Transatlantic - bookings as Silver

[Philharmagicfamily]

Hi! We are silver Castaway Club members taking the WBTA this fall. What is the likelihood that we will be able to book adult things like tastings or Palo brunch? Will kids things like character meetings (Frozen characters, princesses, breakfast) be easier, since there are fewer kids onboard?

We know that our cruise will be lovely without these things, but we’d really like to be able to book at least a few things. Our kids would especially sad to miss Anna and Elsa.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

Hi! We are silver Castaway Club members taking the WBTA this fall. What is the likelihood that we will be able to book adult things like tastings or Palo brunch? Will kids things like character meetings (Frozen characters, princesses, breakfast) be easier, since there are fewer kids onboard?

We know that our cruise will be lovely without these things, but we’d really like to be able to book at least a few things. Our kids would especially sad to miss Anna and Elsa.
Thanks in advance!

On a special sailing like a transatlantic most cruisers will probably be silver or higher. Relatively few people start cruising DCL with that length of cruise. So don't expect to have a big booking advantage.

That being said, on such a long cruise, there will undoubtedly be enough Palo brunches that you'll get one, enough dates for character events that your kids will probably get to see their favorites, etc.

 

[lorimay]

We cruised the WBTA last Sept. and we are platinum, I got us a few tasting and our Palo brunch & Dinner, I wanted to add a few things when we boarded, the line for doing this was CRAZY!! We did get to the port late coming in from London.
People were definitely getting these things you mention at that point. We were put on a waitlist for a second brunch, we did get one though.
The one thing I wanted was the Cocktails and Canvas, they were all booked, so we missed out.
We sail out of Miami for the EBTA in May, I am getting to the port very early this go around. We live an hour north of Miami, so it will be much easier getting there.

 

[otten]

On a special sailing like a transatlantic most cruisers will probably be silver or higher. Relatively few people start cruising DCL with that length of cruise. So don't expect to have a big booking advantage.

That being said, on such a long cruise, there will undoubtedly be enough Palo brunches that you'll get one, enough dates for character events that your kids will probably get to see their favorites, etc.

not actually true. With the gold and platinum heaviness of these long cruises Palo gets booked up by gold and platinum cruisers a lot of the time. Our Panama Canal cruise has 7 sea days and Palo brunch was all booked up by gold and platinum and most tastings were booked by platinum.

 

[ScooterScott44]

We also did the WBTA this fall and a couple of items to note about booking activities.
- there are a few extra sea days over normal itineraries so there should be a few opportunities for some of the items.
- the overall ship population is not usually at capacity, since many cabins are booked with two instead of full families.
- usually there are a larger ratio of the castaway club higher tiers on these sailings. The captains reception for the gold and platinums was in the Walt Disney Theater and it was probably about half full. Since in our party only one of our three platinums attended I suspect there were a few more aboard that did not attend. Expect the most popular or rare tastings may be booked.
- DCL usually brings along a special guest or two for special presentations or shows. So be on the lookout for some special cooking, show and lectures. So don’t be disappointed if you don’t get something there maybe a different event that might be interesting. The best one for our party was the three “lectures” with Bret Iwan - the voice of Mickey Mouse. Check out past navigators for what to expect and be on the lookout for any announcements about special guest from DCL.
- As for kids things, there are still kids and plenty of big kids that will try to visit the characters. With the extra days I would be surprised if you couldn't get at least one opportunity with the princesses.

Enjoy. It is a great trip, even if you have to be re-routed due to a hurricane/tropical storm.

 

[lorimay]

not actually true. With the gold and platinum heaviness of these long cruises Palo gets booked up by gold and platinum cruisers a lot of the time. Our Panama Canal cruise has 7 sea days and Palo brunch was all booked up by gold and platinum and most tastings were booked by platinum.

Well I saw many people get brunches and tastings after boarding in September of last year.
As I said, we even got a second brunch and we were very late getting onboard.

 

[Philharmagicfamily]

Thanks! We can’t even book activities for almost 5 months, but we are trying to calibrate our expectations correctly! We will likely be late to port to maximize our time in Dover, so won’t be able to be the first in line. We will just hope for the best and stalk the app for the character openings (which are most important to us, as we have one kid who just LOVES Anna.

 

[otten]

Well I saw many people get brunches and tastings after boarding in September of last year.
As I said, we even got a second brunch and we were very late getting onboard.

Onboard may be different. I won't know for another month. But I think it is a misconception that on these long sailings with a lot of sea days that it's easy to book Palo.

 

[cisobe]

We will be sailing this cruise as well. We are still silver as well. We sailed the EBPC a few years ago still as our second cruise. We were able to get brunch and dinner at Palo. We also were able to sign up for tastings that were organized in the cruise group. The only thing we had to change was our Palo dinner because it fell on our first animators palette dinner night and we wanted to see the colors change with our kids.

 

[lilsonicfan]

not actually true. With the gold and platinum heaviness of these long cruises Palo gets booked up by gold and platinum cruisers a lot of the time. Our Panama Canal cruise has 7 sea days and Palo brunch was all booked up by gold and platinum and most tastings were booked by platinum.

Agreed. I said this elsewhere, but we were on the EBTA in May, and Palo brunch was almost completely booked, a few silvers reported getting one but many did not. Also had 7 sea days. There were minimal tastings available for Silver booking as well. I did get a ton of tastings on board though. I have a feeling the WBTA may be a bit less crazy.