Disappointing ticketed events - Frozen and Princess Meet and Greets

xiphoid76

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Had a fabulous vacation on the Disney Dream last week - we did a back-to-back on the 3/24 and 3/27 sailings. Overall cruise was a solid 'A'. We were very disappointed in one thing thought - the ticketed Princess and Frozen Meet and Greets. We had done this before with just the two of us and we loved it - during Frozen we hugged Olaf, then met Anna and Elsa for pictures. It was great! During the Princess meetup we had 5 Princesses with hardly any wait.

On the 3/27 cruise we traveled with my niece and she was super excited...until we went to the Frozen meetup and there was no Anna or Olaf. Then we went to the Princess meetup and there were just two Princesses - Cinderella and Belle. Not sure if this is the new norm, but it was the only hiccup in an otherwise great cruise. We won't do the ticketed meetups again in the future and stick with the regular character appearances.
 
Sometimes people get sick or have things happen. Unlike the parks where there are more potential princesses to invite to a meet/meal, the ships are limited by their casts. And with Frozen, unless Anna or Olaf have other friends to play with them, there are really no replacements.

I hope it didn't ruin your vacation! :)
 
While I have never seen Olaf at a meet & greet, we've always had Anna and at least 3 princesses. Unfortunately I think it was a rough day. I'm sorry to hear that.
 


We have never had it be so few. We have only seen Olaf on the Dream and normally Anna and Elsa on all the ships. Princess meet has always been at least 4 princesses.
 
Good to know. We are doing a b2b as well, and I was debating on whether to get M&G tix for both legs. Now I think I will.
 
I'm sorry that happened. That does seem to be an unusual situation but odd that it happened at both. We've only seen Olaf once and had less than 4 princesses once - both on the Magic in November. When it works that you see 3-4 princesses at once, it's good since you don't have to go separately.
 


Olaf should be an easier one to sub in a friend, as he doesn't sign stuff (twigs for arms). I think trainees often play him. But height, obviously, may be a limiter.
 
Had a fabulous vacation on the Disney Dream last week - we did a back-to-back on the 3/24 and 3/27 sailings. Overall cruise was a solid 'A'. We were very disappointed in one thing thought - the ticketed Princess and Frozen Meet and Greets. We had done this before with just the two of us and we loved it - during Frozen we hugged Olaf, then met Anna and Elsa for pictures. It was great! During the Princess meetup we had 5 Princesses with hardly any wait.

On the 3/27 cruise we traveled with my niece and she was super excited...until we went to the Frozen meetup and there was no Anna or Olaf. Then we went to the Princess meetup and there were just two Princesses - Cinderella and Belle. Not sure if this is the new norm, but it was the only hiccup in an otherwise great cruise. We won't do the ticketed meetups again in the future and stick with the regular character appearances.
Did you ask what happened to Anna and Olaf?
 
Olaf should be an easier one to sub in a friend, as he doesn't sign stuff (twigs for arms). I think trainees often play him. But height, obviously, may be a limiter.

Not really as there are only so many entertainment crew members on board the boat who are probably doing other greats or doing other things like working the lines for different characters or getting ready for the show that evening.
 
Did you ask what happened to Anna and Olaf?

No, but we did ask at the Princess meetup - the handler for Belle asked my niece which Princess she wanted to see - she mentioned Tiana and the handler was super quick in his response saying that Dr. Facilier had her busy at the moment, but she would be free later that evening. He was super nice and quick witted. We recognized him later as one of the dancers from the stage shows and he played Peter Pan in Believe as well. The staff on Disney are always amazing :)
 
Olaf was on the Magic 2/22.

And yes, even if there were entertainment crew members not otherwise engaged, there are strict height ranges for each character, and you DO have to know the mannerisms and such even for the non-face characters.

And I can definitely say that Disney keeps the character bibles up to date even a little ahead. When I met Belle at Princess Gathering (again, 2/22 Magic), I asked her if she'd read any good books lately and she immediately said "Oh yes. I've been reading Romeo and Juliet! Have you read it?" and we discussed it for a couple of minutes. At the time I thought "Huh. Interesting choice..." but as soon as the first part of "Bonjour" happened in the live-action movie I was like "WOW! Her friend had already been studying up on any live-action changes!!
 
Sometimes people get sick or have things happen. Unlike the parks where there are more potential princesses to invite to a meet/meal, the ships are limited by their casts. And with Frozen, unless Anna or Olaf have other friends to play with them, there are really no replacements.

I hope it didn't ruin your vacation! :)

This, and on board there are laws about how many hours you can work and what breaks you have to have and when, and most CM work at almost maximum hours, so even if someone else could be a friend that day, chances are their schedule wouldn't allow it.
Believe me, it's Disney, if they could have fixed it, and could have every Disney princess ever at every gathering they would. Unfortunately the ships just work very differently to the Parks.
 
