5 Tips To Enjoy Your Disney Cruise!

1. Arrive early to the port!      

Family Picture in the Terminal.

Key To The World Card

       Getting to the port early translates into more time on the ship! This process starts months before your cruise, when you do on-line check in. You want to check in as soon as you can. One step in the check in process is to select your port arrival time. You want to pick as early as you can which is often 11am or noon. If you wait until 2pm, you have already missed out on lunch on the ship. By being at the port sooner you can avoid long lines and get the chance to meet Mickey or Minnie while you wait for your boarding group. Most of the Disney buses from the resorts leave later in the morning so if you are staying on Disney property the night before your cruise, you may want to explore other transportation options (I can help with this). The first few hours on board is a great time to explore the ship and familiarize your self with the layout of the ship or better yet - take a tour! We also like to hit the pools right away before the crowds roll in.

2.  Keep your Navigator with you!

The daily Navigator is your guide to everything. When I say everything I mean EVERYTHING!  Do you need to know what time Tinker Bell meets? When is the trivia contest in the Pub?  What time does the buffet open?  All that can all be answered in your navigator.  It tells you the what and when of everything you need to know. You'll get the next days' navigator when the turn down service is completed in the evening. Read it over before you head to bed and plan the next day.  You can also use the new app on your smart phone. Just make sure to download it before you leave for your cruise! The app is handy, but the paper navigators are just easy to see everything at once. 

Here is a whole post just about the Navigator.

3. Enjoy Meal Time

Everyone thinks of food when they think of cruising, but I'm not saying to enjoy just the food.  Enjoy the atmosphere of the main dining rooms. Disney has put such detail into where you eat and what you eat, don't just grab a slice of pizza from the quick service restaurants on the ship.  We have used diner time as a chance to sit together and talk and tell stories of the day. This was a true highlight on our extended family cruise.  We were often headed in different directions during the day, so the evening meal was great for meeting up. We often found ourselves one of the last groups to leave. We also were glad we had the kids dine with us rather then in the kids club. How often will you have the chance to order escargot for a 6 year old and not worry if they like it or not?  When we traveled on our adults only Disney cruise, we were nervous about sitting with strangers but by the end of the trip they were no longer strangers, but new friends!    Oh, and of course the food is amazing - but I'm sure you already knew that!

4.  Plan your port days

adult only beach on Castaway Cay

View of the Dream in Nassau

This is something that you want to look at well in advance of your trip. Actually the best time to research it is in advance of online check in. The reason for this is once you check in you can start booking shore excursions. You can look at the excursions on Disney's web site to start your planning. However this does not mean you have to book an excursion. You should just know what you plan on doing so you don't get off the ship and find yourself saying "I wish" or "I would have"   We have used a day in Nassau like a day at sea so that we could enjoy the ship. Many people get off the ship and that works to your advantage if you've already seen the places where the ship visits. That is when we booked spa treatments and the kids rode the aquaduck over and over and over. We didn't plan a lengthy excursion so we could get back on the ship and enjoy the ship.   Here is a post to sum up a possibility of a way to spend a day in Nassau.

5. You can't do everything

Pirate Party!!!

Snorkeling at Castaway Cay

There is so much to see and do on a Disney cruise that it is impossible to do it all on one cruise. Read over your navigator and highlight what you want to do for sure and let the gaps fill themselves in. You won't find relaxing acutally listed on the schedule, so you may want to pencil that in somewhere.  Some highlights I would not want to miss are the Broadway style shows, princess gathering, or some of the family fun in the D lounge.  Sometimes the kids are more concerned about the scheduled activity in the kids club or the movie that is showing. Remember: it's your cruise you can do as much or as little as you want.  Don't forget to order room service - it's included in your cruise fare! (Just don't forget to bring a couple dollar bills onboard with you to tip your room service server.) There's nothing quite like enjoying a Mickey Bar at midnight in your stateroom!

Here are a few random Pictures, and while my last tip was that you can't do it all during one cruise, I want to tell you that you can still do a lot!!

Mickey Bars from room service.

Mt. Rustmore on Castaway Cay.

Enjoying my last little bit of phone service before the ship leaves port.

Boarding through some giant Mickey Ears.

Come early and avoid this line to check in at the port.

Finish every meal with ice cream.  Cabannas has hand scooped ice cream. 

Door decorations make it much easier to find your door in the long hallways and it's just FUN!

Mini Golf on Goofy's Sports Deck.

The view from the Mini-Golf is tough to beat in Nassau.

Princess gatherings happen only a few times per sailing - get a ticket in advance at the Port Adventures desk on the first day of you cruise.  It is great because you meet 4 or 5 princess in a row! (Check your 1st Navigator for the exact location of the ticket distribution for your cruise.)

Pirate night brings out lots of fun costumes.

Disney Speak - Personal Navigator

When you sail away with Disney Cruise Line you are going to have a great time.  There are so many activities and things to see and do, but how do you know when or where to find things.  The answer:  your Personal Navigator.

You will hear over and over on the ship "refer to your Navigator" and they are not talking about a crew member charting the course for the ship.  

