jd99
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2001
- Messages
- 6,230
For those who have read my trip report, you know that my family and I sailed on the 8/12 Magic to Western Caribbean and it was our first cruise. You also know that I kind of hated it the first day or two (my family loved it from the beginning) but I had a complete turnaround and booked another cruise while onboard.
As a first-time cruiser there are so many things I wished I would have asked here. I read so much and asked so many questions and downloaded so many tips documents that I thought I had it all covered. I didnt.
So here are JD99s Random Tips and Observations learned on his first-ever cruise along with a few things that I wish DCL would change. Ill answer any questions you have. Anything to keep reliving what became a magical cruise and a new vacation experience for a family that loves its vacations. My wife and I traveled with our two daughters, aged 2 1/2 and nearly 8.
1. No matter how much you read here and how many questions you ask, your first day on the ship is overwhelming beyond explanation. It is such a rush of activities -- a whirlwind of places to be, things to do, people to meet, procedures to learn, decks to memorize, clubs to visit, how to read a navigator for maximum benefit that anyone who hasnt cruised before who isnt exhausted and overwhelmed by the end of day one has to be a superhero.
2. Dont try to do everything. I repeat, DONT TRY TO DO EVERYTHING. That was the biggest mistake we made on our cruise. When we got our first navigator, we truly thought we had to do it all. If you think there is even a remote chance you may cruise again, skip something. Miss a show and go to the pool or a movie or just take a walk.
3. If you have small kids (like I do) take advantage of the matinees of the nighttime shows when you can. This was a lifesaver for us as we had early dinner rotation (5:30 p.m.) and thus would have to see the shows at 8:30 p.m. When there was a matinee (2 p.m.) we went because generally one or both of the girls would fall asleep at the late show.
4. Personally I hated the Goofy Pool. It always was crowded and seemed to be dirty too. The way it is set down into the ship with no real entry point, its like a vat. I really preferred the Mickey pool for playing with the family and while my older daughter sometimes wanted to go to the Goofy pool because it was a bit deeper, we avoided it more often than not. I wish this pool looked more like the Quiet Cove pool but I assume it has something to do with the fact that they cover it up for deck parties that prevented that.
5. The Mickey pool, on our cruise, was never obnoxiously crowded. Maybe it was the mix of people less younger kids, but it always seemed okay to me.
6. Take some time to visit the Quiet Cove pool. We used one of our few flounders times when DD2 was in the nursery just to hang at the pool with an iced coffee. It was great.
7. I found the spa services to be very good. Had 2 massages during the week and they were both great. The product push was a bit much, but hey, thats their job.
8. I never want the 5:30 p.m. rotation again. Its just too early and our servers, at least, tried to rush us out nearly every meal.
9. The personal attention of the servers, (again in my experience and opinion) is overrated. Our server basically refused to even check to see if there was salmon available for DD7 one night, screwed up the orders more than once and generally didnt listen to us. I had heard these glowing reports about servers going the extra mile to get a kid just what they wanted. We asked once. He said no. It didnt ruin my experience, but just surprised me based on what I had read here.
10. The shows were great. Sappy yes, but VERY high quality and fun for all. Im glad we saw them all, but next time will skip one to do something more relaxing.
11. I was on the fence about wearing a tux to formal night. Im so glad I did, but I was truly appalled at how some people were dressed. Really, if you dont want to go to FORMAL night, then go to Topsiders. Sorry but Im not a big dress up guy anymore but some occasions call for it. This is one of them. I also found myself liking being better dressed for dinner than I would normally be on a tropical vacation and this surprised me. It was nice to be in khakis and a nice shirt instead of the normal shorts and a polo. Just made everything seem more special. And it gave my girls the chance to wear pretty dresses and they all like that.
12. The whole delivery of luggage is, in my opinion, a nightmare, if you have 5:30 p.m. dining. It makes the first day nutso and sets a bad tone. I think I will, instead of packing swimming stuff, pack our dinner clothes in our carryon, to avoid this issue.
13. Life jacket drill is no biggie. Sure its a little hot, a little uncomfortable. But we actually found it fun and the kids liked it until they got too hot on the way back to the stateroom. One of our funnest pics from the cruise is of the girls in their lifejackets.
14. Flounders was a nice surprise. We were afraid DD2, who has separation issues, would never want to go there. Yes, she yelled when we dropped her off, but we watched her through the one-way mirror and she was playing and having fun within 30 seconds (no kidding). The staff there was great, especially Janet and Emily.
