About a month ago, the fam and I were finishing up our most recent vacation — a trip to Universal Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights and Epic Universe and a cruise on Disney Cruise Line’s newest ship, the Disney Treasure. We were away for about a week and a half and it was absolutely splendid to be able to spend that time together. Here’s the recap!
We flew in on a Thursday afternoon and checked in at Universal’s Terra Luna resort. This is one of the three new hotels built right near the Epic Universe theme park that opened earlier this year. We’ve stayed at Stella Nova and Helios Grande, so Terra Luna was the last of the three that we needed to try out. It is basically a carbon copy of Stella Nova, but a little farther away from Epic and a flip-flopped lobby layout. We enjoyed our time there but likely will choose Stella Nova when staying in that area again just because it is a little closer to Epic. Otherwise, great experience.
While at Universal, we spent Thursday evening at Universal Studios enjoying Halloween Horror Nights. I went to this event last year for the first time but my husband has been going for years. This time, we brought the Daughter and, of course, went with the RIP Tour option again. This tour is the hands-down best way to enjoy HHN and provides a small group of people (we had 11 in total, I think) a personal guide who takes you straight to the entrance of all of the HHN houses with no wait, provides the backstory info on those houses and the scarezones, gets you up-close seating at the nightly show (“Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay” was this year’s show), makes sure you go through all of the scarezones, allows for rest breaks including one in a private lounge overlooking the park near the Jimmy Fallon show, and the tour offers a buffet prior to the tour to kick off the fun! On that buffet, you can find a lot of the special snack items that are available for purchase out in the park during the event but you get them for free (and however many you want!) You can also load up on sodas and waters so you stay hydrated during the evening. Oh! You also get Express Pass to use at the attractions after your tour is over, but we never end up riding anything. Truly, once you take an RIP Tour, you’ll never go back. The only way to do it ‘better’ would be to do a private VIP tour versus a non-private one but the cost difference is significant on that and I think non-private works great for us!
From the buffet, I present to you a ‘deviled’ egg. In fact, I hate deviled eggs (I don’t eat eggs and I don’t like mayonnaise) but this one is special. It’s actually a dessert! These are called’ Yum Yum Deviled eggs’ and are from the Fallout food stand. Coconut panna cotta filled with Chamoy pineapple bits and topped with mango topping and Tajin make up this dish and it was so good! 10 out of 10!
The show, “Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay”, was a sequel to last year’s show (Nightmare Fuel: Nocturnal Circus”) and it did not disappoint. You can expect the show to be something like a cross between Cirque du Soleil and a burlesque show. Definitely not for the prudes or little kids but there really shouldn’t be any little kids at this event as a whole. Very much for older teenagers, at minimum, or adults. Acrobatics, fire, contortion, dancing, and full of high energy, this show is incredible. Not to be missed. There was a lagoon show this year too but we missed that because of timing (boo!) but there’s only so much you can do in one night!
There were four scarezones: The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane, Masquerade: Dance with Death, Mutations: Toxic Twenties, and The Origins of Horror. If I were to rank them, Masquerade would definitely be first because it was so well done. I would share pictures but… don’t want to scare any unsuspecting readers! Cat Lady would be my next favorite, then Toxic Twenties a close second, and Origins fourth. All were really fun to see and go through, a few times in fact. There were some other enhancements like the zombies at Mel’s Dine-In, chainsaw clowns in Springfield USA, and Club Horror in San Francisco. I’m a sucker for some zombies and quite enjoyed that area.
For the houses this year, ten as usual, with five that were based on licensed properties: Fallout, Terrifier, Jason Universe, Five Nights at Freddy’s and WWE Presents: The Horrors of Wyatt Sicks. Then we had five original concepts: El Artista: A Spanish Haunting, Grave of Flesh, Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters, Dolls Play Dead, and Galkn: Monsters of the North. Everybody had their faves but I’m a big Fallout Fan so that won me over just for the concept. All five IP houses were really well done. We did Jason last and, I swear, I’ve never seen so many Jasons jumping out at you at one time! Terrifier didn’t do much for me but neither did the movies. The originals were all great, as usual, and I loved the Dolls Play Dead house (reminded me of what my sister did to my Barbies when I went on a sleepover) and El Artista the most. Grave of Flesh was right up there though. All-in-all, this was a great year for the houses and the scarezones and I can’t wait until 2026!
