Add on incentives while on a DCL cruise?

[Sandisw]

I have yet to hear about anyone being taken off the rolls... I know they mentioned the 5 year rule, but I am unaware of it actually being enforced...

I just sailed the Dream and I was given the silver status gifts in my cabin. My last cruise was about 10 years ago.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

I can’t remember where but I read that you will always keep silver status. It’s just the higher statuses that require a cruise within a certain period of time.

 

[Girlstar30]

Hate the 5 year rule, but it took me some years to finally be at platinum status after 1 more sailing, I would be irritated tbh if someone got fast tracked just because they're dvc, castaway is a cruise loyalty program and has nothing to do with dvc...

I agree that I wish they wouldnt take status away after 5 years as we have no plans to cruise until they finally get some new port itineraries on the new ships if ever, castaway cay gets a little old after 9 cruises

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Hate the 5 year rule, but it took me some years to finally be at platinum status after 1 more sailing, I would be irritated tbh if someone got fast tracked just because they're dvc, castaway is a cruise loyalty program and has nothing to do with dvc...

I agree that I wish they wouldnt take status away after 5 years as we have no plans to cruise until they finally get some new port itineraries on the new ships if ever, castaway cay gets a little old after 9 cruises

::gasp:: We’ve hit Castaway Cay 8 times in the past 3 years and IMO it’s the best part of a Disney cruise (except for the one time it poured the whole day)— I can’t imagine ever tiring of it, but I also like Lighthouse point but the vast trek (by foot and then then tram) to the beaches and fact that almost all food and beverage closes before 3pm takes it down a few notches.

We used to sail regularly with Regent, Celebrity, and Seabourn before we had kids and I don’t think the Disney ships really compare except for the onboard entertainment and the private islands (and the kids club, until my oldest kid outgrows it soon). I guess I also like the vast array of high quality champagne available around the adult areas as well…but I digress. We did a Northern Europe cruise on the Dream last summer and decided we would never do a Disney sailing for the ports again — especially European ports since the dinner dining options on DCL are sorely lacking. Come join us on a 3-5 day sailing and enjoy the less crowded ship amenities during Cozumel/Nassau days.

 

[squeezeplay101]

Hi all, are there any non published extra incentives to adding on while on a cruise? Wondering if we may as well wait for our July cruise at this point. Thanks!

It's possible. We bought our RIV contract while on a cruise in 2024 and we got a "developer credit" specific to the cruise. Was pretty small if memory serves though, maybe around $1000.

 

[Girlstar30]

::gasp:: We’ve hit Castaway Cay 8 times in the past 3 years and IMO it’s the best part of a Disney cruise (except for the one time it poured the whole day)— I can’t imagine ever tiring of it, but I also like Lighthouse point but the vast trek (by foot and then then tram) to the beaches and fact that almost all food and beverage closes before 3pm takes it down a few notches.

We used to sail regularly with Regent, Celebrity, and Seabourn before we had kids and I don’t think the Disney ships really compare except for the onboard entertainment and the private islands (and the kids club, until my oldest kid outgrows it soon). I guess I also like the vast array of high quality champagne available around the adult areas as well…but I digress. We did a Northern Europe cruise on the Dream last summer and decided we would never do a Disney sailing for the ports again — especially European ports since the dinner dining options on DCL are sorely lacking. Come join us on a 3-5 day sailing and enjoy the less crowded ship amenities during Cozumel/Nassau days.

I think I'm nuts because everyone including my wife are diehard castaway fans except for me I actually love lookout cay more! The food, the character costumes, the beautiful more unspoiled water and pink sand, the merchandise, everything spoke to me more

We did the cabana for the first time in january at castaway and thank God because it was pouring so it made it better. Something I had never seen before is that the water was so low most of it on the cabana side was sand and no water it was actually pretty cool.

