Just back-- very disappointed

[pewing]

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I will give my opinion anyway:

If you know your child is extremely hyperactive I would not think that being confined to a ship would be a good choice. Granted, you'd never cruised before, so now you know. I can truly understand your frustration of needing him to burn off some energy, but if my cabin happened to be one that you let your kid run back and forth in front of I'd be pretty upset.

As far as the kids clubs, I applaud them for calling you to pick up your child - perhaps he truly was too much for them to handle, and honestly, if there is one child disrupting or not engaging with the group, the group should not have to suffer. I have a well-behaved child who is looking forward to the club experience - but again, I'd be upset if she were not able to enjoy her experience because of another child needing constant attention (discipline) - I'm not saying that's what your son required, I'm just speaking generally. I would expect the kids' club employees to take that kind of action when necessary, and like I said in the beginning, I applaud it.

I'll get flamed with you

I hate it when someone labels a child (especially parents). I have two boys...they were active, but God forgive me if I ever labeled them 'hyper'. Shame on you. That usually means...'I can't control my child...and you are going to pay for my lack of effort!' If you want a vacation away from you child...take one. Don't bring him along and expect someone else to watch him so you can relax. I have NOTHING against the clubs...if my kids want to do them...that is great, but I agree with the posts about spending time with your kids too. Isn't that what a family vacation is for?

I also agree that I applaud the CM for 'ejecting' a 'problem child'. I don't want my kids to have to sit around while a team of counselors work to entertain one kid! If you can't get with the program...you will not be in the program. Maybe you should stop blaming someone else...and teach your 'hyper' kid that. It will be the best thing you ever do for him

 

[challada]

I do not know the original child in question, but I can tell YOU, pewing...SHAME ON YOU for scolding another parent like that!

FYI...Attention Deficit Disorder w/ or w/out Hyperactivity is a chemical imbalance occuring in a child's brain.

Parents of children w/ADHD already have a hard enough road w/the kids....let's not beat up on them as adults!

 

[pewing]

I understand the diagnosis (I am an RN)...and I also understand it is the most abused and misused diagnosis (which does harm to those actual afflicted). But...She didn't say he was ADD or ADHD. She just said he was 'hyperactive'...I think two or three times.

It was wrong of me to scold , but I didn't start it It started with someone complaining (among many, many things) b/c her child was not allowed to disrupt and act out and also b/c she had to spend time with her child (pause for gasp...)

I had two boys...19 months apart. I know busy...I know tired...I know 'need a break'. But like I said...if you want to get away from you kids...do, but don't drag them on a trip and expect them to participate in something that you know they can't (or won't) do. Even when my boys were little and I was tired...I knew it was my job to teach and guide them...and even discipline them if needed

I did not intend to beat up on this parent, but she doesn't need someone just agreeing with her....

 

[challada]

I don't mean to offend you pewing, nor do I whole-heartly agree w/the OP's opinion...I just get a bit miffed in relation to ADHD issues (and agree w/the overdiagnosis issue).

I AM glad to hear that counselor's intervened when there was a problem...I felt like I did not see ENOUGH of this on our cruise (nor enough of parents behaving themselves, but that's another story).

 

[pewing]

I don't mean to offend you pewing, nor do I whole-heartly agree w/the OP's opinion...I just get a bit miffed in relation to ADHD issues (and agree w/the overdiagnosis issue).

I AM glad to hear that counselor's intervened when there was a problem...I felt like I did not see ENOUGH of this on our cruise (nor enough of parents behaving themselves, but that's another story).

We can all live in harmony

I totally agree with the universal 'misbehaving' problem...been there...been the victim

 

[jlawall]

My only comment is that your children's ages make cruising and vacationing more stressful and it is always tough when they are that young. I cruised with my 2 nephews and their parents when they were about the same age and I saw what they went through. I have always traveled when my children were babies and I always made the best of it but I can assure you that when they get older, your vacation will be much more enjoyable and relaxing. For you, it may be better to spend less money, now, while they are young and save the DCL experience until they are older (or go w/o them for a shorter cruise). I KNOW it will be easier and better when they get older.!

 

[wdwstar]

I maybe wrong but what i got out of the OP thread was her ds is hyper,they wanted to relax, not enough activities,food was bad because she is a gourmand. I dont understand the blame towards DCL. I understand the OP is a DVC member, so am i and thank goodness, because then we only have to pay for food and tixs when we want to go visit wdw. You could have used your points to book your cruise, not a good choice but if you did a break down of the cost to cruise for example: food, room, room service, clubs, shows, activities,entertainment,etc (i am sure i missed something) add them all together and $5000 is not that bad. If you stayed in wdw and if you did not have dvc , you would have that expense, room,food,tixs, etc.
we put togther a last min. trip this past easter, keep in mind we could not use our points because there were no rooms available on points. It cost us $5000 to stay at the poly concerige for 10 days. (yes we could have stayed atsomewhere cheaper and not concerige) Now we look at it, we love the poly, the food was included and this was probable once in a life time since we are dvc members . I dont mind spending the money on family vacation as long as we are going as a family. I would have not called it a perfect vacation, but no vacation is a perfect vacation.
I believe you were over whelmed because your ds1 is hyper and your ds2 was only 5 months old. You maybe want to try the cruise again onceyour ds's are older and now you can book your spa,palo & kids clubs on the interenet before you go. I also heard that when people do a land & sea trip that you should do the land first then the sea because the cruise is very relaxing.

