NYTimes Travel Writer on DCL

[TestingH2O]

Agreed. I didn’t hit $100/day for drinks on my first cruise, but definitely spent more than I thought. I’m more careful now. I think. Maybe. Probably.

Haha. Yes. Though as DD gets older, she has certainly learned to ask for more things. I'm pretty good at holding that line though.

 

[kkayluvsdis]

Did you see that he wrote a follow-up article to his original piece??

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/reader-center/disney-cruise-love-hate.html

 

[cadien]

Did you see that he wrote a follow-up article to his original piece??

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/reader-center/disney-cruise-love-hate.html

Thanks for that!

Michael Ian Black is certainly correct that no one would expect him to love cruises.

There are some interesting related articles linked at the end too.

 

[mevelandry]

Glad I read the article before the comments here so I could have an open mind. I read a lot of it as tongue in cheek, especially the part about booking the princess makeover. And by the end, some pixie dust was beginning to get in his eyes. I think they'll be back!

His daughter wants to go back.

 

[cadien]

His daughter wants to go back.

Considering his daughter got her pirate outfit, I bet that’s all it takes!

 

[MaleficentRN]

Did you see that he wrote a follow-up article to his original piece??

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/reader-center/disney-cruise-love-hate.html

"I wanted to go into the trip as a total novice, to learn things the hard way. there were plenty of repeat customers on ours (members of the Castaway Club, in Disney parlance). I just won’t be one of them "

I'm not buying it. Why not do a story about traveling to Paris, Rome, Vienna without any planning? As a "total novice"? And if he had had a bad time in those cities because of his poor research and planning, would he not go back? Especially since his daughter had such a great time, isn't that like cutting off your nose to spite your face?

 

[starvenger]

"I wanted to go into the trip as a total novice, to learn things the hard way. there were plenty of repeat customers on ours (members of the Castaway Club, in Disney parlance). I just won’t be one of them "

I'm not buying it. Why not do a story about traveling to Paris, Rome, Vienna without any planning? As a "total novice"? And if he had had a bad time in those cities because of his poor research and planning, would he not go back? Especially since his daughter had such a great time, isn't that like cutting off your nose to spite your face?

You mashed together two paragraphs. The first one was in response to his lack of research:

"Guilty as charged. But I will add that it was an intentional decision: I wanted to go into the trip as a total novice, to learn things the hard way. (For one thing, I figured it would make for a more entertaining story.) "

So we can presume that during a trip to Rome, Paris or Vienna he'd actually research what he was doing. And on future cruises, should that happen. But I get it - the opportunity to experience something for the first time makes for a great narrative, so he took it.

The second paragraph was in response to his perceived snobbery - something others on the board have mentioned:

I can certainly be a travel snob, though I also made a point of noting how many people love these cruises — there were plenty of repeat customers on ours (members of the Castaway Club, in Disney parlance). I just won’t be one of them — though my daughter has other ideas.

So we can conclude that, while he seemed to warm up at the end, he's still not a fan of cruises. Or perhaps just DCL. Would be interested to see what would happen if he went on, say, Crystal or Carnival.

And then there was this:

Finally, there were those who simply thought the problem lay with the writer. “If you can’t have fun on a Disney cruise, that’s your own damn fault,” wrote Kyle Baker on Twitter. At least in my case, that is very possibly true, Mr. Baker.

So perhaps in guiding his narrative, he got in his own way of having fun.

 

[Dug720]

Even a total novice could have figured out that Castaway Cay is an island and an island means beach and an expensive makeover on a beach day is not the brightest idea.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Saying less than glowing things about Disney on the Internet is a great way to ensure that MANY people read, engage with, talk about, and respond to your writing.

I'm guessing that had something to do with the tone of his review.

 

[KashasMom]

Example No. 2: On the first day, instead of taking advantage of the many onboard entertainment offerings and free lunch on the ship, or, at least, spending time with his family, he wanders off solo into Key West for a "mediocre Cuban lunch." Why on earth would anyone think that leaving your family for an unplanned, aimless excursion and random meal alone is a good idea on A FAMILY VACATION.

How many Disney parents leave their kids in the clubs for hours and hours on end? That's not my idea of a FAMILY VACATION! (Apparently there are also parents who leave their kids onboard while they go ashore as evidenced by questions on this and other cruise boards.)

 

[KashasMom]

I'm a first timer. It's obvious.

But you're on Disboards. He wasn't. For someone who doesn't like cruises and has never been on one, why wouldn't he expect it to be an "easy" vacation with little/no planning required? I know many people who haven't cruised who think like that. Cruising HAS been advertised that way in the past. Twenty five, thirty years ago you didn't have to do anything but book your cruise and show up.

 

[mevelandry]

But you're on Disboards. He wasn't. For someone who doesn't like cruises and has never been on one, why wouldn't he expect it to be an "easy" vacation with little/no planning required? I know many people who haven't cruised who think like that. Cruising HAS been advertised that way in the past. Twenty five, thirty years ago you didn't have to do anything but book your cruise and show up.

And technically, you can still do it without any planning if you want.

The "need" to subscribe for BBB and the "need" to bring a pirate costume and the "need" to book Palo are not really "needs".

I don't know if it's because of the price tag but I noticed that the "fear of missing out" is very present among the WDW and DCL crowd. It can complicate schedules quite a bit.

