Disney Cruise Tips – Booking a Cruise

The innovative Disney Cruise Line attracts hundreds of thousands of Disney and cruising fans to its Bahamian, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Mexican Riviera and Alaskan cruises. Disney’s unique facilities and programs, along with its hallmark, first-class customer service, mean full ships and happy cruisers. And like visitors to the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, cruisers have an almost obsessive need to “know before they go.” Until PassPorter arrived, no dedicated guidebook had existed for the Disney Cruise Line (or any other cruise line, for that matter)—only a few pages here and there in Walt Disney World guidebooks and general cruise guides. That all changed in 2003 when PassPorter Travel Press introduced PassPorter’s Disney Cruise Line and Its Ports of Call. Thanks to a very warm welcome from the cruising community, the guidebook is now in its eighth edition and going strong (January 2011, $19.95, PassPorter Travel Press, ISBN: 978-1-58771-097-1).

Authors Jennifer and Dave Marx, who are also authors of the best-selling, award-winning PassPorter's Walt Disney World and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions, originally intended to produce a short supplement for Disney World-bound readers going on a Disney cruise. As they got deeper into the project the manuscript grew and grew—so many useful tips and details were discovered, and readers continued to ask questions they wanted answered in the book. The 2011 edition of the guidebook offers an unprecedented level of detail in a travel guidebook, including in-depth coverage of the line’s brand-new cruise ship, the Disney Dream, and its new permanent West Coast presence in the Mexican Riviera and Alaska. No detail is too small—from dining room menus to detailed deck plans, daily activities to shore excursions and extensive port-of-call coverage—it’s all included. The in-depth information is accompanied by over 90 original photographs and more than 20 maps, chart, and worksheets. The guide has everything first-time and veteran cruisers need to know about booking and enjoying a cruise with Mickey... and maybe a little extra, too!

PassPorter’s Disney Cruise Line and Its Ports of Call 2011 comes in two formats: paperback ($19.95, ISBN: 978-1-58771-097-1) and deluxe ($45.95, ISBN: 978-1-58771-098-8). The deluxe edition is looseleaf, with a deluxe padded ring binder and 14 innovative organizer pockets, like those in PassPorter's Walt Disney World guidebook. The pockets allow readers to write their vacation itineraries on the front of each pocket before they go, store their cruise documents, birth certificates, and passports to have on hand when they arrive, keep maps, brochures, passes, and receipts inside the pocket while they’re there, and record their memories and expenses on the back to review when they return home! Printed front-and-back with fill-in-the-blank sections for itineraries, To-Do lists, notes, expenses, meals, photos taken, and cherished memories, PassPockets make organized travel a snap!

Cruisers can design magical cruise vacations with this take-along travel guide and planner for the Disney Cruise Line. All aspects of the Disney Cruise Line are described in deep detail, complete with maps, diagrams, charts, and photos. Comprehensive information for planning, traveling, stateroom selection, dining, playing, and shore excursion selection/port of call touring is included, along with an entire section devoted to making magic onboard. Features include: Original photos of the cruise line and ports of call, coverage of recent changes and Disney's planned new cruiseliners, tips for first-time cruisers, the latest word on U.S. passport requirements, money-saving ideas and programs, details on Florida's Disney Cruise Line Terminal, four pages of packing tips and lists, floor plans of each stateroom category, recommended staterooms (and rooms to avoid), menus for all restaurants plus special dinner menus and room service, kids’ dining, tips for your first day aboard, activities for all ages, Internet Cafe guide, overlooked attractions, eight pages of information, maps, shore excursion descriptions and reviews for each port of call (including the 2011 Mediterranean, Mexican Riviera, and Alaskan ports), childcare, staying healthy, Disney characters, glossary of terms, planning calendars for 2011/2012 important phone numbers, Web site index, and input from eight peer reviewers! So when the romance and excitement of the high seas calls, pick up a PassPorter and book passage on the adventure of a lifetime!