*HOPEFULLY* Sailing in 2021 w/ 6 Year Old. Any Veteran Parent Tips?

[gpjacobs]

Hi all! First post on the DCL Forum. We hoped to sail on DCL for the first time this year and ... well, that's not happening. Decided to book the 4-Night Baja Cruise on the Wonder, departing San Diego on April 26. We fully realize we may need to cancel this trip or - at the very least - lower our expectations. But, honestly, we just need something to look forward to.

If all goes well, this will be our daughter's first time on a cruise ship. We (mom and dad) have been on several cruises, just never on DCL. She'll be 6 when we sail and we're booked in a Verandah room (midship, category 05A).

I'm just curious if veteran DCL parents have anything tips to share? Anything they wished they knew before their first sailing as parents ... how do we make this as stress-free as possible for all of us? Even the little things like, do we pack several of her costumes or skip it, since she'll be in swimsuits the whole time?

Depending on how things progress with COVID-19, we may add three days in Disneyland before the cruise. Not sure if that would influence anyone's advice. Thanks in advance!

 

[Weedy]

Remember you can’t do everything
You can start booking activities 75 days prior to your cruise. You can book your Port Arrival Time, Princess and Frozen meets and Adult Dining
There will be 3 Broadway style shows in the evening be sure not to miss. It you have early dinner you will see the late show. Late dinner you will see the early show.
You will have either early 5:45 or late dinner. For reasons I’ve never understood people line up early?? The dining room does not open early you have a assigned table. No need to line up spend that time doing something fun.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Hi all! First post on the DCL Forum. We hoped to sail on DCL for the first time this year and ... well, that's not happening. Decided to book the 4-Night Baja Cruise on the Wonder, departing San Diego on April 26. We fully realize we may need to cancel this trip or - at the very least - lower our expectations. But, honestly, we just need something to look forward to.

If all goes well, this will be our daughter's first time on a cruise ship. We (mom and dad) have been on several cruises, just never on DCL. She'll be 6 when we sail and we're booked in a Verandah room (midship, category 05A).

I'm just curious if veteran DCL parents have anything tips to share? Anything they wished they knew before their first sailing as parents ... how do we make this as stress-free as possible for all of us? Even the little things like, do we pack several of her costumes or skip it, since she'll be in swimsuits the whole time?

Depending on how things progress with COVID-19, we may add three days in Disneyland before the cruise. Not sure if that would influence anyone's advice. Thanks in advance!

I think you've already nailed it. Don't stress the little things - don't over pack (maybe bring one costume), don't do the fish extenders, don't over schedule yourself.

 

[Freya424]

Go to the kids club open house on the first day to get her acquainted with the area and meet some of the counselors. Once you’re onboard use the navigator app to see what activities or character meets you want to plan to do each day.

 

[Quellman]

This isn't a specifically unique request, so the typical advice will come:
Try getting a dining time that is similar to what you currently experience at home. Though for some families, vacation time means much longer days and later mornings. so don't be bummed if you have late dining! Plus ask your server about dinner kids club pick ups. During dinner counselors will come gather kids who are done and escort them to the kids club so grownups can enjoy a more leisurely meal.
Taking your kid to the kids club during open house can help them get used to new environments. Speaking of kids clubs, we would often drop our 6 year old off when there was an activity about to start that he would enjoy. This way it is structured and then after the event there is plenty of time for free play.
Costumes and dress up are entirely up to you. Some families enjoy a rotation of dress ups each night of the cruise. I will agree that we spend a lot of the day in swim suits or lounging wear. With 4 nights, I would consider having just 1 special outfit. Remember the last night of the cruise you need to pack just about everything away that you want to be hauled off the ship for you. Seems like a princess dress would take up a lot of space in your small disembarking bags.
Don't promise a bunk bed unless you know your room has one. Many rooms may not contain it.

 

[pearljammer]

• Don’t be surprised/disappointed if your kid doesn’t want to spend as much time in the kids club as you think he/she may have
• Keeping them to a routine similar to home is helpful such as bedtime, etc. It can be sensory overload for sure.
• Keep camera handy as characters are always walking around
• Be patient with other people’s kids as you’ll be surprised that some parents literally stop parenting.
• Don’t be disappointed if he/she doesn’t like the slide as much as you may think
• They may be captivated by the big deck screen more than anything
• Say yes to the all the soft serve ice cream (or not). *wink*
• You’ll probably want to pack the costumes, may regret it if you don’t.
• Make sure you don’t skip your night at Tiana’s place.
• If they bring anything “extra” at dinner such as a light up mug, a special straw, etc., that costs extra! Just saying......
• Feel free to tell her the first time she sees her bed (if it’s the couch turn bed or out of the ceiling)....OH WOW, LOOK...it’s Mickey Magic!!

