Merrytime: Chance of getting gingerbread house?

[TiggerBouncy]

Without knowing my boarding group and not being concierge or platinum, I could be on a later boarding group. If I head straight to the guest services desk on boarding (for sake or argument lets assume I am not able to get on the ship until Open Boarding), what are my chances of getting a Gingerbread House ticket? Are they typically all gone in the earlier boarding groups?

 

[Shanti]

Without knowing my boarding group and not being concierge or platinum, I could be on a later boarding group. If I head straight to the guest services desk on boarding (for sake or argument lets assume I am not able to get on the ship until Open Boarding), what are my chances of getting a Gingerbread House ticket? Are they typically all gone in the earlier boarding groups?

Open boarding actually isn't that far behind the first boarding groups- maybe one hour later. We boarded early & got gingerbread house tickets. There were different times available and at the actual session, Animator's Palate (which is not small) was full of families making houses. So multiply that number of families by the number of sessions available... I'd say you have a good chance as long as you go straight there upon boarding, and don't wait until 2pm to board.

 

[laceltris3]

I agree and twice, as silver Castaway Club, we were boarding group 4 with checking in at midnight, and it was no problem at all.

 

[cheribelle]

I’m silver but boarded with my parents (non silver and later boarding group), and we sailed on the Fantasy leaving 12/24 last year. We had no problems with obtaining gingerbread tickets for all 3 cabins.

 

[tlprice]

I got gingerbread house tickets easily on my very first cruise. The only downside was it was on Castaway Cay morning so we got onto the island a little later than I would have liked. My daughter enjoyed it so much that it was worth it though. We still had plenty of time on Castaway Cay, but did miss the characters. We got pictures with them the next cruise though.

 

[darnheather]

Are these tickets not online yet?

 

[wombat_5606]

This activity just doesn't interest me. Recently, it appears that it's just a pre-packaged kit like I can get at my local store. There aren't any Disney decorations used. You can't take it home with you. I'm not going to eat it(If it had been gingerbread made that day, that would be different.)

A previous poster stated they delayed getting off at Castaway Cay.

I would rather do cruise-specific activities, rather than something I can get at home.

Why do you enjoy doing this activity on your cruise? What am I missing? I can be persuaded.

 

[cheribelle]

This activity just doesn't interest me. Recently, it appears that it's just a pre-packaged kit like I can get at my local store. There aren't any Disney decorations used. You can't take it home with you. I'm not going to eat it(If it had been gingerbread made that day, that would be different.)

A previous poster stated they delayed getting off at Castaway Cay.

I would rather do cruise-specific activities, rather than something I can get at home.

Why do you enjoy doing this activity on your cruise? What am I missing? I can be persuaded.

I can totally understand your point, especially if it interferes with an excursion - but - here are our reasons for it:

- more family time together. For the same reason why we built a car out of a potato for the Mickey 300 race, the same reasoning here. Another craft we can do together. Some families like to do Karaoke together, some swim together, my kids love crafts together.

- Holiday Spirit- we sailed on Christmas Eve so this was just another festive touch for our cruise. Also made a nice decoration in the room.

- Best reason of all - I didn’t have to clean the floors after! DCL helped with all the clean up. In my house, with 3 kids, there is usually a huge mess afterwards.

But I guess the theme of everything - to each his own. Great variety on DCL- things to appease everyone. Not everyone participates in pirate night, character greetings, shows.

 

[panda123]

I've always enjoyed it as a fun family craft activity and dedicated time to work on something together. My kids are 3 and 7 and they loved it. They got to be a little messy and creative. They especially enjoyed parading through the ship with it on the way back to the cabin and it made for some great pictures. Also, once in the cabin, it smelled like gingerbread the rest of the cruise.

 

[antlawn]

This activity just doesn't interest me. Recently, it appears that it's just a pre-packaged kit like I can get at my local store. There aren't any Disney decorations used. You can't take it home with you. I'm not going to eat it(If it had been gingerbread made that day, that would be different.)

A previous poster stated they delayed getting off at Castaway Cay.

I would rather do cruise-specific activities, rather than something I can get at home.

Why do you enjoy doing this activity on your cruise? What am I missing? I can be persuaded.

