numtini

Two per cabin, so 4. Assuming you have 4 adults.

Once you start getting to those ages, I think DCL becomes much less exciting for kids unless you're hardcore Disney fans. My daughter is 9 and we're on the Fantasy in April and I'm pretty sure this will be our last cruise with DCL. She's looking over my shoulder and is very interested in the bigger slides and other attractions on Carnival and RCL.

Oops yes! And they're very good about making sure you're ready and in place.

I've never been solicited for a drink on Castaway. I know there are people going around, but they're not nearly as common as on the ship or perhaps they just have more ground to cover. It's a pretty short way to the bar shack though. 

No I've just read nearly endless appoints of people doing so. Same for the popcorn buckets. I'm sure it's not intended, but it seems to be accepted by the line. 

You do the launch, which is really just a kidn of normal feeling slide, then you sort of glide down the habitrail tube and can look out at the deck, there's a short drop of not quite a foot which gives you a splash, then through the funnel and back around the other habitrail, then down another slide to the end. Check out a video. Very mild. Load of fun.

You're never getting a cabana unless you're platinum concierge, so don't worry about it. On the bright side, we've never had a problem finding someplace with shade to sit.

To be specific about the beer mug thing, it lets you get a 20oz for the price of a 15oz. At the end, you can take it home as a souvenir. And thus far, nobody's had a problem bringing it back and getting the deals if they did another cruise. There's a drink of the day, which is cold and fruity and $6.50. There's a bunch of woo about getting more if you buy a souvenir cup, but Disney has never said this was the case and you'd think they would. The drinks are mixed on demand, so my guess is if any particular glass is larger or smaller, you get more or less fruit juice and the same amount of alcohol. 

The Aquaduck is not nearly as aggressive as it looks. You're in a raft and it tends not to be a lot of jumps or rushes other than the initial launch and while you are in a spiral that goes out over the edge of the deck, you never notice it. I took my daughter when she was 7 and barely over the 42" minimum. 

We flew into FLL. Got a local motel and then an uber to port. $35ish motel to port, $50ish port to FLL.

We have done the Fantasy and Magic and the moms preferred the Magic for the size and Rapunzel's dinner show while our daughter preferred the Fantasy for the larger kids club, but there's no lack of things to do. Off the top of my head AquaDunk instead of AquaDuck, no detective agency, no mini-golf, no hot tubs and one fewer sauna in the rainforest room.

2 hours ago, jenniferop said:

how long do they usually run new releases? We are on the Dream on 1/13/2020...wonder if it will still be playing a month later?

There's no question it will still be there in January. I'd expect it to be around until late spring or early summer, possibly longer.

Absolutely. 

They usually announce about a year in advance, but it's pretty likely to be a Marvel cruise if its a 5 day from the 2nd week of January through the last week of Feb/first week of March. There's no Marvel characters for adult meets otherwise, though there's occasionally a Dr. Strange and Thor event in the kids club.

FWIW MDAS is amazing. The deck show is incredible and we also loved the USO show.

On 9/22/2019 at 10:49 AM, Firepath said:

Did they have activities on board for that day at sea? 

We missed Grand Cayman on our first cruise and they rolled out a full day of activities. I remember sitting in Cabanas and looking at what was available and I'd refresh the app and there'd be new things loaded in.

I believe they are all part of the Midship Detective Agency? 

On 5/25/2019 at 12:55 PM, cantgetin said:

Sorry, but thru the years we've noticed a lot less supervision of children on board.  It is NOT ok to allow kids to run around the dining room.  They are a danger to themselves, servers, and other guests.  It is NOT ok to throw food.  (my adult daughter was issues a "free laundry" ticket when an urchin at a nearby table missed his intended target and got chocolate goo on her).  It is not OK for them to steal items from server's stations (or stateroom host carts)!  It is not ok to keep your screaming or crying child in the dining room, although I can see debate on this one.  Sorry--I removed my child from a shoreside restaurant at the age of 6 when she just would not "settle down" and was annoying other diners.  I asked the server to have our food packed "to go" when it came up, and took it and her home.  Funny, we never had another behavior issue in any restaurant! 

