Thoughts on the initial 8/9 Dream cruise...

[PrincessShmoo]

And oh yeah....we received our DCL luggage tags in the mail today!

Guess you'll have to take another cruise.

 

[Donna3271]

Can you tell me about the gym? Did time have to be reserved, or was it not open at all? If time reserved, how long of a block does it allow for?

TUSM for all this information. I appreciate the time you have taken to share this with all of us

 

[jujubiee4]

Hi thank you for posting first hand information. Glad you made it back safe and sound.
I have a question. Knowing what you know now and the experience would you sail
again with the restrictions and price point? Or would you wait for a more closer to normal
experience? Thanks again.

 

[Chrissy-Mickey]

On board, the lack of activities really stood out. Perhaps that is why there was no paper Navigator, as it would have been mostly blank. The few activities they did have were repeated over and over, presumably to give multiple opportunities for them so that each occurrence wasn't too heavily attended. The movie theater only showed Black Widow and Jungle Cruise, and nothing else (normally, Cruella would probably have been part of the rotation). In the adult lounge for the four nights, they had karaoke twice and Match Your Mate twice. No variety acts. They did the same music trivia (80s, 90s, 2000s,) 3 or 4 times a day in 687.

Thank you for sharing! It's disappointing to read about the lack of activities. The same things over and over again and lack of variety acts does not create a fun vibe. When I heard that there would be live music on board, we were hopeful, but it sounds like that beyond live music (and of course the wonderful broadway shows, they dropped the ball.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

No activities or no hussle and bustle on the ship doesn’t seem appealing. Kinda the whole point of the fun and vibe of a ship

I’m booked for December but if it’s like this, I’ll probably cancel it.

 

[mcd2745]

Can you tell me about the gym? Did time have to be reserved, or was it not open at all? If time reserved, how long of a block does it allow for?

TUSM for all this information. I appreciate the time you have taken to share this with all of us

Did not go to the gym. I believe there were a few hours a day set aside for unvaccinated people, while vaccinated people can go any time.

 

[squirk]

It was a very different cruise, I would even say weird in some aspects.

If I separated it into to parts - the on board experience and the experience of the two days at Castaway Cay...I would say the Castaway experience was a significant upgrade, while the on board experience was downgraded. That's the headline IMO.

Since our entire family (myself, wife, 19-yr old son, 16-yr old daughter) is fully vaccinated, the arrival at port and embarkation process, while different, went smoothly.

On board, the lack of activities really stood out. Perhaps that is why there was no paper Navigator, as it would have been mostly blank. The few activities they did have were repeated over and over, presumably to give multiple opportunities for them so that each occurrence wasn't too heavily attended. The movie theater only showed Black Widow and Jungle Cruise, and nothing else (normally, Cruella would probably have been part of the rotation). In the adult lounge for the four nights, they had karaoke twice and Match Your Mate twice. No variety acts. They did the same music trivia (80s, 90s, 2000s,) 3 or 4 times a day in 687.

Since we were traveling with a 19-yr old, it would have been nice to know beforehand that the 1820 Society was canceled (but of course, it was still advertised on the screens in the elevators). This was a big disappointment. As a result, our son just spent a majority of the cruise in the stateroom. Had we known in advance there would be no 1820 Society, there would have been a good chance we would have canceled and rescheduled.

Another thing they should have notified guests prior to sailing was that guest laundry rooms would be closed. First night, I went to iron a shirt and another gentleman was heading towards me with his shirt and knew where I was heading. He stopped and said "the laundry rooms are closed, I guess there will be a lot of guys in wrinkled shirts at dinner on this cruise". Not a huge deal in and of itself, but goes back to the lack of communication from DCL that we have seen throughout this ordeal, and in particular the last 6 weeks or so where they left guests booked on these Aug Dream sailings twisting in the wind for so long. Once they finally announced they were resuming operations with this sailing, they should have been very transparent and specific about what changes to the on board experience we should expect.

The overall reduced capacity (there's been plenty of numbers tossed around - 25%, 30%, etc) is certainly what made the days at Castaway truly fantastic. There were far fewer loungers/chairs on the beach, and spread out well. Still, there was no problem finding any. There were so few people on the beach, in the water, etc. that you really felt like it was "private island ". This was the first day, early afternoon, with good weather (second day had bad weather) ...


View attachment 597183

On the flip side, the reduced capacity made for some weird aspects. Our room was near the aft elevators. When we got off the forward elevators and had to make the long walk down the hall, very few doors were decorated, and of course, no FEs hanging. You even saw less CMs. Was very strange.

Another strange sight was the atrium completely empty in the evening. The below pic was about 7:30 pm when it is normally buzzing with activity (live music, characters greets, backdrop photos, etc)
View attachment 597185


As expected, the crew were all fantastic. Food was excellent (although, they could have used the time off to refresh the menus). I think the fact that they only had to make dinners for about 30% of the usual number of people allowed them to improve the quality and preparation of the dinners in the MDRs.

Debarkation was okay. Line to get off the ship was still fairly long - and not physically distanced. I guess they didn't care if everyone infected each other on that line and got sick 2-3 days later since we'd be long gone from the ship at that point.


And a PSA if I may,...please make sure you are taking the correct luggage from the terminal. For the second time, we had someone take one of our bags/suitcases. And strangely, neither time was it a black upright suitcase. Fortunately, they got in touch with the people who took it and they were on a DCL bus back to MCO, so they alerted the driver and he left it with the DCL folks at the Magical Express area and we were able to get it when we got to MCO.

I'll echo the chorus and thank you for sharing.

The lacking on-board experience you describe is exactly what I was afraid of, and why I am glad that we don't sail until next May, when (God willing) a lot of these protocols are no longer necessary.