After a very long night at HHN, we dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning to go to Epic Universe. And no, there was no way we were making it at Early Park Admission or even near the regular park opening time! Since we’ve been to Epic a few times now, our focus was mainly on the Isle of Berk and Dark Universe. We had lunch at The Atlantic again (so good!) and snacked around the park for dinner. Luckily we caught one of the How to Train Your Dragon Night Lights, Pouncer, while they were visiting with guests. I’d love to see them all at once, super cute and fun to watch!
The next morning, we were up early and ready to head back to the airport, where we were meeting the Disney Cruise Line transfers to Port Canaveral for our cruise. Normally, we either drive ourselves to the Port or take the Disney transfers from our Disney resort. However, since we were staying at Universal, that wouldn’t work. Using the airport transfers was crazy easy and something I’ll consider doing again for sure. We got there early, they took our luggage so we didn’t have to fool with it again until it showed up in the stateroom, and got us checked in. That meant — nothing else to do when we got to the Port! Whoop whoop! And since we were sailing Concierge level, we got to the Port, went through security, to the Concierge waiting area for like two minutes, and onto the ship! Couldn’t have been any easier!
Being able to board early is so nice and extra sweet since Concierge staterooms are ready for guests to enter earlier too! We hopped on the ship, took some photos in the Grand Hall, and then had a quick lunch at 1923 (Concierge guests only) before heading to our stateroom. We were on deck 13, forward, port side and it was a lovely location for us. Not far from the elevators, short walk to the Concierge pool deck and down a short flight of steps into the Concierge lounge, two decks up from the quick service food (Festival of Foods) and ice cream, and a short ride down to the laundry room (well used by all during this sailing!)
Sailing with Disney is one of my most favorite things to do for a vacation and we definitely had the best time on the Treasure. It is just under a year old and very similar to the Disney Wish (2022) and the newly added Disney Destiny (which just arrived in Port Canaveral today actually!) Our itinerary was a 7-night Eastern Caribbean sailing which had three sea days, a day at Castaway Cay in the Bahamas (Disney’s private island), a day on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, and a day on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. This was our first time on the Eastern itinerary and I would absolutely love to do it again. St Thomas was stunning as was Tortola and having three sea days gave us time to relax and enjoy the ship. We chose to upgrade to a Concierge stateroom since we were sailing to celebrate the Daughter’s 21st birthday. Nothing like celebrating #21 with free alcohol in the evenings at the Concierge lounge! Seriously though, Concierge is such an upgrade, to which nothing compares. You get so many upgrades like:
- book excursions and activities first (which means that’s about the only way you can book a cabana on Disney’s private islands)
- getting to board first
- Welcome lunch after boarding
- upgraded in-room toiletries
- upgraded bedding including a king bed
- stocked in-room mini-fridge with sodas and waters
- access to the keyed Concierge lounge for sodas, juices, waters, coffee drinks, tea, snacks, desserts, appetizers, alcohol (free during happy hour!), and so much more
- access to the keyed Concierge sun deck which has upgraded furniture, upgraded towels, sodas/waters, smoothies, cool washcloths, sunscreen products, hot tubs, and a super fun splash type pool
- early entry to the nightly shows in the Walt Disney Theatre (best seating!)
- complimentary popcorn for the shows (movies and theatre shows or just whenever)
- upgraded table locations in the three main dining rooms, putting you closer to the shows
- Concierge team members to help with anything you might need during your sailing
- Private character meets in the lounge
- Etc!
And talk about spoiled… when you get off the ship, going back to reality definitely stinks! But being onboard with Disney and having that access is truly worth every penny. We spent so much time out on the Concierge sun deck and I can’t tell you how much popcorn and waters we went through. The ships are very large and being able to come back to that little slice of paradise (which was never even remotely crowded, sometimes we were all alone!) was heavenly. The Concierge folks always know your name too and that extra touch is just magical.
We did actually pull ourselves off of decks 12 and 13 every once in a while for breakfast and lunches in Marceline Market (the buffet), a lovely brunch at the adult only restaurant called Palo, watching the shows at night, doing some shopping, enjoying the Haunted Mansion Parlor (no words to describe how perfect this place is!), and so.much.trivia! Oh yeah, and the laundry. So.much.laundry, lol. We love playing trivia on Disney cruises and there was some stiff competition this time around. Every trivia we played was packed and you usually had to know all the answers to even have a chance. Craziness! We played everything from 80s music trivia to general trivia to Disney movie trivia and came so close to winning but alas, never took home a medal. We did win a new game called ‘Go Fetch’ though and got medals for that (woo-hoo!). This game was kind of like Let’s Make a Deal (for those of you old enough to know what that is) where Monty would go out into the audience and ask for anyone who had a particular item. This game gave you points for everything you brought/did to the host, like being the first one to bring him three shoes, or a wedding ring, or to sing him a song, etc. I have never hustled so fast in my life! And next time I’ll know, bring a pocketbook with more random stuff in it!
