Your most important tip for a first time cruise

[C6PT7]

1:30pm is the general time given.
Depending on turnaround problems, maybe later but it isn't usually a problem

 

[prune1977]

My husband tells me I am researching this vacation to death! Lol

There is so much to learn about cruising for the first time as well as ports adventures.
So if there was one must know thing about the Disney dream cruise, what would you tell someone?

Such as someone mentioned, have your swim suits in your carry on when boarding..
And some one else said cookies and milk via room service at bedtime was something their kids looked forward to every night..

We travel the Disney Dream with our three kids in December ages 17, 13 and 11
So far we would like to parasail at castaway cay and do the blue lagoon dolphin swim at Nassau.

Obviously having fun and family time is our #1 rule!

I wish wed known about shutters packages and how its so much easier and cheaper to let them take lots of pics of you and just buy all the photos on a disc. We didn't have them take as many of us as we should've and we still bought the cd because it was cheaper than buying the few pics we really wanted

 

[Cruise-n-2015]

I wish wed known about shutters packages and how its so much easier and cheaper to let them take lots of pics of you and just buy all the photos on a disc. We didn't have them take as many of us as we should've and we still bought the cd because it was cheaper than buying the few pics we really wanted

I was just looking into shutters this morning
So expensive but I. Think it will be worth it!

 

[dsnydaddy]

Join you cruise meets thread and try to get to know people before you cruise with them. I've made some great friendships that have far outlasted the cruise and now feel a bit sad when I'm on a cruise without at least a few of the people that I met on my very first cruise. (we're soon to be on a cruise with people that we've sailed with since 2007)

 

[Gemini S.]

Sun protection tips! (because I have two colors... fishbelly white and bubbling lobster red)
SUN HATS. Get them. Big brimmed straw types are cute and cruise-y looking more than the ones with the flaps down the neck.
Make sure your sun screen is water resistant, reapply it regularly.
If you are going snorkelling, remember that the sun still goes through the water. PROTECT YOUR BACK. You will not remember to reapply because the fish will be awesome. Water resistant isn't completely waterproof. Get a rash guard type swim top or a t-shirt that is fairly tight fitting and densely woven and wear that while you are snorkelling.
Do not forget the backs of your calves. Remember that sunlight can bounce back up off of both sand AND pavement to hit them.
The temporary discomfort of a long-sleeve shirt if you can't easily get to shade is much, much less than the longer term discomfort of a serious burn.
For cave dwellers that are follicularly challenged.... you can put sunscreen on the top of your head. It ain't pretty, but it's prettier than a peeling scalp.

I could not stop laughing at your post reply!!!! As I have two colors as well...fish belly white or bubbling lobster red. Good tips. The only other tip I would add would be to carry a small umbrella to shield you from the sun. If you are out side for a while, you don't want to end up like that earthworm who got stuck on the hot sidewalk....we all know how that story ends!

 

[DISGRL13]

I was just looking into shutters this morning
So expensive but I. Think it will be worth it!

If you buy the package that has the CD or ALL the prints online before you get on the ship you save $50. We just got off the Dream on a 4 day Bahamas cruise and literally had hundreds of pictures to take home because I bought the ALL print package for around $180 before we left. We think it is a great deal.

 

[perditax]

I could not stop laughing at your post reply!!!! As I have two colors as well...fish belly white or bubbling lobster red. Good tips. The only other tip I would add would be to carry a small umbrella to shield you from the sun. If you are out side for a while, you don't want to end up like that earthworm who got stuck on the hot sidewalk....we all know how that story ends!

In the height of summer, with a pretty long walk to my car at work, I usually carry a little umbrella. I'm pale, I use retin-a, and I'm prone to rosacea. Fortunately, I'm also old enough not to care what people think of me when I'm walking through an office complex in August with a zebra-print umbrella.

 

[jrabbit]

Last summer in San Juan PR we carried our umbrellas - because it was "Downpour" season. So we used them a little because of the rain and used them a lot when we were out walking in the sun. A little shade actually helped a lot.

 

[Cruise-n-2015]

If you buy the package that has the CD or ALL the prints online before you get on the ship you save $50. We just got off the Dream on a 4 day Bahamas cruise and literally had hundreds of pictures to take home because I bought the ALL print package for around $180 before we left. We think it is a great deal.

I saw it online as 350. I do prefer 180!

 

[DISGRL13]

I saw it online as 350. I do prefer 180!

I think the price is based on the length of the cruise. The $180 was for the 4 day. And I got to it through my reservation page and the shopping/merchandise button.

 

[dizmom6]

I want to figure out a way to share my Amazon "travel" wish list because I've found quite a few nifty travel-related items, most of which are pretty reasonably priced, and maybe post it on my PTR ... but without it showing my name or making the mods think I'm trying to get people to buy me stuff.

LOL...if you figure that out, let me know. Me thinks ya has a good head on yer shoulders there.

 

[FLpixie]

Just back from our cruise on the Magic and have a few bits to add.

