Anyone else not love the cruise?

[Mickeyhugger]

Tracie2201, I hope my post is one of encouragement.

We walked on the Magic in March 2002, having never set foot onboard a cruise ship before. We didn't know anything about the cruise other than the brochures we received from DCL in the mail. (I didn't know yet that these boards existed.) We're about to do our 3rd DCL vacation in two weeks as they're the BEST vacations we've ever experienced and we want to continue them.

I'm sure most everyone on these boards will agree that even though it's good to gather much info and educate yourself about a trip, we sometimes set ourselves up for disappointment when we know so much.

I wish I could return from these cruises as Hydster, 7 lbs. lighter, but the weight goes the other way for me! I gained 8 lbs. on the Magic last year! I'm a sweets/desserts fanatic, and unfortunately, EVERY dessert I ate was wonderful! I rarely ever eat breakfast, and overate at breakfast at Topsiders each morning. (Maybe because it was there, already prepared for me, and was pure indulgance.) There were a couple of nights of the dining rotation that I had a 'take it or leave it' feel about the entrees, but I'm also not much of an entree person, usually preferring just veggies at dinnertime. Overall, DH and I thought DCL food was fabulous! So it's all 'to each his own.'

Our 9 yo DD did not enjoy the clubs. If she had a buddy to hang out with, she did okay, but still preferred our stateroom or the arcades. However, she's never been one to warm up to a large group of kids in unfamiliar settings, which is okay with us. It's great for parents whose children like the clubs, but they're not for everyone.

We hope we're still doing DCL many years from now. (It'll be great as they add other ports.)

 

[Boatingman]

Here Here. Hedie is telling it as it was. My family was also on the 5/1/04 cruise and it was far from perfect. We put my 6 yo DS and 4yo DD in the club first night as recommended. He cried until he threw up. Only then were we called. We had to spend the next day getting a medical clearance to let the child into the club which he hated. If your children didnt use the club there was nothing but the arcade, shufle board and ping pong. The pools were filthy, crowded , the topside was blowing and the ship was rocking. Nobody got sea sick. The food was diner food with the exception of a few of the deserts and the burgers & fries near the mickey poolI. My husband received his dinner one nite 30 minutes after the rest of finished. The ait staff was OK and actually treated us like they were pissed off the last day as iff they did not get tipped enough! I have previously cruised on Norwegian and Holand america and my DH has cruised on Carnival. There semed to be more to do on other ships. Loved our time on the islands but dont expect Castaway Cay to be perfect either. One word-Crowded. All in all was better than work though and would go again just not anytime in the near future

 

[invaderzim]

Thank you, CRSNDSNY -- I'm actually looking into that prospect for future employment.

Don't get me wrong -- WDW and DCL have had their moments for us, too, of something not going as we thought it should, but all in all I think the good times and benefits and beauty of it all FAR outweigh the slight problems that might crop up.

 

[dclwdwlover]

This thread has many comments about the food not being very good, but like Mickeyhugger, I have to give a very positive vote FOR the food. My husband & I love it and we eat out quite often & at very nice restaurants. I'm just so happy to be on vacation & relaxing & not doing any of the work! Also, I always try to order things that I can't make at home - which is basically anything that's not real easy!

Also, my kids absolutely LOVE the clubs. They cruised DCL when they were 10 & 16 & then again at 12 & 18 - and yes, they cruised another line before. My 18yo said he wants to go on another cruise - "but only DCL". I had to remind him that he is too old for the clubs!

We enjoy the activities on the ship. I will admit that sometimes I long for more of a variety, but we really are there mostly to relax, anyway. We try to do things that we can't do regularly at home, so we have never gone to a movie on the ship. Our favorite thing is to sit on the verandah or deck in the moonlight & listen to the waves. We love to walk the entire ship. None of these things is 'terribly exciting', but we love it! We're coming up on our 4th cruise and I would prefer to have some new shows/activities, etc. (I don't know how Barb, with 35+ cruises does it!! ).

I really believe that every experience is different based on what you make of it and I think that you will have a wonderful time and enjoy everything.

 

[tvguy]

I've been on 7 cruises.
1 DCL
2 NCL
2 RCCL
1 HAL
1 Paquet
Never had bad food or service on any. All had things that could have been improved, and I guess if the things that needed improvement were important to you, they would be an issue.
A day on a cruise ship is ALWAYS better than a day at work.

 

[traycie2201]

invaderzim - Thanks great post, glad you had fun.

