Times on Disney Cruise?

[PixiePop]

We have been on a three day cruise and LOVED it. I can't wait to go again, but it is a lot of money, so it will probably be awhile although Castaway Cay calls to me...

Come back.....

Come back.....

Come back

 

[carole88]

We just came back from our third cruise and think it is definately worth the money! We are planning on going back on 2008. The cost can vary alot depending on the time of year that you go and the room category you book. One of our cruises was cheaper than a week at WDW after factoring in the price of food. Check out the DCL forum and you can get loads of info.

A comment for a previous poster who did not enjoy the cruise. I am curious as to what expensive movie you watched in your room. I don't recall an option to purchase movies in your room. There is so much to do on the ship that I can't imagine not finding something to keep us occupied, even if it is doing nothing but lying on a deck chair!

 

[Mishetta]

We cruised May 20 ~ 27 on the Disney Magic. We were on the Western Carribean Cruise. It was an absolute miracle my family talked me into going because I keep thinking "Titanic." This was our first cruise ever so I have nothing else to compare it too but we had a great time. My kids LOVED the Kids Clubs & this was the first time in years that my DH & I had some time alone because we never even do babysitters.

We had a Cat 5 room with verandah on deck 7. We'd order room service every morning (croissants, danishes, coffee) & have it out on the verandah watching the sun rise. It was so peaceful & so beautiful.

We were also very lucky that we had some pretty calm seas because I would have had my head hanging over the balcony for most of the cruise otherwise!

The Disney Characters really add the special magic to the cruise. They are everywhere & they sign autographs & you can have your photo's taken with them. (Unfortunately, we were always too busy for that so my kids didn't get any shots with characters except for when they were walking thru a hallway/lobby/shop & I'd stop them & ask to pose with my kids.)

We thought the food was good & the presentation was awesome. I'm a pretty good cook too though so I wasn't really knocked over by any meal but it was nice not having to cook nor clean up! We had such wonderful servers. Wish I could have taken them home! If the kids were dining with us, they would keep them entertained if they got antsy & they were just so great with us & the kids. My DH thought the dinner portions were small so they would bring him 2 dinners each night (he would order 2 diff items because he could never make up his mind which meal he wanted to order!)

We went to Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel & Castaway Cay. I wish I could say we enjoyed the ports of call but it was sooooo hot when we went that we didn't enjoy anything but being on the ship! Although, Castaway Cay is also calling for me to "come back, come back.....come back!" I would love to take a cruise where you just dock for a week at Castaway Cay ~ that would be my dream!

Price wise ~ yep, Disney is very expensive. It's not something that our family can normally afford. We were just blessed to have been "gifted" a very huge portion of the cost (thanks so much Auntie L ) otherwise, we could have not been able to take this magical cruise. We've had people ask us if we'd cruise Disney again if the opportunity came up & our answer is "when do we sail?" It's been a month & a half since our cruise & not one day has passed that one of us hasn't mentioned how much fun it was or how we wished we were on the cruise again. None of us have any desire to even think about cruising with another cruise line either. It's Disney or bust for us!

If you have the $$, try it at least once. If you're a Disney fan, I think you'd enjoy it very much.

 

[Just2554]

I have been on 3 disney cruises. Twice I`ve done the land and sea. Once on the Magic and once on the Wonder. And in between them I did the 7 day Eastern on The Magic. We had a great time on all three cruises. In August we are going on Ncl Dawn.

I know it's off topic, but I have been on the Dawn twice now. It is an absolutely beautiful ship and you'll have a fantastic time. Don't forget to check out the real Van Gogh and Monet paintings in the French restaurant on board.

 

[sweet angel]

OMG, DH and I feel it is very much worth the money...like the old adage goes...you DO get what you pay for. We decided to go on a Disney cruise as an extension of our Disney experience and wanted to try something new. Go over to the Cruise Line forum board and you will glean so much info from there. That was my original DIS home and still have close friends over there. I am posting a pic taken atop Paradise Point on St. Thomas. The Disney Magic is docked in the middle of the three ships.

I just need to say, that's a GORGEOUS picture!

 

[WDWLVR]

We've done 8 Disney cruises with #9 booked for October (the DVC Member Cruise) and talking about #10 in June 2008. Definately worth it for us as we love it. I've cruised a number of other lines in the past (late 70's/ early 80's) and to me DCL is the best. Doesn't me we wouldn't try other lines but for right now we're staying with Disney.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

We have done 3 Disney cruises and are booked on #4 next year. To us, it is worth it.

 

[DVC Mary]

We've cruised twice & are going back in 2008. We love the Eastern. Try reading some trip reports over on the DCL Forums. We went in June both times w/ full ships & did not find the kids clubs to be overcrowded. Check out the navigators (list of daily activities), especially the ones for the kids & see if it looks like things you're family would be interested in.

What are your favorite things about Disney?
What are your favorite things to do on vacation?

If you post some of those things on the DCL forum w/ this question you'll get more specific responses. It's hard to know what someone else will enjoy.