Great tip! We're going on our first cruise in Sept. and I was going to be researching that question. Are the soda machines by the pool open 24/7?

Generally yes but they were not on the Magic during our cruise as there was a lot of "flu-like illness" and CMs were doing all of the serving after the first day or two. That meant the self-service machine was closed at 11pm. At the end of the cruise it did open back up to allow people to get their own once the "flu-like illness" was under control.

Not sure about the Magic and Wonder, but on the Dream and Fantasy the in-room TVs will broadcast recordings of the evening shows on a specific channel. They are offered at least concurrent with the shows in the theatre, plus often extra viewings. great if you just want to lounge in your room (in your PJs? BTDT) and watch.

I don't believe they do this on the Magic as I was specifically looking for the Villains show as we missed it due to a nap.

In my experience, the only thing it entailed was our server telling us that when we do our surveys, please understand that Disney only considers 'excellent' service to be acceptable in their servers, 'good' is considered to be failure, and so if they are providing less than excellent service to please let them know in advance so that they can fix it, etc. Yes, basically, it's a spiel to get better surveys, but I have definitely experienced the "We're going to ask customers to grade you and tell them that it's an A B C D E F grade, but really it's just A=Pass and everything else, even good =Fail." thing in customer service, and it can really really be terrible for you as a customer service person, so I understand why they do it.

The only time I recall hearing something similar to this was when our server told us about the fact that the comment cards were referring to MDR servers - not Palo, not quick service, not Cabanas - when we were going to receive the comment cards. They did say their goal was excellent service and it greatly helped to have the comment cards filled out. Both our server and head server did ask two different times during the cruise if things were going well - and generally, yes they were. However, they weren't "excellent." For example, I was disappointed that our drinks weren't set up for us each night when we came in as so many people on the Disboards have said their servers did. Every single night of the seven night cruise we were asked what we wanted to drink - and every night we asked for iced tea. I specifically asked to not have lemon in mine - which was honored the first time but she forgot from them on. To be fair, they did seem to be a newer server team. They were pleasant but not excellent. There was never a feeling of them really thinking about what your needs would be and trying to take care of you. They were reactive - not proactive.

 

[goherdibg]

best advice I got on my first one: talk half the cloths you think you need and double the budget

Spot on. Just back from our first cruise and we came back with more clean clothes than dirty clothes and spent almost exactly double what I had expected while on board.

We took 5 suitcases (2 large, 2 med, and 1 small) and could have easily gotten away with 3 (2 large and 1 med). The problem with the suitcases is I thought each of us (wife and 2 daughters) would need 3 changes of clothes a day (deck/swim wear, afternoon clothes, and dinner clothes). For me (male), I took a black suit with nice shirts (for formal and semi-formal night) and 3 pair of slacks for the other dinners. I also had 5 dress shirts to wear with the slacks. For the first night's dinner I wore slacks and a button-down long sleeve Vineyard Vines dress shirt and noticed MOST people wearing shorts and a collared short sleeve shirt. Quite a few people were even wearing t-shirts or pullovers. Hmmmmpppph! To be honest, I was worried if I didn't dress up I would feel out of place. Reality is, I felt out of place because I DID dress up a little. Needless to say, I wore shorts and a collared short sleeve shirt to dinner the rest of the cruise casual nights and felt more in place.

 

[goherdibg]

• The adult shows "late night" are also very entertaining (usually) .... and remember they only go as far as "Disney Dirty" so no F-bombs
• REMEMBER - You Might be sharing a table with "strangers" ... well they are strangers only until you introduce yourselves and start visiting.

The "adult" shows kinda let me down. I should have expected it to be "Disney Dirty" as you put it, but found them to be underwhelming. On the Fantasy there was a juggler named Marcus Monroe (cue music) and he was our first "Adult" show and even though he was good, it was a little boring. At the beginning of his act he said the obligatory (his word) "Damn" since it was an adult show. I enjoyed his family show much more.

As for tables, I am not sure how many people got seated with others unless there were just 2 of them. Maybe because it was spring break and was packed? I noticed a load of 4 toppers in all 3 dining rooms (2 adults 2 kids). We had our own table in all 3 room (4 of us). From looking at the table arrangements in the dining rooms it looked like lots of small square and rectangle tables not being shared. Maybe that was why? Our other cruises had been on Carnival a while back and most of the tables were 3 toppers and were round. Not easy to split those up?

 

[E ticket rider]

How many pools on ship and what's the best one to go to for kids 11-17?

There are 3 pools on the ship. All of them are way too small, especially because of the way they are configured.

1 is in the adult area (18+), it's broken up into 3 small areas, a "sitting pool" (think big hot tub, just at normal pool temps), a plunge pool, and a wet deck with misters by the bar.

2 are on the main pool deck, the Donald pool is the only plunge pool for families. It is way too small and will eventually turn into "people soup" with kids trying to cannonball into any tiny patch of open water. There is generally very little swimming that can go on in this pool as it is usually too crowded. The Mickey pool is 18 inches deep and tends to be over run with the 3-foot and under crowd.

