So, I read off-site about a Platinum cruise goer booking for an upcoming cruise and..

[Blhokie]

they could book Spa appointments, off-ship excursions but there were no character meet & greets available at all. And I think there might have been a new policy on liquor/wine tasting limiting your ability to load up on spots. Can anyone else speak to this? I mean character M&G is kind of 80% of the reason I would think most families take a Disney cruise. We have an upcoming cruise in November (originally scheduled for April 2020) scheduled but we may push it if there are lots of limitations.

 

[CmdrThor]

We were able to book character meets for our 9/19 cruise on the Fantasy. I don't really expect we will sail though.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

I think it is safe to assume the cruises will be following the parks when it comes to character meet and greets with distanced photos and what not.

Haven't heard anything about the beverage seminars but usually they are packed into the small little rooms in Skyline or Keys/Cadillac Lounge so a reduction in the amount of available spots would make sense to provide better distancing.

I think the safest thing is to assume the worst (Lots of changes, etc) but hope for the best.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

they could book Spa appointments, off-ship excursions but there were no character meet & greets available at all. And I think there might have been a new policy on liquor/wine tasting limiting your ability to load up on spots. Can anyone else speak to this? I mean character M&G is kind of 80% of the reason I would think most families take a Disney cruise. We have an upcoming cruise in November (originally scheduled for April 2020) scheduled but we may push it if there are lots of limitations.

Seems to me, if WDW is not setting up normal character meets, the cruise line also wouldn't. It's difficult to maintain distancing when being hugged by a character.

 

[Blhokie]

Seems to me, if WDW is not setting up normal character meets, the cruise line also wouldn't. It's difficult to maintain distancing when being hugged by a character.

I agree. Except for the fact you are still running spa treatments. My masseuse doesn't practice social distancing for my massages.

 

[mevelandry]

they could book Spa appointments, off-ship excursions but there were no character meet & greets available at all. And I think there might have been a new policy on liquor/wine tasting limiting your ability to load up on spots. Can anyone else speak to this? I mean character M&G is kind of 80% of the reason I would think most families take a Disney cruise. We have an upcoming cruise in November (originally scheduled for April 2020) scheduled but we may push it if there are lots of limitations.

... and the reason why they charge so much. I wonder if their prices will go lower?

On top of that, I can't imagine them reinforcing social distancing on the two classic ships... With the exception of the adult section, I thought they felt a little bit "cramped" to begin with.

 

[TestingH2O]

they could book Spa appointments, off-ship excursions but there were no character meet & greets available at all. And I think there might have been a new policy on liquor/wine tasting limiting your ability to load up on spots. Can anyone else speak to this? I mean character M&G is kind of 80% of the reason I would think most families take a Disney cruise. We have an upcoming cruise in November (originally scheduled for April 2020) scheduled but we may push it if there are lots of limitations.

I have also heard reports that cruisers can only book one of each type of tasting. So one each wine, run, and mixology but not one wine and two mixology.

In terms of meet & greets, that’s a wild card. The parks aren’t doing them. It’s hard to tell on DCL yet though because the vast majority of character meets are not prebooked I wouldn’t say that not having those meets be bookable means that there absolutely won’t be characters, but I also am not going to try to predict what cruises will look like in the future other than crew members serving buffets. I think self serve won’t be back for quite a while if ever.

 

[Stratus22]

We were able to book our meet and greets for an upcoming August cruise as well as multiple tastings. Had no issues.

 

[Karin1984]

In my country spas are back open for massages etc, but the section with the pools and saunas is not yet.
Which is weird as facilities with just pools are open again.

 

[gismo1554]

Just to confirm on our WBTA (now cancelled but booking day for Platinum was last week) we had no character m&gs (Concierge members asked and they just hadn't scheduled yet so may have just been because they were looking at cancelling the cruise), no pirate night listed and only able to book 1 of each type of tasting. There was a debate amongst us cruisers about whether this was standard policy on the tastings or not but I remember being able to book 2 mixology previously so this was definitely a new thing.

 

[randumb0]

I have also heard reports that cruisers can only book one of each type of tasting. So one each wine, run, and mixology but not one wine and two mixology

It was like that earlier this year pre-covid

 

[closetmickey]

With them in such high demand, I can’t believe they ever allowed more than one booking of a particular tasting. Seems so very unfair. If so, that’s a good policy change for sure.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

We have Princess and Frozen Meet n Greets for Sept cruise in addition to 3 tastings on the B2B (Platinum). The ship is about 88% booked (as of 9 June via Expedia).

 

[Chemist]

they could book Spa appointments, off-ship excursions but there were no character meet & greets available at all. And I think there might have been a new policy on liquor/wine tasting limiting your ability to load up on spots. Can anyone else speak to this? I mean character M&G is kind of 80% of the reason I would think most families take a Disney cruise. We have an upcoming cruise in November (originally scheduled for April 2020) scheduled but we may push it if there are lots of limitations.

I was able to book EVERYTHING I WANTED for my Alaska cruise this summer. It was after Canada had closed the port so we were 100.00% confident in the cruise being cancelled. I just did it anyway because I was in denial.

Availability of booking is not a reliable indicator of anything except a functioning computer system.

 

[MomOTwins]

I was able to book everything for my August cruise but that was a while ago. However, on our social media page someone reported that the Castaway Cay 5K was no longer available to book. I'd be surprised if it filled up given how empty our cruise is, so I suspect they are no longer offering the 5K (crowds, makes sense) and haven't gotten around to cancelling our activity reservation yet.

 

[MomOTwins]

I mean character M&G is kind of 80% of the reason I would think most families take a Disney cruise.

I'm not sure I agree with this. I'm very much not a fan of waiting in lines (and there are lines for Princess and Frozen even though you book in advance), so we've only done a few meet and greets--maybe 5 total over 3 cruises. We prefer to do our characters at the parks where we can fastpass or have character meals with no waits. Now that is not happening at the parks any more, I'd be shocked if it was available on the cruise.

 

[Spiffy MacSpiff]

I mean character M&G is kind of 80% of the reason I would think most families take a Disney cruise.

Not us. The young MacSpiffs couldn't care less about character M&Gs, and never have. They like the random meetings that happen in hallways or on deck somewhere, but I probably couldn't pay them to stand in line for it.

 

[TortoiseTaughtUs]

Not us. The young MacSpiffs couldn't care less about character M&Gs, and never have. They like the random meetings that happen in hallways or on deck somewhere, but I probably couldn't pay them to stand in line for it.

Same. I know this makes us outliers, but on our first cruise my then-five-year-old thought the mouse was named Nicky. I’d wager that if there’s anything that comprises a full 80% of the motivation for young families to choose DCL, it’s the kid’s club.

 

[The Sasquatch]

zero interest in the characters, we sail for the muster! Best part

 

[Southern Pirate]

I just checked on our August cruise and we can scheduled character meet and greet as well as wine tastings. I have not noticed any changes in any of the activities as of yet.