First time on DCL sailing Wonder Feb 11, 2013. Lots of questions :)

[candle817]

This is our first cruise with DCL and our first cruise with kids. This time our family is receiving this cruise for Christmas from myself and DH (Mickey is scheduled to call at 8am Christmas morning) Our kids are DS17 & DS9. We sail out 2/11 on the Wonder from Miami after making a 12 hr drive from Mobile AL. Any suggestions on any of the following:
1. How much ship credit should I initially put up? We are visit WDW every other year so have a lot of souvenirs but I know these are different and I'm a photoholic.
2. What's the "rules" on bringing alcohol (beer) onboard and the rules of bottle water?
3. How early should we be at the port to try to "beat the crowd" and any pointers at the terminal?
4. And any tips at all would be great!!
5. Oh and anything special done for valentines day? And we will celebrate our 16th anniversary on the ship also.
Thanks in advance!

[lonestardawn]

We are doing this same itinerary on 1/14. It will also be our first cruise with DCL and with kids (although my kids are much younger than yours - 1yo and 3yo). Sorry I don't have any answers to your questions but I am looking forward to hearing others responses and hearing about your planning.

[AJaquins]

Originally Posted by candle817

This is our first cruise with DCL and our first cruise with kids. This time our family is receiving this cruise for Christmas from myself and DH (Mickey is scheduled to call at 8am Christmas morning) Our kids are DS17 & DS9. We sail out 2/11 on the Wonder from Miami after making a 12 hr drive from Mobile AL. Any suggestions on any of the following:
1. How much ship credit should I initially put up? We are visit WDW every other year so have a lot of souvenirs but I know these are different and I'm a photoholic.
2. What's the "rules" on bringing alcohol (beer) onboard and the rules of bottle water?
3. How early should we be at the port to try to "beat the crowd" and any pointers at the terminal?
4. And any tips at all would be great!!
5. Oh and anything special done for valentines day? And we will celebrate our 16th anniversary on the ship also.
Thanks in advance!

1. Well you have to budget for gratuities to be added on to your account at the end of the cruise unless you've prepaid. Then there's alcoholic or speciality drinks and extras like light up cups at dinner. You also have to budget for souvenirs and excursions also. The photo package is great for photoholics we managed to get over 300 pictures in a week and it included all the prints. It was expensive but it was worth it to us.
2. Alcohol can be brought on board in your carryon only. I've heard of people "checking" a case of water with a luggage tag attached. But after seeing how much your luggage goes thru it would be better to carry it on.
3. We sailed out of Seattle so your experience will probably be different than ours. We had a port arrival time of 11:30 but we drove from home and ended up getting there at 10am and ended up being the 1st family to be checked in. They still let us check in early and we still had our later boarding group number.
4. The cast members are great on the wonder and so easy to talk to. Don't be afraid to try new foods on board if you don't like it they will get u something else. Our server was wonderful at substituting for things that we knew we liked. Enjoy the ship you won't be able to do everything the 1st cruise (we rebooked on board for next year) and we didn't get to experience everything but it was still a wonderful vacation. We got to know the people in shutters and they started telling us about special character appearances. If you do get the photo package make sure you do the white background shoot those are some of the best pictures of my husband and I.
5. You can do many things to make your cruise special for your anniversary. Palo for just you and your husband or a stateroom gift. If you let your travel agent or cruise line agent know also they let your server know and they bring you something special. My In-laws got a dessert from Palo on our cruise and anniversary buttons.

[candle817]

Thanks for all of the info! That's great!!

[rzin]

Originally Posted by candle817

This is our first cruise with DCL and our first cruise with kids. This time our family is receiving this cruise for Christmas from myself and DH (Mickey is scheduled to call at 8am Christmas morning) Our kids are DS17 & DS9. We sail out 2/11 on the Wonder from Miami after making a 12 hr drive from Mobile AL. Any suggestions on any of the following:
1. How much ship credit should I initially put up? We are visit WDW every other year so have a lot of souvenirs but I know these are different and I'm a photoholic.
2. What's the "rules" on bringing alcohol (beer) onboard and the rules of bottle water?
3. How early should we be at the port to try to "beat the crowd" and any pointers at the terminal?
4. And any tips at all would be great!!
5. Oh and anything special done for valentines day? And we will celebrate our 16th anniversary on the ship also.
Thanks in advance!

yay! congrats! we're on the same cruise as you and your family! I'm with my DH and my 2 DS's 7 and 11. Have you gone through your initial "check-in" process online? I know we chose a check-in time of 11:30, but hope to be there earlier and maybe get on sooner rather than later. But my understanding is it's pretty smooth, the whole boarding process. Alcohol, as mentioned above I read is fine to bring in your carry-on. We're planning on bringing a couple of bottles of wine for sure. We're also planning on attending Palo for a special dinner just for DH and I....that may be lovely for your anniversary dinner. Have you planned any excursions for your family for Cozumel and/or Grand Cayman? we're trying to figure out what to do still....(I posted in this forum asking that very question....looking to compare ideas).