lostinyonkers
Disney Fan From Birth
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2006
- Messages
- 105
*** I have to preface this with some very sad news. On the day before we got back to port, I lost our camera somewhere onboard. I’m still sick with grief over it, but I’m trying to move on! Fortunately, I had a second camera with us, so I do have a few pictures, but not many at all. So I apologize that this TR doesn’t have many photos. Trust me, I wish it did!!!!!!
But here we go…
OVERVIEW
There were three of us traveling. My DH, DD(9) and myself. I have been on two other DCL cruises waaaaay back in the day (over ten years ago), and this was DD and DH’s first Disney cruise. DH has been on one Royal Caribbean cruise and DD has been on one Carnival cruise, while I have been on about a dozen cruises total… on Royal Caribbean, NCL and Carnival, as well as Disney… so we all had some experience to compare with.
Here’s our gang on Pirate Night with Captain Jack Sparrow (who is absolutely hilarious):
We booked an inside room… as inexpensive as we could possibly get… and ended up in room 6583 right in the middle of the ship. We LOVED the location. It was super convenient to everything. The room itself was small of course, but we knew that’s what we would be getting so we were sure to pack efficiently and bring stuff to help us stay organized.
We drove in from Las Vegas the day before departure and stayed at a hotel near Disneyland so we could spend some time at the beach and Downtown Disney and not be rushed to get to the port the next day. We parked right at the port, which was very convenient. The parking lot is directly in front of the cruise terminal and it costs $12/day. The total for all 7 days was $84 and they do take credit cards.
Overall we had a WONDERFUL cruise. As I said before, I’ve been on several different cruiselines and I have enjoyed aspects of all of them, but I do think Disney has a superior product on so many levels. Service is phenomenal, and their attention to details just can’t be beat. All three of us thoroughly enjoyed the wide range of activities they offered and the shows and entertainment were great. The staff (with very few exceptions) were all so friendly and helpful and they really go out of their way to make sure everyone has a ‘magical’ time.
This was my first experience with the Disney youth program and it was just as wonderful as everyone says it is. Most cruiselines just throw your kids into a room they call a “club” and don’t really offer any kind of structured activities. I was so impressed with the variety of activities DCL offers and their organization. My 9yo really enjoyed the time she spent in the Lab. (In contrast, when she was on Carnival, she went to the Kids’ Club once and didn’t want to go back.)
SHORE EXCURSIONS
Puerto Vallarta:
We took the Las Caletas excursion, booked through DCL. I thought it was well worth the money. It’s not a huge place at all, but there is plenty for everyone to do – kayaking, paddle boarding, snorkeling, cooking classes, nature walks, massages, etc. Or of course you can just sit in the sun and enjoy the tropical paradise around you.
One of the highlights for my DD was getting to hold a beautiful macaw and a cute little monkey and a giant boa constrictor. I’m still sick that I don’t have the pictures to show from that. *sigh*
Cabo San Lucas:
We booked a “shared snorkeling trip” through [cabo sailing dot com]. I had read so many great reviews of them on Trip Advisor and other cruise boards, I honestly thought “there is no way they can be that good.” They are that good.
When we booked we were told there could be as many as 9 other people (12 total) on the excursion with us, but there ended up being only another group of three. When we boarded the sailboat, they immediately took the front, and we immediately took the back, and it was practically like we had a private excursion.
I won’t go into a lot of detail on this since it’s not a DCL excursion, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
THE FOOD:
Ah yes, the food. Always a highlight of a cruise!
Our first breakfast happened to be our Character breakfast, in Parrot Cay. As others have said, it is a very frantic event, but I guess that’s the way it has to be so they can ensure all the characters make it to all the tables. Trust me there would be a riot of Mickey missed someone’s table!! We got to see all the classic characters, though – Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale. They were great about giving autographs and taking as many pictures as you wanted (as long as you were quick about it!).
