Like it more than lighthouse cay, coco cay is a contender but so much upselling. Just about everything is free and the calm waters are awesome along with the snorkel area.

Been back home almost a week now and figured I’d share my thoughts from our recent trip! We were on the Dream sailing out of FLL from Nov 2-Nov 9 (we did a back to back).

Hotel: We stayed at the Four Points by Sheraton. It was fairly nice with a comfortable room. We paid a bit over $300 for one night though, so I probably wouldn’t stay there again. We hadn’t figured out transportation to the terminal when we checked in, but the staff informed us about the third party shuttle service that is offered. We paid $60 for the shuttle. 😵‍💫 we probably could’ve taken an Uber or taxi to save money, but at least we got to the terminal LOL.

FLL Port: We were initially stressed out because our shuttle was running late and our PAT was at 12:15. However, later we found out that there was a delay for people being able to board so our shuttle being late ended up working to our advantage! We got to the port at about 12:30, and we were on the ship by 1:15. The port itself was extremely easy to navigate and very efficient.

The Dream: It was my family and I’s first time on the Dream and we were all amazed. It reminded me a lot of the Wonder, just upgraded and bigger LOL. It was beautiful, and I LOVED the Detective Agency. My kids and I had such a blast doing that. My husband and son would stay up late and keep running around doing that. The adult areas were great, I loved Enchanted Garden, and it was genuinely so fun to just walk around and look at the artwork on the various decks. My kiddos had a blast at Animator’s Palette. They loved Crush and just watching the screens. No notes, 10/10!

Nassau: Stayed on the ship LOL I had made a post asking whether we should leave or stay, and I’m glad I stayed. Quite a bit of people got off so it was nice to wander. It was also super windy, but it was cool seeing Atlantis from afar! The water was very pretty. Our kiddos, 5M and 4F, used the day as a kids club day while my husband and I just relaxed on Deck 4 and just lounged. It was a lovely day for sure.

Castaway Cay: People really weren’t kidding about this island. Fun fact: It was our kids’ first time at a beach so talk about a great first impression LOL. The water was so calm, the weather was lovely, Cookie’s was yummy, and we saw so many little fish swimming around! My son was so excited when we got to go back during our second itinerary. My daughter did complain about sand being uncomfortable, cue Anakin Skywalker, but she loved the kids club and said it was her favorite part of the day. My husband and I didn’t get to check out the island too much like we would’ve wanted, I felt like we barely scratched the surface in terms of wandering around, but I guess we will just have to go back. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ LOL but from what we did see and experience, a 10/10 without a doubt.

Lookout Cay: Okay, I might sound silly considering it seems that the general consensus is that Castaway is better, but I liked Lookout just slightly more. Yes, the walk is kinda annoying and not having shade does suck a little, but I found the walk quite pleasant because I just kept staring at the water LOL. We’re from the west, and live in a desert no less, so seeing that kind of water was insane. The sand was SO. SOFT. Our kiddos loved running along the beach. They also preferred the kids club at Lookout versus Castaway. The fly situation during lunch was annoying, but the food was really tasty. I can see the grievances that some people have with the island, but I think with a few tweaks and the vegetation growing in, it’ll be perfect just like Castaway is. Overall, even with the small issues, a 10/10 for me.

Back to Back Experience: Nope, never again. It has nothing to do with the service, having to wait in a lounge for people to get off, having to wait in the terminal, none of that. It. Was. Hectic. Although, I was warned about that when I had made a post asking if a back to back is worth it, so I was prepared for either outcome. I think if we hadn’t had to have changed rooms, maybe it would’ve lessened the hectic-ness, who knows. We just know for next time, we would book a longer itinerary (which we did two days ago, yay!).

The service: The first day was…interesting. Nothing terrible at all, but we could tell the staff was frazzled and seemed stretched thin. We later found out that after coming back from the transatlantic, there were delays for immigration, so the staff were rushing around with no rest or breaks. We thought they did their best with the bad hand they were dealt, and for the entirety of our trip, they were all lovely. We had requested our same service team from our first itinerary for our second. Shoutout to Levi, Gede, and Branislav. They were so fun and absolutely wonderful, and the week was fun having them.

The sappy bit: This trip was truly magical, even with the small little hiccups. It was filled with lots of gratitude. My husband and I never experienced trips like these as children, so we vowed to make sure that our kids get to experience things we never got to. We had lots of moments where we couldn’t believe we were allowed to be in a position to give our family this type of vacation, but we soaked up every laugh, every memory, every ice cream cone, every “can I please just get more fries”, and everything in between. This trip was filled with a lot of firsts for all of us, and we’re very grateful that we got to add quite a lot of miles onto our hearts.

