You will not fit in everything. And that's OK. Accept it and stop worrying.
What you should do instead is to follow Rick Steves' (the PBS travel guy) thought: "expect that you'll be back". We took a 3 nighter. Not even a year later we did a 4 night. Then another then another. (in the meantime we re-found Royal and are now focusing on royal but the same issue exists on any cruiseline)
The biggest thing I've found with cruises, and I don't mean this in a frantic, worrying way, is that time on a cruiseship might be scheduled in 15 minute increments. And, again, that's OK. If Cinderella is meeting at 10:30, and it's 9, don't just sit there! Unless sitting there is what you WANT to do. Don't sit and be bored. Sit and relish the sitting. Or take a half hour tour. Then go check out a DVC meeting (none of them are closed to ONLY members). Leave when you want. Go see something else. Take a walk around the jogging track deck (5? 4? can never recall). At 10:20 go to the Cinderella meet/greet spot. Meet her. After that, do something else.
Just don't be frantic about missing things. Plan it, do it. Be relaxed about the planning and the doing. It'll be OK.
We have an excursion booked for one hour at 11am. So really this will mean that there is no point going to the beach first and setting up camp when we will then have to go to our excursion. We finish at 12 and then plan to go to serenity bay and relax for the afternoon, but if we do that it really doesn't leave us with alot of time to go to pelican plunge or to have a walk around.
Oh you can get some good relaxing in the time before your excursion, though! but if you don't want to, don't! Sleep in. Get ready. Get breakfast. Disembark. Go to your excursion. etc.
5 times on CastawY (one of our 4-nighters was a double dip) and I haven't been to Pelican Plunge once. DS and DH have. Once. I still haven't rented a bike.
What's important to me on Castaway is doing the 5K (which I've done every time, plus the extra paid one after January marathon weekend) and relaxing. So that's what I've done. If Pelican Plunge were important, I'd take some time to do it! If it's important to you, on your way to Serenity, go check it out! Or leave Serenity early and go experience it. Don't worry, don't fret...just prioritize.
Ok so someone relax me and tell me that time wont go by as quick as I think it will and I can do everything I want!!!
I can't do that. It's not true.
Time is going to fly, so you have to make the best of it. Not the "most" but the best. Prioritize. Take the TIME to read the Navigators. That time is WELL spent, even on a 3-nighter. If you just let it slip by you'll get to the end of the cruise and wonder what happened. Read the Navigators and plan. If you have smartphones, download the Navigator app and USE that! It uses the free wifi (you can't accidentally use the paid wifi, I promise) and you can see ALL Navigators for your cruise with it! So if meeting Jack Sparrow is important, you can see that/if he's meeting at the D-Lounge today at noon, but he's ALSO meeting just off the ship on Castaway tomorrow at 10:30 and then at Pelican Point at 11:15. That way you can work out when it works *for you* to meet him.
Reading the Navigators takes time but helps you use your time. And that's sweet.
I am the biggest planner and wanted so much to just relax on this cruise but looks like I will have to make a plan to relax!!!
Yep! And, say it with me by now, that's OK!
On Royal, where they have really good sundecks (I can never find a lounger on Dream), I plan my lounging in the sun time. I plan it in 15 minute increments. 15 minutes on my back. Flip over for 15. And again and again. One hour and I'm done with the sun! If I were a less burnable person I'd hang out longer, but I am melanin deficient LOL, so that's my sun time. Then I move on to something else.
Also, Nassau is not unique to
DCL. Any cruise line can take you there, and for a good bit cheaper. If you are more jazzed about the ship than the port, maybe save Nassau for a future cruise where the port is more interesting to you than the ship.
YES.
though I think all main cruiselines have really interesting, fun, ships where you can find tons to do. So you still have to prioritize.
We've gotten off the ship in Nassau twice. First was on our first DCL experience, the 3 nighter. Our cousins were staying onboard and we thought "it's our first time here, we have to get off". I tried to do the self-led walking tour but we were unsuccessful (the streets weren't well-marked, at least by the time we got to Elizabeth Street, and the sidewalks disappeared and we didn't appreciate that) and went back to the ship. Our second time we took the chocolate factory tour (I highly recommend that, by the way! you are driven there, so you see a little bit of Nassau, get the lay of the land, you make some chocolate stuff, and you have the opportunity to buy some expert-made chocolates...it's ALL good). After having the factory tour, we regret taking the time on our first trip.
Plan things out, even leisure. With each activity (and walking along the deck holding hands with your sweetie can be considered an activity), enjoy the heck out of it. Be present with it, have fun, pay attention. And then when the mental timer dings, move on to the next thing and enjoy that, too. Don't regret anything you choose to do, even sleeping in.
This bandwagon is getting a little full, maybe we need a bus.
