Disney *Should* Be Ashamed

[grossguy]

I have my first DCL cruise in October. What is the benefit to checking in right at midnight? Just selecting port arrival time? How much do they vary? What are the arrival time window options? Do most people prefer the earliest possible? I live in NYC so arriving at the port is not something I'm stressing. Trying to figure out if it is necessary for me to check in at midnight or just do it the next morning.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

Our Disney Wish cruise in 10 days is our first Gold cruise. There was nothing to book (Palo, alcohol tastings et) when our booking window opened up.
Online check-in was a royal pain ….
In the past few years we have also tried Royal Caribbean and all I have to say they make it a breeze in comparison. It is way easier, faster etc.
It’s not enough to turn me off DCL all together but I definitely noticed.

 

[ashresiren]

I have my first DCL cruise in October. What is the benefit to checking in right at midnight? Just selecting port arrival time? How much do they vary? What are the arrival time window options? Do most people prefer the earliest possible?

If it's not important to you what time you arrive, there is no need to stay up for check-in. I prefer to be on the ship as early as possible, as it's more value for the money. In this instance, though, I was trying to avoid what happened to me in January. I could not get a PAT at midnight, so I gave up and decided to do it first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, that led to being assigned a 1:30 PAT, and we missed lunch. I saw many people here saying they were able to keep checking for early times, but I was never able to secure one.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

I have my first DCL cruise in October. What is the benefit to checking in right at midnight? Just selecting port arrival time? How much do they vary? What are the arrival time window options? Do most people prefer the earliest possible? I live in NYC so arriving at the port is not something I'm stressing. Trying to figure out if it is necessary for me to check in at midnight or just do it the next morning.

Mainly PAT yes. For our upcoming cruise, at midnight (well more like 1 am as site kept crashing) we got 11:15 arrival time. When I checked at 9 am the earliest available was 12:45.
Honestly having gone through the process at midnight, it wasn’t worth it for me. I’d wait til you get up if you don’t care to be there right at 11.

 

[nlharpel]

It’s not just the early PAT - it’s also getting the ticketed character events. While I agree you can still get a decent PAT by doing it first thing in the morning or even checking for early openings (we found a 11:45 slot week before the cruise) - those dang character events never popped back open and “sold out” within 2 hours (2 am).

And tbh - I could live with having to get up one night for each cruise to make sure I get what we want- but I really don’t like having to go through it twice for my activities and then again for check-in.

 

[MomOTwins]

I mean, 3,000 people on these ships, not everyone is going to fit in the terminal at 10:30am, and not everyone can eat Palo brunch. It's natural to feel disappointment if you aren't able to get what you want, but I always remind myself that not everyone can have everything, and as I say to my kids a LOT "comparison is the their of joy"--no good stewing about other people being able to book Palo/mixology when you could instead just be excited about the activities you CAN do. I have to remind myself about this a lot when it comes to making ADRs at WDW too--not everyone is going to snag that coveted Artist Point reservation,.

I remember one time pre-pandemic when they let everyone show up whenever regardless of PAT and all the Platinums were group 1. The number of people in the terminal when they started boarding was scary--it was standing room only, like fireworks at MK but worse because people kept coming in and there was nowhere to go. At one point someone was trying to bring luggage they didn't check through and almost dropped it on my kid but I caught it. I'm glad they've switched to actual real enforced PATs. I'd rather have a noon PAT and actually be able to walk through the terminal than be a Platinum and have to fight my way through a mosh pit at a concert to board.

I've noticed that how hard it is to book activities depends a lot on the ship and itinerary. Platinum cruisers like longer trips (e.g. Fantasy), unusual itineraries (e.g. Southern Caribbean, WBTA, Hawaii) and of course the Wish is the shiny new Penny right now so it is popular with Platinum cruisers too. The "vanilla" cruises that just go to Nassau and CC on ships other than the Wish tend to draw fewer Platinums. In a year or two, I bet it will be easy for anyone on the Wish to book stuff too. For now, the Dream is probably the best bet if booking activities like the brunch/mixology are really important to you.

 

[ashresiren]

I mean, 3,000 people on these ships, not everyone is going to fit in the terminal at 10:30am, and not everyone can eat Palo brunch.

So, following this line of thinking, maybe it's not a good idea to have all 3,000 of those people checking in at once. And maybe it's disingenuous to list a free Palo dining experience as a perk when it cannot be booked by most Platinums.

 

[Cheburashka]

And maybe it's disingenuous to list a free Palo dining experience as a perk when it cannot be booked by most Platinums.

Palo dinner is easily booked in advance or onboard (unless you're sailing the Wish). So there's nothing disingenuous about having that as a perk.

Brunch has always been harder to book, but it certainly should be available to Platinums on non-Wish cruises. I'm gold and usually see it available when my booking window opens.

 

[MomOTwins]

Palo dinner is easily booked in advance or onboard (unless you're sailing the Wish). So there's nothing disingenuous about having that as a perk.

Brunch has always been harder to book, but it certainly should be available to Platinums on non-Wish cruises. I'm gold and usually see it available when my booking window opens.

Exactly. Palo dinner is easy to book on 4 of 5 ships. Being difficult to book in the inaugural summer season of a single brand new ship does not make the perk illusory.