 

[PiperG]

Pairoj was great too, but it just seemed like Martin did the lion's share of the work.

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.

I have not read through this entire thread, but it is interesting how everyone's perception is different on things.

We also had Pairoj, and he worked equally as hard as our Assistant Server, Maria. We loved him and hope to have him as our Jan '06 Eastern.

Regarding the room service pizza, I dream about eating that on our verandah at midnight. Ordering those and chicken strips have become a tradition for DH and I. We watch the water go by as DS8 sleeps.

 

[Jsme]

We have taken our children on 2 DCL's with a third family cruise planned for 11/06. I was totally cracked up with one comment about the child(ren) did not spend more than a total of 5 hours in the club. My children chose not to stay more than that amount. They love being on the ship more than anything. DS loves to play at the Mickey pool so he can go down the slide. DD likes to do this too. They loved to go to the movies and the shows. Oh my there was so much they did outside of the club. We first get the child's Navigator. Then my 2 take a highlighter and highlight what they want to do. We try our darnest to accomadate these activities into our day. After all, when we cruise with our children it is about them. Not us. We do everything in our power to give them the best time. For the record my children are much older then OP's and that may make a difference.

As far as the service. Well that is another story. We have never had a problem with the service. Each person that helped us was nice. I do think just maybe expectations were a little unreasonable. I have to agree with donaldsgal that if you get one server that is excellent how can you put down the service or the servor. You have to remember what each persons responsibilities are.

I am sorry you did not have a wonderful and magical experience for your $5000. DCL is a wonderful cruise line. I have yet to find another to beat it.

 

[Bo'sMom]

I do not know the original child in question, but I can tell YOU, pewing...SHAME ON YOU for scolding another parent like that!

FYI...Attention Deficit Disorder w/ or w/out Hyperactivity is a chemical imbalance occuring in a child's brain.

Parents of children w/ADHD already have a hard enough road w/the kids....let's not beat up on them as adults!

The parent never indicated her child was ADHD..just hyperactive. AND, if her child was ADHD, then he most likely would be on medication and therefore would not be as "hyper" as she made him out to be. Unless of course, she chose not to treat his chemical imbalance and is allowing him to grow out of his ADHD naturally.

 

[Bo'sMom]

I admit to becoming extremely nervous as I read through the original postings. I just booked my first ever cruise..on any ship, at any time. LOL! We chose Disney over RCCL because: 1) huge Disney fans, 2) the kids clubs are second to none and 3) we know we will get great service, etc., because that's the way Disney does things. I have an only child..a son..who will be 11 on this cruise. He is excited about the Clubs and has been reading up on them. After reading this, I'm hoping that these clubs actually do meet his expectations and that he won't be let down. I'm also nervous that my expectations will not be exceeded and I will feel "let down". FTR, I love chicken nuggets and bad pizza so I know the food will be okay. LOL!

 

[wide awake]

Great post JSME !!! ITA !!!

 

[taeja71]

I remeber this thread being posted back in Feb. the first time and its now....JULY!

Your vacation will be as great, good, bad, or worse as YOU make it. Just as you are flexible at home you have to be even more so on vacation. Luckily, on a DCL there are lots of backup options for activites. Although DCL provides the activies (inside and outside the kids clubs) it is our part as vacationers to make it fun. They can't make you have fun. Make sense?
You take a chances walking out your front door and you don't have to spend $5,000 for that. The OP stated, " But when I spend almost $5000 on a vacation my expectations are pretty darn high."

To GILESfamily and MRSLTG, some times I joke about life being a line. We wait in line at the bank, after selecting groceries, we wait to get coffee and gas. I know in my house we're starting to wait in line to go to the bathroom. LOL. Take advantage of waiting in line at Shutter's for pictures, to meet characters, or even in line to get seated for dinner. Look out the portals, check out the flooring, chat w/ people next to you, or look at other people's pictures. I promise you will find lines on and off the ship.

I am glad there were some parts of the vacation that the OP enjoyed.

Just like finding joy in life you have to find joy in your cruise (or any trip you take DCL or not).

Now, let's let this thread die in peace (due to old age).

