When you embark on a Disney Cruise, you will be given a Key To The World Card. The card will not only unlock your stateroom but also uniquely identifies you to the crew. It has a lot of information embedded on the card as well. I'll try to breakdown the information as well to show you some examples of the card.
Wes Sauer of the DCL Dude Podcast, recently went on a 3-Night Bahamian Cruise on the Disney Dream. He originally posted this on his Facebook page, but was kind enough to let us repost it here! Wes and his wife are also Disney travel agents who specialize in Disney cruises. If you’d like a free, no obligation quote, send Wes an email at wes@mickeyworldtravel.com.
You can listen to his trip report here:
Well, we were finally able to take the trip I thought my wife would never agree to. We set out on a 3-Night Bahamian cruise aboard the Disney Dream on November 1, 2019…WITHOUT OUR KIDS! I’m going to do a test run posting our trip recap here, but if you read this, you have to promise to also listen to our trip recap podcast episode!!!
We flew in the morning of, which I don’t typically recommend, but we wanted to be away from our kids for as little time as possible. We took Disney’s Magical Express to the port from the airport. Check-in was quick and easy and we got VIP seating! They must have known the DCL Dude was coming!
We arrived at Port Canaveral around 11 am and were told that boarding would start around 11:30. That gave us plenty of time to check in, snap some pre-cruise photos on the outdoor viewing area, and be ready to board with Boarding Group 1. Seriously, don’t tell the kids we were there!
After our welcome onboard, we had lots of time to kill before our rooms were ready around 1:30. We wanted to change our dining time, but we had to wait until 12:30 to do it, so off to Cabanas we went. Cabanas is so nice when you’re onboard this early – no wait times in line and plenty of seating options. We typically like to eat out on the back deck, but it was a little too windy so we opted to eat inside.
After lunch, we headed down to deck 2, outside of Enchanted Garden, where they have tables set up for dining reservations at Palo and Remy, and also for those guests who wish to switch their dining time. This was the first time we have done this while onboard and they just gave us a new dining ticket and told us to present it at our first dinner and they would seat us at our new table.
That took -2 minutes as we were done by 12:28, which meant we still had over an hour until our rooms were ready. So we did some window shopping and went out to lounge on some chairs on deck 4 not realizing the chairs would be put away for the muster drill. You’d think I was a rookie! Instead, we settled for some chairs in the adults-only area on deck 13 Forward.
The lobby chandelier on the Dream is my favorite across the fleet and I take way too many pictures of it that all look the same. I won’t apologize for this.
Finally, it was 1:30 and we were excited to see our stateroom. I’ve said before that the Category 5E staterooms are my favorite and I will book them any time they are available and within budget. We were able to book a Category 5E about a month out with a GTY rate. This just meant that they would assign a stateroom for us and is different than the VGT rates with restrictions. We were assigned stateroom 9670, which is a corner cabin with a verandah that wraps around the side of the ship. We were SO excited to sail in this room and it did not disappoint.
We loved the size of the room and ESPECIALLY loved the size of the verandah, but if we had our kids we would have missed the curtain separator and the split bathrooms. But for the two of us it was absolutely amazing.
After we unpacked, we headed off to the DVC member presentation in the D Lounge. We always attend this on embarkation day just for the free drinks and a chance to win the onboard credit giveaway. We didn’t win and I think we are like 0 for 7 now.
Then it was off to the muster drill, which was in the Evolution lounge for us (another perk of the 5E cabins), and then off to the sail away party. We typically just hang around for the character appearances and then go off to wave to people out on the pier as we leave the port.
After the sail away party, it was back to the stateroom to prepare for our 5:45 dinner at Royal Palace. The dining time switch went off without a hitch and we were seated with a delightful older couple from the Orlando area. I attempted to take pictures of my food, but they are all terrible so I’m not sharing. iPhones continue to be the worst in low light situations. Real bloggers would be appalled at my attempts. I will share a picture, though, of the escargot that I tried, which I’m happy to report wasn’t terrible! I’m not a picky eater, but the thought of cooked snails has never been appealing to me. But one benefit of eating in the restaurants on these cruises is the opportunity to try things that you might not otherwise order in a restaurant. I still wouldn’t order it, but I liked it!
