LindaBabe or other Cruisers

[BernardandMissBianca]

Help me plan a cruise!!!!!

DH has given me the go ahead to plan the Alaskan Disney Cruise for 2011 and I have no idea where to start!

I want connecting rooms, doubt I can get a family suite. How do I do that? Should I go through a travel agent?
Does it include food?
Why do I have to dine at a certain time?

Should we just go the 2 of us or should we take the kids? This may be their only chance to go to Alaska as kids since DH doesn't do cold.

[hopemax]

Help me plan a cruise!!!!!

DH has given me the go ahead to plan the Alaskan Disney Cruise for 2011 and I have no idea where to start!

I want connecting rooms, doubt I can get a family suite. How do I do that? Should I go through a travel agent?
Does it include food?
Why do I have to dine at a certain time?

Should we just go the 2 of us or should we take the kids? This may be their only chance to go to Alaska as kids since DH doesn't do cold.

Our first cruise was to Alaska in 1994, on one of Royal Caribbean's older ships. It was just as the mega-ships were coming into being. Honestly, I preferred the small ship. The room was tiny, but there were less than 1000 people on the boat, so the cruise staff would recognize you, the waiters didn't have too many tables so the service was even more personal than what you get now. We've also taken two Disney cruises, and another RCL cruise pre-Disney. The cruise to Alaska is beautiful. We plan on taking the Disney one, once the rush dies down.

Food on the ship, for the most part, is free. There is even a selection of foods available through room service that is also free, although you should tip the person delivering it. The menu is in the stateroom, although it is not inclusive of everything you can get. We like to order Mickey Premium bars (not on the menu, but you can get them), and we will order lunch in the room on sea days too. You will need to pay for snacks and pop if you get it at the snack bar outside the theater. There is a $15 charge per person to eat at Palo, the adult restaurant. Pop is free in the dining rooms, or at the Drink Station on Deck 9. Just get in the habit of going up to deck 9. There will also be free food in the sports bar during certain hours (hot dogs and nachos), desserts in the adult coffee bar around 3PM, late night snacks in the "entertainment area" on deck 3(?). If you can't find free food, you are doing something wrong! :lmao:

Dining is only timed if you want to eat in the main dining rooms. And it's only for dinner. If you don't want to be tied to a schedule you can eat at the counter service type food places on Deck 9, or in the buffet restaurant. They serve the same entrees as in the dining rooms. I think the times helps with crowd control for the theater. It's not big enough for the entire ship. So half the ships gets a show first, then eats. The other half eats than watches the show. We much prefer eat than show. Breakfast, one of the dining rooms will be open for "table service", or there will be the buffet, or room service.

If you can afford it, take the kids. You will rarely see them anyway, and they will think its the best vacation ever. Disney does such a great job, you might experience Mom Guilt.

[BernardandMissBianca]

Is it safe? DS8 and DD are climbers and I'm freaking that I would be fishing them out of the water, or worse. I know I'm being paranoid but seriously if there is a railing, they will climb it. Hence the reasoning behind not getting a verandah room.

I looked at the Dreams Unlimited quote form, but I don't even know what category room to pick! I'm hopeless! LOL

[PinballFamily]

Great news! Michellepooh is our local DCL expert - she's been on oodles of the cruises, but I don't know if she's done any of the Alaskan ones, or stayed in the Caribbean.

There's a lot of DCL cruise info on that DIS forum - we booked ourselves for our summer 2010 Wonder cruise (not Alaska). (Cat 4 - room for 5 people) Are you a DIYer, or....? The Dreams Unlimited folks seem good though (and sponsor our beloved DIS board!), so you'd probably do just fine there, too.

We've done several cruises before - but not with the two youngest kids. Last one was 15 years ago when Z2H was little. Cunard, RCCL, etc. - all were wonderful!

[hopemax]

Let me explain the veranda room. There is what looks like a railing from the outside of the ship, but from the other side, where kids would normally try to put they're feet...it's plexi-glass, so completely smooth. There is no place to put a foot. That is the same for the other decks. It is either a solid wall or its the railing with the plexiglass back. The railings hit me just above the chest area, and I'm 5' tall to give you an idea.

Also the locks on the balcony doors in the stateroom, are high on the door, and rather difficult to open. And the doors are HEAVY. I would always have problems getting them open.

[hopemax]

Oh, rooms. Our non-Disney cruises we only ever had inside staterooms. We survived. Our Disney ones we had veranda rooms, because of my Mom's discount. I LOVE veranda rooms, but they are unnecessary. There are enough places around the ship to be outside, or have a seat by a porthole, that you can get that experience elsewhere.

