We were on the 2.5 Eastern cruise. This was our first cruise experience so we didn't have any expectations except for those collected on this board. I also did religious homework with the Passporter.
I want to preface this post by saying that I NEVER bash Disney, and I'm not bashing them now. I am a DVC member who has the word "Disney" in my license plate for heaven's sake!!
But when I spend almost $5000 on a vacation my expectations are pretty darn high. We did NOT have a $5000 experience.
I don't even know where to begin. I'll try to break things down into categories.
First, the cast: DH and me and DS1 (almost 4) and DS2 (4 months)
The first day was total chaos. I stood in line while DH entertained the kids in the terminal. The line moved surprisingly quickly and I was on my way to register for the kids clubs. That line didn't move. At all. I know they've only recently started doing registration in the terminal, so I can only hope that they come up with a better system eventually. I only got part way through the process when I had to abandon it to get on the ship. I finished the process on board and it wasn't any better there. There was just a huge crush of people trying to get their kids registered, and the kids had to be there too in order to get their wrist bands, so it was just a mess. While I was in line to finalize the registration process I heard that Palos was completely booked already. I also didn't understand that DS2 needed to be registered at the same time in order to use Flounders, so I ended up not getting any Flounders spots at all. Apparently it was a busy cruise for Flounders.
DS1 is extremely hyperactive. I noted this on my registration form alone with a few other comments about him and I saw them highlight this and red flag his registration form. I had heard conflicting reports about the kids clubs being either very rigid with the scheduling or more flexible, i.e. allowing children to play on the pirate ship while others are watching a movie or doing a craft. My hope was that they would be flexible because he's just not going to get into 1 hour of craft time or story time. Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed the very first night. The counselor took me aside after he had been in the club for 1 hour and said that she would tell me which activities were more suited to him-- in other words, he was going to get kicked out of the clubs if he didn't want to participate in the current activity (which is exactly what happened). She gave me a schedule with some activities highlighted-- they were random and never more than an hour or two at a time. We tried to use the kids club a few times but we got a call almost every time to come and pick him up. The words on our pager were "DS wants to be picked up at the kids club" which was NOT the case-- they wanted us to pick him up, not him.
DS1 was a big part of the reason we chose to do a Disney cruise in the first place. As any parent of two young children knows, it's tough to get a break from your kids and we really needed one! We were willing to pay extra bucks for a Disney cruise because we knew it would be worth it to get some adult peace and quiet.
Well, choosing a cruise ended up backfiring badly. DS1 spent probably 5 hours total in the clubs for the entire week. DS2 didn't make it into Flounders at all. Remember me mentioning that DS1 was hyperactive? He NEEDS to run off energy. Take away the clubs and what do you have for an active 4 year old? Very very little. We played ping pong a little bit (DS1 chasing a ball
), tried to use the basketball and soccer areas on the top deck, but they were always being used by older guys-- I even resorted to walking the halls with him, allowing him to run ahead of me and back (on Deck 5, around the kids clubs and theater area). He got to play in the Mickey pool for 10 minutes before it closed (again). There was too much movement and the water was sloshing all over the place. I think the first day was ok, but we didn't make it to the pools then. Meanwhile, he had even more energy than usual since he had been cooped up first in a car for the 10 hours to get to Florida, then in a hotel room and standing in various lines to get from the hotel to the ship, and then he's not given any opportunity to run off some steam. He was as miserable as we were, maybe more.
That created a huge foundational problem for us to be able to have a good time, but we tried to weather it. What choice did we have??
Our St. Maartin day was a success in most ways. DS1 and DH had a great time on the beach that morning and I was able to have some shopping time. The weather was beautiful and the scenery gorgeous. It was probably the highlight of our trip. We should have skipped lunch on the island and gone straight back to the ship, but we wanted to experience some island cuisine so we went to lunch at a supposedly "posh" place (according to the menu prices) with a lovely ocean view. It was horrible!! The bread was accompanied by some very yellow margarine and some "olive oil," aka vegetable oil. The tomatos and fresh mozzarella salad I ordered came with tomatos that were almost completely white and basil that was literally brown and soggy. I think the name of the place was "Alfredos" or "Antoines"... something French (yes, I know Alfredo isn't French).
