April 30th Eastern - My observations

[coleland]

Just returned today from the 7 day Eastern, first time DCL cruiser. First, let me just say that this board was such a GREAT help to me in planning our trip, I told so many people about it onboard and shared so many tips with them. It was great to know of Pirate's night beforehand, I bought my daughter the cutest pirate outfit on the after-Halloween clearance rack and it was so perfect for the cruise - she had a blast wearing it!

Entertainment - top notch, A-1, absolutely wonderful stage shows. We enjoyed each and every one, and the comedy acts and other entertainers that were flown in were great as well. Disney definitely knows how to do entertainment.

Onboard activities - jam packed days, something for everyone. Even at sea, it didn't seem that full of a ship. I was amazed that with 2700 passengers I still seemed to see some of the same people over and over (and not just those with the same dining time as me - just familiar faces in general). That was comforting to me in a strange way.

Ports - We had a nice beach day in St. Maarten, but I was so tired of the islanders stalkers walking past my beach chair every 3 minutes - the same ladies would ask me if I wanted to purchase something on each pass, it got REALLY old. I know Disney has no control over this, just an observation. The water was wonderfully warm and beautiful there at the beach right off the pier where we were docked. We rented a jetski and had great fun.

Chose the St. John/Trunk Bay snorkeling excursion while docked at St. Thomas, it is the most beautiful bay I've ever seen. The ferry ride there was horrendous, we had terrible choppy seas and I didn't think I was going to make it - 45 minutes of pure roller coaster dips. But the way back was better and didn't seem as long. This excursion was really worth the money, $40.

Castaway Cay is beautiful as well - and so well organized! All in 100% Disney style, everything taken care of for you. It would be much more enjoyable however, if they didn't nickle and dime you for everything: ie. paddleboats, kayaks, bikes, etc. It would be really nice if all of those things were included in your day.

Seas/Weather - wow, did we ever luck out! The seas were never over 4ft I think, I barely felt anything until the last night about midnight. Never heard of one passenger feeling seasick and so thankful none of my family was affected by it. We had gorgeous weather until Castaway Cay day, very very breezy and several storm clouds looming about - but never rained right on us.

Lastly, food - I was disappointed with the food. I heard so many people say the food is phenomenal, and what I'm wondering is this: (and please don't take this as condescending or presumptuous, it's just a thought) I wonder if many of those members that rave about the food are from smaller towns that don't have really fine dining available? Because I was never happy with one of my dinner meals in any of the restaurants. Topsider's buffets and Pluto's were better than any meal I had in the restaurants - honestly. Every one of our dinners was served barely warm or cold, things that had wonderful descriptions of flavored dressings could not even be tasted, one item on the appetizer menu was beefsteak tomatoes with mozzarella and basil dressing - these were your regular yucky garden variety tomatoes (somewhat green) with mozzarella balls the size of melon balls cut in half (2 of them). We found that the descriptions of meals/appetizers rarely met the actual delivery of the item. Things were just generally tasteless and I was very disappointed with that. We went to Palo's for brunch (sooo tasty) and dinner on the last night - fabulous! And truly, from what I had read, that's what I expected in the dining rooms every night (quality wise). Several other people I spoke with expressed displeasure with the food as well. So that was my biggest thumbs down, I had been looking forward to it so much.

Other than that I just wanted to say that the cruise staff and each crew member that we came across was just wonderful, so friendly and courteous. The attention they give to the kids is just great! And yes, while I realize it's Disney and that's their business... kids... I just didn't think it would be that good.

Feel free to ask any questions

 

[mommasita]

Hi, glad you are home safe and sound....Sounds like all was well, except for your observation on food....

It is always nice to hear a Real Report, and everyone has different views, as well as different tastes.....

I happened to LOVE the food...I am extremely fussy, and can not complain about a single, solitary thing...I live in Montreal, and we are renowned for our food...We have a lot of fine dining, and many who come downtown Montreal, just for that reason....Of course it does not mean that every Restaurant here is Fantastic, just most of em...

I hear you about the islands though, and the people selling... I usually do buy something from them, and make it CLEAR that that will be all.

Glad to hear you Loved the entertainment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are all living through you guys' reports...........

 

[aprilgail2]

Ports - We had a nice beach day in St. Maarten, but I was so tired of the islanders stalkers walking past my beach chair every 3 minutes - the same ladies would ask me if I wanted to purchase something on each pass, it got REALLY old. I know Disney has no control over this, just an observation. The water was wonderfully warm and beautiful there at the beach right off the pier where we were docked. We rented a jetski and had great fun.

Seas/Weather - wow, did we ever luck out! The seas were never over 4ft I think, I barely felt anything until the last night about midnight. Never heard of one passenger feeling seasick and so thankful none of my family was affected by it. We had gorgeous weather until Castaway Cay day, very very breezy and several storm clouds looming about - but never rained right on us.

