All booked or sold out

[4hernandez]

Please, oh please, can someone give me some hope or sprinkle a cyber-shower of pixie dust on me and my family. I booked the December 15th Wonder Cruise on November 15th. Because I was late in booking --everything, and I mean everything that is free is "sold out" Princess/Frozen greetings, in addition the alcohol tastings are also sold out ---much to the dismay of my recently turned 21 year old daughter. I have two princesses and one prince in training who will be brokenhearted if they can not have the breakfast with the characters--they have seen the pictures of their oldest siblings years ago and grew up with the tales of the characters interacting. Our embarkation time is 1:30--Has anyone been able to book any of the free activities with such a late port time or later on board, do time slots open up? I keep checking back several times a day and I have seen nothing opening up. Surely, all the activities can not be gone one month in advance...On this cruise, I would say that the majority of the activities with the characters that cost are already sold out as well--but my budget could not afford that x 3 kids in any case. Please post your good fortune, so that I can have hope. Thank you. Not complaining--just in a panic So, share your tales of good fortune!!! Ready, Set, Go...

 

[RedStars]

We are on this Saturday's Fantasy sailing and we booked after 70 days and weren't able to get any of the cocktail classes. I've been checking multiple times a day, to no avail. I'm not sure if they do onboard booking for them any longer.

Everything else (meet & greets, brunch) opened up sporadically as people changed their plans, in fact, they opened up a bunch of Princess/Frozen/Disney Jr breakfasts yesterday (and they're still available).

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Please, oh please, can someone give me some hope or sprinkle a cyber-shower of pixie dust on me and my family. I booked the December 15th Wonder Cruise on November 15th. Because I was late in booking --everything, and I mean everything that is free is "sold out" Princess/Frozen greetings, in addition the alcohol tastings are also sold out ---much to the dismay of my recently turned 21 year old daughter. I have two princesses and one prince in training who will be brokenhearted if they can not have the breakfast with the characters--they have seen the pictures of their oldest siblings years ago and grew up with the tales of the characters interacting. Our embarkation time is 1:30--Has anyone been able to book any of the free activities with such a late port time or later on board, do time slots open up? I keep checking back several times a day and I have seen nothing opening up. Surely, all the activities can not be gone one month in advance...On this cruise, I would say that the majority of the activities with the characters that cost are already sold out as well--but my budget could not afford that x 3 kids in any case. Please post your good fortune, so that I can have hope. Thank you. Not complaining--just in a panic So, share your tales of good fortune!!! Ready, Set, Go...

I'd suggest that you arrive around 12:30. By then, most of the time, they've gone to Open Boarding. No need to wait until 1:30, unless that's actually the earliest you can get there.

As noted, just keep checking. And once onboard check again. I've read that the tasting/mixology classes often do have other times available once onboard. Don't know about the character things, though.

 

[phinz]

Cruise groups on other sites sometimes have private alcohol tasting groups, and those usually close about 2-3 weeks out, so I'd find that and see if there are any available.

 

[Shanti]

Please, oh please, can someone give me some hope or sprinkle a cyber-shower of pixie dust on me and my family. I booked the December 15th Wonder Cruise on November 15th. Because I was late in booking --everything, and I mean everything that is free is "sold out" Princess/Frozen greetings, in addition the alcohol tastings are also sold out ---much to the dismay of my recently turned 21 year old daughter. I have two princesses and one prince in training who will be brokenhearted if they can not have the breakfast with the characters--they have seen the pictures of their oldest siblings years ago and grew up with the tales of the characters interacting. Our embarkation time is 1:30--Has anyone been able to book any of the free activities with such a late port time or later on board, do time slots open up? I keep checking back several times a day and I have seen nothing opening up. Surely, all the activities can not be gone one month in advance...On this cruise, I would say that the majority of the activities with the characters that cost are already sold out as well--but my budget could not afford that x 3 kids in any case. Please post your good fortune, so that I can have hope. Thank you. Not complaining--just in a panic So, share your tales of good fortune!!! Ready, Set, Go...

In case you're interested, if you take DCL's bus to the port, you won't need to use your PAT at all. Just board the earliest bus you can get on, and you'll be given a boarding number at port based on your actual arrival time. That would get you on the ship earlier if it could fit with your plans.

 

[Yokelridesagain]

I suspect that you will be able to do most of the things you want to do--for onboard experiences, in my experience, DCL holds back a significant number of reservations for people who weren't aware of them (or didn't get around to booking them quickly enough).

