cruisenewbie2004
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2004
- Messages
- 206
Here it is. No time for a big long review so I'll cut to the chase:
Overall: Excellent
Cabin: Had a veranda room but it was still tight for 4 people (two small children). We fumbled around a bit and seemed to never find what we were looking for. Room could have used more drawer storage. Boy does the toilet area remind me of an airplane! And WHOOSH! Room was VERY quiet overall.
Food: I was expecting it to be good, but not great, and I was really impressed in the end. Dining room food was overall very good. Really. Topsiders was fine, above average, and good. We did not snack at the outside place, but we did have ice cream twice and it was very good, if a little runny. Lots of fresh fruit. Really something for everyone.
Servers: We had Ronald and Jira. Both were really excellent and I was sad to leave them. We enjoyed dinners very much and they made it a pleasure.
Shows: Golden Mickeys was the best. Hercules I just could not hear well. No one in our party could understand what was being said. Lots of singinging and humor, but what they were actually saying, who knows. We didn't do WWTBAM.
Weather: Lousy. Two nice days (morning in St Martin and St Thomas all day) but otherwise cool and on Thursday we had a gale and the ship was like a roller coaster. I had been taking meds all week and on this day I felt LOUSY. People running past throwing up. For those not gale days I STILL felt the boat moving quite a bit.
Shore Excursions: Did bus tour in St Martins (very nice) and went on our own to Coral World (what a rip off!) and went to Coki beach next door (tiny tiny and packed). Would not recommend either place nor the local taxi drivers who I felt were rude and who drove like maniacs.
Kids clubs: My daughter enjoyed these immensely. My son was not potty trained and I would now not recommend travelling on DCL until both kids can participate more because this made life difficult since he could not go alone.
Ship: The ship was very nice and very clean. It was really very elegant and for a first time cruiser, I was impressed. The Mickey Horn was fun, too.
Here's a tip: if you have scanner radios (hand held) take them aboard and you can listen to some of the ships radio communications. We heard lots of interesting things between the captain and the docks, harbors etc. You won't pick up anything like the kids clubs, or even house keeping or most any internal communications bec that's on a private system, but it was interesting to hear the captain give the dock attendents an earful on Castaway Cay when they made him 10 minutes late because they didn't work the ropes correctly. They run a tight ship on DCL.
So overall we had a lovely time and it went smoothly and really no complaints except the weather. We'd probably do it again in a couple of years.
Overall: Excellent
Cabin: Had a veranda room but it was still tight for 4 people (two small children). We fumbled around a bit and seemed to never find what we were looking for. Room could have used more drawer storage. Boy does the toilet area remind me of an airplane! And WHOOSH! Room was VERY quiet overall.
Food: I was expecting it to be good, but not great, and I was really impressed in the end. Dining room food was overall very good. Really. Topsiders was fine, above average, and good. We did not snack at the outside place, but we did have ice cream twice and it was very good, if a little runny. Lots of fresh fruit. Really something for everyone.
Servers: We had Ronald and Jira. Both were really excellent and I was sad to leave them. We enjoyed dinners very much and they made it a pleasure.
Shows: Golden Mickeys was the best. Hercules I just could not hear well. No one in our party could understand what was being said. Lots of singinging and humor, but what they were actually saying, who knows. We didn't do WWTBAM.
Weather: Lousy. Two nice days (morning in St Martin and St Thomas all day) but otherwise cool and on Thursday we had a gale and the ship was like a roller coaster. I had been taking meds all week and on this day I felt LOUSY. People running past throwing up. For those not gale days I STILL felt the boat moving quite a bit.
Shore Excursions: Did bus tour in St Martins (very nice) and went on our own to Coral World (what a rip off!) and went to Coki beach next door (tiny tiny and packed). Would not recommend either place nor the local taxi drivers who I felt were rude and who drove like maniacs.
Kids clubs: My daughter enjoyed these immensely. My son was not potty trained and I would now not recommend travelling on DCL until both kids can participate more because this made life difficult since he could not go alone.
Ship: The ship was very nice and very clean. It was really very elegant and for a first time cruiser, I was impressed. The Mickey Horn was fun, too.
Here's a tip: if you have scanner radios (hand held) take them aboard and you can listen to some of the ships radio communications. We heard lots of interesting things between the captain and the docks, harbors etc. You won't pick up anything like the kids clubs, or even house keeping or most any internal communications bec that's on a private system, but it was interesting to hear the captain give the dock attendents an earful on Castaway Cay when they made him 10 minutes late because they didn't work the ropes correctly. They run a tight ship on DCL.
So overall we had a lovely time and it went smoothly and really no complaints except the weather. We'd probably do it again in a couple of years.
:thewave: :space:
