What do you wish you knew on your first cruise?

[KarBear]

Hello!
We just booked our first cruise !!!! YAHOOOO

I am wondering what do you wish you knew on your 1st cruise that you know now?
Items to bring, what you wouldn't waste your money on or what you would spend twice as much on?
Tips? Tricks?
Best time to goto the pool or buffet?

Let me hear it!!!!!

 

[cruisecrasher]

Best time to pool-opening or early on port days.

 

[tinktinktink]

I'm so jelly lol. I want to book a cruise too. I'm looking forward to the replies. Congrats on your cruise!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hello!
We just booked our first cruise !!!! YAHOOOO

I am wondering what do you wish you knew on your 1st cruise that you know now?
Items to bring, what you wouldn't waste your money on or what you would spend twice as much on?
Tips? Tricks?
Best time to goto the pool or buffet?

Let me hear it!!!!!

1) Don't try to do everything.

2) Relax, it's a vacation.

3) Bring less clothes.

 

[cruisecrasher]

I wish I'd known that it wasn't possible to do everything. It's like WDW that way!
I wish I'd known that I do not suffer from seasickness. It was a major concern before my first cruise (as I don't tolerate medications well) and one I didn't need to worry about.
Also I wish I'd known 3/4 nights is way too short

 

[Steam8oatW9]

Wish I knew about the free sea sickness medicine earlier.
Don't do everything-you'll be running around all day and won't get to enjoy your vaca.
go enjoy the pools more.
don't be late or forget about character breakfast.
If you want to experience a lot and don't think you're going to be in your stateroom a lot-don't spend a lot of money to get a veranda room if you're not going to use it.

something we did do: skip the golden mickey show and watched a little bit from our stateroom.

 

[the_bUg]

I wish I would have known how much I'd love cruising. I booked a mere 3 day Bahamian cruise. It was far too short. I also wish I would have known what to expect at the straw market in Nassau. Underwhelmed to say the least.

 

[Allabouthemouse]

Bring fewer clothes

 

[Tinked]

Read everything you can on the DISboards but when you get on board just relax and do whatever you feel like it.
What I wish I had known on my first cruise:
1. If I'm not happy about something in the MDRs just ask. I like butter with my meals and they kept serving margarine. I asked and it was not a problem after that.
2. On my first cruise I felt the Asst Waiter was only interested if you wanted alcohol. I couldn't get a cup of coffee after my meal. I know not to put up with that!
3. There are lots of places to go on-board the ships to relax--Deck 4 is my favorite, I love the piano bars, sitting in the chairs by the windows on Decks 3 and 5.
4. Go to the adult night shows. They are very enjoyable.
5. You don't have to order alcohol in the bars. They will ask once and leave you alone.
6. Do magnets for your door. It's so easy to find your stateroom that way.

 

[Drusilla99]

I wish I'd know I could bring my own alcohol.

 

[dizneekrazee]

Hello!
We just booked our first cruise !!!! YAHOOOO

I am wondering what do you wish you knew on your 1st cruise that you know now?
Items to bring, what you wouldn't waste your money on or what you would spend twice as much on?
Tips? Tricks?
Best time to goto the pool or buffet?

Let me hear it!!!!!

We recently booked our first, also!
Which cruise will you be doing?
Interested in the responses you get here.

 

[llqool]

-book your next cruise onboard if you even think there's a chance you may go (I know they have changed the rules alot recently, but even with blackout dates, 10% off and onboard credit are a lot better than NO percent off!)
-don't try and do everything, but don't be afraid to try new things!
-ask at the guest services desk on the first day about wine/beer/alcohol tastings -- they have the schedule for the entire cruise, and will write it down for you so you can make a decision about booking
-use the room service

 

[mlegasse]

Mickey bars are available from room service though it isn't listed! Also the room lighting requires a card with a magnetic strip to work so to avoid having to use your room key bring a grocery store /or other rewards card to leave in there so no one leaves their key in the slot, hair dryer works well by the mirror only -not well in the bathroom for some reason. If you have multiple people in your party i keep a small wipe off board with who went where when and when they will be back at the room ( tweens are very busy) Enjoy
40 days till our 3rd cruise

 

[robhawk]

After being introduced a CM will greet you. Sometime they push you towards Cabanas sometimes Enchanted Garden. Just know you have a choice.
At EG you will be seated and have drinks brought to you. Cabanas can be very busy. We have done both and found EG or equivalent to be less stressful.
Try a day pass (or more) at the Rainforest room. So relaxing. Pretty affordable at 16$ pp. We like to get the weeklong couples pass.
Aquaduck at night. Very cool!
Definitely Micky bars from room service
Mixology was a lot of fun too

 

[n5749w]

Once you are all packed, take half of the clothes out. You probably won't need them. (There is a way to wash, just in case)

Unless you are extremely sold on an excursion, don't book it. Use that time to enjoy the ship while only half full.

