Thinking about cancelling land/sea for 7 for 5 deal w/ gold pkg. Help!

[mousebrat]

Hey all, we currently have a land/sea package booked for late August. All of the negative comments (such as food quality) that have been hitting the boards lately are a little frightening, so we are thinking about cancelling the land sea package - a Cat 5 at the BC for $3,400 including the REAS - for the 7 for 5 deal that includes the gold package add on. With food and one tour for the land/sea, we are looking at around $4,000 for the trip. Taking the 7 for 5 deal in a garden view at the GF would only be about $450 more with the gold package add-on (which includes a lot of food, tips, unlimited tours, etc.). We think that given the extra time, we would take advantage of these other opportunities.

Please tell us what you think. We are perfectly willing to be convinced that the cruise is still the way to go - we've been to GF a couple of times before, but have never been on a cruise.

Help! All opinions welcome.

 

[CM_Mom]

We just got back from the 5/1 Magic cruise. We really enjoyed the food although some other posters from our cruise didn't like it. The only problem I had was with the sirloin in the restaurant. Since I'm from Texas, the only "real" steak is one cooked on a charcoal grill preferably from my favoriote meat market in my own back yard. There's no way they can do that on the ship so I really didn't expect the steaks on the ship to match up. However the Filet in Palo was delicious.

I may be slightly prejudiced since my DD works on the ship but it was our first cruise and I really enjoyed the variety of the selections. I tried several things that I wouldn't have ordered in a restaurant and found them enjoyable. The seafood wrap appetizer the first night in Animator's Palate was delightfully different.

I didn't LOVE everything but I did look forward to dinner and found something every night that I enjoyed eating, usually appetizer, salad, entree and desert. The main problem I had was that there was always too much food so I rarely "cleaned my plate". Our servers were great about recommending things they thought we would like and answering questions about how the food was prepared. I'm not a cheese fan so stuff in a heavy cheese sauce is "yucky" to me and I wanted to avoid ordering anything like that. I thought the food presentation was always exceptional.

I'm not a pro at booking but I've seen several posts on the boards about booking the land and sea portions separately being less expensive. If you've never been on a cruise, then I would definitely keep to your plans but might see about a way to lower the cost.

We went on the cruise to relax, enjoy ourselves and see a little of DD's world. Our party was DD - 24 (she had just completed her first contract and was cruising as a guest), DH and me 50 somethings and Grandma and Aunt 80 something.

We had a great time, enjoyed the food, loved the shows and generally accomplished our goals.

Hope this helps.

 

[Otimon]

Go for that land/sea package and enjoy the cruise.

We were on the 4/24 Western cruise and thoroughly enjoyed every meal. While obviously there are exceptions, I think the vast majority of people enjoy them, too.

Whatever you decide, have a great trip

 

[Regina]

This kind of thing makes me really sad.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but to dissuade someone from finding out for themselves if DCL is something that they would enjoy is taking it to the extreme.

The choice is yours, but compare it to any other trip that you've gone on. You may "love" the destination, and there are those who simply don't. Think of what you may have missed out on had you listened to the latter.

My sister cringes at the mere mention of anything to do with Disney. Imagine if I gone by her opinion. See what I mean?

I vote for going on the land/sea package, but ultimately, it's your decision to make.

 

[jel0511]

Now, I'm going to state that this is ONLY my opinion.... I've been on two cruises, one of them on the Wonder. It was a GREAT trip, and we're booked on the Magic for this November, so we obviously like cruising. I'd think that spending 7 straignt days at WDW would be MUCH more relaxing then staying for only a few days, and then going on the Wonder for a few days. You loose an extra day to travel, due to the transfer to the ship, and personally Nassau is a dump. Castaway Cay is great, and definately worth the trip. I'd rather have that extra day sitting at the GF pool, drinking a Pina Colada. And by being on the Gold plan, sounds like a win-win situation to me. So, now after saying that, I'm going to don my flame retardent suit.......

 

[WDWLVR]

Only you can decide what is best for your family. What made you book the cruise in the first place. Was it because you thought it sounded like something your family would enjoy? Or did you do it because so many others were?

The key in my opinion in any vacation planning is:

1) Don't bring your expectations up too high (you are bound to be disappointed) and

2) Do all the research, but follow your gut feeling and don't just do what people tell you to do. Only you know your family.

Our next cruise is cruise #6 so you can see we like cruising. Hopefully these questions will help you decide:

Does a pool have to be huge with plenty of room for you to enjoy it? if so you might not like the pools on the cruise

Do you or a family member suffer for seasickness/motionsickness? Again maybe the cruise isn't for you.

