Disney cruise first timer tips please

[dixonsontour]

Seriously considering spending part of our oct 15 trip on a disney cruise.

Am I best booking with disney or heard dreams unlimited mentioned a lot.

Looking at a cruise out of Miami or port canaveral - 3 4 or 5 nights.

Any tips or advice for a cruise virgin

 

[london75]

Can't recommend it enough. We've used Dreams Unlimited for ours, just always make sure you convert their price back to pounds with whatever fees you'd have to pay for conversion (not an optimistic 1.7 ideal rate!) and see because sometimes, the uk disney booking engine can be a bit better due to exchange rate fluctuations.

If you can stretch to 4 nights, I'd recommend, we started with a 3 night and were hooked and have only booked 7 nights since.

Also, if only a 3 night, I just wouldn't bother with Nassau, the boat is so much nicer than Nassau and you'll have little enough time to see the whole ship anyway.

Careful of sea sickness medicine, get a non drowsy one, it can really waste your time on board if you feel sluggish.

Take wine on with you if that's your drink (I think rules still permit) Publix (and others sell nice convenient four packs of mini bottles of bubbly, they're perfect for a drink in the room!

Don't bother with a balcony on a three day, save you money and get a category 8 or 9 with a big porthole. Our family have much preferred sitting in the window than out on a balcony and the cabin actually feels bigger as there is no need to have artificial space for the door which can also whistle with wind at night!

That's some of my tips!

 

[disneyholic family]

we've booked direct with disney as well as through dreams unlimited.

i didn't notice much of a difference either way in terms of being able to reserve what i wanted, and dreams gave me an onboard credit to spend.

you communicate with dreams by email. I found them to be very responsive.

we got hooked on cruising with our very first disney cruise (a 3 day - definitely too short)...

I'd try for the 4 day, just because there's so much to do on the Disney Dream (the ship that i assume you'll be on if you're doing a 3 or 4 day cruise)..

when i have more time, i'll try to think up my tips..

my one tip for seasickness - sea bands.....they work like magic for my entire family. i don't understand how they work, but they're a miracle for us!!

 

[dixonsontour]

Thanks

Am now also looking at the 7 day!

I have been horribly seasick once on an overnight sailing to Norway and also when we went to the scilly isles so I am wary re seasickness.

I'm 40 next year and DD will be 9 almost 10 so wanting to do the kids activities so seems a good time to take the plunge.

 

[wilma-bride]

Firstly, the kind of seasickness that you experience in Europe will not be the case (usually) with the Caribbean/Bahamas cruises. The sailings are much smoother, I don't even notice the boat moving half the time.

Secondly, I would definitely consider a shorter duration for your first cruise (we did two 3-day cruises before we did our first 7) but if you do decided to go for a 7-day straight off, I would choose the Eastern itinerary as the Western seemed to be less relaxed (due to the number of port days in a row) and you don't get as much time in the ports, meaning you are rushing to see stuff.

Unless you particularly like to eat early, I would opt for late dining as, again, having to be ready for dinner at 5.45 can make the days seem rather rushed. We like to do late dining, then we can see the show early, change for dinner and then enjoy our dinner at a more leisurely pace. If you are on late dining and your DD will be going to the kids' club, the servers will arrange for her dinner to be brought out first, then the counsellers will collect her from the dining room, allowing you to enjoy the rest of your meal as a couple. This option is not available with main dining. If you are only doing a 3-day cruise, the dining option probably matters less, particularly if you choose not to get off the ship in Nassau but, when you have port days, we found that being ready for early (main) dining made the days far too rushed.

I agree (for the most part) with those who say not to bother getting off the ship at Nassau, although it woulnd't hurt to get off and have a quick wander around. I am pretty sure that Nassau has a lot to offer but we haven't ventured far enough afield to find it and wouldn't bother to get off the ship now.

Make sure to see the shows in the theatre each night - they, for us, are one of the highlights of the cruise and (my husband says) are well worth the cost of the cruise. Similarly, although it's a little cheesy, don't miss the sailaway party - we missed it on our last cruise (again because we were rushing to get ready for dinner) and we really felt like we had missed an important/integral part of the cruise.

Overall, though, don't worry about trying to do or see too much - very much like WDW, accept that you will be back. And, on that note, if you think there is a slight chance that you will cruise again, reboook on board. Book the cheapest cruise possible (for a low deposit), knowing that you can move to a later/different cruise with no penalty (although bear in mind that to retain your benefits - 10% discount and onboard credit - you need to take that cruise within 18 months).

 

[dixonsontour]

Thanks

Would you recommend cruise first then wdw or wdw then cruise?

Also do they do a lot for halloween on the cruises?

Our approx dates are 15th Oct to Nov 1st.

