Loyal HAL cruiser does DCL Dream: a brief review

[matondo]

DD graduated from college last month and as a reward we took her on a cruise! We had taken her on HAL her senior year in high school, 7 nights Eastern Caribbean. She had fun but really wanted to try something else. DH decided that we needed something bigger than a standard verandah room so I began the search with the parameters of budget and cabin size. We settled on a three night Bahamas cruise to include Nassau and Disney’s private island Castaway Cay.

The following is my personal opinion.

The Dream is a new ship and Disney knows how to keep it looking sharp. They were always working on the exterior whenever we docked. As for the inside of the ship it was the Disney magic that you rarely saw anyone cleaning but everything seemed really clean.

The staterooms were very spacious. We had a family verandah room we had an extra-large queen size bed. A full size couch that pulled out width wise so you could easily walk past the bed when it was turned down and a pull down bunk bed that was directly over the couch. We also had lots of cabinet and closet space. There are two bath rooms. One is a sink and toilet and the other is a sink and round tub with shower. There is no way an adult could bath in the round tub. Both bathrooms were really small so it was awkward to change clothes in the bathroom but there was a curtain the pulled across the room so you could have privacy when you changed. The verandah was typical with two chairs and a table.

Dining there were a lot more dining options on the Dream including rotational dining. You had an assigned dining time and you changed dining rooms every night. Your servers traveled with you. There were three different venues and each venue was an experience in and of itself, Animator’s Palate, Enchanted Garden and Royal Palace the décor in each location was amazing but that is Disney for you, attention to detail. As for quality of the food, it was pretty good but not much was great. For breakfast you could eat at the buffet or one of the other restaurants had full service. We were never onboard for lunch so I have no idea how that worked.

There is an adult’s only swimming pool and adult area which made it nice when you felt the need to get away from all of the little ones. They also had several bars as well for the adults.

The entertainment was high quality Disney all the way. The evening shows had a story line, costuming was amazing and they probably had a cast of 30 or more along with animation on large screens. There was a movie theatre that probably held 300 people where they showed first run Disney movies. We saw Iron Man 3 in 3D a little over a week after it came out. They had most of the Disney movie’s available on demand in your room as well. All of this was included in the price of the cruise. They did NOT have free popcorn. There were Disney character meet and greets and Disney characters wandering the ship who would stop for a photo and interact with you. While we were on Castaway Cay, their private island, we were at Serenity Bay the adult only beach and Captain Jack Sparrow paid us a visit!

One night was pirate night. We had bandanas in our room that we could wear to “dress up”. Quite a few people were dressed for the occasion. There was a pirate show on the top deck that ended with fireworks! Fireworks at sea was incredible!

In conclusion, Disney offers a cruise with high speed entertainment and something going on all the time. The crew was very international and the goal was we are here to help you have a great time. There are children almost everywhere and a lot of parents who had no idea when they needed to take their kids to bed so we heard a lot of crying overstimulated children. In contrast, HAL is for our family a much more relaxing cruise experience with a mainly Indonesian and Phillipino crew whose goal is to serve you.

I love both but I am looking forward to going back to HAL! Will I ever take another Disney cruise? Probably not with DH as he was a real trooper about everything but he did not feel it was relaxing. I’m unsure how much of it was due to the length of the cruise with no sea days.

[sail7seas]

Thanks for your comments. Really appreciate your posting them here as we rarely here from a Disney cruiser.

 

Sounds like you had a good time and found things to enjoy.

Welcome back. :)

[HamOp]

Thanks for your review, but could you please leave a space between paragraphs next time? It's very hard to read this way.

[matondo]

Thanks for your comments. Really appreciate your posting them here as we rarely here from a Disney cruiser.

 

Sounds like you had a good time and found things to enjoy.

Welcome back. :)

 

Thank you!

[matondo]

Thanks for your review, but could you please leave a space between paragraphs next time? It's very hard to read this way.

 

I typed this up in a Word doc and then cut and pasted. I never thought about making sure it copied over in the same format. Sorry about that:o

[canadianbear]

Really enjoyed reading your review-sounds like a lot of fun. The entertainment sounds much better than what we have seen on Hal (not that we have cruised much).