We had lots of really good dinners, and our servers (Frano from Croatia and Fitzroy from Jamaica) were fabulous. But I have to say, I wasn’t blown away by the food in the dining rooms. In my opinion, most of it was very bland. I definitely prefer a lot of flavor and herbs and spices and I like lots of different types of ethnic food… while most of the food in the dining rooms is more of your meat-and-potatoes kind of fare. Don’t get me wrong….. I found PLENTY to eat and I never left hungry!! I just wasn’t blown away. I do have to say the lobster they serve on Captain’s night is far and away the best lobster tail I have ever had on a cruise ship. It was divine.
I thought the quick service outlets (Pluto’s, Goofy’s and Pinnochio’s) were good. Of course they weren’t gourmet by any means, but they were good for a quick bite. My opinion on the Beach Blanket buffet is at the end of this review.
We really enjoyed room service. My DD couldn’t get enough of the buffalo wings and DH and I loved the “All Hands on Deck” cheese platter and the huge chocolate chip cookies. Check out this giant FEAST we decided to order on our last night as our last hurrah
:
Just be prepared if you order room service… it almost always took at least 45 minutes to arrive. Place your order and then take a nap or go do laundry or something.
Palo brunch: Coming from Las Vegas, I was very skeptical about booking the brunch at Palo. We have a lot of really nice/high-end buffets here in town, so it takes a lot to impress us. But due to all the raving I read on these boards, I went ahead and booked. And let me tell you… the Palo buffet brunch was impressive! Wow. The quality is light years above the food we had during the rest of the trip.
**TIP** We took the very last brunch reservation time (11:30AM), and I recommend not doing that. Here’s why -- Since they were shutting down the buffet right after we left, they didn’t bother to replenish anything that ran out. For that reason I did not get any chocolate covered strawberries! Such a tragedy!! (Don’t worry, I made up for it by eating three big slabs of the most delicious cherry Danish I have ever had!!!!) I also felt our server was in a rush to get us out. She even mentioned to the table next to us that she was going to have to give them their check and run because she had somewhere else they were having her go, “but they could stay and take their time.” Kind of lame.
PACKING
Little things I was really glad to have:
Lysol – Call me a germaphobe but I just felt better giving everything (especially the remote control, door knobs, etc) a spray-down when we first arrived, and then again several times throughout the trip…. especially since we didn’t have the best Stateroom host in the world.
Over the door organizer – LOVED having this hanging on the outside of our bathroom door. We used it for all the little things that would otherwise clutter up the desk space or sink area – hair brushes, camera stuff, etc.
Fan – A must if you have an inside room like we did. It often felt “stuffy” in there. Not overly warm (the temperature was actually quite comfortable), but there was just a lack of air flow. It also helped provide some white noise when we went to sleep at night.
Power Strip – there are only 3 outlets in the room, as far as we could tell… and two of them were so close to each other, you couldn’t plug two things in at the same time unless they had very small plugs.
Liquid Soap – I hate using bar soap to wash my hands so this was great to have at the sink.
Mini pharmacy - I brought every kind of medicine I could think of and we ended up using quite a bit of it …. Tums, nasal spray, cold meds (Triaminic), Tylenol, aloe, seasickness meds, etc. Totally worth having all of it just in case!
Lanyard - If you’re a Castaway Club member, you’ll get a free one in your welcome package, but if not I’d bring one so you can always have your KTTW card hanging on you and easily accessible, even when you don’t have pockets (like when you’re in your bathing suit!).
Extra hangers – They had about 10 hangers in the closet, which is pretty generous, but if you plan on bringing a lot of clothes that need to be hung… I highly recommend bringing extra hangers.
Watch – Clocks are very hard to come by, so definitely bring a watch! I was really glad I had heeded the warnings on these boards and went and bought a cheap watch before we left. I usually rely on my cell phone to tell me what time it is, and obviously on the ship I didn’t carry my cell phone around since it didn’t work.
Things I should have brought but didn't:
Warm clothes - I had read the other MR trip reports which said you should bring warm clothes, but I brushed them off thinking that was only because they had traveled earlier in the year when the weather was cooler. Well, I was wrong. The day we left LA and the day after, as well as the day before we made it back to LA and the day we disembarked.... it was very chilly. We also found several of the lounges to be VERY cold (and I am not a cold-natured person at all. It takes a lot to make me feel chilly!). The Walt Disney Theatre was almost unbearably cold the day we watched the Lion King. I was glad I had at least brought a light jacket… but I wish I had brought more.
