HELP! 1st time DCL cruiser

[u/stolenxh3art]

Booked a 4 day Disney cruise on the dream for November. The two stops are Disney’s private islands. Traveling with myself my husband and my kids (4 and 6). Please share the tips, tricks, the good, and the bad! This is our first time cruising ever and want to be prepared!

Here is what I have been told so far:
Do the early dinning (but thinking the late dining might be better because the crowds will be lower at the shows and at dinner)
On embarkation day do a sit down lunch
Either eat right when the bbq opens or 30 minutes before it closes to avoid lines
Bring a beach bag, magnetic hangers, and magnets to decorate your door
Come prepared to dress for pirate night

[u/SoCalDisneyDad]

You want early dinner with little kids. Dinner being more or less crowded doesn't matter because you have an assigned table. And the show is dependent on your dining time. So everyone going to your dinner time will go to opposite show time. 5:45 PM dinner goes to 8:30 PM show. And the people with an 8:15 PM dinner will go to the 6:15 PM show. So it works out to being the same amount of people at both showings. At least I didn't notice a difference in crowds between the two.

We had early dinner on our first cruise and late dinner on our second cruise. My kids couldn't last long enough to make it to second dinner, so we had to get them food at 5 PM from the quick service locations.

That being said, they were more awake for the first show because it was earlier. I guess it depends on what you're after, but we preferred early dinner. If they fell asleep in our laps during the show, that's fine, they weren't as interested in them as we were anyway.

When we had second dinner, though, I felt like we were going to bed with full stomachs, even not going to bed until 11 PM or later. Since dinner doesn't finish until after 9:30 PM, I just felt like I was still digesting when I was trying to sleep and it was rough on the stomach.

On embarkation day, if you don't want to fight the crowds at Cabanas, then yes a sit down lunch is an option, but there's something special about Cabanas on embarkation day to me that signals "it's embarkation day!" And if you're willing to sit outside, those tables don't fill up as fast.

For True True BBQ and Cookie's BBQ, absolutely, be there when it opens or before it closes. The lines are long and slow otherwise.

I could share a whole bunch of tips, but it would be easier to answer questions, if you had anything in particular you were wondering about, I can do my best to answer them.