MunFam
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2014
anyone have any questions? Here is a short trip report:
The broadway shows and the characters were AMAZING and the low number of children on board made the experience super personable for our 4 year old. The characters all knew that our DD liked to give them a kiss each time they met and she also loved to tell them secrets. They always greeted her by name. It made for some very magical memories.
The kids club staff was also phenomenal. They had so many exceptional programs, crafts and activities going all the time. One note for future cruisers: The clubs were closed part of the canal day and then went to "open house" mode the other part of the day, so our 4 year old was stuck with us on deck the entire day. Thank god for her iPad!
Unfortunately, even with such low numbers there were still families that spent the entire time cutting in character lines and one dad even got in to a fight with an older woman at the Frozen deck show over being in the front row with his daughter up on his shoulders. Disney seemed to turn their backs to this sort of behavior and pretend like it did not exist.
We had a port side, midship (2000's not 2500's) ocean view SR and loved the location. The room was fresh and clean, the beds were comfortable and the split bathroom was nice, but small. There were plenty of outlets in the new rooms. (They added outlets at the bed on both sides!!!) I was worried about this before we left but never had an issue getting anything charged when it needed to be charged.
The new app was a LIFESAVER!!! Definitely load it on your smart phone before you go. It was so handy to have the menus and hour by hour breakdown plus weather reports and messaging all right at your fingertips.
We loved Cartagena so much. Our tour with Dora was excellent. It was hot...very hot. We packed lots of water and little hand held, battery operated fans that came in super handy. We bought art, coffee and fedoras. I want to go back to Columbia.
Cozumel was beautiful. We just got off and walked around the town. We had lunch at Poncho's Backyard, and while it was good, I think we prefer the Mexican Food in San Diego better.
Los Cinco Soles had some great shopping. We always felt safe, but definitely watched our backs, so to speak, because you can never be too safe.
Cabo was pretty. We took a private water taxi to lands end. The seas were extremely rough, but it was a nice view. The guide gave us tips on how to get to a secret local's beach and also a great little dirt parking lot filled with food trucks (Spanish-speaking only, so make sure you know your Spanish and have pesos)! So yummy!
Even with all the highs, I can honestly say that I think that sailing with Disney may be a one time thing for us. There was a MAJOR cast turn over in San Diego and you could tell that a lot of the cast members had short-timer syndrome. They just were not in to it and we struggled to find "the Disney difference" as we cruised along. We would often have to call for towels for our stateroom. 3 people, 1 towel after turn down is not okay multiple days in a row, being told to call room service if we wanted ice, finding out that other kids had fun kid sheets on their beds when our DD had plain white ones; petty things that added up to be quite annoying over time. We also struggled a bit with our dining team (all 3 were getting off the ship in San Diego). DD has food allergies and multiple times, meals were delivered to her with allergens that could kill her on her plate...even after the allergy ticket was sent to the kitchen on a pre-ordered meal the day before and confirmed the say of. I noticed that breakfast service was incredibly slow...sometimes taking 2 hours from start to finish. One day I waited 50 minutes for an omelet "your order will be here soon" was said multiple times...and then Triton's closed at 10am and everyone got up and left...and I had no breakfast still, so I left as well. I was also under the impression that the chefs would be somewhat creative in working with people with food allergies. 90% of what DD ate was pre-packaged and frozen because they would bring me the packages to read. She is allergic to eggs, peanuts and treenuts. She pretty much ate bacon, fruit, hot dogs and steak (and Mickey Bars!) for 15 days. Perhaps, my expectations were just set too high?
There were others that shared similar expereinces with us. Once couple had been on 19+ DCL cruise including the 2014 EBPC and said this was the worst one so far for them and encouraged us to give it another try. They felt that Clayton, the Cruise Director plus the huge crew turnover had a lot to do with it. Others said that it was the best cruise ever, so maybe its just the luck of the draw...
