Things you wish you knew(or glad you did) for your first DCL cruise

[MattMatts-Momma]

Like I said in my post, I know that the morals police on here would flame me, but the original post asked what we were glad we did. I am glad that I sent that soda in that box. Now, if you have REALLY never in your life done anything, at any time, for any reason, that has broken any rule that you were aware of, then let me complement you on being perfect. Otherwise, your opinion of what I did is totally irrelevant to me.

 

[gssmks]

Hey, I totally get it. My hubby parked while I brought 3 young kids into the boarding area with all of our carryons. It was miserable because my case of water and 2 bottles of alcohol in my bag were SO heavy. But, skipping the morals police piece (because I do get it), the no drinks in the shipments is in case they break and get on everyone else's stuff. I'd be annoyed by that if my stuff were covered in MD. Glad it all worked out though!!

As for the original question, I'm glad I brought my own alcohol. I'm glad I sent the kids to the kids club to eat at Palo. I'm glad I didn't follow ANY schedule other than dinner. I'm glad I stayed on the ship in port at least once. I'm glad I ate ice cream every single day.

Actually, when I ship the soda I treat it as I do any other liquid that I ship anywhere else, or that I pack in my luggage for that matter. It gets sealed in plastic before it gets packed. If there is an accident, the contents will be contained in the plastic. Learned that lesson as teenager the first time I arrived at a vacation destination, opened my luggage and found everything covered in shampoo.

But as for the list of things I'm glad I did, we too stayed on the ship in port (Naussa) and I am glad we did that. My daughter was afraid to swim when there were so many kids in the pool. That day, there were only a few other kids, and at times, she was the only kid in the pool.

 

[gssmks]

It's not a question of morals. It's a question of consideration. Would you still feel glad about that box if one of the cans exploded and leaked on someone elses box perhaps ruining the contents? Would you still feel glad about that box if you knew that your rule-breaking was the one who made it impossible for anyone to ship things ahead?

Oh wow! So we do have one that is perfect! Congratulations!!!!! But seriously, read my previous post and you will see that I wrap the soda, as I do all liquids (shampoo, conditioner, lotions, etc) in plastic wrap before packing. If there is an accident the liquid will be contained inside of the plastic.

I will also say that I know there is a possibility that the soda can explode, however it has to be a very rare situation. Because of my single mother status and my inability to handle both children and lots of luggage, I actually ship boxes (usually more that one by the way) to all my vacation destinations. Soda is always included in every shipment, and there has never been accident. In fact, most of my friends now ship boxes also (learned from me) and they have never had any accidents. I would feel sorry for anyone who has something destroyed by an exploded soda or broken bottle of wine. But, if they mail a package to the ship that package will pass through several postal check points and be on several trucks/planes etc before it reaches the ship. A box being mailed to a Grandma somewhere with liquid in it can bust and get on the their stuff before it even reaches my box on the ship. Point being, if you have something that can be destroyed, you probably shouldn't mail it.

Maybe, we can all learn another lesson her today.......I wrap my soda so if there is leakage it will not get on my or other people's stuff. Maybe we should all be wrapping all of our stuff that we mail to the ship in plastic to protect it from the possibility of someone else's package leaking some substance on our stuff. See, we can all learn from each other.

 

[harleyquinn]

Please don't get this thread closed guys!

Thanks for all of the great tips and keep them coming!!

Were on a five night going to CC and Cozumel and we've never been in the Caribbean so we'll do both ports, but maybe the next cruise we can stay in. ;-)

 

[PoohJen]

Things I am glad I did on my first Disney cruise - and still do!

- "meet" my fellow cruisers through the DisBoards meets thread! I am still friends to this day with several of my first DCL cruisemates, and we have since cruised and/or Disney'd a few more times together!

- lots of research! Asked questions on the DIS, read trip reports, get a feel for what I can expect.

- had my kids wear their bathing suits upon embarkation. That is a great time to go swimming (though in recent years, even then the pools are getting more crowded).

- order room service at least once!

- my favorite tip was to bring an "over the door shoe holder" - this was great for keeping all the little things handy, like camera, sunblock, sunglasses, etc. I have read here that DCL doesn't like you to do that anymore (concern for door damage? In my 6 prior cruises I never noticed any door damage), so I will have to try a modified version next cruise, maybe something that can be hung from a hanger in the closet).


