This summer Disney Cruise Line has been running UK "Staycation" cruises. These leave one of four UK ports (London Tilbury, Southampton, Liverpool and Newcastle), go out to sea for either 2, 3 or 4 nights then return to the same port.
Seeing COVID-19 cancelled our April 2020 Florida trip we thought we'd get our dose of Disney Magic (literally) this way. This would be our first ever cruise experience. We thought these staycations ideal as they seemed like a "try your first cruise" test run; return to the same port, not too long, and not *that* expensive compared to the usual Europe sailings of the Disney Magic. In normal times, typically you're looking at minimum of 5 nights and you might leave from the UK but end up in Sweden, Norway or The Netherlands and have to work out how you're going to get home.
We picked a 2 night cruise from Southampton in a Deluxe Oceanview cabin (category 09A) on deck 7. This cost us £1555.71 (approx $2120) for the cruise and we paid £40 for car parking at the terminal. Mandatory gratuities of $81 were added and we paid extra for 1 "dole whip" (more later) and 1 glass of wine. I also slightly increased the tips for the staff.
Day 1
We were assigned a boarding time of 2pm. We parked up about 1:50pm and were instructed to drop our bags outside the terminal and head in for COVID testing. People with later boarding times were queued in the car park. The terminal was pretty new but basic.
After the quick bag drop off to the right we entered our first queue for COVID screening. There was a mandatory health questionnaire before arrival to fill in but the Disney website was broken (missing JavaScript library on the page) so everybody was having to do this in the terminal. There were a huge number of staff involved in the boarding process and it was very efficient.
Once called in to the Test Centre we were all given a lateral flow test to complete (10 swirls up each nostril) which is much easier on the kiddos. All over 18's have to provide vaccination status at this point too and under 18's needed to have taken a PCR test within the past 5 days as well (extra £70 for a private PCR test). Then we were escorted to a waiting area and were emailed our results within 10 minutes. Being all clear we were free to board the ship. COVID rules were 99% being adhered to on the ship which meant mask wearing inside in public areas for all over 11s.
Around 8 families at a time were welcomed with a hearty round of applause followed by a short song and dance by Captain Mickey and Captain Minnie.
Our room wouldn't be ready until 3:30pm so we made a short trip to Cabana's, the non-buffet buffet restaurant for a snack.
All the food was behind glass and you asked a server for items, but you could have as much as you wanted.
Drinks again were roped off and you had to be served. To be honest, this felt a bit like covid-theatre and was the thing we encountered the most queuing for the entire trip. Having Minute Maid Lemonade and Orange Juice was amazing though! Outside of Cabana's opening hours there was a single drinks station on deck 9 that felt like the entire ship converged on at certain points. Whether it's more covid-safe to serve yourself quickly or wait in a long queue with people whilst being served is debatable.
Our room was then ready so we went to get ready to check out the pool. The room was clean and well maintained with two bed sections separated by a curtain and a combo of "sink + toilet" and "sink + bathtub/shower".
It was a typical British summer day, so overcast and 20c / 68f. This would turn out to be the warmer of the 2 days so we made the right call to swim on day 1.
Upon arrive on deck 9 the splash zone was out of action. Someone had vomited in it which required a 3 hour clean / flush of the system. So we headed to the main pool. This had a queuing system and time limit of 10 minutes before you were kicked out for the next group. Luckily it was heated. We then tried the main water slide and I braved my first trap door slide, the Aquadunk. If you're unsure of trying one give this a go as it's probably the smallest one you'll ever try. Still scary but what a rush. Would definitely do this one again and any similar curvy ones but not the straight down ones. Upon the floor disappearing my legs automatically spread eagle. Which was fun.
The main slide. Surprisingly long and fun.
Characters were everywhere
The Aquadunk. Zero queue the entire cruise.
The adults-only pool and bar area.
Your pick one of two dining times on the Navigator app when booking. We had the early slot and it was almost time for dinner.
DCL runs a rotation of it's 3 main restaurants but because we had a 2 night cruise were were only going to get to eat dinner in two of them; Rapunzel's Royal Table and Lumiere's. We were assigned breakfast on the last day in Animators Palette but the "show" doesn't get performed.
Throughout the cruise characters appeared everywhere in what they called "Meet & Wave"; as in you queued up and could talk to and wave at the characters from a distance.
Rapunzel's Royal Table featured short interludes mostly of everyone going "clap clap stomp stomp quack quack".
Bread service with mustard dip.
Green Asparagus and Broccoli Soup
Captain of the Guards Roasted Prime Rib of Beef
Flynn Rider Platter (Pork Loin, Pork Belly, Bockwurst, Cabbage, Fried Potato Dumpling)
Braided Apple Strudel
The wait staff were all wonderful. The food itself was very tasty although had American levels of salt. Our main complaint the entire cruise is that all the food was never much more than tepid. It made 9/10 meals more like 6/10 because everything felt like it should have been 10c warmer. Even the custard with the strudel was almost cold (blasphemy). I don't know if this is a common cruise issue, a Disney cruise issue, or just bad luck on our part. Mask wearing in restaurants was following the UK rules of "once sat down you can take it off" even though the DCL guidelines followed the US version of active eating/drinking.
Following our dinner the Frozen sail away deck party was due to start. This was a fun romp through the original films soundtrack and the kids loved it and the fake (bubble) snow.
The evening was finished off by the Broadway style show (no photos) where a girl was dreaming about Disney characters. It was fun but our daughter was wiped by the time it started (8:45pm is late for the young ones) and she/we didn't make the end. This was the only time I saw a few people (one family group) not wearing their masks when they were meant to.
The first night I can imagine is always an adjustment but our cabin decided it was going to make a Hannibal "ff-ff-ff-ff" kind of noise every 5 or so seconds. I assumed from the engine vibrations but we couldn't locate the source of the noise. It was a very restless night. We didn't formally complain but mentioned in passing to the room attendant (they're all very chatty) and later had a message from guest services who were very apologetic and sent a carpenter and a bottle of wine the following day. The second night it was either lesser or we were so knackered we didn't notice it.
Day 2 will be coming tomorrow because I've run out of images allowed in the posts and it's late.