What I would do/not do next cruise

[JanBlessed]

Next time (different):

wake up 1 hr earlier everyday, get on the ship before my check in time, check the 1st day's navigator right away, spa treatment, Castaway beach cabana, send DS to kids club more often (he just went twice), go to adults area

Next time (same):

Skip sail away party, not wait for DH to meet characters, get off at Nassau about 3 hrs after docking and back on about 2 hrs prior to sailing away, Atlantis and lunch there, room service for one dinner, Palo dinner inside with dessert on the balcony under the moonlight, detective game, pirate dance party & fire works

 

[Drew9780]

Bumping

 

[COASTIEandMATE]

Something I would like to try next time:
Stay awake past 9pm to experience some of the night time activities

We would second that!! We are early risers, taking photos, enjoying an empty ship early in the a.m. We will try to stay up for the fun after 9p.m. Missed it on the last TWO cruises!!

 

[disneychic]

Will Do:

Relax on Deck 4 teak loungers...one of my favorite things to do on every DCL cruise I've ever been on.

Get yummy coffee at Cove Cafe and have my card stamped for a free coffee!- after you buy 5 I think

Brunch at Palo (already booked it!)

Re-book while on board to get 10% off of my next cruise!

Order room service milk & cookies before bed

Skip a show if there's a good 1st run movie playing.

Have lunch in one of the main dining rooms (non buffet)


Won't Do:

Pirate night.... after 11 cruises I think I'd rather shop while everybody else is up there!

Spa treatments - paid way too much for my mani/pedi last time - and didn't appreciate the constant sales pitch to buy spa products.....plus the fact that the girl giving me the mani/ pedi tried to make me feel like there was something wrong with me because my cuticles were dry....Again, this all went back to sales pitch...."but, if you buy this $70 miracle cream you won't have dry cuticles".

Pay for an allotment of Internet minutes. I didn't use all if them last time so, now I'll just pay as I go.

Eat an appetizer, salad AND dessert at dinner. I think that a Salad and an entree are more than enough!

 

[Drew9780]

Bumping

 

[Carys]

Back from our double dip, had a blast! Best serving team yet, really fabulous, and food was much better than on the January '11 PC.

Will do again:

- Skip "re-run" shows. We skipped Golden Mickeys this time, and really enjoyed the quieter evening on our balcony.

- Sleep in longer and stay up later. There wasn't too much going on for us in the mornings, and we didn't miss breakfast with the abundance of food aboard on the days that we sleepily waved our arms and rolled over for a few more hours shut eye. We enjoyed more of the evening entertainment in the clubs at the other end of the day.

- Pack light. This time I took an 18 kilo suitcase (last time had 2 x 20 kilos). Didn't miss anything I left behind.

- Speak up about unsatisfactory service. Last cruise, there was a server who annoyed me with her lax attitude and service, but we didn't speak up and it irritated me the whole cruise. This cruise, we had a lax stateroom host, and the floor housekeeping manager was excellent about fixing things when I put in a complaint on day 2. I feel much better about this experience.

- Re-book on board. It's much easier leaving the boat behind when you already have another one to look forward to

- Hyatt. We always arrive late at night due to international flight timings, and MCO Hyatt is perfect! Breakfast is reasonably priced too.

- Go to the DVC celebration on day one. Free mimosas, hurrah!

Won't do:

- Use those aerosol sunscreens. I followed the directions perfectly, enlisted help to ensure 100% coverage, re-applied as I should, etc, and still ended up with painful sunburn. I guess I'm too pale, and have to stick with tried and true rub on cream sunscreen!

- Dinner cocktails. Never as good as their descriptions (and is it me or are they always much smaller measures than similarly priced drinks at the bars?)

- Welcome bottle of sparkling wine & chocolates, welcome packages in general. We've tried a couple of "welcome" packages now and there's always so much going on that first evening, we don't really need anything else extra.

- Pre-booked spa treatments. The daily packages offered on board were much better value.

Confession:

- Three cruises totalling 24 nights...and we still haven't swum in any pools on board, except for a dip in the Rainforest spa on the Dream! Slackers!

 

[Trinity524]

 

[lark]

Won't do: get off the ship in the western caribbean, except at castaway cay or possibly to see historical sites. There is nothing as good off the ship for a few hours as there is on it. With the exception of touring ruins, there isn't much to do that can't be done as well or better elsewhere. Time on the ship is just too valuable to us and the sea days were so packed that having some breathing space on board was nice.

