mexico complaints

[mardonna]

Just returned from Mexico Riviera.

This is my 4th Disney cruise
2004 western Caribbean with 1 child
2005 Mexican Riviera with 3 children
2007 transatlantic back to Florida with 3 children and pregnant
and this one with 4 children

This was by far the worst experience I have ever had. I can't say it was all related to the cruise line though. I think we had such an amazing time on TA crossing and the weather and seas were perfect that I thought this would be a dream trip. We live in LA so a drive to dock, have a weeks vacation and then come home. I came home depressed, frustrated and not relaxed.

First off let me say we have stayed in cat 1 and cat 2 on last 3 cruises and that has always been a great perk and very much worth it. On this trip I felt neglected and not very taken care of, bookings were not done correctly, tickets were not delivered, special treats were not delivered daily, nothing really spectacular about the service, this was a complete departure from Transatlantic crossing where we were treated amazing (we were in Roy suite so maybe that made a difference.

Our dining room staff had such heavy accents that it was very difficult to understand them, had I not been on Disney Cruise before I probably wouldn't have known what was going on. I felt horrible for the 3 groups of friends who were traveling with us for the first time. They probably couldn't imagine why we would want to do a Disney cruise. They were hard workers but very difficult to understand.

This part was the worst, 3 of my kids ages 4-7 refused to go in kids club they hated it and said it was boring. On TA crossing, I couldn't get my 6 year old out and my twins were begging to go in because they weren't quite 3 and were in nursery and were so looking forward to this cruise so they could go on this one and go in kids club. My son actually worked super hard to be potty trained so he go to the kids club. I have no idea what this was all about but the other 3 families we were traveling with had same problem. It was NUTS!!!!.

We were on early dining because kids need to eat at 6 and the dinners were longer then usual and we would wind up missing stuff going on at 7:15 until Showtime, such as pictures and pre show activities. Then at 8:30 if you didn't do the show there was absolutely nothing going on. It made us crazy.

On the last night the kids wanted to do the family dance party and they had it in promenade lounge with a bad singer(why not studio sea with dj?) Everyone so disappointed.

Till we meet again was at 10:15Pm (what young kids who would be interested could stay up this late?)

The lines for everything were horrible, characters(they would only have 1 or 2 at a time) they should have had more out at 1 time (on TA crossing they would have 4-5 characters out at a time), pirate buffet was impossible to get to and the kids were to exhausted by then to do anything.

They should really take into consideration that almost everyone traveling on a west coast cruise is from east or west coast meaning things must start a little earlier. Unlike Caribbean where you are moving in different direction and you can stay up later. I know this was a huge complaint on TA to Europe because you kept losing time. Our crossing it was the best because we gained an hour every night.

We did Nikki Beach Club in Cabo (we did same excursion in 2005) upon arriving they told us that we were not allowed to use cabanas or be loud at pool. EXCUSE ME but if I have 4 kids and we are going to a beach pool excursion I expect to be able to use Cabana at pool and my kids can be loud (not obnoxious but have fun) after a lot of complaining they allowed us to use pool cabana. This should be noted on description of excursion.

The one good thing that I know people have complained about was weather. We had warm days out of LA and at sea and calm seas. Which are 2 great things but not controlled by Disney.

My personal belief is that the crew was short staffed or something was going on behind the scenes because this is not the Disney way.

A few other tidbits that were a little scary:
My friend reported that her daughter was never given wristband upon entering kids club
We witnessed a counselor being mean to parents as well as children
there were 2 incidents reported of kids in swim diapers in pool and nothing was ever done
A girl on Mickey slide gashed her face and required stiches (no Disney people that I saw were ever present at pool- this was really weird because on TA crossing they hovered over pool.

So many first timers came up to me and said what a wonderful time they had and I looked at them and said the TA was so much better, maybe because I was comparing to previous trips but would love to hear if anyone else was on this trip and had any weird experiences.

I also think that because of the ages of my kids that 7 days is just not enough time to really relax because 14 days was really perfect. For us.

[dizzi]

I had a few times when i thought the 1st cruise we took out of Port Canaveral was better.

