Positive changes

[Keetchino]

I’d like them to take a leaf out of Norwegian’s book and mimic the freestyle dining.... come as you please, no set times. Then you could dine earlier on a day at sea, or later if you have a late departure from port, and aren’t held to a specific time. It would also eliminate bunching the entire ship together at set times, I think it would spread people out more

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I’d like them to take a leaf out of Norwegian’s book and mimic the freestyle dining.... come as you please, no set times. Then you could dine earlier on a day at sea, or later if you have a late departure from port, and aren’t held to a specific time. It would also eliminate bunching the entire ship together at set times, I think it would spread people out more

With set dining times, they can control how many people are in the room at the same time. With anytime dining, there are times that there are mobs of people "just showing up" at the same time. I'd not like to be the maitre d' that has to tell everyone from XX place in line back "sorry, we can't accommodate you at this time, come back in a couple of hours".

 

[Primeval Princess]

With set dining times, they can control how many people are in the room at the same time. With anytime dining, there are times that there are mobs of people "just showing up" at the same time. I'd not like to be the maitre d' that has to tell everyone from XX place in line back "sorry, we can't accommodate you at this time, come back in a couple of hours".

And I love that you don't have to make reservations or wait for a table on a Disney cruise. When it's your time, you just show up and eat. That's much easier than freestyle.

 

[KVH]

Wait a sec. Let's use some common sense here. Since I don't think anyone posting has C-suite level experience in running a cruise ship. Just focus on two points.

So they decide to start off at a reduced capacity. Considering most sailings probably have more bookings than the arbitrary xx% limit, who gets to decide who DOESN'T get to sail? How long does this go on for? How much revenue risk/loss does this add on top of existing issues? How much demand to the brand is acceptable because of this?

Let's add another show. Sure, increase those CMs workload for that one function by 50%. Is their comp increasing? Other responsibilities being reduced? Is such scheduling actually operationally possible? And so on . . .

It's easy to sit in a chair and throw out all these wild ideas. But it doesn't seem very connected to reality.

 

[ajo]

So they decide to start off at a reduced capacity. Considering most sailings probably have more bookings than the arbitrary xx% limit, who gets to decide who DOESN'T get to sail? How long does this go on for? How much revenue risk/loss does this add on top of existing issues? How much demand to the brand is acceptable because of this?

This has been my biggest question. How would they sail with a reduced capacity if the current bookings are greater than that capacity? It’s one thing for WDW to limit capacity. It’s an entirely different challenge for DCL where people don’t just buy tickets or passes, they buy spots on specific cruises.

Do they offer incentives to get people to move to a different cruise? It’s hard to imagine they would say you couldn’t sail and essentially kick you off the cruise.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

This has been my biggest question. How would they sail with a reduced capacity if the current bookings are greater than that capacity? It’s one thing for WDW to limit capacity. It’s an entirely different challenge for DCL where people don’t just buy tickets or passes, they buy spots on specific cruises.

Do they offer incentives to get people to move to a different cruise? It’s hard to imagine they would say you couldn’t sail and essentially kick you off the cruise.

Who knows? Maybe they've only been booking reduced capacity on the rebookings?

 

[Husker Mike]

So they decide to start off at a reduced capacity. Considering most sailings probably have more bookings than the arbitrary xx% limit, who gets to decide who DOESN'T get to sail? How long does this go on for? How much revenue risk/loss does this add on top of existing issues? How much demand to the brand is acceptable because of this?

I suspect this is one of those things that will take care of itself. Some currently booked guests will either be unable or unwilling to travel if we don't have a medical solution in place. Disney could satisfy those customers by extending the timeframe for rebooking well beyond the original 12-15 months.

How long does this go on for? Science will tell us; I suspect the best case scenario is 6-9 months, and the worst case is 2 or 3 years. Stockholders, creditholders, customers have zero say in this. What they want is pretty much irrelevant.

How much revenue risk/loss does this add? That's the wrong way to look at it. Disney has fixed costs with the boat; it's not like you can just anchor the boat somewhere and leave it unattended until this blows over. The question is really: Is Disney losing more money by operating cruises at 50% capacity than they are losing at this time with the boats idled?

 

[tvguy]

.

Dining:
Shorten the length by combining courses, ordering desert upfront, and less chit-chat, not mentioning the survey for example.
No thanks. I have hurried meals at home, I want the leisurely meal

Remove the shared tables for smaller groups. Forcing people to be near each other every night is a bad idea.
With more tables needed, they will have to add a 3rd dining time, many will be eager to sign up for the earliest time.
At least when we sailed on the Magic, all the tables were 4 person tables, pushed together to make bigger tables. So no need for more tables or additional dining times.


Cafeteria style buffets aren't bad either.
Royal Caribbean has already announced buffets are gone for health reasons. I think they may go the way of dinosaurs, just like the traditional Cruise Ship Midnight buffet has on many loines.

Shows
They could add a 3rd time
On our Magic cruise, on seas days they did that. One show had an afternoon matinee. Golden Mickeys had an encore late night third performance.

 

[tvguy]

I’d like them to take a leaf out of Norwegian’s book and mimic the freestyle dining.... come as you please, no set times. Then you could dine earlier on a day at sea, or later if you have a late departure from port, and aren’t held to a specific time. It would also eliminate bunching the entire ship together at set times, I think it would spread people out more

After 3 NCL cruises, 2 before freestyle and 1 after, unless they fix Freestyle, I hope it goes away. A great idea on paper, but didn't work because there was usually an hour wait for a table. Can you imagine an hour wait for dinner with kids on Disney???!

