Questions about Disney Cruises

[cantgetin]

True, Shmoo.  But we have disembarked at MANY different ports on DCL, and they do follow the Port Canaveral procedures as far as possible.  Barcelona, Dover, San Juan, and probably others followed the PC procedures re luggage totally.  

[Sea Day Cruiser]

2 hours ago, cantgetin said:

True, Shmoo.  But we have disembarked at MANY different ports on DCL, and they do follow the Port Canaveral procedures as far as possible.  Barcelona, Dover, San Juan, and probably others followed the PC procedures re luggage totally.  

 

What about disembarking in Miam?

 

And thanks to everyone for all the information.

[sm3ds]

As far as internet go it's awful. I'd rather pay a flat fee and get unlimited wifi. Make sure you turn off all apps, downlowds, email etc or it will use up your mb's. Also don't forget to log out. In addition to that if your in a place like Alaska where internet is spotty you may blow through your mb's just looking for a signal. 

[sm3ds]

On 11/14/2018 at 8:01 PM, cantgetin said:

True, Shmoo.  But we have disembarked at MANY different ports on DCL, and they do follow the Port Canaveral procedures as far as possible.  Barcelona, Dover, San Juan, and probably others followed the PC procedures re luggage totally.  

I agree with this. 

[cantgetin]

15 hours ago, sm3ds said:

As far as internet go it's awful. I'd rather pay a flat fee and get unlimited wifi. Make sure you turn off all apps, downlowds, email etc or it will use up your mb's. Also don't forget to log out. In addition to that if your in a place like Alaska where internet is spotty you may blow through your mb's just looking for a signal. 

Actually, I've found DCL's wifi to be more cost effective than other cruise lines.  Yes, you need to turn off all apps, automatic downloads, etc.  But you do no use up your mbs looking for a signal.  That's the good thing.  On Princess, you use up minutes from the time you log on till the time you log off, regardless of whether you spend 10 minutes looking trying to find a signal and load a page.  On DCL, you pay for what you upload or download, not for the time you sit there with nothing happening!

As to an earlier question about disembarking with someone other than an adult in your cabin, the parent/guardian can complete a form a Guest Services giving permission for a child to disembark with a specified adult other than one in their cabin.  And for Castaway Cay, they can give permission for a teen to disembark on their own.  It is a very simple form--name of child/teen, name of adult, signature.

 

[STHCruising]

I agree with Cantgetin’s comments on the DCL internet plans.  In addition to staying in airplane mode,  what I do to minimize usage, is (a) turn off the application updates, and (b) when signed on to connect-at-sea on the DCL internet, I put my phone in “low battery mode”.  Using low battery mode turns off a whole bunch of usage without having to change so many individual settings.  It’s as close to having an “at sea” button as I could find.  I have done this on the last four cruises, and it definitely slowed down my usage.  We purchased a 1000 mb package on the 14 night Panama Canal Cruise, were checking 2 emails several times a day, an occasional Facebook check, and a few FaceTime audio calls back home, and we used about 700 mb.  Because this is not the textbook approach to minimizing usage, I would carefully watch usage if you try this method. 

[cantgetin]

I've never used the "low battery" mode, but just turned off everything.  But similar to the above, I bought a 1 gig package for my daughter on a 14 night cruise.  She used A LOT of on line time...while I won't pretend to fully understand what she was doing, she told me it was basically a non-video version of Skype.  I also did an occasional e-mail check.  Bottom line, on day 13 she had used 600mb, so I was "allowed" to do a weekly download activity.  The service wasn't as fast as at home, but it kept her reasonably satisfied.

 

My only comparison is 2018 on Princess where I spent well over DCL's cost for a 600 minute plan that gave her S...L..O...W service and was quite frustrating.  I am aware that Princess has upgraded service on some of their ships but all 3 of our cruises were on ships that had not yet been upgraded....and what I've read of the upgrade service is not totally positive!

