Never again

[Goofy1932]

It kind of makes me not want to put up door decorations.

 

[dreamer17555]

On our cruise a few spring breaks ago, I heard people in the FB group mentioning several instances of bullying among the tween/teen crowd. Not in the actual clubs, but on the basketball court and other deck areas. Like kids telling other kids to go jump overboard. Our kids are introverts and really want nothing to do with the clubs, so didn't experience any of this. It was sad to hear about this happening though, at a place that's supposed to be so fun. Other than that, there was a group or two of tween boys running through the stairwells a couple of times, but it wasn't too big a deal.

We're going on another spring break cruise & hope we'll avoid any craziness. Both kids will be Vibe age this time, not sure if they'll make use of that space at all.

On the flip side - my autistic son has had some of the kindest and most inclusive teens on DCL and met them via Vibe. We sail mostly off season but overwhelmingly the teens have included him (one or two sailings he felt a bit left out but those have been outliers) and been really outstanding.

Teens often get a bad rap but most of them are doing their best and would never tell someone to jump overboard (I have a college age DD too and even when she was in HS her and her friends were super sensitive about depression and mental health issues).

 

[gottalovepluto]

Gotcha! I had a whole different HAL in mind....
View attachment 886088

Ironically 90% of the folks sailing a HAL cruise can probably tell you exactly what that is and where they were when that movie came out…

 

[NephieRN]

We had this same type of behavior on the NYC to San Juan sailing last year. Maybe not quite as bad as you experienced but enough that a ton of people in our cruise Facebook group said they would never sail Disney again. I’ve just come to expect rude, entitled behavior no matter where we travel to and try not to let it bother me.

 

[SleepyDeb]

Just to make ppl with upcoming cruises feel a little better, we were on the 10 night Northern European last summer July 22-Aug 1. Maybe it was bc it wasn't warm weather, or it wasn't quite Aug yet, but we saw no problems. We are in our 60's and are empty nesters, so we didn't have any kids with us, but the ones that were on board behaved reasonably. One night we happened to be returning to our room at the same time as our next door neighbor. They apologized for the noise their kids make (3 boys that looked maybe 5-10 yr old.) I told them truthfully that we'd never heard them.

 

[otten]

Just returned from a 7 day Norwegian Fjord cruise on the Disney Dream and it was horrible. Not the ship, not iit’s wonderful crew. Not the places we visited but the cowardly attitude off Disney Cruise Line to wake up and smell the coffee and stop appeasing those who are ruining your product. We had gangs of kids running around terrorizing adults and others all over the ship. We had adults bring there kids into adult areas, we had adults when confronted on there kids behaviors basically shrug it off. We had people playing loud music in there staterooms, we had kids running around in the dining rooms, kids running in the stateroom hallways at one in the morning. A large Spanish family cutting the lines for the dinning every night like they were royalty. Now I don’t blame Disney for creating this but do hold them accountable for not confronting these families or policing this bad behavior. Now I’m European but I have never encounter so much entitlement, cue cutting, selfish behavior on US bases cruises. We wil not take another European based cruise again and it hurts to say this as an European but this was embarresing.

We encountered this on our Panama Canal cruise a few years ago actually. Gangs of tweens and teens given the run of the ship by their parents displaying behavior that isn't acceptable. It isn't all teens or tweens on board but you could tell that a lot of parents did not care at all what their kids were doing.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I am so sorry!! I, too, get frustrated at Disney's reluctance to address guest behavior. We had similar behavior on my first Disney cruise out of Miami some years ago. It was really awful and I was hesitant to cruise with them again.

We saw no poor behavior, that I can recall, on my more recent Disney cruises but 1 was during COVID days where capacity was much lower (especially children) and our other was the transatlantic, which had a much lower number of children and young families. We have commented many times that we aren't sure we'd enjoy a typical sold-out Disney cruise now. We were spoiled!

 

[ldo]

We had similar out of Barcelona on NCL in the past, so bad DH said he'd never sail on NCL again. In July, we Just sailed on Oasis (RCCL) out of Barcelona last month (same time as before) and had no issues. We did have a group of teens girls being loud in the hallway (at 4pm, not 1am), but a woman come out of her room to sush them--they seemed to know her, so she was a chaperone or mom. The pools were fine. And, saw none of that on our late June Disney Norway cruise in the past. But, it sounds like others were not so lucky. It's unfortunate DCL (and other CL) allow poor behavior to go unchecked. I know a few businesses that do the same to appease customers.

