Disney Dream 4 day cruise questions

IamgoingtoDisney

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 9, 2015
Hi Everyone,

We are travelling on the Dream this Christmas & we are super excited!

We are coming from Australia & surprising our 2 kids with this trip.

As this is a surprise I am a little worried about something arriving in the mail & the kids seeing it. Does anyone know if they mail anything out & if so at what point & what is it?

Is there any phone service on the ship at all or internet? We are getting prepaid travel sims with AT & T as we will be in the US for 3 weeks but not sure if these will work out at sea. I just want to contact my family in Australia to wish them a Merry Christmas & let them know we are ok (they are not too pleased about us not being home for Christmas)

Will we need additional paperwork besides the ESTA which we need to get into US to get to the Bahamas?

Do the photo packages stay at the same cost if I booked now versus closer to the date?

I read people making bookings for things to do on the ship. Besides dining reservations what other reservations are there to book?

We are stopping at Nassau & CC. We will be in Nassau on Boxing Day which I hear has the annual Junkanoo festival. Has anyone been & can tell me about it as I cant seem to find much information. Are there any site seeing tours around Nassau you would recommend? Kids are 12& 10. I have read a lot of you dont get off the ship but this will probably be our only trip ever to that part of the world so I would like to say I have visited & at least seen some of it. I heave read Sandy Toes is nice but worried will be too cold at that time of the year to swim & dont know what else we would do there

Thanks in advance
 
Hi Everyone,

We are travelling on the Dream this Christmas & we are super excited!

We are coming from Australia & surprising our 2 kids with this trip.

As this is a surprise I am a little worried about something arriving in the mail & the kids seeing it. Does anyone know if they mail anything out & if so at what point & what is it?

Is there any phone service on the ship at all or internet? We are getting prepaid travel sims with AT & T as we will be in the US for 3 weeks but not sure if these will work out at sea. I just want to contact my family in Australia to wish them a Merry Christmas & let them know we are ok (they are not too pleased about us not being home for Christmas)

Will we need additional paperwork besides the ESTA which we need to get into US to get to the Bahamas?

Do the photo packages stay at the same cost if I booked now versus closer to the date?

I read people making bookings for things to do on the ship. Besides dining reservations what other reservations are there to book?

We are stopping at Nassau & CC. We will be in Nassau on Boxing Day which I hear has the annual Junkanoo festival. Has anyone been & can tell me about it as I cant seem to find much information. Are there any site seeing tours around Nassau you would recommend? Kids are 12& 10. I have read a lot of you dont get off the ship but this will probably be our only trip ever to that part of the world so I would like to say I have visited & at least seen some of it. I heave read Sandy Toes is nice but worried will be too cold at that time of the year to swim & dont know what else we would do there

Thanks in advance
Typically, you'll receive your travel documents around 30 days out from the cruise. I don't recall any other mailings prior to our cruises.

There are internet packages available onboard the ship. You can also use your phone (but it's usually quite costly to do so).

The full digital package for photos is a reduced price if you pre-purchase it (before the cruise).

Mixology classes, beer & wine tastings, character meets, character breakfast (if your cruise has one), Bibbity Bobbity Boutique (if you have a young child who would want to do that), Royal Tea. Except for the character breakfast and Meet & Greets, all other things have additional cost.

We did the Junkanoo & fort excursion. I found it quite interesting. I agree, the first time I'm in any port I prefer to get off.
 
We are travelling on the Dream this Christmas & we are super excited!

We are coming from Australia & surprising our 2 kids with this trip.

As this is a surprise I am a little worried about something arriving in the mail & the kids seeing it. Does anyone know if they mail anything out & if so at what point & what is it?

G'day fellow Aussie!! :wave2: You are going to have an awesome time doing a cruise over Christmas! We just did a 7-night Western Caribbean on the Fantasy over Christmas 2017; it was awesome. The 'mail out' can be interesting. Yes, the paperwork that is sent out gets posted 30-days prior to the cruise for all passengers, including those of us that live overseas, which makes it a challenge. We typically receive the paperwork around 7-10 days before the cruise departure date, although documents can and have arrived at the very last minute. However, at the end of the day, they are not that important. It features a breakdown of your itinerary and booked excursions (which you can see online through Disney Cruise Line website), and it usually contains the luggage tags. They can supply you with additional tags at the port, so again, no real issue if you don't receive them.

Is there any phone service on the ship at all or internet? We are getting prepaid travel sims with AT & T as we will be in the US for 3 weeks but not sure if these will work out at sea. I just want to contact my family in Australia to wish them a Merry Christmas & let them know we are ok (they are not too pleased about us not being home for Christmas)

There is internet, but it is costly. Our past two cruises we have been able to register for some 'free internet' during embarkation day, but it is small (50MB?) and gets used up very quickly. You can buy additional credit, but as I say, it can get costly if you need to keep logging into different websites and stuff, particularly multimedia heavy social media sites.

Will we need additional paperwork besides the ESTA which we need to get into US to get to the Bahamas?
Not that I am aware of - we are British living in Australia and never needed anything extra, and we have docked and done excursions in Nassau, Castaway, Cozumel and Grand Caymen. You do, however, need government issued photo ID to get on and off the ship in port. We just used our Australian Driving Licenses as ID - better than having to take passports out and about. But ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK with the relevant countries/embassies, as you never know when rules have changed.

Do the photo packages stay at the same cost if I booked now versus closer to the date?
Not all of them. If you buy the full package, you receive a 10% (I think) discount when booking in advance. That order has to be placed several days before your cruise - check the website for the details. Late requests or on board purchases will be without the discount.

I read people making bookings for things to do on the ship. Besides dining reservations what other reservations are there to book?
So many! Have a read through the boards and see what there is. Explore the DCL website. You have excursions at all ports, activities on Castaway, special meet & greets on board, wine tasting, adult dining, mixology classes, spa treatments, gifts, etc, So many wonderful things!

We are stopping at Nassau & CC. We will be in Nassau on Boxing Day which I hear has the annual Junkanoo festival. Has anyone been & can tell me about it as I cant seem to find much information. Are there any site seeing tours around Nassau you would recommend? Kids are 12& 10. I have read a lot of you dont get off the ship but this will probably be our only trip ever to that part of the world so I would like to say I have visited & at least seen some of it. I heave read Sandy Toes is nice but worried will be too cold at that time of the year to swim & dont know what else we would do there
Can't help you much there - we don't even get off the ship in Nassau these days, preferring to make the most of a slightly quieter ship. The one thing I will say is that because you are visiting on Boxing Day, be aware that some shops, amenities and facilities in Nassau might not be open due to the holiday.

Otherwise, enjoy your holiday!
 
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We always receive a small pamphlet with our cruise date written inside a few weeks after booking. That was a lot time before we received the booklets (paperwork with luggage tags).
 



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