Bring a "to-go" cup from home. It will shorten the number of trips to the refill stations.

Hope those help!

 

[titansgal]

We just returned Thursday from our first ever cruise and it was a 4 night dream cruise. I have never been motion sick before in my life, so I didn't take any medicines. I wish I had though. Apparently (per the staff) the bumpiest time is the first night until about 11:00 when you get through the Straits of Florida. We had an extra rocky night though thanks to storms in the area. We lost our footing a few times that night and I just really got my stomach off kilter. I didn't go ask for bonine because I kept thinking it would pass if I just laid still . I eventually fell asleep, but it took several hours. I was good the rest of the trip. I probably would have gotten the patch just in case.

Definitely don't try to do everything. It will not happen! There are always several fun events happening at the same time. We got to the point where we would take a picture of the daily navigator on our phone to look at during the day instead of carrying the paper version around. Also, the app didn't work as good as I would have hoped. It kept kicking us out when we tried to get more info on certain events.

Definitely don't overpack. I only wore one outfit for an hour one day. At bare minimum I could have worn the shorts again. Don't stress over what you wear to dinner. Look nice, but if you aren't comfortable dressing up (or your hubby isn't) then just go with it. You really will see everything. We did sundresses and I wore my yellow box flip flops after the first night.

I bought a Tervis tumbler the first day and used it to keep ice water in throughout my cruise. I filled it up by the pool after breakfast (with a clean cup of course) and it stayed full of cold water all day. It helped me stay hydrated too in the hot Bahamas sun. Make sure you reapply sunscreen at Castaway Cay speaking of sun. We forgot as it was an overcast day and we all got waaaayyy too much sun. I forgot the sun is stronger there.

Most importantly, relax and have fun. We had a wonderful time!

 

[ptcbass]

Don't plan too much. We didn't plan any excursions and still didn't have time for everything we wanted to do. I wondered what we would do on CC all day without any extra things planned. Our time was over so quickly! All day felt more like 2 or 3 hours!

Next time we might (not sure) take the later dinner. We felt rushed several times getting ready for dinner and getting there on time. If we would have had a late dinner time we could have enjoyed sailing away from port more and also spent a little more time on CC.

Use lots of sunscreen on CC and then reapply! You will burn faster than you think. Also you might want to pick up some Sea Safe so that your not having to worry about sealice. We also wore water shoes to avoid stepping on a urchin. Didn't want to spend time with the ship doctor!! $$

Don't pack so much! I had way more clothes than I needed. Also I planned for the worst and took way too much for my carry on. It wasn't much fun trying to enjoy lunch and find our way around the ship with bags while waiting for our room to be ready. Also don't pack a hair dryer. I am super picky about my hair and have to have my good dryer with me everywhere I go. Well unless you brought a converter you can't plug it in anyway. I had to use theirs and it was fine. While on deck it is usually windy so I had my hair up most of the time anyway.

I took Bonine the night before our cruise and each night of the trip. I am prone to motion sickness and didn't get sick at all! Whoohoo! With such a short cruise I really didn't want to spend any of it sick and stuck in our room.
I did notice once when it was past time for me to take it again that I started to feel a little yucky. Once I took it I felt better within about 20 minutes.
This was in the theater and that room is forward and you could feel the movement of the ship more. Also keep things tidy so that the last night your not having to take too much time to get your luggage ready and out in the hall for pick up.

We had a mindset that we would be in bed by 10ish every night. We ended up being up till about 1:30 am every night. Crazy for us but it didn't even feel late to us. We were having so much fun we would have stayed up 24/7 if we could have.

Get your pictures BEFORE the last night. It was SO VERY CRAZY and then your trying to decide what to get at the last minute and feel rushed and pressured to buy them.

 

[jenerra11]

I knew about pirate night, but had no idea that there was a buffet offered afterwards.

 

[titansgal]

I knew about pirate night, but had no idea that there was a buffet offered afterwards.

A buffet with huge, juicy turkey legs like you get in the parks . My hubby and daughter were in heaven eating those at 11:30 at night! We didn't know about it either until we were walking through on our way to our room. It was so much fun eating that midnight snack.

 

[Woodmnky]

I wish I would have known that I could watch the stage shows on the stateroom TV. My toddler was scared by the lighting and noise in the theater, so we missed all the shows on our first cruise. On our second we found out during the last show that we could watch it on TV. We cruised Fantasy and I don't know if the same applies to all the ships.