First and probably last Disney cruise.

[DCLMP]

I believe there was another thread about the lack of activities on NCL compared to DCL. Now this thread complaining about the lack of activities on DCL. Kind of funny.

 

[starvenger]

I believe there was another thread about the lack of activities on NCL compared to DCL. Now this thread complaining about the lack of activities on DCL. Kind of funny.

Both can be true.

But realistically, it's all dependent on the activities you're looking for. I'm probably a bit easier in that regard - my favourite daytime activity is planning to do activities, then not doing them because I fell asleep by the pool.

 

[Snowwhyt]

I believe there was another thread about the lack of activities on NCL compared to DCL. Now this thread complaining about the lack of activities on DCL. Kind of funny.

But that’s not what I found. It was only on the Fantasy that lacked entertainment. Never been disappointed on Magic or Wonder. And when we were on RCC we found their comedy anything but funny.
I’m platinum soon and traveling except the fist two with adults only.

 

[Grandma4ever]

Just booked for 11/10/2024 (just 2 Adults) and know that DCL will give me what I want. I love the shows and the adult only areas. In the past 10 cruises we have never done too much in additional activities except when in port. I have never cruised with anyone but Disney and love seeing all the families with their kids. I get to see the world through the eyes of all the kids and never need to deal with the meltdown. Disney does such a great job with the kids they have never been an issue on our cruises

 

[knewton64]

S.I.N.K. here and love everything the Disney Corporation has to offer.
*
Now while on a DCL cruise,
I Don't care about the looks nor verbal remarks I get from People (since I am a "S.I.N.K.")
as what they don't understand is I love Disney vacations as it gives me the ability to relax and unwind they way I want to.
*
So as to the Ops original comment about "Not a whole lot of Adult activities" on their DCL Eastern DCL cruise -
*
I'm on or should I say I will be on the November 10th "Merry Time" Fantasy cruise and... well....looking very forward to it and my Veranda, Spa retreats, Room Service, Goofy Golf, Walks/jogs around the ship on deck 4, numerous tastings, Remy, Ice cream, theatre shows, movies (Marvels), HIDING DUCKS, talking with CM's briefly, Tortola, St Thomas, St john and of course, Castaway Cay, numerous shore excursions, HOPEFULLY A CABANA OUT AT CC, the food and People Watching (lots of weddings), etc....
*
So, respectfully speaking, I'm just a wee bit confused as to why the Op thinks there is "Nothing to do" as an Adult on a Disney cruise.....
*
THERE IS -
Ya just gotta look for it.

It's there I assure you.

 

[gisele2]

When we do adult entertainment 18+ on the ship it is usually not even mentioning Disney related content. Family entertainment (any age) usually will include Disney content. My parents, age 80, said “we don’t want to go on a cruise for kids,” But now love Disney entertainment like my DD23. Tried RCC but entertainment was too sexual and menstrual related.
There’s always something if you look at the navigator. (Cooking class, music trivia, alcohol tasting, talks from speakers, smaller live music venues, recent 5ish Disney movies usually only 1 is cartoonish,…)
Where you can’t avoid kid stuff is if you walk through the atrium at dinner. Always characters there for photos. Also Disney music piped throughout the ship in community areas. Except in $$$- restaurants where they play classical music.
Sure live theater usually has a mouse for a few minute’s unless it’s a broadway production. But broadway productions are usually primarily adults in the audience just because of sheer cost on land, outside of the ship’s.
My daughter enjoyed the ship most starting at 18 and still enjoys it now. Love love loved the transatlantic crossing last year at age 22. Wants to do it again!
But if she is an adrenaline junky, maybe just the activities at port might not be enough to satisfy her. That Disney ship hasn’t been built yet. They need 2 ships to address the adrenaline 15-30 crowd.
Currently we are happy with the multi-generational appeal of the ships and the cleaner comedy they offer.
But the Fantasy was awful for adult entertainment. Try Magic or Wonder, I haven’t been on the Dream so can’t speak to that ship.

Thanks for your comments, did not know the Disney Ships were so different. Maybe will try again.

 

[DCLMP]

Thanks for your comments, did not know the Disney Ships were so different. Maybe will try again.

The ships are the same when it comes to adult entertainment. Some cruises may be better than others, but it has nothing to do with the ship.

 

[Karin1984]

The ships are the same when it comes to adult entertainment. Some cruises may be better than others, but it has nothing to do with the ship.

True, basically everything stands and falls with the CM leading the activity. On my last transatlantic cruise we had a tea demonstration/tasting. The CM was not engaging, did not speak clearly and it was just an overall dud. While the activity itself could have been interesting.

On another cruise we had a CM leading an animation class while she couldn't draw (which she admitted herself).

