If you knew DCL Executives were reading this, what would you say?

[disneyjunkie]

My suggestion would be to give a discount to teachers for cruising. We can't go any other time besides the high price times. We don't get weeks off when the cheaper cruises are. Disney prides themselves on supporting the Teacher of the Year. Why not support them with a discount during the summer. It wouldn't have to be all summer, just a week or two that we could plan for. On our saleries, Disney makes it almost impossible.

ITA

My son in in high school so the only time we vacation is during school breaks.

Easter, Christmas, President's Week, and summer.

As much as I love Disney, the price is keeping us away from DCL.

 

[Lindy Loo]

Just found out if you are from the UK you are expected to get up at 5am to all go and get passports. I think NOT!!!! This is seriously affecting my thoughts on the cruise and I'm not going till 15th Oct. I will NOT be up at that time, either do this in the evening before, or at breakfast, NOT at this time. Im on holiday and its not acceptable to expect my daughter 4 yrs to be up at this time.

Whats the worse thing that can happen if we miss our alar call ???? Not a lot. We are in no rush to get off the boat. They know what room we are in, so come to us, if its that important. Disney, why treat UK residents different from the American ones. Our money is as good !!!! I have cruised before with other linners and this was down on the evening before, in less than 10 minutes, no hassle !!!!


SO SPRINKLE SOME PIXIE DUST ON YOUR UK CLIENTS AND SORT THIS OUT BEFORE OCTOBER!!!

 

[BethA]

We do not take our children out of school either for a vacation, so we can only go in the summer too when the prices are sooo high. I think if you start offering discounts to one profession you would stir up all kinds of problems. Just my opinion.

I know a lot of people hate the casino idea, but if it would lower the price I am all for it. You don't have to go in if you don't want, just like you don't have to play bingo.

 

[clovely]

Let kids who are not potty trained into the kid's club. There are lots of kids at 3-3 1/2 who are not fully trained. It's a shame that they either have to go to Flounders or not go at all.

Carnival lets kids in diapers/pull-ups go to the clubs. So should DCL.

I don't know how Carnival handles it but I think the rule DCL has is pretty standard. At least we found the same to be the case at several resorts. I think the problem is not so much with kids dirtying the pullup or diaper - they could just call mom or dad for that. But the problem with those "on the fence" would be all the kids who want to go potty but require help, with or without a pullup, CMs can't be in there "helping" - that could be a whole legal can of worms! And they couldn't be put in a position to have to tell a child who wanted to go potty, "no you have to go in the pullup because I can't help you" and most of the time it would be too late by the time they realized this child was going to ask for help - and he can't stand there waiting for mommy to come button or "wipe"!

 

[clovely]

We do not take our children out of school either for a vacation, so we can only go in the summer too when the prices are sooo high. I think if you start offering discounts to one profession you would stir up all kinds of problems. Just my opinion.

I know a lot of people hate the casino idea, but if it would lower the price I am all for it. You don't have to go in if you don't want, just like you don't have to play bingo.

I agree on #1

I just don't on #2. If Disney wanted to be exactly like all the other cruiselines, what would be the point? And I really think there are probably 10 people who like no casino people for every one that would want a casino.

The casino issue, along with the pricing, is simple economics. Although I'm sure any execs reading this are finding the feedback very interesting, and some very useful, no amount of pleading from us here is going to affect the issues of pricing. Complaining about it is pretty moot considering we're all (the vast majority) already booked. If they were really charging too much, we wouldn't be going and all the rooms wouldn't be full all the time. They're going to charge what they can charge, not what we wish they'd charge. They probably do need to take heed of the numbers of people saying they've gone several times but this will be their last because of price, though. But, reality is that until the numbers actually start to dip or drop off, they have no reason in the world to think their prices are too high.

 

[allears]

We'd like the execs to know we're among DCL's biggest fans! And we'd like to thank them for creating a vacation experience that we have found to be the BEST! Our times on board have been incredible and our memories priceless.

So we say, keep up the good work and if all goes well, we'll be back on "our" ship in September!

 

[makelab]

at least a few free alcoholic drinks for the adults who enjoy them.

 

[kellimomo3]

First let me say we love DCL and we're eagerly anticipating our third cruise in January. That being said, there are a couple of things we encountered when we cruised last month that we hated!! These were things that were not in place the year before when we cruised and are said to be "temporary/trial" changes. Please put a stop to them!!!!!

#1 Staggered dining
It stinks and it has no purpose!! We had 5:30 and found it nearly impossible to have everyone ready and get there by then. Luckily my boys don't care too much about the characters but I really feel for those with children who want to see them. How could they ever make it by 5:30?? We had early seating in '05 and 6:00 was very do-able. It all ran smoothly and we saw no issues then so, why the change??? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!

#2 1st night in Kid's clubs "Open House" format
What a let down!! My kids were so looking forward to the Welcome Aboard party in the clubs. It was their favorite last year. We were all dissapoointed that parents now HAVE TO stay with their children the first night. Repeat cruisers were very bummed by this. The clubs were completely chaotic with all the confusion and it was hard for the boys to meet children in their respective age groups because the clubs were overflowing with siblings and parents and it was impossible to tell what goup they would fall into! I really hope this changes by our cruise next year. My husband and I would love to check the kids in after dinner, get a couple's massage and have a drink on deck 9 instead of being stuck in an overflowing, chaotic, interior kid's club. DCL is loosing revenue by doing this as well. I have to assume that ressies in the spa and Palo on that first night have taken a beating since the kids can't be left. Please don't flame me as I know this is really only an issue for repeat cruiser kids. The newbies won't know the difference beacause their kids have nothing prior to compare it to.

I really hope the execs read these boards!!!