To list a few:
1. THE PORT AND TERMINAL are not what the "Disney Experience" is all about.
2. Terminal is Ugly sorry Californians.
3. Music played was Loud and LOUD!
4. The employees at terminal we encountered although polite were ot DISNEY polite.
5. We were given incorrect information 2 times in the terminal.
6. Even though nice our Dinner staff was EXTREMLY SLOW!
7. Wish we had dined with soemone else, Dh and i soon ran out of converstion! ( In no way Disney fault)
8. Wish we had done a balcony room again (again not Disney fault)
9. I thought there was less to do on this cruise also, maybe i am crazy.
5.

[mardonna]

One more huge compliant. In the grad ceremony... where are the tassles and mortarboards? My daughter had them on all previous cruises this time Mickey looked at kids and told them to move tassle and they didn't have any.

When did this change???

[CustardTart]

So sorry you and your family had such a bad experience! What category were you in on this cruise?

[mardonna]

That is what is so shocking....

[CustardTart]

OMG!!! That is shocking - I am so sorry!!! :sad2:

We were in a Cat 3 last September and loved the service/room so much we booked the same suite for our Mexican cruise - looks like I'll have to modify our expectations... :(

[atinkerbellmom]

This is so interesting that you are saying this. I have been talking to other Castaway Members whom too feel as if these last cruises were not the same. We too felt that our last cruise. I keep saying it is because ALL of our other cruises we have been spoiled. We have been treated like royalty and this past March, some people were running off the ship. I too talk up DCL and everytime we cruise, I always bring SRs of first timers with me and this past cruise I was almost hanging my head. Now, the first timers were saying how Magical it was, but when we compare it to our others we were disapointed. I would be interested to hear from members whom have cruised since Jan 1st, that went as Castaway members and have them compare the others. No ofense, but it would be better to hear from people whom has cruised at least twice prior to January and now have cruised again since January. :confused3

Maybe our exspectations are higher from last cruises and DCL is now not meeting the same exspectations.

[mardonna]

I would love to hear as well.

[justmestace]

I cruised the Mexican Riviera on the June 8th cruise, and for the first time, I wasn't in a suite. We've been in the Walt, the Roy, a Cat 2 twice, and Cat 3's for the other cruises.

In my opinion, the concierge service has always been hit and miss. Some times we've had marvelous service in a Cat 3, and not so hot in the Cat 1. I don't think it depends on what room you're in, so much as it does the team onboard at the time.

I didn't miss concierge at all this time. I always make all of my reservations online ahead of time, so I've never "needed" them for anything anyway.

Definitely, the port is far different in LA than it is in Florida, but you have to remember that although Disney uses it on Sundays, other cruise lines use it also. They can't decorate it for DCL and take it down each Sunday. It is what it is until DCL moves a ship west and has their own terminal. Everyone who's ever read these Boards knows what it's like and what to expect.

I didn't find this Mexican Riviera cruise any different than I did the one in '05. I found that there were just as many activities during the day as there are in the Caribbean. One speculation is that after you've cruised Disney a number of times, and done everything once or twice, maybe it just seems like there's less to do?

No idea why the kids didn't like the clubs, other than kids are fickle. What they like one day, they sometimes don't like the next.

The one thing that I have noticed, both in '05 and this June cruise....the passengers seem different to me than they do in Florida. I can't quite put my finger on it. It seems that they are less likely on the MR cruises, to dress for dinner, for one thing. Just a lot more "casual" for lack of a better term.

I didn't notice any difference in service anywhere on the ship. One thing that did seem different was that we had a different cruise staff than the "regulars" that we're used to. Brent & Christiaan are the only two in entertainment of any sort that I knew, as opposed to usually knowing at least 5....from the game shows, to DJ's, to Bingo callers. So yes, that was different, but then, staff does change on cruise ships.

I am sorry that it didn't measure up for you!

[slindamood]

The Westbound TA was our fourth DCL cruise, and it was so very very magical in every way that I don't think it could be duplicated.

