Disney Cruise - we booked

[jayali]

Holy smokes I never realized how expensive the Disney cruise was going to be. We booked it last night, through a travel agency (a slight savings over online), and I knew it was going to be expensive, but didn't realize just how expensive.

We are flying down a few days early - staying at the Hard Rock, doing Universal and then doing a 7 day Eastern Carribean cruise.

Matthew is SO excited. I hope that the kids club turns out to be as fabulous as I have heard or he is going to be disappointed.

I was a little disappointed with some recent reviews I read on Cruisecritic about the boat (Magic) and how some of the staterooms need to be remodeled and "freshened" up. Anyone sail recently and want to give me their honest opinion, feel free.

Also, any suggestions for what to do on any of the ports of call? Or what are must do and see on the boat?

All suggestions are welcome.

[fivi2]

Congrats! Sounds like a lot of fun.

No advice, but I did want to mention that the disboards do have a cruise forum. I am sure you can get up to date info there!

Have fun!

[hellokitty1]

Yahoo. I just made my deposit today too. Now the planning/anxiety begins. Did you get insurance? My TA says I have until the final deposit is due to decide. Initially, I was thinking no. But now I think I am given the unpredictability of young children.

Good luck with all your planning. I was reading thorugh many old posts and found this website. I think it's a little dated but it's still helpful nonetheless.

http://manullang.com/DCLcruisingtips.htm#_Toc144816261

And I've already created a user ID on cruisecritic and started posting questions. It's very helpful.

[jayali]

Yeah for you! It is exciting, isn't it. Of course I am a total planner so am stressing just a bit about what I need to do before we go! Did you decide to go with the two days at Castaway Cay? I have to go on to cruisecritic and see if I can find out more information. I am silently hoping that we get upgraded, but of course not counting on it. I wonder if they have any suggestions for that.

Let me know if you find out any "secrets" about what to do and I will do the same.

Happy planning.

[hellokitty1]

Yeah for you! It is exciting, isn't it. Of course I am a total planner so am stressing just a bit about what I need to do before we go! Did you decide to go with the two days at Castaway Cay? I have to go on to cruisecritic and see if I can find out more information. I am silently hoping that we get upgraded, but of course not counting on it. I wonder if they have any suggestions for that.

Let me know if you find out any "secrets" about what to do and I will do the same.

Happy planning.

Take a look at that link in my previous post. I thought it was interesting as long as you take it with a grain of salt. We are doing the double Castaway Cay and skipping Key West. I haven't come across a single post that bad mouths it. So my expectations are way up there and if it stinks....And we have a CAt 8 guarantee which means we could get upgraded. That would be cool.

I'm so excited and so nervous. I know the cruise wil be great with lots to do but I know DH and I will have to take shifts with DC2 so I just hope it doesn't feel like we're never together all as a family.

Oh, which reminds me something I did learn that surprised me...kids that are not potty-trained can only go in the Mickey ears part of the kids pool. They can't go in any other pool. It's a regulatory rule for kids. But I digress...

Anyway, I'm sure the kids programs are great and DC1 will definitely participate. But I don't want to just leave her there. This is a family vacation and if I didn't want to be around my kids, I'd just leave them at home and go with DH. KWIM?

[Momof3Labs]

Did you get insurance? My TA says I have until the final deposit is due to decide. Initially, I was thinking no. But now I think I am given the unpredictability of young children.


I think that insurance is a must-do if you are cruising. If you have a medical emergency and have to be airlifted to a hospital - $$$$$. It will also pay to get you back on the cruise if you miss the ship due to travel delays of any sort. I don't buy travel insurance for a vacation within the U.S., but won't cruise without insurance, even when doing it without kids. Go to insuremytrip.com and make sure you understand what is covered and what is not - usually you can get a better, cheaper policy through this website vs. buying through a TA or cruiseline.

Cruises also have stricter refund policies (usually need to be paid in full well in advance, with no refunds after that point) which make travel insurance more of a necessity.

[BeachBum]

[QUOTE=hellokitty1;2600806

Oh, which reminds me something I did learn that surprised me...kids that are not potty-trained can only go in the Mickey ears part of the kids pool. They can't go in any other pool. It's a regulatory rule for kids. But I digress...
[/QUOTE]

I think you misspoke. Kids that aren't potty trained can't go in any pool. IME it is strictly enforced.
Kids in swim diapers have a separate splash area adjacent (but not "with") the mickey ears pool. It is on the other side of the slide. I was disappointed that I couldn't supervise my little ones and my 4 yr old at the same time.
It has little spouts that squirt up, but there is no standing water in it.

