First time Halloween cruise

[amy85]

Hi everyone! This board has always been so helpful when planning our Disney trips, we are now planning our first Disney cruise! We are taking the 4-day on the magic that leaves out of Miami on the 31st! It's going to be myself, dh,dd(5), and Ds(1). Also my parents and sister. We are all super excited, and the last cruise we took was on carnival 10 years ago! I know that a lot of my questions may be not be able to answered bc of covid, and advice is appreciated!

1.) I was hoping to see a list of the activities on the app, such as shows and such. Are those not available until you board? I found schedules of the magic, but it's currently in the UK, so I'm not sure if we should expect the similar times and shows.
2.) Online check in, does that open at midnight? Should I try and check in right at midnight to get an early boarding time?
3.)kids clubs-i understand that I can sign my daughter up during online check-in. I saw they have open houses other days. Are we allowed to take my 1 yr old to that as well? From what I understand the open house parents stay, I think he would love the slinky slide.
4.) Halloween. We leave Halloween night. Will the majority of the Halloween festivities be that night, or will it continue the whole cruise? Also, what activities are there? I've heard they get candy. Is their trick or treating similar to the parks?
5.)characters. From what I've seen the majority of characters are meeting from a distance inside. I also understand you have to keep masks on inside. Are the kids allow to remove Their mask for socially distanced photos with the characters?
6.) Ive also read that kids can't leave the ship in Nassau without an excursion. Does it have to be a Disney excursion? I found a dolphin one that I really want to do, but it's not through Disney. I'm also hesitant to do it since I understand with the way things are, Nassau could be cancelled all together. Just wondering if anyone had insight to the actual rules.
7.) Animator's palate. I've read there are different shows. I've read that the magic has the crush show, but on one of the UK vlogs I watched it looks like they had where you draw your picture and have it come to life.

Any other tips or advice is appreciated! Thank you!!

 

[Disneyland_emily]

1) Things/shows rarely change on the big stuff (dinner/show in the main theatre) so it’s a decent bet it’ll be the same.
2) yes BUT they always seem to be doing web maintenance and early morning seems to get almost as good times so it’s a toss up
3) yes and yes. Open house parents are required to stay and all ages permitted
4) not sure when actual Halloween is involved if it’ll change things up.. candy has only been left in the room this year no trick or treating. Halloween offerings have been really’soft’ compared to previous years but more seems to be added each week so who knows..

5)for us if there was a Disney photographer you could take the masks off for the pictures if there was not no.For us I hated the placement of the kids to characters on the ‘mask free’

6) you’ll want to double check on this as I don’t believe it can be an independent one just a DCL sponsored but I haven’t heard officially

7) most of the AP shows are Crush only on the longer ones does The ‘drawn’ one happen.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Unvaccinated children can only leave the ship at Nassau on a DCL excursion. No third party or independent stuff.

 

[amy85]

1) Things/shows rarely change on the big stuff (dinner/show in the main theatre) so it’s a decent bet it’ll be the same.
2) yes BUT they always seem to be doing web maintenance and early morning seems to get almost as good times so it’s a toss up
3) yes and yes. Open house parents are required to stay and all ages permitted
4) not sure when actual Halloween is involved if it’ll change things up.. candy has only been left in the room this year no trick or treating. Halloween offerings have been really’soft’ compared to previous years but more seems to be added each week so who knows..

5)for us if there was a Disney photographer you could take the masks off for the pictures if there was not no.For us I hated the placement of the kids to characters on the ‘mask free’

6) you’ll want to double check on this as I don’t believe it can be an independent one just a DCL sponsored but I haven’t heard officially

7) most of the AP shows are Crush only on the longer ones does The ‘drawn’ one happen.

Thank you!

 

[amy85]

Unvaccinated children can only leave the ship at Nassau on a DCL excursion. No third party or independent stuff.

Thanks for confirming!

 

[MomOTwins]

Thanks for confirming!

If you are wanting a dolphin excursion, Disney offers one at Blue Lagoon.

 

[Cheburashka]

If you are wanting a dolphin excursion, Disney offers one at Blue Lagoon.

I will add that Disney isn't currently offering any Blue Lagoon excursions.

 

[MomOTwins]

I will add that Disney isn't currently offering any Blue Lagoon excursions.

It's available to book for my cruise (Oct 15 Dream), and OP's cruise would be Oct 31 since it is on the Magic and that doesn't sail until October, so I think it should be available. It might not have loaded yet--it only showed up as available to book for our cruise last week--but it should show up for later cruises sooner or later.