 

[ivanp91]

Remove the shared tables for smaller groups. Forcing people to be near each other every night is a bad idea.

This isn't going to stop much of anything being spread around. Same thing with empty seats in the theatre. You still have an entire day outside of the dining rooms wherein you could touch a handrail, piece of furniture, elevator button, etc., that has something nasty on it, not to mention you cannot effectively control the amount of people in most public areas of the ship.

 

[Primeval Princess]

This isn't going to stop much of anything being spread around. Same thing with empty seats in the theatre. You still have an entire day outside of the dining rooms wherein you could touch a handrail, piece of furniture, elevator button, etc., that has something nasty on it, not to mention you cannot effectively control the amount of people in most public areas of the ship.

Agreed. I don't think a lot of these restrictions help. But some people want to see restrictions to feel safer, so...

 

[auntie60]

Agreed. I don't think a lot of these restrictions help. But some people want to see restrictions to feel safer, so...

something nasty has always been on all of these places, not just starting now.

 

[Calantha]

I would be willing to re-schedule my sept cruise to help them reduce numbers, but I think I’d require more than 125% (and maybe that makes me a terrible person? But I’ve already tried to look for a replacement cruise and I didn’t really find one. Maybe after they release the next round ....whenever that is).

 

[MomOTwins]

I suspect this is one of those things that will take care of itself. Some currently booked guests will either be unable or unwilling to travel if we don't have a medical solution in place. Disney could satisfy those customers by extending the timeframe for rebooking well beyond the original 12-15 months.

How long does this go on for? Science will tell us; I suspect the best case scenario is 6-9 months, and the worst case is 2 or 3 years. Stockholders, creditholders, customers have zero say in this. What they want is pretty much irrelevant.

How much revenue risk/loss does this add? That's the wrong way to look at it. Disney has fixed costs with the boat; it's not like you can just anchor the boat somewhere and leave it unattended until this blows over. The question is really: Is Disney losing more money by operating cruises at 50% capacity than they are losing at this time with the boats idled?

I totally agree about capacity taking care of itself. Our August cruise is empty, and I really hope it goes because the idea of watching the pirate show without the crush of crowds and no wait for the aquaduck sounds heavenly. On our cruise social media page there was a mass exodus of people who didn’t feel comfortable cruising until 2021 or later. On top of people who left because it was their first cruise and they didn’t want restrictions.

I think there is another element though in addition to “is the cruise making money.” Yes that is an important consideration, but DCL also may be thinking about preserving its cruise business for the long term. Running one or two ships on short cruises at a loss allows it to keep at least some experienced staff to train the broader crew they will hire/rehire down the road when operations are back to normal. It helps keep up customer interest and demand (everyone I know who has been on a disney cruise decided to go based on word of mouth—friends sharing positive experiences). It also keeps loyal customers cruising with Disney rather than switching to other lines that may start up again sooner.

 

[Husker Mike]

This isn't going to stop much of anything being spread around. Same thing with empty seats in the theatre. You still have an entire day outside of the dining rooms wherein you could touch a handrail, piece of furniture, elevator button, etc., that has something nasty on it, not to mention you cannot effectively control the amount of people in most public areas of the ship.

Everything I've read suggests that Disney is extremely thorough in their cleaning processes. However, the CDC now says that it's people, not surfaces, we should be worried about.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...what-cdc-saying-covid-19-surfaces/5235317002/
So based on the information currently available, social distancing is the most important thing. Fewer people on the boat means fewer crowds and the ability for families to separate themselves.

 

[Stratus22]

Anyone have that amazing couscous recipe? Guessing what DCL is going to do is just going to drive you all crazy. Tom Petty said it best “Waiting is the hardest part”!
I mean it about the recipe though. DCL doesn’t have it.

 

[soundnew]

I did a few freestyle dinner cruises and always felt like I wanted to be on a Disney cruise. It sounds so nice to be able to come and eat as you like but in reality if you do not show up early oder very late you have to wait. And the servers are much more stressed as they have to clear the tables as quick as possible. Not to mention that you do no not have the personal experience interacting with the same crew every day

 

[LocustPoint]

I'm thinking that they may include Cabana's as part of the rotation. Doing so will increase capacity for dining and would allow for some distance between tables. Three shows is also a possibility, bringing back the matinee for the Disney productions.

 

[Primeval Princess]

I'm thinking that they may include Cabana's as part of the rotation. Doing so will increase capacity for dining and would allow for some distance between tables. Three shows is also a possibility, bringing back the matinee for the Disney productions.

Rotating between 4 restaurants won't work for 3-night cruises. Cabanas is already available for full-service dinner for those who want it, except for the first and last nights of the cruise. Maybe they will start putting it into service on the first and last nights, too, and publicizing its dinner availability more.

 

[DCLDVC1]

I suspect this is one of those things that will take care of itself. Some currently booked guests will either be unable or unwilling to travel if we don't have a medical solution in place. Disney could satisfy those customers by extending the timeframe for rebooking well beyond the original 12-15 months.

How long does this go on for? Science will tell us; I suspect the best case scenario is 6-9 months, and the worst case is 2 or 3 years. Stockholders, creditholders, customers have zero say in this. What they want is pretty much irrelevant.

How much revenue risk/loss does this add? That's the wrong way to look at it. Disney has fixed costs with the boat; it's not like you can just anchor the boat somewhere and leave it unattended until this blows over. The question is really: Is Disney losing more money by operating cruises at 50% capacity than they are losing at this time with the boats idled?

I wonder if DCL's break even point is similar to Royal Caribbean.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/...ns-newer-ships-break-even-quicker-older-ships