Our Disney cruise...eh' I suppose it was ok

[scuba]

I gotta tell you all, our cruise was ok, but as Disney fanatic, our socks really wasn't blown off like I expected. my 2 children, Wife and I were on the 2/4 sailing of the Wonder. Our children, the youngest is 2 and this sailing was her third cruise and the Wonder cruise marked our 3 year olds 4th cruise.

We are cruise verterans, Alaska 2001, the carribbean too many times to count spread over Princess, Carnival, Royal and lastly Disney. We we able to score the kids free program and picked Feb 4th as the date.

I could expect the 7 day cruise to have a little different feel than a 3 dayer. my observations from this last cruise would be you are spending the extra cash on the Disney experience, Characters and shows because as far as service goes, I've actually encountered better on sailings from carnival and Royal....my observations and opinion, certainly i'm not asking anyone to agree with me. Some may and some may not.

We Didn't meet out cabin steward until the evening of day 2, my experiences has always been to see them as we enter our cabin. Not a big deal but still it left an impression. The wait staff was great, very good with our children but i've gotten same service from other lines. It seemed like the Wonder's gathering spaces were small, like the Atrium in front of Triton's. Elevators were incredibly small.

The Oceaneers Club was fantastic, ditto for Flounders nursery, The Disney experience was great, Hannah got to do si do with Snow White, I got to get an auto from Captain Sparrow. The shows did knock our socks off, funny that a few folks that my wife talked to wasn't impressed with the shows but man, Toy Story and Dreams, incredible. That you can not get on any other line so like I said, the additional monies one spends to go with Disney gets tied up into the Disney experience, but the service, ship, and crew really isn't that different from other lines.

maybe the 7 dayers are different? I suppose i'm going to get crushed here with this thread, 2-3 maybe 4 years from now when our daughters are older we may give it another go at Disney, who knows. We missed CC, the last day was filled with so many activities only to have your luggage out by 11pm, I just felt there were little quirks.

I'm not going to post and run, i'll be here, maybe some of you can give me some suggestions. For those of you that are alreay typing furiously about if I like the other lines so much then stop cruising with Disney, I would hope you would save that. Remember i'm a Disney fanatic, we go nearly twice yearly from Ohio. I am having a hard time justifiying the increased cost over other cruise lines for service, food and value......I'm a big boy, bring on the flames

 

[kcashner]

There is a HUGE difference between a 3 night cruise and a 7 night. I've only been on the Wonder for 3 sailings...a 4/3 B2B and a 3 night "bounceback" special. After the first 3 night, I said I wouldn't do it again, but the bounceback enticed me. Again, I wouldn't do it again. The first issue is the mentality of the guests on the 3 night sailings--people brought their kids in strollers into the Cove Cafe and the area around the adult pool (which part of "reserved for guests 18 and older" don't they understand?), and just seem too intense on trying to do everything in a very limited time.

Your experience with the stateroom host isn't typical Disney. We usually see our host the first afternoon, but certainly by the first evening. We loved the CMs on the Wonder, and recognized many as "old friends" from the Magic.

The 7 night cruises have more entertainment, more activities, etc. You do pay extra for the Disney experience--the shows, the characters, the decor, etc. You don't have a casino, you have a largely smoke free atmosphere, etc.

Hopefully you'll try a 7 night sailing in the future. We like them much better.

 

[SplashMountainManiac]

It sounds like you have had a combination of good luck with other cruise lines and bad luck with the Wonder. From my experience, the Wonder has never had quite the same exceptional magic as the Magic. The crew is great, but a little less so then on the Magic, especially in the dining and stateroom areas. That being said, I have sailed NCL, RCI, and Celebrity and found those lines to not remotely be similar to Disney. Usually our stateroom attendants seem to hide on other lines, whereas we always see them the first day on DCL and they often call us by name. Our worst dining serves on DCL have been better then any servers on other lines. Of course, the Disney ships are getting older, and can't match the facility size of the newer Royal ships, but we have always found DCL to be well worth the extra price paid. I would say, give the Magic a shot, and see what you think.

Reading the above post, I will add that on the Magic
The crew takes time to get to know you since you will be with them longer
They bring aboard 4 variety acts to do shows for both families and adults
More adult game shows
Live showband
More activities onboard, especially on sea days
Better ports and itineraries
Formal/Semi-Formal nights
More late night buffets
A bunch of other extras

 

[abdmom]

What were the Royal and Carnival ships that you sailed on?

 

[scuba]

It sounds like you have had a combination of good luck with other cruise lines and bad luck with the Wonder. From my experience, the Wonder has never had quite the same exceptional magic as the Magic. The crew is great, but a little less so then on the Magic, especially in the dining and stateroom areas. That being said, I have sailed NCL, RCI, and Celebrity and found those lines to not remotely be similar to Disney. Usually our stateroom attendants seem to hide on other lines, whereas we always see them the first day on DCL and they often call us by name. Our worst dining serves on DCL have been better then any servers on other lines. Of course, the Disney ships are getting older, and can't match the facility size of the newer Royal ships, but we have always found DCL to be well worth the extra price paid. I would say, give the Magic a shot, and see what you think.

