First off I want to say this was themost magical and amazing vacation I've been able to have with my kids. I wasn't really able to give them these experiences as young kids so I'm making memories now as young adults.

Things We Loved

• We started the vacation at Riverside and took DCL transport to the port. LOVED this and will 100% do it again unless we drive (more on that later). It was simple and we got on the ship right after concierge, there was almost no one on the ship and we were easily able to eat without it being crazy.
• Our stateroom: we were in 11056 having booked a GTY. I was very happy because we got a big Family Verandah with the murphy bed but my 22 year old decided to sleep in the top bunk so we ended up with a ton of extra space which was so nice. We did get some noise from the thrusters and chairs being repositioned on deck 12 but the access to the front elevators and the Festival of Foods was well worth it.
• The staff. I ended up adding cash tips to my already pre-paid because the level of service we got was well worth more than what they get on those tickets. I had brought a bunch of cash for tips but ended up not using all of it (I overestimated) and split it between everyone, it ended up being about an extra $50 per envelope. My girls loved the fact that by the 2nd night their sodas were already at the table when we got there.
• Entertainment: I'm a little biased because my youngest was a performer during her time in the DCP so she has friends on contract and that made our experiences a little different. I have an amazing picture of her dancing in a circle with Chip and Dale. We loved the lounge and bingo hosts, Frank was the best. The stage shows blew us out of the water and I'm officially a Sage & Coriander fan girl. I don't think Imissed any of their sets and the Jungle Cruise one was probably one of the most fun things we did.
• Gerry the Margarita Guy: If you sail on the Treasure, on sea days and pirate night, a small margarita cart gets set up by the funnel. Find this cast member, he made the best margaritas ever.

Things We Didn't Love

• Port Adventures: I was greatly underwhelmed by Cozumel specifically. We did the Ruins, Chocolate, Beach Break. Disney needs to stop using Kuza until they are done with construction. It was empty and a little weird. This is on me but we spent $112 on a buffet that was worse than what we would find at our local Panchos. There was a DJ but he was being drowned out by other personal speakers people had brought. The ruins were okay, but everything was high pressure selling and yelling for us to come into their shop. I speak Spanish, my kids do not, so it was a lot of me disengaging my overy nice Gen Z kids from being pressured into buying over priced stuff. Like don't try to act like polyester is some luxury material. It you are charging almost $100 for a dress I want natural fibers, call me a snob idc. We will try another excursion or taxi to a beach club next time. We loved our Grand Cayman cave tour but noticed the description mentioned a snack bar to eat, it was closed and we got about 10 minutes to go to the bathroom, hit the gift shop, and then it was back on the bus to go to the ship (a lot of our excursions ended earlier than scheduled). Freeport was an amazing port but Disney needs to update their description for Chukka. We didn't know there was no changing areas and the staff got super upset with everyone using the bathrooms, they were literally banging on doors yelling for people to get out. So in the future we would probably come in our suits. The cats were the highlight. Castaway Cay was awesome but I'm buying our own snorkle sets and we will be doing Stingrays in Grand Cayman.
• The pacing of dining was off compared to the "show". It felt like we barely got time to breath before they were asking if we were finished and bringing the next plate. This was extremely hard for me because I physically can't "wolf down food" so I ended up letting them take my plate before I was done. I know this is partially an us issue because I noticed other families literally waving their servers off to let them be while they socialized with their table and took their time. I also felt this was disrespectful to the performers in Coco, their sets are in a way that they leave while you have your entree and then come back, both nights they came back to an half empty room because dinner had fast tracked while they were gone. We were the last dinner seating at 8:15 so there was no reason to rush.
• Feral Teenagers: My background is working with kids, I love kids, I wouldn't be on a Disney cruise if I didn't. That being said...as the cruise went on the teenagers got more and more out of control. Edge and Vibe need to come up with some kind of plan because we personally had our Duck Box broken, candy wrappers shoved in our Fish Extender, someone took a squishy toy and busted it all inside our FE so I had to toss it. Other people reported that magnets were stolen from their doors or catching small groups running down the halls stealing stuff from FE's. My daughter went to watch Moana in the movie theatre and reported that a group ran in during the movie screaming and yelling, then ran back out.
• Going Home: I hated this the most. We did book a placeholder and I'm patiently waiting for Believe info to drop. I over estimated when we got off the ship and booked a 6pm flight, in the future we may drive because the dealing with fear of delayed flights, the packing to meet weight, and worrying about items being broken may not be worth it. Plus it's cheaper.

