Service isn't so "Magical" right now...

[joksten2000]

DCL has known the new ships are coming. All the money they charge it's a disgrace that the kinds of service are so bad. There should be no reports of bad service, I can understand people need to be trained, why not put an experienced server every so many tables to work with the newbies. I had my own business's over the years and would never throw a new person out there without some guidence. We've been on 10 cruises and I have to admit that half were less than "Magical" I've been on four RCCL cruises and only can complain about 1. Since I pay three times the cost to sail on DCL I expect more. I see a lot of people that would complain about anything, but we're pretty undemanding cruisers. We don't expect above and beyond, just decent service that includes not having to ask for ice tea every single meal. I thank the stars I didn't jump on an early Dream cruise. Since we're paying 3X the price of a RCCL cruise I do expect a little better experience. I hear a lot of people complain about extra cost on other lines, maybe we're not real fancy, as we've never paid for any thing extra on any cruise we've been on.

 

[bombygriz]

When I cruised on the Wonder the service was amazing. I was in the Stack, but my brother was in the Club and there weren't any problems there. My mom always says that if we cruised another line we would hate it because we've been spoiled by Disney...I'm starting to wonder if the Dream will be like a whole other cruise line to us because of the terrible service we're hearing about on land! Hopefully enough people can contact DCL and get them to do some major training...

 

[denas]

I've been following these threads lately and found them really interesting. Some people have great experiences and some not so great- a lot of it centered on the dining rooms.

Last month we did the Panama Canal on the Wonder and we definetely noticed some decrease in dining room service. I think that's always were it's so noticable since eating is something you do three times a day, every day and is where you come into the most contact with the crew. We were very lucky and had a WONDERFUL server, but some of the folks we saw at breakfast and lunch weren't great. We took many a "tour" through the dining room with a new (gosh we hope they were new) CM to find our table and there were two separate lunches were I finished my food before a drink ever showed up. The servers seemed to be either very experienced from working at Disney awhile OR brand new to the cruise line and maybe food service all together.

I think that's why there's such a wide range of experiences and reports coming back from the ships right now. I do think that Disney needs to make some fast adjustments though and get their dining crews up to speed. A bad experience there really sticks with someone.

OP here. I think that is what I was trying to say in my post. While there were some incidences of truely great service and wonderful character interactions, there were also some really, really awful experiences. I would have been fine if my assistant server had only brought chocolate instead of white milk or diet instead of regular coke (he did that too). it wasn't mixing up drinks that put me over the edge - it was mixing up clean and dirty silverware on a ship that didn't have any hot water to clean things that put me over the edge!!! The incidences of crowd management at the princess gathering, and changed characters were very dissappointing but by themselves wouldn't have made me complain - it was only coming on the heels of the dining room service, closed clubs and cancelled activities with no explanation, maintenance people who didn't tell you the water was out on the entire ship, the fact that there was no hot water on the entire ship for a day, and the general lack of knowledge throughout that made the missing of Aurora become such a big dissappointment.

Here is my take-away from the entire thing....if you cruse Disney every year, just be prepared for lots of new faces, long waits, and just general "off-ness" for your next cruise this year.

If you are like us and can only afford to cruise every 3-4 years and are just in the planning phase - I would consider pushing out your cruise until next year after all of the ships are out if you really want the great Disney service.

If you have never cruised before, you might not notice any difference!!!

And your kids will still have a blast (they will probably forget their dissapointment at the missed activities by the time the club opens up the next day). I think it is more adults who remember this because, at least for me, the cost per day to take a cruise for 8 of us was A LOT so every little incidence just reminded me how much this was costing me

After all was said and done, I still averaged everything out and rated our cruise "good" - it ust wasn't "very good" or "exceptional" like it had been before!

 

[darwinsrule]

I think that's why there's such a wide range of experiences and reports coming back from the ships right now. I do think that Disney needs to make some fast adjustments though and get their dining crews up to speed. A bad experience there really sticks with someone.

Given the changes with the Dream coming on line a lot of this is to be expected. There is a ton of new staff, new restaurants, new. . .well in the Dream's case pretty much everything actually. You can be sure however that Disney will be monitoring everything that is going on and making changes over the next few months as they shake things down. A billion dollar investment and then a shrug of the shoulders over bad service. . . not likely. By the time the summer rolls around I would expect them to have the bugs ironed out. In the meantime, please continue to help Disney identify the bugs.