Reading the above post, I will add that on the Magic
The crew takes time to get to know you since you will be with them longer
They bring aboard 4 variety acts to do shows for both families and adults
More adult game shows
Live showband
More activities onboard, especially on sea days
Better ports and itineraries
Formal/Semi-Formal nights
More late night buffets
A bunch of other extras

First of all I want to thank the first 2 replies to my thread, very nice and thought provoking. We cruised on Royal one year, did a three night and really seen quite a different set of cruise guests, not making sterotypes, it is what it is. It is musch more expensice to cruise for 7 days as opposed to 3 nights. We took the kids free because being that our children are quite young we wanted to get a taste but not a big taste like a 7 dayer that they might not be old enough to enjoy. My Wife and i did indeed feel that the 7 day vs the 3 day was probably much different from one anohter. I can assure you that we will indeed return for a 7 day. As a side note, while on deck 9 my 2 year old ran into the over 18 area and I was horrified, I follow the rules so i made an effort to keep our children out of those areas. Ain't no one needing to put up with our kids but us. Come to think of it, while chasing down our chiuld( just a few steps in front of me) I didn indeed see alot of shildren in the over 18 sections......Thanks alot so far for the kind replies, we will try a 7 day sometime.

 

[scuba]

What were the Royal and Carnival ships that you sailed on?

Carnival ships- Celebration, Inspiration x2 , Glory, Destiny, and the Facination

Royal- Adventurer of the Seas, and Sovereign

Princess- Sun Princess and Ocean Princess

Shoot, we've been on 10 cruises with Disney being the eleventh...sorry

 

[Pinkandproud]

No need to give you a hard time. Your write up was well written and kind. I enjoyed our cruise a few weeks ago on the Magic, but have also cruised Alaska on Celebrity. Yes, you are paying some for the Disney experience, I agree. But all in all, depending on what you are looking for, could be well worth it! If you got in on the Kids Sail free offer, you got a great deal, happy for you. We didn't get that freebie, but still enjoyed ourselves.

 

[orlandothebeagle]

It is very interesting, I found all what the others say about the 4 and 7 night cruise to be true, but I never really thought it was the length, maybe just luck with staff? does that mean my 14 night is going to be sooper dooper?

 

[tikibirds]

scuba,

We are on the same sailing as you. I think a big part of the Disney experience is Castaway Cay, and since we missed it, we missed alot. This was my third Disney cruise in a year and the other two were much more enjoyable - I'm thinking CC was key in those. That said, although our servers were not up to par with those we had on the previous two trips, our stateroom host was exceptional this time. I hope you will give DCL another chance on a longer voyage.

 

[bemery1963]

We are also Disney fanatics. We were on a seven day cruise on the Magic last month. Like you although it was mainly nice, it did not knock our socks off either. I guess to each their own. Good luck on your seven day.

 

[Anal Annie]

Our first DCL was a 7 night then we did back-to-back 4 /3 on the Wonder. No where near the same experience as the 7 nighter. The 4 was OK but the 3 was horrible. I second what KCashner says about the mentality of the clientele on the 3 night. It was like all of the adults were just looking to get away from their kids for a couple of days. It was loud & the kids of all ages ran the ship unsupervised. It was also WAAAY more casual. In fact I would compare how some dressed at dinner to a casual outting to TGIFridays or Applebees for dinner. I am sure my mouth was hanging open at the guy at the table next to us wearing his "wife beater" tank to dinner. We found profanity on our dry erase board on our door more than once (yes THE 'F' bomb). It definitely did not seem like a Disney cruise and we likely won't do another 3 nighter unless it's a give-away.

 

[scuba]

scuba,

We are on the same sailing as you. I think a big part of the Disney experience is Castaway Cay, and since we missed it, we missed alot. This was my third Disney cruise in a year and the other two were much more enjoyable - I'm thinking CC was key in those. That said, although our servers were not up to par with those we had on the previous two trips, our stateroom host was exceptional this time. I hope you will give DCL another chance on a longer voyage.

You know, we will most certainly give it another shot, I think your right about CC, we had bought scrapbook pages with CC on them,and stickers, I bought our DD4 a few pins with CC on them and when we missed it we were devastated. We returned the items back to the girt shops. Part of our Ho hum after missing CC was our fault but that darn island is so hyped up you cannot help but get bummed and mad......we will most certainly try again when our daughters are older.

 

[epcotrulz]

On our four and seven nighters I've had to regulate children next door about constantly banging their stateroom door, otherwise no issues with children at all, including hanging out at Quiet Cove.

 

[kcashner]

On our four and seven nighters I've had to regulate children next door about constantly banging their stateroom door, otherwise no issues with children at all, including hanging out at Quiet Cove.

You hit it with 4 and 7 nighters. All I can say is that 3 night cruises are different. Thanks, Annie, for confirming what I've felt for a long time!