Post-it notes or a white board. A few people have suggested bringing post-it notes for leaving notes to the rest of your party when you need to let them know where you’re at, when you’ll be back, etc….but I didn’t think we’d actually need them since we had Wave Phones. Well, our Wave Phones ended up not really working too well (reception is reallllly spotty and the vibration is really hard to notice, so there were lots of missed calls), so there were several times when post-its would have come in handy.
Things I brought but didn't really need:
Cups for fountain drinks - We found the cups they provide to be fine. And it was much more convenient to be able to just grab a cup and go, instead of having to carry around your own cup. They ended up sitting on our dresser empty the whole trip.
OTHER STUFF (Some interesting tidbits of info you may or may not find helpful):
They do not have PB&Js (uncrustables or otherwise). We had heard through these boards that you could order Uncrustables, but that's not the case. In fact, we couldn't find ANY peanut butter at all ANYWHERE on the whole ship. I kept meaning to ask one of the servers about that, but never did. We're thinking it might be a peanut-allergy reason or something, but if that's the case, I find that very odd because they do serve other food that contains nuts.
If you are thinking of booking another DCL cruise while on board… do it early in the cruise! After about Day 3, there was always a really LONG line of people waiting to speak with the “future cruise” rep.
I know a few people have asked recently what Castaway Club members are receiving as Welcome Gifts. Here’s a pic of what was waiting on our bed. I thought they were really nice gifts! I love the bag!
SOME MINOR DISAPPOINTMENTS (this is the part you should skip if you can’t handle reading anything even remotely negative about DCL):
I know I will probably get flamed for saying this, but I thought the Pirate Night deck “party” was a big disappointment. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVED when Mickey swooped in, and I LOVED the fireworks, but the 45+ minute show/dancing that took place before that was excruciatingly long and B-O-R-I-N-G. My DD almost fell asleep standing up she was so bored. I really wish they would cut that down. If (ok, WHEN) I go on another DCL cruise, I’ll be sure to come up on deck about 45 minutes after the scheduled start time and just see the fireworks.
If people talking during shows bothers you… be prepared to be bothered A LOT. I couldn’t believe how rude so many people were during the shows and movies. During the Golden Mickeys, we had a man sitting behind us with his son on his lap and the two of them talked the entire show. And I mean they talked in their normal, outside voices… not whispered… for the ENTIRE SHOW. We kept turning around and giving them “the look” and a couple “shhhhhh’s” but it didn’t even faze them. And I’m sorry to say, every show we went to had similar people. I have read it before and I will confirm its truth – it’s as if people think because they are on a Disney cruise, which is known for families and children – they don’t have to have any manners. It was very disappointing to see such bad behavior -- parents letting their children talk and yell and get up and down from their seats and run in the aisles. I don’t blame the children at all. Kids will be kids. But I do blame the adults for letting them behave that way and not teaching them good manners.
I was really disappointed in the Beach Blanket buffet, particularly for lunch. Not only was the food quality really sub-par in my opinion (it usually tasted like it had been sitting out for quite some time), but the hours were extremely limited. It never opened for lunch before noon, and then it usually only stayed open until 2:00. Then it didn’t open back up for dinner until 6:30 or so. On the other cruiselines I’ve been on, the buffet is open almost 24 hours. I don’t know why Disney doesn’t do this. Of course you can always find food over at Goofy’s or Pluto’s, but I just thought that was kind of silly.
I was also disappointed in the retail shops. I thought with it being Disney, surely they would have TONS of merchandise and lots of shops with a variety of items. That is not the case at all. Besides their “duty free” alcohol and tobacco store, they only have two shops and the selections in each were extremely limited. My advice is if you see something you like, hurry and get it at the beginning of your trip. By the last day at sea, they were out of, or running low on, quite a few things.
