What was your worse cruise experience (hopefully NOT on DCL)...

[buzz&woody'smom]

I have had a bad cruise experience in August on RCL with drunk neighbors who fought every night until 4:00 am and then passed out but I guess I would not consider a cancelled cruise a bad experience even though at the time it would be upsetting.

I would consider what Disney Darwin went through a bad experience though being ill on the ship. I know when my 2 young sons were violently ill at the end of the 10/27 Wonder last year and not able to leave our WDW room to see the world that was pretty bad and sad. I think it would have been better to have someone warn us of the illness than to actually get sick....................

Even though I know "Virus Fairies" don't exist to warn us of such things

 

[ez]

I'm sorry, I read your post but didn't quite get what you meant (long day!) Are you saying there was an illness on the ship but no one warned you about it? I'm sorry your boys got sick, that must have been awful.

 

[buzz&woody'smom]

No EZ I am saying things happen and you have to go with the flow and it would be much worse to be in Disney Darwin's position and become ill on board the ship. It would be nice if a magic fairy could warn us if a virus lurked but if I was turned away because there was reason in my opinion I would be upset but ok with rescheduling to hopefully avoid illness...................I will make sure I am more clear headed when I respond next time. Feel free to PM if I need to clarify further.

 

[jlawall]

When we sailed on the Big Red Boat, it wasn't too good. The highlight of the trip was the dolphin experience in the Bahamas. It did not compare with our DCL experiences or our first cruise on HAL.

 

[hydster]

I thought your post was pretty clear Buzzwoody! I feel sorry that you had to go through that and I am glad you are so level headed about the whole thing!

Heidi

 

[Mjasp]

My experience was on the Magic. Our room on the 2nd deck, category 9 had such bad sewage smell, you couldn't open the bathroom door where the tub was, we had to keep the door closed and put towels under the door to keep the smell from getting out. We couldn't even go in there to shower we had to go down the hall to another cabin to shower.

We are giving DCL another try though, we booked a SPR this time, but am real concerned without having a verandah door to open for air in case it happens again. Anyone have that problem in any of the Secret Porthole rooms?

Joanna

 

[plutospup]

Being awakened at 4am by the Magic's captain to tell us there was a fire aboard ship (March '02). Then being told to don our orange life vests and report to our muster stations. Standing on deck at night, watching other ships come toward us if rescue was necessary was to say the least...unnerving.
DW didn't want to cruise again. Fortunately, pixie dust must have come down upon her, and we did sail again, and have another DCL cruise scheduled for...

 

[buzz&woody'smom]

Hands down Plutospup wins........holy moly I bet that was awful but so glad it turned out ok

Yes, Hydster I was careless in my responses last night and spoke in circles. After some inner counseling and sleep and hope to do better today.........I apologize for anyone who did not understand any BS coming from my mouth

 

[Dreamer04]

Originally posted by HooKooDooKu
Some good friends of ours went on a cruise for their honeymoon (years ago and I don't know the cruise line).

The cabins had pretty thin walls. Apparently the cabin next to them had another honeymoon couple that, let's see how to put this... were frisky, frequent, and loud.

At one point during the cruise, our friends heard the wife of the other couple say "&#@$ me Johnny" to which our friends loudly replied "Please Don't!" They didn't hear another peep from the other couple the rest of the cruise.

LOL

 

[WDWLVR]

I can honestly say that in 5 DCL cruises and at least 10 other cruises on other lines I've never had a horrible cruise experience. There has always been something that made it great. Some are more than great they are fantastic and that's what I've found with our DCL cruises.

Cruising like anything else is what you make of it. If you are bound and determined to find something wrong with it you will. If you are willing to accept the little twists and turns that life throughs you then you'll have a much better time. Just my 2 cents.

