Taking the family on our first Disney Cruise in August on the Wish out of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Any good tips or hacks would be greatly appreciated.

Bring a yeti cup or water bottle to get drinks to take back to your room at night from the drink fountain on the pool deck.

Join the Facebook group specific to your cruise.

Bring door decorations

Bring you pins if you like pin trading

If you are into character pictures, buy the photopass at a discount ahead of time.

Where is your cruise going and what time of year?

Breakfast in the buffet is good but can get packed especially on port days. You can also eat breakfast in one of the sit down restaurants.

Use the kids club for your kids. They are safe and it gives the parents some alone time.

You can use the disney cruise app on ship wifi while at sea to text family members for free.

Thank you for the great information.

We embark August 7th to Nassau (Day 2) and Disney Castaway Cay (Day 3) return August 10th back to dock.

I will make sure to pack my yeti cup and find me some Aggie swag to decorate our door.

How about alcohol? How much can we carry on the ship?

AggieOC said:

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Thank you for the great information.

We embark August 7th to Nassau (Day 2) and Disney Castaway Cay (Day 3) return August 10th back to dock.

I will make sure to pack my yeti cup and find me some Aggie swag to decorate our door.

How about alcohol? How much can we carry on the ship?

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For door decoration, there's a whole subculture of DCL and the stuff they put on their doors. Just Google DCL door decorations and you'll get it.

We're gold status with DCL and about to go to Singapore to cruise on the Adventure.

For alcohol, you can bring 2 bottles of wine or a six pack of 12oz beers per person, per stop. So you can bring it on day 1 and at each port. But booze at the ports is pretty expensive.

Make sure to get the drink of the day each day. Pretty good tropical drink and usually $6. And if you're into beer, buy the mug when you get on board, it'll pay itself off after like 7 beers.

Like the other guy said, join the Facebook group.

If you're into gift giving, then definitely join a fish extender group. We typically travel with an entire extra suitcase of gifts and giveaway crap. My 3d printer is running right now making Mickey waffle magnets to put on doors we like. The kids love coming back to the room and there being gifts there.

Take advantage of free room service. Bring dollars to tip the delivery guy. The wings and cheese plate are good at midnight when the kids are asleep.

At dinner, you can ask for extra of anything. I typically get two appetizers and a soup and a salad. You don't have to order how they tell you to.

If you like the cruise, be sure to pay for a placeholder for your next one. You get a discount and if you don't use it within a year, they refund the $200.

All the walls are metal, so bring some magnetic hooks, you'll probably use them.

There aren't a ton of plugs in the rooms and they don't let you bring power strips. So I bring a couple USB adapters have have several USB ports

Nassau is not nice. It's not unsafe, just a dumpy third world town. We've been snorkeling and it was good. And we went to the rum cake factory, worth the walk.

Castaway Cay is incredible. If you're a runner (or walker) there's a 5k you can do and get a medal. It's free and at your own pace. Just tell the bike rental stand that you ran and they'll give you the medal.

Confirm there's a pirate night on your cruise. Most people dress in pirate outfits. And don't miss the pirate party on deck with the fireworks.


I'll think of more stuff later.

Personally I'd use Nassau to enjoy the uncrowded ship. All of those cay islands that Disney RC and carnival own are quite amazing def spend your beach day at those !

Find out if their is a pirate night and bring clothes to dress accordingly.

If there is a Remy restaurant onboard, I would bring dress clothes, send any kids to their activities, and plan for a 3 hr dinner. Its one of the most memorable meals on one hand. And I have had plenty of wonderful meals in NOLA and NYC.. Its worth it.

Other than that, I enjoyed the bar on the back of the boat while all of my family took forever to get dressed for dinner.

Concierge suites are great if you can afford it.

Just spitballing my experience. And its easily the best cruise experience I have ever had.

AWESOME!!

I appreciate all the information. I already saved the comments and emailed them to myself and wife. We are definitely going to be ahead of the game for this trip.

The family wants to do a day at Disney the day before we embark but I am fighting them on it because I want to be fully energized for the boat.

Thoughts?

For the pirate night we did super simple "costumes" - I bought plain white t-shirts for everyone then snipped the hems of the bottom edge and sleeves so they looked ragged. Bought a yard of plain red fabric from Hobby Lobby, cut into strips and shredded the ends the same way. We tied these around our waists as pirate sashes. We wore black shorts that we already had. Oh - and I ordered eye patches on Amazon. DCL provides a pirate scarf (they put it in your cabin during housekeeping) that you can tie around your head pirate style. It is a super fun night!

AggieOC said:

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AWESOME!!

I appreciate all the information. I already saved the comments and emailed them to myself and wife. We are definitely going to be ahead of the game for this trip.

The family wants to do a day at Disney the day before we embark but I am fighting them on it because I want to be fully energized for the boat.

Thoughts?

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I've never done a cruise and the parks in the same trip. My in-laws live in Orlando, so we do the parks frequently enough, though.

I know they have transportation packages where you can go to the parks and then take a Disney bus to the port. Might be fun. But if you're doing just one park day, and doing it right, that's a long day right before getting up for the shuttle.

Regarding the Disney shuttle, I recommend their transportation if you have the occasion to use it. You'll automatically get the earliest, or at least an early, port arrival time, so you just have more time on the ship. 3 or 4 day cruises really aren't enough on DCL because there's just so much stuff to do on the ship. So getting an early arrival time is a huge value.

We took Disney transport from our hotel in Copenhagen when we did the Baltic Sea cruise and it was really convenient, and we're doing it again in Singapore.

Regarding stuff on the ship, I forgot to mention how much we love the animation classes. I can't draw to save my life and still have a blast learning to draw Disney characters.

Also, the trivia events are fun.

How old are your kids? Are they into princesses? There will be some meet n greet opportunities throughout the cruise (the Navigator app will be your best friend) but look into booking princess royal gathering. It's free and available at midnight eastern 30 days out. It will book up within minutes. It's an easy way for the kids to meet 3-4 princesses all at once and get great pics.

There's no shortage of meeting characters so your kids can bring something to get "autographed" by all of them. Turns into a cool souvenir.

My daughter is 12 and my son is 20.

They have both been to Disneyland and Disney World at least 4 times each park. We just went to Disney World in February, and they still enjoy the meet and greet with the characters. I'll make sure to log in and book them.