MomOTwins
The Mommy Fairy
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2018
Wow, just got home from my first disney cruise. So exhausted, but glad we went. My kids started begging for another cruise before we even left the ship.
I was one of those people that had a million questions ahead of time, and I couldn't easily find answers to some of them, so I thought I'd post a few unusual things I learned in case it is helpful to anyone:
Q: DCL resort transfer - what does it mean that you do not have a port arrival time?
A: Because we booked a DCL transfer from a resort, we did not get a port arrival time. I was afraid that would mean we would have to wait to be the last to board. In reality, on arrival we were given the boarding number that was currently boarding and could walk right on. It worked great!
Q: Do you need to book the Frozen and Princess meet and greets?
A: I thought having a reservation would mean a "fastpass" like short line, but the line after we checked in was much longer than any other character meet we did and was in a very unmagical location (we were in animators palate, and all the tables had cloths over them and chairs stacked, so it looked like a construction site) instead of the beautiful lobby like the other meet and greets. I would not do this unless you must see Anna and Elsa, since they (unlike other princesses) did not appear at other times on the ship.
Q: Do you need to book Port Adventures?
A: I purposefully did not book any port adventures because I wanted to see if we would enjoy the cruise without the extra expense. My hunch was right, as we had a blast enjoying the ship on Nassau day with so many free activities on board, and I am glad we did not book anything at Castaway because the kids (age 6 and below) were so worn out from swim and sand all morning that we ended up heading back to the ship right after lunch (which ended up being lucky since a thunderstorm rolled in in the afternoon).
Q: Will I be okay with an 11:30 return flight?
A: I had an 11:35am Southwest return flight (so could not use onboard check-in). I saw a lot of warnings on the forums suggesting we would need to carry off our own suitcases and book private transfers. I decided to trust the DCL website's recommendation that flights could be booked at 11:30 or later, and it was all fine. We put out our suitcases the night before, went to our assigned early seating breakfast at 6:45, were done eating at 7:18 and disembarked then. We tipped a porter to help locate our bags and guide us through customs and the terminal to the DCL transfer buses. We arrived at the airport at 8:22, and despite having long lines at security, were at our gate at 9:25.
Q: What happens if you get stomach flu on the ship? A: I wish I did not have an answer to this, but I do, so oh well--maybe it will be helpful for others to know. With a classic case of worst timing ever, my husband got with either food poisoning or a stomach bug around midnight the first night we set sail. We are not the type to try to sneak under the radar and cause a health risk to others, so he went down to the clinic as soon as it opened, which is 9:30am. They gave him some Imodium and quarantined him in the room for 24 hours. They were very nice and even allowed him to order dinner from Animator's Palate to be delivered to the room. Thank goodness for the extensive library of in-room disney movies to keep him entertained (now including Marvel), but I do wish in hindsight I had splurged for a verandah so he could have gone outside. Thankfully, as none of the rest of us had any symptoms, they let the rest of our family enjoy the ship. I obsessively sterilized all the surfaces and door handles before letting the kids back into the room with him, and thankfully none of us got sick the rest of the trip. He was feeling better when went in to the clinic for a check in the next morning and was cleared by the ship's doctor to go to Castaway Cay. We are sad he missed a day, but it was not as bad as the worst case scenarios I had been imagining.
I was one of those people that had a million questions ahead of time, and I couldn't easily find answers to some of them, so I thought I'd post a few unusual things I learned in case it is helpful to anyone:
Q: DCL resort transfer - what does it mean that you do not have a port arrival time?
A: Because we booked a DCL transfer from a resort, we did not get a port arrival time. I was afraid that would mean we would have to wait to be the last to board. In reality, on arrival we were given the boarding number that was currently boarding and could walk right on. It worked great!
Q: Do you need to book the Frozen and Princess meet and greets?
A: I thought having a reservation would mean a "fastpass" like short line, but the line after we checked in was much longer than any other character meet we did and was in a very unmagical location (we were in animators palate, and all the tables had cloths over them and chairs stacked, so it looked like a construction site) instead of the beautiful lobby like the other meet and greets. I would not do this unless you must see Anna and Elsa, since they (unlike other princesses) did not appear at other times on the ship.
Q: Do you need to book Port Adventures?
A: I purposefully did not book any port adventures because I wanted to see if we would enjoy the cruise without the extra expense. My hunch was right, as we had a blast enjoying the ship on Nassau day with so many free activities on board, and I am glad we did not book anything at Castaway because the kids (age 6 and below) were so worn out from swim and sand all morning that we ended up heading back to the ship right after lunch (which ended up being lucky since a thunderstorm rolled in in the afternoon).
Q: Will I be okay with an 11:30 return flight?
A: I had an 11:35am Southwest return flight (so could not use onboard check-in). I saw a lot of warnings on the forums suggesting we would need to carry off our own suitcases and book private transfers. I decided to trust the DCL website's recommendation that flights could be booked at 11:30 or later, and it was all fine. We put out our suitcases the night before, went to our assigned early seating breakfast at 6:45, were done eating at 7:18 and disembarked then. We tipped a porter to help locate our bags and guide us through customs and the terminal to the DCL transfer buses. We arrived at the airport at 8:22, and despite having long lines at security, were at our gate at 9:25.
Q: What happens if you get stomach flu on the ship? A: I wish I did not have an answer to this, but I do, so oh well--maybe it will be helpful for others to know. With a classic case of worst timing ever, my husband got with either food poisoning or a stomach bug around midnight the first night we set sail. We are not the type to try to sneak under the radar and cause a health risk to others, so he went down to the clinic as soon as it opened, which is 9:30am. They gave him some Imodium and quarantined him in the room for 24 hours. They were very nice and even allowed him to order dinner from Animator's Palate to be delivered to the room. Thank goodness for the extensive library of in-room disney movies to keep him entertained (now including Marvel), but I do wish in hindsight I had splurged for a verandah so he could have gone outside. Thankfully, as none of the rest of us had any symptoms, they let the rest of our family enjoy the ship. I obsessively sterilized all the surfaces and door handles before letting the kids back into the room with him, and thankfully none of us got sick the rest of the trip. He was feeling better when went in to the clinic for a check in the next morning and was cleared by the ship's doctor to go to Castaway Cay. We are sad he missed a day, but it was not as bad as the worst case scenarios I had been imagining.
