1.Take motion sickness medicine when the ship leaves the port (or get the patch). The first night the water was so choppy our whole family was feeling sea sick. I learned the hard way that we should have been taking our Dramamine before it got bad. If you didn’t bring any or forgot there was a bin full outside the health center.

2. Let the kids go to the kids clubs more. This was a family vacation so I felt weird sending the kids to the kids club but after our trip was over they said they had so much fun they wish they could have gone there more. Our 7 year old still tells everyone about the hat she won playing bingo in the kids club.

3. Bring better flip flops. We did so much walking around the ship and on Castaway Cay and flip flops were the most convenient, unfortunately my cheap pair were hurting my feet by the end of our 3 day cruise.

4.Reapply sunscreen multiple times while on Castaway Cay. It should go without saying that sunscreen is a must on a cruise, if you are lucky enough to stop at Disney’s private island Castaway Cay make sure you bring with you and reapply every few hours. I got a nice sunburn even though I put sunscreen on twice but we were on the island all day including running the 5k.

5.Not bring all our reusable water bottles. When I was researching for our first cruise I had seen several recommendations to bring reusable water bottles to fill up at the drink stations and we didn’t use ours once. They took up extra space in the luggage and we won’t bring them again. I would bring one if running the 5k again, even though they offer stops with water cups some were empty and it was convenient to have water the whole time.

6. Enjoy the food more. While we ate fairly well while on our trip I feel like we could have taken better advantage of the room service or the ability to order as much of whatever you want in the restaurants.

7. Stay on the ship at the port stop. Aside from stopping at Castaway Cay our ship also stopped at Nassau. We chose to get off and see the Queens staircase and Fort Fincastle. It was hot and humid and we chose to walk there, while it was cool to see it wasn’t that great for the kids. I think we would have had a better time staying on board and riding the water coaster and relaxing.