chemistrynerd

The night before disembarkation, you will have a note in your cabin describing procedures to B2B passengers.  In the past (in Port Canaveral), if you are keeping the same cabin, you'll leave all non-essentials in your cabin and meet in a lounge.  At "last call" to leave the ship (around 9:30), all the B2B passengers will disembark, go through customs, and immediately head right back into the check-in area.  You will be the first people in the terminal.  You'll wait in the concierge area.  After the all clear is given (wait varies), you'll exit the concierge area through a side door and re-board the ship.  If in the same cabin, you can go straight to your room, but the ship will not come back to life until general boarding begins.

My family has done two B2B cruises.  Both were in Port Canaveral.  If you're keeping the same cabin, I'd suggest going straight to your cabin and keeping low profile.  It's a great morning to enjoy the stateroom entertainment system or get a nap.  The ship staff is busy getting everything ready and the public areas (pools) are closed.  Maybe others have better ideas on how to spend this time.

If you do not like a menu, you can always order anything from any other rotational dining room (from appetizer to dessert).  I do agree that the AP menu is not great, but you are not actually stuck with the AP menu.  Just ask your server.

Poolside might be a bit loose of a description. It's a restaurant just off the pool You can get food inside and then take it to the pool (or eat in the restaurant or eat on a deck off the back of the ship). There are also quick service restaurants that truly are poolside - stand at a counter and order/pickup food. The buffet requires you to wear shoes and a coverup, but wearing a swimsuit and barefoot is fine for the quick service spots.

The buffet is very convenient to the pool. During lunch, my wife and I will be back and forth from the pool to the buffet several times as someone wants dessert, more mac and cheese, or another whatever.

There will be turnover in the Palo reservations. Keep checking to maximize your chances of finding an opening (as Beth already said).

I am also in the minority on Palo... I am not a fan, mostly because I don't have a big appreciation for finer food. Meals at Palo take a while, and I'd rather spend my time doing something else. If I had to pick Palo brunch or dinner, I'd probably go with brunch. I am a big fan of the MDR for dinner (more about the experience, less about the food). Palo brunch doesn't pull you from the MDR for dinner.

The poolside buffet is great in my opinion. They do have shrimp and crab legs (stone crab?) every day. The shrimp is my daily lunch staple on ship. They also have a carving station that my wife likes. Of course, kid favorites like french fries and mac and cheese flow freely as well.

What can I expect from a Disney cruise do parents discipline their children or let them run wild. I love seeing kids have fun. But out of control is different. I read that Disney don’t even enforce the adult only areas. Allowing teens in the pools and hot tubs. That is what is wrong with society today how do we expect kids to follow the rules if parents don’t enforce them. Don’t get me wrong we love the whole Disney thing. My concern is parents thinking they paid good money for the cruise that their kids can do whatever they want

Is this a sincere question or a social commentary? If you feel that there is something wrong with society and parents/Disney don't enforce rules for kids, then you should probably think twice about going on a Disney ship that's going to have high proportion of kids and parents.

Disney does (at least sometimes) enforce ages in adult-only areas. When my family (younger kids) did a back-to-back, we got a notice in the cabin that we could get refreshments in Quiet Cove before general boarding on the port day. Since there isn't a whole lot to do before the ship opens up completely, we went to Quiet Cove. We weren't running amok. We were sitting on lounge chairs. Regardless, we were in an adult-only area. A CM promptly told us (nicely) that the area was adult-only. I would have argued about the note, but, let's be honest, we really weren't that hungry since Disney had already fed us that morning.

If one plans on doing Palo or Remy one night, then the dining rotation might be of more interest.

After nights of dodging these kids while carrying the heavy trays' date=' a server from another team angrily told our server that he needed to tell the adults to keep the kids out of the way.[/quote']

 

This is a really interesting story (sorry you had to experience it). It's kind of a window into the life of a server. If one server's guests are making guests of other servers miserable, then the first server has to take the fall and do something. You can't a bunch of guests putting in 3- or 4-star ratings just to keep one travel party happy.

