Our very first cruise - just off the Liberty!!

[tissot1]

Great review Kathy - thanks for taking the time to write the review & share your experiences.

 

It is so disheartening to read people's snippy comments. I have seen this on the roll call for my cruise and it is sad. If I wasn't such a 'nosey parker' trying to get inside scoops & tips - I would no longer post & read these blogs.

 

BTW - this will be my 4th cruise, but I don't list them .. sometimes people who you think might be "inexperienced cruisers", just might know a thing or two.

 

happy travels everyone!

[hansolosmom]

-I called right away to book both the first and second character breakfast and was told it was full. When I was told the 2nd one was full I called and complained to a manager who did find us a seat. The dining room was virtually empty. Why advertise it then disappoint kids by only allowing a handful to attend when the room is empty??? And why does it have to be so early?? We had to be there for 7:45 a.m!! My kids were not too happy about that!

.

 

this surprised me - we've done Disney crusies & they work it that everyone is invited to one of the character b-fast's. It's based off your dining time for example if you have early dining your character b-fast is at 8am & if you are late dining it's 10am, not sure how they figure out who does which day. But the whole 8am does stink! The one trip my dh & 1 son didn't go because it was too early for them!

 

Sorry it didn't work out the greatest for you.

[funfamilyof6]

First I would like to say thank you for all the advice I got here while planning our vacation.

 

We did enjoy the cruise but are not converted cruise addicts I'm sorry to say. All four members of our family (my husband and I and our two boys - ages 4 and 7) remarked at one point or the other that they would have rather gone to Orlando.

 

Don't get me wrong - we did enjoy the cruise and is likely we will do another one in 2-3 years but it wasn't the best vacation we ever had.

 

.

 

Kathy sorry to hear that your cruise was not the vacation of a lifetime. We ourselves came to this conclusion when we went on our second cruise (first time with kids)...by the way it was a Disney cruise. The cruise wasn't the problem, it was our kids ages. At that point we decided until our kids were older that we would stick to Disney/Universal etc. over cruises for awhile. Just our opinion, when our first 3 kids were young (3 under 5), we didn't enjoy dropping them off at a club at at young age (under 5). We have never went on a vacation without them and have enjoyed our great vacations with them at Disney and other places. We then had our 4th which delayed our future cruise plans.

 

Our third cruise, (second cruise with kids) was 2 years ago on Disney again which the older ones didn't love, too old for Disney cruise at that point. Our youngest loved it. Our last cruise, a year ago, was the Freedom which they ALL loved. At that time they were 14, 12, 11 and 7. Three out of four were actually able to use all of the extra activities, aka flowrider. Our youngest loved the kids club. Finally, we all found a cruise that we loved.

 

Everybody is different....that's what makes the world go round. Just because you didn't have a outrageous first cruise with your kids doesn't mean it will never happen. I'm sure you have some good memories from this cruise.

 

Thank you for letting us know about the character breakfast issues. My youngest wants to do this on our cruise in August.:)

 

 

Nordicprince your attitude is the reason why I hate posting on CC. Cruisecritic is a place where you can share opinions, not attack them!

[NordicPrince]

I am still in shock over the lengths people will go to defend their favorite cruise line or "home away from home" from these mean posters. We live in America, we are allowed our own opinions. Making an underhanded remark to make it seem the OP is poor so of course her opinion should not count, is pretty low IMO.

 

 

To all the haters -Thanks for jumping on me after MISINTERPRETING my post.

 

To be clearer my post should have read "as if ANYONE could afford it" not "if YOU can afford it". The comment was not directed at the OP, but was intended to make the point that Disney cruises are so ridicuously overpriced for everyone compared to the price of a RCI cruise.

 

There is no way I would pay or could pay for a Disney cruise myself.

 

Just to run around with people in a Mouse outfit it's an outrageous expense.If you stay off-site at Disneyworld it's a lot cheaper and your kids get the Disney experience.

