UNDCruisers

Good idea Maddle, thanks!

And thanks again moki'smommy!

Thanks again moki'smommy. I think I recall from my research last year that your daughter is in a wheelchair? Thank you for sharing your experiences and providing so much help on these boards.

I've gotten two quotes now, both more expensive than Disney, but I believe the price difference is due to the car seat rentals. I was under the impression by both that they would meet us at baggage claim with a sign and help with the luggage. Based on your experience, I will double check with them. If they can not/will not help, then it provides no benefit over the Disney ground transfer.

On previous travel with my family and my parents we have managed fine (my mom is in a wheelchair), but since we are adding a third child who will only be 8 months to the mix, it's going to be a bit more complicated! But, we will manage nonetheless, we can do as you suggest, but I would probably stay with my mom and the kids, while my husband and my dad go collect the luggage.

Thanks again! We wouldn't normally chose to travel with an 8 month old, but this could be our last vacation opportunity with my mom...

You are right Moki'sMommy! It was Port Canaveral...just got them mixed up.

Thanks everyone. Although taxi is cheap and easy, with our group's dynamics (wheelchair, infant, etc) we are looking for luggage assistance, which we greatly appreciated with the Orlando to Port Canaveral ground transfer we purchased through Disney last year. We checked our luggage in Detroit and didn't have to worry about it again! I just realized this is not the case for Miami, so looking at our options. I got a quote for a service that will work very well for us (private van with luggage assistance and carseats), but it is more expensive than the Disney ground transportation. But, that is probably the way we will go. I want my kids in the proper car seats (which I overlooked last year on the Disney bus!:eek:).

Our extended family is going on our 2nd Disney cruise in 4 weeks and we are so excited! Our first cruise last year was out of Port Everglades, and we used the Disney ground transfers from Orlando airport. It was worth the cost because we did not have to deal with the luggage after we left our home airport. This was of significant value because our group consisted of 1 adult in a wheelchair, 2 children, and I was pregnant!

For our cruise next month, we are flying into Miami and leaving out of the Port of Miami on the Wonder. We purchased the Disney ground transfers again, but I just realized that the luggage handling does not work the same as in Orlando. Per the Disney travel agent, Disney does not have their own buses in Miami. We will have to claim our luggage, and then will be put on a motorcoach, van, or taxi. At $120 one way for our group I am thinking a car service is the way to go. In our group of 7 is 1 adult in a wheelchair and now 3 children (baby is 8 months). I also like the idea that a car service can provide a booster seat for my 4 year old and a carseat for the baby.

I did some quick research and found Family Car & Limo service and have requested a quote.

Anyone on these boards have any good experiences with a particular company? We would like meet and greet service to help with the luggage as the adults will be short handed helping out with 3 children and an adult in a wheelchair.

Thanks in advance!

Those outfits look perfect. That is exactly what my boys (ages 7 and 3) wore to dinner on our cruise in March. They are very casual boys, so that was considered dressed up for them and I thought they looked so cute! On the "cruise casual" nights I didn't have them wear a "button shirt" as they call it (polo/golf shirt).

They didn't end up dressing up for the formal night because we had a unique situation. We were on the cruise to celebration my parents 40th anniversary and we did a vow renewal. I bought them the cutest suit outfits from JCPenney (at a great cost too) for the vow renewal - it was pants, shirt, vest and bow tie...all for $40. The formal night was BEFORE the vow renewal so I didn't want to take a chance of food spillage ruining their outfits. And I didn't want to buy 2 suits since they will never be worn again:) So, our boys were casual for the formal night and it was fine (the adults still dressed up). If you want to go all out for the formal night, check out the kids suits. They really are cute!

Have fun!

I also would recommend a cruise longer than 3-4 days. I have cruised Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Disney. If a Disney 5-7 day cruise is not within your budget, then I would highly recommend Royal. In fact, at your kids ages, I would say they would like Royal possibly even more than Disney. Since the kids haven't been on a cruise ever, they will love it no matter what. I would recommend a 7-day cruise on Royal's Oasis class.

