What was your worst DCL rookie mistake?

[mevelandry]

Would you mind telling me what the nondrowsy ginger kind is called? Maybe I can Google the ingredients. Ginger helped me immensely when I had morning sickness with our twins!

In Canada, it's called "Gravol Ginger".

 

[Lunarias]

OH, and btw, the kiddo in question, who seems to have outgrown getting sick on parks' rides but still gets motion sick in the car? Totally fine on the cruise. Stopped wearing the sea bands about 36 hours into the trip b/c he found them irritating, and only ate a ginger tablet the first night b/c I made him. Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose!

That is honestly the best way to wear sea bands. My husband gets car sick, and super motion sick on simulator or 3D rides. I had him wear bands for the first day or so and he did great after that, we did hit a rough patch once, but he put them back on that day for a few hours, and all better they are a lifesaver.

 

[ChicosWife]

How do you get sandwiches for port days? And is there anything else you can get besides PB&J?

We actually didn't get the sandwiches. I read on this thread that it was an option and wished we would have done this. I read that they are the uncrustable PB&J.

 

[gruffudd242]

A bunch of these probably have been mentioned, but hey what the heck my top 3 are 1) Overpacking 2) Not doing OBB 3) Not flying down the day before.

The flying down the day before has had the most impact on us, Not because it gives a safety net (it does) but it breaks up the travel. I don't feel as rushed as I did when flying down the same day .

 

[lilredbow]

My DH wouldn't know. I'm the planner. We agree on a vacation time and place, but then he steps back and lets me plan the trip. He wants nothing to do with the logistics. He also trusts my level of frugality. And if he wasn't paying close attention to my vacation planning rambling, he could miss it.

Thats how my husband and I opperate as well. He works non -stop and I am a stay at home mom. I will probably pack his luggage for him too lol

 

[Beth06015]

Thats how my husband and I opperate as well. He works non -stop and I am a stay at home mom. I will probably pack his luggage for him too lol

This is how we operate too...however I work full time and will likely pack most of the kids and myself but draw the line at packing for him! I wish sometimes he enjoyed talking about it more but it is nice to decide things myself. I just have to guess what he wants!!

 

[Princess_Nikki]

I am SUPER glad I found this thread as I just booked our first DCL Halloween on the High Seas for me and my two boys. Good stuff here! Nuggets of gold even!

I think mine was not heeding the advice of others about Nassau. We should have stayed on the ship or booked an excursion. It was our first time and our only port besides CC, so I wanted to check things out. The only nice thing from Nassau were the pictures I took!

Agreed. I figure when my boys are older then I'll focus more on the sight-seeing. I've been to Nassau myself and wasn't blown away. I didn't enjoy it personally.

Scheduling a 4-night cruise for our first one, fearing I wouldn't like cruising or get seasick. Immediately into the cruise I was already regretting not being on the ship longer!

I fear this could be my rookie mistake BUT the 4-Day is more in the price range I was hoping to stay in at least for this year. Also, we live about 3 miles away from Magic Kingdom so my boys get plenty of Disney magic year round. Figured we would go for this sail itinerary for now.

One of the folks on our first cruise planned lots of adult activities and relaxation ASSUMING that her 5 yo would love the clubs and spend most of the cruise being entertained so she could do other stuff. The kid threw a fit and didn't like the clubs at all and her cruise was "ruined" (her description) because he was so demanding. Flexibility is an asset when vacationing with kids.

Yasssss! Great point. And the DVD makes the clubs look amazing too! Since it will just be me and my two boys this time, I plan for them to spend most of their time with me if they want. I'm purposely not booking any adult only activities for this first cruise just to see how they fare on a cruise and see what they find to be fun for them.

Definitely going to keep up with this thread. Lol.

 

[darnheather]

I ate too much. I wanted to try everything and felt rude if I didn't at least attempt to finish the plate. But by the last two days I could barely eat a thing. Next time I will pace myself. Probably eat more salads (my favorite) and only the desserts I really want.

 

[dragynally]

I ate too much. I wanted to try everything and felt rude if I didn't at least attempt to finish the plate. But by the last two days I could barely eat a thing. Next time I will pace myself. Probably eat more salads (my favorite) and only the desserts I really want.

I think that's something we are taught as kids. "Clean your plate". Doing that on DCL can kill.

 

[Dug720]

I ate too much. I wanted to try everything and felt rude if I didn't at least attempt to finish the plate. But by the last two days I could barely eat a thing. Next time I will pace myself. Probably eat more salads (my favorite) and only the desserts I really want.

