Disney Cruise Tips

Having sailed aboard the Magic, Wonder, Dream, and Magic again, I have a bit of knowledge to pass on for the Disney Cruisers out there.

Do Everything Early

One benefit of a cruise is you don't have to do as much planning as you do for Disneyworld, however a little early preparation and planning can make a big difference.   

Book Early

Book your trip as soon as you can because like airline tickets, the prices generally just go up over time.  Speaking of airline tickets, check the costs for your flights before booking just to confirm everything is in budget.

Eat Early

Dining at Rapunzel's Royal Table on Disney Magic

When you do book, select "Main Dining".  Your choices for dining are generally 5:45 and 8:15, neither is ideal, but if you have young kids that later time is just a bit untenable.  The early time will help you stay on your normal life schedule and let your food settle as you watch the show.  Then you can just head back and sleep after.

Pay/"Check-in" Early

For the cruise you can't choose your boarding time or select activities until you've paid and "check-in".  This is not like a flight where you check-in the day before.  You can check-in several weeks in advance and should do so right away to get an earlier "port arrival" time.  This is the time window in which you are allowed/encouraged to arrive at the cruise terminal and prepare for boarding the ship.  The earlier the better, because getting on the boat early is so key on that first sail date.  You have first access to the buffet, first access to the pools and slides before they get crowded.  And/or if you can't wait to get served right away, you can gain access to the sit-down eating area that has a limited occupancy/hours on the first day's lunch.  The mandatory safety thingy is at 4ish so you typically only have from about 12 at the earliest to 4 to enjoy the boat prior to the safety check and preparing for dinner.

Select Activities Early

There are a few activities you definitely want to book because they will fill up - Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, alcoholic beverage tastings, character meetings, and excursions.  You can start booking all of this again once you've paid... early.  More on this below.

Do everything on the boat just a WEE bit early

Everything on the boat - dinners, shows, character meetings - go better if you show up just a few minutes early.  You'll get your food faster at dinner, get way better seats at the shows, and avoid lines at the character meetings if you just show up 5 minutes or so before everyone else.  For the shows I recommend 8:15 for the regular shows and then 8 for the headliners (Frozen, Beast, Tangled, etc.)  Also keep an eye on when the slides open up in the morning - usually 10 or 11.  If you line up 5 min before you'll have almost no wait.  Case in point I took the kids to line up for the yellow Magic slide at 9:55.  We waited til 10 when it opened, had about a 5 minute wait in line, for a total of 10 minutes.  About half hour later we noticed an estimated 60 minute wait on the slide.  (Nice weather days at sea can be busy on the top deck!)  BTW each person takes about 35 seconds to go down the slide if you want to calculate your wait time.  (Yes maybe I over-analyze.) 

Advanced Booking Activities

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

Hair, Makeup and Nails done at Bibbidi on Ship

If you have girls you'll likely want to book a Bibbidi Bobbidi session sometime on the cruise.  The kids really like to get pampered and the "Fairies in Training" are fantastic.  Book this for a late afternoon after the pool/shower but before dinner so that they can enjoy it the rest of the night and you don't have to worry about ruining it in the pool.  It's likely the hair will hold up fine until the next day's pre-dinner shower.  If you have boys -  they offer a pirate package which you could schedule for Pirate Night.  I think they do like a knight/prince thing too.

Alcoholic Tastings 

Liquor & Chocolate Tasting

Coleen and I have found this to be our favorite on-board activity.  The sessions are fun, quite informative, and a value in that the value of the alcohol ends up higher than your tasting price.  It's also a good way to learn what you like or don't like when it comes to the beverages.  Disney offers tastings for wine, beer, mojitos, rum, liquor & chocolate.  Our favorites have been liquor & chocolate and mojitos.  I recommend doing at an afternoon on a "At Sea" day.  Put the kids in the kids club or leave them at the pool for an hour.

Character Greetings

Though Disney offers character greetings often during the cruise, almost always before and after dinner/shows, the best greetings require advanced booking - currently the two are Princess Gathering and Frozen Gathering.  The beauty of these pre-arranged greetings are the lines are limited and the kids get to meet a few characters back to back.  The Princess Gathering is normally Belle, Rapunzel, Tiana I think.  Frozen is Elsa, Ana, sometimes Olaf.  Again this is another great "At Sea" activity preferably scheduled after breakfast and before pool time if you can make that work.

Excursions

Dolphin Discovery Cozumel

I don't have a lot of specific advice on Excursions.  Definitely check what Disney offers online for your port on your days.  In addition you can check for private excursions not offered through Disney.  For example for Cozumel we went to Dolphin Discovery instead of Dolphinaris because it was rated better and offered more to do - snorkeling, sea lion show, pool, etc.
I would say for Castaway Cay day you do not need excursions.  There's enough to do with the white sand and clear water, the slides, the 5k and snorkeling if you're so inclined.