Lastly, food - I was disappointed with the food. I heard so many people say the food is phenomenal, and what I'm wondering is this: (and please don't take this as condescending or presumptuous, it's just a thought) I wonder if many of those members that rave about the food are from smaller towns that don't have really fine dining available? Because I was never happy with one of my dinner meals in any of the restaurants. Topsider's buffets and Pluto's were better than any meal I had in the restaurants - honestly. Every one of our dinners was served barely warm or cold, things that had wonderful descriptions of flavored dressings could not even be tasted, one item on the appetizer menu was beefsteak tomatoes with mozzarella and basil dressing - these were your regular yucky garden variety tomatoes (somewhat green) with mozzarella balls the size of melon balls cut in half (2 of them).

Well we were at the same beach as you in St Maarten and also rented a jet ski there! And were those women ever annoying walking by every 5 minutes selling junk!! Even when I had my eyes closed they would stand there saying "lady pretty lady" until I opened them up!!
I did get a bit seasick on night, I forget the night it was but it just hit me one night at dinner and I went back and layed down the rest of the evening and was fine after that....the last night when we were rocking and rolling I was fine though LOL....I didn't get to sleep until around 330 though due to all the noises-creaking and banging from the rocking ship....first the closet door, I fixed that then it was the hangers in the closet sliding around, fixed that...then the safe door banging open and closed, I locked that then just general creaking...I normally sleep with a noise machine but since it was the last night I had it packed away in the luggage, boy did I ever pay for being lazy and not wanting to put it in my carry on LOL!
I orderd that beefsteak tomatoes with mozzarella and basil dressing-not great. I wrote in another post that I didn't think the food anywhere other than the Palo Brunch was that great...the servers were great but the food...ehhhh...it doesn't help that I am really picky though and don't eat Fish, Beef or any meat other than Chcken or Turkey so my choices were very limited. I felt all the breakfasts lacked no matter where they were...topsiders had the same thing every day and it was just so-so. That being said I still gained weight though LOL!! SO I must have liked something huh????

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Glad your back safe and sound. I too, appreciate your report. We returned from a 7 day cruise last month. I had been looking forward to some wonderful dinners as well. We had sailed DCL three times before, and each time had pretty good to great experiences as far as dining room food. This time, however, was much different. Out of seven dinners - one was excellent (lobster), one was pretty good, and the other five were just ok.

Here is an observation I made about the camembert appetizer -- On the Wonder, it is delicious! On the Magic, it isn't.

The desserts were almost always most delicious. We loved our servers and had no complaints with them.

Tink

 

[mshinrockford]

Hey--we were on the same excursion to Trunk Bay, as you! The waves were so choppy--I was glad we chose to sit inside! The bathrooms on that little boat were disgusting! The Trunk bay trip was just WAY too short. We did the beach thing in the afternoon in St. Maarten, as well. I agree--those venders were annoying. (We had a private tour of the island of St. Maarten that my husband found via the internet in the morning, and that was great.)

I agree with you about the food. I really didn't care for the new menus. They had removed some of my favorite desserts!

I slept through all the movement the last night. My husband said it was pretty rocky!

I'm glad you made it home safe and sound....Rhonda

 

[Wendynjane]

We were on the 30th Magic as well and my poor 8 year old son was sea sick the entire time. He must have thrown up twenty or thirty times on the trip. We saw the doctor a couple of times and since he is so young really all we could do was dramamine and sea bands which helped a little. When we got back last night we weighed him and he had lost nine pounds! Imagine what it would have been like had the seas been higher. I agree about the food, not that great but Palo's was everything and more!!! We loved it, especially brunch. We went to the most beautiful little beach on Saint Maarten and the water was like a swimming pool. There was only 10 other people there, it was really wonderful.

 

[married2grumpy]

Hi all! We too just returned from the 4/30 sailing and had a good time. We were disappointed with the new menus as well. I am not a picky eater and had a hard time finding things I liked. I will try almost anything but the food most nights was just okay. One night I didn't find any entree to order!

The seas were a little rough coming home, I got a touch sea sick that night but other than that I thought we were really lucky with the seas and the weather. We loved Castaway Cay and St Maarten was great. St Thomas was a bust for us. We didn't enjoy it that much.

The biggest disappointment for us was that our kids did not enjoy the kids clubs! Our 6 & 7 year olds thought it was "babyish" in the 5-7 group and they were bored. My 4 year old loved it for 2 days and then we got paged to pick her up and she was crying and she said she never wanted to go back in there again. I asked her if something happened but she wouldn't say. Left me with an uncomfortable feeling. So we didn't get too much adult time this trip.

All in all it was a good time but I think our expectations were just too high and we felt slightly disappointed. Needless to say I do want to book another cruise though, LOL!

 

[Dreamer04]

Thanks for posting this. I'm from metro New York although we have the mother lode of fine dining available, I rarely partake. I have a very "blue collar" appetite. For example, I would rather have pizza at home and play Yahtzee with the kids than dress up for a dinner out.

