div dad & 2 daughters on 1st cruise...HELP!

[apcall]

My daughters and I saw the disney cruise line on the travel channel the other day and thought that it would be great for our next trip (spring 2005) as opposed to our usual WDW (five times). This is the first real trip my daughters (ages: 9 and 13 by the time of the trip) and I are taking alone (usually we go with my x-wife and her husband) and I was alittle apprehensive about taking them to WDW alone (imagine watching two children alone who have different likes when it comes to WDW). Anyways I have been spending hours each night for the past 3 nights learning as much about the cruises as I possibly could, but I thought I would appeal to the 'experts' (that be you) with some questions. Any help you could possibly provide would be greatly appreciated....thanks in advance.

1) Anyone have any advice for a divorced father (especially if you yourself are divorced) taking his two daughters on a 7-day cruise?
2) Can you get room service for a dinner? We plan on staying in a delux with a veranda/navigator (what is the difference between the two?).
3) What month (my kids love to swim) do you prefer to cruise in the winter/spring (jan, feb, mar, apr, or may)?
4) what is your room category preference (I am open to all but the family staterooms)
5) Eastern or western?

Sorry for being so long winded....thanks

 

[ferastu]

Our first cruise is this November, so I won't be able to answer all your questions. But I can get to some of them..

From what I've read on my travel agent's site, Room Service is FREE and 24 HOURs!

We're going in a Cat11. We don't feel a need for a balcony or even a window.

We're doing a 7 day Eastern, the ports sounded better to us.

 

[ratfam]

I can't speak to cruising alone with kids, but I can try to help with some of your other questions. Room service: there is a room service menu available all the time, it includes lunch and dinner but the selections are fairly limited. I believe that you need to be in a suite to order from restaurants. You can also bring food from the counter service restaurants back to your room. Month/Itinerary: we have cruised twice in late March, both Eastern, and had fabulous weather both times. Friends cruised this February on the Western and had mediocre weather (they said it wasn't great for swimming for their kids) other than Mexico and Grand Cayman, I don't know if this was a fluke or typical. We have liked the Eastern because we really enjoy the days at sea and the Eastern has one more than the Western. We also don't like to get involved with shore excursions, and in St. Maarten you can get to a beach (probably not the nicest on the island but fine for us) very easily and inexpensively by water taxi from the dock. Room: our first cruise we had a cat 4 stateroom because we got in on a cancellation and had no choice. Although we enjoyed the verandah, this trip we had a cat 9 on deck 2 and enjoyed it just as much. In fact, we were in the room so little, that I think on our next cruise we may just do an inside room to save some more money. Hope that's helpful for a start, I'm sure you'll get many other thoughts!

 

[poohs4me]

1) My boyfriend says as a divorced dad the DCL is great because it caters to the kids. The kids clubs might also give you some separate one on one time with a kid, swimming or just hanging out. One could stay in the club while you are with the other.
2) We often had dinner or lunch using room service. We selected early dining this last cruise and hated having to be rushed, so we either went to the BBB or ordered something from stateroom dining. However. I must add that stateroom dining was one of the highlights of DD's trip (she was just turning 8 when we went). The first couple of times the grownups handled all the transactions - ordering the food and tipping when it arrived. By the end of the 7 day cruise, she insisted she be allowed to tip when the food arrived and occassionally we would allow her to even order. The funniest part was when we came home, the first night she stuck a breakfast order outside her bedroom door. We were so tickled we decided to humor her and brought her the meal. The absolutely best part was that she went into her piggy bank and tipped us.
3) We chose the Western Cruise because we liked the itinerary, however, we have now learned that she could care less about the stops to her they were all just HOT (we went in June).

 

[Muushka]

It looks like pretty much all of your questions have been answered.
I just wanted to add:

What a great Dad you are!!!

I hope you and your girls have a great cruise!

PS My 2 sisters and I were raised by my Dad .

 

[Angel51201]

Hi Apcall,
I'm certainly no cruise expert, but I can share that I cruised as a single parent in Nov. 2003 and we had a great time and it was our first Disney cruise too. DD2 & I were in an inside cabin. The only thing I didn't like about the cabin was that it was dark (no windows). Everytime I was in the room I wanted to nap - what a thing NOT to do on a Disney cruise, even though it is a vacation (?)

I'll be cruising again on the Oct. 22 Western with DD4 & DS18. We'll travel with other family & friends too - 4 families total.

Regarding dining....we did order small meals by room service, such as chicken nuggets/fries/fruit to hold DD over to dinner if necessary, but we loved going to the restaurants too; couldn't wait to see our servers each night. (I appreciated the service in the restaurants more than the food sometimes.)

Happy sailing!

 

[burma]

wanna adopt a 38 yr old ... ill quit my job and we can travel the world on your dime of course

Ok seriously ...

Stay away from the Hurricain months and you should be fine the weather in the islands is usually pretty good all year round CC on the other hand is most likely warmer as you get closer to the summer months.

Eastern or Western is your choice look at the ports and decide what you like

room with girls that age I would go Delux with Verhanda ( a bit more expensive)

Room Service 24hr but dont miss the dinner in AP its fun for all ages the others are nice too.

Im not single but my wife goes to bed real early with the kids ... So I go to the bars myself I have met a few divorced moms and single women on the ship who are doing the same thing you are. There are always people to meet and The Sports bar is a nice place to hang our also.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

I am not a single parent, but have traveled with kids on DCL. Your kids will have a ball. There are family night club activities for all of you to do as a family, and clubs just for their age. Your 13 year old will go to "The Stack" to hang with the teens. Kids love this because no adults allowed!!! They have great counselors there that are up on all the teen stuff that is currently popular. They have an espresso bar, dancing, games, special pizza parties and movies. There are even special teen only excursions if they want. So if she is the type to want some time with others her age it's great. The 9 year old will have her own navigator for the kids club so you can plan out activities each night for the next day. There are good family movies and live theater too. On the first day, read your navigator( in your room) thoroughly. It will tell you the time that both the kids need to sign up for their clubs. This is done the first afternoon and they will answer any questions that you or your daughters might have. You will be given a pager so they can contact you at any time. They also have several times where singles can meet and have lunch and get to know each other so you can make friends too. As for the weather, we have gone in dec 4 times and march 1 time. The weather was great everytime. Plenty warm enough to swim, although the wind does blow a lot every where. The temperature in the Bahamas only varies 5 degrees from summer to winter, so pretty safe there. June to nov are hurricane months. The ships will just go farther out to sea if that happens, but your ports may change for safety reasons. And last year for about 6 weeks they had to dock at ft. lauderdale instead of port canaveral due to hurricane, but they did still cruise and had a great time. I live in Florida near WDW so it made the news big time as the ships had to make changes.
I think you'll all have a MAGICAL time.
mom x4,grandma x4

 

[txaggie94gigem]

Something you need to know as a divorced parent....

I remember reading another thread about a legal document you need notarized from your ex-wife that says she is aware you are taking the kids out of the country....Also, if you need a passports for your girls I think she has to be with you as well when you apply....

Have a great time...your girls will appreciate you so much!!!

 

[apcall]

thank you very much for your help

 

[joanb]

Do the dinners-the restaurants are fun and you will get to dress up and take your daughter for a dinner "date" it could be very special. They have photographers to take pixs-what special memories!