[Finally08]

What a bummer.
I could make a list of similar issues we had on our 3 day Wonder cruise. Loved our main waiter, but VERY hard to understand with his accent. The assistant waiter (person that did drinks) was really bad though. It usually took about 45 minutes for poor ds to get his drink each night, we got charged for stuff we were told was free, brought the wrong food and so on. Dinner was SOOOO LONG. We ate at 5:30 and skipped dessert twice out of 3 nights because it was already well after 7 and couldn't stand to be there anymore (the one night we stayed, it was after 7:30 when we were done). We always missed the evening photo stuff because of it. The pirate night, that buffet was impossible to get to...all of the stage shows (like that and the sail away) were a disappointment because of how people would shove and push you out the way, or step right in front of you when they were obviously a foot or two taller. We had lots of rude people we dealt with in the walt theater too.

Our room was pretty dirty, and sewage backed up into the bathroom one night from a floor drain.
I could really go on and on, but oddly enough I have booked for another cruise in Sept because the good outweighed the bad (or maybe I just want to prove to myself that the ship really is magical :rotfl: ).

[jd99]

Really sorry to hear that you had such a bad time but a couple of things you posted confused me.

1. What do you mean by the point about people being from the West and East coasts on the MR cruise and thus things need to start earlier....but that is different on the Caribbean cruise. I don't think I understand that point.
2. Til we meet again has always been at 10:15 p.m. on all 3 DCL we have taken.
3. If you were in a suite, you really must have had a bad concierge team. I hear they are hit or miss and I have only had a Cat 3 one time out of three and they were very attentive to our needs. That's really a shame after you pay the premium for that.

One thing I might point out is that if your youngest was previously in Flounders and now is in the OC... that's always a tough transition I think. No matter what the kid has in his or her head, I think the first time in the club is hard for some kids. I know my youngest LOVED being in Flounders twice - including when she was just under 3 and got to be a "teacher's helper" with the babies. Next cruise she was so excited to be able to go into the club but it really didn't go well. She wasn't all that interested in the activities when push came to shove. We are hoping for better next trip.

Hate to hear about the lack of supervision re the pool for sure. I heard from another poster that she found kids in the adult areas (including Cove Cafe) without CMs doing anything about it. That would really bug me if I am putting my kids in the clubs to get some adult time..I would expect adult time. Hope that dCL cleans this up before we sail.

Again, so sorry that you had a tough trip. It's never fun when your expectations aren't met on what is a long-planned, not inexpensive vacation.

[ragdoll]

Wow, I am so sorry to hear this. DH and I just completed our 14th DCL cruise on the WBPC repo.

We have enjoyed all of our DCL cruises, some more than others. I will say that when we cruised in Sept. 2006 something was just "not right" so I do understand what you are saying. DCL seemed to have taken quite a few cost cutting measures. It really did seem like something was going on behind the scenes. I figured it might just be a fluke and we continued to cruise DCL. We have been very happy with DCL since that one time. And don't misunderstand, that one time wasn't by any means awful but something was just not right.:confused3

[ragdoll]

Meant to say that the WBPC repo was amazing! (can't figure out how to edit)

[mardonna]

What I meant was on a Florida sailing people traveling from anywhere other then the east coast will always be gaining hours in the evening (ie 8:30 dinner on fla sailing would work well for family on west coast since that feels like 5:30, you have a 3 hour time chnage window) On the west coast people that have an 6:00 seating feel like it is already 9:00pm, so things going on ship after 9pm are after midnight for east coasters and may be hard for kids to stay awake.

[mardonna]

We were on TA crossing and our 2 twins were in nursery but because of lack of kids in nursery they were in Kids club with the nursery staff, they couldn't wait to be in the club with sister and then the club freaked all my kids out this time.

ALS0: Just heard that the June 15th MR all grad kids got The morterboard ears On our cruise they were not. SO angry. What is going on.

[mardonna]

We were on TA crossing and our 2 twins were in nursery but because of lack of kids in nursery they were in Kids club with the nursery staff, they couldn't wait to be in the club with sister and then the club freaked all my kids out this time.

ALS0: Just heard that the June 15th MR all grad kids got The morterboard ears On our cruise they were not. SO angry. What is going on.

