9/28/13. Disney Wonder 7 night Bahamian out of Galveston.

[pllanez12]

Alright. Counting down the days till we cruise. Family excited...first cruise ever and a Disney Cruise at that. My 9 year old extremely excited. Hoping for pixie dust the day of the cruise. Have so many questions about so many things. Worried bout leaving my daughter at the kids club for her age group all day. Any previous experience from any one????? How does it work and how would I keep track of her?? Any info and suggestions would help.

 

[Aggiegrl]

Alright. Counting down the days till we cruise. Family excited...first cruise ever and a Disney Cruise at that. My 9 year old extremely excited. Hoping for pixie dust the day of the cruise. Have so many questions about so many things. Worried bout leaving my daughter at the kids club for her age group all day. Any previous experience from any one????? How does it work and how would I keep track of her?? Any info and suggestions would help.

I know it's hard to not worry, but you really should have no worries about your DD in the kids clubs. They have this down to a science.

On the first day, your DD will get an RFID bracelet to wear for the duration of the cruise. This snumber will be connected to the profile you created when registering her for the kids clubs (online in advance, or on the ship when you get the bracelet). When you take her to the club/lab, they will scan her bracelet in. There is ONE exit and entrance to these areas and all other exits are secured. When you pick her up, they will scan her bracelet again and you will be required to give a password (chosen during registration). It is possible for you to allow your DD to check herself in and out of the club/lab, but that is entirely up to you. You certainly don't have to allow this.

Each cabin will have 2 wave phones in it. These are little cell phone devices that work on the ship. If there is a problem with your DD in the club/lab, the staff will contact you on that phone. If you don't answer the wave phone, they will call your cabin (personal experience).

The staff in the kids areas are AMAZING. If they can't reach you, they will take great care of your child until you can be contacted. Personal experience again...my 3 year old DS had an incident where he needed a change of clothing. By the time we got there 10 minutes later, he was happily playing in their clothes.

Now, saying all that, I doubt your DD will want to stay in the club/lab all day. The Navigators (daily cruise schedule) will list what is going on in each location. They'll be delivered to your cabin the night before and you'll have time to sit down with her and pick the activities she is interested in attending. At her age, she'll probably be more interested in the Lab Activities. On the classic ships, the Lab and Club are separate areas. There is a secured hallway between the two, but (at least on our Magic cruise) it is not open to the kids. Occasionally they will combine the kids in the club and lab for something (like lunch) and the staff will walk them through that secured hallway to the other area.

 

[pllanez12]

Thanks so much for the info. I'll start keeping track of the boards more closely. I'll have more questions in the future. Once again thanks.

 

[sullins5]

That's exactly the rotation I was going to request. For the reasons you said, plus you only have AP twice...our least favorite restaurant. Did the agent confirm the rotation is PTAPTAP? I was wondering if it would be that or if they would throw us for a loop with something like PTAAPT.

Ooops...lOL! I didn't even ask him about the PTAPTAP...I did tell him that last time, we had PLAPLAP, and that's what I wanted "Wonder" style.. He told me it was rotation #3, so we'll see.

Alright. Counting down the days till we cruise. Family excited...first cruise ever and a Disney Cruise at that. My 9 year old extremely excited. Hoping for pixie dust the day of the cruise. Have so many questions about so many things. Worried bout leaving my daughter at the kids club for her age group all day. Any previous experience from any one????? How does it work and how would I keep track of her?? Any info and suggestions would help.

Hi Pllanez12! I can tell you that my 11dd did great last cruise.She actually met a couple of teens on our meet thread, which helped her look forward to going.

Here's what we did: 1st night, we let her go in the club to meet everyone (this is when everyone is new and they play games and get to know one another). We had a rule. She had a special hipster to hold her 'wave' phone, and was to call or text us when she wanted to come out. First night, she stayed a couple of hours. The rest of the week, we walked her to the club (yes, I know she's old enough to go by herself...it's NOT her I'm concerned about). When she wanted to come out, or they were going to get ice cream/food, she'd text me and let me know. Her hipster was on her hip the whole week with that wonderful wave phone! I can tell you it worked great for us..sometimes she'd go in for an hour, others, she'd want to stay for an event and come watch the shows with us. Yes, some let their teens go and come at will, and that's great. We made sure she got to the club, and met her when she came out. She's 13 now, will go to the vibe this next cruise, and I'm sure she'll let me know how she's doing since she'll have her wave on her somewhere.. Hope this helps, and if you have any other questions, let me know!