 

[KingRichard]

So where was the head server that is supposed to fix these problems and earn their tip?

Also I have seen it posted many many times that DCL dinners are 2 hours long?

 

[NAB]

So where was the head server that is supposed to fix these problems and earn their tip?

Also I have seen it posted many many times that DCL dinners are 2 hours long?

Yes they can be that long but there was just too long a wait between the courses. We heard this over and over with other people. And during this long wait you think one of the servers could clean the table , get refills or in some cases one drink.

We did complain to the head sever many times. He said people want the long wait between courses ...... If I get my starters at or around 6:00 I do not want to wait until after 7 or 7:30 for my entree. We were teasing saying I think we are on Hell's Kitchen.

 

[granmaz]

We had similar problems on the Wonder Panama Canal cruise, though nothing as bad as you experienced. It just seemed something was lacking. I know people did go and mention things to different officers. We also felt that the Wonder was shabby, even shabbier than the Magic which we were on in September, though the crew were working hard painting etc. We just decided that all the focus and money was on the Dream and the other two ships have suffered in upkeep and too many new crew members.

 

[KingRichard]

Yes they can be that long but there was just too long a wait between the courses. We heard this over and over with other people. And during this long wait you think one of the servers could clean the table , get refills or in some cases one drink.

We did complain to the head sever many times. He said people want the long wait between courses ...... If I get my starters at or around 6:00 I do not want to wait until after 7 or 7:30 for my entree. We were teasing saying I think we are on Hell's Kitchen.

Umm if they bring you your food every 10 minutes then it wouldn't last 2 hours!

They are not trying to rush you out and get the next paying customer into the seat. They are trying to give you a upscale dinning experience.

 

[mommy_grrl]

Given the changes with the Dream coming on line a lot of this is to be expected. There is a ton of new staff, new restaurants, new. . .well in the Dream's case pretty much everything actually. You can be sure however that Disney will be monitoring everything that is going on and making changes over the next few months as they shake things down. A billion dollar investment and then a shrug of the shoulders over bad service. . . not likely. By the time the summer rolls around I would expect them to have the bugs ironed out. In the meantime, please continue to help Disney identify the bugs.

I'm sorry, but I don't entirely agree. These cruises are SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the rest of the cruise industry (unless you are cruising the Paul Gaughin, which is of a totally different standard).

YES, there will be some "bumps" but the degree of these bumps is entirely unacceptable for the prices charged. Perhaps the initial trips should have been priced accordingly. I don't want to pay top dollar to let them "practice" on me. (its like going to a beauty school for a haircut and paying Beverly Hills prices).

Some have said that a big part of the problem, in addition to the new wait staff, is a loss of higher positioned/experienced management - but this is DISNEY. They should know training, procedures, and the like....mismanagement at Character meet and greets and lack of communication is not typical.

I'm very happy that we opted to hold off on booking the Dream, but then again, I'm the type that is holding out for the 2nd version of the iPad - other people are welcome to be guinea pigs and help sort out the bugs.

I just feel bad for those expecting what they paid for and are disappointed. And this extends to those who will suffer in coming cruises from all the things nicked from early cruises by greedy jerks!

 

[MandyGirl]

They also closed the Oceaners Club down for the day we were in St. Thomas. They ended up cancelling half the activities in the lab and half in the club and combining the groups together there. My kids still had fun, but they had highlighted activities they wanted to do that day from the navigators and were dissapointed that they weren't offered because the Club was closed. Not at all sure why they did that.

Wow. What about any parents who had planned a shore excursion without their children, with plans to leave the child onboard? Isn't that one of DCL's selling points -- their Kids Clubs?? Wow.

 

[denas]

Yes they can be that long but there was just too long a wait between the courses. We heard this over and over with other people. And during this long wait you think one of the servers could clean the table , get refills or in some cases one drink.

We did complain to the head sever many times. He said people want the long wait between courses ...... If I get my starters at or around 6:00 I do not want to wait until after 7 or 7:30 for my entree. We were teasing saying I think we are on Hell's Kitchen.

