Ever since I was little, I had always dreamed of one day visiting South America, but never once did I think that my very first visit would be on a Disney Cruise to Cartagena. Yet here I was and I could not believe that the day had finally arrived. As we had an early start, I made sure to set my alarm and I woke up at 5:30am ready and raring to go as the wait was almost over.

There is no way I could have even slept in that morning as our stateroom was rattling loudly once again, and the entire aft of the ship was shaking from the engines as we started to approach Cartagena – I even had to take the glasses off the shelf in the room as they were knocking against each other and making so much noise. I have not felt movement like that on a ship for a very long time, but it was a clear sign that after two days at sea, we were nearing the coastline of Colombia.

The most important thing I had to do as soon as I got out of bed that day was to put both of our cameras out on the verandah so they had time to adjust to the hot temperatures before we reached Cartagena. It was a little overcast outside but the humidity was oppressive and even after travelling to so many countries around the world, it was like nothing I have ever known before in my entire life.

Just after 7:00am, I got dressed and covered myself in plenty of SPF in preparation to head outside to watch the Disney Magic arrive into Cartagena. It was still a little overcast and hazy when I walked up to the front of Deck 10 as La Bamba was playing throughout the ship, though I could see patches of blue sky were starting to appear in the distance. It was already so hot, and all I could think was if the temperature was like this now first thing in the morning, what would it even be like later in the day!?

More blue skies started to appear and after sailing past the Fuerte de San Fernando de Bocachica, the Fuerte Manzanillo and the skyscrapers of the Castillogrande neighbourhood, the thrusters of the Disney Magic came to life as we docked at the Port of Cartagena just after 8:00am. We quickly grabbed a light breakfast of a Raspberry Danish and a muffin to eat back in our stateroom while we got ready for our morning of sightseeing around the city and I could not have been more excited to get off the ship and start exploring.

Now this is when my blog will start to sound a little different to what I usually write. As you know whenever I travel, I always tell everyone that you do not need to book expensive Port Adventures or any other organised excursions when on a cruise as it is very easy to save money and do everything you want to do and more, just by doing it yourself.

However, there was one major obstacle in our way during our short time in Cartagena which was the fact that we only had four and a half hours in port. We had spent almost two years trying to plan our morning in Cartagena, and all we kept reading or seeing on different YouTube videos, was how bad the traffic was. If we had been scheduled a longer day in Cartagena, we would have taken a taxi to and from the Old City with absolutely no issue, but this incredibly short port time had been playing on our minds a lot since we booked – and this was definitely not the cruise you would even want to risk being late back for, as the following day was our long-awaited transit through the Panama Canal.

We had worked out everywhere we wanted to go and everything we wanted to see and I never even doubted for a second that we could easily navigate Cartagena on our own. We knew what we had planned was possible, though we would be rushing around the entire time. We thought that if we could squeeze in just over one hour to do as much of the Old City as possible, it would give us that vital buffer time we needed to feel comfortable getting back to the ship with time to spare. Yet that incredibly short time in port combined with everything we had read about the unpredictable traffic, had been a constant source of anxiety since we booked – and I absolutely hated that feeling.

When we were looking at all of the options available to us, we noticed that there was a Port Adventure that we could book called Taste of Cartagena (CT23) which offered transportation to and from the Old City, a short stop at the San Felipe de Barajas Fort – which was something that I really wanted to see but did not think we would have time for in our original plans – a short walking tour and most importantly, two hours of our own free time to be able to see and do everything else that we wanted before getting on a bus back to the ship.

This honestly seemed to be the perfect solution to all of our time worries that day, so we booked it. It cost $44 each which considering we had such a short time in port whilst in Cartagena, felt like a “necessary evil” to be able to do what we wanted to do and on this one occasion, it was a small price to pay for peace of mind.

I still cannot believe we actually booked a Port Adventure on this cruise which physically pained me to do, but for the first time ever in the history of my blog, I can actually give you my honest opinion on doing one. I was really curious to see if I would actually end up eating my words and enjoying it or if I would absolutely hate it and only time would tell.

