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

[disneydeb]

in the hot sun at the beaches put t=shirts on the little ones over their swimsuits and over the grown ups too, with number 50 sunscreen unless your fond of sunburn. lol

 

[Mickey02]

Bump

Love this thread

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Man, Barb. I have seen you every where on the board today. You are always looking for great tips!! I am looking for Graci and her parents who are cruising this May. Not the first cruise for them but first on Disney.

I love these helpful hints. Keep them coming.

 

[Mickey02]

Hi Sandy!

I do love these "Tip" boards! I have been gathering information for a while and have a "Word" document I have been keeping. I review it often!

I am expanding my horizon's on the Disney Boards. I love the "Inside" information out there. And Really appreciate that there are other people out there that LOVE Disney as much as me.

Do you think I will ever find the Tag Fairy? Over 1000 post and NEVER BEEN TAGGED.

 

[need_a_Disney_fix]

1) over the door shoe thingy
2) getting a porter at the "luggage warehouse" upon leaving
3) bringing your own alcohol which is easy
4) getting to the port early to get boarding card #2!!!!

 

[RollTide1017]

Just recently booked my first Disney cruise and I loved this thread, great tips in here. We booked an inside stateroom and were assigned room #7127 which is on deck 7 aft. It appears we got lucky according to some because of this "secret" verandah I keep reading about but, what exactly is it?

 

[disneedee]

that question is going to get lost on this thread:
should start a new thread for lots of responses. but here is mine.
it is an open deck on the back of the ship on deck 7 that not very many people on board will know about. a quiet, almost private deck. has lounge chairs.

 

[ibouncetoo]

RollTide, I've stayed in cabin 7125 on the Wonder, and it's a great location. If you continue down the hall to the back of the ship there is a wooden door with a porthole window...go through that and you are on the aft verandah. There's often no one there, but they sometimes have events there also. It was decorated for a wedding or vow renewal one day on my cruise....the next morning they hadn't replaced the lounge chairs yet. The door is usually locked about 11PM (that varies).


Also at the back of the ship is another staircase that goes up to deck 9 (not the aft staircase on the map) and also goes down to deck 5. Well, it actually goes to deck 4 and you will do that on your lifeboat drill....it enters Animators Palate through a cast member only door.
Enjoy your cruise!

 

[stephmarty]

To buy a collapsible shoe holder that hangs on the back of the door to hold things like hairspray, sunscreen, shampoo, etc. Ours probably has nearly 30 clear pockets, so we can see what's in each and all that stuff doesn't clutter the limited counter space in the bathroom. We hang it on the bathroom door and have taken it on every cruise. We even let friends borrow it for their cruise.

 

[MrsMork]

that question is going to get lost on this thread:
should start a new thread for lots of responses. but here is mine.
it is an open deck on the back of the ship on deck 7 that not very many people on board will know about. a quiet, almost private deck. has lounge chairs.

Unless they have taken it over for the teen club. Sailing away from CC and some evenings they have meets for the teens there. Not very private and quiet then.

 

[matsterrocks]

Bring bubbles for the kids for sailaway party. (so i've heard)

 

[Hanover]

We brought bubbles and they were a huge hit during the Sail Away. We brought extra too and gave them to some other nearby children. The kids had a great time...however, they spilled a LOT of them (just from using the wands to pull out and blow the bubbles), on the deck and I was so afraid that someone was going to come by and slip, I spent half the time wiping them up with napkins. On our next cruise, I will either skip the bubbles or bring the kind that attach straight to a battery powered blower.

 

[minniebeth]

Hope this works, I've just joined to post and am such a technopeasant!
We've recently sailed on the 1/22 Wonder and my best tip is to READ THESE BOARDS!!! What a wealth of information...
As far as the bubbles go, I packed them for my three kids and they were having a blast at the sail away party, they were not the least bit interested in the bubbles... one less thing to pack would have been nice. The same goes for light sticks for Pirates IN the Carribean and candy for movies and shows. Great tips but were nice to haves that wouldn't have been missed.
Disney provides such great fun and entertainment!

 

[need_a_Disney_fix]

As far as doing laundry while cruising I put a load's worth of powdered laundry soap in a ziplock along with 4 quarters. I placed dryer sheets along with quarters in another. That worked very slick.

 

[Amlee]

I have to agree the bubbles weren't used at all!! To much going on for the kids to even think about them.

I had preordered the kids autograph books and made pens for them to wear around their necks. Those came in handy and they were ready for the autographs the first night. Fanny packs for the kids were great also. We put their books, pens and key cards in their packs and strapped them around the kids. That gave us adults freedom to take pictures not have to keep up with the kiddies things. Another thing that we had that came in handy were our 2 way radios. They worked EVERYWHERE! All over the ship. Some of us stayed on the ship in Nassau, some went to Bay Street and some went to Atlantis. With our radios we were able to say in touch with each other. They also worked all over CC and from CC to the ship.


Now the 3 things I learned from these boards were

1. The Pillow cases!!! My nieces and nephews had a fit over their pillow cases. I was surprised at the people that didn't know they could do this. We had a lot of comments about our pillow cases.

2. The door signs! I did all the kids personalized signs and surprised them the first day. We taught the kids what deck we were on and told them if they got seperated from us to go to the cabins and wait. My nephew (6) decided he wanted to wonder off by himself one night. While the rest of the family went into panic mode. My brother and I took off for our cabins. Sure enough when we rounded the corner to our cabins. My nephew was stading in front of his door. He told us. "I found my MICKEY!"

3. The shoe holder!! I LOVED this! I didn't spend my time going through my bags looking for things. It was all hung up just as neat as it could be. When I went into my room I would put my key card and 2 way in a pouch and kept track of them.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Amlee, what brand/make of 2-way did you have?. We are considering this for our cruise next fall and it would be good to get one we know works!


Thanks!

 

[clovely]

Amlee, what brand/make of 2-way did you have?. We are considering this for our cruise next fall and it would be good to get one we know works!


Thanks!

I'd love to know too. Thanks!

 

[Amlee]

We used the Motorola talkabouts with the 5 mile range. We had a lot of comments on them. I don't think they do the 5 mile ones anymore. But they do the 8 mile ones now.

http://direct.motorola.com/ENS/phon...NS&productid=29129&web_page_name=TWOWAYRADIOS

The ones we had are simliar to the blue ones on the first line 3rd across. I saw some people using the yellow in the 4th row down and the ones in the last row.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Thanks!

 

[uwate]

Booked my first DCL cruise today, but I am a veteran of cruising with 11 cruises in 9 years. Here's my addition to this great list:

1) I like to bring tape so I can tape some napkins over the speaker in cabin. They always seem to announce bingo or art auctions way too much for my liking (esp in the morning!) so I like to muffle that speaker. Dont worry about missing anything like an emergency alarm, those are WAY loud and you can't miss them even if you had earplugs in.

2) Pack soda, water or booze in your luggage. You will save $$ off of what they charge you for them onboard. I like to bubble wrap anything glass in case the luggage apes decide to reenact Samsonite commercials with my luggage.

3) Previously been mentioned but let me bring it up again. Consider taking a shore excursion with a taxi and just wing it a bit. Take St Thomas for example. You can pay $20-40 a person to get the shore excursion to the Magens beach, or you can rent a taxi for about 20 each way and go with 4 others and save 50%+ on the cost. This example is the same no matter what island you go to. When the cruise boat lets off there are always local tour operators and taxis sitting by the dock waiting. They know the spots as good as any cruise line and will take you on the exact same excursion for less in nearly all cases.