Never been on Cruise. DCL May 2013 About This Page:

[aurora_ca]

First of all, let me start off by saying, I have never been on a cruise. My husband has been on a cruise and claims that once you have been on one you have been on them all. I don't believe that is true, so I have a few questions:

1. What makes the DCL different from a carnival or other cruise line?

2. How do I know what type of room I want to have?

3. Which seating is better for dining?

4. What is available to do on the ship that isn't an extra cost?

5. How far out do you have to book your excursions to get the ones you really want?

6. Should we use a travel agent since I don't know what I am doing?

Thanks for helping me

[PixieMichele]

Hi Dawn!
Let me see if I can try to help out with some of these questions.
1. When you get on Disney Cruise Line, you'll understand why it's the best The service cannot be beat, all your needs are taken care of (and then some!) Your dining room servers rotate with you each night so often they already know what you want before you even ask. The accommodations are beautiful and far more luxurious than you'd find on Carnival. The kids programs are out of this world.

2. If you have cruised before, were you prone to sea sickness at all? Do you have a preference to location on the ship? Forward, Mid, Aft or a deck (lower or higher) those will affect your stateroom choice as well as the category (and therefore the price). DCL does have inside staterooms with a virtual porthole (on the Dream and Fantasy) so you can "see" outside even in an inside stateroom. The oceanview offers either 1 big or 2 small porthole "windows" and a verandah has a verandah (what a novel concept!) then you get into concierge level and suites. Inside staterooms are the most affordable and have different categories, some are on deck 2 and some are on the upper decks (5, 6 and 7) which are on the same level as the verandah rooms.
3. It depends who is in your travel party. We preferred the late seating dining on the Disney Dream because my 10 year old step-son was with us. We would go to the show before dinner, then have dinner and we'd do the dine and play so they would bring his meal right away and about 45 minutes later a kids club cast member would come and round up the kids to go back to the kids clubs. He loved that he didn't have to wait through a boring meal to go back and have fun.
4. Basically everything onboard is free, except for alcoholic beverages, spa treatments and bingo. There are pools, the AquaDuck (Dream and Fantasy) there are various alcohol and wine tastings you can partake in for a nominal fee (they are about $15 or so). There are games and shows and all kinds of entertianment. They give you a 4 page bi-fold document called a "personal navigator" that shows you all the events happening that day. Towel folding, movies at the theatre, all kinds of things!
5. You can start booking excursions based on your "castaway" level. I've never heard people not getting the excursions they wanted. It's not as bad as making dining reservations for WDW!
6. I'm not really allowed to comment on this, but i'm partial to travel agents

[Dave Marx]

DCL is dramatically different from Carnival. You'll find a fair number of posts here in the forum that describe that, this is the most recent. If I could wrap it up in a single phrase, DCL is run by an entertainment company, while the others are hotel companies. The quality and quantity of top-notch, family-friendly entertainment can't be matched.

Type of stateroom is a combination of things - budget, space requirements, and, to a lesser degree, things like a known tendency to motion sickness. DCL makes it relatively simple - Other than suites, there are just three sizes (interior space): Standard Inside (not many of these), Deluxe (the largest number of rooms - most rooms sleep 4, some 3), and Deluxe Family (about 36 sq. ft. bigger than Deluxe, just enough room for an additional twin Murphy bed - sleeps 4-5). Most staterooms on the ship are the same in terms of space, layout, amenities, etc. After choosing size, there's the factor of inside (no window), outside (window), and verandah (note that DCL's quoted square footage includes the space on the verandah - nearly all Deluxe Verandah rooms have the same interior space as the Deluxe porthole or inside rooms). Location on the ship makes a bigger difference in price than it ought to, as far as I'm concerned. A room on Deck 5 may be identical to a room on Deck 10 in all ways but altitude - but the price will be higher the higher you go, even though it's no less convenient to the ship's facilities and no different in comfort. Unless you know you're susceptible to motion sickness, whether you're in the front (foreward), center (midship) or rear (aft) matters very little, but midship rooms will cost more, because those are preferred as being the "safest" for motion sickness. These are huge, very stable ships, so in normal cruising conditions, most folks barely notice the movement, wherever they happen to be.

