Like I said yesterday, we just got back from a four night vacation on the Disney Dream. It was our first time sailing on Disney, and our first time sailing with Graham. We've cruise on a lot of cruise lines (I am sort of embarrassed to list it out): Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Princess. We like to vacation. I think that is the moral of the story. :)
This particular cruise we just went on went to the Bahamas, specifically Nassau and Castaway Cay (the Disney private island). We've done a similar cruise with Carnival -- last
June actually, that went to Nassau and Freeport. We left Graham that weekend, and John and I had a fun child free long weekend.
We loved Disney Cruise Line. I highly recommend it. It is much more expensive than the other cruise lines, but I think it is worth every penny.
Staterooms
The staterooms are bigger or at least designed with a family in mind.
I didn't take any pictures of the stateroom, but I did of some little people and a towel animal. :)
Our stateroom had a bathtub -- which is ultra important with Graham since he is afraid of the shower. While I like taking pictures of him crying, I really don't enjoy hearing him scream. We've had bathtubs on other cruise lines too -- on RCCL in a junior suite, and NCL in a mega suite. But those aren't in the cheapest room of the boat like we just experience on Disney (we had a standard inside cabin).
Another really cool thing on the Dream is the inside cabins have a porthole that is a TV screen of what is going on outside. You can see if you are in port yet, or if it is sunny outside. The other cruise lines just have a curtain to try to give the appearance that there is a window.
The stateroom also included a fridge -- on our last Carnival cruise there was not one. That feature is hit or missing depending on the cruise line.
Entertainment
This is one feature that Disney completely outshines everyone else (at least from a family perspective). The shows were enjoyable. The performers were very talented. It was all just amazing. We were only able to go to one show (we were assigned the 9 pm showtime and that doesn't work with Graham very well), but the one we did see was great!
It isn't just shows on Disney though. There are character meet and greets constantly and dance parties with characters. And for adults there were several beverage seminars that we enjoyed -- a mixology class, a whiskey seminar, a wine tasting. The first was free and second two were only $12.
For adults, there was also an area of the ship called The District. There were several bars with different themes all together -- a dance club, a sports bar, a champagne bar, and a couple others.
Children's Area
The major reason we decided to cruise on Disney was because there was a splash area that a diapered child can play in (a non-potty trained child can NOT swim in the pools on any cruise line) and secondly the had a nursery for the under 3 set.
The splash area was great. There was a slide that was a little fast for Graham, but probably a child 3+ would have a great time on it.
The nursery seemed great too. We took Graham the first evening a 7pm and picked him up at 10pm. And he had a great time. He didn't even look back at me when we dropped him off. The next day we dropped him off from 4-6pm so we could do the mixology seminar together. Again went off just fine. The third time we dropped him off, Graham got so upset that he made himself puke. I'm not sure what happened that made him hate the place, but in the end he refused to go back. It was fine though, we still had a great time without being able to use the nursery as much as I expected.
Kids 3+ can go into the kids club, and younger kids can visit them with their parents. We ended up spending quite a lot of time there letting Graham play with those toys. He really loved the kids club. It seemed like all of the kids were having a great time and the counselors were really good. Definitely after spending that much time in the kids club, I will have no issues dropping Graham off there when he is three.
Ports
We went to Nassau and Castaway Cay.
In Nassau, there was a huge fire that delayed us being able to disembark.
Once the fire was under control, we were able to get off the ship. It didn't bother us that we were delayed because we didn't have any plans for the day. The last time were in Nassau, we got to spend the day at Atlantis, and I would highly recommend doing that if you are there. When we got off the ship, we just walked around the downtown area.
Graham napped while we walked around.
Another reason we booked this vacation is because the second port day is at a private island. We thought that would be easier with Graham than trying to do Freeport or something were you need to grab a cab (that opens up the debate to whether or not you bring a car seat for the little guy....)
The private island was great. It was a gorgeous day, there was plenty of seating in the shade, the ship docked (on Princess, we tendered for the private island).
Graham played in the sand for hours.
Food
The food was actually quite good. The buffet was set up in a way that didn't have lines -- which was great. The soft serve ice cream was delicious. The dining room food was also good. There was always something good to order (too much actually, I'm not weighing myself, but I'm pretty sure I brought home 5 extra pounds).
Graham ate really well too. Every night at dinner we asked that he had fruit right away... the helped him be patient while we were ordering. He ate up the rest of his meal without issue.
Proof of Enjoyment
We booked our next Disney cruise while we were on board! We are going to do a five night Bahama cruise in mid 2012. I'm already excited. We just need Graham potty trained by then so he can go into the pool....
