of souvenir cups and popcorn buckets at Sarabi Snacks which is to spot to get movie snacks for screenings in the nearby Wonderland and Never Land Cinemas. There were also some other Christmas popcorn buckets and drink cups (not pictured) that were also available.

This is out of order, but when we first boarded, we spotted a Very MerryTime order form on the exterior bar at Scat Cat Lounge with bottles of Champagne, Sparkling Wine, and Zero Proof Sparkling options such as Cloudem for room delivery. On the reverse, were some seasonal coffee offerings.

After walking around some, it was time to head back to the stone ages with the in-person muster drill. This is where other cruise lines shine with eMuster or self-muster drill where you watch the safety video on the cruise line’s app, then visit your assigned muster station at your leisure on embarkation day, but before a cut-off time. Not sure if I ever shared this, but back in November 2022, I contacted the U.S. Coast Guard after Disney ended eMuster and resumed in person. U.S. Coast Guard Media relations directed me to ask Disney and inquire as to reason for changing their internal policy on drills.

For sail away, we chose to enjoy it from the promenade on deck 6 forward where there were there was plenty of space for the few groups to spread out and enjoy the view in lieu of the deck party. Now the horns on the Disney Treasure sound really good, but not from this area of the ship as it departs Port Canaveral. There was an echo effect, possibly due to the port infrastructure and nearby buildings that I did not previously hear when listening from Jetty Park. Great spot enjoy the sail away and wave to friends and family on the shore or watching on the webcam.

While the ship is slowing moving down the channel, you can often get a close look at space operations from Blue Origin and SpaceX. Today, Blue Origin’s landing platform vessel Jack was docked next to their recovery support vessel Harvey Stone.

Seeing support vessels and drone ships are commonplace at Port Canaveral, but every once in a while you will be treated to the views of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster that returned from an at sea landing. On this particular day, the Falcon 9 booster was already moved to land and if you look closely, soon to be moved onto a trailer to be taken away and refurbished for it’s next flight.

If you find the space stuff interesting, keep an eye on SpaceFlightNow.com’s launch schedule to see if there is a scheduled launch planned when you will be in the area. You can enjoy launches even while you are at the theme parks in Central Florida, but on the coast, you can get some much better views.

A few dolphins arrived to escort the Disney Treasure into open waters.

After we sailed out, we went back to our room and our luggage had arrived, so we unpacked, and were ready for dinner. We have main… oops, 5:45 PM seating and our rotation starts in Plaza de Coco! Our full dinner rotation for this cruise is as follows: Plaza de Coco, 1923, Worlds of Marvel, Plaza de Coco, 1923, Worlds of Marvel, and then Plaza de Coco.

It is looking like this is the rotational dining matrix for the Disney Treasure.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
ROT 1	1923	Marvel	Coco	1923	Marvel	Coco	1923
ROT 2	Marvel	Coco	1923	Marvel	Coco	1923	Marvel
ROT 3	Coco	1923	Marvel	Coco	1923	Marvel	Coco
Show		Seas the Adventure		Pirate Night		Beauty and the Beast	Tale of Moana

Walking aft past Mickey’s Mainsail (which had a very large line of folks waiting for the shops to open at 6pm) into Plaza de Coco, the restaurant is located aft in the same space as Arendelle on the Disney Wish.

We passed through the hallway flanked on one side by portholes and the other with family photos and references to the Disney and Pixar film, Coco.

The hallway opens into the venue with an ofrenda as you are transported into Santa Cecilia to the Mariachi Plaza inspired restaurant for what is described by Disney Cruise Line as a ‘theatrical dining experience featuring a music-filled journey celebrating treasured family memories and togetherness with a festive dinner menu that offers a modern twist on traditional Mexican fare and a lineup of live entertainment.’

Most tables featured a Plaza de Coco beverage menu featuring some exclusive offerings.

The Plaza de Coco kids menu features a papel picado designed exterior with Miguel and Dante and activities on the interior under the menu items.

