After a Less than Magical Cruise on the Disney Fantasy is DCL still worth the price?

UPDATES POSTED AT BOTTOM:
1/28 Email Reply from Disney
2/4 We have heard that DCL has been reaching out to others individually. We have still not heard anything else. We sent another email last night and are awaiting a response. We are waiting to post letter based on how they reply.

We love cruising and have been fortunate enough to experience a few voyages with Disney Cruise Line. We find that Disney cruises have always been our favorite. But the best experience also comes with a higher price tag compared to other brands, making them only feasible for us every several years. Last week we booked a 7-day Western Caribbean cruise to celebrate our Anniversary and take some of our best friends for their first time. We couldn’t wait to get back on board the Fantasy! Unfortunately not every vacation can be perfect, and this sadly turned into a trip where many little things went wrong, ultimately leading to us coming home disappointed. While we had some great moments and company, we do feel that Disney dropped the ball in certain areas and did not feel as premium as it should. We are not alone in feeling this way and many are currently writing correspondence to guest services. We were torn about writing this article as we didn’t want to simply complain but we also thought it was important to address what did go wrong for us personally so others can be aware for future cruises. The big question we want to ask is if the price tag is still worth it after the experience we had. Spoiler alert: as of this moment we don’t actually have an answer. We are still processing how we feel about everything, hoping to hear more facts, and waiting to see how Disney responds. We hope that they will address everyone’s concerns promptly and we will update this article as soon as we can.

The Good

We wanted to start with some of the good. Some of these may have been issues that were handled very well as you would expect with top notch service, or crew members that were great and worth giving an extra shout out. 

Stuck to a Chair

We weren’t on the Fantasy for more than two hours when we had our first mishap. During the DVC presentation, Andrew sat on a chair that was dirty with something sticky and ended up staining his shorts. While the Crew Member in the D-Lounge wasn’t very helpful, Guest Services was and told us to get the shorts cleaned by the ship’s laundry service and they would waive the charge. Sure enough, the shorts came back the next day cleaned and pressed.

Noisy Neighbor

The second issue arose that same night when our stateroom neighbor came back in the middle of the night and was incredibly loud. We could hear every word of his phone call and his TV was on full volume. At 2:30 am we went to Guest Services asking about the best course of action and they sent us to an open stateroom to be able to get some sleep that night. The next morning they gave us the option to move permanently but due to our original proximity to our friends and the adult areas we decided to stay and address directly with neighbor if it were to happen again. Luckily the rest of our cruise was quiet and peaceful.  

Stateroom Attendant

Our stateroom attendant Ronald was amazing! He was able to handle every one of our requests, generally a lot quicker than we expected. He was very kind when Andrew got sick by delivering extra blankets and checking in to see if he was OK. We felt so much positive energy and compassion from him and he was the standout CM of the trip.

The Shows

We saw three stage shows while onboard; Aladdin, Frozen, and Believe. All three of these were absolutely amazing. We were on our first Disney Cruise in 2008 and the shows were great then. We feel that with the addition of projections and other elements, the stage shows just keep getting better! The cast is great and these are not to be missed!

Various Crew Members

Outside of our assigned crew members, we had a handful or great interactions with others. One of our servers at breakfast one morning was so personable, we made it a point to stop and chat with him every opportunity we got. There were also a handful of bartenders in the Tube, La Piaza, and the beach bar on Castaway that were very friendly and fun to chat with.

The Bad

And now for some of the mishaps and disappointments from this trip. Some may seem small, but as these pile up as the days go on it can be hard to continue to be ok with everything. And ultimately you have to ask the question is the premium price tag worth it for a lackluster experience?

The Main Dining Room

Dining has always been a highlight for us when cruising with Disney. This time around, not so much. Our servers, while friendly, were not up to the standard Disney has set and what we had experienced in the past. Most nights the refills were slow to come, if at all without flagging someone down, and we were never asked if we wanted coffee or something else with dessert, we had to prompt it. Usually the crew will make an effort to bring you something different/special if you really don’t want something on the menu. Andrew was hoping for shrimp cocktail like on all previous cruises, but they weren’t able to honor that wish even once. It should have been fairly simple (we saw some later that week in the buffet) but they still weren’t able to make that happen.

Add to that we didn’t have a regular staff the whole week. Our Assistant Server was quarantined the third and fourth night due to illness. Our Main Server was quarantined the next two nights after that. Our fill in Server also experienced the same fate the last two nights of the cruise. While sickness may have played a part we also don’t feel that our service was all that great before everyone started dropping like flies. But they did make sure to still ask for a good comment card on the last night.

As for the actual food, things were very much hit or miss. Most of the beef dishes were pretty awful. Some appetizers weird. However, some of the fish and chicken dishes were good as well as most of the soups. Ordering off the menu was like playing roulette and honestly not even one meal stood out as overly impressive. Overall, it seemed pretty basic and not what it used to be. After so many nights of meat, carb, and veggie we found ourselves hoping for something more spicy, creative, etc.

