Some friends of ours booked a cruise on the Disney Magic for February of 2018. It was a Marvel Day At Sea Cruise. With their permission, we are sharing their Cruise Documentation.
When opening the inside flap, you will find the names of the passengers as well their cruise luggage tags. There is information inside the booklet that indicates when you should put the tags on your luggage.
The first page just sort of confirms what you already know, that you are going on a Disney cruise. It does lists the name of the ship, the number of days, and the departure port.
Turning the page will review the Table of Contents as well as the cover page for the “Vacation Checklist”.
The Vacation Checklist does have some good information on it, but most of it can actually be found on the Disney Cruise Line website. There are some useful tips, such as information about how you can be reached on the ship and the suggestion to pack a day bag (because your luggage doesn’t get delivered until later). There is also information about downloading the Disney Cruise Line Navigator App.
The next pages of the Vacation Checklist describe the dress code on Disney Cruises. It also lists the prohibited items and the alcohol policy.
The next page is a list of Embarkation Information for the ship, including the time the ship leaves as well as what constitutes proper documentation for boarding the ship (and for getting off the ship once you return to port). I’ll briefly summarize by saying that passports are always accepted and we don’t leave home without them. On certain cruises, you may be able to get away with a birth certificate if you return via the cruise ship, but we would never take a chance on something happening in a foreign port and trying to return without having our passports.
The next page continues the list of acceptable documentation for boarding.
Now we are getting to the good stuff. The Vacation Summary lists the sailing details, the guests, travel dates, how you are getting to the ship (flights and/or Disney transportation), and whether you have purchased travel insurance and/or prepaid the gratuities for the hard working crew. On this particular cruise, our friends did elect to use Disney transportation.
The next page lists any pre-selected Port Adventures, adult dining, meet and greets, salon treatments, and any other activities that you’ve selected via the Disney Cruise website.
You also get a listing of the Sailing Itinerary which includes the dates and ports for each day of the trip.
The flight information is listed if you selected airport transfers.
The rest of the flight information and ground transportation is also listed.
The onboard airline check-in program is detailed next.
You are charged $12 per person for each day of your cruise for gratuities. That money is automatically charged to your room and dispersed to your Server, Assistant Server, Head Server, and your Stateroom Host. The Server and Assistant Server wait on you each night in one of the three main dining rooms. You might also see your servers working at breakfast, lunch, or on deck, since they often have shifts at other dining locations during the day. Each Head Server manages a large number of server teams in the dining rooms and can be called upon for assistance in case something goes wrong. We’ve had a number of them go out of their way to get to know us and to take care of any little issues or dietary requests. The Stateroom Host (or Hostess) is the person that keeps your stateroom super clean. They are always working cleaning the rooms and hallways.
The next few pages are cards that you can leave with anyone that might need to contact you while you are on board.
There is an order form for gifts and amenities. We have never used this form though.
Here is a bunch of boiler plate legal stuff about how Disney Cruise Line deals with your information.
The legal information continues, along with a form for the onboard airline check-in program that you can fill out to drop off with Guest Services (you will get enrolled in the program).
Disney is also nice enough to give directions to the embarkation port so you can find the ship on your own.
That’s pretty much it, except for the back cover.
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!
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