Feel Stupid......

[bumbershoot]

IMO, CocoCay puts Castaway Cay to shame.

Sigh. While I haven’t been on the modernized coco, I loved the old coco so so so much. It was so peaceful. So nice. Loved the lizards and chickens roaming around. Loved how they didn’t have just one big beach, but small inlets so you never felt like you were there with thousands of other people. The ONLY thing it was missing in my eyes was a not-quite-5k.

And now...sigh.

This is my issue with other cruise ships. I am allergic to cigarette smoke and hate that they allow smoking anywhere on the inside of the ship

But they don’t. There’s no mainstream line that allows smoking *anywhere* inside the ship.

I went on a Celebrity cruise ship and the casino was close to the lobby area, which was multi tiered and you pretty much needed to walk past it to get around if you were not out on the top decks.

Celebrity doesn’t allow smoking on the casino anymore. Or anywhere indoors.

Even Holland no longer allows smoking in staterooms.


Meanwhile, Disney Dream has a smoking section along the path around the ship that you jog on. UGH.

most of what I hear about them seems to focus around drunk passengers acting badly. Can I get some counter points to that?

Aren’t there a bunch of posts in this thread that are already counterpoints?

I was hoping that a Disney cruise would be different, but maybe I should just have a different expectation for cruising in general?

You had a lousy cruise.

Does it change when you have a longer trip scheduled?

Yes.

It’s been stared for years and years that the shorter the cruise on carnival, especially around college breaks, the more potential for obnoxious behavior.

 

[John VN]

Look up the Carnival vs DCL thread. You'll see plenty of balanced reviews.

like it ^^

Ummm "Fair AND Balanced" reviews..... " Yea... that's the ticket!"

Our DCL cruises have been memorable = good

Our RCCL cruises have been memorable = good

Our Carnival cruises have been memorable = 1 good and 1 not so good.

Our HAL cruises have been memorable = good

Our NCL Alaskan cruise was NOT so good but old ship and just came from Japan. New ship WOULD DEFINITELY be better. ALSO the bus driver fell asleep at the wheel when driving back from Emerald Lake. Fellow in 2nd row jumped up, grabbed the steering wheel and prevented a "NEWS FLASH -- BUS CRASHES!!!"

Our MSC Seaside cruise was "Yacht Club" class and far exceeded DCL Concierge and RCCL Sky at much less $$$$. Met one NCL Haven cruiser who also felt YC was far better at less $$$$.

Seems that for us, DW and Myself, VBC (Value Based Cruising) is taking priority over Loyalty.

 

[kiford]

There’s no mainstream line that allows smoking *anywhere* inside the ship.

What do you define as "mainstream"? Carnival's website indicates a number of areas on various ships that allow smoking within their casinos, bars, and nightclubs. Royal Caribbean states that their ships are designated as non-smoking but apparently don't consider their casinos to be part of the ship obviously as they do allow smoking in there. MSC states that there are fewer smoking areas than non-smoking areas but does permit smoking in some bars. Princess permits smoking in some areas of the casino, the cigar lounge, and in some nightclubs. Norwegian allows smoking in the casino, some of which are pretty open. Plenty of cruise lines - which I define as mainstream - allow some level of smoking inside the ship; no matter how well these areas are ventilated, the smell travels, lingers and can be recirculated throughout the ship. If you are sensitive or allergic to it, any level of interior smoking can be intolerable.

 

[mevelandry]

I was there last week. I didn't care for it. The food wasn't very good. The water slide looked interesting, but for 80pp I'll take a pass.

We've tried the waterslides. The tickets were just 40$ CAD when we went so it was worth it. But I agree that anything pricier than than it a little bit too much for us. That being said, being on top of the tower, in a water park on an island was very special.

Loved the beaches. We've had a very good snorkeling experience near the beach. We've tried the tacos, chicken burgers and mozzarella sticks and loved it.

 

[mevelandry]

like it ^^

Ummm "Fair AND Balanced" reviews..... " Yea... that's the ticket!"

I'm afraid I don't understand the reference so I have no idea what it means.

 

[mevelandry]

Me to! I have never been to Coco Cay however it looks amazing and we purchased the Beach Club passes for both of our B2B sailings on Symphony. We haven't found Castaway Cay of any interest in years. There's really not that much there to see or do, it's a lazy day or nothing. Also the food is mediocre at best, the food on Coco Cay looks so much more interesting. Can...not...wait!
We don't go till October, if you go before that report back. I need all the info I can get on the Beach Club.

We're going in December! I hope you'll make a review!!!

 

[mevelandry]

Sigh. While I haven’t been on the modernized coco, I loved the old coco so so so much. It was so peaceful. So nice. Loved the lizards and chickens roaming around. Loved how they didn’t have just one big beach, but small inlets so you never felt like you were there with thousands of other people. The ONLY thing it was missing in my eyes was a not-quite-5k.

The iguanas, lizards and chicken are still there. They still have small inlets.

 

[vegs1]

Carnival has always sounded like a nightmare for me, most of what I hear about them seems to focus around drunk passengers acting badly. Can I get some counter points to that? What did you like about them that Disney does not offer?

We have done 8 DCL cruises and 2 Carnival. We had no issues on Carnival at all. Never saw a drunk passenger or even considered it a “party” experience.

I didn’t like the decor of the ship on Carnival as much as DCL. My daughter thought the kids club was much better on Carnival. We thought the food was better on Carnival also.

I love Mickey though so DCL will always have my heart. Their standards do seem to be slipping though.

 

[Lilsia]

What do you define as "mainstream"? Carnival's website indicates a number of areas on various ships that allow smoking within their casinos, bars, and nightclubs. Royal Caribbean states that their ships are designated as non-smoking but apparently don't consider their casinos to be part of the ship obviously as they do allow smoking in there. MSC states that there are fewer smoking areas than non-smoking areas but does permit smoking in some bars. Princess permits smoking in some areas of the casino, the cigar lounge, and in some nightclubs. Norwegian allows smoking in the casino, some of which are pretty open. Plenty of cruise lines - which I define as mainstream - allow some level of smoking inside the ship; no matter how well these areas are ventilated, the smell travels, lingers and can be recirculated throughout the ship. If you are sensitive or allergic to it, any level of interior smoking can be intolerable.

Exactly this! The Celebrity ship that I was on had the casino, in the center of the ship, that allowed smoking and if you wanted to get across the ship, you either had to go up on deck(which had smoking) or you had to pass through the open atrium where you could smell the smoke from the casino. I don't think people realize how physically it affects some of us. Just smelling the smoke causes me to have an instant migraine and for my nose and throat to start constricting. It is a serious allergy.