We are Platinum and this cruise will not go down as one of the best cruises but it will go down as one of the most needed! It was great to be back at sea with
DCL and celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on board!! Throughout the cruise we kept telling ourselves to enjoy what we do have and forget about what we don't.
Here are some things I wish we would have known before and during our cruise that may help people and some observations:
1. I booked a one way rental from MCO to Canaveral (1 day) and another for the return trip dropping off at MCO on Sunday (3 days). During the week leading up to the cruise, I found a rental from Alamo that let me keep the car the entire week and park at the parking garage for around $60 more. It was definitely worth the money to skip all the shuttles and not risk getting exposure or being next to someone who could test positive before they got on the cruise. Check your rental reservations and see what is out there.
2. We arrived about 7 minutes before our arrival time and were not turned away. Luggage is still accepted like normal and they had blank luggage tags available (turns out ours came in the mail yesterday). We are all vaccinated so everything went smoothly getting on the ship. The parking garage was an obstacle course of cones for people needing testing but was well organized and efficient for those who are vaccinated. Due to COVID and room keys being placed in the fish extenders, room upgrades were not available. Missed the platinum group 1 boarding group. We got group 4 but still got on pretty quickly. In the terminal it was posted the rooms would be ready after 4pm, our check-in person said 2pm, but on the ship we were told correctly the rooms were ready immediately. This may be due to the fact we were the first sailing.
3. Mandatory muster station drill was awesome. All we did was walk to the muster station and take a picture of the sign with the app. I really feel this should have been the process for all
Castaway Club members gold and above all along.
4. If you plan on booking a place holder and purchase gift cards to take advantage of Kroger fuel points or Target red circle offers save your money. Currently you have to book through the app and they only take the credit card you have on file. This charge is billed directly to your credit card immediately and separate from your ship folio. I can use the gift cards I bought to make payments on the remaining cruise balance at home but would have like to have known in advance the payment methods. They are working to change it so in the future you can change payment method.
5. Cabanas opened at 1:45pm for lunch on embarkation day. Could have saved the price of lunch at Fishlips (although it was neat to see the Dream and Fantasy parked together). All windows now serve the same things and when you sit down a server comes and gets your drink orders.
6. You can't touch anything on the ship - everything has to be given to you. This includes food, ice cream, drink stations, towels, etc. Took a while to get used to not touching anything but if you have been on the ship when norovirus has been detected this will not be any different.
7. Entertainment is very limited on the cruise:
- Jungle Cruise and Black Widow were played over, and over and over again. Occasionally they snuck in Raya but only once or twice.
- Games and live activities were duplicated over several nights. I don't have an issue with that but on an already reduced capacity ship there were very few people at any of them so they weren't as enjoyable.
- No variety acts. We enjoy the adult shows and really missed this.
- Fireworks, sorry, were lame. From a cast member, they have 2 firework banks and to accommodate two shows they only lit off one bank per night. I really believe they whole show lasted less than 5 minutes, Note, if you had early dining you had fireworks the first night. Late dining got to see them the second night.
- They only live shows were Beauty and the Beast and Believe (both shown on two nights).
8. Palo Brunch was disappointing. The food and the service was ok but we missed the buffet portion. They no longer have the cheese selection (my wife loved the port wine cheese) and the dessert selection. Especially missed were the chocolate covered strawberries.
9. Our cruise only had what felt like 1,500 or so people on it which was lucky. They are only allowing 1 party or 2 people on the elevators. Any more people would have been real difficult to go anywhere as we sometimes had to wait for 2-3 elevators. Also, all the public restrooms were restricted to 2 or 3 people at a time as well.
10. The hallway on deck 5 by the kids clubs was blocked off for parents going to the clubs only. As our room was on 5 forward this made going to the back for dinners and entertainment more interesting.
11. You need to sign up for a queue to get off the ship in port (Castaway Cay). Not a huge issue but just a thing to consider now.
12. Shuffleboard was open. Basketball was now a sun deck, ping pong tables are gone, and the mini golf was never open even though my daughter said it was the first day.
13. They are still enforcing children in adult areas which was appreciated.
14. Double dip at Castaway was great even though it rained most of the second day - still better than Nassau.
15. As my kids are all over 16 now the characters were not important but we still saw plenty of them throughout the cruise.
16. You need to chat with guest services or schedule an appointment through the app to go in person. My app was problematic to begin with and always gave me trouble with chatting and scheduling. I went to guest services and was not turned away for not having an appointment.
17. Dining rooms were more spaced out and no parties were combined at a table. To be honest, I never liked Enchanted Garden but didn't mind it as much now that the teacups are gone.
18. Disney service is still top notch. Nothing was compromised due to COVID in this respect. Mousekeeping was still twice a day as normal.
19. Ghiradelli chocolates were replaced with Dove. My wife was worried they took the chocolates away all together as we saw posted somewhere.
20. They took away the bags of Lays chips at Flo's. Major let down for my 16 year old.
21. Embarkation was done by luggage tag characters to limit number of people leaving at a time.
That's a lot but I want to stress we still had a really great time. It is still a
Disney cruise and still a vacation with the family. Remember to focus on what we do have - the return of the Disney Dream!
If anyone has any questions about the cruise I will be happy to answer.
I know its a silly thing but I always like to grab a bag while having our cocktails at the Cove Bar. It just seemed like something was missing without those BBQ Chips. We were told they had them at Room Service but didn't try. I did however steal a few bags on CC to bring back to the ship. 
And I too was concerned about losing the Platinum boarding perk, but agree it went smoothly. I would still prefer 11:30 over 1:45 to begin boarding but it is what it is. 
