This is a work-in-progress. More details will be added soon!
Booking / Prices
If you want to pick your specific room/section, then book as early as possible, the price of a specific room can go up, but will never go lower.
As the cruise date nears, Disney will often add "GTY" rooms, which are guaranteed rooms of a certain category, but you do NOT get to pick your room/section, Disney will assign it to you shortly before the cruise.
These GTY rooms can sometimes be significantly cheaper than standard rooms if the cruise isn't filling up. However sometimes they're about the same price as standard rooms.
Third party travel sites like Costco or Expedia will often give perks like a few hundred dollars in onboard credit when booking with them. If you have the Costco executive card and rewards credit card, you can also get 5% cash back on the cruise.
If picking a room, use a site like Cruise Critic to look for other people's reviews of that specific room. This will help you figure out if a room is noisy (e.g. from restaurants, activities, or engines nearby).
Pre-cruise Preparation
Before boarding the ship, make sure everyone has downloaded the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app on their phone/device. Not only will this app help you plan out your activities, it also offers free on-board text messaging between everyone. (Remember, you won't have cell service on the cruise so this is very handy)
Use Google Maps to pre-download maps for your ports-of-call ahead of time. You might not have cell/data service in other countries, and it can be handy to have maps while exploring. (Google Maps even downloads restaurants, points-of-interest, etc)
Embarkation Day
You won't have your luggage delivered your room for at least a few hours after you've boarded, so make sure you carry anything you'll immediately need (e.g. swimsuit if desired) with you in a backpack/bag. But also remember you'll have to carry this with you for a few hours, so don't overdo it! We recommend keeping it super light/minimal so you can more easily explore the ship.
You'll probably board the ship roughly around lunch time, so you can immediately head up to Cabanas for a lunch buffet, or head to the designated restaurant for a table-service meal.
Cabanas can be very crowded/hectic for lunch on the first day, try not to get overwhelmed and just enjoy the huge variety of food!
The table service restaurant will be much more calm, but you'll miss out on the buffet experience.
At some point on your first day, be sure to use the Cruise Line Navigator app and sign up for the free 50MB of data package (first day only). If you're very conservative with your data (e.g. only use it to check email without photos, this can last you the whole trip.
Tweak your phone settings to minimize data usage so you don't blow through your paid data immediately
Use the Cruise Line app to sign out of the data account whenever you're not using it
Disable your phone's automated photo backup (e.g. Google Photos, iCloud backup, etc)
Disable app auto-updating
Disable app auto-syncing of data
Activities
Make sure to attend all of the main theater musical shows throughout the cruise. They are truly Broadway quality and one of the main reasons to take a Disney cruise!
The late evening entertainment host in the pub bar is often hilarious. Be sure to attend at least one of those events (e.g. trivia).
Visit all of the kids clubs during one of the open houses (e.g. on embarkation day). They are super cute and you can't peak inside unless it's during an open house.
Dining
Attend your scheduled dinner (vs skipping it and going to Cabanas/quick service). The servers are top-notch and really get to know you after a couple days. Sometimes you'll be seated with other families/couples at the same table and it's fun to chat about your day with them. We've made life-long friends from our cruise tablemates.
The burger/shawarma quick-bite window on the pool deck is surprisingly good. It's our go-to place for an in-between meal snack.
The regular coffee on the ship isn't that good. The specialty coffee shop on the ship has good coffee/espresso, but costs money.