My wife and two tween children recently returned from a 4 night Bahamanian cruise, which was the first cruise we’ve ever taken. I wanted to keep our “first time” to a short cruise as both my wife and daughter have occasional motion sickness concerns, and the dates lined up well with our school’s spring break this year.
We were in a 1 bedroom concierge suite on the Dream (room 12020). Some general impressions follow:
I was prepared for a much longer boarding process, but as soon as we stepped into the terminal it was sort of like being swept into a river. Once through security we were at the check-in desk, having our picture taken, on the boat, and sitting down to the concierge lunch at Royal Palace – all before it seemed like we had a chance to catch our breath!
The concierge lunch was average but, once we eventually finished checking in at the concierge lounge, I’m glad they offer it. Having everyone immediately cramming into the lounge would be a nightmare, and free booze with lunch is a nice way to start the cruise.
Room was in great shape and the soft goods were spotless. I noticed when disembarking they were rolling pallets of replacement couch cushions from the service elevators into the halls and am guessing they offload and rotate/clean them all on a regular schedule. Do they do this for every cruise?
Concierge hosts were Mariana, Rodrigo, and Angeline. All were personable and very helpful; although we never had much of a need to utilize their services outside of asking basic questions on cruise logistics since we were cruising noobs. Rodrigo is a very chatty fellow.
Our servers were Binu and Jose, and Felice was our head waiter. Binu was fabulous. Jose was also great but had a heavy accent that was occasionally difficult for me to decipher (although part of this may have been my problem as I was fighting a sinus infection and my ears were clogged almost the entire trip). Felice was very engaging but only chatted with him briefly each night as he made the rounds.
Gerald was our stateroom host and was superb. I had a misplaced bias going in that this position would be one of the weaker members of the staff but I was completely wrong. He was engaging and on the ball.
I had no idea whether to choose a port (020) or starboard (520) side room and ended up choosing the port. In retrospect, the starboard may have been a little nicer, but we had great views of Nassau and Castaway Cay when arriving and before backing into the docks and were looking out onto the water when docked at Port Canaveral.
The lounge and concierge sundeck were fabulous. Always having snacks and drinks available was a huge benefit and it was almost never crowded. We ordered room service breakfast one morning, but otherwise just ate breakfast in the lounge every morning. Most of the items on offer were very good. A few misses here and there but not many. We had first seating for dinner and I always expected there might be a bit of a wait grabbing a drink during the “happy hour” prior to dinner but never had to wait at all. We skipped the “special character meet and greet” on the sundeck as it was Stitch (sorry, not a fan) when I assume it may have been a bit more crowded up there, but otherwise I never saw more than 6 other people on the sundeck at one time (and usually it was either empty or there were one or two other people).
Having only now experienced Castaway Cay with a cabana (we were fortunate to get a cabana on the family beach, Cabana #8), I don’t think I could ever be happy going back and not having a cabana. An absolute treat.
Embarkation day is sort of a whirlwind: board, lunch, lounge check-in, unpack, check out the kid’s clubs, muster drill, dinner, show – they all seem to happen in such quick succession I was exhausted and falling asleep halfway through the show. Speaking of which…
…the opening show was “The Golden Mickey’s”. Man, I thought this was terrible. It seemed like such a poor effort. We skipped “Believe” as the kids browbeat us into going to see “Ralph Breaks the Internet” instead, but I’m really glad we went to “Beauty and the Beast”. A great show with fabulous set design and production values!
We didn’t do any specialty dinners as it was a short cruise and we wanted to make sure we dined with our children at each of the dining rooms. Food at dinner was decent – wedding/event banquet quality is as good of a description as any, although some dishes were winners and some mediocre (as to be expected). Atmosphere at the main dining rooms always seemed to be at roughly the “dull roar” level but about as good as it could be given the huge numbers of people they are feeding and the number of children. I was actually impressed with how few tantrums I witnessed during dinner…maybe none? The noisiest dining experience was actually the concierge lunch on embarkation day as there was a huge table of 20 or so people all sailing together and they sat all the kids together on one end while the parents on the other end ignored them.
I never once made it to Cabanas. I’m sort of embarrassed I never even found the time to survey what was on offer. My son grabbed some pizza at Luigi’s for lunch one day and we all grabbed some ice cream cones a few times, but other than hitting the AquaDuck we rarely ever made it out on the main pool deck. With our verandah, the lounge, and the sundeck, we just never needed to check it out.
Both my son and daughter were in the Edge club (they were happy to offer a waiver to my 10.5 year old son). My son loved it while my 12 year old daughter was lukewarm. We were doing a lot of things together as a family so there weren’t tons of opportunities to spend time there anyway, but they each logged a few hours. I think my son mostly liked it because of the video games.
None of us had any motion sickness issues! My daughter donned her sea bands a few times, but it was precautionary as she’s a bit of a nervous personality. The boat definitely moved significantly more than I expected but other than a bit of wobbliness at times, no problems whatsoever. I did wake up in the middle of the night the first night and the ship was seriously rocking. I was somewhat concerned I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep, but ended up doing so promptly. Of all of the different anti-motion sickness remedies I brought on board, the only other thing we sampled was TummyDrops ginger candies. And that was only a few times due to the rich food and drink, and not because of any motion sickness.
Disembarking with the concierge staff was a breeze once I understood the process. But lines didn’t look too terrible for the non-concierge guests for disembarking. Lines at Guest Services and Shutters, however, looked like a giant pain in the a$$.
I wish the AquaDuck lines were shorter.
