chemistrynerd

If you haven't been on a Disney ship with kids, then you may not realize all the fun things there are to do on the ship for free and without a schedule. The kids clubs are great. Characters appear throughout the day. (Yes, there can be lines, but they move quickly.) The pool area with on-deck movies is excellent (can also get crowded at peak times). There's whatever food you want with an open fountain drinks bar and virtually all-day ice cream.

My family has been on four Disney cruises - all shorter 3-, 4-, and 5-night trips. We've never even left the boat except for Castaway Cay (which I give a thumbs down) and a walk into Cozumel to buy some vanilla. We've also never been to the shows. Regardless, we have a blast, and we are eagerly looking forward to our next cruise in December.

My advice (unasked for) is to get on the ship and just enjoy the moment with your grandchild. You will have a wonderful time. Your granddaughter will have some great memories.

For those who wish to do laundry on their own, is there a cost for detergent and machine use? How many washers/dryers or laundry facilities are there? Are they open 24 hours? Thanks!

Detergent is for sale. I can't remember the price, but it's pretty reasonable ($1 or $2 per load). Just swipe your card. Even though detergent on board is not too expensive, we'll throw a few Tide pods in a bag before we go on our trip. There is laundry on most decks of the ships. I can't remember if they shut down at certain hours. From what I recall, the doors always seemed open (but we aren't up and about very late).

The age range of 3 to 12 does seem huge, but the Lab and Club do work remarkably well. Little kids tend to hang out more in the Club in the physical play/hide-and-seek type rooms. Bigger kids gravitate more to the Lab with more sophisticated computer games and art projects. Regardless older kids do go to the Club - my 8-yo daughter prefers some of the computer games in the Club. Younger kids do go to the Lab - my 4-yo likes the tracing table in the Lab. I did not see examples of 3-yo kids getting run over by a 10-yo. It probably happens, but it's rare. The staff does a good job.

Would the murphy bed be comfortable for an adult?

 

And, can you get the balcony with the bed down?

My family's last cruise on the Dream in August was in a family veranda room. The murphy bed is a decent bed, better than the sofa bed. You can get to the balcony with the murphy bed down, but it is a tight squeeze.

Last month my family and I were on the Dream. One afternoon the movie on the pool deck big screen was an episode of Star Wars Rebels. My wife and I were on the fence about what we would do next with the kids (4, 6, and 8). When Rebels came on, we were no longer on the fence with regard to our 4- and 6-yo. We made our way off the pool deck.

Star Wars Rebels is rated TV-Y7, but to me it feels much more violent and darker than TV-Y7. The show also seems to contrast with the typical daylight pool movie fare of Cinderella or The Jungle Book. The ships do show PG movies at the pools. I saw Frozen at 11:00 pm on the same cruise.

So, I'm on record for not being a fan of Star Wars Rebels for my younger kids. Now this announcement (not exactly recent news) is made about the renovation of the kids area of the Dream. The space will partially be made to look like the Millennium Falcon (no problem) and feature viewings of Star Wars Rebels (oh boy) and light saber training (not great).

This space serves kids from 3- to 12-yo - a broad audience by any measure. The improvements seem great for older kids but questionable for the younger set. Was Disney having trouble engaging the 10-yo crowd? Does anyone know what existing activities will be lost to gain Star Wars? Is this a bad move for the little kids? Do I just need to get over it? Disney paid a lot of money for Star Wars, so it's not going away any time soon.

But now we are all getting good sleep so nap time is my chance to slip off to the spa!

Exactly!! So it's daddy (me) in the cabin supervising nap time while mommy (my wife) enjoys some well-earned luxury in the spa. So, I'm the one who is sensitive to the features of the entertainment system. My wife agrees, but I wouldn't say that she truly cares one way or the other.

My preferences... Port Canaveral over Miami, and the Fantasy over the Magic. Like everything, it depends on your situation.

