First Time Cruiser....Help please!

[Madeline Miller]

Hello!
My family and I are Disney Addicts and go to Disney World a few times a year, but this will be our first Disney Cruise (actually, this will be our first cruise ever!). We are booked for the Disney Dream on November 4th, leaving from Port Canaveral, heading to the Bahamas for a few nights. My first question involves the fish extenders. We are going alone as a family (1 child who will be 2.5). Is there a way to sign up with other families to do the gift exchange? Or is this something we do alone as a family? Another question is about Pirate themed day. Is that at night? Or during the day? Do people dress up like Pirates completely? Or just a simple bandana and eye patch will do? I AM SO EXCITED and can't wait to experience our first cruise! Any additional information, tips, tricks, do's and dont's is welcomed and so appreciated! Thanks everyone!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hello!
My family and I are Disney Addicts and go to Disney World a few times a year, but this will be our first Disney Cruise (actually, this will be our first cruise ever!). We are booked for the Disney Dream on November 4th, leaving from Port Canaveral, heading to the Bahamas for a few nights. My first question involves the fish extenders. We are going alone as a family (1 child who will be 2.5). Is there a way to sign up with other families to do the gift exchange? Or is this something we do alone as a family? Another question is about Pirate themed day. Is that at night? Or during the day? Do people dress up like Pirates completely? Or just a simple bandana and eye patch will do? I AM SO EXCITED and can't wait to experience our first cruise! Any additional information, tips, tricks, do's and dont's is welcomed and so appreciated! Thanks everyone!

If there is a Fish Extender group here on DISBoards, it'll be on your Cruise Meet Thread: http://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-dream-3-night-bahamas-4-7-november-2016.3450608/

One note about this - not all cruises have FE groups, especially the short Dream cruises. If your cruise meet group doesn't have one, you certainly can go ahead and hang a FE outside your door, and have a few little gifts you can slip into the pocket when your child isn't looking if you wish.

Most of the Pirate activities are in the evening/night. Yes, some people do full out costumes, while others do nothing. Some will just use a pirate-themed shirt, and use the DCL supplied pirate bandanna as their "costume".

 

[Dug720]

Hello!
My family and I are Disney Addicts and go to Disney World a few times a year, but this will be our first Disney Cruise (actually, this will be our first cruise ever!). We are booked for the Disney Dream on November 4th, leaving from Port Canaveral, heading to the Bahamas for a few nights. My first question involves the fish extenders. We are going alone as a family (1 child who will be 2.5). Is there a way to sign up with other families to do the gift exchange? Or is this something we do alone as a family? Another question is about Pirate themed day. Is that at night? Or during the day? Do people dress up like Pirates completely? Or just a simple bandana and eye patch will do? I AM SO EXCITED and can't wait to experience our first cruise! Any additional information, tips, tricks, do's and dont's is welcomed and so appreciated! Thanks everyone!

I can help with Pirate Night. Most if not all the activities are in the evening and at night. As far as dressing up... All may, some should, none must. I have seen people in full-out theatrical gear all the way down to some in pirate-themed t-shirts all the way down to no dressing up - maybe just the provided bandana. We did the bandana thing the first cruise. I did a pirate outfit my two solo cruises. Very simple.

Our first cruise I remember being in the Concierge Lounge with a guy who was in full-out theatrical level pirate gear, and his wife was matching. Their adult daughter just kind of rolled her eyes and said "I cannot believe they did this." Haha!! Well, it wasn't long before my sister and I were heading to the lounge for happy hour and we encountered her in the hall with her mother lacing her into a pirate wench corset. She just mouthed "Help! Me!" So clearly the parents had packed and planned for everyone there.

But we had just as good a time in our cruise casual with bandanas.

So you can go as simple or as all-out as you wish!

(I've never done the fish extenders thing, so I can't help with that.)

 

[Madeline Miller]

If there is a Fish Extender group here on DISBoards, it'll be on your Cruise Meet Thread: http://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-dream-3-night-bahamas-4-7-november-2016.3450608/

One note about this - not all cruises have FE groups, especially the short Dream cruises. If your cruise meet group doesn't have one, you certainly can go ahead and hang a FE outside your door, and have a few little gifts you can slip into the pocket when your child isn't looking if you wish.

Most of the Pirate activities are in the evening/night. Yes, some people do full out costumes, while others do nothing. Some will just use a pirate-themed shirt, and use the DCL supplied pirate bandanna as their "costume".

Awesome! Thanks for the link above. We booked a shorter cruise to test the waters. I have never been as sick as I was when I went deep sea fishing, so nervous about that.

 

[Madeline Miller]

I can help with Pirate Night. Most if not all the activities are in the evening and at night. As far as dressing up... All may, some should, none must. I have seen people in full-out theatrical gear all the way down to some in pirate-themed t-shirts all the way down to no dressing up - maybe just the provided bandana. We did the bandana thing the first cruise. I did a pirate outfit my two solo cruises. Very simple.

Our first cruise I remember being in the Concierge Lounge with a guy who was in full-out theatrical level pirate gear, and his wife was matching. Their adult daughter just kind of rolled her eyes and said "I cannot believe they did this." Haha!! Well, it wasn't long before my sister and I were heading to the lounge for happy hour and we encountered her in the hall with her mother lacing her into a pirate wench corset. She just mouthed "Help! Me!" So clearly the parents had packed and planned for everyone there.

But we had just as good a time in our cruise casual with bandanas.

So you can go as simple or as all-out as you wish!

(I've never done the fish extenders thing, so I can't help with that.)

Great, thank you! We will be somewhere in the middle!

 

[Dug720]

Great, thank you! We will be somewhere in the middle!

Yeah, I've been middle on my two solo cruises. And i guess I need to figure out something for my Feb cruise since my parents are coming and I'm sure my dad will bring his hat and eye patch and stuff that he's gotten.

 

[Floridatinaherb]

Our first cruise I remember being in the Concierge Lounge with a guy who was in full-out theatrical level pirate gear, and his wife was matching. Their adult daughter just kind of rolled her eyes and said "I cannot believe they did this."

That could have been me and DH, except for the whole adult daughter bit...this was my DH on our cruise last year. We have a suitcase that is nothing but our pirate gear! We actually had someone ask if they could take a picture of their daughter with us...I definitely heard "I can't believe they are doing this" from her LOL

 

[Dug720]

That could have been me and DH, except for the whole adult daughter bit...this was my DH on our cruise last year. We have a suitcase that is nothing but our pirate gear! We actually had someone ask if they could take a picture of their daughter with us...I definitely heard "I can't believe they are doing this" from her LOL
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Haha! Oh this guy was done up like Captain Barbossa complete with beard and everything. It was amazing.

 

[Madeline Miller]

That could have been me and DH, except for the whole adult daughter bit...this was my DH on our cruise last year. We have a suitcase that is nothing but our pirate gear! We actually had someone ask if they could take a picture of their daughter with us...I definitely heard "I can't believe they are doing this" from her LOL
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So awesome!!!!!

 

[Floridatinaherb]

YAY!!!!!!! That would be so cool. Do you have a link? Or is it the same one as above? Sorry - newbie to this site too.

The cruise meets are a subgroup to the main forum here. The link for yours is in the post above by PrincessShmoo