If you were in charge of DCL, what would you change?

[over50visits]

I won't go back on the Dream for one reason, the awful set up of the adult pool area. That is my husband and I's favorite thing to do, hang at the pool without kids. It was all closed in, absolutely no breeze while in the shaded area (over at the jacuzzis) and just felt completely claustrophobic. My recommendation for the new ships is to copy the Magic and Wonder again for the adults!!! Have it open, yet shaded, let the air flow nicely. And please, whatever you do, a bigger pool, and do not repeat that crazy useless section of putting your feet in only, like over at the bar.

My biggest complaint about the "adult" pool is the placement of the doors to the elevators. There is a constant stream of children walking back and forth from the rest of the deck to the elevators. Not their fault, this is where Disney put the elevators, and as far as we're concerned all possibility of a quiet retreat was destroyed by that design decision. So…in charge? Don't know if I can go back and fix that, but definitely on the checklist for future ships.

 

[tcufrog]

We're planning a cruise to Alaska and even though my dh really wants to do a Disney cruise for it I overruled him because so many other lines have better educational content during time on the boat. If I'm going to spend that much on a cruise I want us to learn a lot while doing it.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Those auto gratuities go into a big pool, where the money is split up among the crew members you would normally never think to tip (think lifeguards, the people who hand out towels at the pool, the people constantly cleaning the public bathrooms, etc..

I was under the impression that spa employees don't work for DCL, which would seem to indicate to me that they wouldn't pool tips with real cast members. Perhaps with their own fellow spa employees, but not with actual cast members. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Correct. Unlike some other cruiselines, the auto gratuity is still at your discretion. It's just a courtesy that DCL adds it to the onboard account. In theory making it "easier" for you to tip.

On some other lines the Hotel Service Charge (auto-gratuity) is pooled to be divided by all departments that service the passengers. From Laundry to Food service. On DCL the auto-gratuity is designated to specific persons (your room host and your dining room service members only).

The spa is a concessionaire. They have their own gratuities added to the bill when you use their services or purchase their products. Now, those gratuities may be pooled to be divided by only the spa employees, I don't know.

 

[Jennifer777]

Many of the common ideas in this thread are to bring in new shows and entertainment options, new menus and new benefits for loyal cruisers and it's got me thinking; based on the repetitive itineraries, entertainment and menu options and the lackluster loyalty program (according to many cruisers) it seems like DCLs current business model is to market their product more toward young families and newer cruisers, worrying less about attracting lifelong passengers. By all accounts, if this is their plan, it has worked phenomenally well for them. However, their success with this is in part due to the fact that they only had 2 - 4 ships to fill and pretty much owned the market in family cruising. As other cruise lines improve their options for families and begin offering more and more luxury services dipping into Disney's market, DCL will likely need to revisit their current plan, especially since they will soon have 6 ships to fill. Will this mean more GT, sale or expanded military rates offered? Better loyalty program? New itineraries? I have no clue but I'm optimistic that these new ships will hopefully lead to some positive changes and I'm excited to see what they are. Thanks for playing along! I loved reading all your ideas!

 

[Mokat76]

Keep the fireworks but dump the utterly ridiculous pirate night leading up to it. Just have a party atmosphere leading up to it, then boom, fireworks.

 

[cgolf]

Many of the common ideas in this thread are to bring in new shows and entertainment options, new menus and new benefits for loyal cruisers and it's got me thinking; based on the repetitive itineraries, entertainment and menu options and the lackluster loyalty program (according to many cruisers) it seems like DCLs current business model is to market their product more toward young families and newer cruisers, worrying less about attracting lifelong passengers. By all accounts, if this is their plan, it has worked phenomenally well for them. However, their success with this is in part due to the fact that they only had 2 - 4 ships to fill and pretty much owned the market in family cruising. As other cruise lines improve their options for families and begin offering more and more luxury services dipping into Disney's market, DCL will likely need to revisit their current plan, especially since they will soon have 6 ships to fill. Will this mean more GT, sale or expanded military rates offered? Better loyalty program? New itineraries? I have no clue but I'm optimistic that these new ships will hopefully lead to some positive changes and I'm excited to see what they are. Thanks for playing along! I loved reading all your ideas!

