First time going on a Disney Cruise,any tips?

[SoraX17]

Hi fellow dibbers, my daughter and I have booked with Virgin holidays our next florida holiday. This will be our 10th visit to the sunshine state since 2003 and our 4th time staying on a Disney resort, sorry to bore you with these details.. We are going from Manchester on the 1st of November,staying at Coronado Springs for 10 nights, then doing a 4 night cruise on the Disney Dream, I am told that it will be the first Xmas cruise too. We are so excited to go and never having done a cruise before, I wondered if anyone have any tips and advice please Thanks

[SoraX17]

Any tips appreciated, big or small 😀

[sparrow]

You will love it. We are going on our 6th Bahamian cruise in May. So it’s not addictive at all. Maybe you could join a Fish extender group. These are fun.

[SoraX17]

Thank you for your reply Sparrow,we are doing the 4 night Bahamian Cruise too. What is a fish extender group? 😀

[sparrow]

OTHER NICE THINGS
Hopefully this will help
What is a Fish Extender?

I am sure you are wondering! It's a very strange name for a very lovely idea. If you think of a 'Secret Santa', then you are along the right ideas.

Near each cabin door there is a fish, (or sometimes a seahorse). This Fish is used by the crew to leave you messages. It has become a tradition on Disney cruises for some people to use these Fish to leave each other little presents.
However, as the Fish isn't very large, it needs to be 'extended', hence the term 'Fish Extender', which is basically any sort of container which can be hung from the Fish. They tend to be a fabric strip with a number of pockets on, but we saw a couple of different items being used and they all worked fine.

In order to join in, you need to join a group for your specific cruise, this is normally on FB. They will have someone organising the FE lists and other exchanges such as ornaments, sweets etc.
I would recommend avoiding the FB group that is titled Disney Cruise Line Fish Extenders (the admin is someone called Ali) - I recommend avoiding it as it gives out incorrect information and gives wrong expectations to newbies.

Once you have a group, then you need to think of something to give as your gift. We gave out British things like Jelly babies, Cadbury's, crisps, Twiglets etc. Other's give piratey things, or things from their local area. It doesn't really matter what you choose, the fun is in wondering what you might find each time you return to your cabin. Give what you would like to receive and you won't go far wrong.

You will get a list of participants and cabin numbers, so at some point on the cruise, you head out with your bag of goodies and leave little parcels in everyone's fish extender. I thought this would be a 'chore', but actually we really enjoyed it. It was great fun to see everyone's decorated doors (more on that later), and their Fish Extenders, and we got to see many areas of the ship that we would have otherwise missed.

If you can find a group for your cruise, then I would recommend getting involved as it's a lot of fun.


BevS97's Fish Extender


Gifts received

[SoraX17]

Thanks for the explanation Sparrow, I think I get the idea. I will definitely have a look at a group to get involved with. Sounds like a lot of fun, we are so looking forward to it😁.

[gismo1554]

I would definitely check out disneycruiselineblog for navigators of previous cruises as this will give you some ideas about what is going on onboard. There is so much to do and you don't want to miss out on something because you don't spot it.

Also I would try and avoid booking too many things. Nassau is OK but as its your first cruise you may want to not bother with a tour and just stay onboard or do shop port shopping. You can look at the excursions DCL offers online and see if there is anything that grabs your attention.

In Castaway too I would say there is enough that you don't need to do an excursion although if you are active then you might want to do the snorkle rental or the bikes (we did the getaway package on our first visit which included both and was good value).

Most food and soft drinks are included but remember if you order a soft drink at a bar they will charge you. On the pool deck there are drinks stations where you can get soft drinks and take them anywhere on the ship so worth grabbing one before a show to save a few bucks. Food wise, any snacks by the theatres are not free and also some snacks in the bars. There are however plenty of free food options including free room service (you just tip for the delivery a few bucks).

You can take 2 bottles of wine onboard to drink in your room if you want to (or 6 beers) otherwise alcohol is chargeable but not as expensive as in Disney World. They also do drink tastings which you can book and these tend to be great value for what you get if you like this type of thing.

Meal wise, you get to rotate around the restaurants each night so you get to try all the menus. There are however 2 restaurants that you pay extra for and need to book if you want to dine at them. Remy and Palo are both adult only and do brunch and dinner. I always think brunch is nicer as then you don't miss one of the main restaurants for dinner.

Your dining time is either early (5:30ish) or late (8:30ish) depending on what you book. If you want to change it its best to try and do as early as possible as sometimes there is a wait list. With either you still get to see the evening show as they run this twice at the opposite times. This means if you are on the 5:30 dinner your show time is 8:30 and if you are on the 8:30 then its 5:30.

Im sure I will think of other things once I post this but that's the most important things I think

[SoraX17]

Hi Sarah, Thank you for your reply, you have given us some really good tips and information. As this is our first cruise,we really don't want to miss out on anything and this has helped us a lot. If you can think of anything else that would help us, that would be fantastic Thanks again

[gismo1554]

Originally Posted by SoraX17

Hi Sarah, Thank you for your reply, you have given us some really good tips and information. As this is our first cruise,we really don't want to miss out on anything and this has helped us a lot. If you can think of anything else that would help us, that would be fantastic Thanks again

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No worries. My first cruise I definitely tried to do too much (still do if I'm honest) but by at least having a little idea about what you want it will help. I'm doing the same itinerary as you but in September this year for a Halloween cruise and its my first time on the Dream so if I find out any other tips I shall let you know.

[Gill H]

Learn from my experience and ensure you save up enough to book a placeholder cruise om board, because you will get hooked! We couldn’t afford to, sadly.

My biggest piece of advice is to read Bats’ sticky thread. So much helpful info on there.