Disney Dream Review

4.0 / 5.0
783 reviews

A Mixed Experience

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Disney Dream
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katherine88
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Apr 2017
Cabin: Standard Inside Stateroom
Traveled with children

We--grandparents, daughter, and 8 yr old granddaughter-- sought a three generation family vacation experience. If this 3 night Disney cruise had met our expectations, we planned to take another cruise or two with Disney before our granddaughter gets too old for it. First, the best aspects: the nightly shows were first-rate and fun for all of us; the main dining alternative decor, selection, and food quality were generally at a high level (fish was almost always overcooked, but that is a difficult test in a volume setting); and the staff and service were excellent overall. In addition, every aspect of the ship was clean and appeared well-run. Less happy aspects center around Disney's too obvious money grubbing motivations. This is a business, and I hardly expected anything to be free. But other cruise lines and tour operators manage to run their businesses at a profit without making their customers too aware of the bottom line. Disney is bald and shameless. Most objectionable about this cruise, and from what I can see about other Disney cruises, is that the "three night" cruise is a two day wonder. It starts late in the first day and ends so early on the last day that we felt thrown out unceremoniously. We were required to put our bags outside our staterooms on the last night before 10:30 pm, report for breakfast the last morning by 6:45 am (this is not a typo), and vacate our staterooms on the last morning no later than 8:00 am. The reason for this was that they needed to clean and re-provision the ship in time to take her out with another group of paying customers that afternoon. As the Mad Hatter said, "No Room, NO Room!" Because of the pressure, we stopped enjoying this cruise before the third night's show and never felt good about it again. None of us, including our granddaughter, slept well that last night, and we left feeling punched and sour. Photos with the "characters" around the ship always cost money, and the photographers taking photos of us at various points charged high prices for them, rafts and floats on Castaway Cay cost $11 EACH per hour, and although kids' ice cream was free, there was an Vanillape's next door that charged high prices for the same quality, and the excursions on Castaway Cay cost money that should have been included in the price of the cruise. Excursions like the banana boat on Castaway Cay were cancelled due to high winds that seemed to have disappeared by the time we got to the beach. The pools for both children and adults were all tiny and provided no space for real swimming. The sand on Castaway Cay was also dirty and full of sticks and stones. Finally, the communications before and during the cruise on activities and locations and schedules were often poor, so we missed some things we were looking forward to. The Dream is a massive ship, and even the cheapest staterooms were more expensive than most cruise companies would charge. So Disney sets us up to expect a first class experience in every way. On this cruise, they failed to deliver.

Cabin Review

Standard Inside Stateroom

Cabin 11C

Tiny, but clean and adequate. We appreciated Oniel's work and extra efforts to make a good experience. The virtual porthole is a nice touch.

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