r/dcl

I just wanted to share a fun story that has happened to us on DCL. We cruised to Alaska on DCL post-covid (we had a Covid trip planned that was cancelled, and in exchange we got 50% off any future sailing. We used this to book a 1-bedroom concierge suite for Alaska). Our daughter met some friends on the cruise, and really got close to one girl in particular. We happened to be flying on the same airline out of Vancouver and got to talking with the parents. When we got home, our daughter stayed in touch with the girl. Once day, the girl casually mentioned that her mom had asked when the next cruise we were going on was and they might coordinate. They ultimately did, and we really got to know the parents well. From there, we have travelled several times with them. Unfortunately, the husband/dad passed away unexpectedly last fall. But, we have continued traveling with mom and daughters since then, including a 2 week London/Paris trip and now our upcoming Spain/Greece/Italy trip. I would never have thought that a cruise would turn into life-long travel buddies, but I am so thankful it has. So parents: let your kids have fun, let them meet new people and have new experiences. You may get your own friends out of it.

Hello, can someone give me an approximate time it takes to get off of Disney Wish, walk to the beach and find a spot at Castaway Cay? I'm curious to see if it's a long process / walk, to help determine if we visit the beach or skip it and just stay on the boat.

This is coming home. Not sure how we could get off the boat quicker? The next one isn’t until 4:30. I’d hate to wait that long. Especially if there are delays. My kids wouldn’t be able to wait around that long.

My husband and I think about getting 75 min body massage on Destiny early June. But I came across with the Rainforest pass. Is the massage extra great worth the money or just a day pass Rainforest spa is good enough?

I’m planning our first Disney cruise and want to take advantage of the 50% kids offer. I’ve been leaning towards one of the Fantasy sailings but the Wish is a contender too… I’ve heard so many negative things about Wish 4 night cruises that I’ve had my doubts about it but there are so many features that I think our family would enjoy (Frozen dining, Toy Story splash pad) that I can’t count it out completely. Trying to make a final decision between a fantasy 5 night with Pixar day at sea, a fantasy 4 night or a wish 4 night and man, there’s just so many variables to consider! Ftr my kids will be 2.5 and 4.5 when we sail. Any input would be appreciated!

Hello,

I read through the guidelines for wine and beer and just want to make sure that if we have 2 adults in our room both can bring 2 drinks (as in 4 drinks options total)?

FOMO on Alaskan Cruise

We’re going on the Disney Wonder soon to Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan (like REALLY soon, a few days from now), and I have a mix of buyer’s remorse and FOMO for shore excursions.

This is our first Alaskan cruise (done plenty from Florida) and we’re beyond excited. I don’t believe this will be a once-in-a-lifetime for us.

Currently our plan is for the White Pass Scenic Railway in Skagway, Juneau we have something through the cruise line of “Mendenhall glacier and whale quest”, and for Ketchikan we didn’t book anything.

My thought was to cancel the Juneau excursion and just rent a car to drive up to the glacier, maybe hike it, and then potentially find a local whale watching boat trip in the afternoon or around lunch. I’m pretty happy with Skagway, unless we’re just missing the mark with it. Ketchikan just didn’t have any excursions that caught our eye.

We are typically a family that just wanders off the boat and never does an excursion, but rather enjoy the local culture ourselves and explore what we can. 2 kiddos in elementary school if that helps the calculus. In 5 cruises we’ve done 1 excursion and we’re really disappointed with it (Baths at Tortola, BVI). Not saying we’d be automatically disappointed in the Alaskan ones, but we usually lean towards self-guided stuff.

What are we missing? Is the railway worth the $650 for the 2 hour ride, or are we better off hiking somewhere? Is $200 normal for a car rental in Juneau or should we cab/bus to the glacier (I’ve heard by the time the bus gets there its already packed)?

Sorry for the somewhat disjointed post. Going through a super busy season in life right now and the cruise planning is adding more stress than excitement.

I have a 5-night cruise on the Dream this fall (9/27-10/2). Our cruise is not advertised as a Halloween cruise, but the one immediately after us is. I can't imagine they can fully turn the ship in the few hours between debarkation and embarkation of the next group--is it possible/likely we'll get to see them decorating the ship?

*edit: question answered! Thank you for the info!

Hey all! 10 cruises under my belt, but never used DCL transport for any of them. I'm considering using it for an upcoming trip. I keep hearing stories about late port arrivals, but I read somewhere that higher CC levels get earlier pick up times. Is this true? Also, I don't pick a PAT, correct?

