How crowded do the ships feel?

michiedorn

Earning My Ears
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Jul 4, 2015
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I'm going on the Fantasy August 1 for 7 nights - Eastern Caribbean - I imagine this is a popular time for cruising. Do the boats feel crowded? Where do you feel it the most?

Thanks!
 
I'm going on the Fantasy August 1 for 7 nights - Eastern Caribbean - I imagine this is a popular time for cruising. Do the boats feel crowded? Where do you feel it the most?

Thanks!
Never felt crowded to me.
 
The ships feel the most crowded in the dining rooms and in the swimming pools.

Yes, August is a popular month but DCL tries to fill every stateroom every cruise. Sometimes the rooms have a couple of adults; other times the rooms have parents and kids. Since most kids are out of school in early August, there will be more kids on board than a 2-week cruise during the school year.
 
It's most crowded by the pools, deck 11 on sea days and Pirate night.
 

I'm going on the Fantasy August 1 for 7 nights - Eastern Caribbean - I imagine this is a popular time for cruising. Do the boats feel crowded? Where do you feel it the most?

Thanks!
We will be cruising with you!
 
We didn't feel crowded at all on our cruise and we were on the Wonder (smaller ship).
 
I found the pools and elevators to feel the most crowded. Obviously the restaurants were pretty full as were the main shows of an evening. Even then it wasn't unbearable.
 
We've been on exactly one cruise, a 7 night Western on the Fantasy in October, 2013. The ship was not crowded at all. About the same feeling as a deluxe resort in WDW at that same time of year. The biggest crowds were in the terminal prior to boarding.

Martin
 
As others have said, the family pool deck is the only part that ever really feels crowded to me. Cabanas can be crazy, especially on embarkation day, but other than that, I've never felt like I was overly crowded. Pirate night is nuts during the show, but I head up to Currents to watch the fireworks, so I'm not too hemmed in.

Then again, I avoid the family pool deck like the plague if I can help it specifically because of the chaos and noise inherent to that many people in one place. I tend to use deck 10 as a corridor from the forward elevators to the aft elevators, staying away from midship as much as I can.
 
I thought lots of people crowded around the entrance to restaurants at the opening of dinner time. If you go 10 minutes after, there is no wait at all.
 
Port Canaveral felt the most crowded. The sail away party and pirate show are crowded but we go up to deck 12 and watch from up there and it's not bad at all and can see everything. The pool deck is generally most crowded but it's not that bad, it's less crowded than a shopping mall.
 
I just go off the 7 day Eastern. I felt that Cabanas was crowed most of the time for breakfast and lunch. I also felt te pools were crowded in the afternoon. Had great time, though and hope to cruise next summer on Disney.
 
Shutters the last night of the cruise = crowded feeling. So many people are wanting to look at all of their pictures that last night.
 
..... The biggest crowds were in the terminal prior to boarding.....

I concur, outside of Muster and Pirate noise. (Fantasy)

Sail Away party, Pirate Party, also included in the crowded moments

If possible, arrive at terminal around 12:30 - 1:00pm, if you like no lines or crowding.

You could walk through security without a line, check in w/o a line, then walk aboard w/o any wait during this time.

JMT & IMO

Enjoy
 
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I'm going on the Fantasy August 1 for 7 nights - Eastern Caribbean - I imagine this is a popular time for cruising. Do the boats feel crowded? Where do you feel it the most?

Thanks!

Definitely in the engine room; DCL doesn't want you down there but they left a gangway open and I got this shot of it:

ben-hur-ship-rowers.png
 
Shutters the last night of the cruise = crowded feeling. So many people are wanting to look at all of their pictures that last night.
I forgot about Shutters that last night... add to that the line for the future cruise booking desk that same night.

Martin
 
I have never cruised at that specific time, but I found the elevators to be the most crowded area of the ship on our previous cruise (and they were super slow!)
 
I forgot about Shutters that last night... add to that the line for the future cruise booking desk that same night.

Martin
Yeah, that's the only time I really felt the "push" of a crowd, aside from Debarkation. That said, if you can do MK in August, a Cruise is a breeze. Most of the time we felt like we had the ship practically to ourselves (did an August 2 Cruise in 2013, so same timeframe).

Sometimes the Goofy's Sports deck can get a bit overrun, and you'll have trouble finding putt putt balls/clubs...but that's all I can think of.
 

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