Are we too late to make it worthwhile?

[pangyal]

Thank you all so much for this amazing amount of good advice!

We decided to drop Disney from this trip and do Universal, then do the cruise. It’s almost a lateral move and I have a feeling it will be super fun...and yes, I fully expect to be the mom of the year elbowing her kid out of the way to meet Thor!

I am going to stay up until midnight to get the meet and greets, though I’m not too happy about that, lol. At least it’s just once! I’ll pass the time by reading about what we can do in Cozumel...

Thanks again, all !

 

[gotomu212]

Just wanted to clarify on dining-you are assigned a dining rotation for the entire cruise. So you’d either be early for all meals or none (since you had asked about being able to move some). There are a lot of people waitlisted that get moved without a problem, but honestly as someone who thought it would never work with a 2 year old we actually found late dining a better fit. If you do get “stuck” with Kate dining there are several threads with tips on making it work with littler kids.

 

[xQuizx]

@xQuizx, great that you got at least your main dining. If you have time after the cruise would you mind posting about your experiences getting tickets for the meet and greets? We're in the same situation and hope to get something for the kids. Thanks! Enjoy your cruise!!

As an update - Our cruise is this Saturday. Last night (Tuesday) Disney opened a bunch of spots for the meet and greets. I was able to book Frozen and the Princess Gatherings for a family of 5. There was a lot of availability. I was able to book the meet and greets on a sea day back to back. I was also able to change my character dining to an earlier time. I had to cancel my Remy brunch to accommodate the meet and greets but I was able to find availability on a different sea day for 2 people. There were numerous Palo and Remy dinners, but I couldn't find any Palo brunches, desert tastings, or mixology classes.

All in all I am quite relieved I was able to book those things before boarding.

Cheers!

 

[Chrissy-Mickey]

As an update - Our cruise is this Saturday. Last night (Tuesday) Disney opened a bunch of spots for the meet and greets. I was able to book Frozen and the Princess Gatherings for a family of 5.

All in all I am quite relieved I was able to book those things before boarding.

Cheers!

Thanks for this information; made me check online today since we're leaving on Friday. I was able to book a Frozen Gathering which was sold out before. The Princess Gathering was still sold out though

Additionally, we had been on the wait-list for main dining and were move to main dining today

 

[LisaRN97]

Thank you all so much for this amazing amount of good advice!

We decided to drop Disney from this trip and do Universal, then do the cruise. It’s almost a lateral move and I have a feeling it will be super fun...and yes, I fully expect to be the mom of the year elbowing her kid out of the way to meet Thor!

I am going to stay up until midnight to get the meet and greets, though I’m not too happy about that, lol. At least it’s just once! I’ll pass the time by reading about what we can do in Cozumel...

Thanks again, all !

Good for you! You'll love the Marvel day - we did it earlier this month. I know that for our sailing they opened up additional spots for the meet and greets about a week prior to departure - regardless you will have an amazing time!!

 

[dcassetta]

We are currently booked to do Universal for the first time in February of this year. However, kiddo REALLY wants to do Marvel Day At Sea and we learned that there are still a handful of rooms left on the Feb. 4 sailing out of Port Canaveral.

My question is this, though- this is now non-refundable, so we would need to be very sure we want to try a Disney cruise (we've never been). We are exactly 76 days out today. We originally looked at Concierge, but the price is more than double that of a Verandah room and we wouldn't be getting the early booking benefits- so my sense is it wouldn't be worth it, correct?

My concern is that everyone else other than other newbies like us have probably already booked up anything good for MDAS such as the character meets and activities. As well, we would apparently have to go on a waitlist for the main dinner seating since we can't eat at 8:15 with a small child, so I'm nervous we would miss out on the nice MDE restaurants if they can't get us in to an earlier time for the duration.

In a nutshell, then- do you experts think we still would be able to book the MDAS stuff and not miss out on the character meets? And how likely would it be that we would be able to get moved to Main dinner seating for every one of the five nights? I would hate to spend all this money on the cruise and then not be able to experience the dining, but there is absolutely no way kiddo can eat that late (nor us, for that matter!). I understand that asking if Concierge is worth it is subjective, but I am tossing that out anyway, since I'd like to hear whether people think we should even bother looking at spending so much extra with no prebooking benefits included.

Any help is appreciated as tomorrow is 75 days out and we are thinking we might have to decide today

Sailed the Marvel itinerary last week and we booked it GT about 30 days out. We were not able to get Anna/Elsa or Groot prior to the cruise. But, there was plenty of availability once onboard. Your cruise may be different, but you should be able to get all the meet and greets you want. There were both timed character greetings with the Marvel characters, plus lots of walkarounds. The characters in addition to the ones listed on the navigator were Hawkeye, Doctor Strange, Star Lord and Gamora. Thor, Loki, Captain America, Black Widow, Black Panther and Spiderman also did walkarounds. Iron Man and Groot did not, nor were they able to sign autographs due to the shape of their costume hands.

 

[pangyal]

Just a quick update as you were all so incredibly supportive and helpful- we were able to get tickets to both meets, the princess gathering, the Frozen meet, mixology/ champagne and chocolate activities, and Palo when I stayed up until midnight for the 75th day out .