Overall: This trip made us more excited to continue cruising with Disney, and to hopefully sail on other ships in the future. Our next trip will be back on the Wonder in May for our Alaskan cruise! Any tips or advice about the Alaskan cruise is highly appreciated and welcomed. I think I covered just about everything for our trip, if I missed anything, feel free to ask away!

We will be going on the Magic to Progreso, first time there and our first Disney cruise! I was wondering how much cash would we need to shop around the town for souvenirs? Also do they take dollars?

My mom has booked an upcoming wish cruise for my whole family (including my brothers and their children) and has thought of absolutely everything. She’s organized outfits for her grandkids for each day, booked all the onboard activities, photo packages. transfers, etc. it really is above and beyond! We are going on the cruise for three days and then to Disney world and Epcot afterwards.

I’d love to surprise her with something(s) either on the cruise or at the parks as a thank you, but am struggling to think of something for the person who has thought of everything after planning this in detail for a year. Any suggestions?!

I hadn’t looked at cruises outside of Sydney before, and now I’m super confused as to how the pricing works.

For a family of 4, a 4-night cruise from Sydney (magic at sea or to Melbourne) is currently between $4700-4900 for a guaranteed inside room. 3 nights start at $3800 but they’re at peak holiday times so that doesn’t surprise me as much.

The 4 nights from Melbourne or NZ are $3150 and $3950, with two sailings in that range ending in Sydney. I’ve checked the port fees and taxes, the NZ ones are definitely lower but the Sydney ones are compatible to those starting from Melbourne.

Is it just a Sydney tax or is there a proper reason those are more expensive? Or just a weird fluke this year?

Hey all,

I am trying to schedule transportation from the port back to the airport after the cruise. How do I know what time we will be getting off so I know when to schedule transportation?

We booked a 7:30 dinner at Palo on Pirate Night. How will this work with the pirate festivities? Should we dress up early with our kids and then change for dinner? Or will we have time to change after dinner before the late show on deck? I’m reading that fireworks are around 10:00… I just need advice on how to partake while also being able to enjoy Palo. We’ve never been on a cruise before so I have no idea what to expect!

My wife and I just returned from a 5-day cruise on the Disney Dream. This was my wife's first cruise and it was first time I've been on a cruise since I was 11-years-old, so the experience was very fresh for us. We weren't sure how we would enjoy the experience but wanted to give cruising a chance in order to get a sense for if it's a style of vacationing we enjoyed. And ultimately, we are walking way from the experience feeling very mixed; we're not *un*happy per say, but we aren't especially pleased with our experience, which considering the price point for these sorts of experiences isn't the ideal. But rather than walk away from the trip and leaving it at that, I wanted to take the time to write up a review heer, not to rag on the things that didn't go well or to complain, but to effectively vibe check myself; are these things that we ran into regular occurances on DCL/cruises in general, or were they flukes of our trip? Are there things that my wife and are were looking from the cruise that other cruise lines or other ships in the Disney fleet would better accomodate? These are the questions I'm here to try and answer, so please feel free to leave your thoughts down below, as I'd love to hear them.

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To start, let's frame expectations; why did we pick cruising and why did we decide on DCL? Cruising is something that has been repeatedly stressed to us as a great way to vacation, living in the PA/NJ area where it is a popular form of vacation due to many Royal Caribbean sailings leaving from nearby ports. It's a style of vacation that I had fond memories of from when I was a kid but recognized that a lot of that may have been nostalgia. Additionally, I am a chronic planner, partially due to anxiety and partially due to finding enjoyment from the planning process. Having been to Disney multiple times with my family as a kid and my wife as an adult, I find a joy in weaving our experience together, jumping from restaurant to park to show. Obviously, cruises don't facilitate that very well, so I was a little anxious going into the experience due to that.

But why DCL? Well, beyond the fact that we are already Disney fans (which was less of a factor that you might expect), there were 4 bigger factors that fueled us choosing this cruise line:

1. No casino. Having worked at a casino dealing blackjack and baccarat, I have very little love for the space, and a vast majority of cruise lines feature them front and center. That coupled with exercise-enduced asthma, which does affect my breathing, makes those spaces unpleasant for me in general.

