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Depending on demand, you can book a one-day pass or get a pass that lasts the duration of your cruise. Inquire in the spa as to availability and exact pricing, but it's certainly going to be less than a spa treatment. If you enjoy wine or beer out on your veranda, you can save a little cash by bringing your own alcohol onboard, with limits. Again, these beverages need to be carried on and not stashed in checked bags.
It's cash-free on the ship — except for this
It’s a comfort to realize that you don’t have to battle daily with seasickness anymore. With a crazy work schedule and little sleep, I decided not to renew my contract. Though I will always look back at my time with Disney Cruise Line with fond memories, and I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat, I knew that signing up for another half of a year onboard the ship was just not for me. Another time, my aunt and family surprised me by driving to the port to see me, not realizing the legalities that were involved with me getting off of the ship.
Late dinner is better
When we were in ports during the sailing, such as Nassau, the crew were allowed to get off the ship along with everyone else. The most important difference between cruise line guests and crew members is the sheer frustration in just trying to disembark the ship. After the first few sailings, I was finally starting to get used to my new position. Hosting dance parties and teaching guests how to do the Electric Slide had become second nature to me. Preparing the Disney Theatre for each production was my nighttime ritual. What seems like a simple one-hour activity to guests could actually take two to three hours of prep time and scheduling, trying to get many different parts of the ship to cohesively work together, which isn’t always easy.
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You can keep things simple or order personalized magnets on a site like Etsy in advance of your sailing. You may see some doors that go all out and even have pouches with goodies in them. Those hanging pouches are known as fish extenders (as they hang off of a fish built into the ship). They often signify that the cabin is participating in a gift exchange with others on the cruise that they arranged beforehand on Facebook.
18 Disney Cruise Tips 2024 — Disney Cruise Secrets - Reader's Digest
18 Disney Cruise Tips 2024 — Disney Cruise Secrets.
Posted: Thu, 01 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. Most guides and drivers are very familiar with the customs of their home country, so they can be a valuable resource for information about what to see and do during your trip. They may also be able to provide insights into the culture that you wouldn’t get from reading a guidebook. You should also tip people who assist you with your luggage, whether they’re unloading your bags from a bus or bringing them to your stateroom. For those staying in a Concierge-level room, additional tipping is customary for the Stateroom Assistant Host and the Concierge Lounge staff. 20 years ago there was NO WAY that I would have been allowed to take video or photos or document my life on DCL the way that YouTubers can now.
Porto to Lisbon: 7-Nt, Small-Group Portugal...
You come off the Disney cruise with so many new memories that having made the effort to show up to a majority of activities ends up having been worth it. Every night he’d leave little gifts on our bed—Mickey bandannas for the pirate party one night, Ghirardelli squares the next—and every night, he’d fold our towels into amusing figures. But more than the stuff he left and the diligent care he took of our room, he was genuinely kind, sincere, and a very hard worker. In the past, Disney Cruise Line required that you be vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 before sailing, but this is no longer the case. Guests departing from the United States are not required to do either, though the cruise line highly encourages you to get vaccinated before sailing.
Disney Cruises: Onboard Activities
Every sailing was a new and different experience that was entirely shaped by the people who chose to set sail with us on that specific voyage. We were also fortunate to be able to take over the Spa late one night. We weren’t able to enjoy spa services, but we could utilize the steam showers and saunas. At that point, a full size shower was definitely a luxury experience.
Though there are plenty of places onboard the ship for guests to get a quick snack whenever they want, it was not like that for the crew. The Crew Mess was essentially your one-stop dining destination, and if you weren’t eating food there (especially when they were closed periodically throughout the day), then you had to rely on food you bought in port. Disney cruise ships offer two dinner options — early or late seating.
We would still be training as a team, learning about the basics of working onboard the Disney Cruise Line, but now we would be onboard the Disney Wonder, which was dry docked in preparation for its inaugural press events. Excitement filled the air as we wondered who our roommates would be, how tiny the crew cabins were and what our positions would be like. Little did we know that the relaxed and carefree atmosphere that we were enjoying would soon change as soon as we stepped onboard the ship. One by one, we were paired with a team of firemen and entered a room with a simulated fire. We were shown how to spray the fire extinguisher, aiming the nozzle towards the base of the fire to quickly extinguish it.