The Missed Ports

We were forced to miss two ports in a row, Grand Cayman and Falmouth, Jamaica (half of our planned stops) due to weather/seas. It is always a bummer to miss a port but we understand things happen. Having so many unplanned sea days in a row did start to make some people irritated. We did our best to relax and find things to do even with many things affected (canceled Pirate party, no DJ, missing Comedy acts, etc.) However, as the cruise went on and we learned more, missing these ports became a sore spot with quite a few guests and here is why.

First, we found out later that one ship was able to tender at Grand Cayman that day and another was able to dock at Jamaica the following day. Let’s just say there were extenuating circumstances that allowed them to do that and we just couldn’t (ship size, timing, etc.). This leads us to our second question.

It’s 2020, there is no way given current weather technology that this weather snuck up on the ship. They had to know what they were sailing into in the coming days. We also found out after getting back that other cruise ships on similar itineraries made the decision to avoid this weather and change their itinerary mid-cruise and visit different ports. So why did we decide to test the weather and try to make Grand Cayman and Jamaica? This cruise also had the most “rough seas” we have ever experienced, many people were down with sea sickness. Could this have been avoided by rerouting?

Following up on knowing in advance what the weather would be, we were also a little surprised by how long it took to create updated activity lists the two days we skipped ports. We would have assumed they would have had a backup ready to go well before the cancellations and able to roll it out in quick order. We understand the time it takes to print the updated Navigators but the app should have been ready to go immediately, not half way through the day.

And a final note to the Cruise Director, constant jokes about missing ports are not funny! It wasn’t funny the first night and it wasn’t funny the day we finally got off the ship at Castaway Cay.

Tip… for What?

Since we were at sea so often, we had to look for things to do. Julie decided to get a day pass to the Rainforest Room, which is an area in the spa that includes hot tubs, heated loungers, treatment showers, saunas, and more. The cost includes admission (for a day or whole trip) to this area but included no services. However, gratuity was automatically added to the bill. When Julie inquired about this, the staff just blew her off. 

Tip Twice for the Same Drink?

Julie purchased the Europa drink passport which cost $45 and gets guests one drink in each bar in the adult area (5 in total). Julie was charged gratuity when she purchased the pass. She was also reminded to pay gratuity when she got each drink (the server asked for our room card when she ordered each drink). That doesn’t seem right.

Disney IT Strikes Again

We understand and like what Disney is trying to do with the cruise app. The messaging option is nice but there is a huge time delay between sending and receiving messages (sometimes over 30 mins later) which could be frustrating when trying to make plans with others. Sometimes the button guests use to get to their personal itinerary would just vanish. It sounds good in theory, but very clunky. We started carrying around the paper navigators instead (although there was confusion as sometimes the app and paper navigator would list different start times.)

WiFi is also not a great offering. On other cruise lines you can get packages sold by the day or trip, but on Disney it is sold by the MB (which is hard to know exactly what that equates to). When arriving on the ship you can sign up for a free 50MB pack (about a $10 value). To put into perspective of how much internet that is, know that Julie ate through that data on Instagram in only 8 minutes, yikes! Being stuck on board many people ended up spending a lot of money on internet. Our original plan was to use cell service in each port, but we chose to go without from Monday Evening until Saturday morning.

No Picture for You!

Due to illness brought on by the ship the guys completely missed most of the Star Wars Day at Sea activities (which were a huge reason we signed up for this particular sailing in the first place). The next night we wanted to try to capture at least one group picture to represent our Star Wars cruise together and decided to rewear our themed shirts and grab a picture with the big photo backdrop. However, when we arrived there were no more photographers and there were stantions in front of the sign. We explained our situation and asked Guest Services if we could move the stantions for a moment, take the picture, then put it back. Even though it was a quick request that required zero effort on their part, they still said “no.” Just another example of getting a “no” instead of getting a “let’s see what we could do”. It felt like a moment that could have been magical and really appreciated given our tough luck.

The Lie?

The morning of Debarkation, we found out that in fact the Fantasy had been dealing with propulsion issues during most of our sail. We know this because, as we found out later, a repair team boarded the ship in Cozumel and were seen diving under the rear of the ship doing repairs at Castaway Cay. Per the Disney Cruise Blog and emails sent to guests sailing on the Fantasy right after us, the ship was dealing with “Technical Issues” which would cause the ship to go slower than usual. Therefore, the next sailing would be replacing planned port Tortola with substitution San Juan.