Some photographers just snap posed pictures with character meet & greets, some understand that its the interaction that makes the memory.

Like you can have a good server team and a bad one, the same goes for all activities. Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not.

 

[Geomom]

Thanks for your comments, did not know the Disney Ships were so different. Maybe will try again.

I think the only real difference is if you do a cruise with lots of sea days--transatlantic or panama canal. Because they need to fill so much time on a more adult filled cruise (few people pull their kids out of school for 2 weeks), there are a lot more adult activities. I know the panama canal one has had dance instructors on board, special talks by former imagineers or Disney Broadway singers, adult only times in the kids clubs late at night, extra free tastings like cheese or olive oil. But... you're still not getting much for activities after midnight, because it's a Disney cruise...it's just not a late night party cruise line.

 

[beckicnm]

We did a 7 night Southern Caribbean from San Juan on Summit, an older ship, in 2018. It was great! We did have a suite, which helps. The service was great; food was great, especially at the Suite restaurant. It was an older crowd though. Not completely geriatric, but definitely more retirees or close to it. I don’t think a teeny year old would enjoy it. However, apparently the newer ships in the summer, especially in Europe, are full of teens and college age. Probably not as many kids as DCL though. We will see, since we are doing a Europe cruise on one of the newest ships this month.

Are you going on Beyond? I will be on her this fall.

 

[soniam]

Are you going on Beyond? I will be on her this fall.

Yes, on 7/17 for an 11 night Italy/Greece/Turkey. It will be our first Edge class ship.

 

[bmalonef45]

We did a 6 night on the Magic last fall. It was just 4 adults and 3/4 of us were on our first DCL cruise. It was my 6th but first without kids. We had an absolute blast doing adulting things. We loved the trivia and bingo (but played too much bingo won't do that much again). Did 3 different alcohol tasting events and enjoyed them as well. What was really cool was finding adult friends (that weren't traveling with kids) and hanging out with them throughout the cruise from time to time.

I agree with others, it's more the CMs than the ships and if you have a good group of CMs they become part of your friend group as well and it just makes the experience even better. It was also interesting to see how our friends who don't drink the Disney cool aid reacted to the experience. They were both impressed by the attention to detail and the commitment from the CMs to the overall guest experience. My fiancé, who drinks the cool aid by the gallon could have met Mickey every night and was in heaven. But I know that isn't everyone.

We did a couples massage which was expensive but the best couples massage we've ever experience. Our bar bills were high, our shopping ones too, but we enjoyed the experience and while it was a 1/2 empty ship due to it being a repositioning cruise, there were still plenty of families and kids on board yet we didn't feel like we were out of place on a kids cruise at all. There was also no stops at Castaway so that was different for me.

We are doing a 10 night southern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy next summer for our honeymoon and we are beyond excited for the extended time, new ports and the opportunity to introduce my new wife to another new DCL ship. We get to stop at both the new island and Castaway and I'm sure we'll get to do many more adults only things while there as well.

I know DCL isn't for everyone and I completely appreciate the OP's perspective. As many others have said, I'd encourage you to try it again if you like, but if value/price is part of the issue, DCL doesn't stack up too well in that area in my opinion and if you're not drinking the cool aid, it definitely won't be a great experience.

 

[DCLMP]

Yes, on 7/17 for an 11 night Italy/Greece/Turkey. It will be our first Edge class ship.

Have you been to Turkey before?

 

[soniam]

Have you been to Turkey before?

No. Greece either. Italy yes.

 

[DCLMP]

No. Greece either. Italy yes.

If you visit one of the carpet-weaving shops on an excursion expect some aggressive salespeople. The rugs are only like 5k and up, Not a big deal right? I don't think anyone on our tour bought one. It's not exactly a spur of the moment purchase for most people.

The Turkish people are really nice, but they're also funny. They have a lot of shops with imitation designer purses. One guy tried to convince me the purses were made in America. My teenage son couldn't stop laughing at that....nothing is made in America.

I hope you get to Chania. My favorite port. We did a Segway tour there. It was fantastic. There are so many little streets to go down it would be hard to see it all walking. The food is amazing is so is the white wine. There are a lot of restaurants along the waterfront so leave some room for eating. Leave some room for Gelato too.

Santorini is also amazing....did I mention the food and the wine? I can't wait to go back to Greece again. I was just there two months ago and I'm jealous.

 

[o&smom]

Made me laugh - how much do you want to do? It is a vacation. LOL.

When we cruise we spend most of our time enjoying the sea view. We stay aft on the extended verandas. We rarely do the dinners, preferring a cheese try and a salad on the veranda. Amusing how different we all are = diversity!

Just got off an 11 nt Med on the Dream on one of those extended aft verandas on Saturday...heaven!

