Just back from WBPC Repo, great time but...

[chirurgeon]

I'm not sure I will be sailing DCL again. The value is just not there for me anymore. I loved the long cruise. I will be looking at other lines of similar service level for the itineraries I want. My roommate was platinum level, but the gifts and appreciation for return cruisers has decreased so much. I got better Castaway Club gifts for my second cruise than we got on this cruise. The inconsistency between staffing. Our cabin host was ok. One traveling companion's host was atrocious. He didn't even know how to make a bed. Only spoke a total of five words in English. Multiple visits by management didn't help. We had to ask for amenities to be replaced when others got them multiple times a day when there were still items in place.

I didn't even think about booking a placeholder. I see RCCL or Celebrity in my future.

 

[hanscarlet]

We found our host was the least favorite on the Wonder compared to the Magic and Dream. We loved our serving team though. What floor were you on? Waht did you think of the serving team?

 

[chirurgeon]

We were on deck 7. Our host wasn't bad, he just wasn't great. My friend was on deck 6. Our serving team was Sinisha and Silvana. They were great. I'm finding a lot of the service and value declining.

 

[Ofinn]

We had our best servers and host on our Hawaii cruise. The next cruise on the Wonder they were just ok. There are great and just so- so servers on every ship.

We got a silver castaway bag on our last cruise. They also did not have platinum lanyards. We were the only platinums on the cruise so I know they didnt run out. I also had to ask for soap and conitioner to be replaced. Our platinum gift was a small box of chocolates. They lost one of our bags.I went to guest services several times. They said they were looking for it. Finally at 700 I decided to walk the halls and look for it myself. I found it outside a service closet on the aft port side. We were forward starboard. It really wasnt hard to find I dont think anyone bothered to look for it. They did send us a stuffed Mickey and some chocolate covered strawberries to make up for it.
I got a nice discount on our upcoming cruise so it should be worth it. I cant see myself ever booking a dcl cruise without a discount unless its a tranatlantic or repo cruise thats a good price. The value for the price they want just isn't there. They really could do a lot more for their repeat cruisers.

 

[Ofinn]

We were on deck 7. Our host wasn't bad, he just wasn't great. My friend was on deck 6. Our serving team was Sinisha and Silvana. They were great. I'm finding a lot of the service and value declining.

Silvana from Chile? If so she was one of our servers on our Hawaii cruise she was great.

 

[Krissy22222]

We were on this cruise and had the greatest host ever in our 9 cruises on Disney. His name was Agung and we were on deck 2. Our serving team was Lavandra and Melchor, and we also thought they were great. Had a great time and great service.

 

[chirurgeon]

Silvana from Chile? If so she was one of our servers on our Hawaii cruise she was great.

YES!!! She was our assistant server. She was fantastic. I loved her.

 

[MunFam]

Ironically, we had the same type of issues on our 2015 WBPC...service is SOOOO inconsistent and with the message boards with people sharing what they experienced, inconsistent is not a good look for DCL. We were always super nice to the staff as I know what its like to work in the hospitality industry, so I go out of my way to be nice, greet them, chat with them, etc. so I was taken back by the bad service...

Actually, it was consistent. Consistently bad!

 

[Captainkate]

I have also noticed a decline in service and wondered if the automatic gratuity had anything to do with that. Seems like we all work better if we are given incentive. Some of us not so much if the reward is automatic.

 

[soniam]

We are going to do DCL in summer 2017, but we have a kid. However, for our adults only anniversary cruise in 2018, we booked Celebrity. For the price we are paying, actually less, for DCL 7 night Western Caribbean deluxe verandah in August 2017 for DH and myself, not DS, we got a Sky Suite on Celebrity in April 2018 7 night Southern Caribbean out of San Juan with premium drink package, unlimited wifi, prepaid gratuities, and $150 onboard credit/person. I just don't know if the value is there on DCL, especially without kids. I am looking at RCCL for a possible summer 2018 Alaska cruise, partly because I like their one-way itineraries much better. I think for the longer cruises, like TA and PC, that the other cruise lines are a better value. I know all of our previous RCCL cruises had excellent service, even the older ship cruise out of Galveston. DCL has had great service too though. I will miss Remy though

 

[dclpluto]

My stateroom host on the May 1 repo was the best I had on 19 cruises. On the Hawaii cruise the guy was terrible. Probably the second worst I had.

 

[shelbell77]

This makes me sad. We had our best servers ever and best room host (except for concierge) on our WBPC last year on the Wonder.

 

[dclpluto]

IMO you have better service from a lady. In my 19 cruises 18 on DCL. I had 2 lady servers one of them I had twice the top one. I will rate them as being the 1st and 3rd best. I had one lady head server I will rate as 2nd best. 2 stateroom host I will rate them as being 2nd and 3rd best. So you see IMO in my experience the ladies do a better job than the men most of the times.
I'm a guy writing this.

 

[Ofinn]

YES!!! She was our assistant server. She was fantastic. I loved her.

We saw her on our last cruise. She remembered us and us and spent a lot of time with us. She kept trying to talk us into Alaska. I would love to do Alaska on DCL, but.....yikes the prices. I hope we see her again the next time we're on the Wonder it will probably be out of Galveston though...or maybe Hawaii again.