I am glad that someone else on my cruise had the same experience. I almost hesitated to post anything because often any criticism of Disney on these boards is seen as someone with unreasonable, prima dona expectations nitpicking!!! On the first night when my SIL left after one hour and 15 minutes having only received an appetizer (no salad/soup even) never received her diet coke and only received one glass of water without a refill, our waiter did inform us that we just needed to let him know if we wanted service faster. From then on we arrived promptly at 5:45 - usually before they opened the doors and informed him immediately that we really, really wanted to see the 7:30 family show. THe few times that we actually all got our meals and dessert and left at 7:30, he was quite proud of himself. However, this is still an hour and 45 minutes for dinner - I don't think this is rushing things!!! And I really can't imagine anyone with an 8 year old, 4 year old and infant wanting dinner to take 2 hours!!! We didn't. On our last evening, things finally seemed to be going smoothly and we were really looking forward to doing something else besides sitting in the restaurant that evening. We were almost done with our main course at 6:45 - only an hour into dinner!! WE ordered dessert - and I was thinking I would finally get it. At 7:30 I left without dessert 45 minutes to bring dessert is just too long.

You add to that the amount of time it took to find a table to accomodate our party and get a highchair at the buffets, the waiting for someone to go through the buffet and come back to sit with the baby so the second person could go through and we easily spent 4 hours a day just trying to eat. Considering that I only got the opportunity to eat dessert three out of 7 times and missed my entre AND dessert twice, I really don't think my expectations to be fed in a reasonable amount of time were too much considering I paid over 1,000 a day for all 8 of us on the cruise alone not counting airfare, transportation, hotels, gratuities, photos, etc. Waiting around for dinner service really interferred with our ability to do any of the other things offered in the evening. The family caberets were full and we usually had to split up our party if we could even make it, we could never do character greetings around dinner time because we didn't have time after dinner and were rushing to get there before dinner in order to be seated on time and out of there.

And I know that other people did not have this problem. I walked out one day to take a child to the bathroom and saw some tables (who weren't even there yet when we arrived) already getting dessert and we were still waiting for our main course!!!

For the most part, Disney is about consistency. Parties and entertainment are highly scripted to provide sameness. Right now, the consistency just doesn't seem to be there on the Magic - hence the highly differing opinions of the same cruise!! I think as long as people adjust their expectations they may be fine - or they may get lucky and get some of the great service! Personally, when I am paying the price of a small car for a week cruise, I don't want to take any chances so I will wait awhile before doing another Disney cruise and hopefully they will iron things out!!!

 

[denas]

Wow. What about any parents who had planned a shore excursion without their children, with plans to leave the child onboard? Isn't that one of DCL's selling points -- their Kids Clubs?? Wow.

Just to clarify - the Oceaners Club was closed but the Oceaners Lab was opened. They moved half of the scheduled activities from the Club to the Lab and cancelled half of the scheduled Lab activities to accomodate. It worked OK for us, but, the facility in the CLub is a bit more accomodating for the youngest cruisers - it has the soft play areas, slides, and lighting that is softer. We typically left DD (4) in the club and DS (8) in the lab. So you could leave your kids on board, but, if they had planned on doing something in particular that was scheduled that day, it might not have occured. Or if your child really didn't want to be around the larger kids or needed the soft rest areas, active play spaces, etc from the CLub, that wasn't available.

The scheduled activities being cancelled was dissappointing to my son. The CMs now spend a lot of time shuttling kids between the two areas since kids are allowed to move back and forth. AFter the first day, my son realized that it was really confusing in there and if you wanted to do something particular, you really had to know what you wanted to do or you would miss it. He would look over the navigators each night to figure out what he wanted to do and what time it started so he wouldn't miss it - they didn't really announce things in the Club/Lab. He would then review with me to make sure he knew the times. So when things just didn't happen he was dissappointed because he didn't necessarily have easy access to a navigator to figure out what else was going on in there.

I suppose people think that isn't a big deal since they offered something else, but, as an adult if you really wanted to do origami or bingo and you showed up at the scheduled time and place and they decided to do napkin folding and learn to draw Goofy instead, you would be a little dissapointed too. That was kind of how it was for my son that day. Especially since they never offered the missed activities again. My son is the kind that really likes to plan things. My daughter could have cared less - she re-did the activities offered that day which were all repeats from things offered earlier in the cruise and we had to drag her out of there!!!

 

[NAB]

Umm if they bring you your food every 10 minutes then it wouldn't last 2 hours!

They are not trying to rush you out and get the next paying customer into the seat. They are trying to give you a upscale dinning experience.

I am not asking for things to come up every 10 minutes but I would like them spaced out better. Like I said waiting over an hour for entree is too long , especially with two kids. Yes the kids could have been fed faster but then they sit and watch you eat...I have cruised 5 times on the Magic and this is the first time I waited so long is what I am saying. I think the long wait is why our food was luke warm as well.

denas we said the same thing other tables were in and out and we were still sitting there.

