Why did I choose Disney Cruise Line?

This past April my wife and I sailed on a three night cruise to the Bahamas. It was our first cruise experience. So how did I come to choose going on a cruise over visiting a theme park for my precious vacation time? To be honest, I had never really even considered going on a cruise until recently when a few friends went on a Disney cruise and highly recommended it. There are other reasons why we decided to go on a cruise.

First, why did I choose to go on a Disney ship versus other cruise lines like Carnival or Royal Caribbean or Norweigan? To be honest, I never really even seriously considered any other cruise line. I knew for sure I definitely did NOT want to go on a Carnival ship or affiliate after all the recent problems they’ve been having (and in fact the Ecstasy did experience a 12 minute power outage at sea on the day we sailed!).

I expected the same level of quality, customer service, and cleanliness on a Disney boat that I have experienced at Disney parks and resorts. Not to mention that extra touch of magic. To our delight, the customer service on the boat was even BETTER than in the parks!

Our recent coaster trips have involved lots of driving so one of the appealing factors of going on a cruise for me was I wouldn’t have to do any driving or even rent a car! Disney transportation all the way!

Our last visit to Walt Disney World was very hectic and we crammed a lot into a short period of time. While still very fun, it was not very relaxing. The cruise looked to be a lot less stressful.

In the end, I’m so glad we went on a cruise and glad we choose Disney! The Carnival ships we were docked next to just looked like crap while the Disney Dream was totally awesome and the crew was unbelievable. The only segment of the population I would recommend NOT going on a Disney cruise are those going purely to hook  with someone. Probably not the cruise for you. Everyone else can find plenty of things to do. Below is a montage video I shot on our Disney cruise and largely features our day adventure at the incredible Atlantis Resort:

 

GateKeeper Media Day Video

I was lucky enough to be able to attend GateKeeper's media day at Cedar Point. Here is some off-ride video of GateKeeper I took. If you've been on any other wing coaster then know Gatekeeper feels exactly the same, only longer. I like airtime above everything else so I rank rides like Leviathan and SkyRush over GateKeeper. However, I will say GateKeeper is one of the, if not, the most visually stunning ride in the world today (followed by Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Orlando which I think is one of the coolest looking rides out there). I also have to hand it to Cedar Point for putting on an outstanding media day event. The weather was perfect too, unlike the past couple of days that have seen three coasters valley: Maverick, Millennium Force, and Woodstock Express.

Cedar Fair CEO, Matt Ouimet, hinted at a new attraction, saying that he had given his team a new "challenge." I believe that challenge is creating a family dark ride attraction not tied to an existing Intellectual Property. What do you think?