 

I've experienced none of this on our cruises. 

If you are big "Disney People" then I think you'd have a good time. It's not just for kids. If you're not big Disney people, then you are paying a pretty significant premium for Disney. We have done two DCL cruises, we're booked for another one next April, but if we didn't have a child, I think we'd look at something else not because we don't have an amazing time, but because it would be so much cheaper. 

You can be connected to wifi for the Navigator free, but there won't be any internet. When you want internet, you sign into a website that enables sites off the ship. I found the best way to deal with things was to stay logged out of that website and only sign in for short active sessions of checking what you want to check. You'll burn through all the data very quickly being on the internet all the time.

So for the example of chatting with dad, you'd set up a time nd log into the site, chat, then log out afterwards. And while chatting, make sure all the background stuff is off--the connect@sea desk can help with that.

They can't be split.

There are two clubs, one more or less oriented around younger kids and the other more or less around older kids. They are connected by a long hallway. They are mixed because when they were separate parents complained siblings couldn't be in the same clubs and now people are complaining about the range. If there's an issue they'll contact you--the app has built in texting or there are two "wavephones" in your cabin. They will do food, but they won't force kids to eat. Generally, it's reckoned to be not very good.

OMG you're right about Starbucks. FWIW, the Cuban place in the airport has insanely good coffee and pastries.

From perusing some Navigators, it's usually the last night which is usually a sea day.

We did the Cozumel Chef tour last month and it was fantastic. You hit up a bunch of different places in a taxi-van and the food was fantastic. It fits mostly into the Tony Bourdain/street food sort of experience and it felt great to get out of the tourist pen and actually see Cozumel. We also have an 8yo daughter and Gerardo, the guide, was very friendly and accommodating as was the pricing, which was great for a tour that isn't exactly competing with the beach for a kiddo.

NP. I spent a lot of time worrying over that 11:55 flight. But we were in the airport at like 9 and Southwest's computers went down earlier in the day so everything was an hour late anyway...

We just got back from the Magic in Miami two weeks ago. We found embarkation and debarkation ludicrously easy.

You will check-in online at 75 days prior to the cruise. You will choose a port arrival time. This is when you are supposed to get to the port, not when you actually get on the ship. It's meant to space people out, but in practice, anything after 1, you just walk on. When you do check in, there will be a form to print out, but if you don't have it, that's not a big deal. 

Disney uses terminal F. The port facility is huge and the Magic is not that large a ship. We arrived at 11 for our 11 to 11:15 PAT, handed off our luggage to porters, walked in the terminal, breezed through security, waited 30 seconds for an open desk to check in. You are given a health questionnaire to fill out and once you're checked, they give you your key to the world cards and magic bands for any kids along with a card with your boarding group. After that we went to the waiting area which had ample seating complete with charging stations. They call boarding by group and it shows on the monitors in the waiting area and is very fast. It doesn't have all the Disney decoration that PC does, and you enter through the 4th floor balcony, not directly into the atrium (they still cheer you on board), but I found it an easier experience overall. 

We did express debarkation because we had a 11:55am flight out of FLL. Cabanas, the buffet, opens at 630 (everyone knows this, but it's not in the paperwork anywhere) and we had a wonderful breakfast on the aft deck looking over the skyline of Miami. (I will never do MDR breakfast on debarkation day again.) Sometime a little before 730 they announced that express debarkation was open, we said "oops" because we had kind of lost track of the time. We went to our cabin and got our luggage, by the time we made our way up the elevator and to the 4th floor balcony, they were already calling the first two luggage groups. There was no line for customs--in fact I didn't even have time to get our documents out before we got to the desk. (I think this is where you really save time with express walkoff.) He looked at them casually and a minute later we were outside dialing up an uber.

If you're not doing express, you would instead leave your luggage outside the night before, and they call by luggage tag groups to debark. You then go to a big room where it's all waiting for you. I don't know about the DCL official transport, but I think they might handle luggage for you and send it directly to your airline.