s/of Disney cruise - being seated with another family for dinner

[Anonymous]

With all this DCUM complaining .. I somehow booked a 3 night cruise for October. I'll be happy to start a thread about my planning steps for dining , character meets to help out anyone who is interested.

[Anonymous]

The cliche fat people on scooters complaint can stop. There's a lot of them in Disney World because it's a lot of walking. You never know why someone requires it. Yes being overweight can cause terrible knee pain. Happens to my mom. Stop being so judgemental PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With all this DCUM complaining .. I somehow booked a 3 night cruise for October. I'll be happy to start a thread about my planning steps for dining , character meets to help out anyone who is interested.

The best thing to do is join the Disney cruising Facebook page. Those people are pros! Post any question and you'll get tons of helpful responses almost immediately!

FYI, there's no real planning for dining. You pick early or late seating! Early is best: feed your kids, then change into comfy clothes for the show. While some kids fall asleep, most don't. You can opt to pay additional and make reservations for the "fancy" adults restaurant...it's not worth it. It's still cruise ship food. The main dining room is nice, and it was never noisy.

Lots of the character tix are acquired when you first board the ship. And there are plenty of opportunities to see characters without those private meet and greets.

The only thing you need to plan for are excursions and the Fish Extender groups. Both are optional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With all this DCUM complaining .. I somehow booked a 3 night cruise for October. I'll be happy to start a thread about my planning steps for dining , character meets to help out anyone who is interested.

The best thing to do is join the Disney cruising Facebook page. Those people are pros! Post any question and you'll get tons of helpful responses almost immediately!

FYI, there's no real planning for dining. You pick early or late seating! Early is best: feed your kids, then change into comfy clothes for the show. While some kids fall asleep, most don't. You can opt to pay additional and make reservations for the "fancy" adults restaurant...it's not worth it. It's still cruise ship food. The main dining room is nice, and it was never noisy.

Lots of the character tix are acquired when you first board the ship. And there are plenty of opportunities to see characters without those private meet and greets.

The only thing you need to plan for are excursions and the Fish Extender groups. Both are optional.

I've been on a few Disney cruises. I just plan on writing out any challenges. For example, I'm on the wait list for main dining. I'll update when I get switched to main or if I have to change it on board & if I get my own table my request. Hopefully it'll help anyone who is stressing.

[Anonymous]

Didn't it ask your seating preference when you booked the cruise on line? I went on different cruise line and they asked if we wanted to sit at a table of four or six (we were two then so we picked the table of six.

[Anonymous]

I didn't know what to expect when we were seated with another family but Disney doesn't just pair you blindly. The other couple had a daughter the exact same age as ours, and out girls were BFFs by the end of the cruise. It was sort of nice to have other people we knew to talk to on the ship!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With all this DCUM complaining .. I somehow booked a 3 night cruise for October. I'll be happy to start a thread about my planning steps for dining , character meets to help out anyone who is interested.

The best thing to do is join the Disney cruising Facebook page. Those people are pros! Post any question and you'll get tons of helpful responses almost immediately!

FYI, there's no real planning for dining. You pick early or late seating! Early is best: feed your kids, then change into comfy clothes for the show. While some kids fall asleep, most don't. You can opt to pay additional and make reservations for the "fancy" adults restaurant...it's not worth it. It's still cruise ship food. The main dining room is nice, and it was never noisy.

Lots of the character tix are acquired when you first board the ship. And there are plenty of opportunities to see characters without those private meet and greets.

The only thing you need to plan for are excursions and the Fish Extender groups. Both are optional.

I've been on a few Disney cruises. I just plan on writing out any challenges. For example, I'm on the wait list for main dining. I'll update when I get switched to main or if I have to change it on board & if I get my own table my request. Hopefully it'll help anyone who is stressing.

I'm the pp, and we've been wait listed for main dining and we're always switched prior to the cruise. NBD. Seriously, nobody should be stressing over a cruise. You don't need to plan for a Disney cruise the way you need to plan for the parks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With all this DCUM complaining .. I somehow booked a 3 night cruise for October. I'll be happy to start a thread about my planning steps for dining , character meets to help out anyone who is interested.

The best thing to do is join the Disney cruising Facebook page. Those people are pros! Post any question and you'll get tons of helpful responses almost immediately!

FYI, there's no real planning for dining. You pick early or late seating! Early is best: feed your kids, then change into comfy clothes for the show. While some kids fall asleep, most don't. You can opt to pay additional and make reservations for the "fancy" adults restaurant...it's not worth it. It's still cruise ship food. The main dining room is nice, and it was never noisy.

Lots of the character tix are acquired when you first board the ship. And there are plenty of opportunities to see characters without those private meet and greets.

The only thing you need to plan for are excursions and the Fish Extender groups. Both are optional.

I've been on a few Disney cruises. I just plan on writing out any challenges. For example, I'm on the wait list for main dining. I'll update when I get switched to main or if I have to change it on board & if I get my own table my request. Hopefully it'll help anyone who is stressing.

I'm the pp, and we've been wait listed for main dining and we're always switched prior to the cruise. NBD. Seriously, nobody should be stressing over a cruise. You don't need to plan for a Disney cruise the way you need to plan for the parks.

We planned more for the cruise than we did the parks. We just show up at the parks, make our fast passes then and enjoy it. We had to plan the excursions on the cruise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think this is more common in other cruise lines. Maybe also something new Disney is trying.

Actually, it's becoming less common on other cruise lines. The fixed meal times/fixed and shared dinner tables are giving way to meals on demand. I've been on Celebrity, Norwegian and Carnival over the past 5 years with my kids, and have not had a fixed dining time nor table mates on any cruise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't it ask your seating preference when you booked the cruise on line? I went on different cruise line and they asked if we wanted to sit at a table of four or six (we were two then so we picked the table of six.

NP here. On Disney cruises main dining (5:45) gets booked up first, and very quickly. Those who book "later" always get late dining (8:15) initially but usually don't have trouble switching later on, or at worst, on board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cliche fat people on scooters complaint can stop. There's a lot of them in Disney World because it's a lot of walking. You never know why someone requires it. Yes being overweight can cause terrible knee pain. Happens to my mom. Stop being so judgemental PP.

Why are you so defensive? Actions have consequences. No one is forcing anyone to rent a scooter.

[Anonymous]

New poster here and have never been on a cruise, but am considering one for my family- can you describe the food? It is like airplane food?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cliche fat people on scooters complaint can stop. There's a lot of them in Disney World because it's a lot of walking. You never know why someone requires it. Yes being overweight can cause terrible knee pain. Happens to my mom. Stop being so judgemental PP.

Why are you so defensive? Actions have consequences. No one is forcing anyone to rent a scooter.

Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New poster here and have never been on a cruise, but am considering one for my family- can you describe the food? It is like airplane food?

I have only been on disney but I would say it's a little above airplane food. I didn't "love it" like I was told I would. I did enjoy Palo brunch, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New poster here and have never been on a cruise, but am considering one for my family- can you describe the food? It is like airplane food?

The Disney food exceeded my expectations, especially at dinner. We did not even do the upcharge restaurants.