tinybiny

They actually might get a lot more attention from the crew and in the clubs.

I do think they would be disappointed if they have been on 3 Disney cruises, though. If you think they would enjoy a non-Disney cruise, it will probably be fine. You'd just have to let them know that it is a not a regular Disney cruise.

I think that is a one boat day (Disney Wonder)... travel delays should be minimal.

 

A later flight means you can enjoy that breakfast on the Wonder... that you paid for.

That may be a nice experience. I think I've only had one breakfast when departing. We are always rushing off to get home. We are deciding between going home that day or spending the night. For how often we go to Vancouver (which is never), I figured it wouldn't hurt to put our feet up for a while.

You should recognize that there are two components to the card. One part allows you free brewed coffee, higher end teas and even iced coffee and tea at the IC. That is cruise specific as they will date the back of the card and is essentially for a single person. The other part is the 15 punches which are good for a variety of speciality drinks, latte, mocha, etc. that is shareable as any time you get a drink you use up a punch. The 15 punches remain in effect for eternity, at least currently, so you can bring an old card on a future cruise and still use them both for specialty drinks and regular coffee. The difference then is that a regular coffee would also cost a punch. They also are good for the gelato on Royal and Regal which I will test next week.

Thanks. That was very comprehensive.

To clarify.... which date is your flight? Not a problem on a single boat day. The problems occur when 3 or more ships are unloading at the same time.

June 6.

I think you better check with your TA or cruise line as I don't believe that a ships transfer and baggage service will support a flight that early.

EDITED: Just went back through my docs. My flight was 12:05pm and the airline changed it to 11:05am. I just updated the info with the cruise line, but won't risk it.

I am easily stressed out when traveling. I think I'll go ahead and book a later flight. I will still be home later the same day. It will just cost a bit more and have more transfers, but I won't have to worry if anything is going slow.

All of your payments will go through your TA. I used a $500. gift card as part of my cruise payment once.

You will be able to use your cards, but you may want to go online to combine them into one large card before giving to your TA. Otherwise, you'll need to give the code and pin for each card and the TA will in turn need to do that when they speak to DCL.

Is it realistic to get from the cruise ship terminal, supposed to be off by 8:00am to get to a flight leaving at 11:05am? I am using the cruise's airline transport and luggage service, but I keep reading horror stories of people spending several hours in lines at the airports now.

I can change my flight to a later flight which will cost more and have 2 stops instead of one. Or, I just stay with what I have and hope for the best. I have insurance for my cruise, but my airline insurance is through the airline, Alaska.

Sorry if it is a dumb question, but can I buy one and share it with my husband? We are only doing a 4 nighter and won't each need full cards.

What are Puppies in the Piazza??? More details please!!! Will I be able to pet them?

 

 

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My husband cannot wear a tie, due to an enormous neck from a medical condition. He cannot even button the top button on a shirt. Normally, he will wear a nice shirt with a jacket. Would that be okay?

I am just planning on bringing a couple regular business style dresses. They are not long gowns and not after 5 wear. Would be okay or is it better to skip MDR on the formal nights?

Which itinerary are you looking at? If it involves going to Castaway Cay, I'd say it is a great choice for adults.

If you like to be busy and party all night, DCL is not for you.

They didn't have it on my 2012 cruise, due to it offending the wildlife.

I just looked at the activities for my 2016 cruise and it is not on there. There's a Pixar Party, Frozen party and sail away party. No fireworks and no pirates.

Thanks so much for all of your candid feedback. Although it's not a booze cruise, lots of kid running around just doesn't sound appealing. // I would have free airfare -- OK not free, but I have lots of airline points and can get direct flights to Miami.

 

I think it's back to the drawing board.

Don't drop it from your plans, yet. I often grab food from the family pool area and take it back to the adults pool area.

Take second seating dinner as it will have less smaller children. I haven't ever seen any kids running around at dinner and I always have second seating.

I joke that MOM gets to be on vacation on the ships' date=' while at the parks, mom is still on duty.

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This is a very good point. I always have so much to do to get ready for a vacation, during the vacation and returning from the vacation. Cruises are the only vacation where I don't have keep arranging things, doing things for other people, cleaning up after everyone, etc. I still have lots to do before and after the cruise, but I sure get to enjoy my vacation when I am on a cruise.

 

Parks are fun, but cruises are where I really get a break.

I forwarded my held Princess booking to my TA and she booked it for me. Even though the cost and everything was exactly the same, when she booked it, we ended up with $300. OBC from Princess, $150pp. She will keep looking for specials and other deals until my PIF date. This is so very different than what I am used to with DCL.

I have almost the same cruise booked with DCL a couple months later. :p Sadly, my DCL PIF date is about a week before my Princess cruise. It would have been nice to have finished the first cruise and then come home and decide if I wanted to keep the second one. I'm keeping both for now.

