We took our granddaughter on the cruise of a lifetime. Ship was incredibly clean, well organized and the staff was unbelievable. The only reason for the less than 5 was due to the subpar food on the formal dinners. Everything seemed rushed and the Meals seemed to be prepared and served after cooking under a heat light for hours. Avoid the oysters Rockefeller and the lobster tail. The characters were very accessible and the meet and greets with frozen girls and the princesses were heavenly. Our cabin seemed brand new with everything working and fresh linens daily. Cabin staff were incredibly nice and remembered our little ones name (nice touch). The dolphin excursion in grand cayman was very well organized and not too pricey. Negotiate the cost of prints they want to sell them! Cozumel was mostly a bust - rain and didn’t feel safe wandering around too far from the ship. The sales folks are very aggressive and tries more than once to lure our little one with toys etc. just not comfortable. All in all this was a trip of a lifetime. Get the meals right guys. Read Less

definitely very disappointed ! An expensive and bad cruise. It is not worth the price paid . Poorly organized cruise.. The port adventures White House Beach in Grand Cayman and Cabo San Lucas by Sea were a scam. the food of low quality. Only two good shows in 14 nights. the parties of pirates and frozen were very poor . and the worst was the mistreatment received in front of an inconvenience with our luggage upon disembarkation. It was our fourth Disney cruise and I do not recommend it. is not at the level of the Fantasy or the Magic .. The staff works discontent and often does not treat the passenger well. The new system of selling the photos on board is a scam. positive: the activities of the children were good as always, and they enjoyed them, but the adults felt cheated (there were three families and we had three cabins) Read Less

Geez where do I start. This was our 8th cruise on Disney. For Halloween, they only brought out 4 characters for 2 hours dressed in Halloween attire. The first day and rest of second we’re in traditional attire. The 4 characters were Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Goofy- no villains. Trick or treat was at 2p for 30 mins at 7 stations on Deck 3,4. Trick or treat bags were delivered to rooms but many did not not receive them. The cruise line seems like they are getting really cheap. We use to receive a welcome letter from Cast a way club when we arrived in our room Day 1- or any more. In the past we always sailed Concierge. We always felt the services were below par so this cruise we were in a 4a room which was so small with a tiny shower for a short person. On a past cruise we saw the Concierge attendant come down with a group of guest and let them off first for Walk off. They filed to tell us about this and we were knee deep in a crowd waiting to get off. Sadly, the same happened on this cruise to a concierge guest waiting disembark for walk off. At the same time I was telling her family what happened to us, the concierge attendant comes down with a group of guests and let’s them off while they were waiting in line. I also noticed none of the concierge guest had a lithograph. Disney has gotten so controlling and cheap. The first day there were only 2 characters in the lobby. We did not relieve tip sheet and comment card until 10p the night before we disembarked. The ship was still showing Golden Mickey (zzzzzz) and Frozen. No music acts. Time for a change. Read Less

Disney gone cheap. Halloween bags not delivered to room, only four characters appeared once each in Halloween outfit over a 2 hour period, 2p trick treat at 7 stations on deck 3,4, no Halloween on Day 1 and only 2 characters in lobby. Cat room 4a very small. Characters were common 4..no villains or scary ones. Boring. Concierge guests did not receive lithograph and had Stich at Private meet and greet. Shows were Frozen and Golden Mickeys. Time for a change. Concierge guests were not told of private escort for walk off. Little upset when they were standing in line and saw concierge escort group off so htem. Same happened to us on the Magic. Checked in online first day, first minute but was assigned group 9 at cruise terminal. First to check in at port. Tip sheet and comment card were delivered to room at 11p. No bag tags were ever deleivered . Read Less

