DCL Changes You'd Make

[rae519]

This is to be a very positive and well-thought out thread, so please remember that DCL does read these.

1) Palo reservations for your stateroom for brunch, high tea and dinner can be made when you make your final payment.

2) Requests for specific servers/serving teams can be made prior to your cruise, and after final payment.

3) Limited edition pins should be offered as one to each stateroom and only after that should they be made available at the stores.

4) Trading cards should be offered at specific times at specific places or given as awards for certain activities. Example, a Captain card after the bridge tour.

5) Free soda.

6) New comment cards with a larger area to write on.


Any more?

Rae

 

[aprilgail2]

I like the free soda one....
I would also like to see you gauranteed a private table upon request for those of us who don't like others at our dinner tables...
I would also like to see one side of the ship to have non- smoking verandahs so those of us who don't smoke don't get chased in from our verandah by a smoker next to us...or worse..a cigar smoker! This way if you book on the smoking side than they can smoke out there to their hearts content!
I am sure Iwill think of some others while I am at work today!

 

[rae519]

Oh, yes, the cigar smokers who are are upwind! GAG!

That's why we like 5622 - there is no one upwind!!!!

Also, a little notice telling people that their "private conversations, amorous activities, and profanity laced arguments" can also be heard by others who share verandahs.

As Mom said, "What are they thinking?????"

Rae

 

[CamColt]

Mine have already been mentioned, but Ill second them...

Being able to prebook Palo & the Spa and tables for 2 in the dining rooms!

 

[WDWLVR]

I really like the idea of making Palo reservations once payement is received so you don't have to handle it the first day.

I also agree about the pins. I know that many people are money hungry and gobble them up to sell on eBay - everyone should have a chance. In fact I think it would be cool if Disney could do cruise specific pins with the dates on them - but that would be costly.

I would love for them to offer internet service in the staterooms. DH likes spending time on the net and doing things like chat even while at sea. The internet cafe is often very crowded and unless we are lucky enough to get the one big desk I can't sit with him. It would be so much nicer if we could bring the laptop and do it direct from the room.

I'd also like to see programming spread out a little more - especially the adult programming. It seems that on sea days there are usually 2-3 things l'd like to do at the same time while other hours don't have much going on. Maybe by running the same thing twice in one day.

 

[GenieDana]

o WIFI Internet from your cabin
o No extra fee for soda
o Scoops / Plutos open later (12:00 A.M.)
o More alternate itenearies (like 2 days of CC on the Western, skipping Key West every now and then, skip Cozumel every now and then for another Yucatan city, Belieze, etc.)

 

[DisneyGator01]

I'd like to see an on ship library... with books/magazines/games available to check out and/or use.

I also second keeping plutos and scoops open until 12am.

I'm okay with the soda as it is now... since we can get it free in any dining room, at any meal.. Most other lines make you pay for any soda. But I wouldn't mind bigger cups at the drink station.

How about skipping Nassau and doing Castaway Cay twice? I know I'd never argue with that.

 

[tbuot]

Pre-booking for spa and Palo reservations!!! I like the idea of being able to do this at final booking or 60 days from sailing like the shore excursions!

 

[wink]

I like the other suggestions. Here's another one:

More activities going on in the adult section at night - at the same time. The 70's party was a big hit, but there wasn't enough room for everyone. A bunch of people ended up sitting in a dark, empty bar waiting for the next activity to start an hour later. All of the bars should be going at the same time.

 

[laurenk]

Rae- Regarding one of your changes; When we rebooked on the Halloween cruise, Donna told us we could now request servers at the time of booking. She said this was new

 

[LargoLori]

We are going on our first cruise in December. Although I have no cruise experience I can say that I would be much more relaxed at boarding if I was able to make Palo and spa ressies in advance. I am sure while I am boarding I will be thinking the whole time, "got to make the ressies". My vacation would be so much more relaxing if this was already done.

Lori

 

[gassmandy]

I agree w/ pre-booking Palo dinner, brunch, etc. But I think--like the excursions--it needs to start at 60 days out rather than final payment. Since the deadline to pay is 60 days out--it gives everyone the same chance at getting the night/morning they want.
Next--definitely agree w/ keeping some sort of food area open later..........also an outside bar. DH and I spent evenings in the hot tub--and had to order an extra glass of wine each before the bar closed.
Also--maybe make the photos in shutters 5x7's instead of 6x8's.........is it just me or is it extremely hard to find 6x8 frames???I did a lot of cutting!

 

[Rence]

One problem with pre-booking Palo reservations is that you don't know your dining rotation ahead of time. Many people make their reservations based on their rotation.


The biggest problem with first-come first-serve reservations is it causes a stampede. Another alternative would be to use a lottery type system.

You sign up for your first three choices for reservations. You put down the days and time ranges you would like. These are all feed into a computer system. These reqeusts could be taken in advance and at boarding.

At the appropriate time the computer begins to randomly select reservation requests. If your first choice is available, you get it, if not it moves to your second choice etc. This would probably be done right at sailing.

