Disney Cruise Impression (on Disney Dream to Nassau)
/
I'll keep it short b/c I'm a short guy and short on time :) In short, Very Good (but not perfect)
The Ship: Quite large. Fun to explore at night. (as seen here) Well kept, near perfect functionally. Beautifully decorated and maintained. Three pools. Pools 1 and 2 in the family area are about half the size of a normal residential "bean" pool. These things are tiny. They have nice little "wet seats" on the edge and get covered by retractable decking during parties. The ship was way too crowded. I'll post pictures of the pool when I get back from off the road. The elevators were nearly impossible to manage at times with just too many people trying to get from mid-deck activities to higher deck lodging and common areas.
The Service: Very Good (but not perfect) Most, if not all employees were super helpful and one thing can be said about Disney, they aren't afraid to overstaff a situation. I'm a great tipper. Disney Cruise Line loves the "autogratuity" feature. We did boost all tips over the autogratuity amounts b/c they feel things were deserved. The one ding, I'd give service is that they say on a cruise like this, "Don't want what's on the menu? Ask and if its on the boat, they will bring it." I didn't find this to be true. My son wanted a Mickey Waffle at dinner. I give them a solid A- in that they did, after some eye-rolling and asking several times, eventually present him with a eggo waffle, probably from some employee break room, cut roughly into the shape of a Mickey Head. The score goes to ingenuity but they did try rather persistantly to get out of delivering little Miles' request.
The Food: Disappointing. They say cruise food, you'll inevitably gain weight because of all the great choices. I didn't but I'm already a fat dude. :) The whole cruise, I really just wanted a dang lobster tail and a ribeye. Neither was to be had. In fact, all of the evening-dining was a little like watching the food channel. Great presentation (almost), ingredients you can't pronounce, smallish portions. The presentation thing annoys me the most b/c it was half-assed in a way. Here you have this dish that looks way better than it tastes and some chef-guy has drizzled something on it as the last step. "VIOLA! My masterpiece is complete!"... But they'd fail to wipe the plate down so the drizzle of gravy or whatever-the-hell-it-was would be on a little portion of the plate. So, surprisingly all-in-all, I'd rate every single sit down dining event as fail. The service was great. They brought the mediocre food on time and kept it groovy.
On a side note of food: The open buffets were a little better but really, the feature there was seafood. Living on the Gulf Coast, their seafood was pitiful compared to the food we eat every day along the Causeway.
The Destination:
Nassau - A bit of a fail for a family outing, unless you go to Atlantis. Nassau just isn't that clean, family experience you probably have in your head. We did venture out on the streets and didn't have any major problems. The usual pushy (and frankly: desperate) vendors. Ironically, I think the Porters hired on contract (by Disney) at Port Canavaral were pushier than the Nassau locals, who have a reputation for being borderline dangerous.
I'd love to return one days without kids, some cash in pocket and try to get into some trouble there with the colorful local characters.
Castaway Cay:
Epic.
"Disney's Private Island" is only as private as any cruise destination can be but there were areas you could escape too and maintain 50 ft or so of privacy/buffer from mean kids and annoying co-cruisers.
Will definitely return here.
All in all, a Very Good trip with a family. ..and.. the adult-only sections of the ship were quite serene.
Will probably do again... in 2-3 years based on the final cost of the thing.