Disney Cruise to Nowhere Trip Report.. the Good the Bad and the Ugly

[Melora]

We are back from our weekend safe and sound.

This was our 5th cruise (2nd on Disney) so we knew what to expect. (or so we thought).

The boat had just come off an almost 2 week Panama Canal crossing and it seemed that some (not all) of the crew was a little tired and worn out. The big shows (Toy Story etc) were not being performed and we did not do dining rotation and Animators Palette (where we ate) did not do the usual turn from black and white to color. Jeff was pretty sure they gave the head chefs the 2 days off because overall the food was nowhere near the Disney quality we were used to.

The Good:

Our cabin was fantastic. We had a 1 bedroom suite and it was very roomy for the 5 of us. Every time we left the cabin and came back our concierge had brought us a tray of food. (pastries.... cheese and crackers etc).

The kids club was as wonderful and fun as the kids remembered. Jeffrey and Katherine spent 3 hours there Friday night and the entire day (minus dinner) on Saturday. Lots of fun stuff to do and neither felt bored or like the activities were for younger kids. They tried to get us to put Katherine in the Edge (for kids 11-13) and we insisted she stay with the younger kids (and her brother) because socially she would not be prepared to be with the older kids (since she is only in the 4th grade) AND I did not want her to have "check herself out" privileges. They were very accommodating and the staff was terrific.

We ate at Parrot Cay for lunch on Saturday and it was one of the best meals we had. The short ribs were SO wonderful and there were plenty of desserts to chose from.

We caught Tron on Saturday morning and really enjoyed the experience. This was my first 3D movie.

For us, getting on and off the ship was a breeze. We got to the port at 2 PM (Alex had finals so we had to wait until he was done at 12:20 to head to Long Beach) and when we got there the port personal were all very helpful. We got to go straight to the concierge line and bypass the huge line on the other side.

While disembarking we were the second group to be called and from walking off the ship to getting to our car it took approximately 20 minutes (if that).

I got Alex a haircut with our onboard credit and it only cost $29 with tip! We called Saturday afternoon and got an appointment for an hour later. The barber was very nice and did a great job.

The Bad:

Since this cruise was so short and therefore much less expensive than normal, the people who showed up were not your average cruisers. (Read: People who have never cruised before, will probably never cruise again, do not particularly like Disney one way or another, and have no idea whatsoever how to conduct oneself on a cruise such as this). Usually when you take a cruise the passengers have paid quite a bit more for a longer cruise and they tend be a bit more mellow and laid back. During the castaway party one might have thought we were on a Carnival cruise. (Been there done that..won't go back!)

The food that we ended up with at the restaurant was not very good. 1st night Jeff ordered Swordfish and it was extremely tough. Alex and I had the steak and it was overdone and dry. The 2nd night the Lobster bisque really was terrible tasting and even the desserts weren't worth staying for. We were pretty disappointed.

The food service hours were odd and inconvenient. You either had to eat in the restaurant or get hot dogs etc from Pluto's Dog House. Last Disney cruise we could have eaten in the buffet for dinner. And after 9:30 PM you could have pizza and ice cream or nothing. I had eaten hours before at early seating and wanted to snack (I was after all on a cruise!) and there simply didn't feel like there were the choices I would have liked.

Each night there were problems with the soft serve ice cream machine. 1st night it was soup and 2nd night it simply wasn't working. We came back 2 hours later and it was sort of working..but still soupy. And when I decided OK, no ice cream I'll get some hot chocolate, there were no packets at the drink station and I could not find anyone who knew what to do or wanted to help me. This was a big surprise since usually at Disney the crew members go out of their way. Again, I think the staff was burnt out from the long cruise they had just come off of. So after no ice cream and no hot chocolate I was pretty bent out of shape. Even on our less than satisfying Carnival cruise there had been a buffet open until midnight.

The Ugly

Breakfast Saturday morning. We went to Tritons and were seated pretty early. Everyone was being offered pastries and the kids waited in anticipation for the tray to be brought to our table. Every table around us were getting donuts or bear claws or cinnamon rolls etc. I finally asked someone and she nodded and moved on but we didn't see her again until we were leaving.

Breakfast came and still no pastries. The food was pretty bad overall.. VERY dry pancakes and waffles and the waitress only spooned some syrup on our food and never came back to give us more.