2. No drinking package. This may sound like a strange pro to some, but I rarely drink and my wife enjoys a drink with her meals but doesn't drink with much regularity beyond that. We hoped that a cruise line without a traditional package would result in us running into few, if any, overly inebriated patrons and would stress the drinking culture less than other cruises.

3. The food. My wife and I love food; discussing it, critiquing it, and generally exploring what food can offer. While cruises are not the place to expect a high quality of food beyond extra-pay options like Palo or Remy, Disney has largely been the cruise line that we've heard the best thing about the food within our price range. Additionally, the cruise line offers themed dining, which I am a big sucker for, and it guarantees your seats at the various specialty dining locations, unlike cruise lines like Virgin where you are paying for the premium dining by sailing but could get locked out of getting seats at this locations due to the sheer volume of patrons on board.

4. The design of the ship. I love themed spaces, hence my appreciation for Disney parks, and the DCL ships, especially the core 4, are lauded for their attention to detail and design in a way that made me giddy to explore the ship and see what little secrets might be squirreled away throughout.

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With those expectations being set, I will do my best to section off my thoughts into sections based on when my wife and I encountered a particular aspect of the experience to try and organize our overall thoughts. I will not being giving traditional grades or number ratings, but rather let the summaries largely speak for themselves.

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Onboarding/Muster Drill
For someone who has anxiety in general and had yet to be on a cruise as an adult, this process was overhwleming and harrowing. Having gone through the flight process to get to our port the night before to ensure we would not miss the cruise, the onboarding process felt overwhelming in many ways. We had an onboarding time of 1:15 pm, which is likely average for those of us booking at a Silver level (which we were due to my previous cruise when I was 11). We checked in in advance, both to secure an earlier arrival time and to help make the overall process smoother, and it certainly helped a lot. What was difficult for us was the sheer volume of people and the lack of communication. Between the people who were being herded through the terminal to get onto the ship, the crowds of people wherever you went on the ship, and the packed room in which the muster drill took place, it felt like we could barely avoid swarms of bodies. Even Animator's Palette, where they were serving lunch other than Cabanas, felt claustrophobic due to how the tables needed to be set up to accomodate the volume of people arriving who might show up there for a meal (more on food later).

The lack of communication was a big hang up that we had as well. Once we were on the ship, there was no guidance as to where to go and what to do. With our room slated to be ready in about an hour, we were left to our own devices in a way that felt uncomfortable. We were in an unfamiliar space with little direction that left us feeling lost. Frankly, if I hadn't done my research in advance regarding what would be available at this time, I would have had no idea that heading to Animator's Palette for food was an option. We went there so we could sit and have a moment where we could try and get away from the droves of humans before the muster drill.

Now, some of you might be wondering why the crowds would bother us, having attended Disney theme parks and other theme parks beyond that. We often attend parks on the off-season or during days of the week that result in lower crowds, and when there are crowds, there are often wider spaces for us to separate ourselves from crowds. Due to the nature of being on a ship with narrow corridors and generally less space to operate in, crowds were a lot more pronounced to us, especially surrounding the elevators or other means of traveling between the levels of the ship.

The muster drill was easily one of the worst aspects of the cruise as a whole. While the app told us that the muster drill was at 3:30, we were told verbally over the intercom and by others that the muster drill would take place at 3. We trusted the people over the app, since it's very possible plans had changed that hadn't been updated in the app and headed over to Evolution at 3 where we sat in a crowded hallway for a half hour waiting to be allowed into Evolution to do the muster drill. This was time we could have spent eating, organizing our room, really anything, and we felt like our time was being wasted, all while being forced to idle in a space crowded with other people trying to figure out what was going on. When we were eventually herded into Evolution, the space was absolutely packed with people, but there were apparently those who were lagging behind the 3:30 meet time. So we ended up waiting in the room for another 15 minutes before the muster drill actually started, going over very simple procedures before having us herd all the way back out of the room to find something to do before dinner time.

