First Time Cruise....a few questions before booking!

[niks81]

Hello all...we are pretty certain we will be booking a 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise for next January 10-17th 2004 in an oceanview stateroom (cat 9 I think). I know Disney World inside and out, but I have NO CLUE about DCL.

I was hoping to post a few questions for all of you experts out there

*Anyone have experience in the oceanview rooms? Are they a good choice?
*I'm used to making room requests at Disney World....does it go the same way on DCL? Can you make requests? I've seen people request numbers on here....??
*We are doing the Eastern--opinions? I was a bit concerned having 3 days at sea (vs. 2 on the Western).
*I think we are staying at the GF before the cruise....what do I do to get from there to DCL?
*How is the weather at the different destinations?

*Any other tips?

Hope I didn't bore anyone

...just trying to figure all of this out before booking! (PS, we are booking through DVC..don't know if that matters)

 

[my3kids]

Yes, you can request a specific room. If you are looking at category 9 rooms, the ones on deck 2 have the huge porthole window, the ones on deck 1 have 2 small porthole windows. Look in your brochure or on the disneycruise.com website to find a room not under a nightclub where noise could be an issue. You can rent a car to have at WDW then drive to the port and leave it there at the drop off stations no additional charge(then take the shuttle to the boat), or hire a town car or limo to take you to the port.

I did the eastern a few months ago. We loved the days at sea. We are doing the western next and are a little sad there are less days at sea. Those were very fun and relaxing...plenty to do. Make sure you go to Palo's brunch on a sea day...wonderful.

You can book either with DCL directly or through a travel agent. We saved a lot by booking one through Costco and the next through cruise.com DreamsUnlimited will also save you money with a rebate, and they can handle your GF reservations too.

On the weather, we didn't notice much difference between St. Thomas and St. Marteen. The water was cooler at Castaway Cay, but it much father north than the other islands. We were there in November and swam at all 3 islands, but CC was definately cooler. I think dcltribute.com has information on the weather at all the ports.

 

[mmouse37]

We just had cabin 2550 on the 1/4 Magic and it was a great room on deck 2. Very convenient to everything....we did the Eastern last February 23 and the both ports were high 80's. Very good swimming weather....even Castaway Cay was hot!!! Compared to the 1/4 cruise where Castaway Cay was very chill with a steady wind all day.

We did our excursions to Orient Beach (Bikini Beach Club) in St. Maarten (took a taxi there and back...inexpensive compared to DCL excursion and it went to the beach next door to where DCL goes). We saw all the DCL people and they had to be back at a certain time where we told our cab driver what time we would like to go back and he was there waiting for us. We didn't even have to pay him until we got back to the ship. Would not take our money on the trip to the beach. There are several cabs waiting to take people places as soon as you disembark the ship.

We did Sapphire Beach on St. Thomas...also did this on our own and it is the exact same beach club as the DCL excursion. The only difference was we did not have lunch included in our trip so we had ordered room service (I had brought along a collapsible cool and zip lock bags) and brought along sandwiches and drinks with us. We only had to pay cab fare and I think $5 for a lounger where DCL price was $50 per person. Times that by 5 people and you can see how much we saved!!!

MJ

 

[floridaminnie]

To get from the GF to the port you have several choices depending on how many people are in your party. If you have a small party (ex 2) I would suggeset the doing your transportation through disney. IF you have more than two, it might be cheaper for you to rent a car for a day.