After making sure we had everything that we needed for our morning exploring Cartagena – including our photo ID’s, hats, sunglasses, extra SPF, water bottles, phones, cameras and spare batteries – we headed down to Fathoms on Deck 3 to check in for our Port Adventure at 8:10am. We were immediately given a stupid Timon sticker to wear, which I find to be one of the most pointless and ridiculous things in the world. I promptly shoved mine into my pocket, never wore it, and to no surprise, no one ever asked to see it, which just proved exactly how unnecessary they are.

The most painful part of the morning was just standing around and waiting in Fathoms. It was sweltering in there as the air conditioning was clearly struggling to keep up with the excessive heat outside, and it was so frustrating to be stuck inside when all we wanted to do was get on our way, especially with such a limited window in port. Our all ashore time was 8:30am and our all aboard time was 1:00pm, so it really felt like the clock was ticking away while we were just standing there waiting.

Our group was finally called at 8:50am and we quickly made our way to the Aft stairs before heading down to Deck 1, where we tapped off the ship at 9:00am. Stepping foot into my 78th country of Colombia should have been a moment of pure excitement, but it honestly felt slightly overshadowed by those thirty precious minutes that had already been wasted. The dock was a chaotic mess of people and to make matters worse, the person holding the sign for our tour had completely disappeared. Thankfully, another guest in our group managed to spot our coach and we all quickly hurried over to join them.

The bus left the dock at 9:05am and our guide Elkin introduced himself as well as our wonderful driver Papa Luis to everyone. We then also immediately hit the gridlocked traffic that we had read so much about before our trip and the short three mile drive to the Old City took almost thirty minutes. During the journey Elkin spent a few minutes telling us all about Cartagena as well as Colombia in general.

Elkin then let us know that we would be skipping our first stop at the San Felipe de Barajas Fort to visit it on the way back to the ship instead, which made perfect sense. However he then also told us that because we had left the ship late, we would only have one hour of our own free time to explore instead of the two we were promised. It immediately felt like a massive gut punch as those two hours were the entire reason why we had booked this exact tour, and having that time cut in half completely defeated the purpose of booking it in the first place.

I spent the rest of the bus journey to the Old City glued to Google Maps on my phone, frantically checking all the places we had marked to see if there was any possible way to cram them into such a shorter timeframe than we had planned for. It really was the added stress that we did not want or need on this day.

On that note, I am so glad that I had purchased a Colombian E-Sim for our short time in Cartagena. It really made a huge difference and helped us with our sightseeing throughout our morning. I only bought the 1GB plan which cost $4, which was more than enough for our few hours in port, and I would highly recommend buying one to anyone visiting.

If you need to access mobile data whilst visiting Colombia, you can purchase a travel E-Sim through Airalo. If you would like to use my referral code NIKKI8866 when signing up, you will receive £2.50 / US$3 off your first purchase.

We arrived at the Plaza del Reloj at 9:40am and our first sight of the Old City was the yellow clock tower, which was built in 1888 by Luis Felipe Jaspe on top of the city walls. I could not believe we were finally in Cartagena after all this time and it was absolutely beautiful and looked exactly as I had imagined it. I was also so happy that after a grey start to the day, we finally had blue skies and sunshine because the city looked so colourful and vibrant in this light and it truly was a photographer’s dream come true.

However within just a few short minutes, I was already feeling suffocated by being part of such a large group. It was everything I hated about sightseeing and more as I wanted to explore at my own much faster pace but the tour was moving so slowly – it felt more like a shuffling tour rather than a walking tour! This was incredibly frustrating given that our free time had already been cut in half. The other issue I discovered was that when you are with a lot of other people, you stand out like a sore thumb and from the moment we stepped off the bus, we were constantly hounded by street vendors.

