Am I missing out by not booking extra stuff?

[jmcross]

No specialty dining, no spa, no cabana.
I have nothing extra booked and feel like I’m missing out.
Can we still have a good time without all of the extras??

 

[vakamalua]

YES!

 

[Cheburashka]

No specialty dining, no spa, no cabana.
I have nothing extra booked and feel like I’m missing out.
Can we still have a good time without all of the extras??

I've sailed 7 DCL cruises and never booked a spa treatment. I've enjoyed every cruise.

I usually book one dinner at Palo per cruise as its food and service are a cut above that in the MDR, and the dining room is much more peaceful than an MDR (after a few nights you might want to get a break from noisy kids). If you're sailing for more than 3 nights (& therefore will definitely get to experience each MDR even if you have dinner once at Palo), I recommend giving dinner at Palo a try. A lot of posters here are partial to Palo brunch, but imo dinner is better, and you'll likely be hungrier at dinner time (and therefore more ready to enjoy it), anyway.

Out of seven cruises, I've only booked a cabana once, and loved it. It isn't a necessity, but I can vouch for the fact that an adult beach (Serenity Bay) cabana is a great thing to have if you want peace and solitude. Not necessary, though. Cabanas are very hard to get, and I'm not willing to pay concierge prices just to get a better shot of getting one, and then pay the high cabana cost on top of that. It's a luxury, but not needed for a great time on CC at all.

Enjoy your cruise. In your shoes, I'd probably book one meal at Palo just to give it a try, and not have the feeling of "missing out" that you mentioned. But even if you don't (I didn't on our first cruise), I'm sure you'll have a great time.

 

[n2mm]

No specialty dining, no spa, no cabana.
I have nothing extra booked and feel like I’m missing out.
Can we still have a good time without all of the extras??

it really depends. We have a cruise booked for May and our activities booking day came and went. Ive been taking advantage of the 60 days PIF offer. So if you don’t PIF, you can’t book anything. We’ve done all we want on the ships, we only go to relax and eat. We do a show or 2, but not always. If you are a newbie cruiser, you may want to do some stuff. When my daughter goes, she only books port adventures the day before, or just grabs a cab at the port. Btw, we also have a cruise booked for the end of February and I haven’t planned anything, not even excited, have serious doubts it even happens.

 

[martikus]

We never pay for extra and always love every second.

 

[bakerworld]

We've been on 5 DCL cruises. The first cruise we just experienced the ship as we never cruised. The second cruise we booked excursions (FYI $ tip = too 'untraveled' to realize) and spa (18% auto gratuity & extra via CC). The third trip ditto the second. The forth trip booked wine tasting, excursions, spa and the fifth trip we booked stuff and never went. We're cruising again in March and October not booking anything.

The spa is nice however the esthetician makes a difference on whether it's worth the cost. IMO, book if spa treatments are not your normal. I booked the treatments I cannot receive locally and the first was stellar in that I could actually see a difference which made the second treatment a big disappointment.

The wine tasting was very interesting. I enjoy wine. I've been tempted by the martini and whiskey tastings but we're kinda light weights. The marguerita tasting was the one we missed last trip (forgot it as it was late in the day and I was already tired).

We're not big foodies, we only go to two MDR, so we've never been tempted by Palo/Remy.

 

[Travel60]

Absolutely you can still have a great time! We've done 12 cruises.....I've never done any of the tastings, the bingo or other group activities that cost $. When daughter was younger never did the boutique thing for her. Never felt the need for a cabana. I have booked spa services once or twice but not recently....very expensive for what you get. We usually do Palo dinner once....some folks think the brunch is better but we were not impressed. We do book excursions almost exclusively through Disney but not at every port. Often our close-out ticket includes only tips and a few glasses of wine.

 

[Nabas]

No specialty dining, no spa, no cabana.
I have nothing extra booked and feel like I’m missing out.
Can we still have a good time without all of the extras??

IMO, stick with the basics on your first Disney cruise. (OK, maybe a cabana.) You'll be overwhelmed by just the basics on your first Disney cruise.

Save the extras for if you go again.