Between adding the new ships, and the fact that lets face it kids are expensive to raise, we only have one but are paying for college now, there is a max value families will pay, what it is who knows. I also think their prices will flatten out in the future due to what you said. I really think that DCL wants to find out what the consumers would pay for their product, and their is only one way to find out, if they can get it it is a very smart move by them.

Regardless of what they do we are cruisers for life it appears, still the cheapest way to travel

 

[cgolf]

Keep the fireworks but dump the utterly ridiculous pirate night leading up to it. Just have a party atmosphere leading up to it, then boom, fireworks.

The show on the classics is actually pretty cool how they work the fireworks into the show. The show on the dream class on the other hand I didn't like at all.

 

[Plaid Princess]

I would add more adult activities that feature Disney, as well as more things that don't focus on alcohol. I'd love to see more options of lectures, or sketch classes, or scavenger hunts, etc.

Also surprised it hasn't been mentioned, but West Coast Itineraries! Keep the Wonder out here permanently, build a Disney port in Long Beach and alternate California Coast cruises with Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska. Pair the cruises up with "land and sea" trips to Disneyland. Partner with AbD to offer excursions to the Studio Lot, Imagineering, Pixar, Lucasfilm, etc. Disney is a west coast company, and yet most of the year, if I want to go on a Disney cruise I have to deal with going to Florida.

I'd love to see an adults only option of a dining rotation. The second seating helps lower the kid count, but the option of requesting a kid free dining room would be amazing!

Switch up the Dream's itinerary. She's such a big, pretty ship to spend her whole life sailing back and forth to the Bahamas.

Yes!!! I get that they're flagged in the Bahamas and there's a lot involved in that, but if I never see Nassau again I'd be just fine!

Dole Whip at the self serve ice cream station!

Mmmmm, yes!

Itineraries across the Pacific for us in Australia, maybe from Sydney to Los Angeles (that would be AWESOME!)

I agree 100%!!! Especially when the new ships come online... no reason to have 6 ships circling the Caribbean, when there are so many other possible itineraries!

The topic is if you were in charge of DCL what would you do. It's not what you want. Some very good things here but all the ones about lowering prices to make it more reasonable you wouldn't be thinking that way if you were in charge of DCL. If you were and you did you wouldn't last too long.

Thank you! My thoughts exactly!

I agree with those who said change the CC club gifts. Please no more bags!!! Bring back the awesome beach towels!

Or perhaps have a couple items to choose from. We love the bags, and have more beach towels than we know what to do with. Perhaps having a selection of 2 or 3 items available in the gift shop. Or better yet, a stateroom credit.

Are the parks really so much cheaper? When I've priced park trips, I just haven't seen that much of a difference. Tickets are $100+ per person per day. Then you add in food and lodging. It may work out to be slightly less expensive, but it's certainly not a 3x difference.

Now if you're talking Disneyland I can see the prices being on par with the cruise, because of the exclusivity of the Disney hotels. But WDW has thousands of rooms to fill, so there's usually some kind of deal going on.

I would like to see some educational programs for the kids clubs in addition to the fun. For example, an Astronomy program for stargazing, Oceanography, Careers in the cruiseline industry, even a Disney company history class and focus on what Walt Disney started and how far it has grown. (Okay, I am a nerd) .

Can grownups do this too please???

I would quit charging people for laundry bags they didn't take.

Or just take the dang Cruise Line logo off them so no one is tempted. Better yet, make them florescent orange or something equally horrible: not only will no one want to take them home, but they'll be super easy to spot in the room.

My biggest complaint about the "adult" pool is the placement of the doors to the elevators. There is a constant stream of children walking back and forth from the rest of the deck to the elevators. Not their fault, this is where Disney put the elevators, and as far as we're concerned all possibility of a quiet retreat was destroyed by that design decision. So…in charge? Don't know if I can go back and fix that, but definitely on the checklist for future ships.

In the meantime, have some CM's actively enforce the age restriction. There's no reason for kids to be in the adult areas at all, they can go to another deck rather than "passing through".

I really think that DCL wants to find out what the consumers would pay for their product, and there is only one way to find out, if they can get it it is a very smart move by them.

Back in the day when I was a ticket seller for Disney, people would ask me why the prices went up. I would ask them if they were going to buy the tickets anyway, and they would say yes. And I'd say 'That's why'. Honestly, if they're still filling ships, the price isn't too high.

