Couple questions from first time cruiser

[fredms]

First of all let me say how amazing and helpful this website has been. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of your valuable information.

My fiancee and I are taking his mom on the 4 day DCL for her 50th birthday. Believe it or not this is her first vacation ever and first time out of NY. I am trying to make sure she and my fiancee are prepared as they have both never been on a cruise and are a little nervous. (They don't have full faith in Disney like I do.)

Two questions:
When do you get your meal schedule and how do you know if you are sitting alone or with others? We've requested to sit alone but I'd want to know right away if our request wasn't granted cuz I need to prep them.


On Castaway Cay do they give helmets for adults for the bikes?


Thanks again!

 

[rae519]

HI!
Glad you are enjoying the DIS Boards - I wish I had found them sooner because they are a great source of information and occasionally friendship!

What a great idea to take your fiancee's Mom on a cruise. I took my Mom (73) on her first one last fall and she loved it. There is so much to do and no reason at all to be nervous. It was also my Mom's first airplane ride, so it was quite an adventure.

99.9% says you will have dining mates - it is nice to be with others, as you will also have breakfast and lunch with others. I have often though I'd like to sit alone with my family, but we have had two cruises where the dining mates were such outstanding people (Ed and Karen, and Shelby, John and Alexis) that we have made friends and communicate regularly.

Also, I have never seen anyone wearing a helmet while bike riding so I am assuming none are available.

Enjoy your time there and make sure that the dining room knows it's her birthday because they will bring out a cake and sing to her. It's quite nice!

Rae

 

[SC Minnie]

Welcome to DIS!

Like Rae said you will most likely be seated with others. We have cruised twice and had tablemates both times. The first time we were a little nervous after hearing tablemate horror stories. We get to dinner the first night and start talking to our tablemates and it is someone from the boards! We had been communicating on the thread for our trip. Our kids hit it off immediately. We sailed together again in Oct and requested to sit at the same table. Another Diser asked to link ressies with us in Oct and we made more new friends.

You will not know until you board the ship if you are sitting alone. As soon as you board you can go to the place for dining changes and look for you table number (it will be on your KTTW card you get when you check in at the port). You can ask for changes then if it is not what you want but they cannot guarantee anything.

If you want to make sure you are sitting with people you kind of know you may want to join a 'Who's cruising X date' thread for your cruise and see if you may be interested in linking ressies with another small party. It then gives you a chance to kind of 'meet' before getting on board. Just a suggestion.

We have not biked at CC so I can't help you there.

 

[rae519]

Very good point SC Minnie about linking up with other DIS Boarders - that's how we arranged to have Karen and Ed and later, Paul and Kaye as our dining mates and boy, were we thrilled! Already "broke the ice" and we had so much to chat about - like we were old friends already.


It is nice to be know you can ask to change dining arrangements - we learned that from one of our previous servers who was surprised we hadn't asked for him the last time we cruised. We didn't know but now that we do......we will always ask for him (Roger from Brazil).

I really do enjoy meeting people and have met some of the most interesting and enjoyable! For example, we had lunch with a very intelligent retired military couple with some excellent viewpoints and a young couple who were studying for their PhD's in research. Just blew us away, and we have had dining mates who had the three most well behaved children I've ever encountered.

Just enjoy and don't worry - the people you will meet will be in your memories forever regardless if it's with fondness or a hearty laugh!

Rae (hoping that I am remembered with fondness and not a hearty laugh!!!!!)

 

[bpitzer20]

We went bike riding in CC on the 1/4 cruise and they did have helmets available for adults, although we did not use them. Not setting a very good example, I guess! Have a great cruise!