DCL western Caribbean Fantasy Day 1--arriving and boarding
Day 1 WHEN TO ARRIVE & WHAT TO EXPECT TO BOARD / DCL western Caribbean Fantasy
I am going to talk about getting on the boat, boarding process and other tidbits
I did carry very limited bags with me onto the boat. Many people will pack swim clothes to change into once onboard. I had no interest in going to the pools the first day. We had 7 days of water time ahead of us, I could wait a few hours for our luggage to get to our room. (typical arrival time for luggage to cabin is between 4-5pm) Room is usually ready around 1-2pm. Our room was available at 1:40pm
I did not want to lug around much. I kept the essentials with me; Meds, IDs, some cash, character autograph book and my phone.
We stayed at a hotel the night prior to the cruise(highly recommended to do so). I placed the tags on my bags as soon as we were set to head to port. I kept my cruise book in my carry on.
We did park at Park& Cruise --I have used them many times in the past. Very reliable, affordable and efficient. $89. for a full week of parking. Not bad. We arrived there, boarding their shuttle in about 10 minutes and we were off to the port. (If using Disney's Port Parking, the cost would be $136.00)
When arriving at the port, Shuttle service took our luggage and had it ready for the dockhands. They have a great relation that works well. I just carried my little bag and off we went to check in through security into the Port Terminal. You need your cruise documents and passports to enter the first gate into terminal.
No open foods allowed into terminal. It must be sealed or thrown away when going through the security screening.
Once you go through screening, you can open whatever snacks you may have brought in. The screening is equivalent to the TSA of airports. Be respectful to them and they are respectful to you.
There is always a great discussion on when to check in for your cruise; the earlier the better, later is better.. Who is to say which is right. Especially for first timers, who may not be able to shake off the doubt if they made the right decision or not.
SO much info is out there and every ONE thinks their perspective is superior.. It may be best for them but maybe not for others.
I never select or bother to select a true boarding time when doing online check in for my cruises. I will enter one, yes, but I don't really use it. I get there when I get there. It is not a must to follow the pre-selected time. It is mainly used to help spread out the arrivals of all the guests.
Why even have an arrival time of 9:30 when no one can even board the boat until around 11-11:30am..
I do start over thinking, wanting to get there early, get on the boat, start my vacation ASAP.. But then the logical shoulder angel pops up and says, 'wait a minute, do you really want to hang out in the port terminal for 2+ hours?' .. no, I really don't.
I have arrived early, late and in-between on previous sailings. I do get excited and that little sparky shoulder angel tries to egg me on but I usually stick with the logical one.
I don't like herding the family/kids for 2+ hours while waiting for the boarding calls to start.
There are limited bathrooms, no real food but two snack machines and limited seating.
They do have character M&G but the lines are pretty long. When nothing else to do, it is something to do.
I do like to arrive around 12 or 1 for quick check in and quick walk on.
I don't believe I gain anything extra by arriving earlier.
For this trip, we did arrive at 11:10am for check in. A little earlier than I would normally do. I was coming in with my in-laws who did want to arrive early. I have no qualms with other people's thoughts or wants. They can prefer it and if that is their preference, then why not! I am eager to go with the flow.
Luckily, there were not many in the check-in queue.. Actually, no wait for the castaway club members (guests who have already sailed with DCL) so we were able to walk right up.
We completed all our information online, we had our passports out and ready, so check in was a breeze.
When you check in you are given a boarding #. Boarding is done in groups.
Our attendant gave us a boarding # of 17. BUT, my in-laws were given boarding # 5.. We had to ask, why??? They were given some 'magic'.. Of course our attendant then had to change ours to match theirs. There may have been some slight discord between the two cast-members, but it didn't bother me! I now had a boarding pass of #5!!
When we were done checking in, they just called for boarding group 1-4. We were next to be called! woo-hoo
Boarding usually moves quite quickly.
There is another photo OP while boarding but if you move to the far right, you can bypass it.. We did just that.
