What Is One Thing You Would Change About DCL?

[Disneyland_emily]

Since it’s been mentioned the allergy thing sucks. This is my first cruise with severe allergies and quite frankly it’s been awful-

Mine is having quality events in the AM. Not everyone likes/can stay up till midnight especially on shorter cruises where you can’t really reset your natural schedule so we are allll wide awake at 6 am and ready to go but options are non existent. We’d love some pool time or characters or a good movie

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I was thinking more in Europe, South America, Hawaii, but yeah Caribbean too. It seems like they have enough ships now, but yet they are putting two in Alaska. I think they do what makes them money and that's the short Bahamas cruises that families can afford.

They seem to be having trouble selling the Europe cruises. It could be a combination of price and stale itinerary, but what do I know I'm just the consumer that's not interested in consuming any of their cruises right now.

Makes sense, everywhere needs improvement, more variety, more port days. Bermuda cruises would be great, and New England / Canadian Maritime ports. I was thinking especially Caribbean because if we go to most anywhere else, we're doing a land based vacation and not a cruise. And, more 7-10 day Caribbean itineraries too, I'm not going through the hassle of getting to port, embarking, and debarking for 3-4 nights.

 

[croschek05]

Wish they would leave out of NYC again!!!

 

[Meriweather]

Count number of nights instead of number of cruises for status.

I hate that a 2 week cruise counts for one and so days a 3 night one.

 

[princesscinderella]

More TRIVIA!! (Just kidding). I would like a bit more variety in onboard activities.

 

[jujubiee4]

More DOMESTIC 7 nights or longer for the FIRST FOUR SHIPS!

Honorable mention bring back the dinner buffet option.

 

[asunutgirl]

My husband has a severe shellfish allergy and cross contamination is very dangerous for him. DCL actually does an amazing job of making sure his food is safe. It takes a little bit of extra time to order but it is worth it for us. If he has a reaction, it is life threatening. It is one of the few places that we have found that accomodates him properly.

If you are traveling with allergies, you can actually select your dinner the night before with your serve team to save time.

 

[Dug720]

My husband has a severe shellfish allergy and cross contamination is very dangerous for him. DCL actually does an amazing job of making sure his food is safe. It takes a little bit of extra time to order but it is worth it for us. If he has a reaction, it is life threatening. It is one of the few places that we have found that accomodates him properly.

If you are traveling with allergies, you can actually select your dinner the night before with your serve team to save time.

This for allergies - especially the more common ones. It may be different if you have something outside the more common allergies.

They even have separate allergy menus for the dining rooms' evening menus - at least on the Wish and Treasure - again, covering the major ones.

I've never found it bothersome to order the night before for dinner - and I've never had to pre-order for the next day's breakfast and lunch. I ask for a manager at Cabanas and they'll ask what I want and get a plate made up in the back. Mine are gluten and peanuts, so I don't bother with pre-ordering for Castaway since I can easily leave off the bun, etc.

I've definitely found Disney better than Royal (heck...they had an orzo dish listed as gluten-free and my servers tried to argue with me that orzo didn't contain gluten) and slightly better than Celebrity (Celebrity's been ok...other than their pancakes. Those were sad and disguting.)

 

[jwalk03]

More varied itineraries. Way too many ships do the same Nassau/Castaway/Lighthouse trips over and over and over again.

Would love to see more regular sailings from San Juan to the Southern Caribbean, more 7-night Mexican Riviera options, more variety in 7-night Caribbean sailings, etc, etc

 

[Kit Jackson]

This is super specific to my family, but I would love to have people on board trained to be with autistic and other people with special needs.

I don't think that's super specific to you. Many families travel with children who are autistic, on the spectrum, or have some type of special needs. This seems like a fantastic idea that would probably benefit multiple families on almost every cruise.

Or, like the International Cafe on Princess, have one spot that's open 24hours that actually has food like soup, salad and sandwiches. I feel like most of the in between meal time food items on Disney are either kid food or fried foods.

I like this idea. They could have a refrigerated case that has premade salads and sandwiches that could be accessed 24 hours a day.