But DH and I do like having a porthole minimum. Some people will get rooms across the hall from each other. So one porthole, one inside. Or one veranda, one inside.

[BernardandMissBianca]

Great news! Michellepooh is our local DCL expert - she's been on oodles of the cruises, but I don't know if she's done any of the Alaskan ones, or stayed in the Caribbean.

There's a lot of DCL cruise info on that DIS forum - we booked ourselves for our summer 2010 Wonder cruise (not Alaska). (Cat 4 - room for 5 people) Are you a DIYer, or....? The Dreams Unlimited folks seem good though (and sponsor our beloved DIS board!), so you'd probably do just fine there, too.

We've done several cruises before - but not with the two youngest kids. Last one was 15 years ago when Z2H was little. Cunard, RCCL, etc. - all were wonderful!

Usually for WDW I'm a DIYer but this is uncharted territory.
the cruise for Alaska is on the Wonder.


Let me explain the veranda room. There is what looks like a railing from the outside of the ship, but from the other side, where kids would normally try to put they're feet...it's plexi-glass, so completely smooth. There is no place to put a foot. That is the same for the other decks. It is either a solid wall or its the railing with the plexiglass back. The railings hit me just above the chest area, and I'm 5' tall to give you an idea.

Also the locks on the balcony doors in the stateroom, are high on the door, and rather difficult to open. And the doors are HEAVY. I would always have problems getting them open.

OK plexi-glass is good. And I'm 5'1" so that's a good visual. Good to know about the doors, my kids are little houdini's so I have to watch them all the time.

[BernardandMissBianca]

Oh, rooms. Our non-Disney cruises we only ever had inside staterooms. We survived. Our Disney ones we had veranda rooms, because of my Mom's discount. I LOVE veranda rooms, but they are unnecessary. There are enough places around the ship to be outside, or have a seat by a porthole, that you can get that experience elsewhere.

But DH and I do like having a porthole minimum. Some people will get rooms across the hall from each other. So one porthole, one inside. Or one veranda, one inside.

I like the large porthole rooms, from the pictures anyway.

[hopemax]

Think about it this way...how many children do you think have sailed on a Disney cruise? Consider the parenting you have witnessed in the parks... those people take cruises too. How many stories have you heard about a child falling overboard? As bad as you think your kids are, I'm sure much worse have been on the ship, and with more oblivious parents.

[PinballFamily]

Yeah - the DCL thing was new for us, too. I splurged on the $15 new edition of the Passporter book on Disney cruises - this was helpful, although the library copy (a couple of years old) was practically the same, too. Info from DIS folks on the cruise forum really helped us decide to book it. (And once we've gone once, then we're eligible for bounceback offers on DCL - woo woo!)

[Lisa]

DD has been on four Disney cruises, no problems going overboard. The railings are high, there is no way a kid can climb because of the plexiglass being inside.

We personal love having a verandah, for the three of us, we do the navigators verandah, two adjoining might work for the six of you. In the morning we would sit out there in our jammies having coffee and oj. In the afternoon we would order cheese and crackers and relax.

We preferred doing the first seating for dinner, then walked the deck for a bit, followed by the evening shows. Since you guys are used to eating later, you may want to do the second seating for dinner.

The kids program are great. You get a beeper when you drop them off, chances are you won't see them for most of the day.

[BernardandMissBianca]

I'm thinking the 8:30 for the second seating would be late though. What do you think? Especially with the time change.

Oh, decisions decisions. And man is it expensive!

[Michellepooh]

Hi Buffy!

Looks like a lot of your questions have already been answered! I wouldn't worry about the kids on a verandah. We just had one on our cruise a couple of weeks ago and our monkey (AKA 17 month old) didn't even attempt to fall overboard!

We usually try for the earlier dinner seating. That usually books up pretty quickly, but we've never had trouble getting it when we've been waitlisted.

The kids' clubs are amazing!! I get ditched by my 5 year old on a regular basis because he'd rather go to his "school".

Let me know if you have any other questions!! :goodvibes

[BernardandMissBianca]

Michelle how do I go about getting connecting rooms? Is there a place to find a layout of the ship that tells me where the connecting rooms are? Or do I tell my TA that I need them.

[fireplug]

We are on the may24th 2011 sailing. I have been to Alaska and to the ports we are going to. Its been 6 years though sothings may have changed some. OMG its also been almost 3 years since a cruise :scared1: I may be a little outdated on my info sorry.