I work in the travel industry and have heard nothing but great things about Disney, always mixed reviews with other cruise lines. I was dreading the boarding process, but to be honest it was super easy, I completed everything online so we zipped through the check in process and was aboard the ship in a few minutes. They really stress hand washing and sanitizing throughout the cruise which is great practice. As you board the ship your asked your names and they announce you on the speaker and you pass the line up of bridge crew clapping and welcoming you aboard. We made our way to deck 2, just down 1 level from main lobby. It was 120pm and there was a roping off of the area to the cabins until 130pm as they were still finishing off getting the cabins ready. There were a few impatient people who at 131pm thought it was appropriate to start a hissy fit in front of kids cause it’s now 131pm. There were several staff zipping by with stateroom gift delivery, etc. By 134pm they were finished and opened the way for us to the cabins. Some people were already saying their vacation was ruined cause they needed to wait!?!? They just needed to calm down. We had an ocean view cabin mid ship, it was clean and welcoming and a little larger than expected. There was a big porthole with a great view. Love the way they separate the bathroom, toilet and sink in one and sink and shower in another. The bed was squishy and so comfortable as were the pillows. Lots of subtle Disney touches and the furnishings were tasteful and well maintained. Loved that their was a fridge. Air conditioning surprised me, was turned on low for cold but you couldn’t really feel anything. Room attendant came by to introduce himself and I asked him about the air, he said their eco friendly system does not blow strongly, just set your temperature and it will work subtly which it did. Tv was flat screen and swivels between facing the bed and sitting area. Had lots of informative ship channels and then a dozen Disney movie channels. Dining Choices; Deck 9 had the casual dining choices, Pinocchio’s Pizza, open till midnight had several combinations, I noticed they made gluten free ones on request. There was boiler bites, they offer hamburgers, fish burgers, Vege burgers, chicken tenders, hot dogs, chili dogs, Bratwursts, fries, chili fries and a Chicken, beef & lamb Shawarma with lots of toppings and sauces to choose from, delicious. There was a self service ice cream place on deck, they had chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and pineapple / coconut flavors and cones. Daisey’s De Lights became my favorite place, they offer toasted sandwiches, wraps, fresh fruit, salads, sandwiches and what appeared to be make your own Pho Bowles. I loved their sandwiches, either roast beef or my favorite smoked ham, the rolls were fresh and crusty yet soft, ham was tasty, onion jam was incredible and the lettuce was crunchy and tomato perfect, they are making them out the back a few at a time so they are always fresh. I indulged way to much here but they were always fresh. Cabanas is the buffet restaurant right at the back of the ship. Breakfast is from 7 or 730am some days to either 1030 or 11am, varies depending if it’s a day at sea or a shore day. Tip. There is seating for 500 people, 9am I’m told is when most people start coming to breakfast. We dined at opening most times, no waiting or queues. Their scrambled eggs were yummy, always a plain one and a special one. Usual breakfast buffet stuff. Apple, orange, cranberry and orchid juices available. Lunch here was good however closed at 2pm, we are from Vegas so we know buffets and this one was really good. Nice selection, delicious noodles I couldn’t get enough off, meats varied daily as did the hot carving choices. Staff here were helpful and super observant if you needed a hand. Room service was 24 hours, small menu including a few salads, sandwiches, soups,tenders and wings, etc. steak sandwich was exceptional. Drinks you pay for, meals are included. There is a breakfast card to complete and hang outside on your door before 3am it’s only a continental breakfast, we used it mainly to get grapefruit juice as it’s not in the buffet, with cereal and coffee, all breakfast drinks included. It was our pre breakfast pick me up. Disney offers rotational dining, you get to move to different dinner themed restaurants each night, every night a different menu, but your same table mates and server, assistant server and head server. They know you by name, they know your preferences, they have your drinks ready, etc. Our serving trio were all fantastic, they go out of their ways to make sure they are happy. Adorable little girl at the table next to us was a little shy on night one, but by night 2 she adored the wait staff, making her feel special and cutting her meat and making her treats, it was magical to watch. As far as the meals went they were fantastic, lots of variety and if you can’t choose then get both cause the menu is going to be different