 

[DisneyDarwin]

I agree, the fire story wins! For what's it's worth, when I cruised last year we DID know that there had been a virus outbreak, and DCL kept us informed as they tried to clean the ship and as more illnesses occurred. So, we knowingly went "in harm's way", so to speak. Of course, faced with cancelling a trip at the 11th hour, we charged ahead. Hey, it makes a good story now!

 

[Mjasp]

Originally posted by buzz&woody'smom
Hands down Plutospup wins........holy moly I bet that was awful but so glad it turned out ok

My sentiments exactly.

Joanna

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

No cruises have been BAD, but the worst experience had to be when we cruised a western route out of Galveston TX (NCL Sea). It was a great itinerary, and the weather was beautiful......Though very hot! Unfortunately the seas were rough the entire trip and for the last two days at sea when it felt like it was about 100 degrees, all the pools were closed because the water would not stay in them. I go on a cruise for the outdoors and sunshine (especially in winter/spring, I want to come back to Wisconsin with a tan!). Unfortunately it was so hot and without any water in the pools, too hot to sit outside and we had to spend the last two days of the cruise inside. The cruise other than that was terrific. My husband and I had a wonderful time with the waves and rolling around in the beds at night! Made it fun for his first cruise!

Mrsfuzzmo

 

[sgtdisney]

My worst experience was also my first experience cruising. It happened on our honeymoon cruise 12 years ago this month. The cruise line NCL. The ship The 'New' Sunward. The details..
(We are contemplating a DCL cruise in the next year so I have been lurking here..)

Here is our story.

We had been scheduled to cruise on NCL's Sunward II. A rather small ship but I guess typical for 12 to 15 years ago.. Anyway, NCL merged or bought out Royal Viking Line and sold the Sunward II and we saled on the 'maiden' voyage of the New Sunward, which I think was the old Royal Viking Sun (or Sky I forget). Here are the events as I recall them..

1. Get to miami airport, get picked up by NCL. Ship not ready they are taking us for an afternoon of 'shopping' at Miami's Bayside resort. The tell us it is hot and that we need to give them our carryons and they will deliver them to room so we don't need to lug them around the mall. Ok, no problem give them bags.. (More on this later)

2. After sweating it up in Miami in our travel clothes we get on ship and explore. Lots of old plates and cups from Royal Viking lines laying around, but didn't think much about that. We have the lifevest drill and no one comes to 'drill us.' Everyone around us on deck has a crew member. Ours isn't there. She shows up late and looked like one of the Goth characters from the SNL skit. She didn't know how to put on a lifevest. We were scared.

3. Get to our room. No bags and TWIN BEDS. HELLO HONEYMOON.. We requested something larger than twins, of course. Called them and they said they would fix it. Room steward came and pushed beds together. Ok.. (more on THAT later) Our bags still had not been delivered. Remember we had been out in the sun all day and wanted to dress for dinner. No bags. We waited and waited and ended up going to dinner in our sweaty clothes.. Fun! Sit down at a table for 8?! Another couple sits down. Within 5 minutes they get up to leave, the wife is seasick, bad. Never see them the rest of the cruise. My new wife and I sat at a table for 8, alone, for the whole cruise. (Maybe because we smelled actually ship was only half full since this ship carried more than the old SunwardII and sitting alone was fine with me..)

4. Go back to the room and bags have arrived!! However the room reeks of Obsession for men cologne. Why? Well my carryon bag had the cologne and it was a leather carry on. The bag and its breakable contents destroyed! Everything in the bag that was breakable including a huge plastic handled brush was broken. The cologne seeped into the leather. In fact that bag still smells 12 years later. LOL!

5. Decide to take a shower. AHHH COLD WATER. NO HOT WATER. Called steward sorry sir we are having problems with the water heater.. The whole 4 nights cold showers. Wonderful on your honeymoon!

6. Second night rough seas. Woke up in the middle of the night because the twin beds had seperated and my wife had fallen through to the floor. I made a joke about the Poseiden adventure. Didn't make her laugh.

