Thoughts on our plans?

[levenhopper]

I'm getting ready to make our PTR, but before I jump into a full one I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on what we have planned:

Who: Me (Jordan, turning 25 three days before the cruise), DGF (Mandy, turning 22 three days after the cruise ends), and our mutual best friend (Cat, turning 23 in the middle of our cruise). This is Mandy and my first Disney Cruise, and Cat hasn't been on one in 10+ years. We're all current Cast Members at WDW, doing internships as part of the Disney College Program.
What: 7-night Western Caribbean cruise, Stateroom: 7505 (Which is a Cat 10A, upgraded from a 11C)!
Where: Departs Galveston, TX
When: Nov 30 - Dec 7
Why: Because we can!

So far, we have:
Nov 30 (departure, casual dining): Land in Houston at 10:14AM, using DCL transfers to the port. DCL lists the final onboarding time as 3:30PM
Dec 1 (at sea, formal dinner): Mandy and I have a couples massage booked for 2PM.
Dec 2 (at sea, casual dinner): nothing planned
Dec 3 (Falmouth, Jamaica 7:45AM-5:45PM, casual dinner, Cat's birthday!): Chukka Jungle River Tubing Safari (9:45AM-1:15PM)
Dec 4 (Grand Cayman 7:30AM-3:30PM, pirate dinner): Palo Dinner (7:30PM)
Dec 5 (Cozumel, Mexico 10:15AM-3:45PM, semi-formal dinner): Clear Kayak and Beach Snorkel Combo (10:30AM-2:30PM)
Dec 6 (at sea, casual dinner): Palo Brunch (10:30AM)
Dec 7 (dock at Galveston at 9:30AM): DCL transfer to Houston airport, flight departs Houston at 8:12PM

Random questions:
1) Any thoughts on our excursions? We want to have one day at port free to explore, but don't care which port. Are any excursions better than what we have booked? The only difficulty in scheduling excursions is that one of us is a little afraid of swimming with fish. That's why we're snorkeling in Cozumel...it's based at a beach so she can just lay on the beach if she doesn't like it (though she's promised us to try it for at least a few minutes).
2) Dining time: as of now we're booked for main dining, but heavily considering changing to late dining (pros: less of a rush to get changed and ready after returning from a day at port, more "adult". Cons: seeing the evening show before dinner seems a little weird to me, might be harder to get good seating at the adult areas after dinner since the second show typically lets out before the second dinner seating). Thoughts/opinions? EDIT: Changed to the second dining seating. Thanks for the advice and suggestions!
3) Palo: Do we have good days for our dinner/brunch? We did the dinner on pirate night because the MDR meals didn't look too good, but tried to book early enough to make the deck party. EDIT: We were originally booked for Palo on pirate night, but DCL changed the itinerary and moved the pirates back a night. Unfortunately, there are no openings for three people for Palo for the new pirate night (though there are lots of openings for two people). I'm now very torn...option one is to call DCL and see if they can make a reservation for three people on pirate night, option two is to leave it how it is and return to the ship in the mid-afternoon to relax and get ready for Palo and then see the second showing of the evening entertainment, and option three is to move back the time for Palo while leaving it on the same night so we can see the first showing of the evening entertainment before heading to Palo. Our last-call on-board time for the night of Palo is 5:45PM, but our excursion is over at 1:15 so we can head back early to get ready for Palo if we want/need. My gut instinct is to go with option two, but I'd love to hear what you think! EDIT #2 We were able to get a 7:30PM Palo Dinner reservation for Pirates night! It should work perfectly for us!!
4) Any other random things I've missed booking/planning for?

Thanks in advance for all the advice! I know this usually goes in a PTR, but I want to have things a little more planned before I write it up!

 

[cris0809]

You've got a great list!

I'll start the feedback by saying that we always travel with only adults in our party. We much prefer second seating. Main is just too early and there are tons of little ones. It doesn't feel weird to go to a show first. Never had a problem getting a seat in the adult venues, even on our 14 night. Those types of cruises have an unusually high percentage of adults. We are also very relaxed stay-and-chat-awhile diners (think Latin or Euro style).

We'd choose to do Palo exactly how you've listed here. Dinner on pirate night and brunch on day six. You'll have a nice special event on your last sea day before you pack up the fancy clothes (and almost everything else) that afternoon. Cruise casual for dinner that night means you won't have to worry about making sure a fancy dress makes it back into the suitcase before putting your luggage out for the night.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Weedy]

Defiantly do the late dinner seating. You will be on cruise time. You will have a big breakfast 8-9am (at the earliest) than lunch around 1pm. I feel dinner at 5:45 is just too early with this cruise schedule.