Up to this point we had come to terms that this trip had not been the best. We were certainly disappointed, but as soon as we realized the lack of transparency from Disney we moved into the upset category. We were never told of the technical issue while on board. Why does this matter? Well, did it perhaps create extra rough conditions due to lack of ship stability? Did it perhaps create a scenario where our forced slower speeds gave us no choice but to soldier on through the known bad weather? And lastly, why would the next cruise, who will miss zero ports, get an onboard credit when our group of guests who were very much impacted, get nothing? The most frustrating aspect is even our cruise director admitted this was an “unusual” and “disappointing” experience but continued to joke about the situation. Most found Guest Services not compassionate at all, offering no help but only passing out a card with a corporate email address to deal with later. There was certainly a lack of the typical Disney level of guest services that you normally would expect.

Final Thoughts

Before anyone loses their mind, we are not accusing Disney of being responsible for the weather or seas. We have been on quite a few cruises and have experienced rough seas in the past. However, those conditions only persisted for a day or two, not a majority of the time. Nearly the entire cruise was rough with Thursday night being the worst we have ever experienced. We have also missed/swapped ports due to reasons such as medical emergencies, so it wasn’t the end of the world, but missing half the port days certainly made for a completely different experience than we had planned and had a ripple effect on many other facets of the trip.

Also, you could make the argument that some of the above complaints are a little nit-picky, and you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. In the beginning we rolled with the punches. However, when those little things start piling up, they start to become bigger issues. Add to that Disney charges a premium so we expect them to deliver. And they didn’t even seem to deliver compassion as a minimum.

It is poor form and optics for Disney to give the next cruise onboard credit for a port change while we were offered nothing. Guest Services was completely obtuse about this and just told everyone to call or email corporate. Quite frankly, it seemed their “give a damn” broke sometime during the cruise and they were just going through the motions. We hope this was an anomaly and that we can have a good experience in the future, but for right now we did not book a placeholder cruise while on board as originally planned and don’t know when we will back. We may hinge that decision on how Disney chooses to respond to this situation. We aren’t looking for a huge refund or anything, but would at least expect the decency to be treated the same as the next cruise and receive transparency and some small gesture of good will.

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UPDATES FROM DISNEY

1.28.20 Email from Guest Correspondence Team 

Dear Julie‍,

Thank you for sailing with Disney Cruise Line. We have received several emails from Guests on your sailing with similar wording about their experience. Therefore, we would first like to share the same information below with each of you and will be happy to discuss any remaining individual concerns with you as necessary. 

Please accept our apology for being unable to visit Georgetown, Grand Cayman on Tuesday, January 21, and Falmouth, Jamaica on Wednesday, January 22, due to high wind gusts and unfavorable ocean conditions. We understand your disappointment with not being able to visit these scheduled ports as part of your cruise vacation. At the same time, the safety and well-being of our guests and crew is our primary focus, and we will only dock at a port if we are able to do so safely.

Our Captains carefully consider various options when they are unable to visit a port of call. In Grand Cayman, after our primary tendering location was closed by port officials, an alternate location on the other side of the island was offered later in the morning after one cruise ship had already anchored there and another declined to use the remaining space. In addition to the significant ocean swells observed there, we know from experience that there is limited capacity at this location, which can lead to long delays when tendering ashore and congestion on the pier when more than one ship is present. This location also has few nearby entertainment options and limited transportation to Georgetown. Therefore, we decided to spend the day at sea and stopped only briefly to transport a Guest with an urgent medical need ashore.

In Jamaica, the port pilot in Falmouth determined conditions were unsafe for docking there. Our Captain also attempted to dock in Ocho Rios but the pilot determined the conditions weren’t safe there either.

We are working to process refunds for the associated port taxes and fees, which you may expect to see on your credit card statement within two billing cycles.

Please note that a technical issue that occurred on Thursday afternoon, January 23, did not impact your cruise, and the divers you may have observed were conducting a routine inspection of the ship’s hull.

If you have any further questions and would like to speak with me, you may reach me by phone or reply to this email with your contact number and best time to call. I am available Thursday through Monday between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. EST at (XXX) XXX-XXXX.

Julie‍, thank you again for your message.

Sincerely,

Kiera Bell
Executive Guest Correspondent
Disney Cruise Line

We wrote a very detailed letter with the comments from this article plus more. Do you know what is worse than the wait of getting a response? Getting a canned template response like this that feels like a robot wrote it. While this sheds more light on issues than while onboard it also feels a little too late, and also doesn’t match up with some of the reports we have from other maritime sources showing that technical issues were reported on the Tuesday. But at the end of the day the actual ports were not our main complaint. Our big issues at hand are lack of compassion from Guest Services and not receiving any compensation when the next sailing received some unprompted before even boarding the ship. This letter certainly doesn't address much for us but it sounds like they are open to more conversation. But we hope Disney has more plans up their sleeves because we imagine the longer this issue goes with generic responses like this only mean guests will get more disgruntled…