Breakfast was over and finally our waitress showed up with the pastry tray and presented it to the kids. What was on it? 4 rolls and 3 pieces of bread. All 3 kids had their mouth open in disbelief.

I asked the waitress if we could get some donuts and do you what she said? Oh I'm sorry; We're out.

OUT????? Breakfast had only been going for an hour and there was a still a 2nd seating to come. The waitress looked pained and said MAYBE she could have someone check at another restaurant to see if there were any left, if we wanted to wait.

We passed.

Then as we were getting up and leaving what should walk past us? A full tray of donuts and pastries.
And then the lady we first asked came by and asked if we got our pastries. No we said, our waitress told us they didn't have anymore. She looked confused but went on her way. Didn't offer us and explanation.

We ended up going up to the Beach Blanket Buffet and getting donuts and MUCH better food up there. (The food at our 1st breakfast was so inedible that we hardly ate any of it).

So overall it was hit or miss. It wont turn us off from cruising Disney again, because we took a 7 day years ago and we loved it. It just wasn't the best experience this time.

For some reason I cant get pictures loaded up here so you can view them here:

Photos from the cruise with subtitles!

 

[disneycrazey]

I was also on this trip and I totally understand where you are coming from.

Regarding the "not your average cruisers" I agree completely! On the elevator I even heard them refer to the guests as "ghetto". While the atmosphere did not bother me, I desired the 7-day crowd much more.

The food, like you mentioned, was sooooo much worse than I remember. The bisque tasted like soap to me too!

Also, the future sailings desk was consistently crowded. Any time I passed by there was a line going down the hall and the worker looked overwhelmed! Luckily, we got in and booked a 6-day next January!

I hope you still had a great time though!

 

[Magix]

Wow. We really had different cruise experiences. Maybe we were the "ghetto" folks you're talking about, but I didn't see anyone on the cruise for whom I think that word would fit. I just saw lots of folks who, like us, had taken the opportunity to try out a cruise and see if they liked it and wanted to save up the money for a longer one. We had a brilliant time.

 

[Melora]

I heard a couple of people talking while they were waiting for one of the shows and the man was telling another couple that the crowd on this cruise really surprised him. He said they had done the transatlantic and it was so different then this cruise. When the lady asked him why he thought that was the case he said it was because you could get onto the cruise for relatively inexpensively, especially if you had one of the inside cabins. (Nothing negative directed at anyone who had an inside cabin! Just a note that it was certainly affordable in comparison to other cruises). I priced out a 7 day eastern Caribbean cruise and they had the Royal Suite listed on the price list.. Can you believe this.. it was listed at $30,000!!!! HOLY SMOKE! Hubby said that was just list price but still.............

And its possible that whoever was referring to the people as "ghetto" might have been referring to some of the dress I saw on some guests which looked like it was leaning towards gang dress. (Large t-shirts, hanging pants, knit stocking hats.) I saw many groups dressed like that on the castaway party but then didn't see them the rest of the cruise.

 

[disneycrazey]

Personally, I never observed the "ghetto" people either, it was just something I overheard. I had a great time with the activities, but compared to other short DCL vacations I have been on, it felt a bit lackluster. I just cannot wait for next January and we are considering an August Alaskan cruise on the wonder! Woohoo!

I think many first timers didn't get the true DCL experience, but hopefully they will get another try.

 

[Melora]

Forgot to add one thing.

While we having lunch at Parrot Cay, one of the managers stopped by to ask us how our food was and Jeff mentioned how poor we found the food the night before. We did tell him how much we were enjoying the meal we were currently having.

The man about fell over himself apologizing. He was saying that the one thing Disney strives for is consistency. He went and talked to someone and came back and said that the head waiter at our restaurant would come by that evening and dinner and check on us personally. He took our cabin number and said if we needed anything to come and find him.

Unfortunately we never heard from anyone again. But the manager at Parrot Cay was definitely what we remember being good about Disney.. We really felt that he cared about our experience.

 

[SanDeeKath]

I agree with 99% of the comments you made in your review. I think we should refrain from people calling others ghetto or lower class or whatever. The problem was not with the people but with the cruise set up. They were totally unprepared to be in LA (for us it was almost 2 hours in line to get our room cards, including about 25 minutes at the counter of the lady trying to learn how to use the system to take our digital picture).