As Michelle already noted, DCL doesn't pile on extra charges. Alcoholic beverages, specialty non-alcoholic drinks, bingo, arcade games, wine tastings, spa treatments... that's about it while your on board the ship. One reason DCL's rates tend to be higher is that it's more "all-inclusive." Some lines charge for soft drinks everywhere but at meals, and the mealtime selection is small. On DCL there's a full selection of "free" soft drinks at meals, and there's also a self-service beverage station (like the ones for refillable mugs at the Disney resorts) for free beverages at all other times. Shore excursions in ports of call are extra, as is food when you're ashore in ports of call (but they still serve meals on the ship when you're in port, and those are included in the fare). But if your cruise visits Disney's private island, Castaway Cay, your whole day ashore is included in the cruise fare with the exception of some recreational equipment rentals and shore excursions (food included). There are the customary gratuities - those are not included in the fare - the recommended tips for your dining room and stateroom service add up $12/person/day. DCL does have extra-cost, adults-only restaurants, but you could go through an entire cruise and not even know they're there (some of the lines that advertise "freestyle" dining charge for nearly every alternative to the regular dining room). All other food on board is included. Bottom line is, you can cruise and pay next to nothing out of pocket, and have a great time. On the other hand, excursions, spa treatments and other extras can add up to as much as or more than the cruise fare - set a budget, and stay inside it. I've often budgeted $25/person/day over the cost of the cruise fare (half of that for gratuities), and have had no problem sticking to the budget. You walk around the ports of call, avoid spending on souvenirs, have two adult beverages per day... and have a wonderful cruise.

First-time cruisers with DCL can reserve excursions starting 75 days prior to sailing. The more you cruise, the earlier you can book, with those who have cruised more than 10 times able to book 120 days in advance. 75 days prior is also the due date for payment in full - they won't let anyone make an excursion reservation until paid-in-full. However, it's rare for excursions to be all booked-up 75 days out. There are some high-priced deluxe excursions with room for a handful of folks that may be gone, and folks who want swim-with-dolphins experiences tend to book early because they're so motivated, but the excursions most folks take aren't all that hard to come by, even after you're on the ship.

A travel agent won't cost you anything, and a good Disney Cruise Line specialist can be a big help. While they can't give you a discount over the fares quoted at the DCL site, some of them offer an on-board credit (money to spend on the cruise). There are other agents (let's call them general-purpose agents) who will book whatever you ask for, have never cruised with Disney, have had no training from Disney... they're basically just taking a commission for doing something you could have done yourself. There are a lot of the good kind on these boards. Contact a few from different agencies, see what they offer, see if the relationship "clicks," get some recommendations...

If you prefer planning your vacations yourself, it's not incredibly hard once you learn the variables (types of staterooms, itineraries being the two biggest). There's this really good guidebook dedicated to the Disney Cruise Line, if I can say so myself (and in my case, I can get away with that. )

[aurora_ca]

Thanks Dave, I have ordered the guidebook yesterday to help me figure out what I need to know exactly.

[disney]

1. What makes the DCL different from a carnival or other cruise line?
No one in all the world to me can do the magic that disney does

2. How do I know what type of room I want to have?
for our first cruise last aug I wanted a room with a view of the ocean it was so amazing we booked an inside state room near the one i had with the virtual porthole for 2013

3. Which seating is better for dining?
we had the late dining and it seemed to be fine but i think with seating it is peoples prefrence

4. What is available to do on the ship that isn't an extra cost?
first run movies, sports, I was on crutches for this trip so it slowed us a bit so we did not do much but i cannot remember but i know there was alot to do .

5. How far out do you have to book your excursions to get the ones you really want? forgot sorry

6. Should we use a travel agent since I don't know what I am doing?
we used a TA it was great they were awsome . but i know alot of people like to do things themself and control everything . But there are upsides my TA is a no fee TA and if you use one make sure she is a Disney Authorized TA specialist .