Trip to WDW and Cruise - August 2009
We just returned from a weeklong vacation trip which
included a 4 night stay at the new DVC Bay Lake Tower
(BLT) at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, followed by a 3
night cruise on the Disney Wonder.
Part of the challenge in being a lover of all things Disney, is to be able to find a way to resist the temptation to “gush” about Disney, so that I am able to maintain an objective perspective when looking back at our Disney vacation experiences. This most recent trip, given its split between Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line, provides an opportunity to compare reality with expectations for both parts. The first part of our trip generally met or exceeded our expectations, while the second part was arguably underwhelming.
We arrived in Orlando late morning on Sunday August 30, taking the Disney Magical Express (DME) from the airport over to Disney World. For Bay Lake Tower, you are dropped off at the Contemporary and all registration/check-in activities are handled at the main desk there. I should note that we took advantage of the online check-in before we left home and that helped to speed our time upon arrival. DME is a wonderful chance to save money, albeit at the expense of a non-stop route between the airport and your resort. In our case, we were the last stop, after 3 other resorts, but in reality, it was not a problem. The DME buses are very comfortable motor coaches. Compared to having spent over $100 + tips round trip for limo services in the past, it is well worth it.
After checking in, we took our bags over to BLT just walking outside on the ground level, rather than going to the 4th floor in the Contemporary to then take the elevated walkway, which brings you to the 5th floor at BLT. We walked into the main entrance/lobby area of BLT and our immediate impression was “this place is gorgeous”. In fact, the reality of the lobby area and other parts of BLT, as compared to the artist’s conceptual drawings that we have seen was impressive. It reminds me of many of the “boutique” types of hotels that one might see elsewhere. In keeping with the architecture and design of the original Contemporary Resort itself, BLT is clean and modern, but not “cold”. We got settled into our room, which was a studio. The room was spacious for a studio, with a normal sleeping area, mini-kitchen and bathroom. We had a “pseudo” Magic Kingdom (MK) View, which enabled us to see MK from our balcony off to the right, as opposed to a straight-line view.
After heading back over to the Contemporary for lunch at the Contempo cafe, we headed for the monorail to go to Epcot. Once at Epcot, we stopped to buy Annual Passes (APs) since we will be back again in January and now with our DVC membership discount, it makes financial sense to do so. For several years in the 90’s, we had APs, but as the frequency and length of our visits changed, we let it go. It’s nice to be AP holders again.
Over the next several days we visited the parks, going to Epcot on Saturday, MK on Monday, the Studios on Tuesday and Animal Kingdom on Wednesday. Given the time of the year, after most kids are back in school, we found the crowds to be light with most rides having 5 to 10 minute waits. Indeed, we were into and out of Soaring at Epcot within 35 minutes total. We enjoyed our time in the parks and notwithstanding some periods of rain, took the time to relax and take advantage of the light crowds.
For the first time, we used the Disney Dining Plan (DDP), which provides for a counter service lunch, snack and table service dinner each day. Our breakfasts were in our room, where we brought along some instant oatmeal and I would walk over to the Contempo Cafe to use our refillable mugs for coffee.
I would say that for us, the DDP was quite a good value. In fact, one could argue that it was too much food, in that we did not even use our snack entitlements until Tuesday. The one comment that I would pass on is that it would be nice to see the plan include the option of having either a salad or appetizer, in place of the dessert. For those of us wanting to eat healthy or watching our diets, this would provide a better option than eating a high calorie dessert. Presumably, there must be some type of option along these lines for those such as diabetics and it just makes sense for everyone to have this option. Our dinners included Italy at Epcot, Crystal Palace at MK, The Wave at the Contemporary and Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which were all wonderful.
Tuesday evening, after dinner with friends, who drove down for the day from Jacksonville, the two of us went up to the DVC Member Lounge at the top of BLT. In order to do this and to control entry, you have to go to the BLT lobby and check in there. Only DVC members staying at BLT using points can go to the lounge. A Cast Member will then escort you to the elevator which takes you directly to the floor for the lounge. Upon our arrival, we stayed outside for a while to watch Wishes over MK, which was great. We then went inside to the lounge, had some wine and relaxed. We really like the lounge and found it to be very comfortable. They also serve modest appetizers there, though we did not have any as we were still full from dinner.
I will offer one additional comment/observation which could become something of a safety issue for folks (and of course Disney). The walkway that runs between level 4 at the Contemporary to level 5 at BLT is mostly open on the sides to the outside. When it rains, the rain does come into the walkway and leaves the floor of the walkway dangerously slippery. While we saw Cast Members using mops, squeegees and towels, they were not able to keep up with the rain. I would recommend that Disney give consideration for some type of drainage system on the walkway and perhaps change or augment the floor surface to something more compatible to Florida rain.
