DCL Disney Magic At Sea UK Residents Only Sailing Summer 2021 General Information

[BadPinkTink]

Great Was It Worth It Review Vlog of Disney Magic At Sea from the 23rd July 4-Night Disney Magic at Sea UK Staycation Departure from Liverpool

 

[diablodancer]

Really disappointed to read some reports that social distancing isn’t being followed in the theatre at times now (not even one seat between parties in some cases). Also seeing reports on social media of behaviour that I wouldn’t expect on DCL (people drunk and loudly swearing throughout the day, being verbally abusive to other passengers and throwing rubbish over the side of the ship) - I know all these can and do happen on other sailings but it seems a lot more frequent on the UK sailings.

 

[steveyjc81]

Oh god - This is what I was afraid of. I'm imagining scenes of Magaluf, or fans before an England match. Grim

 

[BadPinkTink]

Disney Magic At Sea Daily Navigators On The DCL AP

Due to the new procedures after the restart DCL are no longer issuing paper Daily Navigators. Instead it is now all on the App. These videos are from the 9 August 4 night sailing from Southampton.

 

[gismo1554]

Please come back after your cruise and tell us how it went

Back in the world of the living. Cruise was actually OK (not great but not as awful as I feared). Lots more people than expected and lots of non-social distancing especially in the lift situation. There are signs up stating 1 family or 2 people per lift but multiple times other families tried to get in and had to refuse. Did have an issue where a very rude idiot rushing to get onboard decided to push my sisters crutch out from underneath her and not apologise which set the holiday off on a bad edge really. I didn't feel unsafe but definitely not the amount of people I expected and definitely wouldn't be rushing to do again (although am booked on on at end of September with some friends which is concierge and probably would cancel if I could)

What other entertainment is there? I've seen a pianist - Are there any other bands/musicians etc?

There is a pianist and violinist on at night in two of the lounges. There was also a show with one of the theatre people one night

I’ve seen a number of reports mentioning a singer from Broadway.

The signer is part of the cast of the stage show and does her own show on one of the nights. She's extremely talented.

Hi all, first time cruise family!
Would someone who has recently done a UK Disney Staycation cruise kindly answer my queries

Is it worth paying for the Photos, or just worth us doing the pictures ourselves?
How do I book the free gym? Is it only available on the app once boarded?
I don't understand the gratitude tips, shall I take dollars with me to tip? Ive heard about card issues onboard.

Thanks
Kris

Personally we didn't bother with the photo package and the photo people were one of my bug bears. They were always interrupting dinner and everywhere around the ship even at the pool but don't do any character photos anymore so not around then. I personally wouldn't bother and would just look to take your own or ask others around you to take them.

Gym is available to book once onboard

Gratuities are automatically added to your bill although you can ask for them to be removed. I personally wouldn't go out of my way to get dollars for this. Not sure what card issues you've heard about but we had none. They are charged in $'s so you may get a fee charged by your credit card for the payment but DCL are giving you a 2% refund on all purchases on your account to cover this. It works out $13.50 per day per person in the room for the gratuities for the room steward and the 3 dining people. Room service tips can also be charged to you account and I always give around $1 a plate. In terms of if you purchase alcoholic or speciality drinks these have 18% gratuity automatically added to the price

People who boarded yesterday are reporting that the Tangled show has been added to the daily navigator (in addition to Dreams and Freezing the Night Away).

That’s amazing Any mentions of what boarding was like as in any long hold ups like before?

Really disappointed to read some reports that social distancing isn’t being followed in the theatre at times now (not even one seat between parties in some cases). Also seeing reports on social media of behaviour that I wouldn’t expect on DCL (people drunk and loudly swearing throughout the day, being verbally abusive to other passengers and throwing rubbish over the side of the ship) - I know all these can and do happen on other sailings but it seems a lot more frequent on the UK sailings.

 

[diablodancer]

Has anyone who has sailed already heard if the first show/second sitting for MDR is quieter than the first sitting/second show? I’ve currently got first sitting but would consider swapping if the other option resulted in a slightly less busy show (I know normally
it would be but there seem to be some new cruisers ignoring the fact that you’re meant to go to the show time that doesn’t clash with your MDR sitting…)

 

[Nutmeg7]

We were on the second dinner / first show. The shows were busy but not completely full. Dreams was busier than Tangled, even though there was also a 2pm showing, but there were still seats available. Sorry I don't know how this compared to the later performance for either show.

We booked quite late and so were given the late dinner sitting. I did try to move to the early sitting a few times but wasn't able to so if you do swap you may not be able to swap back.

 

[gismo1554]

Has anyone who has sailed already heard if the first show/second sitting for MDR is quieter than the first sitting/second show? I’ve currently got first sitting but would consider swapping if the other option resulted in a slightly less busy show (I know normally
it would be but there seem to be some new cruisers ignoring the fact that you’re meant to go to the show time that doesn’t clash with your MDR sitting…)

I doubt you will have much of a comparison available as most people only go to one show so no way to know how the other show was. As Nutmeg7 said we did the first show and found the same that it wasn't completely full. Tangled for us seemed busier than Dreams but again both had space still

 

[Jules334]

Although we have been back a while now, got to say the cruise was far better than my expectations,

everything from port arrival to disembarkaction was well organised.

