Unfortunately, worst vacation we ever had

[DCLMP]

No matter how good any upgrades are (heck, Celebrity is using Elon Musk’s supposedly superior satellites and they still have issues), you are on a moving (obvs unless in port) vessel in the middle of the ocean so there will be times it doesn’t work.

That is why I caution anyone trying to vacation without letting their work know they are to have some kind of back-up when/if the internet goes down for multiple days which is rare on land barring something massive like the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville in 2020 which took out the AT&T network for a few days.

It could be some ships are better than others despite the satellite. Location also plays a factor. We had pretty good Wi-Fi on the Magic last year except in Norway. We’re in the Med never far from land…no idea if that makes a difference.

 

[Dug720]

It could be some ships are better than others despite the satellite. Location also plays a factor. We had pretty good Wi-Fi on the Magic last year except in Norway. We’re in the Med never far from land…no idea if that makes a difference.

Unless you're anchored or tied up to a dock, the ship is a moving target. Combine that with moving satellites and service is not going to EVER be what it is on land.

 

[AquaDame]

I guess it just goes to show how variable satellite can be... when I was making house calls as a tech we flat out refused calls on businesses that used it. Even a cloudy day could make it terrible so it was just too hard to support third hand. We were on the maiden wish and the 8 night Fantasy in mid April and had no issues, but clearly others were not so fortunate.

 

[DCLMP]

I don’t mind them asking if the food and service is OK. It’s the repeated full-court presses for the “Excellent” reviews that turn me off.

Now, I send an email to Guest Services before my cruise asking that our server not mention the survey or ask about the “Excellents”. To their credit, I think they do log those requests because we don’t get the survey spiels anymore.

On Royal now and best service we’ve ever had on a cruise. I’m not sayin Royal is better than Disney I think we just got a really good server. He’s been with company 20 years.

I also hate the the whole excellent speech.. I can’t believe how relaxed the mdr is when guests are dispersed among speciality restaurants and buffet.It really makes a difference.
Dinner is an event on DCL I’ve always enjoyed that, but I think it puts a lot of stress on servers.

 

[Ronneeaght]

So true! We’ve never seen crowds as intense as our cruise on the Fantasy in March with the promotion. People were sitting on the floor at Bingo and at the nightly stage shows because there were not nearly enough seats for everyone, and we never once were able to use the pools during the daytime because there were never any loungers and the pool was packed shoulder to shoulder (pro tip, we went at night after first dining had the place to ourselves). No regrets though—still a fun cruise.

We went at night, too! It was our first time on the Dream but we just decided it probably wouldn’t be our last and skipped the shows after dinner in favor of pool/Aquaduck time. That worked much better.

 

[Sykes]

(heck, Celebrity is using Elon Musk’s supposedly superior satellites and they still have issues)

To be fair, Starlink is in beta and they're not even pretending that they're trying to offer 100% reliable service now. Having said that, when there are internet problems on a ship it is 99% of the time a problem with the ship's IT rather than the satellite infrastructure. It IS possible for them to create Internet as reliable as it is on shore (I've seen it done on yachts and planes for wealthy individuals that can't afford to be disconnected), but the cruise lines are not interested in investing in the infrastructure (and redundancy) necessary to do it.

 

[Dug720]

(I've seen it done on yachts and planes for wealthy individuals that can't afford to be disconnected),

Below Deck Mediterranean would prove that wrong on a few occasions (one guy who had "never missed a game" from some football team, yet chartered a yacht during the regular season; one or two parties that were heavily all about investing/the market). Definitely people who are wealthy enough to be in the "can't afford to be disconnected" category. (Though I maintain that other than possibly political leaders of nations, there is no one so important the need to be connected 24/7/365.)

 

[Sykes]

Below Deck Mediterranean would prove that wrong on a few occasions (one guy who had "never missed a game" from some football team, yet chartered a yacht during the regular season; one or two parties that were heavily all about investing/the market). Definitely people who are wealthy enough to be in the "can't afford to be disconnected" category. (Though I maintain that other than possibly political leaders of nations, there is no one so important the need to be connected 24/7/365.)

Not sure what season you're referring to, but the HOME from the most recent season doesn't have particularly good internet equipment installed. I've found that to be true of most yachts (especially charter yachts) unless the owner specifically installed multiple redundant systems to improve reliability. Same with most charter aircraft too--unless the owner was especially concerned with about reliability then it'll just have a single lower-cost system that is "good enough". (Some are especially bad--I've been on charters where I'm the only one using the Internet at all and it's still slow as molasses.) But it IS possible to do it at a cost.

 

[insureman]

Unless you're anchored or tied up to a dock, the ship is a moving target. Combine that with moving satellites and service is not going to EVER be what it is on land.

Not exactly true. Most modern communication satellites are in a geosynchronous orbit and the ships antennas
are on stable platform by getting roll and pitch info from the ships electronic navigation. I think the poor internet is because they don't want to pay for higher bandwidth.

 

[sadiecatie]

Not exactly true. Most modern communication satellites are in a geosynchronous orbit and the ships antennas
are on stable platform by getting roll and pitch info from the ships electronic navigation. I think the poor internet is because they don't want to pay for higher bandwidth.

My husband (a navigation engineer) says you're spot on

 

[Jsoenning]

I have never understood the fascination people have with Guy Fiyeri. Everything I've had of his has been greasy and barely edible. Certainly not a selling point for me.

And they have a LOT to do to overcome the party ship vibe they oh so carefully cultivated when most of GenX was in our formative years.

Hmm, have had his burgers on two different Carnival ships, in neither case would I classify it as greasy. Not the best burger I've ever eaten but far better than any burger I've had on a Disney ship. There was a line a mile long so many folks apparently like Guy's.

