theshowmestate

I've done the CDs in the past and last year added the printed photos as well for the additional $50. All the pics taken are on the CD, you can check at the kiosks to see that they are. The pics on the CD have the fancy borders around them, no plain ones. If the plain ones are important to you, I've been told that you can ask to have a picture printed without the border while on board for the same price as an individual photo.

I would get the kiddos the passports. You never know when it'll be needed, if and when rules can change and the ever dreaded emergency.

Unless I'm mistaken after all our cruises, passengers 1 & 2 are the same price. Then there's a bit of price drop for passenger #3 and if there's passenger #4, they'll pay the same price as passenger #3 I'm not sure if there are any price breaks for kiddos the age of yours. You can always go on the website and "book" just to see what it nets out to without committing.

On our first cruise our DDs were 7 and 9. We did late dinner have done so ever since. We don't feel the rush to stop what we're doing/get back to the ship to get ready. We can get a snack, take a quick nap and be ready for the early show. Since we haven't done early dinner I can't comment on that but it does seem the later dinner seating is not rushed. If you're concerned about bedtimes or someone's getting cranky, you can opt out of dessert head back to your stateroom and enjoy some quiet time on the balcony.

I always start my OBC with Disney gift cards then use my CC. I put just enough on board to cover projected expenses with the gift cards. After that I use my CC so any credit would go back to it and not the gift cards. I'd maybe make a couple of calls to use them though so as to not overwhelm who ever has to enter in all the numbers.

the best time to cruise is when you can go. If you have flexibility then that's just icing on the cake. I think you'll encounter more folks on Spring Break mid March through the end of April. We've always done WDW or DCL for our Spring Break the last several years in mid March and have always had fun and been able to do everything we've planned/wanted to do. I think in April you'll encounter weather that's a tad warmer.

I purchased a small travel hair dryer at Sephora a couple of years ago and it's way better than the on board ones.

When you board and they're announcing you, have them mention it's her birthday.

We did Alaska with DCL in 2011 and really loved it. I weighed the option of the lines that offer the land portions as well but for our travel time and budget, DCL was perfect. We really enjoyed our time in Vancouver before the cruise and the ports and the excursions we did in them were great. If we go back, we'd go to Anchorage and do a driving deal ourselves.

Interesting. It's where we've sailed?? or Where we're continuing to sail???

I'm hoping the announcement comes early next week. Will OOT the end of the week and I'd hate to have to wait to book!

C'mon DCL!!!!

Nope, not a one. If you're looking for casinos you might consider looking at the ports you're visiting and see what's in town.

All the pics, printed and what's on the CD, have the borders around them regardless of size. I do and don't like this. I had to call the photo company last March after an issue with some pics not opening or whatever after importing them form my CD and the rep said you can ask for and pay separately for a pic without the border. Don't know if anyone has done this but I'm going to try if I get another one I want to use on my Christmas card this year. For that and some other photo projects, I prefer not to have the border. Plus 6 x 8 frames can be hard to find. I read a post once that said Amazon has some.

It'd be nice to have DCL sail out of either Galveston or New Orleans as those port cities are somewhat drivable for folks. For some the added cost of airfare to Florida ports for an already pricey cruise has them look to different vacation plans or to a cheaper cruise line. I also think some of those cruises didn't make CC which can be a deal breaker for some.

I thought they were holding off on the major dry dock of the Wonder to keep her going through the Panama Canal and the duck thing they added to the Magic, if added to the Wonder makes it harder to go through the canal????? or have I really not kept up and the Wonder has that already?

Excaret--it was a long day but the travel time went by quickly. Once there we enjoyed ourselves. We did the underground river which was cool, not sure if it's entirely nature made but whatever. Your belongings are locked up in a large duffel before you get your life vest and enter the river (you're given the key to the duffle). Cold water upon entry but we got used to it quickly. The river isn't very deep. If I remember, I could touch bottom most of the way. There were a few darker spots, a few stray bats who didn't bother us and some photo op stops along the way. I was sorry I sent my camera, which is water proof away in the locked duffel. Upon exiting the river, our guide was there to meet folks, show us to the showers and our duffels. After that we were escorted to the dining area and then given some time on our own. We wandered around and enjoyed their beach chairs. When we met up with our guide again, we did a quick tour of the property to include their butterfly area and ended up and the very large gift shop area before rebounding the buses back. My DDs are were 14 and 1 at the time but they loved it and would like to go back. There seemed to be all ages there and it looked as though there were not problems.

Discovery Cove--if you can do, do it. The pictures I've seen of the dolphin areas in the cruise ports look so so. At Discover cove you feel as though you're on a private island for a day. We loved it when we went and would do again. That's another whole post though.

