Thoughts from a 1st time Disney cruiser

[katyringo]

I'm glad OP posted because not one DCL tip I've read talked about the buffet line situation! I would have thought the same thing OP did!

 

[scroogie]

I'm glad OP posted because not one DCL tip I've read talked about the buffet line situation! I would have thought the same thing OP did!

To be honest, even if it's all "connected" in a line, it is very obvious where each separate station is.

Sorry OP, but I don't agree that CMs need to explain the situation to everyone, since it seems you were in the minority of not understanding how it works.

 

[auntlynne]

@Mackenzie Click-Mickelson - since most choose to keep electronics and meds (and CPAP sleep apnea machines) in a ship carry-on, that one bag represents $ and necessities that would be too stressful to have to replace if damaged - if it could even be accomplished during the cruise.

The luggage checked with porters often ends up tossed around and crammed together.

So damage or loss of carryon is just too risky.

If you have ever seen the room stewards doing turn-over, you would see all cabin doors open and their moving quickly in and out as down the hallway to help other workers.

If a guest shows up, they have to stop, stand aside and wait. Like workers would do for royalty. Not my expectation - it’s what I have seen.

 

[auntlynne]

@Honeypot - I don’t know when this happened in relation to your first cruise, but there are two lunch locations in the Family Beach side of the island. Cookie’s and Cookie’s Too. I’m guessing one may get more guests, depending on where people have camped out in their loungers. With Cookie's closer to the ship, where people have grabbed the first loungers they come to, I’d check out Cookie’s Too for lower crowd numbers.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

@Mackenzie Click-Mickelson - since most choose to keep electronics and meds (and CPAP sleep apnea machines) in a ship carry-on, that one bag represents $ and necessities that would be too stressful to have to replace if damaged - if it could even be accomplished during the cruise.

The luggage checked with porters often ends up tossed around and crammed together.

So damage or loss of carryon is just too risky.

If you have ever seen the room stewards doing turn-over, you would see all cabin doors open and their moving quickly in and out as down the hallway to help other workers.

If a guest shows up, they have to stop, stand aside and wait. Like workers would do for royalty. Not my expectation - it’s what I have seen.

If you're talking about your personal item I totally get that and I think more people do that keeping them with them which we did that as well but mine was a purse basically and my husband's a small enough backpack, if you're talking about an actual carry I don't pack that sort of stuff in my carry on in case of gate checking, not to mention it gets abuse as is being wheeled about by us ourselves (I say that after using a personal item and small wheeled carry on for more than 2 weeks in Japan just now, it gets far more abuse that way in airports and normal walking around than the relatively short time at the port). We broke our checked luggage last year in Venice as we were making our way to the ship lol. They tagged the suitcase as fragile and it arrived with the wheel no more broken than it was to begin with and then they worked to temporarily fix it for us I think it was the second day of the cruise. That seems like for people who don't have anything but a wheeled carry on which these days is very rare from backpacks to totes to purses. (CPAP and that stuff is different, you do what you can with the size of the machine).

I know the Seabourn folks love to use Luggage Forward who ships your luggage directly to the ship, now that I'm not about risking especially when customs is involved (you can't put electronics or medication in that anyhow when using that service but still).

But really my comment was about the cruise line's policy as in they only have the option of having people carry their suitcases (which I was really talking about carry ons rather than checked luggage) as opposed to offloading them. I didn't realize how that process must be. No wonder people are being kicked out of seating and told to move along or people trying to move around suitcases if a cruise line isn't offering a solution to that for the passengers whilst at the same time not having rooms ready. As far as damage or loss of a carry on. I think that's really a non-issue overall. That's not saying damage or loss couldn't occur but rather that we're talking about passengers en masse doing that to avoid something that is doubtful to really be the risk as opposed to thousands of people lugging their wheeled carry ons for potentially several hours.

As for your last comment that's what I was getting at with the option of dropping your luggage off at your room before it's ready, I rather doubt housekeeping appreciates that if the room isn't ready but the guest has dropped their luggage off, that doesn't seem like a solution more of a hinderance to the room prep process but that's JMO.