Now the barbecue as mentioned wasn't anything to write home about meat wise, but the sauces were unique and fun to try.

We didn't really note a party vibe other than in a fun Caribbean way or see a bunch of drunks on either Carnival ship.

 

[Cheburashka]

I had bad dining room service on the Dream in January. And I've cruised DCL several times (so know what to expect) and am not picky. It was bad. Drink server forgot about my drink order (after a direct order, not even expecting her to just remember my drink night to night), only saw the head server once in passing, dining server tried to give his menu spiel to two (unrelated) tables at once to save time, food routinely took a long time and was not really warm at one meal. The latter was at the end of the cruise and I was fed up at that point. I made him take it back (something I've never done before) for a new plate, and got a hot one almost instantly- it took me really complaining to get some prompt hot food for once. And no, I couldn't just talk to the head server about it, because he was MIA for most of the cruise.

The ship wasn't overcrowded or sold out, so this wasn't due to number of passengers (I've had good service on full cruises, anyway). It was just an incompetent dining room team.

The experience was bad enough to make me consider skipping the dining room entirely on my next cruise. I'm not going to sail the Dream again for a while. Hope the situation is better on the other ships. If it keeps being like this, I will stop sailing DCL despite finally becoming platinum. DCL charges way too much to offer Carnival-level dining room service.

 

[DCLMP]

Hmm, have had his burgers on two different Carnival ships, in neither case would I classify it as greasy. Not the best burger I've ever eaten but far better than any burger I've had on a Disney ship. There was a line a mile long so many folks apparently like Guy's.

Now the barbecue as mentioned wasn't anything to write home about meat wise, but the sauces were unique and fun to try.

We didn't really note a party vibe other than in a fun Caribbean way or see a bunch of drunks on either Carnival ship.

I love Guys. Our dining room service on Carnival was great. It’s been great on Royal. I’m not sure why people think Disney is so much better than other cruise lines. Another way to justify the cost? They’re all pretty good the majority of the time. Once in a while you’ll get a bad one.

 

[Mango7100]

I had bad dining room service on the Dream in January. And I've cruised DCL several times (so know what to expect) and am not picky. It was bad. Drink server forgot about my drink order (after a direct order, not even expecting her to just remember my drink night to night), only saw the head server once in passing, dining server tried to give his menu spiel to two (unrelated) tables at once to save time, food routinely took a long time and was not really warm at one meal. The latter was at the end of the cruise and I was fed up at that point. I made him take it back (something I've never done before) for a new plate, and got a hot one almost instantly- it took me really complaining to get some prompt hot food for once. And no, I couldn't just talk to the head server about it, because he was MIA for most of the cruise.

The ship wasn't overcrowded or sold out, so this wasn't due to number of passengers (I've had good service on full cruises, anyway). It was just an incompetent dining room team.

The experience was bad enough to make me consider skipping the dining room entirely on my next cruise. I'm not going to sail the Dream again for a while. Hope the situation is better on the other ships. If it keeps being like this, I will stop sailing DCL despite finally becoming platinum. DCL charges way too much to offer Carnival-level dining room service.

Our last cruise on the Dream in March had issues as well. server forgot an appetizer one night, didn’t bring DHs wine until after dinner one night, and brought wrong entree another night. But he sure didn’t forget the excellent speech each night

 

[CarolynU]

On our last DCL cruise ( August 22) DCL Magic in two hours we had only managed to have the appetiser and entree so if we wanted to see the show we had to miss desert and coffee.
We had the wine package but they only had one red wine on it as supplies were short.
Most of the food was luke warm. I took to having steak each night as it was cooked to order. Head server introduced herself day one then was nowhere to be seen. I asked our server where she was and was told they are so short staffed that she was needed in the kitchen every night to help out. She did come out for a chat (I wasn’t actually complaining ) because it was blatantly obvious that everyone was trying their hardest but the dining rooms were chronically understaffed. The HS said that DCL were finding it impossible to recruit enough staff and she had recently lost yet more staff as they had gone on shore leave and weren’t returning.
Merchandise was very limited. Only ladies tops available were either small or 2 Xl! The expected replacements hadn’t arrived.
The three shows were of the normal high standard but there was very little outside entertainers brought on, so that there was little to do in the evenings apart from trivia.
The kids pool was so crowded that they closed it every so often to ensure that everyone had a mandatory restroom break ! That was strange because all the children got out, put a towel around them, and sat shivering on the deck until a whistle was blown and they all got straight back in again very few of whom had actually used the bathrooms!
So after 18 cruises I’m not cruising DCL this year to hope that all these post covid hiccups can be addressed. I’ve sailed Princess twice instead and enjoyed it.
However, I may return to another cruise with DCL maybe September 2024. We shall see.

 

[DCLMP]

Maybe they need to limit capacity until they can fix the staffing issues. That wouldn't be good for pricing on our end though. If they keep getting a lot of negative feedback and reviews capacity may lower on its own.

 

[Aquamom]

We were on the Magic in March. Dinner service was way off--incredibly slow & a few mistakes. But we learned that ours was the first cruise after a promotion for our table's Server from Assistant Server. We relaxed, cut him some slack & just enjoyed conversation. Yes, DCL food is mediocre (at best) but we just try to enjoy the experience.

With the Wish coming on line last year, many of the best servers (& other staff) were poached from the older ships so there are lots of new promoters & new hires that are still learning.

We cruised the Wish and the servers were actually more new than seasoned! The first we heard was that the best servers were being poached and that was not the case. The Wish was probably the worst service we've had in our 15 cruises! We did say something and it got better. We knew the Kitchen and Dining Manager from the Dream and she was saying most serving staff brand new. They just hadn't gotten used to everything. We still had a great time. The Wish had other issues for us.... But still will cruise Disney and looking forward to our 11 night WBTA in September