This past week we had the most magical time on board the Disney Wonder cruise ship for the inaugural New Zealand sailing! The ‘Magic At Sea’ cruise was the very first cruise that Disney has ever offered from New Zealand, spending four days at sea (no port stops) where guests on board celebrated all things Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars!

The 4-night cruise started in Auckland on Tuesday 21st November 2023, and arrived back on Saturday 25th November 2023. We have always wanted to go on a Disney cruise – we just never imagined we would be able to go on one, and from our own city. It was everything we could wish for and more!

We will be writing up our full cruise adventure here on our blog, starting with day 1 –

Tuesday 21st November 2013

Our day started at 4.00am – we wanted to go down to the harbour to see the Disney Wonder coming in to New Zealand for the first time ever. We were tracking the ship position online, and found a great spot to see the Wonder in person! The ship looked beautiful with all the lights, and of course those iconic Mickey Mouse funnels!

After watching the Disney Wonder sail into Auckland, we headed back home to quickly finish our packing. We live pretty close to the port, so we still had plenty of time to pack, and double check we hadn’t forgotten anything. Our boarding time was 12.30pm, so before we knew it we were loading our luggage in the car and driving down to the port – and there she was, the Disney Wonder!

We quickly found our way to the boarding area, after taking a few photos of the Disney Wonder in port. We’ve never been on a cruise before, so we were expecting a lengthy boarding process – but it was quite quick really, lots of lovely helpful staff.

Before we knew it, we were stepping on board the ship and into the atrium. We were welcomed aboard the Disney Wonder! Goofy was there greeting guests from the stairs.

We were a bit overwhelmed, and didn’t know where we wanted to go first! So we sort of followed other guests, and wandered down the hall, where we were welcomed straight into Tiana’s for lunch. We were definitely hungry and excited to have our first meal on board.

We got our drinks and bread service, and lunch menu to order our meals.

• K – Leafy House Salad, Vegan Pennette Pasta, Raspberry Sorbet
• M – Beef Empanadas, Chicken Cesar Salad, Welcome Aboard Sundae
• J – Beef Empanadas, Pennette Pasta, Welcome Aboard Sundae

Kristy’s lunch –

Matt’s lunch –

At lunch, we were told our room was ready, so we decided to go drop off our carry-on bags. After a bit of navigating, we found our room – our checked luggage was already waiting for us outside the door. We dropped off our carry-on luggage, did a quick tour of the room, and set off to explore.

4pm – We attended the mandatory safety briefing on deck 4 (section G). Took a little while, but after being reminded about life vests and life boats, it really did sink in that we were on a ship about to sail out to sea.

4.45pm – Found a spot on deck 10 to watch the Sail-A-Wave deck party. This was our first time seeing Mickey Mouse and friends on our cruise, which was so exciting! We finally heard the ship horn tune, which brought tears to my eyes – we had heard it in videos many times, but we finally got to hear it in person, which was simply magical.

We wanted to see the ship leave port, but after waiting a while we still hadn’t started moving (the ship was still moored to the dock), so we took a few deck photos then went and saw the characters in the atrium.

In the atrium, we met Pluto! We got hugs, photos, and autographs (I got an autograph from Pluto in the back of Juliet’s book, as I didn’t have one yet). While in line, we noticed the water moving past us out the windows – we were finally on our way!

We went up to the deck and took photos of Rangitoto Island, as the ship was finally sailing out of Auckland and out to sea.

In our research, we had read that the merchandise stores usually open an hour after leaving port – so we went to see if they had opened or if people were lining up yet. We could see all the fun inaugural sailing merchandise through the windows, but the doors were closed. A crew member said they needed to wait until the ship reached international waters, which would be in the middle of the night, so the stores would open at 9.30am the next day.

The stores were right next to the Walt Disney Theater, so we waited for a few minutes before the doors opened and we found seats for the Golden Mickeys show at 6.00 pm. The 1 hour show was awesome, there were so many great characters included – a great celebration of Disney films for the first day of our cruise.

After the show, we headed back up to see the view from decks 9 and 10. We could see Auckland shrinking into the distance behind us as the sun was setting.

After admiring the view from the the top decks, we headed back to our room, to get changed for dinner at the second seating.

8.15pm – Dinner at Animator’s Palette!

