So happy you’ve got more family coming to enjoy! And happy to answer any and all questions I can!
I think you’re asking about Royal Gathering. If so, that is the princess meet that is no additional cost but does require a reservation. It is a hot ticket to get, but it actually does not open at your loyalty status booking window. Instead it opens for everyone at 30 days out. For first time cruisers, it’s also the time you can do online check-in to upload your ID documentation and select a port arrival time. If you want the princess meet you definitely want to try for that first, then start your check in.
Also, a small note, this meet is done in the atrium instead of the Royal Court. Also, if you don’t get this for your first cruise, you can absolutely still meet princesses around the ship and sometimes in even prettier locations (like Preludes near the Walt Disney Theater or against the murals around the atrium or even on the balcony with the chandelier). The biggest benefit of the Gathering is that you get 3-4 princesses met with a fairly short line to do all of them. But you can still meet them all by paying attention to where and when they will be meeting.
If you mean the princess activity in Royal Court, that will be the Royal Court Tea. It is also a fairly hot ticket item and depending on your sailing might have spots available when the booking window opens. It is a pretty penny at $250/child and $75/adult, so you do want to make sure you are so excited for it and are mega princess fans who love a tea party. We did this for the first time on the Fantasy and my youngest and I were in heaven, DH loved watching us enjoy it and the other kids were grateful for it, but are ok having done it once.
Also, fair warning, the food is only ok. Some of the desserts are great, but not all of them and it’s pretty pricy for what food you get, but if you factor in the entertainment value, it’s pretty fairly priced. The kids price is so much higher because they get a ton of swag/merch and so it’s essentially forcing you to get that by booking (an autograph book & pen, a toy, a plushie, a crown and a cape). And finally, it’s only available to book for those with children ages 3-12 to book and children must be accompanied by at least one adult. If you want this, I would definitely go for this first when your booking window opens.
It is a great experience! We’ve done it mostly at DLR but did do it once on the Wish. I preferred it at the parks, but the ship had Captain Mickey & Minnie outfits that are not available at the parks and my younger kids were over the moon excited to get from the experience. And the attention they got on the ship was profuse, from all crew everywhere the whole time they were decked out.
The hard thing with BBB on the ship, is with a first time booking window, it may be hard to find a time that isn’t a conflict with any of the shows or dinner and isn’t in the middle of one of the private island port days. If you have the first seating dinner is at 5:45-7:15pm (or so) and the show each night will be 8:30-9:30pm (or so). If you have the second seating, shows will be 6-7pm (or so) and dinner 8:15-9:45pm (or so).
Also, the first time you will be able to see what shows/restaurants and dress themes are which night is when you connect to the ship WiFi at port. So for booking you won’t have that yet. But you won’t have to worry about it conflicting with Pirate Night. On Pirate Night, they transform BBB to a pirate makeover space and it will only show as open for Pirate makeovers which will be a separate experience from the BBB makeovers.
You may be able to find out what night is the dress-up night or when the Rapunzel show is one of two ways: 1) call DCL and ask for the tentative planned schedule for dress-up nights and shows for your specific cruise or 2) joining the sailing specific FB group & asking the group if anyone knows. Someone else may have called already or, a concierge guest may share the tentative schedule that is shared with them to guide their requests that they can submit.
When bookings open, it is also fairly easy to find out which night is pirate night by seeing which night has the pirate makeovers too. And I like to do that once the dust settles on my first couple of bookings just to see if the schedule I am going of off is still on track (i.e. pirate night is on the night I had planned for it to be).
We’ve done the Getaway package that has snorkels, bikes and floats but not the one with the String-rays also, so I’m not sure how the setup is there and if it will allow your mom and aunt to observe. I would look for reviews or vlogs on DISboards, Facebook, YouTube or Instagram for those who have done the experience and wrote it up or took video to find out. Knowing how lax the staff is around Castaway, I would say it’s highly likely that if there is a space they can view from the beach, they won’t be prevented from watching for pictures for a bit. But like I said, we’ve not done the Stingray one.
Talk to Guest Services as early in the trip as you can. I’m not sure exactly when they start taking requests but I know starting the night before they announce that if you need a golf cart to speak with Guest Services and that those who waited until day of were often not able to get a time until 10:30am-11:30am so if you wanted to be on the island earlier, I would go no later than the morning before to check if you can request one, just to get as early of a time as possible.
When I first started researching Nassau it seemed like the best things to do were the Atlantis Water park, Blue Lagoon (and now Baha Mar) beach day or walk around enjoying the historic sights near the port. If you are big water park fans, Atlantis does still seem to be a draw, and what I’ve read about Blue Lagoon and Baha Mar as beaches has been mostly all good, but my family is good for one beach day on a 4 night cruise, and 2 on a 5-7 night.
Our first cruise was supposed to be a 3 or 4 night that included Nassau & Castaway Cay on the Dream and my plan for Nassau was to get off the ship and walk to the Fish Fry to try some Bahamian specialty, crack conch and conch fritters. And then if my family wanted, walk around to the fort, Queen’s Staircase and maybe even walk through the Pirate Museum. Since then I’ve also discovered that there is a public library near the port that is in a historic octagon-shaped building and has a small exhibit of Bahamian history on one level (and used to be a jail but has been transformed to be a lot more cozy with book nooks instead of cells). We’ve ported now in Nassau 5 cruises and got off once, tried the conch that I had always envisioned getting (and it was tasty!) but then got right back on the ship because it was just too hot to walk in the heat and my family wanted to go swim in the pool instead. We do generally use it as a day to get in more time on the ship that we already paid to experience. But one day I hope to get more time to walk around and see some of the sights.
As for on the ship, we find it slightly less crowded of a ship, but a lot do still stay on, so it’s not a very quiet ship. The morning hours might be quieter on the ship as most people who leave, leave in the earlier part of the day, but by lunch/afternoon it starts to feel more like a regular sea day as people come back. The very quiet ship days will be for ports where most the ship gets off (Castaway Cay for sure, Lookout Cay too, and most other islands besides Nassau). That said, unless you really want to experience a Bahamian beach (and a 3rd beach day) or if Atlantis appeals to you, I’d recommend staying on the ship.