The time between dinner and the nighttime show is typically spent participating in our favorite pastime – checking out the merchandise in the shops. We like to look through everything and make a mental note of the things we’re interested in. On longer cruises, we’ll do this over and over until we’ve narrowed it down to one or two things. There was a lot less time on this cruise, so we had to expedite the process a little. Here’s a pro tip: if you see something on the first night of your cruise and there are limited sizes, buy it then. If you put it off, it will likely not last long. We’ve been burned a few times by this.
I really like the spirit jerseys with the ship stern characters and I really liked this shirt with the ship’s itinerary. I’ll definitely look out for these on future sailings.
We attended the Golden Mickeys in the Walt Disney theater that evening – a show that I have always loved and has a nostalgia factor for me. The cast was great and the performance was fun and had been updated a little bit since we last saw it. And Bob Iger hasn’t aged a bit.
We rounded out the evening in Evolution at the Match Your Mate show. My wife really wanted to go on stage and I was less enthusiastic about it, so I didn’t try overly hard when they were looking for a couple in our category. Ultimately we didn’t get picked, and afterward I was sad that I didn’t try harder. The show was hosted by the adult entertainment leader, Tisa, who was fantastic – so, so funny. They do an amazing job picking people for these roles.
The silent DJ party was after that, but we had a very early start to the day and opted for sleep instead.
Nassau tomorrow!
Full Trip Report – Boarding | Nassau | Castaway Cay
The DCL Dude Podcast is a show dedicated to all things Disney Cruise Line! They talk recent DCL news, share travel tips, interview guests, go over the best and worst (ok, mostly best) that DCL has to offer, share trip reports, and hopefully interact with their listeners!
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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!
Our whiteboard pretty much sums up this day. Getting off the boat is never a fun day. We always have so much fun on the cruises and it all comes crashing down on the morning that you have to leave. While no one wants to leave the boat, we will describe the procedure for you so you’ll be better prepared when the sad day comes.
The first step can come months before you ever get on the boat. You can opt for Disney Transportation from the cruise ship to the airport. If you have selected this option, you can also select an option to automatically check your luggage onto your flight from the cruise ship. I’ll mention it again below, but make sure you keep some essential objects with you.
The next step in the process will come in the form of a letter and some luggage tags that you will find in your stateroom two nights before you are supposed to disembark.
Here is the letter from Port Canaveral.
Here is the letter from Miami.
Here is the letter from San Juan:
The other option is to have the crew take your luggage off the ship and have it waiting for you in the terminal. If you select this option, you must set your luggage outside your room by 10 pm the night before you return to port. It will be collected by the stateroom attendants. You will not have access to it until you leave the ship. This means that any medicine, toiletries, or clothing that you need must be kept with you. I would also advise keeping your passport and anything else you consider important with you. You should also consider keeping a small bag that you can pack these items with. You will also need to keep your Key to the World Card with you as you will need it when you disembark.
You may enjoy breakfast in the dining hall before you disembark the ship. You will return to the same dining room that you had dinner in the night before (or would have if you had gone to the dining room). There are two separate breakfast times – your breakfast time is based upon your dinner seating time. The one that corresponds to first seating is usually extremely early. The one with second seating at dinner is usually between 8:00 am to 8:30 am. You can bring any luggage you have with you (including all of it if you’ve chosen to handle your luggage yourself) and leave it in the hallway outside the dining room.
After you have had breakfast, you can head to any public space, such as a lounge area, to wait until you can leave the ship. Departures are staggered to facilitate an orderly exit from the ship. Ship-wide announcements let you know your departure time based upon the character that was on the luggage tags left in your stateroom. Once you’ve heard your luggage tag group announced (e.g., red Mickey, blue Donald), you can make your way towards the atrium to disembark the ship. You will scan your Key to the World Card one last time and head off the ship.
You will then find yourself in the Port Terminal. If you need to, find your luggage. Once you have all your luggage, head towards the Customs line. Present your Passport to the customs official along with any necessary documentation. This is usually a quick process. You can then head outside to find your method of transportation. If you need to take the Disney Cruise Line transportation, there will be signs to direct you to the buses.
