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

[phinz]

No more automatic 18% gratuity in the spa for non-service purchases (such as rainforest room, purchase of products).

Agreed. Rainforest Room and 18% should be mutually exclusive.

 

[egesicki]

Something different for repeat guests. I'd be happy with a rainforest pass or a bottle of wine.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

FWIW, you can't offer "My Time" or "Freestyle Dining" very easily with rotating dining rooms, especially considering the timing of lights, shows, etc. in Enchanted Garden and Animator's Palate. That's what Cabanas is for at night. That's the "My Time" option.

On the flip side, if you eat at cabanas every night you have to tip the server there, plus still tip your dining room team that you never used because it isn't fair to them to not do so. Thus you are wasting quite a lot of extra money for the pleasure of eating at a convenient time if you are a family of 6 on a 7 night sailing.
I get it why my time wouldn't work well on DCl though. Maybe they could just shuffle the current dinner times back by 30 mins or something. I don't know what the best solution would be. Meanwhile, we will continue to do 2nd seating I guess.

 

[xavier2001]

Replace Shutters with a better photo service.

 

[phinz]

Replace Shutters with a better photo service.

This. All this. Can't say it enough.

 

[Jennifer777]

Alcohol packages like "Cheers" on Carnival (but more affordable, I'd be fine with 5-10 drinks instead of 15).

Would love to see a drink package, especially one that included specialty coffee drinks as well. I believe RCCL offers something like that.

Popcorn should be included... I can understand wanting to minimize the mess that would undoubtably result from unlimited popcorn, though.

I've never understood this. You can order as many steaks and lobster tails as you want in the MDR but you have to pay for popcorn???? Totally agree with you on this one.

New menus occasionally. The Remy and MDR menus haven't changed in three years that I can recall.

Yes!!! New menus would be great! They have been pretty close to the same each time we've cruised.

Something different for repeat guests. I'd be happy with a rainforest pass or a bottle of wine.

I'd love a really nice, commemorative stateroom door magnet, something that we could collect, or something practical like an umbrella.

I would also add some additional loyalty benefits in general. Maybe add a tier above platinum with some extra perks like reserved seating in the theater or by the pool.

Replace Shutters with a better photo service.

Amen!!!

 

[SingingMom]

We just sailed this past week. Would have liked to know rotation ahead of time, but we lucked out by picking Palo on the perfect night.
We'd like an alcohol package - that was the only thing we liked about Celebrity!
Castaway Cay for two days!

 

[smtmmj]

Add an alcohol package

 

[GeneMachine]

I would...

1. 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.
2. Keep Cabanas open for dinner as a buffet. Too much table service and not enough variety for quick service if you want to skip the MDRs for dinner.
3. Allow people to book a discounted cruise or placeholder up to 30 days after your cruise is over. I hate wasting time booking on board, especially on shorter cruises.
4. Identify who wants to participate on formal night and put them on the same dining rotation so it maintains the formal atmosphere for those who make the effort.
5. Turn one of the bars into a dual-purpose facility, laser tag during the day, lounge at night.

I feel like Jennifer777 is my mental twin.

Also, I would switch to some sort of patron evaluation that didn't require servers to beg for "excellent service" marks on the last night of the cruise. (This was inspired by a recent, unrelated thread on this board) I find it really off-putting and cheapens the interactions with the servers. In the 6 cruises I've taken, I've had 5 phenomenal servers, and it distresses me that they have to make this point in order to be perceived as adequate from an employment point of view. Disney should be better than this. They have great cast members; I hate that servers are afraid of our ratings.

 

[Hundredacre]

1. Choice of castaway club gifts. We have way too many of the same bags. Plus more loyalty rewards. How about actually changing out the things on the castaway club website?
2. Rotating servers. Hate having the same servers every night. Would rather it be less personal (intrusive). If people want to request same dining team fine, but we should also be able to opt out.
3. Regular shampoo/conditioner replacement. I get that some people get this. But it should be shipwide, standardized.
4. On board booking credit on back to back.
5. Give me the lousy visa $50 OBC restricted to beverages with OBB. Very petty.

 

[DCLDVC1]

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.

 

[Ofinn]

Since I don't see DCL making changes anytime soon. We are booked on another cruise line for our next cruise. Our last cruise was awesome because of the destinations, but the overall cruise experience wasn't anything spectacular. Service was just meh. Food was not great. It could be just me. We have cruised a lot on DCL and since DCL never changes menus, shows, ports etc. I figured it was time for us to try something new, and see how it compares.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

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.

From your mouth to DCL's ears.

 

[Hundredacre]

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.

Except that if the 3 night is in the summer, it costs almost the same as the panama canal cruise.

 

[Ofinn]

Except that if the 3 night is in the summer, it costs almost the same as the panama canal cruise.

So true. Our upcoming 11 night cruise on another line was less then an off season 4 night Dream cruise. It makes you scratch your head. When it comes to DCL longer repositioning cruises are the way to go.

 

[phinz]

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.

Want something really wacky, but it worked out for us? If you book a suite on Princess (not a Junior suite, which is a fancy name for a room that's a smidge bigger and has a nicer comforter. A suite like we had.) you get double points toward their loyalty club (as well as an in-room mini bar, etc.) so we are now two points in instead of just one from our Alaska trip. As somebody who has cruised Concierge more often than not, it would be nice to get a little extra loyalty acknowledgment for spending that extra money, but when it comes down to it it's not that important to us. Heck, Concierge isn't really all that important to us. It just happens to be where we wind up the majority of the time. Our next two cruises other than our 11/16 one are scheduled for inside and oceanview rooms.

I'd like to see it based solely on days, to be honest. There's no reason somebody who has cruised 10 3-day cruises for a total of 30 days should get the same consideration for loyalty as someone who has cruised 10 7-day or higher cruises, for a total of 70 or more days. It waters down the value of the loyalty club. And before people get all up in arms saying, "That's elitist! Some of us can only take 3-day cruises!" keep in mind that you get less frequent flyer miles if you go back and forth between Orlando and Atlanta than you do if you go back and forth between Miami and Seattle. Those who spend more time (and money with some frequent flyer programs) with the vendor get more loyalty bonuses. It's frustrating seeing people who have spent a total of five less days cruising with DCL than you getting their new Platinum benefits when you've just become Gold.

 

[lbus42]

No more automatic 18% gratuity in the spa for non-service purchases (such as rainforest room, purchase of products).

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..

 

[Evoga]

Make an option where you can pay an extra amount and tips, drinks and all snacks are 'free'. All you have to pay for is souvenirs.

 

[BigredNole]

Make it affordable. For a family of 3, we are looking at almost $350 a day per person for some of the cheapest rooms. That is 3x of what it cost for Disney World per person per day.

 

[becpee]

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