First Disney Cruise- The Unexpected?

[DIS_Ag]

We did next to no research for our first..... I was surprised how excellent Palo was.

 

[saxmangeoff]

I was surprised how excellent Palo was.

Same here! I was blown away by the tenderloin. It was the best-cooked steak I've ever had. (And I've eaten at some high-end steak places.)

I was equally surprised to be underwhelmed by the main dining room food. My first reaction was that it seemed like banquet food. Fancy banquet food, but banquet food nonetheless. Then I thought about feeding a couple of thousand people per night, and realized that banquet food is exactly what it is, and what it has to be.

 

[JenluvsDisney]

I was surprised by how much fun the Midship Detective Agency game was. I was traveling with my husband and two teenage children and thought it would be too babyish for my family. It's definitely a G-rated activity but we had so much fun going from clue to clue and, as first time cruisers, it was a great way to get acquainted with the ship's layout!

 

[DIS_Ag]

I was equally surprised to be underwhelmed by the main dining room food. My first reaction was that it seemed like banquet food. Fancy banquet food, but banquet food nonetheless. Then I thought about feeding a couple of thousand people per night, and realized that banquet food is exactly what it is, and what it has to be.

This is where expectations are so important. I went in expecting low grade wedding food in the MDR's. When it turned out to be higher grade wedding food, I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[RedSox68]

This is where expectations are so important. I went in expecting low grade wedding food in the MDR's. When it turned out to be higher grade wedding food, I was pleasantly surprised.

Interesting way of putting it

 

[GPaLarry]

On our EBTA last Sept. we found that only 200 kids were on the Magic. Talk about hardly seeing/hearing any rugrats, wow! They had to really scrounge to find them for some of the stage shows at night.

Sorry, it was WEST bound TA.

 

[Grammy4Lizzy]

My first Disney Cruise was in 1998 on the only ship the Magic. There were not many people that had done a Disney.
I remember Thanksgiving morning I was sitting at CC Serenity Bay on a chair in the water and just being amazed. The blue sky, the white puffy clouds. My DH and I fell asleep in one of the little clam shell lounge chairs for 2 and almost did not make it back to the ship. A CM was walking the beach and woke us up.

 

[Angie_T]

For our upcoming cruise in Feb 2018, we again have the aft cabin, but have already been in touch with a BUNCH of other people on social media who are on the cruise with us. There are lots of plans for outings, and meets and all of those things that can make a cruise fun, including "BAR WARS" a Star Wars Day at Sea themed pub crawl through all the drinking establishments on the Fantasy.

Tell me more of this Bar Wars!!! It sounds interesting! We are on the Fantasy in March of 2018, I'm totally curious.

 

[RedSox68]

I found the navigators to be overwhelming with information overload the first time that I saw them - I am a meticulous planner and I love information and when I saw them I got nervous because I felt like I didn't understand how to read them and I got all paranoid that I was "missing out" on things because I didn't have time to read the navigators. Now obviously I think they are easy to read and I get them but I always give advice to first timers to try and get a copy of those so they don't overwhelm.

Just saw this and had to comment about how much I agree. When we got the Navigator on that first day of our first cruise, I was also overwhelmed. I did get that panicky feeling that we were going to miss something major because there was so much stuff listed to read through. On the next cruise I brought a highlighter LOL, and made sure to mark each thing I was really interested in and not worry about everything else.

 

[ahain]

Before our first cruise, I didn't know about these boards, so we just went with the flow and we had a great time! Things I didn't know about on that first cruise:

• Didn't know that room service was "free"
• Didn't know that you could order multiple entrees at dinner or make special requests for things not shown on the menu (like Mickey bars, caprese salad, or desserts from a different restaurant)
• Didn't know you could have dress shirts (for formal night) pressed at a reasonable price
• Didn't know about the pirate buffet
• Didn't know about the benefits of booking a future cruise while still onboard
• Didn't know that I wouldn't need nearly as many clothes as I had packed.
• I didn't know that desserts at Cove Cafe and late night snacks by the clubs were free for the taking.

 

[Jack & Monica]

I have always tackled WDW/DL as a military operation with each day meticulously planned out. You almost have to do that if you want to maximize your enjoyment at the parks. For me, Disney Cruises are the exception. I admit that I plan out (in great detail) up to the moment we go to our first sit-down meal onboard the ship.* From there, we just relax and go with the flow. We will keep the Navigator in hand. There ARE so many things to do. We like to sit down over a beer (for me) and a glass of wine for DW on the veranduh at night and go over the next day's activities. We never miss a show, but now that our DD has turned 12 and is no longer interested in obtaining autographs (AMEN! LOL), I do not think we really ever have to over plan our cruise experience. If we have an excursion scheduled (which is rare -- we just love being onboard the ship), we go. Other than that -- we pretty much wing it. I will suggest some good times to do the detective agency thing and also the aqua duck slide with my daughter. If she is desparate to get back to the tween club, I will save it for another day of the cruise.

The things that simply blew me away on our first cruise (and now the things Ihat keep me cruising with the mouse) are the meals, the shows, and the service. We have been on several cruises now with several different cruise lines (including Carnival, Princess, Norwegian, and RCCL). All offer certain things. You get what you pay for. For me, unless things go down hill for some reason, or they price me out of the Disney Cruise market, I will always be planning my next Disney Cruise.



*This planning includes all the things involved with getting to the ship and the first couple of hours on the ship.