 

[pllanez12]

As far as I know (but I could be wrong), your dining rotation assignment isn't "announced" anywhere before the cruise. It will be on your stateroom keys and in your room on embarkation day (maybe...we didn't have it in our room on the Magic). I'm not sure if you can call and ask that information. From what I've read, the dining assignments are done about 2 weeks ahead. You can call and request a certain rotation if you know what rotation you want. Since this is the first cruise with this itinerary, I'm not sure if they'll follow the same rotation they've used for other Wonder cruises in the past.

The pirate night will show up online on the "my cruise activities" area of your reservation screen. This is the area where you can sort of see a daily schedule of what you've booked, but they add the pirate night automatically to everyone's schedule. That area is locked off until you pay in full/are able to book excursions and specialty dining. The first people can book these things at 120 days out, so I guess we'll probably know about pirate night for sure at that time.

As always, you might try calling DCL and see if they have access to more information.

Later this afternoon I'm going to look at past itineraries and see what sort of deductive reasoning I can come up with. I'm guessing the first day at sea will be our formal night.

Can someone explain dining rotation. Are some better than others?? I know we are on the early rotation but don't know where we start first. This is our first cruise for my family and we want to do things right. We don't wanna miss a thing. Being overwhelmed with tons of info. I guess I'll just have to go with flow I just paid off this cruise, I'll check the activities section on DCL in the morning.

 

[sullins5]

Can someone explain dining rotation. Are some better than others?? I know we are on the early rotation but don't know where we start first. This is our first cruise for my family and we want to do things right. We don't wanna miss a thing. Being overwhelmed with tons of info. I guess I'll just have to go with flow I just paid off this cruise, I'll check the activities section on DCL in the morning.

Hi Pllanez12!

I was like you in 2011, but found out so much from our cruise meet, so always feel free to ask.

I'm sure I won't explain it as well as others, but I'll attempt. First of all, you are on the early dining, I think? Rotations are the order of the 3 MDR (main dining room) restaurants that they place us in, which we won't find out until we board, and we'll find our tickets in our room telling us our rotations and character breakfast day. You'll take that ticket with you the first night, and the cm's will direct you to your table.

When we booked our last cruise, we learned that you start at one restaurant on one night, then another the second night, and then another the 3rd night, and then they repeat. The restaurants are labeled by first initials..Example...PLAPLA was Parrot Cay, Lumiere's, Animator's...or you might have APLLAPL, or you might have LPALPAL...They do change them at times..What you have to think about (or not) is WHERE you want to be WHEN...
EX. We knew the first night really didn't matter to us, formal is usually the second night, and pirate was the 4th night. What we wanted (thanks to learning from Dis'ers) was to be in a more formal restaurant for formal night (so that meant Lumiere's), and to be in a casual restaurant for pirate night (Parrot Cay). It really doesn't matter as far as food goes, but we wanted the ambience to match the dinner...does that make sense?

So, I called this week and asked if I could request the same as I had last cruise. Mind you, they've not really set up everything yet, but he told me what I wanted was rotation #3. If it's important to you, I'd call, ask what rotation #1, 2, and 3 are (or more) and then decide.
I hope all this makes sense...If not, someone else can chime in and clarify what I've tried to explain..

One more note? It was so funny last cruise. I didn't know we were supposed to take our ticket with us. So we got to our first restaurant, and the cm asked for the ticket, and I had that 'deer in the headlight' look. He explained it to me, and went ahead and took us to our table. Fast forward 3 days, and I'm talking to a fellow Dis'er and he asked "When's your character breakfast?" To which I replied.."What character breakfast?" They had just had theirs, and he said "Go check your dining ticket in your room". WHEW...we would've missed it, if it weren't for him. I didn't have a clue. And FYI??? We had the BEST, BEST time at our character breakfast, laughed so hard, and wouldn't miss it for anything!

Hope all this helps!