We're quite a bit off topic from the thread title, but I'll jump in.

Behavior problems occur on all cruises. They are the outcome of being on a cruise ship with a lot of different people. This issue (poor behavior) seems to come up regularly here - lack of parenting in the MDR, how people dress in different restaurants, noise outside the staterooms, reserving deck chairs, etc. MDR problems are maybe more aggravating because tables are assigned. You cannot easily get away from the problem. Regardless, when you go on "your" cruise, it's actually the cruise of thousands of people. Behavior will vary.

Personally, my family has been on more than our fair share of Disney cruises. For the number of kids on board, I think behavior in the MDR is very good, and maybe the servers deserve a lot of credit for engaging kids well and mitigating problems. I can't speak for everyone else's experiences, but the reports of bad behavior in the MDR on this board overstate the problems that I've observed.

One simple reason is that the Sunshine Skyway Bridge's vertical clearance limit (distance between high tide waterline and the underside of the bridge) is 180 feet, and all of the Disney ships' height above the waterline exceeds 180 feet. A 2014 FDOT study noted that the Skyway's low bridge clearance prevented larger vessels from using the Port Tampa Bay terminals, but made no recommendation about options as the air draft of most new cruise ships exceeds the bridge's height limit at 180 feet (55 m).

Super interesting. The Magic and Wonder are listed at 171.5 ft, but maybe that's too close for comfort. The Dream and Fantasy are 216 ft. Back when the bridge was built, I doubt anybody anticipated that cruise ships would be so tall.

If the new ships (fueled by LNG) are all out of Florida ports for the foreseeable future, then that leaves the existing ships to work other parts of the globe. In some discussions, speculation has drifted to how the new ships might have features (e.g., a casino) that have greater appeal for a global audience. With the new ships being in Florida, any new features will need to come through renovation of the existing fleet.

Disney has expanded its resorts in Orlando to the point that some think a 5th park is on the horizon. Maybe Disney sees DCL as its 5th park. Expanding transit plans between Orlando and Miami make a Miami-based ship a better fit into the Disney landscape.

Nice pics. Very helpful.

I'll share one thing about the murphy bed. My family of 5 did the deluxe family stateroom a while ago. It was definitely roomy. The only issue we encountered was the murphy bed. When it is pulled out the wall, it drops right in front of the sliding glass door to the balcony. There isn't a lot of room to walk around it. Basically, once the bed is down, it's hard to do much of anything in the cabin. Of course, if you don't plan on using the murphy bed, it's a non-issue.

If there's a lesson here, it's that the cruise industry (and lodging in general) still wrestles with handling groups of 5.

The tunnel and Dodge Island are fine. Navigating Miami is the hard part. One issue is that Miami is a big city with commensurate traffic. At the time most disembark, you're going right into the teeth of morning rush hour. I don't want to be a complete whiner, but the frequent tolls make being an out-of-state driver (no SunPass) that much less enjoyable.

Here's a recent review of local Park and Cruise options in Miami. My family has been out of Miami twice. Once we stayed in Miami near the airport. The airport is about 10 miles west of the terminal. We planned on doing the Park and Cruise option, but we ended up parking at the terminal to facilitate getting on the road early for our return home.

The second time out of Miami, we stayed overnight in Fort Pierce (cheaper) and then drove into Miami, parked again at the terminal, and got on the ship.

I will say that the traffic in Miami to/from the terminal is kind of a mess. It's a mess coming in, going out, and navigating the island terminal - at least I thought it was an adventure.

We by far prefer cruising out of Port Canaveral, but the Magic is a great ship.

It's up to you. If you spend a lot of time on the veranda, then you'll likely miss it. My family normally sails with an inside cabin, and it's fine for us. We figure if we want to be outside, we can go up on deck by the pool or on the promenade. In our very few times with a veranda, I did enjoy watching the goings on in port from the cabin.