Squid

[hopemax]

Do you have a brochure? They have pages showing the deck plans, in the back usually. The adjoining rooms are the ones with the triangles next to the number.

Or here's a link: http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/cruise/deck-plans.htm

There aren't as many of them as you would think, so they book quickly. The new ships will have more. I know you can pick your staterooms when you book online. But I saw someone say they couldn't book a connecting room online, but did have luck going through a TA.

[Tigger1221]

Oh we love cruising and LOVE Dreams Unlimited. I am one of those people who loves to be in control of vacation planning but Dreams has booked all our cruises. They are wonderful and you still book your own excursions. We like late dining b/c we get to see the show and then go eat. If you have early you eat then go to the show. Either way is fine but we have only ever done late and loved it.

I highly recommend the Passporter too! Its a great resource. If you want a window room a category 10 on deck 9 is what my parents book and we love it. I hope you fall in love with DCL, it is a great vacation. Oh and definatly take the kids, the clubs are great. On 2 of our cruises the adults got to take over the Lab and we all loved it, and wanted to play longer but had to let the kids back in.:goodvibes

[hopemax]

I love adult time in the Lab. They had that wall of coloring pages, hundreds of characters/poses. I got a stack about a 1/2" thick. I would get more now that I have SCAL :lmao:

So there's a tip for ya, Buffy...have your kids bring you back coloring pages for making paper piecings. :rotfl2:

[AlexWyattMommy]

I have the newest edition of the PassPorter for the cruise. It doesn't look like it has a lot of information on Alaska, but it does have tons about stuff on the ships themselves.

Did you want to borrow it?

[BernardandMissBianca]

Do you have a brochure? They have pages showing the deck plans, in the back usually. The adjoining rooms are the ones with the triangles next to the number.

Or here's a link: http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/cruise/deck-plans.htm

There aren't as many of them as you would think, so they book quickly. The new ships will have more. I know you can pick your staterooms when you book online. But I saw someone say they couldn't book a connecting room online, but did have luck going through a TA.

Thanks for the map! Really helpful stuff. I think if we went for the Verandah rooms it opens more possibilities.

Oh we love cruising and LOVE Dreams Unlimited. I am one of those people who loves to be in control of vacation planning but Dreams has booked all our cruises. They are wonderful and you still book your own excursions. We like late dining b/c we get to see the show and then go eat. If you have early you eat then go to the show. Either way is fine but we have only ever done late and loved it.

I highly recommend the Passporter too! Its a great resource. If you want a window room a category 10 on deck 9 is what my parents book and we love it. I hope you fall in love with DCL, it is a great vacation. Oh and definatly take the kids, the clubs are great. On 2 of our cruises the adults got to take over the Lab and we all loved it, and wanted to play longer but had to let the kids back in.:goodvibes

wait, I have to plan excursions? How do I do that???


I love adult time in the Lab. They had that wall of coloring pages, hundreds of characters/poses. I got a stack about a 1/2" thick. I would get more now that I have SCAL :lmao:

So there's a tip for ya, Buffy...have your kids bring you back coloring pages for making paper piecings. :rotfl2:
Oh they know! They ask me before they color on any book. LOL

I have the newest edition of the PassPorter for the cruise. It doesn't look like it has a lot of information on Alaska, but it does have tons about stuff on the ships themselves.

Did you want to borrow it?

Thanks but I'm going to hit the bookstore later this week. I know Burnbaums has a cruise book too so I'll pick up a few different books.

[hopemax]

Shore Excursions...

You can either pay for a Disney organized excursion, or do-it-yourself. On our 4 cruises, we have paid for a total of 2 excursions*. You can usually see the same things, or book with a local company for cheaper than what you would pay Disney. Although, going with Disney is probably easier...go to the meeting place, and then follow the Mickey sign all day.

The Alaskan ports are all within walking to distance to shopping, restaurants, etc. Ketchikan, is ridiculously close. Skagway has the longest walk, but it looks like they have a shuttle now. If you are used to walking around WDW, you will have no problem.

On our Alaskan cruise, we did take a shore excursion in Juneau so my Grandma could get off the ship and see something. We took a bus to a church in the woods type thing. Nothing super special, but it was a nice drive. However, we wished we would have taken the White Pass & Yukon Railroad in Skagway. Everyone raved about it, and seeing pictures online, and my Dad's a big train fan...if we go back, we'll be doing that. Hopefully, Rita will chime in about things to do, since she just was up their last year. It's 15 years since I was there, so I'm sure much has changed.

