First Time Cruise- Have Lots of Questions

[deb&tim]

We have just booked our 1st Disney Cruise for Jan 25/03- 7 day Eastern .
Could someone please give us a little bit of information on the tipping and extra expenses to expect while on the cruise. We're driving from Ontario to Florida and with the exchange from Canadian to US money the trip seems to be adding up before we even leave.
We have a daughter age 12 (will be 13 within 2 wks after our vacation) and our son age 10. What are some of the things we should not miss. I've heard the Palo dinner is hard to get into and alot do miss out on that.
Are you allowed to bring munchies & drinks in your stateroom that you purchased before getting on the ship?
Any information or suggests would be appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Hi, deb&tim. Welcome to the cruise board.

Here's my standard answer about tipping...

Posted on the Disney Cruise Lines web site (<a href="http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/disneycruiseline/faq/faqgroupingindex?id=RatesAndDatesFAQGrping#RatesTippingFAQ">link</a>)

You should never feel that a reward is automatically expected from you. But it is customary to give gratuities in recognition of service, which you will most likely be treated to in abundance aboard the ship. As a guideline... [Disney Cruise Lines] suggests the following:

<p align=center><table border=1 cellpadding=10><tr><td><b>Per Guest per cruise</b></td><td align=center><b>3-night</b></td><td align=center><b>4-night</b></td><td align=center><b>7-night</b></td></tr><tr><td>Dining Room Server</td><td align=right>11.00</td><td align=right>14.50</td><td align=right>25.25</td></tr><tr><td>Dining Room Assistant Server</td><td align=right>8.00</td><td align=right>10.75</td><td align=right>18.75</td></tr><tr><td>Dining Room Head Server</td><td align=right>2.75</td><td align=right>3.75</td><td align=right>6.50</td></tr><tr><td>Stateroom Host/Hostess</td><td align=right>10.75</td><td align=right>14.50</td><td align=right>25.25</td></tr><tr><td>Dining Manager</td><td align=center colspan=3>Your Discretion</td></tr><tr><td>Room Service</td><td align=center colspan=3>Your Discretion</td></tr></table></p>

[Be aware that...] a 15% gratuity is automatically added to bar, beverage, wine, and deck service tabs. [Additional gratuity, should you wish to add it, can be added on the charge slip you will be asked to sign.] All gratuities can be charged to your room charge.

Your stateroom host will put tip envelopes in your stateroom on the afternoon of the second-to-last day of your trip. But since you know about this from reading the boards, you can go to Guest Services early in the week to avoid the lines near the end of the cruise. Guest Services will allow you to put your tips on your stateroom account... they'll give you a voucher with the tip amount... you place the voucher in your tip envelope and your servers receive the cash.

It is customary to present your tip envelopes at dinner on the last night of your cruise or at breakfast on disembarkation morning.

Although all tipping is up to your discretion (except for the automatic 15% gratuity for drinks), there are no "guidelines" or "suggestions" for room service tipping. My personal <i><b>suggestions</b></i> are as follows:

$2 minimum.
$1 for each additional person receiving service.
$1 if all you're getting is coffee or tea.

So you'll want to start saving single dollar bills prior to your cruise.

The other place where cash tipping is appropriate is the porters for curbside checkin at the beginning of the cruise and hauling your luggage through customs and out to your car or bus at the end of the cruise. These guys work hard and save you a lot of labor. Tip them generously (at least $1/bag).

Yes, Palo is difficult to get into unless you make reservations as soon as you board the ship. Reservations for Palo and for the more popular spa services (including open-air massages at Castaway Cay) go very quickly. We refer to this initial scramble to get the good reservations as the "Ressies Scramble".

Yes, you can bring your own food/snacks onboard. And Disney is one of the few cruise lines that even allows you to bring your own alcohol onboard.

As for other tips... refer to my standard first-timers' advice. It's at my web site.

www.dcltribute.com/faq/newbieadvice.htm

 

[deb&tim]

Thanks for your information. All $$$ saving information is very helpful.

