Pirate night is lame now

[Spize]

Seriously, one of the best parts of DCL was pirate night, we didn’t even like pirates going into our first cruise and it became the highlight of our cruises after that.

Now they’ve really killed it.

8:00? Cool, guess we don’t get fireworks or club pirate if we are the half of the ship that has second seating.

No more pirate feast in cabanas. Not that I was hungry after dinner, but the different fare and environment was cool. Saved room for a snack.

Concept is blown. Weird being saved from the pirates that took over the ship and then our waiter is still a pirate. Guess captain jack didn’t care about saving us second seat people.



Oh, and the new show? Horrible, cheesey (and I’m a dad that tells dad jokes and I found it too corny)

They didn’t go Disney on it, they went what Chinese knockoffs think is Disney on it. Half the deck is closed so everyone is fighting for a place to sit now, more than before. Really sing songy (literally too)

Oh, and because its wedged in there you can’t do a 5:15 movie or show, and pools close at 4 so there’s that... guess we do nothing but wait around.


Honestly, we nearly ended our Disney Cruise streak because of this. We got a placeholder instead of booking a future cruise. Maybe we will try Star Wars day at seas cruise before they ruin that too.

 

[gotomu212]

I’m really confused...there’s the family friendly pirate party at 7:45-8:15 that is a little cheesy and geared to kids, but then there’s the fireworks and dance party after 10 followed by the buffet at 10:45. Did your cruise do something different? The recent navigators for the Dream are still showing the late fireworks and buffet.

I know they added the 8:00 deck party so that kids could participate in an earlier event, and I’m not a fan of the goofy deck parties, but the later show was pretty much as I remembered it.

What cruise were you on?

 

[mike314]

I'm confused as well, fireworks on the Dream were around 10pm so that everyone could see after the 2nd seating

 

[ArielRae]

I would love if the fireworks moved earlier. Our family has never made it to 10:00pm awake. Not fair to have it so late with so many kids on board. Why not split the amount of fireworks into two showings? One at 8pm and then 10pm. I know it is a vacation and some stay up late but a lot still still can’t make it that late.

 

[Spize]

I would love if the fireworks moved earlier. Our family has never made it to 10:00pm awake. Not fair to have it so late with so many kids on board. Why not split the amount of fireworks into two showings? One at 8pm and then 10pm. I know it is a vacation and some stay up late but a lot still still can’t make it that late.

That’s what I’m talking about, they’ve changed that. It’s all the early one now and there is no 10pm one. It’s a new show and it’s terrible.

Imagine “Captain Jack Sparrow Karaoke Party”

(They even changed “drunken sailor” to “lazy pirate” in the sing along.)

Just changed 2 weeks ago, we were on the first cruise to have the change.

I’ll post a pic of the navigator when I get home.

 

[Spize]

The show and jamming timing were so bad a lot of people left before the fireworks.

Btw, I agree with the poster that said they should have fireworks twice (just like they run the main shows twice for each dinner seating) but I can’t imagine it’s cheap or logistically easy.

I can assure you, it’s awful now.

(Club pirate is basically an afterthought that lasted 3 songs now)

 

[closetmickey]

What a bummer! We started cruising when our littlest had just turned 3 (a couple days prior) and we never got to bed before 10pm on a Disney Cruise. Just too many fun things to do! That’s really too bad if they did away with the split show.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Why not split the amount of fireworks into two showings? One at 8pm and then 10pm. I know it is a vacation and some stay up late but a lot still still can’t make it that late.

The ship can only carry X amount of fireworks onboard. The show as it is isn't all that long. Splitting it in two would make 2 really short shows.

 

[Jess_S]

The personal navigators for recent sailings (first week of August Dream and Fantasy) posted on the disney cruise line blog still show the fireworks at 10. I wonder if there really is a change or if there was some kind of issue on the OP's cruise that led to the fireworks being held earlier.

