Disney Cruisers want more options for dinner - Article from Apple News!

[Girl of the South]

On my 13 night Transatlantic cruise last October I had a very hard time getting Palo for even just 1 night and I am Gold. Brunch was also a no-go for me. Excursions I wanted were also sold out before my window opened. FWIW.

 

[jwalk03]

On my 13 night Transatlantic cruise last October I had a very hard time getting Palo for even just 1 night and I am Gold. Brunch was also a no-go for me. Excursions I wanted were also sold out before my window opened. FWIW.

That's not too surprising for a Transatlantic which I am sure has a much higher proportion of adults than your average Disney sailing given the timing and length of those cruises. And also I would be willing to guess there are very very few first time cruisers on a TA.

 

[Dug720]

The MDR servers work Cabanas as well as the pool-area locations. Pre-covid when there was dinner service at Cabanas it was handled by CMs "in training." I'm not sure DCL staffs that many trainees anymore; more serving staff simply means higher fares.

Also they only have a limited number of crew cabins and for servers and such they are already sharing. To add more crew would mean converting some of the guest cabins (likely for officers who don't already have upper deck cabins) which would push prices even higher as that would take more staterooms out of inventory.

 

[DCL58]

Sold out extremely quickly? That has not been my experience. Just spent 7-nights on the Magic which only has Palo not the others- but there were dinner reservations available every single night of the cruise. Not a single night was sold out.

Brunch is a different story. I wasn't able to book that at all even though I tried as soon as it opened and our cruise had 3 sea days and it was offered on all 3! I also joined the wait list on board for Brunch and wasn't able to get it that way either. But I could have had dinner at Palo as many times as I wanted.

The lunch & brunch options tend to sell out very quickly because they don't force you to chose between missing a MDR meal/show and enjoying the elevated adults only experience.

Hasn’t been my experience on the fantasy either. The treasure, was a different story. We booked sort of late and there wasn’t one available option for either restaurant, lunch or dinner. Was a total different experience.

 

[annab3550]

We have definitely chosen to not book with DCL for this exact reason. Sometimes we just can't take another cruise of the same dining experience and same menus again. We are getting ready for a Treasure sailing but after that we may be kind of done with DCL mostly because of the dinner issue.

Same. I just cancelled cruises #15 and 16 last night. I'm tired of the menus, the food quality is down, and I think it's ridiculous that you're forced to eat in the dining room. I remember when my granddaughter was a toddler and how awful it was to keep her seated and behaving in a sit down restaurant. We'd take turns walking around the ship with her during dinner and it added a lot of stress. For Disney to ignore that when the cruise line depends on families with young children ( I realize adults only sail too, my husband and I were in that group) is so short sighted.
When I walked into the concierge lounge on the Magic last month saying, "there's nothing open on the deck to eat at all at dinner time" and concierge had to order us (awful) cheeseburgers to be delivered to our 1 bed suite, it was the beginning of the end.

 

[holula]

On my 13 night Transatlantic cruise last October I had a very hard time getting Palo for even just 1 night and I am Gold. Brunch was also a no-go for me. Excursions I wanted were also sold out before my window opened. FWIW.

I’m surprised at that honestly, my parents are gold and we are booked on the upcoming EBTA and I had no issues getting them a Palo brunch or Remy dinner reservation. There are just so many sea days!

 

[Flossbolna]

I’m surprised at that honestly, my parents are gold and we are booked on the upcoming EBTA and I had no issues getting them a Palo brunch or Remy dinner reservation. There are just so many sea days!

There are still plenty of Palo Dinner spots available now on that cruise. 10 days before departure. I just moved our reservation and had several options.

 

[Girl of the South]

Maybe the Westbound is more popular? You DO gain hours instead of lose them. It was also over Halloween. Maybe a lot more Platinum cruisers? It was what it was, for me.

 

[Flossbolna]

Maybe the Westbound is more popular? You DO gain hours instead of lose them. It was also over Halloween. Maybe a lot more Platinum cruisers? It was what it was, for me.

Did you do the one last year? That was the first time in a while that it was a Southern WBTA and it went to brand new Lookout Cay. I can see that it might have attracted more Platinum than our standard EBTA. I also found Palo bookings glitchy. It showed no availability for two people, but I could book it for one of us. Considering there are no tables for one that was very odd.

 

[Girl of the South]

Yeah. That’s the one!

The one Palo meal was wonderful and I think I asked the server to marry me?? He was very charming.

Doing the WestBound again this November and would gladly dine at Palo a couple of times, if I am able!

 

[WB1971]

I think this is another case where the minority is very vocal which makes it seem like a bigger issue and higher demand than it is. Sure, are people who have been on the ships several times going to get bored of the dining rooms? Yes. But most people, particularly those who have never been on a given ship before, are not likely to miss out on a DCL dining room experience. You can't compare DCL to other lines because other lines either have 1 big MDR and/or have several other dinner options. They aren't providing entertainment in their MDRs on 2/3 of the nights. People are going to be a lot more willing to skip the MDR on other lines. FOMO on DCL is a thing, especially for those that don't cruise as much or as often as some of you.

Yes, pre-covid DCL had the buffet as an option for dinner. 1, that was when 1 dining room offered entertainment, which most if not all the ships now offer it in 2 of the dining rooms. 2, covid caused prices to increase quite a bit and those prices never really came back down. The cost for them to run a dinner buffet every night is probably a lot more expensive than the value for a couple of groups of people to eat there.

I do agree that a fair option would be to have the food on the pool deck open later. I am not saying they have to be open until midnight, but I think them being open until 8 or 9 instead of 6 is perfectly reasonable and would be a fair compromise.

Well said.