Magnetic
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2002
- Messages
- 188
I know I'm in the minority posting a thread like this, but neither DH or I thought that the Aug. 22nd Wonder cruise was something that we would like to do again. I will try to sum up some of our reasons in case it helps anyone else.
Neither one of us had ever cruised before (perhaps that was part of the problem) but I felt I'd done extensive research on the cruise with the DIS and what not so I had some idea what to expect. We, along with our 6 year old DD, spent 5 nights at Coronado Springs in Disney prior to the cruise, which were marvelous. The parks were all remarkably uncrowded and we had short lines for most attractions. Anyway, we checked out of Coronado Thursday morning and drove our rental car to the Avis drop at Port Canaveral.
Upon boarding the cruise we were aft on Deck 6 in a Cat. 11 inside stateroom.
The ship itself is very beautiful, and the Disney cleanliness standard held very well in the public areas of the ship. One thing I was absolutely not prepared for was the size of the stateroom hallways and rooms. When we boarded and headed to our room, I felt very claustrophobic walking down the tiny, narrow hallways to the staterooms. And I'm not a claustrophobic person at all..! When we entered our room, I was immediately reminded of my parents' Midas motorhome. The room is almost exactly the same size and layout, right down to the tiny plastic toilet in the bathroom. Thankfully I had packed a clear shoe organizer for the door (thanks DIS!) to hold all our toiletries, as there is little vanity space, as others have mentioned.
Back to the room -- it was frustrating that there wasn't even enough floor space to open a suitcase without hitting the walls or cabinets. I'm one of those people who hates to put clothes in drawers and closets when I travel -- I prefer to "live" out of my suitcase, leaving it open for the duration of my trip. I really -had- to unpack and put my things away to have them accessible since opening the suitcase was an ordeal with the limited space. Our room slept four, so we had our stateroom host lower the bunk bed all the time so that we had the couch area available for seating and holding things, while DD could keep her toys and luggage up top.
I did not like that the main bed is two twin beds put together -- DH and I kept slipping into the crack between them. I also was really unhappy that the sheets on the bed were never changed through the duration of the cruise. We happened to be in the room each day around the time when the host came to make it up, and every time he made the bed, straightened the covers and never once changed the sheets. One sheet had a spot in it from something our daughter spilled on it the first night, and it remained there throughout the entire cruise. On the second day, I mentioned this to our stateroom host, and he told me that they do not change bedsheets on the 3-day cruise. For a room in which we collectively paid about $500/night for (yes, I know that includes meals and entertainment, but even so) I found this really unacceptable.
Our room at Coronado was kept up to much better standards than this, and it, along with our park passes and meals, cost much less too. Everything I've read gave us the impression that the rooms would be luxurious, but all the time spent in our stateroom felt cramped, uncomfortable and not relaxing in the least.
I also did not like that the stateroom host kept coming in the room constantly to do things like add ice to the ice bucket, empty the trash, etc. I felt like our privacy was being invaded and I put the Privacy Please tag on the door the first day. We found that despite this, we were still getting ice all the time and our belongings were being moved around in our room. At one point, we found DD's camera on the floor with its battery door open, and the batteries missing. One battery had rolled under the desk. The other one was out in the hallway in front of our door! We came back from lunch and saw the battery there, then opened our room and saw her camera on the floor. After that, she was frightened about the "people coming in the room and stealing" her things.
The last night aboard, we had thrown a good amount of trash into the can, as we were cleaning up before bed (DH had a birthday and had opened his presents in the room, so we threw out all the paper) and when we woke up the next morning, the trash was gone. We were all VERY bothered that the host had come in while we were sleeping to empty it. I never once felt like the room was "ours" -- it felt like a public area that people could come and go from without our permission. The "Privacy Please" sign apparently meant nothing.
We also ran out of shampoo the morning of the second day, and we did not receive new shampoo until the morning we disembarked, even after asking for it. I had packed my own, but DH and DD usually like to use the hotel shampoos, so it was good that we had some along, but still frustrating.
