Perhaps our experience at Disney World and Disneyland caused us to expect too much out of this cruise. From the moment we arrived at the Port Authority terminal until the moment was were set free 4 days later, we felt like cattle being herded to slaughter.

Within 5 minutes of stepping foot on the ship, we were accosted by mostly men in Disney uniforms trying to hustle us to buy beer and bottled water. It was very unnerving at first. We were trying to find available lounge chairs (which was a task unto itself) and it was loud and hectic and these men kept coming up to us. We could hardly understand a word they were saying but we thought they were trying to tell us we couldn't sit in the chairs we had found. We finally realized they were hustling us to buy water bottles. When we declined, they were obviously very annoyed and huffed off muttering unintelligible words under their breath but clearly loud enough for us to hear. Thank goodness we couldn't understand them anyway. It was about this point when we realized we'd may have made a terrible mistake to take this cruise.

Shortly after setting sail the captain came over the loud speaker to tell us we'd be hitting very rough waters. He explained we'd be experiencing 15 foot swells that would cause the ship to moan and that they'd be giving away complimentary seasick medication (note: this would be the first and only complimentary thing we would experience the whole trip outside of most meals). Almost every crew member had their hand out for a tip the entire time and if you didn't give them a tip amount they expected you would surely feel their wrath. Sure enough, before long the ship started rising up and then you would just wait and brace yourself for it to crash down. You couldn't walk without holding on to something. Barf bags began piling up in the bathrooms. It was a new level of hell on top of what was already feeling like a very bad vacation decision. I was trying to take care of our two children while barely being able to sit up myself. It was a nightmare. Surely the captain knew we were in store for these conditions prior to setting sail. Had we been informed we would not have boarded. Shame on Disney! Read more