We are flying from Orlando after Universal to Miami and wow, you all in the US have amazingly cheap flights- I am super jealous ! Worked out great.

We are still on the wait list for main dining as none of us can eat past about 7:30 (we are all really early risers) but the nice people at DCL seemed to think there was a good chance we’d get moved to Main at some point, even if on the first day.

I completed online checkin and got 12 for our port arrival time, though I’m not sure if that’s good or I should change it to later? If there are discounted upgrades available, we might ask about them, but we are pretty happy with the Navigator Verandah we picked since it looks cool and most importantly, shady!

Thanks so much to all who responded here as your collective advice was so helpful

 

[xQuizx]

Just a quick update as you were all so incredibly supportive and helpful- we were able to get tickets to both meets, the princess gathering, the Frozen meet, mixology/ champagne and chocolate activities, and Palo when I stayed up until midnight for the 75th day out .

We are flying from Orlando after Universal to Miami and wow, you all in the US have amazingly cheap flights- I am super jealous ! Worked out great.

We are still on the wait list for main dining as none of us can eat past about 7:30 (we are all really early risers) but the nice people at DCL seemed to think there was a good chance we’d get moved to Main at some point, even if on the first day.

I completed online checkin and got 12 for our port arrival time, though I’m not sure if that’s good or I should change it to later? If there are discounted upgrades available, we might ask about them, but we are pretty happy with the Navigator Verandah we picked since it looks cool and most importantly, shady!

Thanks so much to all who responded here as your collective advice was so helpful

That's awesome you were able to book those things ahead of time.

I would keep the 12 port time arrival. You don't have to be there at your assigned time to board the boat, you just have to show up at your time or afterwards to register.

We had a 11:30 port arrival time which worked out perfectly since we took a private van transfer and got to the port at 11:30 and were on the boat by 12:30 for lunch.

FYI Mickey takes pictures at the port up until 12:00 - 12:15, then Minnie jumps in. We were in line for pictures when they switched off. It worked out perfectly in my opinion since we had a picture with Mickey last time.

Cheers!

 

[Sytrace]

We are currently booked to do Universal for the first time in February of this year. However, kiddo REALLY wants to do Marvel Day At Sea and we learned that there are still a handful of rooms left on the Feb. 4 sailing out of Port Canaveral.

My question is this, though- this is now non-refundable, so we would need to be very sure we want to try a Disney cruise (we've never been). We are exactly 76 days out today. We originally looked at Concierge, but the price is more than double that of a Verandah room and we wouldn't be getting the early booking benefits- so my sense is it wouldn't be worth it, correct?

My concern is that everyone else other than other newbies like us have probably already booked up anything good for MDAS such as the character meets and activities. As well, we would apparently have to go on a waitlist for the main dinner seating since we can't eat at 8:15 with a small child, so I'm nervous we would miss out on the nice MDE restaurants if they can't get us in to an earlier time for the duration.

In a nutshell, then- do you experts think we still would be able to book the MDAS stuff and not miss out on the character meets? And how likely would it be that we would be able to get moved to Main dinner seating for every one of the five nights? I would hate to spend all this money on the cruise and then not be able to experience the dining, but there is absolutely no way kiddo can eat that late (nor us, for that matter!). I understand that asking if Concierge is worth it is subjective, but I am tossing that out anyway, since I'd like to hear whether people think we should even bother looking at spending so much extra with no prebooking benefits included.

Any help is appreciated as tomorrow is 75 days out and we are thinking we might have to decide today

I booked at 74 days out and was able to get the MDAS Heroic adventures meet and greet but am still looking for Groot meet and greet daily and will continue to do so up until 3 days before boarding. Then I will go to GS to see if I can get tickets there. We are platinum but booked last minute so I understand your hesitation. I would seriously not keep that from booking though.
As for main dining waitlist...if you were changed it would be for the duration of the cruise and there is a very good chance that you would be changed. On the off chance that they did not switch you prior to boarding, you can go to the dining location noted on the Navigator you get in port and request the switch there.

 

[Sytrace]

Just a quick update as you were all so incredibly supportive and helpful- we were able to get tickets to both meets, the princess gathering, the Frozen meet, mixology/ champagne and chocolate activities, and Palo when I stayed up until midnight for the 75th day out .

We are flying from Orlando after Universal to Miami and wow, you all in the US have amazingly cheap flights- I am super jealous ! Worked out great.

We are still on the wait list for main dining as none of us can eat past about 7:30 (we are all really early risers) but the nice people at DCL seemed to think there was a good chance we’d get moved to Main at some point, even if on the first day.

I completed online checkin and got 12 for our port arrival time, though I’m not sure if that’s good or I should change it to later? If there are discounted upgrades available, we might ask about them, but we are pretty happy with the Navigator Verandah we picked since it looks cool and most importantly, shady!

Thanks so much to all who responded here as your collective advice was so helpful

Yay! Have a great cruise! We are on the January 7th sailing out of Miami. Still looking for Groot tickets. lol