For those curious, it's a Baja cruise. Princess is 4 nights, with Catalina Island, Ensenada and one sea day for 2 adults, balcony room + trip insurance.

DCL is 3 night Baja, with Ensenada and one sea day, 1 adult, ocean view room, no insurance.

The princess is $100. more and comes with the $300 OBC. DCL doesn't have OBC, but my TA will probably give me $50 OBC. This is going to be our test on Princess to see if we want to do an Alaskan on them in the future.

Mickey Bars - yes, available if you ask for them. No extra charge.

Castaway Cay - all equipment costs extra to rent. I never used the water slides but assume those are free. Lunch on the island is also included.

I've never watched the fireworks on my cruises.

What does the soda and more package offer? I don't normally drink sodas, but would have seltzer water with juice. I would probably have a specialty coffee or tea every day and bottled water. I read a previous post that said it includes milkshakes. I'd probably have one of those over the duration of a cruise.

I have done a 3 night and a couple 2 night cruises. They are not booze cruises. The adult pool is crazy crowded and people are drinking there, but I didn't see anything that I found obnoxious. I've never seen any drunken contests that I read about on other ships, such as wet Tshirt contest, hairy chest contest, etc.

What I remember from my 3 night Dream was total chaos and kids running around unsupervised on the pool deck. Oddly, I never saw that on the 2 night Wonder cruises. The 2 nighters had lots of families who were enjoying their children on the pool deck. They looked like true family fun weekends. It was magical.

I put a 4 night Princess cruise on hold yesterday. I am probably going to put a deposit down if I can find the cancellation policy. Today, I've received both a phone call and an email from someone there offering to help me or answer any questions. The email was very detailed with the stuff I can get help for and said that they can do all the planning and for me to make it easier to vacation.

Anytime I surf the NCL website, I get a call the next day. That is without me actually attempting to book anything or entering my information again. I have since started using a different browser to avoid the calls, but with the call and email from Princess today, I'm wondering if it's actually standard for cruise lines to reach out and be helpful

I've only sailed Disney and I guess I've never booked direct. I've booked with DVC, Costco and a TA. If I booked directly with DCL, would they have contacted me by phone to offer help with everything? I'm just really surprised me today to hear from Princess after putting something on hold online. It makes me wonder if it is industry standard and I just didn't know because I've always book on DCL through a third party.

Did you find that it had more motion than other parts of the deck? I'd love a view of the wake, but get worried that I'd feel sea sick indoors if it was too bumpy of a ride.

This thread has a lot of great tips. I wish we had this before my first cruise. I missed out on many things because I didn't spend much time looking at the Navigator. We were busy the entire time, though.

I'd also like to suggest that you do another booking while on board for the 10% discount on a future sailing (if eligible). I'm sure someone else can explain how it works better than I can. Hopefully, they will. :)

I would not. Even being a Disney fan, I get very tired of the music and seeing the people dressed in Disney fan attire. That said, it is still the only cruise I've been on and currently have 3 more booked. :p

I would be traveling with a young adult and as far as I can tell, Carnival doesn't allow under 21s to go to the adults only areas. I haven't seen that with any other lines we've looked at. What do young adults do on a cruise like this?

It looks like Inspiration and Imagination are the ships that do the cruises I am looking at. How is the food on these? One of my traveling partners is a very picky eater and will only eat stuff like chicken strips, fries, plain burgers and things that don't have any seasoning other than salt and no sauces of any kind. Is that kind of stuff readily available?

Looking forward to reading along. Have a great trip.

Depending on how long your port day is, you may just want to book a catamaran tour with another company and do the white bus to and from the glacier on your own. I believe the buses come every 30 minutes or so.

I did a combo tour with Disney in the past. It had whale watching, salmon bake and Mendenhall glacier. The time at the glacier was way too short and the time at the salmon bake was way too long. The salmon bake was not worth attending and everything, including the food was covered in gnats and mosquitos.

I've done the cruise in June and it was too cold for pools. The first couple of days (sea days) were cold, rainy and windy. Once in a while, we'd walk the top deck and nobody else was up there. The cove cafe was packed the whole time and it was very difficult to find a seat.

It was a very nice cruise, though. The naturalist on board was great and I went to a couple of his talks. The scenery of Tracy Arm/inside passage was worth the entire cruise.

I've seen pics of trip reports from other people who went in August and they did use the pools. There wasn't much snow/ice in their pictures and I wouldn't have known they were in Alaska if it wasn't an Alaskan trip report.

Princess has cruise/land tours. I would expect that Holland would, too. I've read here that both of those are a much older crowd in general. Look at Norweigan, too. They seem like a good line for a relaxed, eat dinner whenever you want line.