Needless to say, we have been excited to try the few all new menus aboard the Disney Treasure and tonight we are diving right in with the Plaza de Coco menu served during the first visit to the restaurant. The Día de los Muertos show and accompanying menu is served on your second visit, unless you are in a dining rotation like we are where you visit a Plaza de Coco 3 times, in that case the 2nd visit will normally be the Pirate Night menu.

Chips and salsa! The chips were served warm and were fantastic, but the salsa roja was a disappointment. This salsa makes mild salsa hot and frankly that would have been fine if there was any depth of flavor.

Overall the appetizers and entrees were a welcome addition to the rotational lineup, but the flavors have been muted for the broader audience. Seasoning aside, the food was mostly well prepared, but the Snapper was a swing and a miss – possibly just bad lot of snapper. Emily felt that the butternut squash enchilada was pretty heavy on the salt but had great potential, and Isabelle felt that the chicken was well cooked, but enjoyed the Shrimp Diabla more.

In terms of the dessert offerings, the Coconut Tres Leches was the winner and one we didn’t order, but our server brought as a bonus for us to try.

As far as the food goes, ignoring the snapper, it was all prepared well, but overall lacked the flavor we were expecting. I guess, I was hoping for more of a Rick Bayless’ Frontera Cocina at Disney Springs experience. We did appreciate the that all courses were ordered at once, which helped speed up the evening allowing us to enjoy other areas of the ship once the dinner show ended.

Dinner show? I almost skipped right over it. The primary focus of Plaza de Coco is the evening entertainment. During the first night guests are treated to a show that is a continuation of the Coco story from where the film ends. The show honors the heritage of music and love that runs deep in the Rivera family. Miguel, the town’s mariachi band, and town members entertain guests thought the dinner seating with song and dance.

Following dinner we made a b-line to Periscope Pub to watch football and partake in 7:30PM music trivia. Or so we thought… EVERY SINGLE TV CUT OFF FOR TRIVIA AS THE GAMES WERE NEARING THE END OR IN OT right at 7PM. The crowd was not thrilled & audibly booed. I would recommend that for that scenario in the future, maybe they mute game audio, but read the room and leave the games on the primary TV screens, especially since Music trivia only really uses the screens to show the answers.

Thankfully, the Disney Treasure features the Stateroom TV streaming to your own device. In the Navigator App, click on More and then click Stateroom TV Streaming and check Events 1 and Events 2 channels. If the game is/was on in the lounge, then it should be available in the app and stateroom.

The Disney Treasure’s refillable beer mug is awesome. It features the stern logo and embossed Disney Cruise Line logo. Also, the bars and lounges feature a lot of custom tap handles that are worth checking out. They only had one specialty beer at the time I ordered, but were going to be restocked the next day.

A tale as old as time… Mickey’s Mainsail on the first night was at capacity with only one entrance open and a line extending out. There is always tomorrow or the 5 days after. Surprising, Treasures Untold was a ghost town, which is a bit shocking because there was a healthy selection of Maiden Voyage merchandise.

While in the area on deck 3, we took a peek inside The Haunted Mansion Parlor which initially had a line before opening. We were able to walk right in, but it was standing room only. I really want to add one of the mugs to my collection, but just like the shops, we will return another day.

On our way back to our stateroom, we passed through the Grand Hall where we encountered Daisy dressed in her nautical wear.

Back in the room, our daughter opted for the pull-down bunk instead of the couch. Most of the 11Bs we stay in are for a family of 3, however, this particular room could have an occupancy up to four. From a family of 3 perspective, this allowed us to still use the couch. The pull-down bunk had the Genie on the ceiling and a light with USB-A charging ports.

That is a wrap for embarkation day. If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email. I will do my best to answer and add details to the daily trip logs.

Complete Trip Log Index

• Day 1 – Port Canaveral, Florida
• Day 2 – At Sea
• Day 3 – Cozumel, Mexico
• Day 4 – Grand Cayman
• Day 5 – Falmouth, Jamaica
• Day 6 – At Sea
• Day 7 – Castaway Cay

Interesting in joining us on our next cruise? In May, were are embarking on our next DCL Blog Cruise aboard the Disney Magic on an adventure from cay to cay. We will be returning to The Bahamas with scheduled stops at Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay. Click here to learn more.