If you are really wanting to incorporate Disney World and a shorter cruise is the only option, then I without a doubt would not pay Disney prices for a short cruise. If your kids were 3, 5, & 7 then I would say splurge on Disney, but given their ages I don't think it is worth it, especially since you will get to experience the Disney magic at the parks.

Good luck with your decision!

We chose to try Disney because we have kids, love Disney, and expected a great cruise experience. We had sailed many times on other cruise lines, either before kids or without our kids when they were very little.

After our first Disney cruise, this is why we would select it again for a family trip (assuming it is in the budget!):

1. The whole cruise really caters towards families - particularly the cabin. It was very comfortable for our family.

2. The service was better than on other cruise lines.

3. The kids club was fantastic.

4. We enjoyed the Disney themed entertainment.

5. Fellow passengers were very friendly and everyone seemed happy to be there! Great atmosphere! (lately we have come across very unfriendly/rude passengers on other cruise lines)

6. Disney's private island Castaway Cay was amazing!

Good luck with the paper!

@crusinKJ

We just sailed Fantasy for the first time last month with our two boys - ages 7 and 3.5. Our 7 year old would have stayed in the Lab all day if we had let him! (video games:)) Our 3.5 year old enjoyed it but didn't love it. He went there willingly when we wanted/needed him to, but he didn't ask to go like our 7 year old. The younger one was mostly in the Club when we picked him up...sometimes he had wandered over to the Lab and was playing around on a video game station. The Club is extremely cute! I would have loved it as a kid! I think it just depends on your child's personality and their interests how much they will like the Club/Lab.

Also, you will have your wave phone so the CM can get in touch with you easily if needed. On two occasions we got a text "Your child would like to be picked up." Our son was not crying or upset, but had just asked to leave, and we were happy to do so and glad for the easy communication.

Only one time did we really NEED him to stay the whole time (Palo reservation) and luckily he did fine!

Have fun! Our boys still talk about the cruise every day! Disney knows how to do it right!

Did you book your cruise through Disney? The reason I ask is that I was recently a first time Disney cruiser (Fantasy 7 night), with a dinner reservation for a specific night in Palo. I just emailed my Disney reservation agent and asked if I could be put on a rotation that did not have Animator's Palate on the night we were at Palo. She emailed back within a few days with our dining rotation. Super easy!

Agreeing with other posts...Animator's Palate isn't THAT awesome for adults, but my kids definitely said it was their favorite dining room and wished they could eat there every night!

Thank you so much for all of the feedback! We are planning to go! As I mentioned in my opening post, our first Disney cruise was on the Fantasy. We are looking to try the Wonder 5-night spring break of 2016. It is half the price of Fantasy 7-night for the same week! Looking forward to trying a different ship, but hoping we won't be disappointed. We know the kids will love it no matter what, but DH and I are more "big-ship" type people - we LOVED RCI's Allure of the Seas (trip without kiddos). But, I've done some searching on the boards about the Wonder and it seems most appreciate its charm, which I am sure we will too. And less people at Castaway sounds great too!

Thanks again everyone! Love hearing all of the opinions and doing research on this board.

Thanks everyone! The review was great tagong...thanks for providing the link.

Thanks Moki'smommy - that helps a lot. I don't have any specific questions right now, just more generally "Am I crazy to bring an 8 month old or not?" :)

Thanks tbag124! I can't wait to hear how it goes!

Hello! Our family recently went on our first Disney cruise (Fantasy) and LOVED it! DH and I have cruised many times, but this was the first time on Disney and first time with our kids. Our kids are 7 and 3 and LOVED it as well. We are one month out from the cruise and they still talk about it every day and ask when our next one will be!

So, to my title question. We are considering cruising Disney again April 2016, BUT will have a new member of our family by then who will be 8 months old.

Looking for advice on cruising with an infant as we have always avoided this in the past! Thus the reason our kids' first cruise was when they were 7 and 3!

Thanks in advance!

It really depends on your personal comfort level...only you know how much it will stress you out, and what kind of monetary value you can place on that:)

I have cruised about 15 times and, with the exception of 1 time, have always flown the day of from Detroit to Florida (direct flight). These were all Saturday departures and, to be honest, I didn't even really think about the option of flying out the day before and taking another vacation day. But, reading this thread has made me nervous and now maybe I will reconsider leaving the day of! Never had an issue (yet) though...