St. Thomas was a complete disaster. It took us from 7:15 to 11:00 to get to the island. Our floor was instructed to be in line to clear immigration between 7 and 7:30. When we got down there the line stretched halfway down the ship and we discovered upon entering the theater that the moving line had little to do with the 2 (yes, only 2 for a full ship of people) immigration officials and more to do with efficient seating in the theater. We sat in there with two young children for almost an hour befor finally getting through the process and heading to breakfast. We should have skipped the beach but we wanted to give DS1 an opportunity to run and play so we headed to the island on the tender boats, another long stand and wait process that eventually landed us on the island at 11 am. We've done nothing fun at all to this point-- just stand in lines and wait. We hire a taxi to take us to a beach and end up at the far end of a small beach where we discovered tons of seaweed. The sand area was shallow and the drop off in the water was quick, so we had to keep a very close eye on the kids (we were with DB and family). The surf was really churning up the sand, so snorkeling wasn't good. We ordered lunch here and it was "ok." We still wanted to shop so we headed back into town and were able to browse around for 1 hour before catching the last tender boat back to the ship. The whole day was hurry up and wait. Not a roaring success.
Our stateroom host was very nice and did a thorough job of taking care of us. He was rather slow, however, and we ended up missing turn down service on two nights because we made it back to our room before he got to it.
The food at dinner was good, as were our servers, Pairoj and Martin. Martin, our assistant server, was fantastic. Every time we saw him he was quietly attending to some need, cutting food for the children, removing the tails from shrimp, refilling wine-- we loved him! Pairoj was great too, but it just seemed like Martin did the lion's share of the work. Most of the meals were very good-- not spectacular, but very good. I'm a bit of a gourmand so it's pretty difficult to wow me with cuisine, but I was nicely satisfied with our evening dining experiences.
The food during the day is another story. I just say, keep your expectations very low when it comes to the food served around the goofy pool. That pizza (and the pizza served in the room) has to be the worst I have ever had, excluding the stuff they called pizza when I was in elementary school. The crust was obviously premade, and it wasn't even hot when served! DS1's hotdog looked ok-- I didn't try it. It seems like it would be difficult to mess up a wiener and a bun. The chicken fingers were only ok-- I had high expectations there because I had seen someone mention that the chicken fingers were the best they had ever had.
The problem with that kind of statement is that you don't know what that person has tried! Lets just say they were definitely not the best I've ever tried. The fries were good.
I enjoyed the seafood buffet at Topsiders. I'm a seafood junkie, so I was like a kid in a candy store! They even had crawfish!! It was a cold buffet, which wasn't good for DH as he likes his seafood hot, but I was happy. The only negative was the sushi. Stay away from the sushi on the ship! Soggy rice, truly inedible. If anyone tried sushi on the ship for the first time they would never ever try it again.
Another area where we were disappointed was the activities. We were actually bored. There were some very interesting and rewarding choices, but they didn't fill up the day. Family pictionary... line dancing... just not our thing.
I think I've covered everything. If I remember anything else I'll post.
A few years on these boards have taught me that posts like mine are inevitably followed by a few comments like, "It's still better than being at home." I'd like to say that I don't pay $5000 for the priviledge of sitting at home. And, incidentally, it wasn't better than being at home for us. I guess we're just not cruisers.
I want to preface this post by saying that I NEVER bash Disney, and I'm not bashing them now. I am a DVC member who has the word "Disney" in my license plate for heaven's sake!!
But when I spend almost $5000 on a vacation my expectations are pretty darn high. We did NOT have a $5000 experience.I don't even know where to begin. I'll try to break things down into categories.