 

[RedHead0186]

Not have the "midnight madness" that is online check in and activity booking. It's so stressful and Disney IT being bad adds to it. Other cruise lines do it differently and it seems to work.

 

[Disneyworldlocal]

Not have the "midnight madness" that is online check in and activity booking. It's so stressful and Disney IT being bad adds to it. Other cruise lines do it differently and it seems to work.

This times 1,000. Works great if your on the west coast. Sucks for everyone on the east coast.

 

[dreamer17555]

Not have the "midnight madness" that is online check in and activity booking. It's so stressful and Disney IT being bad adds to it. Other cruise lines do it differently and it seems to work.

Honestly, I think this is more of a DCL guest issue than anything else. DCL guests really want that early PAT and Disney doesn’t offer a way to buy it like other cruise lines do. For example, Carnival has “Faster to the Fun,” but with DCL, the only way to get an earlier PAT is by using their transportation.

A lot of other cruise lines also have check-in starting at midnight, not just DCL. (And other lines also struggle with it. Royal was having difficulty with it on our last check in. The FB group was hopping at 1 AM as people try to figure it out.)

As for booking activities—most other lines let you book them as soon as you book your cruise. With DCL, early booking is tied to your Castaway Club status, and it’s actually one of the biggest perks. If they ever took that away, they’d need to replace it with something equally valuable, and I honestly don’t know what that would be without it costing Disney extra.

Also, if they let everyone book activities right away, it could really affect concierge sales. A lot of people book concierge, especially for their first cruise, just to get first dibs on the popular activities. And to be real—DCL’s concierge doesn’t offer nearly as much as what you get on other lines like NCL’s Haven, especially considering the premium Disney charges.

 

[FastPasser.]

I don’t bother with midnight madness because being so close we fly in on cruise day and as long as I board before the ship leaves, I’m happy. We’ve always boarded in time for lunch.

 

[robinb]

The price.

I can afford DCL but choose not to because it’s 2-3 times more as expensive than NCL. For instance, I am going on a NYE cruise December 27th on NCL. A DCL cruise that leaves the same day is literally 2.9 times my NCL cruise for the same cabin category and my NCL cruise includes open bar and specialty meals!

Now, the DCL ship is the newest ship which accounts for some of the difference. But the NCL Viva which is NCL’s newest ship is only about $300 more than I am paying for the Encore.

I would certainly try DCL if I didn’t feel I was being fleeced.

 

[AnnaS]

I did not read through all the pages. Would love solo/singular pricing

 

[RedHead0186]

I did not read through all the pages. Would love solo/singular pricing

Ooooh yes

 

[holula]

I did not read through all the pages. Would love solo/singular pricing

I would honestly even take something like a $100 OBC at this point for sailing solo.

 

[bethy]

Better food. To me this includes quality, changing up the menus and more dinner options.

 

[GhostHost24]

Honestly, I think this is more of a DCL guest issue than anything else. DCL guests really want that early PAT and Disney doesn’t offer a way to buy it like other cruise lines do. For example, Carnival has “Faster to the Fun,” but with DCL, the only way to get an earlier PAT is by using their transportation.

A lot of other cruise lines also have check-in starting at midnight, not just DCL. (And other lines also struggle with it. Royal was having difficulty with it on our last check in. The FB group was hopping at 1 AM as people try to figure it out.)

As for booking activities—most other lines let you book them as soon as you book your cruise. With DCL, early booking is tied to your Castaway Club status, and it’s actually one of the biggest perks. If they ever took that away, they’d need to replace it with something equally valuable, and I honestly don’t know what that would be without it costing Disney extra.

Also, if they let everyone book activities right away, it could really affect concierge sales. A lot of people book concierge, especially for their first cruise, just to get first dibs on the popular activities. And to be real—DCL’s concierge doesn’t offer nearly as much as what you get on other lines like NCL’s Haven, especially considering the premium Disney charges.

This reminded me one of the things I found RCL to absolutely blow DCL out with. The check in process. Yes they opened at midnight too, but what was great is I didn't have to go through everything to get a PAT. You can log in, grab a PAT, hit save, then go to bed (took less than 5 minutes). I was able to then go back in the next morning and do all the uploading etc.