First time cruising!

[Miaka1]

We are looking into doing our first cruise in June 2019, and while we have done WDW several times, I am feeling a little overwhelmed trying to figure out a cruise. It's going to be me, my husband and our 2 girls ages 16 and 14. I'm looking at doing a 4 or 5 night cruise with a stop at castaway cay. We won't be doing any excursions at any of the other ports of call.
So, I have read about food, the food looks good. I know they do shows each night. I have heard you need to arrive early to get seats at the Broadway style shows, but how early is early?
How do you stay in contact with your teens on the ship? I know that they do things like trivia, and there is mini golf. Do you need to sign up for those in advance?
I know there is a teenage club. Do teens actually like the club? Or does it come across as lame?
We tend to be late night people, is there stuff to do after 10 pm? How late is the teen club area open?

I know it's a lot of questions, and if there is a tips for first time cruising, or cruising with teens thread, please point me to it.

 

[lklgoodman]

Planning for a cruise is a lot easier than WDW, just read posts on here and you'll soon learn so much. You don't have to sign up for trivia or mini golf, most things on the cruise you can just show up for. If you want to do princess gatherings or the Frozen meet and greets, you will sign up for those when you do your check-in, which would be 75 days before your cruise. Not sure if 4 and 5 night cruises have character breakfasts, but if they do, you sign up for those also. Other things you could sign up for are spa times, alcohol tastings, meal at Palo/Remy. 15-20 mins is usually plenty of time for getting seats for the show. If you go on a cruise that shows Beauty and the Beast you might want to show up a little earlier since it's a newer/popular show. You will have 2 wave phones in your cabin that you can use to keep in contact with your kids, or there's a Disney app that you can use, we haven't used the app, we just carry the wave phones with us wherever we go. The app will also show you everything that is happening on the ship each day. My dd is too young for the teen club, but the club for the younger kids is open until mid-night, so the teen's club is opened until then or even later. There's a ton of stuff to do after 10 pm, but being Disney you won't have to worry about a lot of drunk people running around making noise all night long. There's a lot of cruisers on here with teens who can help with any specific questions you may have.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

We are looking into doing our first cruise in June 2019, and while we have done WDW several times, I am feeling a little overwhelmed trying to figure out a cruise. It's going to be me, my husband and our 2 girls ages 16 and 14. I'm looking at doing a 4 or 5 night cruise with a stop at castaway cay. We won't be doing any excursions at any of the other ports of call.
So, I have read about food, the food looks good. I know they do shows each night. I have heard you need to arrive early to get seats at the Broadway style shows, but how early is early?
How do you stay in contact with your teens on the ship? I know that they do things like trivia, and there is mini golf. Do you need to sign up for those in advance?
I know there is a teenage club. Do teens actually like the club? Or does it come across as lame?
We tend to be late night people, is there stuff to do after 10 pm? How late is the teen club area open?

I know it's a lot of questions, and if there is a tips for first time cruising, or cruising with teens thread, please point me to it.

I was on the Fantasy with my two teen-aged sons and my two teen-aged nieces. The app works best for staying in touch. You can text each other free of charge. Easy to arrange meet ups, etc. Most Wi-Fi enabled devices will work, so even an old phone without cell service or an iPod touch would be fine if they don't have their own smart phones. And for that matter, the ship isn't that big, double back to the rooms and leave notes for each other inside the stateroom works too.

There is plenty to do on board. Our kids spent plenty of time with us and plenty of time without us. They enjoyed the teen club, Vibe. Some of the scheduled events like Gender Wars (a trivia type game) and other things (Making a Zombie movie) or just hanging out there. There were like 50 kids there on the first night, and various amounts the rest of the trip. Other times they would just hang out on the ship or go on the Aquaduck.

If you want to eat at the (up-charge) adult-only restaurants, Palo or Remy, the kids can go to the Main Dining Room by themselves. The servers will treat them extra special.

As for late nights, I would say the kids will have it even better than you will. The Vibe stays open until like 2AM, and we had to tear our kids out of it at night as they often had activities of interest at those times. As for the adult venues, the bars and nightclubs are definitely open that late, and there will be some scheduled events, but your mileage will vary as to how many other people are there. Sometimes it is pretty quiet, other sailings are more lively. We always found things to do when we wanted to.

As for the shows, I'd say 10 minutes early is plenty, unless you want to be right in the front or in the middle of row 8 or something like that. Almost all the seats have a great view.

Have fun and feel free to ask lots more questions. That is why we are here!

Oh, and if you edit the title of your thread to mention that you have questions about teens, you might get more specific answers about that.

 

[IBLarsen]

We did our first ever cruise on the Disney Dream last summer with our DS14 and DD12. I felt totally unprepared and it all worked out great. It really was just easy. DS14 loved the teen club, but my DD12 did not like the edge club and spent her time with us. My son loved the movie theater and went by himself. I really felt okay with him just roaming the ship. I thought he would be the one to NOT enjoy a Disney cruise so much at that age, and he ended up loving it so much he wants to do a longer one.
To stay in touch with each other we downloaded the app on our phones and it worked great, it allows you to text via the app.
We loved the evening shows, but to get good seats we really needed to get there at least 20 min early. They ask you not to save seats, and we witnessed a hostile exchange between two families over this!
We did a couple of the trivia games which were fun, seating in one of the lounges was hard to come by if you walked in last minute, so I would suggest showing up a bit early, but you don't sign up.
Other tips - We took larger refillable water bottles with us and filled up at the water dispensers to walk around with. The cups they give you are small, and the drink dispensers aren't that conveniently located.

 

[Shanti]

We are looking into doing our first cruise in June 2019, and while we have done WDW several times, I am feeling a little overwhelmed trying to figure out a cruise. It's going to be me, my husband and our 2 girls ages 16 and 14. I'm looking at doing a 4 or 5 night cruise with a stop at castaway cay. We won't be doing any excursions at any of the other ports of call.
So, I have read about food, the food looks good. I know they do shows each night. I have heard you need to arrive early to get seats at the Broadway style shows, but how early is early?
How do you stay in contact with your teens on the ship? I know that they do things like trivia, and there is mini golf. Do you need to sign up for those in advance?
I know there is a teenage club. Do teens actually like the club? Or does it come across as lame?
We tend to be late night people, is there stuff to do after 10 pm? How late is the teen club area open?

I know it's a lot of questions, and if there is a tips for first time cruising, or cruising with teens thread, please point me to it.

I recommend you book a "double-dip" cruise that offers two days at Castaway Cay. The Dream offers a few of those in June and December this year. Keep your eyes open for when they'll be offered in 2019. The summer 2019 itineraries will probably be released within the next month.

 

[CamColt]

Welcome to the world of cruising! While there is a lot to learn (which you will certainly find on these boards), there is much less actual planning involved for a cruise than a WDW vacation.

As for the shows, if you want to be up front and have a great seat you will likely will have to arrive early. We usually rush in a few minutes before show time and have no problem finding seats in the balcony section. And really, the view up there isn't bad.

As for the Teen Club, my DSs are now 18 and 21 and we have been on quite a few cruises with them in that age range. Going to the Vibe has been the highlight of the cruise for them. We had to force them to meet us for dinner and any other events or excursions that we had planned as a family. Most of the planned events in the Vibe don't require them to sign up for, however excursions like The Wild Side at CC needs to be booked in advance.