If anyone has any specific questions, I would be happy to answer
The broadway shows and the characters were AMAZING and the low number of children on board made the experience super personable for our 4 year old. The characters all knew that our DD liked to give them a kiss each time they met and she also loved to tell them secrets. They always greeted her by name. It made for some very magical memories.
The kids club staff was also phenomenal. They had so many exceptional programs, crafts and activities going all the time. One note for future cruisers: The clubs were closed part of the canal day and then went to "open house" mode the other part of the day, so our 4 year old was stuck with us on deck the entire day. Thank god for her iPad!
Unfortunately, even with such low numbers there were still families that spent the entire time cutting in character lines and one dad even got in to a fight with an older woman at the Frozen deck show over being in the front row with his daughter up on his shoulders. Disney seemed to turn their backs to this sort of behavior and pretend like it did not exist.
We had a port side, midship (2000's not 2500's) ocean view SR and loved the location. The room was fresh and clean, the beds were comfortable and the split bathroom was nice, but small. There were plenty of outlets in the new rooms. (They added outlets at the bed on both sides!!!) I was worried about this before we left but never had an issue getting anything charged when it needed to be charged.
The new app was a LIFESAVER!!! Definitely load it on your smart phone before you go. It was so handy to have the menus and hour by hour breakdown plus weather reports and messaging all right at your fingertips.
We loved Cartagena so much. Our tour with Dora was excellent. It was hot...very hot. We packed lots of water and little hand held, battery operated fans that came in super handy. We bought art, coffee and fedoras. I want to go back to Columbia.
Cozumel was beautiful. We just got off and walked around the town. We had lunch at Poncho's Backyard, and while it was good, I think we prefer the Mexican Food in San Diego better.
Los Cinco Soles had some great shopping. We always felt safe, but definitely watched our backs, so to speak, because you can never be too safe. Cabo was pretty. We took a private water taxi to lands end. The seas were extremely rough, but it was a nice view. The guide gave us tips on how to get to a secret local's beach and also a great little dirt parking lot filled with food trucks (Spanish-speaking only, so make sure you know your Spanish and have pesos)! So yummy!
Even with all the highs, I can honestly say that I think that sailing with Disney may be a one time thing for us. There was a MAJOR cast turn over in San Diego and you could tell that a lot of the cast members had short-timer syndrome. They just were not in to it and we struggled to find "the Disney difference" as we cruised along. We would often have to call for towels for our stateroom. 3 people, 1 towel after turn down is not okay multiple days in a row, being told to call room service if we wanted ice, finding out that other kids had fun kid sheets on their beds when our DD had plain white ones; petty things that added up to be quite annoying over time. We also struggled a bit with our dining team (all 3 were getting off the ship in San Diego). DD has food allergies and multiple times, meals were delivered to her with allergens that could kill her on her plate...even after the allergy ticket was sent to the kitchen on a pre-ordered meal the day before and confirmed the say of. I noticed that breakfast service was incredibly slow...sometimes taking 2 hours from start to finish. One day I waited 50 minutes for an omelet "your order will be here soon" was said multiple times...and then Triton's closed at 10am and everyone got up and left...and I had no breakfast still, so I left as well. I was also under the impression that the chefs would be somewhat creative in working with people with food allergies. 90% of what DD ate was pre-packaged and frozen because they would bring me the packages to read. She is allergic to eggs, peanuts and treenuts. She pretty much ate bacon, fruit, hot dogs and steak (and Mickey Bars!) for 15 days. Perhaps, my expectations were just set too high?
There were others that shared similar expereinces with us. Once couple had been on 19+ DCL cruise including the 2014 EBPC and said this was the worst one so far for them and encouraged us to give it another try. They felt that Clayton, the Cruise Director plus the huge crew turnover had a lot to do with it. Others said that it was the best cruise ever, so maybe its just the luck of the draw...
If anyone has any specific questions, I would be happy to answer
Love the movie compared to the other choices. And, I like the Marvel movies but.... it was a 14 day not 7 day cruise and we have done more than a dozen DCL trips with a few on the Magic in Europe and the movies were switched out often.
