First time cruiser questions

[KCF1216]

Hi All,
First time cruisers here! We are booked on a 3 night cruise out of Port Canaveral on 11/3. I have a couple of questions I was hoping someone might know the answer to or have suggestions on.
1. I went on the my Disney cruise site to book activities and under child care I only see the nursery for the baby. I have 2 older children as well and their names are not able to be selected. How do you sign kids up for the kids clubs? (They are 7 and 4 if that makes a difference).
2. There is an option for character meet and greets but, only princesses are under it. Does this mean there are only these characters on our cruise or only these ones have to be scheduled?
3. This is more of a request for suggestions. We have 3 kids 7,4, and 7 months. Any suggestions or recommendations on Nassau? We've been to Aquaventure before and think it will be too much with the baby and the variable heights for the slides.
Thanks in advance!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi All,
First time cruisers here! We are booked on a 3 night cruise out of Port Canaveral on 11/3. I have a couple of questions I was hoping someone might know the answer to or have suggestions on.
1. I went on the my Disney cruise site to book activities and under child care I only see the nursery for the baby. I have 2 older children as well and their names are not able to be selected. How do you sign kids up for the kids clubs? (They are 7 and 4 if that makes a difference).
2. There is an option for character meet and greets but, only princesses are under it. Does this mean there are only these characters on our cruise or only these ones have to be scheduled?
3. This is more of a request for suggestions. We have 3 kids 7,4, and 7 months. Any suggestions or recommendations on Nassau? We've been to Aquaventure before and think it will be too much with the baby and the variable heights for the slides.
Thanks in advance!

1. I'm not sure where the kid's club registration is on the online checkin/registration process, hopefully someone who's done it will chime in here.
2. The only character meet & greets that are ticketed are the Princess Gathering and Frozen. All other meet & greets are lined up for onboard the ship.

 

[Erintx7]

3. I've not cruised DCL yet (that's why I'm here... 306 days!), but we did RC with a Nassau stop and we did a glass bottom boat tour excursion. That was a big hit with my kids (+niece) ages 9ds, 6dd, 4 dniece & 15 mo ds at the time. We stopped at a nice restaurant (Lukka Kairi) afterward bc my BIL wanted conch soup and got a referral from someone onboard -- it turned out to be really good!! Great and easy outing for our group of 4 adults and 4 young kids. Best part was not far from port.

 

[Minnie & Daisy]

You can also look inside the terminal at Port Canaveral after you check in and see if they are signing up kids there for the kid's clubs. It would be one less thing you have to do once onboard. We did a glass bottom boat tour once, but not in Nassau. I think it was in Cozumel and it was fun. It sounds like a great suggestion!

 

[Minnie & Daisy]

2. There is an option for character meet and greets but, only princesses are under it. Does this mean there are only these characters on our cruise or only these ones have to be scheduled?

Most likely, these are just the ones that you can schedule in advance of your cruise. There will also be lots of Disney characters onboard, don't worry about that! Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, sometimes the Pixar Pals, but maybe not on the 3-night cruises. You may also see the Disney Jr. characters for your 4 year old, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, Jake the Neverland Pirate. When you get your first navigator at check-in, look on there to see all of the character greetings, along with the days/times. Take lots of pictures, or have the photographers take them for you. So many memories! Enjoy!

 

[Minnie & Daisy]

Make sure that you take your children to the Sail Away Party on the first day, and you will see Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Chip 'n Dale, all on stage.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

When you do/did your online check in, the 6th item over should have been 'Youth Activity Registration'. That's where you can input the info for your kids and register them for the Club/Lab. You can also do this in the terminal or even on the ship. We do it ahead of time to cut down on 'stuff to do'. If you don't have 'Youth Activity Registration', give DCL a call and they'll hook you right up.

As far as Nassau, on our first trip there our kids were 10, 8 & 8 . We did the Atlantis Dolphin encounter. It wasn't amazing, but it was definitely memorable. On subsequent trips, we've scoured Bay Street (and I do mean scoured), done a self guided & paced walking tour of Nassau that DW & I loved, but the kids kvetched the entire time. Take it for what it's worth

 

[bbel]

Just to put it out there that if you're planning on using the nursery you need to pre-book at some point (as soon as if you know when you want them, onboard if you're flexible)

For the kids clubs you don't need to book time, it's come and go as little or as much as they like during opening hours (9am, sometimes earlier until midnight).
Even if you register online, it's technically still only a pre-registration and at some point you'll have to finish off the registration (in the terminal or on the ship), confirm some of the info you filled out online and get the Oceaneer band for each child which gives them the access to the clubs.

If you don't do it online, it's not problem, you can do it at any point during your cruise at the clubs, or in the terminal before boarding, it will just take a few more minutes

 

[KCF1216]

thank you all for the updates and advice!

 

[diznymom]

3. Stay on the ship and enjoy all the different activities the ship has to offer.

 

[SteveMP]

You can also look inside the terminal at Port Canaveral after you check in and see if they are signing up kids there for the kid's clubs. It would be one less thing you have to do once onboard. We did a glass bottom boat tour once, but not in Nassau. I think it was in Cozumel and it was fun. It sounds like a great suggestion!

Yea we usually do the kids club stuff in the terminal while waiting to board. Something todo while waiting.

Never done a glass bottom boat, but have done the boat with the "submarine" bottom, the kids liked it cause it was kind of like Nemo ride. Also the duck boats are pretty mellow too.

 

[mkh531]

For what it's worth, My kids were perfectly happy to stay on the boat in Nassau, so we did, and it was lovely. Enjoy!

 

[Carrie in AZ]

Your cruise is short and time will click by quickly, I recommend staying on the ship!