 

How did your DD enjoy it?

[CoronaCRZR]

Thanks for your review appreciate it.

But I am with the previous poster, it was VERY hard to read without the spaces.

[cruz chic]

Thx for your review. It doesn't sound like my cup of tea but I enjoyed the comparison.

[andeesue]

So appreciated your trip report. Only have sailed on HAL, so it was interesting to hear from you with experience on both Disney and HAL. I can see how children would be thrilled, as well as the adults who have grown up loving all things Disney. I think I'll stick to low-key HAL.

[Friend100]

We like both DCL and HAL.

[Friend100]

Although I didn't have the opportunity to do yet, but I would think the experience on a 3-day Bahamas cruise on the Disney Dream and a 15-day Panama Canal cruise on the Disney Wonder will be very different. Personally, I enjoy the attention to details, sense of tradition and the elegant feeling on a Disney ship.

[madera1]

Thanks for sharing your review.

[doublebzz]

Sounds like the Disney cruise is a lot of fun but I'm allergic to children.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your review and welcome back.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review and making the comparisons between the 2 cruise lines.

Glad you had a nice cruise.

Those bathrooms don't sound too good to me.

[lvz2cruz]

Thank you for your review.

We love Disney but have never really considered cruising them. We were docked next to their ship with Huey, Dewey and Louie hanging over the side in Nassau and WOW it was really loud.

I have met people in the resorts who were going on their umpteenth Disney cruise and they definitely have a loyal following.

It sounds like their entertainment is superb which is no surprise. The mouse does not cut corners.

[KitKatK]

I'm a loyal HAL/Cunard cruiser, but I took a 3-day NYC cruise-to-nowhere on the Disney Magic last June to try DCL. I love Disney, but would probably never take another cruise with them again. I enjoyed seeing the kids' reactions to all-things Disney and thought the ship was lovely, but felt it was WAY too crowded and chaotic. And the food was completely subpar - probably my biggest disappointment. I did love the split family bathrooms though. We were 3 ladies in the cabin and that made it much easier to get ready in the morning and before dinner. And I absolutely loved the shows.

 

Overall, we had a good time and I'm glad I tried DCL, but I'm looking forward to my next relaxing HAL and Cunard cruises in the near future!

 

KK

[AlexandNessa]

We love DCL, but a 3-night DCL cruise is its own animal. Given a choice, we would not do one again. We did a transatlantic on DCL, and I daresay it was just as sedate and relaxing as HAL. It was a 14-night in September, and had very few children. On any of your shorter cruises, you'll find a bit of a Romper Room on Steroids ambience, but the longer cruise are not like that.

 

We do enjoy the rotational dining on Disney, and have not found any dining room cut backs like we have on HAL, where it can take forever to get a drink at dinner.

[KitKatK]

We love DCL, but a 3-night DCL cruise is its own animal. Given a choice, we would not do one again. We did a transatlantic on DCL, and I daresay it was just as sedate and relaxing as HAL. It was a 14-night in September, and had very few children. On any of your shorter cruises, you'll find a bit of a Romper Room on Steroids ambience, but the longer cruise are not like that.

 

We do enjoy the rotational dining on Disney, and have not found any dining room cut backs like we have on HAL, where it can take forever to get a drink at dinner.

 

The number of children on our 3-day cruise was not the issue for me. It was the number of passengers on the ship in relation to the size of the ship. This will be the same no matter which cruise one would take on a ship, as all cruise lines attempt to sell out their cabins on each cruise. I guess I should have specifically said I prefer the passenger-to-ship-size ratio on HAL's mid-sized and Cunard ships.

 

And a 3-day vs. a longer cruise should definitely be no excuse for bad food...

 

KK

[AlexandNessa]

The number of children on our 3-day cruise was not the issue for me. It was the number of passengers on the ship in relation to the size of the ship. This will be the same no matter which cruise one would take on a ship, as all cruise lines attempt to sell out their cabins on each cruise. I guess I should have specifically said I prefer the passenger-to-ship-size ratio on HAL's mid-sized and Cunard ships.

 

And a 3-day vs. a longer cruise should definitely be no excuse for bad food...