tomorrow. Bars; I liked the Crown & Fin British pub, went there for a drink or two after dinner. Cozy place, live entertainment most nights. They also do a light snack buffet, quesadillas, chicken wings, vegetable sticks, slider sized sandwiches, bite sized desserts. Bar staff here were very good. Cadillac bar next door was dimly lit, reminded me of an old piano bar, they had wines and cocktails here. There were other bars but we didn’t have time for those. Cove adult only area; Nice sized pool and 2 spas on deck, bar and coffee shop in the Cove adults only area. Coffee shop was nice, I enjoyed my frozen Frappuccinos here, you do pay here but you get a coffee card with 6th coffee free. They also have a complimentary dessert / slice display with some yummy goodies. I was up early around 5am the second morning, I went to deck 9 to the self service area, free soft drinks, tea, coffee and hit chocolate, as I wandered the ship there were dozens of staff members cleaning, all of them super friendly and saying hello, checking if I needed anything. They are happy with what they are doing, I chatted with several of them, many have been with Disney 10-15 years and say they are a fantastic employer who reallly takes care of them, which I’m glad to hear about. Disney is known for their customer service, nobody does fireworks like them, their shows, parades, musicals etc are incredible. Disney cruises are more expensive than others, but in my opinion well worth it, I’d rather put a trip off another year to save more for a Disney Cruise. Read Less

We live in San Diego and embarked from there. It was easy to get to the ship using Uber. We are 2 adults with a 13 year old and we brought my Wife's parents who are both 80. We got them a wheelchair from the port to their room. Everything went real smoothly. Staff was extremely helpful from the minute we stepped out of our car. Ship - Clean ship, everything worked, food was plentiful and tasty. Service was amazing - there are people everywhere there to help you throughout the entire trip. Personal service provided for dietary needs. Cabin - Clean and comfortable. Always had fresh towels and the attendant was always available and nice. My only complaint is that the room was noisy at night - we had a interior cabin toward the back on the 7th deck so our sleep was not always the best. Lots of rattling and movement - more than I was expecting. Dining - Fantastic and efficient. Our Dining Times were changed due to medical needs. There was not problem doing this. Food was always good and the wait staff were professional, courteous, and extremely personable. Great job managing everyone's allergies and preferences. The only complaint is that my Son ordered a non-alchoholic drink that cost $38!!!! He did this twice on the trip - I was a little upset on the price for this drink so be aware of the drink costs - the other drinks we ordered were wine and beer which were reasonably prices. Entertainment was top noch and high quality. We saw all 3 shows. Enjoyed everything. The popcorn was good too. We watched several movies - everything was clean and comfortable. My only complaint here is that people hold seats when they are not supposed to. Service was amazing and friendly. People went out of their way to get you an answer. Did not meet one rude person. Ports and shore excursions - we didn't get a shore excursion and instead just walked around. I didn't hear anyone complain other than it being a little pricey. We had one 13 year old only child who was sufficiently entertained by all the activities on the ship. No problems there. Lots of options whether your kids is a bookworm, computer geek, or sports orientated. He loved meeting up with many of the character greetings. Tips: Be sure to check the prices on the those non-alcholic drinks!!! We were allowed to bring 2 bottles of wine per person. Try to get a room that isn't noisey (center of ship). Read Less

About us: First time cruising as a family with 2 school age girls under 10 years old. My summary: Premium pricing is worth it for the premium service - especially if you have kids. TIP: Get the tickets for Frozen Gathering, Princess Gathering, and Character Breakfast as soon as the online activities open for you. - Entertainment - Extremely good quality of shows and performances. In order in which I woud rank: Frozen, Dreams, Golden Mickeys. Character meet and greets were awesome for kids. The lines were occasionally long, but mostly managed. - Dining/Food quality - Extremely good in Palo, quite good in regular restaurants, even buffet food quality was good. The rotation and entertainment for kids was really nice touches. They had activities or things in