Wow, booking activities for DCL is a whole new level of glitchy - a very frustrating experience, but I did ok in the end. I wasn’t going for anything super competitive and mainly wanted to get a feel for the booking system as a practice run for the upcoming check-in/Royal Gathering day, so I decided to log on right at opening time (4am my time, so I had to set an alarm and am sure that I was not at my sharpest!)
My first move was to check BBB availability. I could see that the times for our Day at Sea had already advanced to 6pm, which seemed too late if we wanted to catch a show. There were still some afternoon times available on both our Castaway Cay and our Lighthouse Point days. When I had called DCL to check on our dining schedule, two separate advisers recommended booking BBB on the second night of the trip (Castaway Cay day), which is scheduled to be “formal night”. I managed to book three appointments for that second day, though the appointments start earlier than I wanted (at 3.15pm) and are not really at the same time, just adjacent (the latest starts at 4.45pm).
Then I got stuck for 45 min just trying to refresh on both the website and the app, everything seemed frozen and unavailable. I logged in and out multiple times, and tried an incognito window, but nothing worked. At one point when I logged it in actually looked like I had no cruise reserved.
I kept clicking around and about an hour after I first logged on, I managed to book the Extreme Getaway Package for our Castaway Cay day, at a time I wanted (manta rays at 11am, snorkel/bikes/floats rental whenever you want). I was happy with that.
But then I started wondering if I shouldn’t have booked BBB for Lighthouse Point day, when we are not planning to do any shore excursions (the rays, the bikes and snorkeling near the sunken Disney statues in Castaway Cay looked much cooler than anything available at Lighthouse Point). So I tried checking availability for that day, but just got totally stuck for several hours.
It’s so annoying that you can’t see availability for BBB on another day if you’ve already booked something - you have to blindly cancel what you have just to see availability and then hope you can find a good alternative.
The other problem was that the system seemed to be down again, and I couldn’t even cancel the reservations I had anymore - it keps saying to try again at another time. I went back to sleep and tried several times throughout the day on the app (I was moving around all day and couldn’t get back on the laptop until this evening).
I managed to get back in through the website just now (the app is still spinning aimlessly) and play around a bit with cancellations and exploring other availability. Unfortunately the BBB times for Lighthouse Point are now also out past 5pm, meaning it would run into the times we might want to watch shows, so I decided to stick with my BBB times on Castaway Cay day.
I may decide to drop either the Getway Package or BBB that day (if I can find three slots together on another day/at a good time), so that we don’t feel rushed doing both on the same day. BBB is a must-do for my girls at some point during the trip (whereas the Getaway Package is nice to have but not a must - we would likely also be happy just renting bikes and snorkels on the spot). If anyone has thoughts on whether BBB starting at 3.15pm on Castaway Cay day is cutting it to close, let me know!
But wow, the booking system is really worse than I thought.
In much better and more important news: the reason that I was looking for three BBB appointments and not two (for my two daughters) is that my sister spontaneously decided yesterday that she’ll join us for this trip with her DS11 and DD9! We’ve been to WDW with them once (their only visit and they have also never cruised before) and they loved it, so they will lose their minds with excitement when they find out (my sister hasn’t told them yet).
My mom is in heaven that the number of grandkids on the trip have just doubled, my kids are super excited to spend time with their cousins, and I am just LOVING this ever-growing multi-generational family trip that I know will create incredibly memories!!
Easily makes the DCL glitches pale into insignificance by comparison 
In the meantime I’ll keep expectations low for check-in day/the hunt for Royal Gathering next month…