Please refresh my memory

[bytheblood]

We have not taken a Disney cruise since 2002. We just returned from a Carnival cruise and all I can say is NEVER AGAIN. Next time we are going with Princess or Celebrity. Nothing against Disney, but I would not book Disney for an adult only vacation. We do want to do a family cruise in a few years and that wil certainly be Disney.

Anywho - here are my questions......

What is the going rate for Palo these days?
Does Disney still offer the portraits they take to be offered in packages instead of a price per each?
Are the dinners on Disney still very good with a lot of choices?
Does Disney offer a midnight buffet?


I know I can look this all up online with a little google "re"search, but thought I would get the quick (and lazy way) answers from the experts.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Palo is $15 per person.

Shutter's still offers several different packages with 2 difference size photos.

I thought the dinners were good and there are still a lot of options with different themes each night.

The 7 night cruises offer dessert buffet on Thursday nights at 11:00 PM. There is also a late night buffet offered during the Pirate party on Deck 9.

 

[Toddymae]

Sorry that you think Disney isn't an 'adult only' cruise. I just finished my 21st cruise and they've all been adult only. I find the ship very relaxing and yes quiet. And there is a lot to do or nothing to do - just depends on you. Try a Disney adult only cruise and maybe a romantic spa experience - you'll love it.

Hope to see you soon an a Disney Magical Cruise.

 

[kcashner]

If you never want to see kids, DCL is definitely not the place for you. However, if you want wonderful times in adult only areas and can tolerate kids at late seating dinner....well, we now travel as "adults only," and I thought DCL was great with kids. It's better without them! Can you whisper "Serenity Bay?"

 

[belle26]

i agree with the above poster, we've taken many Disney cruises and we have no children. We have done Princess and while we totally enjoyed them, we keep coming back to Disney for the great experience.

 

[bytheblood]

If you never want to see kids, DCL is definitely not the place for you. However, if you want wonderful times in adult only areas and can tolerate kids at late seating dinner....well, we now travel as "adults only," and I thought DCL was great with kids. It's better without them! Can you whisper "Serenity Bay?"

Let's not read too much into my desire for an adult only vacation. Has nothing do with NEVER wanting to see kids. My husband and I want to take a cruise without our kid, so for that cruise we are leaning towards Celebrity, Princess or even Cunard. Fine dining, dressing up each night, etc is our idea of a kidless vacation. We won't get that on DCL (not on the same scale) - but DCL beats Carnival and RCC any day - - especially for a family vacation.

 

[pebbles]

Just curious as to what you didn't like about Carnival? Were you on a short cruise? My dad just got back from an 8 day on the Miracle and really enjoyed himself. We were thinking about trying the Carnival Dream (newest ship) in 2010 because Disney will be in Europe. I'd love to hear your experience because we also are looking at Princess.

 

[Capt_BJ]

if you want 'adult' & are not afraid of DCL prices

look into WINDSTAR .. not (m)any kids around with high service levels. I'd even go so far as to say avoid WINDSURF their 'large' ship...but even that is small by current standards

 

[disneylove69]

I did Celebrity and hated it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They only let certain people participate in activites if and when they had them. My mom wanted to participate in a group activity and they told her no in a humiliating it made her cry. HAL was good and Disney rules. I heard good thing about Princess.

 

[bytheblood]

Just curious as to what you didn't like about Carnival? Were you on a short cruise? My dad just got back from an 8 day on the Miracle and really enjoyed himself. We were thinking about trying the Carnival Dream (newest ship) in 2010 because Disney will be in Europe. I'd love to hear your experience because we also are looking at Princess.

Well - there were a lot of reasons. We took a 7-night cruise out of Galveston.

• Every room was filled with smoke. People smoking in the hallways to their cabin, people smoking in the elevators, people smoked everywhere without care or regard for the other guests.
• The cabins were small, the bathrooms were tiny, the beds were uncomfortable, the hallways were very noisy.
• The food in the main dining rooms left a lot to be desired. The servers were fantastic, however. The options and quality of the food was not that impressive. The buffets were decent. In most cases, they were better than the main dining rooms. **I do have to add, that the Supper Club was phenominal and worth the $30 per person fee as well as the extra tip we gave them. This blows Palo away!!
• The entertainment was terrible. The only good show we saw was the motown singer - that was a fun night. The stage shows were very risque, especially for showing them at 8 PM. The showgirls are nothing I would want my kid to see. The shows were not that great in quality. The vocals were so-so, the content was silly and the whole purpose in the show was for the dancers to show their back sides.
• The onboard entertainment was not great either. There was one night of team competitions that was fun, but the rest of the time it was a lot of nothing. They had some breakdancers they kept pushing on us (like 5 times) and they were terrible.
• One other thing we really did not like is that EVERYTHING comes with a sales pitch. Somebody was always trying to sell something to you.
• I know Carnival calls their ships the "Fun Ship Cruise" but we realized it was the "Drunk Ship Cruise" in about 2 days. Everybody is drunk around the clock. People were sitting by the pool aleady drunk at 9 AM every morning.