different restaurants that kept kids engaged during meals. In order of preference: Animator's Palate, Triton's, Tiana's - Kids club - my kids loved it both for the arts and crafts and activities that were there. Engaging staff, secure and very clean. They had handwashing stations. - Ship - clean, rooms were well designed with storage - we had a room with a veranda in the midship. Boat rocked quite a bit some evenings - I'm told more than bigger ships but I don't have a good comparison. - Disney service - Crew members generally seemed happy and had good attitudes about service. Excursions TIP: Morning excursions in Alaska sometimes got canceled because of fog (boat ride, helicopter, float plane) TIP: Bring your raincoat/umbrella and be prepared for the weather to not be that great. Skagway: White pass yukon railway train ride. Really nice because you could sit with kids and not worry about driving. Scenery was beautiful. Did not see much wildlife. Skagway itself was a small town and not very interesting to be in - lots of shopping. Juneau: We went to mendenhall glacier and went whalewatching. Bus tour to glacier, rained there and we did a short hike. We didn't make it to nugget falls because there was only 1 hour on the tour and my little one had to be carried. I would possibly look into a tour that lets you stay longer at the glacier or separate it out from whalewatching. On the whalewatching boat, they provided binoculars and donut holes and hot drinks. We saw two pods of humpback whales. 5 - 7 whales in total. We stayed with one pod for 30 minutes and then saw another for about 15 minutes. Went by sea lions on the way back to the dock. Ketchikan: Neets Bay Bear Watch (sans kids). Took a 30 minute float plane to Neets bay and then walked a little to a salmon hatchery and saw 3 bears eating salmon over about 1 hour and float planed back. It was awesome! If I had to do it again, I would! Read Less

In an effort to get our families to experience more of the world than just the Caribbean, we decided to book an Alaskan cruise. We are 2 families who cruise together regularly (moms are cousins) and this time we both invited our parents to come along and see what we've been raving about for so many Disney cruises now. One family has 5 kids (20, 19, 9, 6, and 3) and the other has 2 kids (11 and 8). Grandparents ranged in age from 66-84. Boarding the ship was simple. While the hotels very close to the port in Vancouver were CRAZY expensive, especially for a crew of our size, we were able to find an all suites hotel a few blocks inland that was VERY reasonable. We flew into Seattle (saved 50% on airfare), and took the train up to Vancouver Friday morning. We ended up having a 3+ hour delay, so the normally 4 hour trip took over 7. We were VERY comfortable on the train, kids were entertained and could move around, so all in all we didn't mind. I would NOT recommend trying to take the train on Monday as you're supposed to be at the port by 3pm. (We went early to get the kids acclimated to the time change.) The inside passage is VERY VERY VERY calm. No rocking at all like most other cruises. The first night we had fog, so the ship horn blasted every 2 minutes. ON THE DOT. Good to not crash into people or boats. Bad for sleeping. (Use white noise!!) We saw ample whales, seals, eagles, etc from the balcony. Many times, we just wanted to go back to the room to watch for whales!! (Side note: Orcas are WAY smaller than you think they're going to look in the wild from a big cruise ship!! FYI! Lots of splashing and they're FAST.) We saw MANY MANY humpbacks during this trip. The final sea day was the BEST whale watching of all. Don't take the Tracey Arm day lightly...it's BREATH TAKING!!!! SO much more than I was anticipating. The biggest let down of the cruise was the service and the food. Nothing huge. No glaring errors, but just small things like we'd bought a wine package and the unfinished bottles weren't waiting for us at our table when we arrived like they had on all our other Disney cruises. (4 to be specific.) The kid's didn't have drinks waiting for them on this cruise. Our party of 15 was supposed to be linked in the system, which we confirmed with DCL directly via the phone several weeks prior to sailing, yet half our party was on a completely DIFFERENT DINING ROTATION when we got on board. My cousin and I had to go fix it as soon as we were on board. Palo wouldn't let us make a reservation for the 10 adults we had, and made a huge deal about our party when we tried to fix our 2 separate reservations so we could all eat together....yet when we dined there the restaurant was only 1/4 full the entire time we were there. The kids enjoyed the muppet