Alexander
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2002
- Messages
- 4,896
Started our vacation with 5 nights at AKV--Kidania in a savanah room, kids loved it! Resort is huge and there was a ton of walking to get from point a to point b, but I just figured it was preparing us for the Dream!
Cons:
Human soup bowls--AKA the pools were disgusting. Way too small and filled with milky white water from all of the sunscreen and other body fluids. The Donald pool is too deep. Kids have to tread water and are always kicking people. Kids also are not prevented from jumping in (read--on people).
Adult Only Areas: There are glass walls indicating adults only area--okay, we avoid that but, then when you want to go up the stairs forward to get to deck 13, there is a sign that says adults only area, but then on deck 12 there is a sign that says family area--it was very difficult to take my kids up to the front of the ship without walking through an adult only area. Our first stateroom was all the way forward, so we used the forward elevators a lot and would find ourselves walking through the adult only area. I'm sorry, but it is really hard to avoid.
Communication: Since we were on the Irene sailing, there was essentially no information about what was going on. The Captain just said we were going to try and find the safest seas to sail in. It was pretty obvious to everyone that Castaway Cay wasn't going to happen, but they continued to pretend that everything was just fine. Information was handed out very late.
Ports: Nassau is horrible on a good day, but we arrived the first day at noon and left at 7, we arrived the next day at 9 and left at 2, so really what could you do! All excursions were cancelled on the first day, but Port Adventures took it upon themselves to rebook everyone without asking them. Tickets showed up on our Fish outside our door at 10:30 PM and said if we wanted to cancel we had to go to PA by midnight. I walked down to PA and they were closed. Went to Guest Services and made a stink about them rescheduling a different day and time without consulting us.
Pros:
Ship: The ship is beautiful and believe me we spent a lot of time on her! We sailed 7 days and only got of at Castaway Cay on the last day of our 7 for a couple of hours. We found the ship very easy to navigate as staterooms are all on decks 2,5,6,7,8,9,10... and restaurants, shops, theaters, pools, etc. are all on 3,4,5,11 except Enchanted Garden which is on 2.
Dining: We had a great serving team and a great head server. We enjoyed the restaurants, especially AP. DS tried all kinds of new foods and was never hungry (this is hard to say about a 13 y/o boy!). We had the late seating and the dining rooms never were full. There were a lot of empty tables and I felt bad for the serving teams, I wonder if they got gipped on tips.
Kids Clubs: My kids have never wanted to go to them and I would never make them, but we did take DS (5) in the first day to look around. The hand washers are the coolest things I have ever seen! We need those at our school! The clubs are amazing and I cannot believe he didn't want to stay. They really stepped it up here on the Dream!
Staterooms: We had a corner 9A for the first cruise and it was HUGE. The window was slanted and you couldn't see much, but there was a ton of floor space. We upgrade to a 5E for the second cruise and had a HUGE veranda. It was at least 2X wider and 3X deeper than the standard verandas.
Cast Members: The CM's were all very friendly. Everytime you passed one they would smile and ask how your day was going, or if you needed anything. Very nice people!
Wrapped up the vacation with 2 days at SSR, everything seemed so big in comparison to the ship! There was actually room in the swimming pools for us!
Cons:
Human soup bowls--AKA the pools were disgusting. Way too small and filled with milky white water from all of the sunscreen and other body fluids. The Donald pool is too deep. Kids have to tread water and are always kicking people. Kids also are not prevented from jumping in (read--on people).
Adult Only Areas: There are glass walls indicating adults only area--okay, we avoid that but, then when you want to go up the stairs forward to get to deck 13, there is a sign that says adults only area, but then on deck 12 there is a sign that says family area--it was very difficult to take my kids up to the front of the ship without walking through an adult only area. Our first stateroom was all the way forward, so we used the forward elevators a lot and would find ourselves walking through the adult only area. I'm sorry, but it is really hard to avoid.
Communication: Since we were on the Irene sailing, there was essentially no information about what was going on. The Captain just said we were going to try and find the safest seas to sail in. It was pretty obvious to everyone that Castaway Cay wasn't going to happen, but they continued to pretend that everything was just fine. Information was handed out very late.
Ports: Nassau is horrible on a good day, but we arrived the first day at noon and left at 7, we arrived the next day at 9 and left at 2, so really what could you do! All excursions were cancelled on the first day, but Port Adventures took it upon themselves to rebook everyone without asking them. Tickets showed up on our Fish outside our door at 10:30 PM and said if we wanted to cancel we had to go to PA by midnight. I walked down to PA and they were closed. Went to Guest Services and made a stink about them rescheduling a different day and time without consulting us.
Pros:
Ship: The ship is beautiful and believe me we spent a lot of time on her! We sailed 7 days and only got of at Castaway Cay on the last day of our 7 for a couple of hours. We found the ship very easy to navigate as staterooms are all on decks 2,5,6,7,8,9,10... and restaurants, shops, theaters, pools, etc. are all on 3,4,5,11 except Enchanted Garden which is on 2.
Dining: We had a great serving team and a great head server. We enjoyed the restaurants, especially AP. DS tried all kinds of new foods and was never hungry (this is hard to say about a 13 y/o boy!). We had the late seating and the dining rooms never were full. There were a lot of empty tables and I felt bad for the serving teams, I wonder if they got gipped on tips.
Kids Clubs: My kids have never wanted to go to them and I would never make them, but we did take DS (5) in the first day to look around. The hand washers are the coolest things I have ever seen! We need those at our school! The clubs are amazing and I cannot believe he didn't want to stay. They really stepped it up here on the Dream!
Staterooms: We had a corner 9A for the first cruise and it was HUGE. The window was slanted and you couldn't see much, but there was a ton of floor space. We upgrade to a 5E for the second cruise and had a HUGE veranda. It was at least 2X wider and 3X deeper than the standard verandas.
Cast Members: The CM's were all very friendly. Everytime you passed one they would smile and ask how your day was going, or if you needed anything. Very nice people!
Wrapped up the vacation with 2 days at SSR, everything seemed so big in comparison to the ship! There was actually room in the swimming pools for us!