We were on board the ship by 11:30am with the help of our first bit of Magic received!!
Clip of us being announced boarding the boat Welcome the Dotson Family
I will humor you with my almost complete meltdown story. I literally had nightmares prior to the trip about not having my passports. I checked them multiple times to make sure I had them, where I put them etc.
We get to the first gate to enter terminal, I can't find my passport. I had my family's but not mine. I went into panic mode. I was racking my brain in what could have happened. I changed bags when in hotel last minute. My passport somehow found it's way into an autograph book, wedged between the pages.. Luckily, I still brought both bags as carry on. My husband looked in that bag and happened to find it.. My stars!!! I was ready to cry! Yes, even the most prepared can have issues!!!! That is my lesson for all!
Important things to know when you check in:
You are given your stateroom, 'Key to the world' cards. This has important information on it.
It provides your Muster or emergency meeting location. It provides your Dining room rotation, your Table #, use this card to board or disembark the ship as well as make purchases.
What it does NOT have on it~ It will NOT have your stateroom cabin # located on it for security reasons.
Our meeting location was section 'D' for the Walt Disney Theatre. Majority of the emergency meeting locations is located on Deck 4. It was actually pretty nice having it in the theatre instead. We could sit through the process versus standing in the heat. Side note: please do not use your mobile or any electronic device during this assembly. They will call you out on it.
Our Dining rotation, if you look at the card, shows AERAEER.
This stood for
Animator's Palate
Enchanted Garden
Royal Palace
Animator's Palate
Enchanted Garden
Enchanted Garden
Royal Palace
I did actually call ahead of time to find out our dining rotation and was told something completely different. I am thinking they had to make a change to it. Just FYI, never use that as a guarantee.
At check in is also when you receive your child's Kid's club band. Kids over a certain age won't receive a band since they can check themselves in and out (teen clubs)
You are charged $13+ for this band but it is credited back to you when you turn it in at the end of your stay to the kids clubs.
I am going to talk about getting on the boat, boarding process and other tidbits
I did carry very limited bags with me onto the boat. Many people will pack swim clothes to change into once onboard. I had no interest in going to the pools the first day. We had 7 days of water time ahead of us, I could wait a few hours for our luggage to get to our room. (typical arrival time for luggage to cabin is between 4-5pm) Room is usually ready around 1-2pm. Our room was available at 1:40pm
I did not want to lug around much. I kept the essentials with me; Meds, IDs, some cash, character autograph book and my phone.
We stayed at a hotel the night prior to the cruise(highly recommended to do so). I placed the tags on my bags as soon as we were set to head to port. I kept my cruise book in my carry on.
We did park at Park& Cruise --I have used them many times in the past. Very reliable, affordable and efficient. $89. for a full week of parking. Not bad. We arrived there, boarding their shuttle in about 10 minutes and we were off to the port. (If using Disney's Port Parking, the cost would be $136.00)
When arriving at the port, Shuttle service took our luggage and had it ready for the dockhands. They have a great relation that works well. I just carried my little bag and off we went to check in through security into the Port Terminal. You need your cruise documents and passports to enter the first gate into terminal.
No open foods allowed into terminal. It must be sealed or thrown away when going through the security screening.
Once you go through screening, you can open whatever snacks you may have brought in. The screening is equivalent to the TSA of airports. Be respectful to them and they are respectful to you.
There is always a great discussion on when to check in for your cruise; the earlier the better, later is better.. Who is to say which is right. Especially for first timers, who may not be able to shake off the doubt if they made the right decision or not.
SO much info is out there and every ONE thinks their perspective is superior.. It may be best for them but maybe not for others.
I never select or bother to select a true boarding time when doing online check in for my cruises. I will enter one, yes, but I don't really use it. I get there when I get there. It is not a must to follow the pre-selected time. It is mainly used to help spread out the arrivals of all the guests.
Why even have an arrival time of 9:30 when no one can even board the boat until around 11-11:30am..
