What I would do/not do next cruise

[Cruella 66]

I love all y'all's lists and have taken them to heart!

I bought photo mattes (2) and some different colored Sharpies. Where on the Magic do I take these? And do I put it all in a large envelope? Thanks! Cindy

P.S. and I won't play Bingo...I do remember that was a huge disappointment from our first cruise. It was so long ago I can't remember much else.

 

[luvs2cruise]

Great thread! Subscribing

 

[disneydeb]

I pretty sure I ate everything but the cold cuts Oh and except for the pink cheese that remimded me alot of my kids thrown up chunky strawberry milk Sorry TMI

 

[5forDis]

Our first family cruise is in April...this thread is so helpful to read. Thanks to everyone who is contributing for us newbies.

 

[disney1990]

You know what I Would NOT do next time? I would NOT listen to DH when he suggests a short nap after dinner on Pirate night! On our last trip, we were all still so exhausted from 4 days in WDW then onto the Cruise. On Pirate night we all lay down for that nap and didn't wake up till after 10 pm!! errrgghhhh. We missed the WHOLE Pirate Party!

OMG - we did the same thing on our last cruise. If I am tired, I will lie down and take a nap next time.

 

[ravensilverlight]

I love all y'all's lists and have taken them to heart!

I bought photo mattes (2) and some different colored Sharpies. Where on the Magic do I take these? And do I put it all in a large envelope? Thanks! Cindy

P.S. and I won't play Bingo...I do remember that was a huge disappointment from our first cruise. It was so long ago I can't remember much else.

Toss everything into a large ziplock bag marked with your name and stateroom number. Then drop the bag off at guest services (it's a nice gesture to add a little "thank you" gift like a bag of candy or whatever, too!). You can let them know if you only want certain characters to sign and they'll accomodate you! They should bring your things back on the last night - but they MAY not, it's happened before - so don't forget about it! Maybe write yourself a post-it note or something to remind you to pick them up if they haven't brought them back. Easy!

 

[dizzi]

I'm sorry to hear you got dehydrated, that can really run you down.

Things I will do again
1. Once on board the ship and after lunch, do a hidden Mickey sacavenger hunt. We learned our way around the ship and saw the areas that are off limits (teen club, nursery, etc)

oh yeah, another thing i would do again is order BLT's from room service-yummy! i think i ordered them 4/7 days on our recent cruise!

Bring NYQUIL with you. and Dayquil. They don't have a great selection of meds on board at the gift shop.

Take Bonine starting the day BEFORE you cruise if you get sea sick. I found I didn't need to take it much and only did so on one other occasion on the cruise.

Order room service.

Watch the movies up on the Ariel Screen at night... it's sort of like watching a drive in movie, only at sea... Sometimes they show a Pirates movie, we had more nights so they showed other Disney movies as well.



I'm going to Palo... he's eating chicken fingers.

let me give this a try...
First My List - DH 42
:
relax on deck 7 "secret" verandah
Go to the sports deck the first thing u do if u want to be alone cuz there is no one there
dont be always on laptop (it ends up being work and u dont want to work on vacation)
only go to the sail away party if this is your first disney cruise

thanks again ....still have a few left and then will post everything i lhave learned just all in one...

great treamill reading again tonight

 

[HawkeyeMickey77]

Loving this thread! Subscribing!

 

[Marshay]

I cant speak for the person who wrote those....
That i know of No there is not special incentives on board

And to book yur own excursion just look up where you and going on the net and many opportunities will come up

Thanks!

 

[mackiemom3]

Thanks! Great thread, helps me to see it all cant be done on a % night crz but doesn't need to either! subscribing!! Will def not feel pressure to get to every show, every dinner, breakfast (thank you room srvc....No Bingo and bringing a case of our fav beer too!

Couple of questions r/t to this...First time crz scheduled for April.
Do the Bikes on CC have toddler seats attached?
What is the rainforest room? Is it on the Dream?
Do they have a CB on all crz?
What is a dummy date when booking on the crz?
Am I expecting too much to do a FE in concierge? Just saw we are behind a very high imposing gate.
I have been reading threads for months without figuring out these questions.

Love the air freshener for BR.

 

[BigDogHU75]

I can answer some of the questions.