I was curious how it was for other lines when the comment piqued my curiosity so now I know more

 

[kcmo74]

I’d like to know what time your PAT was. After a certain point, it becomes All Aboard for Boarding Groups - and I imagine that might be why they weren’t concerned your arrival time. As a first time cruiser, I’m guessing you had 12:30 or later?

Did you bring a car booster seat for your daughter? Or was one offered or provider by Cruise Control Transportation?

That stateroom ready at 1 pm was nice; a little earlier than I have gotten used to.

Was your rain from H/TS Oscar? Did your itinerary have to change?

Nice to hear you enjoyed yourselves - especially the 6 yo’s reaction!

PAT was 1:15 and we got there right around noon, they still had the times listed on the lanes and the latest was 12:30, but I asked one of the workers if the times were being enforced and she said no.

Cruise Control provided a booster for our daughter, you can request one when you make the reservation.

Not sure what brought the rain but the majority was on LC day, and the beaches were black flag most of the day so we couldn't even go in the water. No itinerary changes just moved the Mouse-qerade party indoors.

 

[Lilias]

We were on this cruise with you and I thought people were more rude than usual, too! We understand how cabanas works, and there would be someone at the Mac and cheese/tendies station, so we would wait for them to finish, but then someone would just get in front of us as we were going to grab stuff! Where did they even come from??

People also tried to cut in front of us in the theatre line on deck 4 multiple times and I had to block them with my body lol. I understand it's kindof cutthroat to get the box seats, but only the first group gets those anyway!

The seas were so rough, too, wowza! I finally stopped having sea legs around Wednesday.

 

[NAB]

F

Cabanas is not one long line cafeteria style. It's line per area - if you just want bacon and eggs, you get in line at that area. You don't have to get in line where there is bread and stuff if you don't want that. That's why there are plates at the beginning of every station.

Funny I know this on Fantasy so it was a big change on the Wish when they fill the plate and give it to you unless you have one from another area.. This bugged my husband that he couldn’t just grab a plate. I went with the flow.

 

[o&smom]

In the last year I've seen a decent amount of dissatisfaction with the Kids Club from age groups to what goes on in them. Counter-intuitive because DCL is marketed towards families but you're not alone based on all the posts I've seen on here and elsewhere regarding the Kids Club situation with DCL

Yes, our family has not been happy with changes to kid’s clubs since reopening after Covid. DD is 14 and happy that she got to experience so much of her time with more activities, etc. Not happy with the changes to Edge/Vibe on the Dream and future Fantasy. So happy our next two cruises are on the Wonder and Magic when she will be 15 and 16. DS is 21 and so happy that he had the experiences he did before aging out.

 

[mmouse37]

PAT was 1:15 and we got there right around noon, they still had the times listed on the lanes and the latest was 12:30, but I asked one of the workers if the times were being enforced and she said no.

Cruise Control provided a booster for our daughter, you can request one when you make the reservation.

Not sure what brought the rain but the majority was on LC day, and the beaches were black flag most of the day so we couldn't even go in the water. No itinerary changes just moved the Mouse-qerade party indoors.

Usually by 12:30 or so they call open boarding so PAT times/boarding group numbers are no longer an issue. In the mornings they are very strict with the PAT times. Nice review. Thank you. Sorry you did not understand the Cabana situation. I do find they need to address that somehow with letting people know it is not one long line but several different sections that you can jump into. I try to explain to people when I get the dirty looks but I think human nature is just to get on a line and follow it.

I always go to the middle of Cabanas and start there....never at either end.

MJ

 

[lanejudy]

As far as damage or loss of a carry on. I think that's really a non-issue overall. That's not saying damage or loss couldn't occur but rather that we're talking about passengers en masse doing that to avoid something that is doubtful to really be the risk as opposed to thousands of people lugging their wheeled carry ons for potentially several hours.

