So, how is the nightlife on a disney cruise?

[MarkyMouse]

My wife and I have sailed on princess and carnival a few times in the past. We have found the nightlife to rather hit or miss. The princess cruise had good nightlife in the clubs. The carnival cruises were all lame except for one cruise that happened to have a terrific band. It made a world of difference.

So how would you characterize the nightlife on the Fantasy?

 

[Dano13]

We were never bored. The shows in the main room were family friendly and very good. They had a great magician and a comedic, juggler type of guy that was hilarious. The entertainers also do an adult only show later in the evening that was a little edgier. There really isn't an adult club, but there is an adult wing with a bunch of themed bars. Sometimes they have entertainment, sometimes just spots to catch a drink. There was a decent sports bar where I caught some games and had a couple of beers before bed.

You won't get studio 54 but there's enough going on to have fun with. And if you get lucky you may get good movies playing in the theater. The theater is really nice and plays movies usually until at least 11pm. The ship is itself is awesome and super clean. Totally blows away carnival and royal Carib (never been on Princess).

 

[noahdove]

Well, I am not a good judge of nightlife on Disney cruise, but, I have heard that other adults have no problems with it. I was with my whole family and was too busy with the little ones to even think of other things to do after 10...but, I am sure there are many dissers on here that will give you their take..good luck if you decide to try a Disney cruise..

 

[MarkyMouse]

Well, I am not a good judge of nightlife on Disney cruise, but, I have heard that other adults have no problems with it. I was with my whole family and was too busy with the little ones to even think of other things to do after 10...but, I am sure there are many dissers on here that will give you their take..good luck if you decide to try a Disney cruise..

Haha! Thanks! I'm trying a Disney cruise on Saturday!! Driving toward Orlando as we speak!! Well wife is driving and I'm riding!

 

[MarkyMouse]

We will be on our first Disney cruise in 2 days!

 

[WildLotus]

We've done 5 disney cruises on three of their ships and I pretty much saw the same thing on each ship... The dance club always had a good crowd, especially the times we sailed around Halloween and all the adults dressed up for a costume contest they were holding there. The sports bar was always full in the evenings. But the other areas in the adults only space were pretty dead like one lounge where a band played live jazz or maybe it was easy listening music, anyways, there were never more than 2 couples there.

 

[SnowWhite2]

Great night life until 11 pm. By 11:30 you will be hard pressed to find anyone over 21 out and about. No live bands in the nightclub, just a DJ.

Sometimes they will have a movie in the movie theater start around 10:30 - 11ish.

 

[holula]

After the adult entertainment is over in the evening, almost everyone heads to bed. That is around 11pm or so.

 

[DMMarla07860]

from cruising so much it really has depended on the week for me. I once did a back-2-back on Fantasy and one week the club has dead at 11:30 and the second week it was packed every night till 1:00. They had adult shows, etc just more people wanted to rotfl2:

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Nightlife is great until about 11:30, then most everything shuts down. I'm usually very tired by that time, but DH is a night owl. We're going to be sailing Princess over Thanksgiving break. (DH likes casinos.)

 

[jpeppers]

I found it to be very good for what most people are there for. It gives you a few options but they definitely die out around 11:00 but since most people are up early it works well. If you are someone who wants to party every night it is probably not the most exciting cruise for you but they do have 1 bar open until 2 am every night. I usually hit the sports bar after dinner and it tends to go through fazes depending on when they have entertainment like trivia or dependent on what game they are showing. When the crowds aren't there I talk to the bartenders, very interesting! They also have a decent appetizer buffet every night in the bar area. I am a late night person who enjoys going out but I think the fact that things die down around 11:00 works well.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

It also depends on how good your DJ is. We had Matt on our Southern cruise on the Magic last week and honestly, and puppy couldn't read a room if it was written on the inside of his eyelids. We'd have an entire club full of middle aged (hate to say it this way) white folks because most of the Puerto Ricans on the ship didn't really go to the clubs, and he's playing techno latin pop. You'd look around the room and everyone is just sitting there, it's so loud people can't talk, but there's no fingers tapping, toes tapping, nothing. Then he plays a single 80s or 90s hit, and the room all goes into motion, folks bopping to the music, but he went right back to the latin techno.

I know DJs, and they all say you can't play what you like, you have to read your room and figure out how the room is, and play what THEY like if you want to get people involved. Then they stay around, and dance, and buy more liquor.

 

[DizMagic]

Nightlife? How on earth do you guys do it? I am so exhausted by all the day's activities that i go to bed right after dinner (late seating).

 

[KBinCO]

Nightlife? How on earth do you guys do it? I am so exhausted by all the day's activities that i go to bed right after dinner (late seating).

right? My biggest regret was that I never even knew where any of the bars and clubs were on the ship. I wish we went even one night, but every night we were just waiting for the kids to fall asleep so that we could, and we still all slept until at least 9am.