 

So to the OP I apologize if this sentence was mis-interpreted by you or anyone else.

 

To the immediate haters I think you should ask for a clarification if anything bothers you before jumping to an assumed conclusion and assuming an intention to disparage a fellow CC poster.

 

However as far as the rest of my post I stand by it.

[NordicPrince]

 

Nordicprince your attitude is the reason why I hate posting on CC. Cruisecritic is a place where you can share opinions, not attack them!

 

Refer to post 29.

 

If you post you can expect a counter-post. That's what makes a forum.

[NordicPrince]

Sorry NordicPrince- but your closing remark is downright personal and nasty! Noting in the OP post was personally offensive so why do you have to be so...?:confused:

 

Thanks for the love. Refer to post 29.

[NordicPrince]

NORDIC are you serious????

 

Refer to Post 29

[funfamilyof6]

Refer to post 29.

 

If you post you can expect a counter-post. That's what makes a forum.

 

I did not misinterpret anything...you were just plain abnoxious in almost every one of your comments back to Kathy!

[NordicPrince]

I did not misinterpret anything...you were just plain abnoxious in almost every one of your comments back to Kathy!

 

If you're going to make personal accusations at least spell them correctly.

 

You're the one making judgements and stepping over the line here.

 

All I did was break down and counter-post to the observations that were made, some of which did not make a lot of sense to me.

 

If we have to blindly accept the comments that all posters make and cannot make critical comments on a non-personal basis then what's the point of having a discussion on cruise topics?

 

Are we all entitled to one person's opinion?

[Koshlong]

Having survived several trips to DisneyWorld with my kids starting from age 3 up to 18 and being an experienced RCI cruiser I feel

qualified to offfer this input:

 

1. Maybe you should have considered a Disney Cruise. Oh oh that costs 2x as much as RCI...

2. Airplane planning? For most vacations this is a hassle ( unless you can drive to your destination). This is not limited to cruising.

3. Lack of snacky stuff? When does hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, cookies, soft serve ice cream and pizza not qualify as snacky stuff?

Did you expect to eat potato chips? You could have bought that at the convenience store before boarding. However, other posters have had similar complaints.

4. long embarcation? All I know is that the longest lines known to man are at any Disney park and waiting on line with kids there when it's 95 degrees is no fun.

5. Nothing besides pizza or sandwiches as a late night snack? Ever hear of room service?

6. Parents not minding kids? Is that the cruise line's fault?

7. Lots of selling? My goodness every Disney ride puts you out next to a souvenir shop. Heaven forbid your kid doesn't get Mouse ears and a character signature book and the list goes on and on...

8. We'll give you a pass on no souvenirs for regular folk. Used to be different where you could get a RCI tshirt and cap and little trinkets on

board.

9. $10 cocktails? When you go to Disney the only word they know is "twenty dollars". Hamburger, hotdog, french fries soda = $20 x 4 people

for lunch = $80. The drink of the day is the $10 one with the souvenir glass. So buy 1 regular cocktail and a few sodas and you come out way ahead.

10. Service in the WJ? The WJ is a buffet, you snooze you lose. You want service you go to the MDR.

11. Find it hard to believe the Late Night Buffet was not in Compass. And don't worry that you missed anything that was the only one for the week. But when there's food available 24/7 why do people need extra food at Midnight anyway?

12. When my kids were younger and they knew they had a character breakfast at 7:45 A.M. they would be jumping up and down at 6 A.M.

Why would you think 7:45 is too early?

 

As you can tell I'm not feeling the sympathy here.

 

Sounds like you just got the wrong impression about RCI ahead of time.

 

Lots of RCI posters had pointed out that this sort of thing might happen when they started with the characters on the ships.What are they

trying to be? Tthey can't be all things to all people.

 

A Disney park gets repetitive after a while. So next time try a Disney Cruise, sounds more what you're looking for - if you can afford it.