Hydster - please don't feel that you have to leave the boards, this thread has got a lot of people giving their opinions and holidays are something everyone is passionate about mainly because we spend our working year saving towards it then expect to have a great time but your opinion is just as valuable as anyone elses and it's up to the reader to decide whether to continue reading or take on board your comments. Thanks for taking the time to post your trip reports too.

dclwdwlover / mickeyhugger - great news about the food, i noticed that a previous poster thought that rainforest cafe had awful food, well it seemed fine to me, we must all have different tastes , which is fine but if it's better than RFC then it's good for me.

Anyway i'm off for a cuppa, take care everyone

Traycie

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by traycie2201
Hydster - please don't feel that you have to leave the boards,

I think she just meant she was going to unsubscribe to this thread.

 

[natdencro]

How sad that some folk didnt enjoy their cruises as much as others. We have had 4 cruises on the Magic, and not yet done all the things advertised in the Navigator, as their is SO much entertainment.
Im rather amused by the comment that people find the food on board rather dull. Forgive me, but MOST of DisneyWorld offers burgers, french fries, burgers, turkey legs, burgers, french fries, etc. We thought, in comparison, the food was great - and SO MUCH of it!

"Bored" adults were also something we never thought to hear about on the cruises. Surely you read up about your vacation BEFORE you go? There is plenty of information available regarding "itineries" and "entertainment" on the Magic and Wonder. If you dont care for those particular events, then why choose THAT ship? Disney is way more expensive than many other cruise-lines.

As for sitting down and reading a book by the HOUR, gosh - what a waste of an expensive holiday. Can do that at home!

As for unhappy children in the kids' clubs......................it's not COMPULSORY to deposit your littles ones for hours on end. Many children are just not happy to be left with "strangers". The CMs do a grand job, but cant please everyone of course. We have witnessed children being forced into the clubs, and then the parents getting OFF the ship in Port. Yes, its nice to have time without the kids - but hey, its THEIR holiday too.

Do I have a criticism? You bet...............
THE BINGO - its SO SLOW and boring! People dont listen to the instructions and some people are totally incapable of opening the flaps. It needs updating and quicker games, but more of them. Its very expensive and not many people win. That said: we always go ONCE - just in case we win the jackpot!!!

Sorry if you didnt have a fun cruise........But it's not ALL Disneys' fault Im sure. Nat

 

[KAMLEM]

Ditto to everything that NATDENCRO posted. Although I do enjoy spending a little time reading on the ship because I don't get time to do that at home. A week on the Magic is like a week in heaven!

It's too bad that hydster left because I wanted to ask her a question about the activities. One of the things she was critical about was the lack of activities for a family with children ranging from 5-10. I was curious about what type of activities should would have liked.

 

[dianthus]

Read Hydster's trip report summary. There are very honest positves & negatives in it. I can see how sick kids can turn a vacation around a bit, so that was a big factor for them. I would be annoyed if I brought well kids onboard only to have them get sick because of others. But there's nothing you can do. Gotta go with the flow like they did. I think you have to glean info & remember the experience is different for everyone & perhaps different each time. That's been the case for us. So many people expect so much after being on these boards. That's a mistake, as it's going to be your experience!

I was on the 4/17 Eastern- the "rocky" one, 20ft. waves for two days. We thought it was fun, but there were those that were sick & hating every minute of it There was plenty to do if you wanted to do it. The schedule is action packed. That's the beauty of the cruise. The shows were great. Our servers were fabulous! This being our 4th cruise, we were not impressed with the new menus at all. The food quality was good, just didn't like some of the items- desserts got better though! LOL! . We just ordered what we wanted & they accomodated us very nicely. If we had lousy servers, I would not have been pleased at all. I agree with Hydster- that Goofy Pool is kid soup on sea days- very crowded.. Can be a problem if your kids aren't into the clubs. Go in the evening, or before the sailaway.

Here's something to remember. No experience is perfect! If something is wrong, try to give DCL a chance to make it right. They will really try. Weather, sickness and crowdedness are things DCL can't control but do effect people's experience. If you want to do Palo brunch or the spa & your kid doesn't like the clubs, that's going to effect you too. I really appreciate honest trip reports. It allows me to see things from different perspectives!

 

[cjsmith]

We love our Disney cruises. But... I do agree that there really isn't too much for the adults to do. The movies that play all day are really geared to the kids and those movies that we wanted to see were late at night. We do enjoy the parties at night, but after 4 cruises in a year and a half, they get kind of old. We still think the cruises are great and we found the food to be pretty good, excellent at Palo.
Our friends who cruise other lines and went with us on the Magic in June 2003, enjoyed the cruise, but didn't find it much better than their other cruises and probably won't cruise with them again due to the price.
We're cheating on Disney and taking our first Princess cruise to the southern Carribean out of San Juan in October, minus the kids! It will be interesting to see the difference between Disney and Princess. I only hope that I'll enjoy this cruise as much as I loved my Disney cruises.

