Okay, just a few quickie comments (I've got quotes from the reports and my comments ... below each). I'm not in the best mood tonight, so they're a bit snotty:
Whenever the ship isn't docked at one of the above resorts, it's underway to the next port of call, meaning it steams overnight there at full speed, or something very near to it.
Awwww, and here I thought it just sat around in the water and then magically teleported at the appropriate time.
For those who don't know, the last port of call is at Disney's own island, Castaway Cay. For reasons I cannot seem to pin down, Cay is pronounced "key," not "cay."
A supposed web savvy person who can’t key this in and find the simple answer, that the pronunciation has its roots in an old Spanish word cayo, with the “key” pronunciation.
For example, the Wonder sails from the same Port Canaveral (a 45-minute drive from WDW, with free buses available).,.
Uh, free? Not bloody likely! You pay for the cruise bus.
…and travels around the Eastern Caribbean, making a similar one-day stop at Castaway Cay. There are also three-day cruises available.
So the three day cruises don’t stop at CC? Don’t travel the “Eastern Caribbean”? Uh, the 3 and 4 day trips have the same itinerary except for the addition of a day at sea on the 4-day.
It's common knowledge that you can gain weight on a cruise, for they feed you all you can eat. That means the quick-service places like Pluto's Dog House simply hand you, free of cost, whatever you point at on the menu. For those who like "Disney-Fries" this is a mighty dangerous thing to have at your fingertips. It spoiled us, the way free videogames spoil us at DisneyQuest. Paying for that kind of fast food will be hard in the future. There's also a self-service beverage station with free unlimited sodas, yours for the taking all week.
He has a weird concept of "free"… DisneyQuest charges an admission fee, just as the cruise charges a hefty fare! Wouldn’t “all-inclusive” be a more accurate description?
There's a nursery for kids under three, and a series of playgroups you can join for age ranges above that (like 3-5, 5-7, etc). Parents often use this opportunity for babysitting to take in a formal dinner (there's an even more exclusive dinner restaurant called Palo that requires reservations and a $10/person supplement). The babysitting does cost money, but it's a reasonable price ($12/hour) and the kids REALLY have a lot to do.
Is he implying that ALL of the kids’ activities have an additional charge attached? NOT true!!! They only charge for the nursery.
Here's a quote from one part of the booklet Disney sent before the cruise:
Nice Dining Attire: Most restaurants require cruise casual wear. No shorts, swimwear or tank tops, please. A dress shirt or jacket is recommended for men, and a dress or pantsuit for women, at Lumiere's and Palo.
Maybe it's just me, but I read this to mean that I'd be fine in jeans and a t-shirt, and in fact all I would have to do is just steer clear of Lumiere's and Palo, whatever those places are, and I could even wear shorts. I didn't want to look up what those restaurants were. I wanted to be surprised.
He didn’t do his research and then he blames Disney. He says the material was woefully inadequate, and yet he says he wants to be surprised. Can’t have it both ways, dude.
People did dress up. Every night. A t-shirt was woefully out of place. Jeans were by and large out of place too, and I became painfully aware of sticking out in a crowd. This is likely due to my half-Asian heritage and the life experiences that go along with it while growing up. W.E.B. Dubois coined the term "double-consciousness" to refer to an awareness of being both "American" and a person of color. He meant it for African-Americans, but it could be applied to a host of situations, including my own. People with double-consciousness see themselves through their own eyes AND through the eyes of other people. I began to feel that my T-shirts were horribly misplaced at the dinners. Basically no one else wore them; the men were all wearing something with a collar, like polo shirts or print shirts. Though no one said anything to me, I felt increasingly uncomfortable and finally opted out of three of the dinners, electing to just eat the fast food offered on the deck of the ship instead.
Even though I am very tempted, I am NOT going to comment on this as a doctor of psychology (lordy, I could go to town with it!!). All I’ll say is that after 52 Disney cruises, I have never seen people in t-shirts and jeans being made to feel uncomfortable at dinner, particularly over the past couple of years.