So, I loved the food. I really made an effort to try things I would never eat in a million years. Goat cheese flatbread comes to mind. Yuck. Duck is another. When I came across something I didn't like, I asked for something else. Like a steak. Also, I let my server know that I was trying something new, so he would know to check back.

Anyway, thanks for your honesty. I always wondered why I was sooo impressed with the food. You can imagine how I felt about Palo!

 

[Muushka]

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us all! I enjoyed reading it. I also appreciate the good with the bad. Honesty-the best policy!

I agree with you about the food. There were nights that I wish I had just eaten at Plutos (loved those chicken fingers). Also loved Palo. We didn't get to try Topsiders, so no comment.

I am not sure why so many people love the food in the dining rooms. All I can say is that if people like you (and me and others) would post their true opinion about the food, then there would not be such dissapointment. People would not go on their cruise with major expectations.

I remember reading about the 'fabulous lobster burgers' at CC. Well, they were such a dissapointment, gross actually, that I posted that I didn't like them. I was surprised that so many people also said that they didn't like them either. Not sure why people are afraid to say they don't like something. Maybe it is a fear of being considered 'anti-Disney' .

We are booked for another Disney cruise this Christmas. The food will not keep me off the ship, I just won't expect anything great. It's better that way.

 

[aprilgail2]

I remember reading about the 'fabulous lobster burgers' at CC. Well, they were such a dissapointment, gross actually, that I posted that I didn't like them. I was surprised that so many people also said that they didn't like them either. Not sure why people are afraid to say they don't like something. Maybe it is a fear of being considered 'anti-Disney' .
.

LOL...I had read so much about them to that I was sure to get one for my mom when we were there since she loved the lobster for dinner....she took one bite and said it was gross!

 

[TeresaBelle]

We were on the 30th Magic as well and my poor 8 year old son was sea sick the entire time. He must have thrown up twenty or thirty times on the trip. We saw the doctor a couple of times and since he is so young really all we could do was dramamine and sea bands which helped a little. When we got back last night we weighed him and he had lost nine pounds! Imagine what it would have been like had the seas been higher. I agree about the food, not that great but Palo's was everything and more!!! We loved it, especially brunch. We went to the most beautiful little beach on Saint Maarten and the water was like a swimming pool. There was only 10 other people there, it was really wonderful.

What beach did you go to on St. Maarten?

 

[Woobie]

Have to chime in on the food. It has gone downhill a lot. We live outside of Boston, so I have plenty of dinner choices. I know they were trying new menues on the 4/30 cruise for the repo one. Having said that, I, too, gained weight. I guess I made up for the so-so dinners w/the pretty good desserts. BTY, where'd the grand marnier (OK, can't spell it) souffle go? Or the chocolate lava cake? Probably better they weren't offered, or I'd have gained even more weight - LOL.

Woobie

 

[tvguy]

Better to talk about something safe like politics or religion rather than food!!!!!

In 7 cruises I have never had a bad meal. I've tried some things I have never had before, and probably won't try again, but it was always well prepared and hot. SOMEONE must be eating Losbter burgers because they couldn't keep up with demand for them when I was on Castaway Cay, and YES I liked them.
And given that they are fixing dinner for 2700 people, it's amazing how good the food is.
And in the spirit of complete disclosure....I'm eating Frito Pie as I type this, and I'm not even from Texas .

 

[Muushka]

Better to talk about something safe like politics or religion rather than food!!!!!

In 7 cruises I have never had a bad meal. I've tried some things I have never had before, and probably won't try again, but it was always well prepared and hot. SOMEONE must be eating Losbter burgers because they couldn't keep up with demand for them when I was on Castaway Cay, and YES I liked them.
And given that they are fixing dinner for 2700 people, it's amazing how good the food is.
And in the spirit of complete disclosure....I'm eating Frito Pie as I type this, and I'm not even from Texas .

You know, I wondered if we just got a bad batch-o-lobster burgers, because of the way everyone raved about them. But when I posted, a lot of people agreed that they were pretty gross. Hmmm.

 

[JJsmama]

Lastly, food - I was disappointed with the food. I heard so many people say the food is phenomenal, and what I'm wondering is this: (and please don't take this as condescending or presumptuous, it's just a thought) I wonder if many of those members that rave about the food are from smaller towns that don't have really fine dining available?

Honestly, I've often wondered this too. I know it sounds snotty, but I don't mean it that way and I can tell you don't either. Although the food was pretty good (NOT the fast food stuff by the pool!!) I never ate anything the entire time that I thought was great. I thought Palo was beautiful and a LOT (too much) food, but I wouldn't even mind skipping it next cruise.

However, I didn't go on the cruise for the food. I think a lot of people do. That is their thing. I was more interested in the child care, entertainment and relaxing environment.

I change my mind: I did really love the very fresh, very ripe, already-cut-up fruit. I was a mother's dream come true!