I just didn't like the cruise.

[dbkelly]

Just back from the 4 day Wonder and I don't think I would ever do it again under the same circumstances. For everyone who said you can barely feel the ship move, I would like to know how many drinks you had on the ship. Actually, only the first night was terrible. We were rocking back and forth so much that you had to hold on to railings and walls to walk around the ship. Fortunately, known of us got sick because of the Bonine and Dramamine. Although, the Dramamine knocked my son out cold at 8:00 pm for the night. The next morning we were in Nassau and we went over to Atlantis. I booked a room at the resort so we could use the pools. The resort was wonderful, but I am not sure if it was worth $340. We got our taste of Nassau when we went for a taxi. All the taxi drivers try to hail you down as soon as you get off the ship. We went to the first gentlemen and he said $4 per person and please wait to the side while I get more people. He was working with another female who was also hailing down people. I asked her, how many people is she looking for and she said at least 10. I then asked her what type of vehicle could hold 10 people and she said a large van. The van was very small and they squeezed 15 of us. People were on top of people and none of the seat belts worked. I complained about the seat belts and she said don't worry there not mandatory. I told her I did not care if they were mandatory and she looked at me like I was crazy. I think that was the most dangerous situation I ever put my children in. The day at Castaway Cay was very nice, but hot with very little shade. Everyone was pretty cranky by 2:00 pm, because the sun was so hot. The island is very pretty were Disney made changes, but the rest of the island is ugly! The next day was the day at sea and that was the most disappointing day. The pools were so crowded that it was a major safety problem. Children were on top of each other and they could barely move. I could not find a chair to save my life and I could barely walk around deck 9 to just watch my children. The worst of it all was all the unsupervised children. One 3 year old boy slapped my 4 year old daughter for no reason at all. I interveened when he tried to do it again and I kept looking for a parent to approach me, but no one claimed the child. Parents let their children run around the ship until very late at night. I saw 7 and 8 year olds on the elevators by themselves at 10:30 at night! Family parties would not start until 10 pm at night! My children are in bed at that time. We let them go up one night until 10:30 and they had fun, but they were tired. I felt that a lot, but not all, of the parents went on the cruise just to unload their children. We take vacations just to purposely spend more time with the children. The food was good, but not excellent. The servers were wonderful, they were the best part of the trip. I just wish the cruise was a lot more relaxing and a lot less crowded. I will take a week at OKW or BWV any day over a cruise. Although, I did not like the cruise, I am glad I did it. I don't want to deter anyone from taking the cruise. Everyone should try it at least once.

 

[dbkelly]

I forgot to say that I thought the shows were wonderful. I went to Disney Dreams twice!.

 

[rtraub]

We were on the Magic in August with DS 3 1/2 and DS 17 months at the time. It seemed like a majority of parents checked their parental responsibility upon boarding. Kids running all over unsupervised. We had my baby DS in mickey's ears, a big 8 inches of water and there were 12 year olds jumping in and out of it!!! The CMs did NOTHING. I do not enjoy yelling at other peoples children but it was getting dangerous. Mickey's ears are designed for the little ones....the older kids had plenty of other options. Some kids behaved like animals. They were belly flopping into the mickey pool ( a big 2 feet of water). The CMs did NOTHING. I'm not even sure why CMs were at the Mickey pool as they do NOTHING. As a former lifeguard, I know how dangerous that could be in such shallow water. I suppose Disney might do something when someone cracks their skull on the bottom of the pool doing this.

We did enjoying cruising as a family vacation but are looking into another line. I would also cruise when school is in session to cut down on the number of older kids on board. By the way what does OKW or BWV stand for???

 

[disneyholic family]

oh oh...that was a disheartening post....

 

[mom2tiggers]

I loved the cruise, but agree with some of your points. There were a lot of loose children & the parties were too late. My kids have to go to bed on time or they are soooo crabby.

I also agree about the movement of the ship. I remember reading how you hardly feel the boat move because of the stabilizers & that was soooo wrong. I was amazed how much I felt it - but the ocean is an enormous thing compared to a cruise ship. I took all types of drugs - dramamine, bonine, etc & just felt miserable the first day & half. I found myself crabbing & not enjoying the cruise at first. I thought the wristbands had to be a joke because in my head it made no sense. However, I was desperate to try anything & the CM told me they'd refund my money if they didn't work. I kid you not, they started working within 15 minutes & seasickness was never an issue with me again. We had very high seas at the end of the cruise & I felt nothing in the way of sickness. It was very hard to walk though the halls because of people were bouncing off each other though.

 

[disneyholic family]

OKW is Old Key West
BWV is Boardwalk Villas
both are disney vacation club properties..
both are lovely, though we prefer OKW (very quiet and off the beaten path....and it's nice being able to drive up to the door of your room....also the CMs are extraordinarily friendly at OKW....)

as for the cruise....this post is upsetting me....
i wonder if it's as bad with teenagers...
we're doing this cruise at the insistance of the kids....15 and 17....
they won't be going near the swimming pool so those problems won't be an issue....but i wonder if we'll be bothered by all the unsupervised kids....
i REALLY hate other people's kids (especially on vacation...and especially when parents stop parenting....and disciplining...)..
i wonder if i wouldn't be better off putting all those thousands of dollars into a pile and setting them on fire...