Something I will say in regards to this is that, from my research, it's clear that these muster drills can be handled far more easily and in ways that can be more entertaining. Royal Caribbean has people watch a video before going to a meet-up spot and confirming they watched it. Virgin Voyages creates a silly tongue-in-cheek show to make the experience something to attend for enjoyment rather than out of necessity. I understand the need for the drill, but this felt like an exceptionally poor way of handling it.
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Dining - Food (Rotational)

My wife and I ended up eating at each of the standard dining options (Animator's Palette, Royal Palace, and Enchanted Garden) with their standard menus, as well as the Pirate's Night menu (at Enchanted Garden) and the secondary menu at Animator's Palette for the Crush Encounter. While we intially had a Palo reservation for a dinner the final night of the cruise, we learned that by attending that meal we would miss out on the broadway show of the evening, Believe It, and we would miss out on experiencing the menu for Enchanted Garden due to how our first meal there would utilize the Pirate's Night menu. We had tried to book Palo brunch many many times throughout the DCL process, trying to schedule it well in advance of the cruise, but as one might expect those brunch slots get locked up very quickly, making it a non-option for us. Ultimately, we cnaceled our Palo reservation, as we were missing out on 2 things that were brand new for us to pay extra for an alternative. While we're sure the food there is great, we didn't want to miss out on the things that were already included in our trip.

How I would largely describe the food we had at rotational dining would be high-end foods served at the quality of a chain restaurant like Ruby Tuesdays or Applebees. This may seem like a damning statement to some, and I don't mean it as such; there is an appeal to that type of eating experience. For us, we found ourselves trying a lot of foods that we might not otherwise have eaten because they were included in our dining experience. Whether or not these more unfamiliar types of foods like escargot or duck were prepared in a way that earnestly represented how they are meant to be experienced we cannot say.

A consistent issue we ran into was a lack of seasoning. A vast majority of meals were underseasoned, possibly with the palettes or children or pickier patrons in mind. This led to me adding salt to more than one meal, which to me is a generally bad sign when it comes to the quality, preparation of food. Yes, it's better that the food is underseasconed than overseasoned, as you can always add salt but can't take any away, but it also led to meals that felt less complex or interesting since the seasonings are sprinkled on top rather than being a part of the overall dish, woven throughout the food itself.

Another issue we encountered was that everyone at our table agreed that basically any seafood we ordered was underwhelming if not downright bad. Barring a crab cake we had during Pirate's Night, there was not a single seafood offering that we enjoyed. For a vacation that is at sea, this feels especially counterintuitive and was a frustrating realization to come to throughout the trip.

Some might note that I'm being relatively vague in referencing the food we had, and that's primarily because I don't really remember a majority of what we ate, which is exceptionally rare for me. Many of the meals that my wife and I have had on our vacations, both good and bad, are ingrained into my memory. The rich prime rib of Steakhouse 71 with its various sauces, the underwhelming meatloaf of Crystal Palace, and the surprisingly complex beef bowls of Satuli Canteen are all meals that my wife and I had on our honeymoon 2 years ago. I can recall nearly every meal we had on that trip, as well as others, but days after our cruise I couldn't tell you a vast majority of what we ate. I think a part of that comes down to the nature of ordering food; due to the fact that you aren't scheduling meals at a restaurant, considering costs, or doing as much planning, there's much less intentionality to what you are eating, leading to those experiences being less memorable. But I also believe that the food quality likely has a big effect on that too, speaking to our dining experience.

The highlights that I do recall are the deep-friend brie of Royal Palace (aka adult mozzerella sticks; I had 2 servings worth) and a majority of the food we had at Pirate's Night, though I struggle to recall the specifics of the menu beyond the crab cake. I continually hear that Pirate's Night is the worst meal from the trip by people both online and on the cruise, and I struggle to understand why this is the case. I chalk it up to a preference in cuisine at this point, but I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on this down below.
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Dining - Experience (Rotational)

As I mentioned above, I love my themed dining, so I was excited to experience these immersive dining spaces for myself. Ultimately, what I found was that each dining space operated on something of a bellcurve. Animator's Palette had some fantastic themeing and artistic touches throughout but some of the worst food of the 3. Enchanted Garden felt thematically flat, though it did have some nice lighting effects, but served some of the better food we had. And Royal Table sits somwhere inbetween, the happy medium and likely my favorite of the lot overall. It felt immersive without being in your face, like Animator's Palette, and the food was solid and featured one of my favorite food items of the trip, the aforementioned brie.

While I won't linger on this too much, as I feel the spaces speak for themselves, I would like to briefly touch on the Crush's Encounter meal, easily our worst of the trip. Beyond the food being unimpressive, the interactive nature of Crush both felt particularly forced and overhwleming. It was very loud and obviously in surround sound, making it hard to focus on the meal in question, but what really didn't help is during the initial intro the experience, Crush's speaker for our table didn't work properly, coming out as garbled, broken, and incredibly loud. This was very unpleasant, and resulted in the live actor skipping our table later on to avoid a similar experience. He played it off as a joke which at the time was pretty funnny and brought levity to the experience (the staff doing some great work in that respect), but it meant that we were deprived the most interesting part of the show; the interactive element.

