In fairness, as best I can tell, the member cruises really are more geared towards Disney adults (perhaps teens would appreciate too, but a lot of it is sitting through extra lectures and visiting art exhibits)— I don’t expect my kids to be too excited for most of the programming, but maybe they will do a bit more for families this year with it being during summer break?
Having recently come off the 2025 member cruise (our first!) and wanting to extend the good vibes, I am reporting - there still weren't a ton of kids on the cruise (can only compare to one other big boat cruise, 2017 on the Fantasy), but there were still plenty. Luckily my kids (9, 13 and 10yo niece) were pretty self-sufficient. My 13yo went to selected talks and really enjoyed them; I went to some alone, and we all went to the evening shows (and all enjoyed them). During the daytime talks, we tried to get the tweens to go to the kids club (which did have many events scheduled), but they were happy to watch Funnel Vision all day.
Does anyone have experience with adding passengers or changing names (which I believe requires cancellation and rebooking) specifically on a Member Cruise?
My dad decided not to join us (and in retrospect it would have been hard for a 3rd adult to be in the family size cabin. We were just under the 120 days so we "saved" money by switching in my niece. It wasn't a cancellation (because we would have lost 10 to 25% of his fare, I believe). But because we booked another person in the space, and she was 10, her fare was lower. Ultimately, instead of getting a refund less whatever the cancellation penalty was, we switched my niece in and got a refund for the far difference. Win!
All set! Are ya'll doing early or late dining?
I want to know what people chose too. We've always done early dining and the show later, because of the kids. Kids are coming in 2026, too, and we chose early dining but are on the fence. Early dining makes the evening pretty structured - dinner, show, bed for the kids, and DH and I might stay out another hour or so. I feel like with late dining we might miss the show because we were doing something else, but then again, because of the time difference, we might not want dinner at "noon."
Fortunately, I am still riding high from last week’s MC (my first ever cruise!)
Me too!! (Second ever big boat cruise, first MC) We've been owners since 2017 and had grandfathered points, and the opportunity to go on the MC was definitely something we considered when deciding whether to buy those 25 direct points. I was still uncertain even the week of the cruise whether we thought it would be "worth it" - we liked the 2017 regular cruise, but our kids were much younger and we didn't love it. Then when 2025 finally had dates we could make - we were on hold for an hour booking on the first day. But work has been really busy, we've been traveling a lot, and I wasn't really in vacation mode when we were setting out. We checked in late, got a late PAT (2:30!!) But by 24 hours on the boat, I was definitely ready to book 2026. DH was leaning that way, for sure, but he wasn't a full thumbs up until a few more days into it. I checked on availability of verandah cabins on like Day 2 or 3 of the MC and there were still maybe 50 verandah cabins total across all categories below concierge. I got progressively more nervous the more fun we had with each passing day, and by the time we booked on the last evening there were only about 15 verandah cabins left! At the time categories 5, 6, 7, 8 were all fully booked. Went on the site to get info for a friend and now there is "limited availability" for inside and outside staterooms and everything else is sold out.
@CDKG and others who were on the 2025 cruise - what were your core memories from the cruise? Mine were the shows and the special talks. I would have done more of them if I could. I was a little overwhelmed the first day and missed a lot of things.