Do you have to be active all the time - with something going on every minute? Again maybe you shouldn't cruise as what they have planned might not be for you (as some others have found out).


BUT

Do you and your family like to try new things? Then go on the cruise it is a great experience.

Do you like the chance to meet others? You might be assigned at a table for dinner with other couples or families. A great way to meet new friends.

Do you like the chance to try new foods without worrying about the bill? Then cruising is for you. Try something, if you don't like it your server will bring something else. If you don't like fancy things there is always steak, chicken and fish. Still don't like things - you can get pizza and chicken fingers up on deck!

Do you want the option to do a lot or just relax? Again the cruise would be great. They do try to have lots to do. Some that I find very interesting like the making of the Magic, tours of the ship etc. I also love spending time just reading out by the pool or on my veranda.

My DH and I have always found the food to be very good. Is it the same as your would get in a gourmet resturant? No because they are cooking for 1000 people at one time. Is it good and is there a variety? Yes!

I hope this has helped. I also hope that you give DCL a try. If not this time then sometime in the future.

 

[MarkRG]

I would alter my DW's comment on the food slightly.

More like, is it 5 star French cuisine every night? No, certainly not. As she said, when they're preparing it for such huge numbers, that isn't going to be possible.

Is it on par with the finer dining restaruants in your area? It is with the ones in mine, which I would include places like Maggiano's, or TGI Friday's. And it definitely is a large cut above places like, say Denny's or Big Boy or your local family restarurant.

I would say some of it is also the setting. Are you expecting that romantic dinner for two every night? Not going to happen. Go to Palo for that. It is a very large, busy room, as it would be in any family dining establishement, so go in expecting just that.

As far as the food iteself? The selection has been a wide enough variety to satisfy me in trying new dishes, of the smaller things I look forward to when cruising. Do they have everything under the sun every night? No, it IS a ship after all and they have a limited space to carry such foodstuff in.

 

[Masonpips]

do you have children? What are you interested in "doing" during your vacation? We originally were going to do a week at the parks with a 3 and 5 year old. Dh convinced to consider a Land/Sea so "we" could have time to relax. Reading the DIS boards, I got more and more excited about the cruise portion and we ended up with a 7 day western + 2 days at the parks. It was the best decision we could have ever made. The following year we did the 7 day eastern with a night at AKL, but no parks. Still the best vacation we've taken.

The cruise works for us because
1) my kids love the clubs and want to go so we get adult time,
2) we love trying new things (wine tasting, galley tour),
3) we LOVED the ports (with the exception of Key West but we planned no excursion so this time we'll either do a water thing or stay on the ship in peace - which is a fabulous thing to do if you want to relax even more
4) we didn't have to wait in line for dinner or lunch or anything. The parks are not fun for eating IMO - yes you can go back to the resort, but we liked having a great meal everytime we turned around without stressing over reservations, where to go, etc. The added benefit of letting the kids leave early to hit the clubs so we could finish dinner at our pace was even better. Most children would rather go play/do an activity that sit at dinner with their parents (look at the ages)
5) the spa is VERY good and we've enjoyed the couple's massage, the surial bath and the absolute facial/massage and were thrilled with all of them

I'd vote for the cruise, but I always do

 

[BethA]

I think it depends on several things--have you been to WDW before? If not the longer time there would allow you to see more at a less hectic pace.

This will be our 4th cruise, and we go to WDW several times a year using our DVC points. My 15 yr old prefers the cruise--if he has a friend, and the last cruise my then 7 yr old hated to leave the clubs. If you want any time away from your kids the cruise is better. We don't cruise for that, but many do.

I'd personally try the cruise-this way you will see how you like it, but we've been to WDW a lot-so we rarely rush around the parks. A lot of good points were brought up here, but only you can decide. I would not let the negative comments scare you--there are more positive. I'm sure there are also negative comments on the BC and GF. So many factors play into a vacation and everyone has different expectations and feelings. We have stayed at all the deluxe disney hotels and the service on the cruise is far above what I have experienced at any of them. For us the CM on the cruise always seem to be what makes the vacation.
Beth

 

[Lisa F]

My opinion is that if you stick around these boards long enough, you will see EVERYTHING trashed and it generally goes in waves. I remember when we first bought into DVC at BWV and came back to read a rash of complaints about housekeeping and quality of the rooms. We were VERY nervous on our first trip, but it was fine... as was our second, third, fourth... you get the picture. But to hear the boards tell it, we had made the worst decision of our lives... that couldn't have been further from the truth. Since then all of the DVC resorts have had their "turn."

I bet if you post something negative about the GF on the resorts board, you can start a pile on and start to wonder if the GF that you have stayed in is the same resort these other people have stayed in... yet, you know differently. Ditto for your favorite restaurant.