 

[Hundredacre]

Keep the fireworks but dump the utterly ridiculous pirate night leading up to it. Just have a party atmosphere leading up to it, then boom, fireworks.

We love pirate night!! And we do not dress up, but it is just so appropriate for carribean cruises!

 

[cgolf]

The topic is if you were in charge of DCL what would you do. It's not what you want. Some very good things here but all the ones about lowering prices to make it more reasonable you wouldn't be thinking that way if you were in charge of DCL. If you were and you did you wouldn't last too long.

This I will respectfully disagree, and in saying so I 100% understand what they are doing and why and ultimately it doesn't impact our cruise vacations.

My thoughts on the pricing is that it is ok to price yourself above others, but then at that point keep your increases inline with the industry. What DCL has done recently is eliminate some smaller perks and increase their price faster than their competition. Having seen some companies recently overprice their products and ultimately fail or struggle because the short term gains were long term losses because they lost a large portion of their loyal base to other products.

So yes if I was in charge of DCL I would do a lot of market analysis against the competitors and look at our long term goals as a cruise line, and will the increase in prices drive whole family units away for good or just the frequent cruisers. My thoughts are that you would want to see a decent percentage of gold and platinum cruisers and the highest percentage being new and silver. Since we don't have access to their books we don't know how they truly are doing. The only thing we noticed on our most recent B2B was that we rarely saw guests at the future cruise desk, in the past we used to have to wait in line to rebook.

It really doesn't matter to us, because we liked the ships and service, the mouse doesn't do anything for us. We will enjoy ourselves on our next RCCL cruise and the DCL cruise after that.

Not trying to turn this into a pricing thread, just giving you the background as to why I bring it up.

Cheers

 

[Jennifer777]

I have to believe DCL has done an in-depth analysis on both new cruisers and veteran cruisers. Maybe they found that new cruisers overall spend more than veteran cruisers, which I could totally see, and maybe that plays into their decision to market more toward those newer cruisers with younger kids? After cruising a couple times, we don't book excursions through them anymore, our kids are older so the character breakfast/tea and BBB aren't of interest any longer. Aside from drinks, Palo and a cabana if we're lucky enough to snag one, we don't go all out booking a bunch of things on board. I can see how we would be less appealing to them than a younger family that will spend an additional $4k on board above the base cruise fare. Ultimately though, they will have 6 ships to fill soon and I think they will end up having to make some changes to consistently fill them.

Loved the idea of keeping Wonder on the west coast! Alaska in the summer, Hawaii and west coast/Mexico in the winter. maybe even Fiji or Australia! As far as Dream goes, even just switching the Dream and Fantasy itineraries could sell cruises. Our family really wants to sail Dream but those 3 and 4 day Bahamian cruises are not that appealing so we would jump on a caribbean itinerary. I'm sure some of those families who can only do 3/4 night cruises would jump at the chance to sail on Fantasy. That would be an easy change.

As for pirate night, I don't foresee that going away when new Pirates of the Caribbean movies are due to be released in the upcoming years but changing it up so it's a new show every other year would make it feel less tired.

 

[DISNEYFAN3260]

How about a DCL Vacation Club?

 

[phinz]

My biggest complaint about the "adult" pool is the placement of the doors to the elevators.

My biggest complaint about the adult pool area on the fantasy is the little splash pool on deck 12 that overlooks the Cove. One of the last things I want to hear when in a "quiet" cove is someone screaming, "Joey! Joey! Don't dunk your sister's head! Come here! Do you need to go potty?"

 

[PrincessShmoo]

My biggest complaint about the adult pool area on the fantasy is the little splash pool on deck 12 that overlooks the Cove. One of the last things I want to hear when in a "quiet" cove is someone screaming, "Joey! Joey! Don't dunk your sister's head! Come here! Do you need to go potty?"

Yeah, I don't get why there's a family area basically right in an adult area, either. I guess the designer didn't realize that sound carries.

 

[GatorGal1]

Change the Castaway Club program benefits and base it on number of days sailed or price paid or a combination of both. For example, I don't think a Florida rate 3 night and a Panama Canal cruise should count the same.

YES! I totally agree!

 

[anna08]

.As for pirate night, I don't foresee that going away when new Pirates of the Caribbean movies are due to be released in the upcoming years but changing it up so it's a new show every other year would make it feel less tired.