Bottom line, our experience at BLT was terrific and the opportunity to get back into the parks (which we did not do on our last trip in April) was greatly enjoyed. It was also great to be staying at a resort back over on the MK side of the property, which we missed during our most recent trips. There is just something about staying near MK that enhances the Disney World experience. In light of our experience on the cruise, in hindsight, I now wish that we had just stayed the full week at BLT and spent more time in the parks. Of course that would have meant using more DVC points, but that might have been doable with how many points we still have available.
Thursday morning, we awoke early, finished packing and got ready for the cruise. For our main large travel bags, we called for a Bell Cap at the Contemporary. They pick up the bags with the DCL tags (which we got in advance with our cruise docs) and take them back over to the hotel. As with DME, they travel separately and we won’t see those bags again until we get to the ship. That provides for a nice convenience. The rest of the bags and stuff that we would carry with us, came on the DCL bus, which met us in front of BLT. We waited in the BLT lobby after checking in with a DCL Cast Member there. When everybody was ready, we boarded the bus and after making a few stops around other Disney resorts to pick up others (much as with DME) we were on our way to Port Canaveral. It only took about an hour for the ride and was quite comfortable.
Upon arriving at the Port, we got our stuff off the bus, went into the DCL lobby, went through the security checks and upstairs to check-in. All of that part of the process went quickly and we were walking on board the ship within 20-30 minutes.
Now the “fun” started and in hindsight, was something of an omen for the rest of the cruise. When we got to our cabin, which was an outside verandah cabin on deck 5, near the stern, we noted that there were others standing in the hallway. We soon realized why. None of the room keys on the entire ship worked. For some reason, the room keys were either not programmed properly back on shore in the DCL check-in area, or there was some type of on-board system failure. After making some calls to Guest Services, we were told the problem was ship-wide and that they were working on a resolution. In the mean time, the cabin stewards would open our doors and provide entry as needed. As our steward was not immediately available, we decided to head to the Parrot Cay dining room for our welcome aboard buffet.
Our first indication of food quality was had here at the lunch and it was frankly, just OK. Having had buffets on other cruises, buffets at Disney World restaurants and given the expectations that we had of Disney generally, it was disappointing.
After lunch, we decided to head back to our cabin to see if we could drop off our bags and begin wandering around the ship, before we would have to prepare for the safety drill. We met our cabin steward, Herbert, who was wonderful during the entire cruise, and he let us in our cabin. We dropped our bags, got a little settled and noted in the Navigator (the daily schedule) that there was a special DVC welcome aboard get together in one of the lounges, so we headed there, got the usual indoctrination and picked up a few trinkets. It’s a good thing that we were finally able to get into our cabin, as we would have otherwise not known about this and missed it.
After the DVC gathering, we decided to head to Guest Services to see where things stood with the room keys.
The line at Guest Services was too long (not surprising since everyone on the ship had to do this) and given that we only had a little time before the safety drill, we gave up for now. We wandered the ship a bit and then we went back to the cabin. Having been on various ship designs, from the now scuttled S.S. Norway to three of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) ships (Voyager, Navigator and Vision), the Wonder was quite interesting. Clearly designed after the classic trans-Atlantic liners, with modern updates and of course Disney touches, we found the ship physically very clean and warm with lots of wood and brass everywhere. However, I would say that I do prefer the more contemporary look and roomier layout of the larger RCCL ships. Perhaps the new Disney ships coming soon will have more open space inside.
Herbert let us in, we got our life vests, went to our muster station and finished the drill. After the drill, we returned to our cabin, Herbert again let us in, we put our vests back and headed back to Guest Services to try again. While in line, a DCL crew member began coming through and offering to take our room keys, have them re-programmed and return them to us later. For us, having a late dinner seating, that meant slipping them under our cabin door sometime later that evening. So we again decided to wander the ship and head topside for the sail-away party, which was fun. We then went all the way forward to the front of the ship on Deck 9 and stayed there until we had cleared the channel to the Atlantic.
After leaving port, we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. Once again, Herbert let us in and we cleaned up and dressed for dinner, which that night was at Triton’s. Just as we were ready to head to dinner, our new room keys appeared under the door. Yeah!
Dinner at Triton’s was a mixed experience. We met two of our four table-mates, as the other two it turned out, had gone to Palo that evening. We would see our table mates several times during the cruise and they were great people. All four of our table mates were DVC members, so that provided for a common experience and subject matter for conversation. Our main server, Renata and our assistant server, Stephen, were wonderful. However, our food was again, just OK, sparking some table conversation on the subject. After dinner, we again wandered the ship, took in some fresh air outside and eventually headed back to our cabin to call it a day.
The next day was in Nassau, Bahamas and it was cloudy, dark and rainy much of the day. That was arguably OK, as we have been to Nassau before and were not sure that we were going to get off the ship anyway. I had thoughts of going to the Graycliff cigar factory to pick up a few, but given the weather, elected to not do so.