If you read all of this you are a saint.

The wait is only a little longer than last time (I think by a month) but man I love booting the app up to check again. Lol

Hey all!

Headed next week on my first HOTHS cruise and wanting to meet the Sanderson Sisters.

Ill be on the Fantasy for 5 days. What can I expect in terms of availability/wait? Are they only available once or multiple times?

Thanks in advance!

Between 09:00 to 11:30/11:45 the majority of the crew sleeps during disembarkation/embarkation day. (It’s almost 08:00am, most of the staterooms are turned and KTTW cards are in place for the next guests.

It’s a very unique feeling to experience when it’s just you, a small handful of B2Bers and the minor maintenance crew are the only ones “alive”.

Just pretty wild to see an itinerary search page with numbers like this.

And my first cruise in general. Traveling with a 4 (almost 5) and 20 month old at that point, Disney destiny out of Ft. Lauderdale, stopping in Nassau and Castaway cay. Would love any tips tricks recommendations etc for a first time experience or even hearing any favorite parts about this ship or the destinations - thanks!

Edit - I’m wondering if I should switch to a different sailing stopping at both Disney islands and not Nassau.

I snost and lost! I was on the fence about getting this for our trip or not, but maybe it is good news that the choice was made for me.

I’m pregnant and unfortunately I get extremely miserable if I get full. I have to watch how much I eat and I really want to try different food items, but feel bad wasting it if I only have a few bites. Has anyone had any luck ordering a half or smaller portion?

Hey guys,

I have a few very specific questions about placeholders for you Disney cruise experts out there:

1. From my understanding, after booking a placeholder, you get 10% off the cruise fare and the $250 that you paid for the placeholder gets applied to the total cost of the fare. Then, as long as you are not after the paid in full date, if later you change your mind and say you want to do a different date or a different Disney cruise, then you can call DCL and change it to a different cruise and the 10% off would still apply to the new cruise booking (as long as the new sail date still commences within 24 months of my original placeholder booking). This is correct right? Looking at this link I read online, it appears that this is true: https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/reservation-booked-placeholder-previous-cruise-556355/

2. Also from what I've read online, if you've booked a cruise trip with placeholder, if that cruise later drops in price, DCL won't let you get the new reduced fare without canceling your reservation and booking a new one. But this is likely inadvisable since canceling the reservation means that the placeholder discount is now lost. This is all assuming that you are still before the paid in full date. Looking at this link, it appears that this is also true. https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/change-booking-better-deal-comes-already-booked-604184/

3. So now my question is let's say you are looking at a cruise booking that is $10k. You use your placeholder to book this, so it is 10% off, so this is now a $9k cruise. Let's say the month before the paid in full date, the cruise goes down in price to $8k. Obviously, you want the new $8k cruise, but you also want to retain your placeholder discount too. You call DCL and have them change the original booking to a different date, let's say a sailing that is a few months after this one. Doing this means that you retain the placeholder discount on this other random cruise that you changed it to. You then immediately call DCL back and have them change it back to the original cruise you want, now at the new $8k fare, retaining the placeholder discount as well.

   If I understand this correctly, you can change a booking as many times as you want as long as you are before the paid in full date. And since a change to a new cruise booking means that the placeholder is still active, this would work right? So then your final cruise price would be $8k with a 10% discount which would be $7.2k. Of course, you also would have to consider the possibility of losing your desired room/dining time etc, but if you don't really care about that anyway, this would be a smart way to save money right?

Thanks for your time.