 

[RedSox68]

Before our first cruise, I didn't know about these boards, so we just went with the flow and we had a great time! Things I didn't know about on that first cruise:

• Didn't know that room service was "free"
• Didn't know that you could order multiple entrees at dinner or make special requests for things not shown on the menu (like Mickey bars, caprese salad, or desserts from a different restaurant)
• Didn't know you could have dress shirts (for formal night) pressed at a reasonable price
• Didn't know about the pirate buffet
• Didn't know about the benefits of booking a future cruise while still onboard
• Didn't know that I wouldn't need nearly as many clothes as I had packed.
• I didn't know that desserts at Cove Cafe and late night snacks by the clubs were free for the taking.

Seriously, Disney should have a pre-printed card that they hand out at check-in with all these and other previously mentioned things that newbies would never be aware of (unless they read these boards). It is so easy to miss something! We stumbled upon the pirate buffet on our second cruise and were totally surprised. Of course, after a late dinner we weren't hungry, but did get some great fruit. However, Pirate night menu is my favorite.

 

[Comcam]

I didn't know how much the wife loved the cruise !! She loves loved loved it. We have booked and has to cancel both cruises due to work and it has been hard on her.

Now we have a 5 month old so we will plan a 4 day cruise with her to see how she does on it.

 

[com_op_2000]

Went on the Magic the very first year of service back in '98. Everyone was checking in but no one was getting in-line, this was back before the boarding numbers. I told DW that at a certain time if no one was going to start the line I would. At that time I went to the head of the line, DW had the video running, and you should see the line form, people running from all over the terminal to get in-line. DW and I were the first people introduced on that cruise.
Anytime we want a good laugh, we bring up that video.

 

[KatePossible]

I was not expecting to love it as much as I did! I was very excited for the cruise (it was my husband and me for our honeymoon), but I did not do very much research on Disney cruises prior to our trip (besides watching Travel channel specials here and there). Everything exceeded my expectations.

One of our favorite parts of the trip (for me ) was being at the adult only beach on Castaway Cay. My husband and I rented one of those floats and he towed me around in the water while I had a drink in my hand (he's the best). We thought it was really cool how many fish we could see in the water! If we are able to go on a Disney cruise again, I definitely would plan to spend the maximum amount of time on the beach at Castaway Cay (we had booked a snorkeling excursion for that afternoon so we had to cut our beach time short)

 

[happytime]

Didn't expect the charm at Embarkation--the brightly lit cavernous room, a huge Disney life-size ship display with such detail, Mickey and Minnie characters for photo op, going through the Mickey ears, and upon entering the ship being announced and welcomed.

Didn't expect to hear a tune "When You Wish Upon a Star" upon leaving port, and the huge party up on top, or the Disney staff wave to us as we left the embarkation, CC sites.

Didn't expect at all to have the Disney Characters walk and talk with the diners at breakfast. That was so much fun!!

Didn't expect to eat at a different dining area every night (rotation of 3). When I first learned of it, I didn't know what to expect. But it made our cruise so enjoyable to not be tied to one spot on a nightly basis. What was even cooler was the wait staff went with us on our nightly rotation.

Didn't expect the huge port hole windows where children could sit in (on the Magic) along the corridors, the service at dinner--the servers knew our names by 2nd night. the entertainment so family oriented. I felt like a kid again.

Didn't expect the kindness at Guest Services for any and all questions I posed to them.

Expected to see a casino and was pleasantly surprised to see there are no casinos at all. Didn't expect that!

Didn't know anything about FE's then, but thought it unique from other cruises. Make it interesting to pass by and see gift wrapped items all during the cruise.

And finally, didn't expect that when I left the ship, I would see a ginormous sign "See You Real Soon" and not want to leave at all.

 

[RedSox68]

Funny comparison -- our very first cruise on the Wonder, full of excitement and anticipation, sailing out of Port Canaveral. There was a large white cruise ship next to us (didn't get the name back then) that was twice our size but quiet as a mouse (no pun intended). When they sailed out, we didn't even know they were leaving. There was no music, no fan fare, hardly anyone up on the decks enjoying the sail out! When we sailed out -- well you know the story, so much fun and music and dancing. Loved every minute of it.

 

[veromikes]

I'm going on a three Day Halloween cruise with my entire family(9 people) for my first cruise and am freaking out with excitement.I am a crazy fan ,been going religiously to the parks since 1976. Veromikes@youtube.com

 

[PaoDCL]

We weren't prepared for how much time our kids would want to spend in the kids club. My wife and I would have each brought another book to read if we'd known how much down time we would have had.

Yeah, that happend...

 

[MommaBerd]

Given the thread title of "...the Unexpected," we did not expect it to be grey and/or rain almost the entirety of our 5-night cruise, and the seas were *really* rough the first night, and this was May. Even the captain remarked that it was very unusual. And maybe it was because of the poor weather, but I felt like I was still on the boat (rocking) for about a week after the cruise!

I also did not expect that my DH would love it so much. He really almost cried as we were leaving the port to go home.

Similar to a previous poster, I did not expect my normally friendly and outgoing 12 yo to sit in the room and not participate in the Kids Club (Edge?) or hardly any other activity - in fact he currently refuses to cruise again. OTOH, my normally introverted 18 yo, jumped right into 1820 and we only saw him at family times...or when we went into the club for Karaoke and he was on stage with a couple of other 1820 kids! Now THAT was totally unexpected!!!