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Ports: St Thomas, Antigua, Castaway Cay
Passengers: Dan-41, Aleece-38, Elizabeth-6
Home: Michigan
Cruise history: Three previous for the adults, first for Elizabeth Other
cruises: Royal Carribean twice, Carnival once
Format: Review broken up by days to make it more managable for me to type and
you to read!!
October 2, 2004
We flew into Orlando International Airport. We elected to take
Disney transportation due to having to get up very early in the
morning to get there in time. We dealt with three representatives
at the airport. One was very friendly and tried to interact with
everyone, one was friendly but very "efficient", one was not even
sociable and led us from one spot to the other with no
conversation. The bus was fine. We did have one screen cut out
after a bump and never come back on but there were enough others
that it was not an issue. When we got close to the port and
Elizabeth could first see the ship, she said, "It's big!". When we
got there at the port, she covered her mouth with her hand and
said, "IT'S HUGE!!"
Check in was efficient and not too time consuming. We found that we
had received an upgrade which did not make me happy since I had
picked our room. (It later turned out to be a good thing and I felt
stupid being unhappy about the change). The check in area was
rather confusing and we could not see where the line ended and where
we needed to stand to get on board. [This was the fastest check in
of all our cruises but was actually more chaotic feeling due to lack
of direction.]
Once we got on board, it was about 1245PM. We were not able to go
to our room until 130PM which was a hassle due to having to carry
our stuff and coats etc... to the buffet lunch. [This was the only
cruise we have been on that we actually had to wait to get into our
room.] Lunch was only okay but this may have had something to do
with the stuff we were carrying.
Once we were able to get to our room, we were very pleased. This is
where I found out that I was dumb to be upset about the upgrade. We
went from a porthole room on deck 2 to a navigators verandah room on
deck 5. The room was great and the verandah was one of the best
parts of my trip. I will be forever hard pressed to get a regular
room again! The double bathroom is a fantastic idea also and made
everything a lot easier in the room. We were surprised that there
was no exhaust fan in either of them though.
Elizabeth went to swim at the Mickey pool after we settled in a
bit. She was having a great time until we had to go to the Muster
Drill. That went exceptionally fast though and she was able to get
back to swimming quickly. (Fastest...by far...drill I have
attended).
Elizabeth swam with Dan watching and I went up on deck ten for the
sail away party. The party was at the Goofy pool on deck 9 but I
like to watch the ship pull away so I had the party in the
background while I watched and got to meet a few people. People
appeared to be having a lot of fun at the sail away party.
We signed Elizabeth up for the kids program right before our six
o'clock dinner. We do not have any experience with the other kids
programs so there will be no comparisons there. Sign up went
smoothly.
We had our first dinner at Parrot Cay. I liked the atmosphere of
the room. Our dinner was good but we could have skipped the
dessert. Our waiters seem okay at this point. Our table mates
included a couple with a seven year old girl and a mother and nine?
year old daughter. Everyone seems to get along well.
Elizabeth went to the childrens program after dinner. They were
having a luau. We went and sat on the verandah. We checked out the
ship a while after that. There do not seem to be many activities on
board. It seems to be very low key and family oriented. (good and
bad depending on what you are looking for). A notable difference
for this so far is that there are not a lot of in your face shopping
suggestions or waiters constantly going around trying to sell you a
drink. Yippee!!
We had a very relaxing day after we were able to settle in our
room. Elizabeth had a good day and was excited that she got to meet
Stitch.
October 3, 2004 Day at Sea
Today we slept in some. We enjoyed the look of the ocean out the
verandah. Elizabeth was happy to go out there and check out the
waves. "They are cool". We went to the Topsider Buffet for
breakfast. We were able to sit bu the window so Elizabeth was
trying to look for dolphins but had no luck. When I asked her how
the cruise was so far, she said "way better" than she expected. We
then went to the Goofy Pool to swim. It is the family pool. It is
too deep for her to stand in but she was able to finally learn how
to swim by herself. Of course, we had to be close because she could
not go far before she scared herself and started to sink but at
least she got the idea. When she was getting tired, we switched to
the Mickey pool so she could "go it alone". We could not find a
chair there so Dan stood there and supervised. I went up to deck
ten to sit in the sun and read my book.
Today they had a matinee show of "The Golden Mickeys". We went
early and Elizabeth ended up being chosen to be in the show. She
was very happy to be able to go "backstage" with the other kids.