[itutorfortravel]

ugh! we are booked for our first dcl cruise next spring...we're looking at spending probably close to $7500 for this...much more than any other trip we've taken and it will mean that we won't be able to do wdw for a couple years (we typicallly go at least once per year). hearing things like this makes me doubt my decision to do this...i know nothing in life is guaranteed, but we don't exactly have the money to gamble on this. i sure hope to read some more positive comments in the next few months or we may just head back to wdw and save a bundle of cash!

[mardonna]

I'm hoping this was a 1 time only thing for us as well. I am not as limited with funds but am limited on time. With 4 kids all at different ages and school schedules and such we only get 1 or 2 vacations a year and they need to be vacations for all of us. I know the big problem for us was it was to short of a time period to just relax, we need 10-14 days but there was something going on the ship that was out of sync. Still trying to figure out what it was.

[Sully]

We were on the August TA crossing and the westbound PC. Both were great cruises. We had a cat. 12 last August and a cat.11 this May. Had great service! We had one poor excursion in PV and Disney refunded our money.:cool1:

[jd99]

ugh! we are booked for our first dcl cruise next spring...we're looking at spending probably close to $7500 for this...much more than any other trip we've taken and it will mean that we won't be able to do wdw for a couple years (we typicallly go at least once per year). hearing things like this makes me doubt my decision to do this...i know nothing in life is guaranteed, but we don't exactly have the money to gamble on this. i sure hope to read some more positive comments in the next few months or we may just head back to wdw and save a bundle of cash!

Please read other trip reports. I've read some great reports on this itinerary from this summer from folks. The OP even says that she heard from many first timers what a great time they had. IMHO the cruise is a combination of what you expect and what you put into it - and not sweating the details. Sure many of the CMs do not have English as their first language...but so what? We have had incredible service from folks who we had to take some time to comprehend and terrible service from those whose native tongue is English. That's a detail I wouldn't sweat. Take a look at the trip report by Justmestace and the live one filed from someone on this same cruise. I have a cruisemate from our last sailing who was on the June 15th MR cruise. She loved it - she didn't like the ports as much as the Caribbean but said the ship was all she remembered and more. I've read a trip report from someone who said they found the CMS MORE helpful and friendly than on past sailings. So again...I wouldn't sweat it if one person reports what she perceives to be a bad experience.

[jd99]

We were on TA crossing and our 2 twins were in nursery but because of lack of kids in nursery they were in Kids club with the nursery staff, they couldn't wait to be in the club with sister and then the club freaked all my kids out this time.

ALS0: Just heard that the June 15th MR all grad kids got The morterboard ears On our cruise they were not. SO angry. What is going on.

Sorry not trying to flame here but why are you SO angry about the mortarboard. To me this is such a minor detail. In fact, we have 3 of them. Tucked in a closet. Never have seen the light of day since returning from those cruises. I dunno. It just wouldn't be that big of a deal to me. But maybe that's just me.

[lbgraves]

Please read other trip reports. I've read some great reports on this itinerary from this summer from folks. The OP even says that she heard from many first timers what a great time they had. IMHO the cruise is a combination of what you expect and what you put into it - and not sweating the details. Sure many of the CMs do not have English as their first language...but so what? We have had incredible service from folks who we had to take some time to comprehend and terrible service from those whose native tongue is English. That's a detail I wouldn't sweat. Take a look at the trip report by Justmestace and the live one filed from someone on this same cruise. I have a cruisemate from our last sailing who was on the June 15th MR cruise. She loved it - she didn't like the ports as much as the Caribbean but said the ship was all she remembered and more. I've read a trip report from someone who said they found the CMS MORE helpful and friendly than on past sailings. So again...I wouldn't sweat it if one person reports what she perceives to be a bad experience.


ITA. Being prepared for what could happen will help you alot. I know that we always have been at early dinner for 2 hours. The kids have been entertained by sitting with their friends and the servers treating them like royalty. Last cruise we would sit at 6 and after ordering and a course or two I would excuse DD and myself to go to where a character was going to be and help her change into the appropriate princess dress for her picture, then return to dinner. I decided that the cruise was for the kids too and if we missed 10 minutes of dinner it wasn't a big deal. The lines were almost nonexistant at those 7:15 times because most of the ship was at dinner or at the show. :thumbsup2 It also helped to break dinner up for DD a bit.

