We just came home from our first DCL cruise today!! What a great vacation! I will try my best to finish my trip report in a timely manner (lol) but I'd like to give a quick overview before I start.
Background: We're from Toronto, Canada and a family of 3. My daughter turned 2 years old just before this trip. We traveled with one of my best friend's family and they also have a boy around the same age as my daughter.
DH and I are not avid cruisers, I would say we average one cruise every 2-3 years. My first one was on the NCL Dawn 10 years ago, then I did a short Star Cruise in Asia, followed by Oasis of the Sea and then Carnival Dream most recently (about 2 years ago). I only cruise when I travel with other family members because it's convenient, but otherwise, we're land-vacation people. I decided it was time to do DCL because I have friends who are gold members and swear by DCL.. so I thought, time to see what it's all about!
Itinerary didn't matter to me because I've done both Eastern and Western. We picked a date that was convenient for both families and just went with it. A quick overview of what we did:
Cozumel - did no excursion, just got off the ship and walked a bit in town then went back onboard (which was awesome cuz I did Aquaduck twice, and my daughter went on the slide in Nemo's reef about 5 times!)
Cayman Island - we took a bus/taxi to the public beach area in the seven-mile beach. We then walked back to the ship (yes walked - we kind of figured it would be about 40 minutes but it ended up being over an hour, lol. Oh well! My daughter was napping in her stroller this whole time, which was the main reason we wanted to walk)
Falmouth - no excursion booked, but we decided to do a last minute trolly tour (the one that's offered right in the port) the tour was ok cuz Falmouth is really small.. but at least we did something and saw Falmouth. After the tour, we went back on the ship and just relaxed. I watched little mermaid by the pool while my daughter napped, and did Aquaduck again!
Castaway Cay - obviously our favourite port! the beach was great and while it was somewhat crowded, it didn't bother me. My friend and I also swam out and checked out all the underwater treasures while the two guys went nap-strolling the kids. The snorkelling is tiring but with the life vest, it wasn't so bad. (but I wouldn't recommend it for young kids)
Service - we liked our stateroom host and servers. They were all friendly with us and tried their best to remember/accommodate our needs. But with two toddlers at the table, we were mostly just focused on getting them to eat and behave so we didn't have as much interactions with all the servers as we could have had. (my friend's son is a lot more social so he did have fun with the server playing tricks for him, while my daughter is extremely shy so she'd cry if they got too close. boo)
In general, I thought the service throughout the ship was good, but to be fair, my experience on the Oasis was equally good if not better - I am not saying DCL wasn't good, it just didn't seem more extraordinary to me. But they were all very good with the kids though, so that made a big difference.
Food - I am not a picky eater although I could be if I tried - but it's very easy to please me (I have realistic expectations when I'm on vacation) so I was happy every meal. I could always find something to eat.
Remy - DH and I like to check out 3 star restaurants when we travel (if there are any where we go). I think for the price, it was worth the money. The food, in my opinion, was obviously not 3 star standard, but definitely very good for the price. The service was great too.
Some other misc things...
Nursery - we used the nursery for our Remy dinner. I have to say the staff were very good and tried their best with my daughter for sure. I know that she cried on and off for 2/3 hours (we got 2 texts and both said she was still a little upset) but our server at Remy told us that if they don't call us, it means they're still able to handle our daughter. Our friend went to pick her up for us after they finished dining at Palo, they told me that my daughter was actually playing when they arrived while their son as crying, but so were some other kids. It made me feel slightly better that apparently it is pretty normal and they're used to it. (but we decided to cancel our other nursery times because I think my daughter was too upset afterwards)
Shows - only saw Aladdin in full and part of Believe. We were usually too tired (or trying to get my daughter to sleep) but Aladdin was a lot of fun!
Stateroom - 8546, balcony room. Loved it! I didn't think I would enjoy the balcony (I had it in prior cruises and I find it scary looking at the water) but turns out my daughter loved it and always wanted her dad to take her out
Fish Extenders - this is my first DCL cruise, so obviously my first FE experience. One word (or two?): LOVED IT! In fact, I felt a little embarrassed after seeing all the gifts we got!!! gosh, people, how did you stuff all the gifts in your luggage?!?! (we flew so had to be careful with luggage room) I have some pictures of what I gave out and what I got, but of course didn't get everything in pictures!!
Some stuff that I found super useful - travel size wet wipes (you can never have too much with a toddler), travel size sunscreen (this was awesome), crayola soap that came in handy when my daughter was fighting me not to bath. We made some rum and coke ourselves (I'm saving the Baileys for home), crocheted coasters are so cute and amazing, the handmade little seeds, magnet and postcard from your local States, etc. My daughter LOVED all the stickers and glow stuff (btw, there was someone dropping off stickers every other day, even last day of cruise!! Not sure if it was someone in our group or just pixie-duster. But THANK YOU, because seriously, 2 year olds love stickers and it calms her down when she's being annoying) oh, and I have no problem with getting candy. I ate a lot of them during movies! so thank you all! (and there are first aid kits, swim bands, etc.. oh and a cute bouncy ball that my daughter couldn't get enough of until she bounced it onto someone else's balcony. oops)
this is what we gave: essential kit for the parents (though I later realized others also did the same, and mine was not all that exciting, lol) for the young kids, I had a tote bag with frozen themed cutleries, some stickers, crayons (I didn't know there were basically crayons everywhere on the ship..oops. won't be giving those again!) and for the older girls, they got tote bags with their names on them.
anyway, that's it for my summary. I'll try my best to do more detailed report!