 

 

I'm trying to figure out why this guy calls himself a prince........he sounds like a frog to me!

[Merion_Mom]

Cruising is not for everyone. And Kathy's remarks mirror her experience. I do have one question. What drinks cost $10? I've been on many RCI cruises and have never seen that price. Most mixed drinks are $5.95 and up. I recently had a martini for $9 on Navigator. I don't think I've ever even seen the drink of the day in the souvenir glass listed for $10. But since I always ask for those in a regular glass, maybe I just missed seeing that price.

 

If you order a Cosmo, by the time they add the gratuity, it's either almost $10 or a little over.

[farnamcoach]

Wow Nordic are you sensitive now? I stand by my post are you serious???

[kate23]

Thanks Kathy for your honest assessment of your cruise. I for one enjoy reading all the reviews, good and bad. We all have different expectations of a vacation and every vacation has different factors influencing our experience. :)

[KathyF.]

Cruising is not for everyone. And Kathy's remarks mirror her experience. I do have one question. What drinks cost $10? I've been on many RCI cruises and have never seen that price. Most mixed drinks are $5.95 and up. I recently had a martini for $9 on Navigator. I don't think I've ever even seen the drink of the day in the souvenir glass listed for $10. But since I always ask for those in a regular glass, maybe I just missed seeing that price.

 

 

We're not big drinkers so I never really investigated prices of drinks. And yes I think I did do lots of research ahead of time! My twin sister has cruised RCi 3x so got lots of info here.

 

Researched all our ports, pored over the RCI website and even joined a chat board to ask questions and read up! Not like I went to a TA and just booked something with no research!

 

First day I told my husband to get me something cold, icy and fruity! He came back with something totally delish for both of us. The total was $20. It's on our Seaboard account. So no more cold, icy, fruity drinks for me! I stuck to the freebie Lemonade which was very yummy.

[KathyF.]

This describes us as well. We do A LOT of research before we leave, and by doing so we tend not to miss out on stuff.

 

Before I went on my first cruise I barely did any research on the ship or activities. Heck, I didn't even know what a cruise compass was until I boarded. Even then, there is A LOT of info in the compass and it's very easy to overlook something.

 

As for the character dining being completely booked - I suspect that the more experienced cruisers went to the Guest Relations Desk on the first day to inquire about the character breakfasts and were able to make the booking ahead of time.

 

OP - There is only one late night buffet so you didn't miss any others. I'm surprised this was advertised as a Family Pool Party though? The ships I've been on have always referred to it as Dancing under the Stars or something similar and it tended to be more of an adult thing due to bars that are set up.

 

 

Does make sense about the character breakfast. But if it was full I don't understand why they didn't open up more of the MDR for it.

 

They should mention that there will be food served at the Pool Party on the compass. That is my only complaint about that! I was an amazing buffet and a wonderful dance. If we had realize just what it was we would have made the kids rest in the afternoon so we could stay up later for it. And we would have skipped the room service pizza for bedtime snack so we could have our fill at the buffet!

 

So we didn't miss any others? Just one a cruise? That's great to know for next time.

[Palmetto Pilot]

Refer to post 29.

 

If you post you can expect a counter-post. That's what makes a forum.

That's still no excuse for being a jerk, maybe you sould read the guidelines again.

[wrich427]

Kathy,

 

Thank you for your review. I was looking for a review from last week's cruise. We are going on the 19th for my parent's 50 anniversary and we are taking our 2 boys. ages 2 and 3. I am looking forward to the cruise and your review provided some wonderful feedback.

[KathyF.]

Wow Kathy,

it honestly sounds like you forgot that YOU were on vacation too and you forgot to relax.

 

We did not take our children on a cruise when they were younger most likely due to the kind of experience you had... we ended up doing much simpler beach oriented trips until our youngest was 9. With that said our kids absolutely love the ship but you have to try right away to get them involved in the "kid activities".

