8 days until my cruise.. last minute details!!

[DisneyGator01]

Okay, there are 8 days until my first 7 day cruise, and I have some last minute details to work out...

1) What would you reccommend to order on the Tropical Night? It's a Small World Night?

2) How much film?

3)I am always confused about the security x ray machines and what to do with film.. carry it on, or check it?

4) 4 day cruises are less hectic.. I live in Orlando, what time should I arrive at port to get a good space in line.. I don't need to be first.. but I don't want to have to be in a mad rush either...

5)Behind the Scenes or Entertainment series? Which one should I try to get to all the sessions for?

6)Board games.. do they have them on board.. if so which ones? I am thinking of dominos, yatzee, sequence, etc... if they don't have them I'll be bringing my own...

That's all for now.. any answers are most appreciated!!!

 

[AnnMorin]

I think you should order anything and everything that appeals to you!
As for film bring several rolls! We finally bought a digital camera and will be using it for the first time on a cruise this year, before that we would use about 4-7 rolls. Plus underwater cameras, Please put your film in your carry on each time! The new xrays for security will ruin it in your checked luggage.
I would not get to the port before 10:30, you can not board until at the earliest 12:00 so if you get there beforehand there really is no point.
you can mix and match the series, do the ones that seem to spike your interest!
As for the games, I know that in the new pub area diversions they have several board games, such as backgammon. If you are really hooked on a game I would call DCL to see if they have it on board, if not bring your own.
Have a GREAT trip!

 

[dianthus]

Shutters does film developing on board. I don't know the price, but even if it's a few $ more, you won't have to worry about going through the airport scanners with exposed film, even if you hand carry it. Ann is right, the luggage scanners are really high powered now & will ruin your film if you pack it. We saw quite a few people getting their film developed onboard for this reason. Buy it at a discounter like Costco & carry it on with you. Film is expensive on the ship, or in ports. Have fun- takes lots of pictures!

Ann~ FYI ~ Make sure you bring at least 2 64mb cards or 1 128 min. with you on your trip for the digital. Unless you have a laptop to dump them to ( which I think is a waste to bring) you'll be glad you have the picture space. We shot everything in high resolution & went through 2 128mb cards, & a 32mb- about 350 pictures. If you go with a medium resolution setting, that should be good for reg. prints, go higher resolution if you want to blow up to 8 X 10 or better. It really depends on your camera. Most places have cards cheap now. We use XD cards for our Olympus & 2 128mb cards were $100 at Costco. Smart Media are cheaper still. Most cameras come with a 16mb, or 32mb card max. Since the camera is new to you, I didn't want you to run out of card space on your trip!

There is chess, checkers & backgammon in Diversions, built into the tables. I'm not sure about other games available. I'm sure the kid's clubs have some.

I agree with Ann, ask your server to bring you a couple of items to sample. Our servers suggested the items they thought were good & brought out a few others for us to try automatically. It's not a problem if you take a few bites. Have fun!

~ Linda

 

[AnnMorin]

You are a smart woman Linda! We have a 128mb card and the 16mb card (the 16 came with the camera) I just bought an extra 64mb card so that I would be sure to have enough memory. We always use the high resolution, I have gotten pretty good at editing and dumping photos ( I love that aspect of the camera) but I wanted to make sure I have plenty of memory!

 

[dianthus]

Ann~ You should be all set!

11/8 was our 3rd cruise & I am amazed that we still take so many pictures! What makes digital so nice is that you can save them all to a CD & print only the ones you really want. You save a great deal by not processing everything. Emails & screensavers are a snap!

~ Linda

 

[CanadianCruiser]

I'm a digicam nut, and 128 megs would never last long enough for me! I have one 16, 128, and a 256 meg card for my 4 megapixel Canon S40 that I use along with a digital wallet (Imagetank) which is the size of a small Sony Walkman which houses a 6.5 gig laptop hard drive.

I just stick my CF card into that, and it downloads the info onto the drive. You can put almost any size laptop drive into the Imagetank (some people have 40 gig drives in theirs!), but I find that 6.5 gigs will hold about 3000 photos so that's plenty. Most I've actually ever needed to store was about 500, and that's a lot!

Here's a review of the V2 version of the Imagetank:

http://www.pocketpcreviews.net/reviews/062003/imagetank.htm

I got my v1 version from www.powerinnumbers.com.au (Vasa is an excellent guy and ships fast VIA DHL). I noticed that he doesn't carry the Imagetank anymore, but something called the X-drive. here's a link:

http://www.powerinnumbers.com.au/default.asp?mode=news&category=12

You might want to go visit www.dpreview.com in the forums under storage devices, and see what they have to say about the best digital wallet. You really never have to worry about limiting your photos and running out of storage space or have to lug a laptop around.

 

[LostBoyinVA]

How much memory to bring depends on what size pictures your camera takes. I have a laptop I bring to dump pictures to. For me it isn't an inconvenience but a neccessity. I have a 6.3MP camera and 2 256MB cards which gets me 130-150 pictures which for 2 weeks is not enough. With my old digital, a 1.3MP camera, I had a 32MB and a 40MB which could get me 120ish pictures and I carried the laptop with it too. Last time we took 2 weeks at Disney I shot over 300 pictures and that was with the old camera. The new camera takes way better pictures and I like to shoot lots of pictures with it. I was figuring last night that I had enough space on the Laptop for 1800 pictures. I figured that was more then enough.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

The film is O.K. to carry on, but not to go thru the luggage scanners. I have 6 waterproof disposables for DD's and 4 non waterproof. DW has 8 rolls of 35 mm for "her scrapbooking camera" and I have the didgital with 64 meg good for about 250 pics.

DON'T FORGET BATTERIES!!!!!!!! DW's camera alwats seems to need that "special" battery where we either can't find one or it is 10 times what it would cost at the local walmart.

Disneygator1.......If you like shrimp I recomend you get there ahead off izzinmac........he's threatening to eat all of it.

 

[jrabbit]

On our 7 night cruise this summer I remember seeing many games in the Promenade Lounge on deck 3. Its available to all age even though it is a "lounge".