Marvel "Day at Sea" cruise report

[Racer X]

Well this is going to come off as a huge rant but take it for what its worth... i take full responsibility for taking and paying for this cruise and still had an overall good experience but not what I / we are accustomed to. And i know that comes off like privilege but when you pay 6K (for 3) for a 5 day cruise you expect that you will receive some minimum level of service. Below is just a summary of my experience, of course YMMV.

SHIP: Dream. She still looks great for a teenager. I still love Deck 4 wrap around track. I still love multiple elevator options. Rugs and all common areas looks great and refreshed. Prefer this layout over the new Wish class.

MARVEL: Well this is where perhaps there was some misconception. We expected so much more. There was 1 cardboard cutout in the main atrium. No other decor was found. The on deck show was awesome but other than meet and greets there wasn't much more. No chars walking around (that we saw), none at dinner... no special movies (Luckily Cap Amer was showing). And that was it.. 1 day. It was hardly worth all hype and marketing. I guess I neglected to read the fine print of "DAY" at sea...

The GOOD:
Room and Room staff were great. Had an aft cabin that had an awesome verandah. (some diesel odor on 1 sea day but that was it)
Mixology class was awesome as usual.
Cabanas was good.
Castaway Cay looked great and well managed. Building new adult cabanas!

The BAD:
Overall Dinner Service. Used to look forward to dinner as it was an event. It has morphed into a mixture of The Hunger Games and Squid Games. It was frenzied, rushed, loud. Was obvious servers had more tables than they could handle. Barely saw them. Didn't get drinks we ordered... etc. Hard to remember at one time there was time to draw an animation and they would parade around after dinner. We even elected to skip the main dining 2x in place of poolside food. Perhaps this model of dining has run its course. Servers are so worried about bad reviews the only time they ask you is if they can bring you something else instead... nobody seemed like they wanted to be there, does that make sense?

ENTERTAINMENT: Stage shows are getting old. How many times can you see The Golden Mickeys? Beauty and the Beast had multiple technical failures I heard from other guests.
There was 1 pianist on board and he played some variation of ragtime and other showtunes. I always enjoyed getting a drink and listening to some live music at night but not this time. Actually left a few shows.
Trivia: The female CM spent more time talking about herself in these than the actual questions... gets annoying after the first 20 times.
No entertainment in the adult area, our outside anywhere.

FOOD: Was i would say C+ most of the time. Nothing special or worth a premium price. Also serving sizes are a lot smaller. Granted i don't need the extra calories but there is no wow factor when you get 2 shrimps or 5 small scallops in an entree.

Always leave looking forward the "next" cruise, this is the first time that I didn't have that. Perhaps a sign of the times as the parks have felt this way for a while now.

 

[Momofmany2and4legs]

ugh I've seen so many posts similar to this. We leave in 19 days for Disney Dream Marvel Day at Sea.. I really was leaning towards Royal but family wanted to try Disney. I hope we are pleasantly surprised.

 

[Racer X]

ugh I've seen so many posts similar to this. We leave in 19 days for Disney Dream Marvel Day at Sea.. I really was leaning towards Royal but family wanted to try Disney. I hope we are pleasantly surprised.

Hey don't let my experience determine yours! I will look forward to your review! I guess my only recommendation would be not to expect too much "Marvel". There were tons of char photo ops that had long lines but if your family wants to do those i am sure you will enjoy that. Helpful hint - be on deck at least 30mins before the Marvel show to get a good view!

 

[Joanna71985]

There were characters that roamed. I saw it on 2 of the days throughout the cruise

 

[Racer X]

Roamed where? To the photo spot or to engage?

 

[Joanna71985]

Roamed where? To the photo spot or to engage?

They roamed around Deck 4 and 5 in the Atrium (plus I noticed a couple popping out on the deck on Deck 4). I got pictures with Dr. Strange, Star Lord and Gamora, Loki, Hawkeye, Black Widow (plus I noticed Ant Man, Wasp, Black Panther, and the Thors roaming but I didn't try to get pictures with them)

 

[unrequited23]

So what I'm hearing is that the Dr. Strange Academy show, the USO show, the Wakandan Warriors, Marvel trivia or themed animation classes were not offered during your sailing. Is that correct?

We've done two MDAS cruises (2022, 2024) and had lots of options for activities. Plus hearing the Marvel music and seeing lots of guests in costume added to the vibe.

 

[Racer X]

So what I'm hearing is that the Dr. Strange Academy show, the USO show, the Wakandan Warriors, Marvel trivia or themed animation classes were not offered during your sailing. Is that correct?

We've done two MDAS cruises (2022, 2024) and had lots of options for activities. Plus hearing the Marvel music and seeing lots of guests in costume added to the vibe.

What i am saying is that i expected more with all the hype. Yeah, we did most of those... but forget seeing a character unless you got lucky or waited forever in line. I also expected it to be more than 1 day. If schedules conflicted you miss the one and only shot to see any of that.

 

[dreamer17555]

We did Marvel day at Sea in early February. The characters are out for multiple days, including the Marvel characters, Steve Rogers I know met on two separate days. Lines to meet rare characters, especially when guests can be in costume are pretty typical. This was true for other Marvel days, Pixar Day and Star Wars Day. It’s also true at hard ticket events at the parks where you can dress up.

I actually was not a fan of how many characters were roaming only. There was no set meet and greet for a black widow or Hawkeye or Doctor Strange. They were just roaming characters. They were everywhere, but the crowds around them made it hard to interact, and they kept moving from spot to spot. They mostly hung out on decks three, four, and five either near the atrium or outside on deck 4.