I agree the dcl food needs an overhaul especially when you go a lot like you and I have the menus are the exact same, they need to spice it up a bit! I've also never been a fan of Palo dinners although remy is fantastic. The dream is my favorite ship! I actually wrote on the little survey card that more adult entertainment needs to happen, even their adult shows are pretty PG. Would love to join your sailing haha

 

[DonkeyHoTay]

Started cruising DCL last year and was going once a month to get Platinum status... slowing down now to 4 a year. No interest in going on any other cruise line - expecting I would be disappointed with cleanliness and attention to detail on other lines. Palo and Remy/Enchante dining keeps food interesting onboard and DW and I enjoy the Disney productions in the theater. The ports are mostly irrelevant to us since we find the ship most enjoyable when people disembark on port days and the ship is empty, but we do like the cabanas at Lookout. Next year will be our first European DCL trip on the DVC member cruise.

I think of the concept of DCL status gifts to DVC members the same way that other luxury products cross market with each other. Like Amex Platinum grants auto status with some hotel chains etc. DVC and DCL are not totally unrelated just like a credit card and travel industry products are not totally unrelated. It's a neat idea for DCL to gift DVC members something new, but I won't hold my breath waiting for that.

 

[Sandisw]

Started cruising DCL last year and was going once a month to get Platinum status... slowing down now to 4 a year. No interest in going on any other cruise line - expecting I would be disappointed with cleanliness and attention to detail on other lines. Palo and Remy/Enchante dining keeps food interesting onboard and DW and I enjoy the Disney productions in the theater. The ports are mostly irrelevant to us since we find the ship most enjoyable when people disembark on port days and the ship is empty, but we do like the cabanas at Lookout. Next year will be our first European DCL trip on the DVC member cruise.

I think of the concept of DCL status gifts to DVC members the same way that other luxury products cross market with each other. Like Amex Platinum grants auto status with some hotel chains etc. DVC and DCL are not totally unrelated just like a credit card and travel industry products are not totally unrelated. It's a neat idea for DCL to gift DVC members something new, but I won't hold my breath waiting for that.

It had been a while since I had done DCL but got to for work and I realized how much I missed them!

I will be doing a few every year now! The ports are also not as big of a deal for us…but the experience aboard the ship!!

 

[Steelers0854]

Started cruising DCL last year and was going once a month to get Platinum status... slowing down now to 4 a year. No interest in going on any other cruise line - expecting I would be disappointed with cleanliness and attention to detail on other lines. Palo and Remy/Enchante dining keeps food interesting onboard and DW and I enjoy the Disney productions in the theater. The ports are mostly irrelevant to us since we find the ship most enjoyable when people disembark on port days and the ship is empty, but we do like the cabanas at Lookout. Next year will be our first European DCL trip on the DVC member cruise.

I think of the concept of DCL status gifts to DVC members the same way that other luxury products cross market with each other. Like Amex Platinum grants auto status with some hotel chains etc. DVC and DCL are not totally unrelated just like a credit card and travel industry products are not totally unrelated. It's a neat idea for DCL to gift DVC members something new, but I won't hold my breath waiting for that.

Let me know if your ever in the market to adopt some adult children

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

I think I'm nuts because everyone including my wife are diehard castaway fans except for me I actually love lookout cay more! The food, the character costumes, the beautiful more unspoiled water and pink sand, the merchandise, everything spoke to me more

If you could tender from the ship directly to the main beach on Lookout Cay, it’s possible I would like it more…I’ve even made peace with long walkway even though it means I need to wear athletic shoes and drag them around while I’m on the beach…I don’t even hate the tram that much, but I’m not a morning person and losing that last hour (as everything shuts down almost a full hour earlier) is a big loss, plus the time we lose in transit—adding two hours to the port stop would be a huge improvement. I agree with you that the sand and ocean are gorgeous and worth the effort to get to, my kids love bodysurfing at LC, though the family beach feels more crowded to me.

I agree the dcl food needs an overhaul especially when you go a lot like you and I have the menus are the exact same, they need to spice it up a bit! I've also never been a fan of Palo dinners although remy is fantastic. The dream is my favorite ship! I actually wrote on the little survey card that more adult entertainment needs to happen, even their adult shows are pretty PG. Would love to join your sailing haha

Yes, my thoughts exactly (though we give the edge to Fantasy over Dream)— I think I could probably recite the menus at this point. I actually love a formal dining experience, but having the buffet open or even just all of the pool stations open until 8:30 would help mix it up and give more freedom on nights you don’t want the menu for rotational dining. We also love Remy, try to do it at least twice, but we don’t mind Palo either, the water menu in Palo is fun and we will try to hit it early on the cruise and take a couple nice bottles back for the stateroom.

