Disney Cruise Line Returns to the Big Apple

If you live near the New York City area, mark your calendars for October 2016.   Disney Cruise Line is doing a set of cruises during that month, departing from the New York port.  This is huge savings if you are able to drive to the area instead of flying to Florida.  Here's hoping the cruises do well and Disney continues to consider New York a departure port!

The Details:

• There will be one Canadian Coastline sailing on October 2, 2016 which is proving to be very popular.  This 5 night cruise on the Disney Magic has stops in St. John and Halifax and is round trip from New York.  Sample pricing for a family of 4 in an Oceanview stateroom begins at $4,022.
• Looking for the Caribbean?  All month long the Disney Magic will be sailing from New York to the Bahamas with stops at Nassau and Castaway Cay.  Along the way a port stop in Port Canaveral gives guests the option to go to Disney World for the day with a 1 day parkhopper ticket and transportation to the park.  Sample pricing for a family of 4  in an Verandah stateroom begins at $7,400.

These staterooms are going fast!  So contact us at Snapshot Getaways for a detailed quote for your family.  

Disney Cruise Line Debuts Onboard Chats

For those of you that have taken a Disney Cruise, you are no doubt familiar with the "Wave Phones".  They are a free way to communicate with other members of your party on the ship.  While at sea, cell phones are pretty non existent if you want to be able to pay for another vacation in the next ten years. The Wave Phones served their purpose.  You were able to call the kids club, restaurants and other members of your travel party.  They also served the purpose of taking you back to Y2K, when texting involved scrolling through letters one by one.  By the time the text was typed, you could have walked from one end of the ship to the other.




Now Disney has released Onboard Chat on their Disney Cruise Line Navigator app.  This app is for use during your sailing for cruise information.  Access maps of the ship and restaurant locations.  Have a list of all the events and showtimes and set up reminders to yourself so you don't miss out.  Now, you have the ability to chat with other people who are onboard and have downloaded the Navigator app.  Let's face it, we don't really want to talk to anyone...we just want to inform our other half we are on our way to the spa!

On a recent Disney Fantasy cruise my husband and I set up the Onboard Chat feature and it was so much easier to use.  Just like texting at home.  It worked flawlessly and so much better than the wave phones, which are bulky to carry and outdated.  The Disney Navigator app should be downloaded prior to leaving port to your phone and/or tablet.  It can be activated onboard using their DCL-Guest WiFi signal which is no cost to you.  Make sure you've followed the instructions from your phone service provider to avoid roaming/data costs.  Once onboard you can re-launch the app to include all the ship information and set up a chat feature with whomever you like.  As usual, Disney Cruise Line has all their bases covered.

Maria is a mom to 2 boys, travel planner and HUGE Disney Cruise Line fan.  Looking to sail with Disney Cruise Line?  Contact me at maria@snapshotgetaways.com or follow my Facebook Page for travel deals.

Disney Cruise Line-New Placeholder Onboard Booking Offer

Guests sailing with Disney Cruise Line can now take advantage of Disney's Onboard Booking Offer without selecting an actual sailing date. This is called making a "Placeholder" reservation. This new offer will now give you the opportunity to book onboard and getting an actual confirmation number without having to select a ship, sail date or stateroom category. Travel will still need to be completed within 24 months of the date the travel is booked. All benefits and rules of onboard booking will apply.

Be sure to tell the Disney Cruise Line Onboard Sales Manager that you would like the booking to go through your Travel Agent. Giving the agent's name and agency, for example Snapshot Getaways (shameless plug). If you have a sailing planned with Snapshot Getaways and you think you may book onboard, your agent can send you a form ahead of time.

To hold your "place" a deposit amount of $200 per booking is required onboard. Upon booking your actual sailing you will be able to take advantage of the reduced deposit as part of the Onboard Booking offer. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of the Onboard discounts, while still having some time to plan or wait for new itineraries to be released.

Maria is a Travel Planner with Snapshot Getaways and a big fan of Disney Cruise Line. Looking to book your Disney Cruise? Contact Maria@snapshotgetaways.com or follow her Facebook Page for updated deals.

Disney Cruise Line Wins More Top Honors

The experts at CruiseCritic.com announced the winners on 2/23/2015 of the 2015 Cruise Critic Cruisers’ Choice Awards. The awards name the best cruise ships of the year based entirely on consumer reviews posted to the Cruise Critic website.

The Cruise Critic Cruisers’ Choice Awards are awarded in three ship classes, based on passenger capacity and are calculated using the ratings submitted with each Cruise Critic member review.

In total, Disney’s fleet won 12 awards, including “Best Entertainment” and “Best Cruises to the Bahamas” for Disney Dream, and “Best Cabins,” “Best Service” and “Best for Families” for Disney Fantasy.

For the third year in a row, Disney Cruise Line won the coveted “Best Overall” award, with Disney Dream winning in the large ship category and Disney Wonder in the mid-size category.

Here are a few of the Disney fleets first-place winners:

Disney First-place winners include:

Best Cruises Overall

Disney Dream (Large); Disney Wonder (Mid-Size)

Best Cruise Ship Cabins

Disney Fantasy (Large)

Best Cruise Ships for Embarkation

Disney Fantasy (Large); Disney Magic (Mid-Size)

Best Cruise Ships for Entertainment

Disney Dream (Large); Disney Magic (Mid-Size)

Best Cruise Ship Public Rooms

Disney Dream (Large)

Best Cruise Ships for Service

Disney Fantasy (Large); Disney Wonder (Mid-Size)

More winners and the complete list can be found at 2015 Cruise Critic Cruisers’ Choice Awards.

Are you ready to plan your first or next cruise on the Disney Cruise Line? Contact us at Snapshot Getaways for FREE- no obligation pricing. We would love to help you make memories.

Amanda is a self-proclaimed Disney nerds who is raising two boys. Amanda will be taking her boys on their first cruise on the Disney Dream this December. Amanda loves to help plan Disney trips for others as an agent of Snapshot Getaways. You can follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

New Infant Policy on Disney Cruise Line

Disney Cruise Line recently announced changes to their policy on infants cruising on their ships.  Effective immediately for cruises sailing after Jan 1, 2015 the minimum age has increased from 12 weeks to 6 months for sailings on most itineraries.  The exception will be Transatlantic, Hawaii and Panama Canal sailings where the minimum age will be 1 year.

Guests with infants between 12 weeks and a year with current 2015 cruise reservations will be excused from this policy.