We then walked under the clock tower and arrived at the incredible Plaza de los Coches. I had really been looking forward to visiting this square for myself because it looked so perfect, vibrant and colourful in all of the photos I had seen online and it definitely lived up to its expectations. The plaza is also home to the statue of Don Pedro de Heredia, who founded Cartagena in 1533.

Our next stop was Plaza de la Aduana, another large square that is home to the Alcaldia Mayor de Cartagena de Indias, which is also known as City Hall. Now bear in mind that we had only been off the bus for just over ten minutes at this point and had barely seen anything at all of Cartagena, when all of a sudden we were being herded towards an approved jewellery shop disguised as a “twenty minute toilet and air conditioning break”.

To say this was an insult would be the biggest understatement in the world. Why should our precious time exploring be cut down through no fault of our own, while a visit to a tacky and overpriced tourist trap remains on the schedule?! It was in that exact moment that we both immediately decided we were done and walked out of there as we were not going to waste another minute of our short time in Cartagena.

I immediately went to talk to Elkin and told him what our plans were for the rest of our time in Cartagena and what we were hoping to achieve that morning. He was really excited about everything that we wanted to see and do especially when he saw all of my markers on Google Maps. He also told us exactly where the meeting point was and what time we needed to be back, which was on the opposite side of the square outside City Hall at 11:30am.

All of a sudden, it felt like the biggest weight had been lifted off our shoulders and it was truly one of the most liberating feelings in the world. We were free and now had the next one hour and forty minutes to explore Cartagena on our own terms and it was absolutely glorious.

There was no way we were going to stay in that bad situation of a tour just because we had paid for it, as that would have been the ultimate waste of a day. By walking away when we did, we reclaimed our time in Cartagena to do exactly what we wanted to do instead of being stuck on someone else’s schedule. It was a return to the style of exploring that we are most comfortable with and we were not going to waste a single minute.

Our first stop on our own was the Plaza San Pedro Claver and it immediately felt like this was how we should have been exploring Cartagena all along. It was the best feeling and confirmed exactly why I will never book another Port Adventure ever again.

My favourite part of exploring a new city is simply being able to wander around and experience somewhere new at your own pace – or as slowly as one hour and forty minutes will allow in this case! Not long afterwards, I was able to find the exact spot for a photo of the Catedral de Santa Catalina de Alejandria that I had really wanted to take and we even had a few minutes to quickly stop at a Starbucks to buy a Cartagena mug. While I do not usually collect Starbucks mugs (as I do not want to fall down that expensive rabbit hole), I had to get this one as a memento of my first visit to South America and this beautiful city.

Now that we were on our own, we also had the opportunity to wander down all of the quiet and shaded photogenic side streets on the far side of the Old City of Cartagena to see what we could find, instead of slowly being herded around in a group from place to place in the hot sun. We had been planning this trip for such a long time and while it could have easily turned into a wasted day, I am so glad we did not let that happen as we will now remember it for all the right reasons instead of all the bad ones.

I have always advocated for touring independently and this day confirmed everything I have ever believed. We would have been utterly miserable had we stayed with the group and because we had done so much research before our trip, we knew exactly what we were missing out on before we decided to leave the tour. We really did make the correct decision to go off on our own and experience Cartagena in a way that worked for us.

If anyone has any concerns about exploring Cartagena on their own, do not be afraid as we never felt unsafe once during our entire visit. There are tourist police everywhere to help you if needed and as the Old City is fairly small, it would be extremely difficult to get lost.

Cartagena is quite simply one of the most beautiful and incredible places I have ever visited. I found myself constantly stopping to take so many photos as we wandered around and there was always something new and absolutely picture-perfect to look at around every corner.

Another truly interesting thing we discovered that morning and one of the best parts about no longer being on a tour, was that once we left the group, we were not hassled by a single street vendor for the rest of the day. Even as we walked back through Plaza de los Coches, the vendors who had approached us earlier when we first arrived in the Old City, did not even give us a second glance this time. It really reinforced my belief that becoming “invisible” when exploring is truly the best way to experience anywhere you travel, as it allows you to move around feeling much more confident and capable of blending in, rather than being treated like a walking target.