[lmele]

I'm really sorry you didn't enjoy your trip. We were on the same cruise (our second Disney cruise), and I will post later tonight. We had a generally very good time. However, my kids are teenagers., so we can't speak to the kids' programs.

We did feel our service was not as good as the 3-day Wonder in Bahamas last year. We felt a lot of the staff was new. However, they were all very nice, in our opinion. Our regular servers and our Palo server felt that it is difficult for them to have a day off in LA as they must drive a bit before they get somewhere to shop or play. Also, regardless of which itinerary or ship they are working, they are on the ship for months wihtout a significant break. So that's bound to catch up with Disney eventually. They all just seemed more frazzled, but trying hard.

There was definitely a difference in the West Coast crowd, which I will address in my separate post. For the record, we are from LA also.

[mostyn17]

Sorry for your experience, but I know where your coming from. :( We LOVE all things Disney but we feel like the cruise needs to be revamped and new daily activities need to be added. We are booked on the EB in Aug and it will be our 15th cruise with Disney...(also getting married on the Magic next year) and have noticed some cut backs and difference in some of the quality of things. For example...the Murder Mystery @ Sea....they just did the same one for the WBPC as they did for the Trans-Atlantic...and will be also doing it for the EB....same characters...same act. With the large amount of return cruisers for these special cruises....how hard is it to switch the plot?....I think they need to try a little harder with the daily entertainment. (Love the nightly shows though..never change them :) )

As for concierge...I have only had it once and it was a modified hurricane cruise so really that didn't count. BUT, for the cost of those suites, the concierge team should NEVER be hit or miss. If that is the case, they need more training. There should be a certain standard for that job..period.

With that being said...please no flames...:worship: We really do love to cruise with Disney. I feel bad for the new cruisers that have a horrible time and saved for years for a cruise.

[mardonna]

Hey guys, don't want to make it seem like Disney is the worst or something. I have had 3 fantastic cruises ( 1 of them probably being the best vacation I have ever had with kids) I was just trying to feel out what was going on with this specific cruise.

The Morterboard issue was a 2 fold problem:

1) the Mickey speech is pre taped and he turned aroun looked at kids and told them to move their tassles (but they didn't have any) thought it made Mickey, Disney and the kids look weird)
2) my 7 year old has 2 morterboards, my twins have had to sit thorugh 2 of these ceremonies and this was their turn to go on stage and get one but they didn't (do you see the problem now?)

I had convinced 4 other groups of people to go on cruise and they all had really bad expeirences so it kind of makes me feel like I ruined their vacation. Much of the stuff I recommnded either didn't happen or wasn't up to Disney standard.

I do know many first timers had a great time but ten again they had nothing tocompare too.

[crystannsmom]

It might be my first DCL cruise but we had a wonderful time. We took our 11 month old daughter and still found lots of things we could do. Everytime that we were at the pool there was a CM there. I sometimes think that not every cruise is going to be the same. I don't know if anyone knows this but the cm are signed to a contract for 6 months on and 12 weeks off (at least this is what a couple of the cm told me) and I believe that they can resign if they want. All the cm we encountered were great with our daughter and with us. If you have ever been on another cruise line I am sure you will definitely appreciate DCL. I have been on two other cruise lines and they definitely do not compare to DCL. DCL is so clean, better food, better staff, better entertainment. I thought that they had a good amount of characters. The best thing my daughter loved were the characters, especially fiesta pluto. He got down on the floor and crawled towards my daughter when she crawled to him. It was a great moment of my life to see her having a blast with all of the characters. As with the wait staff, we had the second seating and our wait staff was quick and efficient. Anyway, we had a great time. Sorry that some of you didn't think that your cruise was what you were used to maybe when they come out with the 2 new boats in 2010 or 12 maybe you will have better luck with the service you expect.

