Staycation, Sea and Sailings Mini-Trippie: DCL B2B August 2021

[iheartwdw]

Staycation, Sea and Sailings Mini-Trippie: DCL B2B August 2021


Introduction

Hi,

We have just come back from a ‘Magical’ trip on the Disney Magic and I thought I would write up a mini-trippie to summarise some of our experiences and thoughts that might be helpful to others that are off on one of the Disney Magic at Sea staycation cruises.

The cast is made up of me (Laura) and my husband (Nathan). We are both huge Disney fans and have been lucky enough to travel to four of the Disney parks. We have also been on a few DCL voyages around the Bahamas. Our aim is to visit all of the Disney parks and to set sail on all of the DCL ships - we can dream!

For this trip we booked B2B sailings from Southampton. The first was a two night sailing on the 4th August and the second sailing was for three nights, so we were on board for five nights in total. I managed to persuade Nathan into a B2B trip, as the extra itinerary would take us to gold Castaway Club membership… Whoop!

We didn’t want to get off of the ship, as we had such a fantastic time and it was amazing to be back in the Disney bubble. I am very envious of any Dibbers who have an upcoming Magic trip, you will have the best time. If you do not want any spoilers though, you might be best to click away now.

Anyway, that’s enough of an intro, on with the mini report!

Embarkation: Port Testing and Welcome Aboard
It took us around 2 1/2 hours to drive down to Southampton. Our PAT was for 12:45 and as traffic was light, we were 30 minutes early. As we pulled in to the car park, one of the employees let us know that we could start the boarding and testing process no earlier than half an hour before our PAT, so we made perfect time.

We parked in APB parking, which is on the port property and we could see the ship from our space. As we got out of the car we were approached by more friendly staff to organise our luggage. We did not receive the luggage tags in the post from Disney beforehand, so they noted our cabin number and did this for us now. They then took our suitcases away, which miraculously ended up in our room a few hours later.

Luggage sorted, we joined the short queue to enter the terminal building. Within five minutes we were having our Prenetics QR codes checked by a member of the team and being directed to a testing bay. We had to swab our noses only and then pass it back in the tube to the testers, in a bag labelled with our details.

I could not allow myself to get too excited for the trip, until the results came back. We were shown to seats, socially distanced among families to wait. The wifi was appalling though! We were tying to refresh emails constantly and I was ready to ask a team member. It felt like ages, when it fact it was only 15 minutes before our results came back as negative and we were free to move on to the next part of embarkation.

The next stop was to check-in and have passports checked with a CM, before security and scans. After all of this, we were free to wait for our boarding number to be called in the terminal. We were boarding group 2 and were onboard by 1:45 - so, 1 1/2 hours from pulling up in the car park to being onboard the ship.

It was overwhelming to be back and I admit to having watery eyes as Mickey and Minnie welcomed us back via a little show.

We were directed by CMs to Fathoms, where another CM checked that we knew how to use the app and asked us to go to our muster point and scan the letter, to show that we had completed the drill, which we duly did. We were then free to explore!

As we were amongst the earlier groups, we mooched around and took empty deck pictures, watched some more families board and had something to eat. By the time we went up to our cabin to drop off our hand luggage, the room was ready and our suitcases were outside the room not long after. We found embarkation to be a smooth process, despite the stress of testing.

Cabin: Oceanview
We booked a GTY cabin, which was a first for us as we normally choose our room whilst booking, but this worked out a lot cheaper. We opted for an Oceanview room with a large porthole, a verandah would have been lovely, but the price again was not! We had a GTY for the lowest category and ended up being upgraded to the highest, but what we most appreciated was that Disney listened to our request and let us have the same room for both cruises. This meant we didn’t have to re-pack on our B2B day.

Our cabin was 5518, deck 5 forward.

I was a little worried at first as it was not far from the lifts and kids clubs, but we didn’t hear any noise from either. It ended up being a perfect location for the theatre, shops and atrium. The deck was also ideal to walk along to get quickly to the aft of the ship. I would highly recommend this area and would choose this cabin again.

Food: MDRs, Quick Service, Room Service and Cocktails
Well, we ate way too much, as is the way on a Disney cruise! We loved lots of the options and enjoyed the quality of the food overall.

Nathan’s favourite MDR was Lumiere’s. He loved the escargot. My food on the first seating here was average, the lamb was a little chewy, but I gave it another chance on the second seating and it was delicious.

My favourite had to be Rapunzel’s, simply for the theming. I wasn’t actually that big of a fan of the food options here, but appreciated the aesthetics of the restaurant and loved the show.

We tried the quick service options around the pool during the day, with the shawarma being a big hit, especially for Nathan. We also ate at Cabana’s across the trip for lunch and breakfast, this was probably our least favourite option. The food was good, but there was nothing stand out for us and I found breakfast a little greasy.

One thing that I did thoroughly enjoy were the cocktails! I had each of the cocktails of the day, a blue tang (glowtini) and a Pina colava - which was the absolute best and delicious! COTD were $6.50 before tax and happy hours had 30% off of drinks.