Thanks! Great thread, helps me to see it all cant be done on a % night crz but doesn't need to either! subscribing!! Will def not feel pressure to get to every show, every dinner, breakfast (thank you room srvc....No Bingo and bringing a case of our fav beer too!

Couple of questions r/t to this...First time crz scheduled for April.
Do the Bikes on CC have toddler seats attached?
What is the rainforest room? Is it on the Dream?
Do they have a CB on all crz? Only on cruises 7 nights or longer
What is a dummy date when booking on the crz? When you rebook onboard and are not sure when you will cruise again or the dates have not been released for the timeframe you want to cruise, then you can use another date and switch to the date you want later. You will still get all of the incentives from booking onboard.
Am I expecting too much to do a FE in concierge? Just saw we are behind a very high imposing gate. It is possible. You can have a planned time to deliver FE gifts to those in concierge.
I have been reading threads for months without figuring out these questions.

Love the air freshener for BR.

 

[DCLSecondChance]

Just the fact that I am giving DCL a second chance after our disappointing first experience is a chance to do and not do things next time.

First the Wills:

We will stay on the ship at Castaway Cay. Staying on a ship while she is in port is like having it all to yourself. Getting a chair by the main pool just after breakfast will be wonderful!
We will see our contacts at Atlantis and be taken in a private water taxi to the facilities. We will enjoy the water park and take a tour of the new facilities since our last visit.
We will spend time in the adult pool.
We will order room service every day!
We will visit the gym every morning when it opens.
We will eat healthy on this cruise.
We will skip the shows and spend time exploring the ship.


Now the Won'ts:

We won't let Disney force an unwanted upgrade on us. We picked a specific cabin for a reason. If we arrive at the pier to find an upgrade, we will insist on our original room.
We won't stand in line for character meet and greets. If our daughter wants to do that, she is welcome to and then can come find us.
We won't stress about our dining rotation and when we will eat at Palo.
We won't bring formal wear. We are on vacation and no one really cares.
If this experience does not exceed our expectations (and frankly after the first cruise we have very low ones of DCL), we won't give them a third chance.

 

[Jennyontheblock]

Will do again.
Have kids try some thing new at each dinner, who knew my kids would like oysters!
Brunch at Palo
Spend all day long on Castaway Cay (best day of the trip)
Plastic over the door shoe rack. This was the BEST advice EVER.
Order premium wine package. So nice to have a bottle of wine with dinner each night.

Will not do again.
Whiskey tasting. But this will be on DH's must do list
Wine tasting and Martini tasting back to back.
Deck parties, good for kids who love to dance in a crowd, just not for our family.
Worry about finding a place to sit on Castaway Cay, there is plenty of room for everyone.

Will do differently next time.
Take a pop up laundry hamper, there just is not much extra space.
Eat dinner at Paulo
Not worry about the website saying that Paulo Brunch was full. We stopped by our first night and were still able to get in for brunch on our second at sea day.
Take Windex wipes for cleaning veranda glass, gets salt water smudge pretty quickly so would have been nice to be able to do a quick clean.

 

[kgoldenh]

You know what I Would NOT do next time? I would NOT listen to DH when he suggests a short nap after dinner on Pirate night! On our last trip, we were all still so exhausted from 4 days in WDW then onto the Cruise. On Pirate night we all lay down for that nap and didn't wake up till after 10 pm!! errrgghhhh. We missed the WHOLE Pirate Party!

QUOTE]

Love this! thought we were the only ones this happened to. Glad to know we are not alone.

 

[MammaC]

Wonderful thread -love reading all of the dos and don'ts. Thanks everyone!!

 

[dISNEYlOveer]

I went on the Dream on Feb. 27-Mar.3, 2011 and it was fantastic!

WILL DO AGAIN:
1)Stay in the room that we picked
2)No character breakfasts
3)Meet the captain and get something signed
4)Go to the Pirate Party
5)Not see movies in the movie theatre (why do that when I can see the movies anytime after the cruise??)
6)Go on the AquaDuck right after breakfast (the line gets really long really fast!)
7)Go to the clubs when not at the pool
8)Lunch at Cabanas (on the first day and most days) or at the Flo's V8 Cafe
9)Get to the port early and get in line before some buses get there!