 

[jmstroud]

We took our 6 y.o. twin boys for their first Disney cruise last year.
- They loved the kids club and spent more time there each day, so check that out as soon as you get on board. The registration can get busy later.
- They also loved the Midship Detective Agency activity, and its a good way to get to know the ship.
- They never wanted to stop and eat lunch, so room service a little later while watching a Disney movie on TV was a good plan for us. Just know that room service does take a little bit.
- The line for the waterslide takes forever.

That's about it. I would recommend actually going to dinner at the dining rooms, the wait staff was fantastic!! My kids still talk about the waiter!

Have fun!

 

[cedman77]

Don't be surprised if your daughter doesn't like the kids clubs. My 13, 10, and 6 never wanted to go. They said it was too chaotic and loud. They did like some of the lab activities like making slime.
- Since you are on the Wonder, there won't be the Mid Ship Detective Agency on board. Kids loved the splash pad area. Pool is bit crazy with all the kids in there.
- Our kids loved to lounge on pool deck and loved watching movies on Funnel Vision even at night. Something about being under the stars at night, eating pizza and hot chocolate. We would do that every night.
- Pack a pirate costume for sure, even for yourself. Kids really got a kick seeing the whole family getting involved.
- Eye Scream ALL DAY LONG!!
- Those darn chicken fingers and fries are addicting. Don't know why, but they are THAT good.
- If you daughter is a picky eater and doesn't want to eat mac n cheese all 4 nights, they can order off the adult menu. My kids did that every night.
- Hopefully you'll get a good wait staff team. Our kids to this day still talk about them from the 2 cruises we have taken. They truly go out of their way for you.
- Don't forget the door magnets!

Just have fun!

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Our first and only DCL cruise was on the Wonder. Since your cruise is a 4-nighter, I would make sure you experience Tiana's, Animator's Palate, and the Frozen stage show (assuming it is running). If you decide to book Palo for an adult-only night, book it on a night when you would have Tritons (I loved the menu at Tritons, but for first-time DCL cruisers, it's the one I would skip to go to Palo if I had to choose.) You can find out your rotation before you sail if you call. With a little girl, I would also definitely try to book the princess and Frozen meets if she likes them. But you can also meet many of the princesses during the "When We Meet Again" party on the last night. (Again, assuming they still have face character meets).

I definitely would not attempt too many extra activities including fish extenders. Everything will be new. We enjoyed Anna's Chocolate Chase, and our then 7 year-old adored the kids clubs and character meets, and we also got in a movie in the theatre and some pool time too. Hope it will be safe to travel and you are able to go.

 

[TestingH2O]

- They also loved the Midship Detective Agency activity, and its a good way to get to know the ship.

- The line for the waterslide takes forever.

These are both great pieces of information on the Dream or Fantasy, but I OP is sailing on the Wonder. There is no Midship Detective Agency and, in my experience, the water slide lines are much more manageable.

OP - just be prepared to go with the flow. Identify two to three things each day you want to make sure you do and focus on those. Everything else is gravy and you will definitely find more things to do.

 

[TestingH2O]

You can find out your rotation before you sail if you call.

You can request your rotation before you sail, and if you are Concierge, you can pretty much guarantee that you will get it. Otherwise, the best thing to do is to request that you want a certain restaurant on a certain night (i.e. Triton's on Pirate Night.) Then it is up to DCL if they grant the request, or you can ask for it to be changed once on board.

 

[Spiffy MacSpiff]

You are going to have such a great time!! Our younger DS was not quite six on our first cruise, and it was the perfect age. Everything was so magical for him and we had the best time watching him enjoy himself.

The best advice I can give you is this: don't try to do everything, don't over-plan, and take things at your daughter's pace. There's nothing worse than watching exhausted kids being dragged around to one activity or character meet or show after another when what they really seem to need/want is some down time. I know that we all lay out big bucks for a DCL cruise and want to get our money's worth, but if your kid is wiped out then nobody is having any fun. And yes, it's true that we can chill on the couch and watch Disney movies at home for free, but sometimes an afternoon break with pizza or sandwiches + a movie in your room, where it's cool and quiet, can be a game-changer.

The MacSpiff Family's #1 stress-avoidance tip is to try and do things when/where other people don't. If we want to have breakfast or lunch at Cabanas we try to do it either a little earlier or a little later than most people. You will never, ever find us on the pool deck on a sea day afternoon but you will see us riding the AquaDuck over and over with minimal lines after dinner. Some of this will depend on your child's age and adaptability to changes in mealtimes and sleep schedules; we're lucky in that our boys have always been pretty flexible travelers.