[IceSk8ersMom]

What I meant was on a Florida sailing people traveling from anywhere other then the east coast will always be gaining hours in the evening (ie 8:30 dinner on fla sailing would work well for family on west coast since that feels like 5:30, you have a 3 hour time chnage window) On the west coast people that have an 6:00 seating feel like it is already 9:00pm, so things going on ship after 9pm are after midnight for east coasters and may be hard for kids to stay awake.

It is unfortunate that you had an unpleasant vacation. We will be going on our 4th Disney cruise, and since we are also from SoCal, my family and I are looking forward to not adjusting to a three hour time change. So when I requested our dinner assignment and made various reservations, I was always cognizant of that. We've also stayed in cat. 10, 9, and 5 and have had fabulous service in all three. I guess it is all relative to your experiences. Just remember spending time with our families is the true gift of any vacation.

[TiaMaria]

Aren't there a couple of time changes on the Mexican itin? I believe that the ship is on Central time by the time it gets to Puerto Vallarta. We are looking forward to that because that will mean dinner will be right in sync with our home time! :thumbsup2

[koalagurl]

ugh! we are booked for our first dcl cruise next spring...we're looking at spending probably close to $7500 for this...much more than any other trip we've taken and it will mean that we won't be able to do wdw for a couple years (we typicallly go at least once per year). hearing things like this makes me doubt my decision to do this...i know nothing in life is guaranteed, but we don't exactly have the money to gamble on this. i sure hope to read some more positive comments in the next few months or we may just head back to wdw and save a bundle of cash!

Don't worry too much, we just got back and had an amazing time. Even after reading the boards to death, I was hoping my expectations hadn't been brought up too much, but they were still far exceeded.

It is unfortunate that you had an unpleasant vacation. We will be going on our 4th Disney cruise, and since we are also from SoCal, my family and I are looking forward to not adjusting to a three hour time change. So when I requested our dinner assignment and made various reservations, I was always cognizant of that. We've also stayed in cat. 10, 9, and 5 and have had fabulous service in all three. I guess it is all relative to your experiences. Just remember spending time with our families is the true gift of any vacation.

I didn't realize it, but on this cruise there are time changes (a total of 2 hours). Made it great for my kids who are usually asleep by 7 and 8...they got to stay up "late" for the fireworks, etc. :)

[Tarabra]

I'm just wondering if maybe there might have been a lot of newer cm's onboard and alot of the more experienced servers were on break. We cruised the Wonder for the first time in May after doing 6 cruises on the Magic and it seemed to be just as great as our other cruises, except waaay too short. DD 3.5 loved the kids club and spent most evenings there. We actually had too much to do and didn't really get any down time w/ the cruise being only 4 days. DD didn't get a mortarboard, but couldn't really get an answer out of her as to why. The other kids had them, but we were running late. One of the cm's told us to go back to the kid's club to get her one, but she started getting a cold and didn't go back and then we forgot all about it.

It's funny because I didn't discover the disboards until cruise number 6. How in the world did I survive??? Anyhow with as many good pointers as I have picked up, the boards also made me more aware of the negative points too that I never may have noticed. Whenever I saw something out of place, I'd point it out and DH would make a typing motion and say, "You better post it!" :rotfl2: I usually only see things in a positive light so as not to ruin my vacation. Hopefully you continue to cruise DCL.

[lvstitch]

ugh! we are booked for our first dcl cruise next spring...we're looking at spending probably close to $7500 for this...much more than any other trip we've taken and it will mean that we won't be able to do wdw for a couple years (we typicallly go at least once per year). hearing things like this makes me doubt my decision to do this...i know nothing in life is guaranteed, but we don't exactly have the money to gamble on this. i sure hope to read some more positive comments in the next few months or we may just head back to wdw and save a bundle of cash!

You will have an amazing time if you don't worry and not over plan. Because of these boards we get more info than most vacations. I think there are ups and downs to knowing so much. Sometimes I think people expectations are set way to high. I just got back from the June 15th cruise, yes there were some things that I was not crazy about (Kids in adult areas and the ports) but it still was an amazing vacation because we were on the Disney Magic:love:.

