OrangeCountyCommuter
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2010
I just returned from Europe and my Magic cruise in the Med.
I am not going to do a day by day trip report, but had some thoughts I thought I would pass on.
I did this cruise with my 75 year old mother and we did not do any DCL excursions!
PROS!
Service! My last DCL was a Dream cruise. Service was just OK and in some ways worse then on other lines I have been on. Made it hard to justify the Disney pricing. Well, this trip upped the ante. I had the BEST servers ever! My room steward was great, bar servers were great etc.....
Ship I know she's going in for refit, but I really had no complaints. Everything was clean and looked good. We did see some "fading" of carpet and the wood on our veranda needs refinishing, but.... I have a feeling that I am not going to be as happy with the "updated" ship!
Debarkation I had read horror stories from the 2011 cruises so I warned my mom. Much ado about nothing. We walked off ship around 8, picked up luggage and waited all of 5 minutes for a taxi (and half of that was because some of my fellow cruisers apparently have never actually gotten in a cab LOL!)
CONS
Embarkation We stayed at the Marriott and took DCL buses to the port . They had 5 buses from our hotel and about that many from the Hilton so they loaded us ALL up and shipped us there at once. REALLY? That made sense, then you could stand in HUGE lines and wait in that horrid hall!!!!!! YUCK!
Dining Assignments. This one is both pro and a con. I spent an hour on the phone with DVC and DCL a few months ago moving to early dining. Showed on my reservation etc... Well, the worst IT shop in hospitality strikes again! Got my key and I have "late dining" Now my mother goes to bed at 9 so this isn't going to work and of course since I had early dining I had not made an effort to be at the port FIRST to get that changed. We did head directly to Rockin D bar and met a GREAT CM who managed to fix this (the woman behind me had the exact opposite problem. Disney's IT shop is just an embarrassment of " things we can screw up" IMHO) The CM turned out to be our head waiter and he was also wonderful! Loved him!
Communication If you aren't talking DCL excursions good luck. DCL apparently believes EVERYONE will use them and won't need info. The worst was Rome. I went to the 8:30 show the night prior. There the Cruise Director announces that in spite of the time on the Navigator for the next day that says debarkation is at 7:45 we won't be able to get off until 9 if we aren't doing DCL. REALLY? How were folks suppose to know this? And no, LOTS of folks missed that show. At 8:20 I was watching excursions buses still offload passengers (yes that was well past "we were suppose to leave time" LOL!) So they didn't come to the show..... After the show I went to Guest Services to complain about the lack of communication. Saw the Cruise Director and complained to him. He then tells me it's now 7:30 that we can get off! So, how were the folks who heard 9 suppose to know this??????
It appears that the problem is that DCL is a 'secondary' player and may have to dock at a "secondary" dock. If you are booking a private excursion I would start "haunting" the Guest Services desk the day before and find out what the deal is for YOUR cruise...
In Naples, don't follow Cruise Director Peter's directions when getting off the boat. Walking directly out of the port won't get you to the part of the city you wanted to be in. We had to go a long way to the left!
Will do a separate post on the ports with info for those of you doing it on your own!
I am not going to do a day by day trip report, but had some thoughts I thought I would pass on.
I did this cruise with my 75 year old mother and we did not do any DCL excursions!
PROS!
Service! My last DCL was a Dream cruise. Service was just OK and in some ways worse then on other lines I have been on. Made it hard to justify the Disney pricing. Well, this trip upped the ante. I had the BEST servers ever! My room steward was great, bar servers were great etc.....
Ship I know she's going in for refit, but I really had no complaints. Everything was clean and looked good. We did see some "fading" of carpet and the wood on our veranda needs refinishing, but.... I have a feeling that I am not going to be as happy with the "updated" ship!
Debarkation I had read horror stories from the 2011 cruises so I warned my mom. Much ado about nothing. We walked off ship around 8, picked up luggage and waited all of 5 minutes for a taxi (and half of that was because some of my fellow cruisers apparently have never actually gotten in a cab LOL!)
CONS
Embarkation We stayed at the Marriott and took DCL buses to the port . They had 5 buses from our hotel and about that many from the Hilton so they loaded us ALL up and shipped us there at once. REALLY? That made sense, then you could stand in HUGE lines and wait in that horrid hall!!!!!! YUCK!
Dining Assignments. This one is both pro and a con. I spent an hour on the phone with DVC and DCL a few months ago moving to early dining. Showed on my reservation etc... Well, the worst IT shop in hospitality strikes again! Got my key and I have "late dining" Now my mother goes to bed at 9 so this isn't going to work and of course since I had early dining I had not made an effort to be at the port FIRST to get that changed. We did head directly to Rockin D bar and met a GREAT CM who managed to fix this (the woman behind me had the exact opposite problem. Disney's IT shop is just an embarrassment of " things we can screw up" IMHO) The CM turned out to be our head waiter and he was also wonderful! Loved him!
Communication If you aren't talking DCL excursions good luck. DCL apparently believes EVERYONE will use them and won't need info. The worst was Rome. I went to the 8:30 show the night prior. There the Cruise Director announces that in spite of the time on the Navigator for the next day that says debarkation is at 7:45 we won't be able to get off until 9 if we aren't doing DCL. REALLY? How were folks suppose to know this? And no, LOTS of folks missed that show. At 8:20 I was watching excursions buses still offload passengers (yes that was well past "we were suppose to leave time" LOL!) So they didn't come to the show..... After the show I went to Guest Services to complain about the lack of communication. Saw the Cruise Director and complained to him. He then tells me it's now 7:30 that we can get off! So, how were the folks who heard 9 suppose to know this??????
It appears that the problem is that DCL is a 'secondary' player and may have to dock at a "secondary" dock. If you are booking a private excursion I would start "haunting" the Guest Services desk the day before and find out what the deal is for YOUR cruise...
In Naples, don't follow Cruise Director Peter's directions when getting off the boat. Walking directly out of the port won't get you to the part of the city you wanted to be in. We had to go a long way to the left!
Will do a separate post on the ports with info for those of you doing it on your own!