Cruise Tips based on my past two DCL cruises

[sourmug]

These are my tips and recommendations:
1. When you arrive at the Port, have one member of your group stand in
line to check-in/register and have another stand in line for boarding.
The member of the group checking-in will need to have the passports
or the picture ID and birth certificate of all members of the group 18
years or older.
2. After boarding you have the option to skip the Welcome aboard
picture by walking around the line. There will be plenty of
opportunities to have professional pictures taken during the cruise.
The Welcome aboard picture takes more time because everyone has to
put down their carry on items, straighten the children hair, etc.
3. Once on board go make Palo reservations if you were unable to make them on-line. I understand they are holding reservations back for those that are not aware they can make them on-line now. You can make one reservation each for dinner, brunch and high tea. You can request to be placed on the waiting list for another night. One of the servers advised to ask to be placed on the waiting list the first night of the curise. She said the least number of reservations are made for the first night. Palo is worth the additional fee. In my opinion it is the best dining expierence.
4. If you are a wine or beer drinker, then try to pack it and bring it
on board. Wine can run 3 times the purchase cost per bottle and
beers are $4.50 each. I packed several bottles of wine and an 18
pack of beer. It proved to be a money saver.
5. I would recommend if you are a soda drinker pack a large plastic
cup with a top. It will keep you from making frequent trips to the
beverage station located on deck 9 Aft.
6. Bring a plastic collapsible cooler. Although there are small
refrigerators in the room they do not cool well. I requested that the
cabin steward bring ice in the morning at night. This was enough to
chill my beer, soda and wine. You also can take them along on shore
excursions.
7. Check out the room service menu. It gives you the option to have a
continental breakfast in your room each morning.
8. If you like fresh cut fruit take along some zip lock bags to store
extra fruit from breakfast buffet. You can store in the room frig. The fruit from room service is whole fruit.
9. I would also recommend you bring on bottled water. You can
purchase a case of Evian water on board for $27 plus tip.
10. Prepare your tip envelopes before you leave. You can add more
for those who have made your cruise truly special.
11. Make your shore excursion reservations before you leave. They
will be waiting for you at your cabin when you board.
12. Stack your pictures together when you find them being displayed. They will place them out each day together. You then can make your selections at the end of the trip. If you decide to purchase a picture and then want to swap for another, keep you receipt and they will swap the pictures out.
13. There are many lines for pictures on the ship. I find they are shorter about 20 minutes after the first dinner starts. Some of them are always long.
14. If you like a powerful hair dryer,bring along one of the small travel types. The dryers in the cabins are not very powerful and difficult to move around your head. They have a large hose connrcting them to blowing unit.
15. If you want to bring along a lunch with you on shore excursions. You can order sandwiches, fruit and cookies from room service and pack in your soft sided cooler.

I am busy packing for our third DCL. We will be on the June 25th West Coast Magic cruise. Our travel documents for our stay at DisneyLand and DCL came on Thusday. So I know it will not be long before we will be on our Vacation.
Please pass on your tips to me and the group.

Martha in AL

 

[LiserAnn]

That's great! Thanks much...I'm going on our first DCL cruise July 30th!

 

[tvguy]

SOURMUGS points are well taken, but they are the opinion of SOURMUG, not everyone so.......also consider.

Regarding:

# 1) Each person over 18 is supposed to present themselves AND their photo ID at the check in counter. If they didn't they violated their policy.

#4) We only drank wine with dinner, so the corkage fee would have more than offset the savings, not counting the hassle of having to lug wine across country.

#5) Last thing I want to do on vacation is lug anything around, even a cup. The beverage station was close to everything we wanted to do, and the cups there were big enough and had lids.

#6) See number 5. All our excursions either included beverages,(usually rum punch too) or they were selling for acceptable prices. Not worth lugging a cooler around in my opinion.

#9) We brought one bottle of water per person which we drank from on on flight to the ship and just refilled it from either the cabin tap or the drink station, the water on board is filtered just like bottled drinking water.

