We just booked...for next week!

[iwynlea]

Hiya everyone! We just booked for the 8/24 5-night double dip cruise on FL resident discount (whoooooooo - thank you Tracy at Dreams Unlimited). We're "experienced" DCL cruisers (6 times before), but never with such short notice so I have questions! So, can anyone help answer a few questions from a die-hard-planner who has never worked on such short notice before...

1) Will we receive travel docs via mail since we booked so late or do we just fill out everything at the port?
2) Will we receive luggage tags via mail? If not, how does it work at the port when we go to drop off our larger bags or do we just hand-carry everything onto the ship?
3) What's the current all-aboard time (it used to be 4pm, but I think it's earlier now??) Hubby and I are both working at our jobs Friday morning and then driving to the port in early afternoon, so I want to be sure we don't miss the boat by getting caught up at our jobs!
4) Any advice for our crazy last-minute adventure? I'm packing this weekend and we're making a quick trip to WDW to get our Disney Visa Rewards card for spending money!

TIA!!
Erica

 

[MND]

Hiya everyone! We just booked for the 8/24 5-night double dip cruise on FL resident discount (whoooooooo - thank you Tracy at Dreams Unlimited). We're "experienced" DCL cruisers (6 times before), but never with such short notice so I have questions! So, can anyone help answer a few questions from a die-hard-planner who has never worked on such short notice before...

1) Will we receive travel docs via mail since we booked so late or do we just fill out everything at the port?
2) Will we receive luggage tags via mail? If not, how does it work at the port when we go to drop off our larger bags or do we just hand-carry everything onto the ship?
3) What's the current all-aboard time (it used to be 4pm, but I think it's earlier now??) Hubby and I are both working at our jobs Friday morning and then driving to the port in early afternoon, so I want to be sure we don't miss the boat by getting caught up at our jobs!
4) Any advice for our crazy last-minute adventure? I'm packing this weekend and we're making a quick trip to WDW to get our Disney Visa Rewards card for spending money!

TIA!!
Erica

Enjoy your cruise! What did you pay for 2 adults and what kind of room did you get?

Mike

 

[Melissa S]

Congrats! We booked a last minute cruise, but not that last minute (35 days out).

1.) When we sailed in June we recieved travel docs in the mail but for our upcoming cruise in Septemeber we were able to print them out when I did online check in. When my luggage tags arrived there were no travel docs... this may be new for DCL or because we booked last minute. I don't know.

3.) For our 9/2 cruise all aboard is 4pm.

4.) Enjoy your cruise. Since we don't have ten months to do research I have been using the DIS boards to search for recommendations for port adventures and recent Navigators to prepare.

 

[CEGrant]

I think they list the all aboard time as 3:45 now. Unsure about travel docs. We booked about 25 days in advance for the 8/29 sailing, and I haven't received anything in the mail. I was able to do online check in and print off the signature page and such. No sign of luggage tags yet.

 

[bcanderson78]

Congrats on the cruise!! I've booked about 14 days out before and you probably won't receive anything in the mail. We just showed up at port with our cabin number and the porter's took care of our bags and w/o tags. We also printed our cruise docs online and then just filled in the medical form when we got there like normal.

You'll be fine and have a wonderful cruise!!

 

[fsugirl333]

We actually did this in April. We did get our travel docs on time, but I had already done everything online. Our luggage tags came with the travel docs as usual, but I was told we could get them at the port. We always drive to Orlando the night before our cruise so we have a shorter drive to the port just in case.

Enjoy!! We are so jealous we can't take advantage of the awesome rates they have right now

 

[disneydreamer82]

Just wanted to say that is awesome!! I wish we could take advantage of the great rates too, but already have another trip planned in October booooo lol

 

[iwynlea]

Thanks everyone. Did the online check-in when I got home from work today and there was an option to pick arrival time at the port...that was different from our last cruise! So we picked the latest time and will hope for the best. I saw on DCL we had been assigned a cabin number, so if we don't have tags I'll just show up and hope the bags make it to our room. I'm thinking of putting our dressy clothes for dinner in my carry-on, just in case, since for the first time we have early dining. We'd been wanting to try early dining anyway, so this should be fun...every other cruise has been late dining so yet another new experience. I can't wait!! First time we've ever just booked a cruise and a week later gone - whee!

 

[michelle9343]

I can not answer your questions but I just wanted to say HI I am on your cruise!! We have a cruise meet you can join!!!

 

[collectoraholic]

Thanks everyone. Did the online check-in when I got home from work today and there was an option to pick arrival time at the port...that was different from our last cruise! So we picked the latest time and will hope for the best. I saw on DCL we had been assigned a cabin number, so if we don't have tags I'll just show up and hope the bags make it to our room. I'm thinking of putting our dressy clothes for dinner in my carry-on, just in case, since for the first time we have early dining. We'd been wanting to try early dining anyway, so this should be fun...every other cruise has been late dining so yet another new experience. I can't wait!! First time we've ever just booked a cruise and a week later gone - whee!

