Disney Cruise Line

[splashtodd]

Anyone have experience with the DCL? Looking for overall opinions on what to see and do, and what things to avoid. Considering a 7-night western Carribean cruise.

[cinder]

Yes, we went on the cruise. We did the three day parks/four day cruise. Our stops were in Nassau, Freeport, and Castaway Cay. Tell me what ports your cruise will stop in, and give me any specific questions you have, and I will be more than happy to help you out!

[splashtodd]

Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Castaway Cay.

Was the onboard entertainment any good?
How were the meals? Were they glorified character dining experiences?
Did Castaway Cay seem "crowded" with a whole ship load of guests on one small island?
What activities did you do at CC, and what do you recommend?
Did you do the adult only restaurant?
Did you do any of the onboard spa treatments?
Anything you would avoid?

[cinder]

Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Castaway Cay.

Was the onboard entertainment any good?
How were the meals? Were they glorified character dining experiences?
Did Castaway Cay seem "crowded" with a whole ship load of guests on one small island?
What activities did you do at CC, and what do you recommend?
Did you do the adult only restaurant?
Did you do any of the onboard spa treatments?
Anything you would avoid?

We didn't really see any of the onboard entertainment. We attempted to watch one of the shows, but figured running around the ship would be more fun. We spent the majority of our time lounging at the pool, sipping cocktails and exploring the ship. It was more than enough to keep us entertained and happy.

The meals, IMHO, were FABULOUS! I tried escargo for the first time, and anything, and everything you could possibly want to eat is there for you. We never saw any of the characters during our meals, which was nice and pleasant. It is a rather upscale cruise experience, in terms of, you're not inundated with Disney at every turn.

CC did NOT seem crowded, maybe b/c we chose to go to the adult only side of the island. We rented bikes, and spent the time tooling around, and exploring. We sat out on the beach on the adult beach for a while (maybe an hour or two), then biked back to the all ages side. There we played a little volleyball in the water (they have nets set up in the water), then went over to this beautiful bar area, and just sat and stared at the water.

We did do the adult only restaurant (Palo), and all I can say is wow. The food was exquisite, the service as impeccable, and all this for, what, I think it was five dollars per person? A fabulous dining experience, one I would not miss, for sure!!

We did NOT do any of the onboard spa treatments, wish I could help you, there.

Anything I would avoid? Negative. It was the best experience of my life! Anything we could find to do, we did! From karaoke in the bar, to seeing Gone in 60 Seconds and Oh Brother, Where Are Thou in their beautiful theater. We watched some of the Super Bowl in their ESPN restaurant, went to the pools, drank adult beverages, danced with the characters while leaving Florida. It is a marvelous experience, one you won't soon forget. We're looking to going back with the rest of my family, sometime soon!

[loubelou]

Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Castaway Cay.

Was the onboard entertainment any good?
How were the meals? Were they glorified character dining experiences?
Did Castaway Cay seem "crowded" with a whole ship load of guests on one small island?
What activities did you do at CC, and what do you recommend?
Did you do the adult only restaurant?
Did you do any of the onboard spa treatments?
Anything you would avoid?

Well since I am still considered a permanent resident of Grand Cayman I'll toss in info on that.....

If you scuba dive then by all means do a scuba shore excursion especially if they offer the North Wall which is a spectacular dive. The other MUST DO is to go to "stingray city" which is in the middle of the North Sound (it's a place on the water) that is no more than 12 feet deep in most places and about 4 feet deep in the rest and you get to play with the stingrays! They are just like giant puppy dogs and you can feed them and pet them and swim with them.

The turtle farm is interesting but not just to do on it's own unless you have a passion for seeing how turtles are being raised to get them off the endagered species list. Also any shore excursion that offers a snorkeling tour if you don't scuba would be very very good.

The duty free shops are quite good in Cayman in particular is the jewelry and perfume.

The best place for food if you like seafood is The Lobster Pot, try the conch (pronounced konk) chowder, if I were still eating fish I would be in heaven and try any of their fresh fish choices of the day. Avoid the Hard Rock Cafe on this island, it has the worse food of any Hard Rock I have ever been to any where in the world! Ugh.