15. Find your sweet spot. For us, it was most of the daytime hours and at night from dinner (5:30) through the end of something fun at Studio Sea (8 or 8:30 p.m.) After that DD2 would get tired and DD7 tired and a bit wild. We actually canceled our Palo dinner on Thursday night to spend that sweet spot of time with the family and had a blast. Took the kids to the clubs at 8:30 p.m. and had some adult time til about 10:30. Wish we would have done it other nights as it was great for us and the kids had fun too (even the 2 year old who played the whole time, when she would have long been asleep had she been with us).
16. Have I mentioned that you shouldnt try to do too much? Oh yeah well, its worth mentioning again. I like for others to learn from my mistakes.
17. Paradise Beach in Cozumel is GREAT. It was one of our best days extremely relaxing and fun. Good food, cheap beer and a spot in the shade to boot. It was even a bit crowded the day we were there, but we really really had fun and we had mixed feelings about what to do in Cozumel. Wed do it again in a minute.
18. We rented a day room at the Westin in Grand Cayman. I know that others say they sneak onto property and use the pool and the beach, but I prefer doing it the right way thats just me. Plus it gave us an Air conditioned place for DD2 to take a quick nap in the afternoon. Cost was less than the DCL beach break for our family and the beach and pool there are immaculate. I highly recommend it.
19. Castaway Cay is beautiful and I really enjoyed myself there, but I honestly had just as good a time in Cozumel at Paradise Beach and in GC. Maybe I had it built up in my head to be something more than what it was. Dont get me wrong, it is absolutely beautiful, but I was just a tiny bit disappointed. That may have something to do with my parasailing being canceled due to a brief storm, however.
20. I vote to skip the Key West stop and make it an additional day at sea. That is, if I get a vote. I wish we would have just stayed on the ship at Key West. Weve been there before so I knew what we were getting but we got off just to get off. Not a necessity in my book.
21. Skip the scheduled dinner one night and hit the pool, eat a burger, go to Topsiders. Watch a movie on the Dumbotron. We didnt. I wish we would have.
22. Who goes to movies on the ship? We kept talking about it but literally never had the time. Our last day at sea, we had activities scheduled from morning through late night. And it was a blast.
23. I know some people have the problem of their kids never wanting to leave the clubs. Dont be surprised if your child doesnt like it. I was surprised at my DD7 who neither liked it nor hated it. She is a very social kid, into LOTS of activities, was in full time daycare for most of her young life. Has an afterschool program, goes to summer camp . And I think she would have been fine to not go to the Oceaneers Club at all. Heres the reason. She was among the oldest in the 5-7 age group, didnt want to move up to the 8-9 because she didnt want to be the youngest. She was caught at an in-between age for the way the OC and OL are organized and thus didnt have a ton of fun. So she ended up in the Club only 3 or 4 times for about 90 minutes at a time each time.
24. Palo is everything you hear and more. We were skeptical and almost skipped it completely because we do a lot of traveling and eat in great restaurants all the time. How good could a ships restaurant be? Well, we didnt have dinner but we did have brunch there and it was truly truly special. The day of Palo brunch (and my first massage) was the beginning of the turnaround when my cruise went from hating it to loving it almost overnight.
25. For wireless internet service be careful to really log off when you are done. That means you need to get a receipt page after you hit log off. If you dont, make sure you do it manually per the instructions on screen or else you will probably be charged for lots of minutes you dont use and thus use up your time quickly. Trust me, I learned this from experience and had to buy a second time block.
26. Take time to explore the ship. I wish we would have done more of this and will do so next time.
27. Characters are not everywhere, but they are in the atrium lobby almost constantly, so check the schedules for your favorites and go for it. Lines move fast as it is much more efficient than in the parks. My DD2 fell in absolute love with Cinderella on this cruise and we met her, Snow White and Belle together in about 2 minute timeframe. It was way cool.
28. If you dont feel like getting up for your character breakfast dont. Its very rushed and there are enough other opportunities to meet characters. Ours was on our first morning and we got up early to get there and I think we could have easily missed it with no harm/no foul with the kids.
29. The disembarkation process was so easy I didnt even realize we were done. Get a porter to help you with your bags, tip him well, and you dont even have to think. It was a nice way to end things given how sad we were that things needed to end.
30. If you are a family of 4 like us with severe issues in packing lightly, you can have your room steward remove the little coffee table in the room to give you space.