The Personal Navigator is a 6 page handout chalk full of information.  What you find in the navigator ranges from weather to stage shows.  TIP: For your first day you can get one when you check in at the terminal and you can read over it as you wait to board the ship.  For the remainder of your trip you receive one with your turn down service the night before to give you lots of time to plan.  You can find extra copies at guest services.

Lets go through the make up of a Navigator page by page.  

Day 1 Page 1 or Front cover

At the top of the Navigator it gives you the weather report and sun up and sun down times.  It also has the date and your port for the day.

Next, is a large display for that evening show.  On this one it is the Golden Mickey's and it shows the times and locations.  The bottom half of the front page has the "don't miss" section, one I would recommend for anyone who is on the ship for the first time is the "Welcome Aboard Ship Tour."  This is really helpful to learn your way around and will save you tons of time later by not being as lost.  

The bottom gives the Menu and Drink of the day.  Also some important numbers so they are easy to find.

Day 2 Page 1

This is the front page of day 2 and you can see the lay out is very similar.

Day 1 page 2

Page number 2 of the Personal Navigator Gives you some Highlights for families and adults.  It shows the tour times for the spa.  It is a great idea to take a tour of the spa if you are thinking about booking something! They sometimes run specials on spa treatments if you go to the Spa Tour.  It always seems if the time you wanted was not available online, they can find a way to fit you in somewhere.  However the less expensive treatments do book fast, the most basic massage was not available to book on board.  TIP: Do your Spa Treatments first thing when you do online check in, as well as booking a Cabana at Castaway Cay!

The other important booking thing on this page is the Beverage Seminars.  It tells you where to go to book those.  

Booking and touring things can make the first few hours busy but helps set up the rest of your cruise!

Day 1 page 3

Page three Shows highlights of youth activities, it also tells you how to register your kids for the clubs, for ages 3 -12.  You should have registered them in the port terminal right after you checked in so you do not waist any of  your time on the ship filling out forms.  When you register them it is just basic information and you are not picking out activities for them.  They can choose to do whatever events or activities in the clubs they want.

You also find a Movie schedule for the Buena Vista Theater.  Disney shows first run movies the whole cruise.  This is where you can see the whole list at once.  We were able to see Thor the Dark World the day it came out and in 3D on one of our cruises (the movies are all included in the cruise fare, however, be careful with the movie snacks - those are NOT included!).  

Day 1 page 4 or back cover

On to the back page!  Here is lots of information, not just highlights anymore.  Lots of good stuff to read through as you wait to board the ship.  The very first thing is to plan your next cruise.  There are some great reasons to book while on board: 1) you get a discount and 2) an on board credit.  We actually looked ahead a year and were ready with what we wanted to book before we ever set foot on the ship.  TIP: I would recommend going before the last day.  There can be huge lines the last day and of course tell them your travel agent!  If you book on board and give them my name and company I can help you with all the other details.

Other things on this page deal with shopping, pictures, and Internet.  The most important thing to note is that when in port all the shops on the ship are closed!

Day 1 Insert Schedule 

Now on to the "meat" of the Personal Navigator - the Insert!  This is a two sided page that has all of the details.  If you need to know when something is, this is where you look.  It is also designed to be folded in thirds so it can go in a pocket and easily go with you.  The insert is like your own personal guide to the cruise.  (I have witnessed navigators in other peoples hands with multiple colors of highlights to help Navigate the day.)  After you get the highlights from the other pages, you dive into the insert to really plan your day, or if you prefer to not plan, you could always just sit on your veranda and watch the sea go by.

Day 2 Insert schedule 

Here is a shot of day #2's schedule so you can see what a full day looks like. You can see they make it easy to find the highlights, but it does not show you everything going on. The spa really does not show up, as well as your meal times, so keep that in mind as you plan it out.

Day 1 insert hours

Here is the other side of the insert and it is full of hours, hours, hours, and more hours.  Do you need to know what time they start serving breakfast in the Enchanted Garden, then this is your place.  How about when the mini golf opens, here as well.  Even the pool hours are listed.   This also has a listing of all the Characters to meet.   

On our last cruise, we were on board for the premier of Thor and they had an insert about a special midnight showing in both theaters.

The back side showed the rest of the showings just in case you missed it in the other 3 spots you could find it.  It was neat how they showed it in both theaters.  They normally don't show movies in the larger Walt Disney Theater.  

Map of Castaway Cay - Disney's Private Island

On the castaway Cay Day they insert a map of the tropical paradise.

Now when you hear that you can find it in your Navigator, I hope you know what they are talking about.  It is a valuable tool to maximizing your time on the ship.  Looking it over the night before can save you the moment of walking in on something just as it ends and saying "if we had only known".  

If you want to find more Navigators to look at, you can check out The Disney Cruise Line Blog. On that site there is a large archive of Navigators.  Look for the ship and length of cruise that you are doing and see what fun is in store.   Check it out here!

Want to see a set of Navigators from a 7 Night Eastern Caribbean that we shared with the Disney Cruise Line Blog.  You can see what we did for a week on the Fantasy HERE.