 

It is not going to be a fun trip for the parents if you think you're going to care for your kids 24/7 on a cruise. Add to that sharing a room and you have a prescription for stress that may be greater than just staying home.

 

Of course hind sight for you now is 20-20 but NOBODY should think they're going to have fun if they plan only for their kids, take no advantage of the programs for kids, and worry about a $10 drink.

 

Like anything else, people should budget for their week and spend accordingly..... X $ for excursions, X $ for trinkets, X $ for extra food/drinks, X $ for tips.

 

 

My youngest went to kid's club one evening but my oldest wasn't interested. We did register them the first night. They wanted to spend the afternoon in the pools or at the movies not in the kid's club.

 

And we had everything budgeted but thanks for the tips! I knew exactly how much I had budgeted for my excursions, for extra food on board - Johnny Rocket's, ice cream at Ben and Jerry's, a few cans of Diet Coke for me - worked out quite well! Only thing I did not really look into was alcohol prices as we don't drink much at all. I expected drink prices to be high but not quite as much as we were charged. But that's fine. Trust me we make a healthy income - $20 is not breaking the bank! LOL!

 

Sorry Marshall if you're on such a tight income that it does. :rolleyes:

 

As for leaving the kids - sure it would have been nice to have some time without them. And it will be great in a year when the little one is taller and they are both stronger swimmers and I can plop down and read a book rather than supervising them in the pool but that is part of being a parent.

 

I work full time and get 6 weeks of holidays only. I want to spend that 6 weeks interacting with my children not having a break from them!!

 

Really I was hoping that they would get more into the kid's club stuff but I left the option open. In the end we had a TON of fun family time. And it will be awesome when they are older and we can try new excursions and activities that they were too young (and short!!) for this time like the Flowrider!

[cruizer rick]

Kathy - Thanks for your review. Do you have the Daily Compasses you could scan & share with everyone ?

 

Much appreciated, going on the 6 night 3/27.

[KathyF.]

Kathy sorry to hear that your cruise was not the vacation of a lifetime. We ourselves came to this conclusion when we went on our second cruise (first time with kids)...by the way it was a Disney cruise. The cruise wasn't the problem, it was our kids ages. At that point we decided until our kids were older that we would stick to Disney/Universal etc. over cruises for awhile. Just our opinion, when our first 3 kids were young (3 under 5), we didn't enjoy dropping them off at a club at at young age (under 5). We have never went on a vacation without them and have enjoyed our great vacations with them at Disney and other places. We then had our 4th which delayed our future cruise plans.

 

Our third cruise, (second cruise with kids) was 2 years ago on Disney again which the older ones didn't love, too old for Disney cruise at that point. Our youngest loved it. Our last cruise, a year ago, was the Freedom which they ALL loved. At that time they were 14, 12, 11 and 7. Three out of four were actually able to use all of the extra activities, aka flowrider. Our youngest loved the kids club. Finally, we all found a cruise that we loved.

 

Everybody is different....that's what makes the world go round. Just because you didn't have a outrageous first cruise with your kids doesn't mean it will never happen. I'm sure you have some good memories from this cruise.

 

Thank you for letting us know about the character breakfast issues. My youngest wants to do this on our cruise in August.:)

 

 

Nordicprince your attitude is the reason why I hate posting on CC. Cruisecritic is a place where you can share opinions, not attack them!

 

 

I think that is EXACTLY what it was FFO6 - the kid's ages! And you know I took my 2nd child to WDW at age 3 months! Every trip is different as they are at different ages and stages. My husband and I were just excited as this was the first trip we were able to travel stroller free! Each trip gets easier as they get older.

 

We still loved the cruise. The boys LOVED the pools and the movies. We will be back. Just not right away.

 

A cruise is still very enjoyable with young kids!

 

And my fav part was the two times their father took the boys to a movie and I just sat on a quiet deck on the 4th floor with a book and a gorgeous view of the ocean. That was absolutely awesome!