I think in terms of negatives:

Biggest problem was poor WiFi connectivity at Southampton port, while waiting the test results, as I had no phone signal.

I agree about the social distancing comments, even when in a lift twice the same family of 5 tried to get in, their delightful brat even pushed the emergency button in the lift.

Positives

The way the app works, never a problem and did everything we needed it to.

The staff - everyone we encountered was fantastic, happy and seemed genuinely happy to have passengers again

The food was fantasti, I appreciate that peoples tastes vary. I needed extra sauce/gravy due to previous throat cancer and they were happy to oblige.

the Shows. - wow just amazing

only downside is that we want to go again, US prices are much cheaper & Castaway Cay is a massive draw, but you need flights!

 

[Hollie512]

This will be my first cruise so please forgive my ignorance! We checked in at the 30 day mark (we now sail in 2 weeks) but it still says the uploaded documents are pending review? Is this normal? Also I've seen that other people have received luggage tags and information in the post but we've not had any of this, should this be something we received?

 

[Jordanfamily]

Hi, have a great time! We were shown as "pending" until around 10 days before our trip, our friends were around 5 days prior to sailing.

And our luggage tags and information arrived in the post exactly 7 days after we got home following the cruise!!

 

[Twinkbelle]

I'm still pending and I sail on Friday I think it's normal until a few days out from what I've read online and if it hasn't gone through for any reason they will fix it for you at the port so I'm trying not to be concerned.

 

[DisneyBelle_x]

My recent one stayed pending till just before midnight the night before sailing, nothing to worry about

 

[gismo1554]

This will be my first cruise so please forgive my ignorance! We checked in at the 30 day mark (we now sail in 2 weeks) but it still says the uploaded documents are pending review? Is this normal? Also I've seen that other people have received luggage tags and information in the post but we've not had any of this, should this be something we received?

I was pending until about 24 hours before travel. If you are still pending at time of travel they can sort at the port however so there's no need to worry.

 

[CarolynU]

Just got off the B2B boarding 23rd August and off yesterday. Southampton to Southampton!
Please to note I saw no drunkenness, no barging into the elevators or poor behaviour in general.
The weather was lovely most days. The kids pools were like kid soup but I’ve seen them like that before in the Summer holidays. However, my granddaughter had to line up for 30 minutes to actually be in the water for 15 minutes.
There was very little for the under threes to do, but again there isn’t that much normally, but now the nursery is closed of course.
The evening entertainment was mainly quiz related apart from the two main shows but I did see the violinist once and I actually enjoyed Danny the variety act on the first of the two cruises.
I was much happier with the character meets than I thought that I’d be as although there could not be close contact at least you knew where they were going to be and at what time. That was the deal breaker for us.
I’d have bought the photo package had the photographers been accompanying the character meets.
we had an excellent dining team and I thought that Lee the assistant cruise director was phenomenal and my two little grandchildren were besotted with him!
All in all of course it’s a restricted experience due to Covid but it felt oh so magical to be back on this great ship, and see the little ones faces!

 

[Hollie512]

That's great, thank you all for your reassurance!

 

[Wakey]

A1 sauce is no replacement for HP. In my opinion

A1 is vastly superior to HP and was actually invented in the UK and was originally exported to the US. Ironically you can’t get it here at anything like a decent price on import now, unless Costco have it in and they’ve not had it for 2 years. I will be bringing a bottle home. ;-)

 

[diablodancer]

There are now photographers with some characters (in D Lounge, not sure about other locations) per reports from the first Newcastle sailing.

 

[Twinkbelle]

I was on that first Newcastle sailing and there were photographers with Mickey and Minnie in their Marvel outfits and Chip and Dale. Well they were the only ones that I saw photographers with. Might have been more dotted about that I didn't spot.

Overall the experience was fantastic. Throughly enjoyed every second onboard, it lived up to my expectations. Having wanted to go on a Disney cruise for such a long time, I just felt priveledged to finally be able to get my chance to do so.

The only down side was the embarkation process. What a shambles that was our PAT time was 12:15 and it took us about an hour and 45 mins to get on.

We joined the main queue to get into the large tent they'd set up for check in/testing. When we got near the front this was split into 4 smaller queues were cms were checking people's reservations and asking them for their room numbers. The family that were in front of us didn't have that to hand! They didn't think they'd need to have the room number! So they had to ring someone at home and get them to find the paper work. Meanwhile our line stopped and the other 3 flowed.

Then when we got into the the queue for testing, which seemed to be never ending. Finally got the test done and waited for the results. Others came back quicker than ours. some people seemed to be out in no time. Finally our negative one came back and we joined the line to go and get on a bus and take the short journey around to the actual terminal. They checked our IDs there and finally we made our way onboard!!!!

 

[diablodancer]

On board now and people were queueing four hours for the shops to open today! I wouldn’t even queue that in the Parks (closest I’ve gotten was 2-3 hours for Pirates at Shanghai Disneyland but had entertainment in the form of fights breaking out in the queue to pass the time).

Everything else so far has gone relatively smoothly and been up to DCL’s normal standards. Main difference/downside so far is that there is definitely less variety on the navigators, fine for a few days but would want/hope that this wasn’t the case on longer sailings when they resume as I usually love sea days.

Other random tidbit: a lot of cast members I’ve spoken to seem to have come from the Wonder.