I was also irritated with the tipping policies. DH bought a water bottle strap in the lobby before we disembarked to Nassau, and the girl selling it to added an automatic 15% gratuity to the $2 charge for the strap. DH complained, and she said this was their policy. I think it's ridiculous to have to tip a person who sells you a water bottle from a kiosk! I was also unimpressed with our assistant server, who picked up DH's chair to scoot it under the table the first night at dinner (she was sitting in the chair) and dropped it on my foot. I was wearing sandals and it crushed my toe. It hurt terribly, but we had to ask another server for some ice and no one seemed concerned that my foot was swelling up and turning purple. The head waiter eventually came over and said to go to the doctor if the pain continued.
When it was time to tip, I felt that some of the people didn't deserve the tips Disney was asking us to give them. We went to Guest Services and got in the "Gratuities Only" line behind two other people, and the man behind the counter disappeared into the back after a few minutes. We waited 25 minutes for him to return, while guests in the other lines took care of their tips in the "main" Guest Services lines. After wasting almost a half hour, we got out of the gratuities line and into the main line, as everyone else was doing, and the man working the main line immediately chastised us and told us to get back in the gratuities line once we said why we were there. DH explained how long we'd been waiting, and the clerk begrudgingly said he would take care of our tips. I told him this was our first cruise, we were unhappy with some of the service, and we wanted to adjust our tips accordingly. He told us we were required to tip the minimum. We were tired of arguing at this point and paid the minimum $97-something in tips.
Other irritations -- we tried to enjoy the Goofy pool on several occasions, but it was filled with teenagers jumping off the deck into the pool inches away from us, and sometimes hitting us. We asked them nicely to stop, pointing out the "No Jumping" signs all over the decks, but the jumping continued. DH commented that since they were breaking the rules, we should try to take DD with us to the Quiet Pool, as it seemed a lesser infraction
All we wanted to do though was float and swim peacefully, and the Goofy pool was constantly turbulent with jumpers.
Dinner -- we enjoyed all the restaurants we dined at (we skipped Palo because we dined with DD each night, so we did the PC, T, AP rotation) and liked the food everywhere. I loved the sugar cane pineapple dessert at PC. One thing that irritated us though was that many people did not follow the dress code recommendations. For Tritons, DH wore a suit, and DD and I wore floor-length dresses. We were all very excited about dressing up for dinner (and the cruise documents recommend suits for men and dresses for women, no shorts) but when we arrived we felt very overdressed. We saw many little girls in Tritons dining in their bathing suits with shorts over them, and men in t-shirts and shorts. We asked our server about this and he said that they consider the 3-day cruise to be a little "trashy" with the way people dress. We thought Disney should either enforce their dress code recommendations and send some of these people up to the buffet, or remove the recommendations altogether.
Pluses -- our room was right next to a storage closet, so we only had a neighbor on one side. The room was extremely quiet and we all slept well at night. I also was surprised that I never felt the ship move until we backed out of port at Nassau and turned around, and then I only felt it while it was turning. Most of the time it feels perfectly still. The view at night from the ship was fantastic, with the moon on the water. Disney Dreams made all of us cry!
The "secret" Deck 7 veranda/overlook was our favorite place to relax. We only saw other people out there once during our entire cruise, so we spent a lot of time on there. We loved having the little fridge in the room to keep drinks in. Instead of getting the mugs for pop, we ordered a pitcher of lemonade from room service each day (no charge) and kept it in the fridge, then drank it as we needed it.
The Oceaneer Club staff is fantastic. DD had a little crush on one of the leaders, Travis, and he spent a lot of time playing with and talking to her. We did not expect her to want to be apart from us, but she spent several hours a day in the club by her own request. Castaway Cay was gorgeous, fun, and just about as perfect a day as one could ask for. We did not like Nassau at all, found it very dirty and smelly (there was trash in the streets in many areas) and didn't stay offboard long there. We had no interest in Atlantis so we had walked to the Straw Market and around town a little before coming back. DD made Flubber in the lab the last night and wouldn't tell us the ingredients. She said they told her it is a Disney secret! I found the recipe online this morning though
Anyway, that's about it -- while we're glad we tried the cruise, we all got off the ship wishing we'd stayed in Coronado for 3 extra days instead, and will do that in the future. DD even said "Are we going back to our Disney hotel now?"
