Sep. 7, 2015 on the Dream

[butsy113]

Maybe it's the nurse in me, but you never know when something is going to happen. It may be to your family on the cruise or even someone back home. If you don't have it and you have to fly back home for any reason you will be spending a lot of time at the embassy like PAGA2003 said. Chances are nothing will happen, but if my child needs medical attention, I will be flying back to the US.

 

[party-of-five]

I agree that passports are the way to go. You never know. My older three have passports (now expired). We pulled them out in preparation for renewal and were looking at their passport pictures - too cute, they were all so little! They make neat souvenirs, albeit expensive souvenirs. It would be cool if DCL would stamp it for them.

 

[RedwineFamily]

Maybe it's the nurse in me, but you never know when something is going to happen. It may be to your family on the cruise or even someone back home. If you don't have it and you have to fly back home for any reason you will be spending a lot of time at the embassy like PAGA2003 said. Chances are nothing will happen, but if my child needs medical attention, I will be flying back to the US.

That was exactly my point. Maybe if he sees that it is not just me being neurotic, he will agree.

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

If you have to fly home from Nassau then yes the girls would need them as well. The cards can only be used for crossing land borders and sea entry. Of course you can obtain passports in emergency situations overseas. I have no idea how that works though other than locating the embassy...

Bummers. Looks like I'm going to have to break out the wallet and fork out the extra for full books. I don't want my girls stuck in the Bahamas.

 

[joannjoe]

We're dressing up! Full pirate. I was even going to try a smokey eye with makeup that I otherwise can't pull off! I hear that the dressing up is the full range of possibilities, from Captain Jack Sparrow to only wearing the bandana that DCL gives people. [/

Yep its up to you as too how involved you want to be. This will be my first time dressing up for it. Hay its the only time a guy can wear mascara and get away with it. LOL

 

[joannjoe]

I have a question about passports. My husband and I are debating over what to do about the passport situation for our kiddos. I planned on getting them the full book like we will have, but my husband says that is a waste of money. In an emergency, we wouldn't be able to fly back if they don't have it. He thinks I am crazy and that we should just get the passport cards for them or even just use their birth certificates. Both of those are fine for cruising, and we don't plan on doing any international travel with them in the 4 years before the book would expire. What are the rest of you doing??

I would get the book. What if you were on board the ship and decided to book another cruise say a 7 day then the book pays off.

 

[Majorandensleymom]

I have a question about passports. My husband and I are debating over what to do about the passport situation for our kiddos. I planned on getting them the full book like we will have, but my husband says that is a waste of money. In an emergency, we wouldn't be able to fly back if they don't have it. He thinks I am crazy and that we should just get the passport cards for them or even just use their birth certificates. Both of those are fine for cruising, and we don't plan on doing any international travel with them in the 4 years before the book would expire. What are the rest of you doing??

I guess I am the odd one out. We are not getting passports for our kids. This will be my sons (7year old) 6th cruise and my daughter (2 years) - 2nd cruise. We have always just used the birth certificates.

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

I read several things on Disney that made it sound like passport books were not a bad idea when traveling in the Bahamas, but not at all necessary. I didn't see anything that stated that if we needed to fly back into the US, passport books were required until I looked it up after talking to all of you. Sounds like passport books would be required if you needed emergency evacuation off Castaway Cay as well if you want to get back within US borders. Any ideas where I can pick up an extra $330 within a week? I'm submitting our applications next Tuesday...

 

[sillecruisers]

I have a question about passports. My husband and I are debating over what to do about the passport situation for our kiddos. I planned on getting them the full book like we will have, but my husband says that is a waste

I read several things on Disney that made it sound like passport books were not a bad idea when traveling in the Bahamas, but not at all necessary. I didn't see anything that stated that if we needed to fly back into the US, passport books were required until I looked it up after talking to all of you. Sounds like passport books would be required if you needed emergency evacuation off Castaway Cay as well if you want to get back within US borders. Any ideas where I can pick up an extra $330 within a week? I'm submitting our applications next Tuesday...

I hate to spend all that money, but we are doing the passport books for peace of mind. And we'd like to think we'll be traveling again. We plan to book our next cruise while on board this one.

I think it's like $575 for our family

 

[Jasesmom]

I hate to spend all that money, but we are doing the passport books for peace of mind. And we'd like to think we'll be traveling again. We plan to book our next cruise while on board this one.

I think it's like $575 for our family

I was debating on getting Jase a book... But have decided to go ahead... I bought mine last year so I will only be out for his!!!!

 

[CAyers]

Just joined, too! DS doesn't want to dress up at all for pirate night. I did find pirate t shirts (similar to the old tuxedo shirts) on Amazon. If I can't get my family to go all out, maybe we'll be funny pirates and have them wear those. I always think those types of shirts are hilarious

I think of the Seinfeld episode with those shirts lol!!

