Just off Fantasy 5/30 - 6/6 - Western

cschaaf

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Oct 19, 2013
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This was our second cruise, first with Disney

Food - Overall, we thought the food was okay. We had very few meals that were hot - they were warm at best - at either the MDRs or Cabanas. My dad complained at dinner one night and the wait staff said they would heat his plate more the rest of the week. Not the food, the plate. And that didn't happen.

Went to Palo for brunch and that was very good. I wished I had been more hungry, there were a bunch of things I wanted to try but was full. None of us like the hovering waitstaff around the buffet. I'm perfectly fine carrying my own plate and getting my own shrimp, thanks!

Excursions - At Cozumel, we went to Nachi Cocom - seemed nice, but the weather was a bummer. We thought the beach was nice and the food was pretty good - at least it was hot. ;).

On Cayman, we booked Stingray City and Snorkel with Captain Marvin's. We almost backed out due to the rain but decided to go anyway and it was amazing. We'd love to do it again with the sun out to really see how pretty the water and coral is.

In Jamaica we did Sun Valley Plantation and Blue Hole. Errol Bowen was our driver. I would highly recommend all three - the stops were great and Errol was a great guide. We had read a lot of complaints about Jamaica and aggressive sales people but that wasn't our experience at all. Everyone we dealt with on the island was very friendly and helpful.

On Castaway, we spent most of the day at Serenity, snorkeling and hanging out on the sand bar. We didn't find it crowded, but we didn't have a lot to compare it to. 5 out of 7 of us did the 5K and enjoyed that. Late in the afternoon, we went over to the family beach to snorkel and didn't enjoy that at all - crowded, murky water, we never did find the sunken items (we asked 3 cast members none of whom had any idea where they were), and we saw human excrement floating in the water (not blaming Disney on that one, it could happen anywhere it just made us realize that next time, we stay at Serenity).

Shows - we went to all of the shows in the main theater. I'm definitely not the best judge of the shows, they aren't really my thing. I enjoyed Aladdin. For the others, I wish they would have just performed the songs - the stories and dialog they tried to force around the songs were pretty awful. Just do the songs, that's what we're all here to see. ;)

Movies - only made it to Tomorrowland. Thought it was a dud.

Other - Midship Detective Agency was a good way to spend some time.

We did three tours:
  • Walking Ship Tour - okay for first timers but nothing that you couldn't do yourself. They basically showed you 2 MDRs (EG and AP), the cluster of bars (The Tube, the Irish place, etc.), where the kids clubs were, Shutters, and the shops.
  • Art of the Theme Tour - this one was slightly better. The most valuable piece of information was that in the stateroom hallways, there are stars on the carpet. The points of the stars face Forward.
  • Galley Tour - this was short and mildly interesting.
 
Thanks for sharing your trip. I read it and can't help but feel this wasn't a mind blowing awesome vacation you were expecting. But just a good enough vacation. What do you think they should have done differently?
 
Was your party adults-only? And how did you spend your sea days? Thanks for your willingness to share!
 
Thanks for sharing your trip. I read it and can't help but feel this wasn't a mind blowing awesome vacation you were expecting. But just a good enough vacation. What do you think they should have done differently?
I wouldn't call it mind blowing, but I had a great time. Cruising isn't really my type of vacation, so my report is definitely colored by that.

I think my expectations were too high based on both the cost of the cruise and many of the reports I have read. I expected there to be a big difference in what we experienced on our last cruise on Royal Caribbean about 4 years ago. I didn't really see an appreciable difference in service or quality. Certainly not enough to justify the expense. My wife, on the other hand, did feel there was a difference and would prefer we sail Disney if we choose to cruise again.

Tough to compare, though. Our RC cruise was 4 days and we didn't book activities in Nassau or Coco Cay. This cruise was 7 days and we had activities booked for all ports except Castaway.

Also, I love Disney World, but I don't know much about the Disney movie universe. I can identify most of the classic characters and princesses, but don't know much past the 1980s.

Was your party adults-only? And how did you spend your sea days? Thanks for your willingness to share!

Yes, we were adults only. Me, my wife, her 3 young adult daughters (aged 19 - 22) and my parents.

I was mostly bored on sea days, none of the activities appealed to me - not Disney's fault, I own that one. We generally split up and did our own things. My wife liked hanging by the pool, watching movies on Funnel Vision, and hopping in the hot tub. The daughters liked hanging out in the pools by The Cove and Satellite Falls. And my parents did a lot of the activities - cooking classes, towel folding, etc.

We also did AquaDuck, Midship Detective Agency, Palo brunch, Art of The Theme tour, galley tour, two of the trivia games (Disney music and 90s music) and Tomorrowland movie on our sea days.

I wanted to go see Monkey Kingdom one morning but I set my watch wrong - we moved it an hour back for Cozumel and Cayman and instead of moving it forward, I moved it back AGAIN! So when I got up at 7:30, it was really 9:30. :S
 

Thanks for sharing! I loved Captain Marvin's Stingray excursion on GC and agree that Tomorrowland was a real stinker.
 
Wanted to add:

We used the Chat function on the Disney app with varying degrees of success.

At times, it worked great. But there were instances of messages coming through hours, or even days, after they were sent. We also wished there was a Group Chat feature where we could add everyone in our travel party.

We didn't take the Wave phones out of the rooms, they seemed like they would be pretty fragile and the replacement charge is steep.
 
Another add:

If you plan on doing laundry, don't assume that the launderette on your deck is the closest one to you. You might be closer to one on the deck above or below you.

Our stateroom was far forward, the launderette on our deck was far aft. We found one MUCH closer in the forward section of the deck above us.

Also, all launderettes are not made equally. One may be a bit farther of a walk, but may have more resources and, therefore, a better chance that you can get a machine that you need quicker.
 
For Palo, were the hovering CMs required to help you get food? Or were you able to just tell them you want to do it yourself? These recent reports of the waiters getting food are sort of off-putting to me...
 
For Palo, were the hovering CMs required to help you get food? Or were you able to just tell them you want to do it yourself? These recent reports of the waiters getting food are sort of off-putting to me...
The hovering servers offered help getting food - some a little more actively than others - the the females in our group. I think the ladies only accepted, begrudgingly, the first time - the CMs kind of just took the plates from them (not rudely, but like it was totally normal that you would give your buffet plate to someone else). After that, they said, "No, thank you".

I found it odd and off-putting and the ladies didn't want to go back up by themselves. They weren't worried about judgement or the servers denying them something, they just felt uncomfortable with that level of service.

It wouldn't stop us from going again. It was more that we didn't expect it at all. Now that we know to expect it, and to just say "No, thank you," I think they'd all be fine going back.
 

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