[ohana8363]

We were on the August TA crossing and the westbound PC. Both were great cruises. We had a cat. 12 last August and a cat.11 this May. Had great service! We had one poor excursion in PV and Disney refunded our money.:cool1:

what was the bad excursion in PV, I am hoping it isn't one we have scheduled!

[gullyEARS]

With all due respect to the poster, who is entitled to their opinion...it's simply the 10% rule.

No matter what experience, there will always be 10% that don't enjoy/or had a bad experience. This is true of every cruise, etc. Disney has such high ratings but not everyone is going to have the time of their lives.

We went on our first DCL trip last February as a four-day on the Wonder. From the moment we left Port Canvaeral we had gale-force winds and the boat was rocking big time. The weather was truly the worst it could have been - sans a hurricane.

We didn't let that spoil our time.

We got to Casaway Cay...guess what? Cold, overcast and windy. We still had a great time.

These reports are important but everyone should remember the trip is what you make it and not all of it is in your control...or DCL's control.

[jd99]

With all due respect to the poster, who is entitled to their opinion...it's simply the 10% rule.

No matter what experience, there will always be 10% that don't enjoy/or had a bad experience. This is true of every cruise, etc. Disney has such high ratings but not everyone is going to have the time of their lives.

We went on our first DCL trip last February as a four-day on the Wonder. From the moment we left Port Canvaeral we had gale-force winds and the boat was rocking big time. The weather was truly the worst it could have been - sans a hurricane.

We didn't let that spoil our time.

We got to Casaway Cay...guess what? Cold, overcast and windy. We still had a great time.

These reports are important but everyone should remember the trip is what you make it and not all of it is in your control...or DCL's control.

:thumbsup2

[dizzi]

Aren't there a couple of time changes on the Mexican itin? I believe that the ship is on Central time by the time it gets to Puerto Vallarta. We are looking forward to that because that will mean dinner will be right in sync with our home time! :thumbsup2

YEs it seems there was a time change almost everynight!!!!!!!

[jajomo0118]

I had convinced 4 other groups of people to go on cruise and they all had really bad expeirences so it kind of makes me feel like I ruined their vacation. Much of the stuff I recommnded either didn't happen or wasn't up to Disney standard.


The very first thing out of my mouth when we invited SIL and family along for our second cruise was "we love it, but it might not be your thing so decide for yourself and make sure" I showed her DIS and she booked then researched more later and decided to cancel.

You shouldn't feel bad for other peoples bad vacation. They had the choice not to go. Don't be so hard on yourself...:hug:

[tksbaskets]

I was on the June 22 cruise and never went by the Mickey pool that I didn't see a CM.

Just another perspective.

[winegeek]

The very first thing out of my mouth when we invited SIL and family along for our second cruise was "we love it, but it might not be your thing so decide for yourself and make sure" I showed her DIS and she booked then researched more later and decided to cancel.

You shouldn't feel bad for other peoples bad vacation. They had the choice not to go. Don't be so hard on yourself...:hug:

I agree. Even if they didn't have a choice but to go, it's still not your fault.

We just returned from a 4 day double dip, it was a family celebration, all expenses paid, an offer we couldn't refuse even though we didn't want to go. It was our first cruise.

I just read somebody else's trip report, they loved it. We didn't. I thought the service was wonderful, people really try their best to do right by you. However, we weren't very interested in many of the activities. Our kids didn't care for the kids' clubs (6&8) and only stayed for a couple hours.

We weren't thrilled with the food, enjoyed Palo, but wasn't wowed.

I don't think it's Disney, it just doesn't fit our family footprint. We enjoy doing other types of things. Our kids have never been to any Disney park, haven't watched many Disney cartoons (other than the basics : Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Mermaid, Mulan), so nobody was interested in the character meets.

I'm glad we experienced it however, and while I wouldn't recommend it to my friends, I don't think it was the fault of the people who took us or Disney.

It just wasn't our cup of tea if you will.

[jajomo0118]

I agree. Even if they didn't have a choice but to go, it's still not your fault.

