cdoc29
Cruising with the Crazies
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2010
- Messages
- 454
Just got off the Fantasy and it was an eye opening experience from what we remembered pre-pandemic. We have cruise three times now with DCL and all of it on the Fantasy. DCL has cut down so much from what we experienced before. Sailing in August was an eye opener as well as we sailed a full capacity and ship felt very crowded compared to our sailings in September and Feb respectively. There also seemed to be way more kids of all ages wandering the ship unsupervised than I remember pre-pandemic, I think it was a combination of lack of kids club activities, Many people from other nations who didn't know or understand the kids club, post-pandemic kids whose experience has left them more fearful about not being with mom and dad.
Kids Club/Lab - We travelled with a 10 y.o. and 13 y.o. The Lab/Club did not offer as many activities as in the past. Our last cruise in 2017 the lab/club each had a planned activity going every 1/2 hour or hour non-stop on each side. This time they would have 1 activity in the club followed by 1 activity in the lab. i.e. magic play floor in the lab from 0930-1000 followed by Sarges Playtime in the club from 1000-1030. There were also more open houses in club/lab with whole sections of the day being devoted to this. I attribute these changes to it requiring less staff. The Kids Club staff also seemed to spend a lot of time hanging out with each other and not the kids. Overall we were disappointed with the lab/club when compared to pre-pandemic.
Edge - with the change in age rules the 11 and 12 year olds that would have used both the club/lab and edge were now wholly in edge. This increased the usage while not increasing the space. My teen said that edge was packed all week and not worth going because of lack of staff and space in the club. He wound up in a group that self formed and planned and did activities outside of the club the whole week such doing the aquaduck, going to shows, etc.... They made the sitting area by the port adventures desk their hangout area. While they did participate as a group in some activities at Edge for the most part they did their own thing.
Overall for the kids DCL need to increase their Kids Club Counselors and training/supervision and update their offering back to what they did pre-pandemic, they certainly have managed to drastically increase their prices since then while not delivering the same product.
Buena Vista Theatre - Pre-pandemic they showed movies with 1 port shopping talk on the first sea day. This time they payed Bingo in the Theatre every time which cut down on the number of movie showings especially on sea days. Only saw 1 movie during the week even though there were others I wanted to see, the times never seemed to line up for us.
Characters - They had the fab 4 along with Goofy, Stitch, Cap't Hook and Smee, Chip and Dale, Pluto along with the usual Princesses and Jack Sparrow on Pirate night and Castaway Cay. Pre-pandemic they had all these plus tinker bell, Disney Junior characters, Pinocchio, PeterPan, Joy, Buzz Lightyear the list goes on. Many more characters for meet and greet before.
Rough Seas, they ship rocked way more than I remember from previous sailings and when I asked was told they only use the stabilizers when the seas were rough, let me tell you our second sea day the ship was a rocking. It was much smoother before and I suspect they used the stabilizers more but as they probably use more fuel as a cost saving measure they do not routinely use them.
Shopping - Gone is the art gallery in place is carriage jewels, gone is the sundry shop where you could buy alcohol, rum cakes and sundries (sunscreen asa, etc..) and in its place Bvlgari jewelry, in fact over half the shopping is now high end jewelry as the sundries have been moved to one of the other shops and the choices there seemed less than before. I bought 1 t-shirt for me and the wife along with a couple of pins. A lot of the items I can easily find off the ship as they had nothing to do with DCL. The kids didn't want anything from the shops.
Navigator App - While I appreciate the app it was difficult to navigate and difficult to see what activities conflicted with others and unless your kid club/lab kid has their own phone hard for them to see what is going on. Also the the old navigator listed highlights for the week. I felt like I didn't know what variety acts there were on the ship until right before they happened or was too late. Wish they would bring back the old navigators in conjunction with the app.
Otherwise aside from it feeling like the staff were very in-experienced (maybe they took their best staff to prepare for the Disney Treasure?) the service overall was what I expect from DCL. Our room steward was awesome and we tipped them an additional $60 beyond the suggested amount they were that good. The Server was attentive and made changes during the week to fit our kids eating habits and the Head Waiter stopped by every night to help the kids from cutting their food to joking with them making them feel special we tipped both them extra as well. The assistance server while nice was slow with the drinks which sometimes didn't arrive until after appetizers and salad course and we hardly ever got refills but he was an outlier, he got the standard suggested gratuity.
The Shows were awesome and we loved seeing Aladdin again as well as Frozen. My kids loved the two variety main shows in the theatre as well. Wished I could have seen the variety shows for the Adults but as I said the Navigator App left a lot to be desired when trying to plan and we missed them. We got to see Deadpool & Wolverine in the Theatre 1 night as well.
Pools were overcrowded as usual on the ship and we were fortunate to ride the Aqueduct a few times when returning early from an excursion. never got a chance to play mini golf as it was always packed
Bartenders were awesome, we quickly found our favorite bar (this changes from cruise to cruise depending on who the bartender is) and on this trip it was Chris in Cove Cafe. He did a great Whisky Tasting seminar and we had a drinks from the third night onwards in this bar, tipped him extra the last night as well.
Food was mostly good but sometimes things would be off, nothing you wouldn't expect when they are serving 2000 people at a sitting.
We had brunch at Palo and it was every bit as good as we remembered from 7 years ago.