Question - how did you find Cabanas with the cafeteria-style (even with the drinks)?

 

[mcd2745]

Hi thank you for posting first hand information. Glad you made it back safe and sound.
I have a question. Knowing what you know now and the experience would you sail
again with the restrictions and price point? Or would you wait for a more closer to normal
experience? Thanks again.

We didn't book a full price, we booked a VGT rate earlier this year. The one thing that would cause us to say, knowing exactly what the experience would be, that we would cancel instead of sailing was the fact there was no 1820 Society. My wife and I still enjoyed the cruise very much, as did our daughter. But knowing our son didn't enjoy it too much would cause us to cancel.

 

[mcd2745]

Thank you for sharing! It's disappointing to read about the lack of activities. The same things over and over again and lack of variety acts does not create a fun vibe. When I heard that there would be live music on board, we were hopeful, but it sounds like that beyond live music (and of course the wonderful broadway shows, they dropped the ball.

The live music was a violinist. He was usually playing in the District Lounge to a crowd of no one or only a couple of people. Why there wasn't a variety act is puzzling

 

[mcd2745]

No activities or no hussle and bustle on the ship doesn’t seem appealing. Kinda the whole point of the fun and vibe of a ship

I’m booked for December but if it’s like this, I’ll probably cancel it.

Some people in our FB group loved that is was so quiet and empty. To each their own I guess. Like I said in the original post, it made for the best Castaway experience we ever had. But on board, definitely felt like something was missing.

 

[mcd2745]

I'll echo the chorus and thank you for sharing.

The lacking on-board experience you describe is exactly what I was afraid of, and why I am glad that we don't sail until next May, when (God willing) a lot of these protocols are no longer necessary.

Question - how did you find Cabanas with the cafeteria-style (even with the drinks)?

Only went to Cabanas for lunch on embarkation day, and twice for breakfast. Having them serve you was fine. No issues at all. The big problem at Cabanas was the offerings were scaled back - significantly. No Mickey waffles at breakfast??? Who made that decision?

 

[squirk]

No Mickey waffles at breakfast??? Who made that decision?

Seriously? I would have been bitter.

 

[lanejudy]

I heard Mickey waffles were available in the MDR...

 

[DCLMP]

Did not go to the gym. I believe there were a few hours a day set aside for unvaccinated people, while vaccinated people can go any time.

That's not the policy on the DCL website. I haven't read anything about segregation on their website. If you didn't go how would you know this?

 

[HiStitch626]

Can you tell me about the gym? Did time have to be reserved, or was it not open at all? If time reserved, how long of a block does it allow for?

From Scott's DCL Blog - During the times for vaccinated guests, you can remove your mask while exercising. During all guests everyone must have a mask on at all times.

 

[jrapps]

No Mickey waffles at breakfast???

This is one of those decisions that I hope evolves over time. Can't really see why they wouldn't add these back eventually.

 

[Cheburashka]

Yuck. I'm so glad that we cancelled & were refunded for our December cruise (with a normally nonrefundable concierge deposit) by the August 9th deadline, because this sounds like such a downer. Lack of variety and no Mickey waffles in Cabanas? Really? What part of Covid prevention requires the food offerings to be limited? It doesn't- it's pure cost-cutting with the attitude of "what do you expect post-2019"? I would have been steamed to pay the full (inflated Disney) price and not have a great variety of food and activities available onboard.

I also read Scott's blog about the cruise on DCLB, and seeing the pool deck was depressing, with the family pool roped off so that people can't enter at will, and the quick service roped off to keep people in lines, etc. Nope, not appealing at all.

And it's completely typical that after all of the rules and cutbacks and limitations onboard, debarkation was a dangerously unsocially distanced experience, because at that point, you catching Covid wouldn't be Disney's problem. SMH.

 

[sethschroeder]

Can you tell me about the gym? Did time have to be reserved, or was it not open at all? If time reserved, how long of a block does it allow for?

TUSM for all this information. I appreciate the time you have taken to share this with all of us

Kyle Pallo went, just showed up, and it has no mask required vaccinated only times during the day.

He went at like 8am as well so not sure if that's peak time.

 

[DisneYE]

Thank you for taking the time to write this.

25-30% capacity you say? You almost brought tears to my eyes.
That's the antisocial's paradise cruise. - Had I known it was going to be that low I'd have insta-booked and gladly accepted all the diminished experience..
No mickey waffles? Don't care. Less ppl in quiet cove, cabanas, pools, deck 4 track etc..sounds dreamy.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Yuck. I'm so glad that we cancelled & were refunded for our December cruise (with a normally nonrefundable concierge deposit) by the August 9th deadline, because this sounds like such a downer. Lack of variety and no Mickey waffles in Cabanas? Really? What part of Covid prevention requires the food offerings to be limited? It doesn't- it's pure cost-cutting with the attitude of "what do you expect post-2019"? I would have been steamed to pay the full (inflated Disney) price and not have a great variety of food and activities available onboard.

I also read Scott's blog about the cruise on DCLB, and seeing the pool deck was depressing, with the family pool roped off so that people can't enter at will, and the quick service roped off to keep people in lines, etc. Nope, not appealing at all.

And it's completely typical that after all of the rules and cutbacks and limitations onboard, debarkation was a dangerously unsocially distanced experience, because at that point, you catching Covid wouldn't be Disney's problem. SMH.

It depends on why one sails. If it's to relax on the deck and watch the world go by, then it still looks appealing. If you were desperate for your late March 2020 cruise and it was cancelled and it's been 1.5 years since and you're longing even more for a relaxing day at CC, then it still looks appealing. If life has been unusally busy and stressful lately and you're looking for a long stretch of down time, then it still looks appealing. If your kids are grown and will be working while you're sailing and you don't give a fark about the kids clubs, then it still looks appealing.