31. That being said, there is PLENTY of room to store everything you will need. We had 9 bags (including our two large carry-ons) and were able to put everything into drawers or the closet, as well as store all the bags under the bed. We also had a stroller that fit nicely in the closet.
32. Here is a change I would make. I know that a lot of people love the split baths. I feel like Im in an airplane bathroom in either one. Id rather have one larger bathroom. Even as a family of four with 3 girls, 2 of which love their getting ready time we never really shared the bathoom with one of us in one side and the other in the other. Id so much rather have one larger bathroom. It is truly the only part of the cabin I had a problem with.
33. Verandah is not a necessity. We did a relatively late switch from a Cat 9 to a Cat 5 and kind of wish we hadnt. We spent VERY little time on verandah because I am just a little bit claustrophobic and I thought it would help. The only time I remember having some fun there was pulling out of CC waving to the Cms on the dock. Otherwise it was just not necessary and the 4-day we booked for next spring, we booked Cat 9. I didnt believe the people who said this exact thing to me before we booked. So to those who told me, feel free to say told you so. Even as a family with a toddler, we were in our room so little, that it didnt matter. We even considered booking an inside stateroom for next cruise, but decided we like the natural light.
34. Over the door shoe hanger was a GREAT thing for us but we didnt really need the power strip as the outlets near the desk were sufficient.
35. Our stateroom while in good shape, was a little rougher around the edges than I had expected cracked tiles in shower, the verandah was in need of some serious cleaning and painting. But the water pressure was MUCH better than I had imagined it to be.
36. The Evian package is a great thing to get on day one. We used nearly every bottle, and though it was expensive (about 40 bucks) it beat the water on the ship and we didnt have to lug a case of water onboard (worth half the cost right there).
37. The Iron Horse Fairy Tale champagne is such a great treat. I had a glass every night while doing my trip report.
38. Get all the onboard credit you can via travel agent, Disney Visa, etc. as it makes it easier to splurge on things like that glass of champagne or the extra massage.
39. Be careful with the Bonine. I know its supposed to be relatively benign, but I guess like anything, it affects different people different ways. I think I took two within about 18 hours and it made me sleepy and miserable. Once I stopped taking it I was better.
40. Be careful because this is an addicting experience. We are scouring our calendars to see when we can next go on a cruise. Even trying to figure out if we can do the med cruise. I never imagined before sailing (and certainly not during my first and second days) that Id want to do this again, let alone for 10-11 days.
As a first-time cruiser there are so many things I wished I would have asked here. I read so much and asked so many questions and downloaded so many tips documents that I thought I had it all covered. I didnt.
So here are JD99s Random Tips and Observations learned on his first-ever cruise along with a few things that I wish DCL would change. Ill answer any questions you have. Anything to keep reliving what became a magical cruise and a new vacation experience for a family that loves its vacations. My wife and I traveled with our two daughters, aged 2 1/2 and nearly 8.
1. No matter how much you read here and how many questions you ask, your first day on the ship is overwhelming beyond explanation. It is such a rush of activities -- a whirlwind of places to be, things to do, people to meet, procedures to learn, decks to memorize, clubs to visit, how to read a navigator for maximum benefit that anyone who hasnt cruised before who isnt exhausted and overwhelmed by the end of day one has to be a superhero.
2. Dont try to do everything. I repeat, DONT TRY TO DO EVERYTHING. That was the biggest mistake we made on our cruise. When we got our first navigator, we truly thought we had to do it all. If you think there is even a remote chance you may cruise again, skip something. Miss a show and go to the pool or a movie or just take a walk.
3. If you have small kids (like I do) take advantage of the matinees of the nighttime shows when you can. This was a lifesaver for us as we had early dinner rotation (5:30 p.m.) and thus would have to see the shows at 8:30 p.m. When there was a matinee (2 p.m.) we went because generally one or both of the girls would fall asleep at the late show.
4. Personally I hated the Goofy Pool. It always was crowded and seemed to be dirty too. The way it is set down into the ship with no real entry point, its like a vat. I really preferred the Mickey pool for playing with the family and while my older daughter sometimes wanted to go to the Goofy pool because it was a bit deeper, we avoided it more often than not. I wish this pool looked more like the Quiet Cove pool but I assume it has something to do with the fact that they cover it up for deck parties that prevented that.
5. The Mickey pool, on our cruise, was never obnoxiously crowded. Maybe it was the mix of people less younger kids, but it always seemed okay to me.
