Disappointed with the direction DCL is heading.

[cgolf]

We changed our Disney wonder booking to the fantasy one. Never cruised with Disney but we want to make sure when we are cruising that if this does not awe us we went with the larger and longer ship so we wont tell ourselves well its because its only the wonder ship. We want to make sure we are getting the full picture. In all fairness we booked partially with DVC points or we would never cruise for the full rate shown unless we are knocked off our socks this time with the Disney fantasy

You will be plenty busy and have a blast. If the kids are in the clubs at night and you like a martini or two, the Skyline lounge is a nice and quite spot to relax at the end of a long day and reflect back on all the fun you had and what you did. She is a wonderful ship.

 

[Hundredacre]

All the people who don't want to pay Disney prices, go elsewhere. Goodbye!

We are. And our 401k loves it!!

 

[AquaDame]

We are. And our 401k loves it!!

Smart use of the balance...!

I posted awhile ago saying we jumped ship and are trying RCCL too (only a few days away now, yay!). I still love Disney, and we also have a shorter cruise with them in May, but we have a finite number of dollars to play with every year and a real thirst for travel. Such a problem...

Sorry this is annoying you Karen727, but venting is really cathartic sometimes... and others really need to commiserate somewhere.

 

[squirrel]

For me it's the little things that add up that made me look elsewhere. My last cruise was from Hawaii to Vancouver. We didn't get the light up snowflake necklaces. We were told they ran out (they knew how many were going to be onboard). Putting the limit on alcohol before people could cancel cruises without penalty (It started after our cruise, I don't even drink but thought it was very un-Disney like). I had to ask for soap, shampoo and conditioner to be restocked in our room.

 

[cgolf]

Smart use of the balance...!

I posted awhile ago saying we jumped ship and are trying RCCL too (only a few days away now, yay!). I still love Disney, and we also have a shorter cruise with them in May, but we have a finite number of dollars to play with every year and a real thirst for travel. Such a problem...

Sorry this is annoying you Karen727, but venting is really cathartic sometimes... and others really need to commiserate somewhere.

Yes it is, and really we only vent because we truly care about DCL!

 

[Cookie34p]

We just came off the first Star Wars day at sea cruise on the fantasy. I was disappointed with the day (as were many on the ship). I've come to expect high standards from Disney, and it was a let down. We also noticed they were skimping in some areas. They no longer allow 10% off if booking back to back cruises - only on one of your weeks, not both. There were small things that surprised us - like our stateroom host told us the configuration for soap had changed (only one bar in the shower section, versus two that they used to do). A small change, but it just felt cheap. We still love dcl, but hope they don't start cheaping out

 

[TestingH2O]

They no longer allow 10% off if booking back to back cruises - only on one of your weeks, not both.

Can you clarify this? Can't each room book 2 placeholder rooms? How would DCL know if you opted to use those rooms one right after another?

 

[Cookie34p]

TestingH2O - I'm not sure about placeholders, but up until 10 weeks ago, you were able to book b2b, and would receive 10% discount on both weeks, as well as reduced deposit for both, if booked while on your current cruise. Not anymore! I would assume it might be the same for placeholders. I did overhear someone complain that the price for placeholders had increased...

 

[tinkerone]

Can you clarify this? Can't each room book 2 placeholder rooms? How would DCL know if you opted to use those rooms one right after another?

2 placeholder rooms however the stipulation was that they were on the same sailing. in the past dcl has allowed that rule to be bended only for a b2b meaning you could book one room on the first leg and one room on the second which made up for the two cabins allowed. both would get the 10% discount. we did this a lot as we enjoy the b2bs.
looks like they have changed this.

 

[TestingH2O]

2 placeholder rooms however the stipulation was that they were on the same sailing. in the past dcl has allowed that rule to be bended only for a b2b meaning you could book one room on the first leg and one room on the second which made up for the two cabins allowed. both would get the 10% discount. we did this a lot as we enjoy the b2bs.
looks like they have changed this.

Thanks for the clarification! Since we were always planning two rooms on one sailing, I didn't catch that.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Smart use of the balance...!

I posted awhile ago saying we jumped ship and are trying RCCL too (only a few days away now, yay!). I still love Disney, and we also have a shorter cruise with them in May, but we have a finite number of dollars to play with every year and a real thirst for travel. Such a problem...

Sorry this is annoying you Karen727, but venting is really cathartic sometimes... and others really need to commiserate somewhere.

What ship will you be on and will you please come back here and compare the two lines?

 

[AquaDame]

What ship will you be on and will you please come back here and compare the two lines?

An older one - the Jewel of the Seas since that is what they use on their Southern itineraries! If we make it to the ship I will absolutely tell you what we find. Currently we are supposed to have a layover at JFK Saturday morning - right in the middle of a possible blizzard. Jetblue still says we are a go for it so far!

