Disney Cruise Review (honest review)

[dulcemariamar]

I know a lot of people recap their Disney trips but I thought I might do a short recap of our 4 night Disney cruise on the Disney Dream. I went with my DH and my DD (3YO)

Day One

Embarkation was pretty easy. We went on a Disney Cruise before so we are now Castaway Club Members. The wait time was so much shorter and we got on the boat pretty quickly. When we went two years ago, the wait was horrible.

After getting onboard ship, we went to the Port Adventure desk to get tickets to see Ana and Elsa and the other princesses. Since we got onboard so quickly, there was only about 10 people in front of us. But it took a while since you can pick out the time and date of the meet and greet and people took their time and were asking a lot of general questions. While waiting, I saw Snow White was walking around so I took my daughter to see her.

After we got our tickets, we went to the kids clubs to register my daughter for the youth program. Again, the wait time was pretty long since there was only about six people working. Since we registered already online, it only took about five minutes to actually get the wrist band once we got to talk to a counselor. 

Next we decided to grab lunch while my DH went to change our dining time. It seems that most people are booked to the late dining time if you book online. We managed to get early dining at 5:45.


Finally, after spending the first 3 hours of the trip waiting in lines, we made our way to our cabin. The cabin itself was fantastic. We had an inside cabin and it was big enough for my family of 3. We loved the magical portholes and it was cute to see the characters pop up. The whole ship is beautiful and they do a great job of taking care of it.

Food

As a whole, the food was disappointing. The  fastfood (pizza, hamburgers, sandwiches) were pretty bad and the food in the main dining room was a hit or a miss. The windjammer for breakfast and lunch was actually pretty good. 

But the worst part was actually finding food. On other cruises, I found it so easy to find food 24/7. But on Disney the hours were quite limited especially after,lunch. Even their food stands by the pool decks had limited hours. For example, at night you could get a hmaburger but had to wait until 9:30 to get pizza. You could get room service, but would have to wait 30 minutes or so for the delivery.


Shows and characters

The shows were fantastic. My DD loved them. She also loved meeting the characters and we took a lot of great pics with the characters. Since we had the ticket passes to see the princesses we only had to wait five minutes or so. However, I heard that on the first day people waited over an hour to actually get the passes. 

Youth Program

if you have a young child (3-5), the Disney youth program might not be for you unless your young child has an older sibling. It seemed like a great place for 7+ and there are a lot of activities that look great but in general the whole place was pretty chaotic. 

On other companies they divide the kids up by age. On Disney they have one big youth camp for kids 3-12. They do not break up the kids by age because parents complained too much about breaking up siblings. My 3YO is not shy at all but she felt so overwhelmed with the older kids that she refused to go a second time. It is crazy that they think it a good idea to put preschoolers with older kids. 

They do have open hours where you can play with your kids at the kids camp. My DD enjoyed that but we spent most of the time just playing with the computers. If you want to drop off your child you have to wait until 11:45.

Day 3 Castaway Cay (Day from hell)

When I woke up on the 3rd day, it was a bit windy and cloudy out. My DH was super excited to get off at Castaway Cay. During breakfast, we were told that the boat was having trouble docking. At noon, we were told that they could not dock and that were going to miss out on Castaway Cay. (They tried docking 3 times and to be honest the conditione didnt look that bad at all) After feeling sad we decided to go to lunch. At lunch my daughter threw up. We took her back to the cabin and prayed it was a fluke. It wasnt. After throwing up 4 more times, I called guest services. They didnt seem too interested and just told us to see the doctor but we would have to pay to see him. Later that afternoon, we took her to the medical center. The doctor and his team there were fantastic. Really really great.
They took their time and explained everything to us. We already had pedialyte with us but they gave us some more. We did not have to pay for the visit since it was stomach virus.


After the guest service got the report, we were put in isolation for 24 hours. (Before it seemed that they totally brushed us off and our concerns. I was the one having to search for desinfectant wipes and trash bags to keep the cabin clean) They sent a doll for my LO, gave us complimentary laundry, on demand tv, and non alcoholic drinks. I spent the rest of the day desinfecting everything and washing clothes. Thankfully, nobody else got sick but we were worried that we would have to go back to the medical center and have to to give my DD an IV to keep fluids in her since she was so sick. 

Conclusion



Everybody knows that Disney cruise line is way more expenisve than other companies. We obviously had a horrible trip since we spent half of it in isolation and couldnt enjoy the private island. The boat itself is great. The entertainment and activties are fantastic. I am sure my DD would have loved the pirate show and fireworks. But the youth program was not set up for younger kids and the food was quite disappointing. Maybe, we might do another when DD is a lot older. Advice: Make sure your health insurance covers medical travel emergencies. 

[spankswife]

Wow I'm sorry about your trip. How disappointing.