They used to have more decor and more of a theme pointing out that the entire day is Stark expo, but sadly they have done away with that. However, they do have a special marvel menu in the dining rooms and even on the buffet, it was and even on the buffet, the names of thefood were written in the names of the food were written in a pop style comic font. There is also different banners hung throughout the different spaces, but it is definitely not over the top theming at all.

They had so much marvel trivia. It was insane. They had Marvel movies. Marvel TV shows Marvel comics, Marvel advanced.

The Marvel comic book Academy is where you learned to draw Marvel characters from a live artist. It’s pretty cool and I miss this style of class versus the new video style.

I also liked the costume parade for the guests that dressed up. It was pretty cute. And the diaper dash race was renamed something cute for the sailing, but I cannot remember what it is now.

They had the Doctor Strange show in the main theater that was fantastic and they also had the USO show in evolution and it was amazing as well.

They had events up at the pool deck that were more geared towards kids training them to be part of the Avengers.

They showed Marvel movies and shows in the theater all day and on the funnel vision. They also had a special showing of Marvel origins to catch cruisers up with the Marvel universe if they were unfamiliar with it. It was really cute.

A lot of cruisers don’t get to sail as often as some of us do so things like seeing golden Mickey’s, beauty and the beast and believe are still new to them. All the shows were amazing. The Broadway guests playing Gaston and Maurice in particular are super talented.

I’m sorry you had issues with your dining. Did you speak to your head server so they could help resolve it? Also, they have pivoted where animation magic is only done on sailing 6+ nights, I preferred over crush too, but I understand that it’s a little harder for the staff.

I’m sorry you did not have the best sailing. I thought it was overall excellent, and the deck party alone was worth it.

 

[Joanna71985]

We did Marvel day at Sea in early February. The characters are out for multiple days, including the Marvel characters, Steve Rogers I know met on two separate days. Lines to meet rare characters, especially when guests can be in costume are pretty typical. This was true for other Marvel days, Pixar Day and Star Wars Day. It’s also true at hard ticket events at the parks where you can dress up.

I actually was not a fan of how many characters were roaming only. There was no set meet and greet for a black widow or Hawkeye or Doctor Strange. They were just roaming characters. They were everywhere, but the crowds around them made it hard to interact, and they kept moving from spot to spot. They mostly hung out on decks three, four, and five either near the atrium or outside on deck 4.

While Hawkeye had 1 set appearance on my cruise, I completely agree with you about the rest. I wish some of the roamers were given times with set appearances

 

[atlfan4]

What i am saying is that i expected more with all the hype. Yeah, we did most of those... but forget seeing a character unless you got lucky or waited forever in line. I also expected it to be more than 1 day. If schedules conflicted you miss the one and only shot to see any of that.

You expected Marvel Day at Sea to be more than one day? I think that’s part of the problem here.

 

[holula]

While Hawkeye had 1 set appearance on my cruise, I completely agree with you about the rest. I wish some of the roamers were given times with set appearances

I agree with this also. Black Panther only had one formal meet on my cruise and the line was nuts. Hawkeye and Kate Bishop and Dr Strange zero. That was really my only complaint about MDAS (except my MDAS was Thursday evening and Friday until around 4pm since our sea day was the final day.)

 

[tvguy]

Interesting comment about the shows. That has to be a tough situation for Disney. Some folks want new shows, and for other folks, one of the reasons they booked the cruise was to see a certain show again. Same with menus in the MDRs. Some want new menus, others booked their cruise so they can enjoy a particular menu item again.
Lord, let's not forget the outrage when there were no Mickey Bars on one of the cruises! I think about that every time I walk past them in the ice cream section at Walmart.

 

[Joanna71985]

I agree with this also. Black Panther only had one formal meet on my cruise and the line was nuts. Hawkeye and Kate Bishop and Dr Strange zero. That was really my only complaint about MDAS (except my MDAS was Thursday evening and Friday until around 4pm since our sea day was the final day.)

That's interesting- my MDAS was on Day 2 (then the roamers came back out on Day 5, which was the 2nd sea day). But yes! I noticed a few of the characters got several appearances, and then there were some that *only* roamed. I really wish everyone could have had 1 set appearance minimum (and then the major characters have multiple).

Interesting comment about the shows. That has to be a tough situation for Disney. Some folks want new shows, and for other folks, one of the reasons they booked the cruise was to see a certain show again. Same with menus in the MDRs. Some want new menus, others booked their cruise so they can enjoy a particular menu item again.
Lord, let's not forget the outrage when there were no Mickey Bars on one of the cruises! I think about that every time I walk past them in the ice cream section at Walmart.

While I don't mind DCL changing out the shows, I also don't have problems with any of the current shows on the ships (with the exception of the Little Mermaid show on the Wish). My most recent cruise was on the Dream (for the 7th time), and I loved Golden Mickeys and Believe just as much as the first time I saw them in 2012

 

[insureman]

If this was the February 15th cruise this year then we were on board also. We really didn't care about MDAS because that date worked for us and it was also the first cruise of our b2b cruises. So we weren't really paying attention to any Marvel activities but I will say we had early dining and our servers were the best we've had in a few years so much so that we requested them for the next cruise. The only complaints I had were the technical issues with Beauty and the Beast and trying to get an Old Fashioned with just a single shot. Also wasn't a fan of the edible drinking straws they served with drinks they are worse than the paper ones.

 

[holula]

Interesting comment about the shows. That has to be a tough situation for Disney. Some folks want new shows, and for other folks, one of the reasons they booked the cruise was to see a certain show again

I don’t mind if they keep the same shows on the ships for many years, I know it takes a lot of work to change out the shows.

If I was in charge of the shows, I’d have each ship have one show that’s unique to that ship, the Wonder, Dream and Fantasy currently don’t have this. And also not have Frozen on three ships, Tangled would have been much better to have on the Destiny IMO.