What I would do/not do next cruise

[mstee777]

WILL NOT:

Bring as much alcohol onboard. Hubby drank beer the whole cruise using the beer token. I prefer the drinks on deck. Maybe one bottle for night caps. But that is it.

WILL:

Order a wine package for dinner. That went really well and our beverage server was a big help picking new favorites.

Do a beverage tasting. I've done the champagne tasting and cognac tasting. Both were fun and informative. Hoping to do the mixology class next cruise.

Do a Palo Brunch. I can't speak for the dinner since I haven't done it yet, but I love the brunch!

Rebook a cruise while onboard.

Go to the DVC presentation. They give away a $500 stateroom credit!

Use room service as my wake up call. Even if the coffee is not great, it helps jump start the day. Then I get real coffee at cove cafe.

Make time for a nap in a heated tile lounger in the rainforest room. There were not many people in there when we cruised the magic out of Galveston. I missed the first few minutes of our show, but that was a seriously good nap!

Do the FE again. Yes it was a lot of walking, but it was fun. And I love seeing the creativity of my fellow cruisers. They inspired me to find my crafty side for the next FE.

 

[my2boys2disney]

WILL NOT:

Bring as much alcohol onboard. Hubby drank beer the whole cruise using the beer token. I prefer the drinks on deck. Maybe one bottle for night caps. But that is it.

WILL:

Order a wine package for dinner. That went really well and our beverage server was a big help picking new favorites.

Do a beverage tasting. I've done the champagne tasting and cognac tasting. Both were fun and informative. Hoping to do the mixology class next cruise.

Do a Palo Brunch. I can't speak for the dinner since I haven't done it yet, but I love the brunch!

Rebook a cruise while onboard.

Go to the DVC presentation. They give away a $500 stateroom credit!

Use room service as my wake up call. Even if the coffee is not great, it helps jump start the day. Then I get real coffee at cove cafe.

Make time for a nap in a heated tile lounger in the rainforest room. There were not many people in there when we cruised the magic out of Galveston. I missed the first few minutes of our show, but that was a seriously good nap!

Do the FE again. Yes it was a lot of walking, but it was fun. And I love seeing the creativity of my fellow cruisers. They inspired me to find my crafty side for the next FE.

$500!!! Really! On every cruise or what? Any limitations to this?

 

[Meghatron]

$500!!! Really! On every cruise or what? Any limitations to this?

It's a drawing with one winner, not a freebie to anyone who shows up.

Sent from my Tricorder using DISBoards

 

[mstee777]

$500!!! Really! On every cruise or what? Any limitations to this?

As a previous poster said, it is a drawing. But yes, they do it on every cruise and as far a I know there are no restrictions, except you have to be there.

 

[Marshay]

From the Dream

Will do:

Stay at MCO Hyatt the night before. It was very clean. Very convenient.

Relax on deck 4. I felt like I was missing out on something or didn't see something if I sat down.

Try to book a double dip for Castaway Cay because it was AMAZING! The BBQ was great, the place was so clean and the beach was terrific.

I'll skip the MDR's. The food was terrible. I much prefered Cabanas. Also I hate dressing up (do it everyday for work). It's vacation and I wanted to chill out - not hurry back from the show to get dressed for dinner. I love that shorts are allowed now!!

Will not do:

Fish extender. What a waste of space in my suitcase. What a waste of time running all over the ship and then carting all the "gifts" home.

Get off the ship in Nassau even if it was only for an hour (to get passport stamped). What an ugly place. And to be harassed every 10 steps! "Lady want a taxi? Lady want your hair braided? Lady want to go to Atlantis? OMG it was ridiculous.

BTW- *My 10 and 8 year old thought the kids club was boring. They spent some time in there the second night but then never wanted to go back.

*The inside cabin (11C) on deck 2 (stateroom 2021) was fantastic. It had plenty of room, the boys loved the magical porthole and our steward BART was awesome!

I will definitely check out deck 4 next time! Good idea!

Hope your next cruise is better!

 

[kdeans1010]

Will:
Drink water and not allow myself to be dehydrated.

Will not:
Get dehydrated and sun stroke and then drink!

 

[ImaDISchick]

6. Take hanging grooming kits/organizers. There are many pegs in the walls of the bathrooms and the five of us would've had no use for the now banned shoe organizer.

I think I missed this update. The shoe organizers are banned on the cruises now? It was on my list of "to gets" for our cruise in Oct (1st Disney Cruise for our family!), but now should I cross it off?

Thanks!