I'm pretty sure the gingerbread is made in the kitchins. It was fresh and had a very good flavor. Not at all like the cardboardy stuff you buy in a box.

 

[KashasMom]

Well, going on that thinking, we can make ornaments at home, make an Elf at home, visit with Santa at home, swim at home, see a movie or show at home...actually most things we do on the cruise we can do at home! Now only if Mickey and friends would come visit, we'd never have to cruise!

We cruise as a family - my daughter spends no time in the kids' club. We do crafts, swim, see shows, etc. We just enjoy spending time together without all the interruptions of day-to-day life. As far as the gingerbread house, we had a blast with other families being shown how to put it all together by a Disney pastry chef. The end product was not perfect but it smelled wonderful and my daughter enjoyed munching on it the entire cruise. It's all about making memories...

 

[KashasMom]

I'm pretty sure the gingerbread is made in the kitchins. It was fresh and had a very good flavor. Not at all like the cardboardy stuff you buy in a box.

Absolutely!! Never eat the boxed stuff - I'm sure those are at least a month old...lots of yummy preservatives in those things!

 

[wombat_5606]

Ok, those are all good reasons, but the one I like the best is this:

Best reason of all - I didn’t have to clean the floors after! DCL helped with all the clean up. In my house, with 3 kids, there is usually a huge mess afterwards.

 

[wombat_5606]

I've read several threads where people mention that it is not fresh baked. Maybe it's changed?

I can sadly confirm that the pieces were premade cardboard - I mean gingerbread and the frosting was prepackaged (much different than our experience on the Wonder in 2014). BUT we had a very fun time and loved bring some extra candies to share with the tables around us...

It has always been a premade kit when I have done it. This goes back at least 7 years on all four ships. The cookies were unwrapped already so they didn't appear to come from a kit, but they did.

I thought they always had the pre-made kits. At least that's what I saw on our Christmas cruise in 2011. Everyone had obviously premade gingerbread components in their houses.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

This activity just doesn't interest me. Recently, it appears that it's just a pre-packaged kit like I can get at my local store. There aren't any Disney decorations used. You can't take it home with you. I'm not going to eat it(If it had been gingerbread made that day, that would be different.)

A previous poster stated they delayed getting off at Castaway Cay.

I would rather do cruise-specific activities, rather than something I can get at home.

Why do you enjoy doing this activity on your cruise? What am I missing? I can be persuaded.

Other people’s reasons aside, I have one major one... my wife wants to do it. We did it before in 2015 and she loved it. However we also did it on castaway cay day which interferes with getting off the ship.

We had a good time though. It was a lot of fun doing the activity together. I don’t know that we would have bothered to purchase a kit and do it at home.

 

[Shanti]

I've read several threads where people mention that it is not fresh baked. Maybe it's changed?

We did this in December 2016, and it didn't seem to be from a pre-made kit at all.

It was a really nice activity, albeit a bit too quick paced for my preference. An extra 15 minutes would have been nice. But it was fun and my son was proud of his creation, and it was a very Christmasy cabin decoration. I also agree with a PP that gingerbread house making is much better done on the ship than at home, as DCL provides the supplies and cleans up after you.

 

[Sytrace]

Without knowing my boarding group and not being concierge or platinum, I could be on a later boarding group. If I head straight to the guest services desk on boarding (for sake or argument lets assume I am not able to get on the ship until Open Boarding), what are my chances of getting a Gingerbread House ticket? Are they typically all gone in the earlier boarding groups?

I would say extremely good. They offer many times and date options and if you got to GS you would have a good chance.

 

[laceltris3]

It is a pre made kit. We know because we have a child with food allergies and the head pastry chef comes out and tells us about it and it’s made in a facility with nuts.

 

[Bee2u]

It depends on how many sessions they have. On our Christmas cruise a couple of years ago, they only had one gingerbread house session for the week-long cruise, and tickets went very quickly.

 

[gotomu212]

Ours was definetely a pre-made kit (last Fec on Wonder), but we had fun. We were surprised at how fast they went on the assembly instructions. We were trying to let our 9 year old have a major role, but we were getting so far behind that my husband and I had to take over the construction and then let him decorate it.

One tip we heard was to bring extra candy to decorate and we were glad we did since they didn’t give much to each group.