 

[wsurrettema]

Hi All,

I just returned from the 7 day Magic Cruise (April 13-20) and while I enjoyed many aspects of the cruise, the pools on board were not one of them. They were absolutely atrocious. They were unbelievably crowded and there was no control whatsoever about what kids did. Running, jumping, roughhousing... and never did I see a crewmember intervene.

The water in the Mickey pool always looked disgusting. Cloudy with lots of "stuff" floating around in it (there *is* a picture of Mickey on the bottom, right??... you certainly couldn't see it clearly). The Pluto pool was somewhat cleaner, though equally crowded. I cannot for the life of me, though, figure out why the pool was designed the way it was. First, it's too small. Second, the sides of the pool are too high so that if you're sitting at one of the (way too few) poolside chairs, you cannot see your kids in the pool. The design of the adult pool was quite nice... larger and no high sides... and of course, the water was nicer since there was never any more than 4 or 5 adults in the pool the whole cruise.

Some of the problems can be attributed to the fact that this was a prime week for school vacations and I suspect the number of kids on board were inordinately high. Is there any way to find out how many kids were on board?

Anyhow, the pools were the most disappointing thing about the whole cruise. How a ship that is specifically designed for families and kids can fall so short in this area is beyond me.

Next time... it certainly won't be disney.

Cheers...

Walter

 

[KAR3600]

I think it is VERY SAD that parents either don't want to or don't know how to control their children!!!!. They either leave the repondsiblity of teaching manners to others (i.e. teachers, counslors, etc) They are just to busy to be bothered, or they feel they deserve a "break" and shouldn't have to deal with them........I quess it's a question of being repondsible for your actions, which theses days everyone tries to get out of, it always someone elses fault. I truly hope my cruise will be more "civil"......

 

[wsurrettema]

Well, I was only going to post about the pools in this thread, but I also agree about the lack of parental responsibilty on the cruise as well. We saw many, many kids and teenagers running rampant on the ship. Some as young as 7 or 8.

The most appalling display was at the kids club. One woman literally had to peel her screaming child off of her to put him into the kids club. She then high tailed it out of there while the child was hysterical for at least another 15 minutes (it could have been longer, as I had checked my kids in and left). I spoke to the CM about it and she told me that it happens quite often... the parents just dump the kids in the club and go do their own thing.

As it turns out, my kids (7 and 9) were totally bored with the clubs and only went there once or twice for very short periods of time... which was fine with us, as they spent the time with us instead.

Cheers....

Walter

 

[jennifersmith23]

One thing to remember though is that this is true of ANY vacation. I have been on numerous vacations where children were aloud to run around hotels without supervision. Disney World is almost as bad. Last time I went to Disney, I was run in to by more kids than I can count. I agree with these posters 110%...Parents, pay more attention to your kids while on vacation.

I am pretty laid back though. Something like this would not ruin my vacation. I am sorry you had a bad experiance. Wish us future cruisers better luck dbkelly...

Thanks,

 

[disneyholic family]

boy is this making me nervous....
the first negative posts i've seen about the disney cruises...
i wonder how the other cruise lines are...

the pools are irrelevant for us....we have year round access to swimming (outdoors and indoors) so we're not planning on swimming on the ships.....just at atlantis and castaway cay.....

maybe i should try that cruise line with the money back guarantee....i think carnival....

 

[prymsu]

In January on the seven day, I found a little boy (guessing about 5 years old) crying in the hall. He couldn't find his room or his parents. He was very upset. It took about a half an hour, but I finally was able to help him find his room. Now i have a nine year old son, and i keep a really close eye on him. I guess that is just the worry wart in me. It does bother me that little kids are running around, not so much because they bother me, but because of safety issues. Who is to say that someone wouldn't do something inappropriate when the opportunity is available. I know people don't like to think that something bad will happen, but you never know.

Just my two cents...

 

[Michelle]

Disneyholic family, please don't let one post upset you. For everyone unhappy with a vacation there are many more who enjoyed it immensely. That's not to say that dbkelly did not have valid concerns; but I think you'll find that the vast majority of people enjoy the cruise very much. And as dbkelly said:

Although, I did not like the cruise, I am glad I did it. I don't want to deter anyone from taking the cruise. Everyone should try it at least once.

Go and judge for yourself!

 

[shirley 38]

We were on the Magic 7 day cruise from April 6th to the 13th.
We had very bad weather. Seas of 20 feet and Gale force winds of 60 miles an hour.
So I cannot make any kind of comment about the pools as you really could not use them.
It was like a wave pool. The Adult pool was fine and that is where we stayed and we could stand the waves in fact it was kind of fun.
My biggest and only disappointment was Cast Away Key. It was very bland hardly any trees. I thought it was going to be like a tropical island. No shade unless you were lucky enough to get an unbrella. Which I might say there were not enough of.
For people who had young children I thing some kind of cover is very important.
Please Plant some Palm trees and make it look like an island. It is just one big long sandy beech.

