Where do you think the Magic will go after the med?

[slg]

Are platinum guests still getting the free palo? I thought that was discontinued.

 

[kcashner]

Are platinum guests still getting the free palo? I thought that was discontinued.

Yes, we still get one free Palo per adult guest. The "platinum experience" was discontinued and the $350 onboard credit was cut to $200. Most of the other perks were changed to a "gift with purchase" thing rather than a freebie or discount as a stand alone. For instance, you can get 6 free bingo cards with the purchase of a 4 game session, $10 off a 3 day rainforest pass, and 2 photos with the purchase of the CD.

 

[slg]

How disappointing. I was particularly looking forward to the platinum experience because I really want to go on an extended backstage tour.If you don't play bingo, use the rainforest room or buy photo CD then you get zippo. I also miss the $350 OBC too

I will have 9 cruises after next summer.

 

[KashasMom]

This is a HUGE part of the problem. It starts to become "How much is the Disney Difference worth?" We are booking an Alaska cruise on another line. Doing the same cruise on DCL would be double the price.

OK, on DCL if I moved an onboard booking, I'd get $200 OBC, and I would qualify for free Palo. I realize that I'll probably have to purchase some sort of soda plan for DD. I guess that those perks on DCL would make it only "almost double."

The funny thing is that we didn't do Alaska years ago because we wanted to wait till DCL did it.

I've done Alaska with both Celebrity and RCCL and loved them both. For me Alaska is all about the ports so I'd never spend the money doing DCL there because for me, DCL is not at all about the ports, but the on board experience. Same reason I wouldn't do DCL in Europe. I think our NY-Bahamas cruise had the worst itinerary - Nassau (too many times!), Port Canaveral (why waste a good cruise day on someplace that I frequent off-the-ship?), and CC (okay, that was good).

And the whole soda thing makes me absolutely insane! I just DO NOT spend thousands of dollars on soda on a week long cruise to justify the difference in price between DCL and ANY other line!

 

[Rominet]

Germany and will go under major renovations, including the concierge area to be more like the Dream/Fantasy. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping we can book a Med Cruise until 2014.

 

[OldtechCM]

I would love to see the Magic and the Wonder retrofitted with the Aquaduck but would they be able to fit through the Panama Canal? It's already a very tight squeeze. They scrape paint going through as 'tis, even with several canal engineers guiding them through, and locomotives on both sides with cables keeping them straight.

The Japanese tourists love Disney and I hope that eventually DCL will sail to Asia, but they'll wait til the tsunami area has had more time to recover.

The Aquaduck on the top deck wouldn't be a problem when entering the canals.
The problem would be the extra weight on the top decks and the water pumps, tanks etc that would need to be located below deck 9 so removal of staterooms.

That would be really cool if Disney did that but as an IT professional myself it would be unfortunately quite difficult to do. The problem is just that when the ship was designed its unlikely that anyone could have imagined a technology like that and implemented the proper infrastructure for future expansion. But then again this is Disney and there's nothing they can't do

Sorry to disagree but the introduction of the virtual porthole is an easy one.
Just a regular Cat 5/6 feed to each stateroom, and really easy in an extended drydock. The camera's are the same, just some power and a couple of Cat 5/6 cables up to the broadcast center.
But they will have to retrofit a fake bulkhead wall to install the screen and round "window".

 

[mindelmouse]

Germany and will go under major renovations, including the concierge area to be more like the Dream/Fantasy. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping we can book a Med Cruise until 2014.

I'm hoping your wrong about the concierge being like the bigger ships....it takes away the personal touch that the smaller ships give you. I like getting my little treats in cabin every night and my nightly visit, when I'm there...I don't want an impersonal lounge...

 

[Kim&Chris]

Boston or NY to Bermuda would be MAGIC-AL!

I keep hoping for DCL to go to Bermuda also. Maybe someday....

 

[Rominet]

I'm hoping your wrong about the concierge being like the bigger ships....it takes away the personal touch that the smaller ships give you. I like getting my little treats in cabin every night and my nightly visit, when I'm there...I don't want an impersonal lounge...

With the staff and getting to know them on a more personal level. On the magic we were lucky to see the concierge once a day for a few minutes.

Plus, I'm not sure what happened with your cruise, but you don't HAVE to go to the lounge at all. You can hang out in your room as much as ever.

We completely enjoyed the breakfast, coffee, snacks and libations, but were not required to attend.

 

[jlwhitney]

I'm hoping your wrong about the concierge being like the bigger ships....it takes away the personal touch that the smaller ships give you. I like getting my little treats in cabin every night and my nightly visit, when I'm there...I don't want an impersonal lounge...

We did conceriege on the Wonder once when we upgraded...and hardly ate any of the treats...didn't care for them.

Would much prefer a lounge where I could pop in and grab something if I wanted...less waste and didn't have to store it in the room. Plus there is so much food on the ships really didnt need a whole plate full of food.