 

[disneyfreakliveshere]

From the Dream

Will do:

Stay at MCO Hyatt the night before. It was very clean. Very convenient.

Relax on deck 4. I felt like I was missing out on something or didn't see something if I sat down.

Try to book a double dip for Castaway Cay because it was AMAZING! The BBQ was great, the place was so clean and the beach was terrific.

I'll skip the MDR's. The food was terrible. I much prefered Cabanas. Also I hate dressing up (do it everyday for work). It's vacation and I wanted to chill out - not hurry back from the show to get dressed for dinner. I love that shorts are allowed now!!

Will not do:

Fish extender. What a waste of space in my suitcase. What a waste of time running all over the ship and then carting all the "gifts" home.

Get off the ship in Nassau even if it was only for an hour (to get passport stamped). What an ugly place. And to be harassed every 10 steps! "Lady want a taxi? Lady want your hair braided? Lady want to go to Atlantis? OMG it was ridiculous.

BTW- *My 10 and 8 year old thought the kids club was boring. They spent some time in there the second night but then never wanted to go back.

*The inside cabin (11C) on deck 2 (stateroom 2021) was fantastic. It had plenty of room, the boys loved the magical porthole and our steward BART was awesome!

I could agree more with you about Nassau, I wish I would have stayed on the boat, or booked an excursion. My kids were so stressed from the less than and hour we were there that I had to take them back to the boat. I would have to admit I was much happier back on the boat to.

 

[disneyfreakliveshere]

I think I missed this update. The shoe organizers are banned on the cruises now? It was on my list of "to gets" for our cruise in Oct (1st Disney Cruise for our family!), but now should I cross it off?

Thanks!

Yes they are banned, and honestly you really don't need them. We were just on the Dream Aug 22-Aug 25

 

[DisneyHysteria]

From the Dream


Get off the ship in Nassau even if it was only for an hour (to get passport stamped).

I've read a lot of comments about not taking our passports with us into Nassau but I'd like to get the stamp too. Is there no other way to do it but getting off the ship? We have an excursion booked and would obviously not want to lose them or have them stolen from a locker.

 

[NorCalDVC]

I think I missed this update. The shoe organizers are banned on the cruises now? It was on my list of "to gets" for our cruise in Oct (1st Disney Cruise for our family!), but now should I cross it off?

Thanks!

You can get one of these instead:

http://www.amazon.com/Clear-Vinyl-Storage-Pocket-Hanger/dp/B000KJZ2J0/ref=pd_sim_hg_1

We have found them very useful for longer cruises, but anything less than 5 days not so much.

We've gotten so many great tips from this thread! One of the best was to get a hydroflask water bottle. It is amazing! I think I've also given one to everyone in my extended family. Even our 5 year old brings one to kindergarten.

 

[sager1969]

Fun posts!

Will do:
1. Get to port at arrival time not earlier!
2. Go to DIS meet to see "friends".
3. Enjoy bloody Mary's while playing Bingo
4. Stay in one day while at Castaway Cay to enjoy the rainforest room post massage. (We have two day CC)
5. Write down the CM's I want to remember. I just knew that I would not forget the Activities team. I can only remember one name. I could kick myself for not writing this down! I did remember to put the name in the survey.

Will not do again:
1. Not get in the middle of the crowd during pirate party. I did not enjoy this as much as I wanted to.
2. Try to do everything. 1st cruise I thought would not be something I repeated often. I currently have three scheduled. You probably will come back at some point and can do the thing you miss.
3. I will not attend regular shows. My hubby is of the mindset - been there done that. They were great, but I like the pools and such while everyone is at dinner.
4. Eat dessert every meal. It was too much last time.
5. Tequila tasting - too much tequila for the lightweight.
5. Guess? I will not over pack.. Yeah right....

New things:
1. Adult pool
2. Seahorse catamaran and snorkel. We love to do this in Hawaii and hope this is fun.
3. Mixology or whiskey tasting
4. Rainforest room on Dream. Loved the tile loungers on Magic. Great for sore muscles.
5. See Jiminy Cricket if it kills me.
6. Aquaduck at night!

 

[erocrobro]

The after party is just a big dance on the pool deck, we stayed for about 10mins (if that long) before going to the pirate Buffet which definately should not be missed ( Turkey legs, Baked potato bar, Taco bar, and a crepe bar)...The buffet doesnt run very long so make sure you dont miss it

We will check out the Pirate Night buffet next time. We had second seating so we were full and it was very crowded, so we didn't go. I didn't know what kind of food they had, but about halfway through our cruise I told my son the food we had been eating was really good, but I just wanted some tacos! Had I known they were available that night, we would have gone.