 

[kittylady1972]

We did a 6 night on the Magic last fall. It was just 4 adults and 3/4 of us were on our first DCL cruise. It was my 6th but first without kids. We had an absolute blast doing adulting things. We loved the trivia and bingo (but played too much bingo won't do that much again). Did 3 different alcohol tasting events and enjoyed them as well. What was really cool was finding adult friends (that weren't traveling with kids) and hanging out with them throughout the cruise from time to time.

I agree with others, it's more the CMs than the ships and if you have a good group of CMs they become part of your friend group as well and it just makes the experience even better. It was also interesting to see how our friends who don't drink the Disney cool aid reacted to the experience. They were both impressed by the attention to detail and the commitment from the CMs to the overall guest experience. My fiancé, who drinks the cool aid by the gallon could have met Mickey every night and was in heaven. But I know that isn't everyone.

We did a couples massage which was expensive but the best couples massage we've ever experience. Our bar bills were high, our shopping ones too, but we enjoyed the experience and while it was a 1/2 empty ship due to it being a repositioning cruise, there were still plenty of families and kids on board yet we didn't feel like we were out of place on a kids cruise at all. There was also no stops at Castaway so that was different for me.

Everybody has their own experiences. My DH and I have done Disney cruises with and without kids. Last October we convinced a group of 8 other adults to join us on a 5 night cruise out of Miami on the Dream. Some of them were first time cruisers. Some were new to Disney cruising but had done one or two other cruises. Most were not big Disney people like us. We had so much fun we talk about it almost every time we get together. We even discussed trying another cruise line more catered to adults, but the consensus was that at least with Disney we had our own areas without kids and fewer adults.

We ALL dressed up for Pirate Night and Halloween and participated in the adults only costume party. We attended several adult events in the adult areas, such as trivia and silent dance party and other adult gameshows. Several people attended the tasting events and enjoyed them. We always tried to get to the trivia events and happy hours and some of us played Bingo. We definitely enjoyed hanging at the adult pool from the morning to afternoon, meeting other adults, getting to know the bartenders and staff at several locations. People would approach us at dinner and ask if we were all one big family because we clearly were enjoying ourselves.

The disappointing part was the food, we had really hyped up the food and service in the dining rooms and they really failed us on this, to the point that it was comical. Our server didn't have a reliable helper and was overwhelmed clearly. He tried I guess. We didn't always hang out all together all the time which was fine. We stopped at Grand Cayman and CC and enjoyed both stops, even though CC wasn't the best weather. We didn't do any of the adult dining rooms, which I definitely missed and we will make it a point to go to those on our next cruise in November, but this time it will likely only be two of us as the timing didn't work out for the others.

I will say the host of the adult activities was just GREAT and really made it for us, always remembering people from previous events. Honestly by the time midnight rolled around our 50+ selves were ready to get to bed and start again the next day, so not having late nights was okay with us. Now we did have the early dinner and next cruise we are trying late dinner for the first time to see how that works out. We only saw one theater show (and that was just 4 of the girls) and two couples got the rainforest room pass which was okay...but not my thing. Another female in our group had the massage at CC and declared it GREAT.

It's definitely an experience that you have to make the best of depending on what you like to do on cruises. I honestly would have preferred more down time and will try to do that more next time around.

 

[DCLMP]

Just got off an 11 nt Med on the Dream on one of those extended aft verandas on Saturday...heaven!

How was the food and service?

 

[Mrlogboy]

Thanks for your review. I always read how adults loved the Disney cruise experience so it's good to hear a different point of view. I always considered disney, but every time I look at their pricing vs all the perks I can get on any other line, I could never pull the trigger.

Virgin looks great - except I dislike electronic/trance and hip hop genres of music- and from the reviews I've been reading on FB and cruise critic, I hear that's most of what's playing at really loud volumes all day - DJ at the pool, in common areas, etc.

Virgin might be our next cruise as


Virgin looks great - especially as I like (and wife like electronic/trance and hip hop genres of music- and from the reviews I've been reading on FB and cruise critic, I hear that's most of what's playing at really loud volumes all day - DJ at the pool, in common areas, etc.

So as others say to each their own lol

We are 2 adults and had way to many Choices on our Alaska cruise last fall

 

[gisele2]

Virgin might be our next cruise as


Virgin looks great - especially as I like (and wife like electronic/trance and hip hop genres of music- and from the reviews I've been reading on FB and cruise critic, I hear that's most of what's playing at really loud volumes all day - DJ at the pool, in common areas, etc.

So as others say to each their own lol

We are 2 adults and had way to many Choices on our Alaska cruise last fall

On Virgin, outside of the pool area the music is not loud. You have also a lot of places inside and outside to hangout with different vibes.
The food is excellent.
What I like the most (aside from the food) is all the fitness classes.