interactive scavenger hunt on the Fantasy MUCH more than the Anna and Elsa hunt on this ship. The kid's club crew wasn't as interactive and entertaining with the kids. If they wanted to do one activity in the club and then another activity in the lab later on, the crew didn't inform them the new activity was starting, so they missed it because they were doing something (like a small craft) filling the time. All of the younger kids were MUCH less impressed with the cast members in the kids club on this ship. The food is really rather blah. On every other sailing (Fantasy and Dream), I had multiple meals I could RAVE about....only Palo gets that note here. Tiana's was HIGHLY interactive, but the food was meh. I'm not sure if it was just the size of our party or not, but the photographers only took our pictures at dinner once at our table. When you pay $300 for the photo package, I'd like to see A LOT more of those types of photos at the end of my cruise. All in all, it was ALASKA!! It was amazing! BUT the Disney caliber cruises I've come to know and love just missed a bit on this one. I don't know if that's because it was Alaska, or because the staff on this ship just isn't being held to as high of a standard, but it was noticed. (Incidentally, another family we met on the train ride up had the exact same feelings.) We will absolutely sail again. Our kids LOVED Alaska and the fun adventures we took while we were gone. They are still talking about seeing all sorts of cool stuff from our balcony. These memories will last a life time (for everyone except the 3 year old), and all in all I'm very glad we went. Excursions: We did NOT do the extra boat in Tracy Arm (Acutally we went into Endcott Arm b/c there was too much ice in TA) and it was still amazing. OH OH OH and make time to go see the Naturalist's lectures!! They were fascinating and added so much understanding to what we were seeing. Ketchikan - cold and rainy that day - we did Zip lining....very fun but we were pretty wet in the end. We had plans of warm showers and then going back in to explore the town, but the rain wouldn't let up so we just continued to enjoy the ship. Juneau - we did the helicopter tour to the top of the glacier. (Booked via Viator.....saved several hundred $$) The dog sledding part was cancelled because it had been so warm that the snow melted and they had to close the dog camp. Walking on the glacier was AMAZING. Kids loved the helicopter ride as well. When else could we do that!!? We had to fork over the $. Skagway - grandparents, dad, and sons went Salmon fishing and LOVED LOVED LOVED it. It was the ONLY picture my 9 year old wanted to bring to show his class from his summer vacation. I took the girls on the Duck Boat tour and then we walked around town. Meh. it was ok. It was good to get out and get a little city tour. Before our cruise, we did a whale watching tour out of Vancouver harbor. That was great! (Also booked on viator) Alaska is definitely a bucket list place for most people. We are glad we sailed Disney with our families for all of the entertainment. All of us had things we wanted to do and didn't get to on our 7 day sailing. Read Less

We figured Disney would be great with kids considering the characters, shows and kids club. We have a 7, 5 and 2 year old. No previous cruise experience. Many kid friendly resorts though. So on the criteria of characters, shows and kids club. Characters, Disney comes through. No complaints. If you have kids who love princesses, ignore the rest of this review and just go. We have 3 boys, who were fine to meet Elsa, along with Spiderman, Woody and Mickey. Would have been nice if Disney could do more Cars stuff, not sure if its logistics or Pixar limitations but character meetings met expectations. Avoid that Bibidiboppity makeover if you want to save yourself a couple of hundred bucks but I can see how parents of princess fans spring for it. We did not buy the prince charming package. The shows, perhaps others will not have this problem but if your kids go to bed by 8, there are literally no shows they can go to. There are no matinees. There are 2 show times. One during early dinner and one during late dinner. Our kids would be eating during early dinner and could not stay up late for the next showing. That said, there were at least 2 entertaining dinners. Kids club, They put 3-12 year olds in same area. While loosely there is an older kids club and a younger, they are linked and kids can move freely between them. The kids club was disappointing as I was hoping for more of a camp where they would stratify by age and keep them busy. Although there was always a guided activity, it was optional and parents are not