Our 1st Disney Cruise!!

[Kimberly9701]

Any good advice/tips/tricks/etc?
We'll be on the Fantasy for a 7 night very Merrytime cruise out of port Canaveral.. I'm super stoked and it's still 9 months away.lol. We'll be on Deck 9 midship in a verandah room. I'm hoping to meet other people who have an only child close in age as well
It will be my son-6 at that time, and myself.

 

[jtba]

woohoo, you will have such a great time!

find your fellow cruisemates and see if you can arrange for some penpals for your son before the cruise, or at least kids of similar age so they can meet in the kids clubs during the cruise. we did the both and my kids had a blast.

 

[GoofyNewfie]

Congratz! You've already executed on the best trick. Book a Disney cruise!

Since it's your first, allow me to recommend having a decent knowledge of the ship by looking at the maps before you get there. That will (1) allow you to understand options to get around - especially during the various busy times, and (2) give you a better idea of the things to do on board. For example, I hadn't known on my first cruise about the Cove Café coffee shop which is a great place to hang.

 

[ZerasPride]

We just finished our first Disney cruise on the Dream two weeks ago and can't wait to go ack next year!! You and your family will have a blast.

A couple of helpful tips I learned on this board are:

Go to the sit down restaurant for embarkation lunch. They will try to direct you to Cabanas but I knew from this board that we wanted a more relaxed environment the first day and it was great!

Bring an air freshener for the bathroom.

Request a table for just your family. A lot of folks don't mind sitting with others but I knew my husband who is shy would not like that.

Book another cruise on board for the discount and OBC.

Dress for pirate night. Boy do I wish we would have done that.

Download the DCL app. It was cool watching the clock countdown and the free internet on board (50 mb) is assessed through it plus the navigators and it was cool to see the menus in advance.

Door decorations! I didn't think it was necessary and while its not the end of the world I was so jealous of all the nicely decorated doors. All we had was the welcome home DVC member decal. It was nice but I wanted more! Lol!

We were on deck 9 midship not too far from the elevators and it was a great location. I'm sure others will share more. Enjoy your cruise!

 

[Kimberly9701]

We just finished our first Disney cruise on the Dream two weeks ago and can't wait to go ack next year!! You and your family will have a blast.

A couple of helpful tips I learned on this board are:

Go to the sit down restaurant for embarkation lunch. They will try to direct you to Cabanas but I knew from this board that we wanted a more relaxed environment the first day and it was great!

Bring an air freshener for the bathroom.

Request a table for just your family. A lot of folks don't mind sitting with others but I knew my husband who is shy would not like that.

Book another cruise on board for the discount and OBC.

Dress for pirate night. Boy do I wish we would have done that.

Download the DCL app. It was cool watching the clock countdown and the free internet on board (50 mb) is assessed through it plus the navigators and it was cool to see the menus in advance.

Door decorations! I didn't think it was necessary and while its not the end of the world I was so jealous of all the nicely decorated doors. All we had was the welcome home DVC member decal. It was nice but I wanted more! Lol!

We were on deck 9 midship not too far from the elevators and it was a great location. I'm sure others will share more. Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks so much!! We are also not too far from the elevators..the first room that has inside cabins on other side of us. I chose midship bc we will be doing 3 days at Disney World first, and I'm hoping it's a better proximity to everything since we'll be doing so much walking before the cruise. I didn't know about door decorations- great tip!! Do the discounts apply for med cruises as well? Next year we are either doing a non Disney Ireland trip, or a Disney Mediterranean cruise- if I can bite the bullet on the pricing lol..I couldn't justify it this year at his age.

 

[Kimberly9701]

woohoo, you will have such a great time!

find your fellow cruisemates and see if you can arrange for some penpals for your son before the cruise, or at least kids of similar age so they can meet in the kids clubs during the cruise. we did the both and my kids had a blast.

Thanks for the link!!!

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Any good advice/tips/tricks/etc?
We'll be on the Fantasy for a 7 night very Merrytime cruise out of port Canaveral.. I'm super stoked and it's still 9 months away.lol. We'll be on Deck 9 midship in a verandah room. I'm hoping to meet other people who have an only child close in age as well
It will be my son-6 at that time, and myself.

Congrats on your cruise! We love deck 9 on the Fantasy, it's our favorite location.

My best advice is relax and have fun, don't try to over plan the crap out of your vacation. If you have any adult only time, head up to Satellite Falls, it's awesome. Congrats again, the Fantasy is amazing!

 

[MPS516]

Door decorations are for any cruise, door are metal so magnet decorations are very popular - search door decoration forums for ideas. Dining is a very personal preference, with our only child it has always been great because we have had wonderful table mates which most always included a young girl our DD's age. During our first few cruises we were normally sat with a family with experience now we get both newbies and experienced mates. We really enjoy visiting during supper and talking about what everyone did that day, which excursions or touring and comparing for future reference. Getting DS to the club the first evening is important, they really do a good job of getting everyone to interact and often little groups form so he will be trying to meet his new buds at various times during the remainder of the cruise.

We also bring a magnetic hook with short string and clothespins we hang from the ceiling inside our stateroom to clip up jackets or swim suits while the drip over a dowel as we use the shower to prepare for supper. Also handy for other things during the day we would otherwise throw in the bed as we are in and out of the stateroom.

 

[Kimberly9701]

Congrats on your cruise! We love deck 9 on the Fantasy, it's our favorite location.

My best advice is relax and have fun, don't try to over plan the crap out of your vacation. If you have any adult only time, head up to Satellite Falls, it's awesome. Congrats again, the Fantasy is amazing!

That is the EXACT reason we are dong the cruise. I am a horrible over planner..I ran my poor 5 year old ragged during our 8 days at Disney World in September. By Day 4, after a breakfast with his favorite character- Stitch, he had a meltdown..I was in shock, and then had to admit that it was my fault completely- 2 character meals or table service meals per day..I felt like our trip was being ran by dining reservations.. our days starting with a 7:30am breakfast and staying out until midnight, or later.. I realized I had over exerted him, we took a 'resort day' and just swam and went down the volcano slide about a hundred times lol, that evening we ordered room service and watched the electrical water pageant and fireworks from our balcony. It ended up being one of my favorite days there.
I'm hoping the cruise will be a little slower paced

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

That is the EXACT reason we are dong the cruise. I am a horrible over planner..I ran my poor 5 year old ragged during our 8 days at Disney World in September. By Day 4, after a breakfast with his favorite character- Stitch, he had a meltdown..I was in shock, and then had to admit that it was my fault completely- 2 character meals or table service meals per day..I felt like our trip was being ran by dining reservations.. our days starting with a 7:30am breakfast and staying out until midnight, or later.. I realized I had over exerted him, we took a 'resort day' and just swam and went down the volcano slide about a hundred times lol, that evening we ordered room service and watched the electrical water pageant and fireworks from our balcony. It ended up being one of my favorite days there.
I'm hoping the cruise will be a little slower paced

My kids and I ride the aqua duck about 100 times every cruise! Best time is after dinner and the shows at night. We put our bathing suits on, ride quite a few times then grab a snack and watch a movie under the stars curled up in towels on deck. Man I need to be on a cruise right now!

I'll have to settle for watching this today.

http://portcanaveralwebcam.com/

 

[ZerasPride]

As far as the discounts on a future cruise I know there are black out dates so you may want to check at the future cruise desk on board.

We did not rush off the ship on Castaway Cay day - slept in, had a leisurely sit down breakfast at the Royal Court and stopped by the future cruise desk on our way to CC. There was no one there besides us. It was nice to have the ship feel so empty. And we still found a nice spot on Serenity Bay.