You can find a ride sharing option (Taxi or Uber) if you didn’t drive. If you did drive, you can head to the parking structure and head home! In Port Canaveral, you pay before you park. In Miami, we paid as we were leaving. There were several kiosks to put our parking ticket in to pay and get the ticket validated so we could exit.
While leaving the ship is never fun, we hope this information will clear up any questions that you had about the process.
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page or Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!
When you embark on a Disney Cruise, you will be given a Key To The World Card. The card will not only unlock your stateroom but also uniquely identifies you to the crew. It has a lot of information embedded on the card as well. I’ll try to breakdown the information as well to show you some examples of the card.
| A | The dates of your cruise |
| The ship you are on | |
| C | Your name |
| D | Your Castaway Club status |
| E | Your lifeboat station |
| F | Your dining rotation:
Fantasy
Dream
Magic
Wonder
|
| G | Your dining time |
| H | Your check in line number |
| I | Indicates you have a Disney Visa Card as your credit card (entitles you to additional perks) |
| J | Your table number in every main dining room |
| K | Your Castaway Club account number |
| L | A for Adult, M for Minor |
| M | P for Disney Transportation to the Port, A for Disney Transportation to the Airport, R for Disney Resort, PA for Port and Airport, PR for Port and Resort, and RPA for Resort to Port to Airport. |
Here is our first card, which was for a cruise to Alaska. The only difference here is that we didn’t have any Disney Transportation booked, didn’t have Castaway Club status, and Disney had not yet started to indicate if you were using a Disney Visa Card.
On our second cruise, we had obtained Silver Castaway Club Status. We went on a Spring Break cruise on the Wonder.
On our third cruise, we got a star added to our card. This was to indicate that we had visited the Immigration and Custom Officials before the ship docked in Key West. This cruise was a four night Caribbean cruise on the Wonder.
Nothing new on this card for our fourth cruise. Although, it is interesting to note that there is no check in line number on this card. I think my Key To The World card got demagnetized on this cruise (and wouldn’t open my stateroom door), so it got reprinted while we were on board. This was a five night Western Caribbean cruise on the Wonder.
This was our fifth cruise and it was our first time on the Fantasy. This was a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy.
Back on the Wonder for our sixth cruise, where we changed to Gold Castaway Club Members. We also don’t have a check in line number for this cruise, but I remember that we did upgrade our stateroom in the cruise terminal. This meant that our card got reprinted in the supervisor’s line. This was another five night Western Caribbean cruise on the Wonder.
For our seventh cruise, we returned to the Fantasy. We also paid for Disney Cruise Line transportation from the airport and the port, so the card has a PA on it. We also used a Disney Visa Card for the default credit card for this cruise, so they added the DV to this card. We didn’t actually use the credit card, since all the charges were paid off using Disney Gift Cards. This was a seven night Eastern Caribbean Star Wars Day at Sea Cruise.
Our eighth cruise was our first cruise on the Dream. We again paid for round trip Disney Cruise ground transportation and used our Disney Visa Card. This was a three night Bahamian Cruise on the Dream.
On our ninth cruise, we went on the Magic for a Very Merrytime Cruise. We drove to and from the Port of Miami, so no annotation about Disney Transportation. We used our Disney Visa Card as the default credit card for this cruise. This was a 5 Night Very Merrytime Western Caribbean Cruise on the Magic.
On our tenth cruise, we went back on the Magic for a Sprint Break Cruise. We drove to and from the Port of Miami, so no annotation about Disney Transportation. This was a 5 Night Bahamian Cruise on the Magic.
Our eleventh cruise, where we were Platinum for the first time, was another cruise on the Fantasy. We drove to and from Port Canaveral, so no annotation about Disney Transportation. This was a 7-Night Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy.
On our twelve cruise, we went back onboard our favorite ship, the Wonder, for a Spring Break Cruise. We left from San Diego on a 5-Night Baja Cruise. This was the first time we had been on the Wonder since its refurbishment that added Tiana’s Place. Disney Cruise Line changed the way the dining rotation was specified on the card to add two letters for the name of the restaurant so there was no confusion with Tiana’s and Triton’s. We actually didn’t sit at Table 57, as we discussed in the trip report, because we wanted to sit with our favorite crew member. Since we took an Uber to and from the port (we had additional vacation days before and after the cruise), we didn’t use Disney transportation.