Our room was not a suite (balcony, midship, deck 7) and I found the room walls to be paper thin. Being a seasoned cruiser (this is our first time on Disney but we've been on Princess and Royal Caribbean lots). We have never heard hallway conversations on any other ship but you can make out every word of everyone who passed by our room. Also, we could hear our neighbors next to us and above us. Not too fun.

The food was horrendous. Buffet was only open 12-2pm. Then it was deep fried, fatty foods only! So that was brots, hot dogs, deep fried fish sandwitches and chicken strips and greasy, soggy french fries. If you did not want to have the sit down meal (we were assigned to 8:30 dining and the kids were too tired and hungry to wait that long), your only choices were the fried 1000 calorie stuff mentioned above. No fresh fruit anywhere (DH had to go all the way to the spa to find me a banana on the 2nd day around 3pm). And when the buffet was open, it was tiny. The salad section had about 5 ingredients and only 2 dressings (ranch and vinagrette). I have more in my fridge at home!

Aside from that, I found the ship feeling crowded all the time. There were lines for just about everything and there was no feeling of spaciousness anywhere except the very top deck in the aft section. The elevators in particular were tiny and very claustrophobic feeling (with no ventillation). You were doomed to wait for 2-3 elevators if you had a stroller and needed a ride. I have never experienced anything like this on any other ship.

The best part of the cruise was the entertainment. The kids clubs were fun but VERY crowded (I counted 72 kids in the Oceaneer Lab at 2pm on the sea day). My daughter felt intimidated by the wall to wall kids and the yelling and running around (although the area is spacious). The shows were both fantastic. The 3D movie theater is cool and the kids enjoyed seeing Toy Story 3 again.

Also there was absolutely no adult entertainment. Between noon and 8pm, there were 2 spa sales pitches related to weight loss and detoxing but that's an infomercial, not adult activity. There was a wine/whiskey type tasting and one lecture on the creativity of Disney park rides. That was IT! On most ships there are at least 1-2 activities every half hour! As an adult, I found this extremely disappointing because even if my kids were in the kids club for hours on end, I could not find much to do. Sitting by the pool relaxing was totally out as Hannah Montana was BLARING out of the giant TV and the place was packed wall to wall with kids/parents. I counted 22 lounge chairs by the pool on the left. That's enough for approximately 1% of the total guests on the ship! The adult areas were tiny, uninspired and not attractactive.

As for the dinners, while the food was better, we ate at Parrot's Cay which has absolutely no atmosphere. The restaurant is a giant cafeteria complete with unused buffet area that has empty metal pans displayed smack in the middle of the "restaurant". The 80s whitewash decor looked terribly tired. There was so much ambient noise due to poor sound insulation that DH and I could hardly hear ourselves think. While the service was excellent, we could not overcome the unpleasant atmosphere.

We have an 8n Christmas cruise booked on the Wonder and sadly we are pretty sure we are going to cancel. That ship will be even more packed than this 2n cruise. And unless the 3 week drydock this fall totally rebuilds the ship, the buffet will still be tiny, the rooms paper thin and the spaces too crowded and small for the amount of people that sail the Wonder.

We got on this ship wanting to LOVE it since it's now based in LA and we are Disney nuts. I left the ship feeling totally disappointed and very sad. I have been on 11 cruises and loved them all -- except this one.

Katherine

 

[gotomu212]

I am so sorry you didn't have a magical time on your cruise. Just a suggestion- but it may be worth not canceling and trying the next cruise.

I think I would be completely turned off a Disney cruise if I had the same experience as you did, but I think some of it can be explained by:

1. Just having come off a BIG 15 day cruise we'd heard from several crew members that they were just beat. (not excusable for Disney to not have thought about that, just saying the next cruise wouldn't have that same environment).

2. A lot of "trial cruisers" on your trip that may have not known what to expect and were therefore kind of everywhere without being organized into their activities- so maybe it seemed even more crowded than this completely sold to capacity ship should have felt.

