Just Got Off The First Very Merrytime of 2024

[TheRichFam]

Hit me with any questions you may have.

High level overview-

My God.

So. Many. People. (3790 people to be exact) It felt incredibly overwhelming much of the time.

The Wish is gorgeous all dressed up for Christmas. The tree and Grand Hall are stunning.

The “Gingerbread House” is more like a Gingerbread Barracks or Gingerbread Dorm. Not so much one large house as it is a large platform with several small houses on it. Kinda nice I guess, but VERY underwhelming compared to other DCL/WDW displays. (See photo)

If I had to summarize the experience in one sentence, I would say “I’m glad we did it, but absolutely would not do it again, at least not on a ship that large.”

Let me know if you have any questions

 

[happycamper47]

If I had to summarize the experience in one sentence, I would say “I’m glad we did it, but absolutely would not do it again, at least not on a ship that large.”

See, that is where everybody's perspective is different. We've done a VMCC on all 5 and have never felt that way. As a matter of fact, we'll be on the Fantasy again Sunday.

 

[disney2you]

I did MerryTime and on Wish first week of December last year and it was very manageable, everyone also seemed to disappear by 11pm so I got to explore an empty ship. I did HOTHS last month on the Fantasy and it was insanity, Halloween character lines was chaos and characters staying late to see more people. I think it just depends on when and who you sailing with.

 

[SL6827]

Does the Wish not hold close to what the Dream/Fantasy hold?

 

[Erica1016]

Does the Wish not hold close to what the Dream/Fantasy hold?

You are correct. Everyone thinks the Wish is much larger, but passenger-wise, it's about the same. I will say that many individual spaces felt smaller, so I can see why one might feel more crowded at times.

 

[ArielRae]

Do you happen to have any photos of the new Holiday merchandise in the shops?

 

[TheRichFam]

Do you happen to have any photos of the new Holiday merchandise in the shops?

No, we didn’t. That would have been a great idea!

I will say that the spirit jersey and shorts are much nicer than they’ve had in the past imo. Also, they put out a new popcorn bucket each day of the cruise, so we ended up returning the one we bought all night one to keep the one they put out on night three. I’m not sure if that’s just because we were the first sailing or if that’s a regular thing that they do.

 

[TheRichFam]

See, that is where everybody's perspective is different. We've done a VMCC on all 5 and have never felt that way. As a matter of fact, we'll be on the Fantasy again Sunday.

I understand that everyone’s mileage may vary, but for us, the wall-to-wall people in every public space at every event for the entire cruise definitely did detract from our overall experience. We were on the wish for a regular sailing in March and found it to be incredibly pleasant in every way, but there were significantly fewer people on that sailing. The only thing that changed from that sailing to the sailing was the amount of people onboard.

 

[graviela]

what “Christmas” activities did they offer?

 

[TheRichFam]

what “Christmas” activities did they offer?

They had a tree lighting in the Grand Hall on night one, Mickey & Minnie's Holiday Party on night two, characters in their holiday costumes, Christmas story time in the Grand Hall, several opportunities to take photos with Santa and a few different time blocks where there was a photographer in the Grand Hall to take family photos in front of the Christmas Tree. There were also a couple holiday-themed "reskins" of already-existent events. For example, some of the craft times were converted to holiday-themed crafts. Instead of making something usual like a drink holder or something similar, there was one that made snow globe ornaments and one that made some sort of holiday-themed border for photographs. I didn't attend that one, so I could be wrong, but it looked like they were making a photo matte that would go in a frame behind a 5x7 photo.

There was also Christmas music playing throughout the ship (except on Pirate night) and one of the oddest things was the "scent machines" that distribute that amazing "DCL scent" we all know and love throughout the ship changed "flavors" to disburse a Christmas scent in all the common areas ... but only on Day 2/Nassau day. Not on embarkation day and not again after that. Not sure what that's about? We wished it would have stayed that way. It was really nice.

 

[lorimay]

Hi, we sail Thursday on The Dream. Did you happen to see if Cove Cafe is offering any holiday speciality coffees?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Hit me with any questions you may have.

High level overview-

My God.

So. Many. People. (3790 people to be exact) It felt incredibly overwhelming much of the time.

The Wish is gorgeous all dressed up for Christmas. The tree and Grand Hall are stunning.

The “Gingerbread House” is more like a Gingerbread Barracks or Gingerbread Dorm. Not so much one large house as it is a large platform with several small houses on it. Kinda nice I guess, but VERY underwhelming compared to other DCL/WDW displays. (See photo)

If I had to summarize the experience in one sentence, I would say “I’m glad we did it, but absolutely would not do it again, at least not on a ship that large.”

Let me know if you have any questions

IIRC, the Fantasy & Dream have a capacity of 4000.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We enjoyed a Merrytime cruise on the Wish last year. I do prefer the larger gingerbread houses on the other ships. This was the one on the Wish last year. I think yours is cuter than the one we had. This year our Merrytime cruise will be on the Fantasy!

 

[TheRichFam]

Hi, we sail Thursday on The Dream. Did you happen to see if Cove Cafe is offering any holiday speciality coffees?

Hi!

Not sure about the Dream class ships, but all the cafes on the Wish had holiday drinks, so I’d assume the Cove on the Dream class ships will too.

 

[TheRichFam]

View attachment 912034


We enjoyed a Merrytime cruise on the Wish last year. I do prefer the larger gingerbread houses on the other ships. This was the one on the Wish last year. I think yours is cuter than the one we had. This year our Merrytime cruise will be on the Fantasy!

That one is SOOOO much nicer than the one they have up this year!

 

[Chirple]

From the Wish in 2022.

 

[SL6827]

IIRC, the Fantasy & Dream have a capacity of 4000.

Must just be the way the Wish is designed with smaller spaces. This speaks volumes about the feel of the crowd levels, which are very close in numbers.

 

[TheRichFam]

IRT the gingerbread displays, I've started "affectionately" referring to the one they have this year as a gingerbread barracks or gingerbread dorm. It's not so much one structure as it is several small structures all stacked up on a large column, which reminds me of a dorm building at a large state university or (worse) the barracks buildings on some of the military bases I served on. Probably not the imagery they were intending to evoke, but it may just be me.

 

[jkburns]

The Dream last December.

 

[lilmc]

Any pics of the other ships’ gingerbread houses this year?