How do you start to Plan Your Disney Cruise?

I start by daydreaming a lot about it. But then come to the reality that it will probably never happen. Unless I win the lottery. So sorry no help here.

It's unlikely that I will ever go on one without a lottery win either, but I think I would start by looking at the cruise itineries and dates and work from there.

For our upcoming cruise, we chose the dates around my husband's birthday and went from there. We knew because it was our first cruise and we wanted a land stay as well that we wouldn't choose a really long one. So we settled on a 4night to the bahamas. Ad we also knew we wanted to sail on the Dream.

As for excursions, we decided to choose ones that were not so expensive but would give us new experiences. WE chose to go snorkeling and ride the catamaran in Nassau. For Castaway Cay, we wanted relaxing as well as an adventure. We are doing the package that includes feeding stingrays with snorkeling, bike rental and tube rental.

At my job we pick vacations in November for the following year. So it was more of a pick dates and fit them into our plans. Which worked out well. My sisters, BiL, Godmother and her family went on the Disney Dream last year. I did a b2b cruise and loved it...we rebooked onboard and will be cruising the Fantasy in Dec. I'll book another cruise on board for 2013-2014 season. The destination is important however we pick based on my availability and hope it works out to our advantage.
Onboard the ship DW and I didn't book any excursions, we disembarked and shopped in Nassau and then laid out and had beverages on CC. We're talking our niece in Dec on her first cruise. We'll probably do one excursion and then rent snorkel equipment and bikes on CC.
Dee