She ended up being one of the dwarfs. It was very exciting for
her. After the show, we went back to the room to catch up on my
journal and her journal for school. She is lounging on the couch
and is pretty tired. I am on the verandah. Dan is watching TV
which is something he does not have time to do much of at home. We
are able to see another ship in front of us. I am guessing it is
the Carnival Glory that left port about 1/2 hour before us.
Tonight, Elizabeth decided to eat dinner with the kids in the kids
program. We ate in Lumiere's. It was formal night. Many people
dressed in suits and dresses but some were dressed less than that.
I did not see any tuxes but that does not mean there weren't any.
Many little girls wore their princess dresses. I tried some seafood
which is not normally something I like but I wanted to try to eat
something different. I did not like it so had to order something
else. The main server, LeeRoy, keeps telling us already about
needing us to put excellent on the comment card. This is annoying
and probably will work against him. He seemed bothered that I did
not like the fish and I felt guilty ordering something else. (I
have never felt that way on the other cruises. They encouraged
people to try things and get something else if they didn't like
it. This guy seemed to take it personally.) The assistant server,
Libor, seems nice enough but very quiet. We will see if he catches
on to the Diet Coke/Coke habit we have at dinner.
We went to the movies after dinner. It was Brother Bear. The
theater was nice but the seats were a little short for your legs.
Made primarily for kids, I suppose. I am sitting on the verandah
again writing and Elizabeth is still with the kids. She is watching
Toy Story which should be over around 11:15PM.
October 4, 2004 Day at Sea
Good Morning. I am once again on the verandah. I have just looked
at the schedule for today and see that there are no real goals other
than to relax and try to meet some of the charactors. I am going to
deck 9 to get some Diet Coke now. I will probably read some too
while the other two sleep.
I ended up on Deck 10 for about an hour and then refilled the soda
and returned to the room. They were up and getting dressed. We
went to breakfast and then swimming at the Mickey Pool until noon.
At noon, we went to get autographs from the Princesses. It was a
ridiculously long line. After we got through that, we got an
autograph and picture from Max. We then went to the Goofy Pool
while Elizabeth and Dan swam. She said that she did better than
yesterday. I went to the Asian buffet for lunch. It was great. I
was excited to see that I could still use my chopsticks as if I
hadn't stopped using them for so long. Dan and Elizabeth opted for
pizza by the pool since neither of them thought the other would be
any good.
When I got back by the pool, there was some kind of men's leg
contest going on. It was pretty fun to watch. Elizabeth got hot
around 230PM and decided to go to the children's programs. She said
she didn't care if there charactors were due by the pool at three,
she was just too hot. (She is not a summer person. Snow and cold
are more her thing) I am waiting by the pool since I love Pluto and
he is due to be here soon!
I met Pluto, Chip and Dale, and Daisy Duck. Too bad Elizabeth was
not here but I did get their autographs for her. I hope the
pictures turn out and that she gets to meet some of them later.
Our dinner was at Animators Palate tonight. Elizabeth ate with the
kids again. The walls change color and it is cool to watch.
Elizabeth would have liked it, had she had dinner with us. The
waiter was pushing excellent again and we are all getting tired of
it. The assistant did another great job and made sure that we were
having a nice time and how our days went. He even asked us if we
had cruised on Disney before. We were the only ones at the table
who had not. Our main server just seems concerned out the food and
service being excellent...or at least our saying it is. He doesn't
talk to us about much of anything else yet.
We went to a show after dinner called "Rhythm Extreme." Elizabeth
came with us to that. She loves music and we thought she would like
it. She did.
October 5, 2004 Antigua
We got up early and looked out the window to see us pulling into
Antigua. I loved watching the process. We took some pictures. I
pulled Elizabeth out of bed to see but I guess she didn't appreciate
that and says that that was the bad experience of the trip! I
wouldn't have liked it if someone pulled me out of bed like that
either!!
We had an excursion in the afternoon so we shopped some in the
morning. There was not too much to see close to the port. We
wandered into some other areas but there wasn't too much there
either. You could definately see where they improved to make it
more appealing to cruise travelers. We don't like to shop a lot,
especially not for jewelry so we didn't find much. We did buy
Elizabeth a little drum so she could act out some of the Rhythm
Extreme show. I had to tell her that if it drove me crazy, it would
be put away!!