Another hit was room service, which we like to have as a mid-afternoon snack - we are on holiday! Nathan loves the cheeseboard and I love the premium bars and cookies…drool!

There are so many options and so many tasty treats, if only I could be tucking into them now.

Palo: Brunch
It was our 9 year anniversary the day before we boarded, so we booked Palo brunch as a belated anniversary treats for ourselves.

We have tried the brunch on previous sailings on the Dream and although we did slightly miss the buffet, we still had a fabulous time and had to waddle out as we ate too much.

The best thing on the menu in my opinion, is the giant strawberry Mickey waffle, I love it so much! We tend to share everything we order, but Nathan didn’t even get a look in on this. We also ordered the antipasti meat and cheese selection, a frittata, stone baked pizza, lasagna, chicken parmigiana, pistachio bar and melting chocolate pudding.

It was all epic: fresh, well cooked, great quality ingredients and attentive service. The only thing I wouldn’t rave about is the chicken parm. I loved the risotto, but the chicken was poached and I am personally not a massive fan of the texture, but this is just personal preference. Everything was demolished between us and washed down with a glass of Prosecco, which is included in the $45pp price.

If you are hesitating to book Palo, we would urge you to try it.

Characters: Meet and Greets
Now, this is my only negative of the entire cruise and it is only a small critique. We were not a fan of the ‘smile and wave’ character meet set-ups.

You couldn’t really interact with the characters, especially when they were in the atrium or even get the best pictures. I completely understand why they are doing this and safety comes first, but having experienced previous character meets, we were disappointed.

The ones on deck or in the theatre/cinema were a bit better, as you had more one-on-one time, especially if it was a face character such as a princess that you could talk too. There were also more surprises character meets, such as those that nipped into the quizzes we took part in.

Overall though, as you didn’t know who was going to be out, where and when, they were more down to luck and we didn’t go out of our way to see anyone because of this.

Hopefully, we will be able to get back to the traditional cuddles and interactions in the not so distant future.

Entertainment: Shows, Cinema, Activities (Free & Paid) and Pools
There was so much to do on board, I was originally worried as adults we would run out of things to do, but even with five nights on board we didn’t manage to squeeze everything in.

We loved the shows, both the Broadway style Tangled and Dream, as well as the Frozen party on deck. They were fun and made you really feel back in the Disney bubble.

We also loved the sessions that we paid for. We opted for the margarita and tequila tasting, as well as the liquor session. They were informative and excellent value for money. Nathan helped me finish my rum and even ended up a little tipsy after this session.

There were also lots of complimentary activities onboard, such as Marvel trivia, craft sessions and quizzes. We won a medal during the Disney tunes quiz and our friends who travelled on the second sailing were nominated by us for the ‘Match your Mate’ late night competition which was hysterical!

We also managed to watch Black Widow and Jungle Cruise during our trip, it was great to be back in a cinema and these were both super films.

Despite one day and some periods of rain, we even had time to get in the pool, hot tubs and on the slides. It felt like we were abroad and back in the Bahamas. Oh, to be back there now!

Service
The Disney service was the high standard that we have come to expect throughout our sailings. CMs did not pass you without saying hello. Our room host and servers went above and beyond.

Our cabin was spotless and Jose always took the time to speak to us when he saw us outside our room. We were lucky enough to have our restaurant team for both cruises, they even organised for our friends to join our table. Chloe and Ralph were friendly, personable, know how to make a legendary Shirley Temple and made sure we had the best time.

Shopping: Merchandise and Haul
There are lots of posts online stating how DCL are struggling to restock and unfortunately we found this to be true. Most of the popular pieces of Merch were missing e..g spirit jerseys, lounge fly bags, Pandora charms etc.

There was a little more on our first cruise, including cuddly toys and the animators knife. These went out of stock after the first night and we did not see any of them return, the shops were decimated by our fifth night. We have never seen anything like it before.

I was very lucky to get a Donald backpack though. On our first night we were scheduled to see the opening of the Tangled show at 6:00pm, when the shops opened. Nathan kindly joined the long line, whilst I went to the theatre. There were no Loungefly bags and none out the back when he asked. The CM said she would put his name on a waiting list and let him know if anything changed. He was the first on the list and lots of people were waiting to put their names down after him.

We didn’t think much of it, until late afternoon on our second day when Nathan received a notification on his phone to head to the shop. Only two Loungefly bags had been delivered and we got one of them!

He is adorable and I love him so much. Nathan brought me a Dale, thinking we wouldn’t get the backpack as a memento of our trip, he also sold out on the first cruise, as with many other cuddlys. The only thing I would have liked is a magnet, but these disappeared on the first night too. Tip - if you want anything, don’t leave it behind, they sell out super quick!

B2B Process
We have never done a B2B before and I was a little anxious about the process, but it couldn’t have been easier. Disney informed us on our first cruise via cabin voicemail and a notification on our apps of the time and the venue.

We had to go to Fathoms at 10:00am, after breakfast to check-in for our new cruise and we thought at the time to do another LFT. It took 5 minutes max to speak to a CM and get our new room cards. They also informed us that we were the first cruise where a new LFT for adults was not needed anymore. We then waited for just over an hour for the ship to be cleared.