6. Take some time to visit the Quiet Cove pool. We used one of our few flounders times when DD2 was in the nursery just to hang at the pool with an iced coffee. It was great.
7. I found the spa services to be very good. Had 2 massages during the week and they were both great. The product push was a bit much, but hey, thats their job.
8. I never want the 5:30 p.m. rotation again. Its just too early and our servers, at least, tried to rush us out nearly every meal.
9. The personal attention of the servers, (again in my experience and opinion) is overrated. Our server basically refused to even check to see if there was salmon available for DD7 one night, screwed up the orders more than once and generally didnt listen to us. I had heard these glowing reports about servers going the extra mile to get a kid just what they wanted. We asked once. He said no. It didnt ruin my experience, but just surprised me based on what I had read here.
10. The shows were great. Sappy yes, but VERY high quality and fun for all. Im glad we saw them all, but next time will skip one to do something more relaxing.
11. I was on the fence about wearing a tux to formal night. Im so glad I did, but I was truly appalled at how some people were dressed. Really, if you dont want to go to FORMAL night, then go to Topsiders. Sorry but Im not a big dress up guy anymore but some occasions call for it. This is one of them. I also found myself liking being better dressed for dinner than I would normally be on a tropical vacation and this surprised me. It was nice to be in khakis and a nice shirt instead of the normal shorts and a polo. Just made everything seem more special. And it gave my girls the chance to wear pretty dresses and they all like that.
12. The whole delivery of luggage is, in my opinion, a nightmare, if you have 5:30 p.m. dining. It makes the first day nutso and sets a bad tone. I think I will, instead of packing swimming stuff, pack our dinner clothes in our carryon, to avoid this issue.
13. Life jacket drill is no biggie. Sure its a little hot, a little uncomfortable. But we actually found it fun and the kids liked it until they got too hot on the way back to the stateroom. One of our funnest pics from the cruise is of the girls in their lifejackets.
14. Flounders was a nice surprise. We were afraid DD2, who has separation issues, would never want to go there. Yes, she yelled when we dropped her off, but we watched her through the one-way mirror and she was playing and having fun within 30 seconds (no kidding). The staff there was great, especially Janet and Emily.
15. Find your sweet spot. For us, it was most of the daytime hours and at night from dinner (5:30) through the end of something fun at Studio Sea (8 or 8:30 p.m.) After that DD2 would get tired and DD7 tired and a bit wild. We actually canceled our Palo dinner on Thursday night to spend that sweet spot of time with the family and had a blast. Took the kids to the clubs at 8:30 p.m. and had some adult time til about 10:30. Wish we would have done it other nights as it was great for us and the kids had fun too (even the 2 year old who played the whole time, when she would have long been asleep had she been with us).
16. Have I mentioned that you shouldnt try to do too much? Oh yeah well, its worth mentioning again. I like for others to learn from my mistakes.
17. Paradise Beach in Cozumel is GREAT. It was one of our best days extremely relaxing and fun. Good food, cheap beer and a spot in the shade to boot. It was even a bit crowded the day we were there, but we really really had fun and we had mixed feelings about what to do in Cozumel. Wed do it again in a minute.
18. We rented a day room at the Westin in Grand Cayman. I know that others say they sneak onto property and use the pool and the beach, but I prefer doing it the right way thats just me. Plus it gave us an Air conditioned place for DD2 to take a quick nap in the afternoon. Cost was less than the DCL beach break for our family and the beach and pool there are immaculate. I highly recommend it.
19. Castaway Cay is beautiful and I really enjoyed myself there, but I honestly had just as good a time in Cozumel at Paradise Beach and in GC. Maybe I had it built up in my head to be something more than what it was. Dont get me wrong, it is absolutely beautiful, but I was just a tiny bit disappointed. That may have something to do with my parasailing being canceled due to a brief storm, however.
20. I vote to skip the Key West stop and make it an additional day at sea. That is, if I get a vote. I wish we would have just stayed on the ship at Key West. Weve been there before so I knew what we were getting but we got off just to get off. Not a necessity in my book.
21. Skip the scheduled dinner one night and hit the pool, eat a burger, go to Topsiders. Watch a movie on the Dumbotron. We didnt. I wish we would have.
22. Who goes to movies on the ship? We kept talking about it but literally never had the time. Our last day at sea, we had activities scheduled from morning through late night. And it was a blast.
