Pre-Cruise "Touring Plan"?

[DrHickenlocher]

Hi All-

My family's first-ever cruise will be a 5-night Mexico itinerary in late April 2018, which is still 9 months away. But by 9 months out for our first-ever Disney World vacation I had already planned out a fairly meticulous "touring plan" identifying which parks to visit on which day, which attractions to hit in which order, which fastpasses I wanted to make, and which restaurant reservations to make as soon as my booking window hit.

I haven't done anything like that for this cruise, and I feel a little... helpless. I've looked up online personal navigators from previous 5-night Mexico cruises to get an idea of what to expect, but apart from stashing my kids in the Oceaneer's Club and setting aside time for dinner and the evening theater shows, I'm not really sure how to make a plan. Yeah, we'd like to book some spa time and maybe do Palo for our extra night instead of repeat one of the 3 main dining rooms. But I feel like there are these really huge swaths of unstructured time to just... do... whatever... And while that may sound awesome to some people, I'm the neurotic over-planner who gets weird serotonin imbalances whenever I walk into a situation without a pre-scheduled itinerary broken down into 15-minute increments. It's not that I have to STICK to such a finely detailed plan, but it's reassuring to know that the plan is there in case I need it.

Can any of you experienced cruisers help a newbie figure out a plan? Perhaps an itinerary that's worked for you in the past? Thank you very much in advance.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

for our extra night instead of repeat one of the 3 main dining rooms.

I'll just point out, even though you'll be in the same dining room, the menu/theme of dinner will be different.

 

[MunFam]

I am just like you!!! I plan in minutes. Its shameful. LOL

Since things are somewhat fluid on the ships (ie. things are added and canceled) its hard to have a play by play, so what I did (on a 14 night DCL cruise!) was plan our port days in advance, but that was it, with the exception of ticked events. Then, each evening on board, I used the app and navigator to schedule out a "grid" of each person's plan for the next day. You may think you want to do one thing, but then all of a sudden, your favorite character is having a meet and greet...so everything changes anyways. The navigator lets you "add" things to your schedule and it also has the menus posted. I like going in to a meal and knowing what I am going to order.

 

[FigmentSpark]

You can use your planning time on researching excursions.

 

[lizabu]

Cruises are way different. You don't need an itinerary. Everyone gets dinner and everyone gets to go to the shows so there's no need to stress about any of that. Anything else you want to do you can do. Things are organized in a way that it's easy to meet characters or watch demonstrations or anything you want to do. You can use the time you would've spent planning watching cruise videos on YouTube and making magnets and/or fish extender gifts (if you choose to participate).

 

[elvispursley]

I'm just like you, OP! I tend to plan way in advance for our WDW/DLR trips. However, I learned on our 1st DCL that there isn't that much to plan for the cruise in advance (with exception of excursions, especially if you're doing them independently). My 2nd cruise, I decided to pass the time by "crafting" and making my FE and gifts. Beware though, since I'm an "over planner" and somewhat type-A, I really overdid the FE gifts and ended up with too many gifts and had to pack an entire extra suitcase with FE stuff! I couldn't even give all the stuff away I'd packed so much (due to lack of time)! LOL. A DCL is meant to be relaxing, including the preplanning part. I use my time reading the DIS boards and it helps. Good luck!

 

[DrHickenlocher]

Thanks, everyone! Looks like I'll go into overdrive planning excursions, and I like the idea of scheduling a "grid" the night before each day using the app and navigator.