[reallyitsmema]

Thanks for your honest review. Wasn't this the first cruise since the drydock? I am wondering if maybe the issues with the character breakfast was because it was the first they have done on that ship?

 

It is funny how everyone is different though. I tried to get my DH and DS to cruise for years and they weren't interested. Finally got them to try it and they said they wished we had skipped Disney the last few times and cruised instead.:rolleyes:

 

Maybe once the kids are a little older, a cruise might be a better fit.:)

[KathyF.]

To all the haters -Thanks for jumping on me after MISINTERPRETING my post.

 

To be clearer my post should have read "as if ANYONE could afford it" not "if YOU can afford it". The comment was not directed at the OP, but was intended to make the point that Disney cruises are so ridicuously overpriced for everyone compared to the price of a RCI cruise.

 

There is no way I would pay or could pay for a Disney cruise myself.

 

Just to run around with people in a Mouse outfit it's an outrageous expense.If you stay off-site at Disneyworld it's a lot cheaper and your kids get the Disney experience.

 

So to the OP I apologize if this sentence was mis-interpreted by you or anyone else.

 

To the immediate haters I think you should ask for a clarification if anything bothers you before jumping to an assumed conclusion and assuming an intention to disparage a fellow CC poster.

 

However as far as the rest of my post I stand by it.

 

 

1.) It's not always cheaper to stay off site. Absolutely not if there is free dining,

 

2.) I never even priced out a Disney cruise as we were aiming for something different. My sister has cruised RCI and recommended them highly. And my kids love Shrek so it seemed it was the perfect choice for us. And it was. We did enjoy it.

[KathyF.]

Thanks for your honest review. Wasn't this the first cruise since the drydock? I am wondering if maybe the issues with the character breakfast was because it was the first they have done on that ship?

 

It is funny how everyone is different though. I tried to get my DH and DS to cruise for years and they weren't interested. Finally got them to try it and they said they wished we had skipped Disney the last few times and cruised instead.:rolleyes:

 

Maybe once the kids are a little older, a cruise might be a better fit.:)

 

I just helped my coworker plan her first WDW vacation. She came back and said she enjoyed it, glad she went but has no intentions of doing it again.

 

It's a big world out there. Something for everyone!

[lovemylab]

Does make sense about the character breakfast. But if it was full I don't understand why they didn't open up more of the MDR for it.

 

They should mention that there will be food served at the Pool Party on the compass. That is my only complaint about that! I was an amazing buffet and a wonderful dance. If we had realize just what it was we would have made the kids rest in the afternoon so we could stay up later for it. And we would have skipped the room service pizza for bedtime snack so we could have our fill at the buffet!

 

So we didn't miss any others? Just one a cruise? That's great to know for next time.

 

I'm guessing the reason they don't open more of the dining room for character breakfasts is because of the noise it could create and therefore complaints from those who are looking for a quiet meal. Keep in mind yours was the first cruise with the characters so that could change on future sailings.

[funfamilyof6]

I think that is EXACTLY what it was FFO6 - the kid's ages! And you know I took my 2nd child to WDW at age 3 months! Every trip is different as they are at different ages and stages. My husband and I were just excited as this was the first trip we were able to travel stroller free! Each trip gets easier as they get older.

 

We still loved the cruise. The boys LOVED the pools and the movies. We will be back. Just not right away.

 

A cruise is still very enjoyable with young kids!

 

And my fav part was the two times their father took the boys to a movie and I just sat on a quiet deck on the 4th floor with a book and a gorgeous view of the ocean. That was absolutely awesome!

 

We LOVE Disney and some of our best times were made in Disney when the kids were babies. I cherish the memories of the chocolate from the Mickey ear ice cream bars dripping down their mouths while watching the Magic Kingdom parades and fireworks! Time goes too fast!

 

I'm glad you got some "alone" time to enjoy yourself!