Just back from Disney Dream 2/2-2/5

[AKMOUSE]

While I have only been on one cruise, I think my experience wouldn't have been so nice I had I not had the boards to reference. My DH kept saying "I am so glad you knew XYZ"......I only hear that on vacations!


Anyway, we were on a sold out spring break cruise. And I can remember kids EVERYWHERE. But it is Disney, so I expected that. We were disappointed that we couldn't swim in the goofy pool - just not enough room without touching someone else. Ewww!!
For us, swimming is a big deal - we are from Alaska, so swimming outside only happens when we travel. The kids would get their swim time in at the kids pool, and while they were at the club we would get our at the adult.


I had read on here before we cruised that elevators would be a packed, so when we cruised, we vowed no elevators for the week. It worked well nad we got some exercise! We already determined that when we go in a few weeks - no elevators!!

I think that the DIS boards are a wealth of information and I love the tips that others can share.

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Why do people need to keep the lights on in the room when no one is there????

It's the air conditioning. Our room host put in a special card to keep it on. Didn't need it blasting, but enough to keep it from getting hot while we were out.

 

[Conservative Hippie]

Why do people need to keep the lights on in the room when no one is there????

We don't leave the lights on - you can turn everything off. Leaving a card in there just makes it more convenient when coming back to your room. Also sometimes at night we did leave a light on in the room so we wouldn't come back to a pitch black room.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We use a room key from our pre cruise hotel stay. We still pull it up a little when we leave to shut the lights off but we don't like to put a KTTW card in there because the kids have left theirs there in the past.

 

[BeeTeacher]

On the way home I told DH that a 3 night cruise was just too short. It reminded me of the people who go to Magic Kingdom and try to do it ALL with a one day one park ticket. They are in a mad craze to get it all in. They run to get in line, they push at the buffets, they act like the soda is going to run out and complain when it does instead of just telling a CM so they can change the tank.

We rebooked a 7-nighter just so we could relax and not feel pressure to "do it all". I was really sad to not make it to the rainforest room on the 2/2/12 Dream but reading Dgundy's comment it sounds like I didn't miss anything! We would have gone mid-day on Nassau day.

Another issue with on ship crowds--I'm thinking very few people got off at CC. The family beach was not crowded at all (I wish I took a pix), there was not a Shutters photographer to be found, there was no line at the buffet at 1:00, and only about 20-25 people at serenity bay.

While it was overcast it was not raining but a few drops here and there. We rode bikes, ate lunch, and spent a few hours on the adult beach even though the family beach was deserted. I bet this just made for more crowds on the ship. I didn't know people would stay on the ship on a CC day, as I thought that was THE place to be, even with overcast skies. But so many excursions were cancelled due to high winds, I guess people just stayed on ship.

KIDS--the kids we saw were mainly preschool age. There were older kids but the majority was toddlers. We looked in teen club a few times from deck 12 and it was not crazy crowded. I think longer cruises during school season would be less crowded?

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Several of the slightly older kids (say from 6 to 11) seemed to be from other countries, so their school system may have had different times for vacations. (please don't think I am saying it was only foreigners that had badly behaved kids - I saw/heard several American kids that were!)

I think what happened is that certain kids managed to "team up" and they ran amok thereby making themselves more noticeable.

We did run into some very well mannered kids too. That always impresses me when they are not around their parents and they are so polite. Makes one want to track their parents down and tell them to be proud!

 

[SweetSpot]

We had pretty much the same experience last July on back to back Dream cruises. I couldn't believe the crowds. The pools were jammed packed as were the restaurants. We have been on 10 DCL and several RCCL cruises and have learned that for us RCCL definitely doesn't work and we like the smaller ship longer cruises with DCL. There is a definite difference in passenger mentality, trying to cram everyting in, on shorter cruises the crowds and sometimes rudeness can be overwhelming. Also, the set up of the Dream is not ideal for the crowd level. The pool deck isn't set up for the amount of people. The Fantasy has made some fixes by adding water features but the Dream won't change until dry dock.

I don't think I will ever get on the Dream again and just cancelled our summer back to back Fantasy cruises because I don't think enough changes could be made for me to like the design and the amount of people. I'm looking forward to getting on the Magic again in June and think I will stick with the smaller DCL ships.

Don't cut DCL out completely. You would be surprised how completely different the smaller ship, longer cruises could be. We love the Magic and consider it our first choice for a family vacation.

 

[SoCaOC-Mom]

Several of the slightly older kids (say from 6 to 11) seemed to be from other countries, so their school system may have had different times for vacations. (please don't think I am saying it was only foreigners that had badly behaved kids - I saw/heard several American kids that were!)

I think what happened is that certain kids managed to "team up" and they ran amok thereby making themselves more noticeable.

We did run into some very well mannered kids too. That always impresses me when they are not around their parents and they are so polite. Makes one want to track their parents down and tell them to be proud!

I am reading your and your friends TR. The ringing of your door bell pranks is just pure straight up obnoxious behavior. My kids would be way to young to reach it or even know that it was a prank to do such a thing (they are 2 and 4) , but if I had older kids who did it, I would want to know about so I could fix their wagons.

