Thoughts from a First Time Disney Cruiser

[Disney Obsession]

After months of planning, reading these board, and heeding your advice, my family and I took our first Disney cruise, and it was amazing. Here are my thoughts (for anyone who cares) and lessons learned which may help any other first time cruiser:

We were on the Disney Dream on 3/27 for a 4 day Bahama cruise out of Port Canaveral with 2 adults and 3 children (ages 3, 5, and 7). We also traveled with 2 other families, but we did not have adjoining rooms and didn't plan on spending every second of the day together. However, we were seated together for dinner which was very nice.

We spent 2 days at Disney World before getting on the cruise, and I'm not sure I would do this again. Although it was fun, we all kept trying to put too much in to 2 days. By the morning of the cruise, everyone was exhausted and behavior was an issue. Although the cruise is more relaxing than Disney World, lets be honest, nothing with a 3, 5, and 7 year old is relaxing. So, I would probably go into it more well rested.

The food and service were amazing. I have seen some complaints about the food on this boards, and this certainly wasn't my experience. I thought everything was great and didn't have 1 bad meal. Even the buffets at Cabanas were awesome in my opinion. I didn't eat lunch or breakfast in the dining rooms, so I can't speak to those. Cabanas does get fairly busy, but we never had an issue getting a table for a family of 5.

Yes, people save seats by the pools very early with towels and stuff. On my next cruise, I'm just putting stuff down on a couple chairs before breakfast. If you can't beat them, join them.

The kids club was amazing, and there were constantly activities for all three of mine. They asked to go to the kids club more than I thought they would. I'm pretty sure they would have been happy if we left them there the whole time (they were never pleased when we showed up to get them). I was also really impressed with all of the security (even when I showed up and realized my youngest was in the bathroom there, they wouldn't let me in to help him until a counselor and supervisor went through the bathroom to assure there were no other children. When I was in there, they closed the door and wouldn't let any kids in until I was out with my son. I really appreciated the efforts they went through to keep kids safe).

Yekta was our server, and if you have young kids, you want him! He was great at entertaining them, including doing magic tricks. Jag was our stateroom host, and he was so nice. His towel/blanket animals were quite impressive and were something we looked forward to seeing every night.

We only made it to the Golden Mickey's show, but it was wonderful and I would have liked to see more (just didn't work out with everything else we were trying to do).

Castaway Cay is a wonderful island, and it is a perfect stop. We didn't get off the boat in Nassau since there wasn't a ton for young kids to do there, so we treated it as a pool/slide day which was great.

We did not participate in a fish extender group, and I'm honestly happy we didn't. 4 days was so short that I wouldn't have wanted to spend time putting gifts in people's extenders. It is a fun concept, but it just wasn't for us on this trip.

Things we learned: We stayed on deck 9 halfway between midship and aft, and I would stay here again. The midship elevators tend to be busier, so it was nice to have aft as an option. Also, it was nice to be so close to deck 11 to run up and grab some water every now and then. I kept feeling like I needed water!

My husband ran the Castaway Cay 5K, which is probably the largest complaint we have regarding the trip. Everyone was required to meet pretty early for the run, so I took the kids to breakfast at Cabanas by myself. When we were done there, we gathered our stuff and headed out on the island. Imagine my surprise when an hour plus later, I see my husband and all of the runners just waiting on the island for the race to begin. They then had to walk to another area to start the race. By the time it started and finished, the kids and I had been on the beach for a few hours. My husband had a little time to take the kids on the waterslides, we all ate lunch, and then the kids were exhausted from the swimming and sun and wanted to head back to the ship. My husband had very little time on the island with us, which was disappointing for him. He said that there was just a lot of waiting to get off the boat and then for the actual race to begin, so he doesn't think he would do it again.

Many of the movies shown on FunnelVision in the later evenings are for older kids and adults. There was a PG-13 movie playing when we went up to get a late night snack, so we learned not to hang out by the pool so late at night. It wasn't a big deal, but I just didn't think my kids were quite ready for a PG-13 movie, and I hadn't looked at the Navigator before we headed up.

