Pro Tip: If you secure your Disney Cruise tickets later rather than sooner (#getthosedeals) you will see that when it comes time to register for onboard activities that a lot of the specialized character meet and greets (all the Princesses at once, Frozen, Darth Vader, C3PO and R2D2, etc) will be sold out. With the exception of the tastings and the Disney Junior Character Breakfast, very rarely will these open back up again. DO NOT despair!! Once you board the ship, there will be A LOT to take in, so my suggestion is to let someone in the party watch over the kids while you let them explore the lobby area and then the rest of your party or even just one person can go up to Guest Relations and try to scoop up anything that was missed online (tastings, Disney Junior Breakfast, the specialty meet and greets, etc.). Honestly, I didn't even know this was a thing until our last cruise and could not believe that my BIL was able to schedule every single character meet and greet! We secured all the Star Wars special meet and greets, Anna and Elsa, as well as the Princess gathering (do not worry if you miss this specific one, you can actually end up meeting all the princesses periodically throughout your stay on the cruise if you monitor when their meetups are).
Although you can schedule your cruise reservations on your desktop, it is fun to download the Disney Cruise Navigator App ahead of time and link your reservation. You can book your day to day activities here and they have a fun countdown that kids can watch (heck as an adult I loved watching the countdown to vacay)!
Once on the ship, remember to immediately turn on your airplane mode as this can be a really easy step to forget since there is so much to look at and do once on board. I tend to do this while we are in line for check-in. Once you are on the cruise and your Navigator is "live" you will be able to message other people in your party through their messaging service (the Disney emoji's are so much fun) and start to review the daily cruise itinerary. The front page will have a section for your plans, so as you "heart" the other things that you want to do such as trivia, kids activities, etc. it will build around your other reservations and you will be able to see your daily schedule and all that you and the family are doing. In hindsight, I should have screenshotted this so that I could show you visually. My MIL prefers the paper Navigator schedule that they leave daily in your room as she likes to check things off, but it was just something that was extra for me to carry and forget, so using my phone was easy enough.
I liked being able to see the character meet and greets in the app (there is an actual tab where their daily schedules are housed). It helped organize the day, so I could shuttle the kids to the characters that they might not have met before. Many are considered "rare" so you will want to make sure to "heart" these for your schedule, but even the fab five are in themed outfits every day and would be considered rare-ish and definitely worth the wait.
The Fab Five cruise style!
I suggest getting to the meet and greet anywhere between 10-15 minutes prior to the characters. It can get really busy especially for those rare characters and Disney character officiandos know this (::cough cough:: Goofy and Max). Some of these characters only do a meet and greet on one day of the cruise and only during two times, so be cognizant. The lines can get REALLY long and the handlers will cut off the line if they think that amount of people will end up exceeding the time too much. Do. Not. Miss. Out.
I did not include the Goofy and Max pictures as my MIL JUST got back from her excursion with my BIL and she would kill me as they are in beach gear, but we were also able to meet Vampirina and Fancy Nancy! "Vampy" is ALWAYS a favorite of EV's when we are in Hollywood Studios and she is obsessed with the show, so this was definitely a must do!
The Love for Vampirina is Real!
As we all know, waiting can be REALLY boring for kids (I include myself in this statement). It can also be difficult to wrangle the kids to want to wait and you do not want them wandering off too far since you don't know how quick the line can move. I suggest bringing snacks, something for them to drink and something for them to play with and be occupied with whether it be crayons and a pad of paper, travel magnet tiles (we love THESE and you can put a small stack in your bag/pocket), my kid is weird and likes flashcards, or if I am desperate, her Kindle.
Bring your phone to take pictures with you. If you bought the photo package, you may still want your own phone and/or camera to capture any memories that the photographer misses. The character handler will also offer to take photos with the photographer. Take. The. Offer! For those that frequent Disney and use the photopass photographers, you will find that the Disney Cruise photographers are NOT the same. The cruise photographers will maybe take three photos while the Disney photopass photographers will just keep clicking away from moment one and you walk away with 15 glorious interactive pictures. Often the Disney Cruise photographers will be setting up the shot, so they will miss the initial run and hug to the character or the interaction altogether, so if these shots are important to you, bring your phone and have your camera/video mode on the ready. I also suggest this for Castaway Cay since right outside the ship, there tend to be meet and greets that do not have a photographer.