Our excursion was the 4X4 Jeep Safari tour. It was pretty fun. We
were not in actual jeeps but similar off road types. The driver
tried to make it more entertaining to the kids by purposely hitting
extra bumps. We were in a jeep with us three and a dad and two
young boys. Everyone got along great so it made for more fun. The
view from the remains of Fort George was beautiful. They gave us
some cookies and pop, water, or beer at that point. We then drove
some more places and had another break for bathrooms and fruit.
There was pinapple, coconuts, and watermelon. We went to a beach
after that on the tour and had about one hour to swim. The beach
was very sandy and the water was great. We brought a lot of sand
back to the ship with us. Everyone liked the tour but agreed that
it was one to do once.
Elizabeth ate dinner with us this night. We ate at Parrot Cay. It
was pirate night. We all wore Carribean clothes or something
similar. We all wore red pirate bandanas at dinner. We had a lot
of fun. One of the families at our table was not there. (They had
gone to Palo that night and the girl with the kids program. We did
not try Palo but were told that it was great.) "Remember to put
excellent down. " we were once again told. The assistant, Libor,
remembered to keep the sodas flowing and talked more with us all
again.
After dinner, we went to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We also
shopped for souvenirs on board. There were not many shops on board
to chose from. I am not sure if this means less variety than the
other ships or not. [The other two cruise lines had many more shops
but most had the duty free goods--liquor and cigarettes, This one
had these things available but only in limited areas. Not
everywhere where the kids would be].
The Pirate Deck party was tonight. We went and had a great time
watching people. Elizabeth and a friend danced a lot and had their
pictures taken many times. We went to bed way too late considering
that we have to be at immigration for St Thomas at 615AM or so. It
was worth staying up for though.
October 6, 2004 St Thomas
We docked in St Thomas this morning. We went through immigration
which did not make Elizabeth happy. Way too early for a night
person. We then had time to go eat a quick breakfast at Topsiders
before we had to meet for our excursion at 740AM. We were on the
Trunk Bay Snorkle and Swim tour. We took a ferry to St John. I sat
outside with Elizabeth and Dan sat inside. The ferry ride took
about 40 minutes. When we got to St John, we got on a truck/bus to
go to Trunk Bay. The water was wonderful. Elizabeth and I swam
while Dan snorkled. Later, he swam with Elizabeth too and then she
met some friends and they fooled around. When we took the ferry
back, we sat on the upper level. It was way too hot to do that and
elizabeth was miserable. Right before we docked again in St Thomas,
it started to rain a bit. Then, it poured. Elizabeth slipped and
fell leaving the ferry but was not hurt. It happended so fast that
those people who were there to avoid that, could not get her in
time. It rained a lot that afternoon. It did not ruin anything for
us but it would have been bad if our excursion would have been in
the afternoon instead of the morning.
We went to lunch and then Elizabeth went to the kids program. We
decided to brave the rain and go back on shore to see if there was
anything interesting in the shops at the dock. We did not have
enough time to make it worth going into town to see what it was
like. (I will probably do that on another trip) We found a few
things to buy but since we don't do the jewelry thing, there were
less options.
We got back on the ship around 4PM. People were supposed to be on
by 430PM. We watched people which was very interesting at that
time. We saw some runners when the horn sounded. There were also
many people around who were heading to the Royal Caribbean ship that
was docked. They must have been leaving shortly after us. I can't
believe how many people just strolled leisurely knowing that they
were supposed to be back on board. One guy even stopped to pick up
paper and go back and throw it away before coming on board. This
would have been good except, the fork lift was already starting to
lift up the gangway. I would never have turned around to throw
something away at that point. For all the workers knew, he was
headed to the other ship!! They must not realize that the ship
really will leave with out them!!
We had dinner at Lumiere's. Elizabeth stayed with the kids again.
After dinner, we went to the show, "Hercules, the muse...ical".
This was not something we enjoyed (Dan and I) so we left before it
was over. We went to the Rockin D bar and attended the 80's party
instead. They had a cool set up for that and we stayed until after
it was over. Elizabeth paged us around 1230 AM. She just got too
tired after such a long day and was asleep within five minutes. We
did not stay up much longer either! The charactor breakfast is in
the morning.
October 7, 2004 Day at Sea
The charactor breakfast was today. It came way too early for all of
us at the table. The one bothered most was Elizabeth. She would
not smile or eat or anything throughout the breakfast. She started
to smile at the end of breakfast when Minnie was with her but that
was it. LeeRoy tried a little to make her smile but I told him to
leave her be. If the charactors could not make her smile, there was
no way he was going to! Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto came to
the table. Chip and Dale did a dance for us but did not go around
to each table. I think that the Charactor Breakfast should be
changed to a charactor brunch. There are just too many activities
for the kids to go to bed early enough to truly enjoy breakfast with
the charactors.