 

[iivye]

Oh no! This makes me sad; I was looking forward to my parents and brother's family experiencing it for the first time on our summer cruise. Guess I better stop talking it up to them.

 

[Weedy]

Oops wrong post

 

[Weedy]

On The August 6th Dream it looks like they were still having 2 pirate shows and the buffet ( listed under Late Night Snacks)
But I’ve read that have done this before because many people complain that 10:00 is to late for their kids. They can’t do the early fireworks during the summer because it doesn’t get dark early enough.

 

[MomOTwins]

OP, can you tell us which ship/sailing you were on? The August 17 Dream 3-night still had an early Mickey show (although it was actually before the early seating at 5:15 this time), followed by a later 10pm Captain Jack/fireworks show and buffet.

 

[cheribelle]

On the August 11 Fantasy, the show and fireworks were at 7:30 (or maybe closer to 8 once they started). It was really rough to make it there from first dining. We had a horrible viewing area because it was already packed. Our servers literally rushed dinner to try to get everyone out.

The new show was not good in my opinion. I agree with the OP as it was “cheesy”. First we did a sing a long. Then the show started and I couldn’t follow it one bit. They added some more effects - ropes between funnels and Captain Jack would climb up it. Deck 11 had limited space to view because they are now using most of the area around the pools as part of the show. We just didn’t enjoy it. The fireworks were still good though. Deck 12 was now overly crowded due to all the space changes.

There was no pirate buffet. They even made an announcement about that so it’s not as if we overlooked it.

Next time I won’t rush and just make it up for the fireworks.

Felt weird afterwards, I’m used to the pirate party being so late and ending the night after that. But instead we just had a normal night with shows and lounges all while wearing pirate gear.

The cruise director said the changes were due to the sun setting earlier. I have cruised this time of year every time and the sun set the same time. So who knows lol.

 

[scgustafson]

This thread would be easier to follow if everyone stated which ship (I know a few did) they are speaking of. The newer ships have a different show than the classic ships, so that may be adding to some of the discrepancies. Also, it is pretty hard to move the fireworks to between the dinings/show, especially in the summer, since it would not be dark enough to enjoy them. As PrincessShmoo said, fireworks are limited to safe storage spaces, and splitting it into two shows would water both of them down and just about disappoint everyone. Unfortunately, it is not possible to schedule everything at a time that works for everyone, so post-dinner seems to be the best for fireworks. Yes, little ones have bed times, but sometimes things might need to shift if you want to do something. It is vacation after all.

 

[cheribelle]

As a follow up to my post above, here is the Navigator for the August 11 sailing of the Fantasy. Fireworks were definitely between dinner shows

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Wow. That’s rather disheartening.

 

[Jess_S]

I'm still curious about whether this is a permanent change. But I hope everyone who experienced the change and didn't like it will complain. Between this and the double show nonsense, I am getting a little worried that we won't love our upcoming cruise as much as I had hoped.

 

[cheribelle]

I'm still curious about whether this is a permanent change. But I hope everyone who experienced the change and didn't like it will complain. Between this and the double show nonsense, I am getting a little worried that we won't love our upcoming cruise as much as I had hoped.

Don’t be. We have cruised so many times and we all agreed this was the best cruise ever. I didn’t let the “small stuff” bother us. We have seen the pirate show so many times, that these are things that can be overlooked. The double show thing worked out good because we got to see the variety shows in the adult areas and my kids loved having them as a matinee show. The extra shows were just a little less crowded and we felt we didn’t have to rush to get a seat.
I was sad about the new pirate show, and I let them know on the comment card. But if you don’t “sweat the small stuff” you will have the best time! Things change and we just learn to go with the flow.

 

[n2mm]

Wow, I sure hope your disappointment was expressed on the feedback form. We leave in 12 days for the Dream 9/10 4 night cruise. I’m still not happy with the elimination of the single rider jetskis on castaway cay. They now only have double rentals so if you’re riding single you have to pay the double price to rent a double.... needless to say, my husband didn’t book it