2020 SWDAS Online Booking Questions

[rere101399]

Ok so we decided to grab a FL resident deal on a SWDAS this January. Eek! We’ve done 3 and 4 day cruises but never a specialty cruise or a 7 day. When my silver booking window opens in a couple weeks, I know I want to try to grab Palo brunch. What else should I be looking to book ASAP? 7 day cruises have character breakfasts, right? Are these usually offered more than once or only one day? SW character meet and greets? What about Jedi Training, is that booked online? I think the below is the list of what I’d ideally like to book, what I order should I try to book them in when the clock strikes midnight?
-Palo brunch
-Palo dinner
-Jedi Training
-character bkfst
-SW Meet & Greets (what are usually the options?)
-Maybe mixology but I’ve always had good luck booking this on board

 

[lklgoodman]

Which date did you get? We're doing our third SW cruise Jan 18. We're gold and will book activities this Frid. I can look and tell you what's available if you are on that cruise. Character breakfasts will be available on more than one day, will be several times for each. We never had a problem as silver getting anything, always booked at midnight. Jedi training and Chewey, r2d2 cp3o, and Darth Vader are all ticketed. If SW meets and jedi training are important, book those first They go fast!!! last year the only available times left for SW stuff was the morning of SW day(Thursday). Other SW characters will be roaming the ship on SW day, so no need to sign up. They also will have meets that you just line up for. If you sign up for jedi trading, make sure your kids are wearing close toe shoes(if they are wearing sandals, flip flops you will have to go get them different shoes in order to do it) Also take camera/video of it, it's really good.

 

[rere101399]

Which date did you get? We're doing our third SW cruise Jan 18. We're gold and will book activities this Frid. I can look and tell you what's available if you are on that cruise. Character breakfasts will be available on more than one day, will be several times for each. We never had a problem as silver getting anything, always booked at midnight. Jedi training and Chewey, r2d2 cp3o, and Darth Vader are all ticketed. If SW meets and jedi training are important, book those first They go fast!!! last year the only available times left for SW stuff was the morning of SW day(Thursday). Other SW characters will be roaming the ship on SW day, so no need to sign up. They also will have meets that you just line up for. If you sign up for jedi trading, make sure your kids are wearing close toe shoes(if they are wearing sandals, flip flops you will have to go get them different shoes in order to do it) Also take camera/video of it, it's really good.

Awesome! We’re on the same cruise! Jedi training and Palo brunch are probably most important, and the SW meets probably next in order of importance. That’s good to know about the character breakfast, I’ll do that after Palo and Star Wars stuff then. Thanks for the tip on the shoes too!

 

[lklgoodman]

Let me know if you have any other questions. This will be our 2nd WC and 3rd time on the Fantasy, however on our first one our GC excursion was cancelled due to rough seas and we stayed on the ship in Falmouth. If you like mojitos they have the tasting for it at the Heads Up bar on CC. Was fun doing it at that location.

 

[rere101399]

Let me know if you have any other questions. This will be our 2nd WC and 3rd time on the Fantasy, however on our first one our GC excursion was cancelled due to rough seas and we stayed on the ship in Falmouth. If you like mojitos they have the tasting for it at the Heads Up bar on CC. Was fun doing it at that location.

Thank you so much! We need to figure out if we want to debark at any of the ports besides CC, I’m thinking maybe just one. Our short cruises have just been Bahamian so we’ve never experience WC.

 

[Lisa F]

Which date did you get? We're doing our third SW cruise Jan 18. We're gold and will book activities this Frid. I can look and tell you what's available if you are on that cruise. Character breakfasts will be available on more than one day, will be several times for each. We never had a problem as silver getting anything, always booked at midnight. Jedi training and Chewey, r2d2 cp3o, and Darth Vader are all ticketed. If SW meets and jedi training are important, book those first They go fast!!! last year the only available times left for SW stuff was the morning of SW day(Thursday). Other SW characters will be roaming the ship on SW day, so no need to sign up. They also will have meets that you just line up for. If you sign up for jedi trading, make sure your kids are wearing close toe shoes(if they are wearing sandals, flip flops you will have to go get them different shoes in order to do it) Also take camera/video of it, it's really good.