I haven’t thought about asking for more adult entertainment— we’re generally content to chill at a champagne bar, the piano bar, or our balcony late in the day, but we did do the March Your Mate competition, it was NOT PG.

Started cruising DCL last year and was going once a month to get Platinum status... slowing down now to 4 a year. No interest in going on any other cruise line - expecting I would be disappointed with cleanliness and attention to detail on other lines.

You can find it elsewhere, but you’d be looking at luxury lines and/or suite class (which I presume is how you sail DCL). If you like the entertainment and haven’t gotten bored with the food, I don’t see any reason to fix what isn’t broken.

Palo and Remy/Enchante dining keeps food interesting onboard and DW and I enjoy the Disney productions in the theater. The ports are mostly irrelevant to us since we find the ship most enjoyable when people disembark on port days and the ship is empty, but we do like the cabanas at Lookout. Next year will be our first European DCL trip on the DVC member cruise.

Love Remy, but I don’t feel it changes that much from sailing to sailing (though I want them to never ever change their opening amuse bouche selection, so this isn’t me complaining). I feel the menu on Enchante has more variety— both are fantastic but not sure I could do it once a month— perhaps if you are constantly rotating between ship classes it works better?

It had been a while since I had done DCL but got to for work and I realized how much I missed them!

I will be doing a few every year now! The ports are also not as big of a deal for us…but the experience aboard the ship!!

I think about 3x/year is a good cadence— we live on the west coast and it’s hard to justify flying to MCO/FLL for only a long weekend (especially since cruising is hard without adjusting to the time zone), but 7-10 day trips split between WDW and cruising has been working for us.

I do think it would be smart for DVC to gift perks that entice people on to ships, especially those of us who no longer have the good health to be park warriors several days in a row...though the best way to entice people would probably be to give them more like $15/pt in the exchange rates—those point based charts are BRUTAL. Maybe they could offer a discounted point chart when there is still availability 60 days out?

 

[Girlstar30]

If you could tender from the ship directly to the main beach on Lookout Cay, it’s possible I would like it more…I’ve even made peace with long walkway even though it means I need to wear athletic shoes and drag them around while I’m on the beach…I don’t even hate the tram that much, but I’m not a morning person and losing that last hour (as everything shuts down almost a full hour earlier) is a big loss, plus the time we lose in transit—adding two hours to the port stop would be a huge improvement. I agree with you that the sand and ocean are gorgeous and worth the effort to get to, my kids love bodysurfing at LC, though the family beach feels more crowded to me.

Yes, my thoughts exactly (though we give the edge to Fantasy over Dream)— I think I could probably recite the menus at this point. I actually love a formal dining experience, but having the buffet open or even just all of the pool stations open until 8:30 would help mix it up and give more freedom on nights you don’t want the menu for rotational dining. We also love Remy, try to do it at least twice, but we don’t mind Palo either, the water menu in Palo is fun and we will try to hit it early on the cruise and take a couple nice bottles back for the stateroom.

I haven’t thought about asking for more adult entertainment— we’re generally content to chill at a champagne bar, the piano bar, or our balcony late in the day, but we did do the March Your Mate competition, it was NOT PG.

You can find it elsewhere, but you’d be looking at luxury lines and/or suite class (which I presume is how you sail DCL). If you like the entertainment and haven’t gotten bored with the food, I don’t see any reason to fix what isn’t broken.

Love Remy, but I don’t feel it changes that much from sailing to sailing (though I want them to never ever change their opening amuse bouche selection, so this isn’t me complaining). I feel the menu on Enchante has more variety— both are fantastic but not sure I could do it once a month— perhaps if you are constantly rotating between ship classes it works better?


I think about 3x/year is a good cadence— we live on the west coast and it’s hard to justify flying to MCO/FLL for only a long weekend (especially since cruising is hard without adjusting to the time zone), but 7-10 day trips split between WDW and cruising has been working for us.

I do think it would be smart for DVC to gift perks that entice people on to ships, especially those of us who no longer have the good health to be park warriors several days in a row...though the best way to entice people would probably be to give them more like $15/pt in the exchange rates—those point based charts are BRUTAL. Maybe they could offer a discounted point chart when there is still availability 60 days out?

