What's your typical/ideal Embarkation Day routine?

leannak

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 28, 2011
I'm curious to see what you experienced cruisers plan for a perfect embarkation day! Do you wing it or have a checklist of things you want to get done (ex. tastings reservations) and things you can't wait to get back to (ex. Cabana's)? Do you have any tips for how to avoid the crowds or fun things to do the first day/evening? Any advice on how to make the first day magical?
 
Board and go to Cabanas, hand out for a little while in the kids club with our daughter, head up to the deck for a drink and daughter swims. When we think the room might be ready dump the carryon stuff. Unpack quickly while getting ready for dinner.
 
At Port Canaveral
Pick the earliest Port Arrival Time possible.
Arrive and check in.
Go outside and take pictures of the ship (door to outside located to the right of the yellow Mickey Ear entrance.
Go back inside and get some Disney Cruise pressed pennies. Port Canaveral is the only!!! place for this .51 each. There are 6 designs. Bring change. Located to the left of the yellow Mickey Ear entrance.
Once I board go to Cabanas, grab a table by the windows. Get lots of shrimp. Get some more shrimp. Then some dessert. By now the soft serve ice cream machine is open get some soft serve. People watch until cabins are ready at 1:30. Have another ice cream until the rush is over with people heading to their cabin. 1:45ish go to cabin. If luggage is there unpack. If not head to the adult area for a drink and enjoy the view
 


I love reading these!

We are platinum so we get boarding #1 and board asap. We head to Cabanas to eat before the crowds arrive. Usually DSs take off right after we eat so DH and I head to the adult pool bar to get dessert (always kick off the cruise with a BBC) and to see who the bartender is. If we have any business we need to take care of like changing Palo, signing up for the 5K, putting gift cards on our account, etc...we head down to do that before the rooms are ready. At 1:30 we go to the room. If any bags are there we unpack, if not I usually head to Satellite falls. 1:30-3:55 is spent between the sun deck and unpacking in the room, then it's time for the lifeboat drill....and the cruise begins!
 
Ideal: First on the ship, and nobody else is allowed on for a few hours while we enjoy food and drinks and exploring in peace.

Typical: Get on the boat, eat some lunch at Cabanas, run around exploring the ship incoherently because vacation on a Disney cruise is awesome, do the muster drill, then try to fit a nap in for the kid before dinner, probably missing the sail-away party and maybe even missing dinner because the kid passed out that long.*

*that's how embarkation worked for us on our last cruise. We missed dinner night 1 and ended up eating chicken tenders and pizza on the empty pool deck before the show.
 


We typically get on fairly early, have lunch, explore the ship, unpack once we get our luggage once it arrives and partake in the sailaway activities.

This time we wearing our swimsuits and hanging by the pool, and then doing a late lunch and sailaway will be on our balcony.
 
We are platinum so we get boarding #1 and board asap. We head to Cabanas to eat before the crowds arrive. Usually DSs take off right after we eat so DH and I head to the adult pool bar to get dessert (always kick off the cruise with a BBC) and to see who the bartender is. If we have any business we need to take care of like changing Palo, signing up for the 5K, putting gift cards on our account, etc...we head down to do that before the rooms are ready. At 1:30 we go to the room. If any bags are there we unpack, if not I usually head to Satellite falls. 1:30-3:55 is spent between the sun deck and unpacking in the room, then it's time for the lifeboat drill....and the cruise begins!
Love this idea! My family is always fighting on Embarkation Day because we just wanted to get started! We can go to Cabanas and then send our son to Edge (where he wants to be 24/7) and DH and I can start on your plan!
 
We usually get to the port early so that we can stand around and do our impersonation of the Mervyn's lady (yes yes, showing my age). Once onboard, it's mimosa, food, kid's club situating, pool time and then unpacking as soon as the luggage is there. Yes, all in that order. Mimosa is always priority #1.
 
I love embarkation day...so much anticipation and excitement! We get as early a PAT as possible, look around in awe for a while, head to dining room or cabanas for lunch. Set up the DCL app while eating. Usually order some bottled water to be delivered to the stateroom. Go to dining changes area to confirm we got our own table at dinner. If no line at guest services add gift card to our account. DD gets first soft serve of the cruise.

By now room is usually ready, if not we might spend some time walking around the ship. Start unpacking as soon as luggage arrives (seems like we usually get our bags quickly).

Muster drill and then sail away (I don’t like crowds so we go to the top deck where I can make a quick getaway if necessary). Had my first BBC on our last cruise and that will be my sail-away tradition from now on! Best drink ever and kept me filled up until 2nd dining. Enjoy the scenery for a while and then it’s time to get ready for the show.

This thread is making me excited for our next cruise which is unfortunately 8 months away!
 
We get the earliest port arrival time and then we arrive between 9-9:30 anyway and line up in the garage watching the previous cruise disembark and taking pics of the ship from the garage. You get really good pics from the second deck where they have you lined up. Then we get in the terminal close to 10, get a low boarding group number and have fun looking at all the fun stuff in the port and taking pics with characters, who do come out there. We read the Navigator and get our plans set, then board when called and straight to Cabanas for food and we take it poolside to eat while a server gets us the first drink of the day. We pack a day bag, so we don't worry about when rooms are open. We get in the pools or aquaduck while it is very uncrowded and fun! Watch the TV screen doing the trivia and just enjoying our vacation from the first minute possible, to the last. We head to the room about 2:00 or so, shower and change, then it's close to drill time, so we explore a bit till then. After drill, straight to either sail away party or front of the ship to watch us leave port. Embarkation day is our favorite days of the cruise, as it's the furthest away from disembarking! What ever you do, you will have a great time! Enjoy!
 

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