Our family loves CC Disney's private island & the activities there. The snorkeling lagoon is a great place to start kids out snorkeling & their newest Stingray Adventure is fantastic. It's all my 6 yr old talks about.

We couldn't find enough time to do all the different activities we wanted to do. Every age found things they loved to do. We enjoyed wine tasting, dinner or brunch at the adult only restaurant Palo, & the shows. The kids loved making flubber, practicing to be a pirate, the sports deck, pin trading w/ the cast members every night before dinner, & much more. Disney's Pirates IN the Caribbean party was everyone's favorite & the fireworks were cool. They are the only ship allowed to do them.


DCL...been there done that, going back!

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

Twice.

We went on the 7-day combo and found that the time on the ship was WAY TOO SHORT.

The 7-day Eastern Carribbean was fabulous.

I would really like to take the Mediterranean cruise next year.

 

[lbgraves]

We have done 3 7 day cruises & LOVE them every time! We have 2 more booked. We always stay forward on the ship and were extremely happy when we were upgraded from cat 8 7504 to cat 4 8004. We find that we still haven't done everything that we want to on the ship...so we keep going back.

 

[T1130]

I know it's off topic, but I have been on the Dawn twice now. It is an absolutely beautiful ship and you'll have a fantastic time. Don't forget to check out the real Van Gogh and Monet paintings in the French restaurant on board.

Thank you for the tip! I will.

 

[zalansky]

We've been on 2 four night Wonder cruises and YES they were both well worth it! Our first time was before kids and our 2nd was when DS was only 9 months old. We are going to probably book another one next year when our baby is a little older. I can't wait!
Of course, we cruised under Fl Resident rates so maybe I am not the best person to ask.

 

[katerkat]

I did the 7-day once and for me - not worth the price. (and I didn't even pay!!) Perhaps when Russ is older and can enjoy the kids programs... But we much, much, much prefer Royal Caribbean.

 

[ADisneygirl]

We have been on the DCL twice -- once on the four night Wonder and once on the 7 night Magic. We loved them! Very worth the money to us, but then again we were also cruising on a Florida Resident rate as another poster said. That makes a big $$ difference.

 

[lindakmonty]

I've been on DCL 4 times and planning on the 5th LOVE IT and can't dream of cruising another cruise line!

 

[pearlieq]

We've been twice. The first time was pretty good, but the second time was only OK.

The ship is beautiful and in good condition. The staff is friendly and helpful. The staterooms are large and well-designed. The ports of call are great and Castaway Cay is a wonderful island!

The entertainment doesn't change often, so when we went on our second cruise 2 years after our first, the lounge acts were the same people, doing almost the same act (verbatim) from the first time. The cooking demos were the exact same entree. The game shows had the exact same script. This, of course, won't be a problem if this is your first time out.

We had 2 major problems the second time. The first was rude people. We had so much pushing, line cutting, chair hogging, seat saving, and people climbing over you in the theater that it honestly affected our enjoyment. I can handle a couple of minor annoyances, but our cruise was really, really bad and DCL wasn't doing as much as they could on the crowd control front.

The second problem was that there just wasn't that much to do. If you take a look at older navigators vs. the new ones you can see that they've dramatically cut activites. They used to show a huge variety of movies--including some smaller films. Now they just show the same 6 movies over and over. Activites for adults are few and far between, and at least half of them are some kind of alcohol "tasting" which requires an extra fee! Also, when they do have activites they tend to run them at largely the same time, so you have to pick. DH and I are fairly active adults and were quite frankly bored for at least part of every day. I can nap and read novels at home for free!

We probably won't be back for a long time, if ever. DCL's prices are just getting ridiculous and RCCL is offering a much better product for less money!

 

[hydster]

A comment for a previous poster who did not enjoy the cruise. I am curious as to what expensive movie you watched in your room. I don't recall an option to purchase movies in your room.

That was me and what I was trying to say didn't come out clear on my post. I meant to say that the kids watched cartoons in their room and we watched whatever shows they were playing on the tv in the cabin which is the same as it would have been if we were home...we just paid more to do it on the Disney Cruise Line. Hopefully that makes more sense. No we didn't do pay per view movies but we watched "tv" in our cabin just like we could have done for 4K less at home.

As for not finding anything to do...it was too windy to stay up on deck much. It even blew the pizza off the plates while we were carrying it to a table. The pools were overcrowded or closed due to the high wind and seas. There wasn't much else going on during the day for us. We could have gone to the wine tasting but that left my kids alone on the deck and we didn't want to do that to them. Maybe we were just finding out that we were done with cruising and we needed to move on to another type of vacation..I don't know but having been on more than a dozen cruises this was the first and only one all of us have been bored on and wishing we were home instead.

Just our opinion of course and I know others love it but for us it is no longer a good fit and the price just doesn't justify trying it again. We will continue to go to Disneyland until our youngest gets tall enough for places like Six Flags Magic Mountain or Universal Islands of Adventure