First, the cast: DH and me and DS1 (almost 4) and DS2 (4 months)
The first day was total chaos. I stood in line while DH entertained the kids in the terminal. The line moved surprisingly quickly and I was on my way to register for the kids clubs. That line didn't move. At all. I know they've only recently started doing registration in the terminal, so I can only hope that they come up with a better system eventually. I only got part way through the process when I had to abandon it to get on the ship. I finished the process on board and it wasn't any better there. There was just a huge crush of people trying to get their kids registered, and the kids had to be there too in order to get their wrist bands, so it was just a mess. While I was in line to finalize the registration process I heard that Palos was completely booked already. I also didn't understand that DS2 needed to be registered at the same time in order to use Flounders, so I ended up not getting any Flounders spots at all. Apparently it was a busy cruise for Flounders.
DS1 is extremely hyperactive. I noted this on my registration form alone with a few other comments about him and I saw them highlight this and red flag his registration form. I had heard conflicting reports about the kids clubs being either very rigid with the scheduling or more flexible, i.e. allowing children to play on the pirate ship while others are watching a movie or doing a craft. My hope was that they would be flexible because he's just not going to get into 1 hour of craft time or story time. Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed the very first night. The counselor took me aside after he had been in the club for 1 hour and said that she would tell me which activities were more suited to him-- in other words, he was going to get kicked out of the clubs if he didn't want to participate in the current activity (which is exactly what happened). She gave me a schedule with some activities highlighted-- they were random and never more than an hour or two at a time. We tried to use the kids club a few times but we got a call almost every time to come and pick him up. The words on our pager were "DS wants to be picked up at the kids club" which was NOT the case-- they wanted us to pick him up, not him.
DS1 was a big part of the reason we chose to do a Disney cruise in the first place. As any parent of two young children knows, it's tough to get a break from your kids and we really needed one! We were willing to pay extra bucks for a Disney cruise because we knew it would be worth it to get some adult peace and quiet.
Well, choosing a cruise ended up backfiring badly. DS1 spent probably 5 hours total in the clubs for the entire week. DS2 didn't make it into Flounders at all. Remember me mentioning that DS1 was hyperactive? He NEEDS to run off energy. Take away the clubs and what do you have for an active 4 year old? Very very little. We played ping pong a little bit (DS1 chasing a ball
), tried to use the basketball and soccer areas on the top deck, but they were always being used by older guys-- I even resorted to walking the halls with him, allowing him to run ahead of me and back (on Deck 5, around the kids clubs and theater area). He got to play in the Mickey pool for 10 minutes before it closed (again). There was too much movement and the water was sloshing all over the place. I think the first day was ok, but we didn't make it to the pools then. Meanwhile, he had even more energy than usual since he had been cooped up first in a car for the 10 hours to get to Florida, then in a hotel room and standing in various lines to get from the hotel to the ship, and then he's not given any opportunity to run off some steam. He was as miserable as we were, maybe more. That created a huge foundational problem for us to be able to have a good time, but we tried to weather it. What choice did we have??
Our St. Maartin day was a success in most ways. DS1 and DH had a great time on the beach that morning and I was able to have some shopping time. The weather was beautiful and the scenery gorgeous. It was probably the highlight of our trip. We should have skipped lunch on the island and gone straight back to the ship, but we wanted to experience some island cuisine so we went to lunch at a supposedly "posh" place (according to the menu prices) with a lovely ocean view. It was horrible!! The bread was accompanied by some very yellow margarine and some "olive oil," aka vegetable oil. The tomatos and fresh mozzarella salad I ordered came with tomatos that were almost completely white and basil that was literally brown and soggy. I think the name of the place was "Alfredos" or "Antoines"... something French (yes, I know Alfredo isn't French).
