This was our first DCL cruise. This was our first cruise with our daughter - DH (35yr old) myself (32 yr old) and DD (3 yr old). DH and I have been on several Carnival & RCL cruises before.
We had such a fun time and can't wait to do it again! 3 days go by SO quickly and all blur together but here is what I can remember....
1. Embarkation - we drove to the port (we live just 2 hours away) and arrived about about 12:30. There were LOTS of people in the terminal but we moved through the lines pretty quickly. There were just a few in front of us for check in. They were calling group 19 when we arrived and we were given 26. It took less than 20 minutes for our group to be called and we spent that time waiting in line to register DD for the kids club. All in all it was very easy.
2. Food - best I've ever had on a cruise. We ate at Cabana's, the grill/pizza/sandwich area and all 3 dinning rooms. Never disappointed. The grill, etc area was cheaper, low quality food but that was expected. Our servers were awesome. Remembered what we wanted to drink each night without asking and were attentive without being bothersome.
3. Pools, etc - CROWDED. If you can't deal with crowds and kids you might as well avoid deck 11 completely. We were literally dodging other people, their kids an CMs just trying to walk down from one end to the other. We only tried the Mickey pool once while we were in Nassau as we stayed onboard this day and it was a little less crowded but still couldn't really move around - kids splashing/jumping/kicking everywhere. We enjoyed it with DD for about 15 minutes. DH and I did the Aqua Duck late that afternoon as they were setting up for the Pirate Party and had all the pools covered and were able to ride it 3 times in about 20-30 mins! It was awesome.
There were almost never any chairs available. I think there might have been at the most 100 chairs for 4000 people. Insane. Nemo's reef is pretty cool for the kids and the water is heated. Loved that! It is also crowded and quite possibly the loudest place on the boat. Make sure you have a drink or two before going in with your kid is my best advice. 
4. Kid's Club - DD loved it. We were very happy with the CMs here and were a little worried after reading some bad reviews about it. It is true that they didn't give a ton of one on one attention to the kids but DD still had a great time and loved the "people with the yellow shirts". We hyped it up before the cruise about this special club just for kids and went to the open house pretty quickly upon getting on the boat to show here around. We didn't stay too long...just enough to get her excited about it and wanting to go back. We literally had to carry her out crying that night because she didn't want to leave. The next day however we had a mixology class to attend and had to wake DD from her nap early to get her to the club so we could make the class. She was not happy about this.
They texted us on our wave phone about 15 minutes or so and said she was upset and crying but they were trying to get her involved in activities. We didn't hear anything else so went to check on her after our class was over and she wanted to stay! I think she was just grouchy from being woke up. I really really appriciated the fact that they kept us informed about what was going on and made us really trust them that much more from then on. Anytime she told them she was all done playing and wanted us to come get her they would text us that she would like to be picked up and that was that. We were very much put at ease leaving her there and she loved it! There really wasn't that much to do for a young child her age other than run around and "play" in the rooms (there are no toys or such in the rooms - just things like andy's room and monsters inc which just have large figures or buttons, etc in them to push. unless there were structured activites going on because a lot of the rooms were all about computers, technology, etc that she was just too young for. I think because of this she may have burned out a little quicker but still said it was one of her favorite parts of the cruise! We really liked that the characters seemed to visit the club often. She talked about seeing Tinkerbell, Stich, mickey, minnie, donald, and what she called a "green girl" that sounded like an army figure from toy story. When we would see some of the CMs from the club they would say hi to her and remember her name. This was a nice touch.
5. Shows - very good. We saw Golden Mickey's and Believe. Believe was AMAZING and is not to be missed! We skipped Villians as we were doing other things and had also heard it could be scary for little ones. We didn't go to the Pirate party but did attend the fireworks were were much better than we expected. They had a short show with the fireworks that was a little much for many of the little ones we saw. The pirates were very scary looking, loud and shooting guns. DD did ok when we got into it with her but we saw many people leaving. We stood against the railing on deck 12 and had a great view. This was crowded beyond what you could imagine. We arrived very early and got good spots but people - grown adults - were pushing 3yr old DD out of the way, stepping on her feet, and otherwise bullying their way in front of us. We had to be quite rude just to stand our ground and not be pushed to the back of the crowd. I would not miss the fireworks but would not stay for the little show they did afterwards. They also had a fun dance party after but by then it was after 11pm and we needed to get to bed. The sailing away party was also a lot of fun and we arrived early (maybe 10-15 minutes) and got front row seats which I think made it a lot of fun for us.
6. Ports of call. We skipped Nassau as we have been here a few times and wanted to stay onboard and explore the boat. Castaway Cay was beautiful and Disney did a great job with it. The water was REALLY cold when we visited but forced ourselves in and had fun swimming. We are used to waves here in FL so it was nice for DD to play at the edge without worrying about that as there are no waves at all here. It's also pretty shallow for a ways out and DD likes to be able to touch the bottom so she had lots of room to swim with chest/shoulder high water. Also crowded although not near as bad as the pool deck onboard. The 1st family beach seemed to be the best area. We did not visit Serenty Bay but can imagine that without kids it would have been amazing. DD visited Scuttles Cove for an hour or so and liked it. It looked like lots of fun over there and I think she would have stayed even longer but was pretty wiped out by this time so we headed back to the ship for a nap. The food was pretty good at Cookies and the drink special on the island tasted like heaven but was really weak. You would need 3 to equal what one should be - and I'm not a heavy drinker!