 

[crabby5]

I can't really offer any advice with the excursions, we haven't sailed to the location you are.
I highly recommend the late seating for dinner (we have a 7 year old and she eats and goes to the kids club). The early one seems loud with kids screaming. I don’t see which ship you’re on? We’ve been on the Dream twice and we never had a problem with the bars being that busy at night, if one’s busy/crowded, you could just move on to the next.
Have fun!!

 

[cris0809]

I dont see which ship youre on?

Since they are sailing out of Galveston they'll be on the Wonder.

I love Cadillac Lounge for piano music and a good stiff drink. Hit up Wavebands and say hi to your club host Simon, too.

 

[Moxin]

IMHO, one of the biggest drawbacks of the late dinner seating is feeling rushed to get to a show if you want any chance of a decent seat (referring to the adult shows).

 

[k3chantal]

I'm getting ready to make our PTR, but before I jump into a full one I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on what we have planned:

Who: Me (Jordan, turning 25 three days before the cruise), DGF (Mandy, turning 22 three days after the cruise ends), and our mutual best friend (Cat, turning 23 in the middle of our cruise). This is Mandy and my first Disney Cruise, and Cat hasn't been on one in 10+ years. We're all current Cast Members at WDW, doing internships as part of the Disney College Program.
What: 7-night Western Caribbean cruise, Stateroom:11A GTY
Where: Departs Galveston, TX
When: Nov 30 - Dec 7
Why: Because we can!

So far, we have:
Nov 30 (departure, casual dining): Land in Houston at 10:14AM, using DCL transfers to the port. DCL lists the final onboarding time as 3:30PM
Dec 1 (at sea, formal dinner): Mandy and I have a couples massage booked for 2PM.
Dec 2 (at sea, casual dinner): nothing planned
Dec 3 (Falmouth, Jamaica 7:45AM-5:45PM, pirate dinner, Cat's birthday!): Chukka Jungle River Tubing Safari (9:45AM-1:15PM), Palo Dinner (6PM), Pirate Party (9:45PM)
Dec 4 (Grand Cayman 7:30AM-3:30PM, casual dinner): nothing planned
Dec 5 (Cozumel, Mexico 10:15AM-3:45PM, semi-formal dinner): Clear Kayak and Beach Snorkel Combo (10:30AM-2:30PM)
Dec 6 (at sea, casual dinner): Palo Brunch (10:30AM)
Dec 7 (dock at Galveston at 9:30AM): DCL transfer to Houston airport, flight departs Houston at 8:12PM

Random questions:
1) Any thoughts on our excursions? We want to have one day at port free to explore, but don't care which port. Are any excursions better than what we have booked? The only difficulty in scheduling excursions is that one of us is a little afraid of swimming with fish. That's why we're snorkeling in Cozumel...it's based at a beach so she can just lay on the beach if she doesn't like it (though she's promised us to try it for at least a few minutes).
2) Dining time: as of now we're booked for main dining, but heavily considering changing to late dining (pros: less of a rush to get changed and ready after returning from a day at port, more "adult". Cons: seeing the evening show before dinner seems a little weird to me, might be harder to get good seating at the adult areas after dinner since the second show typically lets out before the second dinner seating). Thoughts/opinions?
3) Palo: Do we have good days for our dinner/brunch? We did the dinner on pirate night because the MDR meals didn't look too good, but tried to book early enough to make the deck party.
4) Any other random things I've missed booking/planning for?

Thanks in advance for all the advice! I know this usually goes in a PTR, but I want to have things a little more planned before I write it up!

I was the least impressed by the Pirate Night menu so I think it is well planned to put Palo there.

Just be careful about flying in the day of. But overall you sound like you have a good handle on things.

Have a great time!!

 

[Makayna]

I was also going to say - flying in day of... YIKES! And I also recommend late dining if you just have adults. #1 - eating that early... no thanks. #2 - there will be a family with little ones who booked late and early dining wasn't available who will thank you for switching.

 

[levenhopper]

Thanks everyone! Glad to hear we're on the right track.

Just be careful about flying in the day of. But overall you sound like you have a good handle on things.

I was also going to say - flying in day of... YIKES!

I know, it's a little worrisome for me, too. I wish we could have flown in a day earlier, but there's no way we'd get the extra day off from work. The good news is that we're on a nonstop flight from Orlando, so we don't need to worry about connections.

 

[levenhopper]

Our room was assigned last week! We got room 7505, which looks to be a Cat 10A (as good of a room as we could hope for)!

 

[su_A_ve]

I guess you are in already - I would have say wait for *GT rates to come out...

 

[levenhopper]

It looks like Disney just likes to mess with my planning!

We were originally booked for Palo on pirate night, but DCL changed the itinerary and moved the pirates back a night. Unfortunately, there are no openings for three people for Palo for the new pirate night (though there are lots of openings for two people).