 

[Mox]

Our last cruise, we skipped a few nights in the main dining rooms and it was great. We ate once on deck and once at the casual sit down. It was great to eat at our own pace and not worry about getting all cleaned up.

Will do:
attend more seminars/tastings
relax at the pool more
not worry so much that the kids want to spend ALL their time in the club. It is their vacation too...let them enjoy it

 

[Patricia1]

Sorry, I have no answers, just a question since we are going on our first cruise (Fantasy) in Sept...I was wondering why so many of you said that you would change your dining ressies to the late seating instead of first seating??? Our TA advised us to sign up for early seating when I booked-she said it's always easy to change to late...Why late? Just wondering! I am reading all of these posts and feel like I need to take notes!

For us, late seating is great on port days....no rushing back, getting ready, etc. Fyi we've sailed 5 times w/o a child 4 times with.

 

[BlakeandMaddysMomma]

Bumping to get this thread going again by recent cruisers!

 

[becca1976]

I've already filled up an entire page in Microsoft word with all these great tips! Thanks everyone! I can't wait to hear what this years cruisers have to say. We take our first DCL trip in August of next year (on the Wonder to Alaska!), so I have plenty of time to plan

 

[100AcreWood]

Will Do:

Relax on Deck 4 teak loungers...one of my favorite things to do on every DCL cruise I've ever been on.

Get yummy coffee at Cove Cafe and have my card stamped for a free coffee!- after you buy 5 I think

Brunch at Palo (already booked it!)

Re-book while on board to get 10% off of my next cruise!

Order room service milk & cookies before bed

Skip a show if there's a good 1st run movie playing.

Have lunch in one of the main dining rooms (non buffet)


Won't Do:

Pirate night.... after 11 cruises I think I'd rather shop while everybody else is up there!

Spa treatments - paid way too much for my mani/pedi last time - and didn't appreciate the constant sales pitch to buy spa products.....plus the fact that the girl giving me the mani/ pedi tried to make me feel like there was something wrong with me because my cuticles were dry....Again, this all went back to sales pitch...."but, if you buy this $70 miracle cream you won't have dry cuticles".

Pay for an allotment of Internet minutes. I didn't use all if them last time so, now I'll just pay as I go.

Eat an appetizer, salad AND dessert at dinner. I think that a Salad and an entree are more than enough!

Milk and cookies before bed? You have my attention. How much does that cost?

 

[gumbypee]

Milk and cookies from room service costs just a tip to the delivery guy!!! Yum

 

[BlakeandMaddysMomma]

I learned that there a specific times of day that are worth going to the family and other times are just not worth it!! The BEST time to go is before breakfast and after first dinning assignment. Don't even bother in the afternoon, there is NOTHING relaxing or fun about that environment.

I agree 100% about the cookies!! Also, go to the drink station on deck 11 and get a cup. Take it to the ice cream station. Tilt the cup and fill I half with chocolate and the other half with banana=HEAVEN!!!!

 

[nannylori]

Will ALWAYS call room service at midnight,every night, and order one Mickey Bar AND chocolate chip cookies....it's the stuff dreams are made of.....

Will NEVER feel guilty about sitting ANYWHERE on the ship and just staring at the ocean - take time to do nothing once in awhile

 

[believinthemagic]

what I will do again...

Take advantage of using the showers in the spa to get ready in the morning. (Worked great because I was always awake first & didn't want to wake everyone else up getting ready)

Get a verandah again ( loved sitting out there to relax!)

Order muffins, donuts & drinks the night before for breakfast. (saved so much time to just eat while we got ready since we aren't early morning people)

Go to paradise beach in cozumel



What I won't do again....

Wait until 15 minutes before to go down for the princess gathering (line was 1 1/2 hrs long)

Miss Magic Dave's show. (I heard it was great!)

Pack so many clothes!!

 

[StacyLynn624]

Will Do:

-Bring my Metrokane Champagne Cork again. I'm a champagne drinker, and the Pink Tattinger is delicious but $18 a glass at Pink! It's $90 in Duty Free for a bottle, and there's an empty fridge in your room. I brought it and my husband bought me a bottle of Asti (yuck - too sweet, but I'll drink it) as part of the wine package he got, and it allowed me to have my one glass each night on the verandah. I'm nursing, so I couldn't kill the bottle in one sitting.

