First time cruiser

[celina14]

Hi all! We just booked our very first Disney Cruise. We had to cancel our planned September Disney World trip so we decided on a February Cruise instead and are very excited! We are doing the 7 night sailing out of New Orleans on 2/14/20. It will be myself, my husband and our 2 kids - 8 & 5. The ports are Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Falmouth and there are 3 days at sea. What are some tips, suggestions and pointers you can give us. I haven't been on a cruise in forever and this will be the first time with kids. We are currently booked for the 2nd dinner seating which I'm rethinking but I did it so we won't have to rush back from excursions and get ready for dinner. Also, I'm starting to read that a lot of the Cozumel excursions are closed on Sundays which is our port day there. I was hoping to swim with dolphins there because it seems like my son is too young to do the swim with dolphins at the other ports.

Also edited to add that we booked through Costco with the GTY Oceanview.

Any tips or secrets are appreciated!!

Thanks!

 

[Quellman]

Consider booking some excursions on your own. Disney will inflate the youngest age on many excursions making the Western Carib a bit more difficult if you want moer than a beach stop. Dolphin visit s might be one where the tour operators allow a younger age.

You'll be part of the inaugural crowd going out of New Orleans, so that should be fun too! Our next cruise is with first dinner seating for the first time in 8 cruises. Wanted to see if we liked it with a 6 year old and 1 year old. We did lots of naps previously with a 14 month old, and managed late diner just fine.

 

[celina14]

Consider booking some excursions on your own. Disney will inflate the youngest age on many excursions making the Western Carib a bit more difficult if you want moer than a beach stop. Dolphin visit s might be one where the tour operators allow a younger age.

You'll be part of the inaugural crowd going out of New Orleans, so that should be fun too! Our next cruise is with first dinner seating for the first time in 8 cruises. Wanted to see if we liked it with a 6 year old and 1 year old. We did lots of naps previously with a 14 month old, and managed late diner just fine.

Thank you! I was getting a little worried about the late dinner with my kids but I figured on at Sea Days we can rest for a bit before. Also, I saw where I can have the kids club people come get them from dinner so we can take our time and they don't get antsy. And good to know about looking at the excursions on my own. Is there a site that I can go through for those?

 

[Quellman]

Thank you! I was getting a little worried about the late dinner with my kids but I figured on at Sea Days we can rest for a bit before. Also, I saw where I can have the kids club people come get them from dinner so we can take our time and they don't get antsy. And good to know about looking at the excursions on my own. Is there a site that I can go through for those?

Let your server know if you want to do the kids pick up for dinner, they'll help keep an eye out for when the counselors come to get them. It isn't always obvious depending on the dining room.
There are a few shore excursion aggregate websites or sites like resort for a day. You can sometimes find some on trip advisor or cruise cr1tic. You can also search for "Dolphin swim in cozumel" or wherever. Grand Cayman has a ton of places that will take you to see the stingrays turtle farm, whatever without having to go through the cruise line. There are also lots of threads here on disboards that will talk about different excursions and companies that have been used try searching the words" port name" and "exursions".

You'll be bound to have a great time!