What is the BEST cruise tip you ever learned from the Dis?

[Tenorsinging]

Can someone tell me more about the Pirate Party. Is it only on 7 night cruises?

We are sailing in 10/06, for 4 nights.

Pirate Night for the 4 nights are done on Day 3: Castaway Cay Day.


Threadhogger,


Lynne

 

[Tenorsinging]

Just curious....how many who had a deck 7 aft rooms encountered smokers when they went outside to enjoy the verandah??

It sounds like a great location but it is out of the way. If someone has kids it makes more sense to book a room near the kids clubs.......because you will be going there a lot. At least I did. That's why I am booked near the kids club this cruise. If I did move my room all the way to the back of deck 7 and found smokers on the verandah I would not be happy.

Legs: I am allergic to cigarette's and when I was pregnant it was worse!!! So, what I did was go on Carnival's Paradise. As far as I know, this is the ONLY totally non-smoking ship there is out there, and I must admit that for this occasion, it was wonderful. No smoky bars, no smoky casino...if smoking really is something that would keep you from enjoying your vacation you should give it a try.

Still board hogging waiting to play tooth fairy,

Lynne

 

[Flagger]

Leave your attitude at home. Enjoy the vacation.

Arrive 5-10 minutes after your scheduled seating time. There are no points for being the first 50 into the dining room. Avoid the lines and the cattle waiting to be seated.

Pack half the clothes and twice the cash.

Get the 2.5 Gallon Ziploc bags made by HEFTY, IIRC. You can fold them up and get all the air out of them. Cheaper than space bags. I would pack one of my outfits, socks, undershirt, shirt, underwear and then squeeze all the air out. Made for easy packing and also storing in the drawers and closets. For my daughter, we did an outfit and diaper in Gallon bags. Made it easy to grab one or two and throw in the backpack.

Bring Purell or other hand sanitizer. Frequent hand washing is the best defense against getting sick on a cruise or period. Also bring lysol wipes and wipe down the telephone as well as TV remote.

I like Binoculars because I like to see what other ships are at sea when we pass in the day or night.

If you buy a new camera before your cruise, TEST it out BEFORE you go. Learn how to work it by shooting pictures around your house. Nothing worse than coming home with shots out of focus because you accidently pushed the Manual Focus button. Or had it in Manual mode and the pics are two dark, etc.

If you are travelling with kids and they are old enough for the kid's programs, learn to love the Do NOT Disturb sign on your cabin door. On those lines, do be cautious when out on your balcony au naturel especially when in ports, there usually are other ships around and those with balconies can get QUITE a show.

 

[legs22]

Legs: I am allergic to cigarette's and when I was pregnant it was worse!!! So, what I did was go on Carnival's Paradise. As far as I know, this is the ONLY totally non-smoking ship there is out there, and I must admit that for this occasion, it was wonderful. No smoky bars, no smoky casino...if smoking really is something that would keep you from enjoying your vacation you should give it a try.

Lynne

Thanks for the suggestion. The first time on the Magic, the only time that smoke bothered me was going past the open air lounge (forget the name) on the way to the dining rooms. I didn't have a problem with smoke on the rest of the ship. I didn't have a room near the secret 7 deck so I never went there to check it out.
What I was saying is that if I got a room deck 7 aft just to be near enough to access this wonderful secret outside area that people rave about and there were smokers out there the majority of the time I would not be happy.
For the most part you see someone mention the tip of getting a deck 7 aft room to access this secret area. But not sure if non-smokers would think about the fact that there may frequently be smokers out there since you can't smoke in your room.
I did see one poster on another thread mention that there were frequently smokers out there.

 

[El Capitan]

You gotta bump the cruise tips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[clovely]

This will be our first cruise and these tips are great! Where would I be if I hadn't found this message board?? I've read them all to this point and taken lots of notes. I'm subscribing in case any more are added.

 

[Raeryan]

Being from the West Coast the best tip I ever got was booking the late dinner rotation. It worked great for the kids and we didn't have to rush from our excursions to dinner.

Thanks for all of the other great tips!

 

[GoofyFD]

One for us was bring your own wine and order the cheese and cracker tray. Sit on your veranda and watch the ocean go by....

