Hi there, Shiekeal! Welcome to planDisney! I’m my big family’s cruise planner and am happy to share tips that will help your family plan their
Very Merrytime cruise!
The Christmas season onboard Disney Cruise Line is very special. The beautiful decor around the ship, lights, music, Mickey and his pals dressed in their holiday best, SANTA—it’s all SO magical!
To begin planning your Very Merrytime cruise, start by inputting each cruise reservation into the
Disney Cruise Line Navigator App. If your family is in multiple staterooms, each stateroom will need to be entered separately.
To make plans together, all of the staterooms will have to be linked on the Disney Cruise Line Navigator App.
Linking them also assists with
Rotational Dining seating and lets Disney know that this group should be seated together. Please remember this is based on availability, but in my experience, Disney will try their best to keep groups together.
Connecting your staterooms is easy: you will need a reservation number, name, and birth date of one guest in each stateroom. Now, in the “My Plans” section, you can make plans independently or together. When planning my family’s Disney cruise, this is how I reserve onboard activities for all of us. I’m able to make plans for just my stateroom, or multiple kids and adults across multiple staterooms. Keep in mind that each guest's booking window opens based on their
Castaway Club Membership level, so if one person is booking for multiple people, they need to know when that person’s booking window opens.
The activities I suggest booking as soon as your booking window opens are
adult dining reservations,
Senses Spa appointments,
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointments,
ticketed Character Experiences, and
Port Adventures. Toggling through the “My Plans” section in the Disney Cruise Line Navigator App will give you an idea of what activities are taking place onboard that can be booked before sailing.
Once onboard, ensure your entire family downloads the Disney Cruise Line Navigator App. You'll be able to chat with each other, and check out all the shipboard activities and fun holiday offerings specific to your sailing. Some festive ones you can look forward to are the Tree Lighting Ceremony, Mickey and Minnie’s Holiday Party, and, yup, many sightings of Santa himself! My tip is that if you have an activity you don’t want to miss, click the “heart” next to it and the app will remind you before it's time. Another cool feature is that multiple people in the same stateroom can see what activities have been favorited by each other, so it’s a great way to make shared plans onboard.
Shiekeal, I hope you have a wonderful cruise filled with many festive memories. Please sail back to planDisney if you have more planning questions!
Happy Holiday Planning,
Rana