 

[kcashner]

Oh my.....I'll probably be a bad guy if I really say what I'm thinking.

We LOVE DCL. We'll be on our 13th cruise on the Magic this summer. It is really the only vacation my DD wants. She was in thc Club on our first cruise, too many to count in the Lab, and now can't wait to get back to The Stack. My sis and her husband and daughter sailed on the Wonder and hated it.

The interesting thing is that her main complaint was that her DD was afraid that mom and dad were having fun without her and didn't want to stay in the Club. This kid has been in day care from the day she entered their home--she obviously has never had the option of "not wanting" to go to day care. She just decided that she wanted to be with mom, and asked that mom be paged whenever she was dropped off. Of course, this meant that mom and dad didn't have any "kid free" time. We have always taken the approach that my DD has to do one activity in the appropriate kid venue each day. Usually, she'd make a friend or 2 and want to hang there. If she didn't, at least I had my one hour of "kid free" time.

As I read the post that started all of this, it seems that mom's definition of a good day was the day that DH took DS #1 and gave mom some time. There's nothing wrong with that....but it sounds like you were really looking for a vacation free of kids, and your DS's behavior didn't allow that.

I would strongly suggest not labelling kids when you register them in the programming. Let them be kids and see how they go with the group. If they are having a problem, you can later say that "some people" or "some teachers" or whatever feel that he/she might have a problem with "X label." By giving a diagnosis of "this kid is likely to be a problem", you are setting them up. After all, this is vacation...we're not worrying about learning to read or knowing your math facts. The counsellors are human (albeit well trained for the DCL program). They might see a label and identify that kid as "likely to be a problem" before the child has been given a chance.

Sorry that you had a great cabin (5K for 2 adults, a 4 year old and an infant is a lot more cabin than we get), and didn't enjoy the cruise. There are lots of different types of vacations...hope you find one you enjoy.

 

[Eeyorefan12]

I admit to becoming extremely nervous as I read through the original postings. I just booked my first ever cruise..on any ship, at any time. LOL! We chose Disney over RCCL because: 1) huge Disney fans, 2) the kids clubs are second to none and 3) we know we will get great service, etc., because that's the way Disney does things. I have an only child..a son..who will be 11 on this cruise. He is excited about the Clubs and has been reading up on them. After reading this, I'm hoping that these clubs actually do meet his expectations and that he won't be let down. I'm also nervous that my expectations will not be exceeded and I will feel "let down". FTR, I love chicken nuggets and bad pizza so I know the food will be okay. LOL!

Y'know, when we booked our cruise (West Coast) last year, I envisioned a bit of a kid-free vacation too. I love my kids...and I also love time away from them, as long as I know they're safe. I really thought they'd spend all their time in the clubs and we'd be sipping drinks on deck, catching up on our reading, etc. Here's what really happened:

We found so many things to do on the ship that we didn't even get the kids to the club until day 3. DD9 had seen things in the Navigator he really wanted to do and so we brought him for those. Ultimately, though, the events weren't what he'd imagined (a little juvenile for his age, I think and some of the kids were pretty "wild" while my DS is quiet and wears hearing aids). He wound up having a wonderful cruise experience anyway--spending lots of time in the Arcade with DH, sometimes reading in our stateroom, getting ice cream and pizza by himself (this was HUGE for a usually shy kid--he was so proud), shore time with everyone. He had a blast.

My DD11, envisioning herself an adult already, complained bitterly that she'd have to go to the "kids" club and wasn't old enough for the Stack. Guess what? She got to only one event and had a terrific time. The programming seems a lot more age-appropriate for the 11-12 group. Her only complaint about it all? We wound up doing so many other fun things that she never had a chance to go back. (It didn't help that she was ill in the middle of the cruise and spent two days in the cabin...but she got to watch nonstop movies and was content.)

I know it sounds as if we spent all our time with the kids but we really didn't. We just always knew where they were (usually escorting them but not aways, if it was a quick trip) and we got together for most meals to chat about the day. It was not the vacation I had imagined...it was actually better!

CB

 

[bonnielynn]

FYI...Attention Deficit Disorder w/ or w/out Hyperactivity is a chemical imbalance occuring in a child's brain.

Parents of children w/ADHD already have a hard enough road w/the kids....let's not beat up on them as adults!

I am one of those parents and unless you have walked my shoes.. you have no clue how hard it can be.. thank you for saying this and taking up for parents with children who are ADHD>

For anyone out there who doesn't have to walk these shoes.. dont judge others who have to. I have raised 2 other children. My last is ADHD... my parenting skills didn't make him that way.. God did...

Just needed to vent a bit.. am much better!

 

[taeja71]

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.
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[lbgraves]

Now, let's let this thread die in peace (due to old age).

If only that was possible!!! IDK why this needs to be rehashed again. If someone else was making a similar post then fine but why dig up an old argument?