Former DCL crew member here!
The bad
1. A low kid count on Dream Class is usually 1100 with the highest I've seen about 1600 (that is ONLY 3-12, does not include 13-17) it's a lot of kids and especially on short cruises we brace ourselves for sea day (I would have about 3 coffees on a sea day
)
3. You can always request something but I think they just wanted to let you know that it's possible you wouldn't get it again, not that you can't, just making sure your expectations aren't skewed to think that it's a given.
4. The atrium is utilized more depending on your POC. If it's a sea day you're going to see more meet and greets, musicians, games like Jack Jacks diaper race. If a port is popular (as in most guests choose to get off) they aren't going to schedule us to run an activity that's going to have a low turnout, they'd rather utilize staff at a better time. Nassau we would call Sea Day 2.0 because a significant amount of people choose to stay onboard so they schedule accordingly.
5. Personally I love the district, took me a bit to get used to the Wish with all their scattered bars (I ended up liking it) but like anything it's a to each their own type of thing. Most clubs in my hometown are windowless so it never once occured to me that it might be weird
1. First seating is almost always rushed. My mom prefers it because she likes eating early, I prefer late seating because then I'm a) not stuffed to the brim in the theater and b) it's less rushed cause they don't have to prepare for anyone after me.
2. Some crew members are EXCELLENT at bringing up the survey in a light comedic way and others have yet to find a natural way to it. (On the survey it does ask if you felt pressured to give a high rating, rate it honestly that you did so that they know it's something they need to work on) I totally get it as I have known servers personally so I know what their work experience is like and that scores are more important to them, I know that I could never. (I'm a former YA) I have a lot of patience for housekeeping/servers when I am a guest because I know what their schedule is like and that their privileges are WAY less than what mine were (they can not go to guest areas in their down time, I could go to the shows, the movies, vanellopes, the pools and hot tubs, match your mate etc etc. they are not allowed to) I would not survive one contract in their shoes, I am weak, sorry for my rant I just have mad respect for them.
3. Debarkation. When I left DCL we were doing debarkation by bag tag, they would call out green Tinkerbell on the PA, and green tink was supposed to go. Unfortunately it's a bit like the airport where people go and line up before their turn and it's a mess even though we tried to keep it organized and going smoothly.
I'm shocked that the officer responded that way, that is very unusual and I'm sorry that was your last interaction.
Cabanas being closed is very weird, I wonder if they've been having a low turnout and it's no longer financially beneficial to have it open (they do keep track of things like turnout so maybe they spotted a trend of more
ppl choosing MDR)
If you were to give DCL another chance I would recommend the Magic or the Wonder. They are smaller ships which means less kids (their numbers are more 800-900) it is smaller so you might not see a difference but I certainly did
(also med cruises have a lower kid count as well. Not sure about Alaska, I never did that one but I believe it's similar to the med where it's a smaller kid count) my med cruise was 150 but it was post covid on the Magic, hardly counts. I believe last year's med on the Dream had about 450 kids.