This was the rotational dining restaurant we were the most excited about, as we had heard so much about it. As we sat down at our table, we were given our drawing sheets – and we suddenly remembered we hadn’t practiced any figure drawing before our cruise! Oh well, we grabbed a marker and got stuck in, having fun with our character drawings.

After handing back our completed drawings, we got our menu for the night.

• K – Arugula Leaves Salad, Black Bean Chipotle Cakes, Dark Choc Mini Cake with Strawberries
• M – Chicken and Walnut Salad, Lemon-Thyme Marinated Chicken, Warm Sticky Date Pudding
• J – Sliced Serrano Ham, Lemon-Thyme Marinated Chicken, Lemon Icebox Pie

Kristy’s dinner –

Matt’s dinner –

We went back to our room to put our Animator’s Palette drawings away, where we found our first towel animal (Kangaroo). We then ran back to see Goofy and Rapunzel in the atrium but they were just finishing their meet and greet, so we went for a wander around the ship.

Another trip back to our room for a quick pitstop and rest, and we checked the itinerary to choose our next activity. We decided to head to Azure for the Silent DJ party. We each got headphones with three channels to choose from, with lights to indicate the channel (red, blue or green) so you could see what your friends were listening and dancing to. This was really fun – we all danced past midnight!

Once the party wrapped up, we decided to go for a bit of a wander, before finally heading back to our room (with soft drinks from the self serve machines), and ordered fries with ketchup from room service – it came quick! Fun end to an awesome day. After writing down my itinerary notes from the day, we finally got settled for bed at 1.30am – what an amazing first day of our first Disney cruise.

Our day 2 blog post will be up soon – check out all our Disney Wonder blog posts here

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Happy Mother’s Day! I was lucky enough to be able to spend the day with my mother and daughter and our family, it was wonderful. My daughter knows of my love of Funko Pop! Vinyl figures – most of my Funko collection is of course Star Wars, though I wish I could collect Disney Pops as well. So my daughter got me a wonderful gift – a Marie Pop! Vinyl from The Aristocats, a childhood favourite film of mine. The story is about a cat and her kittens, so this gift was right on theme for a wonderful Mother’s Day gift.

I watched The Aristocats so many times when I was young – a classic animated Disney film featuring cute cats, set in France. Better still, one of the kittens was called Marie, which is my middle name, so of course she was my favourite. Plus she’s a white cat with pink bows, seriously she’s just so cute and pretty.

I absolutely love the ‘diamond’ glitter Pop! Vinyl figures (I wish they used the finish more in the Star Wars range), so I was so excited when Funko released Marie in a glitter variant. She is adorable in the Funko-style sculpt, complete with her pink bows, and the glitter just makes her even prettier. She is a wonderful addition to my little Disney-themed Funko Pop! Vinyl collection.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Now that I’m home from the Run Disney Star Wars Weekend at Walt Disney World, I was keen to get all my medals displayed all together. I have had one particular medal hanger bookmarked ever since I got my first Run Disney medal back in 2016, and now it was finally time to place my order.

After a lot of looking around, my favourite medal hanger design is the ‘Do Or Do Not There Is No Try’ hanger by Allied Medal Hangers. It comes in four widths (12″, 18″ 24″ and 30″), with one or three hanger bars. Planning ahead, we decided to go with the biggest design – 30″ with three bars.

As international fans, it can often be a hassle to get larger items shipped from the US, but we were happily surprised by this order. Not only was the shipping cost very reasonable (FedEx tracked), but it arrived incredibly well packaged.

I opened the box straight away from excitement, but I was so impressed with how well packaged the hanger was – wrapped in foam and many layers of cardboard. It arrived in perfect condition.

The hanger came with mounting hardware, to attach securely to your wall. The bar is flat, but the screws have plastic spacers that sit behind the bar to create space so your medals hang nicely. This hanger has five mounting points – two at each end, and one in the middle.

I am so happy I went with the biggest size – the design looks great on the wide bar, and the three rows means I don’t need to replace it or buy additional rows in the future. The brushed aluminum finish is so pretty!

I spent a while trying to decide on the placement of my medals – the bar is divided into four even rungs, and I have an odd number of medals (eleven so far), but with a little adjustment I can hang all my medals from the top row.

Matt got the hanger mounted on the wall – the supplied hardware made the process quick and easy, with just a few additional items needed (pencil to mark holes, screw driver, and cordless drill).

