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Old 30 Oct 19, 07:37 AM  
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Elsa42
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Originally Posted by vampiress88 View Post
Can I be nosy and asked how much cruise is for 3 nights and where you booked it?
It really depends on which cruise you take and what time of year you go! For school holidays a 3 night starts at 2k however in September time it starts at £1200. Also depends on which room category you’d like as well! As there are inside, ocean view, veranda and concierge. We’ve picked concierge so it’s more expensive than normal!

I only ever book through Disney cruise line themselves. You will rarely find deals with Disney cruises so I find it easier to book direct. They are also at their cheapest when they are first released! The closer to get the more money they add on! You’ll never find the prices dropping only raising! Hope this helps!
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Old 11 Nov 19, 10:39 AM  
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I’ve got quite a big post to post at some point in the next few days, I’m just trying to figure out if it will be better to split it or whether people will be happy to read it as it is 🙈
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Old 1 Dec 19, 05:28 PM  
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The Disney Dream Planning

Back to the Disney Dream! I wanted to go through our cruise planning in slightly more detail. We want the cruise to be relaxed and not schedule too many things in however we want to make sure we make the most of the time! I also wanted to talk about a few things we did on our last cruise to help anyone that may be planning their first Disney cruise.

A little background into our cruising history. This will be my 5th Disney cruise! I’m going for the gold status Ive been on the Dream 3 times so far and the Fantasy Once. I would like to eventually get myself on the Wonder and Magic but it just hasn't worked out yet. I’ve done a weeks long cruise and then the 3 night cruises and enjoy both aspects of them. I hear a lot of people saying not to bother with the 3 night cruises however I feel they are a good test to see if you will enjoy it. They also work well into a DisneyWorld holiday! Ryan's first cruise was the one we took in September (The one I forgot to write the trip report for) He really enjoy it so much so that we booked a cruise with another company for this years holiday. He was keen to go on another Disney cruise and who am I to say no to him. Even though this is my 5th cruise I'm still finding out new information so I thought I’d share for others.

So onto the planning! My favourite part.

Transport
So traveling to the ship. Previously as we were onsite at Disney we used the Disney cruise line ground transfers from the hotel to the port. I believe the price for this has increased as it is now $39 pp each way. It seems kind of steep but for ease it is worth it. However the only downside to this is you don’t get to decide when you arrive at the port. Disney transfers usually get you there for around 12:30/1 which is a late start by the time you've checked in and boarded.



Due to staying offsite this time we are making our own way to the port. We will have a hire car so we are going to drive down first thing in the morning. As we are concierge guests we don’t have a boarding time so as soon as boarding opens around 11am I believe we will be allowed to check in and board the ship. For this reason we would like to get to the port quite early get checked in and onto the Dream as soon as possible. There is a separate check in desk for Concierge guests and we will have done online check in so we are hopeful we will get onto the ship as quickly as possible. Previous trips we haven't made it on until about 1:30/2 so would ideally like to squeeze as much extra time as we can!

What we’ve got to decide is regarding the car hire. We will be hiring a car for the first time eek. We’ve got to decide if it works out cheaper to do one car hire and pay for the parking for 3 nights at port canaveral or if we will be taking the car back and handing it in before boarding the ship then starting a new car hire once we arrive back. We are edging towards two separate car hires but will need to work out if this actually saves any money or not.

Arrival day

Once boarded the ship the first thing we will probably want to do is eat! Hey we are on holiday it’s all about the food. There are a few places that you can eat once boarded. The first is Cabanas which is the buffet on the top deck. There is a great variety of food and enough for even the fussiest of eaters to find something.




On the same deck there is Flo’s cafe which are 3 food stations serving a variety of things from burgers, pizza and sandwiches. Both great choices however it gets very busy up here and we found it quite hectic on embarkation day.



The third option was a new one for us in September. I wasn't aware that you could also go to the main dining room and eat there. Its table service and much much quieter in here. It so was much more relaxed. Not many people were in here so I'm not sure if its an unpopular choice as people feel the buffet is quicker or if people just dont know its an option. I Believe as concierge guests we get taken to the concierge lounge first to meet our host and go through the itinerary and there are food and drinks served in here. However we will need to decided on the day whether we risk the crowds or take a more relaxed approach but I've got a feel we will go to the restaurant.

