DCL carry-on alcohol policy changing Sept. 30 2015

[tinkerone]

I believe that may be just for special concierge returning passengers unfortunately. Happy to be proved worng though!

fanboy??

 

[mom2mizmous]

People need to complain to DCL::

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/contact-us/

Highly doubt they will listen!

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Maybe because I'm not a heavy drinker but it doesn't impact me cruising with DCL. I have packed liquor before but pretty much never touched it. I am surprised that wine and beer is allowed but not liquor, however. To me that's like the places that offer free coffee but not soda. I don't drink coffee. Not fair.

 

[mmouse37]

I am not a big drinker but I did like to bring on some wine and some rum. I get why they are doing this but also think it should have been brought to fruition after a longer lead time to so people who paid in full had the option to cancel if they wanted to.

We have done DCL since their first cruise with passengers back in 1998 and have seen a few drunk incidents onboard over the years. The most recent on the Fantasy in March when a man in only his underwear was walking through La Piazza at about midnight. We were sitting at the carousel bar and he just came stumbling by, clearly intoxicated. The staff were trying to find out who he was but he had no ID on him (I guess he didn't have pockets in his tighty whities LOL). No lanyard either. It was quite the site.

Another drunk incident onboard DCL was when a drunk threatened to kill his relative who was watching his little 3 year old. That one was scary and security was called and the drunk led away.

We were also onboard when the teen jumped off Deck 4 while we were docked in St. Thomas. He was reprimanded pretty harshly by the Captain and from what we could figure out was not allowed to leave his cabin for the rest of the cruise unless accompanied by his parents.

There were a few more as well. Drunk can happen on any cruise line.

MJ

 

[tidefan]

Well for us this is just another reason we now need to look elsewhere. Although we have been sailing Disney almost exclusively for the last 13 +years, Our little family of adults has been feeling that disney values us less and less lately anyway! Very few non- connecting cabins on new ships (and almost all in worst area right next to noisy elevators/stairs.) We are NOT heavy drinkers, but do enjoy our tropical drinks on our balcony without having to pay disney for them (I do not drink wine or beer.) With this new change and the poorly designed adult areas on the new ships, we may be sadly saying goodbye to DCL . Will really miss the outstanding staff esp in the dining room and serenity bay on cast away cay, but the pricing, lack of truly dedicated adult areas (quiet cove is never really adult with kids walking through constantly-due to cabin placement- and the splash pool above!!- satellite falls often have parents with strollers and such who just "happen" to be there). Our little family of adults will have to find another line to sail... RCCL I guess here we come!

Princess is another great option!

 

[mevans9066]

I know right? The bring your own alcohol convinced several of our family to come, and I still haven't broken the news to them for our first, and probably last Disney cruise in October. I know it will be a great cruise, but it is SO EXPENSIVE. At least we could justify it a little with the extra perks....that keep disappearing, lol

There is alot of chatter going on the Disney Cruise Line facebook page tonight as well. Some of it, much more "rude" than the convo we have going here. It is amazing to me how people want to bash the posts of others who are now worried about their alcohol budgets. Disagree? sure...but maybe lay off the personal attacks. It does not make you an alcoholic because you would rather spend $18 on an entire bottle of Smirnoff than on two watered down drinks, it makes you smart or frugal. If a mom wants to pre-purchase some souvenirs at the Disney outlet and bring them when the kiddies ask for something, is she a cheap, deceiver of children? Things changing last minute on people who had purchased a certain product, for a certain perceived value is the issue. It is really rather distasteful to see how adults bash each other over expressing a dislike of Disney's handling of the situation.

For anyone looking for an email address other than the Disney Cruise line contact form: dcl.guest.communications@disneycruise.com

My post on DCL'S latest fb post has gotten over 60 likes, and several replies with some being not so nice. I didn't think I said anything necessarily wrong or rude In my original comment. But I guess they felt comfortable behind the safety of their keyboard to shame on me for letting no rum ruin a family cruise. Which is not what I said at all! So I just replied with this ,but my funny Thumper pic of "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all" got deleted by someone!

 

[EllinK]

We always bring our own wine because the Disney selection is terrible. I wouldn't mind so much if they took this opportunity to upgrade the selections.

 

[jpeppers]

And they're allowing you to restock in port, meaning that on all but the longest cruises, this still amounts to about a bottle of wine a day for adults.



It saddens me that people might be so dependent on alcohol to enjoy their cruise that they might completely cancel it due to being restricted.

Sounds a little judgmental? It is not about being dependent on alcohol, it is VACATION! I know a lot of people who only drink when they are on vacation because it is when they can take the time to relax. You used wine as an example but I am a 230 lb man and I drink beer. I am allowed a 6 pack of 12 oz Beers for the 1st 3 days of the cruise. That would be 2 12 oz Beers a day, not sure if you drink Beer but that is next to nothing. I'm not that mad about the policy change because I go to the Bar but some people attitudes irritate me because they can't seem to realize they are taking away a perk that we pay a huge premium for.

 

[LSUfan4444]

I think our cost for a family of three in an interior stateroom on the Fantasy in June was about $5000 for a 7 day cruise.

A couple months ago we also booked a 7 day cruise aboard the Liberty of the Seas out of Galveston (granted we are comparing Western on RC to Eastern for DCL) on their Dreamworks counterpart to DCL. The ship has an ice skating rink, rock climbing wall, Free Flow surf simulator, character meals and will have a water slide as well by the time we sail in February. The cost including gratuities is $1800 and if you include the premium drink package for the wife and I, it brings it to $2500.

