First time Cruiser: May 13, 2007!!!

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Hello! Hello! I'm a new cruiser and just booked our first EVER cruise and Disney cruise for May 13, 2007...4-Nights! We're crusing for our one-year anniversary and it'll be my birthday while on board! Can I expect any special treatment? I am so excited, but would love some more exact information that I have yet been able to find online or in any threads. What's the exact itinerary for a 4-night cruise? Anyone going on this cruise? I can't wait for Pirate night! Arrrrrr!!

 

[scottie]

Welcome Aboard! We will also be cruising with you on the 5/13/07 Wonder! This will be our 3rd 4-night Wonder cruise. We decided to do the 13th to celebrate Mothers Day for my wife and her mom, who will be sailing with us. We have two rooms booked for 3 adults and 3 youngsters. We are headed to Disneyworld for a few nights after the cruise.

I started a cruise thread a while back for our sailing, feel free to stop by and post a quick Hello! I am surprised we havent located more fellow travelers yet. The posting is at:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=998552&highlight=2007

We too will celebrate my wife’s birthday during the cruise, which happens to fall just a couple of weeks later. On our last cruise, they brought out a cake during dinner one night for her. I let our travel agent know we wanted to celebrate it and they forwarded the info to Disney. If you booked through Disney directly, you may want to hint to your husband that he should be calling Disney Cruise Line for you!

I believe the typical itinerary looks like this:

Sunday Port Canaveral- Leave 4:00 p.m.
Monday Nassau- Arrive 9:30 a.m. Leave 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday Castaway Cay- Arrive 8:30 a.m. Leave 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday At Sea
Thursday Port Canaveral- Arrive 7:35 a.m.

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Hello!! Wow...#3!! You'll have to give me any tips or info I should know. I am new to cruising and I think I'm gradually getting the hang of it! I didn't even think about it being mother's day!! Didn't even enter my mind! We'll be left out during that celebrating time. That's great that you'll be celebrating your wife's birthday too!! I'm excited about being there for my birthday...an exciting way to celebrate!! I hope they don't forget and I get a special cake!! I really hope so! Thanks for the itinerary!! Helps a lot!! I hope we find more fellow cruisers!!

 

[leanne11]

scottie how old are your kids? my ds8 will be without his favorite neice10 just couldn't afford to spring for her this trip...?fairy tale bride WHEN is pirate night do you know????Can't wait we are collecting these kellogs lite up skulls from our rice crispies from pirates of carabean movie..we have 3 already, a sword and an eye patch..we will be in 6092 i hope..waiting to hear from aaa..about a date switch..

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

scottie how old are your kids? my ds8 will be without his favorite neice10 just couldn't afford to spring for her this trip...?fairy tale bride WHEN is pirate night do you know????Can't wait we are collecting these kellogs lite up skulls from our rice crispies from pirates of carabean movie..we have 3 already, a sword and an eye patch..we will be in 6092 i hope..waiting to hear from aaa..about a date switch..

I think Pirate Night is Castaway Cay night. That's too funny! I've been collecting Jack Sparrow bandanas from Eggo Waffles! I didn't know about the lite up skulls! I actually ordered 2 bandanas for my DH & I for the cruise!

 

[scottie]

Got three kiddies on my end…currently 9, 5, and 1. I am looking forward to Pirate night too, if they still have it when we cruise. I imagine they will as the new movie will be out right around our sail date. My wife LOVES the Pirates movies (and Captain Jack Sparrow) so I imagine she will have a good time too.
Not sure if the girls will be with us much this cruise, as they both love spending as much time as possible in the clubs and doing all the activities with their new found group of friends onboard.
That’s funny; we will be approx 10 rooms away from you guys if you are able to flip reservations. We have two connecting rooms booked. I have heard AAA can do the flip easily but sometimes give people a hard time for some reason when. We will all keep our fingers crossed you don’t run into any issues

 

[leanne11]

do i have to be pd in full before i can make any ressie and how do i know when he will want to be there? just assume all the time everyday..and what r you guys going to do at nassau? and castaway cay

 

[scottie]

