Masks now optional for staff/Disney Dream review 7/28-8/1 cruise

[xiphoid76]

What a great cruise. Never sailed out of Miami before but it was super easy and staff wonderful.

This was our 17th Disney cruise but first since the pandemic. We have done RCCL and Carnival recently but wanted to wait a bit before going back to Disney. Disney still tops the list in my opinion

The best news for the staff at least were that masks became optional for them if working outside starting on this cruise. The inside staff - stateroom and inside dining staff - still were required to wear them, but outside and at Castaway Cay they were now optional. Our dining staff and one of the bartenders we know were so excited. They said hi to us on the island and said - “look, we can smile again”. It was really a nice sight to see.

All of the staff were amazing as always. Not a ton of other changes since pre-pandemic. Still distanced characters which is sad. So many kids want a hug I hope that changes soon. Inconsistent staff in taking pictures with your phone - most do, some do not- they say it is staff choice.

The shows were excellent - may be since it has been 2 years since I last saw them but they were top notch. Snow White doesn’t come out with the kids during The Golden Mickeys and there was no red carpet interviews. The phone call with Bob Iger was weird given the circumstances. But most people would not have noticed a thing. There even was a Goofy pre-show before Believe which was nice and it was great seeing the Genie do some new jokes.

Food was the best, again, may be that we missed it so much, but I really do like DCL food. Portions seemed tinier or maybe I am just getting fatter and want more

No paper anything - menus, navigators, map of Castaway Cay. I am old fashioned and like paper stuff. I did see menus available we just didn’t ask I guess.

We missed Skyline the most and had the best time there - they reduced the hours as it doesn’t open now till 7:30 instead of 7 but it is our favorite DCL bar by far.

Overall, wonderful and we will be back again in January on the Dream but with a b2b Wish in between.

 

[RysMomma]

Sounds like a great trip! Thanks for sharing!

 

[mmouse37]

On our recent Wish cruise staff was telling us that masks would soon be optional....so glad they have a choice now.

We were on the Dream over 4th of July and had a great time!!

MJ

 

[twinz]

how about in the stores and food areas for guests? Are masks still required? We sail at the end of August on the Dream and I am just wondering if I have to bring masks for my 7 year old. Thanks

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

how about in the stores and food areas for guests? Are masks still required? We sail at the end of August on the Dream and I am just wondering if I have to bring masks for my 7 year old. Thanks

Masks are optional for guests.

 

[DMMarla07860]

On our recent Wish cruise staff was telling us that masks would soon be optional....so glad they have a choice now.

We were on the Dream over 4th of July and had a great time!!

MJ

That’s awesome. As someone who still wears a mask good to hear it’s optional. I hope to see smiling faces of crew in February

Sure if a guest wears a mask onboard crew will say nothing . Yeah with a autoimmune I will carry a mask regardless if I need to wear one

 

[mmouse37]

Plenty of guests were wearing masks on all my recent cruises!

MJ

 

[DMMarla07860]

Plenty of guests were wearing masks on all my recent cruises!

MJ

Cool good to know for me.

 

[koala1966]

What a great cruise. Never sailed out of Miami before but it was super easy and staff wonderful.

This was our 17th Disney cruise but first since the pandemic. We have done RCCL and Carnival recently but wanted to wait a bit before going back to Disney. Disney still tops the list in my opinion

The best news for the staff at least were that masks became optional for them if working outside starting on this cruise. The inside staff - stateroom and inside dining staff - still were required to wear them, but outside and at Castaway Cay they were now optional. Our dining staff and one of the bartenders we know were so excited. They said hi to us on the island and said - “look, we can smile again”. It was really a nice sight to see.

All of the staff were amazing as always. Not a ton of other changes since pre-pandemic. Still distanced characters which is sad. So many kids want a hug I hope that changes soon. Inconsistent staff in taking pictures with your phone - most do, some do not- they say it is staff choice.

The shows were excellent - may be since it has been 2 years since I last saw them but they were top notch. Snow White doesn’t come out with the kids during The Golden Mickeys and there was no red carpet interviews. The phone call with Bob Iger was weird given the circumstances. But most people would not have noticed a thing. There even was a Goofy pre-show before Believe which was nice and it was great seeing the Genie do some new jokes.

Food was the best, again, may be that we missed it so much, but I really do like DCL food. Portions seemed tinier or maybe I am just getting fatter and want more

No paper anything - menus, navigators, map of Castaway Cay. I am old fashioned and like paper stuff. I did see menus available we just didn’t ask I guess.

We missed Skyline the most and had the best time there - they reduced the hours as it doesn’t open now till 7:30 instead of 7 but it is our favorite DCL bar by far.

Overall, wonderful and we will be back again in January on the Dream but with a b2b Wish in between.

We were on the same sailing - so good to be back on board! We noticed the same changes to the stage shows, the Goofy bit was really cute. Overall it was a wonderful trip, very few complaints from me except... the shift to all digital and no paper.

I left my feedback about no paper on the issues section, marked it as an issue with the app. I missed the paper navigators and found the app ok for some things but not for the schedule part. Really limiting not to be able to see the whole day at a glance. Also my husband won't use his phone on board and doesn't do apps, so he was very unhappy with the changes. We went to the desk to ask about navigators but they said no.

We were able to get paper menus in the restaurants for my husband and my dad, but I used the app. I committed to using the app to its fullest throughout the cruise to be able to fairly judge the changes and honestly the menus were the part I didn't mind about it. I opened up my binder of past navigators when we got home today to reminisce about having my day all on one page, lol.

I attempted to screenshot everything in the app but that left me with hundreds of screenshots that I have to sort through. I would even be fine if they would just let me have a pdf download like they do for the guest folio. I will be brainstorming more solutions before our next cruise. I feel like we really struggled to plan our day this way, even though I used the app to flag activities we wanted to do. And the loss of wave phones was seriously felt as well, again because I was the only person in my party using the app so chat was useless. At one point I did two laps on deck 4, and one each on decks 3, 5, and 11, before circling back to our room to find my husband and my dad had returned after giving up hope I could find them on deck 4 where we'd agreed to meet. I'm sure I looked some mixture of frustrated, desperate and mad as I raced around the ship.

 

[ljhayes]

I would even be fine if they would just let me have a pdf download like they do for the guest folio.

That's actually a fantastic idea. I would fully support that!

 

[epcotrulz]

Planning a Dec four night cruise, do you recall which shows were on which night? TIA!!