During some recent cruises, our daughter was old enough to go to the Vibe. When the kids check in to the Vibe, they get new Key To The World cards printed on this special card to indicate they are allowed in the Vibe. If they don’t have this card during a “Card Check”, they will be asked to leave the Vibe. Our daughter indicated they do this check every so often.
Some friends sailed in a Concierge Cabin and were kind enough to share their Key To The World card with us. As you can see, they had Port/Airport transfers and also used their Disney Visa Card as the default payment. The card is gold because they were Concierge guests and had access to the Concierge Lounge. There are two interesting items to note with this card. One first is the Concierge check-in desk number “993”. The second item is the crossed Mickey Keys in the bottom left, which also indicates a Concierge guest.
We just added some information on how you can store your Key to the World Card as well, talking about Lanyards available from both Disney and Amazon.
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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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!
Note: This post is out of date. To see the latest prices (that we update once a month) go to our homepage and find the latest pricing posts from there. Or subscribe to our email list and get updated delivered to your inbox at the beginning of each month!
Here are the ten cheapest (per night) cruises you can take with two adults and two children in a concierge stateroom as of March 2, 2018. The Fantasy has one sailing on the list, but it looks like its during prime hurricane season! The rest of the sailings are on the Magic and the Wonder. There are three Very Merrytime cruises and three Halloween on the High Seas sailings.
| Cruise Name | Number of Days | Date | Ship | Departure Port | Concierge Price | Concierge Price Per Night |
| 5-Night Western Caribbean Cruise from Galveston to San Juan. | 5 | January 9 2019 | Disney Wonder | Galveston Texas | $5,760.40 | $1,152.08 |
| 6-Night Very Merrytime Eastern Caribbean Cruise from New York to San Juan. | 6 | November 24 2018 | Disney Magic | New York New York | $7,062.12 | $1,177.02 |
| 6-Night Very Merrytime Western Caribbean Cruise from Galveston. | 6 | November 2 2018 | Disney Wonder | Galveston Texas | $7,676.04 | $1,279.34 |
| 7-Night Very Merrytime Western Caribbean Cruise from Galveston. | 7 | November 30 2018 | Disney Wonder | Galveston Texas | $9,417.56 | $1,345.37 |
| 4-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise from San Juan to Port Canaveral. | 4 | February 3 2019 | Disney Wonder | San Juan Puerto Rico | $5,420.48 | $1,355.12 |
| 13-Night Eastbound Transatlantic Cruise from Miami to Barcelona. | 13 | May 13 2018 | Disney Magic | Miami Florida | $17,619.76 | $1,355.37 |
| 7-Night Halloween on the High Seas Western Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral. | 7 | September 1 2018 | Disney Fantasy | Port Canaveral Florida | $9,503.92 | $1,357.70 |
| 5-Night Halloween on the High Seas Baja Cruise from San Diego. | 5 | September 14 2018 | Disney Wonder | San Diego California | $6,866.92 | $1,373.38 |
| 5-Night Halloween on the High Seas Baja Cruise from San Diego. | 5 | September 23 2018 | Disney Wonder | San Diego California | $6,866.92 | $1,373.38 |
| 3-Night Bahamian Cruise from Port Canaveral. | 3 | February 21 2019 | Disney Wonder | Port Canaveral Florida | $4,120.20 | $1,373.40 |
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!
We usually plan our travel 18 months or so in advance. We look at school calendars, compare prices, and then book a trip. In the case of our February 2017 cruise on the Disney Dream, almost none of this happened (we did look at the school calendar). Here is how our cruise came together.
In October 2016, Nancy and I had planned a trip on the Disney Dream for October 7, 2016. I won’t go back over the entire story, but that cruise was canceled because of Hurricane Matthews. Disney immediately refunded all the money for our cruise (including the trip insurance). We eventually received our airfare back as well. Since we weren’t out any money, we started planning for another cruise on the Dream as soon as possible.
We had already planned a cruise for January 2017 and had a Spring Break trip planned for April 2017 as well. After looking over the various itineraries for the Dream and the school calendar, we decided on the 3 day Dream sailing leaving February 3, 2017. The itinerary included a stop at Nassau and Disney’s private island. We decided to bring the girls with us on this trip even though our previously canceled cruise was just for the two of us (a 20th anniversary celebration cruise). They were definitely excited to be going with us since none of us had been on the Dream before.