 

[Freeman867]

it really depends. We have a cruise booked for May and our activities booking day came and went. Ive been taking advantage of the 60 days PIF offer. So if you don’t PIF, you can’t book anything. We’ve done all we want on the ships, we only go to relax and eat. We do a show or 2, but not always. If you are a newbie cruiser, you may want to do some stuff. When my daughter goes, she only books port adventures the day before, or just grabs a cab at the port. Btw, we also have a cruise booked for the end of February and I haven’t planned anything, not even excited, have serious doubts it even happens.

Then cancel if you're not excited. I just don't get people who would drop thousands of dollars on a luxury good they aren't excited about.

 

[stkgator]

As for dinning while on board, the MDRs are great. I have done both Remy and Paol dinners and Palo brunch. Remy was a crazy (in a good way) extravagance and delicious experience and I would highly recommend everyone to try it at least once. I enjoyed Palo brunch (post-Covid) far more than I did the Palo dinner. Of the three, I would book a Palo brunch for every cruise.

As for CC, with much lower crowds, finding space on any of the beaches is not that difficult, which is one of the main benefits of a cabana. But since CC cabanas are virtually impossible to book, this is really not an option for most passengers.

 

[Pens Fan]

The DCL spa is overpriced and not all that great compared to others I've been to. I tried it once, but won't do that again.

We've never eaten at Palo or Remy as we didn't want to eat without our son. Now that he's an adult, we probably will, but it certainly didn't cause us to feel that we were missing something in the past.

A cabana never seemed worth it for us as we were usually busy doing other things on the island.

Everyone's different. For some those extras are important, but we've never regretted not purchasing them. Besides, you can use the money you're saving to go towards your next cruise !

 

[lanejudy]

Our first cruise we didn’t book anything extra. We did get a couple of floats at CC but no need to pre-order that. Bought a couple of special drinks onboard. Walked around the port on our own. Just enjoyed what was available.

 

[CamColt]

The only thing I book extra is Palo Brunch (and that's complimentary). I love not having to plan!

 

[Geomom]

You're not missing anything! Our first cruise, we just booked an excursion. Second cruise, we booked excursions and I did 1 drink tasting (mojito). We also did Bingo twice (pay that day). No plan to book Palo unless we actually make it to Platinum level for the free meal...long way away from that! We enjoy the 'included' dining. We did do the free (but tipped $1/item)room service both cruises--breakfast as a wakeup call on an early excursion day and a late night snack--mickey ice cream bars, all hands on deck cheese plate, fries.

 

[tvguy]

Not at all.
We never get to all the included stuff on a cruise, no time for extras.
My mom was a frequent cruiser in her retirement and she never did anything extra other than buy a glass of wine to have with dinner. I think she did 5 cruises to Mexico, and never in her 90 years stepped foot on Mexican soil. The Mexican ports were her days to explore the ship, enjoy a leisurely lunch in the dining room, and just relax.

 

[Calantha]

We went last week with no particular extras (but we did do an excursion on Nassau). That being said, last time we did Mixology and Palo brunch and I would love to do those again (once it was a group of people and not just me and DS (6)). I don't think you are missing out by skipping those things though.

 

[ThinkTink1]

No specialty dining, no spa, no cabana.
I have nothing extra booked and feel like I’m missing out.
Can we still have a good time without all of the extras??

Yes! I’ve done 19 cruises and have only booked 1 port adventure… no spa at all… never a cabana… and I book at the last min so I don’t do Palo every cruise. There is still plenty to do and I don’t feel overwhelmed having to be everywhere all the time and be on a schedule.

 

[kshu2014]

We've only booked Port Adventures and none of the other services (Palo/Remy, Spa, Cabanas, Tastings, etc.) and have never regretted not partaking. We've been on 7 cruise and have another one coming up this Spring.

From our point of view, you're already paying an arm and a leg for the cruise itself and there's plenty of free activities to enjoy with the family. I also hate having set things in my schedule beforehand as there might be a tour or activity I'd much rather do in that timeslot. However, if you want to treat yourself and this is one of the few times you can get away from the kids (drop them off at the Oceaneers Club), then go for it!

 

[Cruising Engineer]

You can have a great time with all the inclusive activities on the ship and not pay extra for even more activities.

 

[TreeFalls]

No specialty dining, no spa, no cabana.
I have nothing extra booked and feel like I’m missing out.
Can we still have a good time without all of the extras??

We just took our first cruise... we booked one port adventure and it was canceled day of due to weather... and we were glad, because we wanted more time to explore the ship!