Keeps going until all reservation requests have been processed. This way everyone has an equal chance for reservations, not those who book earlier, pay earlier, camp out at the dock earlier etc.

Usually with a system like this a surprising large number of folks do end up with their first or second choice.

 

[Grumbo]

I like the spa and Palo reservations to be made when final payment is received by Disney. This would make sense economically for Disney as they get their money sooner and it is an incentive to pay earlier.
I also think that a $20 per person or so deposit should have to made that is not cancellable after you have reached the 7 days out mark to stop the folks that make ressies just in case.
This seems to be a real problem at Flounder's Reef where people make all kinds of ressies then cancel later when they figure out what they want to do and leave others with no openings.

Otherwise I think DCL does a pretty good job.

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[plutojudy]

My biggest wish would be the have the clubs nonsmoking until 11:00PM, so people like me with asthma, could enjoy the clubs, too.
I would like free soda and I wish they would offer root beer.

 

[Lisa F]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I pretty much like things the way they are when it comes to Palo. There is an understandable set of rules and they are pretty easy to follow. I would NOT like a lottery system because frankly, whenever it comes to something like that, I have terrible luck (we had a lottery system at college for housing and every single year out of more than 2,000 students in the lottery, my number came up in the LAST 100. 3 years in a row. It really sucked). I would not want to leave my plans to chance... I would MUCH rather have control of the situation either by calling (not preferable, one more thing to stress about having to remember to do) or getting to the port and in line early.

About one pin per stateroom until everyone gets a pin, I also think this is making something way more complex than it needs to be. What if there is an LE 750 pin? Aren't there more staterooms than that? What if some people don't want pins? We have never run into a situation where the pins sold out before the end of the cruise and often have been able to get low LE pins from the previous cruise. I think the current system works just fine.

I agree with everything GenieDana said. The "extra fee for soda" thing strikes me as nickle and diming, DCL should be above that. Just build it into the fare if they still want to make $5/day/person. I love a late ice cream and wish scoops was open later. I think changing up the itineraries would be fabulous also!

 

[3MinnieMom]

We just returned from the Nov 8th cruise - and we had a FANTASTIC cruise. We do have a few suggestions, however:

(1) More activities on the 1st day at sea. We found ourselves searching for something to do on the 1st day at sea (Monday), but the 2nd day at sea (Thursday) was overbooked with fun activities (we were overwhelmed that day and, obviously, could not do them all). These activities should be better balanced between the 1st and 2nd days at sea. Same goes for the movies on-board. All the good movies were playing at the 2nd day at sea.

(2) We agree - Scoops should stay open until midnight. Despite all the food we ate at dinner, a late night snack of fruit or ice cream would have been nice (at several dinners our kids were too full to eat dessert - ice cream at 10 P.M. would have been a nice treat!)

(3) The western cruise should drop the Key West port, and, instead start the cruise at Castaway Cay. CC-Grand Caymen-Cozumel (or Beleize)-CC would make for the ultimate cruise itinerary!!! Just don't drop Grand Caymen - we loved that island paradise and would return there in a heartbeat!!!

(4) Better organization for formal portraits on Formal night. We waited in line for 30 min prior to dinner and only moved a few steps. We left the line to go to dinner, which lasted until 8 PM that evening (we were in AP). We stood in line again after dinner another 35 min, again without getting a picture. We left the line to see the 8:30 PM show. Our 5 yr old fell asleep in the Darren Romeo show, so after the show we finally got a beautiful formal portrait - without our 5 yr old in the picture!!

(5) Disney should be able to tell everyone their dining rotation prior to check-in (maybe inform us with our documents). That way, Palo ressies and other ressies would be much easier to pre-plan (or these ressies could be made prior to leaving home on www.disneycruise.com)

(6) The Western cruise should leave Cozumel earlier to arrive in Castaway Cay earlier. All-ashore at 8 AM instead of 9:30 AM at CC would be incredible!!

 

[budwmn]

So many ideas that I agree with and more:

Palo ressies when final payment is made.

More table choices/ single family or couple seating.

Different itineraries. (We looked at a NCL cruise which stopped in Barbados, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts- so many excursions which would be great for families - pirate cruises, cave and volcano exploration, water sports, etc.).

Offer non-smoking cruises.

 

[Magic_Fan_Bruce]

I think DCL should have an annual trip from WDW to Disneyland, then DL to WDW.

 

[3MinnieMom]

One additional suggestion............(cont.)

(7) Lunch Menus - We really enjoyed breakfasts and dinners on the cruise, but we weren't too crazy about the selections for lunch. We are not much of a "fast-food" family, so Pluto's and Pinocchio's didn't quite cut-it for us (our 5-yr old did like the chicken strips and french fries, however). The buffet selections for lunch should be narrowed down - less choices, but with higher quality. The "Asian" buffet was so-so, and the "Mexican" buffet had hamburger taco meat that tasted like sloppy-joe meat. One sit-down restaurant should have a "TGI Friday's" or "Chili's" -type menu for lunch (fun burgers, loaded potato skins, nachos, etc). We think this would be a big hit.