Questions About First Day On Board

[Princess Michelle]

When you first board the ship do you find out what your dining rotation is and what nights are the formal/themed nights before you have to make your reservations for Palo? My friend and I want to eat there one night but we don't want to miss any of the formal or themed nights in our regular rotation.

Are we allowed to go directly to our rooms once we are on board?

I guess that's it for now...

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Princess Michelle
forstarters, before you board the ship you will know your rotation. its on the KTTW card. as for formal/themed nights look at www.castawayclub.com look at menus and there is the theme nights on both eastern and western cruises. also there is a list to show which nites are formal casual or semi-formal. i hope this helps.

P.S. there is no formal on 3 or 4 day cruises

 

[abitjaded]

Your dining rotation will be on your Key to the World Card, recieved at check-in in the terminal. Generally it is LAPL (Lumiere's, Animator's, Parrot) if mostly adults and older kids, PLAP if you have grade schoolers and APLA if you have toddlers or babies. You will also be given a Navigator for the first day when you check in. The Highlights will be listed by day. A few folks have made nice spread sheets, but I have a new computer today without all my links, hopefully someone will post the links. The days of shows and events have been fairly consistent.

Just take it with a grain of salt, though. I had confirmed and confirmed that PremEAR at Sea would be St. Maarten day, and therefore safe to get a Palo dinner, we could always see the movie at home. Then that day the schedule was changed to Who Wants to be a Mousketeer. Bummer. Figured the film had not arrived for loading either in Port Canaveral or St Maarten so they had to change something quick.

Rooms will not be ready if you board at first opportunity. They will be available about 1:00-1:30. Settle some of your group at Parrot Cay or Topsiders for the buffet, then run, do not walk, to get Palo and Spa reservations. Kid's club registration can wait. We actually did that by waiting at 9:00 the next morning.

Carla

 

[xABearx]

Originally posted by Princess Michelle

Are we allowed to go directly to our rooms once we are on board?

I guess that's it for now...

You can take your carry on bags to your room and drop them off, usually the rooms are not ready till after 1:30pm, however, whenever we've gone, they've always been ready by the time we boarded....Andy

 

[kcashner]

The above posts have hit on an important point--flexibility. Everything on the ship is subject to change should the circumstances require it. That could include weather, failure of a movie to arrive at a port, a late ship clearance from the previous cruise, etc.

You will have a much better time if you are able to just "go with the flow" and if you are tied up over a schedule or doing things the "best" way. There is way too much to do on the ship for any one cruise (that's why we're going on number 10). The CM making Palo Reservations will know which night is scheduled as formal night, but again, it could change. It normally doesn't, but it can.

Your dining rotation is on your KTTW card when you check in unless you did a land/sea booked thru DCL. In that case, you will see your rotation on the dining tickets in your cabin. You can go to your cabin as soon as you board to drop your bag, but the steward may be still working in the rooms. They tell us that our rooms will be ready after 1:30. On one (of 9) cruises, we had our steward ask that we not leave any valuables as he wanted to prop the doors open while he completed his stuff. The room looked done, but seems it wasn't. No problem. We dropped stuff and went to do other things.

The priority reservations are Palo and Spa (except rainforest, which can wait). Then Tea with Wendy if desired. There is no rush to register for kid program. Then go out in the sun and enjoy!

Ressies for Palo, Flounders, etc. may not be open yet if you are one of the "early boarders." They will open about 15 minutes before their announced time. You can split up your party--DH for Palo, you for spa (if you trust hime!)

 

[Princess Michelle]

Thanks for the info, it was very helpful. We're two single girls hoping to relax and have a lot of fun on the 7-Day Eastern. We are pretty go with the flow people but we do like to have an idea of what to expect.

Knowing that our rotation will be on our KTTW cards is very helpful and if the people taking that Palo reservations can verify which nights are formal/themed then we will be good to go. When looking at the various menus on Barb's site I found that we would rather skip a regular night at Parrot Cay as opposed to a regular night at Lumiere's or Animator's Pallet. I'm just using this information as a guide to what we might possibly want to do. I understand that things change and we will be flexible if they do I just like to have an idea of what will be going on.

We definitely want to make spa reservations but we can pick any day at sea for those, that's no big deal.

I wanted to know if we could go to our rooms because I wasn't sure if we had to pick up our Navigators for that day in our room or if they would be given to us at check in. If we get them when we check in then I'm all set.

Thanks again for all your help. Us first time cruisers appreciate all of you who share your experience.

Kcashner, after looking at the Navigators on Barb's site last night I can see myself taking 9 more cruises tOo in order to try everything! The amount of activities is amazing and I know it's going to be a total blast!

 

[jrabbit]

I'm assuming that you are going on a 7 nighter since you are talking about formal and semi formal nights. It seems like they have been changing these nights around on a regular basis this year so trying to plan ahead really might not work. Going with the flow and having the Palo serving team help you is a good idea. Brunch at Palo is very, very good (don't schedule it for the same day as your character breakfast!)

You get a "temporary Navigator" when you check in at the port. The "real" one that has all of the first evenings activities is in your room or you can pick it up at guest services.

Here's what we do on embarkation day
To the port around 11am, check in, get in line
*Board the ship, enjoy the welcome aboard in the atrium for several minutes.
*Go to our stateroom and drop off the carryon luggage - keeping your camera and extra film with you.
*Goto the Palo sign up (Rockin' Bar D) get those ressies
*Sign kids into club/lab (you won't be needing to do this)
*Goto the spa to sign up for any treatments wanted
*Up to deck 9 aft to Topsiders for lunch
*Walk around the ship getting oriented, enjoying the music, art and usually the weather (if its not blasted hot&humid or raining)
*Back to the room to either change into swimsuits and hit the pools/hot tub, or we start unpacking and getting organized for the week
*Go to the manditory safety drill at 4pm when called
*Back to the room to finish unpacking and getting ready for dinnner and the evenings shows/activities. We spend some quality time with the Navigator to figure out what we are going to do. TIP: bring a highlighter.
*The rest is up to you!!

 

[Princess Michelle]

Thanks jrabbit

 

[videogal1]

Originally posted by kcashner
The above posts have hit on an important point--flexibility. Everything on the ship is subject to change should the circumstances require it. That could include weather, failure of a movie to arrive at a port, a late ship clearance from the previous cruise, etc.

You will have a much better time if you are able to just "go with the flow" and if you are tied up over a schedule or doing things the "best" way.

I plan to under-plan on my 4-day in May. But, one thing I'm gonna need to know...Where's the potty for Cash, the Wonder Dog?
Still lookin for the poop deck,

 

[rae519]

Originally posted by videogal1
I plan to under-plan on my 4-day in May. But, one thing I'm gonna need to know...Where's the potty for Cash, the Wonder Dog?
Still lookin for the poop deck,

I've wondered that myself! Where do the guide dogs go when they have to go?!

Rae