It doesn't look like Disney has announced the shore excursions yet, but they usually run from $50 pp to $250+ for the helicopter type tours. You have two opportunities to book them. A limited selection of spots will be released a few months before the cruising date for booking online. Return cruisers, have priority, so the spots may be booked before first timers get a chance. Otherwise, when you get on the ship, there will be a place to go to sign up for shore excursions.



*The 2nd excursion was a Sunday in the Canary Islands. Everything was closed, so if we wanted to do anything, it would have been a shore excursion. Only DH, went on his own to watch the local soccer team.

[Michellepooh]

Great info, Hope! :thumbsup2

I agree that the Disney-sponsored shore excursions tend to be more expensive than doing it on your own, but sometimes it's easier to just have the peace of mind that it's all taken care of. Another bonus is that if you book a Disney excursion and it runs late for whatever reason, the ship won't leave without you! Not true for excursions done on your own.

[Tigger1221]

We mostly do Disney sponsored excursions. My stepdad was in a wheelchair and uses a cane most days now and thats hard enough, so we trust Disney to lead us around and tell us which ones are good for him. DH and I have taken a non-disney one and had a great time but normally book with Disney for peace of mind.

I missed the coloring pages!! Maybe I will my sister in to get me some this time.:thumbsup2

[LindaBabe]

Buffy, I just typed you a long winded reply and lost it. Please call me at your convenience - I am pm -ing you my phone number.

[ddavis860]

I can chime in on a few things too. I've not done the Alaska cruise, but we have done a bunch in the carribbean...Met Squid and his wife on one :wave: Hi Squid!!

The ship is kid safe. We always have a veranda. It's so nice to be able to go outside and have coffee in the morning. We have also watched the fireworks from the veranda when one of the kids was too tired to stay up on deck.

My experience with excursions... When the kids were small, we went with the Disney sponsored ones. I felt more comfortable knowing that the ship wouldn't leave without us, and that they were used to having little kids on these. They are crowded, but we always had fun...


Breakfast we do the buffet. There is a character breakfast you will be scheduled for too. We did it the first cruise, and never again.

Lunch is at the pool, kids always had pizza. Unless we booked an excursion that had the meal included.

Dinner, you rotate through the restaurants. Every night is something different. Your servers rotate with you, and they really try to get to know your likes, and are great with the kids. You can go to Palo, just you and your DH, and the kids will be in the club, they will take them to dinner at the buffet, or you can take them early. Palo also has a brunch which was soooo good too.

We always try to do spa time. His, hers, couples...

We did early dinner when the kids were little, if they were tired after dinner, no show, we went to the cabin. Now we do later. It's better for the excursion time when using outside vendors, then not rushed to get to dinner. I never wanted to miss the restaurant, I love the shows they would put on in there...


I got the passporter, I do recommend it. Also, look for the thread for your cruise on the cruise board. And another good reference for excursions was CruiseCritic.com. Great for reviews of excursions and stuff...

[morgansmom2000]

Why no character breakfast again, Deb?

[ddavis860]

Why no character breakfast again, Deb?

I didn't write that correctly. It's not that it was bad or anything. It's just you can't do everything, and we all agreed that was something we could do without. We did it once, and we prefer the buffet, sitting outside either watching the water, or looking at the port...

[morgansmom2000]

I didn't write that correctly. It's not that it was bad or anything. It's just you can't do everything, and we all agreed that was something we could do without. We did it once, and we prefer the buffet, sitting outside either watching the water, or looking at the port...

Okay, thanks for clarifying. I know *I'm* looking forward to the character breakfast, don't know about the rest of my family, but really, it's all about me ;)

[Arizona Rita]

