Is sailing an inaugural cruise THAT amazing?

[ryankski]

As someone who is planning my first DCL, but has been to evey Disney Resort and park, except Paris, since 2014, I'll chime in.

I wouldn't plan a maiden voyage for the reasons mentioned above. I would, however, take Tokyo or Shanghai Disney over Walt Disney world any time, hands down. In fact after going to WDW this October we will not be going back (previous trip was 2017) for probably close to 10 years. I much prefer the Asian parks over WDW plus outside of the Parks is a different and a amazing city and culture to see. We plan to take my son to the Asian parks over WDW and our next trip to Orlando will be for Universal when they open Super Mario World.

Tokyo is by far my favorite resort (and city) and I recommended everyone visit those parks and would say it's worth skipping 2 or 3 trip to WDW for (although the only thing more expensive is airfare). Shanghai is by far my favorite castle park and Hong Kong is in a great city. I would say pick Tokyo/Japan or Shanghai & Hong Kong and enjoy an amazing trip

 

[CM Dad]

Yes, us too Which year are you hoping for?

Not sure yet. Maybe try for whenever the first new ship sails. It's possible I may be retired by then, so would have more flexibility on time. It depends on cost and itinerary as well.

 

[CM Dad]

We did do the inaugural cruise to Greece and Turkey. I didn't know when we booked it that it was an inaugural cruise and we had no problems getting the booking (we were Gold at the time). We got a framed shadow box with Goofy at the Acropolis, a print, and a set of Greek-themed Disney stone coasters. I can't remember if we got anything else; I remember these because I had no idea we were going to be getting anything and I had to really cram them into the suitcase. I hadn't saved any room for them since they were delivered over a period of days and by then I'd already purchased a lot of stuff that filled the space I'd left open for purchases.

When was that inaugural cruise? My wife and I booked a Mediterranean cruise in 2016 that included Greece and Turkey, but about 6 or 7 months before we sailed, Disney dropped those ports. THey were part of the reason we had booked that cruise, but since we had never been to the Med decided not to cancel.

As far as not having any space left for souvenirs, my wife has discovered that DCL does sell suitcases onboard if you come back home with too much stuff

 

[Rob1872]

The negatives of the first cruise seem to be massively outweighing the benefits.

Negatives: The ship will be FULL. Maximum crowds at every event. (Can you imagine how early you'd need to get to bingo to get a table?)
The ship will be full of Platinum members. Very difficult to get Remy/Palo/tastings/etc.
The crew will still be learning. Even if they move experienced people from other ships, it will still take a while for everything to come together. May not get the Disney service you are accustomed to.
The price will be through the roof due to demand.

Positives: You get to say that you were on the first cruise of a certain ship.
You might get some special handouts to commemorate that you spent the same amount of money for a 3 night 9C cabin on the first sailing that you could have used for a concierge family verandah on a 7 night cruise on Fantasy.

 

[truck1]

We've done the Fantasys Maiden. There wasnt any major glitches that I can remember. The difference between a normal cruise and a ships maiden,forgetting itins is basically this. Every where you go, theres signage to that effect. There is special merchandise that is only offered to that cruise. On the Fantasy it was actually done online, and you picked it up at the gift shop on a designated day. Things like hats, shirts, lithographs, pieces of co instruction steel etc. All paid in advance. On the ship, theres special entertainment that normally wouldnt be there. For example a champagne toast before sail away, tug boat with water canon escort, we had Leia Solanga who is the singing voice of Mulan and a host of other Disney characters onboard for a show with one of Disney song writers, John Lasseiter who did a show on Pixar, Joe Lancisero, who did a talk on building the ships, Larry the Cable Guy was a main stage performer 1 night, Bob Iger, Karl.Holz and a slew of other Disney exec's wandering around. We bumped into Larry in the gift shop, and John in the passageway, who took pics with my kids. One of the guys in our group met him in one of the lounges and talked to him for a while.
Each night in the cabin was a special gift from DCL commemorating the cruise. Like 1 off play Bill's, replica keel coins, stuff like that. Some was for each person in the cabin and some was 1 per family. The only real issue that we had was a little bit in the planning of the ship itself, and 1 issue with a pair of concierge cruise members. ( They apparently thought they were above us common folk)

Were planning on doing all 3 ships if we can work it out with my wife's schedule.