The Donald pool will be where your kids will most likely end up cooling off.

 

[E ticket rider]

What time are you able to get into your staterooms on day1?

Usually around 1:30.

 

[cashe]

There are 3 pools on the ship. All of them are way too small, especially because of the way they are configured.

1 is in the adult area (18+), it's broken up into 3 small areas, a "sitting pool" (think big hot tub, just at normal pool temps), a plunge pool, and a wet deck with misters by the bar.

2 are on the main pool deck, the Donald pool is the only plunge pool for families. It is way too small and will eventually turn into "people soup" with kids trying to cannonball into any tiny patch of open water. There is generally very little swimming that can go on in this pool as it is usually too crowded. The Mickey pool is 18 inches deep and tends to be over run with the 3-foot and under crowd.

The Donald pool will be where your kids will most likely end up cooling off.

i'm kind of hoping someone in the royal backs out b/c if i could just upgrade, turn down the heat on the hot tub and let my kid splash around in there why i lay out on the verandah would be ideal. "Kid/People Soup" gives me the heebee jeebees. lol

 

[E ticket rider]

Don't over plan your trip. 3 or 4 days is not a long cruise and the Dream is a huge ship. My advice pick 1 or 2 "must-do" things for each day. I've seen too many groups roaming the ship in Amazing Race mode (the leader's got the Navigator, ship map and list of "must do's" with the brood trailing behind). On day 1 they all look happy and excited, but by the end of day 2 they all look miserable... Personally, I'd rather leave stuff to be explored for the next cruise and enjoy myself on my current cruise. I've been on the Dream 4 times and as of my last cruise, I was still finding new things out about her. We'll be back on her in June and I'm sure I'll find something new then. After our first Dream cruise, we knew about Palo and Remy, but I couldn't tell you where exactly they were located. I didn't make it that far in 3 days and wasn't all that worried about it. I've been to both Palo and Remy since (excellent food and service), but not trying it on our first 3-day didn't ruin my cruise.

 

[Momof2inCT]

I've only ever gotten the "big" (not really...I think you're blowing it WAY up in your head) thing the first night and then a tiny bit on the night before comment cards are distributed, but it's NOT A BIG DEAL. Then again, I'm pretty immune to peer pressure, so maybe I just don't get affected by it (I feel the same way about people who swear they're "pestered" or whatever by the street vendors. You walk by and ignore them. Period.)

But the bottom line is they ARE aiming to provide excellent service, and by telling you, that is a reminder that if something isn't excellent, you SHOULD tell them so they can attempt to make things right. The absolute worst thing you could do - not only to yourselves and your cruise experience, but also to the serving team - is NOT tell them about an issue and give them the chance to fix it, but then score them down on the comment card. They are NOT mind readers. But I'm 99% sure that in the case a serving team is marked down, while not ignored, the head server and eventually the servers themselves will be asked if the issue was ever discussed. If the answer is no, while they will go over what they can do differently, any negativity will be tempered by the fact that they had no opportunity to change it and make it right because they weren't aware there was a problem.

This upcoming cruise next week will be our 4th DCL cruise (can't wait!). We have experienced uncomfortable pressuring twice - and this was on our two most recent cruises. It was so bad that our server GRABBED my arm on our way out and kept imploring me to say they were excellent on the surveys, and by the way - did I know he had two babies at home that he was supporting. I am not a shrinking violet. I lived in NYC, I have traveled internationally and can ignore the vendors hawking goods in foreign countries like the best of them. This was bordering on flat-out assault. One of our cruises had our server telling us tragic tales of his baby - who he just found out existed - and how much he needed tips to survive. We were fairly certain the entire story was fabricated. We had two young children with us and had to inform his manager that we were uncomfortable with his service. I do not know what is happening with the DCL servers - our drink servers both trips were unbelievably fabulous - but I am worried about this upcoming cruise.

 

[perditax]

This upcoming cruise next week will be our 4th DCL cruise (can't wait!). We have experienced uncomfortable pressuring twice - and this was on our two most recent cruises. It was so bad that our server GRABBED my arm on our way out and kept imploring me to say they were excellent on the surveys, and by the way - did I know he had two babies at home that he was supporting. I am not a shrinking violet. I lived in NYC, I have traveled internationally and can ignore the vendors hawking goods in foreign countries like the best of them. This was bordering on flat-out assault. One of our cruises had our server telling us tragic tales of his baby - who he just found out existed - and how much he needed tips to survive. We were fairly certain the entire story was fabricated. We had two young children with us and had to inform his manager that we were uncomfortable with his service. I do not know what is happening with the DCL servers - our drink servers both trips were unbelievably fabulous - but I am worried about this upcoming cruise.

This is the part where I can't understand how DCL management doesn't get that harranguing people for excellent customer satisfaction scores is counterproductive to customer satisfaction. It is literally the only thing I am dreading about my first cruise.