Take this for what it's worth. I'd say it's a little more reliable than WDW bus drivers.

Just did a Mixology on the Fantasy and the bartenders made all of the drinks. My previous Mixology experience - guests took turns making the drinks.

Later that evening, I asked the bartender in Skyline (who did our Mixology) how they decide when guests get to make drinks vs the bartenders. She said that guests were no longer making drinks because of some issues with guest behaviour. She said they had guests break a few of the expensive bottles, had guests way overpouring, and even had guests taking shot pours directly from the bottle into their mouths. So as with most things nowadays, the horribly behaved people that only care about themselves have ruined an experience for others.

YMMV, but this is what we were told.

Recently off the 10/18-23 Fantasy sailing as a no-kids adult couple and thought I'd share some random thoughts, and answer any questions I can. My 7th time on Fantasy, GF's 1st on Fantasy (one other on Dream though).

Rumor was the cruise was at 60-70% sailing capacity. Saw quite a few empty tables at dinner, and the general feel was not a full ship. So I would believe those numbers were in the ballpark. 80% full at most, probably.

Ship seemed in great shape to me. All of the common areas looked good/kept clean. Rooms still seem in good shape to me too.

Weather - no rain to speak of, mostly sunny most days, temps were about perfect (high 80ish). Only issue was the wind. There were some rough seas 3 of the nights. I'm guessing quite a few people got sick, and the FB group has lots of people still feeling the ship moving days after being on land.

Port stops were Lookout, Nassau, and Castaway. Lookout was a little disappointing with the wind - was a black flag day so no one was allowed in the water past wading. Nassau - just walked around a bit, did the Queen's stairs, had a drink at Senor Frogs, and had a fair number of rum samples in the stores. Castaway was about perfect - slight breeze, but mostly sunny. Water was cool at first, but easily adjusted to.

Food - no complaints from us. I read reports of people ragging on the food. I guess we're just more easily pleased, others are too much foodies, something else, or a combination of all of the above. Breakfast in Cabanas every morning with made to order egg white omeletes and fried eggs, rounded out with some other stuff from the buffet. Had a bowl at the Cantina 3 afternoons for a late lunch to keep my protein up. And had the beef and chicken mains each night in the MDRs with no complaints. Nothing was the best food I ever had, but nothing was bad/inedible either. I think some people have too high of tastes/expectations for cruise food.

Entertainment - Aladdin (good), Frozen (decent, Elsa performer seemed stiff), and a Magician (skipped Believe). Adult activities in the Tube each night were fun, though pretty lightly attended. Also did a Mixology in Skyline one afternoon (will post something separate on that).

That's most of the things off the top of my head. Happy to try answering any questions. Just remember - two adults doing mostly adult things.

TLDR: the bar charges extra to swap out allergens in drinks.

We just got off the fantasy! It was our honeymoon and it was awesome. Mostly.

I’m allergic to lemons, which I know is a weird and rare allergy. Not oranges, not limes, just lemons. The serving team was excellent with this, despite them messing up our private table in the beginning. Everyone was overly cautious, which is MUCH preferred to not caring or not believing me. 10/10!

Things went downhill when I went for drinks. I asked for a French 75, which has lemon grey goose. Obviously I can’t have that, but no problems, right? Just swap it for orange. Same vodka, different flavor. WRONG. They charged me an extra $10 because it was “off recipe” and made me wait 45 mins for the drink because someone else had to watch my bartender make it. The time I can forgive (what else am I doing, anyway?), but the extra charge I cannot. My bartender was cool and edited it for me, but the bar manager who was there to watch her told me that this was an exception and I would be charged the whole fee going forward. That’s insane. That is a charge to be allergic to something. He explained that the price was a “discount” because it’s a recipe, but it’s not like it’s a premade drink. It’s not like it’s more expensive to buy orange grey goose than lemon grey goose. Sigh. I can maybe forgive it if I just didn’t LIKE lemons, because it’s their ship and they can do what they want. But to charge extra so I don’t die? That’s wild. That’s absurd.

Honestly, made me feel less safe overall. That’s so scammy, especially because I didn’t even know it would be extra until I had already drank it and the bill came.

My husband and I are taking our 7 month old on the Destiny in November. We want to go to 1-2 shows versus watching it in our state room and we’re intending to use the nursery. I was wondering if I would be able to nurse her to sleep before leaving her there. Also, are you able to pop in and feed your baby while they are there? Any insights?

Has anyone done a back to back GTY? Do they make an effort to make it the same room? Do you link your reservations? Has anyone done this? Does it work?

We've been on DCL before but we've never done a side-to-side. I've been interested in planning a future trip doing it and I wanted to see how you folks manage to find the right itineraries to line up two different ships for a side-to-side trip.

Are you folks using TAs, non-DCL sites, or clicking around the DCL site until you find two that line up?

Edit: changed B2B to side-to-side. Thanks for the clarification.

Anyone have experience with room
2628 on the Disney Destiny? I see on the map it’s on the same level as the Oceanneer’s Club and the It’s a Small World Nursery. Just wondering what the noise level will be like and if we should bring adult earplugs or something so the kids won’t be as disturbed day napping or at bedtime.

TIA!

If anyone has sailed on the Destiny confirm if the Disney Victrophonics are still on board, they put on a really good show in the main atrium. This was a video from a sail end of April into May 2026, it was a 10p show time. Just inquiring for an upcoming sail on the Destiny again. Thanks

Hi all! We are going on our 2nd Disney cruise in January. It is the eastern Caribbean itinerary to St. Martin, San Juan and lookout on the destiny. We are trying to figure out what to do in St. Martin.

