Dear Disney Cruise Line,
Yesterday you launched your new ad campaign, celebrating the enduring power of Disney magic and family traditions. Once I regained my vision from all the tears flooding my eyes, I stumbled over to your Facebook page where I saw a post asking for your followers to share their most cherished Disney Cruise Line memories. Surely, I was more than capable of sharing a few of mine.
Turns out, I’m entirely not capable.
What started as me sitting down to leave a quick comment on that post quickly spiraled into something much bigger. A few sentences suddenly felt like an injustice. Not just to you, but to the memories my family carries from our time at sea. Because the truth is, those memories deserve more than a quick comment in a Facebook thread. So, like most Disney moms, I did what we tend to do… I went a little extra. The only way I know how to truly convey even a fraction of what those Disney Cruise memories mean to our family was to sit down and write this letter. Here goes…
November 4, 2019. That was the day my family sailed with you for the very first time. And without even realizing it, that was the day our idea of a family vacation changed forever.
It wasn’t just a cruise. It became one of those core memories that parents quietly tuck away in their hearts, the kind you replay over and over when your kids start growing up a little too fast.
Our boys were just 4 and 5 at the time. The perfect Disney ages. The ages where the magic isn’t just entertainment… it’s real. We promised each other we would sail again. In fact, within days of disembarking the ship, I had our second cruise booked. We were all set to sail again- March 2020. But the world had other plans.
In the weeks leading up to that cruise, I watched the news constantly. Every day the uncertainty grew, but I held onto this one small piece of hope: we were still going. I told my husband over and over, “If we’re not going on this cruise, it’s because Disney Cruise Line makes the call.”
And then one day… you did.
I remember the exact feeling when that sailing disappeared. Our second Disney cruise, the one we had been dreaming about for months, slipped right through my fingers. And while I know there were far bigger tragedies unfolding around the world, I still mourned it. Because any mom who was raising little kids during that time will tell you something that’s hard to explain unless you lived it: that year changed us.
It made us stronger, yes. But it also broke something inside us a little.
At the time, we were living in Florida, and Walt Disney World was our family’s happy place. To my boys, Mickey Mouse wasn’t just a character. He was someone they saw all the time. Someone familiar. Someone safe. Then almost overnight, everything they knew disappeared. School. Friends. Family visits. Playgrounds. Life as they understood it.
And Disney. Whether it was on land or sea, Disney disappeared too.
I was a grown adult trying to process it all, and it was overwhelming. I still wonder how their little 4- and 5-year-old hearts made sense of it. During that time, I found myself thinking about our November 2019 cruise almost every day. I also found myself thinking about the memories that could have been from our March cruise.
Those 2019 cruise memories carried me through some really dark moments, not just during COVID, but through the strange years that followed as we all tried to figure out how to parent in a completely different world.
Disney always reminds us, “They’re only little for a little while,” and I couldn’t help but feel like those little years, the most magical years, had been taken from us. We never did reschedule that March 2020 cruise.
But life had more surprises waiting for us. In November 2020, I found out I was pregnant with our third son. Suddenly our family of four became a family of five. Around the same time, my husband and I made the decision to move back home to Connecticut, the town we both grew up in, to be closer to family.
Life looked very different than we thought it would. In a good way. But Disney somehow still found its way back into our story.
Since moving home, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to work remotely on the social media teams for Academy Travel, The Kingdom Insider, and the DCL Cruise Club. Through that work, something happened in February 2025 that I never thought I’d experience again. I stepped back onto a Disney Cruise ship.
At first, I’ll admit something selfish: I was excited for a break from mom life. Any mom reading this will understand that feeling. But what I didn’t expect was the flood of memories that would hit me the moment I stepped onboard. The last time I had been on a Disney ship, my boys were tiny.
Everywhere I walked, I could see them.
Passing the Oceaneer Club, I pictured them running inside without even looking back at us, so excited just to wash their hands in those famous Disney handwashing machines. Walking along the family beach on Castaway Cay, I imagined them building sandcastles and trying to eat ice cream cones faster than they could melt… sticky hands covered in sand. At the time, I remember being so frustrated by those sticky little hands. But now, I found myself willing to do anything to get them back.
It was then that I realized something: I was literally retracing the steps my family had taken back in 2019. And in that moment, I knew. We had to come back together. This time, as a family of five, the way it was always meant to be.
So now, after everything — the years, the changes, the growing up — our family is finally returning to sea together.
On April 16th, we will board the Disney Destiny. The ship’s name is fitting, considering it was always within our family’s destiny to be back on a Disney Cruise ship.
My oldest boys are now 11 and 12, which means they’ve aged out of the Oceaneer Club. That’s a hard pill to swallow for a mom who still sees them as those little boys running through the ship hallways. But we also have our youngest son, who is 4½. That perfectly magical age. To him, Jack Sparrow and Spider-Man aren’t characters in movies, they’re real. And in just a few weeks, he’s going to meet them.
My husband and I will get to experience Disney magic all over again, this time through the eyes of our youngest, while also watching our older boys experience it in a completely new way. And that feels pretty special, magical even.
So when people ask me if a Disney Cruise is worth it, my answer is simple. Yes. Without hesitation, yes. It’s more expensive than other cruises. That part is true. But the memories you make on a Disney Cruise don’t stay on the ship. They live with you. There hasn’t been a single day since our November 2019 sailing when my husband and I haven’t said, “Remember on the cruise when…”
Those memories became part of our family story.
And on April 16, when we walk through the terminal in Port Everglades and step aboard the Disney Destiny, I’ll be carrying more than just our luggage. I’ll be carrying those memories from 2019, the ones that helped bridge the years we lost to COVID, and the hope of making brand new ones with our boys.
So from one Disney mom to the people at Disney Cruise Line who help make that magic possible: Thank you.
Thank you for creating a place where families like mine can slow down, reconnect, and make memories that will live in our hearts for the rest of our lives.
Sincerely,
Kristi DeRubertis (a very grateful Disney Mom)