My family has been on one cruise out of Miami (5-night on the Wonder). During the cruise, some of the poolside movies (Funnelvision) were in Spanish. I have nothing against other languages, but the fact is I do not speak or understand Spanish. My kids are also at an age when they spend a lot of time at the pool and need to be supervised. I really like the pool movies, so it's a downer for me to not understand them. That's a little thing, but it is one of the disappointments that come to mind on that cruise. None of our PC departures have had non-English movies, so I'm guessing it's a Miami vs. PC thing.

My family has been on a total of 4 Disney cruises. One was on the Wonder (out of Miami) and the other three were on the Dream (out of PC). The Dream and Fantasy have on-demand video in the cabins. The Wonder doesn't (as of Jan 2015), and I don't think the Magic does either. Because our kids are younger, naps (or at least quiet time) are part of our routine on busy vacation days. That keeps us in the cabin a bit more than some people, so having control of the video is a bonus. It was a bigger deal for me than my kids, who don't mind watching something from the start, middle, or end.

So, if my kids weren't at ages when we spend tons of time in the pool or resting in the cabin, it would not matter much to me. But, right now, my preference would be PC over Miami and the Fantasy (which I've never been on) over the Magic (which I've also never been on).

A previous poster mentioned the size of the ship. I've only been on the Dream and Wonder, and I preferred the Dream. My wife and I found that the bigger ship (Dream) was set up better. For example, Cabana's was much bigger on the Dream and seemed to be able to handle the crowds better that the pool buffet on the Magic. My sense was that the larger ships were version 2.0 of the smaller ships and therefore had lots of improvements. We're going on the Magic next year, so maybe my opinion will change about the smaller ships.

My family's first cruise was a 3-nighter. My wife was gungho, but I was on the fence. To get me on-board (literally), we agreed to sample Disney with a 3-night cruise. If we had a great time, we could always come back. As it turns out, we had a blast. We (yes, even I in my reluctance) left the ship wanting more, and we've been back multiple times since.

As for pirate night (the subject of this thread), people like me don't dress up at all. People like our pediatrician dress up so elaborately that other passengers think they are actors on the ship and ask for autographs. All fit in just fine.

Yeah! Do you just get the game cards from the front desk? I'm excited we can do this together.

There is a kiosk (maybe two) for the game on Deck 5 of the Dream. It might be at the lobby end of the corridor for the kid's play spaces. If you wander around the lobby area on the different levels of the atrium, you can't miss it. Before we played the game, it seemed like I saw a kiosk every time I entered the lobby.

On the Fantasy there are 3 completely separate themes to choose from and multiple games within each theme.

Ahh. We've only been on the Dream and Wonder, and we've only played the game on the Dream.

I saw a video of a girl walking around the ship and holding something up to some of the art and unlocking secret clues etc. it looked so cool.

It is indeed very cool. Some of the art around the ship becomes animated when someone stands in front of it. If you hold a game card up, the picture will play a short video clue to a mystery. My 6- and 8-yo kids loved it. It was above my 4-yo's head, but she liked making the artwork come to life.

There are actually two mysteries to pick from. We did the first, had a great time, and later went back to do the second. As it turns out, both mysteries are very similar and have essentially the same animation. The second mystery was kind of a let down for me, but my kids didn't mind at all.

You can get by without spending much on the ship. In my family's first cruise (3-nighter on the Dream), we had a total bill of just under $20. My wife got a glass of wine one night, my kids got a bucket of popcorn in the theater (Frozen), and I had a couple dollars of WiFi costs. We didn't fret about spending or try to be cheap. Most of what we wanted to do was included.

We've been back a few times since. The bill has never again been just $20, but I've yet to be unpleasantly surprised by stateroom charges. There's no need to spend a bunch more to have lots of fun. Once you've paid to board the ship, you truly can be set for a great vacation. (I am leaving out gratuities, but those are known in advance and part of getting on the ship in my eyes.)