Port Upgrades - How Early to Arrive?

[JCDarzi]

My family is booked on the May 30th 5 day cruise on Wonder. We have a Cat 9 cabin (Deluxe Oceanview) booked. We have considered upgrading to a verandah off and on since we booked the trip. Our biggest con to our stateroom is that it is directly below Route 66. Since we have small children, we will probably be in our cabin earlier than many. We have been a bit concerned about the noise from the club.

We ultimately decided that the $1000 it would cost to upgrade to the verandah would be more fun spent elsewhere on the cruise (Spa treatments )

That said, reading here about port upgrades makes me wonder if we should try for one. We would be much more inclined to upgrade if the price was around the $500 range.

We have a car service picking us up at Wilderness Lodge at 11:00 AM the morning of the cruise. Should we arrive earlier to the port to score an upgrade?

[TammiMcMan]

In most situations, DCL is able to sail at full capacity. If there are any staterooms available for upgrade, they will go quickly. I'd definitely recommend getting to the port as soon as it opens (between 10am-10:30am). I think it's the very last desk that does upgrades, but they'll have a sign posted there that says whether the ship is fully booked. There is a significant savings by upgrading at the port, so hopefully you'll be one of the lucky ones

Our first cruise was over the Memorial Day holiday and it was pretty full. If you want to try though, I would change your car service pick up time to no later than 8:45am.

[JCDarzi]

Thanks!

[JCDarzi]

So, we've moved our car service pick-up to 8:30 AM with the hopes of arriving early enough at Port Canaveral to snag an upgrade. There are still some cabins available on the cruise and it's a week away. We are hoping for some pixie dust magic. :-)

Will there be anything at the port to keep the kids (DD7 & DS 4) entertained while we wait to board the ship? If we can't board until 1:00pm, we will have 3 hours or more of hanging out there waiting. Is there food available?

Thanks!

[TammiMcMan]

Unfortunately, there's not a lot to do at the port itself. You can go out on the deck and watch them loading the ship, which actually I found pretty interesting. The characters do come out a bit early, there are some cartoons playing on the tv's and there is a shop there, but I can't remember if they sold food or just gifts.

[JCDarzi]

thanks! I've had so many questions for this cruise. Hopefully when I get back, I can help someone else like you have helped me in planning. I sure do appreciate your knowledge on Disney cruising.

[#1disneyfan]

We had a verandah room on our cruise and we hung out there for a while after boarding. We enjoyed watching them load the ship and we also saw a manatee in the water below us. I bet from the deck at port you may be able to see that type of things too. I hope you have a wonderful cruise, and score an upgrade!