We went to the pool after breakfast. We probably should have got
her back to bed but she was a bit too awake for that by then.
Elizabeth sat in a deck chair by the Goofy Pool while she caught up
some of her journal. When she got tired of writing, we went into
the hot tub. The girls from the table showed up so I left them to
play a bit while I watched from a distance. (so to speak) They went
into the pool for a while after that with me helping out. We stayed
at the pool for a long time. For lunch, Dan and I just stayed in
the chairs and got pizza and hamburgers. Elizabeth went with the
girls and a mom to eat lunch in the buffet.
Elizabeth came to dinner with us tonight. It was in Animators
Palate. Of course, since Elizabeth was there, the walls did not
change color this time! After dinner we went to the Disney Dreams
show. It was very good. We then took Elizabeth back to the cabin.
She was very tired and went to bed. I went to the adult comedy show
while Dan sat with her. When she was asleep, Dan met me there. The
comedian was very funny. We went/stayed there for 70's night. That
was also very entertaining.
October 8, 2004 Castaway Cay
The cruise is going way too fast and I can't believe it is almost
over. They made an announcement that we are the first group that is
able to go to Castaway Cay after it was hit by two of the hurricanes
that have just been through. There was a lot of damage but they
fixed up a lot so we could go. They did a wonderful job.
We took our time going ashore. Sleep was more important! We ate
breakfast at Topsiders and then went ashore. There were some
pictures being taken by the ships photographers. The weather is
great.
Water: The water is disappointing. It is very crowded which we
expected but there is so much sand kicked up that you can't see into
the water at all. (family beach) There are some things for the
kids to do at the beach or they can go in the kids programs on
shore. The kids program does not take the kids near the water due
to safety issues. Elizabeth stayed with us so she could swim.
After an hour or so, we came across our table mates. One Mom was
going back to the ship so she offered to take the girls with her to
sit by or swim in the ships pools. She said she would also get them
something to eat if they wanted and then they would go back and
watch videos or something. Elizabeth elected to go with her and had
a great time. Lots of swimming room on board since so many people
were on the island.
We went to the adult beach, Serenity Bay. That was much nicer due
to no crowds and much clearer water. We saw a stingray there while
we were swimming. We got back on the ship around 330PM.
Elizabeth went to the kids program for a show they do for "Oceaneer
Club Graduation." We thought the show would be more than it was but
it was cute and she enjoyed it. They gave all the kids shirts and
little graduation hats.
Elizabeth went to dinner with us. Once again, we were prompted to
put excellent on our cards. The assistant went out of his way to
make us happy though. I think he could tell that the speil was
getting very old to us all. He checked to be sure the girls were
having a good time and got them some "special" corn that they
requested. Doing this for the girls, obviously made the main server
upset and he glared at Libor when the girls were cheering him.
We packed stuff after dinner and then went and bought whatever
pictures we decided we wanted. These are too expensive but the same
price as the other ships. We then just wandered about and saw
everything for one last time. We were disappointed to see that 3/4
of the games in the arcade were out of order. This was a money
saver, however!
October 9, 2004 Disembarkation Day
We got up early and brought some
breakfast to the room so we could
finish up some odds and ends. I filled out the comment card but did
not give the server excellent. Maybe he should have gone out of his
way to make it excellent instead of just trying to drill us to put
it down. I did make a comment that the assistant was excellent
though. We left the room at 8AM and got off the ship about
830AM. We were not in a hurry since we were just renting a car and
going to Cocoa Beach and Daytona Beach before our 740PM flight. The
process of leaving was by far the best we have encountered. No
stress or boredom sitting around somewhere other than your room
waiting be be let off.
Disney Cruise Review, rating
summary/comments
Deck Chair availability:
We had a little trouble getting a chair by the Goofy Pool and the Mickey Pool
sometimes. There were always other chairs available a bit farther away-even on
Sea days. In comparison to the other ships where on sea days there were no
chairs anywhere. People tended to save chairs on all the ships but not as much
on Disney. The best ship we saw about freeing up "saved" chairs was Carnival
Imagination.
