Disney Cruise Preparation
Welcome to the beginning of my blog post series about our recent Disney Cruise!
In this post, I’m going to go over the process leading up to the cruise so that you know what to expect during the booking and preparing process. I will go over booking the cruise, our booking window, checking in for the cruise, as well as packing and flight tips. This was my first Disney cruise and my first time booking one (haven’t even booked one for a client yet at that point!) so it was a learning experience, but it all went very smoothly!
My partner, Ryan, and I decided to book a 7-night Eastern Caribbean Disney Cruise on the Fantasy for the week after Thanksgiving. There were several factors that went into this decision, but most of them revolved around making sure our dog was well taken care of and PTO. We ended up flying to Orlando the day after Thanksgiving, which my mom was in town for. She was kind enough to volunteer to take Winnie, our dog, home with her for the entire trip and then bring him back/pick us up from the airport when we returned.
When booking a Disney cruise, you have several factors to consider. The first being room type-indoor, ocean view, and verandah. The prices increase by category in the order listed, but they also increase by your location on the ship. The aft (aka the back of the ship) rooms are generally less expensive than rooms in the mid or forward on the ship since they tend to feel the most motion. If motion on a cruise ship doesn’t bother you, then this would be a great area to stay in to save some money. We opted to go for something called a guaranteed verandah room. What this means is that Disney will pick the room for us (we have no say in the location), but it will be a regular verandah or better room category. You can save a lot of money booking this way, however it is truly the luck of the draw which room you will get. We lucked out with getting room 10058, which was mid-ship (15 steps from the elevator) on the 10th floor, which was as high as you could be in a regular room.
Another thing that we did while booking was go ahead and pre-pay our gratuities. This is optional to do when booking, but otherwise will be added to your stateroom bill at the end of your cruise. We wanted to get as much “paying” out of the way as possible before the vacation, so we opted to pay them. They are $14.50/person/day and it get divided up among your head server, main server, assistant server, and room hostess. We also added on ground transportation to and from the airport (MCO) to Port Canaveral through Disney, which I highly recommend doing!
Now-let me take a second and say that if you book a Disney cruise with me-I will do all of this for you! You choose which cruise/room you want, and I will make payments and call Disney on your behalf so that you don’t have to worry about any of this!
If this is your first Disney cruise, you’re booking window will open 75 days before your sail date. What’s a booking window? Great question! This is where you will be able to pick/book your port adventures, on board activities (I.e. whiskey tasting, princess makeover, spa treatments, etc.), nursery reservation (if needed), and special dining. One thing to keep in mind is that people that have been on a Disney cruise before have a “level status” with DCL meaning that they will be able to book before you-so your top choices may not be available, so have back ups. Reservations open at midnight est, so be prepared with the list of things that you would like to do and back-ups.
On our cruise, we wanted laid back port adventures that were relatively affordable. As you will learn later on in this blog series (or learned if you follow me on Instagram) I injured my knee during my cruise and was unable to go on any of the excursions that we booked, although we were able to book all of the ones that we wanted! However what we were not able to book was a Palo brunch reservation as there were none available on our sea days by the time we could book. I ended up going to guest services when I got on the ship and was able to secure a Palo brunch reservation for the second day, so it all worked out!
If this applies to you-I use a CPAP for my sleep apnea for the last 11 years. I wasn’t sure how distilled water and having an outlet would work on the cruise, but it was so easy! On the DCL website, there is a form that you can fill out for medical requests and one of the requests includes distilled water and an extension cord. Again, if you book with me, I will help you with this process as well as booking things when your booking window opens!
The next big milestone in getting ready for the cruise was the check-in process that happens 30 days from your sail date. This is where you will upload a picture (png or jpeg only-not pdf) of your passport or birth certificate/license for everyone in your stateroom. You will also need a headshot of each person (think license picture) with a plain background, the card information you want to use for your on-board charges, and your flight/transportation information (if applicable). This begins at midnight est, just like the booking window and this is one that you want to do exactly at midnight!
The earlier you get through the check in process, the earlier Port Arrival Time (PAT) and boarding group number you will get! This is important for those that want to get on the ship as early as possible to eat or go to guest relations early before a lot of people are on the ship. When I completed this process-I had pictures of all documents I would need saved to my desktop to make the process as quick as possible. I logged in at midnight and got through the whole process in about 8 minutes securing boarding group 5! We did not need a PAT since we were taking Disney transportation, but the earliest PAT you can get is 11:00. This is the time that you arrive at the port-not the time you get on the ship! If you arrive early for your PAT, you may be turned away and told to come back. For boarding groups, there are a BUNCH, so the smaller the number the better.
This last part is the only part of the cruise booking process that I do not personally do on your behalf because it does deal with sensitive information/documents like passports. However, I will make sure that you know exactly what to do and are ready to go in order to get the best PAT and boarding group. Now that I’ve walked you through the cruise preparation, I’m going to give you some flight and packing tips below.
Flight tips: Do not fly in the day of your cruise! Unless it is absolutely unavoidable, I do not recommend doing this whatsoever. Fly in the night before and arrange for hotel accommodations (I can help you with this as well) to make sure that canceled/delayed flights don’t make you miss your ship! By flying in the day before, you have the ability to make any necessary changes if there is a change in your flight to get on another one to make it in time. I also recommend packing a second duffle bag (or something that folds) into your suitcase for the trip back home so that your bag is not overweight after buying souvenirs.
Packing tips: Make sure to pack at least three bathing suits as they can take a while to dry out in your stateroom. There is also a laundry room available for you to use for a small charge if you need it. I brought tide pods and dryer sheets so that I didn’t have to purchase them on the ship when doing laundry. I also recommend packing some zip-loc baggies. This was helpful when packing up my bathing suits that had not fully dried yet. You also will only need three pairs of shoes at most for this trip-flip flops/pool shoes, nicer shoes for dinner if you chose to dress up or go to Remy/Palo, and tennis shoes for port adventures that need them. My final tip is DON’T OVERPACK! I overpacked and I knew exactly how much to bring-I didn’t use half of what I brought! It saves you so much space to just pack what I recommend (but actually follow it unlike me).
If you made it this far-congratulations! I know that this post was more informational than others and without all the cute pictures, but it’s so important to know what all goes into preparing for your Disney cruise. If you send me a DM on instagram with something that you learned from this blog post-you’ll get a coffee on me (only good until Friday, December 16, 2022). Next week I will post all about our embarkation day!