 

[xfiles3010]

When does online check in begin? My cruise leaves on 10/17

 

[ashresiren]

I am bowing out of this thread now for my sanity. Things continue to get worse because there are always masses of people happily paying more for less and fervently defending the screwjob in the process. Sometimes I wonder if the Disney Corporation could drink a glass of water while some of you talk.

To those who share my frustrations, thank you for your responses. I just needed a release valve, and it was good to hear that others feel the same way.

 

[Cheburashka]

I am bowing out of this thread now for my sanity. Things continue to get worse because there are always masses of people happily paying more for less and fervently defending the screwjob in the process. Sometimes I wonder if the Disney Corporation could drink a glass of water while some of you talk.

To those who share my frustrations, thank you for your responses. I just needed a release valve, and it was good to hear that others feel the same way.

No need to attack the people who have peacefully disagreed with you and civilly pointed out the reasons why. No one had attacked you or put you down.

There are plenty of things DCL has cut and are cutting that are problematic- I actually posted about one of them in a different thread today. I just disagree with you about the Palo benefit being a problem, because it's only hard to book on the Wish. I really dislike most of what I've learned about the Wish (imo it encapsulates everything that's wrong with Disney right now), but I've already posted enough about that in other threads.

Point is, those of us who disagreed with you didn't do so out of blind loyalty to Disney. We did so due to our experiences, which contradicted the point you were making. And we did so politely.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

So, following this line of thinking, maybe it's not a good idea to have all 3,000 of those people checking in at once. And maybe it's disingenuous to list a free Palo dining experience as a perk when it cannot be booked by most Platinums.

We usually use our free Palo on dinners, which is usually available. Brunch is scarce

 

[Kwami]

That's valid then. I don't know what they think to gain by taking away benefits. Especially Checkin windows which have nothing to do with their bottom line. It isn't like they make more money doing it this way.

Disney cut this perk after the restart because they needed a way to control the crowds arriving at the terminal for PCR tests and to maintain physical distancing. It wasn't some kind of cost cutting thing or something that they did out of spite.

I suspect that this perk will remain suspended until Disney stops testing entirely.

 

[Kwami]

We usually use our free Palo on dinners, which is usually available. Brunch is scarce

And, to be fair, the perk is actually meant to be used for dinner. Most of the restaurant managers seem just fine with you using it for brunch instead, but that wasn't the intent.

 

[DCLDVC1]

I am bowing out of this thread now for my sanity. Things continue to get worse because there are always masses of people happily paying more for less and fervently defending the screwjob in the process. Sometimes I wonder if the Disney Corporation could drink a glass of water while some of you talk.

To those who share my frustrations, thank you for your responses. I just needed a release valve, and it was good to hear that others feel the same way.

I understand your frustration. Unfortunately there are a lot of Disney who don't care and Disney knows it.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

This has been frustrating me to no end. Had to sent the below email today

Good afternoon, my wife and I have completed 18 cruises and have #19 & #20 booked. I understand why, directly after cruising restart, there was a throttling of passengers in the terminals, which necessitated Platinum Castaway Club members requiring port arrival times and also requiring boarding group selection.

However, since all COVID related precautions save for pre-cruise testing and requiring 11+ to be vaccinated are gone, why cannot Platinum Cruisers be restored their CC perks so we can check in at 120 days and be automatically be in BG1 directly after the family of the day and the Concierge guests?

I really hope that the reply to this email does NOT include the phrase, 'out of an abundance of caution...' as that's patently untrue. Masking is no longer required or onboard or in the terminal. The terminal is packed just as it was pre-COVID. Social distancing is not required.

Why can't Platinum cruisers - DCL's most loyal and profitable customers - have a restoration of these benefits?

Thank you in advance for your reasoned response


We'll see if I get an intelligent response, or a response at all

 

[TestingH2O]

I feel I don't hear a lot of complaining about this, at least not as much as I complain about it, LOL!

Oh, I definitely mentioned it on my post cruise survey.

I have been unable to get any reservation for Palo brunch in 3 cruises (Fantasy and Wish), despite being online right at the window opening.

That’s really frustrating for sure. I’m surprised about the Fantasy but sadly not the Wish. I’ve heard about that issue too many times at this point to be surprised.

 

[Cheburashka]

the Wish is the shiny new Penny right now so it is popular with Platinum cruisers too.

I think this is the bottom line. A lot of the Wish's current cruisers are platinum because they got the first shot at booking the Wish, so for this first slate of Wish cruises, platinum cruisers are overrepresented, and therefore having a harder time booking things than usual because there are so many more of them, plus all of the WIsh's many concierge, to compete with.

Just another reason to sail one of the Fab Four instead, imo. This is a Wish issue, not a fleetwide issue. Anyone can easily book Palo dinner on any other ship, even while onboard, and a platinum or gold can usually also book Palo brunch for any other ship upon the opening of online booking.

I'll add that if a person only likes Palo for brunch, that's their own issue. DCL never intended for that to be a brunch-specific perk.

 

[lucyem]

I think there are just too many platinums now to give the same Perks. I also think they are not exactly hurting for passengers, especially with the new ship so there is no motivation to change things.