I think for right now it's just DCL's time. I'm not saying that people who didn't care for the food are wrong or that their opinions are invalid... just that when someone posts something and a few other people agree, it starts to look like every one of the 2,000 or so passengers aboard the wonder and magic (so that's what? like 6,000 per week?) hated the food when really, if a family or two from each sailing doesn't care for it it's a very very small percentage.

I think many people who are regulars on the boards have learned to not really fight with people who have negative things to say about the things that they love. After all, it's just an opinion and if you try to refute someone's opinion, you're seen as trying to shut down any opinion that doesn't go along with the majority of the board... and believe me, the majority of this board is here because they LOVE DCL. There is a reason on our last Wonder sailing that they had to open up *3* rooms to hold all of the people attending the castaway club reception. DCL is a quality product and the number of return customers proves that.

Of course it's your decision and you may very well try DCL and figure out that cruising is not for you BUT I highly encourage you to try it for yourself and make your own decision. Chances are that you won't have a BAD time unless some disaster/sickness falls upon your family (a risk anywhere) or if you have an extremely bad attitude. Even people who have complaints here and there about DCL have overall admitted that they still had a decent time (Hydster comes to mind, she asked to not be flamed for her opinions so I was surprised when her trip report contained more good than bad!)

 

[mousebrat]

Just so people reading this know, we are a couple in our late 20s with no children (yet). My wife's been to DW 4 times and I've been 3. Where we are right now is that this is probably the last trip before we have children. Money is not so much a concern, so we want to really enjoy ourselves for one last hoo-rah.

Many people have brought up excellent points here. 7 nights in the World would leave a lot of time to do a lot of things we haven't done before, either b/c of time or money constraints.

On the other hand, the cruise would be a totally new and exciting experience. One thought we had is that we could always cruise later with kids - the ship seems great for that - you have your time and they have theirs.

As far as food expectations go, my idea of a great restaurant is something like III Forks or Smith & Wollensky - and I might be a little dissapointed if Palo did not live up to those standards. A very good restaurant would be Cheesecake Factory - and I might be expecting the other restaurants to be somewhere near that quality. I don't want to set myself up for disappointment, however. And, anyways, eating is not the end all of a vacation.

This is just a really tough decision, and we really appreciate the feedback. I would never have thought about this before the 7 for 5 deal, and the fact that the gold package at a deluxe resort would basically cost the same as the land/sea package - well, that just made the decision that much more difficult.

 

[jrydberg]

As one who recently posted some somewhat negative comments about the food (which btw, the food is good, just not great), I'd say this: the cruise was fantastic. Don't let a few specific comments sway you. I thought the food was fine, but could've been better. But the cruise wa GREAT.

 

[Muushka]

I have posted somewhat negative posts about our cruise. The only things I had something negative about (that DCL had any control over) was the food (not that great) and CC (but I know that living in South FL for many years has made beautiful beaches not that exciting to me, and we are not beach people).

That being said, I would definately suggest giving a cruise (DCL) a try. We are glad that we did the cruise. We have been to WDW countless times and we thought a cruise would be a different way to enjoy Disney. I would suggest to go with an open mind and form your own opinion about food and everything else. The only reason why I posted my opinion was not to slam DCL but to give people another perspective. That way those old expectations don't get too high.

 

[buzz&woody'smom]

I love DCL and WDW but I saw some changes on our last cruise which was in the fall on the Magic. I still think DCL is great and does a wonderful job all around but some of the customer service issues and general attitude and food seemed lacking than before. I am not sure if DCL is just swamped with the good rep and hipe or if this was a fluke. It was "different" for us enough to chose to do a all inclusive this summer with a short cruise on another cruiseline over Memorial Day weekend. I will cruise Disney again and recommend them to any and all but I think that they need to slow down some or increase their customer training and food in order to meet demands. In my eyes nothing compares to DCL but I did notice for the money this last time there are other things to do until they get the Magic back again.

 

[invaderzim]

My question would be -- is this your first cruise? If so, and you have already been to WDW so many times, why not opt for the 7-day cruise instead of the 4/3 package? You might still be able to get a good deal if you transfer your reservations to an Eastern or Western 7-day cruise. Then you would still have 2-3 days at sea to relax, and plenty of time to explore the ship and do romantic things and get spa treatments, etc. Just a thought.

We've been to WDW four times and are taking our third cruise in August. However, I think comparing a stay at WDW with a cruise is like apples and oranges -- even though they are both Disney, they really are two totally different experiences. To me the ship is more self-contained and relaxing because there isn't as much "between parks travel" involve, just shore excursions to different lands.

But as many have said -- it really is ultimately your decision.