- Use a Disney travel agent to book your cruise. It makes life so much easier.
- Don't bother registering your kids for the kids club while in the port terminal. Just do it once you're on the boat. The line is much shorter.
- Get tickets to the Princess Gathering and to see Elsa as soon as you get on board because those tickets get taken fast.
- If you're looking for something to do in a port, I highly recommend Resort for a Day. We only used them once but had a great experience.
- Don't do a dolphin encounter, especially in Grand Cayman.
- I was afraid it might be overkill, but I had several types of bags with me, and they all got used.
- Backpack for carrying on the plane
- Baggalini crossbody bag (sort of like this) for carrying a few diapers around the ship along with my Navigator, wave phones, Key to the World card, and a few other odds and ends.
- Beach bag (sort of like this) for carrying sunscreen, sand toys, puddle jumpers, and other items for the beach.
- Bring water bottles with you to fill with soda or water to carry around the ship.
- Pack your bathing suit in your day bag for your first day on the ship when you embark, so you can swim before your luggage is delivered.
- Arrive the day before your cruise and stay at the Hyatt in the airport. It takes the stress out of traveling.
- Definitely get door magnets for your stateroom door. Laura, our travel agent, sent me a Mickey pirate, and we loved it. Tons of people had them and we would have been so sad if we didn't have something. If you search "Disney cruise door magnet" on Etsy, you'll find tons of options.
- Try to get the dinner arrangements that maximize the number of times you go to Animator's Palate. We got to go three times, and it was awesome.
- Get your passports early. It was a huge pain in the rear to get passports for the kids--I started attempting to get them in February, and we ended up having to rush them in April.
- Take advantage of the kids club and nursery while on board. The peace and quiet is so worth the $9/hour charge for the nursery (kids club is free).
- You'll read a lot of blogs about needing to bring stuff like a shoe organizer to hang on the door, power strip to charge your phones, clothespins to hang your wet stuff. We didn't need any of that. The room has tons of storage and plenty of places to hang went stuff.
- What did come in handy was a laundry bag. We did laundry halfway through the trip, which was nice. Of course, I had packed enough clothes for the kids and me to stay for a month, but it was still nice to have less laundry to do when we got home.
- Don't feel obligated to bring a suit or fancy dress for formal night. I wore a cotton skirt and Eric wore khakis, and it was totally fine. People were way less dressed up for dinner on this than previous ships that I had been on, and no one noticed.
- Just go ahead and spend the $89 for 1,000mb of internet. It was well worth it to be able to keep up with things at home after the kids were all in bed by 9:30pm every night. Disney does give you 50mb for free but that went fast.
- Get your house cleaned right before you leave. We had ours cleaned on Thursday, before we left on Friday, and it was so nice to come home to a clean house.
- Eat as many Mickey bars as you can. They are so, so good and only available in Disney parks and on the cruise. Fletch loved the Mickey bars.
- Bring pirate costumes for Pirate Night. I almost didn't, but everyone had costumes. I'm so glad we did. Here's a picture of a picture from that night. This was taken by the Disney photographer, which is why I don't have a digital version.
That's all that I can think of, but if I come up with anything else, I'll keep posting.
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