Don't be shy about letting your servers know that you might not finish everything. Or if you don't want the bread (or something else), you can tell them! I told mine "no bread for me" which was easy since I'm gluten free so I would have had my own bread at the table - that way my parents could have theirs and I wasn't tempted to eat something I didn't need. I also didn't always order something from each section of the menu - and it was fine.

Of course, that was offset by the night I ended up with THREE desserts - I had planned on getting 2 and eating part of each, and then before I even ordered, my server appeared with something I'd pondered in my head but said nothing about saying "the chef prepared this for you without the churro, so it's gluten-free". Well, I couldn't NOT eat it after that. LOL.

 

[darnheather]

Also, getting my days confused. We had tickets to all the meet and greets and at least twice I confused the day. Everyone was so nice about it though and made everything fine.

 

[Dug720]

Also, getting my days confused. We had tickets to all the meet and greets and at least twice I confused the day. Everyone was so nice about it though and made everything fine.

I will say, I do miss the "Days of the Week" floor plates in the elevators that RCCL and HAL have when I'm on DCL. But that's the only aspect of them I miss.

 

[RedSox68]

A bunch of these probably have been mentioned, but hey what the heck my top 3 are 1) Overpacking 2) Not doing OBB 3) Not flying down the day before.

The flying down the day before has had the most impact on us, Not because it gives a safety net (it does) but it breaks up the travel. I don't feel as rushed as I did when flying down the same day .

Yes -- this. We've had two incidents where we missed reserved dinners at WDW because our plane was delayed or re-routed, so flying in same day (for us) is too chancy.

I fear this could be my rookie mistake BUT the 4-Day is more in the price range I was hoping to stay in at least for this year. Also, we live about 3 miles away from Magic Kingdom so my boys get plenty of Disney magic year round. Figured we would go for this sail itinerary for now.

Nah, no fears -- 4-days on a Disney cruise is better than no days And if you really like it, book the OBB and get the 10% for your next cruise. Since you live in Florida, you might be able to get Florida discounts too.

You'll have a great time. We did a 4-day on the Dream and really enjoyed it.

 

[Flossbolna]

My recommendation: Just take it. It's ginger, it's natural. Don't wait until you find out that you need it because if it starts, you'll be miserable and then it might take you many hours to get better.

My experience with ginger is that it has an immediate effect on how I feel. I think it might work more locally and not only once it is in your blood. I have ginger candies and when I start feeling queasy and just eat one of them, my stomach calms down immediately. With a traditional motion sickness pill that is not be the case.

 

[mevelandry]

My experience with ginger is that it has an immediate effect on how I feel. I think it might work more locally and not only once it is in your blood. I have ginger candies and when I start feeling queasy and just eat one of them, my stomach calms down immediately. With a traditional motion sickness pill that is not be the case.

I know that if I wait to feel nauseous before I take sea sickness medicine, it can take me up to 2 hours before I feel a relief. Those two hours are the worst.

 

[Flossbolna]

I know that if I wait to feel nauseous before I take sea sickness medicine, it can take me up to 2 hours before I feel a relief. Those two hours are the worst.

Have you ever tried getting some ginger candy or gummies for those two hours? It might be that the ginger gravol is more a pill, but with the stuff where you can taste the ginger, my experience is that it has an immediate effect. I never had ginger pills as they are not available here. And I agree that with normal pills it takes over an hour until I start feeling better.

 

[mevelandry]

Have you ever tried getting some ginger candy or gummies for those two hours? It might be that the ginger gravol is more a pill, but with the stuff where you can taste the ginger, my experience is that it has an immediate effect. I never had ginger pills as they are not available here. And I agree that with normal pills it takes over an hour until I start feeling better.

No because I have never heard of ginger candy/gummies before (I don't think we have it here)... But I have tried to drink ginger ale and it did not help.

 

[ChiTownZee]

My experience with ginger is that it has an immediate effect on how I feel. I think it might work more locally and not only once it is in your blood. I have ginger candies and when I start feeling queasy and just eat one of them, my stomach calms down immediately. With a traditional motion sickness pill that is not be the case.

Is there a candy brand that you prefer?

 

[Flossbolna]

Is there a candy brand that you prefer?

Sorry, I am in Germany and any that I had were local brands.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

No because I have never heard of ginger candy/gummies before (I don't think we have it here)... But I have tried to drink ginger ale and it did not help.

Are you sure it's real ginger ale? Not a ginger-flavored carbonated drink?