CC Stingray Adventure--probably different from Stingray City but if I guess it depends on what you want. Again,for me it was seeing the sea turtles, learning about them, holding them and I haven't seen that opportunity elsewhere. CC's Stingray deal starts with a quick education about the rays they have there, feeding them in areas that the rays are trained to come to then a bit of free snorkel time in the area. It is structured where the Stingray City opportunity might be more "open" water. We've done the CC sting ray deal and my kiddos want to do it again this March, so it's been a hit with us. In GC they loved holding the baby turtles and would have stayed there all day if we had let them. After learning about the turtles (they seem to do lots of great work there with the turtles) we went to the area with the baby turtles, there was lunch and some snorkeling or swimming time in their made to look natural lagoon and swim areas. Hubby and I found lounges to relax on and our girls snorkeled through their lagoon. We were going to swim in the swim area a bit but encountered a brief rain shower so we had some snacks, hit their gift shop and it was time to go. We vaca in FL every summer on the Gulf Coast and see lots of sea turtle nests so we really enjoyed seeing them and learning a bit about them.

That one blog, the disney cruise line blog, posted Hawaii yesterday. Who cares, come up with the Europe stuff and open up the dates :) !

There was just a very recent article on Frommers.com, complete with price comparisons, to show that DCL has one of the lowest drink prices at sea. That being said, just as you would at a restaurant or bar watch what you're ordering and avoid anything in the cool souvenir cup unless you really need that cup at home.. We do bring a bit on board with us to supplement but not too much. I'm on vacation and don't want to be toting around a bunch of beverages. If you order soda, juice etc. at a show, bar or club, you'll be charged.

I've always been told to be a bit proactive when it comes to motion sickness. If you start experiencing symptoms and then start some meds you're playing catch up. I'm an super prone to motion sickness, sad to say I can't even do more than 2 or 3 pushes in a rocking chair and I've been fine on all cruises using the patch. I will say I did experience a bit of blurry vision using the patch last March on the Fantasy by the 3rd day. It wasn't severe or anything, just made me think I needed to up my readers. No other side effects. I removed the patch and was fine by morning and never had a problem with motion. Our cabin steward told me the 2 nights that can a bit rough, unless you encounter a storm at sea, are the first and last nights going into Port C. and re-entering.

Google and go to the DisneyCruiseLineBlog. They've got a copy of the map there along with deck plan maps from all ship although I don't believe the one for the new design of the Magic is included. They're located in the cruise planning section.

We did the Western last March and really enjoyed it. Our excursions were:

Grand Cayman--Boatswain Turtle Farm; Stingray City sounded great however we've done the stingray deal on CC and again, while it doesn't compare to Stingray City and it would be cool, the opportunity to do the turtles was something different.

Costa Maya--Hubby isn't really a beach guy so we did the Segway Tour and had a lot of fun. There was supposed to be some beach time included but it didn't happen. that didn't make it any less enjoyable. It was fun to do segways and now we know what they're about.

Cozumel--debated and debated due to the travel time involved but we did Excaret. Really liked it. We've done a dolphin experience at Discovery Cove in Orlando and it was really great but Excaret seemed to be something we could only do there so we chose that.

Our DDs were 14 and 16 at the time of our cruise and loved everything and would do it all again tomorrow if they had the opportunity. How lucky is your granddaughter. You'll be making memories that will warm her heart always.

Any more updates or rumors for 2015 European sailings?

One thing I think is a cool "souvenir" is to mail a postcard from each destination with a bit about we we did there. I also buy extra postcards and mail them to my kids with memories from the trip written on them and mail them at a later date.

As one poster said, don't yell at me but…..while I agree with the idea of no suits, I think this opens up the can of worms for dressing for dinner. I hope that folks can keep it nice nothing less than nice jeans, khakis, casual dresses. The wait staff still needs to look nice, act nice etc. Why can't we?? I love to see all the folks dressed up/cleaned up/looking nice, not overly dressed IE Tuxes, long gowns etc. It just seems to add something special to it all.

I haven't read all of the responses but I would consider a cruise on DCL without children. I think you can navigate and enjoy the ship and bypass some of the mayhem. The adult areas are really nice, the spa is great, Castaway Cay is awesome, do the late dinner seating, enjoy Palo & Remy, drinks on a balcony, the Cove Cafe… I think there's been a step up in keeping the kiddos out of the adult pool area which is nice plus I do think the number of families traveling together gives the ship some "life" and I like that. It's fun for us before the shows/dinner to watch all the families having fun together, taking their photos, talking with the crew. Plus, who can't resist a ship with a musical horn?? good luck deciding.