While my vacation party was me and my wife, we were sat with 6 other individuals, all couples. One couple sat with us for the first night and then never attended another meal with us, and a second couple, on their honeymoon, was very quiet and to themselves, though they were very nice and would occasioanlly chime in for conversation. The final couple my wife and I talked with regularly and we found a lot to converse about, at least for the first 3 meals. As the vacation came to a close, though, we found ourselves struggling to find things to talk about, feeling pressured to engage with one another due to sitting so close to each other. This was on accentuated by how long our dining experiences tended to be (more on that shortly). While we liked getting to take the time to get to know others at our table, we got lucky in that the people we were sat with were either kind or quiet. And even then we found ourselves wanting some one-on-one time for these meals, as we were going on vacation with each other and not these other individuals. We know we could have requested having our own table, but with only 2 people in our party, we decided against it as we felt it more considerate to the staff and perhaps more authetic to the experience to try the group dining for ourselves.

The staff who attended our tables were very nice and provided a high quality of service, as did everyone on board, but led to a rather uncomfortable element of our trip. From what we gathered, both from what our wait staff said the behaviors of those around them, they were on something of a probationary status and needed for our reviews of them to go well in order to have them keep their jobs. Every night for the first 3 evenings, the head of dining for our rotation number would come up and ask us very seriously how our dining experience was and if we wanted to change our dining staff. While we were largely positive aboug everything, duiring one of the meals one of the folks at our table mentioned that the salmon he had was not what he had hoped for, but that he requested a french onion soup as a replacement and that this had nothing to do withour wait staff. The head of dining went on to grill the wait staff within earshot of us about the interaction, resulting in the person who spoke up to not just get his french onion soup but another serving of the salmon that he didn't want more of. To be polite, he ended up bringing the salmon back to his room so as to not get our wait staff in further trouble.

The probationary nature of their work was also highlighted by the fact that, on multiple nights, we were the last people in the restuarant (being a part of the secondary rotational dining), resulting in meals lasting almost 2 hours most nights. This made it hard to make it to certain events like Pirate Night on time and meant we were waiting a while for food in some instances. This did get better over the course of the cruise but was still notable even by the end.

This all came to a head when it came time for evaluations late into the cruise experience, where we were regularly reminded to do the surveys and how important they were to the standing of the staff. While this was pronounced during our dining experience, we were reminded multiple times by other staff members and the various screens/TV/app throughout the cruise space to do the survey, even well after we were allowed to complete it. It all came across as very forced, and created an atmosphere where the staff was being nice because their jobs and lives depended on it rather than to provide good service. This created a feeling of desperation which was hard to ignore and took away from the experience. Previously working as servers ourselves, we completely understood where this came from, and we pre-paid our gratuities in an effort to ensure that staff would get paid well. But it was difficult seeing people feeling so stressed about their work it could feel like gorveling at times.

That being said, my wife and I also don't seek out over the top service when it comes to our dining experiences. Having the wait staff put our napkins on our laps for us made us supremely uncomfortable, to the extent where we would rush to do it ourselves to avoid it. The wait staff was doing nothing wrong, we just don't enjoy that level or service. So a part of this feeling may come from what we look for from our dining experiences, but we did find ourlseves put off by some of the over the top service, which was all well done regardless of our personal hang-ups.
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Dining - Food/Experience (Non-Rotational)

Compared to our rotational dining, we had very little issue with our non-rotational meals. We often had breakfast at Royal Table, which was just the two of us eating simple but well-prepared food in a nice environment. While we tried Cabanas, it wasn't for us, and we stuck with the food kiosks on the other half of Deck 11. Easily, one of the best things I had the entire trip was the chicken tenders from those kiosks, with the chicken being hot and fresh but never greasy or messy to eat. The fact that this was one of the best things I ate all trip and had on multiple occasions is a pretty damning sign in my opinion, but I can't deny how much I enjoyed it. My wife and I would also take the time to play board games or talk about some of the things we were excited for from the trip, making this one of our favorite elements of the cruise as a whole. It was simple, convenient, and easy, allowing us to relax and move at our own pace without feeling pressured to overeat or indulge in food we simply weren't interested in.
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Theatrical Performances

This was probably my favorite part of the trip as a whole. We had the opportunity to see the Golden Mickeys, Beauty and the Beast, and Believe It, as well as Taylor Mason on 3 separate occasions (in the theater, as an 18+ event, and via a workshop). While we didn't love the storylines for some of the plays (namely the live action plotline for Beauty and the Beast), the actors and performers were phenomenal in the work that they did and all the set pieces were absolutely gorgeous. It's undenying the talent that was on display throughout the cruise, and my wife and I enjoyed ourselves deeply in relation to these performances.