St. Thomas was a complete disaster. It took us from 7:15 to 11:00 to get to the island. Our floor was instructed to be in line to clear immigration between 7 and 7:30. When we got down there the line stretched halfway down the ship and we discovered upon entering the theater that the moving line had little to do with the 2 (yes, only 2 for a full ship of people) immigration officials and more to do with efficient seating in the theater. We sat in there with two young children for almost an hour befor finally getting through the process and heading to breakfast. We should have skipped the beach but we wanted to give DS1 an opportunity to run and play so we headed to the island on the tender boats, another long stand and wait process that eventually landed us on the island at 11 am. We've done nothing fun at all to this point-- just stand in lines and wait. We hire a taxi to take us to a beach and end up at the far end of a small beach where we discovered tons of seaweed. The sand area was shallow and the drop off in the water was quick, so we had to keep a very close eye on the kids (we were with DB and family). The surf was really churning up the sand, so snorkeling wasn't good. We ordered lunch here and it was "ok." We still wanted to shop so we headed back into town and were able to browse around for 1 hour before catching the last tender boat back to the ship. The whole day was hurry up and wait. Not a roaring success.
Our stateroom host was very nice and did a thorough job of taking care of us. He was rather slow, however, and we ended up missing turn down service on two nights because we made it back to our room before he got to it.
The food at dinner was good, as were our servers, Pairoj and Martin. Martin, our assistant server, was fantastic. Every time we saw him he was quietly attending to some need, cutting food for the children, removing the tails from shrimp, refilling wine-- we loved him! Pairoj was great too, but it just seemed like Martin did the lion's share of the work. Most of the meals were very good-- not spectacular, but very good. I'm a bit of a gourmand so it's pretty difficult to wow me with cuisine, but I was nicely satisfied with our evening dining experiences.
The food during the day is another story. I just say, keep your expectations very low when it comes to the food served around the goofy pool. That pizza (and the pizza served in the room) has to be the worst I have ever had, excluding the stuff they called pizza when I was in elementary school. The crust was obviously premade, and it wasn't even hot when served! DS1's hotdog looked ok-- I didn't try it. It seems like it would be difficult to mess up a wiener and a bun. The chicken fingers were only ok-- I had high expectations there because I had seen someone mention that the chicken fingers were the best they had ever had.
The problem with that kind of statement is that you don't know what that person has tried! Lets just say they were definitely not the best I've ever tried. The fries were good. I enjoyed the seafood buffet at Topsiders. I'm a seafood junkie, so I was like a kid in a candy store! They even had crawfish!! It was a cold buffet, which wasn't good for DH as he likes his seafood hot, but I was happy. The only negative was the sushi. Stay away from the sushi on the ship! Soggy rice, truly inedible. If anyone tried sushi on the ship for the first time they would never ever try it again.
Another area where we were disappointed was the activities. We were actually bored. There were some very interesting and rewarding choices, but they didn't fill up the day. Family pictionary... line dancing... just not our thing.
I think I've covered everything. If I remember anything else I'll post.
A few years on these boards have taught me that posts like mine are inevitably followed by a few comments like, "It's still better than being at home." I'd like to say that I don't pay $5000 for the priviledge of sitting at home. And, incidentally, it wasn't better than being at home for us. I guess we're just not cruisers.
)........We are Myself, DH and almost 5 yo son (Who also is nonstop and NEEDS to burn off steam during the day!).....It was our first trip - and like you, I researched it on these boards and also in a Passporter. 
(Disney World, OTOH, completely stresses me out. I need a vacation just to recover from it.)
My son was also hyper when he was younger, actually I think I was told difficult, so I can understand your position. I wonder how long these counselors would last as teachers or worse yet as parents, we do it and don't even get paid for it! I am going to make some phone calls, to see what I can find out. Hopefully when your kids get older, you will be able to try it again and have a wonderful time Thank you for the heads up 
The first cruise we didn't even dream about being able to go to Palo so we wouldn't be disappointed. DS loved the club but DD had enough the one time she went after dinner with DS. Oh well, we did choose 