If I really wanted fine dining and a long dinner I would have went to Pablo , which we pass on.

 

[smb6]

I am not asking for things to come up every 10 minutes but I would like them spaced out better. Like I said waiting over an hour for entree is too long , especially with two kids. Yes the kids could have been fed faster but then they sit and watch you eat...I have cruised 5 times on the Magic and this is the first time I waited so long is what I am saying. I think the long wait is why our food was luke warm as well.

denas we said the same thing other tables were in and out and we were still sitting there.

If I really wanted fine dining and a long dinner I would have went to Pablo , which we pass on.

I would be fine if they brought out my food with only 10 minute space in between

Seriously, I do NOT want a long drawn out dinner. A good waiter should be able to serve at the pace their customers want (within reason). A normal restauraunt would be able to adjust as needed- serve some tables quickly and serve others slow paced based on their preference.......

 

[beek17]

We were on this same cruise and thought our service in the dining room was awful as well. We did comment to the head waiter on the second day and things got better for a day or two but still were not good and ended up back to bad. They never even took my 7 year old daughters order one night. We had eight people at the table and didn't realize until later. We were usually some of the first to arrive at dinner and some of the last to leave. Drinks took forever to get and peoples food came at strange intervals when it came at all. Many times we didn't even get a course we ordered. We cruised last year at this time and had wonderful service. This was so disappointing. We brought another family along this time and it was embarrassing after having bragged about the great service we had last year.

Also, my entire family showered without hot water. It wasn't fun but we couldn't show up at dinner after being at the beach all day without a shower. When I called about the hot water, they did say the entire ship was out.

Our disappointment was reflected in tips and in the survery on the last day.

 

[denas]

We were on this same cruise and thought our service in the dining room was awful as well. We did comment to the head waiter on the second day and things got better for a day or two but still were not good and ended up back to bad. They never even took my 7 year old daughters order one night. We had eight people at the table and didn't realize until later. We were usually some of the first to arrive at dinner and some of the last to leave. Drinks took forever to get and peoples food came at strange intervals when it came at all. Many times we didn't even get a course we ordered. We cruised last year at this time and had wonderful service. This was so disappointing. We brought another family along this time and it was embarrassing after having bragged about the great service we had last year.

Also, my entire family showered without hot water. It wasn't fun but we couldn't show up at dinner after being at the beach all day without a shower. When I called about the hot water, they did say the entire ship was out.

Our disappointment was reflected in tips and in the survery on the last day.

The cold showers after the day at the beach did kind of suck!!! Although, by that point my infant was becoming sick (we ended up at the ships doctor twice after that day) and all I kept thinking about was "how did anyone wash their hands with no hot water?????!!!!!" Hand sanitizer only works so well....

I know my littlest got very ill and have heard of a few others getting so sick they were confined to their cabins and I really wonder if the lack of hot water for a day for the entire ship and several days for parts of the ship didn't add to disease transfer on board.

 

[MommaMouse411]

I always here more complaints about the Magic..but Im not too worried..I would really hate to not have hot water though...as I take hot showers..and feel dirty if I don't...those kinds of things don't make me too upset..but its the human attitudes that do...I would've been po'd at the assistant server too...hopefully on my cruise in october I will talk to the waiter and tell him /her please please my kids have a window of 1hr lol maybe I'll slip him/her a twenty at the beginning of the cruise to show I will tip them nice if they do

 

[MommaMouse411]

I also wonder if Disney recruited people hastily since they needed staff for Dream..then staff for the magic/wonder for those that went to the Dream..and then they'll need to start for fantasy too i assume?!? so hence the service being not so good..because I heard on the Dream the dinner service was somewhat bad as well..

 

[sorul82?]

if you really wanted to do origami or bingo and you showed up at the scheduled time and place and they decided to do napkin folding and learn to draw Goofy instead

Can you imagine the scene if bingo was replaced with drawing lessons?

 

[woody73]

I also wonder if Disney recruited people hastily since they needed staff for Dream..then staff for the magic/wonder for those that went to the Dream..and then they'll need to start for fantasy too i assume?!? so hence the service being not so good..because I heard on the Dream the dinner service was somewhat bad as well..

Apparently 100 servers quit the Dream from the time it left Germany and the Maiden Voyage. Post

Woody