If we had not left the tour when we did, we would not have had enough time to explore both the Old City as well as the colourful neighbourhood of Getsemani, which was also high on my list of places that I wanted to see. Getsemani is located just outside the city walls and is famous for its colourful street art and bohemian atmosphere. It was an easy five minute walk from the clock tower and I am so glad we had the time to visit as it ended up being one of my favourite parts of the entire day.

Getting to explore Getsemani as well really was the cherry on top of the cake that day. Standing there looking at all the street art, umbrellas and banners hanging over the streets, I knew all our hard work had finally paid off. Just by marking all of these places onto Google Maps for the last two years, we were easily able to explore by ourselves and looking back now, I would not have wanted it any other way.

It truly was a whistlestop tour of Getsemani as we ran around and saw everything that we could in about twenty minutes. In an ideal world, we would have had much longer to explore however, I will take whatever I can get given the short time we had in Cartagena that morning. I am just so grateful we did not miss it entirely as even just having a fleeting glimpse of that beautiful and colourful neighbourhood was enough to make my whole day feel complete.

We left Getsemani just before 11:10am and as we still had a few minutes before we needed to be back at the meeting point at 11:30am, we made a small detour via Parque del Centenario where I had been hoping to either spot a sloth or a monkey in one of the trees as I had read you could see them there but sadly, luck was not on my side that morning.

By keeping a constant eye on the time, we were back outside City Hall in Plaza de la Aduana at 11:20am which was ten minutes early – we were actually there before anyone else in our tour group! It had been a busy, frantic, very hot and extremely sweaty two hours running around to see as much of Cartagena as we could in such a limited time, but we had done it and I could not stop smiling.

As we stood in the shade out of the sun while we waited for the rest of our group to turn up, we started talking with one of the other tour guides there who explained to us that there are only two seasons in Cartagena which are “Hot” and “Fucking Hot.” I almost collapsed laughing especially as he told us that this was only the “Hot” season so I dread to think what it must feel like during the other one! It was such a funny and genuine moment that it instantly became one of my best memories of the entire day.

A few minutes later we met back up with Elkin who was over the moon that we had been able to do everything we wanted and gave us both a giant fist bump in celebration. Once the rest of the group were back, we all made our way to the bus for our final stop of the day before heading back to the ship. It was also interesting to learn that if we had needed to get a taxi back to the port, it would have only cost $10 for the journey. There were plenty of drivers available in the Old City, and you can also use Uber in Cartagena as well if needed.

We were back on the bus just before 11:45am and after such a sweltering morning, the air conditioning felt absolutely heavenly. Our final stop was supposed to be the San Felipe de Barajas Fort – the very place that should have been our first stop of the day. However as we were approaching the fort, Elkin suggested we probably would not have enough time to stop and asked if everyone would be okay just looking at it through the window as we drove past.

Thankfully the vast majority of us said “Absolutely Not” as it was simply another part of the tour that we had already paid for and we only needed five minutes to hop out and get a few photos – after all, it had been advertised as a short photo stop and nothing more. Thankfully common sense quickly prevailed as it was pointed out that there was still just under an hour before our all aboard time – and there was also absolutely no traffic showing for the short drive back to the ship either – and those of us who chose to get off the bus were finally able to get the few photos that we had been patiently waiting all morning for.

Also as a fun aside, if you look at the fort closely, it bears more than just a passing resemblance to the ride building of Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle of the Sunken Treasure at Shanghai Disneyland which in my opinion, is one of the best rides in the world.

Once we left the fort, it was a very quick fifteen minute drive back to the Port of Cartagena where we arrived back at 12:25pm which was just over thirty minutes before our 1:00pm all aboard time. Instead of being dropped off next to the Disney Magic, we were actually dropped off at the entrance to the Port Oasis Eco Park which is located right next to the terminal. I was so happy about this as it was somewhere else that I wanted to visit and now we actually had time to look around – though I would still have run straight back here for a quick visit had we been dropped off by the ship.