 

[disneyholic family]

are you planning on driving non-stop or doing it in two days?...
i suggest the latter....driving straight through will tire you out.....a good nights sleep along the way will make the first day of the cruise that much more enjoyable....
and given that you're going to be driving in the dead of winter, i'd tack on an extra day or two just in case of bad weather....

when we used to drive from detroit to florida it always took us a full two days (of course we stopped at all those stupid things along the way.....lookout mountain et al....but what's a road trip without them)....

 

[disney6]

I don't mean to worry you, BUT I'd absolutely plan on at least 2 days travel by car. We TRIED to drive down to Savannah, GA last Christmas, left the house Dec. 26, drove right back into our driveway 5 1/2 hours later!!!! All highways were shut down in Buffalo and we didn't know until we were in the middle of it looking at snow banks 6 ft. tall!

You will also be driving through the mountains of West Virginia so GIVE YOURSELF PLENTY OF TIME!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you checked airfares out of Buffalo? We just got back and flew Buffalo to Jacksonville, FL (just under 3 hrs. from the port) on Southwest Airlines for $125US per person (tax included!). Might be worth checking into IMHO.

 

[disney6]

I just checked and Southwest Jan 24 - Feb. 1 (Buffalo to Orlando)is $161 US return (tax incl). Their prices usually run Tues - Mon. and sell fairly quickly so it might be worth a look. There are other airlines too.

Gas is costly, hotels are costly, and you've invested too many $$ to risk missing the boat (PLUS it's a FANTASTIC vacation). Just MHO again!

 

[tstobb]

Depending on your route, you may want to consider the AutoTrain - leaves Lorton, VA (around DC) in the afternoon & drops you off in Sanford, FL (by Orlando) the next morning. They have chairs that pull out into sleepers like 1st class airplane seats or you can get a private cabin. Dinner & breakfast are included in the fare and the driver gets to relax a bit. We did this in June with all 5 of us (self, DW, DS9, DS7 & DD4) & got 2 adjoining sleeper cabins so we even had 2 private bathrooms & it was great!

 

[jrabbit]

And don't bother bringing your own snacks on board. There is food - a lot of food - very good food - snacks, meals, desserts, late night desserts (one night a dessert buffett). Two of the things they do very well are chocolate chip cookies and croisants. After a couple of days we started "skipping" lunch - usually picked up some fresh fruit from Scoops. Oddly enough, when we had brunch at Palo, they recommeded the lemon merangue pie. I thought "You have to be joking!!" I tried it, they weren't!! I have never had a lemon merangue pie that good!!

We were on the Eastern cruise the last week of January this year. The weather was great. We had a lot of fun.

Don't forget the sunscreen and don't forget to use it!!! The sun is a lot more intense down there!!

Something to plan on spending money on are the pictures from Shutters. We ended up buying waaaaay more of them than we had planned.

When we went we wanted to snorkel, snorkel, snorkel so we signed up for Disney excursions on all of the islands. We got cancelled out of 2 snorkeling excursions on St. Maarten (poor visability). It sounds like they get a lot of wind and it stirs up the sand in the water and clouds up and reduces the visability. We ended up going to a beach (Orient) on our own. Had a great time and it was a lot cheaper for the 7 of us than the excursion.

Your 10 year old will have a great time in the Oceaneers Lab. Your 12 almost 13 year old may have some difficulties. She will definatly be allowed to in the Oceaneers Lab (but may not like it as well because she is older) and I don't know if Disney will let her go up to the Teenager group. Good Luck here.

If you are soda drinkers, bring your own or purchase a mug on the ship. If you don't drink alcohol you will save a bunch of money.

For us the biggest expense are the Tips and the shore excursions. You shouldn't skimp on the tips to the crew, but you can have fun on the islands without the expense of a Disney Excursion.