I'm so excited to finally try a different ship and line even if my feelings right now are completely conflicted. I keep vacillating between thinking its brilliant to have swapped and thinking I made a mistake before I even set foot on board...! I will tell you that personally, for me, I hate their website with a passion. I'm on a mac, so YMMV, but I keep finding myself caught in information loops and have a really hard time finding what I want. For instance you click on dining and have to really dig to find where you can select restaurants and times (as well as do it for their "My Time Dining" if you want a set time to go eat) and had it time out on me multiple times during the process. I booked two of their specialty restaurants (chops & portofino) just for them to put on the website that there was suddenly 3, 4, or 5 night "packages" for their specialty dining. Where was that back when I was booking it?! I also wish I had just spent the money to have them ship me my cruise documents rather than printing them at home... I feel weird placing a piece of printer paper on my luggage... how is that going to survive the porters?! Not to mention having to pay for the dining, excursions, drink packages etc ahead of time.... but thats just me being too used to Disney's way, I know. I was going to get a drink package but they don't do a very good job of telling you exactly what you get with each one so we said to heck with it and a lot of things we're just going to wait until we are on the ship to find out. I think once we are onboard and have done this once we will smack our heads because it will all make sense... at least I hope!

2 placeholder rooms however the stipulation was that they were on the same sailing. in the past dcl has allowed that rule to be bended only for a b2b meaning you could book one room on the first leg and one room on the second which made up for the two cabins allowed. both would get the 10% discount. we did this a lot as we enjoy the b2bs.
looks like they have changed this.

So if I am sailing with my husband and he books a room in his name with me added on, then I book a room for the following cruise with him added on, they wouldn't allow it? Or do they refuse to link them in some way..?

 

[cgolf]

An older one - the Jewel of the Seas since that is what they use on their Southern itineraries! If we make it to the ship I will absolutely tell you what we find. Currently we are supposed to have a layover at JFK Saturday morning - right in the middle of a possible blizzard. Jetblue still says we are a go for it so far!

I'm so excited to finally try a different ship and line even if my feelings right now are completely conflicted. I keep vacillating between thinking its brilliant to have swapped and thinking I made a mistake before I even set foot on board...! I will tell you that personally, for me, I hate their website with a passion. I'm on a mac, so YMMV, but I keep finding myself caught in information loops and have a really hard time finding what I want. For instance you click on dining and have to really dig to find where you can select restaurants and times (as well as do it for their "My Time Dining" if you want a set time to go eat) and had it time out on me multiple times during the process. I booked two of their specialty restaurants (chops & portofino) just for them to put on the website that there was suddenly 3, 4, or 5 night "packages" for their specialty dining. Where was that back when I was booking it?! I also wish I had just spent the money to have them ship me my cruise documents rather than printing them at home... I feel weird placing a piece of printer paper on my luggage... how is that going to survive the porters?! Not to mention having to pay for the dining, excursions, drink packages etc ahead of time.... but thats just me being too used to Disney's way, I know. I was going to get a drink package but they don't do a very good job of telling you exactly what you get with each one so we said to heck with it and a lot of things we're just going to wait until we are on the ship to find out. I think once we are onboard and have done this once we will smack our heads because it will all make sense... at least I hope!



So if I am sailing with my husband and he books a room in his name with me added on, then I book a room for the following cruise with him added on, they wouldn't allow it? Or do they refuse to link them in some way..?

We are so conflicted right now too, we are choosing between the Allure, Freedom, and Celebrity Reflection. It is so difficult to figure out which to do, I am already comparing it to DCL. I see Royal having as many activities but not as nice looking of ships, while the Celebrity ship looks beautiful like the DCL ships do, but lacks the activities of DCL. I think our Dreams travel agent gave the best advice, don't compare DCL to other lines, they are different from the rest and provide a different experience, essentially choose the one that looks best and go with it

Just try not to think of DCL when you are onboard and you should have a blast If you can remind me to do the same next year it would be greatly appreciated

 

[belac]

I was going to get a drink package but they don't do a very good job of telling you exactly what you get with each one so we said to heck with it and a lot of things we're just going to wait until we are on the ship to find out. I think once we are onboard and have done this once we will smack our heads because it will all make sense... at least I hope!

Here is what I found as far as Drink package. http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf
DH and I were on the Quantum (when it was still here). He got the Ultimate package and just fetched drinks for me LOL DS and I got royal replenish. I don't drink more than one cocktail so it worked well.

