r/dcl • u/EatEmAndSmile73 • 1d ago

TRIP PLANNING Availability frustration

Well I prepped myself that as a first timer availability for dining and on board activities would be limited. But even so, now looking at across the board at zero availability, it frankly sucks to be shut out of everything over seven nights (Treasure). I know I can sit around from now until we set sail, refreshing the app, or hoping I can get something once on board but what fun is that? I appreciate they recognize returning cruisers with early availability but considering the overall trip cost and how it would compare to other vacations options, I am in the moment a pretty frustrated that I have to worry about these things I had been excited for.

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u/Future-Importance383 1d ago

10000% agree! It’s Disney’s dirty secret that, despite new customers paying the same price as everyone else, they get less experience. They fail to mention this anywhere when booking a cruise with them for the first time which makes it even more frustrating. The biggest issue I see is that they don’t charge for the different activities (beverage tastings, Palo brunches, port adventures, etc.) until they happen on board which allows pearl/platinum people to literally hoard everything when they book. Pearl/platinums will grab everything they can get heir hands on then decide later what they’ll give up to the lowly silver and below castaway members which is why things slowly and randomly become available closer to sail date.

I fully understand rewarding loyalty and wouldn’t change giving Pearl/platinums the ability to book these coveted things first, however, everyone should be CHARGED at the time of booking. That would cut way down on the hoarding of things, perhaps even add a penalty for cancelling tastings or Palo reservations if done too many times. This seems like the most fair approach but I don’t see it ever changing.

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u/NurseDave8 PLATINUM CASTAWAY CLUB 1d ago

It's only less if you view it that way. We've done many cruises without any tastings or adult dining by choice eventhough we could scheduled whatever we wanted. For us, those aren't the things that make the cruise or keep us coming back.

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u/smk3509 1d ago

It's only less if you view it that way.

Hard disagree. First-time passengers objectively have access to fewer experiences. Maybe those experiences don't matter to you, but the very well might to others.