Confused and new to cruising

[marky]

Hi everyone,
I hope someone can help me. Whilst we are old hands at wdw, this year we have booked to go on the cruise.
Could you please tell me when do we need to make our reservations for dinner/ lunch?
Is this automatically done, or do we need to make reservations?
We are not expecting to eat at the adults only restaurant(Palo's?), as we have ds(6) and dd(2), but would like to try out as many of the others as possible.
Any help for a newbie would be really appreciated
Thanks

 

[LoveMickey]

No reservations are necessary, except for Palo.

You can request first or second seating for dinner when you book your trip.

With just 2 adults, we prefer second seating. This is at 8 or 8:30 (can't remember).

You will be given your dining rotation when you check in at the terminal (there's a code on your room key card).

You'll love cruising.

 

[UGAFan0829]

Congrats on your 1st cruise. Like the other poster said, no need to make reservations for any meals since you aren't going to Palo.
I think that you'll find that things on the cruise will go pretty smooth! Have fun!
BTW, when are you sailing?

 

[WDWLVR]

marky - welcome to the DIS. Reading and asking questions here will get you well prepared for your first cruise.

As others have said decide if you want early (6 pm - this is also sometimes called main) dining or late (8:30 pm). When you check in your dining rotation will be on your key to the world card and look something like this APLAPLA which means your rotation would be A= Animator's Palette, P = Parrot Cay,
L= Lumiere's. You also get a dining ticket in your room which spells this out. You change resturants every night, but you are always at the same table number and with the same servers.

Breakfast and lunch are both open seating. You can choose to eat a sit down meal off a menu or go up to Topsiders for a great buffet. There is usally a buffet set up in one of the resturants on sea days. Also don't forget burgers, hot dogs, and pizza up by the pools!

 

[marky]

Thanks guys,
We sail at the end of July, and we're all really exited about it.
I guess when you're not sure what to expect, things can seem more complicated than they actually are!
Thanks again

 

[jrabbit]

Trust me, a DCL cruise vacation does NOT have to be complicated. There are a lot of overplanners here that just make it seem that way

All you need for the cruise vacation is:
Some nice clothes for dinner
Clothes for the day
Swimming suit
Sunscreen (the sun can be / is a killer down there)
A willingness to try some things out of the ordinary
and the expectation that DCL will do everything they can to make your cruise a memorable, relaxing and fun vacation!!

There is only 1 thing that they cannot do for you on the cruise ... that's to make time pass by slower It always seems to me that minutes after the cruise starts that it's over

Happy Sailing