 

[js]

I gotta tell you all, our cruise was ok, but as Disney fanatic, our socks really wasn't blown off like I expected. my 2 children, Wife and I were on the 2/4 sailing of the Wonder. Our children, the youngest is 2 and this sailing was her third cruise and the Wonder cruise marked our 3 year olds 4th cruise.

We are cruise verterans, Alaska 2001, the carribbean too many times to count spread over Princess, Carnival, Royal and lastly Disney. We we able to score the kids free program and picked Feb 4th as the date.

I could expect the 7 day cruise to have a little different feel than a 3 dayer. my observations from this last cruise would be you are spending the extra cash on the Disney experience, Characters and shows because as far as service goes, I've actually encountered better on sailings from carnival and Royal....my observations and opinion, certainly i'm not asking anyone to agree with me. Some may and some may not.

We Didn't meet out cabin steward until the evening of day 2, my experiences has always been to see them as we enter our cabin. Not a big deal but still it left an impression. The wait staff was great, very good with our children but i've gotten same service from other lines. It seemed like the Wonder's gathering spaces were small, like the Atrium in front of Triton's. Elevators were incredibly small.

The Oceaneers Club was fantastic, ditto for Flounders nursery, The Disney experience was great, Hannah got to do si do with Snow White, I got to get an auto from Captain Sparrow. The shows did knock our socks off, funny that a few folks that my wife talked to wasn't impressed with the shows but man, Toy Story and Dreams, incredible. That you can not get on any other line so like I said, the additional monies one spends to go with Disney gets tied up into the Disney experience, but the service, ship, and crew really isn't that different from other lines.

maybe the 7 dayers are different? I suppose i'm going to get crushed here with this thread, 2-3 maybe 4 years from now when our daughters are older we may give it another go at Disney, who knows. We missed CC, the last day was filled with so many activities only to have your luggage out by 11pm, I just felt there were little quirks.

I'm not going to post and run, i'll be here, maybe some of you can give me some suggestions. For those of you that are alreay typing furiously about if I like the other lines so much then stop cruising with Disney, I would hope you would save that. Remember i'm a Disney fanatic, we go nearly twice yearly from Ohio. I am having a hard time justifiying the increased cost over other cruise lines for service, food and value......I'm a big boy, bring on the flames

Our family has also been on many, many cruises since my youngest was 2 (now he is 12). I also have a 16 dd.
We have cruised DCL once and although it was good, the kids LOVE RCCL and so does my dh and I. We are going on DCL Dream next year with my sister and her family and my mother (using DVC points) but really I find the experience much better for my family on RCCL. Granted, I was on the Magic only once so maybe giving DCL one more try will be a great time but if I were spending the cash and not using my points, I would much rather be crusing on RCCL.

There are a LOT of people on this site that LOVE Disney (hey, I am right there too) and will only cruise DCL but I so wish they would try other lines. They just don't know what they are missing. You can get excellent service on Princess and RCCL, not just DCL.
Thanks for your review.

 

[nettii]

Thank you for your opinion. We have never cruised before and were considering a 3 night for our inital trip. Now you have me scratching my head thinking maybe we should go on a longer trip. I was worrried about the type of people that would be on the other lines. Honestly I never thought Id have to even consider that on a Disney Cruise.nettii

 

[catzle]

how are the 6 day cruises?

 

[SplashMountainManiac]

how are the 6 day cruises?

Disney won't be having its first six day cruise until 2011, but I assume it would be more along the lines of the 7-night cruises. Basically the only problem is with the 3-nights. The difference is between 3 nights and everything else. I have never even noticed the 3-night problems on the 4-nighters.

 

[zalansky]

scuba - I feel for you! You and your family missed out on CC? Thats awful. CC is one of the best (if not the best) part of the Disney cruise! I agree with the other posters about the 3 day cruise. I would never do it. Its over way too fast and having to pack up on CC day would take away from the enjoyment. I also think this time of year is not a great time to cruise because the weather is so unreliable, and usually even cold. Its hard to enjoy the pool and beach if its cold outside! I definitely think you should try a lonmger cruise in the Spring! We've done 3 Wonder cruises, all 4 nighters. Had a blast every time. Last time we went our kids were ages 2 & 5. We are booked for this April - we also booked with the kids sail free promo for another 4 night cruise. can't wait.

In the past Dh and I have cruised RCCL (with our DS who was a baby at the time) Princess and Carnival (in my much younger days!). We like DCL the best, but thats just personal preference.

Since you said you enjoyed the shows, wait staff and kids programs - I'd give them another try. Maybe on the Dream? I think you just got unlucky with your room steward, we have always been lucky there too. Were you able to do palo? Thats something my Dh and I have always done as well, which is a highlight of the trip.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

 

[cissy]

Great thread....I was thinking we would do a 3 day cruise after a 3 day park trip, but now I am rethinking it. I would rather do one more day and get a better crowd. Excellent advice from everyone!