I would personally love if you could let us know what availability looks like as a gold. I'm on the Feb 22nd one and this is my first SWDAS, I'm gold but had 5 cruises prior to 2005 so I'm a newbie too (did do a 4 night dream in 2018, this is my last possible date to use my rebook discount/obc).

I want to do both palo and remy brunch, would love to do wine and chocolate tasting (have heard that they have it at 3:45 on st. thomas day for eastern)
and Jedi training (kiddo is 11 so really his last chance) and character meets of course. Heard they only had meets available day of for an earlier January platinum booking - what is your feeling about when the best meet time is? better on another day or better to do all of the star wars stuff all one day?

Thanks!

 

[lklgoodman]

We're staying on the ship in Cozumel, last time we did a dolphin swim at Chankanaab Nat'l Park. There aren't really any at GC that interest us, but I'd still like to do something. There's a new resort they now go to at Falmouth that I think we're going to do. Has a pool and a beach with those big inflatable things.

 

[lklgoodman]

I would personally love if you could let us know what availability looks like as a gold. I'm on the Feb 22nd one and this is my first SWDAS, I'm gold but had 5 cruises prior to 2005 so I'm a newbie too (did do a 4 night dream in 2018, this is my last possible date to use my rebook discount/obc).

I want to do both palo and remy brunch, would love to do wine and chocolate tasting (have heard that they have it at 3:45 on st. thomas day for eastern)
and Jedi training (kiddo is 11 so really his last chance) and character meets of course. Heard they only had meets available day of for an earlier January platinum booking - what is your feeling about when the best meet time is? better on another day or better to do all of the star wars stuff all one day?

Thanks!

Last year we also did the EC, the only SW things available were on SW day. We were still silver then. I booked the 3 character meetings in the morning b2b. I think my dd did the jedi trading around 2pm that day also. We aren't SW fans, so we didn't really care if we missed seeing other characters by doing all of the meets on that day. We actually saw a lot of the other characters as we walked from one place to another. We had some of the soldiers come up and talk to us, I have no idea who they were. Last movie I saw was the one when Luke and Leai were born. We also did the BB8 character drawing that day, just show up for it. I was surprised that the only available times were on SW day last year. I thought that would be when everyone would want to do it, just to add to the fun on that day. But if I were a fan, and would want to do the extra SW theme stuff like the trivia, BB8 races, drawings, going to all the other meets, then I would book the ticketed SW character meetings on another day if they are available. That way you won't have to worry about missing the other SW stuff because you are at a ticketed meeting at the same time. We only had SW day available. Does that make sense? I keep getting interrupted by my neighbor texting me about a school fund raiser as I'm writing this, so hopefully you understand what I wrote. We didn't do any Palo last year. Everytime I've tried to do the wine and chocolate, it's been full. I really want to do it. Good thing about the Eastern is you have 3 sea days. I just booked another 7night EC for Jan 2021. I wanted to do late March or April so that we could avoid another SW, but they would have been thousands more, crazy!! Tortola and St Thomas are beautiful

 

[Lisa F]

