DINKS Cruise Disney – The Beginning
DINKS Cruise Disney – Pre Planning (Mickey and Minnie Called, Pirate Night Prep)
DINKS Cruise Disney – Time to Go
DINKS Cruise Disney – Onboard (Multiple Posts Throughout: Initial Thoughts, Around Disney Fantasy, Answering Reader Questions)
DINKS Cruise Disney – Parting Thoughts
Cruise Review – Parts One, Two, and Three

The MJ on Travel team disembarked Disney Fantasy this morning after 7 days of sunshine, blue water, and islands. I really enjoyed the cruise, and am looking forward to preparing my full review of the cruise over the next couple of weeks. In that, I’ll hope to answer most of your questions about our Disney cruising experience. A few things stand out to me as notable, and I’ll cover them in greater detail in the review. However, I thought some of those deserved a note here in my “parting thoughts” post.

The Dining

This wasn’t small-ship dining, but I found the food provided in the main dining rooms to be of a higher quality than I expected. Producing 3,000 meals is not a “fine dining” experience, but it is expected to be good. Our Disney Fantasy main dining experiences were great. I’m sure I’m slightly biased by the fact that our wait staff, Andre and Jonathan were superb! Specialty dining in Palo was disappointing. Perhaps my expectations were upped a bit by our main dining room team. The food was nice, but not really of noticeably higher quality than that of main dining. Something seemed off. On the other hand, there was dinner in Remy. Ah…Remy. Let me just say that Remy had me at Taittinger, and that was that. There’s more to this story, but our dining experience in Remy was without question the finest meal I’ve ever experienced at sea, and certainly in the top 3 of meals in any restaurant. Remy was phenomenal.

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Random Cruise Experiences

Disney is pretty serious about their adults only areas. Walking past the “18 and up” wall, the atmosphere changes from floating Disneyland to serenity. Most of my hours were spent on the quiet side of “the wall” as well as downstairs in the Europa “district” where my favorite lounge, Skyline was located. Meridian on deck 12 was no slouch either. It is possible to be an “adult” and enjoy “adult time” on a Disney cruise.

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Keep in mind, none of this “adult stuff” prevented me from riding the Aqua Duck water coaster a few times. 🙂

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Castaway Cay

Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas, was our final port of call. Like all things Disney, it is very well done. The weather could not have been better, and all of the beaches were beautiful. We spent our day at Serenity Bay, aka, the adult beach where the age limit is 18 and up. It is at the farthest end of the island and can be reached via a lengthy walk or tram ride. The island was beautiful, very well done. Bar service was frequent on the beach, and the island barbecue was really good as opposed to just OK. The usual hot dogs and hamburgers were accompanied by grilled mahi mahi, chicken, and ribeye steaks….yes, ribeye steaks. Just another example of the great food offered by Disney Cruise Line.

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The Burning Question

Should a couple without kids or with older kids out of the house enjoy cruising Disney? Well, the answer to that, like all things, is that it depends. There are a lot of people that cruise Disney without kids, and I can see why. However, I don’t think MrsMJ and I would just book a Disney cruise on our own for the heck of it. That’s not to say that we did not enjoy our cruise, we certainly did. But make no mistake, great adults only areas or not, a Disney Cruise is about the kids….as it should be. I can’t imagine a better experience for families with small children or perhaps even tweens. Of course, there’s nothing stopping anyone from spending all of their time in the adults only areas, but there is no way you are going to completely escape some of the floating Disneyland elements of a Disney cruise. Perhaps you don’t even want to, and that’s just fine. Did I mention that I love the Aqua Duck? 🙂 I’d never tell anyone not to book a Disney cruise, DINKS or not. I think it’s a great option for any family, extended family, bunch of friends, etc. Our group was MrsMJ and me, friends of MrsMJ (mom, dad, 2 young sons), and grandma of family. We had a great time.

In the end, I think the answer to the big question is just like cruising, it’s as individual as you. If you love Disney, I have no doubt you’ll love a Disney cruise, whether you are 4 or 44. If you like (or appreciate) Disney, and love cruising, you’ll probably like your Disney cruise, but not love it so much that you’re going to break up with your other cruising habits. Make sense? Full cruise review coming soon.

-MJ, March 22, 2014