 

[TheDailyMoo]

Ironically 90% of the folks sailing a HAL cruise can probably tell you exactly what that is and where they were when that movie came out…

haha oh noooo me and wife were sailing HAL in our early 30s before we had kids lol! Best cruises if you actually care more about the ports and relaxation. I never minded being with an older crowd...in fact the behavior I'm reading about here actually drives me up a wall. I literally get angry and can't relax when there's that kind of chaos and disregard for civility. And P.S. in case you haven't noticed this isn't a cruise issue this kind of behavior is everywhere. I still think a majority of parents still parent (well enough anyway) and a majority of kids and tweens and teens are respectful (enough anyway) but the numbers are skewing and that's the scary part!

(cough cough I blame social media cough cough)

 

[nycdisneygal]

Ugh. We have the Aug 10 8-night Norwegian Fjords booked for next year, and now I'm really hoping this is not also our experience. It's the only sailing doing the Fjords, however, so we're still going, but I am hoping we don't experience this behavior.

We just booked that one too and I am wondering if we will keep it or not now.

 

[auntlynne]

Gotcha! I had a whole different HAL in mind....
View attachment 886088

I can’t do that, Dave.

Like policing ill-mannered guests on a cruise.

 

[auntlynne]

How about 50 and over?

On DCL, that somewhat describes a Panama Canal cruise. Yeah, I know there are younger people, too. There was a 2 yo at our 14-person table of Disboard members. The kid and parents were probably the only ones under 50. Such fun!

Works for me. lol.
We were actually thinking about a TCM cruise or 70’s/80’s rock cruise.

I’m guessing you are not on this year’s TCM cruise on the Disney Magic? Maybe they will use her again and get a mainly-adult demographic.


…I’m realizing our choice to avoid school breaks, Summer, and Christmas has sheltered me from a lot of this craziness. I had described our chosen times as pre-schoolers with their posses of parents and grandparents. And have stated it was hordes of middle- and high-school roamers we were avoiding.

This thread just validates my choice.

For those who have no option but to follow a school calendar, sorry. One day you may be older, too, and be free to cruise in peace on your own schedule.

 

[Becx N Gav]

It kind of makes me not want to put up door decorations.

I would never stick anything I love on to the outside of the door - the nice ones I keep inside. It does make me worry about FE gifts though, those I give as well as receive, I have put a lot of time into making some and to think the recipients may not get them saddens me.

 

[MrsInsG]

It's becoming a problem at any vacation destination, but particularly with cruises - and not just DCL. People feel like they are not just on vacation from their job/occupation...they think they are on vacation from their parental responsibilities.

I'm a middle school teacher - trust me, they don't just abdicate parenting responsibilities on vacation, it's a lifestyle .

 

[Love2Cruise2015]

A tiktok-er was live streaming from the 10n Southern and also shared how bad behavior was (especially teens and I love teens in general). He mentioned more officers present in whites more often and it was noticeable in his videos. That being said I have heard about extremely poor behavior on the southern summer 10 night every year since the restart… maybe the sailing is too long and people just stop caring about good behavior

Who was the tiktoker (if you dont mind sharing me or you could message me if thats ok?)

 

[princesscinderella]

Just to make ppl with upcoming cruises feel a little better, we were on the 10 night Northern European last summer July 22-Aug 1. Maybe it was bc it wasn't warm weather, or it wasn't quite Aug yet, but we saw no problems. We are in our 60's and are empty nesters, so we didn't have any kids with us, but the ones that were on board behaved reasonably. One night we happened to be returning to our room at the same time as our next door neighbor. They apologized for the noise their kids make (3 boys that looked maybe 5-10 yr old.) I told them truthfully that we'd never heard them.

