Well the advice still holds that if there is anything you wanted to book and couldn’t, the cruise line app has availability for dining, drink tastings, etc. you can book it there on day 1 instead of standing in line at guest services.
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Did you do any of the drink tastings? I’ve ended up just checking back in the app once or twice a day over the last month and have pretty much been able to book them all even though only one spot was available on my initial booking day. It’s time for me to go back through and thin out the herd because we’re light weights. I’m going to start by cancelling the ones on day 2 especially since we can just hit up both receptions as per your great advice.
I’m hoping I’ll see some of The Royal Gathering princess meet and greet time open up on day one…I was futzing with the checkin process too much at the 30 day mark and by the time I remembered to book this, they were all gone.
Did you do a photo package? If so, worth it in your opinion? I’m a huge fan of Memory Maker so signed up for the unlimited photo package. I read that if you don’t feel it is worth it you can downgrade or have it refunded before the last night of the cruise.
Sorry for all the questions. Your trip looked amazing and I have gleaned so much helpful info from your trip report.
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We bought the photo book. We did not do the tastings this time because the cost went up so much. It used to be $25 per person and this time it was closer to 50 per person. So we focused on the drink of the day as well as just ordering what we specifically wanted. Most of the lounges had happy hour in the evening
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All of the ticketed meet and greets, had openings on day one on the app. It would show you what was available for the whole week.
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We initially did not have any of the Pixar meet and greets, and were able to get them all through the app as well as the princess one. They also had Rapunzel and Cinderella out walking around during the welcome reception. There was no photographer with them but they were out taking pictures.
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Oh also if you have kids and they have their own iphone with a VPN service like circle on there for monitoring, you will need to remove the VPN monitoring device before they get on ship. It will not work with the ships VPN and they will not be able to send you a iMessage.
Otherwise, you can text each other through the DCL app and they can chat with other people they meet on the app as well. But iMessage does work and it’s free. It was nice to be able to get texts from family.
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Good question.
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Those are so annoying.
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Reasons the ocean is not my favorite for 1000
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We were on the cruise too!
My kids are far younger than yours, so keeping my 5 year old up for even the shows was tough. She was alseep at 6:30 tonight.
It was a first Disney cruise, and it was awesome. The weather was amazing!
We went to cane gsrden bay on Tortola, and ended up staying on the ship in st Thomas. After the 2 late night fireworks shows, my kids were zonked. They slept til 8 and then the younger one took a long nap and was still in bed by 8.
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Oh man! I wish we could have had a liner meet up! I’m glad you guys had a great time! Did you do any of the crafts? If so we were probably in there together. My DD 13 LOVED the family crafts!
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Happy you are home safe, but I cannot believe your girls were like “Nah, we don’t need to break up this drive at all with a day at Epcot.”
And I can relate to your drive back. We always drive as much as we can overnight to avoid both the traffic AND all the kid stops. We can get to Disneyland in 9.5 hours if all the kids are asleep/we leave with enough time the night to beat the SoCal morning traffic. On the way home, if we leave Anaheim midday it’s an 11-12 hour slog (depending on if we stop for a longer dinner or not). And we then loose an hour. So if Epcot were on that way home, I would take it!!
Also, good to know about the application of the sunscreen. I have reef safe sunscreen with sea lice repellent but I will make sure that we apply it everywhere. And also now packing cortisone!
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I am reading up on your trip for the second time as I am researching ideas for shore excursions.
How far in advance did you book the tour?
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We tried at 2 months out and they were booked but they had a cancellation 2 weeks before and we took it. So I would say book out as far as you can. We didn’t pay until after the tour was over.
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Even though I had nightmares of these sea lice, I still booked this same cruise for May 25th of next year. It will be our family’s first Disney cruise and I am beyond excited. Your trip report is very helpful, thank you for posting it! I may try the Sunfari Jeep tours, they look great!
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Just take some cortisone cream to help the itching in case you get them.
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I’ve been meaning to pop back in on this thread for a while to say thank you for all the great tips and for going into details about The Baths, etc., as you helped make our cruise a success!
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I’m so glad you had a great time!
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Love this pic!
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What a great pic!
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