The Port Oasis Eco Park which is located within the Port of Cartagena is a lush and tropical sanctuary that is home to over seven hundred rescued animals across seventy four different species including free roaming peacocks, parrots, monkeys, tortoises and flamingos. While some of these animals can eventually be returned to the wild, others call the park their permanent home where they can live the rest of their lives in safety. The park is only open to cruise ship passengers and completely free of charge to visit and is the perfect final stop before heading back onboard your ship.

We spent fifteen minutes walking around this beautiful and incredible park and honestly, I could have easily stayed there for the rest of the day as I loved it so much. Once I finally stopped myself from taking even more photos of all of the adorable monkeys and parrots – as they are some of my favourite animals – it was time to head back to the Disney Magic.

From the Eco Park you can either walk the 800 feet back to the ship, or take a free shuttle bus but honestly, walking is much quicker and you also get the best views of your ship on the way back which means even more photos! I also loved that we were able to walk right under the bow of the Disney Magic and see Sorcerer Mickey which is not a view you can get very often.

There were very long lines at both gangways to get back on the Disney Magic when we arrived back at the dock five minutes later at 12:50pm. Even though it was such a hot day and the sun was so intense while we waited to board, the icy cold towels that the crew were handing out felt like absolute heaven. I was so glad that I had worn a hat, long cargo trousers and a lightweight long-sleeved shirt that morning in Cartagena as I was fully covered up the entire time and did not have to worry about getting sunburnt.

While we were waiting, I even noticed large groups of people returning from their tours wearing both stickers as well as large name tags which really is a ridiculous and a sure-fire way to make yourself the unwanted centre of attention. It really reinforced my belief that you should never make yourself stand out when exploring as once we left our tour group earlier that day, we had the best time with absolutely no hassle from anyone simply because we were aware of our surroundings and had managed to avoid looking like stereotypical tourists.

Due to the long lines, we were finally back onboard just before 1:10pm and our first stop was the drinks station up on Deck 9 to try and rehydrate as much as possible. I honestly cannot even begin to describe the intensity of the heat that day as it was truly like nothing I have ever experienced before in my life.

Even though we wanted nothing more than to sit inside with air conditioning, we took another cold drink with us straight up to Deck 10, as the Character Dance Party was due to start at 1:15pm and we really wanted to watch it. We thought we had made it back with only minutes to spare, but there were so few people there that they delayed the start by fifteen minutes due to the long lines of getting everyone back onboard.

The dance party began at 1:30pm with Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Daisy, Donald, Minnie and Mickey along with some of the entertainment team taking turns to dance to Stand Out, Can’t Stop the Feeling, We Like To Party (The Vengabus), Fuego, Shake Your Groove Thing, Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Footloose. As it was so hot out, they each retreated back inside or underneath one of the gazebos in the shade when it was not their song to try and stay as cool as possible. However they all came back out on the stage together for the When Can I See You Again finale which always makes me smile as it always brings back some very happy memories of watching the Paint the Night parade at Hong Kong Disneyland over the years.

However my funniest memory was the sight of our Cruise Director, David, and Assistant Cruise Director, Joshua, who spent the entire time dancing along to all of the songs across both Decks 9 and 10. How they had that much energy (and how Joshua’s hair even stayed exactly in place!) when it was so brutally hot and humid out (even my camera shut down for a few minutes because of the heat) is truly impressive and pure Disney Magic!

After having such a busy morning, we were both starving, so we quickly made our way straight to Cabanas once the party had finished to get some lunch. It was open a little longer than normal due to the delays with everyone getting back onboard which worked out perfectly for us. We sat inside as we really needed to get out of the hot sun for a little while and to eat, I had some shrimp and vegetables before finishing with two of my favourite Strawberry Panna Cotta desserts as well as a delicious cupcake.