I love the space behind the hanger, the shadows create a fun 3D effect behind the text. This Star Wars quote really kept me going during my first half marathon event, so it really was the perfect design to display my medals. The font works really well with the theme, just the right amount of galactic style, while working with the cut-out design.

I am beyond happy to finally get my Run Disney medals displayed all together – they look awesome! The spot we picked is in our hallway, so I walk past this display every morning, which is a great daily reminder of my accomplishments. I look forward to adding more medals to this display in the future!

To read more about my Run Disney Star Wars medals, check out my post here!

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I love all things Disney – it even got me interested in running! I had long admired my US friends running the Run Disney events at the parks, but when they launched Star Wars race events, I knew I wanted to go!

I was able to attend the Star Wars Light Side Half Marathon Weekend 2016 at Disneyland, and have just returned from the Star Wars Rival Run Half Marathon Weekend 2019 at Walt Disney World – and now have 11 Run Disney medals of my very own – including the Kessel Run Challenge!

I came home with an awesome haul of medals this year – in addition to the usual race medals, I also completed the Rival Run Challenge (10K and Rival Run Half Marathon) and the Kessel Run Challenge (Virtual Half Marathon and Rival Run Half Marathon).

The first medal of the 2019 Rival Run weekend was the Virtual Half Marathon medal – having completed this run at home prior to the event, I picked up my medal from the Run Disney race expo. This is the heaviest of all my medals, it is really thick!

I must note, this is not how my medal originally looked – it had a red enamel ‘eye’ detail, which fell out as soon as I took my medal out of the packaging! I was sad at first, but it doesn’t affect the look too much, and I don’t really want to replace ‘my’ medal, it is what it is, and it’s still very special to me.

The first race event of the Rival Run 2019 weekend was of course the 5K – the medal features Finn vs Captain Phasma, in a spilt design which is held together with a plate across the back. Captain Phasma’s side has a shiny silver finish with red and black enamel details, while Finn’s side has a matte brushed gunmetal finish.

While the 5K race is the shortest/easiest run of the Rival Run weekend, it was absolutely pouring with rain! The race was nearly cancelled due to electrical storms, but after nearly 2 hours waiting in buses, they finally started the race. It was hard running in such heavy rain, but looking back, it was a fun adventure, and something different from the other races.

The medal theme for the 10K race is Han Solo vs Boba Fett. This is a gold-toned medal, with blue enamel details for the text. The mdeal has matte and shiny finishes, to highlight the characters.

The Rival Run Half Marathon medal is my favourite of the race medals – not just the design, but it also has Rey! This medal features Rey vs Kylo, divided down the center with a white lightsaber-inspired detail.

Rey’s side is accented with a blue enamel background, while Kylo’s side has a red enamel background (and each side has black enamel starships).

As I signed up for the Rival Run Challenge, I also recieved the Challenge medal for completing the 10K and Half Marathon races. This is a spinner medal, with a split inner disc of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

The spinner disc is divided into two parts, which spin independently of each other – you can have both sides of Vader’s helmet, both sides of Luke’s face, or half and half (I prefer half and half).

Last but certainly not least, the Kessel Run Challenge medal. I received this medal for completing the Virtual Half Marathon at home, and the Rival Run Half Marathon event at Walt Disney World.

I have wanted this medal since it was launched in 2016 – back then it was a ‘coast to coast’ style medal, awarded for finishing the Light Side Half Marathon at Disneyland, and the Dark Side Half Marathon at Walt Disney World. The events were three months apart, meaning two international trips.

Since Run Disney events are currently not being held at Disneyland, the Virtual Star Wars Half Marathon event replaces the Light Side Half Marathon – making it so much easier for international fans to achieve, with only one trip to a Disney Park required. While I am sad that the Run Disney events aren’t being held at Disneyland at the moment, I am so happy that I finally got my Kessel Run medal!

For completeness, here are my earlier Run Disney Star Wars medals.

My first ever Run Disney medal was the Star Wars Light Side 5K medal at the Disneyland event in 2016. Back then, the 5K medals were the rubber versions (the last time the Star Wars 5K medal was rubber, sigh) – a bit of a shame, but I still love it, it will always be my first medal.