We went to the Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast and unfortunately again, the food was borderline OK. Some things were dry and over-cooked, while others were greasy and tasteless. We also noted slow service to some around us, who had ordered eggs/omeletes and such from the buffet chefs and waited a long time for their food to be brought to their table.
One notable comment here, with credit to Disney, though I suspect given the plethora of norovirus outbreaks in recent years, this is now common to all cruiselines, is the focus on public health, cleanliness and hand washing and that is very much appreciated. Before entering any eating area, hand wipes are given out to all. In all bathrooms, there are signs with instructions for hand washing and in the public restrooms, there are additional instructions to use paper towels to open doors. The public areas of the ship were clean and you always saw crew members cleaning someplace.
We spent the day relaxing on deck 9 under the covered areas, catching up on e-mail (with our laptops using the ship’s wireless connection, which as with other ships, is satellite based and dial-up slow...), reading and just vegging listening to music. Later, once the skies cleared a bit, we did move to an open area and spent some time in the sun.
Lunch that day was from the eateries on deck 9. I have to say that we have had better food from the counter service locations at Disney World, so the pattern of food quality issues continued and with one exception (Palo), this was a common theme throughout the cruise.
As evening approached, we got ready for dinner, which that night was at Animator’s Palate. This was a fun experience, as the dining room (including the crew members clothing) goes from black and white to color. Having seen Travel Channel shows on the DCL ships and of course comments from friends, I was aware of this as well as how it is technically done. Our two table mates who had eaten at Palo the night before joined us and gave us a great review of their experience, which of course tempted us for our dinner there the next night. Once again, however, the food in Animator’s Palate was just OK and that was the consensus from the table.
Our day wrapped up after again wandering the ship, getting some fresh air out on deck during the Pirates IN the Caribbean Party and watching the fireworks on deck 9. “Wishes” they were not, but still, nice to see at sea. We were way too full to even think about partaking in the desserts being served on deck. We did see Renata, who came over and gave us a big hug. She is wonderful and should be promoted to serving at Palo.
Our final full day at sea was at Castaway Cay. We again began the day with breakfast at the Beach Blanket Buffet, figuring that we would give it another try. No change from the day before.
We got off the ship late morning and headed over to the adult beach to relax, which is more distant than the regular beach areas. This required two tram rides from the ship and was pretty convenient. We lounged on the beach for a while, getting some sun and saw two of our table mates, with whom we spent some time talking.
One comment about the beach and water area. The sand on the beach had a lot of shell fragments of varying sizes in it, to the point where you could not take a step without there being some, which made walking barefoot somewhat problematic. The same can be said for the relatively shallow water along that beach, which although the water was crystal clear, also made it somewhat painful to walk barefoot. In the water, there were also what I would call sand “potholes”, which much like their land based brethren, were sudden drops of several inches in the level of the sand surface under water. Besides catching one by surprise as you are walking, they could easily lead to a sprained ankle and I found myself almost falling over a few times. I think that Disney needs to think about some way to efficiently rake or sweep the sand to make it more comfortable to walk barefoot. Maybe I am being picky, and perhaps there are environmental issues to consider, but if guest comfort is a priority, there should be some consideration here.
After lounging for a while, we decided to head back to the main beach area (short tram ride) and partake in the lunch being served at the BBQ. Unfortunately, once again, food quality was just OK. I would rather have had food from the Flame Tree BBQ in Animal Kingdom or even Pecos Bills in the Magic Kingdom. Sorry guys...
We headed back to the ship after lunch and wandered over to the Dimensions Lounge, where they had several flat screen TVs covering college football games. We watched our U of MN Gophers play Syracuse. They won in overtime!
We relaxed for a while and then later got ready for our dinner, which that final night was at Palo. As with most cruise lines, they have alternatives to eating in the regular dining rooms, typically charging a modest fee for the smaller location, more personal dining and hopefully, better food. For Palo, it was $15 per person, which is not bad at all.
After leaving our cabin and before heading to Palo, we stopped by to see Herbert, Renata, Stephen and our head waiter to give them their gratuities, as we would not otherwise see them that final evening. Herbert, Renata and Stephen all got more than the suggested amounts.
So...here is where Disney finally not only met, but exceeded our expectations for dining on the ship. In short, I would put Palo up against any land based 4 or 5 star restaurant, including places like California Grill at the Contemporary Resort and perhaps only somewhat short of Victoria and Albert’s at the Grand Floridian. We have eaten at both of those locations several times over the years, and they have become our favorites and gold standards for Disney Dining experiences. So, coming from me, this is high praise for Palo. Our server in Palo, Coscun, was absolutely marvelous!
We had a wonderful experience at Palo, the food, the wine and service was terrific! If we were to do another Disney cruise in the future, I would give serious consideration to eating there (or the equivalent) every night of the cruise. However, as I note below, one already pays a reasonable premium for Disney cruises over the other cruise lines and I frankly don’t think that one should have to pay yet again, so as not to have an ordinary dining experience in the main dining rooms.
