[GrumpyDad]

I am so excited. DW, DD, and I agreed on a Disney Land and Sea vacation, 4 days land 3 days sea starting on Jan 1st. We were able to score a room at the Poly so we have the land part covered, now we need suggestions from all of you with your sea legs.

DD is 15, now we need to figure out how to keep her occupied during the cruise and at the two ports. We were thinking about letting her swim with the dolphins in Nassau, but beyond that everything is flexible.

Thanks, Harry

[Amelia's Man]

Congratulations! My family and I did the 7 day land/sea cruise on the Wonder with a stay at the Poly as well! We did three days on land and four days at sea!
Your daughter will have a blast, as there are many things for teens to do onboard! They even have their own club (called Aloft, on deck 10!) Just check your "Personal Navigator" newsletter that you will get in your cabin every morning for a list of activities! I believe there is a special edition of the Personal Navigator just for teens! My twin sons had an absolute BLAST on the Wonder! They are pre-teens (11 years old) but like I said, your daughter will have a great time!
As a matter of fact, you will ALL have a great time! Everyone can just do their own thing!
Check out my full trip report in the "Trip Reports" thread for all the details of the fun we had on the Wonder!
Hope this helps you out!

[inluvwithdisney]

Originally Posted by GrumpyDad

I am so excited. DW, DD, and I agreed on a Disney Land and Sea vacation, 4 days land 3 days sea starting on Jan 1st. We were able to score a room at the Poly so we have the land part covered, now we need suggestions from all of you with your sea legs.

DD is 15, now we need to figure out how to keep her occupied during the cruise and at the two ports. We were thinking about letting her swim with the dolphins in Nassau, but beyond that everything is flexible.

Thanks, Harry

If you do the dolphin thing in Nassau you can book an actual swim directly thru the place in Nassau. If you book thru the cruiseline it is just an encounter waist deep inthe water! WE have done lots of research for our December cruise. I think it is www.dolphinswims.com

[Amelia's Man]

Thanks for that tip, inluvwithdisney! My family and I are going to do this on our next cruise, so I'll look into doing it the way you suggest! Again, thanks!

[mickey]

For your DD, make sure you take her up to the teen club the first day, so she can meet some of the other kids. They do cool activities, from watching movies to sports activities and just hanging around. My teens love the teen club, and when we can't find them, that is where we head first.

[GrumpyDad]

Thanks for all the input so far! This is really starting to look like one of the best vacations yet. Hey Mickey did you start packing yet, lol.

More to come.....Harry

[mickey]

For which trip? I usually don't pack until the day before I leave, so for this upcoming trip, I won't pack until Monday night. I have started planning everything for the cruise in March. Now, if I could just find decent flights.

One more suggestion. Make sure your DD goes to all the dinners and nightly shows with you. My kids enjoyed those two things more than anything else.

[GrumpyDad]

Hey all right! The nice mail lady just droppped off the Disney Cruise Planning Guide. Now I have a little video to keep me occupied for a while. Less then 100 days to go :-)

[Amelia's Man]

Hey GrumpyDad, watch and re-watch that video again and again! It really gets you excited for your cruise!

[jswalker1992]

I can't really help with excursions, ours were cancelled this last weekend due to Rita rolling in. But, I can tell you that our daughter had the best time out of all of us. She is 15 years old. She spent the majority of the time on the ship with her new friends hanging out at Aloft. She even opted to go back on the boat in Nassau than to go shopping. Now that is major all by itself! Today she is missing them already. Mind you, yesterday was the last day of our cruise. She has already run out and had her film developed so that she can show off her new friends to her current ones. Our sons, ages 6 and 12 also had a great time with other kids their age. This may or may not be totally true, but I think that they had an even better time with all of the ice cream and room service that they could handle! They really loved the clubs that they were in and all of the different activities on the boat. Everyone had a great time! Looking forward to doing it again! Also, don't worry about running out of things to do, there is so much going on all the time that we had time for maybe half of the stuff on our list. That isn't so bad, though. We will have so much fun the next time doing stuff we were not able to do this time.

Before I left I did lots and lots of research on what to expect when checking in to get on the cruise and what it would take to get off the ship at the end of the cruise. I was really concerned that I would mess something up. Let me tell you, if that is a concern of yours, do not worry! Disney is set up so well that it is very easy to make your way around. Definitely lots easier of a time than it is at the airport.

The one thing that I did forget to pack that I wish I hadn't is bug spray. I am so bit up that it is driving me nuts. Just thought that I would throw that in there for everyone.

Also, I found that we were tipping a bit more than suggested because the services were that good! On the first night, my DH and I went to Palo's for dinner. We happily paid the $20 that it cost to eat there and tipped Jason, our wonderful server and extra $20. It was so worth it! The dining room servers and our room host were also tipped extra because they rocked! We also gave them all phone cards with their tips at the end of the cruise. Let me tell you, the reaction that we recieved for this was great. They made us feel so special and welcome throughout the trip that we were only too happy to do something like that for them.

I realize that I am still a novice to the Disney cruising, but I hope that I have helped even a little bit.

Stacy

[Peppertink]

Wow! Phone cards...very generous! It is nice when people show appreciation for a job well(or better than well) done.

[mickey]

Phone cards, what a good idea! I am sure they all have family all over the world, and call home all the time. I think I will buy some to tip for our next cruise.

[Amelia's Man]

Wow! That phone card tip is such a great idea! I'm going to remember that for our next cruise! Thanks!

[ssn]

thanks for the tip on bug spray and the phone cards - we are leaving for the 4 day cruise in 2 weeks. Great tips!!!!!

[Amelia's Man]

Hey, enjoy your cruise ssn! Which ship are you going out on? The Wonder, or the Magic?