Our room should be ready around 12:30pm which Disney guarantees as concierge guests, otherwise your rooms will be ready between 1:30pm and 2pm. There is a mandatory drill at 4pm which all guests are expected to attend. They will not start the drill until all guests have signed in. I can never understand why people feel the need to turn up late to this, the quicker you turn up and get it over with the quicker we can all get back to having fun. All services are stopped at this time anyway so there is really nothing else to do other than turn up on time. It gets especially hot all standing next to each other in the heat. After the drill you are free to do whatever you please and the holiday can really begin.

It appears that all the pools and the AquaDuck opens at 12pm. So my hope is we can board the ship between 11:30-12pm go for lunch then go straight to the AquaDuck to get a couple of rides in before the queues build up too much. After that it will be time in the adult only area or the private concierge deck and enjoy a relaxed afternoon.

I'm going to leave the post here. I have a second part to the Disney cruise planning but I didn't want the posts to be too long. IF anyone has any other advise regarding Cruising please feel free to tell me if im doing things wrong. Thats all for now

Edited at 09:43 AM.
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Old 2 Dec 19, 01:52 PM  
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Oooh I'm jealous of the concierge upgrade! We've just done our 1st Disney cruise & now impatiently waiting for the next wave of dates to be released to book number 2. Got to put the placeholder to good use haha.

Plans sound fab & sure the countdown will fly by.
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Old 4 Dec 19, 07:29 AM  
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Originally Posted by magickate View Post
Oooh I'm jealous of the concierge upgrade! We've just done our 1st Disney cruise & now impatiently waiting for the next wave of dates to be released to book number 2. Got to put the placeholder to good use haha.

Plans sound fab & sure the countdown will fly by.
We figured why not 🙈 I’m so excited to try it 😁 how did you find your first cruise? Did you pick up any tips while on board? Thank you for reading’ hoping the countdown flys! Can’t wait to get back 😍
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Old 18 Dec 19, 09:42 AM  
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Food and drink

My favourite part of the cruise, the food. We have requested the late dining so hopefully we should get this. There are two sittings early which I believe is 5:45pm and then the late seating which is 8:15pm. We prefer the later seating its gives us more time to get ready and we are used to eating later anyway. As this is a 3 night cruise we wont be booking any of the additional dining. To us it just doesn't make sense to pay for food when there are plenty of options already included. Also because there are 3 restaurants and 3 nights we want to be able to go to all three and not miss out on anything. I’m hoping the menus may have had a slight change as every time I've been they have been the same but this probably wont be the case. Soft drinks at dinner are included so you dont have to worry about extra charges or going to the pool deck to fetch a drink first.



We also didn't know until the last cruise we went on is you can order as much food as you like. I know this probably sounds greedy but hear me out. If there are two starters you like the sound of but can’t decided between the two ask to try both. We didn't know you were able to do this until Ryan asked our server which dish he should have as he couldn't decide, our server turn round and said to him just order both. Im not going to make a habit of this as its a lot of food already, with it being a 4 course meal but I do intend to ask for extra if theres something I would like to try as I may as well make the most of it.

We will probably eat at Cabanas or Flo’s cafe for lunches apart from our Castaway Cay day when we will be helping ourselves to that lovely BBQ on the beach. There are great choices here and as we will probably have had lunch in the restaurant on the first day the second will be buffet food.


Breakfast we will have choice of the dining rooms, room service and Cabanas. This is something we will decide at the time. Ive also read that the concierge lounge has food in the mornings as well so we’ve got a lot to fit in.



Also something else I've learnt recently is the Cove Cafe which is located on the top deck and the Vista Cafe which is located on deck 4 both have free cakes and pastries. I didn't realise this as the drinks aren't included and are an extra charge but the cakes are free so i intend to go and try some of these as I've heard some of them come from Palo and Remy.

