What was your worst DCL rookie mistake?

[cmph]

Now that I'm back from my first DCL trip, I feel like I can honestly say this board has prevented most rookie mistakes I might have made! I only have 2 contributions. 1) Once I joined an activity, I felt like I had to follow it through. Silly waste of time! I worried it would be rude to walk out, but I seriously doubt anyone cares or notices, in retrospect. 2) Plan almost nothing before like 1pm. Boy can my family sleep in, and with the time difference - my 11yo looked half-asleep during our noon Frozen meet n greet photos! They thought I was trying to kill them with the single 9:30am excursion I booked in 7 days. Most of my kids' "breakfasts" were on the pool deck at lunch time... at least I was smart enough to book late dining! Most days, meal #1 at lunch time, meal #2 around 4:00, and then dinner. We only made Cabanas breakfast a couple of times, and that by the skin of our teeth.

 

[wombat_5606]

Now that I'm back from my first DCL trip, I feel like I can honestly say this board has prevented most rookie mistakes I might have made! I only have 2 contributions. 1) Once I joined an activity, I felt like I had to follow it through. Silly waste of time! I worried it would be rude to walk out, but I seriously doubt anyone cares or notices, in retrospect. 2) Plan almost nothing before like 1pm. Boy can my family sleep in, and with the time difference - my 11yo looked half-asleep during our noon Frozen meet n greet photos! They thought I was trying to kill them with the single 9:30am excursion I booked in 7 days. Most of my kids' "breakfasts" were on the pool deck at lunch time... at least I was smart enough to book late dining! Most days, meal #1 at lunch time, meal #2 around 4:00, and then dinner. We only made Cabanas breakfast a couple of times, and that by the skin of our teeth.

Sounds like a perfect vacation!

 

[cmph]

Sounds like a perfect vacation!

Yes, we had to laugh b/c the switch from "oh my god why are they waking us up so early???" to "are they ever going to wake up???" apparently happened overnight. But it was pretty sweet to finally sleep in on vacation!

 

[Mrpd]

My fiancée forgot to disable automatic app updates before connecting to wi-fi. By the end of the cruise she spent almost $50 just with updates.

 

[Sepo]

A tipping tip after our first DCL cruise: As you likely know, they will auto-charge $12 per person per day for tips and will alert you to this and the breakdown on the itemized printed forms left in your rooms on the second-to-last evening. If after receiving that form, you want to increase (or alter otherwise) this amount (rather than pad it with cash add-on), the line at Guest Services can be unusually long as many guests have the same idea.

If you have a good feeling about your host and servers early on and know you want to increase the amounts, you can do this at Guest Services at a quieter period, prior to the printing of forms, 24 hours ahead of the second-to-last night, and save yourself the hassle. At least one less long line.

 

[Sepo]

My fiancée forgot to disable automatic app updates before connecting to wi-fi. By the end of the cruise she spent almost $50 just with updates.

If only they had a cruise-mode icon that automatically optimizes all such settings.

 

[peachypie]

Not grabbing enough towels for Castaway Cay when I got off the ship. I only grabbed two for myself and wish I had grabbed 4. I am unsure if they have towels somewhere on the beach but I looked and did not see any.

 

[bbel]

Not grabbing enough towels for Castaway Cay when I got off the ship. I only grabbed two for myself and wish I had grabbed 4. I am unsure if they have towels somewhere on the beach but I looked and did not see any.

If you're desperate for extra towels they nearly always have some at the snorkel rental if you ask...I know that one because I used to 'borrow' a couple to pad out the uncomfortable stool.

But it's best to take extras just in case, they have the towel drop offs around the island so you don't have to worry about getting them back to the ship.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Do you take ship's towels if you go on an (independent) excursion to a beach or snorkeling or Dolphin Encounter, etc? Or do you have to bring your own?

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Do you take ship's towels if you go on an (independent) excursion to a beach or snorkeling or Dolphin Encounter, etc? Or do you have to bring your own?

We were allowed to take the ships towels everywhere. They usually had a rack of them as we got off at any given port, and then a bin to dump them in before you got back on the ship. They weren't the biggest, and they were all white, but I never felt like I needed my own towel.

 

[Sepo]

CM last week said that they lose 600 towels a day on the port days. Folks don't bring them back. That seems that a crazy high number to me. And yes as stated, they had towels at the gangway on all port days for the EC last week.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Are they like a regular hotel 'bath' towel, which is like 24" x 30" and you can barely get them around your shoulders, but they're great for wrapping your hair in, as long as you're not related to Rapunzel?

 

[rachel09985]

We've cruised on DCL four times - worst mistakes for our group: (a) packing WAY too much, (b) drinking too much alcohol on rough sea day, (c) booking port excursions with start times too early in the morning, (d) scheduling the first seating for dinner and (e) expecting a small child to sit through the entire evening meal - dine 'n play is the only way to go!

why is the first seating bad? That is what I have booked but it is my first cruise.

 

[Kontos]

why is the first seating bad? That is what I have booked but it is my first cruise.

I think it's mostly preference but I believe during the second seating they get the kids fed sooner and have CMs come and take kids to the club

 

[cmph]

why is the first seating bad? That is what I have booked but it is my first cruise.

Like PP said, the kids' club CMs only come to retrieve kids during the second seating. If you have little ones who can't sit through the whole meal and have first seating, you'll have to leave to take them to the kids' club yourself, shorten your meal, etc.

But really - there is no single "bad" time for everyone, it just depends on your traveling party. I have an 8yo and 11yo, no little ones, and live on the west coast, and we were far happier with second seating last week; first seating for us would have been bad just as for the poster you quoted. I cannot imagine that would have been the case if they were a few years younger and we were coming from the east coast... pretty sure the "bad" in that scenario would have been second seating!

 

[o&smom]

why is the first seating bad? That is what I have booked but it is my first cruise.

We always do first seating. My family is used to eating dinner at 5:00 and there is no way we could make it to second seating! Also, I am still full at midnight from my first seating meal - cannot imagine how I would feel if I ate at second seating.

 

[RedSox68]

why is the first seating bad? That is what I have booked but it is my first cruise.

I don't think it's bad --I think it's what you might prefer. We prefer late seating and have done it on all our cruises, including any time dining on other cruise lines we still eat around 7:30, 8:00. We prefer the extra time before show and dinner to relax -- especially on port days. Late dinner also gives us the chance to sample lunch or have a late breakfast. I have found that there are less children at late seating -- still children, but not as many little ones as I think it's too late for them. But honestly, if I booked a cruise and early seating was my only option, I'd work with it. It wouldn't cause me to cancel my cruise or worry about it.

 

[NCConch]

I was excited about the cruise and drove past the curbside luggage drop off. I parked in the deck then realized I had to lug the bags over to the curb. Once I did that the porter sent us back into the parking deck to the 3rd floor.

 

[RedSox68]

I was excited about the cruise and drove past the curbside luggage drop off. I parked in the deck then realized I had to lug the bags over to the curb. Once I did that the porter sent us back into the parking deck to the 3rd floor.

I can relate -- the first time we arrived to take the cruise (our first cruise ever) I left my pocketbook on the bus I was so excited. Luckily it was found before the bus pulled away

 

[dtrain]

Having a bunch of loose papers, Navigators, plastic cups and generally anything weighing under 12oz on the desk with our Verandah door open when my wife came back to the room.

Holy Moses, the sheer vacuum power created across the room was insane! Everything flew at my wife and into the hallway. I thought it was hilarious, my wife not so much. Even the bathroom door flew open and scared her to death.

It was extra windy on our WC SWDAS cruise so YMMV on this phenomenon, but rookies consider yourselves warned