Okay....we just returned on the 4 night 8/24 Disney Wonder and I wanted to offer my impressions of the cruise.
Negative:
- The most glaring thing I noticed on the cruise was the lack of the "perennial" Late Night Buffet on all 4 of the nights. Maybe I am spoiled by the other cruises that I have gone to where I have come to expect a late night buffet for every night. There was a Late Night buffet at 10:30pm until 11:30pm on 1 of the 4 nights while the other 3 nights there was a Late Night snack which consists mainly of hot appetizers. Also, to add to the terrible timing of the "Late Night Buffet and Snack", we had the 2nd seating which started at 7:45pm. The earliest that we had gotten out of dinner was 9pm. There was no way that we were going to eat a late night snack/buffet again in 1- 2 hours. Granted, there was the option of room service ( which I never really explored ) that ran 24 hours. But one of the things that I look forward to on a cruise is the late night buffet.
- The Nassau and Freeport ports of call were mediocre at best. Of the 3 ports of call....( surprise, surprise )...the best of the three was Castaway Cay. Although, I was impressed by Atlantis...I can now say that I have seen it. But would I want to go there again? Probably not. Unfortunately, the weather in Nassau was bad...it rained for a good part of the day. So we decided to ( surprise, surprise ) spend the rest of the day on the boat. The weather in Freeport and CC were great. The problem is that there is very little to see or do in Freeport and alot of things to do in CC but we had to depart by 4:30pm.
- Although "Who wants to be a Mouseketeer" was enjoyable...I am guessing that they purposely skew who gets into the hotseats by only choosing kids. At the show we went on...all the contestants were kids. Not that I want to take away the enjoyment of the kids....but I would have loved a chance to win a 7 night cruise.
Positive
- 2 words "Castaway Cay". If Disney were smart and were to shorten the Nassau and Freeport ports of call and extend the CC port of call...they would have more satisfied customers. CC seems to be more of the clean and safe resort area that couples and families with kids would want to stay at. While the Nassau and Freeport excursions are places that I would have to think twice about visiting ( unless you paid for the excursions to go to the resorts ). Heck, I would have preferred a full day stay at CC rather then go to Freeport.
- When Disney says that a certain area is for adults 18+ years old only...they mean it. There were several instances where an unwitting parent brought their kids into the Adult pool area and were politely told that it the area was for adults only. Serenity Bay was much better then the family areas...not only was the water clearer and was much more serene.....the area was perfect for adults.
- The boat was considerably cleaner and felt much more modern then the other "Port Caneveral" cruise options ( the Soveriegn of the Seas and the Fantasy ). I was impressed by the stadium seating movie theater and the main Walt Disney theater.
- For lack of a better word, "Babysitting service". Although we went on the cruise as a honeymoon with no kids....from what I can tell, you can literally drop off your kids and forget about them for most of the day. Their children's programs seemed very excellent. They even give the parents pagers so that if anything happens...they can page you.
The bottom line is that I would recommend this cruise for families with kids ( as if you didn't know that ) and couples who love ( or more accurately obsessed with ) the Disney Experience. For couples that want more adult activities and far less kids running around...I would go for other cruise options ( maybe have spent a few extra hours to go down to Miami for the RC Explorer of the Seas cruise ship ). However, in Disney's defense, everyone that I spoke to about going on the Disney Cruise for a honeymoon indicated that the cruise is more suited for families with kids and not Adults....so I shouldn't be so surprised.
Negative:
- The most glaring thing I noticed on the cruise was the lack of the "perennial" Late Night Buffet on all 4 of the nights. Maybe I am spoiled by the other cruises that I have gone to where I have come to expect a late night buffet for every night. There was a Late Night buffet at 10:30pm until 11:30pm on 1 of the 4 nights while the other 3 nights there was a Late Night snack which consists mainly of hot appetizers. Also, to add to the terrible timing of the "Late Night Buffet and Snack", we had the 2nd seating which started at 7:45pm. The earliest that we had gotten out of dinner was 9pm. There was no way that we were going to eat a late night snack/buffet again in 1- 2 hours. Granted, there was the option of room service ( which I never really explored ) that ran 24 hours. But one of the things that I look forward to on a cruise is the late night buffet.
- The Nassau and Freeport ports of call were mediocre at best. Of the 3 ports of call....( surprise, surprise )...the best of the three was Castaway Cay. Although, I was impressed by Atlantis...I can now say that I have seen it. But would I want to go there again? Probably not. Unfortunately, the weather in Nassau was bad...it rained for a good part of the day. So we decided to ( surprise, surprise ) spend the rest of the day on the boat. The weather in Freeport and CC were great. The problem is that there is very little to see or do in Freeport and alot of things to do in CC but we had to depart by 4:30pm.
- Although "Who wants to be a Mouseketeer" was enjoyable...I am guessing that they purposely skew who gets into the hotseats by only choosing kids. At the show we went on...all the contestants were kids. Not that I want to take away the enjoyment of the kids....but I would have loved a chance to win a 7 night cruise.
Positive
- 2 words "Castaway Cay". If Disney were smart and were to shorten the Nassau and Freeport ports of call and extend the CC port of call...they would have more satisfied customers. CC seems to be more of the clean and safe resort area that couples and families with kids would want to stay at. While the Nassau and Freeport excursions are places that I would have to think twice about visiting ( unless you paid for the excursions to go to the resorts ). Heck, I would have preferred a full day stay at CC rather then go to Freeport.
- When Disney says that a certain area is for adults 18+ years old only...they mean it. There were several instances where an unwitting parent brought their kids into the Adult pool area and were politely told that it the area was for adults only. Serenity Bay was much better then the family areas...not only was the water clearer and was much more serene.....the area was perfect for adults.
- The boat was considerably cleaner and felt much more modern then the other "Port Caneveral" cruise options ( the Soveriegn of the Seas and the Fantasy ). I was impressed by the stadium seating movie theater and the main Walt Disney theater.
- For lack of a better word, "Babysitting service". Although we went on the cruise as a honeymoon with no kids....from what I can tell, you can literally drop off your kids and forget about them for most of the day. Their children's programs seemed very excellent. They even give the parents pagers so that if anything happens...they can page you.
The bottom line is that I would recommend this cruise for families with kids ( as if you didn't know that ) and couples who love ( or more accurately obsessed with ) the Disney Experience. For couples that want more adult activities and far less kids running around...I would go for other cruise options ( maybe have spent a few extra hours to go down to Miami for the RC Explorer of the Seas cruise ship ). However, in Disney's defense, everyone that I spoke to about going on the Disney Cruise for a honeymoon indicated that the cruise is more suited for families with kids and not Adults....so I shouldn't be so surprised.
Even with that if they changed it to something else I wouldn't mind. On the couple of other cruise lines I have been on I never made it to the midnight buffets. I am an early to bed early to rise type of person so I am usually asleep by midnight!