As far as availability, there was plenty at the time. I forget when they did it, but we booked after they changed the date by 1 week. DISCLAIMER Its possible now that the new ships have a faster booking rate due to social media. So id be ready to book as soon as it opened for my CC level. There was no lottery. I'm fairly certain DCL has some sort of inventory control, as I watched the cabins disappear then about 6 months or so before the cruise, every category suddenly had 10-20 cabins available.Not scattered like yould expect for cancellations, but blocks of rooms. Not entirely sure what they did, but Ive heard others say the same thing on the every day cruises.

The only down side was that some things aren't available. Like the Magic class does the character breakfast but the Dream class doesnt.

The other downside, if they follow past precedent, is the bookings themselves. The pay schedule is different. The down payment is larger, and I think the same as concierge, and non refundable. The cruise also had to be paid off sooner then the average cruise also. At the time, iirc, you had up to 75 days to be paid off, they used 120 days prior instead. Iirc, its 120 now, so it may be 150 or something like that. That's going to be a wait and see.

 

[kiford]

When was that inaugural cruise? My wife and I booked a Mediterranean cruise in 2016 that included Greece and Turkey, but about 6 or 7 months before we sailed, Disney dropped those ports. THey were part of the reason we had booked that cruise, but since we had never been to the Med decided not to cancel.

As far as not having any space left for souvenirs, my wife has discovered that DCL does sell suitcases onboard if you come back home with too much stuff

This was July 2015. I remember having breakfast outside while watching us pull into port in Piraeus.

I've already had to purchase Disney suitcases on two separate occasions for precisely this reason. I was determined not to purchase a third!

 

[ChicosWife]

Sailing an inaugural cruise did not work out well on the Titanic.

Too soon.

 

[ScooterPie]

For the Dream and Fantasy, it was not a lottery to be on the Maiden Voyage (the first sailing for paying passengers). There was merchandise specific to that sailing and then they had "Inaugural Cruises" merchandise as they considered the first year the inaugural cruises. To put it in perspective, we were on the Dream Maiden Voyage as well as the second cruise. The Maiden Voyage cost us twice as much as the second cruise. For the pleasure of paying that much money, it was by far our least favorite DCL cruise.

There were too many people onboard just to buy up all the Maiden Voyage things to resell (and worse yet, just take things - I know many people who didn't get the Champagne glasses they had out for sailaway because people were taking them by the boxload). We knew there would be kinks to work out and have no complaints about the slow service because it was a learning cruise; I did have issues that Guest Services had no clue what was going on. You could ask them a question and it was like noone even bothered to give them a tour around the ship they were so clueless. The other thing that wasn't great is the number of VIPs on board. There was no way of getting a Palo or Remy reservation for that first cruise as they all went to VIP guests (maybe someone got lucky, it wasn't important enough for us to keep checking but there was no availability when platinum could reserve). Granted they fixed a lot of the problems they had on the Dream Maiden Voyage by time the Fantasy Maiden Voyage happened. But after my "Maiden Voyage" experience, I'm not planning on being onboard for any of the "Maiden Voyages" of the new ships -- the second cruise is good enough for me.

I was on this cruise too. Never again. People were acting like animals! Ripping signs off the walls, tiles off the elevator floors. Listing it on eBay almost instantly! I, too, sailed the very next cruise and it was so much more relaxed. Never again.

 

[AquaDame]

I hope to be on the next inaugural cruise also, but I don't think I would choose it for a Honeymoon. It's more of an "event" than a vacation, if that makes sense..? I fully expect it to be chaos and full of instagrammers and will be pleasantly surprised if I am wrong! If you go to Asia you can plan every detail from the start and have everything you want reserved without a worry on your own timeline and budget. Maybe by 2023 you could be on that one..?

 

[Joel0917]

I did fantasy Maiden voyage. We booked it let’s say for April 6 2012 then about five months prior they moved the MV to March 30 and we had 72 hours to switch. Then we waitlisted concierge and two weeks prior was able to get a 1BR suite...for a lot of money.
But still cheaper than what concierge is in 2019 on a regular cruise.
Being in the lounge with Karl, Bob and all the vips was great. We talked with them all a lot! We got lots of nice gifts each night.
For us if timing works out we plan to do MV in all three ships. But likely no way can afford concierge for them.
It was a great experience. I only got a hat, ornament and pin. I did not see people taking signage in the common places. But I did enjoy being he first paying passengers on the ship. I still wear my maiden voyage hat proudly!!!