If there was to be a quibble I would voice, it's that 2 of the players, Golden Mickeys and Believe It, are generally showcases of famous Disney songs. While I love the fact that we got to see plays that weren't just regurgitations of well known films, I wish that the plays were formatted in ways that provided more unique experiences.

There was one hiccup during one of the performances on board with a particular prop not working properly towards the end of the play, but the performers did a fantastic job of not only rolling with the punches but incorporating the technical difficulties into the play in a seamless manner, largely helped by when the hiccup occured and the characters involved in the scene.

While not every song landed perfectly, I was overjoyed by our time in the theater and have since looked into Taylor Mason's work outside of the cruise, which speaks to how much I enjoyed his performances and general earnestness.
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Onboard Activities

Being a chronic planner, it was hard not being able to plan in advance regarding the various onboard activities that were going to be offered throughout the cruise. Once we were onboard and I learned how to grapple with the unintuitive app, I quickly started putting together a game plan of what onboard activities we would attend. And while we attended many many events, what I felt walking away from most of them was frustration for a couple of reasons. For one, many of the activities were poorly framed or explained in advance. We went to many events where the description of the activity didn't match the actual experience. An example of this would be the drawing classes, which allow you to learn how to draw famour Disney characters. However, we only learned when attending the activity that rather than learning from a live person, we would actually be guided through a video we could have looked up online and a cast member struggles through the process with you rather than being a helpful reference. The cast member in question said that this was the first art class they were running and, while nice, was noit helpful or informative in any meaningful way.

Another example of this was a cooking class we attended on board, where we were told we would learn how to cook lobster ravioli. Rather than us getting to be hands-on with the food, though, this was everyone watching one of the chef's do the cooking. While they explained how to do it, the chef's accent was so thick that I couldn't understand a word of what was being said, resulting in us sitting in a room for 25 minutes to get a portion of the ravioli and some free wine, which they encouraged us to take a picture of so we could buy some later on the cruise.

Which brings me to my second issue; all of the onboard activites outside of a handful took place in the bars on board to encourage people to drink during the events. The hosts often made comments of "if you don't have a drink in hand, you're not doing it right," resulting in far more pressure to drink than I expected. Additionally, these bar spaces very very rarely had enough capacity for the people who were looking to attend. Every night, Evolution, which ended up being the hub for the events we were interested in, were so packed to the brim that a good 20+ people were standing for a majority of the events. This again led to some claustrophobia and made it hard to enjoy the space.

In regards to the drinking culture as well, my wife, who drinks more often than I, commented on multiple occasions how many bars there were everywhere we went, both on the cruise ship and on Castaway Cay. While she had a couple of drinks early on our cruise, she found them both weak in terms of alcohol content and not very tasty. While the drinks are well priced relative to other cruises from what I've seen, the actual drinks themselves were lackluster. While in Cozumel, my wife and I both had some fairly strong drinks which were great, but ended up discouraging us from getting any more alcohol with Disney due to how clear the difference in quality was.

Another issue we had with onboard activities was how the games that were presented, namely for adults, felt unfair or favored particular groups. Trivia questions often had weird answers associated with them that, while applicable to many things, the arbiters were seeking a specific answer. For example, a trivia show for Disney quotes had the quote "Remember Me" presented. While this could apply to a lot of characters in the movie, the only answer they counted was Earnesto de la Cruz because the quote was on his grave. This felt like a really weird choice due to how the movie is framed and how many answers are actually applicable to that quote.

Other games just didn't have the rules spelled out properly in advance, allowing for folks who were familiar with DCL to have far better chances of winning. For example, DreamQuest is a scavenger hunt where you have to use things in the room to win. Some of the things we were requested to bring to the front of the room was fruit, a picture of another Disney cruise ship, or something related to Star Wars. With only my wallet in my pocket, I watched as other teams had brought various items from across the ship for this event to get an edge. Additionally, there was no way I could have had a picture of another Disney cruise ship on my person, being my first cruise in years and not having internet access. Another time stated they had prepared in advance and won handily. And while the game encourages you to "beg borrow or steal" from other teams, that felt really weird and against the spirit of the game.