The ones that are available to book for us are:
N44 - Blue Lagoon Beach Day (9am departure)
N21 - Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter (9am and 10:30 departures)
N41 - Blue Lagoon Dolphin Swim (9am and 10:30 departures)
N22 - Blue Lagoon Dolphin Observer (booked along with N41 or N21 for any guests not participating in the dolphin activity)

 

[Cheburashka]

It's available to book for my cruise (Oct 15 Dream), and OP's cruise would be Oct 31 since it is on the Magic and that doesn't sail until October, so I think it should be available. It might not have loaded yet--it only showed up as available to book for our cruise last week--but it should show up for later cruises sooner or later.

The ones that are available to book for us are:
N44 - Blue Lagoon Beach Day (9am departure)
N21 - Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter (9am and 10:30 departures)
N41 - Blue Lagoon Dolphin Swim (9am and 10:30 departures)
N22 - Blue Lagoon Dolphin Observer (booked along with N41 or N21 for any guests not participating in the dolphin activity)

Weird that they're adding excursions piecemeal. Is Atlantis Aquaventure available for your cruise?

 

[MomOTwins]

Weird that they're adding excursions piecemeal. Is Atlantis Aquaventure available for your cruise?

Nope--no atlantis excursions at all. We did have a couple other excursions added last week too -- the chocolate factory and something else I can't recall, but no atlantis. Agree it is very weird how everything is so piecemeal. For example, other cruises before and after ours on the Dream have Remy brunch available too book, but it's not on ours. I imagine things will get a bit more ironed out in a couple of months but it is the "wild west" right now with the app/website.

 

[amy85]

It's available to book for my cruise (Oct 15 Dream), and OP's cruise would be Oct 31 since it is on the Magic and that doesn't sail until October, so I think it should be available. It might not have loaded yet--it only showed up as available to book for our cruise last week--but it should show up for later cruises sooner or later.

The ones that are available to book for us are:
N44 - Blue Lagoon Beach Day (9am departure)
N21 - Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter (9am and 10:30 departures)
N41 - Blue Lagoon Dolphin Swim (9am and 10:30 departures)
N22 - Blue Lagoon Dolphin Observer (booked along with N41 or N21 for any guests not participating in the dolphin activity)

Wow, that is great information! Thank you! I went ahead and booked the "discover Nassau by sea and land" just so we have something, but now I will definitely continue to check! Thanks so much!!

 

[Cheburashka]

Nope--no atlantis excursions at all. We did have a couple other excursions added last week too -- the chocolate factory and something else I can't recall, but no atlantis. Agree it is very weird how everything is so piecemeal. For example, other cruises before and after ours on the Dream have Remy brunch available too book, but it's not on ours. I imagine things will get a bit more ironed out in a couple of months but it is the "wild west" right now with the app/website.

Good to know. I booked an Atlantis day pass independently because I've always wanted to try that. Maybe DCL is watching the number of cruisers & only adding more things after enough cruisers are paid in full and enough other excursions are getting booked up. Right now, only 9 Nassau excursions are available on my cruise, and GT staterooms are available for all 3 tiers and have been for a while. So I imagine that Nassau excursion bookings are fairly light.

 

[MomOTwins]

Good to know. I booked an Atlantis day pass independently because I've always wanted to try that. Maybe DCL is watching the number of cruisers & only adding more things after enough cruisers are paid in full and enough other excursions are getting booked up. Right now, only 9 Nassau excursions are available on my cruise, and GT staterooms are available for all 3 tiers and have been for a while. So I imagine that Nassau excursion bookings are fairly light.

This actually makes a ton of sense! I think you are on to something. A lot of schools have fall break our weekend and DCL had excluded it from Florida rates until just recently, so I think it must be fairly well booked cruise. Might explain why we have more excursions.

The other thought that occurred to me is it may just be a factor of what ships are in port on Nassau day. With covid, places like Blue Lagoon might only do one ship at a time, so it may be luck of the draw as to whether another cruise line snapped it up first.

 

[Cheburashka]

With covid, places like Blue Lagoon might only do one ship at a time, so it may be luck of the draw as to whether another cruise line snapped it up first.

Good point.

 

[amy85]

I went on to check this morning, and the blue lagoon excursions we're there! We were able to book our dolphin encounter! Thanks so much MomOTwins!!

 

[MomOTwins]

I went on to check this morning, and the blue lagoon excursions we're there! We were able to book our dolphin encounter! Thanks so much MomOTwins!!

Yay!!!!!