Children will poop in the pools. Numerous times. Luckily none of mine were the culprit (whew!), but the Donald pool had to be closed on our 2nd day, and both of the pools closed on the 4th day (which I heard is very common for a day at sea).

The deck immediately around the pools gets very hot and very slippery, so just be careful knowing this.


Overall, this trip was absolutely amazing and I am still sad that no one is leaving me chocolates and towel/blanket animals at night. We didn't book another cruise on board, but we do anticipate we will be back in 3-4 years (as long as the price doesn't get too high--I'm not paying $10,000 for a 4-5 day cruise).

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks to everyone on here for the advice throughout my planning!!

 

[tink1970]

Children will poop in the pools

Glad you had a great first cruise!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

CODE BROWN



i kinda wish we had the poo emoji

 

[CamColt]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for the review!

 

[DisneyPups]

Glad you had a great time! After 4 cruises, we FINALLY had one without the "Code Brown"... honestly, I think parents are a little too generous in their assessment of their kids' potty training progress. Look, I get it, you want your little one to be able to join the pool, but there are health codes for a reason.

It is a bummer when you don't get to see all the shows. Again, I put eating dinner ahead of entertainment (Ha!) so we take the first dining, but then the shows are just too late for my kids. So we often watch them in the room, even if they aren't the live version.

3-4 years is a good wait time (if you can hold off!)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

 

[bbel]

It wouldn't be a Disney cruise without a 'Winnie' in the pools....

Glad you loved it though!
Looks like you'll have to go back at some point to re-do castaway and see the shows haha!

 

[hanscarlet]

It amazes me the number of jerk parents that continue to allow their non trained PT kids go into the pools... they have to clean them out and everything, friggin disgusting and I have been a cruiser since my youngest was 2.5 years old....

interesting your feedback about the 5K, I felt the exact same way... we had a cabana and I feel like I lost so much time because of the 5k, it wasn't worth it in my opinion

thanks for your review! glad you had a great time!

 

[Disney Obsession]

Glad you had a great time! After 4 cruises, we FINALLY had one without the "Code Brown"... honestly, I think parents are a little too generous in their assessment of their kids' potty training progress. Look, I get it, you want your little one to be able to join the pool, but there are health codes for a reason.

It is a bummer when you don't get to see all the shows. Again, I put eating dinner ahead of entertainment (Ha!) so we take the first dining, but then the shows are just too late for my kids. So we often watch them in the room, even if they aren't the live version.

3-4 years is a good wait time (if you can hold off!)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Yeah I feel the same--as much as I would want my kids to swim, if my 3 year old wasn't completely potty trained, he and I would have chilled at Nemo's reef. We kept showing him videos of the pools as a potty training motivator.

We should have totally watched the other shows in the room--I didn't find out we could do that until the last night!

 

[Disney Obsession]

Glad you loved it though!
Looks like you'll have to go back at some point to re-do castaway and see the shows haha!

I know! I would have loved more time on the island and to see more shows. Maybe we will be able to book a double dip in the future.

 

[Disney Obsession]

It amazes me the number of jerk parents that continue to allow their non trained PT kids go into the pools... they have to clean them out and everything, friggin disgusting and I have been a cruiser since my youngest was 2.5 years old....

interesting your feedback about the 5K, I felt the exact same way... we had a cabana and I feel like I lost so much time because of the 5k, it wasn't worth it in my opinion

thanks for your review! glad you had a great time!

Yes--so gross! Just glad Disney takes the necessary steps to assure that they are cleaned properly.

My husband wrote a comment card about the race in the hopes that they will listen to some constructive criticism and make some improvements. Many things on the cruise were executed so well, but that wasn't one of them.

 

[QuidditchChick07]

Ok gross about the pool. I've been kind of avoiding the subject just because while I'd hope parents would be considerate of the other passengers, I know better. I have little faith in humanity left, I'll be honest. Hopefully we'll escape without a code brown because we're going at kind of an off time.

