I just returned from Alaska. Was it a good cruise? Yes. Was it a great cruise? No. But that's also alright, not every vacation, even when it's expensive, can be amazing. Sometimes there are issues.
These four things impacted our cruise a little. Is Disney falling behind? Maybe, or other cruise lines would suit us better as two adult friends travelling.
1. We had some issues with 3 out of 4 port adventures, we got 10% back on this after leaving a complaint.
This could have been improved by updating the Disney website with the description of the adventures (manage expectations) and better communication between Disney and the suppliers. Do the suppliers know what Disney is selling?
2. We were unlucky with our dining team. There were some communication mix ups (it wasn't till day 3 when they understood my friend's easy standard drink request and got it right the first time) and the server and assistant server seemed to have some communication issues among each other.
Could this really be solved during the cruise? Communication, especially between colleagues, is very hard to adjust within a few days. Should we addressed this with the Head Server? Maybe, it was annoying but not enough to make a big deal about, and we weren't a fan of our head server. We contemplated removing (some of) his tips, but as it's only $1 a day, we left it as it was.
3. We didn't start of strong with the muster drill. It was way too long, we couldn't hear the Muster Team Leader, even after I told her that her microphone was hardly working. She mainly did games about songs and characters starting with the letter of our muster station. The Leader in the group next to us yelled some things about what to do in case of an emergency (bring medication, leave the rest behind, dress warm). Knowing that other cruiselines have switched back to e-drills, made this one extra hard.
4. It was my friend's first cruise, and I'm sure I showed her pictures of the room and that we would have 1 regular bed and 1 sofa. She probably didn't remember, and she was a bit frustrated with the situation. I know Disney's primary target group is families with children. It would be nice if Disney had rooms for adult friends and had 2 normal beds. Either two queens, or a king bed that can be separated into two. Even better if they accommodate to solo travellers but as there are only a handful of cruise lines who cater to solo travellers, I won't hold that against Disney.
Then there were things we noticed that didn't really impact us. It was all in entertainment that there were some things that most people wouldn't notice or are not bothered by. I do think it shows that Disney is paying less attention to details.
- They had an Alaska expert on board (this was basically a slide show of pictures taken on her travels). The objection I have, she had some facts on her slides. As a source she quoted Wikipedia. I'm sorry, everyone over the age of 12 should know that you cannot get away with using Wikipedia as a source. Not even when it's to tell us who the Mendenhall Glacier is named after. Tbh, I don't think it's very necessary to quote sources at a talk like this.
- There was a special 25th DCL trivia organized. No one showed up, because it wasn't in the navigator app. We found out because the CM came in half way through our Disney trivia in the venue next door and told her colleague that no one showed up. Some of the guests then had a look in the app and told her that it wasn't in the app.
The CM got it rescheduled for later in the cruise.
- Another thing that was weird in the navigator app. The 25th anniversary celebration was named 'Shimmering Sea Soiree'. You only knew that this was a Celebration/Captain's Toast (or something similar) by clicking on the activity and reading the description. By scrolling by it, you would not have known this. The cruise director told us at the early show (the soiree was at 7:30). I heard that people had missed it, because the title of the activity in the app wasn't clear.
- There was a very lovely fun CM who was scheduled to do an animation class. Only thing: she couldn't draw. It was a bit sad, she acknowledged that she was still learning. But you could also see she was uncomfortable doing this activity. I cannot draw to save my life, and my Minnie came out better than hers. If one of your team members is still learning, give them time to learn and don't schedule them till they are comfortable to show their skills.
- Elsa's wig for Freezing the Night probably wasn't styled in a while. That and/or it wasn't fitted properly to the actress. Did that impact my cruise? No, not at all, but it was a detail I would expect Disney pay attention to.
- I know this isn't the cruise' fault or something they can solve quickly themselves. But the Golden Mickey's is now getting outdated with Bob Iger from a decade ago and it's terribly slow. This show could use an update.
- It was loud on this cruise. There were 'only' 300 kids on board, but when we were waiting for Chip 'n Dale in their 25th anniversary outfits, they seemed all be in the same line, and that hallway next to Triton's, it's echo-y. It was the only time that Chip 'n Dale were scheduled to meet in these costumes. The line was long and loud. I bowed out and went back to the room.
Also the guitarist and the pianist in the atrium were anything but subtle. When I addressed this issue while chatting with the Cruise Director, he said that the pianist is just very enthusiastic and passionate. And that this was the reason he didn't play a lot in the Cadillac lounge.
I solved this problem to avoid the atrium at certain times or wear noise cancelling headphones.
Edited to add:
- I hate to call out meh-experiences with face characters, but we were not very impressed with Moana and Rapunzel on this cruise. And this was not about looks. Moana could only talk about Maui, whatever we brought up, she would reply something referring to Maui. While Moana is a strong independent character without a love interest, she should be able to talk about her own character.
Rapunzel... let's say improv wasn't her strongest suit. We weren't trying her to break character, but we like to ask some unusual questions to see how princesses respond. Like asking about different princesses, who has the best castle, choose between prince Eric or prince Phillip. For three questions, she could only answer with 'I don't know', or 'I like them all'. Not a big thing just a bit disappointing. 99% of the time the princess actresses we encounter across the world are really creative with these kind of questions. Tiana on this cruise was amazing with it, so was Ariel.
Edited to add 2:
- Not noticed by me, but by people in the facebook group. Little Mermaid was scheduled by accident to be in the Buena Vista theatre. It appeared on the schedule while it was suppose to première the next cruise. People got excited and then left disappointed.
Non entertainment, but a thing where Disney could step up a little.
- It was my birthday during this cruise, and on the evening of day 3 (a day after my birthday) out of 7 days, I received the $50 gift certificate for the spa. It was only good for port days on the most expensive items on the menu. I had long days in port planned. If I had given this certificate earlier I might have reconsidered how to schedule my activities in port.
Again, these things didn't impact my enjoyment of the cruise, it does say something about Disney's attention to detail.
To balance things out: what made this a good cruise?
- Great pre-cruise day in Vancouver.
- Alaska is amazingly beautiful
- We had the best weather ever. We left Vancouver with 90 degrees weather and the first few days nothing but clear blue skies and sunshine.
- The mocktails by Felipe in Cadillac lounge
- The actress playing Tiana for the M&G and in Tiana's place.
- Got a bottle of alcohol free bubbles pixiedusted.
- We had a blast with all the photographers.
- We won 3 trivias. And all the trivias were a lot of fun.
- Love the French Quarter Lounge
- I ran into 3 CMs from the Magic who remembered me from my transatlantic cruise in September '22.
2 as CMs (Pia from Shutters and Sacha from Palo now both got transferred to the Wonder) and one CM between contracts was on board as a guest, he sat next to me at the Frozen musical and when we started chatting he remembered me.