That long walk is killer to lc, but i see the beach as the end prize!

They have a drink that I love called the cherry colada too and just thinking about having that drink on the beach makes me happy as hell

My families complaint was that it is less developed and more to do on CC which i get because there is, but I loved that it was just beach for the most part. We had no issue finding chairs by all the activities and I loved how the characters were all in one place at the food area, that is my biggest complaint with CC they are spread out so far at different times and here you can hit them all up which I appreciated.

Im sure one day I'll do the cruise swap on David's with my points and see how that goes! And yes they need new gifts, lord knows I dont need another sling backup

Now I am a morning person and will be there when the ship docks and i love the port stops so thats probably why we found chairs too

Another DCL complaint is i think them having the same type of shows is lame. Meaning Frozen on the Fantasy and Wonder. To me that is so cheap. I know Aladdin is different on the Wish, but still same concept. Honestly I think I am just a bit bored of the entertainment after so many sailings. Im glad that the Treasure has Moana, something different, but I just can't get over the lack of port stops, I really wish they would go to more countries, thats where DCL to me severely lacks compared to other cruise lines.

Now I will note that I have been on NCL when they gave me a free trip at the casino and well NEVER again, my experience was absolutely awful, I dont care where that ship goes, you couldnt pay me to be there I do not care for cruising except for Disney! Unfortunately I didn't get to experience Enchante because I got covid while on the wish, we had reservations and I was heartbroken! Come to think of it this is making me want to look at itineraries for the wish now because there is stuff there i haven't done. They certainly did have the best quick service food, those burritos were great!

I love formal dining too, but the buffets needs to be open, the covid excuse is over. RIP to the Pirates night buffets, I'm glad I got to experience it although I was always too full to eat much, it was still a nice touch!

 

[Sandisw]

If you could tender from the ship directly to the main beach on Lookout Cay, it’s possible I would like it more…I’ve even made peace with long walkway even though it means I need to wear athletic shoes and drag them around while I’m on the beach…I don’t even hate the tram that much, but I’m not a morning person and losing that last hour (as everything shuts down almost a full hour earlier) is a big loss, plus the time we lose in transit—adding two hours to the port stop would be a huge improvement. I agree with you that the sand and ocean are gorgeous and worth the effort to get to, my kids love bodysurfing at LC, though the family beach feels more crowded to me.

Yes, my thoughts exactly (though we give the edge to Fantasy over Dream)— I think I could probably recite the menus at this point. I actually love a formal dining experience, but having the buffet open or even just all of the pool stations open until 8:30 would help mix it up and give more freedom on nights you don’t want the menu for rotational dining. We also love Remy, try to do it at least twice, but we don’t mind Palo either, the water menu in Palo is fun and we will try to hit it early on the cruise and take a couple nice bottles back for the stateroom.

I haven’t thought about asking for more adult entertainment— we’re generally content to chill at a champagne bar, the piano bar, or our balcony late in the day, but we did do the March Your Mate competition, it was NOT PG.

You can find it elsewhere, but you’d be looking at luxury lines and/or suite class (which I presume is how you sail DCL). If you like the entertainment and haven’t gotten bored with the food, I don’t see any reason to fix what isn’t broken.

Love Remy, but I don’t feel it changes that much from sailing to sailing (though I want them to never ever change their opening amuse bouche selection, so this isn’t me complaining). I feel the menu on Enchante has more variety— both are fantastic but not sure I could do it once a month— perhaps if you are constantly rotating between ship classes it works better?


I think about 3x/year is a good cadence— we live on the west coast and it’s hard to justify flying to MCO/FLL for only a long weekend (especially since cruising is hard without adjusting to the time zone), but 7-10 day trips split between WDW and cruising has been working for us.

I do think it would be smart for DVC to gift perks that entice people on to ships, especially those of us who no longer have the good health to be park warriors several days in a row...though the best way to entice people would probably be to give them more like $15/pt in the exchange rates—those point based charts are BRUTAL. Maybe they could offer a discounted point chart when there is still availability 60 days out?

That would be a great way to encourage it for sure!!