I do believe that you need to have the cruise paid in full before you can register for the kids club online. On our prior cruises they did not offer online check-in for the kids clubs so we just did it when we boarded the ship. I really look forward to having the online convenience this time around!
If your son is anything like my girls…he will want to be at the club non stop!! Last time around the girls went to the club starting the second day in the late afternoon and stayed there thru dinner. I don’t believe it is open for long on Sunday. We picked them up each night around 9pm or so from the club, after we finished our late seating dinner. Many times the kids were there past 9pm if they had good activities or movie time scheduled later. The kids also really enjoyed the children area on Castaway Cay. Tons of activities were scheduled in a gated area for them.
Send me a PM and I will provide you a link to a site that has all the current navigators for kids listed. It will let you get a good idea of what is offered on and off the ship. (I can’t post it in this message because of filters.)

As for Nassau, we did a little tour off the ship the first cruise but stayed on the second time. I don’t believe we will get off the ship this time either. We will definitely be off the ship nice and early on Castaway day. We LOVE that place!

 

[leanne11]

i'm thinking of later because ds doesn't want to eat with us anyway,so r there advantages of later dinner? do you go to the shows before? and then take them to the club?do they take them to dinner? i'm thinking of getting him a pizza before he goes into the club at night and how late can they stay in there?thanks in advance..

 

[scottie]

We have always been fans for late seating. We enjoy going to the shows before hand then having a late meal. After dinner we find something to do like bingo or another scheduled activity or club or just hang out.

Right, our kids didn’t seem to want to eat with us either once they figured out how much they liked the clubs! I believe they take the kids groups to dinner around 5:00-5:30ish each day. On our last cruise, the kids went to the club before the show and ate with the group and we headed off to the show and then late dinner without them. They go to the buffet and have a fun time eating with the other kids…and food they actually like! We will have our youngest with us at the shows and dinner this time since he will be under 2 yrs old.

For the most part they can be in the club till upwards of 11pm to midnight. They usually have a down time event from what I recall as the night progresses like a movie or some free time.

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

We had a hard time deciding to choose first or second dinner seating as well. I'd rather have the first because I'm an earlier eater, but we thought the earlier seating would have the most children. It just being DH & I, we think the later seating will be better. We'd really like to try and have our own table, since it's just the two of us. We will also be celebrating our anniversary and my birthday, so we want it to be special. We are going to try to take advantage of Palo when we can. Hoping we can get reservations!

 

[scottie]

We were not sure on our first cruise if we were going to like eating late but really came to enjoy it. It is very easy to grab a bite to eat (several times a day if you wish) at the various quick stop locations etc. so it is not like we were starving as the evening rolled on.

A table for the two of you would be nice. On the other hand though you could always have a table for the two of you at Palo to celebrate those special times and then dine with others at the normal seatings, if they set someone with you. First cruise we had our own table for the 5 of us and the second cruise they sat a family of 3 with us. I think I enjoyed the surprise of meeting some new people to share our daily experiences with on the second cruise better then the first!

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Hey Scottie! I was wondering if you have been on a 7-night Eastern or Western cruise? We are booking a 2nd cruise already because we can't beat the deal! We know we are going to love DCL, so we might as well take advantage of it now. I'll be so happy knowing when we get off the ship in May that we'll be going back!! Which should we pick? Any suggestions if you have been on either?

 

[scottie]

I did read recently that you were heading out on a 7-night too…how exciting!!!
We have actually only sailed the 4-night cruises because we like going to Disney World for a few days after the cruise. I personally think I would prefer to go on the Eastern Cruise.

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

I've chosen the Eastern because the dates are better for my DH having time off. Shhhh...I haven't told him yet! I may surprise him for Christmas or his birthday...not sure yet. We wanted to go on a 7-night originally, but prices are just too high in the summer months. I think the Eastern will be nice with the first two days at sea, but I still do like the destinations on the Western. It's kinda a toss up for me! The Eastern beat the Western on the thread for votes, so I decided to go with the Eastern. The cruise isn't until the end of November 2007, so it's more than a year before we go on the 7-night. I think I need to go on the 4-night, so I can practice. I don't think I could handle a 7-night for my first cruise.