Disney Dream- September 25th 4-Night Bahamian Cruise!

[tamis]

We are cruising our first DCL trip this very same time. We are new to DCL so I don't know much about it. I do know we are on deck 6 room 6620. We are very excited and i would love to know more about this FE thing being talked about. If someone could please fill me in that would be great.

Traveling will be:
Me: 37
DH: 39
DD: 15
DS: 8

We are actually traveling as a dream trip through the dream factory for our son. He has a rare syndrome and has been through 10+ surgeries and many hospital stays for testing and illness. Any tips would be great as for what we should do, see, avoid. I do know we have first dining seating. Other than that I dont know what any of it means.

First off... This will be an amazing trip for your whole family!! Cruising with Disney you'll find there is a wide variety of things for everyone in the family to enjoy, and create thousands of memories along the way. The staff will take into account your sons special needs and make sure that he has plenty of activities to enjoy and make sure he's in a safe and structured environment. This will be my fist time having a teen on board so I'm not sure of all the activities offered for your daughter, but I'm sure there will be many activities she'll love. My son is now 13 and can't wait to go.

As far as the FE, I am trying get it all organized (my first one ever !!) and found a blog link that explains what it is better than I could say. The link is:

http://www.disneycollegeblog.com/2011/06/whats-fish-extender.html

You can also find tons of information about FE's (fish extenders) if you search the Dis Boards. I hope that helps. If you decide you want to participate let me know and I'll add your family to the list. There is a cut-off date of August 1st, so let me know before that whether or not you would like to join.

In the meantime, check out http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ to look at Disney Cruise planning videos, view their online brochures and find some helpful FAQ's. I hope you enjoy planning for the upcoming cruise.

 

[thesaurinis]

How do I get on the FB page for our cruise date? I would love to follow along on there as I am not on this board to often.

I keep seeing people talk about bookings and dates. I was under the impression everything is open planning/play except for our dinner seating time. See this is all booked for us and we have only been given the dates and our room number. They said we won't get the paper work till the first week of September. So I am getting nerveous we are going to miss out on something fun by not knowing all the ins and outs. I would love to have a couples massage done. My daughter and son would love to swim with the dolphins. Is that available anywhere? If so how much?

How does the dining actually work? We are early seating. Is there a pirates dress up night? (I have heard people talk about some ships do this).

We are going to WDW before our trip for 3 days. So excited I can't wait for it to get here. LOL

 

[jrfaith]

How do I get on the FB page for our cruise date? I would love to follow along on there as I am not on this board to often.

I keep seeing people talk about bookings and dates. I was under the impression everything is open planning/play except for our dinner seating time. See this is all booked for us and we have only been given the dates and our room number. They said we won't get the paper work till the first week of September. So I am getting nerveous we are going to miss out on something fun by not knowing all the ins and outs. I would love to have a couples massage done. My daughter and son would love to swim with the dolphins. Is that available anywhere? If so how much?

How does the dining actually work? We are early seating. Is there a pirates dress up night? (I have heard people talk about some ships do this).

We are going to WDW before our trip for 3 days. So excited I can't wait for it to get here. LOL

If you go to the disney cruise website you can look at the excursions offered . There is one in Nassua that you get in the water with the dolphins. We are hoping to be able to book that. My 2 DD's are looking forward to it. My oldest DD is also 8 years old. Maybe the kids will run into each other in the kids areas.

 

[tamis]

How do I get on the FB page for our cruise date? I would love to follow along on there as I am not on this board to often.

I keep seeing people talk about bookings and dates. I was under the impression everything is open planning/play except for our dinner seating time. See this is all booked for us and we have only been given the dates and our room number. They said we won't get the paper work till the first week of September. So I am getting nerveous we are going to miss out on something fun by not knowing all the ins and outs. I would love to have a couples massage done. My daughter and son would love to swim with the dolphins. Is that available anywhere? If so how much?

How does the dining actually work? We are early seating. Is there a pirates dress up night? (I have heard people talk about some ships do this).

We are going to WDW before our trip for 3 days. So excited I can't wait for it to get here. LOL

If you would like to join the Facebook group just send me your facebook name (You can PM through this site). I need to friend you on my personal page and then I can add you to the cruise page.

Disney does have a "Pirates in the Caribbean" party night where guests are welcome to dress up in pirate costumes, bandanas, t-shirt's, etc., but it's not required. We had fun doing it last cruise, but plenty of families opted to wear their regular clothes, too. That night the ship has a fireworks display which is quite an experience out at sea.

You might want to check if your local library or bookstore have any Disney Cruise books. There is one called "Passporter's Disney Cruise Line and it's Ports of Call" and another called "Birnbaum Guides: Disney Cruise Line" that are full of helpful tips and information about Disney Cruises. I loved those books when I was planning our 1st cruise in '09.

 

[Amanda Holden]

We are flying into MCO Saturday, Sept 24 and have booked the FLY,SNOOZE, CRUISE Package at the Hampton Inn, Cape Canaveral, and I was just wondering if anyone else is using Travel Lynx from the Airport?

We usually drive so the Flying in the night before is new to us and I am just a little nervous about the shuttle from the Airport to the Hotel and then back to the Airport.

Thanks,
Amanda

 

[tamis]

We're staying the night before in Cape Canaveral at the Country Inn and Suites. Our plan is to do a one-way car rental at the airport, drop it off in Cape Canaveral, and take the car rentals free shuttle to the port ~ or if we decide to drop the car off the night before we'll take the hotel shuttle instead. I secured a car rental for around $55 through Budget.
75 days to go!! The excitement is building!!