Last year we also did the EC, the only SW things available were on SW day. We were still silver then. I booked the 3 character meetings in the morning b2b. I think my dd did the jedi trading around 2pm that day also. We aren't SW fans, so we didn't really care if we missed seeing other characters by doing all of the meets on that day. We actually saw a lot of the other characters as we walked from one place to another. We had some of the soldiers come up and talk to us, I have no idea who they were. Last movie I saw was the one when Luke and Leai were born. We also did the BB8 character drawing that day, just show up for it. I was surprised that the only available times were on SW day last year. I thought that would be when everyone would want to do it, just to add to the fun on that day. But if I were a fan, and would want to do the extra SW theme stuff like the trivia, BB8 races, drawings, going to all the other meets, then I would book the ticketed SW character meetings on another day if they are available. That way you won't have to worry about missing the other SW stuff because you are at a ticketed meeting at the same time. We only had SW day available. Does that make sense? I keep getting interrupted by my neighbor texting me about a school fund raiser as I'm writing this, so hopefully you understand what I wrote. We didn't do any Palo last year. Everytime I've tried to do the wine and chocolate, it's been full. I really want to do it. Good thing about the Eastern is you have 3 sea days. I just booked another 7night EC for Jan 2021. I wanted to do late March or April so that we could avoid another SW, but they would have been thousands more, crazy!! Tortola and St Thomas are beautiful

would you be able to tell me what time the meet and greets are? I'm wondering if they meet during first seating dinner and we are in 2nd seating (still on the fence about that) there is not a lot going on then and we can dress for dinner too! I hope I have some decent choices as a gold!

 

[lklgoodman]

Sure, when we did it last year all the times were in the morning/afternoon. If there were things in the evening, then they must have been all booked. If the cms who do the meets are also the ones who do the evening shows, then they can't have meets then because they would be doing the shows, but I don't know. The main character in the Jedi training also played Alladin in the evening show. He was really good. I would guess you should have some good choices. We've done 4 cruises Jan-March (all 7night, 3 on the Fantasy and 1 on the Wonder). None of the cruises have been sold out. I think the summer cruises get sold out more, so harder to get things. If I haven't posted by Saturday 12pm, just remind me. Dd has dance that morning so should be able to do it by noon when we get back.

 

[Lisa F]

Sure, when we did it last year all the times were in the morning/afternoon. If there were things in the evening, then they must have been all booked. If the cms who do the meets are also the ones who do the evening shows, then they can't have meets then because they would be doing the shows, but I don't know. The main character in the Jedi training also played Alladin in the evening show. He was really good. I would guess you should have some good choices. We've done 4 cruises Jan-March (all 7night, 3 on the Fantasy and 1 on the Wonder). None of the cruises have been sold out. I think the summer cruises get sold out more, so harder to get things. If I haven't posted by Saturday 12pm, just remind me. Dd has dance that morning so should be able to do it by noon when we get back.

Thanks, life is crazy here too. I appreciate you taking the time!!!

 

[lklgoodman]

Hey guys, I did my bookings last night. I was able to get everything, there were a lot of openings for stuff, but there were some surprises also. Since this is a WC there are only 2 sea days. I checked the Palo/Remy brunches for both sea days and there were at least 4 or more openings for both on each day. The second sea day had a couple of more choices than the first sea day. Dinner for both places had a lot of openings. All of the SW character meets were taken on the first sea day, there was no Jedi Training listed on this sea day, which I thought was weird. They also had SW character meets that were all taken on CC day. I thought this was also odd, I personally wouldn't want do it on CC day, especially if it means having to go back to the ship to do it. I never saw SW characters on CC, so I don't know if they had them hidden there or if the people who signed up for it will have to go back to the ship, I personally wouldn't like that. When we did the SW characters they had Chewey and then CP3O and R2D2 all in AP, so we were able to do them back2back will no problem. Darth was in one of the adults club, the Tube I think. We had him later in the day. They didn't have Jedi Training listed on CC day. So, it looks like the Jedi Training is only offered on the SW day. Good news, there were openings for it starting at 8am and going until 3:30, it's offered every 20 or 30 mins(don't remember which). When my dd did it, I want to say there were probably around 30 kids doing it in her group. So for our cruise the only openings for the SW characters were on SW day. I checked for each and there were still a lot of openings. They start at 8am and went until 5:15, offered every 15 mins. Seeing all of the SW meets full on the first sea day and CC day makes me wonder if they don't have as many openings on those days as they do on SW day. My advice if there are only openings for SW meets on the SW day is to take the earliest times you can get. Last year the only opening for Chewey that was left was at 8am. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it that early or not since we aren't really SW fans. I'm glad I did it though, because it was probably the best meet we've ever done on the ship. The person in the outfit was really a lot of fun and was joking around with us. Also doing it early got it done with, so then we were able to do other stuff. I don't have any of the paper navigators from the cruise, but the character drawings and trivia stuff we did were done in the afternoon. I don't know if they had the drawings and other games also in the morning or not. We were able to do the meets and then went to breakfast. We then had the rest of the day to do whatever, we did have dd's Jedi Training in the afternoon. There were all the different alcohol tasting still available. I wanted to do the Liquor and Chocolate one but it was offered on the Grand Cayman day when we are on an excursion and then on one other day and I didn't care for the time of it. Let me know if there's any other questions you may have. I would say, based on our cruise, there were openings for everything, the times for some stuff may not have been exactly when I wanted it, but there are openings.

