We have stayed in Stateroom 2612 on the Disney Wonder twice. It is a Category 9C Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom located on the aft (rear) starboard (right) side of the ship on Deck 2, just in front of the aft elevators. Our first time in this room was during our trip to Alaska in August of 2013, then we returned to the same stateroom in March of 2015 for a Western Caribbean Cruise.
We went on our first cruise on the Disney Fantasy in August of 2015 on a 7-Night Eastern Caribbean from Port Canaveral. We stayed in room 6656, which is a Category 5D Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah. It is located on the aft (rear) starboard (right) side of the ship on Deck 6, just in front of the aft elevators. The room offered a great view of Castaway Cay as well as the Pirate Night Fireworks.
So, you’ve booked your Disney Cruise — now it’s approaching your check in day and you wonder what will happen? The most important thing you need to know before booking your excursions, adult dining, character meets, and other activities is that you must be paid in full on your cruise. Once you have paid in full for your cruise, you can book your activities. The date for this depends on how many Disney Cruises you have taken. If this is your first cruise, your check in day will be 75 days from your sailing date. If you have taken 1-4 cruises (this makes you a Silver Castaway Club member), your date will be 90 days out. If you have taken 5-9 cruises (this makes you a Gold Castaway Club member), your date will be 105 days out. If you have taken 10 or more (a Platinum Castaway Club member), your date will be 120 days out. On the other hand, if you are sailing in a Concierge stateroom, you can book 125 days out regardless of your prior number of cruises. You should be contacted by the shore side Concierge team who will book your activities for you (I believe you can email them 125 days out, so you should get everything you want).
You’ve booked your Disney Cruise — now it’s approaching your check-in day and you wonder what will happen. The most important thing you need to know before checking in for your cruise is that you must be paid in full before you begin the check in process. Once you have paid in full for your cruise, you can start checking in. Your check-in date will depend on how many Disney Cruises you have taken. If this is your first cruise, your check-in day will be 75 days from your sailing date. If you have taken 1-4 cruises (this makes you a Silver Castaway Club member), your date will be 90 days out. If you have taken 5-9 cruises (this makes you a Gold Castaway Club member), your date will be 105 days out. If you have taken 10 or more (a Platinum Castaway Club member), your date will be 120 days out.
We recently went on the Disney Magic for a 5-Night Caribbean Very Merrytime Christmas Cruise from Miami. We stayed in stateroom 2512, which is a Category 9C Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom. It is located on the forward (front) starboard (right) side of the ship on Deck 2, in front of the forward elevators. We had never stayed forward on Deck 2 before, but we really liked it. The forward elevators are very rarely busy and it was easy to get to almost everything.
Here are some pictures of the Castaway Club Gifts we have received over the years (Note: We just received some updated pictures from a recent Disney Alaska Cruise. We’ve added these pictures to the end of the article):
Of course, the highs of being on the cruise always come crashing down on Disembarkation day. We decided to carry our bags off the ship with express walk off, but still enjoy breakfast. We left our room and headed towards Animators Palette, which is where we had dinner the night before. Since we had late dinner, our breakfast was at a reasonable time.
Day 3 of our cruise was Castaway Cay, which is one of our favorite stops. Imagine if Disney had taken an entire Caribbean Island and turned it into a water park. That’s basically how I describe Castaway Cay to people. We aren’t beach people, but we love this port stop more than any others. We had managed to grab the last Cabana on the family beach (Cabana #20) when we checked in for this cruise, so it was going to be a great day. We invited our friends to enjoy the Cabana with us, since there was no additional charge for six people versus four people.
We were very excited to get on board the Disney Dream as this was our first time on the ship. As they called our boarding group, we walked through the giant Mickey ears and had our Keys to the World cards swiped for the first time on this cruise. We skipped the initial photo since we never buy the photos on board.
Disney cruises are one of our favorite ways to vacation. One of the few issues we have experienced while on the ship (and travel in general) is how to keep all of our electronic devices charged up. As a family of four, we have a multitude of cell phones, iPads, and Kindles that need a recharge. We used to travel with a bag full of wall chargers and cables that went everywhere. This was a real problem once we boarded the cruise ship, since there are a limited number of wall plugs available.