- something I started with Cruise #1 and we still do to this day (even though my kids are now 16-20) - I knew my kids would love the clubs and kid activities. I let them know the expectation was that they would have dinner with us every night and take in a show or activity afterward. This eliminated any potential fussing or conflicting schedules. They've never questioned this and we've had some great family memories.


Things I wish I knew prior to my first cruise:

- I had visions of sitting poolside, relaxing with a frozen Drink of the Day. This was not to be - my 3 boys were ages 7 - just-turned-12 and they kept running from one pool to the other (which were not together in a direct line of site). The 7 year old twins wanted to play in the pools more than the clubs, so that's what we did. But it was very HECTIC and LOUD and CROWDED. - We had a blast, but it just wasn't the "relaxing" vacation I had envisioned! And as you can see, we kept coming back for more! I should add that in future trips, as they got older and more independent, our pace evened out a bit!


Parting thoughts:
- we often bring a little beer, wine coolers, water. We are usually so stuffed all week that we don't touch it (the water is good to bring to CC, however, especially if its very hot out and you want something right by your lounge all day). We could do without brining the cooler and wouldn't miss it a bit.


- you can't do it all - don't even try, or you will get frustrated. Look at recent Navigators online to get a sense of the things you and your family might like to do, and realize you may miss some of them. Take it easy, enjoy each moment, and don't sweat the small stuff!

Have a GREAT time!!!

 

[ccander2011]

I'm very exited to be taking my very first cruise and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Can you share things that ask newbies need to know?

TIA!!

We will be doing our first cruise on the magic in October 2014..I love reading all the tips/ideas

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

We wished we would have known that the professional photographers are NOT there to take your photo in the Princess Gathering in DLounge. Waited 30 min, got towards the front, realized NO ONE but the families with their own cameras were taking pictures, had no wave phones and no camera phones and thankfully a nice lady we had chatted up took 3 wonderful ones of us with each princess and emailed them to us after the cruise. But that was a close one! Those are the only photos I can remember with Belle, Ariel & Cinderella...in years if not ever! Our photo with Princess Tiana was taken in the atrium by dinner, so we didn't know that if it's not in the atrium, there are no cameras to take your photos. Plan accordingly!

I also didn't know to leave enough room for the pirate buffet. I was way too full. Now that I have experienced Garden, I can save room for the buffet after.

Lastly, we knew the fireworks started at 10:30 but we were going to stand in line and get Tinkerbell photos when the line was suddenly closed. But the CM looked at us (in full pirate corset and cavalier hat regalia) and said "You should get up to the top, you are about to miss the pirate show" and so we did, to find MASSES AND MASSES of people up on deck. A pirate from the stunt show (I would later find out) approached me (I think he tapped my shoulder) to inform me that "we were commandeering the ship!" and just like that he jumped down the ladder and the live action show started with Jack Sparrow.

Somehow I did not have any idea about the show, until the CM had said something. My recommendation is to get there before 9 or so if you can. It was probably 9:45 when we got up there and viewing was tough!

I ran out of room/time to order a mickey bar for desert. I will NOT be making that mistake again!

We almost missed the Golden Mickeys because in my opinion, it was very under promoted. We ran in to my husband 20 min before the show starts and he said "Hey you know there are lots of princesses in this show. You better get ready!" so we did. and it turned out to be our very favorite show of the cruise. Conversely, if ghosty stuff offends you (as it does us), we would wait out the first 15 minutes of Villains until it changes its tone to very tongue-in-cheek play on a villain that is just bad at being bad and is quite funny. But we didn't care for the 'spirity' ghosty dancing in the beginning. So if you know that you don't like that, you can come in the show late, etc.

I wish I would have gotten pizza before Midnight. After that, only room service is available, and it was a 45 min wait the one day we asked, so we said never mind.

Have a great cruise!

 

[Narnia_girl]

I was glad to learn that I could ask for something from the other restaurants even if it wasn't offered on the menu of the current restaurant. For example, I love their French Onion Soup, so I ordered it every night, even though it was only on the menu in one of the main dining rooms. They might not be able to accommodate your request, but you can ask.

Also glad we took a carry on with swimsuits, and got to the main dining rooms a few minutes late--getting there on time meant waiting.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Oh yeah. NEVER AGAIN.