 

[TexMicks]

Sullins5, so are we automatically assigned a character breakfast? Or are we supposed to sign up for it?

 

[Aggiegrl]

Sullins5, so are we automatically assigned a character breakfast? Or are we supposed to sign up for it?

You are automatically assigned one based on your dining time/rotation. They are done on sea days.

 

[sullins5]

You are automatically assigned one based on your dining time/rotation. They are done on sea days.

Annnnnnnnd don't forget to look at your tickets on your desk when you get in your room. It'll list your rotation, and your character breakfast! Some of us (wink, wink) didn't have a CluE!

 

[Aggiegrl]

Annnnnnnnd don't forget to look at your tickets on your desk when you get in your room. It'll list your rotation, and your character breakfast! Some of us (wink, wink) didn't have a CluE!

LOL. On our Magic cruise in Feb we didn't have dining tickets. I guess somebody forgot on their end. They kept announcing it and apologizing. I don't understand why everyone was so panicked since the rotation for that night was on our KTTW card.

 

[sullins5]

LOL. On our Magic cruise in Feb we didn't have dining tickets. I guess somebody forgot on their end. They kept announcing it and apologizing. I don't understand why everyone was so panicked since the rotation for that night was on our KTTW card.

I never saw it on ours, though it could have been. But when we entered Parrot Cay, the head server asked what table. I laughed and said "How would I know?" He said, it's on your ticket... Poor things, I'm sure they get tired of us newbies, but I'm thankful for their servants' hearts!

 

[texaschic]

do we know who will be at the character breakfast? or do we find out onboard?

 

[ChloroFiend]

do we know who will be at the character breakfast? or do we find out onboard?

On the Magic, all Character breakfasts were held in Parrot Cay. Mickey, Goofy, Pluto, Chip, & Dale were present. I'd expect it to be similar on the Wonder.

 

[pllanez12]

Yes it helps a bunch. Thanks. I'll call DCL tomorrow.

 

[kenyasoto]

To answer an earlier post- Yes we are 2 adults (male & female) and our two boys ages 5 & 3. I told my hubby about the fish extender idea & he was nervous about our kid's first names on them outside our door. Any concerns? What types of things do people use as gifts? Hubby & I have been on several cruises but this will be our 1st Disney one & our boy's first cruise ever. They're going to be sooooo excited!!!

 

[FutureDis]

To answer an earlier post- Yes we are 2 adults (male & female) and our two boys ages 5 & 3. I told my hubby about the fish extender idea & he was nervous about our kid's first names on them outside our door. Any concerns? What types of things do people use as gifts? Hubby & I have been on several cruises but this will be our 1st Disney one & our boy's first cruise ever. They're going to be sooooo excited!!!

You don't have to put their names on it (our FE doesn't have names, just pockets). You can always put Goofey, Donald, Mickey and Minnie on it for names!

 

[Aggiegrl]

You don't have to put their names on it (our FE doesn't have names, just pockets). You can always put Goofey, Donald, Mickey and Minnie on it for names!

Yes, this, absolutely. You don't have to use names in any way or form for the FE. All that is required is you prepare some sort of gift and hang up something that we can put gifts in so they aren't scattered all over the floor. If you hang up a Walmart sack, we'll put your gifts in there.

I don't want to give away too much info about my gifts, so I'll talk in generalities. For this cruise, our family is in two cabins and hanging two fish extenders, so we will be giving two sets of FE gifts:

Set 1-Small individual gifts for each person in the cabin.
Set 2-A themed "gift basket" sort of gift (one for each cabin).

Here are three links with pictures/ideas:

Homemade/crafty:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2907032&highlight=fish+extender

Not so crafty:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2473209&page=11

Best FE gift received:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2919223

I'm a SAHM and I like making things, so that's what my gifts are. Other people prefer to buy things. REMEMBER, the point of the FE is to have FUN! This should not be stressful and it doesn't have to be time consuming.

 

[Diva Princess Mom]

Just signed up for our cruise. Is the FE list still open?

 

[ChloroFiend]

Just signed up for our cruise. Is the FE list still open?

Yes, open through 31 August. Signups info available on the thread FAQ page here: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47913802&postcount=62

 

[Aggiegrl]

Hi Diva Princess Mom, happy to have you join us!