12 Tips for a Land/Sea Vacation - Part 2

We ran into Princess Aurora in the hallway

Lesson 7: Future Booking Desk/Shutters These two areas are virtually ghost towns during the beginning and middle of a cruise. The Future Booking Desk is responsible for making a reservation for, you guessed it, a future cruise. Shutters is the name of the area where you can purchase pictures that the staff photographers snapped. Every now and again you may see a family browsing thru pictures or chatting up the Future Booking Specialist, these people are probably veteran cruisers.

Lesson Learned: Pick Out Your Pictures Early And Re-Book On The Ship Early! Stop by Shutters early and often if you plan to purchase pictures. This allows you to leisurely browse and put items in your cart and only add the last minute photos the final night. If you are planning on EVER taking another Disney Cruise book on the ship. By booking on the ship you automatically save 10%
on the price and only owe 10% down. If you are not sure when you can sail its o.k. You are allowed to move the date as many times as you need to up until the Paid In Full mark. Many times you also get an On Board Credit when you book. The amount will vary depending on the length of the cruise you choose to sail. In addition, you can transfer your booking to your travel agent when you get home.

Lesson 8: Photography Magic is always happening at Disney.
Your child sees Winnie the Pooh for the first time, your spouse experiences the “Wishes” fireworks, or you love to remember food that you experienced, you will want to have memories to show family at home or children as they become adults.

Lesson Learned: Always, Always, Always Have Your Camera On Hand! Whether you are at the theme park or on the ship you never know when “magic” is going to happen and you want to have a camera handy to capture it. It doesn’t matter if you have an iPhone, Point-and-Shoot, or a DSLR.

*Make sure your camera is on your person

*Make sure you have extra batteries.

*Make sure you have extra memory cards.

*Have a way to secure your gear during rain showers or ride enjoyment.

*Plan for a photo dump every night. I bring my laptop and clear my card nightly. Overkill you say? I have read too many stories of families loosing all their vacation pictures due to stolen/lost cameras or corrupt memory cards.

Lesson 9: Should I Do Land First Or Sea First? For us this was an easy decision, price and schedule decided that we would do the Land leg of our vacation first. We had extra time off before our cruise so a few days at WDW were perfect.

Lesson Learned: I Like To Come Home Relaxed : ) I love, love, love all things Disney. That being said a vacation to Disney World can be an exhausting endeavor. When our family goes we go to ride, see, and do. We don't stop, we are all in. Our family enjoys trying to fit it all in and would be miserable if we stopped to swim or rest. When we do another land/sea vacation we will do land first. I like to come home relaxed and the cruise ship is the perfect way for me to relax and recharge. The opportunities for lounging, are endless and the atmosphere of the cruise line is more relaxed then the parks. Another thing to take into consideration is that some people actually become sea-sick after leaving the cruise. They can still feel the gentle pitch when they are on dry land. This usually goes away shortly but could be aggravated by rides. I know I would not want to be at the Magic Kingdom and sea-sick.

Lesson 10: Time Together Vs. Time Apart Family Vacations are all about getting the family together and sharing the experience. Many families will have personalized shirts that they wear to the parks or on embarkation day. Go into your vacation knowing that you will have times that you are together and plan/expect that you will have time apart. Some families are better at this expectation than others, this could possibly be the hardest lesson of the twelve listed.

Lesson Learned: Plan From The Beginning For Together Time And Time Apart. The land portion of the vacation will probably be the best opportunity for spending the most time together. Unless your kids are older and capable of free roaming the parks. It has worked for us in the past to keep the gang (5 of us) together and ride, eat, and enjoy everything together (the teens didn't even complain). If we split up it is usually because our youngest needs a picture with Winnie the Pooh, and the older siblings need to Ride the Haunted Mansion and know Itty Bitty dislikes scary rides. However, the ship is an entirely different story. Our agreement with everyone is that we attend dinner and the nightly show together. The only exception is if the adults have Palo/Remy reservations. Directly after our nightly routine we return to the room to look at the next day's navigator, and decide if we will do any family activities the next day. We then split up for club time, everybody has a curfew that is enforced. Each child carries their own wave phone and must have it at all times. This allows everyone to enjoy the special programming that they have for each age group and enjoy some free time.

Lesson 11: Eating One of the things we all enjoy is the opportunity to eat out while on vacation. We love trying new places and new foods. Healthy eating habits and diets are put on the back burner when we vacation no matter where we are visiting. Our pocketbook is a little more generous in these situations too. Who knows when you are going to get another chance for a churro or a turkey leg!

Quick Service at Casey's

Lesson Learned: Eat Frugally At The Park And Enjoy All You Can Eat Selections On The Ship. Depending on the length of your total vacation you could be eating like this for a while... and although its fun, we get to a place where we were not hungry anymore. My lesson learned here was save your self for the ship, unless you have a severe love of Dole Whip, Churros, or Turkey Legs.1. It is all inclusive. You can try a little of everything and not foot the large bill for it. 2. Unless you are doing the more expensive fine dining at the theme parks, the quality of the food is higher and the selection is better aboard.
(They are not offered on DCL) Why? Two key reasons:

Lesson 12: Room Location On Ship/ Hotel Location As the old saying goes Location, Location, Location, is key. The approach I take is to balance the location and the price. What exactly am I getting for my hard earned extra cash? Is it of real value to me or is it a perceived value? I think that location is equally important both on Land and Sea.

Lesson Learned: Chose Your Locations Carefully Each Have Pros And Cons. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and loved it! We were close to the pool, and to the parking lot. When it was time to catch the bus to ride to the parks... well that was a bit of a hike. It was not a big deal for us, but I could see it being an issue for others. At the end of the day, when we were leaving the parks, our line to catch the bus was far shorter than the value resorts. This shortened all of our departure wait times considerably, however this may not be reason enough to spend the extra dollars on a moderate resort room. 

     On DCL, there are lots of categories to decide between and different room types to choose from. Not to mention floor and position Forward, Aft, or Center. We have a large family so we go for one room with a veranda towards the center of the ship. This minimizes rocking and we are close to the elevators, but this also means that our room is more expensive. My parents cruised with us in the past and they loved their inside virtual port-hole room, and honestly if we were a smaller family I would book this room and spend the extra money saved on up-scale dinners, jewelery, and drinks ; )

I hope this has been a useful post. If you have questions or comments please feel free to drop me a line and I will respond.

Looking for Lessons 1-6?  Click Here : )