Hmm… I think that’s all I’ve got! I don’t want to end on that negative note, so I’ll end with one of the pictures I managed to get with my “other” camera while we were on our sailing excursion in Cabo. If you have any questions or would like any other info, just let me know!
But here we go…
OVERVIEW
There were three of us traveling. My DH, DD(9) and myself. I have been on two other DCL cruises waaaaay back in the day (over ten years ago), and this was DD and DH’s first Disney cruise. DH has been on one Royal Caribbean cruise and DD has been on one Carnival cruise, while I have been on about a dozen cruises total… on Royal Caribbean, NCL and Carnival, as well as Disney… so we all had some experience to compare with.
Here’s our gang on Pirate Night with Captain Jack Sparrow (who is absolutely hilarious):
We booked an inside room… as inexpensive as we could possibly get… and ended up in room 6583 right in the middle of the ship. We LOVED the location. It was super convenient to everything. The room itself was small of course, but we knew that’s what we would be getting so we were sure to pack efficiently and bring stuff to help us stay organized.
We drove in from Las Vegas the day before departure and stayed at a hotel near Disneyland so we could spend some time at the beach and Downtown Disney and not be rushed to get to the port the next day. We parked right at the port, which was very convenient. The parking lot is directly in front of the cruise terminal and it costs $12/day. The total for all 7 days was $84 and they do take credit cards.
Overall we had a WONDERFUL cruise. As I said before, I’ve been on several different cruiselines and I have enjoyed aspects of all of them, but I do think Disney has a superior product on so many levels. Service is phenomenal, and their attention to details just can’t be beat. All three of us thoroughly enjoyed the wide range of activities they offered and the shows and entertainment were great. The staff (with very few exceptions) were all so friendly and helpful and they really go out of their way to make sure everyone has a ‘magical’ time.
This was my first experience with the Disney youth program and it was just as wonderful as everyone says it is. Most cruiselines just throw your kids into a room they call a “club” and don’t really offer any kind of structured activities. I was so impressed with the variety of activities DCL offers and their organization. My 9yo really enjoyed the time she spent in the Lab. (In contrast, when she was on Carnival, she went to the Kids’ Club once and didn’t want to go back.)
SHORE EXCURSIONS
Puerto Vallarta:
We took the Las Caletas excursion, booked through DCL. I thought it was well worth the money. It’s not a huge place at all, but there is plenty for everyone to do – kayaking, paddle boarding, snorkeling, cooking classes, nature walks, massages, etc. Or of course you can just sit in the sun and enjoy the tropical paradise around you.
One of the highlights for my DD was getting to hold a beautiful macaw and a cute little monkey and a giant boa constrictor. I’m still sick that I don’t have the pictures to show from that. *sigh*
Cabo San Lucas:
We booked a “shared snorkeling trip” through [cabo sailing dot com]. I had read so many great reviews of them on Trip Advisor and other cruise boards, I honestly thought “there is no way they can be that good.” They are that good.
When we booked we were told there could be as many as 9 other people (12 total) on the excursion with us, but there ended up being only another group of three. When we boarded the sailboat, they immediately took the front, and we immediately took the back, and it was practically like we had a private excursion.
I won’t go into a lot of detail on this since it’s not a DCL excursion, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
THE FOOD:
Ah yes, the food. Always a highlight of a cruise!
Our first breakfast happened to be our Character breakfast, in Parrot Cay. As others have said, it is a very frantic event, but I guess that’s the way it has to be so they can ensure all the characters make it to all the tables. Trust me there would be a riot of Mickey missed someone’s table!! We got to see all the classic characters, though – Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale. They were great about giving autographs and taking as many pictures as you wanted (as long as you were quick about it!).
We had lots of really good dinners, and our servers (Frano from Croatia and Fitzroy from Jamaica) were fabulous. But I have to say, I wasn’t blown away by the food in the dining rooms. In my opinion, most of it was very bland. I definitely prefer a lot of flavor and herbs and spices and I like lots of different types of ethnic food… while most of the food in the dining rooms is more of your meat-and-potatoes kind of fare. Don’t get me wrong….. I found PLENTY to eat and I never left hungry!! I just wasn’t blown away. I do have to say the lobster they serve on Captain’s night is far and away the best lobster tail I have ever had on a cruise ship. It was divine.
