What Changes Would You Like DCL to Make?

[meliscan]

Castaway Club status determined by number of nights sailed rather than number of individual sailings

I say this one all the time. For years we only cruised 7 night cruises. Hotels are per night not per stay.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I’m assuming your daughter is either in a senior role or an entertainment role. Working on a cruise ship is not for the faint of heart. Actually, I think working for Disney at all is a little tough and my daughter has been a cast member as well.

It’s a hard job and I applaud your daughter for sticking it out.

I’ll be honest I’m a little surprised that somebody with a crew member on board would even risk complaining about a fellow crewmember- because of the potential fallout.

Normally, if you’re having an issue to the point that people are getting actual reprimands, they would’ve switched your dining team.

If you have severe allergies, switching a dining team to those who are accommodating that would be their first move because they do not want any medical event on the ship.

It sounds like you’re unhappy with how your daughter is being treated as a crewmember or how the other crewmembers are being treated and I get that. It is extremely hard work. We tip well for the crewmembers we are able and we like to pixie dust the crew members who are not allowed to receive tips but I think your daughter is going to find a similar environment, working on any cruise ship.

We did not complain. My DD was floored by the service or rather lack of service that we were given. A few things went on (it was more than just food allergies) that she said were far below standard so she took care of it. The servers even did this with her present at the table. Potential fallout....there isn't any. We cruise as full fare guests but even if we didn't ALL guests are supposed to be receiving services that meet or exceed the standards. Crew members that go to the dining room are to be served with the same standards.

As to the dining team being switched, it was not at all necessary as the department manger started attending the dining room while we were there. The attitude drastically changed but it was really fake. Previous to this happening I was approached in the atrium by another manager who wanted to know what had been going on. She later told my DD that it came as no surprise on who was involved.

 

[Grandma4ever]

Castaway Club status determined by number of nights sailed rather than number of individual sailings

That is the one change I would love to see. I do not live close enough to have any desire to do the shorter cruises. Tend to do two 7-day cruises back-to-back every few years.

 

[lilbon]

For us, it's bring back Dinner service in Cabanas/MM, especially for longer cruises or cruises in Europe. You shouldn't be penalized for not wanting to eat in the main dining room (especially during Pirate night!)

I agree with this 1000%, - you don't have to go at a specific time and you can have a quiet meal.

I wish DCL would provide more specialty dining venues, like other ships, so you can decide when and what you want to eat - even if there is a cost. I will also add that if I am coming with my family or just my husband, I don't want to have to request a table for my group. I don't want to sit with people I don't know.

I also agree the nights cruised should be counted toward the Castaway Club- not cruises.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Castaway Club status determined by number of nights sailed rather than number of individual sailings

I doubt that DCL will ever adopt that. That said, there's at least one cruise line that awards loyalty based on EITHER number of cruises OR number of cruise nights, whichever one gets you the higher level.

 

[RedHead0186]

My only wish is for the 4D cruise to vary their itineraries. I wouldn't mind a day at sea, St. Martens, a day at seat and CC. Cruising New England Coast with 2 stops in the US would be nice. I don't need to go to Canada. I understand Bermuda it needs to be a minimum of 5 days. All the other things mentioned above we don't use.

I don't think you can get to St. Maarten on a shorter cruise (unless it's the only port). When we sailed to St. Maarten it took two sea days to get there.

 

[jimmymc]

The buffet should be open for dinner on port days. Guests shouldn't need to choose between having a good dinner and doing a port excursion that goes later than 5:30. I'd have no issues with it closing on sea days as long as it was open on port days.

Eliminate the midnight race to book excursions and dining. I believe this should also be the strategy for virtual queues at the parks. Have guests enter a lottery ahead of time, where the time you enter doesn't matter. They can even rank their top 3 to 5 options for dining times or excursions. Then on the day, everyone finds out what they get. You can swap to an excursion that didn't fill up or join a waitlist for one that did, which would automatically swap your excursion when you reach the top of the list.

 

[RedHead0186]

The buffet should be open for dinner on port days. Guests shouldn't need to choose between having a good dinner and doing a port excursion that goes later than 5:30. I'd have no issues with it closing on sea days as long as it was open on port days.

Eliminate the midnight race to book excursions and dining. I believe this should also be the strategy for virtual queues at the parks. Have guests enter a lottery ahead of time, where the time you enter doesn't matter. They can even rank their top 3 to 5 options for dining times or excursions. Then on the day, everyone finds out what they get. You can swap to an excursion that didn't fill up or join a waitlist for one that did, which would automatically swap your excursion when you reach the top of the list.

I totally agree about the buffet being open on port days. We are on the EBTA and have early dining, so we are finding that on some of the port days we won't be able to go to the main dining room as we won't be back onboard in time, which is a bit of a bummer (especially since other options are limited).

 

[vakamalua]

Interesting itineraries...