We had a few items that we needed to check off the list. The first was to book the cruise. I contacted our travel agent at the time and asked her to book the cruise using a place holder booking that we had reserved on a previous cruise. This gave us 10% off the booking, plus a $100 onboard credit. It also allowed us to apply the $250 we had paid on the place holder to this cruise. We chose a Category 5C Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah, Stateroom 7044, which is on the Port (left) side near the forward elevators. We also booked Disney Cruise ground transportation from the Orlando airport to the ship and back again after the cruise was over.
The second item to take care of was the flights to and from Orlando. A quick look at the American Airlines website found four round trip tickets at the saver level (25,000 miles each) that were perfect for planning purposes. We found a flight that would leave Reagan National Airport at 3:00 pm and land in Orlando at 5:30 pm. The girls would miss a half day of school that day, plus one more the next day (it was an early release day). Our return flight would leave Orlando at 3:00 pm and land at Reagan National Airport at 5:15 pm. We had received the 100,000 AAdvantage miles by converting 80,000 Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points into 100,000 AAdvantage miles. In hindsight, I probably could have found a better use for the SPG points, but live and learn.
The next item was our hotel room for the night before the cruise. Since Nancy and I had planned to stay at the Hyatt Regency in the Orlando airport for our anniversary cruise (and our January Cruise), we just canceled the night from the October cruise and moved it to February. We had read multiple reviews of people who had stayed at the hotel before the cruise and everyone recommended it. We decided that if it didn’t go well in January, we could always find something else for this cruise.
After booking those three items (cruise, transportation, and hotel), we simply had to wait till our check-in time to arrive. Since we are Gold Castaway Club members, we could check-in 105 days before our cruise to book excursions. Once the day arrived, we logged in at midnight to see what was available. There was a Cabana available on the family beach, so we reserved it right away. The Cabana are expensive, but we really enjoy them. We didn’t manage to get one for our January cruise, so we were looking forward to enjoying one again. The Cabana was the only excursions that we choose to book for this cruise since it was only a 3 night cruise. We’ve been to Nassau previously, but had always decided to stay onboard and enjoy the ship.
I thought that would be the end of our planning, until some friends of ours decided to join us at the last minute. They ended up booking the same flights, hotel and a nearby stateroom! We had our travel agent link our reservations so they could have the same dining room table. The only thing she wasn’t able to do was to add them to our Cabana. We would have to wait until we were on board the ship to sort that out.
Planning | Travel | Boarding | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation
During our recent 7 Night Eastern Caribbean Star Wars Day At Sea cruise on the Disney Fantasy, we decided to try Disney Cruise Line’s Onboard Airline Check-in. This is a program that Disney Cruise Line has that allows you to receive your boarding pass and check your luggage for your return flight home while onboard the ship.
In order to participate in this program, you must purchase Disney Cruise Line ground transportation from the ship back to Orlando International Airport. You must also sign up for the program. I don’t know the deadline, but we signed up when we boarded the ship at the Port Terminal. You must be flying from the Orlando Airport after 11:30 am on one of the following airlines: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Jet Blue Airways, or United Airlines.
The instruction sheet said we would have to put our luggage outside our room by 10:30 pm the night before debarkation. If we didn’t place the luggage outside, we would have to take our luggage onto the Disney Cruise Line ground transportation ourselves. The instructions also detail what should and should not go into our luggage, including film and hazard materials. You should also make sure you don’t put any important medications or passports (or other identification you will need for your flight home) in your bags because you won’t see them until you return to your home airport. This also means you will need to keep clothes and anything else you will need the next morning with you in the room overnight, and carry them off the ship.
On the final night of the cruise, we returned to our room to find the standard Customs form as well as a folder containing all the information we needed for onboard check-in. We had boarding passes, luggage tags, and instructions. The boarding passes were normal boarding passes and included all the information we needed for check in, including our TSA PreCheck information. The luggage tags were a bit strange. They included information for our flight, but it was explained in the instructions that they would be removed and normal luggage tags would be put on the luggage.
