For all repeat cruisers: What would you do differently based on first cruise?

[Woobie]

Some of these things I've already rectified on our 2nd or 3rd cruise. Here goes.

1. Go to Castaway Cay!! Our 1st trip, we didn't. Although it was awesome having the ship to ourselves, I'd opt to stay on board in Nassau (if I did a 3 or 4 day again).

2. Book a longer cruise. We fixed this w/a 7 day. Even that's not long enough.

3. Bring your own babysitter. Our kids wouldn't do the kids club/Flounders.

4. Do adult things. We had a BLAST at 80's night. Never got to do that when we didn't have Grammy with us.

5. Do ANYTHING at the spa. This was fixed on our 7 day. Wasn't enough time on the 4 day (& no Garmmy).

6. Take it easy on the eating. I still can't loose all the weight, and it's 6 months later.

I'm sure there's more, but...

Woobie

 

[Dreamer04]

Re-book onboard, no matter what DH says.

Pack less. I've already made a list for my 02/05 cruise.

One bathing suit was fine. Hanging it upside down to dry was best. The top may have been damp, but the part that counts, was dry.

Pack alot less in my day bag. I LOADED my backpack and regretted carrying it.

Bring along lots of singles ( as in money)-I love room service and the tipping got to be a pain in the neck, i.e. hunting for dollars

I did laundry on the ship very late at night-about midnight.

Bring dryer sheets and a roll of quarters.

 

[crisi]

Pack alot less in my day bag. I LOADED my backpack and regretted carrying it.

Yes! Especially if you board the boat before 1:30 when you need to haul your stuff all over the place. And espeically if you have kids in tow as well. Those bags were heavy!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I would pack an empty suitcase for souveneirs. The last time I got off the DCL we were going to go to WDW and I couldn't fit my souveneirs in my luggage. I had to shove them in my DBF's mom, dad, sister, and grandparents suitcases!!!!

I would also go to bed later. On days at sea it is so nice to take a nap on the Deck 4 chairs!!! So stay up for the nightly entertainment and rest while hearing the ocean!!!!

 

[MrsPete]

I think I'm just echoing others here:

Pack less in the carry-on.

Bring a light-up alarm clock for the room.

Pay more attention to the travel time invovled in each excursion (the dolphin experience was WONDERFUL, but we spent two hours traveling back and forth to the island and about 30 minutes with the dolphins).

Wouldn't stress over Palo too much -- on the other hand, if I'd never been there, I would stress.

Pack up most of my stuff the night BEFORE Castaway Cay.

 

[ducklite]

Definitely pack diferently:

Things I took that I won't take next time:

beach towels
too many shirts (ended up having to do laundry anyhow)
evening bag
Hair dryer
extension cord
snacks

Things I will take next time:

Air freshener
nightlight
highlighter

Anne

 

[erminda]

We did'nt do any room service at all!! After hearing about the good stuff you can get I think on the next cruise we will at least have coffee or tea delivered in the mornings, so we can have it while we are dressing and then go to breakfast. Also, we did'nt do any breakfast in the sit down restaurants, I think we will do that also. That's just a couple of things that I want to do different next time.

Erminda

 

[crissyp]

I really luv reading all these posts, I have four weeks to go before my first ever cruise and these boards and posts make it all seem so real and sooo exciting....

things I've bought to pack after reading these boards for the last 2 months.

..nite lights
..extension cord ( for cameras, hairdryers, camcorders..etc)
..sunction cups to hang wet suits up in tub area...(I really think this is gonna be a good suggestion)
..the famous over the door shoe holders...( bought 2)
..ziplocs for wet suits on excursion days
..googles for banana boat ride
...zipper folder to hold all important documents (birth cert.)
..clothes pins...(ok, I don't know if I'll use these, but someone said to hang clothes on the verandah) lol
..waterproof/lanyard ID carriers

somebody stop me!!
..oh, I got my seabands today also!!

 

[jrabbit]

We like to arrive at the port early. First cruise didn't show up until after 2pm and felt rushed the rest of the time.

Some people just don't like to wait in lines but the terminal is beautiful. There's a map of the bahamas on the floor, a model of the Magic, the ship is outside there are mickey cartoons on the many tv's throughout the terminal. It makes the hour to 1 1/2 hour wait go by so quickly.

I'd rather wait in lines OFF of the ship than ON the ship. So were there early to do the ressie rush (before the lines get long), sign the kids into the clubs (before the lines get long) and have lunch (the lines arn't so long here) and enjoy the ship.

Oh yea, the big mistake on the first cruise was thinking that there wouldn't be any lunch onboard since you couldn't board until 1pm or later. Opps! We had lunch at WDW and then had the lunch buffet on the Magic and then a few short hours later we were eating dinner. wow!

