[Amneris]

This is my list of things I'd wished I'd known ahead of time, or stuff I had trouble finding out about Disney cruises. I've been VERY busy lately, so haven't had a chance to post a trip report (well, to respond to Geeman's report...) or answer questions and stuff. But I hope to soon! In the meantime:


1. All non-alcoholic drinks are CONSTANTLY refilled at meal times (i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner). It is practically impossible to escape without having at least 2-3 glasses of soda AND a cup of coffee.

2. A self-serve drink station is located on the top deck (w/ the pizza, ice cream, and fast food stands) and is open until 11pm each night. It never runs out of cups or lids. It has an ice machine. Offers unsweetened iced tea, sweetened lemonade, water, hot water for a selection of hot teas or hot cocoa, reg coffee, decaffe coffee and milk. There are also plenty of stirs and various sugars there. As well as napkins.

3. The Guest Services people are incompetent. Don’t rely on them for help because you probably will not get it. We asked about our safe not working twice. They promised they’d send someone to fix it. They never did. While we were there once a man was trying to get them to take charges he did not make off of his account. He was holding a print out of his account they had given him. They claimed that they could not access his account and refused to look at the print out he had. He went through at least two different people, each completely ignorant about what he was talking about. I hope he finally did get this straightened out…

4. You can take pictures of the “professional” pictures. When you meet the characters and they snap your photo to sucker you into buying it later, not only can you have a member of your party (or kind guest) take a picture, but the “guard” cast members will gladly take your camera and snap the picture as well. This way we got us both in the picture with Donald and Daisy (Daisy – that was soooo cool!), and did not have to pay to buy the photograph. If you don’t want to lug a camera around with you all the time, then DO buy the photo package (even though it seems expensive) outright. You will save money. The couple at our table wound up buying far more photos than they expected to because the photographers are EVERYWHERE. When you get on the ship, with all the characters at assigned character meetings, with the characters when they wander around the children’s pool area of the ship, at dinner, posed scenes by ocean backdrops etc etc etc.

5. Characters. The characters frequently change costume, so even though the same ones may be out on different days, you can have a different photo op. The lines are cut off near the time the character leaves, so get in line early as the lines can get l-o-n-g.

6. Room service. We had a bad experience with this one as they messed up our order. But what I’m writing to say is that although the main room service menu is found in the hard cover bound book in your stateroom, the breakfast room service menu is a little paper door hangy thing found in the drawer of the dresser (with the pen and stationary). I had thought breakfast room service was only for the concierge level (which we were not) … until doing a final sweep of the room Saturday morning before leaving the ship and discovering that breakfast menu. Also, room service IS free (I think there’s probably a charge for beverages, we didn’t order any but went up to the beverage station.)

7. Consider your day done at 6. Whether you’re the first dinner seating or not, that’s it. It’s either dinner then show or (as we did) show then dinner. By the time we left the show, we had an unusable 40 minutes before dinner. By the time we got out of dinner it was 10-10:30. Leaving us just time to get drinks before 11. Most of the activities start at 10:30 – not just the bands and things for adults but also (very oddly) several character meetings or “family” celebrations.

8. The water is w-a-r-m. Like bath water. At least, at the adult pool it was. Whether it was all down to the solar heat, I don’t know, but it puts the frigid “heated” pools at the Disney resorts to shame.

9. There’s a place to eat on Castaway Cay by the adult beach, you don’t have to go to the main place by the family beach. At least, that’s what our tablemates told us after the fact. Apparently the food selection is better there too.

[kphil89]

Thanks for the info, this will be very helpful in planning our cruise in 2005. Thanks again.

[mickey]

Ameris, great post. That is a great list of suggestions.

1. On our cruise, the drink station was closed, and there wasn't another option during at all. Of course, we were there just after the cruise that was cancelled for the Norwalk virus, so we were served everthing, and couldn't touch any of the food at the buffets.

2. The food station at the adult beach is right by where the trams let you off. I thought the food was quite good.

3. There is a charge for room service for drinks. Plus, we always tipped the server a little bit.


The one suggestion I would add is that I wish I knew that on Deck 4, there are wonderful places to sit between the show and dinner. It is always nice and quiet, out of the wind, and has wonderful teak deck chairs, most with nice cushions. We didn't find this out until the last night.

[llama]

If you want something to fill up those 40 minutes between show and dinner (or viceversa) play Bingo. It is without a doubt one of the most fun things on board - and it takes just about a half hour.

My daughter suffered from motion sickness and on a couple of occasions couldn't face the dining room for dinner. We ordered her very simple food from room service, and they were wonderful. In fact, they checked on her two or three times through the eveniing to see how she was feeling.

[MickeyMac]

Yes, this IS a great thread!!

We learned that the front desk onboard has Bonine and it's quite difficult to obtain. When we mentioned it to our Cabin Steward, he showed up with enough for all of us for the rest of our trip.