That final evening, we wandered around outside on deck 9 for a while, enjoying the fresh air and the sea for our last night, before heading back to the cabin, to begin the packing process and get our bags ready to put outside our cabin for pickup that night. In our case, once our check-in bags are picked up, we would not see them again until we got home at baggage claim. Much like DME at a Disney resort, you get special bag tags and the bags will be transferred to the airlines by Disney. Any fees for checked bags are billed to your cabin, so all of that is taken care of as well. That makes it convenient when you get to the airport, as you will also get your airline boarding passes in your cabin the final night. So when you get to the airport, you can bypass the check-in counter lines and just go directly to the security lines.
One little comment here is that the airline boarding passes provided by DCL do not actually say “Boarding Pass” anywhere on the paper. Thus, when we did get to the security line at Orlando International Airport, we got some questions from the TSA officer, who did eventually let us through. All of the other typical details were on the sheet, but not the words “Boarding Pass”. I am not clear on whether this is a TSA training issue or an oversight on Disney’s part relative to any federal regulations on the format and content of an airline boarding pass. I can’t recall from our experience with DME from Saratoga Springs back in April with the same process as to whether or not we got our boarding passes at the hotel or got them at the airport. I want to say the latter, as I am pretty sure that we went to the airline counter to check-in, so this may be unique to DCL.
Our final morning on Sunday, we got up early and headed to breakfast, which for us was at Parrot Cay, as that would have been the location of our dinner the night before, had we not eaten at Palo. Waiting in line we saw our table mates and discussed our dining experience at Palo the prior night. They all told us that we did not miss anything dinner-wise at Parrot Cay the night before and in fact indicated that notwithstanding the great service from Renata and Stephen, the food was actually worse than at either Triton’s or Animator’s Palate. Oy!
To continue that theme one final time, the breakfast at Parrot Cay was from a menu, with most of us ordering eggs, breakfast meats and related stuff. I am pretty sure that the eggs were real, but they tasted like and had the texture of powdered eggs. They were barely edible and the bacon was greasy and tasteless.
After breakfast, we all said our final goodbyes and headed off the ship. As with embarkation, debarkation was quick and efficient. There was only a slight delay in the line as apparently baggage was getting backed up in the claim area, for those who did not take advantage of the airline check-in process for any number of reasons, including of course, that they were not flying anywhere...
We got to our DCL bus and were on our way to the airport, arriving there within an hour. Our flight home was uneventful, albeit, I would have rather been back at Disney World!
I am trying to decide, if we still had young kids and had not been on other cruises in the past, would I feel different about our DCL experience. In that case, I might be tempted to say, that the activities for young kids on the Wonder are great and we might be more satisfied given the kids presumptive positive experience in deference to our own. However, I would still be tempted to compare the total experience to being at Disney World itself and in that context, would find the overall service, notwithstanding our particular servers, less than up to Disney standards and the food (with the notable exception of Palo) well below Disney World standards for comparable table service or even counter service dining locations.
I also wonder (pardon the pun), how much of a difference the 3 night cruise made, versus being on a 7 night cruise, which is what we have done in the past. If the general level of service and food on the 7 night itinerary is not any better, for whatever reasons, then I would have to say that I am incredibly pleased that we did not do a 7 night cruise. If on the other hand, there is something different, in general, to the crew members, food and service on the shorter Disney cruises, then honestly, I am disappointed in Disney for enabling such a distinction.
One other little item of interest. Everywhere else, Disney employees are called “Cast Members” and there is a long history and tradition behind that title. On the cruise, the Disney employees are called Crew Members (all signage had that title) which is the more traditional nautical term. I wonder why the change in that part of “the show”. Should one infer any differences in Disney employee training as well?
In what I could loosely interpret as an omen, when we debarked the Wonder on Sunday at Port Canaveral, the RCCL Freedom of the Seas was berthed right across the water. What a beauty! We were supposed to have sailed her a couple of years ago, but had to cancel due to a family illness. I had forgotten that she had moved her home port from Miami to Port Canaveral and was honestly surprised to see her there. It brought all kinds of comparisons to mind and reinforced our decision to go back on RCCL in the not too distant future. Perhaps next year on the new Oasis of the Seas, which is looking to be absolutely super. We do like the bigger ships and the Oasis is huge with large open air areas and much more.
At the end of the day, when considering our cruise experience in totality, I am hard pressed to say that for us, given the at least 15-20% premium that one pays for a Disney cruise, in contrast to other top cruise lines, that the Disney Cruise Line experience has the additional value to justify the premium price. Now, that does not mean that we are not open to doing another cruise with Disney at some point in the future and as I noted, perhaps on one of the new ships. However, I will have to acknowledge that if given a choice, another Disney cruise would be third on the list behind staying at Disney World and doing another RCCL cruise.