[sm3ds]

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 1:05 PM, cantgetin said:

Actually, I've found DCL's wifi to be more cost effective than other cruise lines.  Yes, you need to turn off all apps, automatic downloads, etc.  But you do no use up your mbs looking for a signal.  That's the good thing.  On Princess, you use up minutes from the time you log on till the time you log off, regardless of whether you spend 10 minutes looking trying to find a signal and load a page.  On DCL, you pay for what you upload or download, not for the time you sit there with nothing happening!

As to an earlier question about disembarking with someone other than an adult in your cabin, the parent/guardian can complete a form a Guest Services giving permission for a child to disembark with a specified adult other than one in their cabin.  And for Castaway Cay, they can give permission for a teen to disembark on their own.  It is a very simple form--name of child/teen, name of adult, signature.

 

I understand how to use DCL's internet. The fact that you have to turn off everything on phone to save mbs make it not effective. I'd rather just pay the 10 to 15 dollars a day other cruiselines charge and not worry about it. 

[Sea Day Cruiser]

 I keep coming up with more questions as we get closer to our cruise. Since we’re going on a five day cruise and then going to Disney World for another five days we’re trying to figure out how to limit luggage. Does anyone know if there is anyway we can do laundry on the ship? We will be on the Disney Magic. Also are there any laundry facilities in the resort at Disney World? 

 

 If you book shore excursions for the cruise now when do you pay for them? My experience is all on Princess and it’s only recently that you had to pay for their tours before the cruise. And I couldn’t find any information about cancellations of shore excursions on the Disney website so if you book now and pay now and then cancel do you get a refund? 

 

Thanks to to anyone who can answer my questions.

[gometros]

7 hours ago, Sea Day Cruiser said:

 I keep coming up with more questions as we get closer to our cruise. Since we’re going on a five day cruise and then going to Disney World for another five days we’re trying to figure out how to limit luggage. Does anyone know if there is anyway we can do laundry on the ship? We will be on the Disney Magic. Also are there any laundry facilities in the resort at Disney World? 

 

 If you book shore excursions for the cruise now when do you pay for them? My experience is all on Princess and it’s only recently that you had to pay for their tours before the cruise. And I couldn’t find any information about cancellations of shore excursions on the Disney website so if you book now and pay now and then cancel do you get a refund? 

 

Thanks to to anyone who can answer my questions. 

There are laundry facilities on the ship. Also, at what resort are you staying? They may have laundry facilities as well. 

 

Shore excursions are charged at the time of the cruise, not before.  You may cancel your port adventure booking up to 3 days prior to cruise departure date. 

Edited February 14, 2019 by gometros

[ArthurUSCG]

From the latest deck plan, the classics (Wounder and Magic) it looks like there are laundry rooms on decks 2, 6 and 7. The Dream and Fantasy have them on every floor that has a state room, except Concierge levels (11 and 12).  They use the KTTW card for payment. The detergent is expensive onboard, I suggest packing pod detergent. 

 

On our Alaska cruise, the laundry facilities were very busy on days at sea and the last day of the cruise.

Here is the deck plans for the Magic and Wounder.

 

Most of the WDW resort laundry machines will use your magic band for payment, but some still use coins or credit cards.

[txwriter]

On 11/14/2018 at 8:50 PM, Shmoo here said:

 

Not exactly.  While what you've reported is how it happens at Port Canaveral, it's not like that in other ports.  We've cruised DCL where we had to wait until our tag color/character was called for debarkation.  Some terminals are pretty small and they put bags out for pick up in the terminal when space opens up.

 

 

I’m curious if you have any insight on the port of Miami.

 

I have only been on two cruises prior.  My first in 1990 and the second last June.  Last June on Princess in Vancouver was very simple except I somehow did not have my paperwork filled out and no one mentioned it until we were on the march toward the bus (we had booked a post cruise hotel stay).  But still, so much easier than our first cruise on Royal Caribbean in NYC.  That was a nightmare.

 

I found the system on Princess very efficient and easy to do.  We knew where to be at what time.  We got breakfast, went to our spot, and waited.  We did have some navigation challenges since some areas were blocked off that we were used to being able to go through, but we got to where we needed to go in plenty of time.  And we actually were let off much earlier than they had originally told us.