We were on that cruise too and with 3 teens they all had a blast and didn't report back any untoward behavior. They had a curfew and had to be back in the room once the clubs closed, earlier if we had an earlier excursion the next day. We always let them stay out an hour past clubs closing on the last day so they can have a little extra time to hang with their new friends. We have been on one spring break 7 night cruise where the teens were wild, my kids told us about them taking the ECVs parked in front of enchanted garden in the wee hours of the night and driving them through the atrium and one kid was streaking through the atrium too. There was another that was sneaking alcohol from the concierge lounge and getting drunk. One of our other cruises where we went with friends, he was out looking for his kids to come back for bed at 1am and came across a kid drunk and vomiting with security involved. Apparently, a group of teens broke into one of the bar refrigerators on the pool deck and got into a bottle of liquor. I'm sure security on a DCL have seen it all. Teens are also frequently doing scavenger hunts around the ship, so they are always traveling in packs around the ship.

 

[vakamalua]

Children model the behavior of their adults including entitlement, rudeness & lack of civility. DCL's lack of policing guest rude & unsafe behavior is a lesson to kids that you can get away with anything.
After 16 DCL cruises going back to 1998, it's been the last 8 years or so that we've seen more abhorrent parent behavior. One fight so bad at the fireworks that a man was beating another with his belt claiming the man blocked his view--took quite a while for DCL staff to respond; a couple so drunk & loud in Skylight Lounge that that they were falling off their stools--the bartender kept serving them as other passengers fled & the cruise director ignored them; parents sitting in the adult pool next to the pool bar late in the afternoon with their empty beer buckets around them watching their two kids fling deck chairs--no DCL stuff ever appeared; etc.
We have sailed on multiple other lines at various times of the year; DCL is the worst. IMHO It's because Disney markets the "perfect family cruises", the codeword for parents to leave their kids in the clubs all day, have dinner with the kids on their tablets then send them right back to the clubs until bedtime (they DCL staff even come get them from the dining room); this leaves the parents time to relax without a thought or care to what the kids are doing. There's even a kid's club on CC & parents can leave on an excursion in port while the kid stays onboard in the kid's club!

 

[tx911]

abdicate

Yep, definitely a teacher

 

[Genie+]

It’s an intergalactic law that kids don’t play ball indoors, right?

We’ve taken many trips over the decades yet it’s only recently that we’ve encountered kids playing ball indoors, ‘22 and ‘23.

The first time it was the room above us, dribbling a basketball on and off for 2 days and then finally nonstop between 11pm and midnight. At that point I went upstairs to where the parents were entertaining about a dozen other adults on their deck with everyone’s kids inside the room jumping around like nuts, playing ball, etc. At first they tried to tell me no noise was coming from inside. Like with a straight face. Clueless people. I really tried to be nice and hoping that by making them aware the behavior would stop. I smiled, introduced myself, explained we’re staying directly below, and there’s alot of noise especially from the basketball while we’re going to sleep. The only thing they did was try to deny it was happening, to that I told them I have recording of the noise from below, will send it to the property manager, then I left. Noise did stop, at least until we checked out next day as already planned.

Next time it was Old Key West. 7am to 8am our neighbor allowed their kid to play ball against the room adjoining doors. What is wrong with people. I was already awake. Still annoying. BOOM boom boom boom boom, over and over for an hour. I tried knocking a few times and then later banged on the door hoping they’d realize someone else exists. Did not work lol.

 

[anjuan]

A tiktok-er was live streaming from the 10n Southern and also shared how bad behavior was (especially teens and I love teens in general). He mentioned more officers present in whites more often and it was noticeable in his videos. That being said I have heard about extremely poor behavior on the southern summer 10 night every year since the restart… maybe the sailing is too long and people just stop caring about good behavior

We were on the 10 night as well and I wouldn't do the 10 night Southern again. I loved the ports and the staff, but the behavior of the teens and 18-20 yr olds was bad. My daughter said that she thought it was becauese a lot of people book this same cruise year after year and know each other so they for some reason feel more entitled. My daughter made friends in the 18-20 age group but the main 18-20 group really was mean to her. Another teen actually showed her the group texts where they were talking about my daughter including using racial slurs against her and called her other things that I won't mention. She tried to steer clear of the group as much as she could. My daughter became friends with one of the officers and they indeed where having to spend a lot of time policing kids on the cruise.

We're scheduled for the 10 night New Zealand to Australia cruise in 2025. I'm hoping its a different type of crowd but we are really considering if we still want to do it. We haven't experienced this on our other 14 DCL cruises.