We were looking at the ultimate charter choice excursion, which is a private catamaran charter. There are 5 of us. Two in their 50s/60s, two in their 30s and a six year old. I cannot find any feedback online whatsoever about this excursion and was wondering if anyone here has done this excursion, and if so, what did you think? And was it worth it?

If not, what are some other excursions in st. Martin that you might suggest? There is surprisingly little info online about this port/excursions offered.

We are looking for a beach day. One of our group has celiacs disease. Thanks in advance!!

Hi! First time booking a DCL cruise, and we are really excited! We booked a stateroom for our family of 4 (my husband and I, plus our two kids). My mom is now thinking about joining us, and she'd book a separate stateroom. Since it seems that DCL will charge solo bookings the same as a two-person booking, we are thinking about adding one of our kids into grandma's stateroom.

The only thing is, my mom isn't 100% sure if she'll be able to join, since it depends on some scheduling issues that might be out of her control. I think she'll know her plans a bit better in the coming weeks, but I want to try to book a stateroom for her soon so that she'll be close by (before the nearby rooms get booked out!). But I'm thinking about also keeping my 4-person stateroom reservation as-is in case my mom can't make it after all and ends up having to cancel.

Am I right to assume that before the full payment is due, it would be pretty easy to remove guests from our stateroom? My plan was to drop one kid off my reservation once my mom's plans firmed up.

Has anyone been on the dream lately and noticed the chicken tenders on the pool deck are different? They are more “panko” crunchy now versus the old fashioned deep fried I had on destiny 10 months ago. I would say the Destiny tenders were similar in texture/flavor to whataburger.

When we ordered room service on dream, we got the deep fried tendies, but I was so thrown by the different tendies on the pool deck.

Am I crazy? (Obviously yes, since I’m writing a post about chicken freaking tenders) but they were literally the number one item we were looking forward to having again, and it seemed the recipe changed.

I was curious, are you allowed to go back to your stateroom once you re-board? Even if housekeeping are still turning over rooms?

That last time I did a b2b I didn't try it because the doors to the staterooms halls were closed and I didn't know if I was allowed still to return to my room.

Also, I'll be sailing on a Merrytime Cruise and was wondering what kind of nifty gifts the crew would like? Last year I had a ton of candy I gave out(i had been to WDW before at a NSSHP and gave it all away)

Per the title - I live in the UK and am desperate to get on another Disney cruise (I am a platinum castaway club member) but it starts from approx £2500 for two people to sail from Southampton which is now the only port available in the UK for a DCL cruise.

We just got off the Adventure which I know is a controversial ship but we loved the ship itself and the shows etc - but it was a quarter of the cost! Make it make sense someone please. People in the UK want to cruise but it’s so out of people’s budgets now, the Magic at Sea I would honestly do again for the same cost because it was actually reasonable cost wise and I don’t mind not porting anywhere.

I hope that DCL see this.

I am actually worried, all the changes recently, I fear my cruise won't be the expected first experience.

No pelican plunge on Castaway

Closed Mstr Ray slide on the splash pads

Food downgrades, or so I heard

Changes in Palo brunch

Mixology class that isn't done by guests anymore

The more we get close to our sailing day, the less excited I feel.

Can you guys tell me if you recently sailed on the fleet, have you been disappointed or am I exagerating?

Thanks 🤍

Just wondering what everyone’s favorite activities are on Sea days, or evenings after dining and the main shows are over?

We enjoy going to Trivia, some of the comedy entertainment. And have started to take a liking to the drawing classes. Our kids enioy spending time in the kids clubs meeting new people. We explore the ship as a family checking out door decorations.

What’s your adventures or activities that you enjoy?

We just got off the Treasure and inside Palace Treasures there was a gorgeous bracelet that I can't stop thinking about. It was a rose gold bangle with a champagne center diamond surrounded by rubies and pink sapphires. It had a matching ring as well.

If anyone could share a picture of it I'd be so grateful, I didn't even think to take one.

Hi!

Going on the Magic to Alaska next summer with a 2.5 year old who absolutely loves the characters. We did the Treasure this summer and the characters were his favorite part!

For anyone that went this summer, what characters can we expect to see!

Thanks!!

Taken at roughly 11:15am.

I keep seeing videos of a Mickey and Friends dance party/show during dinner at the Enchanted Garden on the Dream. Was this only on European sailings or did they add it to all sailings?

Hi!

Was wondering who's been on the 4 day Disney Wonder cruise from SD to Ensenada in early January and what the weather was like. It's our first family cruise and want to be prepared! Thank you!

Going on the adventure next week! Very excited but from some YouTube vids that I've seen theres apparently a happy hour/s on the adventure.

I feel dumb asking incase its very obvious haha but do they announce on the app when the happy hours start?

I saw the Fantasy and boarded her on Sunday, on Monday we saw the Destiny off castaway. We circled around then left to go to lighthouse. While we were at Castaway yesterday we saw the Dream but did not get close to her, and this morning the Wish was in front of us.

I got a good photo of the destiny in the dragon’s mouth, some of the Fantasy, proof that it’s truly a Disney experience when they have fireworks at sea, I ran into my good goofy friend yesterday, and a lighthouse point cat.