Disney Cruise Line

[wsapooh]

Anyone have any insider tips and/or suggestions concerning Disney Cruise Line? I am a frequent visitor to WDW but this September will be my first sailing on DCL. I've heard PS at Palo is SO difficult to get. As well as cabana massages at Castaway Cay. And what about shore excursions? Thumbs up or thumbs down on any of them?
This is our 10 year wedding anniversary trip on a 7 night land and sea package with Romance add-on at the Polynesian and on the Wonder.

 

[all41]

This site has lots of info about the cruise.

http://www.wdwig.com/cruise/cruise.shtml

The Disney Cruise Line web site has some neat 360 degree images and cabin layouts that are fun to look at.

I've never gone and would love to go. I've described it to my kids and they think it sounds great and keep asking when we are going to go? When I mentioned it to my wife, she asks "can't we do something that isn't Disney?":lol:

 

[jordanyosh]

DCL Info

Here's the scoop. There's a website http://www.wdwinfo.com. they have a DCL discussion board similiar to this. It has been helpful to me and my family.

The DCL is very nice. If you have been on another cruise line before then you will be pleasantly surprised at your staterooms. They are bigger than your avg. stateroom on another cruise.

You can book your shore excursions beforehand. there are a couple that have gotten good reviews. Like the dolphin encounter. We have never done one because the ship itself has so much to offer and we like our vacations to be ultra relaxing--that means lots of laying around by the pool, Serenity Bay, the adults only beach, at Castaway Cay. Ordering room service at 1:30am knowing it is free. You get the idea. But for you relaxing may be doing alot of activities, DCL has lots of options for every kind of vacation.

Palo currently doesn't do PS before you board the ship. So once you are on board, I would make a beeline to make reservations for Palo as good times go fast. If you are on the Wonder, I believe they take reservations in Wavebands. spa reservations are taken at the spa itself. I would go there quickly as well.

I hope that helps. If you have more questions just let us know

 

[WendyOkada]

Love DCL

We LOVE dcl (as jordanyosh commented)... it's great for people of all ages... w/ kids, w/o kids, singles, couples, empty nesters...

we did the cabana massages on castaway cay... sooo nice but a different feel than in a massage room with music and aromatherapy... and unlike some other spas on ships, DCL has *beautiful* therapy rooms... sooooo nice. some ships you go on have spa rooms like little closets... but these are really nice... but my husband and i did a couples massage in the cabanas which was really nice but although it was great to have an ocean view form the cabana, it also meant that people on the beach could see INTO the cabana... ha ha - just had to be careful when getting dressed and undressed...

me personally, i would opt for the massage on board, and just enjoy Serenity Bay while on the island... it's so quiet and peaceful and you can drag your lounge chair right into the water... so nice to be laying there with your fingers and toes dangling in the water and hearing the waves lap the shore and the birds in the air... (jordan are you getting anxious?)

palo reservations should be no problem if you are flexible with your days and times and you go there right away after boarding. make your spa and palo reservations right away before even settling into your stateroom.

also, if you can - swap out your parrot cay night for your palo reservation - the other two restaurants are nicer (definitely don't miss animators palatte on your first cruise!) and you can always eat at parrot cay during breakfast or lunch.

what sail date are you on? we are sailing the wonder on september 21.

have a great time and happy anniversary!

 

[wsapooh]

We stay at the Polynesian 9/7-9/11 and we're on the Wonder 9/11-9/14.

The current plan ....

9/7-arrive Polynesian :sohappy: - do MK
- dinner at Tony's (big Lady and the Tramp fan)
9/8-do Epcot
- dinner at San Angel Inn Restaurante
9/9-do DMGM
- champagne carriage ride at Ft Wilderness
- dinner at 'Ohana (a big favorite)
9/10-10 year wedding anniversary - lazy day at Polynesian
- dinner at Artist Point
- La Nouba
9/11-set sail on Wonder
-try to get in a couples spa treatment that night
9/12-Nassau
-Catamaran sail & reef snorkeling shore excursion
-visit tropical rain forest on ship
9/13-Castaway Cay
- lazy day on the Cay
9/14 - home

Any suggestions?

 

[WendyOkada]

Tips...

Did you make your PS reservations yet? You'll want to make them asap for Tony's, Ohana, San Angel (I think) and Artist Point. Did you buy your La Nouba tickets too? You can do that beforehand.

Also on the ship, you have to pay $15 for the tropical rain forest area at the spa unless you have a treatment that day - I'm not sure if you can use it throughout the cruise if you have a treatment a different day -- so you might want to take it in on your first day (with your spa appts) or change your appts to the second night... but check first to make sure.

Go early to Serenity Bay on Castaway Cay - chairs can fill up fast... and enjoy yourself out there... ahhhhhh.

Have a great time!!!

 

[wsapooh]

Yes, PS are made, La Nouba reservations made (through Romance add-on feature) and champagne carriage ride reservations made. All taken care of there.
Shore excursion form will be faxed in soon when I'm inside 60days.
Have you done the rainforest? Is it worth paying the extra $15 to just visit that on it's own? Or should I just include it with my spa treatment as suggested?
How early do chairs usually fill up at Serenity Bay? I'm SO not an early riser so I'm just curious.
Thanks so much!!

 

[WendyOkada]

Good deal (all your ressies are made...) - you should have a great time!