Rate: 9
Disney Transportation to the ship:
Easy and convenient to get to the ship. Quality was okay. This was a bit pricy
of an option but depending on circumstances may be worth it for you. We would do
it for airport to ship again.
Rate: 8
Disney representatives at the airport:
Not giving off the excellent welcoming that we expected due to the "disney way".
This was disappointing to us.
Rate: 7
Quality/size of room and furnishings:
This was great for us. The bathroom being split is wonderful. The room had
plenty of space for the three of us. In comparison: the Royal Caribbean rooms
were very much smaller but still okay for storage if you did not plan to be in
the room a lot or don't require huge rooms. Carnival's rooms were bigger than
RCI but smaller than Disney.
Rate: 10
Cabin attendant:
This was a bad spot for us. The man never introduced himself to us throughout
the cruise. We saw him only twice. One time was went he was cleaning and we went
back to drop something off. I would have thought he would have said hello or ask
about our day or something at this point but he just looked at us until we left.
The other time we saw him was when he handed us the comment card on the last
night. The room was not cleaned well. There were broken buttons behind the door
for the entire trip and I would not be surprised if they are still there. He
never refilled supplies like shampoo. He did refill toilet paper and kleenex. We
got the other supplies from another cabin attendant who we saw often down the
hall. This other guy was very friendly and helpful. In comparison to the other
ships, the Carnival attendant did not talk much to us but did introduce himself
and did an outstanding job about keeping the room clean and refilled. Both of
the Royal Carribean attendants were excellent in everyway. They introduced
themselves, refilled continually, gave extra chocolate every night when they
realized that we ate them all. These gentlemen made us feel like family and went
over and beyond.
Rate: 2 or 3
Comment about rooms- Both Carnival and RCI had water and pop in the rooms
available if you wanted them. If you took one of the bottles or cans, you were
charged for them but they were there. I wish that Disney would have had this
also for those late nights or early mornings when you did not feel like going
upstairs to get something.
Kids programs;
Nothing bad to say here. I have nothing to compare this to. I did hear another
person saying that the kids programs for the 9/10 age group were better for them
on RCI. Probably this is dependent on the child and who else is there at the
time.
Rate: 10
Ship appearance:
Lots of updating-painting etc... going on at night.
Rate: 8
Most other crew (not mentioned above or below):
Friendly but not extremely welcoming. In comparison, when we left the other
ships we felt like we were leaving family but here, we did not. Not the warm,
fuzzy Disney feel I expected.
Rate: 8
Main server:
LeeRoy. Not impressive. Just cared about the comment card. Way too much talk
about it. Did adequate job of getting food to us but no warmth. In comparison:
Other ships made us feel happy to go to dinner and chat with them. They all
mentioned the comment card at the last night but not continually. Best waiter:
Carnival. Excellent with us and our son who was 13 on that cruise.
Rate: 6
Assistant server:
Libor. Excellent. He seemed a bit shy the first day or two but after that he
warmed up and determined what we liked. He did an awesome job about appearing to
care about our trip in general and our meals. He was giving the "Disney" service
we expected. In comparison to the other ships assistants, Libor was far and
above.
Rate: 10
Photographers:
They were not in your face, a plus. They took good pictures and were very
friendly. A bit of a surprise was that they did not take pictures at the ports
on the dock. This was probably nice to a lot of people but I would have liked to
have them. Sometimes these turn out to be the ones I like best. There should be
some kind of happy medium. In comparison, the other ships took more pictures of
us when we got off and on the ship. This did hold up many lines though so it
made some people unhappy.
Rate: 9
Ports:
Antigua Rate: 7
St Thomas/St John Rate: 10
Castaway Cay Rate: 9
Weather:
Excellent except one afternoon of rain. Rate: 9
Shows:
Overall very good. This is so subjective. All of the ships had good and bad
shows.
Rate:
Disney Dreams 10
Golden Mickeys 10
Farewell show 6
Overall ship/trip rating: 8
Would we go again? Yes, probably, but only with a young child. We would have
liked a little more entertainment choices during the day even if we did not go
to them. The staff was not as great as we would have expected or as great as a
whole as the other ships were. In my opinion, the trips I took on RCI were
better and I would definately travel with them again. Like I said, Disney I
probably would. Same with Carnival. They all have good and bad points.
I hope I did not bore anyone. I would be glad to answer any questions or expand
on anything as needed. Thanks for taking the time to read this! I would be
interested in other peoples opinions in these areas based on their experiences
also.
Aleece
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