I'm looking to compare how I like RC's (at more than half the price) answer to a Disney Cruise after taking so many more geared towards adults.

Also, I don't know if it's been said in the first 20 pages, but I think the next news we will hear about is a drink package. Probably not unlimited and maybe not as many as Carnival, but it's the next logical step after dropping this bomb.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Its no surprise this happened, but there should have been more lead time for guests so they could change there minds before they are PIF.

AKK

 

[ZephyrHawk]

It saddens me that people might be so dependent on alcohol to enjoy their cruise that they might completely cancel it due to being restricted.

Really? You think that's what this is about? Okay, let's try this another way:

Yesterday, DCL announced that it will now cease providing free buffet on its ships. It seems that people were abusing their generous all you can eat policy. Also, people were carrying their food all over the ship, making a mess and disturbing other guests. Plus, obviously, Disney was losing money on these folks. It's not like you can't get buffet, you just have to go to Palo and pay their cover charge. You can't complain, DCL can change any of its policies on a moment's notice. And it's just too bad that you may have planned your vacation budget not to include paying for lunches or any food on Castaway Cay.

It saddens me that some people (I won't say it out loud in my post, but I'm particularly accusing the overweight ones) are so dependent on their food fix that they might consider cancelling their cruise because of something like this.

 

[JERME81]

Some people are missing the point. Not everyone is out to get fall down drunk on their cruise. The reason we like to take our own is that it saves money. Who doesn't like to save money? A bottle of vodka or rum or whatever you like costs less than $20 and will probably make at least dozen drinks. Disney charges $10-$14 for a drink so go figure how much you would spend versus the $20 bottle of vodka you brought on.

 

[Chris_1776]

would you share the admins first name out of interest?

Based on my wife's screen capture, I believe the particular admin's name is Amber. My wife started doing this as she noticed all the posts being deleted and was quite appalled. What I don't get is that the admission's claim that they are doing this (deleting posts) because things are getting out of hand. As a moderator on another online forum, I understand when you have 20K+ people on a board and a hot topic comes up. 20K people are going to vent. Get used to it. If they can't handle the surge of posts, find a new occupation. As a Mod, they shouldn't be playing censor, instead, be sure that users are attacking the issue and not each other. And as far as removing someone from a closed group, in our forum, the offender's actions are revised by several moderators, a PM is sent with to the offender with most likely a warning (only in extreme cases of abuse that they are removed without notice).

 

[ptcbass]

We are actually surprised by this. Disney is one of the few that allow alcohol and some of their customers really love that option. I can see where those that don't know any better might think it is because there are too many drunks wondering around the ship. Just because you want to bring some alcohol on board doesn't automatically mean you plan on getting wasted. I have never seen anyone drunk or tossing their cookies or anything like that on a Disney cruise. Just because it is a family vacation and Disney doesn't mean there still won't be plenty of alcohol on board. I can even see them limiting how much you can bring but I don't agree with the new limitations. I usually bring a couple mini bottles of rum and now I can't but I could still bring beer? I just don't get them not allowing anything other than beer or wine unless it is strictly greed. It won't effect me much but I still don't like the new rules.

Also now what happens when I am in the Caribbean and buy some rum to take back home? I guess they take it from me and hold it and I hope that I see it again. Yeah the perks are disappearing.

 

[cwdefouw]

I don't have a problem with them changing the policy if it was due to abuse, but I just can't imagine that was the reason, they may claim it was, but this is really just a money grab.

My real problem is that they are changing the policy with very little notice and many (including us) are past PIF dates.

We didn't abuse the old policy, in fact we only brought one bottle, maybe two, for two adults. But it was rum and or vodka. Which is now not allowed.

We would be perfectly happy, it they would just allow one bottle of spirits per adult.

(sigh) one more reason to find another cruise line. I may not be able to bring by rum and vodka on those either, but at least I am not paying a premium price for what is rapidly becoming just another mediocre cruise line.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Meh, it doesn't really affect us as we don't drink hard alcohol and rarely have beer/wine, but I do think that it's crazy how soon that will be implemented. Especially for the guests who are already PIF and can't cancel.

I do believe that the change has been made so that Disney can get ALL the monies though...

 

[Wes1stTrip2016]

I was able to upsell my husband on a DCL cruise because of the liberal alcohol policy, I see him changing his mind now, as we like to drink (NOT get drunk) on our vacation.

This is disappointing news for us.

 

[tgropp]

After visiting the world for 30 plus years, I have been debating about the option of Disney not receiving the money that I used to give them. I already have decided that there will be no 2016 visit. I understand the need to make good profits but when pure greed/ benefits constantly being taken away occurs on a regular basis, I feel the need to protest in my own way that I know how. I was always prepared to pay DOUBLE for a Disney cruise because I enjoyed certain benefits. Not no more. JMHO though as this will not affect all vuests

 

[Pleglech]

Just fired off an email to DCL registering my objection.
CAN'T WAIT for the canned response.

 

[moko]

Sad for the October cruisers that like to bring on some alcohol and have PIF already. We brought a bottle last cruise but couldn't finish it. Luckily, we're cruising once more before they implement this but may not book any future cruises with DCL. The swift change has left me wondering if this change came about due to liability or legal reasons. Probably not (because allowances are made for wine and beer... ) but instead, it may be all about the profits.
I'm now suspicious they will also raise their prices on their drinks to really maximize profits.