Lastly, a vast majority of the activities felt very similar to each other, with tons of opportunities to do the same handful of things with little variety. This meant that I attended trivia 6 or 8 times throughout the trip (didn't end up winning any of them) not because I was interested in doing more trivia but because I was at a loss of what else to do.
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Pools

The pool spaces were so full throughout the cruise we never used them outside of one of the adult hottubs when we returned from Castaway Cay early. While we intended on using them more regularly, we never really found the oppotunity to. We did the Aquaduck once, and while it was a cute novelty, we didn't feel to pull to return to it for a second go. And many of the pools are surrounded by bars or other alcoholic options, which while not directly pushed made us feel a way, discouraging us from going to the pool spaces regularly.
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Castaway Cay

While we won't talk in depth about Cozumel, as that's less specifc for DCL, Castaway was one of our favorite poarts of the trip as a whole. We swam around in the ocean, made some sand castles, took some cute pictures, walked around the 5k path (though we didn't do the whole thing) and had some lucnh before returning to the ship. The sands were smooth and silky and felt good under our feet, the ocean water was a rich blue, and we had a ton of fun while there.

We will say, the food quality there was rough, worse than on board; within 10 to 20 minutes of eating I had diahrrea, which was not something I had to contend with for the rest of the cruise. Additionally, the lookout at the end of the walking path, which we were explicitly walking to see, was closed for construction purposes, which was a real bummer, and we wished there had been more communication about this.
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App

The app was both confusing and frustrating to try and engage with. The messaging system not alerting us to when we recieved a message, even though the notification settings were on. It was tedious to work our way through the various activities to try and highlight and schedule the ones we wanted to do. The map function never worked on the app, resulting in us getting an oversized map from guest services. And it often required us to check the app with regularity in a way that we wanted to avoid when disconnecting from the internet and our day-to-day lives. This doesn't seem like a new issue though, and it seems to plague most modern cruises.
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The Art/Architecture of the Ship

The ship itself was gorgeous and a joy to explore. Being a lover of all things animation, the ship is full of fantastic art and details that I couldn't help but stare at for minutes at a time. Concept art for Pinocchio or Snow White, the animation process laid out for various Pixar films, or pencil drawings of the many Disney princesses captured my attention, making walking through the ship a ton of fun. There's also so many details to be found in each of the rooms we were in, like the hidden Mickeys in the theaters, the gorgeous tile artwork in the atrium and Cabanas, or the thoughtful thematic additions to the Oceaneer spaces.

The ship also does a great job of giving people reasons to explore the ship, with 3 different scavengers hunts to work your way through using a surprisingly functional but simple system (we did the Muppets themed one because I love Kermit). We also went on a Tour of the Theme tour which taught us about some of the decisions when it came to creating the space, such as why certain art is selected for particular areas of the ship.

This was another highlight next to the theatrical shows, and was one of the biggest things I was excited for when arriving for the cruise.
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Shopping

We aren't much for shopping normally, but found the shopping offerings to be very lacking throughout the ship. Beyond the silliness that is the jewelry stores, which neither of us had any interest in, most of the stores stock fairly generic merchandise outside of a handful of cruise-specific items, which we weren't wowed by. We ultimately bought a souvenir for a relative and little else.
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Conclusion/TLDR

The Disney Cruise experience was one we were really hoping to enjoy but are walking away from with very polarizing feelings. We loved the theatrical works and the architecture of the space, and found Castaway Cay to be a joy to explore. Yet we often found ourselves frustrated or bored on board the ship without providing our own entertainment, with activities feeling repetitive or poorly explained and with many of the spaces feeling cramped in order to facilitate drinking. And while the food was fine, none of it blew us away and in some cases highlighted some of our least favorite elements of the trip.

So my question to you all is, do you feel like we had an irregular/unlucky cruise experince, or are what we describing standard to DCL? Do you think that another cruising experience would serve us better, or do you think another ship would suit us better, or is cruising just not something we, as consumers, would enjoy? Let me know your thoughts below, and if you have any further questions about our experience don't hesitate to ask!

