OK gang,
I will be attempting to convince my fiance to go on a DCL cruise (either with WDW or solo). He wants to go to a "tropical Island" -- I told him DCL goes to three/four including its own. He believes this is a trip better suited for when we have kids (he's wrong, obviously).
I think he is concerned about the number of kids -- even though I told him there are tons of adult-only areas and you barely notice the kids. He likes a casino (nothing much I can do about that). He loves sports so I told him about the sports bar.

But I need your help!!!
Any tidbits/advice/info that will help me convince him to go on a DCL cruise will be much appreciated (I will even credit you in my wedding toast). I've been on two (both Magic and Wonder)-- but never for romantic purposes.....

We might be going to WDW with my family a few months earlier as a belated bat mitzvah gift to my sister (so he'll end up there anyway).

My husband and I went on the seven day cruise for our honeymoon. Does that count? I also know of a few other couples who have gone recently that don't have kids.

Typically when you set up dinner reservations, they will seat you with other couples that do not have kids. You might also be interested in Palo (the adults only restaurant costing a minimal amount). I believe there is also an adults only pool.

My husband and I went on the seven day cruise for our honeymoon. Does that count?

That works for me :) Did he feel overwhelmed by Disney at all?

I don't think so, but I don't want to answer for him. I didn't have to convince him though. I think it was his idea in the beginning.

My husband and I love Disney and had thought about doing the Disney Cruise for our honeymoon. But like youre fiance said, we were also worried about having too many kids all over. Now, I really regret not going, because I have heard about the adults only areas and it just seems like we would have had a wonderful time. But now, we are trying to plan a cruise to take our daughter on. Since she will probably be too young to enjoy it, I know it will be more for us than for her. :)

First off, congrats! When is the lucky day?

You know... while there are many more kids than on other cruise lines, I did not see it to be much, if any, of a problem. Most were well behaved and did stick to their kids-only boundries. And the cast members on board are serious about keeping it that way. For example, on the last night of our cruise, my wife and I, with my 5 month old son sleeping on her shoulder, went for a stroll. We stopped by the comedy club, which was AO at that time. She was, literally, one foot in the door just peeking in, and we were asked (very nicely) to leave as it was AO.

There were only two complaints about kids that I had:
1) Kids use the elevators a lot - even for going up one deck. (A personal peeve of mine.) My personal solution for this was noticeing that kids tended to use the mid-deck elevators more than anywhere else. Therefore, we would stroll down the decks to the fore or aft shafts to go up mutiple flights of stairs. (Keep in mind with an infant in tow, this was the only reason we took the 'vators. If we were baby-less, we took the stairs.) To be honest, the stairs were not a big deal unless you had to go from the bottom to the top. But the artwork was real nice to look at during the ascent.

2) Kids sometimes would not watch where they were going - so they bump into you. This is not unlike being at the park, but it is a little more "controlled." Taking it in stride is your best bet.

...But for the most part, kids were not screaming and yelling like some may think.

To be honest, I never felt more "important" than while on that ship. I mean, during meals, I felt like I was at top-notch restaraunts with servers who could read me like a book. I never wanted for anything. Even at lunch - go to Tritons (on the Wonder) and have top-notch service at your luncheon with nearly no kids around.

If your hubby to be wants to do the casino thing, then let him go to the casino's at Nassau. That would be a nice daytrip while at port.

As for the sports bar, that was located in one of the ships "stacks," I think they were converted to the new teen hangout while the old teen place (Common Grounds) was going to be made into an AO upscale coffee shop with TV's and the like. This may need to be verified, as I cannot remember specifics, but I remember a program on the stateroom TV explaining what was was done to the Magic during Dry Dock and it included some significant renovations of that sort. (The Wonder was going to DD right after we were getting off.) So, some of the details on this may be incorrect. (my apologies if I am not on target here...)

My 2 cents... do a 3 day cruise and then spend some time at the parks. Let the magic of both locations make your honeymoon extra special.

Typically when you set up dinner reservations, they will seat you with other couples that do not have kids.

In fact, they even paid enough attention to the details of the reservations that they seated us at a table with 3 other honeymooning couples. By chance, we even ran into one of the couples at Disneyland during our anniversary visit the following year. :)

On our honeymoon cruise, we really didn't notice the kids on-board much at all, although I admit that my wife and I, as long-time Disney and theme park enthusiasts, probably were a bit more tolerant of kid-friendly venues than some others might be.

I would tend to think that the biggest potential sticking point of the items you mentioned is the lack of a casino on-board the Disney ships. If that really is ultra-important to your fiance, then you might want to at least consider a different cruise line. Even with that, though, you might note that there are typically casinos available at the ports of call.

-Jeff

I think he's slowly warming up to the idea. I told him Atlantis has a HUGE aquarium (he LOVES fish) and one of the shore excursions includes a tour of the resort/a stay on the beach/and a snack voucher. Since he hasn't been to WDW, we might do the four day wonder with a three day WDW (adding one to make it four day so we have more time to explore). Plus, we can go to the casino -- we ust can't go into the pool or on the slides.

Just sent away for the WDW/DCL Fairy Tale Honeymoon info -- hopefully they can convince him better than I ... (Yes, I know it isn't until 2006, but I figured honeymoon should probably be booked a year out to get the cabin/hotel we want).

When my husband took me on the cruise for my 40th birthday...we went sans our kids.

We had the best time with the other couples at the dinner table...and never saw any kids at any meals, other than some breakfasts. Having an adults only restaraunt on the ship was great as well (and very special).
Once, when some children came to the adults only pool with some parents, they were quickly asked to take the children to the family pool by a ship's CM. Never once, in the spa did I see a child.

The only time I saw/heard kids was watching the plays, in the elevators...and on the decks during the day. Oh, and there were the kids on Castaway Cay, but again, after snorkeling we went off to the adults only area.

What was nice was the mix of couples at our dinner table. Two honeymooners, a couple like us...leaving the kids at home and a set of grandparents...without their kids/grandkids. :D We even hung out with one of the honeymoon couples for the rest of the cruise and had a great time!

If you can show him these posts...and talk to a travel agent...I hope he'll be convinced. :D

Let's just say I am a great salesperson. I told him I would need 20 minutes of his time. I grabbed the video, the large brocheure and had the web site up on his laptop. I answered all his questions and it looked like I was getting through.

I got a quote from the travel agent and he said it sounded expensive. So I told him I would look into other cruises with the same itinerary. He said no, let's do Disney -- it isn't that expensive, it'll be nice.

Look for us on the Disney Magic July 8, 2006 -- deck 2 ;)

Let's just say I am a great salesperson. I told him I would need 20 minutes of his time. I grabbed the video, the large brocheure and had the web site up on his laptop. I answered all his questions and it looked like I was getting through.

I got a quote from the travel agent and he said it sounded expensive. So I told him I would look into other cruises with the same itinerary. He said no, let's do Disney -- it isn't that expensive, it'll be nice.

Look for us on the Disney Magic July 8, 2006 -- deck 2 ;)

Yeah for you! How cool, a Disney honeymoon.