Making the Most of a 3 Day Cruise!!!

[shaycamp21]

We (myself, dh, and dd's 7 & 6) are going on a 3 day cruise in March and I read one of the Navigators from castawyclub.com and am a little overwhelmed by the amount of things to do and don't know how to pick and choose. I don't want to overplan. I would like to see the all shows and on our Nassau day we booked the Blackbeards Cay Stingray excursion and figured we'd just relax at Castaway Cay. I am not even sure how much use my girls will even get out of the Oceaneer Lab. We have the late dinner seating (we chose not to do Palos this time since we wanted to try all of the restaurants and am hoping to rebook a 7-day on the cruise). Any tips on making the most of this 3-day cruise. Thanks!

POFQ AUG'05


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[nzdisneymom]

Just remember that whatever you don't get to do THIS time, you'll get to do NEXT time! Gotta have some "seed activities" to look forward to for your next cruise! Sounds like you have a reasonable itinerary, and you're right - don't miss the shows! You can approach this cruise as a "going commando" one since it's short or you can balance out some relaxation in there.

We did a 7-night last month and I "commandoed" part of it but only because I knew I had another week's vacation before I would have to return to work. I wanted to do as much as I could because I didn't know if we'd rebook or not (we did, but for a 4-night). For me the cruise was all about being on the ship and I wanted to do the shipboard activities. I missed a lot of the adult activities in the evening that I want to see / do next time.

 

[clovely]

We're doing our first, a 3-night at the end of March and I'm the same way. Since it's short, I don't want to spend half my time figuring out where things are and what's going on. I guess I'm going kinda commando. I've poured over the navigators and whatever information I can get here. I have come up with the following tentative schedule of what I want to do....

Thursday
* board at noon - pool, lunch, confirm palo, autographs
* 4:30 Sailaway celebration, check in at DCU
* Shower
* 6:00 dinner
* 8:30 Hercules

Friday
* 9:00 princess gathering
* pool and lunch
* 12:15 cookies
* 1:30-3:30 baths and naps
* 3:45 Pirate Prep
* 6:00 dinner
* 6:45 Games in the lab
* 7:30 Palo?
* 9:30 Pirate party & Fireworks

Saturday
* 9:00 yoga on the beach
* play on the beach, lunch
* 12:30 dig activity, sand castles
* 2:45 check out
* Baths
* 4:00 graduation prep
* 5:00 graduation
* 6:00 Dinner
* 8:30 Dreams
* 10:00 Farewell with characters

I'm a schedule person, though. There are some really tight turn-around times in there (the baths and naps for instance) and I realize everything might not happen. But rather that pouring over Navigators when I get there, except to browse through verifying times and locations and look for any changes from the ones I saw online (which were from this past November), I will be going in with a plan of attack, so to speak.

Dh thinks I'm crazy and if there are any kinks to be thrown into my plan, it'll most certainly be him doing the throwing...but we'll play it by ear once we get there.

 

[shaycamp21]

Wow that sound's like a great itinerary. I just hope I can squeeze some time in for my girls to be in the Oceaneer Lab. At WDW this past summer my DH and I had a night out while the girls were in the Neverland Club which they absolutely LOVED!! One of their favourites of the whole trip.





POFQ AUG'05


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[clovely]

Several of those activities on my tentative "itinerary" are things going on in the Lab like while we're hopefully at Palo, obviously.

 

[PatricenPete]

We are doing the three day at the end of March as well. (March 30 - April 2)

We will be in WDW prior to sailing, so we will probably stay back in WDW as late as possible before heading over to the ship. I am guessing we will get to the ship around 3ish, have dinner at 6, maybe see the show and then turn in.

We plan on doing "The Dig" In Nassau in the morning and then heading back to the ship for lunch and a nap, some pool time in the afternoon, then dinner and the show.

We plan on spending Castaway Cay day mostly at the beach, playing in the sand, splashing in the ocean, eating the BBQ! It should be a fun day.

We can't wait!