LSLS
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2015
Hi! We are booked for our FIRST EVER cruise and we are so excited! We are a WDW family and go every year but decided to take a break and try a cruise! YAY!!! It will be myself, DH, twin DDs (7), MIL, and FIL!! We've booked a Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom! Oh, it's also a surprise for our girls and I've signed up for the phone call from Mickey and Minnie for the big reveal!
Any tips or advice is much appreciated! I love planning our WDW trips but it seems like planning on a cruise is much less involved! So excited!!
We just booked. 2nd time on the Dream (we went in April), so ask away.
As for tips, get registered for the kids club in advance, it makes it go much quicker (our daughter did not want to leave the kids club, made it easier on us). Castaway Cay is absolutely amazing, it is a large part of the reason we are going back on a cruise so soon. Nassau day we actually spent the day around the boat for us, it was so much quieter and I really have no desire to go around Nassau unless we go to Atlantis (which we might do this time). If there are two things that look good on the menu, ask for both, it is normal and they will not bat an eye at it. Also, don't freak out if you don't get something reserved in advance. The princess meetings were gone before we even got a chance, but they save tickets if you go to guest services once you get on the ship. They also have cool other things (whiskey tasting, my goodness was that worth every penny). And if you have a beer drinker with you, do the mug deal. The mug you get is really nice and it's something like 8 beers to start saving (which over 4 days is not too tough to accomplish).
As for planning, you are correct, you don't need to do a whole lot. It's amazing how much more relaxing the cruise was from a WDW trip (not that I don't like WDW, but for pretty close to the same price, man). The one thing you will really notice is that if you are one of those people that lament how the Disney service has dropped over the years, the cruise will take you back to the days of old. Great experience, you will love this. By the way, same room type we had, it was outstanding, much bigger than we expected (we went verandah this time).