 

[Cruise04]

If you are staying in a smaller cabin (not cat 1-4) you will probably only be able to use one shoe holder. We brought two and there wasn't room for two of them. One was enough. We ended up taking it back when we got home. But that was a lifesaver!!!!

I don't know if you need an extention cord as much as you may need a powerstrip. We used the powerstrip for plugging in the battery charger, the charger for the two-ways, and my husband's cpap machine. I don't think we used the extension cord (we may have for his machine but I can't remember).

I would definitely bring more money for bingo and drinks!

We did use the clothes pins to hang the suits up in the tub/shower to dry.

Here's something we brought that came in very handy and I did get some comments when we washed clothes - we bought two of those fold up laundry baskets. We kept one up to put the dirty clothes in and I would take the second one to pick up the clean clothes from the dryer. They worked great!!!! And when we weren't using them, they folded up and fit in the luggage or a drawer.

We also took an extra bag for souveniers and was I glad we did - that sucker was packed to the gils (no pun intended)!

 

[drdelsol]

We are going again this year and my wife is not going to let me on unless I leave the type A personality at home. So my first thing to do different is relax more.

My second- I'm bringing those large 7-11 type insulated mugs for the drink station. The cups there are so small we were walking back to the room with multiple cups each.

 

[pooh luver]

We have been on two disney cruises and have yet to order room service. The first new thing I will try is the cheese platter from room service because I have heard so much about it.

The other thing I want to do is catch the adult shows at night. My son will finally be old enough my DH and I can go out for awhile by ourselves. (My DS is probably one of the very few kids who doesn't like the kids club.)

 

[slabeaume]

YES!!!!! Definately not go on the snorkel excursion from Castaway Cay where my Dad almost drowned!!!

 

[Dodie]

• Do some of the behind the scenes tours
• Do the wine tasting.
• Save money and get an inside cabin (we had a porthole room and were barely in it).
• Buy the wine package and enjoy it throughout the cruise instead of worrying about the bill when buying by the glass.

 

[bmag]

worst vacation I ever had. They misrepresented it and ripped us off at every turn. The food was down right awful. Kids food was relly terrible. Over crowded pools, line ups and hidden fees. I would strongly recommend against a Disney Cruise.

 

[Leslierx]

1. book a longer cruise, 3 days did not seem like enough time

2. fly the day before the cruise. We flew from nashville and arrived in orlando about 1pm them had to line up for the disney bus and ride all the way to port, we were so excited to get on the ship. We barely got on and in our swim suits when it was time for the safety drill, then time to get ready for dinner. rush, rush, rush.

3. rebook while onboard. We knew we loved the cruise, and should have taken a look at the deals they had on board and didn't, now here we are a year later, going again.

4. eat at tritons etc for breakfast. we ate every day at the buffet, which was great, but would like to try restaurant.

5. don't overplan everything. last trip I had read up about cruise on disboards, which was great, but I had too much planned and made myself crazy trying to do everything.

 

[Tera]

Crisi - We're planning on our first DC next year and were planning on flying in the day before and staying near the port. Is there any reason why you won't stay near there again?

 

[crisi]

It was just kind of a hassle. We stayed at the Radisson, which was a nice enough resort. But we had to (or actually a bellman did) haul all that luggage up, then live out of a suitcase overnight. The resort was OK, but we didn't have a car, and didn't know the port - so we ate three meals in the resort restaurant. The kids did have a great time in the pool however. We did this because I didn't know it takes less than an hour to get to the port.

Plus I'm not fond of Florida outside of WDW.

The next morning it still took an hour to get to the port - seems that the Cape has a shortage of cabs on Saturday morning.

Next time we will fly in late and stay at the airport before catching a towncar over - and I'll pack one bag to dress all of us out of the next day. Or fly in morning of (that's what my husband wants to do - but we are always so tired after we fly).

 

[Tera]

Thanks for the info Crisi. I know we still have a long time before our trip, but I want to check out everything.

 

[wide awake]

RELAX...I was so stressed on our first cruise, worried that we'd spent lots of money and that the trip wouldn't be worth it...I am very picky, very smart, very cheap, and very efficient...I usually find all sorts of problems with the way people handle things...it took me about a day to realize that DCL has the service, cleanliness, and food down pat, and that all I had to do was enjoy myself. Look at your Navigators, decide what you're doing each day, and go with it. You're not going to have time to do everything so don't even try. You can do the things you missed next time...we rebooked onboard, I told DH I wasn't getting off the ship without a reservation for a 2nd trip. This next time I plan to try Palos, go to the Cove Cafe, do the ballroom dancing, go to the spa, at least look at the adult pool and adult beach at CC, and eat lunch in the dining rooms...didn't get a chance to do any of these last time. Oh, and see some of the adult shows, buy the wine package, try my luck at bingo...