Irene7

I normally only order room service one night during a cruise and it is usually the last night so I am not bothered by the price hike. The only time I have brought food back to our cabin was on RCCL when my husband did not come down to the dinning room for dinner because of a migraine. The waiter asked where he was and I told him. The waiter said that is was a shame since this is lobster night, so he made a takeout plate for us to take back to the room for him. On NCL I like staying on deck 8 so that if we do get a little hungry at night, we just boggie on over to O'Sheehan's and grab a bite.

This policy is about money and nothing more, NCL thinks cruisers are fools. To those that think this will stop plates in the hallway, yeah right. NCL has no problem with people leaving trays and plates in the hallways as long as you pay their 7.95 room service fee. Wow I wonder why.

I agree with you!

No lifeguards but they do have crew watching over the pool as the gentleman in yellow in this picture is doing. Unfortunately tragedies do happen and my heart breaks for the family.

 

Do you know when this photo was taken?

The important question is: Where are the parents? Leave their duties up to a lifeguard? I do agree that there should be life guards, but the parents must assume some responsibility for their own children.

I have never seen anyone watching out at the pools so the photo of the crew member by the pool must be new. NCL does not have certified lifeguards. As far as I know, only DCL has them at the family and children's pools. I do agree that parents should be the first to watch out for their child's safety and a life is a back up and not the other way around.

So sad and my prayers are with the family.

Not sure if anyone else saw this

 

http://disneycruiselineblog.com/2015/04/palo-and-remy-prices-to-increase-fleetwide-in-late-april/

They are still worth the money.

I can't log on in safari today. Normally it's just fine. It brings me to the website but won't log me in.

That's exactly what is happening to me. Normally not a problem on Chrome, but now I get the site but when I try to log in and click log on, it keeps bringing back to the sign on page again.

Chrome is what I am using, but can not get on. :confused: I will try Firefox.

Is anyone else having trouble logging on to their site. I tried yesterday and today and my account will not come up. My daughter has her own account and she can not get on either using her own computer.

We love NCL, and I am always baffled by the "NCL has a ton of upcharges" comments. Yes, NCL charges for soda and Disney doesn't. But by that logic, if you aren't a soda drinker, DCL is forcing you to pay for something you aren't going to use. I am travelling in May with my DH, 2 children and my parents. Only my DH and I drink soda out of our group, so I am paying for something 2/3 of my travelling party will not use. I fail to see the savings there, never mind that even if we all purchased the soda package on NCL, it wouldn't even come close to the premium DCL charges for the cruise.

 

NCL has upcharge restaurants - just like DCL does. There are more of them to choose from, but just like DCL, you don't have to eat there if you don't want to. There are LOTS of free options on NCL and based on my reading, they are open longer hours with more variety. NCL also has upcharges for special activities such as golf simulators - just like DCL does. I know there is nothing comparable on other cruise lines, but there is no upcharge for any kids' experiences either - like DCL charges for BBB.

 

As another poster mentioned, I am not saying all this to be a NCL cheerleader, but just to point out the reality of the situation. It seems like many DCL fans are either blind to Disney's upcharges, or for some reason apply a double standard when looking at other cruise lines - warning posters to watch their bottom line because upcharge dining "adds up." Yes - but eating at Palo and Remy adds up, too.

True if you are not a soda drinker then you are not saving money with DCL, however, it is more than just soda. It also includes Minute Maid juices and punch which a lot of children including adults drink. The free drinks on NCL & RCCL are watered down ice tea and lemon aid, so for us we really miss not having the free beverages that Disney offers when we cruise the other two lines.

True the food venues do not stay open long enough on DCL, however, the room service is free around the clock. The other two lines charge a fee between Midnight and 5 or 6am. Disney only has two specialty restaurants, however, my family finds the food in the dining rooms (where the menu's are different in each of the three unlike NCL where the two main complimentary dining rooms serve the same food)to be good and do not need the specialty unless we are just in the mood for them.

Don't get me wrong, I like NCL and RCCL and we also sail them and have always had a good time. We have a cruise booked on the Gem for this May and one on the Escape for 2017. Oasis of the Seas is in between the two. We like the food on NCL but not so much on RCCL. We like the entertainment and activities better on Royal then NCL but NCL has better food and service than Royal - IMO of course.

Lastly as far as up-charges, we have been hit pretty hard by all three lines, so that subject is a closed matter for me anyway. All in all, Disney is our favorite line and we have cruised with them many times, but all three have something special to offer and you can not go wrong with either. Happy Cruising!:)

I'm happy to see the updated info on the smoking areas. We just booked a cruise on Oasis, and it's good to know where a person can smoke.

I have. a question. We are traveling with family and we have 2 rooms on Independence of the Seas. I always had rooms lower in the ship. This time we have 2 inside rooms 9217 & 9219. Has anyone sailed these rooms and can they tell me if the are noisey? Or if you can feel the boat rocking? Thanks in advance for your help.

Best place to get an answer is on the RCCL boards.