Neither one of us had ever cruised before (perhaps that was part of the problem) but I felt I'd done extensive research on the cruise with the DIS and what not so I had some idea what to expect. We, along with our 6 year old DD, spent 5 nights at Coronado Springs in Disney prior to the cruise, which were marvelous. The parks were all remarkably uncrowded and we had short lines for most attractions. Anyway, we checked out of Coronado Thursday morning and drove our rental car to the Avis drop at Port Canaveral.
Upon boarding the cruise we were aft on Deck 6 in a Cat. 11 inside stateroom.
The ship itself is very beautiful, and the Disney cleanliness standard held very well in the public areas of the ship. One thing I was absolutely not prepared for was the size of the stateroom hallways and rooms. When we boarded and headed to our room, I felt very claustrophobic walking down the tiny, narrow hallways to the staterooms. And I'm not a claustrophobic person at all..! When we entered our room, I was immediately reminded of my parents' Midas motorhome. The room is almost exactly the same size and layout, right down to the tiny plastic toilet in the bathroom. Thankfully I had packed a clear shoe organizer for the door (thanks DIS!) to hold all our toiletries, as there is little vanity space, as others have mentioned.
Back to the room -- it was frustrating that there wasn't even enough floor space to open a suitcase without hitting the walls or cabinets. I'm one of those people who hates to put clothes in drawers and closets when I travel -- I prefer to "live" out of my suitcase, leaving it open for the duration of my trip. I really -had- to unpack and put my things away to have them accessible since opening the suitcase was an ordeal with the limited space. Our room slept four, so we had our stateroom host lower the bunk bed all the time so that we had the couch area available for seating and holding things, while DD could keep her toys and luggage up top.
I did not like that the main bed is two twin beds put together -- DH and I kept slipping into the crack between them. I also was really unhappy that the sheets on the bed were never changed through the duration of the cruise. We happened to be in the room each day around the time when the host came to make it up, and every time he made the bed, straightened the covers and never once changed the sheets. One sheet had a spot in it from something our daughter spilled on it the first night, and it remained there throughout the entire cruise. On the second day, I mentioned this to our stateroom host, and he told me that they do not change bedsheets on the 3-day cruise. For a room in which we collectively paid about $500/night for (yes, I know that includes meals and entertainment, but even so) I found this really unacceptable.
Our room at Coronado was kept up to much better standards than this, and it, along with our park passes and meals, cost much less too. Everything I've read gave us the impression that the rooms would be luxurious, but all the time spent in our stateroom felt cramped, uncomfortable and not relaxing in the least.
I also did not like that the stateroom host kept coming in the room constantly to do things like add ice to the ice bucket, empty the trash, etc. I felt like our privacy was being invaded and I put the Privacy Please tag on the door the first day. We found that despite this, we were still getting ice all the time and our belongings were being moved around in our room. At one point, we found DD's camera on the floor with its battery door open, and the batteries missing. One battery had rolled under the desk. The other one was out in the hallway in front of our door! We came back from lunch and saw the battery there, then opened our room and saw her camera on the floor. After that, she was frightened about the "people coming in the room and stealing" her things.
The last night aboard, we had thrown a good amount of trash into the can, as we were cleaning up before bed (DH had a birthday and had opened his presents in the room, so we threw out all the paper) and when we woke up the next morning, the trash was gone. We were all VERY bothered that the host had come in while we were sleeping to empty it. I never once felt like the room was "ours" -- it felt like a public area that people could come and go from without our permission. The "Privacy Please" sign apparently meant nothing.
We also ran out of shampoo the morning of the second day, and we did not receive new shampoo until the morning we disembarked, even after asking for it. I had packed my own, but DH and DD usually like to use the hotel shampoos, so it was good that we had some along, but still frustrating.