If we were big drinkers, liked to walk around in as little clothes as possible (not referring to the Lido deck or pool area), smoked and could not wait to get in a smoking area before lighting up and were not rule follwers, this would have been the cruise for us. I have no issue with men and women dressing in whatever they are comfortable in, but when people are getting in the buffet line with no shirts on and women barely covering the "center of their breast area" - I have to draw a line on a difference in class. We are just very different than that. We compared everything to the Disney Cruise line and the only thing we found that we liked better was the Supper Club over Palo and the fact that Carnival offers casinos.

 

[pebbles]

Thank you for your reply.

 

[calmpets]

My dad sailed on Carnival about a year ago - three out of four in his party got sick with flu by the time they got off. He said that while DCL is impeccably clean and hands you sanitizer every time you turn around, he thinks Carnival may have hosed the ship down between sailings and called it good. He actually jokes about being afraid to touch anything they send him in the mail, for fear of catching the plague again. Taking the fact that everyone got sick out of it, he said it was okay but didn't have as many adult seminar type activities as DCL (martini tasting, putting contest, etc), and that the casino was the main adult entertainment. Just not his cup of tea, and he'll be sticking with DCL in the future.

 

[bytheblood]

My dad sailed on Carnival about a year ago - three out of four in his party got sick with flu by the time they got off. He said that while DCL is impeccably clean and hands you sanitizer every time you turn around, he thinks Carnival may have hosed the ship down between sailings and called it good. He actually jokes about being afraid to touch anything they send him in the mail, for fear of catching the plague again. Taking the fact that everyone got sick out of it, he said it was okay but didn't have as many adult seminar type activities as DCL (martini tasting, putting contest, etc), and that the casino was the main adult entertainment. Just not his cup of tea, and he'll be sticking with DCL in the future.

The Carnival Conquest has auto-dispense hand santitizing machines all over the place (where there is food), but they did not clean all areas properly. When we went into port, they were scrubbing down the walls and the room stewards did an impecable job of cleaning each time they entered our room. I do have to say that although the dining and main areas were clean, the outside areas were always free of trash, but still not what I call clean. All of the chairs were sticky - and I do mean every one that we tried. They sprayed down the decks a lot, but I never saw any chemicals.

As for the entertainment, you saw what I said above. I have to agree there. They did have putting on Carnival - and a lot of it.

 

[calmpets]

The Carnival Conquest has auto-dispense hand santitizing machines all over the place (where there is food), but they did not clean all areas properly. When we went into port, they were scrubbing down the walls and the room stewards did an impecable job of cleaning each time they entered our room. I do have to say that although the dining and main areas were clean, the outside areas were always free of trash, but still not what I call clean. All of the chairs were sticky - and I do mean every one that we tried. They sprayed down the decks a lot, but I never saw any chemicals.

My dad did say that there were sanitizing machines outside the restaurants, but without the CMs shoving wipes at you, the majority of people didn't use them.

 

[disneylove69]

They say you get what you pay for. You wonder how Carnival can charge so low a price for everything. Maybe cleaning supplies are not in the budget. lol

 

[pebbles]

OK, you guys are scaring me, LOL Does anyone have experience with HAL or Princess?

 

[bytheblood]

They say you get what you pay for. You wonder how Carnival can charge so low a price for everything. Maybe cleaning supplies are not in the budget. lol

Possibly. You could be on to something there.

Although - we paid nearly 2K before boarding the ship and that was with a very nice military discount. Had we not recieved that discount, it would have been $2800. I should have paid the extra and sailed Princess or Celebrity. That does not include our tab of $900 when we got off. From what they made on all of those people drinking their mixed drinks with no alcohol in them, I know they could have purchased some industrial bleach or ammonia at least. $8 a drink for flavored ice.

But it was a lesson learned - I will never sail Carnival again. My husband said that Carnival is Wal-Mart and I am more Macy's or Neiman Marcus - so I was shopping at the wrong store. He said he is more Kohl's to Dillards, so Wal-Mart did not have what he was looking for either. Men and their silly analogies.

With all of the sales pitches and how much extra is being pushed on people, I guarantee you that Carnival is making money!

Something good really came from the cruise - my husband and I had some beautiful quality time together and fell in love all over again after 16 years. That "love" came home with us as well. That was worth every penny.

 

[bytheblood]

My dad did say that there were sanitizing machines outside the restaurants, but without the CMs shoving wipes at you, the majority of people didn't use them.

I would agree with that. Many people would touch the handrails, elevator walls and buttons, buffet line utencils and then sit down and eat without cleaning their hands.

We went to Tortuga in the Cayman Islands to purchase some duty free liquor (Amaretto for cooking) and they had their "famous" rum cakes out to sample. We saw one girl put her fingernail inside her nose while deciding what she wanted and then reached in with that ame hand using that same finger to get a piece of the cake. They supplied tongs for you to get the cake - but she needed to use her boogie finger I guess. I made a mental note of her face and made sure to stay away from her on the ship.