Obviously this is a decision that you will have to make. When it is NOT "open house" hours' date=' the older kids are normally in the Lab space while the younger ones are in the Club space. The Club is child sized in terms of chairs, bathrooms, etc. Unfortunately during "open house" the kids who are checked in (secure programming) are all on one side while open house is on the other. Normally you do not "feel" the large number of kids who may be checked into the space as they are spread over a huge area with many sections. It's like at a school--there may be 200 or 1000 kids in the school, but since your kid is in one classroom you care about the number in that room. The areas all have names, but basically your kid may be in the dress up area, computer area, slide area, coloring area, in addition to the specified activities, etc. If your kid is in dress up, you really don't care how many are in the slide area. The staff to kid ratio is exactly the same as required in a US preschool--1:6. Yes, this counts the CMs doing check in and talking with parents, the same way in the school it counts the secretaries and others who may not interact directly with the kids.

 

I would urge you to take her to an open house time in the Club so the family can check it out together. Doing this on the first day would be great if that works in your time frame. From there, you can decide what will work best for your family.

 

If it helps, my daughter still feels that the Club was the best of all the programs she ever did. And that was many years ago!

 

I don't see it as "DCL doesn't know how to run a kid program." I see it as "there is no way to keep every parent on the ship happy as well as satisfying the DCL lawyers. You'd be amazed at how many parents thing their 9 year old should be able to "watch out for" the 4 year old sibling (requiring that the ages be able to intermix) and don't realize that this is essentially requiring the older kid to be a babysitter while they should be on vacation! Or the flames that I got when I said "You wouldn't expect your school to put your kindergarten kid and your third grade kid together, so why would you expect DCL to have the in the same program?" And yes, the lawyer comment is real--there were many new policies instituted after an incident involving an adult who was permitted in the space designated for minors (DCL made an exception to their normal policies). The lawyers got involved and now there are NO exceptions and NO adults other than CMs will ever interact with any child who is signed into the programming. And no, it was not nearly as bad as you are imagining.[/quote']

 

Well said!

I was on the Fantasy docked at Castaway on Friday of this week. We did, in fact, have a young Aisan male found in the water unresponsive. They rushed him back to the ship doing chest compressions. It was very scary! There were several children in our group less than ten feet from where they pulled him from the water. So happy to read this morning that he is doing well. Crew on the island did confirm with us that an older gentleman died on Thursday when found out in the water. Strange that these two incidents happened on consecutive days.

You mentioned your children being 10 feet way. Then did this happen at the family beach? With all the many life guards at the family beach, I'm surprised they did not see him in trouble.

There is a poster on another board reporting that there was another Guest rushed back to the Fantasy today by medical staff from CC.

The report doesn't confirm a fatality though fortunately, just speculation.

So very sad for all involved.

 

ex techie

So sad and my prayer's go out to the families.

Never tried the pull down but both my adult daughters found the sleeper sofa and the murphy bed to be very comfortable.

Sometimes prices do go even higher before a cruise than it was a year out, but that is usually when it is selling well. The trick is to watch the prices everyday after the final payoff date and grab it right away. We were booked for the Gem for this May cruise and I cancelled it in Nov and I am closely watching prices. They have gone down quite a bit already, but I'm sure the day after final payoff it will be even less, at least for a short while anyway. That is when we are going to re-book. As of today, the price is about $1,000., less than what it was when we originally booked.

Congrat's DCL - well deserved. This is the 3rd straight year for the Fantasy.:D

I understand wanting to try different cruise lines. Our heart's belong to DCL but our wallets are always not. Anyway, we really like the Freedom class ships. RCL has very good entertainment and there is a variety of it. Royal does no less nickle and diming than NCL in my opinion. I find the service better on NCL than on RCCL (no one beats Disney IMO). As far as the kids clubs, someone else's opinion on that would be better since our children are young adults. Have never been on the Carnival Breeze but if there were a Carnival ship that I would sail, it would be the Breeze based on her reviews and the look of the ship.

It's very common to see a lot of views and not leaving a comment. You will see that on most threads. I thinks a lot of people like to come here and read but not engage. Anyway, thank you for your review. I enjoyed reading it and am so happy you had such a great time. :)

We were on Explore this past October. 95% of the public areas were in good shape. You will see most of the wear and tear in the cabins. However, when we went on the cruise we knew she was old and expected her to look old and over all ended up being pleasantly surprised. But you will see some stains and rust, but we still had a great time and miss her.

What type of regular coffee is served in Cove Cafe??

Not sure what type, but we all liked it.

I don't feel that you can really compare DCL to other cruise lines. They are an entirely different animal. I have cruised on other cruise lines as well as Disney and I have enjoyed them all. For me the service that we received from disney has not been matched, neither by NCL or RCCL. We feel that the service on disney to be head and shoulders above them in our experience. We love the entertainment but we also really enjoyed the entertainment on RCCL ships as well, it is just a different type of entertainment.

The disney ships are very classy and elegant with the ocean liner feel. Extremely clean. My family really likes the food on disney, however, since food is subjective I don't like to make food comparisons.

We love DCL and they are our favorite, but we are also a disney family. I hope you have a great time. Go not expecting to get blown away, but for a different type of cruise and enjoy. Castaway Cay is awesome!

Would anyone know the perks for booking on board?

You can not book a future cruise on board, just buy credits. Unlike other lines where you not only can book a cruise but get a small discount.

Avoid Oct, way too chilly. August through mid Sept would be my choice.

We were on the same cruise as you and take issue with most of what you said in your review.

 

We had a wonderful time and rate the cruise with top scores.

 

"Boring" is a state of mind of the beholder and I was never bored.

The OP did state that this was his personal opinion, as is yours. I'm glad your experience was a good one, unfortunately his was not.