 

[tinkerone]

We looked at the maiden voyage for the Fantasy and decided on the second sailing instead. The maiden voyage was twice as much as the second sailing, which made the decision easier. Then they changed the date of the maiden voyage so we became the third sailing which was fine by me.
Even doing the third sailing I have to say I would not do it again. The staff just wasn't ready IMO. The dinning team we had was not good, they had not served on one of the other ships except for a small bit of training and they were not organized. The state room host was new to and struggling. Everything was disorganized and just a bit off. That is how we felt with the third sailing so I can't even imagine what the first sailing would have been like. I read on the DIS after the cruise that some loved it, some didn't.
Totally up to you but I wouldn't waste the money. I'd do a B2B for the cost of the one week but that just me.

 

[clten]

I was on this cruise too. Never again. People were acting like animals! Ripping signs off the walls, tiles off the elevator floors. Listing it on eBay almost instantly! I, too, sailed the very next cruise and it was so much more relaxed. Never again.

Did you book the 2nd sailing while onboard the Maiden Voyage? We met a family in the terminal while waiting to reboard that did that because the first cruise was such a mess they wanted an instant do-over. We had originally planned to do the first 3 cruises since they were all short cruises and after the first was very glad we scaled back and only booked b2b. I was lucky enough to "win" the opportunity to purchase a piece of the ship steel (that they cut into a Mickey head). I still have such bad feelings about that Maiden Voyage that I have never hung it in my house. It's still in the box they shipped it in.

 

[ludari]

I sailed on the maiden voyage for the Fantasy and it was amazing! They where several celebrities, well known Disney executives and several other perks only reserved for the maiden voyage. The sailings after the maiden voyage where called the inaugural sailings which lasted about six months to a year. As I mentioned I thought the maiden voyage was amazing but keep in mind that the price was obviously more and once I booked this maiden voyage cruise they where monetary penalties for any changes or cancelations regardless of the paid in full date. Also as a gold member at the time I could not get any reservations at Remy's or Palo's which was unfortunate. There were also seemed to have additional entertainment crew to ensure things ran as smoothly as possible. I had no issues in the MDR and even requested and received my own table. I'm definitely going to look into the maiden voyage again when DCL announces them.

 

[truck1]

I sailed on the maiden voyage for the Fantasy and it was amazing! They where several celebrities, well known Disney executives and several other perks only reserved for the maiden voyage. The sailings after the maiden voyage where called the inaugural sailings which lasted about six months to a year. As I mentioned I thought the maiden voyage was amazing but keep in mind that the price was obviously more and once I booked this maiden voyage cruise they where monetary penalties for any changes or cancelations regardless of the paid in full date. Also as a gold member at the time I could not get any reservations at Remy's or Palo's which was unfortunate. There were also seemed to have additional entertainment crew to ensure things ran as smoothly as possible. I had no issues in the MDR and even requested and received my own table. I'm definitely going to look into the maiden voyage again when DCL announces them.

We were Gold also and Im pretty sure we got a Palo. Even had it changed to a sea day iirc. If you book, let us know. You can sit with us if yould like. Theres probably going to be about 10 of us for dinner.

 

[ScooterPie]

Did you book the 2nd sailing while onboard the Maiden Voyage? We met a family in the terminal while waiting to reboard that did that because the first cruise was such a mess they wanted an instant do-over. We had originally planned to do the first 3 cruises since they were all short cruises and after the first was very glad we scaled back and only booked b2b. I was lucky enough to "win" the opportunity to purchase a piece of the ship steel (that they cut into a Mickey head). I still have such bad feelings about that Maiden Voyage that I have never hung it in my house. It's still in the box they shipped it in.

No, we had booked the b2b very early on. We were so happy that we did because the inaugural sure left a bad taste in our mouths. The second cruise was so much better. You could actually feel a difference in the mood.

 

[elena_n2o]

I sailed the inaugural Norway cruise. All of the ports were new to DCL (I believe), not just one. Was it a big deal. Somewhat. We did receive a nice art piece in our stateroom (print). A couple of the ports had local bands playing on the pier for the ship (so that was the city organizing, not DCL). I also know that some officials came on to tour the boat while in port. There were also articles in local Norwegian newspapers about DCL coming to port with all the "rich Americans". I think it was a bigger deal to Norway than to DCL. I sailed because it fit my schedule and what I was looking for, not because it was the inaugural.

We were on that sailing as well!! It was our first Disney cruise so we didn't have anything to compare it to, but even then we could feel the special energy all around us... It was really a wonderful trip!!