3. With such a short cruise, I think it's hard to experience all the great things that are Disney. You got stuck in what a lot of people think is the worst of the Wonder restraunts, we've heard you couldn't get to a character to save your life, and you missed all the really neat Disney inspired activities that they are so good at on the normal cruises.

I think if you'd give Disney another chance you may be really surprised at how they usually run the ship. Plus it will be after they've been in LA awhile so some of the kinks may be worked out.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

Just curious, but I keep hearing from everyone that the staff seemed "worn out" because of the PC cruise. How is this any different from what they normally do? Don't they usually work non-stop with few if any days off?

 

[keaster]

Instead of cramming in this 2-night cruise with what appears to have been subpar service and less than stellar Disney creativity, they should've given the crew a little time off and the chance to get the ship and crew ready for the MR cruises

 

[gotomu212]

Just curious, but I keep hearing from everyone that the staff seemed "worn out" because of the PC cruise. How is this any different from what they normally do? Don't they usually work non-stop with few if any days off?

I was told by our server (and I don't know how typical or true it is) but that they usually get time off on departure/arrival day since less servers are needed and being used to shorter trips that usually happened every 4 days or so, but they had us for 15. They also have less traffic on port days and many of them get to get off the ship for free time, but we had so many At Sea days that they didn't get these breaks and had to usually work all 3 meals.

 

[toocherie]

Just curious, but I keep hearing from everyone that the staff seemed "worn out" because of the PC cruise. How is this any different from what they normally do? Don't they usually work non-stop with few if any days off?

That's what I thought too . . . .

 

[dismom73]

I was on this cruise as well. Prior to this one I have been on 3 7 day cruises on the Magic. I think this sailing served better as something to hold us longer DCL cruisers over until our next long one and not so much as an "introduction" to new DCL cruisers. If I had never been on a DCL and this was my first one I would be hard pressed to commit to spending the dollar amount Disney charges to book another one. However, since I have been on the longer "planned out" ones (remember this 2 day cruise to nowhere was out of the ordinary for them, they have never done anything like it before) I can say without a doubt we will continue to spend extra to do Disney. In fact we are booked for a B2B on the Dream in October.
Just a few of my thoughts....
I don't know what the original poster meant when they said the bigger shows werent showing, The first night was the Golden Mickeys and the second night was Disney Dreams which won an award for the best show on a cruise ship. To me those ARE the big shows.
The food the first night was not as great as a remember on our prior cruises, but the second night was amazing (with the exception of the desserts, I've never been impressed with the "Until We Meet Again" dessert menu). Our servers were AMAZING! Didn't seem worn out at all. They both took the time to interact with the kids. But I guess that area can be hit or miss, it just depends on who you get. We ate in Tritans Saturday morning for breakfast and had a pleasant experience. Food was decent (I'm not a big breakfast eater though), and service was prompt and pleasant. I did notice that there was a problem with one of the kids meals at the table next to us, but the server was trying very hard to rectify it. It is true that there werent too many activities during the day for adults only, I counted 9 between the hours of 2 and 8pm, but thats including the band at quiet cove pool, again, this cruise is not the norm for Disney. On a typical Disney cruise I have a hard time deciding what I'm going to do because there are so many choices. I also encountered the hot chocolate problem. The kids were watching a movie on the pool deck bundled up in blankets, so I went to make them some hot cocoa and there were no packets and no crew member in sight. I simply went in the doors right next to the drink station picked up the phone next to the elevator and called guest services, they sent someone right up.
I feel very lucky to have been able to jump on the chance to go on this cruise. We usually go on one every two years, so it's a long wait between cruises. I feel like this one just gave me a little bit of what I needed to get me really excited for our 7 nights on the Dream in October. But, again, I don't think it was a perfect example to new cruisers of what DCL really is.

 

[Melora]

I think we were expecting to able to see Toy Story.. We were told by someone in reservations at some point before we got on board that that was what was playing.

I guess I didn't really like the shows they were performing...having seen them before they weren't what I thought was their headliners. But thats just me.

And we really missed having a show at the restaurant. When we booked for this cruise there were definitely things we were looking forward to and I think if I had known in advance I would have been more prepared.

None of this will keep us from booking Disney again. You simply cannot beat them when they are on the top of their game. No better kids clubs... generally the best guest service on the sea and when you're in the Caribbean, how can you resist Castaway Cay??