 

[goofymama]

I would like to see anything for 7 or 8 days out of the south east including Castaway Cay (preferably a double dip!!!) after dry dock. I LOVED the Fantasy and all of its new features, but I think that I,m in the amp that prefers the smaller ships .... Especially if they get nice upgrades after an extensive dry dock. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for something going to CC during spring 2014!

 

[kcashner]

I found it interesting while on the Fantasy the the CMs were quite focused on the upgrades scheduled in their areas--dining people told us about the Topsiders remodel, stateroom hosts told us what was planned there, etc. Of course, it's hard to tell what is in the "dreaming" stage and what is in the "we're gonna do it" stage.

And, as one very high exec once told me, "Nothing is simple when you are dealing with Imagineers."

 

[OldtechCM]

And, as one very high exec once told me, "Nothing is simple when you are dealing with Imagineers."

Ain't that the truth!

Bunch of kids running around with crazy ideas that need to be tamed and brought back down to earth!

 

[eblong]

When we were on the Wonder Repo from LA to Vancouver (then on to Seattle), Capt Fabian said that both the Magic and the Wonder were going into an 8-week extended dry-dock "for some technology updates". We couldn't get more out of him. Capt Thord mentioned the dry-dock, but not how long or where. It would make sense that the magic's would be in Europe (Go home to Venice?); and the Wonder go into dry-dock after transiting the Panama Canal back to the Atlantic next fall. Given the disaster they suffered when dry-dock was in Nassau, they will go back to Virginia, like they used to do (and had the TV show made).

Mograting to virtual portholes, a new phone system (VOIP) and on-demand TV like the Dream and Fantasy should be a do-able do. All they need to do is run one Cat-5 cable to each room in place of the current phone lines, and from that they could run all three devices in each room, which is probably exactly what they did in the newer ships. they could also reuse the RF cables although it's not quite as good a solution.

If you look closely at the ship design for your rooms, you'll see several key features for major work:

• There is space between each pair of rooms and there is work space under each bathroom so that they can handle major plumbing or wiring issues without cutting into a ceiling or floor. To access this, there is an entry door between each pair of rooms, and you have to step up to go into the bathroom in your room.
• They can drop and replace the air handler in each room through the ceiling.

Now - If only Disney would tell us what's really going on and what we can expect and stop keeping it a secret.

 

[SeaSpray]

We're hoping for the Magic to be back in Port Canaveral (or any USA port where she can easily stop at CC), and to be doing longer southern caribbean cruises. A nice 9- 10- 11- or 12-night cruise to southern caribbean would be awesome! Make it a double dip to CC and it'd be even better!

 

[Flossbolna]

Germany and will go under major renovations, including the concierge area to be more like the Dream/Fantasy. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping we can book a Med Cruise until 2014.

The dry dock in Germany sounds interesting - so far people always mentioned Italy. I guess that would have to be Blohm & Voss in Hamburg (the Dream went there briefly before delivery as well). I wonder whether they would then offer a repositioning cruise from Barcelona to Hamburg.... And then a transatlantic from Hamburg. Would love to see a Disney ship at German cruise port!

 

[NancyIL]

Hopefully back to NYC for part of 2014 with a longer New England cruise and a better Southern cruise port line-up.

I would love to see a longer New England cruise.

I would like a longer Canada/New England itinerary. However, I doubt they could do it in fall 2013 - due to the longer dry dock and a 2-week Transatlantic journey. The Canada cruising season is typically over by late October.

 

[J&K'sPrincessMommy]

I'm not sure if NY sold well. There is still space available on the NYC sailings. Our June 2nd cruise did not go up in price at all from the day they opened bookings. Plenty of people upgrading at the port - and now I've seen discounts offered on the remaining sailings. It was sooo overpriced though! Glad I did it but would never book the Magic out of NYC for that price again! Am going to be extrememly happy sailing on the Fantasy for about 60% of the cost of the Magic - even if she is all spiffy after dry dock!

The 3 2-night cruises all sold out and the 8 nights did really well. The 5 night Canadian cruises didn't do great though. I would love to see them go to Bermuda from NYC

 

[NancyIL]

The 3 2-night cruises all sold out and the 8 nights did really well. The 5 night Canadian cruises didn't do great though. I would love to see them go to Bermuda from NYC

The prices for the 3 September Canada cruises haven't budged for the least expensive inside cabins. I'm surprised DCL hasn't offered IGT/OGT/VGT rates yet.

 

[jdybnsn]

On the Dream earlier this year an experienced staff member told us that the Magic would definitely be doing some Baltic cruises in 2013........we said don't you mean 2014 ????...he said no definitely 2013, Karl Holz had been aboard the ship and had briefed them all about it.

.....was it a wind up ????...or do you think there's some truth in it ?