Do people over plan things on a cruse?

[DisneyCowgirl]

I plan and plan and plan. Our cruise is still a year away and already I'm planning. But in the end, we'll book almost nothing ahead of time and will just go with the flow. Until then, I am enjoying the planning.

 

[Bruiserknits]

All this planning talk is interesting to me. As WDW veterans we hardly ever plan much other than our one or two full service meals each trip and what parks we want to go to based on EMH. Having never been on a cruise before I've been devouring travel blogs, guide books, and everything Disney and my TA send me. But I still feel like I haven't planned enough, even though when I look at things to plan I don't see anything I *have* to do. I would like to take the mixology class with my daughter as that is something that interests both of us, but other than that I don't have plans. We want to go to the shows, ride the Aquaduck at least once each and run the Castaway 5K. Everything else is fluff and a new adventure. It will be fun to see what the Navigator brings us each morning.

My big "planning things" concern such things as how I'm getting to the airport, what it is like to go through customs (I've never been through customs as an adult), whether I can find my way to breakfast each morning (don't laugh - this is a recurring nightmare), and what I really need to pack. I pre-paid for a picture package (actually the photo book) and pre-paid my gratuities, so I shouldn't have many expenses on board other than some very girlie drinks and souvenirs.

 

[TinkRose]

It's interesting that a lot of new cruisers want to request a MDR rotation or servers when going with whatever Disney assigns is just as good or even better than what you could request. I can see if you had an exceptional server you might want them again but an exceptional server to you might be just OK to me because our situation or family is different. Meeting different CM's from a variety countries is always interesting to me. If you are trying to figure out what nights to reserve Palo or Remy it might be helpful to know your rotation but you can change the reservations when you get on board if it conflicts with a MDR menu or location you don't want to miss.

Planning port adventures in advance is important. The best thing to do for everything else is to get the most current Navigators for the cruise you are going to take to see what is available to do, keeping in mind that a lot of activities, movies, tastings, etc. might be at different times than are listed on the Navigator you can find online. Make a note of what interests you so you can find those activities on your Navigator. Let go of the idea that you can do it all, there's too much! There's a few things I have wanted to do on our first cruise that I have yet to do, but that's something to look forward to for next time.

Cruising does take less planning than WDW so it might be hard for some to adapt.

 

[AngelDisney]

I think, for a cruise, it is not as necessary to plan a lot as for going to WDW. We did a land and sea with Disney in 2004. We had about 3 rides a day, waited about 1.5 hours for a character lunch, and fastpassed only one ride. We enjoyed our time together but DH would not want to go again. On the contrary, we had a fabulous time on the cruise and this is how I got hooked. At that time, I did not know about the onboard booking policy, and I was not aware of the existence of these insightful Disboards!! We decided to go about a month before the trip. I was a total Disney newbie!!! Now, I plan my land vacation one year out and cruise vacation two years out.

To me, stateroom location is important since I am prone to seasickness. Dining rotation is important if I am booking Palo. Definitely port excursions are important. I enjoy planning out each day of my vacation but I am also flexible. I can deviate from my plan for spontaneity.

 

[TestingH2O]

For me, the planning extends the vacation. We booked about a year ahead and so, when the weather is awful or work is pushing me one step too far, I can take a little break and "plan" something about the cruise. I did learn a few things like when to contact concierge (the TA we used has dropped the ball several times) and about the cabanas on CC. Those were good pieces of information that worked to my advantage, but most of the research has been a way to give myself a diversion.