Several first cruise (kids-included) questions

[BuzzLightYear3]

Hi......we had been planning booking our first cruise for June, 2005, but as we've begun the research, we're so excited, that we're not sure we want to wait that long. We're now thinking about trying for the 6/12/2004 7-day Eastern. Here are my questions:

1) According to the quotes on the DCL web-site, we'd still get an 'early booking discount.' Are we paying a premium for booking just about 8 months in advance? Also, if DCL does give me a quote, does that mean there is availability for the designated date/category?

2) We have 3 kids....ages in 6/2004 will be DS--11; DD--7; DS--4 (will turn 5 in August.) One of our reasons for waiting until 2005 was to wait until our youngest was a little older. I'd say his temperment is about average.....a little shy or reluctant at first but pretty outgoing when he's comfortable. Any guesses on how comfortable he'd be in the kids program? Although they'd be in different age groups, would he be able to spend a little time with his 7 year old sister until he feels comfortable?

3) I'm not sure any of the kids has ever sat happily through a 1.5 hour dinner. Eating dinner as a family is a high priority for us though. How does that really work out?

4) Any special requests I should make when booking? Since there are 5 of us, we're planning to use a Cat 4. Should we request any particular location (e.g. fore, aft, etc.?) I'm a little worried about sea sickness.....I'm one of those people prone to motion sickness and anything else that causes nausea in some people (e.g., morning sickness.) It's not an extreme situation...e.g., I don't get car sick and don't mind going out on little boats on a lake, but I'm uncertain of how I'd do on a ship.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Masonpips]

my thoughts:

You can get an Early Booking Discount up to about 4-5 months pre-cruise. If you get a quote from DCL for a certain category you'll be guaranteed that category (or better). In our experience, the best deal we got was pre-booking a year in advance while on ship (hard to do if you're not cruising now), transferring to DU for the rebate. We came out exactly the same as the FL Resident rates which are usually GREAT rates

Your 4 and 7 year old will end up together at times (we had a 3 & 5 year old last year) which will help. Take your kids the first night when the club officially opens (you can register in the afternoon and they can check it out) because everyone's new and a lot of friendships are made that night. Having a DIS meet usually helps too - we met DIS folks in line and my kids already knew kids going into the clubs!

Dinner: once your kids figure out they can eat with you and then go to the club (avoiding that lengthy 1.5 hour thing), they will be THRILLED. I think the club re-opens at 6:30 or 6:45 (transition time for those in the club eating dinner) so our kids ate with us (the servers will bring their food with your appetizers, their desserts with your entrees) and then dh took them to the club; came back and we enjoyed dessert ALONE! I'd just prep your kids for something like this upfront so you can eat together, yet it's not asking too much for them!

I was unsure on seasickness too, but I never felt a THING the whole trip. The ship is VERY relaxing; very gentle roll at times. I think most of the Cat's 4 are higher up; we stayed on deck 6 mid-ship and it was perfect!

HAVE FUN!

 

[DVC4US]

Here's my 2 cents worth

If Disney will give you a quote then that means there is availability in that cateagory.

We went on our first cruise when my DD was 4 and she had a blast. All she wanted to do was stay in the kids club. They are pretty good at working with those children that seem to be shy and get them involved. Although your DD & DS are in different age groups they are kept in the same club so I am sure she would be able to keep an eye on him the first night or so.

I have to second the dinning advice. If I were you I would choose main dinning and then just let your severs know that the kids will be eating and then going to the kids club. They generally start the evening activities around 6:45. Our DD came to dinner with us and was usually gone by the time we got our entrees or desserts. It was very relaxing to enjoy dessert and a cup of coffee by ourselves.


I think the only request you might want to consider is looking for a cabin that is not under the goofy pool. These can sometimes be a little noisy. Otherwise, I do not think it makes any difference with regards to being seasick. On our first cruise I was not seasick at all. On the second one, we used the wrist bands and dramamine for DD and she and I were a little seasick. On our cruise in March we all took Bonine and no one had any problems.
LeiLani

 

[sabaka]

What did those of you do about kids club and dinner if you have late seating?