 

[TCPluto]

I might get in trouble for saying this, except that my wife agrees, we thought the food was excellent, from breakfast to the Midnight dessert buffet!

Our 8 yr old daughter could have made a DCL commercial for the Oceanneers club. After spending about an hour 1/2 in the club the first night and two hours the following afternoon, we told her we were going to see the Hercules show after dinner. She said that she wanted to go back to the kids club. We told her that she could go back the following day, that we wanted to take her to the show. She held her hand up to her mother and said "Mom, I promise I'll do something with you tomorrow night, but tonight I want to go back to the club"!!! (We went to the show).


We tried to do everything offered on the cruise, and succeeded in only doing about 1/4 of the activities. We were dead tired by 10:30-11pm. We did not see one movie in the evening. I tried one night, and fell asleep in the theatre 15 minutes after the show started. I went back to the room, a complete failure, and totally exhausted from our "day at sea".

We saw numerous characters throughout the cruise, coming and going from appearances, and alwayss got a little time with them.

Our first DCL cruise got diverted by Hurricane Lilly in 2002. Our cruise was not exceptionally rough however. Our second cruise in Dec 2003, was quite cold for the first part, until we got down into the Carribbean. Regardless, I don't think DCL can be faulted for weather and sea conditions, can they??

The service was excellent, from wait-staff to room stewards. My daughter raved on and on about her new friends, so much so that we had to have the same waiter (Rishi) on our second cruise. And she had to make time for several visits to our room hostess from the first cruise (Krisztina, and her twin sister Kate, from Hungary).

The kids club cast members were extremely attentive, and didn't hesitate to contact us for anything. On our second trip, many of them remembered our daughter (her favorites), and it was like being reunited with old friends.

What better testament to the DCL than seeing so many of the kids crying on Friday night, hearing and seeing parents consoling them, trying to ease the pain of the end of the cruise. Everywhere you turned, another child was seen agonizing over the impending end of their adventure. Priceless!

 

[2kidsmom]

I was on the 5/1 Eastern along with Heidi. My experience could not have been more different than hers. My kids, DS 10 and DD 6 couldn't be pulled out of the clubs even to go swimming. Some might say that they enjoyed it because they are used to being around kids all the time, but NOT true. I am a work-at-home mom that homeschools, so the kids are with others only when at baseball/softball. I never had one problem being paged. Three nights my dd paged me to come get her because she was sleepy and each time she told me that she has just told the CM to page me and I showed up. She thought I was "Magic!"

The food, waitstaff, service, etc could not have been more perfect.

We are going to do the Eastern again in 2005, but this time we are not getting off the boat in port because there was so much to do on the boat. I am looking forward to relaxing on the boat.

The pool area was never so crowded that I couldn't find a seat close by to watch the kids. Yes it was windy, but good lord, even the Mouse couldn't control that.

I talked to Heidi several times during the cruise and she was sick most of the time, as well as her children. They had motion sickness as well as the cold thing, so maybe that contributed to some of it. I know that my ds met hers at the Dis party and tried several times to find him during the week so they could hang out. I even gave her our room number to call so the boys could do something, but she never did. When my ds was not in the lab, he was on deck 10 playing basketball or on 9 in the pool, hottub or playing ping-pong.

As far as there being 967 kids on board, it IS Disney. However the only time I felt overrun with kids was at the midship elevators, and it was only one set of kids (the same 2). They were always running and disrespectful, but again that was the parent's, not the Mouse.

Julie B

 

[invaderzim]

Julie B:

About the midship elevators, we learned by our second cruise to take the stairs down or go to the elevators aft.

But funny about those two girls you mentioned. On our last cruise, we kept running into the same two girls (around age 8 or 9) and they were always acting rude and pushy and were never with any adults. It seemed like every time we were all dressed up for dinner and waiting for the elevator, the doors would open and there were these two girls with plates full of french fries and ketchup, or dripping ice cream cones!!

 

[izzinmac]

Originally posted by hydster
Our one night in Parrot Cay the menu had all seafood entree's on it except 1 chicken breast (which I ordered, tried 1 bite and never touched again)

Heidi

Hydster - I've been following this thread and am sorry you were unhappy with the food. However, everytime I read the quote above, I am puzzled - I've been on 7 Disney cruises and study menus with a passion...I know of no menu with all seafood and one chicken. The regular PC menu is a Ribeye, Baked Chicken, Mixed Grill, Grouper, and Baby Back Ribs. If you were there during one of the "speciality" menu nights, they all have a similar mix of entree types. Can you help me with this one!!