It’s also possible to purchase a specialty beer mug at the pub onboard, which can then be refilled across the ship. Much like Disney’s popcorn buckets, your beer mugs entitle you to cheaper refills on all your beer. The cheapest cost for two guests to Alaska from Vancouver is $2,983 in mid-September, while the same cruise will cost you $4,607 if you sail over the Fourth of July holiday. The cheapest rate we found — the previously-mentioned $1,958 — is for a cruise in late January, a time when those with school-aged children might have trouble getting away. Meanwhile, the most expensive period for this cruise takes place over the Christmas holiday and rings in at $3,737 for an inside stateroom. These are unlike many jobs in the travel industry in that everything is flexible and you need to roll with it, from the work schedule to job duties to location.
It is also possible to pay the suggested tip in advance by contacting either Disney Cruise Line or your travel agent no later than three days before the cruise starts. On one cruise, I was talking with a family who knew where I lived (a remarkable occurrence since I was living in a tiny town at the time). After commenting that I didn’t get many opportunities to talk with my family, they got my mom’s email address and emailed her to tell her that I was doing OK and they had just visited with me on the ship. And there’s no guarantee that when you come back to the ship, if you renewed your contract, that your friends would still be onboard. Contracts end and begin at staggered times, people get transferred to other ships, etc.
To get around all of the red tape and spend some quality time with me, my boyfriend surprised me on Thanksgiving by booking a stay on the Thanksgiving sailing. The entire lobby heard me scream when I saw him walk off of the gangway into the main lobby of the ship. Luckily for me, I had friends and family in the area who wanted to drive to Port Canaveral to see me, so I was really able to stay in touch with people. But it’s not like a crew member can just walk off of a ship to see someone that has popped in to say hi. Mail delivery was one of the highlights of my week, since it was one of the few ways I could keep in touch with my family.
Disney cruises are generally more expensive than other family-friendly competitors such as Royal Caribbean, but there are still ways to save money on a Disney cruise. Here are some different discounts you can find for Disney Cruise Line. Disney Cruise Line might be a comparatively small cruise line with just five ships, but what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in popularity and enthusiastic fans.
We reported to duty at the fire training offices used by all of the cruise lines at Port Canaveral. After hours of classroom training and instruction in the use of fire extinguishers, we were ready for the hands-on training. We then took a tour of the ship’s bridge, where a large electronic chart of every square foot on the ship was mounted on the wall. A myriad of different colored mini lights represented sensors throughout the ship that were monitoring heat, electrical currents and water levels, constantly scouring the ship for any small problem that might occur. We inspected life boats and completed training in evacuation procedures.
On subsequent sailings, a member of the Cruise Staff was sometimes assigned to be onboard a shore excursion in case problems arose, so I frequently was able to enjoy a boat tour around Nassau or a trip to Atlantis. I also received two nametags, the defining moment when you know that you are truly a crew member. Sure, signing the contracts and getting a crew ID makes you feel like a crew member, but for me, it was official when I had the nametag that was to be worn at all times so that guests could identify me as part of the crew. The room was entirely too small for one person (more senior members of staff did get single rooms). Imagine putting two people in it at the same time – there was no room to even move around, since we had about nine square feet of open floor space.
I was already wearing the smallest size costume that was available, and even those quickly became too big, even the bathing suit. Perhaps during a cruise you might have seen some crew members dressed in work clothes eating in guest areas. As officers, you are allowed to do that, and as a member of the Cruise Staff, I was a very low ranking officer but still had that privilege. Each activity that we hosted onboard had its own set of challenges. I had to receive training for the DJ stations at each venue, too, just in case I had to handle the sound as well as host an event. Learning the technical aspects of sound was a piece of cake compared to trying to operate a movie screen in Animator’s Palate, which I never really mastered.
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