Booking activities and port adventures for first-time cruisers

I have 10 days before I can book port adventures and any onboard activities for a cruise in August. Is there somewhere that I can see what is available ahead of time? Can you see which activities are already sold out?

Not until after your booking window opens. (I can pretty much guarantee there will be NO cabanas on Castaway Cay - family OR Serenity Bay (18+ only) though.)

Unless you’re in a meet-up group somewhere with people who can already book and they can check for you.

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The website will show excursions and tastings that are options for each cruise but I can’t remember what tab it is. Is that what you are asking so that you can research options? It won’t show if they are actually available or have spots until your booking window opens.

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I’m curious, how was your experience with the availability for onboard activities as a first time cruiser?

We finally bit the bullet and decided to go on a Very Merrytime cruise on Thanksgiving as a first time Diney cruise but now I’m very worried that there will be nothing left.

Will Palo or Remy be an issue? How about the different tastings?

Are we doomed to just settling for Bingo and Trivia?

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They are both sold out for my sailing next week and have been for a couple/few weeks now. That said, people do cancel once on board, just like they do at WDW and people report getting notified of availability down to the very last minute.

Also all sold out on my sailing. Not sure about on-board availability.

Basically, as soon as you can book those things, book them. Then if you change your mind, let them go. But book them while you can.

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Port Adventures | Disney Cruise Line (go.com)
From there you can click on the ports area like the Caribbean and then you can rummage thru the various port cities within that subsection and see excursions are available. I just booked a guaranteed verandah room on the Magic from Galveston in January and I have already gone thru the three ports for me and selected which excursions are my first choice. I can tell you some of the Nassau ones that show up in the list of available ones (as I’m going on a bahamian cruise in August) were not bookable thru Disney such as the Atlantis dolphin swims or cabanas but I was still able to book those directly thru the hotel. The upside to this is it’s cheaper booked direct. The downside is that its prepay with a 5 day cancel policy in this situation and if the ship can’t port I don’t get my money back whereas thru Disney you wouldn’t get charged unless the excursion actually happens. In this situation trip insurance might make sense for you if there is something you want to book but can’t thru Disney.

For onboard activities you’ll most likely easily be able to get a spa treatment or a dinner at Remy/Enchante or Palo even if you can’t get it when you are able to first check for availability, you can try for waitlist or cancellations. What seems harder is the brunches at these restaurants. And the alcohol tastings and dessert tastings…those things went super fast on my Wish cruise.

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I have a sailing on Sep 30 (on the Wish) and I tried booking on first day I could (first-timer, no concierge) and all the tastings, except the cognac tasting were booked. I am not doing any adult only dining but I just checked and only brunch is sold out so far for my sailing. But to echo
@ obnurse, if there’s something you really, really want to do and it us sold out ahead of time, check once you get on board and maybe some one has cancelled.

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Yup my August one when I checked a couple of weeks ago still had some dinners at Palo and Enchante but ZERO liquor/beer/wine tastings, ZERO brunches, and ZERO dessert tastings at Enchante left.

I figured I would :smiley: I’m particularly interested in the mixology one.

Dang! And aren’t you going concierge? so you got to book earlier, right?

Yes! I wanted that one or the champagne tasting

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oh yeah I got what I wanted…but I just was checking to see if there was anything else I might want LOL
*Hubby calls me a Druish princess:
image
I like to get ALL the things I want and maybe I want more now…ha ha ha

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Yes that was the other one!
@PrincipalTinker sent me to a podcast that reviewed all of these things and truly I want to do them alllllllllllllllllllllllll but, I’ll stick to just a couple :wink:

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haha! That’s good! As you should for that price point, Princess!!

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We were first time cruisers in October 2021. We were able to get the wine tasting and the mixology classes. We really enjoyed both.

As second time cruisers for this October 2022, we had a slight advantage over first timers–15 days maybe. Every tasting class was open when I booked on July 10 for October 8 boarding on the Fantasy. We booked the wine tasting, mixology, and bourbon tastings for this year.

I just looked and there are a few classes that are sold out but most are still available.

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I’m beginning to think my strategy for this was flawed.

I should have booked some crappy inside cabin on a 3-day cruiser just to get my status and then go all out on the holiday cruise.

Can someone book a tasting on my behalf? Like, could I ask my FB group to include me in their reservation? Is that a thing?

So to give you an idea…here is what’s on my 3 day Bahamian Cruise.

Day 1 Port Day:

Onboard Fun:



Dining:

Spa/Fitness:









Day 2:
Onboard Fun:




Port Adventures (Nassau):





Dining:


Spa:










Day 3 - Castaway Cay:

Onboard Fun:




Port Adventures:









Dining:

Spa/Fitness:










There is also a Nursery option on every day but it’s grayed out. Not sure if that’s because the Nursery isn’t open yet or because I don’t have kids 3 and under…since I don’t have that age I haven’t bothered to figure that out. This should give you some idea of what things seems to sell out fastest as I’m 16 days away…so lots of dinners at Palo and Enchante still but the other stuff pretty much gone.

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I know as a concierge I can book things with me for my linked reservations. I did that on the Dream when we were concierge and the two sets of 'rents weren’t. We got them added to our cabana and booked them with all our port excursions and for Remy dinner and Palo brunch. So if you link your reservations I’m betting so.

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Caution: Palo and Remy do both show a “select” button for my sailing, but when you choose it you get an error message that it’s sold out