First Disney cruise and planning (and a couple kids room questions)

[kohlby]

What planning do you do before your cruise? I haven't been on a cruise for over 15 years - and never with kids nor a Disney cruise - so this is new territory. I know about booking excursions - that part hasn't changed too much since I last cruised. But it appears there are other things some people plan for beforehand specific to Disney cruises and I'm getting confused to knowing what I have to do and how much in advance. Any tips on what else you sign up for before?

We will use the kids clubs. And on that note - my middle child is 12, can she sign up for both the 11-14 room and the 3-12 room and use both? I noticed the kids rooms were listed two ways for the 3-12 set too. (Disney Dream). So I'm thinking that means two rooms. Do just sign up in general or do we need to sign up specifically just for one of them? Do kids clubs ever get too full and deny people as well?

 

[Travel60]

My husband accuses me of making work out of vacations but...WARNING...the planners on this website put me to shame. The only pre-planning I do for cruises is the excursions and a dinner at Palo. We already know we want veranda room and late dining so no planning needed there. I used to preplan a spa treatment but they've pretty much priced me out...I can do that at home for half the price. I may buy a rain forest pass once on board.
If you follow this board and the other "....book" that apparently can't be mentioned here, there are folks putting together Fish Extender groups (sort of gifting groups), various alcohol tastings, etc. To me that's WORK. Once on the cruise I look every night at the next day's schedule and decide what, if anything, I want to do, or just decide to hit the gym and pool.
If you have kids there are numerous character meet and greets, dressup things, etc. You book them similar to the excursions- they are under "activities". I'm so glad they weren't around when our kids were young enough to participate! We have grandkids coming up but daughter will have to decide how much of that she wants to pay for and deal with. Lots to do without opening wallet.
I'm not sure about kids clubs...no recent experience but my kids loved them.

 

[lanejudy]

What planning do you do before your cruise? ... But it appears there are other things some people plan for beforehand specific to Disney cruises and I'm getting confused to knowing what I have to do and how much in advance. Any tips on what else you sign up for before?

We don't do a lot of pre-planning -- pre- and post-cruise plans, transportation, excursions (which we don't do many) and character meets (and breakfast if offered). Otherwise, we generally roll with it. Adult dining (Palo/Remy) and alcohol tastings also require advanced sign-up, and you can schedule spa services in advance (or onboard).

Character greeting scheduled in advance are only a couple -- Princess Gathering, which typically has 3-5 princesses at one time; and the Frozen meet-n-greet, which is Elsa and/or Anna and occasionally Olaf. All other meet & greets are "open" and will be listed in the Navigator each day, no need to sign-up in advance. Princesses will also be available at "open" slots, but not the Frozen characters.

We will use the kids clubs. And on that note - my middle child is 12, can she sign up for both the 11-14 room and the 3-12 room and use both? I noticed the kids rooms were listed two ways for the 3-12 set too. (Disney Dream). So I'm thinking that means two rooms. Do just sign up in general or do we need to sign up specifically just for one of them? Do kids clubs ever get too full and deny people as well?

She can use both spaces. While the 2 Oceaneers spaces are both ages 3-12, the Club is generally geared towards younger kids (3-7) and the Lab towards the older set (8-12). If there is "open house" on either side, all kids checked-in for "secure" programming will be moved to the opposite space. Edge is for ages 11-14 and more middle-school like. Those kids have freedom to move about the ship, coming and going as they choose. The Club/Lab may get full, but it's very rare. DCL will only allow X-number of kids in each age group, and beyond that the family can't even book the cruise. So it's very rare that any of the kids' spaces are so full that people have to wait to enter. Other than the nursery which is limited due to staffing since the youngest kids requiring more direct and hands-on supervision.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[cadien]

One thing I did before my first Disney cruise (in April) was look over some daily schedules from past cruises on the same ship/itinerary. That helped me decide how much I wanted to pre-plan and how much I just wanted to leave open.

Many things that you can book online will also still have spots available when you board. Palo. The drink tastings. Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. But it seems like your only opportunity for the ticketed character greetings is online. Maybe the Royal Tea too. I don't know whether people can sign up for that on board.

 

[kohlby]

Thank you so much! I was wondering if planning was much more complicated than it used to be or if it was just my access to websites now that made it seem that way. Part of the reason we decided on a cruise was for less planning. I think maybe it's also hard for Disney park people to step back and not plan, since the parks take so much planning when not locals. Our cruise is a shorter one - just to the Bahamas - with the idea of doing more provided activities than extras but I didn't want to miss out pre-booking something and regret it later. Husband and I do want to do an alcohol tasting though.

Good to know about Club and Lab actually being for two age groups. I hadn't seen that info on the DCL page. My youngest is 9 so that's nice that my middle can be in a room with him - even though I expect her to want to be in the 11-14 room most of the time. (And want to be away from her little brother). The DCL page made it sound like there were more crafts in the 3-12 age spaces though so she wanted to check them out at least once for that. Also, our cruise is not during a school vacation time so she may want to go to where ever there are kids anywhere close to her age. (Labor Day week).

 

[Mommb]

The Club and the Lab have different check-in areas, but there are internal passageways so that kids can move between them once they are checked in. As lanejudy mentioned, if one of the areas is having an Open House, kids will need to be checked in for secure programming in the other area, and kids who have been checked in will be confined to that area until the Open House ends.

Your daughter will need to have self-checkout privileges, which allow her to check herself out of programming without an adult, if she is participating in Edge (the 11-14 year old program). Your youngest can be given the privilege, or you can require him to be checked out by an adult each time.

 

[darnheather]

For our Disney vacation I planned at least an hour a day for six months. For our cruises I put in about 40 hours over the course of 18 months. So much more relaxed. I thought my youngest would stay in the 3-12 club more but once she got Edge privileges she never looked back. Far fewer kids so way more interaction with the CMs and way more fun things to do that involved exploring the ship.