Booking our Cruise activities
Today, Monday 10th April 2023, is the start of our cruise activity booking window. As this is our first cruise we can book any onboard activities or port adventures 75 days before the first day of our cruise.
If you are a Platinum Castaway Club Member (have sailed 10 times before) you can book 120 days before.
Gold Castaway Club Members (have sailed 5 times before) you can book 105 days before.
Silver Castaway Club Members (after your first sailing) can book 90 days before.
This means that we may find that some activities are already fully booked by the time we gain access. Because of this we had already researched the Port Adventures available on Grand Cayman and Castaway Cay on the Disney Cruise Line website and created a shortlist.
We had also looked at the ‘Palo’ menu and decided as we are on a 5 night sailing we would not miss out on any of the rotational dining options if we also had dinner there one night.
If you use ‘Facebook’ it is also worth finding the group for your cruise. Our cruise group was set up by a ‘Platinum Castaway Club Member’ and it has been a useful place to ask questions and gather information from seasoned cruisers.
Our booking window opened at midnight Eastern Standard Time (EST), 5am (GMT). We were of course asleep!
We logged into the Disney Cruise Line app at 7.30am (GMT), having already set up our account and linked our reservation beforehand.
We selected ‘At Home’ and then our reservation. If you have more than one cruise booked all your reservations will be in this area.
The fun countdown tells you how many days till you set sail and at the bottom of this screen you have the ‘My Plans’ tab. When we opened this there is a new option to ‘Add Activities’ for each day of our cruise.
If you select ‘Add Activities’ on your sea days, you are then given the option to look at either ‘Spa & Fitness’, ‘Onboard Fun’ and ‘Adult Dining’. If you select ‘Adult Dining’ you can make a reservation for ‘Palo’ the age 18+ extra charge restaurant. This dinner is $45 per person and does not include any alcoholic drinks. There is also a brunch option on other days.
If you press ‘Select’ you will be asked to chose the members of your party that would like to take part in the activity and then you would ‘Check Availability’. We were then given a selection of dining times and once we had made our selection it was added to ‘My Plans’.
We will only be charged for this meal once we leave the ship. As ‘Palo’ is a popular dining experience you can only make one reservation. If you need to cancel you have to give 24 hours notice once you are onboard.
On the port days there is an additional activity you can book called ‘Port Adventures’. Each ‘Port Adventure’ is an additionally charged guided tour or activity. You are free to book your own tour, independent of Disney or to simply explore the port at your leisure. Just remember to be back in plenty of time for the ships departure.
The ‘Port Adventures’ differ each cruise and if you visit the Disney Cruise Line website before your cruise you will be able to see all the options and then make a short list. Be prepared for your choice not to be offered, as we found for our Grand Cayman port day, the ‘Discover Native Cayman and seawater forest’ tour was not available. Fortunately our second choice the ‘Exclusive sneak peek to Grand Cayman highlights’ was available to book. As you can see in the above screen shots, this tour is now sold out as are quite a few other ‘Port Adventures’. This is one of the downsides of being a first time cruiser, you may not get your first choice.
Each day there are a wide selection of extra charge and free activities on the ship. The video above shows the ‘Onboard Fun’ avaliable on our first day. Some of these onboard activities had sold out before our 75 day window, which is a shame as we were looking forward to the mixology class. It is always worth checking the app regularly before your sailing in case there have been any cancellations. You can also visit guest services once onboard to try and get a space.
One experience that sells out when the ‘Platinum Castaway Member’ booking window opens are the cabanas at Castaway Cay. These cabanas start at $726.88 for up to 6 guests and $56 per each additional guest up to 10. Most of these are booked by Concierge level guests and are incredibly sort after.
The spa treatments also sell out quickly, but with a massage starting at $179 +18% gratuity they are not cheap. It is recommended to visit the spa as soon as you get on the ship to see whether they are offering any deals, and to also purchase the ‘Rain Forest’ room passes.
I have to say that opening the Disney Cruise Line app this morning and trying to book our activities was not fun. Thankfully we had done our research and worked out what we wanted to book.
We were able to get a reservation for ‘Palo’ dinner, and a tour in Grand Cayman and the snorkel and bike hire when we are at Castaway Cay. However we haven’t been able to book any activities for our sea days.
There are plenty of things to do on the ship with shows, trivia, bingo and a cinema, which are included in the price. The many pools, slides and adult only areas also need exploring. There will be plenty of things for us to do, however I don’t know when we will get the day to day schedule of these activities.
One of our main concerns is that even though we are booked on a ‘Silver Anniversary at Sea’ cruise we don’t know what day any of these celebrations are going to take place. The only way I worked out that the ‘Pirate night’ is our 2nd day at sea (day 4) is because on the ‘Onboard Fun’ tab for that day you can book a child into a ‘Pirate-themed makeover’. We also don’t know our rotational dining order, so we may have booked our ‘Palo’ dinner on the night of our only ‘Rupunzel’s Royal Table’ night.
There are a lot of frustrations being a first time cruiser and I wish that all of the activities were viewable to all guests before the booking window so that you could not only plan, but budget for your cruise. And then at the start of your booking window they become available.
The next step is the online check in, which starts 30 days before our cruise. Hopefully this will be the time that we find out about rotational dining and all the other activities that are on offer. Once we have gone through the check in process we will add it to our blog, be sure to check back soon.