Firstly I want to thank the OP for taking the time to file the cruise report. Obviously many of us on this board have had diametrically opposing experiences with Disney, but there's always room for criticism and I for one welcome all feedback, even if I don't agree with it (and I agreed with precious little of cruise-andy's report).
Obviously the
Disney Cruise Line is completely geared toward families and children who have a passion for anything and everything Mouse related, so this vacation was clearly a disaster waiting to happen. I agree with some of the other posters who expressed curiosity about why cruise-andy would even consider taking the
Disney cruise without doing some rudimentary research about what to expect. Not that you'd need to do a lotit would be roughly equivalent to booking a Nude Cruise and being horrified that nobody was wearing any clothes.
The ship is very small, at times cramped and subject to react very poorly in any sort of wind or weather. This seems to be coupled with the fact that the route they take to the Caribbean is less then ideal and promotes a heavy crosswind.
Well, the weather wasn't really Disney's fault. The Magic and Wonder are the only ships I've ever sailed on, so I have nothing to compare them to, but I'll take your word for it that the pitching and rocking are less severe on bigger ones. I got seasick too on my last Disney cruise when we went through the Gulfstream. At least I didn't fall out of my bed.
You had better like Disney...a lot.
Yes, and when you travel all the way to China, you'd better like the Chinese...a lot.
There is no such thing as an activity, there is only an opportunity for Disney to sell you something.
Oh, pish-posh. I learned how to fold towels into the shape of animals and how to do origami, I played Bingo and did a number of other activities without ever being spammed or asked to look at Disney products. Which is not to say that Disney isn't out to make an extra buck; the Shutters photo display is sufficient evidence of that. But I never felt anything like a hard sell. Still, I'll admit that if you'd been on eight other non-Disney cruises and suddenly went aboard the Magic, it might seem quite "commercial" in comparison.
The attitude of much of the crew is pretty poor and mixed. You will cross a variety of situations you will never find on another cruise line. It definitely isn't a "what can I do for you to make your vacation great" attitude as much as it's a what is the minimum I can do to make you go away so I can go back to what I was doing.
This was
profoundly different from anything like what happened on my three previous Disney cruises.
The food is simply terrible, cheap and not quality at all in most cases. There are always exceptions, but, for the most part.
I would agree that some of the cuisine could stand some marginal improvement, but "terrible" it was not. There was so much variety and so much food on the Magic that if you didn't like something, there was always something else available.
The details that make a cruise great are missing. This includes original talent, characters (in the human sense) and variety. If you've done other cruises where you continually walk around noticing cool little things, you will be disappointed here.
Again, this was not my experience on the Disney ships. There were numerous colorful people, all very enthusiastic and helpful. Simply put, my two favorite things on board have been admiring the design and decor of the ship, and interacting with crew members. Those are the things that keep me coming back to the Disney ships.
The entertainment is narrow, tired and basically the same theme over and over. I can't recall if there were two or three unique shows in the theater and I couldn't tell them apart.
Your not being able to tell them apart is likely indicative of a problem that goes far beyond Disney.
I think the general consensus of the Disney Cruise Line customers, i.e., on this board, is that The Mouse offers a very family-oriented series of shows that are uniquely geared to pre-existing fans. If I attend the Monsters of Rock tour, I am not going to complain about the volume level. But you know, one thing I really enjoyed about the Disney cruise was that there was always a way for me to enjoy some adult entertainment by going to Sessions or the Cadillac Lounge and seeing a jazz pianist or a cabaret act going on. I am on the record at being disappointed that Disney has apparently gotten rid of the bands. I enjoyed Chuy and Danielle a lot on previous cruises, and I think they are not scheduled to return.
