Southern Caribbean 2014. . . Let's Start the Planning!

[holula]

I've already encountered the rudest people of all of our cruises thus far. It's only 1:40pm. Yikes Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

We had the same thing on the first cruise. A lot of Spanish speakers and a lot of first timers.

 

[MAJPLO]

I've already encountered the rudest people of all of our cruises thus far. It's only 1:40pm. Yikes

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

YES!!!!! Ours also! I'm sorry to hear you are experiencing this but also glad I wasn't just being overly sensitive.

 

[Rambler5678]

Are they having the character breakfast on the Magic?

 

[poohj80]

Are they having the character breakfast on the Magic?

Not during the Southern Caribbean itinerary, not enough sea days.

 

[Rambler5678]

There will be three sea days on our Eastern next month.

 

[Silverfox97]

We had the same thing on the first cruise. A lot of Spanish speakers and a lot of first timers.

Nope. This is matching shirt FaceBook group rudeness and the lanyards say they are not newbies. Not all of them, but I have heard a ton of awful comments

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[lbgraves]

We had the same thing on the first cruise. A lot of Spanish speakers and a lot of first timers.

I am sitting here shaking my head that this is your assumption from her post. Sad.

 

[cris0809]

We had the same thing on the first cruise. A lot of Spanish speakers and a lot of first timers.

We ran into a lot of rude repeaters on that first cruise. The entitled factor was off the charts. Most newbies and Spanish speakers were very nice, if a bit lost getting a feel for a cruise with so many port days.

This last cruise epitomized how DCL is not working for us anymore. After our next two special occasion cruises we will be on a break and on other lines. Price increases are not giving us a better product. In fact we feel quality has suffered.

 

[poohj80]

This last cruise epitomized how DCL is not working for us anymore. After our next two special occasion cruises we will be on a break and on other lines. Price increases are not giving us a better product. In fact we feel quality has suffered.

I'm curious what happened that made you feel this way?

 

[cris0809]

I'm curious what happened that made you feel this way?

It's quite a long list but the short version includes:

Food quality - probably the worst I've had on any cruise (on any line) this time. Cabanas had a huge lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. Sit down meals were inconsistent at best.

Accessibility issues - there are chronic issues with Disney's handicap staterooms that they seem blatantly unwilling to fix. I was on the same ship with the same hotel director and captain ten months ago. After spending huge amounts of time giving direct feedback and also comment card feedback we were very dejected to see everything was exactly the same. When we brought up the issues again to the same people they had no answers. Hotel director was quite rude.

Guest issues - we had a major security issue with another guest this cruise and it was handled poorly by the staff. One crew member went out of her way to do her best to monitor the situation but it should have never happened in the first place.

Announcements - man I've never hated hearing a cruise director's voice so much. She would just not stop! Relaxation was not an option this voyage.

Music/entertainment - quality was way down this cruise.

DJ - can you say apathy? Wow, he was bad.

I could go on but the bottom line is that for the massive price increases that have happened over the last few years have not increased the quality of the product. We will be taking our vacation dollars elsewhere.

 

[queenofeverything]

How interesting! Did you happen to drive through the villages in st Lucia and Grenada? Barbados and st kitts were idyllic after those. We found Grenada to be the worst of them all. I even commented to my husband that I could see why Disney went so few times. Not family friendly viewing out the windows unless you want your kids to have a good idea of the real world... I never felt unsafe and I certainly enjoyed myself but I felt pretty guilty all things considered. 40% unemployment... I can't even imagine. We went on a snorkeling excursion in Antigua so I'm not sure about that one.

Interesting indeed. On St. Lucia, we did the snorkel beneath the pitons, so only saw the island from the water. However, in Grenada, we did the whole day tour of the island and we did go around the whole island. Yes there was poverty, but it did not seem as bad as St. Kitts. It looked to us to be more prosperous. The tour guide was very proud to talk about their medical and education systems (97% literacy). While all of the islands visited had alot of poverty, I guess our perceptions are just different.

 

[matrixband]

Well, we were on the Southern Caribbean cruise that left October 4th. This is our 6th Disney Cruise, so I suppose I have some experience to draw upon here.

1. Overall, very satisfied.
2. Lots of ports of call, so only the first day was the sea day. We only did two excursions. Food was great, although my teens found some items a bit exotic. They enjoyed the Vibe.
3. Beach day escape in Barbados was wonderful. The beach was great. The only problem was a lot of locals trying to get you to go snorkeling with the turtles. No, I just want some peace an tranquility. We were going on the beach day in Antigua, but did not have the energy--too soon in the cruise for us.. Plus, someone did both beaches and said the Barbados beach was much better.---One word though, we did the early (8:15) departure, the later departure got rained on big time. We also did the zip line in St. Kitts.Very good experience.
4. There was a halloween theme on board-(although seemed way early to me for that--seemed out of place). Costumes worn by the guests were awesome!
5. Ok, to the cruise itself--there were a lot of Puerto Rican families and a higher than usual number of grandparents. There were a lot of kids, but fewer than the Bahamian or traditional Eastern/Western Caribbean cruises I have been on in the past. Crew /Staff were excellent.---one guy near our table got really mad about a dirty martini or something, and made a big scene. He seemed better later on when he had a glass of champagne in his hand. I was worried Disney had demoted the server as they were not there the next evening. However, the following night, she was there and all seemed well. Oh, dealing with the public.... The sea at least was very calm and smooth. (I wonder about this weeks cruise as there is now a hurricane down there)...
6. I would do this cruise again, but maybe at another time of year--seemed to rain at least some in the afternoon every day in every island. We treated many of the port days as sea days. When everyone else was on the island, we were enjoying the ship!

