What Is One Thing You Would Change About DCL?

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

All it does is disappoint customers to list a bunch of excursions that look amazing but aren't actually offered when it becomes time to book.

Yeah went I went onto the Destinations page the PP mentioned and down to Port Adventures just for the Caribbean alone 685 results come back. A staggering amount listed online.

 

[Mommb]

It's notable that other cruise lines provide excursion details a year or more in advance (even allowing you to book them), while DCL's information is available just before the cruise. DCL should improve this by offering at least a preliminary list of confirmed options much earlier, adding more options as they become firm. All it does is disappoint customers when they list a bunch of excursions that look amazing but aren't actually offered when it becomes time to book.

If DCL has details finalized well in advance, this would be great. My guess is that this would work for most of the Caribbean and Alaska ports, but for ports visited only once or twice a year or not even every year (such as Northern Europe and the Southern Caribbean), details may not be finalized until close to the excursion booking date.

Tip: Private excursions were consistently better than DCL options and similarly priced during my European sailing.

I totally agree. My family has enjoyed our private excursions far more than our DCL-run excursions, but we've done private excursions only when we have a long time in port and places to go that are not easily accessible on our own or that really benefit from having a guide to explain them. I get frustrated when it looks like DCL offers an excursion with extras (such as a behind-the-scenes tour at Tivoli Gardens or tour of a British manor by its current owner) and then that's not offered on my cruise and apparently hasn't been for years.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

If DCL were to try to revamp the system now and switch only to nights it would be a mess.

They could do something like Princess does and use both - number of cruises OR number of nights, whichever gives you the higher level.

• Gold: Achieved after your first cruise.
• Ruby: Achieved after completing 3 cruises or 30 cruise days.
• Platinum: Achieved after completing 5 cruises or 50 cruise days.
• Elite: Achieved after completing 15 cruises or 150 cruise days.

 

[Dug720]

Yeah went I went onto the Destinations page the PP mentioned and down to Port Adventures just for the Caribbean alone 685 results come back. A staggering amount listed online.

But you can narrow it down by port.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

But you can narrow it down by port.

You sure can but it's still an awful lot of things being shown online when you don't have a cruise booked and know that it's specific to your cruise, time of year, opening of whatever, etc.

Just using this as a visual here's what Port Vendres, France excursions were available for my cruise. I use this port because much wasn't available and not much was there to do in Port Vendres but it gives a specific detailed offering not what could be available but was available for this cruise. In our case we didn't book an excursion for this port and actually just walked to Collioure (about a 40min walk along the coastline)



Obviously some excursions are more safe as they are more generic in nature but I can see how the PP was talking about with stuff that has been on there for so long or like the PP mentioned with a behind the scenes Tivoli Gardens that is no longer offered and hadn't been in a while (I don't know if that was a specific instance that happened to them or they were just using it as an example). So I guess my point is a drawback to having all of these available to you before you have booked your cruise and know the collection of excursions available were selected for your specific cruise.

 

[mcd2745]

Another frustrating thing about their excursions listings is the lack of specific details on some - particularly excursions that involve a beach. They often don't state the exact beach you're going to or the beach club/bar/restaurant they contract with. Especially since they don't allow guest reviews of port adventures on the DCL site, you'd like to be able to research Google or other eviews.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

Probably already discussed but I only looked at the last 2 pages, but my one thing would be releasing the dates earlier.

 

[Pens Fan]

I'm very late to the party but the one single thing that drove us away from DCL was the traditional dining. Please let me pick where and when I want to eat a meal and who I want to eat it with. Period. Is that so hard??

 

[Mommb]

I'm very late to the party but the one single thing that drove us away from DCL was the traditional dining. Please let me pick where and when I want to eat a meal and who I want to eat it with. Period. Is that so hard??

It is certainly possible to structure a ship to have a lot of dining rooms and give all guests a choice of where and when to dine each night.

It is hard to have that structure and also have dinner shows, servers who learn and accommodate individual preferences, and nightly theater shows that are child-friendly and scheduled opposite dinner hours.

 

[TinkAgainU]

Solo cabins. Would be easier for single grandparents to take (or join) families on trips if not wasting money on one solo cabin. But NCL excels at that so maybe every line has to have its specialty. Plus, an excuse to do the longer NCL trips in Alaska than DCL offers

 

[Dug720]

Solo cabins. Would be easier for single grandparents to take (or join) families on trips if not wasting money on one solo cabin. But NCL excels at that so maybe every line has to have its specialty. Plus, an excuse to do the longer NCL trips in Alaska than DCL offers

I just wish NCL had options beyond the coffin-looking solos they have. The Solo Infinite Verandas on Celebrity's Edge Class ships are nice - slightly larger than NCL's AND you get a view of the ocean rather than being confined inside.

 

[Dug720]

It is certainly possible to structure a ship to have a lot of dining rooms and give all guests a choice of where and when to dine each night.