No, but we did ask at the Princess meetup - the handler for Belle asked my niece which Princess she wanted to see - she mentioned Tiana and the handler was super quick in his response saying that Dr. Facilier had her busy at the moment, but she would be free later that evening. He was super nice and quick witted. We recognized him later as one of the dancers from the stage shows and he played Peter Pan in Believe as well. The staff on Disney are always amazing :)
I can appreciate your disappointment. I've been on 5 DCL cruises and Snow White (my favorite princess) has only done meet and greets on one. I'm hopeful she will be on the Magic this summer.
One time a handler told me Snow White was at home baking pies. Cute.
 
Consider sending your concerns or disappointment to DCL directly at dcl.guest.communications@disneycruise.com
That's how they know and can improve. We just got off the Fantasy and my nieces did the same experiences, they had 4 princesses (Cinderella, Belle, Tianna, and Ariel) and Frozen was Elsa and Anna (no Olaf). So it's not consistent, but maybe depends on available staff?
 
Consider sending your concerns or disappointment to DCL directly at dcl.guest.communications@disneycruise.com
That's how they know and can improve. We just got off the Fantasy and my nieces did the same experiences, they had 4 princesses (Cinderella, Belle, Tianna, and Ariel) and Frozen was Elsa and Anna (no Olaf). So it's not consistent, but maybe depends on available staff?

It is totally dependent on available staff. There are strict requirements for each character, and you cannot just throw anyone into the costume - even the non-face characters. Their friends undergo a LOT of training. Face characters are even more difficult to replace last minute - and pretty much whatever princesses a gathering has (pretty sure there are usually 4 in the gathering) is determined by which of the entertainment cast meet the requirements. Therefore as long as that entertainment team is on board (they come and go as a unit), those are the princesses you will have.

2/22 Magic was Cinderella, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Belle for Princess Gathering and Elsa, Anna, and Olaf for Frozen.

For there to be only two tells me that there was some kind of issue - most likely illness and put on bed rest - with the friends of the other two. And as I stated earlier, the ship is not like the parks where they can call someone and say "Hey...we need Mulan to come and be at Akershus today." If there is no other entertainment cast who can be friends with the sick one's character (meaning they have gone through ALL the training for that character), there is simply no way to replace. The cruise director would then be faced with the choice of cancelling it all together and REALLY disappointing people or having it with less than the normal number, which is disappointing but better than cancelling all together.
 
On our 3 night Dream sailing (3/3) while waiting in line to meet the Princesses, the ladies behind us mentioned they had done the Frozen one first and there was no Anna. I was like, yikes, but ok, glad I know now and I can let my Mom and 6 year old niece know it might happen before we get there. We had four Princesses - Cinderella, Snow White, Belle and Rapunzel and then we did the Frozen one about 30 minutes later. Anna and Else were both there so apparently what had happened earlier to Anna was "rectified" as we had both. I wonder if yours was like that or if it lasted awhile? Just my curious mind working... :)

I'm sorry OP it happened to both your Frozen and Princess gathering and I would say that is definitely not usual.

Heather
 
It is totally dependent on available staff. There are strict requirements for each character, and you cannot just throw anyone into the costume - even the non-face characters. Their friends undergo a LOT of training. Face characters are even more difficult to replace last minute - and pretty much whatever princesses a gathering has (pretty sure there are usually 4 in the gathering) is determined by which of the entertainment cast meet the requirements. Therefore as long as that entertainment team is on board (they come and go as a unit), those are the princesses you will have.

2/22 Magic was Cinderella, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Belle for Princess Gathering and Elsa, Anna, and Olaf for Frozen.

For there to be only two tells me that there was some kind of issue - most likely illness and put on bed rest - with the friends of the other two. And as I stated earlier, the ship is not like the parks where they can call someone and say "Hey...we need Mulan to come and be at Akershus today." If there is no other entertainment cast who can be friends with the sick one's character (meaning they have gone through ALL the training for that character), there is simply no way to replace. The cruise director would then be faced with the choice of cancelling it all together and REALLY disappointing people or having it with less than the normal number, which is disappointing but better than cancelling all together.

And on the ships they don't/can't 'replace' face characters.
If you're at a princess gathering, you have all the (female) face characters onboard right there...
 
I can appreciate your disappointment. I've been on 5 DCL cruises and Snow White (my favorite princess) has only done meet and greets on one. I'm hopeful she will be on the Magic this summer.
One time a handler told me Snow White was at home baking pies. Cute.

When in the summer? If it's after the cast change over it's possible, but I believe she's off baking pies right now too...so many pies....

In 7 contracts I never saw SW on a ship I was on, I feel she's becoming less and less popular, but she's still one of my favourites too.
 

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