 

[sneadae]

We were on this same cruise and I have to admit I have very similar thoughts as the OP. This was our second Disney cruise, but we have been on numerous other cruises (RCCL, Carnival, NCL). Our first Disney cruise was on the Wonder and we did not enjoy it as much as we expected to, but, we had bad weather and had just spent 5 days in the parks. We decided to give Disney another chance because we really wanted to go on the Dream. The Dream is an absolutely beautiful ship. It was probably one of the nicest ships I have ever cruised on. But, having said that, I will probably not spend the extra money on a Disney Cruise in the future. Not that I didn't like it...just didn't like it enough to pay double the price of all other cruise lines. We are HUGE Disney fans and are DVC members as well, but the Disney Cruise is simply not for us. It's like cramming a huge theme-park filled with lines and crowds and LOTS of kiddos into a small ship with not quite enough space to accommodate.

On our Nassau day, we decided to stay on the ship and enjoy the pool and slides. Unfortunately, I think everyone else decided to do the same thing. The Aquaduck was a 40 minute wait for most of the day, the pools were overcrowded, and lots of unsupervised children. We rode the Aquaduck at night - no wait - but it was freezing!!

Castaway Cay was as gorgeous as I remember, but the weather was the pits. Too bad...I would really like to visit that island at a time when the weather is nice. Both times we've been there, the weather has been cool, windy, and rainy.

The shows were AMAZING! Disney definitely takes the lead when it comes to stage productions on cruise ships...no other cruise line or ship can come close. Loved all three of the shows.

Our family had a great time, but it was definitely crowded, so be prepared!

 

[Weedy]

It's the air conditioning. Our room host put in a special card to keep it on. Didn't need it blasting, but enough to keep it from getting hot while we were out.

The airconditioning is NOT controlled by the key card.

 

[my2disneyboys]

If I didnt have kids my review would be SO different. The adult areas were so quiet and peaceful and relaxing. We boarded at noon and the scene was INSANE. I actually almost had a panic attack. There were kids running and screaming and slipping and falling all over the place- my 4 year old got knocked down. I tried to go into the Newmos reef with them because the pools were so full but there were so many kids inside of Nemo's reef at 12:00 Noon that I was scared he would get hurt in there.

My only real complaint and what would keep me from booking another cruise was that I didnt have that magical feeling at all. I didnt get to experience many special family times because in order to be in a public area and not get trampled you had to be in the 18 plus area.

 

[my2disneyboys]

Here are some pics of the deck and the stairs.....

 

[jenseib]

I don't find the pictures shocking at all. the pirate party actually looks like less people than the one I went to and I thought it was manageable. As for getting off the ship, if you line up when you first dock, that is typical as well. Since you arrived late, many people were anxious to get off.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Here are some pics of the deck and the stairs.....

Wow! I have cruised on the Dream 4x and never saw the stairs like that. Please know that is not the norm. OTOH, the crowd at the pirate party is typical. But really, even if you were the type to have major issues with crowds, have you never seen that many people gather at WDW? We only go off peak and deal with far worse crowds watching fireworks at Epcot. Either situation we can walk away and accept that the entertainment being offered isn't worth dealing with the crowd. Right?

I am glad you posted the issues for a 1st time cruiser though. DCL reads these boards and your opinion should be valued too, not just gold & platinum members. I have a coworker whose never been to WDW but has cruised when single & taking their 2 boys on the Dream. I can give her some tips to avoid some of the issues you had.

I hope you'd reconsider someday and cruise on the Magic. To me, that's still the gold standard of Disney cruising. I think it always will be unless they remove 1 deck full of tiny cabins on the Fantasy.

 

[Silverfox97]

I hope you'd reconsider someday and cruise on the Magic. To me, that's still the gold standard of Disney cruising.

Yep - I agree. And the Wonder too

 

[my2disneyboys]

I posted those pictures as examples of what the deck looked like at most times as I passed thru it. It wasnt only like that at Pirate night lol It was like that most of the time on the ship. True the floor was a pool- but all those people were in it! The stairs not only looked like that when we departed for castaway.... it looked like that during any event/show time!

 

[Conservative Hippie]

Here is deck 11 during the Sail Away -

And here is where we watched it from on deck 12 -

Yes, it's going to be crowded. There are 4,000 people onboard. Any time everyone needs or wants to be in the same place, it will be uncomfortable. But, aside from trying to get back up after the muster drill, I find it can be easily avoided.

 

[DMMarla07860]

Here are some pics of the deck and the stairs.....

Pirate party doesn't seem crowded, stairs seemed crowded, but if you go a little after the crowd it might not be that bad. I have seen worse at Disney World parade at night.

 

[my2disneyboys]

Here is deck 11 during the Sail Away -

And here is where we watched it from on deck 12 -

Yes, it's going to be crowded. There are 4,000 people onboard. Any time everyone needs or wants to be in the same place, it will be uncomfortable. But, aside from trying to get back up after the muster drill, I find it can be easily avoided.

Could you watch it from where you were - or only on the big screen? I have little boys who have dreamed of the sail away party for the last year and wantd to see it. You can see the crowds in your photo of people up on deck 12- we were up on deck 12 and adults were pushing my kids out of the way so THEY could see it. Anyway u look at it, Disney overbooks the cruises and it makes it less magical for us cruising.

 

[Conservative Hippie]

I posted those pictures as examples of what the deck looked like at most times as I passed thru it. It wasnt only like that at Pirate night lol It was like that most of the time on the ship. True the floor was a pool- but all those people were in it! The stairs not only looked like that when we departed for castaway.... it looked like that during any event/show time!

That is awful if the stairs were always like that. Having been on 2 3-nights, both sold out, I've never seen anything like that.