lawgator

We have gone the weekend before Veteran's Day the past 4 years (and have it booked again for this year) and the weather has been pretty good....warm, but not too hot. There was only one trip where we couldn't dock in Castaway Cay due to high winds. We usually follow up our trip with a night at Disney to enjoy the end of the Food and Wine Festival. Enjoy!

We are going on a 3 night cruise on the Dream on November 7-10. The only scheduled stop is Castaway Cay (we don't mind because we don't really enjoy Nassau all that much), so there is actually a sea day on this cruise. Do you think they will offer a Palo Brunch? We would love it if they did! Anyone have experience with this? Also any other tips as to what else they might have on our sea day? Thanks in advance for your help.

This thread has been useful to me as well, so thank you, OP. I booked a 7 day cruise on NCL's POA for November, 2015 about a week ago using the NCL website for a guarantee balcony. NCL gave me $50. OBC, the AARP discount, and a reduced deposit. After reading this thread I used the list of travel agents on the cruise critic website and started calling them. The first one gave me a really nice offer that they will take over my reservation with the same rate, we still get the the $50. OBC from NCL, and the travel agency will give me an additional $50. OBC plus prepaid gratuities (daily service charge) for the 2 of us in our cabin for the week...and chocolate covered strawberries :-). She emailed me a NCL transfer form which I printed, signed, scanned and attached to an email back to her. I could probably have cancelled the first NCL reservation and rebooked with her, but the rate has gone up several hundred dollars in the past few days for unknown reasons. I do hope this works out, but am optimistic it will.

Any tips or suggestions on how to afford a DCL cruise? I really want to go but DH is having a hard time agreeing with me due to pricing. When we do go there will be 5 of us (me, DH, 12yo boy, 4yo girl, 2yo boy). A 3-4 day is as much as a 7 day on others. I know I am getting a better experience but how do I make it affordable???

 

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If you do use a Target Red Card to save 5% (we do) as a previous poster mentioned, you can then create a Disney Vacation Account (through Disney...google it) and load all your Disney gift cards (maximum value for them at Target is $50) into that account as you buy them. When you book your cruise and do final payment you just give Disney your Vacation Account number and they take the money out. There is a promotion for the Disney Vacation Account that for every $1,000 you spend you will get a $20. Disney gift card ( so another 2%). Just be sure and save those gift cards in case something happens and you have to cancel. Any refunds would go back onto the original cards. Also, the cruise we are going on next November was booked while onboard our cruise last Nov., so we'll get another 10% off plus $100. obc. But obviously you have to have your first cruise first to do this. :-) Gotta love any discounts considering how expensive it is to cruise Disney.

Have been checking out the packages but am wondering if they are actually worth the price and if anyone has any experience-positive or negative with the in the stateroom gifts purchased through DCL?

When we cruise on the Dream we always buy ourselves a 1 day Rain Forest Spa pass from the stateroom gifts section. They are reasonably priced and the heated loungers with reading lights, whirlpool, sauna and different scented showers are very nice to use off and on all day long. The view from the whirlpools of the sea is lovely, too. It's a nice adults only activity.

Has anyone done this? I'm happy with a day at Castaway but really, nothing is calling my name in terms of dragging around our 3 kids + two grandparents at Nassau. I'm leaning towards just staying on Magic and enjoying the boat less populated.

 

Thoughts? Or is there something that is super duper that we would be missing out on? We aren't big Atlantis fans, in that we don't feel the need to tour that. Also, are there areas of Magic that won't be operating on port days?

 

:)

Yep, just got back from a 3 night Dream cruise and only got off in Nassau long enough to find a place with wifi to use Skype on my tablet and call a sick family member. I haven't found Nassau has much to offer other than a high crime rate, so we enjoyed the Rain Forest Spa heated loungers and whirlpools, the Aqua Duck, and a movie on board...oh, and of course, the food (and beer we were allowed to carry on and bring in our stateroom). We have our own snorkeling gear and waited until the next day at Castaway Cay to enjoy the beach and snorkeling opportunities.