Yes, it may be low risk of loss or damage based on the sheer volume of luggage handled each cruise. But the willingness to take that risk all depends on how important is the item(s) in the carry-on. A change of clothes, toiletry kit and kindle might not be a big deal. A CPAP or medication or other medical item, and your bag happens to be the odd 0.1% that takes a swim, the stress and frustration of getting immediate replacements is really not something I'd care to deal with at the start of my cruise. Lugging it around is much safer. Unless you live with the absolute need for such items, you probably can't understand the fear of that loss.

Plus on DCL there is the issue that any beverages must be carried on. A case of water, soda, bottles of wine/beer, etc. cannot be checked per policy. Many guests use wheeled carry-ons for their beverages.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes, it may be low risk of loss or damage based on the sheer volume of luggage handled each cruise. But the willingness to take that risk all depends on how important is the item(s) in the carry-on. A change of clothes, toiletry kit and kindle might not be a big deal. A CPAP or medication or other medical item, and your bag happens to be the odd 0.1% that takes a swim, the stress and frustration of getting immediate replacements is really not something I'd care to deal with at the start of my cruise. Lugging it around is much safer. Unless you live with the absolute need for such items, you probably can't understand the fear of that loss.

Plus on DCL there is the issue that any beverages must be carried on. A case of water, soda, bottles of wine/beer, etc. cannot be checked per policy. Many guests use wheeled carry-ons for their beverages.

I totally get what you're saying, I was talking about en masse though as in all the thousands of passengers choosing to do this in lieu of a different policy. I don't think there's that many people that worried about lost or damaged carry ons when it comes to this exact situation of embarking on a cruise ship such that if given the choice to drop their carry on off and have it taken to their room for them that they would in such great numbers choose not to. It works on other cruises lines so I'm not sure the "much safer" is really the case as opposed to personal preference (which I get).

As far as your other comment sure that I totally get but the PP was talking about valuables like electronics and medications of which I personally don't pack those in my carry on and it's generally a risk to do so if you're flying due to potential of gate checking. While permissible to put in your carry on as opposed to checked luggage advice is generally to keep that in your personal item. FWIW we have trackers in our checked bag, carry on and personal item (overkill on this part).

 

[lanejudy]

if given the choice to drop their carry on off and have it taken to their room for them

It is a choice on DCL. Guests can leave their carry-on with the porters along with any checked luggage.

Not everyone travels with a personal item AND a carry-on. You are looking at this from the viewpoint of 2 adults traveling. If a family of 4 each has their own backpack, it's taking up the same amount of space as the family using 1 carry-on sized piece of luggage. And probably harder to corral all the backpacks into a corner without them toppling and making more chaos to step around.

 

[Sleepyluke]

I think the buffet issue is actually on DCL to do a better job of advertising it to people. They used to be one line, and if you have not been on a cruise in a few years, you don't know they changed, because at least a couple years ago, there was no sign or CM saying go to the stations. The plates are out but you cant really see that from the beginning of the line, and even then I can justify that as they have seen enough people have to go back for an additional plate. To me it is another thing that we have become so impatient, we have to even eat right now, and yes I have traveled with starving little monsters. Is it more convenient, maybe, will it ruin my day to spend 5 min in the line rather than 2.5, no, and if it does maybe I need to rethink my idea of vacation.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Not everyone travels with a personal item AND a carry-on.

To which I already made reference to that in a prior comment, though that is exceedingly rarer especially for a cruise, totes are incredibly common usage of a personal item there. In any case of course not everyone is traveling with a personal item and a carry on. I'm talking about passengers en masse not an individual.

If a family of 4 each has their own backpack, it's taking up the same amount of space as the family using 1 carry-on sized piece of luggage. And probably harder to corral all the backpacks into a corner without them toppling and making more chaos to step around.

With all due respect I kinda think you're reading a bit too much into my personal situation as if all families of 4 think one way and all adults think another way. Or that all families of 4 are traveling one way and all adults are traveling another way. In my travels the families often have the tiniest of carry ons (because many like their children to wheel them), backpacks too are often small and it's the adults traveling with just adults packing the larger, bulkier items. And you wouldn't believe the sheer amount of luggage pictures people share on the FB page, it's a lot. And are families of 4 just traveling with one carry on meant for all 4 people? That would seem abnormal to me but JMO. But in any case that wouldn't be nearly the congestion issue but that wasn't how it was being presented to the thread in a prior comment.