23. I know some people have the problem of their kids never wanting to leave the clubs. Dont be surprised if your child doesnt like it. I was surprised at my DD7 who neither liked it nor hated it. She is a very social kid, into LOTS of activities, was in full time daycare for most of her young life. Has an afterschool program, goes to summer camp . And I think she would have been fine to not go to the Oceaneers Club at all. Heres the reason. She was among the oldest in the 5-7 age group, didnt want to move up to the 8-9 because she didnt want to be the youngest. She was caught at an in-between age for the way the OC and OL are organized and thus didnt have a ton of fun. So she ended up in the Club only 3 or 4 times for about 90 minutes at a time each time.
24. Palo is everything you hear and more. We were skeptical and almost skipped it completely because we do a lot of traveling and eat in great restaurants all the time. How good could a ships restaurant be? Well, we didnt have dinner but we did have brunch there and it was truly truly special. The day of Palo brunch (and my first massage) was the beginning of the turnaround when my cruise went from hating it to loving it almost overnight.
25. For wireless internet service be careful to really log off when you are done. That means you need to get a receipt page after you hit log off. If you dont, make sure you do it manually per the instructions on screen or else you will probably be charged for lots of minutes you dont use and thus use up your time quickly. Trust me, I learned this from experience and had to buy a second time block.
26. Take time to explore the ship. I wish we would have done more of this and will do so next time.
27. Characters are not everywhere, but they are in the atrium lobby almost constantly, so check the schedules for your favorites and go for it. Lines move fast as it is much more efficient than in the parks. My DD2 fell in absolute love with Cinderella on this cruise and we met her, Snow White and Belle together in about 2 minute timeframe. It was way cool.
28. If you dont feel like getting up for your character breakfast dont. Its very rushed and there are enough other opportunities to meet characters. Ours was on our first morning and we got up early to get there and I think we could have easily missed it with no harm/no foul with the kids.
29. The disembarkation process was so easy I didnt even realize we were done. Get a porter to help you with your bags, tip him well, and you dont even have to think. It was a nice way to end things given how sad we were that things needed to end.
30. If you are a family of 4 like us with severe issues in packing lightly, you can have your room steward remove the little coffee table in the room to give you space.
31. That being said, there is PLENTY of room to store everything you will need. We had 9 bags (including our two large carry-ons) and were able to put everything into drawers or the closet, as well as store all the bags under the bed. We also had a stroller that fit nicely in the closet.
32. Here is a change I would make. I know that a lot of people love the split baths. I feel like Im in an airplane bathroom in either one. Id rather have one larger bathroom. Even as a family of four with 3 girls, 2 of which love their getting ready time we never really shared the bathoom with one of us in one side and the other in the other. Id so much rather have one larger bathroom. It is truly the only part of the cabin I had a problem with.
33. Verandah is not a necessity. We did a relatively late switch from a Cat 9 to a Cat 5 and kind of wish we hadnt. We spent VERY little time on verandah because I am just a little bit claustrophobic and I thought it would help. The only time I remember having some fun there was pulling out of CC waving to the Cms on the dock. Otherwise it was just not necessary and the 4-day we booked for next spring, we booked Cat 9. I didnt believe the people who said this exact thing to me before we booked. So to those who told me, feel free to say told you so. Even as a family with a toddler, we were in our room so little, that it didnt matter. We even considered booking an inside stateroom for next cruise, but decided we like the natural light.
34. Over the door shoe hanger was a GREAT thing for us but we didnt really need the power strip as the outlets near the desk were sufficient.
35. Our stateroom while in good shape, was a little rougher around the edges than I had expected cracked tiles in shower, the verandah was in need of some serious cleaning and painting. But the water pressure was MUCH better than I had imagined it to be.
36. The Evian package is a great thing to get on day one. We used nearly every bottle, and though it was expensive (about 40 bucks) it beat the water on the ship and we didnt have to lug a case of water onboard (worth half the cost right there).
37. The Iron Horse Fairy Tale champagne is such a great treat. I had a glass every night while doing my trip report.
38. Get all the onboard credit you can via travel agent, Disney Visa, etc. as it makes it easier to splurge on things like that glass of champagne or the extra massage.
39. Be careful with the Bonine. I know its supposed to be relatively benign, but I guess like anything, it affects different people different ways. I think I took two within about 18 hours and it made me sleepy and miserable. Once I stopped taking it I was better.
40. Be careful because this is an addicting experience. We are scouring our calendars to see when we can next go on a cruise. Even trying to figure out if we can do the med cruise. I never imagined before sailing (and certainly not during my first and second days) that Id want to do this again, let alone for 10-11 days.