Avoid the "island" tour packages, you will spend your time on a bus stopping at really bad tourist spots and since the island is completely flat you can see more of it from the decks of the cruise ship than you can on a tour bus!!!!

If you aren't a snorkeler or diver but you want to see what's under the water in Cayman (which is famous for its underwater scenery) then if they offer the Nautilus as a shore excursion that is quite fun or they also offer a submarine dive that goes down about 100 feet aboard the Atlantis and that is spectacular.

That's my two cents

[splashtodd]

Wow, thank you, loubelou! They offer all of the things you discussed, and that will greatly influence our decision on what to do on the island! When I first read about the Stingray City, my thoughts were on the order of "oh god, what an awful tourist trap that must be!" But since you highly recommned it, we'll probably check it out.

[tugger2000]

I just got back 2 weeks ago from the western carribean cruise.

Was the onboard entertainment any good? Yes, it was very good. There are 2 "variety show" type nights with comedians and magicians (Note: don't miss Dan Riely!), a game show "Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer" where they pick people from the audience to do disney trivia and you could win another 7-day cruise!, and 3 productions- Hercules: A Muse-ical (very funny show), Morty the Maginificent (was ok, and theyre going to replace it), and Disney Dreams (DO NOT MISS, very excellent show, was asked to be put on Broadway-but declined because DCL wanted to keep it on-board only). The other night there was no show because of the Deck Party.
How were the meals? Very good as well, theres 3 dinner restaurants with specific menus (Parrot Cay, Lumieres, and Animators Pallate) and then they have theme menu nights, such as "MAster Chef", "Mexicalifragilisitc", and "It's a Small World".
Room service is avalible 24 hours i believe, and the fast food restaurants up on the pool deck are good for a quick bite.
Were they glorified character dining experiences? The only one for the whole family that i saw was a character breakfast. Characters are normally in the atrium/lobby or pool deck.
Did Castaway Cay seem "crowded" with a whole ship load of guests on one small island? Not really, I think cinder answered this.
What activities did you do at CC, and what do you recommend? I went snokeling(which was good considering they are letting coral grow, instead of the man-made stuff), and just layed around in a hammock all day.
Did you do the adult only restaurant? Nope.
Did you do any of the onboard spa treatments? No again
Anything you would avoid? I wouldn't avoid anything.

Key West- went on the Trolley excursion, which took us on a 2 hour tour around the place, it was very interesting.
Grand Cayman- took the Stingray City Observatory excursion-which was a glass bottom boat at sting ray city, turtle farm, and a brief tour.
Cozumel- took the Tulum excursion, which was a very good tour of the Mayan ruins and their history. A beach was right there, so we had time for swimming.
Castaway Cay- wonderful island, they should open a hotel there or something!

As you can see, I can go on for hours on this....it was a great cruise.

[loubelou]

Wow, thank you, loubelou! They offer all of the things you discussed, and that will greatly influence our decision on what to do on the island! When I first read about the Stingray City, my thoughts were on the order of "oh god, what an awful tourist trap that must be!" But since you highly recommned it, we'll probably check it out.

Oh it's a tourist trap but it's in the water, there are no buildings, no stands, no trinket shops, it's just a location in the water and how often do you get a chance to frolick with stingrays who will take food right from your hand! Just beware the stingray hicky!!! They use a suction method of taking in food and they've been known to latch on to a leg or back or arm or chest and there ya go you get a hicky!!!

What time of year are you going, I can let you know what to expect weather wise, oh and if you run across a 5'4" 100 pound blonde haired, green eyed English speaking lass by the name of Charlotte, she belongs to me and hubby LOLOLOL, our daughter lives there full time still! (truth be told she has a cross between an English accent from her dad, a Yank accent from me and a Caribbean accent from growing up there)

[splashtodd]

Going first week of May next year.

[cinder]

Right on! Congratulations!