 

KK

 

We can agree to disagree. We have been on the Magic and Wonder many times, and never felt them to be any more crowded than HAL's Vistas. We've never been hungry on a Disney cruise, and food is so subjective anyway. I'm sorry you did not find anything to enjoy.

[Friend100]

I'm a loyal HAL/Cunard cruiser, but I took a 3-day NYC cruise-to-nowhere on the Disney Magic last June to try DCL. I love Disney, but would probably never take another cruise with them again. I enjoyed seeing the kids' reactions to all-things Disney and thought the ship was lovely, but felt it was WAY too crowded and chaotic. And the food was completely subpar - probably my biggest disappointment. I did love the split family bathrooms though. We were 3 ladies in the cabin and that made it much easier to get ready in the morning and before dinner. And I absolutely loved the shows.

 

Overall, we had a good time and I'm glad I tried DCL, but I'm looking forward to my next relaxing HAL and Cunard cruises in the near future!

 

KK

 

I am not trying to convince you to re-consider Disney again, nor question your experience. For a 2-night cruise-to-nowhere sailing, on the older/smaller Disney Magic, out of New York (which Disney was testing the market last summer but now it doesn't look like they have plan to return .... yet), I certainly won't be surprised with the amount of ... traffic ... or chaos as you refer to :)

 

Personally I had done Disney Wonder and Disney Dream - both 4 nights Bahamas cruise, and I felt that the extra 1 day (as compared to a 3-night cruise) could make a big difference: a sea day is a sea day to really relax ... as long as you avoid the pool deck :o I also felt that Disney Dream is more spacious than Disney Wonder, but once again, avoid the pool deck.

 

I also felt food on Dream was much better than Wonder; I felt they were comparable to the food I had on the Nieuw Amsterdam - both at the Cabanas (their Lido restaurant) and MDR.

 

As for shows ... well, when people talk about "Disney" most people won't think of it as a cruiseline first, right?

[c-cruise]

Thanks, I enjoyed reading your review. We were on the Fantasy a month or so ago and really enjoyed it. Definitely a different animal than HAL, but it was kind of exactly what we were looking for this time around. Disney definitely has a different way of doing things, but the things they do well, they do very well.

 

Fantasy was by far the largest ship we have sailed on, but to me it didn't feel any more crowded than the larger HAL ships. Busy at the usual times and places you would expect, pool deck on sea days, buffet at lunch, etc. Generally though, there is so much going on that the crowd seemed pretty well dispersed.

 

Not sure I would choose to cruise with Disney if it was just the DW and myself (ok, pretty sure I wouldn't), but with our two young kids it was a great family environment and experience.

[DeepWaterMariner]

We cruised the Disney Magic last fall for a week because it was sailing from nearby Galveston and we wanted to see what it was like compared to our many cruises on other lines. There was a lot to like on Disney. Loved their movie theater which was the equal of anything ashore plus first run movies. The live shows were terrific, far better than the usual cruise ship productions. Lots of kids, but when Disney says adults only at a venue they really enforce it. We weren't very impressed with the food but we didn't go hungary.

[tamsocal]

We love DCL, but a 3-night DCL cruise is its own animal. Given a choice, we would not do one again. We did a transatlantic on DCL, and I daresay it was just as sedate and relaxing as HAL. It was a 14-night in September, and had very few children. On any of your shorter cruises, you'll find a bit of a Romper Room on Steroids ambience, but the longer cruise are not like that.

 

We do enjoy the rotational dining on Disney, and have not found any dining room cut backs like we have on HAL, where it can take forever to get a drink at dinner.

 

US TOO!!

DCL Transatlantic 14 n cruise to Barelona in May a few years ago was one of our top 5 cruises. Minimal kids- mostly all adult couples with no children. Fantastic entertainment. Adult areas were kept as that & enforced politely but well.

 

we have only cruised DCL for 2 14nights and a 7 night-- we loved the 14 nights!! We have kids but enjoy the longer cruises- We thought the food was good minus the terrible pancakes at breakfast-- taste like they were cooked the day before-- I like fresh hot pancakes-- so I just stopped ordering them- not really possible -- can't recall now if any of the lines serve them fresh or they all serve out of a warming drawer.

 

I am not a fan of short cruises on any line :)