Thank you for sharing your experience with the 5K. My brother and my SIL want to do it, but maybe they'll change their tune after hearing that. Not that I have anything against them doing it if they really want to. I just kind of figure they may want to actually spend time with their kids on the beach.

 

[Trera]

It is miserable on a sea day when it happens. All the kids in the pool head to the Nemos reef and they are too rough and there are just too many of them running around to make it nice for the little ones.

It is always the few that dont follow the rules that make the rest of us suffer.

 

[Neptune's Fork]

I totally agree on the CC5k observation, and many others here have expressed the same opinion. There was a lot of sitting around waiting that morning. Too much. Maybe they should consider having that briefing meeting the evening before, give everyone their number bibs, and tell everyone to meet on the deck at precisely a certain time before everyone else gets off, and get it going. That way eliminates a lot of the sitting around.

 

[sandy77d]

Thanks for the review! We are going on our first cruise on April 15. My daughter really wants to do the CC5k, but I am hesitant for the exact reasons you mentioned. I don't want to get up early just to spend over an hour waiting and waste lots of our Castaway time.

 

[Beckyb3]

Maybe this is a dumb question but if parents are breaking the rules and bringing their non potty trained kids into the pool, why aren't they at least putting them in swim diapers? My daughter is fully potty trained but she takes swim lessons and we are still required to put her in swim diapers until age four just in case. Is it that they wouldn't be allowed in the pool with a swim diaper?

Oh and thanks OP for great review. We are so excited for our first trip.

 

[raven0855]

Great review! Glad to hear you enjoyed the cruise! We feel the that the shorter cruises just aren't enough time to get things done- You are so right about fish extenders. We did a 3 night and I was the crazy lady scrambling the last night to get gifts out- Most people had already packed up their FEs!!

 

[Trera]

Maybe this is a dumb question but if parents are breaking the rules and bringing their non potty trained kids into the pool, why aren't they at least putting them in swim diapers? My daughter is fully potty trained but she takes swim lessons and we are still required to put her in swim diapers until age four just in case. Is it that they wouldn't be allowed in the pool with a swim diaper?

Oh and thanks OP for great review. We are so excited for our first trip.

Swim diapers are not allowed in the pools so if the lifeguards saw them, they would ask the children to immediately exit the pool, so parents leave them off gambling the kids won't have an accident.

 

[Miggee]

After months of planning, reading these board, and heeding your advice, my family and I took our first Disney cruise, and it was amazing. Here are my thoughts (for anyone who cares) and lessons learned which may help any other first time cruiser:

We were on the Disney Dream on 3/27 for a 4 day Bahama cruise out of Port Canaveral with 2 adults and 3 children (ages 3, 5, and 7). We also traveled with 2 other families, but we did not have adjoining rooms and didn't plan on spending every second of the day together. However, we were seated together for dinner which was very nice.

We spent 2 days at Disney World before getting on the cruise, and I'm not sure I would do this again. Although it was fun, we all kept trying to put too much in to 2 days. By the morning of the cruise, everyone was exhausted and behavior was an issue. Although the cruise is more relaxing than Disney World, lets be honest, nothing with a 3, 5, and 7 year old is relaxing. So, I would probably go into it more well rested.

The food and service were amazing. I have seen some complaints about the food on this boards, and this certainly wasn't my experience. I thought everything was great and didn't have 1 bad meal. Even the buffets at Cabanas were awesome in my opinion. I didn't eat lunch or breakfast in the dining rooms, so I can't speak to those. Cabanas does get fairly busy, but we never had an issue getting a table for a family of 5.

Yes, people save seats by the pools very early with towels and stuff. On my next cruise, I'm just putting stuff down on a couple chairs before breakfast. If you can't beat them, join them.

The kids club was amazing, and there were constantly activities for all three of mine. They asked to go to the kids club more than I thought they would. I'm pretty sure they would have been happy if we left them there the whole time (they were never pleased when we showed up to get them). I was also really impressed with all of the security (even when I showed up and realized my youngest was in the bathroom there, they wouldn't let me in to help him until a counselor and supervisor went through the bathroom to assure there were no other children. When I was in there, they closed the door and wouldn't let any kids in until I was out with my son. I really appreciated the efforts they went through to keep kids safe).