For alcohol tastings, in particular, only a portion of the tastings offered are even available for online booking and for the popular ones there are usually separate events that weren't offered online. The trick is to go to whatever bar is handling bookings on the first day and set them up (it will be listed in the Navigator, and there is usually not much of a line).

For princesses/Frozen (and AFAIK, character breakfast) you would need to book at guest services. I would make that your first stop after getting on board. Follow the advice above about getting the terminal before your "port arrival" time--they are just trying to prevent everyone and their dog from showing up right at 11:00. Past 12:30, you'll likely be able to walk on with minimal wait.

 

[4hernandez]

Thank you both for some hope.

 

[MPS516]

In case you're interested, if you take DCL's bus to the port, you won't need to use your PAT at all. Just board the earliest bus you can get on, and you'll be given a boarding number at port based on your actual arrival time. That would get you on the ship earlier if it could fit with your plans.

? we have taken DME a number of times and people on the bus had different boarding card numbers after check in however most of the time (not always) open boarding has been well before 1:30

 

[Shanti]

? we have taken DME a number of times and people on the bus had different boarding card numbers after check in however most of the time (not always) open boarding has been well before 1:30

This is a new policy. People with DCL transfers to the ship no longer get PATs. I've experienced it myself. It's a change.

 

[undertheradar]

OP is sailing out of Galveston.

 

[Tulles]

My husband got a tasting class an hour before it started while we were on our cruise last week. So keep checking.

 

[phinz]

My husband got a tasting class an hour before it started while we were on our cruise last week. So keep checking.

On that same note, if you know in what bar the tasting/mixology will be held, you can sometimes go talk to the lead bartender in that bar ahead of time. They *will* be the ones doing the event. Sometimes they can get you in even when there are technically no spots available.

 

[kiford]

Even if you can't get tickets for the character breakfast or M&G, you can still get some good pictures with characters. We have no children so we don't bother with those tickets but we still have plenty of pictures with them. Sometimes we walk by the main atrium when there's little to no lineup for a character as it's just winding up and we get pictures. We've had Alice come running up to our table once at lunch asking about the white rabbit. We've had Mickey and Minnie come through the adults-only area and stop to have pictures. We've suddenly stumbled upon a wide variety of characters walking about or just setting up and we were unaware that they would be there (I'm not even sure if it's been advertised or not but we are still able to get shots of them). Sometimes they pop into the gatherings waiting for port excursions. And, if it goes to CC, there are characters around on the island. We've been to a couple of character breakfasts and we had about the same interaction about the ship as we've had at the breakfasts. That's what's great about the cruise compared to WDW for characters - there are more characters per person and you can find them anywhere unexpectedly.

The online booking for tastings is new so I don't have experience with that (I hope we'll be able to book some on our next cruise) but I've seen people be able to book at the last minute or show up and ask if there's space. Sometimes there isn't but occasionally people don't show or they set up a couple more if there's room. They don't charge until you show up so even if they issue tickets, it doesn't mean that everyone will attend since there's no penalty or financial loss (at least that's how they've done it in the past).

 

[phinz]

Sometimes there isn't but occasionally people don't show or they set up a couple more if there's room. They don't charge until you show up so even if they issue tickets, it doesn't mean that everyone will attend since there's no penalty or financial loss (at least that's how they've done it in the past).

When I didn't show up for a tasting I was signed up for (completely forgot), I was charged.

 

[kiford]

When I didn't show up for a tasting I was signed up for (completely forgot), I was charged.

Interesting. We were told at one tasting that they only charged those who showed up when they were collecting tickets (someone asked the question about whether her spouse would be charged for not showing up). Having never missed one, I can't verify whether that was true (at that time) or not. I had always assumed that they charged when they issued the ticket but since I had never bothered to check the dates on when we were charged for the tastings, I accepted what they said. It's quite possible that either the information was incorrect (or the CM didn't really know) or that the process has changed multiple times. Still, even if they do charge, if someone doesn't show up, there's a potential seat that can be taken. And at every single tasting we've been to, at least one person didn't show or there were extra settings out.

 

[phinz]

And at every single tasting we've been to, at least one person didn't show or there were extra settings out.

I've had plenty of extra whiskies, tequila shots and rums because of no-shows, since typically the ones who do make it get to drink the extras. I'm always hoping the class isn't completely full.