WONT DO or DO DIFFERENTLY:
1)Get off the ship at Nassau and maybe Castaway Cay
2)Get a room with a verandah because we weren't in the room that much

Thats all that I can think about right now. Disney Cruise Line Has GREAT service and would do it again, and again, and again, etc. and would recommend it to people!!

 

[DundasDad]

I'm not going to reiterate any previous points (many good ones!) - I'd like to add a couple of my own:

WILL DO:

• pay more attention to the Navigator. We were on our first cruise last March and were so overwhelmed with the myriad of things to do we probably missed out on a bunch of cool experiences
• relax more. I'm looking forward to to the EC cruise and the extra sea day

WILL NOT DO:

• forget what day we have Palo brunch and eat breakfast that day.

 

[AKMOUSE]

I'm sorry to hear that. I did the same and they were in my stateroom the last night of our cruise. It's one of my favorite mementos from the cruise, I got sharpies that match our decor , a picture we all liked from shutters, bought a brushed nickel frame with mickey ears/dcl logo stamped in each corner (at treasure ketch) I love it , definately doing that again next time. Thats nice of them to ship them to you

If I can ask - what size mat did you get? Assuming that you got an 8.5x11 frame...then would hte picture be a 5x7?
Our family room is a wall of our vacations and the year we did WDW (2007) there are 12 various disney frames. DCL (2010) is 2 frames (DCL ones) and a digital frame with our 200+ photos. For our DCL/WDW trip this time I would like to do a photo like this. Thanks!!

 

[aymekae]

As a disclaimer, we have no kids. I saw mostly people with kids post prior, which is great since that is the largest client base, but for those out there cruising without, here are my lists:

Things I Would Do Again:
-Stay at the Hyatt Regency at MCO the night before, check-in for the cruise at the airport, and take Disney bus transfers
-Palo Brunch
-Trade a lackluster port for a nearly empty ship
-Swim in Quiet Cove Pool/Spa more
-Skip lunch in the dining rooms and wait for 1:30 when our stateroom was ready to order room service! Great way to settle in.
-Book our next cruise onboard

Things I Will Do Next Time:
-Bring nicer shoes for dinner/Palo. I was embarrassed in my flip flops.
-Rainforest Room
-Find the time for a ship tour and a movie
-Bring a proper wrap/sweater for evening wear
-Arrange to share a taxi ahead of time if a DISer is going to the same place at the same time.
-Reapply sun tan lotion on beach days, even on nice, cool winter days (luckily, only the tops of my feet got burned, which was really the only part of me submerged in water all day!)
-Make sure to find that Dessert Buffet
-Take motion sickness medicine after getting off the ship to ward off landsickness

Things I Will Not Do Again:
-Wear a dress in port, even if headed to the beach! The slightest breeze… I don’t remember anything about Cozumel until we got to the resort and I changed into shorts and a t-shirt!
-Attend the “parties”
-Choose the cheapest rental car company on debarkation day. Stood in line for an hour and a half waiting for a shuttle, along with the other cheapskates! None of the other rental shuttles had the same problem we did.
-Post-cruise trip to Universal Studios Orlando (1 night/2 days). It was a very expensive mistake. So many reasons… long wait for rental car instead of taking Disney bus, expensive on-property hotel and places to eat, was pretty landsick for several days and all we wanted to do was sleep, lame rides/attractions, flew home way too late and only had a few hours of sleep before starting work again. We loved seeing The Blue Man Group at City Walk, though, and I did enjoy the Wizarding World of Harry Potter as a fan (my non-fan DH hated it and didn’t participate in anything but lunch at The Three Broomsticks!) We just wouldn’t do it the same way, in hindsight.

 

[Susiesark]

Will do: Order coffee from room service..
Every night we ordered coffee, in a pre-heated carafe, and every morning we had hot coffee to enjoy while still in bed.
Walk Deck 4 (on The Wonder) 3 times around the ship is 1 mile. Nice enjoyable exercise, no crowds, great scenery.
Get to know the CMs at Guest Services. The DO remember you and they make magic happen.

Will not do: See Toy Story The Musical..
Didn't enjoy it the first time, enjoyed it even less the second time.

Will probably not do: Character Breakfast...
It is a mad rush, between the food and the 5-second picture op with characters. Much better in the parks.