This was our luggage (minus the personal items) for a 7 day cruise (mostly due to dress code requirements that on DCL don't exist). While certainly families of 4 are completely doing this much as well this was traveling light compared to the other passengers I saw on our cruise. And those carry ons are actually smaller than standard U.S. size. This was disembarkation day, well the night before, but it was the same thing as embarking as far as giving them all this.

It is a choice on DCL. Guests can leave their carry-on with the porters along with any checked luggage.

That's what prompted my comment to begin with because the conversations in the thread did NOT state that and stated the opposite. I wouldn't have even commented if it wasn't presented as if this was a policy. I was commenting on behalf of the customers saying there's got to be another way. The conversation did not start nor was intended to be about what people personally choose to do in lieu of what they are required to do because there's not an alternative option. You do you absolutely but you can't do you because the company says otherwise is totally different.

The initial conversation prompted by me was because of this comment "That, to me, is going to be the hardest thing going back on DCL. I've gotten so spoiled to Celebrity allowing everyone to go to their cabin to drop off their luggage and grab their seapass card, then head out until the "cabins are ready" announcement. It's so nice to not have to drag your stuff all over the place until cabins are ready. AND people aren't just hanging out in their buffet with their luggage."

Trust me I get that people make their own personal choices, but again I was talking about company policy because I was under the impression this was the policy. You have corrected that impression so seems like it's all good now and respectfully I'll back away from the conversation.

 

[bakerworld]

I think you did really well with your first cruise and it probably helped that your family are seasoned cruisers. Our first cruise was chaotic and confusing as we'd never cruised before and couldn't figure out the way the food worked. We were on the Wonder so the QS area were only open specific times and the pirate night buffet was beyond understanding as far as seating was concerned. Basically, at night you had to go to the MDR. Totally forget about room service as it's not something that is usual for us. It took me 4 years to convince DH to try a DCL again and then we specifically chose the Dream because the QS areas stayed open, the Pirate night was only a show and the seating in cabanas was much larger.

 

[lscrivan18]

OP, I agree about island style buffets versus a line setup. Our first DCL cruise last year on the Dream, there was always a long at the start and we joined it because it felt like that's what was intended of us. But after seeing the repeats and breaks, we just jumped in later. But the long line stayed all cruise long so obviously not everyone got the memo you didn't have to start at the beginning. Also did get some looks when jumping in. I like island style because there's really no where to line up.

 

[auntlynne]

Dead horse. Sorry.

 

[auntlynne]

To those who have addressed Kids’ Clubs: good to know. My take-away from comments is that they have changed. And for many kids, not for the better. It sounds like it offers less structured activities. Posts here wanting to know which ship to pick could use a thread about this.

Cabanas - it would not take a lot of effort to let guests know the system is “go to the section where your desired food is.” And guests still need to realize if someone is standing in front of what you want, to not cut in front. Even if they are not going to get that particular item (because they are used to queues, or want the next item). The fact that we do stand in line shows a sense of decency, still. It’s not efficiency, but it is trying to be respectful.

 

[CamColt]

Thanks for the review! I enjoyed hearing a newbies perspective.

As a seasoned DCL cruiser (aka grumpy old lady) 1 reason I enjoy the Dream and Fantasy so much is because of the lack of dinner shows. We can eat in peace and enjoy our meal. I could even do without Crush, but he's not too bad. The dinner shows is one of my 2 biggest complaints on the Wish.

I agree the line in Cabanas can be hectic. It seems when the ships were new the CMs made every effort to make it known that "THERE IS NO LINE!" to the point I felt I was being yelled at at times. In recent years it seems the announcement of that has not been as vocal, however on our cruise a couple months ago our dinner server was filling in as a Head Server at Cabanas 1 morning and she was laying down the law! Everyone knew that day!