He added later, “I have been on several cruises and adore them, despite being the exact kind of person who should, on paper, HATE them.”

Some readers dinged me for not doing enough advance research: “Looks like he would of had a better time if he’d done his homework before hand. Some very bad planning on his trip,” wrote M&M on Twitter. ” And a reader, Tarin Olding, asked: “U don’t do any research on the destination/industry before u experience it & write critically about something u put no effort into? Entire online cornucopia of boards, FB groups (including cruise specific ones), websites, podcasts & blogs to help you!”

Guilty as charged. But I will add that it was an intentional decision: I wanted to go into the trip as a total novice, to learn things the hard way. (For one thing, I figured it would make for a more entertaining story.) There are definitely ways to game the Disney cruise system — and we should probably do a follow-up article on that.

Still others felt the piece stank of snobbery: “Just curious, but did you have to pay extra on your trip to learn to look down your nose at people with differing tastes or did that come free?” wrote Suzanne Claire of Pennsylvania. “You seem to think you’re too sophisticated for the Disney cruise,” wrote Nate Sanchez on Twitter. “You criticize the food, the help, the fanfare.” (For the record, I specifically noted how great the crew was — friendly, helpful and genuinely enthusiastic.)