More things I wish I knew before taking a Disney Cruise

So far, we’ve taken two Disney cruises. Before the first time, we did read up and watch others’ experiences but still didn’t know some of these things. We covered five things we wish we knew in our earlier post. Here are more things that would’ve prepared us better for the Disney cruises. 

Don’t worry though, even if you’re not aware of these things, it wouldn’t lessen the experience of taking a Disney cruise as you can go in blind and still enjoy it a lot. Nonetheless, knowing some of these can help enhance the experience if you know what to bring or what to expect.  

Dining 

Depending on the number of people in your party, you might have the whole table to yourselves, or might have to share the table with strangers. On our cruise on the Disney Wish, as a party of two, we shared a table of six with two other couples. Somehow, all of us at the table seemed very introverted so each couple kept to themselves. At some other tables, strangers got to know each other and were chatting away. 

For bigger parties, they seemed to have the whole table to themselves. I saw a group of three having a whole table of four to themselves. I didn’t see any tables of two. If you don’t want to share tables with strangers, you could try asking the passenger services when you board the ship, otherwise, you could also just order room service and dine in your room - full privacy there! 

The buffet hall isn't open during dinner time so we couldn't eat there even if we wanted to. 

If you booked two rooms separately, i.e. under two different reservation numbers, just check that both reservations appear under your account. If so, guests in both rooms should be seated together. If you don't see any of your reservations, you can manually add them so that it's all linked and all guests can be seated at the same table or at least at adjacent tables. To be doubly sure, you could check with passenger services when you board the ship, or write in to check beforehand. Disney Cuise Line is usually quite prompt in responding to emails. 

On our second cruise on the Disney Wonder (a smaller ship), we shared a table of four with another couple. Of course, it was awkward sitting with strangers, especially the first night. In the subsequent nights, we did started talking and later got along quite well so did become quite talkative, sharing our daily experiences and upcoming plans. 

Dining timings 

There are two dining times, 5.45pm and 8.15pm. Make sure everyone in your party has the same dining time! Personally, we prefer the later timing as it gives us more time to digest our lunch! And also, the night shows start at 10pm or 10.30pm, just after the end of the second dinner timing so it allows us to head straight to the next show right after dinner. 

Stateroom door decorations 

On other non-Disney cruises that we’ve taken (from Singapore), we have never seen any stateroom doors decorated. So we were pleasantly surprised that many of the stateroom doors on the Disney Wish and Disney Wonder were filled with them! They included magnets and posters. Some even had their family members’ names on, or even stating the occasion such as someone’s birthday, or the occupants’ first time cruising. 

This was pretty fun and we wanted to join in. Thankfully, the merch store on board sold stateroom magnets, so we bought some to paste on our door. This wasn’t so easy because we were wary that anything we placed outside our room, such as on the door, might be stolen. We had to overcome this mental barrier to try this. Lo and behold, the next morning, our magnets were still on our door! 

Buying merch 

We had no idea that the merch store would be so popular, especially on the first day of the cruise. We actually learnt about this by accident. What happened was that we were actually just chiling in the room looking for the next thing to do and saw that the merch store would be opening later in the evening around 5 or 6pm. So we decided to go down to take a look and found a huge bunch of people hanging around outside the store. We soon realised that they were all waiting for the shop to open! 

The merch store on the Disney cruises only open after the ship leaves the port and enters international waters, so there are limited windows to enter the stose to buy those exclusive cruise merch. You'll have to check your cruise programme on the app when you're onboard as the timings will differ. 

And boy, the cruise merch were pretty cool! You can't find them anywhere else, not in the parks. So if you see something you like but are not sure if you should get it, just get it (bad advice if you want to be prudent haha). They have a wide range of items from apparel, mugs, figurines, pins, stuffed toys, random stuff and more. One very interesting item for sale are the towel animals - yes Disney Cruises sell those cute towel animals you find on your bed after housekeeping takes care of your room. These are sold as soft toys (plushies)! 

Castaway Cay 5K

On cruises sailing from Orlando and Miami in Florida, some of them stop at Castaway Cay - Disney’s private island. You can read more about it here. The Castaway Cay 5k is a “self-service” 5km running route on the island, from which you can get a medal after completing. It’s an honour system so there’s no staff overseeing this run like a formal run. 

You basically can get off the ship and run the route by yourself and after completing it, look for a staff member on the island, usually at the bike rental booth, which is also the starting point. The running route is marked so it should be quite simple. The staff member will then give you a unique medal that’s only available on the island. You can’t buy it anywhere else! Here's more info on the run.

For us, we didn’t know this existed until after the cruise. We were so disappointed that we didn’t do it and get the medal. It’s not like we can just easily go on another cruise to Castaway Cay cause we’re a 24-hour flight away in Southeast Asia! Oh well, we’ll just have to do it next time. 

Disembarkation day

On the last day of the cruise, there’s basically nothing on except breakfast. Everything else will be closed so if there’s something you want to do, make sure you do it before the last day! The disembarkation timing depends on your cruise itinerary, there’ll be plenty of info provided or you can just ask a cast member onboard. 

Typically it’s very early starting from 7.30am onwards till 9 or 10am. The next group of passengers will be boarding from 11am, and think back to your first day of the cruise, that “next group of passengers” was you!