Cruising Sept 11, 2005 - All Aboard

[pixiefaery]

It's official! I'll be on this cruise, with DH and DD who's turning 5 on sept. 13th. It's our first cruise and i'm looking forward to disney. We're staying at disney for 4 nights then cruising for 4 nights.

Hi!! We will be staying at diney' AKL for 3 days and then cruising for four!! I can't wait!! Where are you and your family staying?

 

[FirstTimer]

Hi!! We will be staying at diney' AKL for 3 days and then cruising for four!! I can't wait!! Where are you and your family staying?

We're actually staying at Cypress Pointe Resort for the 4 nights prior to us sailing. I'm so excited.

 

[HLester3]

Hi. We just booked this morning. I was on the Sept. 8th 3 day cruise, and decided to add a day after looking at all of the kids activities would be missing out on the boat. It is me, DH and DS/DD Twins who will turn 4 Sept. 6. This is our first cruise. I am a little worried about sea sickness, and we could only get the late seating, which I am worried about with 3 year olds. Hopefully that will not be a big problem.

Heather

 

[jeanette1969]

Hi Heather,

We were on this same 4-night cruise on January 27th of this year, and had the late seating as well. It worked out great for my 18 month old since we went to see the show first, then went to dinner. One of the nights he was sleeping in the stroller, one night he went to the Reef Nursery, and the other two nights he had a great nap during the day and it wasn't an issue at all. I did make sure he ate from the 9th deck before we went to the show and it couldn't have worked out better. In fact, when we booked this cruise on the ship I made sure to schedule the late seating. I also highly recommend the Reef Nursery. The staff was awesome and everything was very clean. My little one had never been to a daycare and he wasn't real crazy about us leaving him there, or we would have used it more than one night. Hope this helps and if you need any more information let me know.

Jeanette

 

[TJHutch]

Hi everyone! We will also be cruising. This is a surprise cruise for our 2dd's. They think we are just going to disney world for the week. Little do they know we will be doing both. Now if dh and I can just keep it a secret. My dh has always wanted to watch one of the ships leave out of port so the plan is to drive to port canaveral on saturday to watch the magic, spend the night and drive to disney in the morning except for dh will take the wrong exit and now we have to drive all the way down to the port and turn around....won't they be surprised when we pull up and start unloading the luggage. This will be our third cruise w/ disney so we can't wait.

 

[HLester3]

After reading your post, about the last seating, maybe I should call back DCL and tell them to take my name off of the waiting list for early seating. Now that this looks like a better option, I would not want them to change me to early. Did any of you get seasick on the previous cruises? I get carsick, so I am a little worried.

My husband is afraid that we will be bored when we are on the boat.

I also have one more question, do you sit at your own table at dinner? I was reading about your table mates. How does this work out?

Thanks, Heather

 

[CaribGirl]

We are also scheduled for late seating with DD's 7,11,14. And with another group that has DD 12 & DS 9. So lots of kids. We are all used to carting kids everywhere we go, and used to the fact that you can never plan around kids.
Another thing, I don't have my countdown clock anymore since they upgraded the site. And been too lazy to get the new countdown thingy. So now I don't know how long before we go...

 

[pixiefaery]

we are also on the wait list for early seating, but now im thinking of changing too. dd is a night owl anyway, so i dont think that it will really be an issue if we didnt get the early seating. now i dont know which way to go!!

 

[FirstTimer]

we are also on the wait list for early seating, but now im thinking of changing too. dd is a night owl anyway, so i dont think that it will really be an issue if we didnt get the early seating. now i dont know which way to go!!

same here pixie, we're also waitlisted for first. I don't think it'll be an issue either cause DD4 (turning 5) will be fine as long as she has her afternoon nap.

 

[HLester3]

I guess I am not going to have to worry too much about getting moved over to the early seating, since the waiting list looks long already
Heather

 

[jeanette1969]

We were on a waiting list for the earlier seating as well, but nothing ever happened. When we got to the ship in the morning we were put on another waiting list. It was still very long and we ended up having a great time at the late seating. We also requested a table to ourselves and that worked out great, too. It's so hard to have an 18 month old with strangers at the same table .

Jeanette

 

[pixiefaery]

i dont think that late seating will be a problem. the only problem i can see is actually getting DD to take her nap! its hard enough at home. i cant imagine how hard it will be with all the excitement on board!!

 

[FirstTimer]

i dont think that late seating will be a problem. the only problem i can see is actually getting DD to take her nap! its hard enough at home. i cant imagine how hard it will be with all the excitement on board!!

you and me both pixie, it's gonna be a challenge to say the least.

 

[HLester3]

I feel like I would be torturing someone to have to share a table with 2 three year olds... I have heard that it takes 2 hours to eat dinner. That is really scareing me. There is NO way that they could possibly sit there for that long.

My dream is that they would eat early, then we would go to the show. After that I would give them the choice (knowing what they will choose) of either going to bed, or going and watching a movie with their friends. Then DH and I could go and actually eat a meal instead of worrying about entertaining them.

 

[FirstTimer]

I feel like I would be torturing someone to have to share a table with 2 three year olds... I have heard that it takes 2 hours to eat dinner. That is really scareing me. There is NO way that they could possibly sit there for that long.

My dream is that they would eat early, then we would go to the show. After that I would give them the choice (knowing what they will choose) of either going to bed, or going and watching a movie with their friends. Then DH and I could go and actually eat a meal instead of worrying about entertaining them.

My DD is real calm, so much so that I sometimes wish she would act a little crazy but I don't think even she could last 2 hours just sitting there, I hope there's some sort of entertainment. shoo I might go stir crazy in 2 hours.

 

[pixiefaery]

WOW!!! 2 hours!!! i had no idea! I really hope that there is entertainment. I have a wild child. This could get difficult!

 

[HLester3]

Maybe someone who has already been on a cruise can clarify. That is what the CM told me when I asked her how dinner usually takes (about 2 hours). I asked her if there was any way to speed that up, maybe by eating faster etc. She said the kids are entertained. But I still don't think they will be able to sit through a 4 course meal, with a slow waiter. I am assuming that the eating will be like going to a wedding reception, where the waiters bring out the salad when everyone is done at the table, then brings out the main course.

 

[TJHutch]

Our dinners took anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. Now alot is going to depend on your table guests. We were lucky the past few cruises we did not have to wait for table guests arrive. If you are not into ordering the appetizers and dessert you will get out much quicker. However a word of warning the wait staff will keep after you if you do not order a appetizer and dessert. They will keep asking you are you sure I cannot bring you something. They are very nice about it though. There was one night were we just could not eat another bite of food so they packed a dessert for us to take back to our room. They want to make sure you are enjoying your meal from beginning to end. Crayons are provided for your child for coloring. If they have a favorite toy or video game you could bring that along with you to dinner. But for the most part our dd (age 4) was entertained by our wait staff and what was going on in the dining room. Hope this helps

 

[pixiefaery]

Thanks TJHutch!! That calms me down a bit! As long as there is some entertainment going on, I think DD will be fine.

 

[TJHutch]

I ran across this link from another post and has some very good tips/information that may be of some help for you first time cruisers. I wish we had this kind of information on our first cruise, we would have known more of what to expect.

http://www.allearsnet.com/cruise/mdcg.pdf