Not gonna lie, my FIL and MIL were really annoyed with this on the first day of the cruise. "Why do we have to go to the dining room NOW? We want to stay at the pool! They won't accept us in the dining room if we go 60 minutes later than our dining time?" ... In the end, they came anyway but they felt rushed. It wasn't as relaxing as they thought it would be.

 

[cyclenut]

I really liked the review and the writing. I'm very surprised that some here are taking issue with it. He went in saying that he didn't like cruising and had never cruised before. He went in saying he didn't care much for Disney either. He did do some advance planning as he booked things in advanced and referenced glowing reviews from people on cruise critic and other pages.

I think his experience is much most others that experience Disney for the first time. It's a bit confusing, overwhelming and magnificent ... all at the same time. I found his tone very endearing and you could see by the end that he's likely to be back. How much more of an endorsement can you get than to win over a reluctant traveler?

His anecdotes about his experiences are much like a novice Disney cruiser. He probably booked BBB at that time, because Platinum and Gold took all the other times. He obviously did not put it together with Castaway Cay day. Personally, I think Disney should warn people when they book BBB on that day. He took it in stride though and they enjoyed themselves nonetheless.

I'll add too that when anyone posts negative experiences about their DCL trip in trip reports here, there are always more than a few willing to blame them for their experiences rather than allow for the fact that Disney doesn't always hit the mark.

 

[starvenger]

and referenced glowing reviews from people on cruise critic and other pages

I actually think that these were added in after the fact, to help balance the narrative out a bit. But there's no evidence either way.

I think his experience is much most others that experience Disney for the first time. It's a bit confusing, overwhelming and magnificent ... all at the same time.

I get this feeling every time I get on a cruise ship. It's like a shot of adrenaline to the pleasure centre of your brain. (I don't know if that's scientifically possible, but let's go with it)

 

[hanscarlet]

So after reading his first paragraph I thought to myself, "Ah a typical self-absored liberal NYer know-it-all" and expected the worst but was surprised by how accurate the article was in terms of portraying it from the first timer experience. I think his tone was annoyingly informative. It sounds like he had a good time in spite of his interest in not wanting to get consumed by the Disney Magic. I definitely made assumptions about this guy and was pleasantly surprised by how the review unfolded and ended.

Side note - I hope the extreme political movement doesn't negatively trickle into Disney Magic to the extent that my little girls are no longer referred to as "princesses" everywhere they go in the Disney environment... that's part of our magic that we love and why we choose Disney (the part where he complained about it made me cringe but I'm sure his daughter loved it, which is the point)

 

[kaseyC]

I find this thread interesting, funny and a bit predictable for the Dis Boards. If this writer would have shared a similar experience as a first time cruiser on another cruise line, many responses on this thread would have been quite different and not nearly as critical. We would have seen the standard "This would never happen on Disney", "Disney attracts a different class of passenger" and my favorite "you get what you pay for".

 

[Snowwhyt]

Anybody have a way to email this gentleman? I would love to hear his take on several views seen here. I’m not looking to bash him at all. I want to see if he misunderstood the cruise industry and how pre-planning could have changed his cruise OR if he feels it should be a “hop on, fly by the seat of your pants daily choices” kind of vacation still.
If he had a couple that was from Arizona visiting would he try to get Hamilton tickets in advance or see if they will be at the Half Price ticket booth the morning of the show? We all know both kinds of people, and we can drive each other nuts on a vacation.
I want to know is he normally OCD like me or more like my husband.

 

[mevelandry]

Anybody have a way to email this gentleman? I would love to hear his take on several views seen here. I’m not looking to bash him at all. I want to see if he misunderstood the cruise industry and how pre-planning could have changed his cruise OR if he feels it should be a “hop on, fly by the seat of your pants daily choices” kind of vacation still.
If he had a couple that was from Arizona visiting would he try to get Hamilton tickets in advance or see if they will be at the Half Price ticket booth the morning of the show? We all know both kinds of people, and we can drive each other nuts on a vacation.
I want to know is he normally OCD like me or more like my husband.

You can easily find him on Twitter.

 

[Dug720]

Anybody have a way to email this gentleman? I would love to hear his take on several views seen here. I’m not looking to bash him at all. I want to see if he misunderstood the cruise industry and how pre-planning could have changed his cruise OR if he feels it should be a “hop on, fly by the seat of your pants daily choices” kind of vacation still.
If he had a couple that was from Arizona visiting would he try to get Hamilton tickets in advance or see if they will be at the Half Price ticket booth the morning of the show? We all know both kinds of people, and we can drive each other nuts on a vacation.
I want to know is he normally OCD like me or more like my husband.

Anyone who thinks Hamilton will be at TKTS (which doesn't open until 3pm on non-matinee days) for the next few years is seriously deluded. Wicked has only started popping up occasionally in the last year or so.

 

[squirk]

I admit that I started to get my back up when I first started reading the article.

I am sure we all have seen our fair share of cruise "reviews" where the writer boarded the ship obviously dead-set on having a miserable time, with the intention of snidely ridiculing everything about the cruise in their article or blog post. Such people seem to want to prove their superiority by mocking something that a lot of other people love - like, the reviewer is the only person with the intelligence and objective critical eye to see what the rest of us mindless sheep cannot.

I am glad to see that the article (eventually) turned out to be a little more balanced than that. I still think he could have walked onto that ship with a little more of an open mind, but due credit to him for his shout-out to the CMs and their hard work.