Other than that, definitely keep a camera or phone on you. Characters pop up at random all over the place. If your daughter loves princesses, I'd pack a costume for her if you have room. There are lots of little girls who like to wear them to dinner on dress-up night. Our boys, even now that they're teens, really get into pirate night and like to go all-out with their costumes, but lots of kids seem happy with just a pirate hat or t-shirt.

 

[BartmanLA]

ALL OF THE ABOVE, and I did notice you did mention that you're getting a verandah stateroom, not to be an alarmist, but always always always make sure the verandah sliding door has the child lock engaged all the time, it's high enough that little ones can't reach it. Just make sure its locked all the time. Just for peace of mind.

 

[gpjacobs]

Thank you - EVERYONE - for the advice and sorry for not diving into the info sooner! (I'm not sure why I didn't receive my typical email alerts letting me know people responded to the post!) Really appreciate the reminders to take it slow, not overplan and not overthink. I'm an uber planner by nature and my day job involves orchestrating/planning things to perfection, so resisting the urge to spreadsheet out the day will be tough but I know it'll just lead to disappointment.

A specific follow-up based on the guidance above: is the Princess Tea worth it? I think she'd love dedicated princess time at a slower pace, and I love tea, so it's a win win.

It's interesting a few of you mentioned that your kiddos didn't enjoy the Kid's Club. One of the many reasons we picked DCL is so Mom and Dad can get some down time. I wonder how we'll feel if she doesn't want to stay there ... good food for thought.

@BartmanLA, Great point! We'll make sure the room is as secure as possible. I'm prone to motion sickness, so staying midship, with access to fresh air, makes all the difference for me.

 

[gpjacobs]

Speaking of kids clubs, we would often drop our 6 year old off when there was an activity about to start that he would enjoy. This way it is structured and then after the event there is plenty of time for free play.

SMART!

 

[gpjacobs]

If you decide to book Palo for an adult-only night, book it on a night when you would have Tritons (I loved the menu at Tritons, but for first-time DCL cruisers, it's the one I would skip to go to Palo if I had to choose.)

We're considering Palo one night and I was leaning toward skipping Triton's, mostly because it seems the least magical from a kid's perspective. So this is validating!

 

[Justin Leas]

Our first cruise was with 2 kids. The older had just turned 6 and the younger was turning 6 three months later. We did a 7 night on the Fantasy. The first couple of nights we struggled as parents because we are so use to a schedule and trying to corroborate our schedule with the cruise schedule was frustrating us. After we were able to throw our schedule out the window, let our kids stay up later, be active during times we generally expect them to be quiet at home, and stopped trying to make sure we did all of the things that we wanted to do, we had a great time. The kids still bring it up regularly that they want to go on another Disney Cruise. They do not know that we already booked it for February of 2021.

 

[jrabbit]

Our first cruise was when our son was 9yo, on a 4-nighter to the Bahamas ... NO Problems. Fast forward to being an 11yo ... and that's where we had "issues". The issue was it was an Eastern Caribbean cruise with embarkation day followed by 2 sea days .... and he was Missing Basketball Games with his club team. He was NOT Happy!!! But once we got to our first port and got busy with shore excursions, the attitude was gone and the rest of the trip he was a happy camper.

I see that you already have a cruise booked, but with our experience I would suggest not having many sea days at the beginning of the cruise if your child will be missing activities at home that they really really want to be doing.

Our daughter was also active with various activities, but never an issue with "missing them" like with the boy.

And that was the only time that we had "drama".... go figure it was the boy and not the girl

 

[jrabbit]

Another thought ...
You will read about some really cool / special things that happened to someone on their cruise. Pixie Dust, the Disney "Magic", and just downright special moments. These are really cool and great, but
1) they don't happen to everyone
2) they don't necessarily happen to someone on every cruise
3) they ALL will NEVER happen to you in one cruise
4) they are NOT a scavenger hunt, so don't go hunting them down, they are NOT a check list to be ticked off
5) DO be open to the moment ... whimsy can happen any time ... and it doesn't always need to be a character / crew interaction.

one of my magical moments happened on sea day (we had lots ... Panama Canal). Lots of activities going on around the ship, and up on the pool decks. I needed some quiet time and was just wandering the ship (walking down the stairways, looking at the art and decorations), when I ran across Suzy and Perla from Cinderella in one of the stairway / elevator areas. I had them to myself for 10 minutes and it was awesome!

 

[gpjacobs]

I see that you already have a cruise booked, but with our experience I would suggest not having many sea days at the beginning of the cruise if your child will be missing activities at home that they really really want to be doing.

Thankfully, our kiddo is pretty go-with-the-flow. But it's a good note. We have one day at sea to start so I'll make a point to make sure that day feels "full."