 

[BCV23]

Yesterday we switched from a Feb cruise to January. I booked some things yesterday and after seeing this thread went back in to get some SW character meets. I think something weird is going on. It is still 111 days out so only Platinum can book right now but it is showing all SW character meets sold out on the first two sea days as well as CC. I did book two for SW day which worked out well for us the other time we did a SWAS cruise.

LisaF, there are chocolate and liquor tasting on the first two sea days as well as on St. Thomas day on our cruise. First sea day it is at 12:15. I can check the other days if you want.

 

[lklgoodman]

Yesterday we switched from a Feb cruise to January. I booked some things yesterday and after seeing this thread went back in to get some SW character meets. I think something weird is going on. It is still 111 days out so only Platinum can book right now but it is showing all SW character meets sold out on the first two sea days as well as CC. I did book two for SW day which worked out well for us the other time we did a SWAS cruise.

LisaF, there are chocolate and liquor tasting on the first two sea days as well as on St. Thomas day on our cruise. First sea day it is at 12:15. I can check the other days if you want.

Since the character meets are only available on SW day on your cruise also, that REALLY makes me think that they must not offer as many times for the meets on those days as they do on the SW day. I wouldn't think there would be that many conc/plat guests guests on every SW cruise that would fill up all the slots if they had as many as they do on SW day. Everyone I talked to on our cruise last year were either on their first cruise or were silver level.(yes, I'm THAT person who talks to everyone in the elevators, in lines). On our cruise the chocolate and liquor was also at 12:15 on the sea day and then at 3:45 on the GC day, which is Tues. Also when I looked at the SW meets last night they only showed meets in the morning. When I checked again this morning at 11am, they had them going until 5:15pm. So something is either messed up with the system or they added a lot more after the midnight opening time.

Rere, From what I saw, all of the port excursions were still available as of last night.

 

[rere101399]