The next event was the Light Side 10K, and my first Run Disney medal made with metal. I really love this design – a gunmetal silver crest with a rebel X-Wing fighter. No enamel details on this one, but the all-silver design really looks pretty.

My first big race medal, and my first ever half marathon – the Light Side Half Marathon! This medal resembles the ‘Yavin medal’ Princess Leia gives to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in A New Hope. The shiny gold finish is just gorgeous, and features a yellow enamel ring around the outside with raised gold-tone text. It felt so good to get this at the finish line!

After finishing the Light Side Half Marathon, I also got the Rebel Challenge medal, for signing up for/completing the Light Side 10K and the Light Side Half Marathon. This is a spinner medal, with a circular inset disc – one side has a red Rebel ‘bird’ symbol, with the other side features R2-D2. I can’t decide which side I like best!

In early 2018, to replace the canceled Disneyland Star Wars races, Run Disney launched the Virtual Star Wars Half Marathon. The inaugural medal features Poe Dameron, with a little X-Wing fighter detail that slides up and down the right-hand side edge!

Living outside the US, it will be on only rare occasions I get the opportunity to earn Run Disney Star Wars medals at the race weekends at the parks, so I am so excited they have given fans around the world the chance to get involved and earn medals at home.

It’s so much fun to finally see all my Run Disney Star Wars medals all together! I love all the different medal designs, with the vibrant and detailed ribbons, I really hope I get the opportunity to add to this collection in the future.

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Happy 90th Birthday Mickey Mouse!

The very first Mickey Mouse cartoon premiered on 18th November 1928 – ‘Steamboat Willie’. Disney cartoons and films were such a huge influence on my childhood – growing up with The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. I am now able to share that love of Disney with my family – and have finally achieved that dream of visiting Disneyland and meeting Mickey Mouse in person.

In 2015 our dreams came true – a holiday at Disneyland! The very first thing we spotted when we walked under that arch – Mickey Mouse! We ran up and got our family photo with Mickey, it was the perfect way to kick off our wonderful Disney vacation. There was something so magical about getting to meet Mickey in person and giving him a hug – it was really neat that we got to meet him together as a family.

We filled our visit with everything Mickey – of course we had to try as many Mickey-shaped foods as we could! We spotted Mickey Mouse everywhere, and took so many photos of our adventures. We tried to spot as many ‘hidden Mickeys’ as we could, as well as the more obvious ones!

Mickey’s Soundsational Parade was so much fun – our very first Disney parade, we saw it twice during our visit. We also made sure to watch World of Color as well – the show was amazing! Our daughter has grown up with Disney songs, and it was so special to celebrate that music we love so much at Disneyland together.

Our very first Disney Park experience was in 2012 – we spent one day at Walt Disney World, while we were in Orlando for Star Wars Celebration. As you can imagine, one day is not enough to fully experience Disney World, but we crammed in as much as we could. After riding Star Tours twice in Hollywood Studios, we hurried over to Magic Kingdom to get as much done as we could. From trying Mickey-shaped ice cream, to picking up a few Mickey Mouse souvenirs of our trip – it was an amazing day.

Despite our limited time, we were determined that we couldn’t visit Disney World without seeing Mickey Mouse – and camped out to see the stage show in front of the castle. Thankfully the Florida rain held off long enough to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse out on stage, dancing with their friends. This was the first time I had ever seen Mickey Mouse in person, I felt just like a little girl all over again, reliving my fond childhood memories of Disney cartoons.

As much as we loved our Disney World visit, it felt way too short – we didn’t get to see everything we wanted to at Magic Kingdom, and never even set foot in Epcot or Animal Kingdom! We were determined to make our way back to Disney, and were finally able to visit Disneyland three years later – and spend three whole days at the parks! We didn’t want to leave, we had so much fun!

As we can’t visit the Disney Parks as often as we would like, we try to add a little Disney magic to our life in other ways. One particularly special event we like to attend as a family is Disney On Ice. We were able to see this show when it visited New Zealand in 2014 and 2015. They are just wonderful shows, full of our favourite characters – and it’s the only way to see Mickey Mouse here in NZ.

Sometimes it feels awful that we live so far away from the Disney Parks – we certainly hope to return to Disneyland sometime in the future. In the meantime, we will be watching Disney movies, listening to Disney songs, wearing our favourite Disney fashion, and remembering our amazing Disney family holidays.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse! We hope to see you again soon.

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