Taking my mother?

[ghartler]

We already have our WDW trip booked May 9-14 at the Beach Club Villas. I am considering adding the cruise; here are my points of concern:

1. My mother has never been on a cruise. I've been on one cruise (Carnival) & it was NOT good (sick & boring).
2. Neither of us is into water activities, like snorkling.
3. Will the number and SOUND of the kids be overwhelming?

PLEASE ADVISE!
Feel free to reply or contact me directly at ghartleroad@juno.com.

Thanks!
Gayle

 

[kcashner]

I am always amazed to find out how many kids are on board--it seems way less! (And I have one of them). The counsellors usually say that there are 800-1000 kids on board, and I'd swear it was more like 100.

First, the entire deck of clubs, etc. is adults only after 9 pm. 24/7 there are adult pools, spa, club space, etc. So...you can always get away from kids. Schedule second seating dinner--way fewer little people and lots less noise. There are series of adult "programs" like the Art of Entertaining. This is a series on cooking, wine, napkin folding, plate decorating, etc. There's another series about the ship and sailing. On Eastern trips on the Magic, there is a series that changes each time featuring someone from the Disney company.

For most things, there is a "family" area or show and an "adults only" area or show...so you don't have to hang with kids.

I didn't like the other cruise lines we sailed. We tried 2 other cruises before DCL started their cruise. We have done the Magic 9 times...and number 10 is coming soon. If you want to NEVER see a kid, don't go on Disney. However, there are ways you can minimize your contact with kids, especially with the younger ones.

Besides water activities...you have 3-4 adult programming series (9-12 hours total), movies, a main stage show every night (Broadway style show), tea in Palo's, spa, work out room, various clubs and entertainment (smaller venues than the main stage), movies, etc. On land, there is shopping, touring, etc.

 

[ohiominnie]

Don't know how old your mother is, but we recently took my mom and dad (66 yo and 69 yo) We had early seating. I don't think my parents would have made it through late seating. They tend to eat early at home and hit the sack early. My mom saw exactly ONE of the four shows in the evening. She WENT to all of them, just slept through 3 of the 4!
They never complained about the amount of children. We had over 850 on our cruise. You'd never know unless you spent the entire day at the Mickey pool.
My parents had never cruised. Never wanted to. My dad is ex-Navy/aircraft carrier, so they ended up agreeing to go even though they weren't sure they'd like it. My mom gets sea sick just LOOKING at boats. That said, they went and they LOVED it! Couldn't believe the luxury (dad kept comparing the accomodations and the food to the USS Midway---NO comparison) No one was sea sick even with 11-14 foot waves the last night. No one was bored. The only thing they complained about was the amount of food they had to eat. But I kept telling them "if you don't want it, DON'T EAT IT!!!" But they ate it anyway! Maybe you'd want to just do the 4 day cruise that leaves 5/16/04, that way if you don't LOVE it, you'll only have 4 days instead of 7.

HTH!

 

[disneyholic family]

i hate other people's kids.....things are so seperated on the disney ships, you'll barely even notice there are kids on board...
we were in a dinner rotation that had almost no little kids at all....only older teenagers and adults.....

to give you an idea, we were on the 4th of july cruise....it was PACKED...with a zillion kids.....i barely saw any....thank god...

disney is a wonderful cruise even if you hate kids like i do...

oh..and we don't snorkel...and we don't swim.....no matter....the ship was wonderful and relaxing.....and the service was superb....

 

[rae519]

After her kicking and screaming (not really) about not wanting to go on a plane or a ship, I finally got her on and she, at age 74, loves both!

By the way, she also likes those WILD rides at amusement parks, which I never knew.

One old dog teaching another old dog new tricks!

Rae

 

[llachance]

I took my mom and daughter last year (Retirement present for my mom). She was not sure about large ships (although she and my step dad own a 31 foot sail boat) and certainly wasn't interested in a lot of young child interaction. We had a ball. We will cruise together again some day.....

 

[4nana]

I would say a definte 'yes' to taking your Mom on a cruise!

If she has never been, it will be quite an experience for her!! There is such an assortment of activities for any age to enjoy ~ the food, service, shows, characters, spa, salon, hot tubs, bingo, games, night clubs, dancing, comfy chairs on deck to rest, read or just gaze at ocean or the stars, comedy clubs, excursions, tours,
shopping....on and on.

We did a 4 day Mother Daughter cruise in Sept. for our Mom's 74th BD. It was her first flight and cruise....she is afraid of heights, water, and gets nauseous very easily. Let me tell you ~ she had the time of her life and enjoyed being treated like a queen!! I even got her in a bathing suit and we played in the ocean. It was a wonderful trip making many special memories.
Go ~ enjoy ~ life is short and I think it will be a wonderful time for you and your Mom.

Kids???
We were so busy having the time of our lives we hardly noticed!!

 

[fredms]

Consistent with all thr other responses...

I took my mother-in law to be on the May 18, 2003 4 day plus 5 days at the Boardwalk. This was her 50th birthday present from my fiance and I. She had never been on a vacation (in 50 years!). She had the best time and was overwhelmed by how great it was - especially the exhorbitant food, great service and the fact that someone cleaned your room for you. It swelled my heart to see her floating in the water at CC - giggling like a child with all of her problems so far away.

As I am sure you know, there are plenty of adult only areas and Disney seems really good about enforcing that rule. A couple other words of advice - take late seating (less kids), stay away from deck 5 (kids centers) and adjoing rooms, try to go to the adult only areas (pool, spa, adult-only beach). Also, we didn't do any water activities except laying by the pool and some time at the beach on CC. There's still plenty to do.

Hope this helps and have a great trip. Isn't it nice when you get to the stage that you take your parents places!