Page 11 - AAA Every Day – AAA Hudson Valley – January/February 2019

Europe and Alaska, and cruises to get there, including transatlantic and Panama Canal cruises. There also are cruises to Canada, Mexico and Hawaii, as well as specialty cruises such as holiday-themed and Marvel and Star Wars cruises. I have been a few Halloween- themed cruises and, as expected, Disney goes all out. There are costume contests for the adults, trick-or- treating for everyone
with stations throughout the ship and movies and entertain to mark the holiday. And it’s not just the cruise that is sailing during the holiday but for the weeks leading up to it as well.
A majority of Disney cruises depart from Port Canaveral, Florida, but there are some cruises in the fall which leave from New York.
Based on the cruise you pick will determine the ship you sail on. Disney has two classes of ships, the classics, the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, and the Dream- class, Disney
Dream and Disney Fantasy. The classic ships have 875 staterooms and can hold 2,700 guests while the Dream- class ships can hold 4,000 guests in their 1,250 staterooms.
Knowing that it
caters to families,
the staterooms
on Disney are
slightly larger than
other cruise ships and most of the bathrooms in the staterooms were a first in the industry. Disney split the bath with a sink and tub or shower in one room and a sink and toilet in another room, allowing for added convenience. Many of the rooms come with a convertible sofa and/or a pull-down bunk so that
the room can sleep four without having to bring in a rollaway bed or cot.
Dining in Rotation
When it comes time to eat, Disney also innovated your dining. Your party (since you can link with friends
who are cruising with you) will be assigned one of
the three themed restaurants. Then, you will rotate through to the others during your cruise. And the best part? Your serving staff rotates with you so that you have the same head server, server and assistant server throughout your journey. On some cruises, I have arrived at my dinner table to find my drink of choice already at my place because
of this.
Your rotation is
printed on your stateroom key, as
is your dining time. There are two dining times, either an early seating or a late seating, and there are theater shows that are opposite your dining time
so that everyone
can see the theater show. Sometimes the dinner menu is coordinated with
the show. With late dining, we saw the show first and had about 30-45 minutes
between the show and dinner, which we usually filled by playing trivia, which seems to be offered, on various topics, nearly three times a day on board.
Besides trivia, there also are crafts, not just for children but for the whole family, as well as seminars and presentations on different topics, sometimes
As to Disney artwork, logos, and properties: ©Disney
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TRAVELER’S GUIDE