During this time there were cartoons on the screens and refreshments available. We had a couple of cans of pop, but there were also juices, hot drinks and sandwiches available.

We were then free to explore the ship! We got lots of empty ship pictures. The Cove Cafe was open for all ages to use for snacks until the ship fully opened up again, we were told that we could move any barriers if we wanted to go in or out of our cabin areas and pools opened around 12:00 for us to use. There was plenty to do and we were well looked after.

We are B2B converts now and cannot wait to book another.

Disembarkation: Luggage, Tips and Breakfast
Unfortunately, disembarkation day arrived . We were left luggage tags in our cabin the night before if we didn’t want to carry our own luggage off. These had to be outside the room by 10:00pm I believe. We opted to take them ourselves and we left them outside of the restaurant during breakfast.

Breakfast was at the MDR we ate at the night before, Lumiere’s, where we had our serving team one last time. It was lovely to see them and say goodbye, we also took the chance to give them their tip envelopes.

The envelopes and slips were left alongside our luggage tags, the day before. Extra tips can be added at guest services, we thought we could do this by the app, but it wasn’t possible.

There was a fairly large queue to leave after breakfast, which moved really quickly. We had to scan our KTTW card to leave and then we were off - boo! There were announcements that we might have to show our ID in the terminal, but they didn’t seem to be checking anyone and we walked straight through to the carpark.

The journey home took around three hours, as there were a couple of traffic jams. I also had ‘land legs’ for a couple of days when we got back, which Nathan found highly entertaining as he never managed to develop a pair of ‘sea legs’ during our trip.

Overall
If you cannot tell already, we loved our Magic at Sea Staycation - I even looked to see if we could get on another sailing when we got back for a reasonable price (we couldn’t). We have already started to look at the 2022 sailings to see when we can next get a DCL fix, they truly are addictive!

There were so many highs and no real lows, we loved every moment onboard the ship.

I hope this mini-trippie has been informative and if you do have a staycation booked, that you have an amazing time.

Thanks for reading,

Laura Xx

[SuziQz]

Sounds like a lovely trip, thanks for sharing. I’m waiting very impatiently for our turn on Monday

[BevS97]

Great report. I agree with it all. Particularly the atrium characters which I found hard to interact with as well. And the shop was empty for our cruise (the one after yours).

But those things aside it was a fabulous experience.

[RockTheDots]

Great report, it sounds like you had a wonderful time!

We're also doing B2B cruises next month and have GTY rooms booked - how did you request the same room? Via email or phone? We booked as a B2B with WDTC so I'm hoping our bookings are already linked...

Did you find out your dining rotation for both cruises initially or did you have to wait until the 2nd cruise started to find out your dining for that cruise? We're doing two 2-night cruises so I'm hoping we get to try all 3 restaurants and don't get the same rotation on each!

[iheartwdw]

Originally Posted by SuziQz

Sounds like a lovely trip, thanks for sharing. I’m waiting very impatiently for our turn on Monday

See more...

It was fantastic and you are soooo close now, have an amazing time!

Laura Xx

[iheartwdw]

Originally Posted by BevS97

Great report. I agree with it all. Particularly the atrium characters which I found hard to interact with as well. And the shop was empty for our cruise (the one after yours).

But those things aside it was a fabulous experience.

See more...

I'm glad it wasn't just me, the characters were difficult to interact with. Oh no, I hope you still managed to get some goodies for yourself from the shop?

I agree, these were only niggles, as overall it was amazing and I wish I could have stayed even longer

Laura Xx

[iheartwdw]

Originally Posted by RockTheDots

Great report, it sounds like you had a wonderful time!

We're also doing B2B cruises next month and have GTY rooms booked - how did you request the same room? Via email or phone? We booked as a B2B with WDTC so I'm hoping our bookings are already linked...

Did you find out your dining rotation for both cruises initially or did you have to wait until the 2nd cruise started to find out your dining for that cruise? We're doing two 2-night cruises so I'm hoping we get to try all 3 restaurants and don't get the same rotation on each!

See more...

It was fab and you are going to love it!

We used a TA in America and they requested the same room for us, but I imagine you could give them a call and they can add the request to your reservation, as well as making sure the bookings are linked.

We didn't find out our rotations until we were onboard. The first was on our KTTW card and our head server came to speak to us during our first cruise, to see if we wanted a particular order on our second, as we were doing a three night so would be eating at all three. I would imagine you could request the restaurant you haven't yet eaten at then. On our two night, the disembarkation breakfast was at the restaurant we hadn't yet eaten at, so Disney do try and help you experience everything.

I'm so jealous you are yet to experience all of the magic, have the best time

Laura Xx

[margyloveswdw]

Sounds like you had a fab time! Thanks for sharing.

[Disneycraft]

Thanks for sharing it sounds wonderful, I’d love to try a Disney cruise ,maybe one day . I’m an avid Disney scrapbooker and see lots of lovely things in your photo’s to scrapbook xx

[iheartwdw]

Originally Posted by margyloveswdw

Sounds like you had a fab time! Thanks for sharing.

See more...

We really did!

Thanks for reading

Laura Xx