We put our luggage outside before 10:30 pm and it was collected by the room attendant. Just as they said, our luggage was sent back to our home airport where we collected it. However, there was a downside. It was mentioned in the sign up form that if we had any status with the airline, we should take our own bags to the airport to check them in to make sure we would not be charged baggage fees. Since we have a Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard, we get a free checked bag for up to eight members that are on the same reservation purchased with the card. We sent two bags off using the onboard check-in program and got charged $25 for one of them, which we should not have been. We could have tried to sort it out, but I didn’t see the charge until the final morning of our cruise.
Overall, the program worked just as we expected it to. Our bags arrived at our home airport and we were able to use the boarding passes they provided to us. We had another cruise not long after this one and we elected not to use the program again. There were a few reasons for this. The first is that we had to keep a number of items with us in order to get ready the next morning, including some basic toiletries and clothes. There were enough items that we would have to keep a small bag to put it into and carry it onto the airplane.
The second reason we didn’t use this service again is that we like to do the express walk off. We keep our luggage in our room until the morning we leave the ship, take it with us to breakfast, then walk right off the ship with it. We don’t have to try to find it in the port terminal among all the other luggage. We then take the luggage to the DCL bus and hand it to the driver, who puts it under the bus for our trip to the airport. We recollect the luggage when we arrive at the airport and take it to the airline with very little effort. We can add items to the bags (toiletries) or get some things out if we needed to as well, such as another change of clothes if something got spilled on them at breakfast. This also saves us from rushing too much the night before in order to have to put it out by 10:30 pm. The only negative in doing this is the need to find an elevator in the morning (for our rolling bags).
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints as well as our cruise trip reports!
This would be the saddest day, debarkation day. I’ve already described the debarkation procedure in a previous post. It was time to head home. We got up early and went down to get breakfast. Since we had second seating, we had the late breakfast at 7:30 am. We had already sent our bags on ahead with the Disney On Board Airline Check In, which means we wouldn’t see our bags again until we got back to Dulles Airport.
We finished breakfast and headed off the ship. Since we didn’t have to collect our bags, we just waited to clear the Customs line. The line moved quickly and we were on our way to the Disney Cruise Line bus. After about 50 minutes, we were at the Orlando Airport.
Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have a flight until 3:45 PM. To top it off, everybody was starting to feel bad, especially our youngest daughter. Lots of people on this cruise had been sick (coughing), so it was only a matter of time before it hit us. We tried to get some fluid and medication in her to help out with the flight.
Eventually, we headed off to our gate hoping to get some more rest. That lasted about 5 minutes, then the gate alarm went off for some reason and blared for 25 minutes until someone came to turn it off. We eventually boarded the flight and landed without issue. It took quite a while for everyone to get over the cold/flu thing we picked up on the ship, but we still had a great time!
This cruise was officially over. We had booked it well over 15 months ago in order to save some money. It turned into a Star Wars At Sea Day Cruise, which was a ton of fun. The girls both really enjoyed the friends they met at their clubs and still keep in touch with them. Even though everybody was sad to leave, we would be back on a cruise in less than two weeks, so that helped to keep the sadness at bay. We will be talking about that cruise soon!
Planning | Travel | Boarding | Sea | Sea | Tortola | St. Thomas | Star Wars Day | Castaway Cay | Go Home
January 13, 2017 finally arrived and it was time to head off for our Star Wars Cruise! Our plan was to pick the kids up from school, let them get changed, then head off to the airport. Once we had the house squared away, a friend drove us from our house to Reagan National Airport. We arrived at the airport really early (as we always do), around 5 PM. We dropped our bags off with American Airlines and headed through security. Our experience with TSA Security is usually fantastic thanks to having TSA PreCheck! Everyone has TSA PreCheck in our family except our youngest daughter (who now has Global Entry).
Since we had arrived at the airport so early, we decided to head to the Admirals Club Lounge, which we have access to thanks to our Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard. The card has a steep fee, but we always stop in the Admirals Club Lounges when we travel. We also take advantage of the free checked bags we received when fly on American Airlines. The Global Entry fee of $100 for our youngest daughter was also paid for with a credit from the Card.
The Admirals Club lounge at Reagan National was extremely crowded on this evening, but we managed to find some seats and settle in for a while. The kids each did the homework they were assigned for the 3 days of school they would miss the next week. We all got some light snacks and drinks and waited around. We had a celebrity sighting when I noticed Richard Kerr of Travel Hacking 101 in the lounge.