One time we had a Sunday departure, so we flew to Florida on Saturday. That was nice and did start the vacation on a more relaxing note.

We cruised for the first time with our two younger children last month and flew down the day of. As moki'smommy mentioned, it did make for a long and tiring day. Day started at 4am and we had late seating for dinner! For the future, if we could swing an additional vacation day from work, I would definitely fly down the day before.

We just returned from our first disney cruise on the Fantasy. We had a larger group with only 2 children, so we decided on 2nd seating since that was the majority's preference. I was a little nervous it wouldn't work well for our children (7 and 3) but it ended up working out great! As long as we remembered to feed them a snack around 5-6pm (all of us were having too much fun!) it was easy to make it until 8:15pm.

Our boys transitioned nicely to going to bed later and sleeping in, which was a nice treat for us to get a few extra hours of sleep in the morning than what we are used to at home:)

We also took advantage of "Dine and Play" which is only offered at 2nd seating. The kids club cast members come to the dining room at 9:15pm to pick up the kids and take them to the kids club. The food is served faster to the kids so they are done by that time. It allowed us to finish up the meal and dessert at a relaxed paced with the rest of the adults in our party. Then we would usually get another drink in an adult bar before picking up the kids and calling it a night.

The first day was a little rough though - since our travel to Florida started at 5am and the boys went to bed a 11pm!

Thanks for the feedback! We leave Saturday - so excited!

When I said in my OP that my husband was worried about safety - he is worried about the same things as your wife :)

@needavacation15,

No, we are not bringing car seats with us. Since we are doing the magical express from Orlando airport to the port, we decided not to lug the car seats with us.

What type of transportation does the DCL shore excursion have? Does it have child restraints?

I, too, am all about safety (I am an engineer for a car company). But, for this trip the assumption was that car seats would not be an option.

We are also doing late seating (by choice) on our upcoming Fantasy cruise (t minus 2 weeks!). It is DH and me and our children (boys ages 3 and 7), my parents, and my sister and her boyfriend. The late seating was most desirable for the group as a whole. I am hoping with Dine and Play, it will work out for our boys. The entire group is seasoned cruisers (but first time with Disney) and we have always done late seating (though our first cruise with our boys!). As a child, my family always did late seating, though I was not cruising at the young age of 3!

I can see from this thread there are pros and cons to each. Hope the pros outweigh the cons for our group!

Thanks! Hopefully I can convince DH we should venture to beach on our own instead of with a tour ;)

I've done more research and there are so many beaches from which to choose!

Another question - we are also traveling with my parents. My mom uses a wheelchair (though can walk short distances). If my parents decide to join us on a beach day - are any St. Thomas beaches easier to access? (i.e. the shortest walk to the beach from where the taxi will drop off)

Thanks!

Thanks moki'smommy! I have been following the Disney boards for a few weeks now (this is our first cruise with Disney) and I have learned so much from you! Thank you for always providing such detailed and thoughtful responses!

We are sailing on the Fantasy later this month. My husband and I are having differing opinions on what to do in St. Thomas - he would actually prefer to just stay on the boat for all ports except Castaway Cay! I, however, would like to venture out. It seems simple enough to take a taxi to Magen's bay, stay as long (or short) as we like, and then head back to the ship. It is also significantly cheaper this way. We have young kids - ages 7 and 3. DH is willing to get off the ship if we do a cruise sponsored excursion. He feels this is safer and will guarantee we get back to the ship on time. He is also willing to go on our own if I feel confident in the decision (since I am the one who loves to do vacation research!)

So my questions are:

Should I be worried about safety with getting my own taxi?

Will it be easy to get a taxi back to the ship from Magen's Bay?

Should I just suck it up and pay to do the cruise sponsored transportation?

Thanks!

Well, I'll tell you... that unique perspective really creates fantastic shots (obviously great camera and skill too). These are brochure quality, if you ask me. NICE job! Looking forward to more.

Agree! Amazing! Thank you for sharing!