Background: We're from Toronto, Canada and a family of 3. My daughter turned 2 years old just before this trip. We traveled with one of my best friend's family and they also have a boy around the same age as my daughter.
DH and I are not avid cruisers, I would say we average one cruise every 2-3 years. My first one was on the NCL Dawn 10 years ago, then I did a short Star Cruise in Asia, followed by Oasis of the Sea and then Carnival Dream most recently (about 2 years ago). I only cruise when I travel with other family members because it's convenient, but otherwise, we're land-vacation people. I decided it was time to do DCL because I have friends who are gold members and swear by DCL.. so I thought, time to see what it's all about!
Itinerary didn't matter to me because I've done both Eastern and Western. We picked a date that was convenient for both families and just went with it. A quick overview of what we did:
Cozumel - did no excursion, just got off the ship and walked a bit in town then went back onboard (which was awesome cuz I did Aquaduck twice, and my daughter went on the slide in Nemo's reef about 5 times!)
Cayman Island - we took a bus/taxi to the public beach area in the seven-mile beach. We then walked back to the ship (yes walked - we kind of figured it would be about 40 minutes but it ended up being over an hour, lol. Oh well! My daughter was napping in her stroller this whole time, which was the main reason we wanted to walk)
Falmouth - no excursion booked, but we decided to do a last minute trolly tour (the one that's offered right in the port) the tour was ok cuz Falmouth is really small.. but at least we did something and saw Falmouth. After the tour, we went back on the ship and just relaxed. I watched little mermaid by the pool while my daughter napped, and did Aquaduck again!
Castaway Cay - obviously our favourite port! the beach was great and while it was somewhat crowded, it didn't bother me. My friend and I also swam out and checked out all the underwater treasures while the two guys went nap-strolling the kids. The snorkelling is tiring but with the life vest, it wasn't so bad. (but I wouldn't recommend it for young kids)
Service - we liked our stateroom host and servers. They were all friendly with us and tried their best to remember/accommodate our needs. But with two toddlers at the table, we were mostly just focused on getting them to eat and behave so we didn't have as much interactions with all the servers as we could have had. (my friend's son is a lot more social so he did have fun with the server playing tricks for him, while my daughter is extremely shy so she'd cry if they got too close. boo)
In general, I thought the service throughout the ship was good, but to be fair, my experience on the Oasis was equally good if not better - I am not saying DCL wasn't good, it just didn't seem more extraordinary to me. But they were all very good with the kids though, so that made a big difference.
Food - I am not a picky eater although I could be if I tried - but it's very easy to please me (I have realistic expectations when I'm on vacation) so I was happy every meal. I could always find something to eat.
Remy - DH and I like to check out 3 star restaurants when we travel (if there are any where we go). I think for the price, it was worth the money. The food, in my opinion, was obviously not 3 star standard, but definitely very good for the price. The service was great too.
Some other misc things...
Nursery - we used the nursery for our Remy dinner. I have to say the staff were very good and tried their best with my daughter for sure. I know that she cried on and off for 2/3 hours (we got 2 texts and both said she was still a little upset) but our server at Remy told us that if they don't call us, it means they're still able to handle our daughter. Our friend went to pick her up for us after they finished dining at Palo, they told me that my daughter was actually playing when they arrived while their son as crying, but so were some other kids. It made me feel slightly better that apparently it is pretty normal and they're used to it. (but we decided to cancel our other nursery times because I think my daughter was too upset afterwards)
Shows - only saw Aladdin in full and part of Believe. We were usually too tired (or trying to get my daughter to sleep) but Aladdin was a lot of fun!
Stateroom - 8546, balcony room. Loved it! I didn't think I would enjoy the balcony (I had it in prior cruises and I find it scary looking at the water) but turns out my daughter loved it and always wanted her dad to take her out
Fish Extenders - this is my first DCL cruise, so obviously my first FE experience. One word (or two?): LOVED IT! In fact, I felt a little embarrassed after seeing all the gifts we got!!! gosh, people, how did you stuff all the gifts in your luggage?!?! (we flew so had to be careful with luggage room) I have some pictures of what I gave out and what I got, but of course didn't get everything in pictures!!
Some stuff that I found super useful - travel size wet wipes (you can never have too much with a toddler), travel size sunscreen (this was awesome), crayola soap that came in handy when my daughter was fighting me not to bath. We made some rum and coke ourselves (I'm saving the Baileys for home), crocheted coasters are so cute and amazing, the handmade little seeds, magnet and postcard from your local States, etc. My daughter LOVED all the stickers and glow stuff (btw, there was someone dropping off stickers every other day, even last day of cruise!! Not sure if it was someone in our group or just pixie-duster. But THANK YOU, because seriously, 2 year olds love stickers and it calms her down when she's being annoying) oh, and I have no problem with getting candy. I ate a lot of them during movies! so thank you all! (and there are first aid kits, swim bands, etc.. oh and a cute bouncy ball that my daughter couldn't get enough of until she bounced it onto someone else's balcony. oops)
this is what we gave: essential kit for the parents (though I later realized others also did the same, and mine was not all that exciting, lol) for the young kids, I had a tote bag with frozen themed cutleries, some stickers, crayons (I didn't know there were basically crayons everywhere on the ship..oops. won't be giving those again!) and for the older girls, they got tote bags with their names on them.
anyway, that's it for my summary. I'll try my best to do more detailed report!