 

[CAyers]

I have a question about passports. My husband and I are debating over what to do about the passport situation for our kiddos. I planned on getting them the full book like we will have, but my husband says that is a waste of money. In an emergency, we wouldn't be able to fly back if they don't have it. He thinks I am crazy and that we should just get the passport cards for them or even just use their birth certificates. Both of those are fine for cruising, and we don't plan on doing any international travel with them in the 4 years before the book would expire. What are the rest of you doing??

We all have passports because typically we are always out of the country for vacation this is the first we have stayed in the Country, well sort of stayed in the Country lol

 

[CAyers]

Welcome everyone that is new!

Heads up on ADRs since the park added additional hours (for Sept. 1, 4, and 7) I was able to move my Be Our Guest reservation out to a later time and finalize exactly the times and ADRs I wanted. Now hopefully my fastpass will work out this smoothly!

 

[Vegasnine]

Can someone explain the fastpass to me. I am familiar with the old way at Disneyland - go to the ticket dispensers and get a ticket with a return time on it and then come back at that time. You can only have 1 at a time etc.

Is it different at WDW? I've never used them before for things like fireworks, parades and restaurants either.

Thanks!

 

[The Blake's]

FastPass is the same at WDW. Are you going to be getting the Magic wristbands?

 

[Vegasnine]

I thought I heard you can do up to 3 Fastpasses at once and I've never done the parade / fireworks ones at Disneyland. I was just asking how people use them in general? It seems inefficient to be bouncing back and forth all over the park to meet up with times, I was just curious.

Yes, we are staying at one of the resorts so I was told we will be getting the Magicbands...

 

[Jasesmom]

I thought I heard you can do up to 3 Fastpasses at once and I've never done the parade / fireworks ones at Disneyland. I was just asking how people use them in general? It seems inefficient to be bouncing back and forth all over the park to meet up with times, I was just curious.

Yes, we are staying at one of the resorts so I was told we will be getting the Magicbands...

I'm glad you asked this question!!!!

 

[joannjoe]

I thought I heard you can do up to 3 Fastpasses at once and I've never done the parade / fireworks ones at Disneyland. I was just asking how people use them in general? It seems inefficient to be bouncing back and forth all over the park to meet up with times, I was just curious.

Yes, we are staying at one of the resorts so I was told we will be getting the Magicbands...

You have to do everything through My Disney Experience. Link your Hotel, Dinner reservations and Tickets to this page. I think at 30 or 60 days away from your first day in the park you can pick 3 fast pass rides then they will give you different time to pick from so you do have some wiggle room to plan the rides around dinners and etc... I know you can pick your color of magic band and you use that band for everything even opening your hotel room door. Then pay for things that you have charged to room at check out. There were 7 of us that went and we never had a problem with the magic bands. Keep in mind that these ride times go quickly just like dinner reservations. I hope this helped

 

[Jasesmom]

You have to do everything through My Disney Experience. Link your Hotel, Dinner reservations and Tickets to this page. I think at 30 or 60 days away from your first day in the park you can pick 3 fast pass rides then they will give you different time to pick from so you do have some wiggle room to plan the rides around dinners and etc... I know you can pick your color of magic band and you use that band for everything even opening your hotel room door. Then pay for things that you have charged to room at check out. There were 7 of us that went and we never had a problem with the magic bands. Keep in mind that these ride times go quickly just like dinner reservations. I hope this helped

THANKS

 

[butsy113]

It is 30 days for off site guests and 60 days for on site guests. Last time I booked my FP it opened up at midnight EST. Unless your 60 day has the MK open until 1 or 2 am. Then it will be after that. You can book 3 to start off. When you use those 3 you can go to the kiosk in the park and add another one, one at a time. If staying onsite you want to go to MDE and click on "Magicbands and Cards". You can then customize your bands by picking a color and putting your name or a nickname on it. The name does not matter, it can be all kinds of crazy My family is Goofy, Babsy, Booger, and Sunshine. They normally send the magicbands 30-45 days our from your trip. It is your door key, can be used for charging to your room, and has all of your FPs on it. It is linked to your account. Like Jo said make sure to link all of your things into MDE. If you don't have tickets linked you cannot do FP.

I LOVE FP+!! I know a lot of people on different threads majorly complain about it, but it works great for us. With the old system we always had to have a runner to run across the park to get FPs, and then they would run back to meet the group. Then we would later go back across the park to ride the ride. Guess who was always the runner? Now our trips are a lot smoother and relaxing. I organize our FPs for times when we should be in that area of the park. We go enough that we have a good feel for where we will be at what time. The big plus for us, is that we get to ride rides that often would run out of FP tickets with the old system. We do not RD at all!! It is vacation time, and I refuse to be woken up by an alarm. As a result DH leaves the room about 6am so he doesn't wake us vampires. DD, DS, and myself sleep until around 9 or 10 and get to the parks around 12.. Several trips we didn't ride TSMM or Soarin (not a necessity for us) because the lines are so long by the time we got there and there were no FPs left. With this new system I can schedule out times so we don't have to wait forever for all of our favorites.