cubgirl2004

I booked a Disney cruise and after going to the zoo on an insanely busy day, I am starting to wonder if cruising will be similar. No space, long lines, people on top of each other, etc. I will only go to amusement parks when I am almost guarenteed low attendance. Did I make a mistake with the cruise?

Lorrieishere

I hate crowds, too. I have a Disney annual pass that goes to waste half of the time, because I won't go when I know it is peak for them. My son and I just came back from a RCL cruise on Saturday and it was fantastic. The only time there was a crowd was for the mandatory fire drill. And this was during SPring Break!! We did time our day to get away from any busy times though. We went swimming before breakfast, when everyone else was eating. We went swimming at around 3:30 on Sea Days when everyone else was thinking about getting out of the water to get ready for dinner and we took the late seating at dinner so we didn't feel rushed to get dressed. The ships are absolutely huge and you would be amazed at how much alone time you can manage. It was WONDERFUL!! I am sitting here trying to figure out where we are going next

gail

Depending on what specifically you don't like about crowds, you can generally avoid that. The pool area, however, on a hot day at sea is one place I can't think of anyway to avoid crowds.

Just as you do at theme parks, pick less crowded times for meals. When ship docks, don't pick the beach closest to the cruise port to go to. There will certainly be some crowded places or times on any ship, but as above poster stated, there are enough other places to go that you can just go someplace else.

kfusto

I would definitely avoid the bigger ships if you do not like crowds. I also do not enjoy tons of people and the large liners feel extremely crowded to me, with long lines and end to end pool lounge chairs.

I have not sailed with Disney so cannot speak to that. I assume you have kids and so you are expecting the mass of children aboard?

JJ5

Go with the mid-size ship and not the ships with 2000 plus passengers. I don't mind crowds as long as it isn't all the time, but my guy does. And cruising is definitely not for him, I found that out on a large 2600 passenger Princess ship. On Grand Cayman he actually said to me, "And you paid WHAT for this?"

Of course you can find private time, balcony, little used areas, times when they are not busy in dining etc.etc. but nevertheless, you are purchasing pictures, shopping or seeing movie/shows on board, embarking or disembarking at ports, and much more in lines and density situations. You just are. And those who love cruising tend to overlook those lengths of times, IMHO. For instance, doing a port or two on our own, we still had tender or pier waits packed with people on Western Carib. in winter 2005.

He also thought that we were "trapped" in location way, way too much for his taste by crowd circumstances. We spent about 1/3 rd of our time in Jamaica trying to get out of the denser shopping areas and it was not as easy to do as it sounds. And on G. Cayman's pier we both were literally walked on to the point of being bruised as well. Cozumel was the only port we had that was not wall to wall people.

wsoxrebel

I didn't mind the crowds, because I didn't mingle with them (that much)

We chose to eat every meal in the dining room, rather than fight the buffet. This meant social chitchat with strangers which was OK with me.

I also wore dark sunglasses and read alot. Much more my idea of a vacation than watching a talent show or a newlywed game. The only claustrophobic experince for me was the "mandatory" docking meeting. All those people! All those awful jokes!

Lorrieishere

I agree with the size of the ship being an issue. We were on the Jewel of the Seas, which isn't one of the super huge ones. We usually ate at the buffet (we didn't want to get out of our pool clothes) and never had a crowd.