Hey guys, I did my bookings last night. I was able to get everything, there were a lot of openings for stuff, but there were some surprises also. Since this is a WC there are only 2 sea days. I checked the Palo/Remy brunches for both sea days and there were at least 4 or more openings for both on each day. The second sea day had a couple of more choices than the first sea day. Dinner for both places had a lot of openings. All of the SW character meets were taken on the first sea day, there was no Jedi Training listed on this sea day, which I thought was weird. They also had SW character meets that were all taken on CC day. I thought this was also odd, I personally wouldn't want do it on CC day, especially if it means having to go back to the ship to do it. I never saw SW characters on CC, so I don't know if they had them hidden there or if the people who signed up for it will have to go back to the ship, I personally wouldn't like that. When we did the SW characters they had Chewey and then CP3O and R2D2 all in AP, so we were able to do them back2back will no problem. Darth was in one of the adults club, the Tube I think. We had him later in the day. They didn't have Jedi Training listed on CC day. So, it looks like the Jedi Training is only offered on the SW day. Good news, there were openings for it starting at 8am and going until 3:30, it's offered every 20 or 30 mins(don't remember which). When my dd did it, I want to say there were probably around 30 kids doing it in her group. So for our cruise the only openings for the SW characters were on SW day. I checked for each and there were still a lot of openings. They start at 8am and went until 5:15, offered every 15 mins. Seeing all of the SW meets full on the first sea day and CC day makes me wonder if they don't have as many openings on those days as they do on SW day. My advice if there are only openings for SW meets on the SW day is to take the earliest times you can get. Last year the only opening for Chewey that was left was at 8am. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it that early or not since we aren't really SW fans. I'm glad I did it though, because it was probably the best meet we've ever done on the ship. The person in the outfit was really a lot of fun and was joking around with us. Also doing it early got it done with, so then we were able to do other stuff. I don't have any of the paper navigators from the cruise, but the character drawings and trivia stuff we did were done in the afternoon. I don't know if they had the drawings and other games also in the morning or not. We were able to do the meets and then went to breakfast. We then had the rest of the day to do whatever, we did have dd's Jedi Training in the afternoon. There were all the different alcohol tasting still available. I wanted to do the Liquor and Chocolate one but it was offered on the Grand Cayman day when we are on an excursion and then on one other day and I didn't care for the time of it. Let me know if there's any other questions you may have. I would say, based on our cruise, there were openings for everything, the times for some stuff may not have been exactly when I wanted it, but there are openings.

This is such good info, thank you so much for taking the time!! I’m a little concerned still about Palo brunch having more openings on the 2nd Sea day since that is also SW day and I don’t know if we’ll choose to take a couple hours away from the kids for that on SW day. I think I’ve got my booking game plan, thank you so much for this!

 

[lklgoodman]

When I did our booking Palo had openings for brunch on the first sea day at 11, 11:30, 12, and 12:30. On SW day the openings started at 10 and went until 12:30 or 1:00. I can't look to see now since I booked ours. Really hate that they don't let you see after you book. They have Palo dinner starting at 6 and going until 9, offered every 30 mins. Don't know if you care about dinner. I think the dinners aren't as popular and much easier to get. There's more Remey brunches available on both sea days, those cost a lot more, so I don't think they are as popular.

I booked brunch and mixology for dh and I on SW day. I'm trying g to avoid SW stuff, lol! I just have to hope my dd REALLY enjoys the Edge club(first cruise for her going to it) and hope she doesn't all of a sudden become a SW fan!! My dd doesn't know we're going on this cruise, so I can't tell her about the plans.

 

[gatordoc]

I still think they may be holding back opening some of the SW meet and greets. We’re platinum, and on our opening morning to book the SW meet and greets for days 2, 3, and 7 were all (and are still) listed as sold out. The only day where they were available was day 6 (the actual SWDAS). We still haven’t hit the date for silver booking or for first time cruisers - still wondering if they may open up then.

 

[rere101399]

Ok thanks @lklgoodman !! I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for one of those brunch times! We would like to do Palo dinner well and are pretty open to it being any night but SW night so I’m not too worried about that. I’m curious to see what shakes out with the m&g s.

 

[rere101399]

@lklgoodman one more question for you if you get a chance! Did you happen to notice days/times of the character breakfasts and if there was a lot of availability? Thanks so much for all of your time!!

 

[Lisa F]

I still think they may be holding back opening some of the SW meet and greets. We’re platinum, and on our opening morning to book the SW meet and greets for days 2, 3, and 7 were all (and are still) listed as sold out. The only day where they were available was day 6 (the actual SWDAS). We still haven’t hit the date for silver booking or for first time cruisers - still wondering if they may open up then.

i will be keeping an eye on that myself though my window opens up in about a month for gold for my cruise. My guess is they won't open it unless they NEED to.