First time with DCL

[jensantuit]

Hello,
We are very excited to be planning our first Disney Cruise Line trip for April 2012. We are looking at the 4 night Bahamas cruise on the Dream. We are going to drive down and park at the port terminal. We are thinking about going during what should be Massachusetts school vacation week. We are also planning on spending a few days at Walt Disney World after our cruise.
We have a few questions:
- Are we crazy for going during a school vacation week (we have 2 boys who will be 5 and 7 at the time of the cruise and would rather not pull them out of school)
- How long does it take to disembark?
- We are looking at a deluxe stateroom with veranda. Is there a better deck to be on than another?
- How early can we check in at the cruise terminal and board the ship?
- Any other hints or tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

[Ed]

Hello,
We are very excited to be planning our first Disney Cruise Line trip for April 2012. We are looking at the 4 night Bahamas cruise on the Dream. We are going to drive down and park at the port terminal. We are thinking about going during what should be Massachusetts school vacation week. We are also planning on spending a few days at Walt Disney World after our cruise.

We have a few questions:

- Are we crazy for going during a school vacation week (we have 2 boys who will be 5 and 7 at the time of the cruise and would rather not pull them out of school)

- How long does it take to disembark?

- We are looking at a deluxe stateroom with veranda. Is there a better deck to be on than another?

- How early can we check in at the cruise terminal and board the ship?

- Any other hints or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

It's difficult to pinpoint when the peak periods might be, because so many school systems operate on different schedules. Regardless, crowds are a fact of life at both WDW and on the DCL ships.

Disembarkation begins around 7:30 am. If you are among the first group to leave the ship, you could easily be through Customs and on your way in less than an hour. Then it's about an hour drive to WDW.

It's difficult to say which deck might be more desirable than another because at this point, nobody has cruised aboard the Dream; she doesn't go into service until next month. The only thing I can suggest is that you study floorplans on the DCL site and try to choose an area that is not directly above or below "public areas" such as restaurants, night clubs, pool areas, etc. if you desire a quiet area.

The terminal opens for check-in at 10am, and boarding starts right around noon; the time varies if the crew needs more time than normal to get the ship into A-1 condition following the preceding cruise.

For other tips and suggestions, I'd recommend you browse through some of the older threads in this forum.

Hope you enjoy your cruise!

[MarkC]

We aren't taking our first Disney cruise until April 2012 and our kids will both be out of the house by then. I will weigh in on taking kids out of school

At that age I do not think its a problem taking them out of school for a couple of days. They are not in chapter mode in their books as much. Plus, if you know they are going to be gone in advance you can tell the teacher. We did this a couple of times and were told either "do this homework on the plane" or "its a family vacation-- go and enjoy and don't worry about it". We are blessed with great public schools in Lincoln but I don't know that should matter. Once they get to about 6th grade and the subjects are much more structured I would think twice about missing school. However, I think you are perfectly safe in doing so now. Check with your teachers first but go ahead and enjoy the extra time.

[ginny57]

Just a thought....

Before there was a Disney cruise line, I did the Big Red Boat many years ago followed by a few days @ WDW. I wish I had reversed the order of trip. The cruise was so lovely and relaxing and that would have been a much better way to wrap up the vacation.

[ElenitaB]

The ships are designed to handle crowds and they do it well. We cruised one time the week before Thanksgiving and another time during President's Week (with a full ship). There really wasn't any major difference that we noticed.

That said, you will notice a difference, however, in the parks.

I also suggest doing the parks first and your cruise second.

Let the planning begin!

[TracyL]

Speaking as a local, I can tell you that Spring Break starts around March 1 and ends around May 1. So there's no way to avoid the "spring break crowd" in April. That said, it's not really that bad, and the weather's usually great. AND you'll be here during Flower and Garden at EPCOT!

I would tend to agree that WDW first and DCL second is a good choice.

Disembarkation was a total breeze when we were on our cruise a couple of days before Christmas. The ship was pretty full, but never felt crowded. And you'll LOVE Castaway Cay -- even a full ship can't make a dent in all the space on the island, and you don't have to share with anyone else!

[jensantuit]

Thank you everyone for your help. We have decided to change our plans a little bit. We have decided to continue with the cruise in April during school vacation seeing that the ships sail at capacity anyways. We have decided that instead of adding a trip to the world after the cruise, we are going down for a separate trip in September to take advantage of the warm weather and low crowds so now we are very excited to be planning 2 Disney vacations