allowed in. My 7 year old naturally defaulted to playing video games and my 5 year old to watching videos. Technically the upside was that I spent more time with them outside of the kids club. Other things All the kids loved it, despite my views The nursery is good value Alaska is beautiful, with great weather which we had the first week of July. Kids got to use pool twice. Two year old in swim diapers are not allowed in the pool and restricted to kids splash pad. Waiters cutting the food (steak, chicken, fish) for kids was great service. Everywhere should do that Excursions are interesting Having a concierge (which we sprung for) can turn you into an overly demanding jackass As I write this I am upping my rating from poor to average Read Less

We landed in Vancouver on the Friday before the Monday departure. There was a long line for taxis at the airport. I should have ordered a car--lots of people had. But the taxi fare was a flat fee of $31 Canadian to downtown. We stayed at the Blue Horizon hotel. Big rooms and balconies. You could walk to the port (all downhill) but we took a taxi. It was easy to board the ship. They did itemize our two bottles per person wine but that was okay. I purchased the wine package pre-boat for dinner but it was the same price on the boat. We brought two corkscrews and we ordered cheese platters in the late afternoon so that we could have wine and cheese on our balconies with the wines we were allowed bring on board with us. Our room was very near the laundry and that was helpful. It was also nice to be on the starboard side of the boat. Predeparture, we were told that the verandah partitions could only be opened if there were connecting doors, but really you could open the deck partitions for about five rooms in a row depending on where the steel bulkheads were. So for example rooms 7584 all the way through 7592 could have had open verandah partitions, which we liked because we were a big family traveling together. The Disney coffee was awful. I brought my own. All the musical acts on board were excellent. We really liked the Cadillac lounge. The Crown and Fin pub was able to show the world cup games which were very popular. The Frozen show that we saw was pretty bad. Not equal to their other efforts. There were lots of first-run movies. We don't have little kids so we didn't have to worry about standing in line for characters and photo ops. I brought a swimsuit in case I want to go to the hot tub but I never did. Kids were able to swim in the pool because it was warm enough. The fitness area on the Wonder has enough machines, but doesn't have any dedicated group work out space although there were classes offered which were very popular and I'm sure on future cruises they are going to have to expand that area. We brought field glasses to view from our deck. Lots of whale tales and seals and birds. We did the white pass railway in Skagway. It was a little long but the views were great. In Juneau, we meant to take the bus to the glacier but milled about town and soaked up Wi-Fi instead. In Ketchikan we did the zodiac boat tour adventures and that was really fun. Our kids were able to book on the Tracy Arm boat and really liked it, although they liked the zodiac tour better. Getting off the boat was easier than expected. We did not give them our bags the night before. We did the 7:30 AM walk off and there was essentially no immigration/custom rigmarole and there were no lines for taxis; we could have been in a taxi by about 7:50 AM. By about 9 AM, there was a line for taxis. Unfortunately, I had ordered a noncancelable car to the airport for 9 am and it couldn't come earlier so I wish I had taken a taxi instead! At the airport, it took about half an hour to clear security and US immigration and customs which was done on the Canadian side. If you had Global entry, it would have been much much quicker. So for anyone who has time to apply for Global entry and do the interview prior to their cruise, it would definitely save you time at the airport. We thought that we would be pushing it to make a 12:50 PM flight on the same day that the ship docked but we had oodles of time. If anyone did the walk off at 7:30 am, you could probably make any flight starting at 11.30 AM. But if you let them take your bags the night before and you have to pick them up from baggage claim, you would very likely be getting off the boat at 9 AM and there might be a line for taxis by then, which would delay you. We had a beautiful scenery and great weather in Alaska. Very much enjoyed it. Because it's the inner passage, there was always mountains to look at. Not like a Caribbean cruise where there is just ocean all around you. Read Less