Dining

Bring Your Own Wine

I've got a really good suggestion for dining.  Each person is allowed two bottles of wine in their carry-on.  Take advantage of this at dinner.  Bring aboard a wine opener, get glasses from either room service or one of the bars, and then bring a nice full glass with you to dinner each night.  It saves you the wine, corking, and/or tip fees associated with a drink at dinner.  If you have time you can finish your bottle after dinner at your stateroom.

Take Kids to Club 

Another great tip for kids, especially if your kids are like mine and eat/drink the same thing nearly every night.  Ask for their food to be served right away.  Typically you are still on your appetizers or just starting your main meal when they are done.  I recommend you send your kids to the kids club for the rest of dinner.  This way they aren't bored and you get to enjoy the rest of your meal peacefully.  (yay!)

Order Whatever You Want

Another tip is the wait staff is absolutely trying to get that "Excellent" survey answer from you at the end of the trip, and they have free-reign to do a lot in terms of the food.  Often times we wanted two appetizers or both soup and salad, etc.  We've learned you can order as many appetizers, meals, desserts that you want.  If you don't like something tell them and they'll bring you something else right away.  In fact you can even order things that aren't on the menu.  If you know you love escargot, you can ask for it every dinner if you wish.  As long as it is on any restaurant's menu any night, you can order it.  For example if your kids love Mickey Bars they can get that every night it doesn't have to be on that night's menu.  The wait staff really means it when they say they want you to be happy.

Kids Club / Activities

The Kids Club on the Disney Cruise is really great and maybe the biggest reason parents go on Disney.  Depending on your children, they may want to be there all the time or barely at all.  There is an open-house or two the first day or two of sailing, feel free to check it out if you're interested.  Also check the Navigator App to see what activities are available.  My kids like in particular the Pluto Sleepover Party, the How to Cook series particularly the cookie making session, some of the science sessions and most pajama-type parties.  The kids receive a magic band where the staff can track their whereabouts through RFID for safety.  Also there are two kids clubs in the Wonder/Magic at least connected by a "secret" passageway, but you can pick them up or drop them off from either kids club.  One big tip for kids club, if you trust your child to be responsible, you can give them Self-Checkout privileges.  This comes in handy during the rush to get kids out of the club before the shows.  You can avoid the kid checkout line by just having your kid(s) check out themselves.

Castaway Cay

Castaway Cay is one of our favorite days on any Bahamas/Mexico cruise.  The beaches and water are beautiful, the service, food, and activities are excellent, they even offer a 5k.

Seating

Generally seating at Castaway Cay is not a problem.  There's lots of room and it is not a crowded beach, particularly for the smaller Magic and Wonder.  The best place we've found to sit is in front of the platform that has the rope monkey bars, etc.  It is maybe the least crowded area and also close to the food(!) and in the middle of the shopping/bar area.  A lot of people take the tram and then go sit near where that unloads by the slide platform, so that can get a little on the crowded side.

5k

If you want to do the 5k sign up with guest services on your first day or two aboard.  It can fill up.

You meet the morning of around 8:15 with the other runners and then leave the boat through your own exit and walk toward the starting line.  If you have children you can leave them with your spouse or take them with you off the boat and check them in to the on-island kids club was you walk to the starting line.  The 5k is not quite as scenic as I hoped - much of it is through a paved loop surrounded by tall vegetation - but it is good exercise, you get an awesome medal, and it helps justify the rest of your eating that day. ;)

Snorkeling

The snorkeling to me was a bit underwhelming.  The water featured mostly seaweed.  BUT what they do have that is cool is underwater character statues.  Follow the line of lifeguards out from the snorkeling entrance.  Look for the white buoys - under these buoys are Disney character statues such as Mickey.  The few fish that we saw were mostly hanging out by the character statues.  Under the red buoys are other things.  It was a bit far out to swim but the nice thing is you can stand up pretty much anywhere along the way.  If you bring your own mask you don't have to pay for snorkeling, or you can pay less to just rent the flippers.

Slide Platform

If your kids are adventurous, there's a platform with two long-ish slides on it and one of those buckets that dumps water on you.  It's worth checking out just be advised you need to swim to the platform.  If needed they have life jackets there for anyone to use.

Food

You can get "free" food at Cookies and Cookies Too on the island from 11-2.  (Don't forget to eat.)  Some of the food is hit or miss, I'd skip the burgers and go for the grilled chicken and the little muffins.  Also don't forget to get ice cream early enough they start shutting it down at 2.  I was a bit surprised how early everything starts shutting down even the bars on the island.

Packing

Here are some things to pack that you may not think of:

• Backpack for taking stuff around boat - sweaters, water bottles, popcorn container
• Pool bag
• Hats/swim shirt for sun protection
• Those cool new snorkeling masks where you don't have to blow out

That's all I got for now.  Feel free to add any helpful tips below or ask questions and I'll address them the best I can.  Thanks and have a great cruise!