Part of the challenge in being a lover of all things Disney, is to be able to find a way to resist the temptation to “gush” about Disney, so that I am able to maintain an objective perspective when looking back at our Disney vacation experiences. This most recent trip, given its split between Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line, provides an opportunity to compare reality with expectations for both parts. The first part of our trip generally met or exceeded our expectations, while the second part was arguably underwhelming.
We arrived in Orlando late morning on Sunday August 30, taking the Disney Magical Express (DME) from the airport over to Disney World. For Bay Lake Tower, you are dropped off at the Contemporary and all registration/check-in activities are handled at the main desk there. I should note that we took advantage of the online check-in before we left home and that helped to speed our time upon arrival. DME is a wonderful chance to save money, albeit at the expense of a non-stop route between the airport and your resort. In our case, we were the last stop, after 3 other resorts, but in reality, it was not a problem. The DME buses are very comfortable motor coaches. Compared to having spent over $100 + tips round trip for limo services in the past, it is well worth it.
After checking in, we took our bags over to BLT just walking outside on the ground level, rather than going to the 4th floor in the Contemporary to then take the elevated walkway, which brings you to the 5th floor at BLT. We walked into the main entrance/lobby area of BLT and our immediate impression was “this place is gorgeous”. In fact, the reality of the lobby area and other parts of BLT, as compared to the artist’s conceptual drawings that we have seen was impressive. It reminds me of many of the “boutique” types of hotels that one might see elsewhere. In keeping with the architecture and design of the original Contemporary Resort itself, BLT is clean and modern, but not “cold”. We got settled into our room, which was a studio. The room was spacious for a studio, with a normal sleeping area, mini-kitchen and bathroom. We had a “pseudo” Magic Kingdom (MK) View, which enabled us to see MK from our balcony off to the right, as opposed to a straight-line view.
After heading back over to the Contemporary for lunch at the Contempo cafe, we headed for the monorail to go to Epcot. Once at Epcot, we stopped to buy Annual Passes (APs) since we will be back again in January and now with our DVC membership discount, it makes financial sense to do so. For several years in the 90’s, we had APs, but as the frequency and length of our visits changed, we let it go. It’s nice to be AP holders again.
Over the next several days we visited the parks, going to Epcot on Saturday, MK on Monday, the Studios on Tuesday and Animal Kingdom on Wednesday. Given the time of the year, after most kids are back in school, we found the crowds to be light with most rides having 5 to 10 minute waits. Indeed, we were into and out of Soaring at Epcot within 35 minutes total. We enjoyed our time in the parks and notwithstanding some periods of rain, took the time to relax and take advantage of the light crowds.
For the first time, we used the Disney Dining Plan (DDP), which provides for a counter service lunch, snack and table service dinner each day. Our breakfasts were in our room, where we brought along some instant oatmeal and I would walk over to the Contempo Cafe to use our refillable mugs for coffee.
I would say that for us, the DDP was quite a good value. In fact, one could argue that it was too much food, in that we did not even use our snack entitlements until Tuesday. The one comment that I would pass on is that it would be nice to see the plan include the option of having either a salad or appetizer, in place of the dessert. For those of us wanting to eat healthy or watching our diets, this would provide a better option than eating a high calorie dessert. Presumably, there must be some type of option along these lines for those such as diabetics and it just makes sense for everyone to have this option. Our dinners included Italy at Epcot, Crystal Palace at MK, The Wave at the Contemporary and Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which were all wonderful.
Tuesday evening, after dinner with friends, who drove down for the day from Jacksonville, the two of us went up to the DVC Member Lounge at the top of BLT. In order to do this and to control entry, you have to go to the BLT lobby and check in there. Only DVC members staying at BLT using points can go to the lounge. A Cast Member will then escort you to the elevator which takes you directly to the floor for the lounge. Upon our arrival, we stayed outside for a while to watch Wishes over MK, which was great. We then went inside to the lounge, had some wine and relaxed. We really like the lounge and found it to be very comfortable. They also serve modest appetizers there, though we did not have any as we were still full from dinner.
I will offer one additional comment/observation which could become something of a safety issue for folks (and of course Disney). The walkway that runs between level 4 at the Contemporary to level 5 at BLT is mostly open on the sides to the outside. When it rains, the rain does come into the walkway and leaves the floor of the walkway dangerously slippery. While we saw Cast Members using mops, squeegees and towels, they were not able to keep up with the rain. I would recommend that Disney give consideration for some type of drainage system on the walkway and perhaps change or augment the floor surface to something more compatible to Florida rain.
