First Cruise Questions

[CantwaitforJune03]

This Spring we are booked on an Eastern Cruise and am getting pretty excited. I'm new to this board, and have some pretty lame questions I was hoping to get help with:

Planning right now to spend four nights at the Grand Floridian - Any tips on what if any rooms we should request?

Will four days at WDW followed by a seven night cruise give my DW a mouse overdose?

Should we cut it to three nights? Increase to five?

We fly from the west so our travel agent suggested we fly into Orlando the a day early and stay at a hotel near the airport and get up early the next day to maximize the time at WDW. Thoughts?

We are in connectiong rooms 8522 and 8524 - Any tips from people who may have done the same rooms?

Will we have enough room for four?

I read about "jogging" onboard the ship. Will it be possible to get a 7 or 9 mile run w/o using the treadmills?

Is there a limit on the number of nights we can make reservations at Palo's?

Can anyone rate the quality of massage? Is it worth having it in your room?

Will my kids 12 and 14 be bored?

Should we bring our own snorkeling gear?

How is the scuba diving vs snorkeling?

We are on the early dinner plan. Is that the way to go?

Should I bring my tux?

If not will I need a suit?

Can we bring wine onboard?

Anyone know about the American Express Platinum program that is supposed to get you a bridge tour and dinner with the skipper?

Are the veranda large enough to stretch out on and read?

Is it hard to get lounge chairs by the pool?

Is the pool large enough (and uncrowded enough) to swim laps?

More to come no doubt. Thanks.

 

[Michelle]

First of all, welcome to the Cruise Board!

I'll try to help with some of these; you may want to post some questions on separate threads just to be sure they are all answered.

* For tips on room requests at the GF you should post on our Resorts Board. It depends on which view type you have reserved, garden or lagoon view.

* Four days at WDW followed by a cruise is definitely not an overdose. The cruise is very fun and relaxing, and it's not overly "Disneyfied".

* I live on the West Coast and it depends on what time you get in. You can actually arrive at 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon on a non-stop flight, and if that is the case I would stay at a WDW resort. If you arrive very late at night, I would stay at the Hyatt that is IN the airport for the night. Remember, you are on Pacific time and that's three hours earlier, so you really won't be that tired.

* If you have connecting rooms for FOUR people you have tons of room. Most parties of four stay in ONE room.

* The treadmills are your best bet for a long jog; you can jog the Promenade Deck too but it's about four times around for one mile.

* You can only make ONE dinner reservation at Palo (and one brunch and one high tea) initially, you can waitlist for additional reservations.

* No, your kids won't be bored. Post a separate question about teen activities and you'll get lots of input on that.

* Yes, bring your own snorkeling gear for Castaway Cay, to avoid the high rental fees.

* I definitely prefer EARLY dining, it gets dinner out of the way early to enjoy the evening activities on the ship.

* If you have a tux, by all means bring it for formal night. It is not required, and if you prefer to bring a suit that is fine too.

* Yes, you can bring wine onboard. If you bring it to dinner they will charge you a corkage fee.

* The AmEx program will most likely be discontinued next year, they are no longer the official card of WDW and DCL -- that will be VISA.

* The verandah is large enough to read but you can't stretch out, they are not reclining chairs.

* On sea days the pools are more crowded but I have never had a problem finding a chair by the adult pool or the deck above it (Deck 10). The family and children's pools get crowded, though.

* You may be able to swim laps in the adult pool but it is pretty small.

Hope that helps a little!

 

[disneyholic family]

i like the grand floridian's sugar loaf lodge concierge rooms....

as for bridge tours...as far as i know, since 9-11 there have been no bridge tours for anyone because of security...
the only place you can see the bridge is from the treadmills in the gym....

4 days is certainly not too much in WDW....we spend 3 weeks at WDW every summer....and this year we added the disney cruise to our annual 3 week visit...

your kids willl NOT be bored....definitely not...my 15 year old son had a blast in common grounds...i suggest you look at the navigators (the daily shipboard schedules) posted at Barb's site (i think also at Dave's site)....there are different navigators for each different age group (adult, teen, childrens, etc)...my son, who normally never leaves his computer, was with the kids his age in common grounds until 2 in the mroning...he had breakfast, lunch and dinner with us, and went to the show with us, but the rest of the time he was in common grounds, or in common grounds activities...

we had the late seating for dinner and loved it...by the way, when you have later seating you have to go to the early evening show (at about 6:30 or so)...if you have early eating you go to the later show...

with two rooms (one of them a cat 3) you will have tons of room (by the way, the cat 3 stateroom has 2 full baths....)

there ae 3 pools on board....a kiddie pool, a family pool, and an adult pool...
they are all tiny ...
one stroke and i would be on the other side...
i didn't get near the swimming pools on our cruise....(nor did the rest of my family)...
we're from a hot climate and live near the beach.....it's not my dream vacation to fight 2700 other people for a chair by a bathtub sized pool (when i have a private meditarranean beach year round).......so i never even went to the area of the pools....i love solitude...and amazing as it may seem with 2700 passengers on board, there are plenty of places to find solitude on the ship....it was wonderful....i especially loved sitting on the verandah in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep....so perfectly peaceful....but i also really enjoyed the adult clubs at night...

as for massages....i can only tell you that the girl who my daughter had was excellent and sweet as can be...my daughter had her massage in one of the cabanas on castaway cay...

bottom line, you're going to have a grand time!!!

Michelle....i can't believe it....AMEX not the official card anymore????...wow....that's news....

 

[CantwaitforJune03]

Thanks to both of you for the very helpful information.

 

[tstobb]

Originally posted by disneyholic family
Michelle....i can't believe it....AMEX not the official card anymore????...wow....that's news....

Disney is switching to a co-branded Visa card that will earn you points towards Dis merchandise & trips. They are also doing away with the Disney Club (Magic Kingdom Club).