Group Reservations? Is anything special done?

[purplevalentine]

Just booked my very 1st Disney Cruise last Friday. I'll be sailing on the Disney Dream 4day 3night cruise to the Bahamas next April. My sister n' law and I have been working together and turns out we have a total of 9 cabins booked for friends and family. Does Disney do anything special for group reservations? We have all the cabins "linked" in the Disney reservation system already. Just curious if Disney does any cool perks for groups.

Karen

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I have never seen or heard of extra perks bar do link your reservations to sit together at dinner.

 

[lbgraves]

DCL stopped offering group reservation benefits years ago.

 

[jdb in AZ]

The photographer at Shutters accepted a reservation for our group of 48 to have our picture taken on the stairs in the atrium before dinner on formal night. Normally they don't accept reservations, so does that count as a perk?

 

[purplevalentine]

DCL stopped offering group reservation benefits years ago.

WOW, thanks for the info! Had no clue. I'll have to relay that info to my sister n' law. But at least we all will be dining together.

Karen

 

[purplevalentine]

The photographer at Shutters accepted a reservation for our group of 48 to have our picture taken on the stairs in the atrium before dinner on formal night. Normally they don't accept reservations, so does that count as a perk?

I count that as a perk! It would be hard to get that many people together randomly at the same time.

Karen

 

[anonymousegirl]

WOW, thanks for the info! Had no clue. I'll have to relay that info to my sister n' law. But at least we all will be dining together.

Karen

May I make a suggestion re table size? I don't know how many people total in your party, but I suggest you have tables no larger than 8 or 10. The reason is that the wait staff can only carry, at most 10 entrees at one time. If you have more than 10 people at a table, some will get their entrees and then some will have to wait for the server to go back down and wait in the queue to get up to the kitchen window. This will severely impact the length of time for your dinners.
I have personally experienced this. I was in a group of 30 people and for some reason Disney grouped us as a 13, 13 and a 4 top. I was at the four top and we had awesome service (thanks Ericson and Eddie!), but the two tables of 13 were miserable. With only some of the dishes coming out, the first people served had to either wait and let their food get cold, or eat and then hang around waiting for the others to finish before the next course could be served.

 

[lbgraves]

The photographer at Shutters accepted a reservation for our group of 48 to have our picture taken on the stairs in the atrium before dinner on formal night. Normally they don't accept reservations, so does that count as a perk?

Not sure why they told you that. They have taken reservations to do large group photos for groups on all of our cruises. It's quite common and actually recommended to do this in the afternoon so it doesn't tie up the regular line in the evenings. You get a better shot without the atrium busy for dinner & people going in and out of the MDR entrance located there.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Not sure why they told you that. They have taken reservations to do large group photos for groups on all of our cruises. It's quite common and actually recommended to do this in the afternoon so it doesn't tie up the regular line in the evenings. You get a better shot without the atrium busy for dinner & people going in and out of the MDR entrance located there.

How large of a group do you have to be to qualify for a reservation? Just sayin, it might actually be a perk.

 

[lbgraves]

How large of a group do you have to be to qualify for a reservation? Just sayin, it might actually be a perk.

Anyone can request a private photographer for a fee.