On the Magic you'll find that the entertainment system doesn't do "on demand" TV. There are stations dedicated to playing different types of movies. For example, there is a Pixar channel, a classic animation channel, etc. The movies play on their own schedule. You can't watch half of Wall-E and come back later to finish it off. My kids don't really care as they'll watch anything (start, middle, end) on TV. For me, it's nice to control what's on TV when kicking back in the cabin. (This might have changed with the Magic's most recent dry dock.)

Would like to go to CC for a brief snorkel yet spend most time at the pool without crowds. I am thinking most people get off in the morning and then come back after lunch- would that be correct? So if I got off the ship at 2ish would I have the best of fewer people on the ship in the morning and at the beach in the afternoon?

If you're plan is to avoid the crowds, that schedule will work (as long as the weather behaves). You could even leave the ship earlier.

The staff on the ship will push you to get off an explore CC, but I strongly favor staying one the ship. CC is nice, but unless you are doing something extra (like a shore excursion), most of CC comes down to a day at the beach. I can enjoy a day at a much nicer beach that CC for much less than a day on a Disney cruise. So, I'd rather maximize time on the ship than at the beach. For full disclosure, my wife completely disagrees. She's much more likely to do some of the other activities that you cannot do at a typical beach (bikes, snorkeling) than I would. Our kids are mixed.

What is there to do on the ship? All the pool restaurants around the pool and the buffet are open. The pools aren't crowded. The movie theater will be showing movies. Best of all, the place is almost all yours. The buffet will be crowded in the morning as very many passengers will want to be on CC as early as possible. Otherwise, the ship will be nearly vacant until the afternoon. Shortly after lunch on the island, many families will return to ship and eventually drift up to the pool deck.

The certificate (or placeholder) for a future cruise is fully refundable if you decide within the 2-yr window that you won't be taking another cruise. There are some blackout dates for getting the 10% onboard discount. When in doubt, get the placeholder. You can always cash it out later if necessary. If your family is in two cabins, then you can pay for an extra placeholder ($500 instead of $250) to get the onboard booking for two cabins for your future cruise.

One caveat about soft drinks. Sodas ordered during meals, in the Vibe and those provided at the drink stations are free. Soft drinks ordered at bars and room service are not.

Very interesting. There's always something new to learn.

I do not think they are allowed around the pool areas.

"Disembark". Do you mean the Magic starts a cruise in Miami? That would be "embark". Disembark is where you get off the ship.

Yep. .My bad.

Some of the Magic itineraries disembark from Miami and go straight to Key West. Why is this allowed?

My family has done a 3/4 b2b on the Dream a couple times, but I think the 5/2 on the Wonder would be a natural fit. Were there many other b2b families?

Hello cruisin1982!

Is your spelling of Fantasy in your signature a typo or intentional? Either way, it is high humor, and I'll no longer think of Disney's newest ship in the same way.

I don't know what you are looking at. With three mouse clicks' date=' I found 10 cruises that included Marvel days at sea. With another three clicks, I had 9 Star Wars cruises. These are very popular and I can't see any reason that they would be canceled.[/quote']

 

I think jacksonx was referring to Marvel days specifically out of NY.

It's a good time to cruise, but I've only been on a late-Feb cruise. Yes, the water will be cooler, but lots of folks will get in the water (especially if it's a sunny and warm day).

Will this be your first Disney cruise? If so, I'd propose that the weather really won't matter. Maximize your time on the ship because that's really what you're paying for with Disney. It depends on your family, but see a movie, spend time on the pool deck, relax in the stateroom, check out some of the programming, etc. I'm in the minority here (even within my own family), but I'd rather be on the ship than on Castaway. I can go to better beaches for less money, but the ship is what makes the trip special.

Again, if this will be your first Disney cruise, a 3- or 4-nt trip is perfect. You'll go at a time of year that minimizes cost. If you love it, you can always come back again. If it's not for you or your family, at least you learned without breaking the bank.