Double Shows in the Med

[Intr3pid]

I’m a trifle confused with your answer.
Not one person who is unhappy about this recent change is calling for six Broadway type shows. Where have you got that from?

It will remain confusing unless you read the thread of posts you are quoting. In my post you quoted, I clearly said:

Yes, mixing it up with the welcome shows and/or the variety acts is fine.

My original impression was that some folks here wanted to see a different Broadway-style show every evening. If you aren't in that camp, there is nothing to argue about here. I do believe if it is a port-intensive cruise, you should expect at least some repeats. Not necessarily 2x3, but for newer shows and/or in ports where the all-aboard time is late.

Ironically though six Broadway type shows is what they are getting! Except it’s the same show (3) as per usual being repeated. Each show twice!
So the cast who previously only did 3 shows will now in fact be having their workload doubled!
Those same cast had other character related duties to perform around the ship during the day. Obviously being a Disney ship, character meet and greets are an essential element of sailings. Who knows if this change will impact on that? I think the answer is none of us know at the moment.
What people are talking about is the outside entertainers who were in the main theatre interspersing with the 3 shows won’t now be there as there are now 6 shows!!!!! I cannot see how fuel consumption is impacted ???
Finally it’s not just June sailings if this is a permanent change for The Magic and The Wonder. Some of these sailings in Alaska and The Mediterranean are expensive.

1. No, you aren't getting six different Broadway-style shows. Six different Broadway-style shows would mean six different sets, six different groups of costumes, six different uses of copyrights (internally transfer priced), and finding/training performers who can switch seamlessly among six different performances on six consecutive nights. That's 2x your stage entertainment budget. And it's all rhetorical now, as we agree no one should expect that.

2. Consider this. Drew Seeley who used to perform for Disney on the ships is now starring in several TV series. I would expect Disney to find a more cost-effective replacement, but I'm also not going to pretend what it cost to get him on board is what it would cost to get a couple of cast members to sign autographs in the hallways during the show hours.

3. Oil prices were $40 two years ago. Now, they are $65. That's a jump of 60% in fuel costs alone.

4. The Alaskan and European sailings for July vs June have 20%-40% premium in fares. Mind you, all of that premium goes straight to the bottom line.

I think you need to read posts more.

I never said exclude children you made that up! On the maths you said re WDT I said a number of children will be in the clubs.

As far as the math for the theater attendance, I don't read the two bolded statements as anything different.

And for every kid who chooses to skip a headline family show will be someone who wants to see it again on another evening. I agree it doesn't work for older shows, but there is no shortage of first timers on every cruise.

I guess we "expect" it because that is what Disney has done. Not all shows are broadway style. It has been a mix with other entertainers.

Agreed. I also don't mind some repeats on port-intensive itineraries and/or with newer shows. Like I don't mind repeating my lunches/dinners in the same MDRs. It all comes down to what matters to you - but what I do know is that if I want to enjoy my vacation, I'll enjoy it despite an issue like this rather than have it be ruined because of.

 

[CarolynU]

Meanwhile back on Planet Earth I’ve emailed DCL and got the we are investigating it reply. So watch this space, or not as the case may be!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Meanwhile back on Planet Earth I’ve emailed DCL and got the we are investigating it reply. So watch this space, or not as the case may be!

Still haven't received a reply on my message I sent......

 

[CarolynU]

Still haven't received a reply on my message I sent......

I think they might be swamped to be honest or they are just making sure that everyone says the same thing. Or they are preparing a corporate this is for your benefit reply!
It won’t make any difference in the short term nor I expect in the long, but we can but try. Plus of course some people presumably love the changes or are ambivalent about them.

 

[anricat]

Aside - I thought you were on the June 16?

Oh, why did I think it came out on the 16th? Carry on!

 

[TestingH2O]

Double shows for me this week.

 

[DisneyHelen]

Very disappointing

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I am sailing the Med in July and don't expect to be on the Magic again anytime soon. I haven't seen Tangled yet and absolutely love Dreams, so I wouldn't mind seeing them twice. We'll just have to see how I feel after touring all day.

 

[Geomom]

@TestingH2O Sorry you have the double shows! I will be very disappointed as well if they have the double shows on our Magic cruise in August! I can't believe they're doubling up those first 2 days--there is no excuse for that, especially as they've been using 'late port days' as their excuse. If they're going to double a show, it should just be the newest one.

 

[anricat]

We get onboard Saturday and I can't see things changing but if they do, I'll try to report back. (No guarantees because vacation, but I'll try.)

 

[Kate_45]

Such a shame they've gotten rid of the first night. I wouldn't have thought to have gone and seen junnk if I hadn't seen it in a preview. especially with their shows hidden away in fathoms during the day or late at night and mykids absolutely adored them.

 

[mmmears]

Such a shame they've gotten rid of the first night. I wouldn't have thought to have gone and seen junnk if I hadn't seen it in a preview. especially with their shows hidden away in fathoms during the day or late at night and mykids absolutely adored them.