 

[pal2pluto]

It seems as though most of what dbkelly brought up was not necessarily the fault of disney, and something that would have been experienced on any cruise....ie: rough seas, Nassau taxi cabs, heat on CC (although there are palm trees in some areas on the beach, this is a beach), lack of parental supervison over kids. The pools, however, is something that Disney could in the future modify on future ships, but for now, I believe they have standard sized pools for the time the ships were built. Perhaps the newer ships have larger pools, I don't know. The CM's not enforcing rules.....could be changed and done better.....and the food, well, that's a huge post in and of itself. I've heard "McDonalds is better" to "fabulous dinners".
Dbkelly, I am sorry you did not have a better time on your vacation. And I appreciate your comment that you weren't trying to deter anyone else from taking the cruise. But I don't know if another cruiseline would have handled these items any differently.

 

[goofysgal]

I was on this same cruise. From what I determined there were a lot of kids on school break from the northeast; there were lots of families from MA, CT, & NY on the ship. Their spring break was coordinated with Patriot's Day. The ship was full. My son (11) only went to the pool twice -- almost immediately after boarding and Tuesday evening. We had no problem locating chairs either time. He spent Sunday evening, part of Monday and all day Tuesday in the Lab while we visited Atlantis--we had to beg him to leave. He did not go back on Wednesday or Thursday though.
I agree that there were way to many unsupervised pre-teens roaming the boat. It seemed that once they figured out they could sign in & out of club on their own they preferred to roam the ship on their own unsupervised. DCL should reconsider the sign-in/sign out age.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

I was so worried that dbkelly was going to get "slammed" for being critical. The issues she raised are very much mine. I agreed to go on the cruise reluctantly, since we have to go during Feb. break next year, and I get SOOOO TIRED of the problems with other people's kids! This isn't Disney's fault, but you'd think the CM's would do soemthing, especially due to the safety issue. DH and I are EMT's, this is one of our sticking points. An added "bonus" for us is, we're travelling with family members...they're the ones who "had" to try the cruise, and also "had" to go during Feb. break. Naturally, they're also the ones who believe discipline is a 4-letter word (but you knew that, didn't you?). I'm trying to get into the swing of going on this cruise--reading these boards has helped, tons of info, but it's good to hear soemone who had a not-so-good time, to keep expectations on track. I think the lack of parental discipline is all over, but if you're a parent who makes half an effort, you don't see it as much because the choices you make minimize your exposure (i.e., who your kids friends are, etc.), but then you're thrown into a situation like this, and it hits you again. Every summer, we go to Sesame Place (outside Philadelphia)--intended as a water/ride place geared for young kids. The pools are ~1 foot deep max. Well, there are screaming hoardes of teenagers and preteens, running through the water, splashing, trampling, etc.--my kids love it, so we go back, but between the water and the crowds, as a parent, you can't blink! So, I'll consider that my "dry run" for the cruise. What a shame that it has to be like that! Thanks for listening.

 

[CarsonsMom]

It just breaks my heart hearing about children crying for being left at the clubs. Those poor kids. I would never do that to my son on what is supposed to be a family vacation.

Sorry that you didn't have a good time. I went in October with my husband and loved it and we are going back in 3 weeks with my son. I just know we will have a blast.

In October, there was only one day where the sea was a little rough. Not much Disney can do about that. We just pray for good weather!

I can't wait to take my son, but I won't leave him in the clubs if he doesn't want to be there and he will be closely supervised by me at the pools. I agree with you all about kids just running around unsupervised. Guess some parents just don't care.

 

[HelenC]

To all those getting nervous about all these negative posts...relax and notice that there are very few threads like this one (in fact, this is the first one I've seen that has been so bad).

On our last cruise, we went with a group of 12 people varying in ages from 1.5 years old to 40 years old.......we ALL enjoyed ourselves immensely......which is why we are going again on May 4th.

Boy, by reading all these comments you'd think that DCL attracted the most unruley families and had complete control of the weather and seas! You have to remember that most people have much less tolerance for 'other peoples kids' and and some people feel compelled to 'critique' anything they've paid so much money for.

Go and enjoy! Most people do.....

 

[MikeBW]

I was on the 4/14 Wonder and it was rough going on Sunday. I was sick and had to go to bed at 7:30 PM (I was lying there and the closet doors were opening and closing with the ship movements). My daughter was sick at dinner and slept in my wife's arms. She took benadryl and rebounded in time for the Hercules show - Dad was out. I don't usually get motion sickness (I did the Hulk roller coaster on Friday at IoA - and loved it!).
The pools were definitely crowded on the sea day. My kids had fun though and I didn't notice any problems.
Other parents told me of some troubles with rude kids in the Oceaneer's Club. My kids went for about 3 hrs over 3 days and they did not report any problems. It just might be the luck of the draw when doing certain activities.