 

[mcd2745]

Asks in the category of "I think they could do this if they wanted/enough people complained about it"

I wish they would go to the safety drill like all other cruise lines now which is done remotely instead of in person. Especially on a 3 night cruise, a meaningful amount of time is spent waiting for the drills, waiting for everyone to come to the drill, having to stand around for the drill, and waiting to get back to the ship to your room/deck party, etc.

Another change I would like is offer more varied nighttime adult entertainment - on our recent cruises the only nighttime dancing was the "silent parties"

I wish the pools (especially adult pools) were open later at night - other cruise lines keep them open later, but everything closes early on the pool deck on DCL.

I also wish they would hold a "midnight buffet" (if not at midnight) on the night of Pirate Night

Love these! The overall change they need to make is they need to stop shutting the ship down entirely once the entertainment for the lounge ends 11-15pm. Give us stuff to do after that other than silent disco- which no one does.

Leave the adult pools open (until 1 or 2am, IMO), like you said. Have a trivia session in the pub that starts at 11:30pm. Show a movie on Funnelvision at midnight - and leave the ice cream station open until it's over. Do mixology and/or other tastings that start 11:30 or midnight. None of these things require large number of cast members to still be working in order to facilitate these things.

 

[mcd2745]

Bring back Palo brunch buffet style

That would be great

One clock in the adult area. Please

This one always baffled me. Why is there no clock? I'm sure they must feel it would negatively impact revenue in some way.

For us, it's bring back Dinner service in Cabanas/MM

Can't imagine you would find anyone opposed to this. Additionally, I have no problem (in fact, would prefer it) if they left it as a buffet.

 

[Dug720]

That would be great



This one always baffled me. Why is there no clock? I'm sure they must feel it would negatively impact revenue in some way.



Can't imagine you would find anyone opposed to this. Additionally, I have no problem (in fact, would prefer it) if they left it as a buffet.

The problem with the buffet is that many of the people who work the buffet for breakfast and lunch are actually MDR servers so there would not be enough people to staff if as a buffet at night. When it was menu (IMHO the worst options from the MDR menus) based, it was used to train new servers and only a small portion was open.

 

[tidefan]

The problem with the buffet is that many of the people who work the buffet for breakfast and lunch are actually MDR servers so there would not be enough people to staff if as a buffet at night. When it was menu (IMHO the worst options from the MDR menus) based, it was used to train new servers and only a small portion was open.

Amazing how every single other line doesn’t seem to have an issue with staffing the buffet at night…

 

[Cfabar1]

Amazing how every single other line doesn’t seem to have an issue with staffing the buffet at night…

Or with placing them to check in with for your virtual muster drill confirmation

 

[Dug720]

Amazing how every single other line doesn’t seem to have an issue with staffing the buffet at night…

Because they were never hired as dining room servers and they have space for them in crew quarters.

They also don't have the number of servers in their dining rooms - those servers have more tables to serve than the ones on Disney.

If buffets are so important to you at night, there are other lines. There is no reason to make all lines the same.

 

[Lesverts]

Disney has a higher staff to passenger ratio compared to similar sized ships in a similar cruise line category. How that crew is deployed is different though. Disney likely had a much higher percentage of crew that are dedicated to kids activities/enternainment.

 

[tidefan]

Because they were never hired as dining room servers and they have space for them in crew quarters.

They also don't have the number of servers in their dining rooms - those servers have more tables to serve than the ones on Disney.

If buffets are so important to you at night, there are other lines. There is no reason to make all lines the same.

It's not buffets, it's a severe lack of alternative dining in the evening if you choose not to go. You may think this is negligible, but after doing the Greek Isles cruise, it was a severe PITA. Don't make guests choose between going on great excursions or having to cut things short to rush back to make dinner...

...and to your point, we are going back next summer to the Greek Isles (which are amazing, BTW), but on Virgin Voyages...

 

[holula]

I agree there should be other dining options after 6pm on long port days. I don’t even necessarily want a buffet, even having other pool deck options would be ok.

I found this in Alaska, especially at Skagway. I really didn’t want a full meal after a long, cold port day but it was the only option.

 

[Phdmama06]

I'm pretty new to cruising with Disney so still a bit in the honeymoon phase with it, but if I had a wish list for them, it would include things that people on this discussion have generally already said.

1-Having Cabanas open for dinner. Or at least more food options on deck. Sometimes the MDR or adult-only dining is way more than I want to do (e.g. maybe I'm not in the mood for the dinner show), but would like something other than chicken tenders, burger, etc.

2-Don't make people resubmit citizenship documents and photos every single time at check-in. Keep them on file and allow them to expire after a certain number of months. Don't keep people waiting too long on approve/reject decision on their photos.

3-Castaway status being based on # of nights sailed instead of # of cruises is a great idea. In no world should a 7-night-cruise be equivalent to a quick 3-night cruise.

4-Make the muster drill virtual!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I really didn’t want a full meal after a long, cold port day

Sometimes the MDR or adult-only dining is way more than I want to do

I've found on cruises, I can just order a salad, or just the entree. I've even, on occasion, requested "just one baked potato" for dinner. I've also order off the kid's menu when I'm not up for a 3 course meal. They are very accommodating if you just let them know.