If you don't have tags, once you get to the port, ask the porters for tags and they'll have some for you.

Enjoy your trip! Happy sailing!

 

[Tikihula]

Hi Erica. We're on that same cruise with you. One thing they may not have mentioned is that the Nassau and At-Sea days have been flip-flopped, due to so many ships being at port in Nassau on Sunday. We'll now be in Nassau on Monday the 27th and might be the only ship in port (wouldn't that be great?). No shopping crowds!

There is a cruise meet-and-greet planned for 3pm in the Vista Cafe on our embarkation day (Friday). There is also a cabin crawl planned for Sunday at 3pm, when several DIS cruisers will open their staterooms for a brief tour so we can see the various categories of rooms available. We'll start on deck 2 and work our way upward. The list is available in the August 24th Cruise Meet thread.

Congratulations on getting the cruise booked on such short notice, and with a Florida resident rate to boot! Come by and meet everyone - we're a friendly group.
Bev

 

[disneyholic family]

so i just have to say it again: i hate all you florida residents!!!!

(would you please adopt me so i can get those discounts too?????????)

 

[rctfan1999]

1) at the port
2) most likely from mail (unless you have extra luggage then they will give it to you there
3) there are times that you have to check in. 12:00. 1:00. 2:00. 3:00. There are the times that you will have to pick to check in. The finial boarding time is 3:45.
4) make sure you don't leave any thing behind.

 

[toywaltz]

We booked about a week out for the 8/10 and didn't receive luggage tags. They did flip-flop the nassau/sea days at well and there was one other ship (the Carnival Fantasy out of Charleston) in port.

 

[LunaCup]

I think they list the all aboard time as 3:45 now. Unsure about travel docs. We booked about 25 days in advance for the 8/29 sailing, and I haven't received anything in the mail. I was able to do online check in and print off the signature page and such. No sign of luggage tags yet.

Congratulations on booking last minute! My friends and I are also on your cruise. =)

As for your question I have read that around 1:00 is when open boarding starts. Some friends also cruising with us are arriving later so I called to ask and the DCL rep told me that you do NOT want to arrive at 3:45. Not sure when final boarding is but based on what she told me I suggest arriving earlier than 3:45 just to be safe, allowing appropriate time for parking, going through security, checking in, etc. Have fun, see you on the boat!

 

[CEGrant]

Congratulations on booking last minute! My friends and I are also on your cruise. =)

As for your question I have read that around 1:00 is when open boarding starts. Some friends also cruising with us are arriving later so I called to ask and the DCL rep told me that you do NOT want to arrive at 3:45. Not sure when final boarding is but based on what she told me I suggest arriving earlier than 3:45 just to be safe, allowing appropriate time for parking, going through security, checking in, etc. Have fun, see you on the boat!

I'm looking into running into Disboarders! We will be arriving at 10:30. I'm hunting the rare and elusive port concierge upgrade.

 

[goofyforwdw]

We to booked last minute for this cruise
Did docs on line will get tags at the port if they don't come before
So excited

 

[TChrist05]

My DW and I have cruised DCL 28 times and we have never booked a last minute cruise. We love the fact of "lookking forward" and then do the count down with each other.....how many weeks to go and then days when we get to the 4 week mark. I will be 60 in December and plan on working at least 2 more years. We look forward to the time that we can say--hey how about going on a cruise next week. As far as the Florida discounts--we are toying with the idea of buying a small inexpensive condo after we retire and going down for the cold months in NY where we live. Heck, if we own a condo in Florida I might qualify as a Florida resident and the discounts would follow...we are allowed to dream!
Tom & Marilou

 

[soy1]

....--we are toying with the idea of buying a small inexpensive condo after we retire and going down for the cold months in NY where we live. Heck, if we own a condo in Florida I might qualify as a Florida resident and the discounts would follow...we are allowed to dream!
Tom & Marilou

If you do decide to retire to Florida part time, drop me a note and I'll hook you up with my parents who do "seasonal" work at Disney - just for the perks. They were hooked up when they were Full Time RVers (back when gas was less expensive) and met up with others who worked part time at Disney during the winter months. Just enough to get free Disney passes for the Grandkids, discounts to Disney activities and a little spending money and exercise to boot!! It's not for everyone, but if you are Disney Friends, you'd probably have a blast!!

 

[MowgliFan]

Congrats! We're also in FL and were checking out those prices - can't go, but it was nice think about it for a few minutes! Have a great time!