Complaints (Well, suggestions for improvement)--the pirate show as not as good as on the Fantasy--basically a lot of dancing, then more dancing for 35-40 minutes, then fireworks.

Tip--We do not like the wave phones. We bought the data package for wi-fi which worked most of the time (spotty at times). We used the wi-fi to text each other, and to surf, check e-mail, etc. Just get the guy to set your phone so it won't eat up data when just sitting there. If you do it, get the largest package. Wi-fi is better on lower decks and all but nonexistent in the Walt Disney Theater (I suspect why block it there for shows).

I'm sure there are more things, but these were my thoughts tonight.

 

[Simba One]

Also just off. The refurbished magic was gorgeous! In great shape! We couldn't stand the cruise director, her voice was grating. I hated the food this trip. Lots of fish and "Puerto Rican" style food which I don't care for. Beans and rice every day at cabanas. Makes sense given the passengers but not my liking. Surprised it seemed 50% gold/platinum members, 50% Puerto Ricans. All very nice and well behaved. Not many kids. Loved Barbados beach day, hated Grenada. Loved St. kitts. Most of the islands were pretty bad off except in tourist areas. Staff was outstanding outside of entertainment. DJ was boring. Pirate party was a waste of time (and I usually love it). Lots of yelling and bad dancing. Loved the Atlantic City boys, the guitar player and the two entertainers. I have mixed feelings about the entire trip. Not up to usual standards. Start with a new chef!

 

[cris0809]

Start with a new chef!

Sounds like the food didn't get any better from the first sailing. Pity. It's not that the food wasn't my style either, because I like pretty much all Latin food. It was done really poorly.

 

[poohj80]

Sounds like we are in the minority but we thought the food was on par with previous Disney cruises, good but not great. Only had dinner in Cabanas once and it was the same menu from Animator's Palette - no rice and beans. We did not feel the dinner menus were not over run with "Puerto Rico" style foods. Loved the addition of the Gyros by the pools and the extra ice cream machine!

 

[matrixband]

Also just off. The refurbished magic was gorgeous! In great shape! We couldn't stand the cruise director, her voice was grating. Surprised it seemed 50% gold/platinum members, 50% Puerto Ricans. All very nice and well behaved. Not many kids. Pirate party was a waste of time (and I usually love it). Lots of yelling and bad dancing.

Yes, the cruise director was not my favorite, the pirate party was not good as per my review above. Yes more gold and platinums on board but I expected veteran cruisers on this new itinerary.

(I was one of them--gold this cruise!)

 

[mysteryguest]

Matrixband; No worries as far as rough seas go this week. DCL simply reversed the itinerary. I am posting this from the Port of Grenada.

I echo what others have said about Grenada. We actually cut our private tour short.

I don't think the ship is fully booked either. The sea day yesterday was not as frantic as it seems to be on a week around Spring Break.

 

[eandesmom]

Sounds like we are in the minority but we thought the food was on par with previous Disney cruises, good but not great. Only had dinner in Cabanas once and it was the same menu from Animator's Palette - no rice and beans. We did not feel the dinner menus were not over run with "Puerto Rico" style foods. Loved the addition of the Gyros by the pools and the extra ice cream machine!

We felt the same about the food. It met our expectations and we didn't find it overly exotic or different but we are pretty adventuresome eaters. We also didn't go to Cabana's much other than breakfast as frankly we've never cared for the buffet on any of the ships. Overall our service was outstanding across the board. I expected poverty in all the islands, for us Antigua seemed the worst but it really depends on what you did or didn't do as to what you might be exposed to on any given island. It's not that different from landing in a US port. Where the ship docks may or may not be a great area with anything of interest and if you don't do an excursion, or choose the wrong one, that limited time in port is going to be skewed pretty quickly.

For us, in order of preference we would say.

St. Lucia
Grenada
Barbados
St. Kitts
Antigua

 

[adventure_woman]

We loved Grenada!! I found it so fascinating all the spices. We took a private 1/2 day tour and loved it.

We did not like Antigua. Just didn't feel it.

 

[AquaDame]

We felt the same about the food. It met our expectations and we didn't find it overly exotic or different but we are pretty adventuresome eaters. We also didn't go to Cabana's much other than breakfast as frankly we've never cared for the buffet on any of the ships. Overall our service was outstanding across the board. I expected poverty in all the islands, for us Antigua seemed the worst but it really depends on what you did or didn't do as to what you might be exposed to on any given island. It's not that different from landing in a US port. Where the ship docks may or may not be a great area with anything of interest and if you don't do an excursion, or choose the wrong one, that limited time in port is going to be skewed pretty quickly.

For us, in order of preference we would say.

St. Lucia
Grenada
Barbados
St. Kitts
Antigua

I think (know?) that's spot on. For us it went

Barbados
St. Kitts
Antigua
St Lucia
Grenada