 

[AquaDame]

We are so conflicted right now too, we are choosing between the Allure, Freedom, and Celebrity Reflection. It is so difficult to figure out which to do, I am already comparing it to DCL. I see Royal having as many activities but not as nice looking of ships, while the Celebrity ship looks beautiful like the DCL ships do, but lacks the activities of DCL. I think our Dreams travel agent gave the best advice, don't compare DCL to other lines, they are different from the rest and provide a different experience, essentially choose the one that looks best and go with it

Just try not to think of DCL when you are onboard and you should have a blast If you can remind me to do the same next year it would be greatly appreciated

Haha, yes! Can do later this year...! I would LOVE to try out one of the crazy big ships sometime - they have so much to offer and look so different! I think by the time we have the opportunity though Virgin might be sailing and they look really interesting so I might go that route instead. I think we would have gone with Celebrity this time since we supposedly fit their demographic but their dates for the itinerary we wanted just didn't line up. We already had airfare and no extra vacation days so I was really limited with which I could pick. Plus my husband secretly really wanted to go to St Maarten - he works at Boeing and has a thing for 747s so you know where we will be at 12:35pm on the 29th!

We definitely don't expect RCCL to be DCL so I think we will be okay... just like when we go to Universal its the same idea but very different. We went there to see the Harry Potter stuff and ride Minions, with the rest being an extra and we are trying out RCCL for price difference and the ports we wanted (St. Maarten & Barbados were at the top but next time I want to go to Aruba & Curacao!).

Here is what I found as far as Drink package. http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf
DH and I were on the Quantum (when it was still here). He got the Ultimate package and just fetched drinks for me LOL DS and I got royal replenish. I don't drink more than one cocktail so it worked well.

That is a really nice sheet - they should have that RIGHT THERE when you look at them, thank you! I really only enjoy one or two drinks at most in a day so I had a feeling I would't need an alcoholic package but was concerned I might have to in order to get the premium coffees (that is something I do like to sip all day - a coffee in the morning and later in the afternoon with plain teas in between = ). Plus all the water I can handle to keep hydrated of course. My husband can keep the soda... I never did get a taste for any of that!

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

An older one - the Jewel of the Seas since that is what they use on their Southern itineraries! If we make it to the ship I will absolutely tell you what we find. Currently we are supposed to have a layover at JFK Saturday morning - right in the middle of a possible blizzard. Jetblue still says we are a go for it so far!

I'm so excited to finally try a different ship and line even if my feelings right now are completely conflicted. I keep vacillating between thinking its brilliant to have swapped and thinking I made a mistake before I even set foot on board...! I will tell you that personally, for me, I hate their website with a passion. I'm on a mac, so YMMV, but I keep finding myself caught in information loops and have a really hard time finding what I want. For instance you click on dining and have to really dig to find where you can select restaurants and times (as well as do it for their "My Time Dining" if you want a set time to go eat) and had it time out on me multiple times during the process. I booked two of their specialty restaurants (chops & portofino) just for them to put on the website that there was suddenly 3, 4, or 5 night "packages" for their specialty dining. Where was that back when I was booking it?! I also wish I had just spent the money to have them ship me my cruise documents rather than printing them at home... I feel weird placing a piece of printer paper on my luggage... how is that going to survive the porters?! Not to mention having to pay for the dining, excursions, drink packages etc ahead of time.... but thats just me being too used to Disney's way, I know. I was going to get a drink package but they don't do a very good job of telling you exactly what you get with each one so we said to heck with it and a lot of things we're just going to wait until we are on the ship to find out. I think once we are onboard and have done this once we will smack our heads because it will all make sense... at least I hope!



So if I am sailing with my husband and he books a room in his name with me added on, then I book a room for the following cruise with him added on, they wouldn't allow it? Or do they refuse to link them in some way..?

We are so conflicted right now too, we are choosing between the Allure, Freedom, and Celebrity Reflection. It is so difficult to figure out which to do, I am already comparing it to DCL. I see Royal having as many activities but not as nice looking of ships, while the Celebrity ship looks beautiful like the DCL ships do, but lacks the activities of DCL. I think our Dreams travel agent gave the best advice, don't compare DCL to other lines, they are different from the rest and provide a different experience, essentially choose the one that looks best and go with it

Just try not to think of DCL when you are onboard and you should have a blast If you can remind me to do the same next year it would be greatly appreciated

I'm going into my CCL Vista cruise with the same mixed feelings. It's just so different than what I'm used to. The great thing about the Vista is I know for sure I'll love the ship, she looks amazing.

 

[belac]

That is a really nice sheet - they should have that RIGHT THERE when you look at them, thank you! I really only enjoy one or two drinks at most in a day so I had a feeling I would't need an alcoholic package but was concerned I might have to in order to get the premium coffees (that is something I do like to sip all day - a coffee in the morning and later in the afternoon with plain teas in between = ). Plus all the water I can handle to keep hydrated of course. My husband can keep the soda... I never did get a taste for any of that!