I agree. And the welcome aboard show is just such a nice start to the cruise.

 

[anjuan]

I was on the June 2 Med sailing and was really disappointed about the doubling up. Also, what I had issues with was that the variety acts in Fathoms weren't at the same times as the main stage production. They were really at off times where I found it hard to get to. I had the early 6 pm dinner seating and the variety acts were often at 7:45 and there were times that I wasn't finished with dinner yet at this point. Then they repeated a lot of the movies (like the avengers one) so that wasn't a good alternative option for some of the nights as well. I agree with someone's comment that they could have shown Solo in the main theater one evening but they didn't do this. Even with the intensive port nature of the cruise I would have liked to have something different each night.

I did add a comment about it on the comment card at the end of the cruise.

 

[MomOTwins]

And to think, when we were planning our second cruise I thought "Well, maybe we should splurge for a longer trip since the repeat show experiment they are doing on the dream was so annoying." This really bugs me. With small kids that are up at 6am, we don't stay out late for the nighttime entertainment, so going to a show in the Walt Disney Theater and then to bed worked for us.

 

[Cliffside]

This news is really disappointing. We go to the shows every night. We enjoy the broadway style productions as well as the other performers Disney has brought on it the past. This is one of the things we always tell people why we love about DCL is the entertainment. For anyone who has sailed on these cruises has anyone spoke directly to the cruise director. I am curious how they are responding to people’s complaints.

Hopefully all the negative reactions will make them rethink this change.

 

[TestingH2O]

Darren has said the word "choice" about 10,000 times. Everything he talks about is Disney giving you a choice in what you do.

Everyone complains about the excellent speech. I find the choice speech much more oppressive and fake.

 

[kaseyC]

Darren has said the word "choice" about 10,000 times. Everything he talks about is Disney giving you a choice in what you do.

Everyone complains about the excellent speech. I find the choice speech much more oppressive and fake.

"Choices" and "Options" seems to be Disney's lip service when making a change that takes something away or adds something that costs extra.

 

[ivanp91]

For PremEARs at Sea, they don't announce ahead of time that it's going to be shown. Only, maybe, the day before the cruise director will make a veiled reference to such a happening.....

The premears tend to be at midnight the day the show opens in the US. For Incredibles 2 that would be the midnight that changes the date from the 14th to the 15th (it opens on the 15th)

I've been onboard for 3 "PremEARs at Sea", for Big Hero Six, Doctor Strange and Solo: A Star Wars Story (coincidentally all on the Magic). Those three at least premiered late in the evening before the official release date - 10:45pm in the case of BH6 and Strange, and IIRC it was 11pm for Solo.

 

[lucky1]

We were on the first Mediterranean this year (May26) and disappointed to have repeat shows when we got our first Navigator. (No I did not save any of the navigators) Also disappointed that Solo was not scheduled to be shown in the Walt Disney Theatre, after just having release on the Friday before sailing. It was similar to June 2 schedule. Darren, the CD explained on the first night given that it was a very port intensive cruise with late all aboard times, they opted to repeat the shows to give people options to see a show on their choosing. I may not have been disappointed if I was not aware this was becoming a trend on the Dream (not port intensive) and Wonder (Alaska cruises). I miss having the variety of being able to comfortable sit (and perhaps fall asleep) in the Walt Disney Theatre vs cramming into a seat in Fathoms. The first evening of our cruise they high lighted a British comedian juggler, who I would have liked to have seen, but he was only in Fathoms and not really highlighted on the Navigator, you needed to be looking for him. What I understood, Fathoms was crowded and it was difficult to see him in that venue as with Junk and a few others. I will say that we were on Adventures by Disney, so always the first to leave and last to return, we were exhausted and really didn't spend the time doing Ship actives, shows as we normally do. The night before our last Sea day, Darren did announce that they would have a special showing of Solo in the Walt Disney Theatre at 2pm on Sea day. Unfortunately it right during prime sun time, so not good timing. (We have been on cruises right after they premired Disney films and they have always showed the Walt Disney Theatre one evening).

 

[anricat]

Well, I never reported back, but we did have the double shows. The reason that they give is that with later hours in port on the Med cruise, some people might miss a show and want to see it the next night. I also had multiple questions about this in our survey.

The thing that irritated me the most was that I was hoping for a movie one of those nights in the Walt Disney Theatre (as we don't like the Buena Vista Theatre) and we didn't get that. Ultimately we did get Incredibles 2 in the Walt Disney Theatre in the afternoon on our sea day, but there were also other activities going on at the same time that I would have also liked. And I found that there really weren't that many evening activities if we weren't interested in seeing a double show. Some nights had a variety entertainer instead in Fathoms and we went to those, but I will say that they were sparsely attended much of the time, which was a shame. I wrote my comments down on our feedback card, told Guest Services and the Cruise Director my feelings on it and answered the questions and provided additional comments in the online survey.