I'm now very torn...
Option one: call DCL and see if they can make a reservation for three people on pirate night.
Option two: leave it how it is and return to the ship in the mid-afternoon to relax and get ready for Palo and then see the second showing of the evening entertainment.
Option three: move back the time for Palo while leaving it on the same night so we can see the first showing of the evening entertainment before heading to Palo.

Our last-call on-board time for the night of Palo is 5:45PM, but our excursion is over at 1:15 so we can head back early to get ready for Palo if we want/need. My gut instinct is to go with option two, but I'd love to hear what you think!

 

[cris0809]

I would leave it how it is for now. Then on the day I board I would go to the dining changes area (it will be listed on your Navigator, it can be in one of various places - last two times on the Wonder it was in Studio Sea) and try to move the reservation to your desired night. They hold back a good chunk of reservations for those that miss out/change their minds/book at the last minute and we have had success in getting exactly what we wanted by going on this day.

This way you will have yourself a guaranteed reservation, even if it's not your preferred night, plus you'll have a chance to get it right.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

All of your plans sound good to me. Trust me when I say you will figure it all out once on board. You can just take a look at the Navigator when it arrives and decide what you would like to do. It's easy and casual! Hard to expain but once you get there you will see what I mean. Have fun!

 

[levenhopper]

I would leave it how it is for now. Then on the day I board I would go to the dining changes area (it will be listed on your Navigator, it can be in one of various places - last two times on the Wonder it was in Studio Sea) and try to move the reservation to your desired night. They hold back a good chunk of reservations for those that miss out/change their minds/book at the last minute and we have had success in getting exactly what we wanted by going on this day.

This way you will have yourself a guaranteed reservation, even if it's not your preferred night, plus you'll have a chance to get it right.

Thanks! The question now becomes, do I even bother trying to change it, or leave everything how it is and go into the pirate dinner with an open mind? I think I'm most inclined to just leave it and not bother trying to change anything...especially because celebrating Cat's birthday in Palo could be a really special experience.

All of your plans sound good to me. Trust me when I say you will figure it all out once on board. You can just take a look at the Navigator when it arrives and decide what you would like to do. It's easy and casual! Hard to expain but once you get there you will see what I mean. Have fun!

Thanks! It's just my nervous excitement coming out! And I'm sure half the plans I make will change when we get on board and look at the daily Navigators, lol.

 

[cris0809]

Thanks! The question now becomes, do I even bother trying to change it, or leave everything how it is and go into the pirate dinner with an open mind? I think I'm most inclined to just leave it and not bother trying to change anything...especially because celebrating Cat's birthday in Palo could be a really special experience.

This is totally your call. Our personal preference is not to miss the MDR at all and we choose to do Palo for brunch. We really enjoy the continuity of service and the time with our table mates each night. If we HAVE to miss one, the pirate menu would be it all the way.

 

[JohnsPrincess]

I think I said this in our group, but Pirate Night is Fun!! I don't remember what food we had...but then I only remember ONE thing we ate the entire cruise, so...lol. But just the experience...there's no way I'd miss it!!! I booked us in for a (surprise) Brunch at Palo so that we won't miss any of the Main Dining stuff.

 

[scrapbookmomma74]

Definitely change to late dining, we have found that we like it so much more...no being rushed back from an excursion to go straight to dinner.

Also, we've done the Western 3 times. Here is my 2 cents:

LOVE LOVE LOVE Grand Cayman Stingray Sandbar...if there is ANY way you can get out there, do it! It is amazing...

We have had nothing but issues in Cozumel with our excursions that we've booked through DCL, and on our most recent western, we decided to NOT do a Cozumel excursion. Instead, we shopped a bit, went back to the ship for lunch and I went to the spa for 2 hours in the afternoon.

Snorkeling on Castaway Cay is fun, but if you do it, go first thing in the morning. The later it gets, the more people have been swimming and kicking up sand, and it gets cloudy. There is some neat stuff out in the water there.

Pirate night menu is actually one of my favorites, but I know I'm in the minority there, and I'll never win the argument. We prefer Palo for brunch, that way we don't miss any of the MDR dinners.

Have a fantastic time!

 

[Makayna]

Pirate night menu is actually one of my favorites, but I know I'm in the minority there, and I'll never win the argument.

It's nice to see somebody else say that! Other than Palo, Pirate night was my favorite menu! I really don't understand why everyone hates it!!!

 

[taaren]

Hi Jordan! So glad to see you're trying out DCL!

Looks like a fantastic plan ...

I'd keep the Palo evening you have now, but when you get on board try to change it to the next night. We've successfully changed our Palo plans on fully booked cruises by asking in the dining reservation place as soon as we board.

I'm not a fan of Pirate night (dinner, the show is awesome!), but I'm less of a fan of missing a Palo dinner!