I was also irritated with the tipping policies. DH bought a water bottle strap in the lobby before we disembarked to Nassau, and the girl selling it to added an automatic 15% gratuity to the $2 charge for the strap. DH complained, and she said this was their policy. I think it's ridiculous to have to tip a person who sells you a water bottle from a kiosk! I was also unimpressed with our assistant server, who picked up DH's chair to scoot it under the table the first night at dinner (she was sitting in the chair) and dropped it on my foot. I was wearing sandals and it crushed my toe. It hurt terribly, but we had to ask another server for some ice and no one seemed concerned that my foot was swelling up and turning purple. The head waiter eventually came over and said to go to the doctor if the pain continued.
When it was time to tip, I felt that some of the people didn't deserve the tips Disney was asking us to give them. We went to Guest Services and got in the "Gratuities Only" line behind two other people, and the man behind the counter disappeared into the back after a few minutes. We waited 25 minutes for him to return, while guests in the other lines took care of their tips in the "main" Guest Services lines. After wasting almost a half hour, we got out of the gratuities line and into the main line, as everyone else was doing, and the man working the main line immediately chastised us and told us to get back in the gratuities line once we said why we were there. DH explained how long we'd been waiting, and the clerk begrudgingly said he would take care of our tips. I told him this was our first cruise, we were unhappy with some of the service, and we wanted to adjust our tips accordingly. He told us we were required to tip the minimum. We were tired of arguing at this point and paid the minimum $97-something in tips.
Other irritations -- we tried to enjoy the Goofy pool on several occasions, but it was filled with teenagers jumping off the deck into the pool inches away from us, and sometimes hitting us. We asked them nicely to stop, pointing out the "No Jumping" signs all over the decks, but the jumping continued. DH commented that since they were breaking the rules, we should try to take DD with us to the Quiet Pool, as it seemed a lesser infraction
All we wanted to do though was float and swim peacefully, and the Goofy pool was constantly turbulent with jumpers.Dinner -- we enjoyed all the restaurants we dined at (we skipped Palo because we dined with DD each night, so we did the PC, T, AP rotation) and liked the food everywhere. I loved the sugar cane pineapple dessert at PC. One thing that irritated us though was that many people did not follow the dress code recommendations. For Tritons, DH wore a suit, and DD and I wore floor-length dresses. We were all very excited about dressing up for dinner (and the cruise documents recommend suits for men and dresses for women, no shorts) but when we arrived we felt very overdressed. We saw many little girls in Tritons dining in their bathing suits with shorts over them, and men in t-shirts and shorts. We asked our server about this and he said that they consider the 3-day cruise to be a little "trashy" with the way people dress. We thought Disney should either enforce their dress code recommendations and send some of these people up to the buffet, or remove the recommendations altogether.
Pluses -- our room was right next to a storage closet, so we only had a neighbor on one side. The room was extremely quiet and we all slept well at night. I also was surprised that I never felt the ship move until we backed out of port at Nassau and turned around, and then I only felt it while it was turning. Most of the time it feels perfectly still. The view at night from the ship was fantastic, with the moon on the water. Disney Dreams made all of us cry!
The "secret" Deck 7 veranda/overlook was our favorite place to relax. We only saw other people out there once during our entire cruise, so we spent a lot of time on there. We loved having the little fridge in the room to keep drinks in. Instead of getting the mugs for pop, we ordered a pitcher of lemonade from room service each day (no charge) and kept it in the fridge, then drank it as we needed it.The Oceaneer Club staff is fantastic. DD had a little crush on one of the leaders, Travis, and he spent a lot of time playing with and talking to her. We did not expect her to want to be apart from us, but she spent several hours a day in the club by her own request. Castaway Cay was gorgeous, fun, and just about as perfect a day as one could ask for. We did not like Nassau at all, found it very dirty and smelly (there was trash in the streets in many areas) and didn't stay offboard long there. We had no interest in Atlantis so we had walked to the Straw Market and around town a little before coming back. DD made Flubber in the lab the last night and wouldn't tell us the ingredients. She said they told her it is a Disney secret! I found the recipe online this morning though
Anyway, that's about it -- while we're glad we tried the cruise, we all got off the ship wishing we'd stayed in Coronado for 3 extra days instead, and will do that in the future. DD even said "Are we going back to our Disney hotel now?"