Next POC movie is due to be released July 2017.

I have to say I would be enticed to cruise more frequently if there were new incentives to Castaway club members and concierge passengers offered - I don't really have many specifics, but I would once a year or two like to be offered an opportunity to book with onboard booking pricing when I'm not onboard. We've slowed our DCL cruising due to lack of affordable new itineraries, but I'd probably jump at a discounted Bahamas/Caribbean cruise - but not just with *GT timing - that's too narrow.

Just a perk, once a year or so, would make it so much easier to buy into what is a really big vacation - especially to convince the spouse who is more fiscally responsible. Some creative marketer can come up with something great. What the DCL admin wants is more people on the boats, right? It's going to be interesting to see what happens when there are two more ships to run. My guess is they will be marketing to non-US based customers so it won't effect prices here anyways.

 

[anna08]

Change the Castaway Club program benefits and base it on number of days sailed or price paid or a combination of both. For example, I don't think a Florida rate 3 night and a Panama Canal cruise should count the same.

But I've had 3 night cruises cost more than what I've priced Panama Canal cruises at. Even Starbucks has switched to a rewards program based on dollars spent rather than visits. To me it seems fairest.

 

[phinz]

But I've had 3 night cruises cost more than what I've priced Panama Canal cruises at. Even Starbucks has switched to a rewards program based on dollars spent rather than visits. To me it seems fairest.

Of course it does because you've spent more, but those who commit more time are going to feel that time spent is worth more. That's why the person you quoted, and myself, among others, suggested something based on days *and* on amount spent, or a combination thereof.

Somebody who actually takes the time to book early in order to spend extra time with DCL at a lower price, or cruises out of season to be able to spend more days, usually spending more money on the ship by virtue of the longer stay, etc. shouldn't get less consideration than the person who waited until the last 90 days and paid out the nose for a three or four-day trip. It should take many factors into consideration.

If you fly 5000 miles with Delta you get 5000 miles. If you fly 200 miles with Delta you get 200 miles. They don't care if you paid $1 for your 5000 mile flight and $1,000 for your 200 mile flight. Amount of time spent with them is amount of time spent with them. They do average in your money spent as part of the equation, but that doesn't even have to be money spent to fly. We meet the money requirement every year because we use our Delta Skymiles Amex on a regular basis to build up the frequent flyer points, but we don't meet the air miles requirement for the Sky Club because we really don't like to fly unless we have to. DCL should do the same, even going so far as to use money spent on a DCL credit card to qualify toward the money end. It shouldn't be that hard an algorithm to figure out.

What's "fair"? Whatever favors the person determining the fairness usually. Is it fair if a billionaire gets more consideration from a senator because they donated more money to the senator's campaign than the lowly welder who donated the only $10 she could spare, even if the welder worked for the senator's campaign for 400 hours during the last election cycle, while the billionaire vacationed in Monte Carlo for the summer? I would imagine the billionaire thinks it's completely fair because they spent more money, and money trumps faithfulness in a lot of peoples' eyes. I know it's hyperbolic to the extreme, but I think it's a decent - though overblown for a reason - comparison.

Not that the perks for DCL Gold and Platinum amount to a hill of beans compared to other lines' benefits anyway. A $40 Palo dinner doesn't begin to reflect the commitment made for the past ten $10k 7-day Concierge cruises in the slightest, especially when the people at the table next to you only paid $2500 every time they did a three-day inside stateroom cruise on their way to the same loyalty class. It's all a slippery slope when talking about loyalty and how it is quantified and somebody is going to be ticked off when it comes down to it.

 

[Hundredacre]

Who cares how they divvy up the castaway club anyway. It's garbage. A bag that costs them $3 and a couple of cheap mugs that cost them at most $5 each. Even the Palo benefit- big deal.

 

[DizMagic]

1. For the love of all things please change the Mdr menus, at least annually
2. Offer more optional restaurants like royal. Asian, Italian, etc
3. Love the idea of having the Dream do some different Caribbean itenararies, even if switching off with the fantasy
4. Castaway club benefit redo. Not just qualification, but awards. Like the idea of stateroom credit or future booking discount based on level. This would not truly be money out as the credit could only be spent on future cruises / dcl purchases.
5. Entertainment changes periodically. I understand not being able to change the shows, but the acts shouldn't be that hard to update