We befriended (and by we, I mean EV won them over immediately) two photographers, so if they were taking pictures we were also in the clear to have plenty taken. Vee and Mina loved on Ellie like no other and were the absolute best!!
If you see them, give them extra love!
Also, there are many characters that are just milling about (especially on Star Wars Day and on the balcony) who are not part of the meet and greets ::cough cough:: Thor and Ahsoka Tano (who EV lost her mind over), so having your phone with you to quickly capture these moments will help you not to experience FOMO. There will not be a photographer present for these characters and some move quick (the handler will tell you they are not meant to stay in place very long and have to keep moving) and you will not see them again.
On Star Wars Day as mentioned, my BIL was able to score all the Star Wars meet and greets first thing in the morning so we could enjoy the rest of the day. I was particularly psyched for C3PO and R2D2 as they do not have these characters at Launch Bay in Hollywood Studios. Our entire family is in those photos and am not able to include them.
EV loves her Star Wars peeps!
Our Star Wars Day outfits for the evening. EV was Rey and Baby D was BB-8.
Nothing to do with the photographers or photo experience, but as a sidenote, buy a waterproof phone case. I bought THESE from Amazon and they came in a pack of two and were absolutely incredible. They can be purchased on the ship, but they are EXPENSIVE as can be imagined and I am not sure how good they are. I submerged my phone many times and NOT a drop got into the case or in my phone. I felt that the quality of pictures was quite good and they were perfect for the water excursions (as seen in the Disney Nursery Experience post) and the Finding Nemo Splash Area. The cases gave me the freedom to take pictures and I didn't have to hold my phone in my hand the whole time. Instead I got to enjoy the moment running around and being in the water with the kids without worrying about my phone getting wet.
The last day which was Castaway Cay day (my absolute favorite) was also the day of our Princess Gathering pictures and meeting Anna and Elsa. I was a little worried that it would cut into the day and we were aware that the weather in the morning was going to be beautiful, but drizzling in the afternoon (something I was not keen about having Baby D in any longer than we had too). The timing ended up being perfect as we still got off the ship early and by the time we disembarked, all the crowds were gone and we just walked off the ship and into the arms of Chip and Dale (pictures to come). The Princess Gathering moves fast and they only do pictures with your little's so keep that in mind. They just seemed to focus on EV so we didn't even bother passing Baby D onto them. Although it will seem rushed, I loved the pictures. You know mama loves a good theme, but we were anxious to enjoy the island so Belle bathing suit and water shoes for the win. However, Anna and Elsa were a more traditional meet and greet.
The last night of your stay on the ship, you are given the time of picking up your photo package at either 10:30pm when they close or 7:00am the next morning when you port. Your pictures/USB drive will be in an envelope with your name and stateroom on it and you just scoop it up and go. Personally, I sent Sean to scoop it up at 10:30 as it kinda freaks me out to just leave it out overnight and all pictures by this point are accounted for. Also, we had planned to have our last breakfast in one of the restaurants, so we didn't want to be rushed. Our photo package was only a USB drive so that was the only thing in the envelope and I made sure to put it in my bag to walk off the ship with. All of your other bags will get picked up by the porter the night before and I was not going to risk it (again, I am a photo crazy person and it would be the only thing I would be upset about if anything happened to our luggage). I love getting the photo package, the staged pictures are beautiful, the backdrops are really nice to take a picture in front of and I love the frames that they put around the pictures that truly add to the Disney magic. Being able to show all these amazing memories that we created for the kids are timeless and we are able to share them with the rest of the fam who were on the cruise so honestly, the price per person for what we paid was a 100% worth it and we took well over 150 pictures.
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