#14) The hair dryers in the cabins are 1500 watts, so much more powerful than the 1200 watt unit we use at home. Yes, it is wall mounted, so may be awkward for some to use. But there are few plugs in the cabin, so bring an extension court if you bring your own. My DD has LONG THICK hair, and found the hair dryer in the cabin was too hot, and burned her scalp.

#15) It is illegal to take food off the ship in most ports. Of course, if you don't get caught, it isn't a problem. But watched a lot of apples and bananas being confiscated in ST. Thomas in particular.

 

[even1]

Thanks,Sourmug!

We're cruising for the first time in August (REPO) and I appreciate your tips.

Hope your June cruise & DL stay are your best ever!

Eileen

 

[connskell]

Hi, Thanks for all the good information. Have a question about wine - we like it with dinner and I understand it is $15 for corkage if you bring wine to dinner. I figure is the wine cost about 10 or 12 , it might be just as easy to go with the Disney wine packages - I understand that you get a 25% discount on the package - true? We may bring some wine for the room but unfortunately no vernanda.

Thanks again,

Connie

 

[mommasita]

Hi, Thanks for all the good information. Have a question about wine - we like it with dinner and I understand it is $15 for corkage if you bring wine to dinner. I figure is the wine cost about 10 or 12 , it might be just as easy to go with the Disney wine packages - I understand that you get a 25% discount on the package - true? We may bring some wine for the room but unfortunately no vernanda.

Thanks again,

Connie

Hi, we did bring wine, or rather had SHirley send it for us, and we also bought the wine package for dinner..I believe that it was 179$ for 7 bottles for 7 nights, and we could bring home any unopened bottles..(yeah, right ) THere was a higher up package, like 250$ or close to it...We opted for the cheaper one..

ALso, as a side note, we have only cruised with the verandah once, and when we did not have it, we took our wine to deck 7 aft, and sat out there enjoying ourselves, and we were almost always alone..

 

[sourmug]

TV Guy, I appreciate your opinions and you respecting mine.
Connie, the price quoted for the classic wine package was $145 and $265 for the Premium package. The package includes 1 bottle of wine for each night. Your servers can keep in used portion for the next evening or will allow you to take the unused portion back to your cabin.
I bring my wine on board is that I like to have a good idea of the taste. I am not a wine snob but flavors and taste can vary widely. We usually have a glass before dinner in our cabin. We have purchased wine by the glass with dinner from our servers.
Martha in AL

 

[DareTooDream]

Do you get to choose your wine? Is there a certain list to select from for each package? When do you buy it - when you embark?
Sherry

 

[DisneyTart]

Sourmug - Thanks a bunch for your tips! Did you or did you see anyone else bringing a filled wine glass to dinner? Not the whole bottle but just the glass full. My DFamily isn't travelling across country just an hour+ so we plan on bringing all the extras (soda, wine, water) with us. I appreciate the tip about the cooler. Thanks again!

 

[joyebean]

Wine package details can be found on Barb's Castaway Club site--click on Menus/Food & Drink, then Wine Package. We did this on our four night a couple years ago and plan to do it again on our September cruise.

 

[jrabbit]

Do you get to choose your wine? Is there a certain list to select from for each package? When do you buy it - when you embark?
Sherry

There is a list of wines you get to choose from. You can have the same wine every night if you want to (in otherwords you don't get 7 bottles and have to use a different bottle each night). If you are going to purchase the wine package I would do it on embarkation day from one of the many places they have a display set up and ready for your order (your asst. server will know that you have the wine package) or you can purchase it from your asst. server on the first evening.

If it is like the way they used to sell the soda mugs, (you could buy at any time on the cruise but the price remained the same throughout the cruise) purchase it at the beginning of your cruise.

 

[KEH]

On the more expensive package can you have the Fairy Tale Cuvee every night if you want to? I just love the stuff.

 

[staceymerrill]

on our last cruise I was able to check in for all members of our party, including DW with no problems....I had the BCs et al for ID......DCL was very obliging