Cast Away Cay again was awesome and I already miss the Konk Cooler
Overall it was a Disney Cruise and I enjoyed the week very much but did notice a lot of the changes from pre-pandemic that seemed to make it a better experience last time. I will still sail with DCL and before the cruise was planning on going next year but I think we will wait two years and use the placeholder we put down.
Kids Club/Lab - We travelled with a 10 y.o. and 13 y.o. The Lab/Club did not offer as many activities as in the past. Our last cruise in 2017 the lab/club each had a planned activity going every 1/2 hour or hour non-stop on each side. This time they would have 1 activity in the club followed by 1 activity in the lab. i.e. magic play floor in the lab from 0930-1000 followed by Sarges Playtime in the club from 1000-1030. There were also more open houses in club/lab with whole sections of the day being devoted to this. I attribute these changes to it requiring less staff. The Kids Club staff also seemed to spend a lot of time hanging out with each other and not the kids. Overall we were disappointed with the lab/club when compared to pre-pandemic.
Edge - with the change in age rules the 11 and 12 year olds that would have used both the club/lab and edge were now wholly in edge. This increased the usage while not increasing the space. My teen said that edge was packed all week and not worth going because of lack of staff and space in the club. He wound up in a group that self formed and planned and did activities outside of the club the whole week such doing the aquaduck, going to shows, etc.... They made the sitting area by the port adventures desk their hangout area. While they did participate as a group in some activities at Edge for the most part they did their own thing.
Overall for the kids DCL need to increase their Kids Club Counselors and training/supervision and update their offering back to what they did pre-pandemic, they certainly have managed to drastically increase their prices since then while not delivering the same product.
Buena Vista Theatre - Pre-pandemic they showed movies with 1 port shopping talk on the first sea day. This time they payed Bingo in the Theatre every time which cut down on the number of movie showings especially on sea days. Only saw 1 movie during the week even though there were others I wanted to see, the times never seemed to line up for us.
Characters - They had the fab 4 along with Goofy, Stitch, Cap't Hook and Smee, Chip and Dale, Pluto along with the usual Princesses and Jack Sparrow on Pirate night and Castaway Cay. Pre-pandemic they had all these plus tinker bell, Disney Junior characters, Pinocchio, PeterPan, Joy, Buzz Lightyear the list goes on. Many more characters for meet and greet before.
Rough Seas, they ship rocked way more than I remember from previous sailings and when I asked was told they only use the stabilizers when the seas were rough, let me tell you our second sea day the ship was a rocking. It was much smoother before and I suspect they used the stabilizers more but as they probably use more fuel as a cost saving measure they do not routinely use them.
Shopping - Gone is the art gallery in place is carriage jewels, gone is the sundry shop where you could buy alcohol, rum cakes and sundries (sunscreen asa, etc..) and in its place Bvlgari jewelry, in fact over half the shopping is now high end jewelry as the sundries have been moved to one of the other shops and the choices there seemed less than before. I bought 1 t-shirt for me and the wife along with a couple of pins. A lot of the items I can easily find off the ship as they had nothing to do with DCL. The kids didn't want anything from the shops.
Navigator App - While I appreciate the app it was difficult to navigate and difficult to see what activities conflicted with others and unless your kid club/lab kid has their own phone hard for them to see what is going on. Also the the old navigator listed highlights for the week. I felt like I didn't know what variety acts there were on the ship until right before they happened or was too late. Wish they would bring back the old navigators in conjunction with the app.
Otherwise aside from it feeling like the staff were very in-experienced (maybe they took their best staff to prepare for the Disney Treasure?) the service overall was what I expect from DCL. Our room steward was awesome and we tipped them an additional $60 beyond the suggested amount they were that good. The Server was attentive and made changes during the week to fit our kids eating habits and the Head Waiter stopped by every night to help the kids from cutting their food to joking with them making them feel special we tipped both them extra as well. The assistance server while nice was slow with the drinks which sometimes didn't arrive until after appetizers and salad course and we hardly ever got refills but he was an outlier, he got the standard suggested gratuity.
The Shows were awesome and we loved seeing Aladdin again as well as Frozen. My kids loved the two variety main shows in the theatre as well. Wished I could have seen the variety shows for the Adults but as I said the Navigator App left a lot to be desired when trying to plan and we missed them. We got to see Deadpool & Wolverine in the Theatre 1 night as well.
Pools were overcrowded as usual on the ship and we were fortunate to ride the Aqueduct a few times when returning early from an excursion. never got a chance to play mini golf as it was always packed
Bartenders were awesome, we quickly found our favorite bar (this changes from cruise to cruise depending on who the bartender is) and on this trip it was Chris in Cove Cafe. He did a great Whisky Tasting seminar and we had a drinks from the third night onwards in this bar, tipped him extra the last night as well.
Food was mostly good but sometimes things would be off, nothing you wouldn't expect when they are serving 2000 people at a sitting.
We had brunch at Palo and it was every bit as good as we remembered from 7 years ago.
Cast Away Cay again was awesome and I already miss the Konk Cooler
Overall it was a Disney Cruise and I enjoyed the week very much but did notice a lot of the changes from pre-pandemic that seemed to make it a better experience last time. I will still sail with DCL and before the cruise was planning on going next year but I think we will wait two years and use the placeholder we put down.