 

[jrfaith]

Is anyone else having trouble with booking excusions?? I have been trying for 15 minutes and it still says I can"t book until todays date....hmmm??

 

[cruisingturtle]

I'm having the same issue. According to what I've read on the threads, we should be able to do online check-in starting from midnight EST. Right?

 

[jrfaith]

That was my understanding...but maybe I am wrong??

 

[starwarsdisney]

I was able to book excursions, but it won't let me do the online paperwork, AKA chose a port arrival time.

 

[big jack 2002]

After trying for weeks, I was able to book our Brunch yesterday for 6 people!! They must have opened more spots or someone cancelled. We haven't tried booking our excursions yet, though.
I'm almost done with our FE gifts and I'm just waiting for the cabin numbers before I finish them up. I haven't seen any pictures posted of what I made!! We are so looking forward for this vacation
Barbara

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

The kids are getting really excited. I have an 11 year old girl and a 4 year old boy. My 11 year old has been showing my son the website and everything on the cruise. Actually, I'm getting pretty excited, too!

I need to get busy on the FE gifts. Most of them are going to be made, and I'm not so crafty. I've gotten the ideas from gifts received from other Disney cruisers.

 

[jrfaith]

WooHoo!!!!

I was able to finally book my excursion around 4am. I did have soem trouble as it seemed the Disney Website went down midways through the process. But I was able to get the Dolphins at the time I wanted. I told my DD this morning and she was super happy.

 

[starwarsdisney]

After trying for weeks, I was able to book our Brunch yesterday for 6 people!! They must have opened more spots or someone cancelled. We haven't tried booking our excursions yet, though.
I'm almost done with our FE gifts and I'm just waiting for the cabin numbers before I finish them up. I haven't seen any pictures posted of what I made!! We are so looking forward for this vacation
Barbara

How were you able to book the brunch? I was online at midnight EST and there was nothing available!

On a side note, I was able to book everything else that we wanted with no problems including a good port arrival time. I knew Palo brunch was going to be tough. It's not the end of the world, but I'm wondering how you were able to book when it showed as full last night. I'm trying to call now. I guess we have to hope we are in a EARLY boarding group and head right to the Palo booking desk!

 

[big jack 2002]

I hadn't been able to even click on the brunch. Monday morning, before I went to work, I decided to look at our reservations and the brunch button was open!! I had to book for 5 or 6 people and I could only get 10:30. There are 7 of us so we are going to try to get one more squeezed in at our table. We got our boarding arrival time between 11 and 11:30. We are staying at the Hyatt at the airport Saturday night -- and taking Disney transportation -- so that should work out well for us.
Barbara

 

[starwarsdisney]

I hadn't been able to even click on the brunch. Monday morning, before I went to work, I decided to look at our reservations and the brunch button was open!! I had to book for 5 or 6 people and I could only get 10:30. There are 7 of us so we are going to try to get one more squeezed in at our table. We got our boarding arrival time between 11 and 11:30. We are staying at the Hyatt at the airport Saturday night -- and taking Disney transportation -- so that should work out well for us.
Barbara

Very cool. I'll keep checking it, otherwise it will be our first stop once on the boat to try to book the brunch. I was also able to get the 11-11:30 port arrival time. Oddly enough we are flying in Saturday and staying at the Hyatt there in the airport too! We also are taking the Disney transportation and plan to be on the first bus from the airport to the port. Should work out great! Hopefully we can check in at the airport and get a low boarding number. Really excited about our first cruise!

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

We attended 6th grade open house tonight. School starts on Monday. We celebrate the first track out with a trip to Disney and a cruise on the Dream.

 

[thesaurinis]

omg....I am so confused. We are going on the cruise but have no info on it but our catagory, room number. Our son is getting a wish trip so they have taken care of everything for us. I know we will get from WDW to the port by Disney, but I see people posting about booking for b'fast. I thought on cruises you just go to the buffet and have b'fast. Do we have to make reservations?

As for excursions, can you make them on the ship? I have no idea what to do seeing its our first cruise with DCL. I don't think we will do the Pirate night as I might surprise the kids with MNSSHP while in Disney and I know my son will want his Woody costume for that and I dont want to bring to many costumes. What excursions do you recommend? Kids would like to do the swim with the dolphins but Zach the wish kid isn't big enough/weigh enough so I can't let DD do it if he can't.

 

[tamis]

You don't have to dress up for pirate night, but a t-shirt or bandana is a fun and an easy way for the kids to feel the pirate spirit. Whether you dress up or not you're still welcome to attend the party. It's a lot of fun, and I don't think you'll want to miss it on your 1st cruise. They used to give the kids a pirate bandana in the kids club the night of the party. Has anyone recently cruised and know if this is still the case?

You should be able to book excursions online now. I'm pretty sure excursion bookings were open to everyone as of Monday.

MNSSHP was awesome. I'm hoping we can go again this year.

 

[tamis]

We're just a couple weeks away from our FE deadline. I've sent out e-mails to a few families requesting stateroom numbers and kids ages. If you haven't gotten back to me yet, please let me know by August 1st. If I don't hear back by then I'll have to assume you aren't planning to do it anymore and finalize our list the first week of August. I want to give everyone plenty of time to get their FE's ready.

Is there anyone participating that can plan the meet and greet for all of us (pretty please!!). I'll bring the group sheets for each cabin, but would really appreciate someone else planning the time and location of the meet. Since this is my first time being involved with an FE, it's all a bit foreign to me.

I can't wait to meet all of you, and I am definitely getting excited for this cruise to get underway