7. Room - We were in a 4A Family Deluxe with Verandah and this was by far the best room we have ever had on a cruise. It was bigger than the grand suite we splurged on during a carnival cruise once! We had plently of room for the 3 of us and never once complained about being cramped. We booked a GTY room and were upgraded to the Family size and now I don't know if I could do it any other way. It was one of the best parts of our trip.
8. Staff (CMs) - most were very cheerful and helpful. I was also suprised at how many just looked unhappy to be there. Especially on deck 11 they all seemed to rather be anywhere else but there - and I don't blame them. No one was outright rude but they made it clear to me that they were not enjoying themselves. Simple things like not smiling or saying hello stuck out to me. They looked unhappy and tired.
9. Activites - our cruise was so short we really didn't have time to do much and when we had free time when DD was in the Kids club there always seemed to be nothing for us to do during these exact times. We did the "art of the theme" ship tour and a mixology class. Both only had two other people in attendance and were nice and laid back. We played bingo once which was very cruise ship-like (we won a raffle during bingo for a free 8x10 which was nice!!!). There was a show and dinner every evening - we had late seating - which filled our evenings nicely but we didn't have time for much else.
10. My biggest pet peeve - elevators. Oh my....waiting for elevators took a large part of our time. Especially with a 3 year old you just can't walk 10 flights of stairs many times. Almost every. single. time an elevator opened they were full.
11. The ship - blew us away. We were very impressed at the quality. Everything seemed first class and no detail overlooked. We were under-impressed with the size. 80% or more of this boat are rooms. There are actually very few public areas outside the theaters and dining rooms. We expected a little more I guess with the ship's size but can't say we were unhappy with it. My hubby watched Avengers in 3D and said it was great and the theater quality was amazing!
12. We can't wait to do it again but will make sure it is at least a 5 night. You really just need more time to enjoy it all. We chose a 3 night as a trial for DD and since she LOVED it, we will do it again. I do wish the smaller ships sailed out of PC because I think we would enjoy them so much better but we are not willing to fly somewhere to cruise just yet. Hopefully they will return one day.
I'll be happy to answer any questions for anyone!
We had such a fun time and can't wait to do it again! 3 days go by SO quickly and all blur together but here is what I can remember....
1. Embarkation - we drove to the port (we live just 2 hours away) and arrived about about 12:30. There were LOTS of people in the terminal but we moved through the lines pretty quickly. There were just a few in front of us for check in. They were calling group 19 when we arrived and we were given 26. It took less than 20 minutes for our group to be called and we spent that time waiting in line to register DD for the kids club. All in all it was very easy.
2. Food - best I've ever had on a cruise. We ate at Cabana's, the grill/pizza/sandwich area and all 3 dinning rooms. Never disappointed. The grill, etc area was cheaper, low quality food but that was expected. Our servers were awesome. Remembered what we wanted to drink each night without asking and were attentive without being bothersome.
3. Pools, etc - CROWDED. If you can't deal with crowds and kids you might as well avoid deck 11 completely. We were literally dodging other people, their kids an CMs just trying to walk down from one end to the other. We only tried the Mickey pool once while we were in Nassau as we stayed onboard this day and it was a little less crowded but still couldn't really move around - kids splashing/jumping/kicking everywhere. We enjoyed it with DD for about 15 minutes. DH and I did the Aqua Duck late that afternoon as they were setting up for the Pirate Party and had all the pools covered and were able to ride it 3 times in about 20-30 mins! It was awesome.
There were almost never any chairs available. I think there might have been at the most 100 chairs for 4000 people. Insane. Nemo's reef is pretty cool for the kids and the water is heated. Loved that! It is also crowded and quite possibly the loudest place on the boat. Make sure you have a drink or two before going in with your kid is my best advice. 4. Kid's Club - DD loved it. We were very happy with the CMs here and were a little worried after reading some bad reviews about it. It is true that they didn't give a ton of one on one attention to the kids but DD still had a great time and loved the "people with the yellow shirts". We hyped it up before the cruise about this special club just for kids and went to the open house pretty quickly upon getting on the boat to show here around. We didn't stay too long...just enough to get her excited about it and wanting to go back. We literally had to carry her out crying that night because she didn't want to leave. The next day however we had a mixology class to attend and had to wake DD from her nap early to get her to the club so we could make the class. She was not happy about this.