That is the reason I got the Royal Replenish package, looove my coffee. The Quantum had a Starbucks as their premium coffee on board. Come to think of it I only have two souvenir cups, and I remember going to get my sons fresh OJ at breakfast, so I don't think we even got a package for him. At dinner I would stop by the soda fountain to get his lemonade (they didn't have it the first night in the restaurant and just kept doing that). It was our first RCCL so we went with what worked for us, and never bothered to ask again. I know used every bit of the $19 a day for specialty coffees, hot cocoa, Fresh Juice and I suppose all of DS drinks a day now too.
We did dynamic dining and loved Chopped. The server there was amazing we loved him. I think we only had one restaurant that we didn't care much for the service, actually the head server - his assistant was wonderful tho.
Tip: For breakfast (or buffet) you may want that Royal Replenish package to get the fresh OJ, the other free stuff is worse than Tang, and I used to like Tang.

 

[Orsino]

An older one - the Jewel of the Seas

I've sailed on the Jewel of the Seas and very much enjoyed it. I love the Solarium; we were on a Canada New England trip and the enclosed pool was wonderful in the chilly fall weather. It's indoors, but feels so open and bright.

I feel weird placing a piece of printer paper on my luggage... how is that going to survive the porters?!

I 'laminate' my luggage tags with clear packing tape. It makes the tag more water-resistant and unlikely to tear.

 

[mcd2745]

I feel weird placing a piece of printer paper on my luggage... how is that going to survive the porters?!

I 'laminate' my luggage tags with clear packing tape. It makes the tag more water-resistant and unlikely to tear.

I bought some of these...

http://www.cruisecritic.com/store/product.cfm?ID=46

 

[bobbiwoz]

We are a week off of the Island Princess and a partial crossing of the Panama Canal, and it was wonderful! It filled my desire to see more and learn more about the area. However, I think the speakers on Princess, there were 2 besides the Cruise director, were much inferior compared to Capt Kenneth Puckett who does the lectures on Disney. Richard, the cruise director was excellent in doing his presentation on the history of cruising, from the 1950s through the present. I think he spoke fairly about Royal Caribbean, Disney and all of the lines under the Carnaval Corporation as well as others I was not familiar with.

Princess does give you chocolates on your pillow, but no towel animal, RCCL gives you a towel animal, no chocolate, Disney gives you both.

We thought the food was excellent! We have the same opinion regarding DCL and RCCL, maybe somethings are not up to excellent, but overall, yes! One perk I especially liked was, both DH and I got 240 free internet minutes. I prefer minutes to however DCL sells the Internet. We are platinum on Princess, 5 cruises behind us or 50 sea nights. Another perk is a lovely spread every evening for platinum, elite (15 cruises or150 nights or concierge). During the offering time, a drink is offered at $5. Delicious margaritas!

The guest laundry room had a "locker room" smell, so we sent our laundry out. Never experienced that particular problem on Princess befor even, but RCCL does not even offer self laundry rooms.

We brought 2 bottles of wine aboard, lots of water, no problems.

We had fixed dining time. There's an excellent spread of food in the Horizon court buffet, and it may have been opened 24 hours, if not, close to it.

We knew there had been nuro virus on the ship on the cruise before us. Boarding was delayed, and while in Cartegena Columbia they did another scrub down. We were asked to prepare our rooms by putting things away. As far as we were concerned, sanitation was good, we used the Purell stations. There was a slight disinfectant smell when we came in after the excursion.

Cold water and wet wash cloths were given to us before boarding after the on shore excursions.

I do prefer the size and depth of swimming pools on Princess and RCCL over DCL. I do regularly use the pools to do knee exercises.

Princess has excellent movie viewing opportunities, in main theater and under the stars. They pop fresh popcorn for your enjoyment under the stars for free, and provide blankets in case of chilly or windy nights. I saw Peanuts Movie, A Walk in the Woods, and Trainwreck. Tom saw Martian, all on big screens. Also there were varied movies on TV, notably Cinderella and Frozen! There were plenty more offered, also the Champion College Football game and some NFL Playoffs, all under the stars.

Folks mostly were surprised I like Disney, but mostly because, "aren't there a lot of children?" This was definitely an older bunch of people. However, there were babies and children aboard who seemed happy! One 9 month old girl was a joy the whole time on the Sloth Sanctuary excursion, and it was 5 hours, including a boat ride down bayous!

I will continue to book trips based on itinerary, price and companions. I have not seen DCL do anything that causes me to feel they are slacking or driving me away. We will go on another Princess cruise, transatlantic westward in 2017. We really like the itinerary, a stop in the Azores, for instance, and we already have friends going with us!

Bobbi