Once we had finished our lunch, we grabbed another cold drink and walked up to the front of Deck 10 to watch the Disney Magic leave the Port of Cartagena. The “When You Wish Upon a Star” horn blasted at 2:40pm just as we very slowly backed out of the dock before turning and heading out to sea. It also made me laugh when the sound of the horn set off all of the parrots in the Port Oasis Eco Park as all of a sudden, you could hear the chaos of them all squawking loudly and going crazy!

Despite the rocky start to the day, it had turned into a truly wonderful first visit to Cartagena and indeed, Colombia. It was the perfect preview of what is to come as later this year, we will be flying back to South America for another epic trip to continue exploring and adventuring around this amazing continent and I simply cannot wait.

As it felt like it had started to turn even hotter if that is even possible, we got yet another cold drink just as all the machines ran out of ice which was in such high demand, which we took back to our stateroom to watch the rest of the sailaway from the shade of our own verandah.

Once Cartagena had disappeared over the horizon, I went back inside and as it had been such a sweaty day, to say that I peeled my clothes off would be the biggest understatement of the year. I immediately jumped straight into a freezing cold shower where I scrubbed myself clean before putting on some new clothes and I instantly felt a million times better and almost like a new person.

After a very lazy afternoon, we saw that both Mirabel and Bruno were due out for the first time at 5:00pm in the D Lounge. We knew they would be popular and the line was one of the longest I had seen onboard, second only to the shops on the first night of the cruise! Even though we were at the very back of that long queue, at least we were inside in the air conditioning and not outside in the Colombian heat and it was great to finally meet them just before 6:00pm.

After meeting Mirabel and Bruno, we went back to our stateroom just to chill with a cup of tea for a little while. Even though we were both feeling exhausted after such a long day, we did not want to nap as we wanted to have an early night, especially since we had an even earlier start the following morning.

We walked down to meet Minnie who was out on Deck 4 at 7:15pm before being first in line to meet Goofy and Max at 7:45pm. We had a great chat with them both where we discovered that Max had spent the morning skateboarding on the dock and he was not happy as the humidity had made his hair go crazy whilst Goofy had fallen into the water while chasing after him!

After also spending a few moments talking to Belle, it was time for that evening’s dinner. However as we were walking from the Lobby Atrium along Deck 4 towards Animator’s Palate, we bumped into Goofy once again where he decided to block the corridor and not let us pass until he got another hug from both of us!

The menu in Animator’s Palate on this night was one we had never seen before on any of our cruises and I do not even know the name of it. I ordered the Goat Cheese and Red Beet Napoleon to start before having the Malabar Shrimp Curry for my main course. We had already asked our dining team on our previous visit if it was possible to order a spicy version of this dish, as we normally find the curries onboard to be a little too bland. The chef truly worked wonders and the Malabar Shrimp Curry was one of the best dinners we have ever had onboard. It really was that good!

There were no desserts that either of us wanted to order that evening so once we had finished our meal, we headed back up to an empty Deck 10 for our nightly game of basketball. Even though there were very few children onboard for this cruise, it seemed like they were at their noisiest on this night as they were probably all overtired after such a long day, so it was such a relief to escape to the top deck and enjoy the peace and quiet for a few minutes. Somehow, I managed to win our game 5–1, though I have absolutely no idea how!

We walked back down to our stateroom with tea and water so we could start to get everything ready for the following morning, as it was going to be another very early start. After putting all of our camera batteries on to charge, we also left both our cameras as well as our lenses outside on our verandah (I love that the Navigator Verandah rooms are so sheltered) so that they would be acclimatised to the boiling hot temperature and humidity when we woke up as otherwise, they would take forever to clear if they steamed up, and we already knew we could not risk missing a single photo the next day.

I was way too excited to sleep as how do you top a day in Cartagena?

The only answer is by transiting the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean. Bring it on!

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