October 27th, 2018 7-Night Western Caribbean *Part 2*

So Platinum cruisers, how did you do with your online check in? I know all the cabanas are now gone!
Though not a platinum cruiser(we’re concierge class) we lucked out and got to reserve earlier and we got cabana 23.
 
Has anyone with experience using the child care facilities care to share any tips or reviews? We’ve booked time slots for the kiddos through the cruise. This will be our first time using child care while on a Disney Cruise.
 
Has anyone with experience using the child care facilities care to share any tips or reviews? We’ve booked time slots for the kiddos through the cruise. This will be our first time using child care while on a Disney Cruise.

Are you talking about the nursery for ages 3 and under? Or the club/lab for 3-12 year olds?
 


Yes to both. We’re planning to use nursery and club/lab but have zero experience with either.

I don't really know much about the nursery because we didn't start cruising until our youngest was 4 (nearly 5) so neither she nor her sister ever needed the nursery. They love the club/lab though which is basically one BIG kids club, joined by a 'secret tunnel/passageway'. You don't need to sign them up for any time at the club/lab, as long as they have their band (which you will get once you check in at Port Canaveral) they can go in whenever you/they want during the cruise. If one side is in 'open house mode' (which means parents and siblings of different ages can come in) then secured programming is happening in the other side and no adult can enter when the club/lab is in secure mode except obviously when you go to pick up your child. Only one parent/adult can go in to pick a child up so if both my husband and myself go to get our kids (our oldest usually has self check out though) only he or I can actually enter the club/lab to get the kids while the other must wait outside.

Hope I haven't made it sound too complicated lol It's really quite simple to utilize the kids programming. On Castaway Cay day, the club/lab on the ship closes and it 'moves' to the island and is called Skuttles Cove. While this is going to be our 5th cruise it's only our second time going to Castaway and we never used Skuttles Cove the first time. We are planning on using it this time as we have a 2pm mojito tasting booked at one of the bars on Castaway :thumbsup2
 
I don't really know much about the nursery because we didn't start cruising until our youngest was 4 (nearly 5) so neither she nor her sister ever needed the nursery. They love the club/lab though which is basically one BIG kids club, joined by a 'secret tunnel/passageway'. You don't need to sign them up for any time at the club/lab, as long as they have their band (which you will get once you check in at Port Canaveral) they can go in whenever you/they want during the cruise. If one side is in 'open house mode' (which means parents and siblings of different ages can come in) then secured programming is happening in the other side and no adult can enter when the club/lab is in secure mode except obviously when you go to pick up your child. Only one parent/adult can go in to pick a child up so if both my husband and myself go to get our kids (our oldest usually has self check out though) only he or I can actually enter the club/lab to get the kids while the other must wait outside.

Hope I haven't made it sound too complicated lol It's really quite simple to utilize the kids programming. On Castaway Cay day, the club/lab on the ship closes and it 'moves' to the island and is called Skuttles Cove. While this is going to be our 5th cruise it's only our second time going to Castaway and we never used Skuttles Cove the first time. We are planning on using it this time as we have a 2pm mojito tasting booked at one of the bars on Castaway :thumbsup2
Thanks for this info! I didn’t know much of this and am also super jealous about your mojito tasting on castaway cay ;-)
 
I would love to participate! Last time it was a FB page. Please confirm if the right people have recieved this!
We are 4 people - 2 parents, girl (10 on Halloween 2018!) and boy ( 6 years old)
if you like to participate if you could pm your info and stateroom# :)
 


First time cruiser check in, COMPLETE!

Oddly, the excursion reservations were available before the actual check in. But it's all good! Got what we wanted (sans Palo brunch, as expected), but we got the early PAT and everything.

This is HAPPENING, y'all! :D

Mark
 
Yep we are all done too :)

Got the 11:00 PAT which looked like the earliest.

I noticed excursions opened first too, though I couldn’t find where to pay for the one I booked? Does it get added to our on board Account?
 
Yes, that seems to be the case. It’s all chvarged to our account before we settle up.

I booked the excursion we were after first, and then did the check in. Unfortunately the system flunked out shortly after we were done and we can’t currently book any meetups. I gotta go to sleep now so this may be a lost cause.. but there seems to be so much going on at any given time, it’s a minor thing overall.

Mark
 
Well I’ve been having a fine old time with the website!!

It’s completely glitchy at the moment and keeps showing 0 activities for all days

When it does occasionally work I don’t think it’s showing all activities and when I go to select some (character breakfast) the available time slots suddenly are unavailable when I click on them.

Also - is there a master list issued of which night are which (pirate themed / Halloween / formal etc??

At the moment o can only see pirates league on Halloween itself whereas I though pirate night was before so why isn’t it showing then??

Managed to get a process gathering but not the frozen one - can’t see that at all!!

Overall not very impressed with the site or the information provided to be honest....
 
Apparently this isn't the first time the system has gone down. I was trying to access it just now to print out the completed check in documentation, and the site says "Online Check-In is temporarily unavailable; please try again later". I've had the same experience trying to book the onboard activities.

While as a first time cruiser I'm not THAT worried about missing out on some of the reservable stuff (we got our excursion, that was the priority), I'm disappointed that this system isn't able to apparently handle the expected traffic.

Mark
 
Glad you were able to get what you wanted, Mark!

Yes I heard the site was VERY glitchy last night, not the greatest impression if you are a first timer with DCL :sad2: I've been very lucky and have never had any problems during any of our check ins, but of course now that I've said that the next time I go to do a check in the site will be down :crazy2:

If you were not able to get what you wanted as a first timer (say Palo brunch or princess meet and greet tickets) definitely try to get them once you board the ship.
 
The system seems to have recovered now. Even managed to snag a character brekkie - but the Frozen and Princess gatherings are all still sold out. I guess we'll check on board and otherwise scour the ship for times they'll be out and about..?

Mark
 
The system seems to have recovered now. Even managed to snag a character brekkie - but the Frozen and Princess gatherings are all still sold out. I guess we'll check on board and otherwise scour the ship for times they'll be out and about..?

Mark

That's great you were able to get on this morning and book more!
In the daily navigator you will find a list of which characters will be out on the ship that day and where they will be (and what time) so lots of photo opportunities for lots of characters. Do try and get in line a good 10 minutes before each one if you are able to as they will shut the line down if it gets long. For example if Goofy is on deck 4 between 3 and 3:30 you don't want to try to get there at 3:25 because the line might already be closed.
 
Hello Briana,
We would like to participate at FE.
We will be on The Fantasy 27 TH october.
We are a belgian family of 5 poeple.
if you could either post or msg me you cabin#,names of people traveling, if your are traveling with kids if you could include ages, any favorite characters, and if you are celebrating anything while on board:)
 
i will be closing the fe group Sept. 15 to give those that are participating time to work on their gifts if you would like to participate and i do not yet have your info either post or message me:)
 
if you could either post or msg me you cabin#,names of people traveling, if your are traveling with kids if you could include ages, any favorite characters, and if you are celebrating anything while on board:)

Hello Briana

We will be 5 on The Cruise

From Belgium

Eric 48
Valérie 47 on 28th october
Lucas 20
Jessica 19
Célian 11 favorite charachter Pluto

Stateroom 7590

We will be vert Happy to take part of The Fisher extender
 

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