 

[castmbr]

Yes! We had late seating so skipped dinner and ran up to buffet as soon as it opened. The food was good. Crepe bar was very yummy!

 

[lynnea6]

You can get one of these instead:

We have found them very useful for longer cruises, but anything less than 5 days not so much.

We've gotten so many great tips from this thread! One of the best was to get a hydroflask water bottle. It is amazing! I think I've also given one to everyone in my extended family. Even our 5 year old brings one to kindergarten.

Thanks to the link for the pocket hanger. I may have to invest in that since everyone has gone on about how helpful these type organizers can be.

I have a small hydroflask that DD takes to school with milk every day. I'd almost hate to take it on board for fear of losing it.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I could agree more with you about Nassau, I wish I would have stayed on the boat, or booked an excursion. My kids were so stressed from the less than and hour we were there that I had to take them back to the boat. I would have to admit I was much happier back on the boat to.

Wow. Do you mind if I ask which excursion it was, or do you think it was the schedule in general?

 

[ImaDISchick]

You can get one of these instead:

<amazon link that it won't let me post bc I don't have 10 posts yet>

We have found them very useful for longer cruises, but anything less than 5 days not so much.

Thanks for the responses, Disneyfreak and NorCal! Our cruise is 7 nights, so I think I'll go ahead and get this one.

 

[disneyfreakliveshere]

Wow. Do you mind if I ask which excursion it was, or do you think it was the schedule in general?

Not at all. We actually didn't book an excursion at all because we couldn't decide what we wanted to do. Some people said stay on the boat and don't get off in Nassau, some people say get off the boat. Some people booked excursions, and some people just walked around. It was so confusing. Because this was my first vacation in 2 years and our first cruise I was leaning towards staying on the boat to just relax, but my mother-in-law who went with us wanted to get off the boat and look around. I thought what would it hurt, so we did. Every 2 steps we had someone trying to sell us their deal, we walked to the straw market and I think that is what overwhelmed my boys, one if them with Autism. After we left the straw market and did some walking it became clearer to us that we needed to take them back to the boat before we had a full on meltdown happen. I can't wait to cruise again, but next time I would book an excursion ahead if time so we don't get stuck in the craziness of everyone trying to get you to take their offer, or stay on the boat and ride the Aqua Duck over and over again.

 

[disneyfreakliveshere]

Thanks for the responses, Disneyfreak and NorCal! Our cruise is 7 nights, so I think I'll go ahead and get this one.

Wow 7 days, I'm jealous. Have tons of fun.

 

[NorCalDVC]

Slightly off topic, but here are some things we typically pack and will bring for our next Disney cruise (our 6th):

- power cord or extension cord
- a few small disposable plastic containers (great for keeping snacks in the cooler/fridge in the room when we order from room service)
- ziplocks in various sizes
- sometimes we pack a nightlight for the bathroom, but lately we just pack a bunch of glowsticks. We use these when we travel internationally and they work great! One will last a whole night and our DD who is 5 loves them! Here's the ones we use:
http://www.amazon.com/Lumistick-Pre...F8&qid=1379045629&sr=1-4&keywords=glow+sticks
- small flashlight
- plastic file folder – great for storing and protecting important docs/photos and DD's artwork from the kids club
- you might consider bringing a large cup/water bottle to refill because the cups by the soda stand are pretty small (for sanitary reasons you’ll need to use the small cups to fill your water bottle)
- a bunch of small bills for room service and porters
- because we have a preschooler, we bring a collapsible footstool – invaluable for letting her be self sufficient, but for short cruises/trips we bring this:
http://www.amazon.com/Aqueduck-001-Faucet-Extender-Aqua/dp/B0071D1AKI
- dish washing liquid
- a couple of large clips (comes in so handy for such things as keeping the drapes shut, keeping clothes from blowing away, etc.) We got a pair in our FE one year and thought it was odd, but now it's part of our standard travel gear
- magnets with hooks for our lanyards. We keep them on the inside of our door so we never misplace our key (we use an old hotel card for the lights).
- a small, cheap dry erase board with magnets to hang on the inside of the door so we could leave messages. Post-its work as well.
- a clip (ha! yes another clip) with a magnet on the back that we attach to the outside of our door where we'd hang our dd's artwork. It made finding our cabin a breeze and she loved having it there.
- on a short cruise, instead of participating in the FE, we make a gift basket for our dd with beach toys and her favorite books.