Bottom line, our experience at BLT was terrific and the opportunity to get back into the parks (which we did not do on our last trip in April) was greatly enjoyed. It was also great to be staying at a resort back over on the MK side of the property, which we missed during our most recent trips. There is just something about staying near MK that enhances the Disney World experience. In light of our experience on the cruise, in hindsight, I now wish that we had just stayed the full week at BLT and spent more time in the parks. Of course that would have meant using more DVC points, but that might have been doable with how many points we still have available.
Thursday morning, we awoke early, finished packing and got ready for the cruise. For our main large travel bags, we called for a Bell Cap at the Contemporary. They pick up the bags with the DCL tags (which we got in advance with our cruise docs) and take them back over to the hotel. As with DME, they travel separately and we won’t see those bags again until we get to the ship. That provides for a nice convenience. The rest of the bags and stuff that we would carry with us, came on the DCL bus, which met us in front of BLT. We waited in the BLT lobby after checking in with a DCL Cast Member there. When everybody was ready, we boarded the bus and after making a few stops around other Disney resorts to pick up others (much as with DME) we were on our way to Port Canaveral. It only took about an hour for the ride and was quite comfortable.
Upon arriving at the Port, we got our stuff off the bus, went into the DCL lobby, went through the security checks and upstairs to check-in. All of that part of the process went quickly and we were walking on board the ship within 20-30 minutes.
Now the “fun” started and in hindsight, was something of an omen for the rest of the cruise. When we got to our cabin, which was an outside verandah cabin on deck 5, near the stern, we noted that there were others standing in the hallway. We soon realized why. None of the room keys on the entire ship worked. For some reason, the room keys were either not programmed properly back on shore in the DCL check-in area, or there was some type of on-board system failure. After making some calls to Guest Services, we were told the problem was ship-wide and that they were working on a resolution. In the mean time, the cabin stewards would open our doors and provide entry as needed. As our steward was not immediately available, we decided to head to the Parrot Cay dining room for our welcome aboard buffet.
Our first indication of food quality was had here at the lunch and it was frankly, just OK. Having had buffets on other cruises, buffets at Disney World restaurants and given the expectations that we had of Disney generally, it was disappointing.
After lunch, we decided to head back to our cabin to see if we could drop off our bags and begin wandering around the ship, before we would have to prepare for the safety drill. We met our cabin steward, Herbert, who was wonderful during the entire cruise, and he let us in our cabin. We dropped our bags, got a little settled and noted in the Navigator (the daily schedule) that there was a special DVC welcome aboard get together in one of the lounges, so we headed there, got the usual indoctrination and picked up a few trinkets. It’s a good thing that we were finally able to get into our cabin, as we would have otherwise not known about this and missed it.
After the DVC gathering, we decided to head to Guest Services to see where things stood with the room keys.
The line at Guest Services was too long (not surprising since everyone on the ship had to do this) and given that we only had a little time before the safety drill, we gave up for now. We wandered the ship a bit and then we went back to the cabin. Having been on various ship designs, from the now scuttled S.S. Norway to three of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) ships (Voyager, Navigator and Vision), the Wonder was quite interesting. Clearly designed after the classic trans-Atlantic liners, with modern updates and of course Disney touches, we found the ship physically very clean and warm with lots of wood and brass everywhere. However, I would say that I do prefer the more contemporary look and roomier layout of the larger RCCL ships. Perhaps the new Disney ships coming soon will have more open space inside.
Herbert let us in, we got our life vests, went to our muster station and finished the drill. After the drill, we returned to our cabin, Herbert again let us in, we put our vests back and headed back to Guest Services to try again. While in line, a DCL crew member began coming through and offering to take our room keys, have them re-programmed and return them to us later. For us, having a late dinner seating, that meant slipping them under our cabin door sometime later that evening. So we again decided to wander the ship and head topside for the sail-away party, which was fun. We then went all the way forward to the front of the ship on Deck 9 and stayed there until we had cleared the channel to the Atlantic.
After leaving port, we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. Once again, Herbert let us in and we cleaned up and dressed for dinner, which that night was at Triton’s. Just as we were ready to head to dinner, our new room keys appeared under the door. Yeah!
Dinner at Triton’s was a mixed experience. We met two of our four table-mates, as the other two it turned out, had gone to Palo that evening. We would see our table mates several times during the cruise and they were great people. All four of our table mates were DVC members, so that provided for a common experience and subject matter for conversation. Our main server, Renata and our assistant server, Stephen, were wonderful. However, our food was again, just OK, sparking some table conversation on the subject. After dinner, we again wandered the ship, took in some fresh air outside and eventually headed back to our cabin to call it a day.
The next day was in Nassau, Bahamas and it was cloudy, dark and rainy much of the day. That was arguably OK, as we have been to Nassau before and were not sure that we were going to get off the ship anyway. I had thoughts of going to the Graycliff cigar factory to pick up a few, but given the weather, elected to not do so.