Drinks are only included on the top deck and be warned if you are at the bar in the adult area and still order a soft drink they will charge you. Soft drinks are only included if you go to the drinks station on the top deck and at dinner. My research tells me the concierge lounge has free drinks as well as a happy hour for cocktails which I'm very excited about and apparently theres a stocked fridge in our room but this I cant be sure of this so if anyone knows please let me know if I'm correct or not.

And finally room service. Room service is actually included in the cost. All you have to do is pay the tip. Me and Ryan wanted to make use of it but we were so full after dinner we ended up ordering some cookies and milk and eating them on the veranda on the last night. We aim to make use of this better and either order a pre dinner snack or a late night snack again just to say we've used it really.

Entertainment

Entertainment is a big one. Theres so many great things to do on the ship it really is difficult to decide what to do and what not to miss. I always feel like we are going to get loads done then when it comes down to it we miss most things. Im determined to make use of some of the entertainment this time.

So one thing we have decided this time is we probably wont go and see the shows. I have seen the Golden Mickeys 4 times now and although I love it I feel we could maybe make better use of our time now. We both loved Beauty and the Beast so there is the potential we will still go and see this depending on whether there is anything else we want to do at the same time. An unpopular opinion is that I really can’t stand the Believe show. I know I love everything disney and all things cheesy but even I cant stand this. I didn't take Ryan to see this show last time as if I dont like it theres no chance he will so this will be another open evening to have chance to see what else the ship has to offer. It also will mean we can get ready for dinner later and have a more relaxed approach to the evening.

I definitely want to meet a couple of characters this time, Ive never met a character on board the ship. Once we had disembarked and gone to DisneyWorld in September Ryan actually met some of the characters and we discussed the fact we should have met some on the cruise as they are wearing their cruise outfits so this is a must!

Ive always wanted to ride the AquaDuck at night and with us not going to see the shows we might have the opportunity to do this. It looks as though the AquaDuck closes around 10pm, the adult pool closes at 11pm and I'm hoping this means the hot tubs will be open until this time too. I’m really hoping we will get the chance to use these facilities at night.

We will look at the navigator on the days and decide if there is anything we want to try. We wont be planning on going certain things as timings might not work out and we would rather it be as and when we feel like it. However I have noticed a few things we might try, there is a silent disco on some cruises which I think would be fun to try and some of the other trivia other than disney as Ryan wouldn't know many of the answers. When me and mum went on our cruise in May there was towel folding as well so I'm up for trying anything like this. If anyone has any suggestions of their favourite activities then please let me know!

The final part of the entertainment I was going to mention was pirate night. We watched the pirate show briefly last year so I doubt we will go to see this again. We would however like to catch the fireworks so we will probably go up to the top deck to get a spot for these. We dress up slightly to get into the spirit nothing too over the top but some peoples costumes are truly amazing. They also put on a pirate late night buffet which runs until around 12am I believe. This is another thing I’ve always been too full to even go and look at so Hopefully another thing we can try and fit in. Is it just me or is this trip revolved around eating and fitting as much food in as possible.

Castaway Cay

Oh Castaway Cay it’s just so beautiful. We have been having a discussion about what we would like to do this time around. Last year we did the Castaway 5K which was so much fun. Ryan came second out of everyone running it and to say I’d never run in my life I managed to complete it in 39 mins. You get a medal at the end of it and it’s free to sign up so defiantly worth doing. The only downside is you get off the ship early and we didn't want to run on a full Disney breakfast stomach so after the race we made our way back to the ship had breakfast got showered and changed and then back onto the island it was already around 11:30am and it felt like we’s missed out on some time there. We have decided to look next year and see if they have changed the medal at all, if its a new medal we will run again if its the same theres kind of no point and will skip it. Which will be nice as it means more time to do other things.



We also did the jet ski last year which was a really great experience. If you get the chance to do this its well worth the money as you do a lap around the island and get to stop off at a little beach area where no one else can go. Ryan would love to do this again but I feel like we shouldn't spend money on the same thing we did the trip before. We are looking at maybe having a more relaxed time on the beach and hiring some bikes depending on how we feel on the day. It will all depend on whether we decide to do the 5K run yet.

