jplee3

Thanks for the input. Very good point on the capacity. It's going to be interesting going next year (we have a 4-day planned on the Magic out of Miami). Last one we went on was the Fantasy out of Orlando (Eastern Carribbean IIRC) in 2019. Prior to that we went on a Royal Carribbean to Alaska and a couple more Disney Cruises (Wonder 2011 and Fantasy 2014). Overall, with the exception of RC (which was nothing memorable shipwise, especially in comparison with DCL) we always felt our DCL experiences were great. Maybe the novelty started wearing off but by the 3rd cruise? I feel like this may be one of those things where "the first time is always sweetest", as with many things in life. Particularly when it comes to food, for some reason you always remember the food being bigger and better the first time lol. I still remember lobster night on the first Disney Cruise and that was unforgettable, but maybe because I ate like 3x ginormous lobster tails🤣 That said, I think you're right as far as what one might consider fancy. While I don't consider Cheesecake & Olive Garden to be "fancy" by any means, I thought the DCL food in the MDRs for the most were much better than the aforementioned. I'd say probably closer to but still couple or few steps down from Ruth's Chris (we don't eat out all that often, so I can't think of the best land-based restaurant to compare them to hahaha). Given that, I at least have a baseline expectation since we've been on a few of these cruises. I was reading a one or two reviews here where the reviewer, who has been on many Disney Cruises as far back as 2010, had gone more recently in the past couple years and noted quality of food seemingly dropping post-COVID. Another point someone mentioned, regarding the Norway one my friend went on, is that they were very likely using European-branded/based food items in the kitchen, which may very well have had an impact on preference. I figure food & meat quality/standards and preferences between the US and EU will differ anywhere between slightly to widely hahaha

Hey all, My buddy just went on what I believe was the 10-day Norway trip on the Dream (end of July) and ended up getting COVID from it 😞 That aside, he expressed his disappointment with the cruise in general - felt way too packed and crowded, the room he was in smelled, and the food wasn't very good either. And perhaps the most surprising thing, unless she was hiding, is that he never saw Elsa (this is very odd considering it was a cruise in Norway lol). Anyway, all of this really came as a surprise to me, having been on 3x Disney Cruises and having a great time on all of them with little to no complaints. Of course, last time we went was 2019 pre-COVID so I wonder if there have been changes in the perception and expectations of what a cruise should/shouldn't be. Also, I've only ever been on the Wonder and the Fantasy and those were all 7-day trips (and to Mexico or the Caribbean). My understanding is that the Fantasy and Dream are pretty similar though but I could be mistaken. Was anyone else on this cruise and what were your experiences? I'm wondering if there's some disparity between certain ships and also perhaps the location of where they're sailing. I would have thought the cruises would be consistently excellent but apparently it's not the case. My friend has pretty high standards and I've always thought of DCL as being pretty top-notch (especially when it comes to food and entertainment for the kids) so am surprised that it didn't live up to his expectations.