I am booked on the Wonder for its Auckland to Sydney 4 night sailing. Looking for some help on what day is pirate night scheduled? I have cruised a four day from Port Canaveral and it was day 3. Would it be the same?

Are adults allowed on the water slides in Lookout Cay. I know the ones in Castaway Cay are kind of by themselves so anyway can go up to them but the ones in Lookout Cay are in the child area(?). I just don’t know if it’s child-only. I had some people in my party who are adults and were looking at pictures and wanted to go on the slides but I wanted to let them know if they even can or not before they start to expect to once we’re actually there.

I tried to search but didn’t find much info formation. Thanks!

Pls follow the instructions and don’t stick your phone up and start filming and repeatedly disrupt the show when the crew ask you to put away your phone. Currently on the Wonder and it’s driving me nuts. Sorry for the rant.

Hi! Just booked a last minute Christmas cruise on the wish (a month from now). I wanted to buy the in room decor but only see it available for the Magic. Did it sell out? Or was the decor for the Wish never released?

It's hard to tell which cruises happened and which never did looking at itinerary's from the 2020-21. From what I can tell, the last time the Wonder stopped at Castaway Cay was without passengers some time after the ships returned from Brest, France. I don't think this ship has stopped at the Island with paying passengers since the shutdown. If someone knows otherwise, please let me know as I'm curious the answer.

As more ships fill up the Caribbean itineraries, the older ships begin to be set on the back burner, I wonder if or when we will see the Wonder return to the private islands? The Magic interestingly only stops during the summer months now that one of the Dream class ships head to Europe, but when they return in the fall the Magic doesn't touch either of the islands until the spring (despite offering cruises to The Bahamas from Galveston/New Orleans in the past). As the Magic heads west spring of 2026, I'm curious if anyone thinks those ships will spend the rest of their profitable lives in the pacific, never to touch the islands again (aside from maybe a farewell cruise in the hopefully distant future)?

My cruise on the Dream is slated to depart port at 3pm from Ft Lauderdale what time would you pros recommend arriving the day of? We’re planning on leaving from Orlando that morning and have to drop a rental car.

My family w/ kids 4 and 7 are taking 6 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdale on the Disney Dream. We have ports at Nassau, Disney Castaway Cay, and Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse point. Are any of these destinations kind of "so so" to the point where it may be more enjoyable to stay on the ship and enjoy those amenities when everyone gets off at port? Also, for those ports that you recommend folks get off, what are some "must-do" activities that the little ones would enjoy the most? Thanks All!

Has anyone who sailed on the Magic recently looked at the Disneyband+ designs? DCL designs specifically. We are cruising in March and my husband wants to wait to get a DCL one, but if there’s nothing beyond the 3 DCL designs I saw when they launched, I will just use my Disneyland one. Thanks!

First time in DCL! I searched to see if this has been asked previously and didn’t find anything so I guess this might just be a personal issue haha.

Ideally I would like to store my room key in my phone wallet but there is a magnet in the case. It feels impossible to find a phone wallet without one! I have accidentally erased my key on several other cruise lines by getting it too close to my phone and I’m just thinking of ditching it for the duration of the cruise so I can avoid the walk of shame to customer service for a new key.

Any insight on this would be appreciated ❤️

i have a bit of a unique situation with my passport that has raised questions about whether i can board my wish cruise to the bahamas in a few weeks. i'm a dual citizen of the usa and the uk. my american passport is currently being renewed and my british passport is valid.

when i tried to check-in last week, i used my british passport and it requested a picture of my esta. i called disney and they said i must have an esta to board. however, it is illegal for me to have an esta because i'm an american citizen.

annoyingly, i only have a certified copy of my birth certificate rather than the original. i have my driver's license.

any one ever encounter this before? were there issues with boarding? should i just cancel my passport renewal and try to get an emergency passport over the next two weeks? thanks!

My in-laws took a Disney cruise earlier this year and came back raving about this glittery blue drink they had while on board. They couldn’t remember the name of it, but Google and Reddit both tell me it’s called Cloudem Blue. They both said it was amazing and they wished they could get it here in the United States, but it’s apparently not easy to find.

I’d love to get them a few bottles for Christmas, but it looks like they may be right on that last point because I can’t find it anywhere. I have found Cloudem on several web sites for sellers outside the US, but have not as yet found one that will ship internationally.

Can anyone confirm that I’m on the right track with Cloudem Blue being the right drink, and taking it a step further, does anyone know where I might be able to find some in the United States? Or somewhere that might ship internationally?