Your first Disney Cruise can be overwhelming! Here are some tips to help make your cruise more enjoyable.
Before the Cruise
Schedule a character call.
Once your cruise is booked, you can schedule up to two character calls through the My Reservations link on the Disney Cruise Line website. You can choose a character and a date and time for them to call. The calls are pre-recorded and cannot be personalized, but what kid doesn’t love to pick up the phone and hear Mickey Mouse on the other end? This is a fun way to either reveal your cruise plans to the kids or get them excited in the days or hours before you board.
Select your Port Arrival Time (PAT) online when your check-in window opens.
During on-line check-in, you will select a Port Arrival Time (PAT). Port Canaveral opens at 10:30 and that is the earliest PAT available. Keep in mind that on-line check-in dates are tiered (15 days between each Castaway Club level and new cruisers) so repeat cruisers get to check-in and select their PAT before first time cruisers. An earlier PAT means an earlier boarding group number, which means you get on the ship earlier.
Plan to arrive the day before your cruise.
When making your travel plans, unless you are within a 3-4 hour drive of the port, I highly recommend spending the night before your cruise in the area of the port. Especially if you are flying in, there are just two many variables (weather, mechanical issues, missed connections, etc.) to risk missing your cruise. There are several decently priced hotel options in the area and a 15 minute drive to the port will be a much less stressful start to your vacation.
Pre-purchase the photo package.
If you are even a little bit interested in purchasing your photos from the on-board photographers, it makes sense to pre-purchase a photo package. You can choose from a variety of packages: 10 digital photos, all digital photos, all digital photos + prints, photo books, and more. Prices vary based on the package and the length of your sailing but you get a 15% discount for purchasing before you cruise (24 hours before 12 am on the day of your sailing). Since you can cancel up until the last night for a full refund, it is really low risk. If you don’t like your photos, don’t think you have enough photos to make it worth the money, or just don’t want to spend the money after all, you can cancel and get your money back.
Check-In and Boarding
Understand the difference PATs and boarding groups.
Your Port Arrival Time is literally that – the time you should arrive at the port. These assigned times are meant to spread out the crowds so not everyone is going through security and checking in at the same time. Adhering to your PAT should mean a shorter time spent waiting at the port. When you arrive and check-in, you will be giving a boarding group number. This number is tied to your PAT so arriving earlier than your PAT does not mean you will get an earlier boarding group. Your boarding group number will not move up, although you may end up boarding earlier if they move through the numbers quickly.
For closed loop cruises, passports are not required but they are recommended.
Closed loop cruises are defined as cruises that depart from a US port and return to the same US port. You do not need a passport on a closed loop cruise. A government-issued photo ID and a birth certificate are sufficient. However, it is highly recommended that you travel with a passport. If an emergency were to occur while you were in a foreign country, you would be unable to fly home to the US without a passport.
Keep important items in your carry-on.
Before your cruise, Disney will send you luggage tags. Fill these out with your name, address, and stateroom number. These tags will go on your checked bags. Your checked bags will be picked up by a porter when you arrive at the port and delivered to your room sometime before 5pm. Because you won’t have access to your checked luggage for several hours, make sure you keep anything important (passport, wallet, medicine, camera, etc.) in your carry-on bag. Try to only carry on what you really need though – you won’t be able to get into your room until 1:30 so you will be stuck bringing your carry-on to lunch and then lugging it around the ship until your room is ready.
Castaway Cay
Excursions
There is certainly plenty to do on Castaway Cay without booking an excursion. Don’t feel obligated to book something, especially if it is your first visit. You will be plenty busy without one!
Rentals
All the rental items (bikes, tubes, snorkel gear, etc.) are available to sign up for as an excursion, which means you book and pay for them in advance. That is not at all necessary though. There are plenty of all of these items available so you can just walk up and rent them. That way you don’t have to commit (i.e. pay money) ahead of time before you know what the weather is or what you will feel like doing that day. We walked up and rented bikes and had no problem at all getting the sizes we needed. And people have a habit of ditching their inflatable tubes on the beach when they head back to the boat so you can easily pick one up towards the end of the day.