I thought the quick service outlets (Pluto’s, Goofy’s and Pinnochio’s) were good. Of course they weren’t gourmet by any means, but they were good for a quick bite. My opinion on the Beach Blanket buffet is at the end of this review.
We really enjoyed room service. My DD couldn’t get enough of the buffalo wings and DH and I loved the “All Hands on Deck” cheese platter and the huge chocolate chip cookies. Check out this giant FEAST we decided to order on our last night as our last hurrah
:
Just be prepared if you order room service… it almost always took at least 45 minutes to arrive. Place your order and then take a nap or go do laundry or something.
Palo brunch: Coming from Las Vegas, I was very skeptical about booking the brunch at Palo. We have a lot of really nice/high-end buffets here in town, so it takes a lot to impress us. But due to all the raving I read on these boards, I went ahead and booked. And let me tell you… the Palo buffet brunch was impressive! Wow. The quality is light years above the food we had during the rest of the trip.
**TIP** We took the very last brunch reservation time (11:30AM), and I recommend not doing that. Here’s why -- Since they were shutting down the buffet right after we left, they didn’t bother to replenish anything that ran out. For that reason I did not get any chocolate covered strawberries! Such a tragedy!! (Don’t worry, I made up for it by eating three big slabs of the most delicious cherry Danish I have ever had!!!!) I also felt our server was in a rush to get us out. She even mentioned to the table next to us that she was going to have to give them their check and run because she had somewhere else they were having her go, “but they could stay and take their time.” Kind of lame.
PACKING
Little things I was really glad to have:
Lysol – Call me a germaphobe but I just felt better giving everything (especially the remote control, door knobs, etc) a spray-down when we first arrived, and then again several times throughout the trip…. especially since we didn’t have the best Stateroom host in the world.
Over the door organizer – LOVED having this hanging on the outside of our bathroom door. We used it for all the little things that would otherwise clutter up the desk space or sink area – hair brushes, camera stuff, etc.
Fan – A must if you have an inside room like we did. It often felt “stuffy” in there. Not overly warm (the temperature was actually quite comfortable), but there was just a lack of air flow. It also helped provide some white noise when we went to sleep at night.
Power Strip – there are only 3 outlets in the room, as far as we could tell… and two of them were so close to each other, you couldn’t plug two things in at the same time unless they had very small plugs.
Liquid Soap – I hate using bar soap to wash my hands so this was great to have at the sink.
Mini pharmacy - I brought every kind of medicine I could think of and we ended up using quite a bit of it …. Tums, nasal spray, cold meds (Triaminic), Tylenol, aloe, seasickness meds, etc. Totally worth having all of it just in case!
Lanyard - If you’re a Castaway Club member, you’ll get a free one in your welcome package, but if not I’d bring one so you can always have your KTTW card hanging on you and easily accessible, even when you don’t have pockets (like when you’re in your bathing suit!).
Extra hangers – They had about 10 hangers in the closet, which is pretty generous, but if you plan on bringing a lot of clothes that need to be hung… I highly recommend bringing extra hangers.
Watch – Clocks are very hard to come by, so definitely bring a watch! I was really glad I had heeded the warnings on these boards and went and bought a cheap watch before we left. I usually rely on my cell phone to tell me what time it is, and obviously on the ship I didn’t carry my cell phone around since it didn’t work.
Things I should have brought but didn't:
Warm clothes - I had read the other MR trip reports which said you should bring warm clothes, but I brushed them off thinking that was only because they had traveled earlier in the year when the weather was cooler. Well, I was wrong. The day we left LA and the day after, as well as the day before we made it back to LA and the day we disembarked.... it was very chilly. We also found several of the lounges to be VERY cold (and I am not a cold-natured person at all. It takes a lot to make me feel chilly!). The Walt Disney Theatre was almost unbearably cold the day we watched the Lion King. I was glad I had at least brought a light jacket… but I wish I had brought more.