-Order warm chocolate chip cookies and milk before bed. We did this each night on the cruise, as well as order a cake of the day (it was ok. I might skip that, but i'm a sucker for cake) and watch a new-to-my-son Disney movie. I found movies on the On Demand Disney Library that he hadn't seen yet, and it made the cruise more enjoyable, since he discovered new characters to love. The first night, we watched Lilo & Stitch, which worked out well because we met Stitch at Castaway Cay and he was all excited. Little Mermaid was the second night, and Aladdin the third. The last two helped at WDW. He also thought it was funny that Mommy knew all of the songs.

-Allow DS to go to the kids club for a portion of the trip. I had a breastfed infant with us too, so I couldn't take her to the nursery (because she won't take a bottle, either), so we kept him with us. He met some kids on the deck on pirate night, and they wanted him to go. I probably should have let him, but I didn't. I wanted him with me.

-Go to the movies. Hopefully, DD will be old enough for a movie on the next cruise.

-Ditto with the shows. Go see a show.

-Take more pictures with Shutters.

-Read the Navigator more closely so I'd know when to meet the characters. I didn't figure that out until the 3rd day.

-Pick up some food to take with us to Castaway Cay. We woke up late and ran off the ship to meet Smee (my son's fav) and Hook, and didn't eat breakfast. There wasn't anything to eat on the island until 11:15.

-Get up earlier to get a chair in the sun. We could get a chair under the cover of the upper deck pretty much anytime, and some along the windows of the pool deck, but I couldn't ever get a lounger in the sun. I never went in the adults only area, though. Just the family area.

-Consider dropping both kids so we can go to one meal or bar. I felt like I couldn't do half of the stuff because I had a baby attached to me. DH went to Pink to bring me my glass of champagne to my room.

-Getting pirate stuff at Target. In the party supply aisle, they have 4 packs of patches and single hats for like $3.

What I Won't Do:

-Order a bottle of Asti Spumonte. Gross.

-Fly in the night before. Pick up drinks to bring on board.

-Do the Junkaroo tour at Nassau. We did PI, and it kind of sucked. Maybe when the kids are older and can do the waterpark, we might go back, but I'd like to do the Junkaroo tour, or just stay on the boat.

-Start buying gift cards at Target now, like $50 or $100 each time I go, so we can pay for the whole cruise with gift cards. Bring about $300 per day in additional gift cards.

-Bring more disney stuff for my kids to wear. I got a few t-shirts at Old Navy, but we didn't have much. I would consider bringing a few more.

-Bring 3 water bottles. We had one for our WDW trip, but we like to drink lots of water at night, and we never had enough. It was a pain to go up to the fountain on Deck 11. We should bring 3 and fill them up before bed each night.

 

[Kim1964]

We went on our first cruise two weeks ago. (Dream, 4 night Bahamian)
Things I will do:
1. Take the same cruise and reserve the same stateroom (already done while still on board!).
2. Sit on deck 12 with my Cove Cafe frozen mocha and enjoy the sunshine, the ocean, and the quiet.
3. Fly in at least the day before so I'm not stressed about getting to the ship for boarding.
4. Ride the Aquaduck.
5. Read the Navigators more carefully to be sure I'm not missing out on something fun.
6. Try to rent a cabana for CC...they look amazing.
7. Join a FE exchange....people doing it looked like they were really having fun!
8. Order milk and cookies at bedtime.......didn't even know about that one until after we got home.
9. Rent a car and park it at or near the port so it's there when we get off the ship OR use Disney transportation.

Things I won't do:
1. Have a massage. It really was crummy to have a nice, relaxing massage and then face the hard sell to buy spa products I neither need nor want....relaxation didn't last after that experience.
2. Bother getting off the ship at Nassau unless we book an excursion. We didn't book any and I would rather have stayed on the ship than wander aimlessly around town.
3. Park days after the cruise. I'll do them before instead. (I didn't enjoy walking around IoA before I got my land legs back.)
4. I absolutely, positively WILL NOT rent a car from Budget, to be picked up when we get off the ship. The forever wait for the shuttle followed by the one hour wait in line to get the car was a hard dose of real life after a magical 4 nights on the Dream.

 

[StacyLynn624]

^^ I think we might have been on the same cruise!

And I agree. Park BEFORE the cruise. I'm not walking anywhere for a week. I'm exhausted!