As the time got closer for our flight, we headed out of the lounge and down towards our gate. We grabbed dinner and sat to wait until boarding was called. The flight went off without a hitch: it boarded on time, the flight was fine with no issues, and we landed in Orlando in about 2 hours.
Once we landed in Orlando, we had to take the mini monorail from the gates to get to the main terminal, where we could collect our luggage. We then headed back upstairs to the Hyatt Regency. The Hyatt Regency is located right next to the Security Checkpoint for Gates 70-129. The lobby/check in for the hotel is actually located on the fourth floor, so we went there with our luggage.
We had booked this room using one of the two free nights from our Chase Hyatt card signup bonus, so there was no charge for the room. We were greeted warmly by the hotel staff and checked in quickly. Because the elevators were a bit busy, the gentleman who checked us in was kind enough to take us up to our room on the sixth floor in the service elevator so we wouldn’t have to wait. The room was comfortable and had plenty of space, especially considering were were only going to be in it for about 10 hours. At this point, it was about 11 PM at night and we wanted to be up and headed to the Disney Cruise Line Ground Transportation no later than 9 AM.
We woke up the next morning early! It was time to go and get on the cruise! The Hyatt Regency offers a program where you can spend the night before a cruise at the hotel and they will send your bags in the morning to the ship. You received a letter from them and tell them you want to participate in the program. You then put the Disney Cruise Line luggage tags on your bags and leave them in the room. The hotel will gather your bags and deliver them to the Disney Cruise Line luggage transfer people. We decided against doing this and just handled our bags ourselves.
We walked out of the hotel and had a seat on a nearby bench. I went to grab us a quick breakfast and coffee at the nearby Starbucks. Here is a great tip that Nancy learned from an airport worker. If you are looking at the Hyatt Regency, there is a Starbucks on the left. However, don’t go to that Starbucks if it has a long line. Instead, go down the steps to the left of the store. There is a smaller Starbucks down the stairs that is rarely busy. We never had a wait going to that Starbucks and the upstairs one had a line that was at least 20 minutes long. After a quick breakfast, we headed towards the B side of the airport (if you are looking at the Hyatt Regency, it is towards the right). We headed down the stairs and towards Magical Express.
On the left hand side, you will see the Disney Cruise Line Luggage service. We went outside and the luggage handlers scanned the luggage tags, took our luggage, and loaded it into the truck. We then headed back inside and got into the line for the Disney Cruise Line transportation.
Once we got to the front of the line, they checked our cruise documentation, verified our passports, and sent us forward . We were then assigned onto the next available bus. We waited a bit until the bus was fully loaded, and then we were off to Port Canaveral. The trip took about 45 minutes and most of that time was filled with various videos that played. Some were advertisements for Disney Cruise Line and some were just cartoons to keep the kids entertained. There was a bathroom on the bus in case anyone needed it for all the Starbucks coffee that they’d consumed.
After about 45 minutes, we got our first view of the Disney Fantasy. The excitement levels started to build. The bus pulled into the port terminal and we were allowed to get off once the driver had retrieved people’s hand carried luggage from under the bus. We were then directed into the terminal building so we could then pass through the security line. This consist of passing your bags through an x-ray machine and walking through a metal detector.
We then headed to the check in line for the cruise. While waiting in the line, we got a health survey form that asked if anyone in our group had fever or diarrhea within the past 72 hours. We filled the form out and turned it in when we approached the counter. A cast member looked at our cruise documentation, scanned our passports, and then issued us our Key To The World Cards and our gold lanyards for being Gold Castaway Club Members.
We decided not to even bother checking for a stateroom upgrade on this cruise. We thought there might be a chance at moving to a concierge room, but with another cruise coming up, we were already spending a good amount of money. We grabbed a Navigator and settled in until our boarding group was called. Because we had an early port arrival time of 10:30 AM, we were in the second boarding group.
After a short wait (around 11:40 AM), they started calling the boarding numbers. We scanned our Key to the World card and were soon headed towards the ship!
Planning | Travel | Boarding | Sea | Sea | Tortola | St. Thomas | Star Wars Day | Castaway Cay | Go Home