Hi. Haven’t cruised since 2024. Just booked a July 2026 Treasure cruise.

Have sailed on Magic and Fantasy in 2024. Had a placeholder which expires in August. So consumed it.

Please advice any experience on board or Port Adventure that I absolutely must book on my 7 night Western Caribbean.

Also any areas on board we definetly need to check out.

Please note - We don’t drink alcohol so alcohol tastings aren’t for us.

We are 2 adults. 25-30 years in age. Just Disney adults who love Aladdin, hence the ship.

My husband and I just got off our first Disney cruise (Destiny May 9-14) and he has obsessively been planning our next one. He showed me the discounts in the USAA page and it’s INSANE how much cheaper the cruises are. I searched on this subreddit for some personal experiences, but didn’t see anything.

So my question is, have you used USAA member travel privileges, and how was your experience? Are there any drawbacks? It almost seems too good to be true. We are seeing cruise prices 50% less than what we see on the DCL site.

Hi! Looking to book our second Disney cruise, traveling with my Mom. We will be 35 and 74 at the time of sailing; our first DCL cruise was this past April on the Wish and we LOVED it! We would prefer a slightly longer sailing (5 night min) for our next one so we thought of the Destiny or the Fantasy. We will not be traveling with any children in our party.

What we loved about the WISH:
- it felt new and sparkly (similar to how I assume the Destiny would be)
- Our verandah stateroom
- Palo dinner

Why we think we would prefer the Destiny over the Fantasy:
- The overall Heroes and Villains theme - looks so much cooler than the Wish theming! I was never really a Disney Princess fan but everything from the Marvel bars to the Cruella bar look awesome on Destiny
- Newer Ship / staterooms would be newer than those on Fantasy
- I absolutely LOVE the Lion King (I’m a peak millennial) so I think I’d love this over the Frozen dinner show we had on the Wish
- The Hercules and Frozen stage shows - versus the Fantasy has Aladdin (We just saw it on the Wish) and Frozen.

Why we think we would prefer the Fantasy over the Destiny:
- The dining! The dining rooms are all different than the ones we just experienced on the Wish. Three new venues, compared to if we went with the Destiny it would be only one new venue (TLK theme show)
- The adults only pool area looks AWESOME (according to videos). I thought the Wish was great but now I see why people think it’s so tiny! Fantasy looks so nice
- This ship seem to have some classic cruise things we missed out on by sailing on the Wish - a walking track and mini golf being two of them. The Fantasy seems to have both!

Some things holding us back from booking one over the other…
- The Destiny is very similar to the Wish with the dining options
- the staterooms look very dated on the Fantasy
- We might miss the dinner entertainment the Wish class ships have that the Fantasy seemingly lacks

Please convince us to do one over the other! 🤪

Hello,

My family is taking our first Disney Cruise this year. I have multiple food allergies, some of which are quite rare, so I’m a little bit worried about the rotational dining. I’ve been to Disneyland and they were super helpful with my allergies so I’m assuming it’s the same on the ship, but I’ve looked ahead at the menus and at two of the three restaurants there isn’t a single item in the menu I can have without adjustments (and most are bigger adjustments than just leaving off the sauce or something).

There doesn’t appear to be anything else open for dinner though, other than specialty dining. I’m not really sure what would be best in this case. I absolutely hate having to get a custom meal because the staff work hard enough as it is and I don’t want to make their jobs harder. Normally I’d just go to the buffet (because funnily enough it’s usually easier for me to eat there given that there is more options and the items are typically simpler with less ingredients) but it doesn’t look like it’s open.

Has anyone else been in this situation? How did you handle it?

Thanks!

All things being equal, would you rather do a cruise with just stops at Castaway and Lookout, or one with both those ports plus Nassau? I’m looking at a 5 night on the Fantasy for January. We have 2 little kids and I’ve heard Nassau isn’t a great port for little ones so I thought I’d just do the 2 port itinerary, but I’m wondering if the 3 port might be better since we could enjoy a less crowded ship on the Nassau day. Thoughts?

I want to book Palo for my mom and me on the Destiny when we go in September. We’ve been on the wish before. The marvel dinner show was good, not my favorite. We are going on a 3 night sailing. For anyone who’s been on this sailing before, is the dinner show the same ant-man, wasp, spider man show that it is on the Wish or is it the Groot dance party?

ETA: thank you to those who responded. Whatever I read before this said it was a dance party. I didn’t know that was on the Treasure. Trivia is fun for me and this being our third wish class cruise, I think I’ll try to book Palo during 1923.