 

[invaderzim]

Izzinmac:

You took the words right out of my mouth. Every menu I've seen on our past cruises always offers the "old standbys" at the bottom -- like you said, rib eye, ribs, chicken, etc. They are noted on every menu -- even specialty nights.

Plus, I know for a fact that your server would have gladly taken special requests and done everything to accommodate you. There were several times when I didn't like the vegetable or potato that was listed with the entree, and they basically let me design my own entree with the side dishes I wanted. Nothing is set in stone.

Plus, if you don't like an entree, you can order 2 or 3 appetizers instead. There were a few people near us that did that on a regular basis.

 

[zalansky]

All of this just boils down to personal preference. My DH and I have been on 2 Disney 4 night cruises, 1 Princess and 1 RCCL, which was the most recent, Mariner of The Seas. (I have also been on Carnival twice in my younger single days).
We sailed the Wonder the 1st time as a couple, no children were in the picture yet. We loved it and never felt bored. Then again, we HATE gambling and the noise and smoke that the casinos put out. We are also not big drinkers, so we don't require 10 bars and nightclubs. We enjoyed the adult pool and Palo very much, as well as the adult beach at CC.
The second time we sailed we went with friends and their 2 kids - and our new 9 month old baby boy. I consider my friend a little "uppity", if you know what I mean. Her kids (ages 4 & 8) loved the kids club and they couldn't get them out of there for anything. My friend did say that she enjoyed the fact the club would keep the kids for dinner, not many lines will do that. We think the food is good on Disney, not great....but like a prvious poster said, cruise food is being mass produced for 2500+ people...it is not cooked to order. We have never experienced wonderful food on any other cruises. RCCL's food was the worst, IMO - they even managed to screw up breakfast, so yes that is possible. Just thinking about it gives me the willies. Not to mention RCCL charged us FULL CHILDS FARE for our then 14 month old baby to sail....ugh don't get me started.
We loved the fact that DCL offers a nursery. It was nice to drop off the baby for 2 hours so we could go to Palo or lay in the sun and not have to worry about him. We think DCL is great....
but like I said it is personal preference, because our uppity friend said she didn't care for it and probably won't do it again. She didn't care for the shows.....we did. We like Disney, the songs and theming. I do not like Vegas style shows AT ALL, the big headresses and tacky outfits (and sometimes no outfits at all LOL)
On out first cruise, we were seated with 2 other couples with one child each. We had a great time with this group!
I think alot of it is attitude also, there are just so many things that go into an experience. Each is unique, to each his own....
I like reading experiences good and bad, that is what these boards are for!
Some vacations are good, some aren't - there is never a guarantee.
Happy cruising!

 

[cindalu]

I am sorry to hear that you weren't happy. We just got back from the 7 day Western and it was awesome. I went with my husband and 3 girls. We had an awesome time. I thought there was too much to do between the shows.swimming, and everything else. This was my first Disney Cruise. The servers were excellent. The one night I asked for something special that wasn't on the menu and I got it. Maybe if you go on the 7 day instead of the four it might be different.

We are planning on doing the Eastern next year.


Hope you think about a longer cruise. You might find that it is better. As far as the characters my girls got so many pictures taken with them we couldn't possibly buy them all. There were more on the ship than at Disney World.



Just my thoughts.

Also my in laws went with us and they also thought the service was awesome. They are what you would say cruise veterans and they ranked it at the top.

My one and only complaint would be getting our luggage on debarkation day. That was horrible.

Other than that it was awesome. I would go tomorrow if I could

 

[cindalu]

We just got back from the 7 day Western Carribean and one word describes my trip. That word would be AWESOME. I would do it again in a heartbeat. For me there was so much to do you couldn't possibly fit it all in. As far as the pools yes the mickey pool was crowded. What we did since my 3 girls were with us. On the days we were in port. We shopped in the morning and then came back on the ship and it wasn't crowded then. Everyone is different I am sorry that you weren't happy with your experience. My inlaws who go on cruises alot were totally impressed. They rank it near the top of other cruise lines.

 

[tinknsnow]

especially when I'm awaiting my very first cruise--ever.

I've read all the replies, and it IS a downer to read the negatives but like someone else said, everyone has a different experience at WDW, too.

My family is a WDW family (MK is our favorite park and WL our home away from home) so we're very excited to try the cruise.

Attitude really makes the difference. Loretta-- your post made perfect sense to me. I talk to friends who get back from WDW and have nothing but complaints. But they went during Spring Break, stayed offsite, didn't try any park or resort restaurants. When we go, it's off-season, cool weather, we stay onsite and eat at old-standbys as well as try new restaurants... the experience is always positive because we're on vacation. It's always best to be at WDW rather than at home, right? Keeping a positive attitude really makes a world of difference.

Thanks for all the reports. Very good reading.