 

[Ofinn]

This makes me sad. We had our best servers ever and best room host (except for concierge) on our WBPC last year on the Wonder.

Like I said we've had great service and ok to good...never bad service on all the ships. We have loved all our cruises on the Wonder even with the few hiccups on the last one. My family loves the Wonder. The complaints I have about DCL are the price, and well...I feel like I deserve a little more than a fruit basket or a bottle of cheap sparkling wine for being a loyal customer. Overall I've been very pleased with DCL, but I feel for people that can't sail in the offseason or aren't eligible for discounts.

 

[Julylady]

We also came to the same conclusion that DCL was no longer a good value during our Hawaii cruise last Sept. Our cabin service was the worst we had experienced in 12 cruises. He cleaned his rooms in order, no deviation. When we asked to have cabin cleaned earlier (when we were at breakfast) he said he couldn't do that. "I'll get to you in a little while." Each day he would knock on the door and ask us if we wanted our cabin cleaned or "Just clean towels"? He made it really obvious that's what he wanted. we spend a lot of time in our cabin so we had to leave the cabin and find something to do. The last straw was when we returned to the cabin after the late show and he was still cleaning our room. He joked that we came back too early. We wanted to go to bed! I complained at guest services and after that he often had a "helper" with him, but I was so over him.

The truth is that we haven't had really good service experience on our last four cruises (we cruised once a year). I wondered if they have more cabins to clean than before? And with the dining teams we always seem to get the "new" assistant server who doesn't know what she/he is doing.

Spotty service quality coupled with huge prices increases were enough for us. We cancelled our two upcoming cruises and have planned other vacations (one Disney-related, one not). At this point we have no desire to take another Disney cruise. Disney is currently pricing themselves as a Premium cruise line, but they are not providing a premium experience. I think that's going to catch up with them.

 

[dclpluto]

We also came to the same conclusion that DCL was no longer a good value during our Hawaii cruise last Sept. Our cabin service was the worst we had experienced in 12 cruises. He cleaned his rooms in order, no deviation. When we asked to have cabin cleaned earlier (when we were at breakfast) he said he couldn't do that. "I'll get to you in a little while." Each day he would knock on the door and ask us if we wanted our cabin cleaned or "Just clean towels"? He made it really obvious that's what he wanted. we spend a lot of time in our cabin so we had to leave the cabin and find something to do. The last straw was when we returned to the cabin after the late show and he was still cleaning our room. He joked that we came back too early. We wanted to go to bed! I complained at guest services and after that he often had a "helper" with him, but I was so over him.

The truth is that we haven't had really good service experience on our last four cruises (we cruised once a year). I wondered if they have more cabins to clean than before? And with the dining teams we always seem to get the "new" assistant server who doesn't know what she/he is doing.

Spotty service quality coupled with huge prices increases were enough for us. We cancelled our two upcoming cruises and have planned other vacations (one Disney-related, one not). At this point we have no desire to take another Disney cruise. Disney is currently pricing themselves as a Premium cruise line, but they are not providing a premium experience. I think that's going to catch up with them.

I also had a bad stateroom host on the Hawaii cruise.

 

[MUN]

We had a great stateroom host on our NYE Wonder cruise. She was fantastic!

 

[JanMW]

We were on this cruise and had the greatest host ever in our 9 cruises on Disney. His name was Agung and we were on deck 2. Our serving team was Lavandra and Melchor, and we also thought they were great. Had a great time and great service.

We were also on this crew on deck 2. Our host was Greyson who was really good. We also and Lavendra & Melchor for first service and were very pleased with their service.
My biggest complaint for the cruise was the entertainment.
1) No Golden Mickeys
2) No crew talent show
3)No Disney guest lecturer
4) Only 4 classic movies for 9 sea days
5) No Galley tours
6) No WD Theater tours
7) No character breakfast
8) No more lunch at parrot cay
This was our 4th panama crossing and they seem to be taking away things with each one. I don't know if I will do panama again for awhile until they change some things up.

 

[KimDis]

So I've sailed the Dream, the Fantasy & took a break last year (not my choice). This April I sailed on the Wonder. I spent a LOT of time wondering if I'd imagined the service level on the ships previously.

Our room attendant, while pleasant, was not nearly as efficient as I'd experienced prior. We had early dining and I can't recall a single time in five nights both rooms were ready before 9pm or so. As we did a lot of beach & pool time, one night we had to pile into the one room until the other was done so that bathrooms could be refreshed & stocked with new towels.

A fixture in the bathroom (bar that kept things on the shelf) was and stayed broken.
Our server, while sweet, was incredibly slow. He admitted that he was the slowest in the bunch on our 2nd night. On pirate night we all ended up leaving before dessert was served cuz we really didn't want the little ones to miss the show & fireworks. Wasn't a group intention thing as the third family at our table wasn't with us. The next night he apologized with champagne and sparkling cider because he'd never had a table just leave before.

A week and a half later I was back on the Dream. Quick service, great attention. Just like that. Everything I'd remembered. Our attendant could not have been nicer or more "on it". Made me think this is a Wonder issue, however brand inconsistency is ultimately a DCL issue they should address.

After reading these comments, I decided to send a note to DCL. Hoping the feedback is useful to them.