Post-it notes or a white board. A few people have suggested bringing post-it notes for leaving notes to the rest of your party when you need to let them know where you’re at, when you’ll be back, etc….but I didn’t think we’d actually need them since we had Wave Phones. Well, our Wave Phones ended up not really working too well (reception is reallllly spotty and the vibration is really hard to notice, so there were lots of missed calls), so there were several times when post-its would have come in handy.
Things I brought but didn't really need:
Cups for fountain drinks - We found the cups they provide to be fine. And it was much more convenient to be able to just grab a cup and go, instead of having to carry around your own cup. They ended up sitting on our dresser empty the whole trip.
OTHER STUFF (Some interesting tidbits of info you may or may not find helpful):
They do not have PB&Js (uncrustables or otherwise). We had heard through these boards that you could order Uncrustables, but that's not the case. In fact, we couldn't find ANY peanut butter at all ANYWHERE on the whole ship. I kept meaning to ask one of the servers about that, but never did. We're thinking it might be a peanut-allergy reason or something, but if that's the case, I find that very odd because they do serve other food that contains nuts.
If you are thinking of booking another DCL cruise while on board… do it early in the cruise! After about Day 3, there was always a really LONG line of people waiting to speak with the “future cruise” rep.
I know a few people have asked recently what Castaway Club members are receiving as Welcome Gifts. Here’s a pic of what was waiting on our bed. I thought they were really nice gifts! I love the bag!
SOME MINOR DISAPPOINTMENTS (this is the part you should skip if you can’t handle reading anything even remotely negative about DCL):
I know I will probably get flamed for saying this, but I thought the Pirate Night deck “party” was a big disappointment. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVED when Mickey swooped in, and I LOVED the fireworks, but the 45+ minute show/dancing that took place before that was excruciatingly long and B-O-R-I-N-G. My DD almost fell asleep standing up she was so bored. I really wish they would cut that down. If (ok, WHEN) I go on another DCL cruise, I’ll be sure to come up on deck about 45 minutes after the scheduled start time and just see the fireworks.
If people talking during shows bothers you… be prepared to be bothered A LOT. I couldn’t believe how rude so many people were during the shows and movies. During the Golden Mickeys, we had a man sitting behind us with his son on his lap and the two of them talked the entire show. And I mean they talked in their normal, outside voices… not whispered… for the ENTIRE SHOW. We kept turning around and giving them “the look” and a couple “shhhhhh’s” but it didn’t even faze them. And I’m sorry to say, every show we went to had similar people. I have read it before and I will confirm its truth – it’s as if people think because they are on a Disney cruise, which is known for families and children – they don’t have to have any manners. It was very disappointing to see such bad behavior -- parents letting their children talk and yell and get up and down from their seats and run in the aisles. I don’t blame the children at all. Kids will be kids. But I do blame the adults for letting them behave that way and not teaching them good manners.
I was really disappointed in the Beach Blanket buffet, particularly for lunch. Not only was the food quality really sub-par in my opinion (it usually tasted like it had been sitting out for quite some time), but the hours were extremely limited. It never opened for lunch before noon, and then it usually only stayed open until 2:00. Then it didn’t open back up for dinner until 6:30 or so. On the other cruiselines I’ve been on, the buffet is open almost 24 hours. I don’t know why Disney doesn’t do this. Of course you can always find food over at Goofy’s or Pluto’s, but I just thought that was kind of silly.
I was also disappointed in the retail shops. I thought with it being Disney, surely they would have TONS of merchandise and lots of shops with a variety of items. That is not the case at all. Besides their “duty free” alcohol and tobacco store, they only have two shops and the selections in each were extremely limited. My advice is if you see something you like, hurry and get it at the beginning of your trip. By the last day at sea, they were out of, or running low on, quite a few things.
Hmm… I think that’s all I’ve got! I don’t want to end on that negative note, so I’ll end with one of the pictures I managed to get with my “other” camera while we were on our sailing excursion in Cabo. If you have any questions or would like any other info, just let me know!
I would be devastated as well....sounds like you need to book another trip to make up for it 
!
