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There are many ways to do this, but stacking credit card bonus categories with discounted gift cards that can be available at places like Sam's Club or even Target can knock around 5% off the total price without too much effort. In the example below, you'll see the cheapest inside cabin where you pick a specific room on the ship is $2,072, while the price starts at $1,488 if you let Disney choose which inside room you get. This type of fare comes with additional restrictions, so read the fine print carefully.
Your kids can (maybe) get into an older club
Fares on the Disney Wonder start at $978 per adult and $360 per kid for a three-night Bahamian cruise in a room with no balcony. So for a family of four, the minimum price to get onboard is around $2,700, though that number could go way up depending on the type of stateroom you choose, where your itinerary goes, and for how many nights. At the other Disney cruise restaurants, the attire and cuisine are more casual. There are more than enough menu options for kids, and vegetarians won’t have a hard time either. As is the case throughout this experience, there really is something for everyone on a Disney cruise.
What to Expect on a Disney Cruise: A First-Timer’s Guide
But with a little knowledge, you can skip some of the common first-timer mistakes and board like a pro, starting with your first cruise. If you want to have bottled water at the ready, bring a case of it onboard. It will need to be sealed in its original packaging and you have to carry it on (instead of having it in checked luggage), but it can be worth it if you want to save money for the truly yummy drinks. There's no doubt that families make up a large portion of the Disney Cruise Line passenger base, but a Disney cruise is not just for kids.
Assistant Server
However, my boss didn’t think it would look appropriate, so we weren’t even allowed to go to the snack bars, even though it should have been one of the perks of my job. And if you remember my description of our crew rooms in a previous article, there was no room to store food even if you were able to purchase it. In the crew mess below decks, the cafeteria is a display of multicultural tastes.
Celebrating Tonie Rose, first woman at Disney Cruise Line to lead a pool deck crew - Life at Disney - Disney.com
Celebrating Tonie Rose, first woman at Disney Cruise Line to lead a pool deck crew - Life at Disney.
Posted: Mon, 25 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
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Jeremy, Disney Cruise Line learning and development manager, guides crew into their next adventure - Life at Disney - Disney.com
Jeremy, Disney Cruise Line learning and development manager, guides crew into their next adventure - Life at Disney.
Posted: Mon, 16 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
(thankfully my family was in the same time zone that I was), or use the static-filled public phones in ports of call while other crew members were standing in line behind me anxiously awaiting their turn on the phone. Crew members could go to the spa for discounted services or haircuts, but it still wasn’t cheap. For hair cuts and personal grooming supplies, most crew members tried to get to Wal-Mart, Walgreens or the mall when we were in our home port. The “windows” situation was a source of high stress and exasperation for every crew member on board. You were never guaranteed the ability to get off of the ship to go buy some toothpaste or get a new pair of sneakers. It wasn’t just for crew members working onboard the ship, though.
You never have to wash your costumes, you just bring them down to costuming to exchange them for clean clothes, hopefully ones that are actually your size. For instance, dining staff will be roomed together and housekeeping crew members would be roomed together, but chances are a dining crew member and someone from housekeeping would rarely, if never, be in the same room. Typically, crew members working in the same department would have comparable working and sleeping hours, and would be spending the most time together. After training at the Celebration offices, we were transported to Port Canaveral for additional days of training in one of the most important aspects of life at sea…fire safety.
Never in my life had I seen broths served with every meal, yet apparently this is common in many countries, so there was always a large vat of some type of broth liquid available. It was as if I was living in a foreign country and dealing with culture shock, yet twice a week I would sail back to port in my home country and yet not feel like I was home at all. I was equally adept at exercising with Goofy on the sports deck as I was hosting the elegant Captain’s reception with everyone dressed in their finest. What did happen was that I frequently visited the crew member portion of the Infirmary and grabbed handfuls of packets of seasickness pills that were readily available in a handy bin right next to the aspirin. As I sat with my head between my knees in the cramped, darkened DJ booth at WaveBands, I soon wondered what I had gotten myself into.
How Guests Impact Crew Member’s Lives
There are four Crew Members Disney always expects you to tip, as they serve you for the entire duration of your cruise. To simplify the tipping process, Disney automatically charges these gratuities to your onboard account at the end of your cruise (unless you have prepaid the gratuities or instructed Guest Services not to add them). Along with my sister, we share the best insider tips for theme parks, visiting U.S.
Once inside the lounge, we would then have to set up the supplies before finally arranging with the Entertainment department the arrival of Mickey Mouse at the end of the races. Then we had to transport the vegetables to guest areas, but not using guest elevators, which was strictly forbidden. I had to learn where the produce supply pantry was located below decks. This might not sound like a big deal, but I frequently got lost in the crew decks because everything looked the same and there were so many small alcoves and hidden doors. For one event, guests made cars out of potatoes and assorted vegetables and raced against each other to compete for a prize.
But, receiving no sympathy from my fellow crew members, I had to get out on the dance floor and try to keep my footing while the ship rocked and my stomach churned. I assumed that I would eventually get accustomed to the motion of the ship and that my seasickness would become a thing of the past. Thankfully, my room was right next to the elevator because I never did learn to navigate my way through the maze of rooms that created the crew quarters. Every single room looked the same, and countless times I got lost trying to find my way back from the laundry room. So, that was to be my living arrangements for the next six months. Our first stop was the Crew Office, a really tiny room on a lower deck of the ship where paychecks, room assignments and benefits are handled.
Because of the previously mentioned crew “windows,” it was really hard for anyone to come see you on the cruise ship. That made seeing my boyfriend, who would drive an hour each weekend to the port to see me for just a few brief hours, really difficult. Because if I missed a crew window, I wouldn’t see him again for a week. For the international crew members, email was the cheapest and easiest way to keep in touch with their friends and family.
Workers should know they also are expected to work up to four months at a time without a day off, and work 70 to 84 hours per week. Bar, beverage, wine, and deck service tabs will be automatically charged an 18% gratuity. Just let your travel agent or Guest Services know if you wish to do something other than automatic gratuities.
Safety training is taken extremely seriously among crew members onboard the Disney Cruise Line. There are strict guidelines to follow, stringent protocols in place for every conceivable event, and at no time will a half-hearted attitude be tolerated. A seamstress that was dedicated to keeping up the costumes for the theater productions also fitted the Cruise Staff for our specialty costumes. Since the girl who I had replaced on Cruise Staff was the exact size that I was, I didn’t need to have a costume specifically made for me, but we went through the paces of measuring me to make sure that we had the perfect fit.
While I was easily adapting to my new role in entertaining guests, I wasn’t adapting as easily to the living conditions of a cruise ship crew member. It worked just as well as the mountain of seasickness pills that I must have consumed during my time onboard. Crew members can expect to frequently be retested on safety procedures at any time and you could possibly lose your job if you can’t pass a test on safety protocol. You can’t just study a safety booklet enough to pass a test and then forget the information, much like in high school or college, so all of the new crew members spent hours learning and memorizing safety procedures.
Concierge guests get exclusive access to a lounge with included evening drinks and a private sun deck (with a hot tub on Disney Wish). You can order meals from the onboard restaurants to your room, and hang out with a Disney character in the lounge one evening of the cruise. So when my husband and I decided to burn vacation days by taking our three-year-old daughter on a Disney cruise for four nights, I was kid-on-Christmas-Eve excited. And I thought I had a sense of what to expect on a Disney cruise. Once onboard, though, I realized I wasn’t quite prepared for the full spectrum of what it’s like to travel via Disney Cruise Line. I remember the exciting energy that was present on the ship each and every time we set sail.
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