DH and I have never been to Disneyland, so it'll be a fantastic trip for us, no matter what. Really looking forward to seeing the new Cars Land!
Palo, Palo, Palo for SURE!!! We've done both brunch and dinner, and for us, brunch is the winner. Don't get me wrong, dinner is a fantastic experience too, but our hearts belong to brunch! There is so much to choose from...plus he can't ever get enough of those little tiramasu "shooter" glasses, lol.
Also, make use of the aft overlook! That little "secret" deck is hardly EVER crowded, and a great spot to spend some time relaxing. You'll more than likely be alone or very close to it - just be aware it's closed after 7pm. But of course, you have your own balcony for after that!
Another thing to look at would be the rainforest room in the spa. Day passes aren't too horribly expensive ($15 a day if they haven't gone up since) and you might be able to get a deal on multi-day passes if you visit the spa open house on embarkation day. It's very relaxing and again, not often crowded (that I've seen).
And it's funny, but "late" at night, usually around 10-11pm (which isn't really "late" in my opinion!) the ship seems like a ghost town sometimes! You can practically have the upper decks to yourselves (with the cleaning crew sometimes
). And deck 4 as well...it seems like everyone just clears out by mutual agreement, lol. DH and I love to walk or just lounge outside on deck 4...it feels like we stepped out of some old-time movie sometimes at night, with the lights just barely showing the water and nothing on the horizon. You almost feel alone even though you're on a ship with thousands of other people!!!
I just can't wait for this cruise to get here! We're very excited about our first visit to DL, too, of course...but we are over the moon about this cruise, particularly as it's mom's first cruise and first Disney trip ever! It's going to be so much fun!!!
On a practical note, though...we seem to have a pretty small group at the moment, and it seems we're all at DL prior. Have you guys booked your transportation to the port yet? We were debating about ours the other day. We know we don't want to rent a car, but we're up in the air about shuttles and taxis...when it's just the two of us, out of Orlando, we just use Disney transpo, but CA is totally new for us. Plus with two extra people along, we're wondering if a shuttle would be more economical, or taxi, or something else...thoughts?