Top<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I feel like this is a cruise 101 topic that there is a ton of advice on. If you are here, I assume you either met me and\/or Daniel, or you are settled on a Disney cruise. To be fair, we haven’t cruised on other lines as an adult. (That is an important distinction but those cruises don’t really count for various reasons.) I’m going to approach this topic with options but giving my personal process. If you use a travel agent, you may have help with making the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
There are a lot of ways you can start: a specific ship, a time period, a budget, or where it sails to. One important thing to decide on early is the length of the cruise. If you’ve cruised before, you know how you and your fellow travelers handle a cruise, which opens up a lot of options. But if anyone in the party hasn’t cruised at all before, I strongly suggest going on a shorter cruise. That way if anyone is not having a good time, you will be done in a few days rather than suffering for several more days before heading home. Disney offers 3 and 4 night intinaries, I would suggest for new cruises to avoid mostly sea days. Sea days are their own vibe and it isn’t always for everyone. But if you are on a 4 night with a sea day, it’s a good thing to try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Return to top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Choice of ship can impact your cruise experience. The first four (Magic, Wonder, Dream, Fantasy) are a very different experience than the Wish class (Wish, Treasure, Destiny, Believe) and the Adventure. I’m going to mostly not speak about the Adventure, because it is a class of it’s own. (Bad dad joke. I know.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Return to top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n We love cruising Disney and for us, at this point, we are happy to be on any ship. We would happily do a GTY<\/a> room on the original four ships but not on a Wish class. We also “collect” the ships, so cruising a new-to-us is high up on the decision factor. We literally collect them. In the shops you can purchase a model of the ship ($60) or a small version of the ship statue ($70). Our SIL collects both, we only collect the statues. However, if we go on a ship before she does, we will pick them up for her; she does pay us back later. Cost is a factor for us, but I will also joke that we are addicted to cruising DCL and there have been a few times we just put it on the Disney Visa and figure it out later. I’m blessed that I have really good regular bonuses, in addition to both of us having great jobs that pay well, that we can be a bit too laissez faire about it sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n If anyone in the travel group has a character\/ride that they absolutely love, you may want to look for a ship that has theming or activities that include that. The Wish class have more options for theming than the Magic or Dream class. In my humble opinion, I think it is best to start on a Magic\/Dream class ship as it has less people and has a ‘cozy’ feel to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n For us, while it is neat to go to a new to us port, the ship is the attraction for us. When we did the Treasure, we did not get off at any port. I revel on port days as so many folk are in port that the ship is a ghost town and I get more opportunity to explore, try things, or interact with crew\/characters. Friends of ours the ports are why they cruise. There are ports we want to go to, but it’s a secondary factor for us at this time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Return to top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n There are some itineraries that are only available at specific times – Alaska, for example, is only offered May through September. I cannot share how many times we’ve been to Nassau and Castaway, too many. Since we are close to Florida and can drive down, that is where we do most of our cruising through. Most of the itineraries from Florida, if short, will go to either of the Disney private islands (maybe even both!) and Nassau. There are also seasonal cruises = Halloween on the High Seas, Very Merrytime, Pixar Day at Sea (often a 5 night) or Marvel Day at Sea (often 5 night.) Those are important to consider if that again, checks the box for one or more of your travel party. If you are going with kids 3 – 20 years, going during school breaks will give them more friends to have fun with. I’ve seen that kids under 12 or over 15 love the kids club. With the teens there is the typical teenage drama, possibly even romances. Daniel jokes about the wee hours of the morning and encountering ‘wild bands of roving teenagers’. (He is often up at that time hiding ducks.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n While I write this, I’m listening to a DCL podcast that just mentioned hurricanes. Don’t let cruising during hurricane season deter you. If there is a storm, the ship will do it’s best to stay away from it. While there have been instances where a ship missed a port or extended\/shortened a cruise due to the timing with a storm happens, it’s maybe once a year and it makes news in the DCL community. If anything happens Disney will communicate it and do what they can to make up for it. They also will give discounts on future cruises and money back depending on the situation. This is also a reason to get travel insurance. We always get travel insurance for cruises and we’ve been thankful for it at least twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Return to top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n I mention GTY earlier, and linked it to my FAQ page. We love GTY as it often means the room is at a significant discount. GTY rates are often available within 90 days months of sailing. The catch is that Disney choses your room and you have to pay in full at time of booking, but you get to choose the ‘category’ – Inside, Oceanview, and Veranda. Concierge rarely has a sale or can use a discount, but it does happen occasionally. Concierge is the ultra experience and you pay for it. I’m not going to speak more on it here, as we haven’t sailed that level and it is incredibly different. If you’d like some recommendations on videos to watch to learn more, I’m happy to provide them to you. The reason I mentioned not wanting to do GTY on the Wish class ships is due to the elevators and how GTY often are rooms folk don’t want for a reason. With my ankle it’s a must to be near an elevator. The Magic\/Dream class ships have 3 sets of elevators and are spaced more evenly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n All factors impact the price: ship, length, ports, when. You may want to consider playing around with the various factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n One reason we like GTY (on the Magic and Dream class ships) is we can purchase an additional placeholder<\/a>. We often have 2-3 placeholders at any time, because each cruise we go on we purchase one. That actually helped us recently as both cruises for our B2B (back-to-back<\/a>) and our Panama Canal we used it. I’m actually feeling a bit antsy that we don’t have any others right now, but we decide our 10th cruise will be a GTY so we won’t need another, and we’ll purchase 2 from our B2B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nChoice of Ship<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
When to cruise<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Stretch the budget<\/h3>\n\n\n\n