Things not to miss: Disney Dreams. I really like the Hercules show to (if you haven't seen the Disney movie, watch it before leaving home). I actually like all of the main evening main shows (except for maybe Morty the Magnificent - or was it called C'est Magic). The "cabaret" shows in Rockin' Bar D (both family and adult) are usually very good. The "show" night for your dinning rotation in Animators Pallet is something to be seen. We enjoyed the cooking classes in the "Art of Entertaining" series. We also participated in the "Navigator" and "Thats Entertainment" series for adults (about the ship and about the stage shows).

Have a Great Trip - It's Wonderful ... er I mean Magical (wrong ship you know)

 

[MelissaE1]

Hi deb&tim,

I'm not much help about Disney cruising as this will be our first cruise on the Disney line, but just wanted to say hi -- we'll be on the Magic January 25th also.

Here's a link to the thread for that particular cruise, if you are interested:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=268386

 

[deb&tim]

Thank you to very one who replied. I'm making notes of all the tips I'm receiving from people so that I can remember everything.
This is our first cruise but we have been to Disney with our kids twice. Once we spent a week camping at the Wilderness Resort --Excellent place to go.
It usually takes us 2 days of 12 hour driving along I 75 but this time we are taking a different route so that we avoid the mountains and we're crossing our fingers that the weather isn't too bad.

Hi - Melissa ! My daughter would like to know if you have kids and if so how old are they. My daughter is 12 and my son is 10.

We just can't wait - this is even better than christmas

 

[weloveminnie]

Don't seem it. This is my first time.

 

[disneyholic family]

not to be a pessimist or anything, but i hope you have cancellation insurance in case you don't make it....
i'll keep my fingers crossed that no blizzards hit that week....
but still, if it were me, i'd plan on getting there a day or two early....that way you have a buffer in case of bad driving conditions....
we went on the cruise in july, but since we're coming from overseas i had us arrive in WDW on monday for a thursday cruise.....too many things can go wrong (like airline/customs/airport/etc strikes in the case of traveling from this side of the atlantic)...i wanted a big cushion of time in case there was a strike and in case we had to drive from kennedy airport rather than fly....
in the end we made it without a hitch but i was able to breathe easy and not worry about it..

normally i don't worry about stuff like that, but with a cruise you HAVE to be there on time.....so i added a few days just to be safe...(one year we were delayed an entire day in amsterdam airport and arrived a full day late in WDW....no big deal if you're only going to WDW....but yes a big deal if you have to make it to the ship on time)....

 

[FOJMO]

jrabbit had some great suggestions for you.

Two exceptions, though, IMHO -- Hercules is the best show, lots of laughs, but I don't feel you have to watch the Disney movie before-hand. I never saw it and the stage show was TERRIFIC.

I also feel your 12 yr old will feel most comfortable in the Oceaneer's Lab, especially if her brother will be there. Even though she is almost a teenager, I don't think she will feel comfortable at Common Grounds with the older teens. Even the mid-teens (14-15) are in a different "world" than she is and I think she'll find more in common with the 12 yr olds. Again, IMHO...

Have a GREAT time!

 

[deb&tim]

Hi Fojmo
Since you've already been on a cruise maybe you could help me out with this formal /informal wear.
My husband has once suit ( we call it his wedding/funeral suit) so I'm bringing that for him.
I have a few dresses to pick from but nothing really fancy.
I thought of bringing dress pants & nice shirts for the kids.
Now I'm afraid maybe we won't fit in with others on this cruise.
Other than a wedding now & than we don't have dress up in fancy dresses & tuxes. How fancy are you suppose to be at these dinners ? I don't really want to have to go out & buy in formal wear just for 1 week - I 've just spent a fortune on this holiday.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thankyou

 

[Scratch42]

Check out the latest Parent's Magazine. There's an article about the Disney Cruise. It's the newsprint mag that is free.


If you are a CAA member, keep checking their rates, I find they are cheaper for exchanging the Canuck into US!

Have fun!

Scratch