 

[TigerCheer2009]

subscribin' and a friendly little bump!

 

[dabsjad]

Adding myself to this thread !!

 

[lcjones70]

If you are in an inside cabin or one without a window/verandah etc....order room service breakfast or a wake up call. It stays DARK in your cabin long after the sun is up. If you don't do this, you will sleep waaay to late! DH and I are NOT morning people and on our last 7Day Eastern there were a couple days we woke up after 11:00 a.m. not realizing it was day luckily they were sea days and we didn't miss any shore excursions.

Also, pack half the t-shirts you think you will need. We bought t-shirts at several places and promptly wore them when we got back to the ship. It made the other t-shirts we packed just extra stuff to carry home.

As anal retentive as it sounds I also made a spread sheet that outlined what we were wearing when. This was especially helpful for DH who is clothes challenged. All he had to do was look at the sheet to know what to wear when. It also helped us keep up with which shore excursion or special dinner we were having that day.

It's nice not to know I'm not the only anal retentive person around! I do the same thing with a spreadsheet. I also give each person in my party a spreadsheet with all the important information on it (reservation #s, telephone & cell phone #s, flight #s, etc...) and another spreadsheet with each day's schedule and what we decided to do so that we stay on schedule. Before I leave, I upload everything into my PDA, but I also make sure I have a hardcopies.

 

[lcjones70]

Here are my tips after returning from the 9-17/24 magic with my boys (5/2) and my wife's parents.

- i'd highly recommend booking excursions on your own, most are very easy to get to on your own and are much cheaper than if you book them through DCL.


I agree! When I went to Nassau via NCL in 2002 we took the local bus to the Adastra Gardens & Zoo. The bus trip was .50 each way and the tickets to Adastra was around $9.00. The excursion price was 3Xs this amount.

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

When I travel I also use the traveling space bags. I took them on my last trip to Ireland and I actually packed 3 times as much as I could

Hmmm...what are the travelling space bags?!!!!!

Keep these tips coming!

 

[Marypoppinsiam]

You know those bags you squeeze the air out of? I think the orginals you use a vacuum to get the air out, but these you can travel with. I bought mine at Bed,Bath, & Beyond. I just loved them and plan to use them again on our trip.

 

[yargrnhoj]

You know those bags you squeeze the air out of? I think the orginals you use a vacuum to get the air out, but these you can travel with. I bought mine at Bed,Bath, & Beyond. I just loved them and plan to use them again on our trip.

One comment on the Travel SpaceBags. My wife and I used them on our second Disney Cruise and they were perfect. We sorted our clothes by day and put them in separate bags so it was easy to grab the "Cozumel" bag and dress the little ones.

HOWEVER, be careful because while these bags let you put more stuff into a single suitcase, the airlines have gotten real strict on overweight bags. We had to pull several SpaceBags out of our luggage and put them in our spare duffel because we exceeded AA's 50lb. limit.

I used to use the "if I can lift it then it is not too heavy rule", but now we weigh our bags on the bathroom scale before we leave home.

 

[MommaluvsDis]

I'd like to add a couple of hints that I've enjoyed. I buy the small bottles of dishwashing liquid. Then, once they're empty and washed out, each one holds enough laundry detergent to wash 3 loads of clothes. As I pour the liquid in, I mark each load with a line from the sharpie pen. They're small and stay closed nicely. I do, however, pack them in ziplocs just in case of a spill.

Then, on my last cruise, my cousin came up with the idea of asking the room steward to remove our coffee table and he did. We didn't use it and it gave us a lot of needed floor space!

Take a rolling bag that folds up or use your rolling suitcase or cooler to haul your laundry to the washer. It can be a haul sometimes.

 

[kritter]

just subscribing great tips.....

 

[dsjmeadors]

adding myself, thanks for all the great tips. I now have a word doc of them!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

As soon as our bags came, we called guest services, had all of our clothes picked up and pressed, (except for what we needed for 24 hours, or a few shorts that weren't wrinkled). We got everything back early the next evening, and didn't need to go out and wait in line for the iron for the rest of the trip! Well worth the $59.00 it cost Some people will say they don't bring things that wrinkle, but I used "space bags" too, so I would have room for snorkle gear and souvenirs.

 

[disneylover5]

Bumping up