They texted us on our wave phone about 15 minutes or so and said she was upset and crying but they were trying to get her involved in activities. We didn't hear anything else so went to check on her after our class was over and she wanted to stay! I think she was just grouchy from being woke up. I really really appriciated the fact that they kept us informed about what was going on and made us really trust them that much more from then on. Anytime she told them she was all done playing and wanted us to come get her they would text us that she would like to be picked up and that was that. We were very much put at ease leaving her there and she loved it! There really wasn't that much to do for a young child her age other than run around and "play" in the rooms (there are no toys or such in the rooms - just things like andy's room and monsters inc which just have large figures or buttons, etc in them to push. unless there were structured activites going on because a lot of the rooms were all about computers, technology, etc that she was just too young for. I think because of this she may have burned out a little quicker but still said it was one of her favorite parts of the cruise! We really liked that the characters seemed to visit the club often. She talked about seeing Tinkerbell, Stich, mickey, minnie, donald, and what she called a "green girl" that sounded like an army figure from toy story. When we would see some of the CMs from the club they would say hi to her and remember her name. This was a nice touch.5. Shows - very good. We saw Golden Mickey's and Believe. Believe was AMAZING and is not to be missed! We skipped Villians as we were doing other things and had also heard it could be scary for little ones. We didn't go to the Pirate party but did attend the fireworks were were much better than we expected. They had a short show with the fireworks that was a little much for many of the little ones we saw. The pirates were very scary looking, loud and shooting guns. DD did ok when we got into it with her but we saw many people leaving. We stood against the railing on deck 12 and had a great view. This was crowded beyond what you could imagine. We arrived very early and got good spots but people - grown adults - were pushing 3yr old DD out of the way, stepping on her feet, and otherwise bullying their way in front of us. We had to be quite rude just to stand our ground and not be pushed to the back of the crowd. I would not miss the fireworks but would not stay for the little show they did afterwards. They also had a fun dance party after but by then it was after 11pm and we needed to get to bed. The sailing away party was also a lot of fun and we arrived early (maybe 10-15 minutes) and got front row seats which I think made it a lot of fun for us.
6. Ports of call. We skipped Nassau as we have been here a few times and wanted to stay onboard and explore the boat. Castaway Cay was beautiful and Disney did a great job with it. The water was REALLY cold when we visited but forced ourselves in and had fun swimming. We are used to waves here in FL so it was nice for DD to play at the edge without worrying about that as there are no waves at all here. It's also pretty shallow for a ways out and DD likes to be able to touch the bottom so she had lots of room to swim with chest/shoulder high water. Also crowded although not near as bad as the pool deck onboard. The 1st family beach seemed to be the best area. We did not visit Serenty Bay but can imagine that without kids it would have been amazing. DD visited Scuttles Cove for an hour or so and liked it. It looked like lots of fun over there and I think she would have stayed even longer but was pretty wiped out by this time so we headed back to the ship for a nap. The food was pretty good at Cookies and the drink special on the island tasted like heaven but was really weak. You would need 3 to equal what one should be - and I'm not a heavy drinker!
7. Room - We were in a 4A Family Deluxe with Verandah and this was by far the best room we have ever had on a cruise. It was bigger than the grand suite we splurged on during a carnival cruise once! We had plently of room for the 3 of us and never once complained about being cramped. We booked a GTY room and were upgraded to the Family size and now I don't know if I could do it any other way. It was one of the best parts of our trip.
8. Staff (CMs) - most were very cheerful and helpful. I was also suprised at how many just looked unhappy to be there. Especially on deck 11 they all seemed to rather be anywhere else but there - and I don't blame them. No one was outright rude but they made it clear to me that they were not enjoying themselves. Simple things like not smiling or saying hello stuck out to me. They looked unhappy and tired.
9. Activites - our cruise was so short we really didn't have time to do much and when we had free time when DD was in the Kids club there always seemed to be nothing for us to do during these exact times. We did the "art of the theme" ship tour and a mixology class. Both only had two other people in attendance and were nice and laid back. We played bingo once which was very cruise ship-like (we won a raffle during bingo for a free 8x10 which was nice!!!). There was a show and dinner every evening - we had late seating - which filled our evenings nicely but we didn't have time for much else.
10. My biggest pet peeve - elevators. Oh my....waiting for elevators took a large part of our time. Especially with a 3 year old you just can't walk 10 flights of stairs many times. Almost every. single. time an elevator opened they were full.
11. The ship - blew us away. We were very impressed at the quality. Everything seemed first class and no detail overlooked. We were under-impressed with the size. 80% or more of this boat are rooms. There are actually very few public areas outside the theaters and dining rooms. We expected a little more I guess with the ship's size but can't say we were unhappy with it. My hubby watched Avengers in 3D and said it was great and the theater quality was amazing!
12. We can't wait to do it again but will make sure it is at least a 5 night. You really just need more time to enjoy it all. We chose a 3 night as a trial for DD and since she LOVED it, we will do it again. I do wish the smaller ships sailed out of PC because I think we would enjoy them so much better but we are not willing to fly somewhere to cruise just yet. Hopefully they will return one day.
I'll be happy to answer any questions for anyone!