7. Our room was a suite on the promenade deck. Opened drapes one morning another honeymoon couple was on the deck, um, well lets just say they should have been in their room.

8. Paid for a tour of Nassau of the sights. The driver stopped at every street corner naming the trees. I don't recall any sites, just trees.

9. Last morning walking around the deck early before we had to leave. Stood watching them unload bags and found out what happened to my carryon. Watched them THROW all the luggage. Often times over there heads. We watched no less then 3 bags open and them stuffing clothes back into bags. Couldn't take it anymore and left.

Anyway there was more, but it was just a commedy of errors. We look back on that cruise fondly now and laugh a lot about it. My wife has been on a cruise since with her sister when her sis graduated H.S. and they had a great time.. We did leave from Miami and were in a concierge room at the Polynesian and at the time that more than made up for the "Cruise from Hell" as we affectionaly called it.

Sorry for the long read, but hope you found it funny.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Come on Sgt. take the plunge and book a DCL cruise. And if you are lucky, I'll even come up and say hi to you at the port! Don't let that honeymoon cruise keep you away.

 

[Regina]

6. Second night rough seas. Woke up in the middle of the night because the twin beds had seperated and my wife had fallen through to the floor. I made a joke about the Poseiden adventure. Didn't make her laugh.

That is sooooo funny.

We took a honeymoon cruise (and no, it wasn't so long ago that they had oarsmen). We took our TA's advice and booked an inside stateroom. We opened the door and same thing, twin beds. There was no way that they could be pushed together.

I think I was trying to "black out" the bad memories. We rented mopeds in Bermuda. Between getting used to riding one, and driving on the opposite side of the road, I ended up slamming into a brick wall. I'm lying on the ground, and a nice lady stopped and asked if we needed help. DH is saying, "oh no, she's fine".

Bruised ribs and all, I climb on the back of a double moped the next day. Big mistake. We kept breaking down and I swore off mopeds after that.

The other thing that I remember is the godawful entertainment. The emcee was so Larry Lounge singer. I was taking bets as to when he was going to sing "My Way." He didn't disappoint me.

 

[sgtdisney]

Originally posted by Miss Jasmine
Come on Sgt. take the plunge and book a DCL cruise. And if you are lucky, I'll even come up and say hi to you at the port! Don't let that honeymoon cruise keep you away.

We are really considering it. We may wait until my daughter is 3 years old though so she will get more out of it. She will be 2 in January.. Our experiences on the Sunward didn't turn me off on cruising for long, we have thought about it a number of times. However OKW at WDW always won out.

Miss Jasmine, I will hold you to meeting me at the port when we go!

 

[denise5374]

I don't hav a horrible crise experience to share, my only cruise was on DCL Oct. 2002 and it was great but I wanted to tell you all...Thanks for sharing. You have made me laugh out loud. I m glad that everybody is OK and still cruising!

Thanks again.

 

[dclwdwlover]

I haven't had a bad cruise experience either. My DCL cruises were FAR better than the others, but never anything bad.

After reading this thread & the posts about Carnival - you wonder why anyone would go on that line?! My son just cancelled his Carnival cruise & boy am I glad! Gotta talk him into DCL!!!

 

[katerkat]

With 7 RCCL, 1 Disney, 1 Carnival and 1 Big Red Boat uner my belt, I'm happy to say we haven't had any bad experiences that were the cruiseline's fault. We didn't particularly like Carnival or BRB, but it wasn't bad - just not something we'll repeat.

We have had quite a few mishaps on our own, though! Our first Alaskan cruise, Mom slammed my sister's finger in the cabin door within minutes of boarding. Jen's finger broke and she was in pain for the rest of the trip. She got her revenge, though, when Mom was taking a picture of us, slipped on some gravel, fell and tore the liagments in her ankle. (But, both times the ship's doctor took wonderful care of them and we had no problems with insurance whatnot when we got back.)