Kelli

 

[Lindy Loo]

Do you really think they do read any of this???

i know Virgin have someone read the DIB board ( like a UK version of the Dis) as when I raised a serious concern, they Pmed me and then I wrote to Richard Branson himself. I got a letter back from him ( well I expect his office) more importantly the issued was sorted. I took the paperwork with me incase of problems, but it was all OK.

Just to add my views on a casino. We would like a small one on the ship. After all its the same as bingo. Gambling is gambling. If as adults we choose to do so, then thats fine. For others there is plenty of other things to do. I doubt we will be playing Bingo,on our cruise, however we would have enjoyed a small flutter in a casino, (during our adult time) each to their own I guess.

 

[staceymerrill]

I would ask them why, with the tremendous success DCL has had, they do not add at least 1 new ship?.....the demand has far exceeded the supply for DCL cruises, and quite frankly I dont think it is worth the $ anymore...if we didnt have an infant , unquestionably we'd be cruising on RCCL Voyager class.....we do not like 1 on 1 babysitting that RCCL has....

 

[The Roses]

Here's my $.02:

The "saving" of chairs by the pool that then go unused. I'd love to see the CMs remove the towels that have been sitting there for hours.

The "saving" of seats in the theatre. Assigning seats on arrival would solve a host of problems. (Please don't flame me)

 

[clovely]

Here's my $.02:

The "saving" of chairs by the pool that then go unused. I'd love to see the CMs remove the towels that have been sitting there for hours.

The "saving" of seats in the theatre. Assigning seats on arrival would solve a host of problems. (Please don't flame me)

Deck chairs or theater seats, IMO, if you're bootie is physically in a chair, you should be able to say "oh, I'm saving this one"...but not the next six seats down from you!! That's rude.

 

[figment52]

Please don't add a casino - that can be found on any other ship - NOT having one is what sets DCL apart from the rest.

 

[J&B_Disney]

More Ships! More Itineraries!

 

[Juletime]

Thank you for the forum. We love DCL, we have sailed 3 times and have 3 more booked for this year! The one thing that could be done to improve the value for money is upgrade the beds! They are really in pretty poor shape and especially for the price.

We are very pleased with the Kids Club and the shows. I can see the problem with saved deck chairs and theater seats and would agree with the proposed solutions.

The Staff and Service are great, thank you for wonderful family vacations.

 

[Lizardbeth61]

I know this has been mentioned, but from what I can gather, Disney has a VERY HIGH rate of return cruisers. We, alone, have done 3 seven night cruises and my DH and I have run out of things to do in the evenings. Michael Harrison and the comic with the guitar are very funny, but the show is the same after three years with a few very minor changes. Also the programming in the kids clubs is pretty much the same. Our kids still like it but are tiring of doing the same things.

Disney is wonderful . . . don't get me wrong . . . we love the line, but if DCL wants to continue with repeat guests, some things do have to change. We are very excited about the new itinerary, but if it wasn't for that, we probably wouldn't sail with Disney again for quite a while. And I hate to say that, but it is expensive and it has to be worth it.

So, if the new itinerary is Europe . . . we'll be on it, but if not, it's going to be a while for us so that there are new things to see and do!

 

[Lizardbeth61]

. . . was great. So for us, that's not a problem. In fact, we had more problems at the parks . . . we felt like we were "slumming it" in the parks after the royal treatment on the ship for a week.

It's just that they need to think more about their repeat business.

 

[Billinaz]

I had a guy run to the seats ahead of us in the theater then proceed to tell me that the 8 seats between he and his kid were now "saved". I told him that I and the other 4 in my family who were sitting down now were staying. I told him he was free to call a cast member so they could explain the rules to him, and if he bothered to read the avigator he could see that it was not OK to save seats. He gave me a BS line about not reading any navigators.

He started telling his kid how rude we were and that his family could not sit together because I was not ruining it and that this was supposed to be a family cruise.... As he opened his mouth again I told him how nice it was to show his kid the way not to follow any rules and it was him being the jerk.


About then his family showed up (like 10 minutes after we sat down) and his mother told him that she was trying to get in touch with him to tell him that saving seats was not allowed.,...


At the pool when I saw nobody sitting in a seat near the front, I moved the stuff off it and set it down next to the seat. Nobody said a word, although some people did retrieve their stuff 30 to 40 minutes later....

Here's my $.02:

The "saving" of chairs by the pool that then go unused. I'd love to see the CMs remove the towels that have been sitting there for hours.

The "saving" of seats in the theatre. Assigning seats on arrival would solve a host of problems. (Please don't flame me)

 

[lbgraves]

I also agree about the rates, I just looked,

June 2006 - 7 day Eastern, family of 4 cat 9 - $9,198
April 2007 - 7 day Eastern, family of 4 cat 9 - $4,877

How can the rates be soooo different???

That one's easy. You are comparing the cost of a cruise that is less than 3 months away with one over a year away. The cost of a Disney cruise increases as you get closer to the sail date & it fills up. Also, you are comparing a peak summer month when most schools are out with a month when most are in session.

 

[ceejay13]

I have only taken one DCL cruise and that was the 14 night repo back to Florida. We had a great time and was the best of my 5 cruises, the others taken on different cruise lines. My biggest frustration was the cost of internet usage. The couple we went with had a very sick godchild back home and they used our laptop to email back home. I could not believe what our internet bill was at the end of the 14 days. Also, the connection was incredibly slow and I wondered how much we would have saved if it would have at least been faster. The only other thing would have been better bedding. Most hotel chains these days have done a great job of providing outstanding beds and bedding and DCL definitely needs an upgrade.

We had a great experience with both food and service and have no complaints at all. We're hoping to be on the next repo to Europe!