The mickey pool is about waist deep on a kid. The Goofy pool is a regular deepish swimming pool.

We were on the magic in Oct with our 10mo twins and 4 yr old. We had a truely "magical" time. I would be happy to answer any questions I can. PM me if I don't respond here.

[HallsofVA]

I love Disney cruises, and just came back from our 3rd Disney cruise in 13 months. We've done the 7 nt Eastern, Western (twice) and 4nt bahamas cruises thus far.

I personally would take much of what you read on the Cruise Critic board in regards to the Disney cruises with a grain of salt. The disney cruise forum on disboards.com is much more active and a much better source of information on Disney cruises. On the disboard you can find the "meet" thread for others sailing on your cruise with you and it's a wealth of information and a great way to meet others. We did a gift exchange on our last two cruises which was a lot of fun! That board also has tons of great advice that helps you find the good stuff and avoid the crowds and lousy stuff.

With regards to young kids and the "mickey ear", that used to be the toddler play area, where they had fountains and allowed kids in swim diapers to go splash around in there. During the 2007 and 2008 drydocks, they built a new splash play area to the side of the Mickey pool where the swim diaper set can splash around and play, and turned the mickey ear back into a shallow pool.

My son loves the kids clubs. He would spend the whole cruise in there if we would let him. My daughter just turned old enough for the club on our last two cruises, and she's still not so sure about them, though loved to be there when the princesses were in there reading stories and dancing with the kids.

I was on the Magic in December and the Wonder in January, and both ships are in great shape. Each ship goes to drydock every other year where they get updated, etc. The Magic last went to drydock in 2008 and is scheduled for drydock this October after we bring her home from Europe. The only stateroom I've stayed in that I had any concern about the wear and tear was actually the Category 1 Roy Disney suite we were in in Dec 2008. There was some obvious wear and tear on all the nice burled wood in that suite. Our room on all of our cruises have been great.

Our excursions on the Eastern were heavily influenced by the age of our kids at the time. We did the beach excursion in St Maarten/St Martin which took us to Waikiki Beach on the French side which was great and included lunch which was fabulous. Our 2nd stop was St Thomas where we did the Coral World and semi-sub excursion which wasn't that great.

Castaway Cay is fabulous and I can never get enough of that place. In our first 3 trips I never made it past our regular beach chairs in front of the first bar you get to (must have Konk Koolers! They start selling them at 10am, and they go buy 1 get 1 free at 1pm.) We've generally spent all morning on the beach, then break for lunch and either more beach or back to the ship for naps and packing (if it's the last day.) On our January cruise, since 1) we'd just been there 3 weeks earlier, and 2) it was low 70s and water was way too cold for us, we decided to spend the day seeing everything we hadn't done before. We rented bikes and explored the rest of the island, and I finally got to see the adult beach (though still didn't get to go there since the kids were with us) and the other bars and stores on the island. We had a lot of fun that day and now we'll be torn as to whether to beach or bike on future visits.

For the insurance, buy it yourself rather than buying it through Disney. It's way overpriced and they charge for kids. If you're a USAA member, buy it via the link on their website as its discounted and has a special customer service number for USAA folks. Insuremytrip.com is a good source for comparing travel insurance policies. Our travel insurance is going to pay for the hotel and meals from where we were stranded in the Orlando airport after our Dec trip when the east coast blizzard delayed our flight home to VA after the cruise.

[Tondi G]

In St Thomas we got in a cab and told him to show us around the island... we went up and saw Blackbeard's Castle (and the view was great) then told him to take us to a great beach. I would take your kiddos to Coral world and then head out to Coki beach and enjoy the crystal clear water. When we went (our honeymoon 10 years ago) we rented a couple of masks/snorkels from a stand on the beach and the guy handed us some dog biscuits to put in the water... within seconds we were surrounded with fish. It was COOL! Other beach option is Magen's Bay.

http://www.vinow.com/stthomas/beaches_stt/beaches2.php

In St. Martin we took a cab that showed us around the island... he pointed out the change from the Dutch to french side and we ended up on Orient Beach. It was also beautiful but no water was as clear as it was in St Thomas!

http://www.threebestbeaches.com/stmartin/

This is an option for something other than a beach day! http://www.loteriefarm.net/