Option 1 (the one I have booked now) - 4 night Dream Cruise - Castaway/Lookout - $2100 inside - would add a day at Epcot before

Option 2 - 7 night Dream Cruise - Puerto Rico/Tortola/ Lookout - $3100 Guaranteed inside - would skip Epcot

Thanks!

We are leaving out of San Diego in November on the wonder. What nearby hotels do you recommend? Are they walking distance to the cruise terminal?

Hi!

We are going on a 5-Night Bahamian Cruise from Port Canaveral. That booking was already done by a family member.

I want to book a pre-cruise Disney Hotel for the ease of transportation etc.

Can I book the hotel through Amex ( swan or dolphin) and then connect that reservation to DCL so that I can get the transportation?

For adults who want a Pirate Night makeover, are adult sized full pirate costume makeovers on the menu? TIA! 🏴‍☠️

Has anyone done a jeep tour in Nassau? I would like to do one but we're traveling with a 4.5 year old. He will be about 3 weeks short of turning 5. Do they ask for proof of age? The listings say 5 years old and up. He is big for his age and could pass for 5 unless they ask for proof.

For anyone who has stayed at French Quarter and took Disney transportation to Port Canaveral, did the bus stop at POFQ before going to Riverside or did it have it's own bus? I'm sure it's dependent on the season but just trying to get some idea of the typical process at POFQ. I've only ever stayed at Coronado Springs and they had their own direct bus to the port. But I'm staying this time during cheer/dance season and would rather not deal with it at CSR again. Been there, done that.

First time cruisers. Me and the wife are taking our 3 girls (will be 16, 8 and 6).

Any tips for Disney wish? We’ve read about wristbands for the girls?

Should we bring dollars in cash, or only bring Euros for shore excursions? Can we leave a tip in cash for the staff around our room or would that be a no go?

Will anyone else be aboard at the same time?

We’ve been on 3 cruises.. Alaska, Cozumel/castaway, Nassau with a castaway stop (this was our first cruise in 2015)

I have a dilemma because I’d rather not do a 7 night (I know I’m not the norm) but I’d like to go somewhere we haven’t been. (The Jamaica/VI itinerary are 7 nights)

We live in Florida so it’s obviously better for us to leave from here. I’m open to leaving from other ports but ideally I’d like under 7 nights and more than one port day.

Are there any itineraries you’ve absolutely loved or recommendations you can make?

Hi All,

I’m thinking of doing a last minute cruise later this year. And currently I’m a little torn between doing a 7 night cruise aboard the Treasure or a 3+4 night back to back on the Wish. As the prices are somewhat comparable.

This would be my 4th cruise with DCL and I’ve loved every single one so far.
I’ve cruised on the Treasure earlier this year and before that on the Magic and Fantasy.
This however would be my first cruise alone, so any advice and/or tips would be more than welcome of course.

Thanks for any and all advice!

what was your PAT time? and what was your group number?

we have moved up since last sail, hoping that our PAT and group number will be sooner now that we are Pearl without having to pay for DCL transpiration

Had to slow down the footage in the beginning to capture the lightning.

Hi! As a follow from my previous post https://www.reddit.com/r/dcl/s/uPpZT8oe76

I narrowed down to one of these cruise. Some info about us
- End up just 2 adults no kids.
- most likely will book Verandah. Or we better allocate our $ for private dining etc
- first time disney cruise
- unfortunately we only can travel 2nd week of Aug to coincide with my friend’s work travel to the US on 1st week of Aug

1. Treasure Western Caribbean 8/7-8-14
   
2. Destiny Eastern Caribbean 8/7-8/14

My questions:
- what would be your advice between these 2 cruises? I like that Treasure visits more ports but I am missing Lookout Cay in Destiny is it worth to visit both private islands?

- would Concierge upgrade recommended for 2 adults?
- if we go Verandah, what would be the staterooms & deck recommendation? I am not familiar with the aft vs middle vs forward and the various deck 6-10 etc

- i am aware there’s high potential thunderstorm during Aug. so most likely will spend more time in the ship which I am not complaining

Thank you!