Alas, the comment card was also woefully short on space to actually write anything. I left my e-mail address, but no one wrote to even ask questions, let alone address my concerns.
So you can’t just use some of the stationery provided in your stateroom and write your additional comments on that?
Everyone, and I mean everyone, dresses up in tuxedoes or something very close to it.
Again, I say this as a veteran of 52 Disney cruises… BULL SHEEEET!!
I know they expect most people to take Disney busses from WDW, but could they not provide better directions for those who wish to travel by personal car? Would it kill them to say which of the two terminals in Port Canaveral is home to the Disney Cruise Line?
Uh, you’re so freakin’ technologically challenged that you couldn’t find this online within two minutes?
How about an onboard water park, with splash zones and waterfalls themed to pirate cavern hideaways? It need not take up a lot of real estate to be popular and fun. The possibilities are limitless. If they can put a roller-coaster on the Vegas Stratosphere, can't they put come kind of ride along the outside of the cruise ship? Perhaps that's unrealistic. But couldn't they think outside the box? Can a dark ride fit on a ship? A PeopleMover? This is Disney, after all.
Is he serious?!?!?! And I won’t even go into all the whole family activities that are offered onboard… if you believe this bozo, just go to
http://www.castawayclub.com and look at the navigators to see how pitifully wrong he is.
And while the gym was free, it was located next to the not-free spa, leading to a less than fully comfortable passage to the free gym.
Uh, you just walk down the hall… trust me, no one accosts you on the way (I know the spa VERY well, since I spend a good portion of every cruise there).
My guess would be that the various merchants pay to be on Disney's list, and I'd further guess that this is common in the cruise industry.
He guesses? DUH!!!
Parking at the terminal cost $12/day... a not-insignificant amount when you're gone for a week. This is more than the theme parks!
The lot is run by the port authority, not Disney, so they have no control over that.
This is Disney's private island. Surely they could afford to make the snorkel equipment free, or at least not the enormous sums we saw (I forget the actual price - $25/day?) That they charge for floats and other typical fun-in-the-sun equipment is just shameless.
If you’re that flippin’ cheap, buy a $3 float at home and bring it with you (you can bring your own snorkel equipment too).
Your quarters are shared with others. And those quarters are on "B" Deck, just above the engines and just below the cruise ship managers (which is itself below the bottommost deck used by Guests).
Uh, what about A deck? And trust me, not all the “managers” live on those decks.
Each day, a "personal navigator" would appear in our stateroom, something akin to the Show Guide seen in the Disney parks, showing operating hours, dining hours, and events and shows on the ship. That's fine and dandy, but why dole this out day by day?
Maybe because Disney doesn’t have a crystal ball, and if the weather is bad or something else comes up, they change/add activities so a pre-handed navigator might well be worthless.
Worse yet, the personal navigators weren't personalized at all. Cruisers rotated through the three formal dining rooms, meaning they had to know where their meal was each night. Without personalization, these daily guides not only created clutter, they failed to live up to their names and their promise.
And just how should they be “personalize?” Another case of Disney needing a crystal ball to ascertain each passenger’s wants and to create a daily schedule just for them?
Neither the cruise shops nor the merchandise locations had nearly enough DCL-branded merchandise. Especially lacking were the Castaway Cay-specific items.
Huh? Was he temporarily blind while in the stores?
Just what is "the Disney experience?" If you think about it, you'll probably decide it has something to do with complete immersion in a fantasy world and separation from everyday life. If that's true, why would Disney want to re-introduce the "real world" via ports of call? We visited Key West, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, each quite real locations and very much part of the real world.
Yes, damn them for not plunking the ship in the World Showcase lagoon and visiting the nice, controlled Epcot countries.
We'll be sure to go on another cruise someday. But it won't be on Disney's boats.
And I’ll bet Mickey is VERY VERY happy about that.