We went to the Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast and unfortunately again, the food was borderline OK. Some things were dry and over-cooked, while others were greasy and tasteless. We also noted slow service to some around us, who had ordered eggs/omeletes and such from the buffet chefs and waited a long time for their food to be brought to their table.
One notable comment here, with credit to Disney, though I suspect given the plethora of norovirus outbreaks in recent years, this is now common to all cruiselines, is the focus on public health, cleanliness and hand washing and that is very much appreciated. Before entering any eating area, hand wipes are given out to all. In all bathrooms, there are signs with instructions for hand washing and in the public restrooms, there are additional instructions to use paper towels to open doors. The public areas of the ship were clean and you always saw crew members cleaning someplace.
We spent the day relaxing on deck 9 under the covered areas, catching up on e-mail (with our laptops using the ship’s wireless connection, which as with other ships, is satellite based and dial-up slow...), reading and just vegging listening to music. Later, once the skies cleared a bit, we did move to an open area and spent some time in the sun.
Lunch that day was from the eateries on deck 9. I have to say that we have had better food from the counter service locations at Disney World, so the pattern of food quality issues continued and with one exception (Palo), this was a common theme throughout the cruise.
As evening approached, we got ready for dinner, which that night was at Animator’s Palate. This was a fun experience, as the dining room (including the crew members clothing) goes from black and white to color. Having seen Travel Channel shows on the DCL ships and of course comments from friends, I was aware of this as well as how it is technically done. Our two table mates who had eaten at Palo the night before joined us and gave us a great review of their experience, which of course tempted us for our dinner there the next night. Once again, however, the food in Animator’s Palate was just OK and that was the consensus from the table.
Our day wrapped up after again wandering the ship, getting some fresh air out on deck during the Pirates IN the Caribbean Party and watching the fireworks on deck 9. “Wishes” they were not, but still, nice to see at sea. We were way too full to even think about partaking in the desserts being served on deck. We did see Renata, who came over and gave us a big hug. She is wonderful and should be promoted to serving at Palo.
Our final full day at sea was at Castaway Cay. We again began the day with breakfast at the Beach Blanket Buffet, figuring that we would give it another try. No change from the day before.
We got off the ship late morning and headed over to the adult beach to relax, which is more distant than the regular beach areas. This required two tram rides from the ship and was pretty convenient. We lounged on the beach for a while, getting some sun and saw two of our table mates, with whom we spent some time talking.
One comment about the beach and water area. The sand on the beach had a lot of shell fragments of varying sizes in it, to the point where you could not take a step without there being some, which made walking barefoot somewhat problematic. The same can be said for the relatively shallow water along that beach, which although the water was crystal clear, also made it somewhat painful to walk barefoot. In the water, there were also what I would call sand “potholes”, which much like their land based brethren, were sudden drops of several inches in the level of the sand surface under water. Besides catching one by surprise as you are walking, they could easily lead to a sprained ankle and I found myself almost falling over a few times. I think that Disney needs to think about some way to efficiently rake or sweep the sand to make it more comfortable to walk barefoot. Maybe I am being picky, and perhaps there are environmental issues to consider, but if guest comfort is a priority, there should be some consideration here.
After lounging for a while, we decided to head back to the main beach area (short tram ride) and partake in the lunch being served at the BBQ. Unfortunately, once again, food quality was just OK. I would rather have had food from the Flame Tree BBQ in Animal Kingdom or even Pecos Bills in the Magic Kingdom. Sorry guys...
We headed back to the ship after lunch and wandered over to the Dimensions Lounge, where they had several flat screen TVs covering college football games. We watched our U of MN Gophers play Syracuse. They won in overtime!
We relaxed for a while and then later got ready for our dinner, which that final night was at Palo. As with most cruise lines, they have alternatives to eating in the regular dining rooms, typically charging a modest fee for the smaller location, more personal dining and hopefully, better food. For Palo, it was $15 per person, which is not bad at all.
After leaving our cabin and before heading to Palo, we stopped by to see Herbert, Renata, Stephen and our head waiter to give them their gratuities, as we would not otherwise see them that final evening. Herbert, Renata and Stephen all got more than the suggested amounts.
So...here is where Disney finally not only met, but exceeded our expectations for dining on the ship. In short, I would put Palo up against any land based 4 or 5 star restaurant, including places like California Grill at the Contemporary Resort and perhaps only somewhat short of Victoria and Albert’s at the Grand Floridian. We have eaten at both of those locations several times over the years, and they have become our favorites and gold standards for Disney Dining experiences. So, coming from me, this is high praise for Palo. Our server in Palo, Coscun, was absolutely marvelous!
We had a wonderful experience at Palo, the food, the wine and service was terrific! If we were to do another Disney cruise in the future, I would give serious consideration to eating there (or the equivalent) every night of the cruise. However, as I note below, one already pays a reasonable premium for Disney cruises over the other cruise lines and I frankly don’t think that one should have to pay yet again, so as not to have an ordinary dining experience in the main dining rooms.