So I think thats all the main information and planning I have for the cruise for now. Sorry theres been so much cruise information over the past couple of post but I wanted to get some information out there for people thinking of going on a cruise and share some of the new information I have found incase you didn't know it either and if you have any helpful hints or tips please feel free to share them with me!

Now the cruise part of the trip and been researched to the inche of its life the next post start to get interesting. All the Disney parks planning is coming Stay tuned until next time!
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Old 18 Dec 19, 05:34 PM  
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Originally Posted by Elsa42 View Post
We figured why not 🙈 I’m so excited to try it 😁 how did you find your first cruise? Did you pick up any tips while on board? Thank you for reading’ hoping the countdown flys! Can’t wait to get back 😍
We totally loved it, I was unsure whether I'd get really sea sick and went prepared but it wasn't a problem at all. I didn't think the Main dining room evening meals were anything special but loved the theming and our servers were great.

No real tips I don't think! A late night stroll around a near empty ship is a must as are the evening broadway style shows.

I got fed up of waiting for the 2021 summer dates so bit the bullet and booked a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Wonder. Looking forward to trying one of the classic ships!

Your plans all sound great, I think with a bit of planning you can fit loads into a 3 nighter. Early boarding will definitley help.
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Old 20 Dec 19, 09:02 AM  
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Originally Posted by magickate View Post
We totally loved it, I was unsure whether I'd get really sea sick and went prepared but it wasn't a problem at all. I didn't think the Main dining room evening meals were anything special but loved the theming and our servers were great.

No real tips I don't think! A late night stroll around a near empty ship is a must as are the evening broadway style shows.

I got fed up of waiting for the 2021 summer dates so bit the bullet and booked a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Wonder. Looking forward to trying one of the classic ships!

Your plans all sound great, I think with a bit of planning you can fit loads into a 3 nighter. Early boarding will definitley help.
I seem to hear that opinion a lot about the food and dining! I’m always amazed by the food maybe I just get too excited about everything

I must say we haven’t ever strolled around the ship at night! Maybe we should fit this in somewhere! I doubt we will be doing the shoes this year as I’ve seen the same ones many times before however it will allow us more time to try other things!

I’d be interested to hear how you find the wonder with it being a smaller ship! My aim is to try them all!

I hope so! I’m hoping now that we’ve done certain things and know what we like and don’t we can really try and fit in more new things! Thanks for reading
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Old 2 Jan 20, 11:23 AM  
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Tickets

So you’ll be happy to know that the ticket section is a quick and short post. We hadn't even decided if we would get to Disney next year and I had already put a deposit down on tickets “just in case” as I didn't want to lose the good deal I’d found.

We knew we wanted to visit Disney and Universal again and there had been talks about Busch Gardens and Seaworld. Adding the other parks just made the ticket price slightly higher than we wanted to pay. Then our friends we are staying with told us their annual passes allowed them to take one person in each for free to one of the parks and then visits the other park at half price. We were only planning on one day at each of these parks anyway so that works for us and saves us some money on the initial ticket.

As I mentioned before I had put the deposit down on the tickets before we even knew we were going. I was shopping around for prices and found a great deal on attraction tickets which was adult tickets at children prices. I looked around but it was the cheapest I could find. I’ve used Attraction tickets every time we’ve gone and know its a trusted company. With only a £25 deposit per person I decide to book the tickets on the off chance we would go as in the grand scheme of things if we didn't it was only £25 each lost and it was a great saving to what it could have been now.

The tickets are 14 day park hopper tickets for both Universal and Disney including the water parks. It included memory maker which was a big plus for us and it also included $20 per person gift card and $20 Planet hollywood gift card which I'm pretty happy with. For these tickets we paid £700 each.

We wont be purchasing anymore tickets now anyway so all we need to do is actually pay for them.
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Old 5 Jan 20, 12:29 PM  
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We did concierge on the Dream in 2018. You will love it! The team are absolutely amazing.
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