We had a great time. I’m not sure I’m completely in love with cruising but would absolutely do it again. A Castaway Cay double-dip sounds pretty freaking great right now…
We were in a 1 bedroom concierge suite on the Dream (room 12020). Some general impressions follow:
I was prepared for a much longer boarding process, but as soon as we stepped into the terminal it was sort of like being swept into a river. Once through security we were at the check-in desk, having our picture taken, on the boat, and sitting down to the concierge lunch at Royal Palace – all before it seemed like we had a chance to catch our breath!
The concierge lunch was average but, once we eventually finished checking in at the concierge lounge, I’m glad they offer it. Having everyone immediately cramming into the lounge would be a nightmare, and free booze with lunch is a nice way to start the cruise.
Room was in great shape and the soft goods were spotless. I noticed when disembarking they were rolling pallets of replacement couch cushions from the service elevators into the halls and am guessing they offload and rotate/clean them all on a regular schedule. Do they do this for every cruise?
Concierge hosts were Mariana, Rodrigo, and Angeline. All were personable and very helpful; although we never had much of a need to utilize their services outside of asking basic questions on cruise logistics since we were cruising noobs. Rodrigo is a very chatty fellow.
Our servers were Binu and Jose, and Felice was our head waiter. Binu was fabulous. Jose was also great but had a heavy accent that was occasionally difficult for me to decipher (although part of this may have been my problem as I was fighting a sinus infection and my ears were clogged almost the entire trip). Felice was very engaging but only chatted with him briefly each night as he made the rounds.
Gerald was our stateroom host and was superb. I had a misplaced bias going in that this position would be one of the weaker members of the staff but I was completely wrong. He was engaging and on the ball.
I had no idea whether to choose a port (020) or starboard (520) side room and ended up choosing the port. In retrospect, the starboard may have been a little nicer, but we had great views of Nassau and Castaway Cay when arriving and before backing into the docks and were looking out onto the water when docked at Port Canaveral.
The lounge and concierge sundeck were fabulous. Always having snacks and drinks available was a huge benefit and it was almost never crowded. We ordered room service breakfast one morning, but otherwise just ate breakfast in the lounge every morning. Most of the items on offer were very good. A few misses here and there but not many. We had first seating for dinner and I always expected there might be a bit of a wait grabbing a drink during the “happy hour” prior to dinner but never had to wait at all. We skipped the “special character meet and greet” on the sundeck as it was Stitch (sorry, not a fan) when I assume it may have been a bit more crowded up there, but otherwise I never saw more than 6 other people on the sundeck at one time (and usually it was either empty or there were one or two other people).
Having only now experienced Castaway Cay with a cabana (we were fortunate to get a cabana on the family beach, Cabana #8), I don’t think I could ever be happy going back and not having a cabana. An absolute treat.
Embarkation day is sort of a whirlwind: board, lunch, lounge check-in, unpack, check out the kid’s clubs, muster drill, dinner, show – they all seem to happen in such quick succession I was exhausted and falling asleep halfway through the show. Speaking of which…
…the opening show was “The Golden Mickey’s”. Man, I thought this was terrible. It seemed like such a poor effort. We skipped “Believe” as the kids browbeat us into going to see “Ralph Breaks the Internet” instead, but I’m really glad we went to “Beauty and the Beast”. A great show with fabulous set design and production values!
We didn’t do any specialty dinners as it was a short cruise and we wanted to make sure we dined with our children at each of the dining rooms. Food at dinner was decent – wedding/event banquet quality is as good of a description as any, although some dishes were winners and some mediocre (as to be expected). Atmosphere at the main dining rooms always seemed to be at roughly the “dull roar” level but about as good as it could be given the huge numbers of people they are feeding and the number of children. I was actually impressed with how few tantrums I witnessed during dinner…maybe none? The noisiest dining experience was actually the concierge lunch on embarkation day as there was a huge table of 20 or so people all sailing together and they sat all the kids together on one end while the parents on the other end ignored them.
I never once made it to Cabanas. I’m sort of embarrassed I never even found the time to survey what was on offer. My son grabbed some pizza at Luigi’s for lunch one day and we all grabbed some ice cream cones a few times, but other than hitting the AquaDuck we rarely ever made it out on the main pool deck. With our verandah, the lounge, and the sundeck, we just never needed to check it out.
Both my son and daughter were in the Edge club (they were happy to offer a waiver to my 10.5 year old son). My son loved it while my 12 year old daughter was lukewarm. We were doing a lot of things together as a family so there weren’t tons of opportunities to spend time there anyway, but they each logged a few hours. I think my son mostly liked it because of the video games.
None of us had any motion sickness issues! My daughter donned her sea bands a few times, but it was precautionary as she’s a bit of a nervous personality. The boat definitely moved significantly more than I expected but other than a bit of wobbliness at times, no problems whatsoever. I did wake up in the middle of the night the first night and the ship was seriously rocking. I was somewhat concerned I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep, but ended up doing so promptly. Of all of the different anti-motion sickness remedies I brought on board, the only other thing we sampled was TummyDrops ginger candies. And that was only a few times due to the rich food and drink, and not because of any motion sickness.
Disembarking with the concierge staff was a breeze once I understood the process. But lines didn’t look too terrible for the non-concierge guests for disembarking. Lines at Guest Services and Shutters, however, looked like a giant pain in the a$$.
I wish the AquaDuck lines were shorter.
We had a great time. I’m not sure I’m completely in love with cruising but would absolutely do it again. A Castaway Cay double-dip sounds pretty freaking great right now…