My DD at 4 was overwhelmed by the kids club as well. I also thought the food wasn't that great for the most part, which was surprising bc everyone says it is so good and the beat cruise line food. But luckily we didn't get sick, and got to go to Castaway. The shows were great!

Hopefully you get to go again, and have a nice time!

[ilikedonuts]

When did they change from splitting up ages to all together? I didn't realize they did that. That's a terrible idea.

I'm sorry you guys had a rough time

[zarapipe]

aw I'm sorry your trip was disappointing. Did they ever get to go back to Castaway Cay? That seems really crappy overall since it was such a short cruise- were there any other ports of call?

[lishie]

We did a cruise summer 2014 and the kids were split up on age on our trip. They did allow the kids to switch back and forth between the clubs, but for the most part they were with others their age. I thought my boys would want to be together, and they rarely were.

I feel terrible about your DD getting sick. We've had that happen on vacation, but never on a cruise where we were completely stuck in our room. That's terrible.

[countthestars]

I'm sorry your trip wasn't good

[CloudBee]

I'm sorry your daughter was sick.

[ssmjlm]

I'm sorry you didn't have a good trip. We were debating a Disney cruise but have decided to wait until E is older just because of the cost and wanting her to really remember and enjoy it.

[abs]

Thanks for the honest review. We've talked about a Disney cruise before but always talk ourselves out of it as being confined in a small room with a young child seems like a bad idea. I'm sorry your trip was not the best. DD gets sick frequently so I am always scared about this anytime we go somewhere.

[Deleted]

Oh no! I'm sorry you had a bad trip.

[jeaniebueller]

What a bummer! Sorry it wasn't a better trip.

[CheeringCharm]

I'm sorry it didn't go better. That sucks

[curbsideprophet]

Sorry she got sick

[dulcemariamar]

Feb 23, 2016 7:07:33 GMT -5 zarapipe said:

aw I'm sorry your trip was disappointing. Did they ever get to go back to Castaway Cay? That seems really crappy overall since it was such a short cruise- were there any other ports of call?

It was a 4 day cruise. The first port of call was Nassau. We didnt get off because it was cloudy and a bit windy. The last day was a sea day. They could not go back since another Disney ship was supposed to go that day. I guess there is only room enough for one ship.

the weather didnt seem so bad. So it was kinda crazy to hear that the captain couldnt dock the ship.

[dulcemariamar]

Feb 23, 2016 7:15:15 GMT -5 lishie said:

We did a cruise summer 2014 and the kids were split up on age on our trip. They did allow the kids to switch back and forth between the clubs, but for the most part they were with others their age. I thought my boys would want to be together, and they rarely were.

I feel terrible about your DD getting sick. We've had that happen on vacation, but never on a cruise where we were completely stuck in our room. That's terrible.

It wasnt so horrible being in the cabin since we had available all the Disney movies/food for free. And they tell you in isolarion but it is not like somebody is standing outside your cabin to make sure you stay there.

It was just sad because we were stuck the night with the big pirate party and fireworks. So when I was on my way to wash the clothes I had to pass by everyone dressed up and on their way to party.m

[dulcemariamar]

I dont want my post to scare off people from cruising with kids. We have enjoyed them a lot before with LO and found them so easy to do with kids. I know some people are worried about the germ factor but I guess tney are comparable with staying at an AI, a Disney resort or traveling by plane.

So cruises are fun but maybe not during cold/flu season.

[ginkgoleaf]

Sorry your DD got sick and you missed out on Castaway.

I agree the food is hit or miss. I had a couple dinners that were just plain bad. Pirate night and Castaway is a lot of fun, sorry you missed those.

DS was newly 4 when we did the Disney cruise and he loved the kids club, but we were on one of their smaller boats, so maybe that made a difference? He is not shy at all so I'm sure that helped.

[biscoffcookies]

Thanks for this review. We've been contemplating doing a short Disney cruise with our kids, in part because DD (4) has been begging to go meet the princesses in real life and it seemed less crazy than going to Disney World and in part because we loved the idea of being able to drop her off at the kids club (and DS at the babysitter) and have time to ourselves. But given what you said, I think DD would similarly be overwhelmed and not necessarily want to go back with all the big kids, which would defeat the purpose.

[mrssandro]

What a bummer. Did anybody else get the stomach virus?

I am sorry. This is one of reason we aren't cruise people. I am not a fan of being put into isolation or having to deal with bad food because there was no options.

[dulcemariamar]

Feb 23, 2016 10:01:58 GMT -5 mrssandro said:

What a bummer. Did anybody else get the stomach virus?

I am sorry. This is one of reason we aren't cruise people. I am not a fan of being put into isolation or having to deal with bad food because there was no options.

Nobody else got it. They told us to stay in the cabin but it was not like anybody from the cruise was standing outside our cabin to make sure that we did.