It is hard to have that structure and also have dinner shows, servers who learn and accommodate individual preferences, and nightly theater shows that are child-friendly and scheduled opposite dinner hours.

This. I go back to "all cruise lines don't have to be alike". There are PLENTY of other lines that have any time dining (like almost all of them).

 

[jwalk03]

I'm very late to the party but the one single thing that drove us away from DCL was the traditional dining. Please let me pick where and when I want to eat a meal and who I want to eat it with. Period. Is that so hard??

You’re talking about eliminating Disney’s entire signature rotational dining concept. It’s one of the things that sets Disney apart from other cruise lines. If you do t like it fine- sail with someone else. There are no shortage of cruise lines that offer exactly what you are asking for.

 

[DCLMP]

You’re talking about eliminating Disney’s entire signature rotational dining concept. It’s one of the things that sets Disney apart from other cruise lines. If you do t like it fine- sail with someone else. There are no shortage of cruise lines that offer exactly what you are asking for.

They really need to have one anytime dining restaurant. The dining times don't work for everyone. One is too early and the other is too late. I do believe most cruise lines offer both options set dining with the same server or anytime with any server.

 

[dreamer17555]

They really need to have one anytime dining restaurant. The dining times don't work for everyone. One is too early and the other is too late. I do believe most cruise lines offer both options set dining with the same server or anytime with any server.

I think it would be go a long way to have limited MyTime sit down option in Cabanas again for dinner. Limited hours. Limited menu (no making them fetch animators pasta but entree from Royal). Maybe just the Lighter Notes menu and a basic kids menu and simple dessert menu. People then have options but they might have to give up some of the perks of the main dining room. At the very least the Pool Deck food should have all stations open till 8 PM.

 

[Dug720]

They really need to have one anytime dining restaurant. The dining times don't work for everyone. One is too early and the other is too late. I do believe most cruise lines offer both options set dining with the same server or anytime with any server.

Yes. And you're free to choose those lines - most have different itineraries than DCL and are less than DCL. So that solves the "boring itineraries" and "high cost" problems too.

I'd be ok with them doing a sit-down in Cabanas or Marceline like @dreamer17555 stated above. But part of the DCL premise is the rotational dining with fixed times. You know that going in - or at the very least after your second cruise, but I'd hope people would do their research before booking the first one.

 

[Flossbolna]

I don't know that things on there not offered are due to the pandemic. It could be contracts are being renewed/worked out, etc.

Sometimes it is also time in port. Some itineraries (especially Europe cruises) might have different schedules, so some excursions might not be viable. On our EBTA we were in Lisbon for only half a day, so anything going further away wasn’t offered.

 

[Pens Fan]

They really need to have one anytime dining restaurant. The dining times don't work for everyone. One is too early and the other is too late. I do believe most cruise lines offer both options set dining with the same server or anytime with any server.

This! And the notion that this isn't possible without destroying the whole fabric of the magic of DCL dining is laughable. They did this for years and only stopped after the pandemic.

Just give me options that aren't crappy pizza or the limited room service offerings.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

servers who learn and accommodate individual preferences,

That one I'll disagree with but say that DCL isn't going to be the place to do that or any other ship that has too many passengers. It is however a feature that you find on luxury lines with smaller passengers counts but not something you can easily replicate to the same extent on any line that has too many passengers. You can't have individual preferences learned by staff with too many passengers when those passengers can float around the ship as they please. It becomes unrealistic. The passenger would then have to actively choose to go to the same venue time after time AND that staff member always be there time after time. So I guess my point is less to do with things specific to DCL and more to do with size of ship and passenger count.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Sometimes it is also time in port. Some itineraries (especially Europe cruises) might have different schedules, so some excursions might not be viable. On our EBTA we were in Lisbon for only half a day, so anything going further away wasn’t offered.

Churches/cathedrals/abbies,etc ones are a common one if your day in port is on a Sunday it's going to be usually cut short what can be done or it may not be open to the public.

We were in Cadiz on a Sunday and though not connected to an excursion the church there opened at 2pm IIRC for the public due to morning mass and the only tour time we could do due to the time in port was that specific time slot. Those who opted to do an excursion to Seville were not able to go into the cathedral in Seville because it was only open at 2pm to the public and that was the time the excursion was set to leave to get back into Cadiz but it also wasn't part of the excursion and instead the Seville Cathedral was listed as something of interest you might want to do during your free time. On the flip side a few days prior one of the expedition ships made its way up the river and docked actually in Seville so they would have stood a better chance of doing the Cathedral.

But to me your point about time in port is actually a very big reason to not have generic excursions listed. None of the excursions listed would have been listed if we didn't have time to do it, they just wouldn't make an excursion option there if there wasn't enough time in port. Our day in Malaga we went into the village of Ronda which was listed as 8 hrs and other options like to Alhambra were listed as 9 hours. That was just about the time in port.