The main dining rooms on this ship are 1923, Worlds of Marvel, and Coco. This is where you go each evening for dinner and some are open for a sit-down breakfast and/or lunch as well. We had each location twice plus a third night at Worlds of Marvel that was Pirate Night. My favorite theme was the Coco restaurant (visually stunning) but I probably like the food in the Marvel restaurant the best. Each night had a different menu with all types of food to choose from. I will say, do not ever order Linguini Nero if that is an option. Guess what that is? Squid ink pasta. And yes, it is disgusting. I took one for the team, by accident, and can confidently say it needs to be removed from the options. The picture below is the ofrenda at the Coco restaurant.
The nightly shows were Moana, Beauty and the Beast, and Disney Seas the Adventure. Of course, all were superb. It was extremely rocky on the Moana show night so they had to switch the ending a bit (and I’ve heard the other ending was better) but our show was phenomenal. Zero complaints. The actors in these productions are amazing and do incredible work despite the rest of us feeling like we’re rolling out of our seats! There was also a magician onboard, Jessica Jane, and she was quite fun to watch as well. We saw her twice, once in the main theatre and a second time at an adults-only show.
We were on a Halloween on the High Seas sailing which means Halloween activities happen during the cruise, most of which we didn’t participate in (darn lounge, lol). We did, however, do the trick-or-treating on the pool deck and got so much candy! It was like Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Magic Kingdom but at sea… a great time. The characters were out in their Halloween costumes for pictures and such as well, looked like a lot of fun for everyone.
For our Castaway Cay day, we did have one of the coveted cabanas so the day was spent there. Ours was at Serenity Bay, the adult beach, so we spent a good deal of time floating out in the water with the included raft/tube rentals and then the rest of the time lounging in the cabana with the included drinks and snacks. Breaking for lunch was nice too and we were golf-carted over to the restaurant to enjoy that when hunger hit. One of the things I also really like about the cabanas is the freshwater shower at the cabana itself. I hate being sticky with ocean water so having that right at my fingertips is very welcome. Endless towels, cool washcloths, drinks, and comfy furniture with shad doesn’t hurt either! We also saw the new cabanas that Disney is building on Castaway Cay between the existing family beach ones and the adult beach. These look super cute and should definitely help availability since it is near impossible to get one now!
Our two port days were Tortola and St Thomas. We had never been to either so we were quite excited to be able to see those islands. Tortola was beautiful and we had an excursion to Jost Van Dyke for a beach day on that island. We went there via a catamaran ride of about 30 minutes, then an open-air truck for maybe 10 more minutes. The road to get from the marina to the beach was no joke! Straight up and down the mountainside. When we got to the beach spot on White Bay Beach, we were dropped off near the famed Soggy Dollar Bar (currently closed for renovations). The beach was really pretty and so was the water, except for the seaweed. This has been a rough year for seaweed in Mexico and the Caribbean and we unfortunately got that on this beach day too. The folks there did a great job trying to keep it cleaned up though compared to a lot that I’ve seen, so kudos to them for that. It didn’t put too big of a damper on the day. We took the catamaran back to the ship, avoiding the rum punch and therefore major seasickness, and grabbed a few souvenirs at the port before re-boarding.
At St. Thomas, we had a three-part excursion booked. The first stop was Drake’s Seat, high atop the island with excellent views of Magens Bay, where we were headed for stop number two. When we got to Magens Bay, we were blown away by how pretty the entire area was and how clear the water was. We stayed in the water for our entire time there, only hopping out for a quick rinse to throw our regular clothes back on. While out in the water, the Daughter and I even saw sea turtles swimming (in the wild!) right near us. That couldn’t be beat. The last stop was back down near the ship with a ride up the mountain again in the Skyride. This was a little nerve-wracking (let’s just say the Skyride is an old system) but we made it up, experienced some incredible views, and then headed back down to the ship.
After a week on the Treasure, it was time to debark and head home. JetBlue had a little bit of a flight issue (lost a knob, go figure) so we returned home about four hours later than planned. Not a huge problem though as we got some flight credits that I used to book our next flights down to Orlando in December!
Next stop, Hilton Head then back to Disney in December! Stay tuned! I’ll leave you with my favorite towel animal from the cruise!
xoxo, Amber
Type A Travel Mom 