No more IHOP in Orlando, poo on them. Service was very slow (but our waitress was great!!) Due to that and a debacle turning in our rental car (miscommunication about which terminal to meet up at and waiting for each other!) we didn't get to car park until about 2ish and didn't get on board until 2:30!

Next time, take the free breakfast at the hotel (or a drive thru) and get to port early. That IS what I am going to do!

 

[ludari]

I didn't know how addictive cruising on Disney would be. DCL should have warned me.

 

[Saratoga75]

Things I wish I knew before my first DCL cruise?

That we could bring our own liquor on board. At the end of the cruise the bill was quite big mostly from the alcohol purchases.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Bummer, Saratoga! That was one of the FIRST things (that and the included soda) that was brought out to me by the first Disney rep I spoke to.

Either your TA/Rep did you a disservice, or booking yourself online and not checking with resources like here or cruise critic wasn't to your advantage...

I'm glad I talked to the CM first. He told me all about Pirate night too so I was ready with all my outfits!

 

[mordecai]

That we could bring our own liquor on board. At the end of the cruise the bill was quite big mostly from the alcohol purchases.

I feel ya, I wish I'd known that too. Our first cruise was done by my inlaws so we used the same TA this time and...well it was a mistake. She's pretty well worthless.

Things I wish I knew:
1) Book with a TA that will give you onboard credit
2) If you're flexible wait for GTY rates
3) Room service is free except for drinks and the "snack" section of the menu
4) You can request things that aren't on the menu if you want something specific
5) Bring a cup carrier if you have more than 3 people going; trying to carry cups for a family of 6 from deck 11 to your room sucks.
6) Bring a BIG mug for water (or whatever) so you don't have to keep going back.
7) The 5k on Castaway Cay doesn't get you off the boat "early" and will chew up most of your morning
8) Once you're off the boat it's difficult (very?) to get pictures from the cruise
9) The discount and on board credit for rebooking onboard
10) Atlantis in Bahamas is over rated (IMO)
11) As stated above, bring your own drinks

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of at the moment

 

[princesspwrhr]

We decided ahead of time that all iPhones & iTouches would be left in the van at the port. I was really looking forward to DH being unplugged from work for the first time in 16 years. I had no idea how much I would enjoy it for myself! Best thing about the trip was being unplugged. (we're flying next time so they'll be OFF and in the safe)

That being said - we realized I also left my watch in the van and it's the wave phone is a bit of a pain to get the time off of. (when you push a button, the screen flashes for half a second, then goes to the time free unlock screen for an eternity before it will show you the home screen-either after or without unlocking) and clocks aren't the ship are few and far between or well hidden. lol So we did feel a bit lost not always knowing exactly what time it was.

I forgot the wave phones worked on Castaway Cay, so we didn't bring them and one of our teens freaked a bit trying to find us after their teen excursion.

I'm glad I knew/remembered to drop off photo mats at guest relations for character signings. I ended up packing the girls autograph books in the van. This was both a blessing and not - they had already gotten autographs from most of the characters they visited on the ship (but not all), and we had one less thing to try and carry around - often we just "ended up" at a meet and greet (see note above about not always knowing what time it was). So the photo mats were a great way to get the signatures and just enjoy the characters. Downside -I should have asked for different signatures on each mat. Now I have 3 wonderful mats with exactly the same signatures in nearly the same place... lol

Pirate night had the most appealing menu of any of our restaurants. We had good food in all of them, but the menu on Pirate night was more to our taste - unfortunately, those items are only available on Pirate Night. :-(

The pools are awful during the day. "seat saving" is abundant, the kids can barely move, even though the rules that come across the bottom of funnel vision on day one say no jumping or diving - it happens, more with the obviously unsupervised kids than the ones with parents in eyesight, but enough to frustrate. Added to the mass quantities of people - we avoided the pools during the day.

Ordering a carafe of coffee from room service around 10-11pm for my husband in the morning was perfect! Glad to have read that idea.

Have your kids (And adults) try on the lifevests in the room before or after the muster. They're a bit boxy and clunky and it's much better to be familiar with the awkwardness and not need it than to try and figure it out in a panic. And really it takes 5-10 minutes tops to have everyone put one on and get them put away. Time WELL spent.

Bring a spent gift card with a magnetic strip for the lights. That way you don't have to bother with a room key there.