That final evening, we wandered around outside on deck 9 for a while, enjoying the fresh air and the sea for our last night, before heading back to the cabin, to begin the packing process and get our bags ready to put outside our cabin for pickup that night. In our case, once our check-in bags are picked up, we would not see them again until we got home at baggage claim. Much like DME at a Disney resort, you get special bag tags and the bags will be transferred to the airlines by Disney. Any fees for checked bags are billed to your cabin, so all of that is taken care of as well. That makes it convenient when you get to the airport, as you will also get your airline boarding passes in your cabin the final night. So when you get to the airport, you can bypass the check-in counter lines and just go directly to the security lines.
One little comment here is that the airline boarding passes provided by DCL do not actually say “Boarding Pass” anywhere on the paper. Thus, when we did get to the security line at Orlando International Airport, we got some questions from the TSA officer, who did eventually let us through. All of the other typical details were on the sheet, but not the words “Boarding Pass”. I am not clear on whether this is a TSA training issue or an oversight on Disney’s part relative to any federal regulations on the format and content of an airline boarding pass. I can’t recall from our experience with DME from Saratoga Springs back in April with the same process as to whether or not we got our boarding passes at the hotel or got them at the airport. I want to say the latter, as I am pretty sure that we went to the airline counter to check-in, so this may be unique to DCL.
Our final morning on Sunday, we got up early and headed to breakfast, which for us was at Parrot Cay, as that would have been the location of our dinner the night before, had we not eaten at Palo. Waiting in line we saw our table mates and discussed our dining experience at Palo the prior night. They all told us that we did not miss anything dinner-wise at Parrot Cay the night before and in fact indicated that notwithstanding the great service from Renata and Stephen, the food was actually worse than at either Triton’s or Animator’s Palate. Oy!
To continue that theme one final time, the breakfast at Parrot Cay was from a menu, with most of us ordering eggs, breakfast meats and related stuff. I am pretty sure that the eggs were real, but they tasted like and had the texture of powdered eggs. They were barely edible and the bacon was greasy and tasteless.
After breakfast, we all said our final goodbyes and headed off the ship. As with embarkation, debarkation was quick and efficient. There was only a slight delay in the line as apparently baggage was getting backed up in the claim area, for those who did not take advantage of the airline check-in process for any number of reasons, including of course, that they were not flying anywhere...
We got to our DCL bus and were on our way to the airport, arriving there within an hour. Our flight home was uneventful, albeit, I would have rather been back at Disney World!
I am trying to decide, if we still had young kids and had not been on other cruises in the past, would I feel different about our DCL experience. In that case, I might be tempted to say, that the activities for young kids on the Wonder are great and we might be more satisfied given the kids presumptive positive experience in deference to our own. However, I would still be tempted to compare the total experience to being at Disney World itself and in that context, would find the overall service, notwithstanding our particular servers, less than up to Disney standards and the food (with the notable exception of Palo) well below Disney World standards for comparable table service or even counter service dining locations.
I also wonder (pardon the pun), how much of a difference the 3 night cruise made, versus being on a 7 night cruise, which is what we have done in the past. If the general level of service and food on the 7 night itinerary is not any better, for whatever reasons, then I would have to say that I am incredibly pleased that we did not do a 7 night cruise. If on the other hand, there is something different, in general, to the crew members, food and service on the shorter Disney cruises, then honestly, I am disappointed in Disney for enabling such a distinction.
One other little item of interest. Everywhere else, Disney employees are called “Cast Members” and there is a long history and tradition behind that title. On the cruise, the Disney employees are called Crew Members (all signage had that title) which is the more traditional nautical term. I wonder why the change in that part of “the show”. Should one infer any differences in Disney employee training as well?
In what I could loosely interpret as an omen, when we debarked the Wonder on Sunday at Port Canaveral, the RCCL Freedom of the Seas was berthed right across the water. What a beauty! We were supposed to have sailed her a couple of years ago, but had to cancel due to a family illness. I had forgotten that she had moved her home port from Miami to Port Canaveral and was honestly surprised to see her there. It brought all kinds of comparisons to mind and reinforced our decision to go back on RCCL in the not too distant future. Perhaps next year on the new Oasis of the Seas, which is looking to be absolutely super. We do like the bigger ships and the Oasis is huge with large open air areas and much more.
At the end of the day, when considering our cruise experience in totality, I am hard pressed to say that for us, given the at least 15-20% premium that one pays for a Disney cruise, in contrast to other top cruise lines, that the Disney Cruise Line experience has the additional value to justify the premium price. Now, that does not mean that we are not open to doing another cruise with Disney at some point in the future and as I noted, perhaps on one of the new ships. However, I will have to acknowledge that if given a choice, another Disney cruise would be third on the list behind staying at Disney World and doing another RCCL cruise.