On debarkation day, show up towards the END of the time slot, when the lines have died down a bit.

Bring your own comb if you intend on getting your hair wrapped or braided. We also found the braiders on Nassau were much more adept than the braiders on Castaway Cay. They were less expensive too, but not sure how true that is anymore.

If you don't want to pay for an excursion on an island, as a taxi driver how much it would cost for a tour around the island. You can dicker with them until you come up with a price that is good for the both of you. (I would only do this on the smaller islands, where it was somewhat 'safe')

We would 'tie the kids over' at the hot dog stand on the top deck. :D

[mickaholic4077]

I don't know if they do this on Disney Cruise lines,but on Royal Caribbean,they add 15% gratuity right on the price of a drink,BUT they don't reflect that on the piece of paper you sign. For instance,I bought the non-alcoholic version of the special of the day to get the souvenir glass. It said $4.95 on the slip I signed. When I got my final bill,it said $5.69. I was all set to go down to the purser's office to dispute the charge until my mother reminded me of the 15% gratuity. Now I don't mind paying that,but the slip should have reflected the gratuity.

[geeman]

Mickey, it's so true about Deck 4 - one of the few really really quiet places aboard.
Actually, a quick story about Deck 4- On Thursday, our day at sea, we had decided to just relax there - she was going to write and I was going to listen to music and relax. Well, she'd decided to try for a quick swim first, then meet me on Deck 4. Of course, we forgot to tell each other exactly WHERE we'd be waiting.
So I sat there for a good forty minutes saving the seat next to me-- and nothing. So I decided to see if she was maybe on the other side of the ship. Nope. Tried the room. Nope. Tried the top decks. No luck. Walked through the floors, getting both upset and annoyed that we hadn't settled on a spot. About to give up. I finally found her in a corner with her laptop - she was on Deck 4, all right, but was actually on line at the Cruise Line Travel agent desk, booking a future trip!!! (Of course, where else would she be!!!).

One weird thing about 4 also is that it's the only one you can actually walk/run on all the way around without bumping into too much (although the machinery at the front part of the ship was a bit scary to pass in the mornings).

One bad thing about it is that smokers tend to have quick ones - which would be ok except the smoke blew right back on us sitting there behind them. Kind of annoying when you've got smoke allergies.

And as for Amneris' claim about Guest Relations, she was putting it politely. I had thought they'd be much more efficient than they were.

Other than that, though, everything was lovely!

BTW- they still have signs up by the buffet reminding folks to wash hands before touching anything at the buffet and after.

AND- we were on the snorkel boat with one of the families that had first gotten sick last year! They told us some interesting horror stories, but were happy to be back cruising with Disney without getting sick this time!

Micaholic, we didn't drink anything out of the regular, so I can't say that's so here, but Disney Cruise Line DOES expect you to tip their staff rather well (envelopes are provided at the end of your stay, and it's up to you to put names on them and fill them out). I felt our servers and housekeeping worth it.

[Disneybound]

We traveled on the Disney Wonder in March of 2003.
We had an excellent time. The children's activity clubs are just awesome. My son (age 7) checked in and didn't want us to check him out! The kids put on a cute show for their parents in the theatre. The kids are given T-shirts and they all look so cute during the performance. During the show that our son was in, photos of our children that had been taken while they visited kids club....were shown on the large screen. Have your cameras ready as the pics are so large you can actually snap a photo of the photo. At the time that we sailed, these photos were not available to purchase. The staff was wonderful.....friends we were traveling with had no advance announcement....their daughter's pic was the first one.....after the show, we went into the kid's club and they ran the show again for us....allowing us the opportunity to take necessary pics we missed!

Remember, even though they have a children's menu, you can order a regular meal for the kids so they can try what you are eating. I remember I ordered something and I did not like it, and I was able to order something else. My husband wanted another piece of prime rib and all he had to do was ask and it was brought right to him.

Try to get over to the Atlantis....we actually booked a room there so that we could use all of the hotel's amenities. I wish that we could have actually spent the night! You will most likely be taking a taxi there....the driver will expect to be given a necessary toll to go over a bridge...before he proceeds. We were caught off guard as we are used to paying the taxi driver once we reach our destination. So you will pay for the toll, and then once you get to the Atlantis you will pay him again. Either we got suckered or someone else out there can support what happened to us.

[mickaholic4077]

My mother and her friends went to Atlantis when we were docked in Nassau and they took a cab. They never once mentioned paying the toll for the driver.

[Disneybound]

I imagine that they had a wonderful time.....
It sounds like perhaps we were tourists taken advantage of....

It is a shame that individuals aren't all honest! I remember, we had to give him 2.00 to cross the bridge! That was in addition to whatever my husband paid once we got to the Atlantis!