Tips for Conquering Your Disney Cruise!

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In just over a week I’ll be leaving on my annual Disney Cruise!  I’m very much looking forward to it and thought this would be a great time to revisit last year’s cruise with some tips and tricks to help make the most of your time at sea.  One of the big perks of being a Jungle Cruise Skipper is that there is never any shortage of travel buddies!  This time last year I was setting sale with 14 Skipper friends on a 5 night cruise on the Disney Wonder with stops in Cozumel and Castaway Cay!

Disney Wonder

Tip #1- Arrive in style.  The whole boat already knew what they were dealing with.  Love us or hate us and advise your kids to stay away from us.

Disney Cruise

Disney Cruise

Tip #2- Bringing a white board makes the entire cruise like your freshman dorm

Disney Cruise

Tip #3- Verandah rooms are so worth it! (especially for longer cruises)

Disney Cruise LIne Verandah Room

and really great when you get adjoining verandah rooms

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Tip #4. This one is hardly a secret, but Disney is one of the few cruise lines that allows you to bring your own alcohol onto the ship.  Drinks on board are expensive, but sodas and juices are free…take advantage.

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Tip #5. If you are going to buy drinks, sign up for the alcohol classes.  These classes run $15-$20 each and come with plenty of booze.

disney cruise mixology class

(That’s us in mixology class, and yes, we each have 5 drinks)

As an added bonus, depending on your cruise length, you can do back to back classes.  We followed mixology with a tequila class that left just enough time for a minor costume change and a top deck hot dog palate cleanser.

Disney wonder tequila tasting

These classes took place throughout the entire cruise, but it’s a great way to kill time on a “day at sea”.  Another day, we took advantage of the beer tasting class.

Disney Cruise line beer tasting

In case you’re wondering, the mixology class was by far the best of the 3 I tried (and the boys that tried the bourbon class also agreed).

Tip #6- Book an excursion!  You can have fun on your own, but Disney’s excursions are very well planned out.  We went on an excursion in Cozumel to see Mayan Ruins and visit a Tequilera.

Mayan Ruins

The ruins were great and pretty lax on rules like not climbing on centuries old artifacts.

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They did have one rule however,

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The tequilera was even better.  We met Rooster who taught us about the tequila making process.

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Best of all, after the tour we were each handed a small plastic cup and let loose in a room full of various types of tequilas with hand soap pumps in them.  All you can drink!  (Though one of us was technically cut off.)

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Disney Cruise

This excursion also included a stop by the beach, in a cab that didn’t care about open containers.

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In fact, here’s what I learned by exploring on our own without the safety of excursion…

those beaches can be dangerous!

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and even if things start off great, one wrong turn and they get “authentic” pretty quickly.

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Tip #7- Take in a show (or all of them).  The Toy Story Musical was particularly entertaining, by which I mean upsetting.

Toy story musical

Tip #8- Enjoy all of the restaurants!  Every one of them is great and the extra charge for Palo is absolutely worth it.  Plus, Palo is adult only, which can be pretty welcome on a Disney Cruise.  If you are able to swallow your pride (and 7 entrees) this is the perfect place for you.  You don’t have to choose what to eat.  Try it all!  In fact, last time we were at Palo, the chef came out and told us to reel it in a bit.  I’ve never been prouder!

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Of course, the only downside to this is you always leave feeling like this.

palo

Tip # 9- This kind of goes along with #4, but while you can bring your own alcohol onto the cruise ship, due to customs, once it’s been open you can’t take your alcohol off!  This means a really rough last day tequila breakfast.

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Tip #10- Get your paperwork in order.  Make sure your passport, birth certificate, etc. are all legit. This may be an isolated incident, but one member of our party found out he was not actually a citizen the hard way… while being detained at the port in Miami indefinitely after the cruise.  He ended up being released after about 45 minutes of questioning, but it was touch and go for a bit.

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Those are just a few tips that worked for me.  There’s really no wrong way to take a cruise.  In fact, I challenge you not to have a good time on a Disney Cruise.  I’m pretty sure it can’t be done.  After all, how bad could this life be?

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7 thoughts on “Tips for Conquering Your Disney Cruise!

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    […] Read More: magsonthemove.com/disney-cruise/ […]

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  4. […] It was a chocolate orange flavored cocktail with a little smokiness from the Mezcal, (which I’m pretty much an expert at after my tequila classes at Epcot, and on the Disney Cruise Line.) […]

  5. […] mostly because it’s not the most authentic cultural experience.  I’ve been on mostly Disney cruises (and one kinda gross, but not un-enjoyable Royal Caribbean cruise), so up until now I didn’t […]

  6. Christa

    Hi! Looks like great fun! We are going on our first Disney cruise (Fantasty, Seven nights, Western Carribean) in October. A few questions I have for you:
    1. Can you really bring hard liquor on board? If so, how? I saw beer and wine/champagne were allowed but I didn’t realize liquor is.
    2. How do you sign up for the drinking classes? This is amazing! (can you tell old college/ med school buddies all grown up with kids now are excitedly anticipating this)? LOL
    3. Any other must dos?
    Thanks a million!! Looks like y’all had a blast!!

    • Mags

      I have a little bad news about the liquor; at the time I wrote this you could bring hard liquor on board, however as of September 2015 it’s beer and wine only. It’s tragic, but you’ll still have a great time! Right when you get on board you can go to either guest services or any of the bars and sign up for the drinking classes. I recommend the bars because the line for guest services is usually REALLY long when you first board the ship, and the bartenders are the ones that teach the classes so they can help you pick the best ones. They just started a mojito class on Castaway Cay when I was there in September. I really recommend that one. It was so much fun!

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