First one, 1980.
No, that's not what I'm trying to tell you. What I am trying to tell you is that the newer ships aren't really larger, not by that much. I can't speak to the design/engineering of the ship. All I can speak to is the fact that the passenger capacities of the Dream class and the Wish class are the same, and they are almost exactly the same length. So the Wish class is not really larger.
That's not what @RedHead0186 said at all. They just said that, contrary to what people on the internet say, the Wish class ships are not actually larger than the Dream class ships (obviously the Adventure is a different story). Many reports and comments on the trusty internet imply that the Wish is much larger, leading to comments about how the dining rooms are all smaller, etc. But it's not a larger ship.
Oh, I wondered...on the Fantasy last week we were so close to another table of four, the servers could barely squeeze in. And whereas the other groups our servers were serving kind of got moved a bit as we went to the different rotations, this family of four was always RIGHT next to us. We have a boy and a girl, but they are young teens. The other family had a boy and a girl, but they looked to be maybe 6 or 7 years old. And I wondered if we would have been put together as a table of 8 had the kids been closer in age? Then again, it seems like parties of 4 almost always get their own table. OR...maybe we were a taable of 8 and the others requested a split and the solution was to put 8 inches between our tables and change the tablecloths!As far as dining with others, as a party of 4, we've never shared a table in the 4 Disney cruises we've done. Last 2 cruises, I did click the option for private table on the app ahead of time. Note that even with your own table you may be just inches away from another table...but you don't have to talk to them,
We enjoy the main dining rooms, with a set time there's no waiting for a table, and you go to the theater show opposite your dining time. You can pick as many or as few of the courses as you want. Also enjoy having the same servers. I just consider it all part of the Disney experience.
If you don't want to do the main dining for dinner, there is free room service and there is some quick service food available by the pool. Also 1 main dining room is open for lunch, go anytime it's open, so that's an option if you want a multicourse meal at lunch instead of dinner.
I totally agree because we found the dinners to be the biggest bonding time with our kids, in a totally good way. I could relax because I wasn't in charge of the food or service like at home. And if we were seated with others I'd be stressing one of my kids would cuss or something!
Yes, that's definitely part of it. If they have more larger tables, then they can have a little more space in between groups/tables. If every group is a smaller table, then you lost some of that space in between, and it can make the dining room feel more cramped.Oh, I wondered...on the Fantasy last week we were so close to another table of four, the servers could barely squeeze in. And whereas the other groups our servers were serving kind of got moved a bit as we went to the different rotations, this family of four was always RIGHT next to us. We have a boy and a girl, but they are young teens. The other family had a boy and a girl, but they looked to be maybe 6 or 7 years old. And I wondered if we would have been put together as a table of 8 had the kids been closer in age? Then again, it seems like parties of 4 almost always get their own table. OR...maybe we were a taable of 8 and the others requested a split and the solution was to put 8 inches between our tables and change the tablecloths!
I'm not trying to be snippy with anyone. It just sounded like they were trying to say that they were no bigger of a ship than the first two. You can look at them and tell that they're bigger. It just didn't make any sense.
Oh, I wondered...on the Fantasy last week we were so close to another table of four, the servers could barely squeeze in. And whereas the other groups our servers were serving kind of got moved a bit as we went to the different rotations, this family of four was always RIGHT next to us. We have a boy and a girl, but they are young teens. The other family had a boy and a girl, but they looked to be maybe 6 or 7 years old. And I wondered if we would have been put together as a table of 8 had the kids been closer in age? Then again, it seems like parties of 4 almost always get their own table. OR...maybe we were a taable of 8 and the others requested a split and the solution was to put 8 inches between our tables and change the tablecloths!
I incorrectly assumed there would be more to do because that's what I've had on prior non-Disney cruises. If I have to sit through multiple hour+ dinners on vacation I'll get bored real fast. From what others have posted, the Dream doesn't really have entertainment during dinner either. I'd rather be doing almost anything else than wasting time with a long dinner.
I'm not ruling anything out. I just think the stuff that makes Disney special (and expensive) is stuff I don't care about. I don't need long fancy dinners. Give me a burger or pizza by the pool. Great service? I don't really need that much service. Not for dinner. Not for the room (I'd be fine if no one came to the room except to get trash like with DVC). Give me more stuff to do and less stuff done for me and I'll be happy.
Does your whole family want to skip the dinners or just you?
Right. And in many cases the "separate" tables would have been together but so many people are wanting their "own" table. They may have just added numbers now, but coming out of shutdown there would literally be things like Table 81A and Table 81B - pre-shutdown that would have been Table 81. But they pulled them apart by about the diameter of a dessert plate and they are separate. (And Disney isn't the only line that did that. I was on Anthem of the Seas last February (more on that in a moment) and went to lunch in one of the MDRs and I was at a "B" table in a row where all the tables were a number and A or B.
That's still not what I said. I said that the Wish class was not really any larger than the Dream and the Fantasy. Those are not the first two ships, those are the 'middle' two ships (chronologically). The Dream/Fantasy and Wish/Treasure/Destiny are definitely larger than the Magic/Wonder. But the claim was that DCL is making larger ships. I pointed out that's not the case, as the newest class of ship is pretty much the same size (and the exact same passenger capacity) as the next-newest class of ship.
As far as the room steward, we're DVC too, so it felt weird to have someone come in 2x a day for our first cruise in 2016. They're very unobtrusive though (sometimes we just meet them on day 1 and never see them again...room is just magically taken care of ). We put the 'room occupied' sign on the door when we're in the room and take it off when we leave, and they've always held to that. (Like Disney hotels, they need to do safety checks, so it's best to take it off when you're not there vs leaving it on all the time). They come sometime in the daytime to put the sleeper sofas away, refill things, change towels, empty trash, etc, (usually later on sea days knowing people sleep in,) and during dinner time to set up the beds, towel animal, etc. We always look forward to seeing what new animal we have!
This was the biggest complaint too for our DCL Iceland cruise as it was 50 degrees and windy on the pool deck so everyone was inside, it was hard to find a table in cabanas because no one wanted to use the outdoor seating. We had a port canceled so we had a lot of sea days. We stayed concierge that cruise since we had a 50% sailing discount from our canceled dvc wish cruise, so we utilized the lounge food and stayed out of cabanas, which were thankful for.