I do start over thinking, wanting to get there early, get on the boat, start my vacation ASAP.. But then the logical shoulder angel pops up and says, 'wait a minute, do you really want to hang out in the port terminal for 2+ hours?' .. no, I really don't.
I have arrived early, late and in-between on previous sailings. I do get excited and that little sparky shoulder angel tries to egg me on but I usually stick with the logical one.
I don't like herding the family/kids for 2+ hours while waiting for the boarding calls to start.
There are limited bathrooms, no real food but two snack machines and limited seating.
They do have character M&G but the lines are pretty long. When nothing else to do, it is something to do.
I do like to arrive around 12 or 1 for quick check in and quick walk on.
I don't believe I gain anything extra by arriving earlier.
For this trip, we did arrive at 11:10am for check in. A little earlier than I would normally do. I was coming in with my in-laws who did want to arrive early. I have no qualms with other people's thoughts or wants. They can prefer it and if that is their preference, then why not! I am eager to go with the flow.
Luckily, there were not many in the check-in queue.. Actually, no wait for the castaway club members (guests who have already sailed with DCL) so we were able to walk right up.
We completed all our information online, we had our passports out and ready, so check in was a breeze.
When you check in you are given a boarding #. Boarding is done in groups.
Our attendant gave us a boarding # of 17. BUT, my in-laws were given boarding # 5.. We had to ask, why??? They were given some 'magic'.. Of course our attendant then had to change ours to match theirs. There may have been some slight discord between the two cast-members, but it didn't bother me! I now had a boarding pass of #5!!
When we were done checking in, they just called for boarding group 1-4. We were next to be called! woo-hoo
Boarding usually moves quite quickly.
There is another photo OP while boarding but if you move to the far right, you can bypass it.. We did just that.
We were on board the ship by 11:30am with the help of our first bit of Magic received!!
Clip of us being announced boarding the boat Welcome the Dotson Family
I will humor you with my almost complete meltdown story. I literally had nightmares prior to the trip about not having my passports. I checked them multiple times to make sure I had them, where I put them etc.
We get to the first gate to enter terminal, I can't find my passport. I had my family's but not mine. I went into panic mode. I was racking my brain in what could have happened. I changed bags when in hotel last minute. My passport somehow found it's way into an autograph book, wedged between the pages.. Luckily, I still brought both bags as carry on. My husband looked in that bag and happened to find it.. My stars!!! I was ready to cry! Yes, even the most prepared can have issues!!!! That is my lesson for all!
Important things to know when you check in:
You are given your stateroom, 'Key to the world' cards. This has important information on it.
It provides your Muster or emergency meeting location. It provides your Dining room rotation, your Table #, use this card to board or disembark the ship as well as make purchases.
What it does NOT have on it~ It will NOT have your stateroom cabin # located on it for security reasons.
Our meeting location was section 'D' for the Walt Disney Theatre. Majority of the emergency meeting locations is located on Deck 4. It was actually pretty nice having it in the theatre instead. We could sit through the process versus standing in the heat. Side note: please do not use your mobile or any electronic device during this assembly. They will call you out on it.
Our Dining rotation, if you look at the card, shows AERAEER.
This stood for
Animator's Palate
Enchanted Garden
Royal Palace
Animator's Palate
Enchanted Garden
Enchanted Garden
Royal Palace
I did actually call ahead of time to find out our dining rotation and was told something completely different. I am thinking they had to make a change to it. Just FYI, never use that as a guarantee.
At check in is also when you receive your child's Kid's club band. Kids over a certain age won't receive a band since they can check themselves in and out (teen clubs)
You are charged $13+ for this band but it is credited back to you when you turn it in at the end of your stay to the kids clubs.
 |
| We had three large bags, two med size (insulated) bags and one small bag that was checked |
 |
| My two carry ons. Both easy to carry with crossover strap on one and other backpack style. Very comfy, small but could also carry a good bit. |
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| Busy area for bag drops. Keep to the right of the yellow line for easier walk through |
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