We just returned from a 4 day double dip, it was a family celebration, all expenses paid, an offer we couldn't refuse even though we didn't want to go. It was our first cruise.

I just read somebody else's trip report, they loved it. We didn't. I thought the service was wonderful, people really try their best to do right by you. However, we weren't very interested in many of the activities. Our kids didn't care for the kids' clubs (6&8) and only stayed for a couple hours.

We weren't thrilled with the food, enjoyed Palo, but wasn't wowed.

I don't think it's Disney, it just doesn't fit our family footprint. We enjoy doing other types of things. Our kids have never been to any Disney park, haven't watched many Disney cartoons (other than the basics : Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Mermaid, Mulan), so nobody was interested in the character meets.

I'm glad we experienced it however, and while I wouldn't recommend it to my friends, I don't think it was the fault of the people who took us or Disney.

It just wasn't our cup of tea if you will.

Well said...:)
I am willing to be adopted...if someone else is paying...LMAO..:lmao:

[winegeek]

Well said...:)
I am willing to be adopted...if someone else is paying...LMAO..:lmao:

:laughing:

We lobbied for Italy but lost, and if we didn't go, we would have caused a family rift.

It was very very generous, I wanted to pay our on board expenses but even that was taken care of. So we had absolutely no cause to complain.

I'll be honest, I was glad when we docked the last morning, and very happy to get on the plane home. However, we kept that a secret as it would have been churlish in the face of such generosity.

While we won't be returning, I think the people on the Wonder were fantastic. Our waiters were very nice and offered to make special vegetarian dishes for us. The stateroom host was a very sweet person. I was very impressed by the professionalism. I'm glad we had this experience, we maintained family goodwill and met some very nice people, both staff and non-staff.

Also, this board was a fantastic resource. I wouldn't have known about Palo and countless other things which made our cruise easier. So thank you DIS.

:disrocks:

[martinikath]

We were on the June 22 sailing as well and always saw two cast members at the pool. One stationed at the"ears" and one at the top of the slide. I personally saw the Cm by the pool ask one dad to keep his son in the filtered area because he had on a swim diaper. the son was not happy and neither was dad but they complied. My son was also reprimanded for making too big of a splash ---- probably because it was so crowded. She just made it to him before I did..... I was in mid stride and holler. Can't say about the Goofy pool we were never over there.

[carole88]

Hey guys, don't want to make it seem like Disney is the worst or something. I have had 3 fantastic cruises ( 1 of them probably being the best vacation I have ever had with kids) I was just trying to feel out what was going on with this specific cruise.

The Morterboard issue was a 2 fold problem:

1) the Mickey speech is pre taped and he turned aroun looked at kids and told them to move their tassles (but they didn't have any) thought it made Mickey, Disney and the kids look weird)
2) my 7 year old has 2 morterboards, my twins have had to sit thorugh 2 of these ceremonies and this was their turn to go on stage and get one but they didn't (do you see the problem now?)

I had convinced 4 other groups of people to go on cruise and they all had really bad expeirences so it kind of makes me feel like I ruined their vacation. Much of the stuff I recommnded either didn't happen or wasn't up to Disney standard.

I do know many first timers had a great time but ten again they had nothing tocompare too.

What were the really bad experiences your friends had?

[KimberlyB]

:cool1:

[Tarabra]

Yea, Bump it up Kimberly. You're lovin' these bad reports!! :confused3

Winegeek - I'm sorry you didn't have an enjoyable time. It sounds like you won't give DCL another chance, but there is a huge difference between a 4 day and a 7 day. We just did a 4 day double dip and it just didn't compare to the 7 day that we usually do. We've done 5 7 - day. The Caribbean is much nicer than the Bahamas. There really aren't as many scheduled things to do on the 4 day. As far as the Disney characters, we cruised DCL 5 times w/out kids, and to be honest...I'm not a huge Disney fan. DH is much more into it than I am, but I totally love the DCL customer service. We've done another cruiseline, and it just didn't come close. It sounds like that 6 - 8 age group is a little hard to please from some other reports, but my 3.5 yr. old just loved it. I don't think she'd be too into Italy at this age either. RCCL might work better for your family.