Nassau, Bahamas
Excursions
Lots of people choose to treat Nassau as an “at sea” day and never get off the ship, hoping to take advantage of smaller crowds for the AquaDunk and other popular activities on the ship. This is no longer a well-kept secret and therefore not a very effective strategy since so many people do it. Staying on the ship is personal preference of course but we thought it was worthwhile to get off the ship at least for a little while and see a bit of the city. Lots of people enjoy going to one of the beaches, to Atlantis and its water park, or to Blue Lagoon Island.
Port
The port itself and the area immediately surrounding it is crowded and commercialized. There are tons of locals attempting to sell all manner of cheap touristy goods, as well as high end stores selling duty free items. The local vendors can be pushy and aggressive. This is hard to avoid, especially while waiting in line to get back into the port where one person after another walks up to you and tries to sell you something. Unfortunately you are a captive audience while you wait in line so you have to try to turn them away with a no thank you or just ignore them if they persist.
On Board
Palo
We had made Palo dining reservations ahead of time without knowing what our dining rotation was. I had heard that on 4 night cruises your 2nd and 3rd nights are in the same restaurant and that the 3rd night was Pirate Night. We knew that a lot of people go to Palo on Pirate Night because they don’t enjoy that menu as much, but we wanted to spend that night with the boys. So I had chosen the 2nd night for our Palo reservations. The night turned out to be fine but the timing turned out to be right in the middle of Tangled The Musical, which we didn’t want to miss. After we boarded, I was able to go to the dining station they had set up outside Lumiere’s and change the time of our reservation without a problem. A lot of people stress over getting Palo on the right night or time or even getting an opening at all. It seemed like lots of options were available on board so don’t stress about it too much. Our waiter at Palo even offered to fit us in for a brunch one day if we wanted to. So chances are high you will be able to have your Palo experience.
The Shows
Do not miss the shows! We were still getting our bearings the first night and honestly weren’t sure if the kids would like the shows so we skipped Twice Charmed. When we saw Tangled the next night, we immediately regretted skipping the previous night. The boys were spell-bound by the performance. The quality of the shows is incredible and since they are Disney stories, they are all family-friendly. Make time to go to all of the shows. You won’t regret it.
Pin Trading
Pin trading is a big thing in Disney World and although not as popular on the cruise, there are opportunities to trade on the ships as well. The stores each have a book that you can flip through and trade pins with. Many of the Cast Member wear lanyards with trading pins on them. And finally they have an officer’s pin trading event where you can mingle with the ship’s officers and maybe score a few cool pins from their lanyards. My youngest was very into it and spent a lot of time flipping through the book in the gift shop. A sweet Cast Member who worked in one of the stores noticed his frequent visits. She tracked him down later and gave him (gave, not traded) a pretty unique Disney Cruise Line pin. He felt so special and will save that pin forever. Both boys really enjoyed the trading on the ship since it was a little lower key than in the parks.
Debarkation Morning
You have two options on the last morning – express walk-off or regular debarkation. Express walk-off is obviously the fastest. You carry all of your bags off yourself and can get off the ship before 7 am. This is ideal for early risers, those with an early flight, or those wanting to beat the crowds off the ship and out of the port. For regular debarkation, you must put your (non-carry-on) bags outside your room by 10pm on the last night so they can be collected and taken off the ship for you the next morning. You are assigned to go to breakfast at the same restaurant you ate in the previous night. Those with early dining go to breakfast at 6:45. Those with late dining go to breakfast at 8:00. We chose to skip the sit-down meal and grabbed food at Cabanas and ate outside on the deck for the last time. Regardless of your breakfast time, you must be out of your stateroom by 8am. After breakfast, you can get off the ship when our luggage group is called. They try to have everyone off the ship by 9:00 or 9:30 at the latest so you can’t dillydally too long.