Re: rainforest - well, kind of depends on what you like - it has this "quiet" area with a fountain and light steam and heated ceramic chaise lounges (surprisingly comfortable for stone chairs - ha ha), and a couple steam rooms (one really intense and one a little more mild), and a sauna, and some different showers (like this one where the water jets out from the sides). Our uncle likes that part better than the actual treatments so he paid the $15 for the day and went back several times... but me personally, I would probably just take advantage of it during my treatment day since it's good all day when you have a treatment. The hard part is that you don't have a full day at sea (which would be the ideal day to do it - so you could have a treatment sometime during the day but have the rest of the day to spend some time in the rainforest)... but usually I would spend some time before or after my treatments in the rainforest area. If you don't mind forking over the $15/per person, it would make for a nice "spa" experience on the days you don't have an actaul treatment - just a little time to get away and relax in the saunas and such. One thing though - they don't have a jacuzzi in the spa - for that you'll need to just use the one at the adult pool. Just FYI in case you were thinking you were going to get jacuzzi time in the rainforest.

Re: Serenity Bay - well, we're not early risers either but one thing that might help is that if you can get yourself up and out to the beach, you can fall back asleep again... ha ha ha. If you have towels, you can always just lay on the beach like normal people... but we really like the lounge chairs... to us it seemed like they went pretty quickly... sometimes people will vacate them if they head back earlier or have a spa appt or something, but I'm not sure. Generally speaking, we always aim to get out there as early as possible...

Have a great time!!! :sohappy:

 

[wsapooh]

Thanks alot. That was really helpful!

 

[Maria]

Hey Wendy, you missed "2000-CBR/Barbados" in your signature! :animwink:

 

[WendyOkada]

No 2000 trip for me...

No, unfortunately I didn't... I didn't go with Jordanyosh in 2000 - he went with his parents (but I went in 1987 and he didn't...) so we're even on number of trips... ha ha ha.

You've got a great eye for detail though!

 

[Maria]

Re: No 2000 trip for me...

Originally posted by WendyOkada
No, unfortunately I didn't... I didn't go with Jordanyosh in 2000 - he went with his parents (but I went in 1987 and he didn't...) so we're even on number of trips... ha ha ha.

You've got a great eye for detail though!

I did notice the 1987 extra trip too, but was too lazy to type it! :lol: :animwink:

 

[General Grizz]

If you know your Disney, don't even BOTHER going to the trivia game...there's a lot better stuff to do.

I was able to play a game with the younger kids in the group...I bought one of those cut-out Chip and Dale poscards...then we went down to Route 66 area (where the rest of the folk were partying; young kids not allowed) and we hid Chip and Dale in the scenery...and then we took turns finding it. When the Cast Members decided to join us in playing, it was probably one of the most fun times in the whole cruise! It's these SMALL things that really make your trip memorable!

P.S. our family enjoyed Alice in Wonderland in the room cabin instead of 'Chicago' in the Buena Vista theater. :lol:

 

[wsapooh]

I heard there (used to be at least) some decent prizes if you participated in the trivia game and did well. Is this not true anymore?

 

[WendyOkada]

Mouseketeer game?

I'm not sure if you guys are talking about the "Who wants to be a Mouseketeer" trivia game (that replaced "Voyage of the Ghost Ship") and it was enjoyable for the most part, but the bummer thing about it was that the people participating were picked by random seat number so you couldn't really "volunteer" to play. There were really cool prizes (shipboard credit, cruises, etc.) so that frustrated me even more because 1) I TOTALLY knew a ton of the answers and 2) the host was "helping" the contestants when they had difficulty with the questions, and therefore getting them better prizes. It irked me because I knew I would have won on my own had I been chosen.

Grrr.

But that's just my $0.02.

 

[wsapooh]

I'm not sure which version of the trivia game this was that I heard about. It was almost 2 years ago that my co-worker played the game and told me about it.
Random seat numbers? That really would be frustrating. Murphy's law is that the people who want to play the most won't get picked and those that don't want to play will get picked.

 

[HebeJebe]

Contestants for "Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer?" are chosen at random. There are screens near the balconies that show the chosen row and seat numbers. If a child is the chosen one he/she can bring up 1 parent. And yes, the host does help out with answers but only in the beginning.
There is a panel of adults that are chosen by volunteering. They are the Ask the Panel option. I think they get something for volunteering.

 

[wsapooh]

Originally posted by grizzlyhall
If you know your Disney, don't even BOTHER going to the trivia game...there's a lot better stuff to do.

So I guess that poses the question of what would be a better use of time for a couple that knows their Disney and will not be traveling with kids? What's the "better stuff to do" in your opinion? Since our time on the ship is so short, I really would hate to miss something great by wasting my time on something that isn't. Opinions like this really are helpful.

 

[jordanyosh]

The Who's Wants to Be........is good, but not great. Fun if you happen to participate;not so fun if you are just watching. The Hercules Museical is good once. But if you like Disney, do not miss Disney Dreams on the last night. It's a great show.

If they have karaoke in Wavebands, see that. One year we had incredible singers(of course, one year they were pretty bad). They usually have first run movies in the Buena Vista Theatre. My cousins' saw Sixth Sense shortly after it had come out and I know right now they are showing Finding Nemo.....

It really depends on your frame of mind. With the romance package, you may not need a whole lot else

Have fun and let us know if you've got other ?????

 

[wsapooh]

I guess my "frame of mind" is to see what shouldn't be missed and leave everything else for another time.
The shore excursions are what we're trying to narrow down right now. I've ALWAYS wanted to swim with dolphins. The dolphin encounter shore excursion sounds intresting but I'm so worried about being disappointed. I'm wondering if should just bag that one and do to Discovery Cove (or something similar) to fulfill that dream.