Never again!

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 4

Review summary

Before I start my review, I want to mention that this cruise was my 15th and my first, and last, with Disney Cruse Line. We went to sail on the Disney Dream departing from Fort Lauderdale on Dec 9 2023. We were a party of 5, 3 adults and 2 kids of 6-7 years old. Since we didn't do the online check-in, we we able to get on the ship only at around 4PM. Guess without the online check-in had to wait in line up until 3PM to be able to get assistance to complete the check-in. I'm fine with that, but when you have 2 kids woken up since 7AM, in a town you don't know, it is not a walk in the park to keep your cool... All the other cruise companies I tried, Royal Caribbean (10 times approx.), Celebrity and Norwegian we we're able to be on the ship the latest at 11AM, which makes way more sense to me. We we're automatically scheduled for the 8:15PM dinner. Again, 2 kids of 6-7 years old with us, when do you expect they would be sleeping? Probably around that time... I complained to guest service, the restaurant assistant manager, the restaurant manager, my room steward and also the manager of a boutique I bought some sandals for my son. Nobody could/would do anything to accommodate us. The 2 kids and their age we're known from the moment we booked the cruise 6 months ago, it's a complete non-sense to me that there is no automatic priority for the early dining option at 5:45PM for all the cabins with kids under 10 years old. That was the biggest disappointment. We went to the 8:15PM dinner once, on the last day and the food and service was ok, nothing impressive. I still looked at the menu of the dining everyday of the cruise and I was surprised to see the menu doesn't rotate or have special daily meals on it. All the other cruise companies I cruised with always had at less 2-3 different options from day to day apart from the fixed "most popular" items on it. The only dining option we had was hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken tenders and grilled chicken for the whole week because the only opened restaurant apart from the main dining rooms is a burger joint... 4000$ for 5 days for burgers and fries for dinner! The buffet, which had the best food quality and taste I had on any ship I went yet (congrats for that Disney!) was closed for dinner... Why? People stuck on the bad dining time like us would have enjoyed more food variety... The characters are available several times throughout the cruise but make sure to come early in line not to invest 30 minutes to 1 hour of your day for just a couple of pictures. Not many characters we're available, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Chip & Dale, some Disney princesses but weirdly nothing from Marvel. The fireworks we're nice but to keep your kid woken up until 10:30-45 PM to watch a 2 minutes show is not the best way to accommodate the young passengers. I don't recommend this cruise line unless you have Disney's blood that circulates in your veins or if you are ready to reserve everything in advance and invest time to see the characters you like. Never again for me and I don't recommend at all.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

George Town, Grand Cayman

Castaway Cay (Disney Private Island)

Disembarkation