Yekta was our server, and if you have young kids, you want him! He was great at entertaining them, including doing magic tricks. Jag was our stateroom host, and he was so nice. His towel/blanket animals were quite impressive and were something we looked forward to seeing every night.

We only made it to the Golden Mickey's show, but it was wonderful and I would have liked to see more (just didn't work out with everything else we were trying to do).

Castaway Cay is a wonderful island, and it is a perfect stop. We didn't get off the boat in Nassau since there wasn't a ton for young kids to do there, so we treated it as a pool/slide day which was great.

We did not participate in a fish extender group, and I'm honestly happy we didn't. 4 days was so short that I wouldn't have wanted to spend time putting gifts in people's extenders. It is a fun concept, but it just wasn't for us on this trip.

Things we learned: We stayed on deck 9 halfway between midship and aft, and I would stay here again. The midship elevators tend to be busier, so it was nice to have aft as an option. Also, it was nice to be so close to deck 11 to run up and grab some water every now and then. I kept feeling like I needed water!

My husband ran the Castaway Cay 5K, which is probably the largest complaint we have regarding the trip. Everyone was required to meet pretty early for the run, so I took the kids to breakfast at Cabanas by myself. When we were done there, we gathered our stuff and headed out on the island. Imagine my surprise when an hour plus later, I see my husband and all of the runners just waiting on the island for the race to begin. They then had to walk to another area to start the race. By the time it started and finished, the kids and I had been on the beach for a few hours. My husband had a little time to take the kids on the waterslides, we all ate lunch, and then the kids were exhausted from the swimming and sun and wanted to head back to the ship. My husband had very little time on the island with us, which was disappointing for him. He said that there was just a lot of waiting to get off the boat and then for the actual race to begin, so he doesn't think he would do it again.

Many of the movies shown on FunnelVision in the later evenings are for older kids and adults. There was a PG-13 movie playing when we went up to get a late night snack, so we learned not to hang out by the pool so late at night. It wasn't a big deal, but I just didn't think my kids were quite ready for a PG-13 movie, and I hadn't looked at the Navigator before we headed up.

Children will poop in the pools. Numerous times. Luckily none of mine were the culprit (whew!), but the Donald pool had to be closed on our 2nd day, and both of the pools closed on the 4th day (which I heard is very common for a day at sea).

The deck immediately around the pools gets very hot and very slippery, so just be careful knowing this.


Overall, this trip was absolutely amazing and I am still sad that no one is leaving me chocolates and towel/blanket animals at night. We didn't book another cruise on board, but we do anticipate we will be back in 3-4 years (as long as the price doesn't get too high--I'm not paying $10,000 for a 4-5 day cruise).

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks to everyone on here for the advice throughout my planning!!

thanks so much for sharing! did you have the main seating or later? and did that work out well for you and kids? I will be on my first cruise with a 9, 6 and 5 yr old this summer and currently have main seating.

 

[elvispursley]

@Disney Obsession, Glad your 1st cruise went well! My DH and 2 DS did the 5k and I don't remember anyone complaining about a lot of waiting (they were all done and met the rest us on the beach by about 10:30). We have escaped the "code brown" pool fiasco, but that doesn't mean that the pool is disgusting! That pool is so crowded and water cloudy, you couldn't possibly get enough chemicals to make me get in it. I don't even want to imagine all the "code yellow" going on it there

 

[Neptune's Fork]

@Disney Obsession, Glad your 1st cruise went well! My DH and 2 DS did the 5k and I don't remember anyone complaining about a lot of waiting (they were all done and met the rest us on the beach by about 10:30). We have escaped the "code brown" pool fiasco, but that doesn't mean that the pool is disgusting! That pool is so crowded and water cloudy, you couldn't possibly get enough chemicals to make me get in it. I don't even want to imagine all the "code yellow" going on it there

When I did it I was done at 10:30 too, but that was off of a 10:00 start, the point is from the time we had to meet in the theater (8:00) to the time we started could have easily been cut in half.