 

[mordecai]

Bring a spent gift card with a magnetic strip for the lights. That way you don't have to bother with a room key there.

Good point! I forgot about the lights. You don't need a magnetic strip, anything that is like a credit card will work to keep the lights on. I used 2 starbucks "song of the week" cards that I had in my wallet to keep them on.

 

[Diz Kids]

Things I wish I knew/glad I knew for my first cruise:
1. Arrive at the port early & bring a bathing suit. We were able to board the ship quickly upon our arrival. We had lunch at Cabanas and then changed into our suits to swim. It was the least crowded I saw the pools for our entire 4-night cruise.
2. Room service has Mickey Bars. I didn't see these on the menu anywhere, but I had read it here and my kids thought this was fantastic!! The only mistake I made was ordering them too long after we got to our room, so they were delivered seconds before the muster drill. They had to wait in the fridge.
3. They were selling the drink of the day near the pool area as a 2 for the price of 1 after the sail away party. I really enjoyed the one I had earlier, but my cheap side really wished I had waited I don't know if this always happens or not.
4. You can carry your own bags off the ship when disembarking rather than leaving them out the night before. We were headed to the parks after our cruise, so we ordered extra room service cereal the day before and got off the ship as soon as we could with our own luggage. There was no line or wait at all.
5. Not to stir up the heated debate above, but pack your liquids (water, liquor, etc) in a carry on. I thought I had read that on here, but then the porter said I could give him the suitcase I had with a case of water in it. Then I saw that in order to get luggage from one floor to another they literally throw them down the stairs. Our suitcase with the water was the last one to arrive at our door (undamaged thankfully), but I was worried the entire time that our water would explode everywhere.


Enjoy your cruise!!

 

[mrssmiddy]

Plan to book your next cruise (even if you don't know a specific date) while on the ship, to get the discount and the on-board credit. Because you will want to go again!

Bring extra sunscreen. I thought I brought plenty on our first cruise, but had to buy more on CC...it was pricey!

If you are a picture person (or a scrapbooker), get your pictures taken at every opportunity, to make buying the CD worth the cost. We didn't have many taken the first cruise...made up for it on the second one!

I wish I had known about the DISboard and FE before our first and our second cruise. Finally, participating in a meet and FE for our third cruise!

Don't try to do everything...relax, and have fun!!

 

[princesspwrhr]

Things I wish I knew/glad I knew for my first cruise:

4. You can carry your own bags off the ship when disembarking rather than leaving them out the night before. We were headed to the parks after our cruise, so we ordered extra room service cereal the day before and got off the ship as soon as we could with our own luggage. There was no line or wait at all.


Enjoy your cruise!!

This reminds me of something for those that are NOT doing express walk off ( taking bags off the ship with you). It's a general travel tip- PERSONALIZE YOUR BAG in some way. It's bad enough watching the endless carousel of black & gray bags when you fly, but until you see a warehouse stacked with 90% black and gray suitcases you just have no idea. And since the bags are lined up on the floor and stacked on shelves- it's the handle you want to personalize (or a band longways).
DCL "tries" to keep your luggage together, and "tries" to sort of in number order, but that's not always possible. The 6 of us only had 3 pieces and they were scattered among the section. I overheard others saying the same thing and witnessed some who had luggage together in a reasonably close area to where their stateroom # would be.

The customs line moves so quickly though. It was nice.

 

[harleyquinn]

Thanks so much everyone!!

I'm so excited to see a lot of new things I totally didn't know about here. I've been reading old threads like crazy and I got an older PassPorter, but you all have really added more for me.

Keep it coming!

 

[JAMWDW]

These boards helped us out a lot too for our June cruise on the Dream! A few things of note from our experience:

- Be sure to bring a room deodorizer for the bathroom, like Febreze Set & Refresh.

- There was plenty of built-in drawers/cubbies for the three of us. We were amazed at how much storage there was in our cabin. No need for any special organizers.

- Mixology and martini classes on our 3 day were only offered afternoons while we were in port. We were busy with port activities so couldn't make it. A good activity for an 'at sea' day.

- We loved having breakfast outside on the deck at Cabanas! It was so pleasant to eat while overlooking CC.

- We wished we had done an evening movie on-deck in a lounge chair - it looked so relaxing!

Enjoy your cruise! With all of the great tips you're getting here, you can only have a great experience!