 

[disneyholic family]

let me beg to differ on nassau...
true it's an absolute dump and no reason to bother getting off the ship (truly - no reason)...
unless you book the blue lagoon island dolphin swim...
we've been to nassau way too many times...
the first time we went to atlantis (meh)..
the next few times, we stayed on board the ship..
the last time we booked the blue lagoon dolphin swim and we were so happy we did....
probably the best dolphin swim we've done to date...
it seemed well run and the dolphins seemed quite content there
(and one of them did the most extraordinary thing for me that i'll tell you about in a moment)..

you take a ferry to get over to blue lagoon island and that's where the dolphin swim is...
your daughter, if she can swim and likes animals, will probably love it...
you do a lot more with the dolphins than at other places i've been...
i'll find a youtube video of it so you have an idea..

but getting back to what one of the dolphins did..

at one point you get "pushed" by two dolphins to the other side of the little lagoon area where the dolphin swim is held..

so you then have to swim from there back over to the dock...it's about the length of a pool distance...

i started my swim back after the push and all of a sudden, one of the dolphins came up under my right arm, pressing against me and as if carrying my right arm and helping me to swim..

now i should say that i'm a very powerful swimmer - i competed (distance swimming), i was a lifeguard and a swim instructer.....
when you see me swim, there is no doubt i know what i'm doing...
but, i have a fake elbow (inside my arm - you can't see it, it's metal)..
my elbow was replaced a few years ago (after a bad fall - long story)..
so inside my arm - invisible to the eye - i have a titanium elbow...

what we all surmised, was the dolphin, with his sonar, was able to ascertain that there was something not quite right about me and so he was "assisting" me back to the dock...
he was very very gentle....not pushy...i wasn't afraid...it was extraordinary...
i've been around dolphins a lot, though not since my injury.....
nothing like that has ever happened...

anyway...they were very nice dolphins!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

by the way, if you can't swim, there is also a 'dolphin encounter'....
we did the dolphin swim, so i can't tell you about the encounter - but i think you can do that one if you don't swim..

there were two people in our swim session who were very weak swimmers - everyone wears a swim vest, so they were able to do it..

i'm off to find some videos...

heres a video of a family doing the dolphin swim at blue lagoon island (the 'push' is at the very end of this video) - there are lots of videos on youtube uploaded by families...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7gulGWa2N0

here's royal caribeans short video on it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTH_n1u5b8g

coming back in to add this video - a video of just the dolphin pushes at the end of the swim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLqXdQ2tSx4

there are also videos about the encounter if you prefer that... we did the swim and really had a good time!!

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks

Would you recommend cruise first then wdw or wdw then cruise?

Also do they do a lot for halloween on the cruises?

Our approx dates are 15th Oct to Nov 1st.

If you are only doing a 3-day, I would be tempted to do it in the middle. That way you won't be depressed at getting off the ship and having to go home but you will get a bit of a variation from WDW and theme parks.

If you were to do a 7-day, I would do it towards the end (we normally do a week at WDW, a week's cruise and then a further night or two back at WDW to alleviate the get off the ship, go straight home depression).

As far as Halloween activities, on our first Halloween cruise, they had full on trick or treat activities, a fancy dress competition and a couple of other fun things, including a parade.

Last year, we cruised over Halloween and they just had the fancy dress contest and some decorations and candy on the table in the buffet area that night (after the pirate night festivities).

So, I would say that they do some stuff for halloween but nothing worth getting too excited about. It would be fun to dress up though.

 

[Mummy Minnie]

Hi dixonsontour

We are going around the same time as you. We've just booked our first disney cruise over Halloween for 3 nights on disney dream next October. We booked with a Dreams unlimited as they offered $100 onboard credit. Very easy to book all through emails. I found this info on Halloween for this year so hopefully will be the same in 2015. http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/holiday-cruises/halloween/

 

[disneyholic family]

we ALWAYS book the cruise in the middle - with WDW before and after...

but everyone has their own approach - cruise at the begining, at the end, in the middle..

why do we do the cruise in the middle? (in the middle in the sense that we have WDW before and after)...

the main reason that we don't do it at the beginning is i'm afraid we'll miss the boat.
Since we're coming from overseas, i worry that due to weather/airport strike/airline strike we might not make it to florida in time...
so if we do 4 or 5 days at WDW first, then i'm sure we'll be in florida in time for the cruise...

and we like to have WDW after the cruise since still WDW is our first love - so we have to have that as our last taste....

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Hi

I had never wanted to cruise and dh could not persuade me

Then he mentioned disney cruise for seven nights in med

I told him he could book as long as he promised if I did not like it, we could get off and fly home at the next port.

I loved it

 

[disney_princess_85]

We've been on two 4-night cruises and we loved them! This year, we're going on a 7-night Western Caribbean cruise. We're really looking forward to taking a more relaxed approach and we're excited about the port days (which are Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Castaway Cay).

I would suggest you do the 4-nighter. I just think three nights isn't enough time, unless you skip Nassau and take the time to explore the ship instead. You wouldn't be missing a great deal, to be honest- it's very rough around the edges! The first time we went, we had a wander around the city, which wasn't very enjoyable as we were constantly hassled to buy stuff. The second time, we took an excursion to Atlantis, which was really fun.

As for what order to do things in, we've always done the cruise first, which is what we're doing in November. It'd be too depressing to go home straight after, so knowing there's WDW time coming up eases the pain of disembarking somewhat! As Joh said, if you go for the 3-nighter, you could do it in the middle of the trip.

 

[tinks_1989]

We have a disney cruise booked for April 2015 7 night Western Caribbean cruise on the magic.

We have booked WDW after as we would rather adjust to the time on the ship and have something to look forward to after the cruise.

We did a 3 night cruise in the middle last time and when the cruise finished I was so glad to be going back to WDW or I think I would have been in bed with severe disney depression lol.

We plan to arrive the night before and either stay at coco beach or AKL.

 

[pascalstongue]

Hi dixonsontour We are going around the same time as you. We've just booked our first disney cruise over Halloween for 3 nights on disney dream next October. We booked with a Dreams unlimited as they offered $100 onboard credit. Very easy to book all through emails. I found this info on Halloween for this year so hopefully will be the same in 2015. http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/holiday-cruises/halloween/

We are going on this cruise too! See you there.