 

[CurtisB]

Nightlife? How on earth do you guys do it? I am so exhausted by all the day's activities that i go to bed right after dinner (late seating).

Naps!

but agree it's dead early. We've been the last two to walk out of the bar sometimes at around midnight. I always feel really bad for the staff that has to stay and "work" with no one there. We've been past the Prominade bar a couple times even earlier in the night with a great band playing, but they are playing to no one. We'll stop and enjoy the music for a bit but again we always feel bad for them.

 

[Ana~n~Joseph]

BFF and I were just on the Dream last week and I finally got to experience the "night life" on board. I always go with my son so this was a rare treat.

We found the bars to be pretty empty - we were by ourselves inside PINK for a while until another couple came in. We left at midnight when they closed and it was just the four of us. We also hit Meridian on two nights and it was more of the same. District Lounge was nice as they had some nice acts there but everything ended at around 11pm or 11:30pm. We went to Evolution on our last night and there were maybe 5 people there. Once an AWESOME Scottish wedding party came in, then, it got more fun and it was a much better "club" atmosphere. We left at 1am and there were maybe 6 people left though.

I don't "party" or get out much so to me, this was great. But I can see how it could be a bit "lame" late at night for others looking for more.

 

[mcd2745]

My opinion has always been that nightlife on DCL is pretty much non - existent. I wish they performed the nightly show 3 times - and included one after late seating dinner. I don't like having the show before dinner. First, it seems somewhat backwards to do a show and then dinner...there's a reason "dinner and a show" (in that order) is a common phrase. Secondly, the showtime for those with second seating dinner is simply too early. It forces you to shut down your daytime activities too early. So a third show at 10:30 or so would work nicely, i think.

I'm 99.9999% certain DCL will never have casinos (which i would like to see but i know many others are glad they don't have them). However, i think a good alternative for DCL would be a Dave & Busters type space. They could make it adults only after 9 or 10 pm and i think it would be successful.

All that said regarding venues and entertainment, I think the #1 thing they could do to improve the nightlife is simply expand the hours of the Oceaneers Lab/Club. Royal Caribbean's kids clubs are open until 2am (although there is an hourly charge after 10pm). Bottom line is, a vast majority of adults onboard have young children they can't leave in the stateroom by themselves. So you pretty much guarantee that any nightlife will likely shut down whenever the kids club does.

 

[holula]

It also depends on how good your DJ is. We had Matt on our Southern cruise on the Magic last week and honestly, and puppy couldn't read a room if it was written on the inside of his eyelids. We'd have an entire club full of middle aged (hate to say it this way) white folks because most of the Puerto Ricans on the ship didn't really go to the clubs, and he's playing techno latin pop. You'd look around the room and everyone is just sitting there, it's so loud people can't talk, but there's no fingers tapping, toes tapping, nothing. Then he plays a single 80s or 90s hit, and the room all goes into motion, folks bopping to the music, but he went right back to the latin techno. I know DJs, and they all say you can't play what you like, you have to read your room and figure out how the room is, and play what THEY like if you want to get people involved. Then they stay around, and dance, and buy more liquor.

Matt was so boring... A DJ should look like he is enjoying himself and he looked like he wanted to be anywhere BUT the clubs. 80s night was THE most popular and hopping night of the cruise. So I agree 100%!

 

[Snurk71]

Matt was so boring... A DJ should look like he is enjoying himself and he looked like he wanted to be anywhere BUT the clubs. 80s night was THE most popular and hopping night of the cruise. So I agree 100%!

Our 80s nights were great from 10-11 - as someone says earlier, lots of us middle aged white folks having a good time. Then they went techno at 11 and the place cleared out. I imagine they would have kept a lot of us there if they would have kept the 80s rolling. But it went club, and that kind of crowd doesn't appear to be there on DCL cruises.

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[Miumiu4me]

BFF and I were just on the Dream last week and I finally got to experience the "night life" on board. I always go with my son so this was a rare treat. We found the bars to be pretty empty - we were by ourselves inside PINK for a while until another couple came in. We left at midnight when they closed and it was just the four of us. We also hit Meridian on two nights and it was more of the same. District Lounge was nice as they had some nice acts there but everything ended at around 11pm or 11:30pm. We went to Evolution on our last night and there were maybe 5 people there. Once an AWESOME Scottish wedding party came in, then, it got more fun and it was a much better "club" atmosphere. We left at 1am and there were maybe 6 people left though. I don't "party" or get out much so to me, this was great. But I can see how it could be a bit "lame" late at night for others looking for more.

We were on the same cruise (I remember the wedding party). We went to the District Lounge 2x - both times it was dead. We went to Evolution once around 11:30 and it was empty. I think the kids clubs closing at midnight make it impossible for some parents to party the night away.

We used to cruise to party. We don't anymore - having a kid killed that. If you've done that before though and want more of the same Disney stinks. None of the entertainment is