New to Disney - questions

[dolphinwyo]

We have sailed Carnival 4x, but with the kids sail free promo we can actually sail Disney for the same rate as Carnival in January. I have looked around trying to gather the answers to my family's questions, but have the following still

1. I believe the alcohol policy is changed to only allow beer or wine to be carried on. Can you order rum, etc. from bon voyage like you can from Carnival to be delivered to your room?

2. Kids Oceaneer clubs now changed to mixed ages? What is the latest they can attend? Midnight is what I am seeing, but was wondering if this is always the case? Carnival has really late babysitting option for fee.

3. Sounds like the ship closes down around midnight? We are night owls....

4. Is it Disney overload for 7 days? We love the mouse, but want to have adult fun too....will there be adult themed entertainment at all? Comedians, etc?

Thanks for any help.

[iceman93]

1. I don't think you can order whole bottles of liquor to be delivered to your room.

 

2. It's usually midnight, but one night they may have an overnight campout. I'm not sure about after-hours babysitting.

 

3. I wouldn't say the ship closes down at midnight. Like anyplace, certain venues empty out earlier than others. At least the main dance club should stay open until 2:00 AM if there are still guests there.

 

4. While the entire experience is VERY Disney, they will also have variety acts like you're used to on any cruise. They bring in outside musicians, comedians, magicians, etc.

[dolphinwyo]

Thanks for that info....can anyone clarify if you can or cannot carry on alcohol other than beer/wine? I read that you can't anymore, but then read that the policy was rescinded? Confused with that one.

[Host Mick]

Thanks for that info....can anyone clarify if you can or cannot carry on alcohol other than beer/wine? I read that you can't anymore, but then read that the policy was rescinded? Confused with that one.

 

You still can still carry any sort of beverages aboard as long as they are in your carry-on. Ducklite reports that they newest rule is that you may not consume your personal liquor in public spaces except for wine in the dining room for which you've paid a corkage. That seems like a reasonable compromise short of a difficult to enforce limit or an outright ban.

[dolphinwyo]

Thanks for the clarification. Appreciate the help.

[ducklite]

We have sailed Carnival 4x, but with the kids sail free promo we can actually sail Disney for the same rate as Carnival in January. I have looked around trying to gather the answers to my family's questions, but have the following still

1. I believe the alcohol policy is changed to only allow beer or wine to be carried on. Can you order rum, etc. from bon voyage like you can from Carnival to be delivered to your room?

 

You can carry on rum or any other liquor. It must be in your carry-on and can only be consumed in your room, except for bottles of wine which can be brought to dinner and assessed a corkage fee.

 

2. Kids Oceaneer clubs now changed to mixed ages? What is the latest they can attend? Midnight is what I am seeing, but was wondering if this is always the case? Carnival has really late babysitting option for fee.

 

DCL doesn't offer in room sitting. I'm looking at my recent Navigators, the kids clubs had different closing hours. The Club closed at midnight every night, the Lab and Edge varied between midnight and 1:00 am, and Vibe was open until 1:00 am. There was no mention overnight anything.

 

3. Sounds like the ship closes down around midnight? We are night owls....

 

It does pretty much. Per the Navigators for my recent cruise: Evolution stayed open until 2:00 every night, and the last movie ended between 1:00 and 1:30. This is not a "party" ship, and if you aren't going to be happy with a pretty early end to the evening every night, this might not be the cruise for you.

 

4. Is it Disney overload for 7 days? We love the mouse, but want to have adult fun too....will there be adult themed entertainment at all? Comedians, etc?

Thanks for any help.

 

It's not in your face. The big stage shows are definitely Disney themed, but the rest of it is typical of any cruise line, although slightly more sanitized then some. (Other than movies, the entertainment doesn't go beyond PG-13). Most of the Disney were just "touches" unless you wanted otherwise. If you showed up for every character meet and greet, every pin trading session, every show, every Disney Trivia session, every character dance party, etc., then yes, it's Mickey Immersion 101. But you'd have to really work at it to get burned out on it, it's a very different atmosphere than you'll find on the parks.

 

There's plenty of adult entertainment. Wine and Tequila tasting, all sorts of ESPN related activities, a great spa, an entertainment zone specific to adults, an adult pool area, ship tours, health club, and more. Additionally about half of the movies shown in the theater are more geared towards teens and adults. On our recent cruise they premiered "Real Steel" at midnight--the same time it premiered on land. They also showed Pirates (On Stranger Tides and Black Pearl were both shown during our cruise) and "The Help." They also had the "Match Your Mate" game, Bingo, trivia, comedy, anyone who can see and do it all must be Superman!

[dolphinwyo]

Thanks for the insight. We aren't big partiers - don't need a party atmosphere, but would like some adult time on vacation as we don't have any assistance from grandparents, etc. to have adult time during the rest of the year. Sounds like it has a good balance. Will keep researching - deciding whether this kids sail free deal is too good to pass up...

[cyclenut]

We have sailed Carnival 4x, but with the kids sail free promo we can actually sail Disney for the same rate as Carnival in January. I have looked around trying to gather the answers to my family's questions, but have the following still

1. I believe the alcohol policy is changed to only allow beer or wine to be carried on. Can you order rum, etc. from bon voyage like you can from Carnival to be delivered to your room?

2. Kids Oceaneer clubs now changed to mixed ages? What is the latest they can attend? Midnight is what I am seeing, but was wondering if this is always the case? Carnival has really late babysitting option for fee.

3. Sounds like the ship closes down around midnight? We are night owls....

4. Is it Disney overload for 7 days? We love the mouse, but want to have adult fun too....will there be adult themed entertainment at all? Comedians, etc?

Thanks for any help.

 

I'll try to help but maybe others can chime in too.

 

1) As for the alcohol policy, I don't really know for sure as I haven't tried it myself, but others have said that beer or wine can be carried on. You can order things delivered directly to your room before sailing, including beer and wine and all sorts of packages but I didn't see any rum in the list. I don't know about using third parties but you can see the offerings on Disneycruise.com under the planning center.

 

2) I don't know about the younger kids clubs such as the oceaneer but the teen (Vibe) and above are out very late.

 

3) This is sort of a mixed bag. The ship doesn't really "close down" but many of the areas on deck do "close". However, there are movies in the theater and even on deck. Movies in the theater go until well past midnight. There are also lounges and clubs that are open late with various forms of entertainment that all vary by ship. I would not say that the ship really closes down at midnight but I will say that the activities are much more limited than my experience on other ships that have a larger concentration (or percentage) of adults.

 

4) Well ... in my view ... there really can't be any Disney overload. We were on for 7 days and really didn't feel that way at all. There was adult (non Disney) entertainment including comedians and lounge shows. There are also quite a few Disney themed areas that don't feel like "kids" areas. Disney has quite a lot to offer for adults.

 

The above said, we found Disney to be best if there are kids joining you on the cruise. We had a good time as adults too, but I don't think we would have quite as much fun as it is when we also knew our kids were having a great time.

[dolphinwyo]

Thank you. We are bringing two kids, and they are currently 10 and 7 so in the same age group for clubs which would be fun for them. Sounds like we can find a good balance of adult/kid/family fun. Just a different vibe than Carnival, but the price is right in January! We would like to compare and see what the difference is.