 

[abitjaded]

Our kids were a bit older than yours, barely 6 and 9, but surprisingly they made it through every early dinner. There is often enough going on to keep them more than busy. They get a games and coloring sheet every night and Parrot Cay and Animator's pallet kept them more than entertained with the goings on. The head server and others kept them entertained with magic tricks, we were often the last people to leave the dining room. We arose early and did A LOT during the day, and our kids were pretty darned tired by dinner, which helped with the attention span. We did allow our older son to bring his Gameboy to play once he had eaten his entree. The younger was so tired by the end of dinner, and the interim club show, he made it to only a few major shows (Grandma and he collapsed in front of the Disney movies in the room.)

Our kids were not that crazy about the clubs. They did not go a lot at first and friendships were cemented early on. They went a couple times in the evening, our Palo night for instance, and a few times during the day, but that was about it. It was not a hardship to have them hang with us most of the time! Good family time. Just want you to be prepared if your kids DON'T want to be in the clubs. Our older son says he wants to go to the clubs a lot more on the next trip, but we will still insist on dinner together.

Your kids may want to go at first at the the times when the ages stay together within the club. You can note the times on the Navigators when the ages are not divided into other areas on the ship or age specific activities that differ.

I am very prone to motion sickness, as are a lot of the family. Our first day we were outrunning a storm and we all felt the motion and one member of our party felt a little ill. Next day all were fine. If you hit a bad storm and really lousy weather, as happens very occasionally, you might test out before, and come prepared with, some kind of remedy. But I doubt you'll need it.

Carla

 

[jwann]

...about dinner and the kids clubs.

We traveled with my sisters family and the children were ages 4, 5, 6, and 8. On our first cruise, we had the early seating (6:30) which was 5:30 our body's time. When you have young children, you often go to Animator's palate first (in your dining rotation) which we did. On that first night, we all ate at animator's palate and there was so much to see that the kids were not bored. Then they went to the kids clubs for the first night. They arrived about 7:30 or so and made friends the first night. For each of the next three nights we let the kids choose whether they wanted to eat with us or not. Here's why....
1. Young children often don't appreciate 'fine' dining, presentation, etc. I know they have a kids menu at each restaurant but...
2. When the children eat with the kids club, they have WAY MORE selection of what to eat. They are often taken to a buffet with sandwiches, pizza, chicken strips, fries, fruit, ice cream, etc.
3. Dinner with the other kids was often the only time the kids had to sit and talk with eachother, laugh, etc. without being in a structured (i.e., adult-led) activity.
4. We had LOTS of relaxing meal conversations with just us adults WITHOUT having to go to Palos.

I understand the benefits of the family eating dinner together and we insist on it at home but on vacation....

Also, I am VERY prone to sea sickness BUT the patch you wear behind your ear worked wonders and I had only a little dry mouth as a side effect.

Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tkd lisa]

We had late seating on both of our cruises. For us, it worked better because we weren't rushed to get ready. We saw the early show (It's when the first dinner seating is), then did the family cabarets followed by dinner. Our kids were 8 1/2 and 10, and 9 and 10 the two times we cruised, and had no problems staying awake. Usually after dinner they went back to the clubs to enjoy the festivities. A few times, they ate dinner with the club, but most of the time they ate with us.

I used the dramamine II (generic is bonine) for both cruises and was fine. I felt the motion, but it didn't bother me, and I am prone to seasickness.

 

[Buckaroo's Dad]

Hi BuzzLightYear3.

3) I'm not sure any of the kids has ever sat happily through a 1.5 hour dinner. Eating dinner as a family is a high priority for us though.

Sew a velcro patch on each child's pants bottom and secure another on each chair. That should keep 'em in place for one-and-a-half hours...

I'm one of those people prone to motion sickness and anything else that causes nausea in some people

Like the California recall election...

 

[floridaminnie]

For the seasickness, I always had an additional drink or two to make it go away.