 

I am scheduled to be on my first DCL cruise in December out of Miami, so I would appreciate any help.  I find embarking and disembarking the most stressful times, but because of that horrible experience on my first cruise it is leaving the ship and trying to make a flight the same day that makes me nervous enough to just not want to go.  I cannot stay an extra day in Miami this time since I need to get home.  

 

I plan to use Disney’s transportation to the airport.

[Shmoo here]

1 hour ago, txwriter said:

 

I’m curious if you have any insight on the port of Miami.

 

I have only been on two cruises prior.  My first in 1990 and the second last June.  Last June on Princess in Vancouver was very simple except I somehow did not have my paperwork filled out and no one mentioned it until we were on the march toward the bus (we had booked a post cruise hotel stay).  But still, so much easier than our first cruise on Royal Caribbean in NYC.  That was a nightmare.

 

I found the system on Princess very efficient and easy to do.  We knew where to be at what time.  We got breakfast, went to our spot, and waited.  We did have some navigation challenges since some areas were blocked off that we were used to being able to go through, but we got to where we needed to go in plenty of time.  And we actually were let off much earlier than they had originally told us.

 

I am scheduled to be on my first DCL cruise in December out of Miami, so I would appreciate any help.  I find embarking and disembarking the most stressful times, but because of that horrible experience on my first cruise it is leaving the ship and trying to make a flight the same day that makes me nervous enough to just not want to go.  I cannot stay an extra day in Miami this time since I need to get home.  

 

I plan to use Disney’s transportation to the airport.

Sorry, I haven't sailed DCL out of Miami, so don't know for sure how they work it there.

[numtini]

We just got back from the Magic in Miami two weeks ago. We found embarkation and debarkation ludicrously easy.

 

You will check-in online at 75 days prior to the cruise. You will choose a port arrival time. This is when you are supposed to get to the port, not when you actually get on the ship. It's meant to space people out, but in practice, anything after 1, you just walk on. When you do check in, there will be a form to print out, but if you don't have it, that's not a big deal. 

Disney uses terminal F. The port facility is huge and the Magic is not that large a ship. We arrived at 11 for our 11 to 11:15 PAT, handed off our luggage to porters, walked in the terminal, breezed through security, waited 30 seconds for an open desk to check in. You are given a health questionnaire to fill out and once you're checked, they give you your key to the world cards and magic bands for any kids along with a card with your boarding group. After that we went to the waiting area which had ample seating complete with charging stations. They call boarding by group and it shows on the monitors in the waiting area and is very fast. It doesn't have all the Disney decoration that PC does, and you enter through the 4th floor balcony, not directly into the atrium (they still cheer you on board), but I found it an easier experience overall. 

 

We did express debarkation because we had a 11:55am flight out of FLL. Cabanas, the buffet, opens at 630 (everyone knows this, but it's not in the paperwork anywhere) and we had a wonderful breakfast on the aft deck looking over the skyline of Miami. (I will never do MDR breakfast on debarkation day again.) Sometime a little before 730 they announced that express debarkation was open, we said "oops" because we had kind of lost track of the time. We went to our cabin and got our luggage, by the time we made our way up the elevator and to the 4th floor balcony, they were already calling the first two luggage groups. There was no line for customs--in fact I didn't even have time to get our documents out before we got to the desk. (I think this is where you really save time with express walkoff.) He looked at them casually and a minute later we were outside dialing up an uber.

If you're not doing express, you would instead leave your luggage outside the night before, and they call by luggage tag groups to debark. You then go to a big room where it's all waiting for you. I don't know about the DCL official transport, but I think they might handle luggage for you and send it directly to your airline.

Edited March 3, 2019 by numtini

[Sea Day Cruiser]

Thank you, Numtini, for the terrific, detailed information.

[numtini]

NP. I spent a lot of time worrying over that 11:55 flight. But we were in the airport at like 9 and Southwest's computers went down earlier in the day so everything was an hour late anyway...

[txwriter]

4 hours ago, Sea Day Cruiser said:

Thank you, Numtini, for the terrific, detailed information.

 

Agreed!  Thank you for all of the details.  😄