Are cruises still sailing at reduced capacity?

[Vcize]

Was

Was it hard to book time in the kids club? I think I’m just surprised because the cruise part of our trip is the part I thought was gonna be the most relaxing, without having to constantly monitor openings, availability, etc. We’re going to the parks for 5 nights after the cruise (postponed Covid trip) and there’s so much stress (for me) involved with that part of the trip due to the daily 7am thing that it’s a bummer to hear the cruise may be a hassle too. I don’t understand these trips that cost thousands of dollars and yet you still have to worry whether you’ll have easy access to the features you’ve paid for!

I just found out about the kids club requiring reservations, and honestly I am super annoyed and considering just canceling the whole thing. The kids club is the whole reason we're doing a Disney cruise, to be able to just drop the kids by whenever we want some alone time. Planning out an hour here or an hour there and adhering to a strict schedule all day is not relaxing. That's not to mention that all the reasonable times are booked up now anyway (pretty much only port days and super late night still available to be booked).

If they were going to do this they should have it in big bold red letters on the top of the booking page since it's such an important part of the experience. Heck we even booked through one of the recommended travel agents on here and even they didn't mention it to us. Very disappointed to find this out 3 weeks before our sail date.

 

[Jen81NYC]

I just found out about the kids club requiring reservations, and honestly I am super annoyed and considering just canceling the whole thing. The kids club is the whole reason we're doing a Disney cruise, to be able to just drop the kids by whenever we want some alone time. Planning out an hour here or an hour there and adhering to a strict schedule all day is not relaxing. That's not to mention that all the reasonable times are booked up now anyway (pretty much only port days and super late night still available to be booked).

If they were going to do this they should have it in big bold red letters on the top of the booking page since it's such an important part of the experience. Heck we even booked through one of the recommended travel agents on here and even they didn't mention it to us. Very disappointed to find this out 3 weeks before our sail date.

I don’t have a choice about going (trip with in laws) but just wanted to let you know i sympathize and I am so tired and frustrated with Covid-era ruining any possible spontaneity. I’m so tired of fretting about advance reservations for everything and limited flexibility. It’s particularly challenging when you have kids because you just never know what kind of mood they’re in! And then to also hear that the pool has a 12-13 person limit?? Blech

 

[Vcize]

I don’t have a choice about going (trip with in laws) but just wanted to let you know i sympathize and I am so tired and frustrated with Covid-era ruining any possible spontaneity. I’m so tired of fretting about advance reservations for everything and limited flexibility. It’s particularly challenging when you have kids because you just never know what kind of mood they’re in! And then to also hear that the pool has a 12-13 person limit?? Blech

Yeah and like I said, it's not even the policy itself (which I don't love), it's that they weren't more upfront about it. The Oceaneer Club is a huge selling point. Everyone that ever sold us on a Disney cruise told us it was great because the kids actually WANTED to go to the club and give you some private time. So for that to be gone should have been a big giant warning on the website, not something you have to dig for. It was the #1 reason we chose a Disney cruise and I'm guessing we are not alone on that.

That's not even to mention that now we have all these drink tastings and an adult dinner night planned that we can't get Oceaneer bookings for.

I'm guessing this wasn't as much of a problem before because cruises were barely hitting 25-50% of capacity, but given how much stuff is booked up for ours in early April I'm guessing these things are hitting near 100% capacity around spring break, which means no Oceaneer club timeslots available and I'm guessing the pools are going to be much worse than people have been seeing the last couple months.

EDIT: Even on the oceaneer's club page on the website with thousands of words of text it still doesn't mention the reservation requirement, even after all this time. And it still happily advertises the open house which they're apparently not doing anymore. I realize things are fluid but they've been back to cruising for a while now so keeping such an important aspect of what makes Disney Cruise's appealing so out of date is frustrating.

 

[unrequited23]

And it still happily advertises the open house which they're apparently not doing anymore.

There were open houses at the beginning of February. Did this change recently?

 

[randumb0]

They still have open house

 

[Jhondy]

Yeah and like I said, it's not even the policy itself (which I don't love), it's that they weren't more upfront about it. The Oceaneer Club is a huge selling point. Everyone that ever sold us on a Disney cruise told us it was great because the kids actually WANTED to go to the club and give you some private time. So for that to be gone should have been a big giant warning on the website, not something you have to dig for. It was the #1 reason we chose a Disney cruise and I'm guessing we are not alone on that.

That's not even to mention that now we have all these drink tastings and an adult dinner night planned that we can't get Oceaneer bookings for.

I'm guessing this wasn't as much of a problem before because cruises were barely hitting 25-50% of capacity, but given how much stuff is booked up for ours in early April I'm guessing these things are hitting near 100% capacity around spring break, which means no Oceaneer club timeslots available and I'm guessing the pools are going to be much worse than people have been seeing the last couple months.

EDIT: Even on the oceaneer's club page on the website with thousands of words of text it still doesn't mention the reservation requirement, even after all this time. And it still happily advertises the open house which they're apparently not doing anymore. I realize things are fluid but they've been back to cruising for a while now so keeping such an important aspect of what makes Disney Cruise's appealing so out of date is frustrating.

I agree. I didn’t realize the oceaneers club and pools were so limited when I booked the cruise for my daughter and I. We don’t sail until October and we are on the Wish…so I’m hoping by then the restrictions will be lifted. If now, I may move the cruise to a later date. I don’t plan on using the oceaneers club a lot cause I want to spend time with my daughter; however, if they have activities that I think she will enjoy, I want her to be able to go. But my daughter is only 3 so idk if it will change until she can be vaccinated and if that becomes a requirement for her, that is something else I will have to decide based on her pediatricians recommendation.

I really want to go on the Disney Wish and I’m excited for our cruise but I’m wondering if I’m setting myself up for disappointment and should wait till cruise. Idk.

 

[Calantha]

We went to the Club/Lab Open House the first day. There were others, but we were busy. We also went to an Edge Open House.

 

[oam]

Bump for new years cruise

 

[LindsaysLoveDisney]

We just got off the Wish a few weeks ago and I believe that I heard we were at 90%+ capacity. I will say that it didn't feel too crowded, I thought that it was comfortable on the ship, we had a great time!

 

[alexturner74]

We were on Fantasy Thanksgiving cruise - had heard it was at 100% capacity.

 

[apathetic]

Magic had 2600 on Thanksgiving cruise and word is the next one was also over 2,000. All of the people but still not many activities, unless you plan to stand in lines for character pictures all day. Those lines were all long and often clogged the 3rd and 4th decks.

 

[dwg]

on 11/14 Wish cruise Cruise Director told us we were 3/4 full with 3,000 passengers. She said then next cruise was at full capacity of 4,000 passengers. So basically at this time it really is just what week you pick and COVID does not seem to be having a major effect on capacity.

 

[bigAWL]

My next question is whether staffing has returned to full strength? Or maybe that's been reduced permanently.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

My next question is whether staffing has returned to full strength? Or maybe that's been reduced permanently.

Reports suggest most of the ships still have a lot of trainees, and staffing is still low. They don't seem to be going full sardine in crew quarters as they did before COVID because they still need isolation space when crew comes up post. And that happens nearly every sailing.