Hey Guys, I'm here! This all started while I was at the movies.
Bamb, how exciting for you and family! Dont worry, we'll get you through all of this!:goodvibes
Post 22, main reason why we prefer to use DCL excursions and know from first hand that the ship was good to her word, happened while in Palermo.
Yes, you may end up paying a bit more but its worth it for the security and peace of mind.
Verandah~ Im on the tallish side. When we took our first and didnt know anything and didnt even know about the boards, we got a porthole cabin. Our next one they upgraded us to a v and we wont look back. But it is difficult to climb them and its not really even comfortable to put your feet on them because my feet keep sliding. But we didnt want one at first because Banana was 6 and we were afraid for the same reasons. Do you need one, no, would it be nice yes.
Food~ OMG! if its not free, your not looking! I agree with Hope on that one!:goodvibes
Show vs dinner~ We are early diners and enjoy letting our food settle during the show. You have little ones and you know they will get dinner but if they get cranky you can always ship the show.
Did anyone mention that the younger the kids are the more the servers play with them and pay attention to them to the point that if you would like them to cut their meat, they will? And as they get older, as in the case of DS, they kind of hang and adapt what they talk about and for DS whenever he would see our server they would hang for a couple of minutes and that made it nice for DS.
Shore Excurions/Alaska~ Bamb, just ask. Whatever you want to know I will try to help you there. The reason we did not wait for DCL is that they dropped their Glacier Bay contract and that was something we wanted to see and expierence.
I loved the Skagway train ride. Again, agree with Hope. But you do take a bus back down but you end up in a place called Liarsville (Scrap w/swaps Jan)
and its fun. But when you get up to Fraser make sure you get your passport stamped with the Canandian stamp.
We are paid in full for the Baltics but even now thinking of changing over to Dreams Unlimited. But from what I understand they only deal in email and have a 48 hour window to get back to you and Im one of those want to know now people.
I agree that it is very overwhelming at first but you will get through it:goodvibes
I never heard of this adults getting to take over the lab! And I do have some of the coloring pages.
And if your kids are character kids, they come with you. We dont even spend time at the parks anymore looking for them, we just wait for the next cruise.
And dont forget Tea with Wendy for your DD!

[BernardandMissBianca]

Buffy, I just typed you a long winded reply and lost it. Please call me at your convenience - I am pm -ing you my phone number.

will call you tomorrow if I can get time. Darn kidlets are sick again!

[BernardandMissBianca]

Hey Guys, I'm here! This all started while I was at the movies.......

Holy cow Rita!! Loads of info to digest.

So how does one go about doing excursions? Is there a place where I can look at the list of tours.
We will probably stick with Disney this time out since I have no idea what we are doing. LOL

Gonna copy and paste and send all this to DH. I will probably be back with more questions soon.

[Michellepooh]

Go to disneycruise.com, look under "Cruises and Destinations" and for each port there will be a listing of "port adventures". They haven't posted the Alaska excursions yet.

[scrapgirl3]

We had connecting rooms for our cruise last February (Disney Cruise) and LOVED them. It was so much nicer (in my opinion) then the larger room that was a higher category because it was less expensive AND we had 2 bathrooms and 2 showers which was really helpful!
We went through a travel agent and just told her we wanted a connecting room and she made it happen. I think if you click on the Disney Cruise line forum here on this board there will be an area at the top about staterooms and that will have a map of the ships. Then you can use the key to see which ones are connecting rooms. I believe all the connecting rooms are inside category 10 (but I could be wrong about that).
Have fun planning, it will be a fun trip!

[BernardandMissBianca]

Go to disneycruise.com, look under "Cruises and Destinations" and for each port there will be a listing of "port adventures". They haven't posted the Alaska excursions yet.

Got it! DS13 wants to do the European capitals cruise. He's like can't we do that for my single trip? I'm like uh no, Ma is not going to watch the little ones for 12 days! LOL

We had connecting rooms for our cruise last February (Disney Cruise) and LOVED them. It was so much nicer (in my opinion) then the larger room that was a higher category because it was less expensive AND we had 2 bathrooms and 2 showers which was really helpful!
We went through a travel agent and just told her we wanted a connecting room and she made it happen. I think if you click on the Disney Cruise line forum here on this board there will be an area at the top about staterooms and that will have a map of the ships. Then you can use the key to see which ones are connecting rooms. I believe all the connecting rooms are inside category 10 (but I could be wrong about that).
Have fun planning, it will be a fun trip!

Thanks. I've been trying to lurk on the cruise boards, but I have no idea where to even start. I will spend some more time over there this weekend.

[ddavis860]

Thanks. I've been trying to lurk on the cruise boards, but I have no idea where to even start. I will spend some more time over there this weekend.

Buffy, while on the cruise board, look for a thread for your cruise date.

I also make door magnets for the different days, and what we were doing. So for formal night I had a magnet that featured Beast and Belle, for Semi Formal night it was Cinderella. I had different ones for the port and excursion we were on. I took a dry erase board for the inside of the door for the kids to post where they were, but it kept falling down, and wasn't used...

Last cruise I took a picture mat, and sharpies. The characters all signed. That was cool! Some people take a pillow case and have that signed. Take it to guest relations and they take care of it for you. We try to take the formal pics, and the kids get some with the characters. Will you have a pirate's night on the Alaskan cruise? We dressed up for that one last time.

I also recommend an over the door shoe organizer for the bathroom, great for the counter stuff that there isn't room for on the non counters.

[LindaBabe]

Please don't book it until we talk!