Three Very Important First Time Cruiser Tips

Three Very Important First Time Cruiser Tips by Bruce Johnson

1. Since all of you should have checked in by now, you should all have a Port Arrival Time (PAT). Note that your PAT is NOT when you board the ship. This probably confuses EVERY first time DCL cruiser! Your PAT time is when you should plan on arriving at the terminal to complete your check-in (ID/passport check, signature form, photo taken, get Key To The World combo room key/charge card, etc..). During check-in you will be given a card with a Boarding Group #. Once your check-in is complete, you will wait in the terminal for the boarding process to begin. That is usually around 11:30, but it can vary slightly depending on when the ship is cleared by US Customs and is deemed ready for guests. At that time, they will start announcing Boarding Group #'s... usually 1 every 3 to 5 minutes. When your group # is called, then you can head toward the gangway to board the ship. If you have a 10:30 PAT time, don't expect to show up, check in and get on the ship right then and there, although you will get on-board sooner than someone with a much later PAT...

2. Your room will NOT be ready until 1:30PM, so you will need to carry things you need before then with you! Think bathing suit, sun screen, etc... You will also have any water or other beverages with you, so remember to have something with wheels unless what you have with doesn't weigh much. Carrying a case of water or six pack of beer around gets tiresome after a while!

3. Your luggage might not arrive in your room until evening, so bear that in mind when you think about meds you might need, etc...!

More tips from a post by Bruce Johnson dated April 7th, 2017

1. Definitely join any FB group for your cruise week...super helpful, lots of chatter and ideas plus you can sign up for mixology classes, etc (we did not)

2. Door magnets are a must. My kids loved them, and it helped us find our room. I bought a roll of magnetic tape on Amazon, worked fine

3. We were in 7 aft, inside state room. Not horrible... definitley felt movement and lots of vibration on port days.

4. We booked excursions on our own. By the time we got to check in and sign up, lots of things were full. We did Dolphin Discovery in Tortola and Snorkeling in St. Thomas.

5. I had no idea I should've been doing photos each night with the backgrounds...ex. totally missed the pirate night one. Got a few on formal night but I guess I never paid attention to the other options on other nights..kinda bummed about that one.

6. We did not do a photo package. we took lots of our own photos but what we did do was make a photo book with our photos that were on the kiosk and they will ship it to us once it is printed. We put it together throughout the week and then saved it each night until the final night (little bit of a line) but put the CC pics in and took very little time to get it ordered.

7. We OVERPACKED!!

8. One of the last things I read before we left was a suggestion to shower at the spa! Best idea ever!! I showered there most afternoons and dried my hair. We had late dining so I could take my time and be out of the way with my hubby and 2 boys trying to get ready too.

9. Things I was glad I packed:

candy for movies (gave the extra boxes to our room host), poo purri(no explanation needed), clothespins (we had wet clothes all of the time), tervis cups/yetis, shoe organizer attached to a hanger(this helped a little bit with all of the clutter in close quarters), cinch sak type bag, cash for excursions and port days plus room service tips and end of week tips (we did add extra to both servers and room host..totally optional but ours were so awesome!)

10. Did not really need:

bonine (we just got it at guest services), mulitple tea lights (we left 1 in the bathroom, that was it), there were enough plugs for us so we didn't really need the multi port plug, we used the sea lice sunscreen on the kids for their benefit but don't really think it was needed. I took paper towels with Dawn but only used a few off the roll, so I left them there b/c it was too big to pack coming home.

11. Star Wars day at Sea was a little chaotic and I felt frustrated. I think we missed a lot of characters. I filled out the survey but didn't really know how to fill it out. My 11 YO was chosen for Padawan training but it's the same as Hollywood Studios so probably could've skipped that. Our meet and greet was with Darth Vader so that was good but never saw some of the other characters, I personally just felt flustered all day trying to figure it out

13. Loved all of the MDRs but also loved Cabanas the 2 nights we didn't do MDR. I felt bad when we missed our MDR and our servers missed us but it was just easier. I wish I would've done lunch at Cabanas all week. Breakfast was great but lunch looked even better.

14. Drink of the Day is a must!

15. Find time for the adult pool area. we got to spend more time there than we thought b/c the kids were perfectly content doing the pool and slides. 7 kids between 11-14 YO, so they were fine. None of them ever did the clubs. I wish they would've tried but they were their own cousin club so it worked I guess...clubs looked like they had great activities.

16. Just relax and enjoy! I was so glad we had 2 sea days right off the bat. I tried not to stress about missing things and made a point to not worry about it. We did not do the spa, palo or remy, although the next time around we might make the effort

17. We did not do a placeholder. Quite frankly we didn't even think about it but regret not looking into it.