DD first went into the club a week after she turned 3. She had never been in a day care type of setting and she was shy at first. (She pretends to be shy ) I literally ended up dragging her out of the club the 1st night. They do a wonderful job with the kids!

We also find the later dinner works for us. DD eat with the kids in the club early. (We've seen the shows before, so it's not a priority with us) I then pick her up for our dinner. She eats again (she eats like a horse) and then I take her back to the club. There are some nights that she's not hungry and doesn't want to leave the club, but I give her the choice. We've been on 3 DCL, so we are very flexible with what we do.

 

[hydster]

For your reservation I would try to get a quote from Dreams Unlimited as well...they came in MUCH cheaper for us both trips we have planned and we got great service both times from them. We took our kids on the land/sea package last November (and are booked for a surprise trip in May of 2004) and the kids were 9,8 and 3. We got a family room on the 8th deck and while it was really nice to have us all in the same room I dont know if we could have done it longer than the 4 days we were on the ship. It was congested with all of our stuff and I HATED (minority here) where the room was located because we could hear kids running above our heads and hear the sail away party music everytime they played it. Thankfully our kids were so tired they didnt notice it but hubby and I did and it got annoying after awhile.

Our kids were ok with the kids club but we werent on there long enough really for them to get happy with it. The 3 year old had a hard time a few times just letting go of us in the clubs but I think some of that was age and some of it was he was not feeling really well the last 2 days of the cruise although at the time I didnt realize it he was starting on a cold and I think he might have had a sore throat. We werent on the ship long enough to let them spend much time in the clubs but taking them when they got restless during dinner was really nice especially for the 3 year old. We let them bring a few little toys from the airplane bag to play with at dinner and they actually did really well. We had main seating and grandparents to help though. The one complaint our kids had about the clubs is that there is too much scheduled and not enough time to just play. When we have taken them on Carnival they had more free time to just play where on the Disney ship it seemed that it was more structured. Not all bad just hard for our kids sometimes as they like to just play pretend and make things up to do. The counselors however were wonderful and the paging system on the ship is great too! I always felt comfortable putting my kids in the clubs (the few times we did it) because I knew they would page me if my child needed me.

I agree with the other posters about letting the kids sit with you and eat their dinners and when they are done taking them to the clubs if you all want to eat dinner at the same time as a family. We do that as well and our kids were just happy to sit and chat with us and color. Our servers did fairly well keeping them entertained and our waiter would write his name backwards and upside down over and over and over and the kids thought that was so funny. There are many options so that you can eat as a family. You could eat pizza at the pizza place and then take the kids to the clubs and you could go enjoy just dessert or whatever at the restaurant. One afternoon we actually ate room service sandwiches on the balcony and then the kids and the grandparents went exploring. There are so many options just be flexible and you will find there are alot of dining opportunities as a family.

I suffer terribly from sea sickness, motion sickness and car sickness. My daughter has recently picked up that gene so we took Meclizine (bonine active ingredient) with us and took one every day. I would talk to your doctor about what works best for you and make sure you do some research. Hubby and I went on a cruise and I wore the Transderm Scop patch. The first night out I was so ill I thought I was going to die. My pupils had dialated to 3 times their normal size, I was dizzy, had a headache, throwing up..you know pretty much everything you would like to avoid with sea sickness. I ended up in the infirmary on the ship sick as a dog. My husband also started feeling ill. The doctor told us that we were both allergic to the patch and we had to take it off and we ended up sick for the first 3 days of the cruise. Whatever you decide to use try it out BEFORE you leave so you know how it will affect you and make sure you arent allergic to it. There is nothing worse than knowing you spent a fortune on a trip and you get to lie around feeling like crap instead of enjoying it! Some pills make people sleepy, agitated or whatever so try it out before you go so you know what it does for you. We take 1 Meclizine in the morning and feel great all day. We do fall asleep easily but I dont know if that is the pill or the relaxation experienced but whatever you choose make sure you know if they work. We tried the pressure point wristbands but for me they didnt work because my pressure point in my wrist was too deep. Fortunately I brought some backup and was fine!

Hope this helps!
Heidi