Cruisey Newsie: A WDW Vet's First Dip on DCL - August 2025 Magic PTR -- UPDATE 03/22

[Newsies]

Well, hello there! My name is Kait, also known on the boards as Newsies, and I’ve been waiting a long, long time to finally be able to say…
I’m going on a Disney Cruise!​

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After 10+ years of touring (and at some points, working at!) Walt Disney World, my family and I are venturing into the waters of the Disney Cruise Line and we couldn’t be more excited. We’ve spent a lot of time on land with Disney in the past decade – we’ve really seen and done it all at WDW, from Epcot festivals to Magic Kingdom parties, from virtual queues at DHS to low-key dinners at Disney Springs. We’ve made a lot of great memories, but we’re ready for something different and we think it’s finally the right time for us to set sail with DCL!

So who are “we?” We’re the Newsies family from NJ!

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Grace (far left): Grace is my sister, she’s 22 years old and in grad school chasing a Masters in Education. She’s a mostly easy-going travel partner and usually does whatever mom is doing when we’re on vacation. She was actually scared of cruising for many, many years (we cruised twice when she was a toddler but not since then – I can talk about it more later), so she’s kind of been the “hold up” on our first DCL so far, but we don’t hold it against her! She can’t wait to do all different types of activities, like bingo, trivia, and karaoke!

Kait (middle left): I’m Kait, your host with the most! I’m a 26-year-old associate (my job is a bit hard to describe – a little bit of social media, a little bit of brand marketing, a little bit of CX) and I live for all things Disney! I’m the planner of the family, as you’ll come to see, and I lead the charge when we’re at the Parks. I’ve also done the DCP twice, so I know WDW like the back of my hand… but now I have to learn a whole new world! I can’t wait to enjoy the Rainforest Room at Senses and visit Castaway Cay!

Susan/Mom (middle right): Mom is my best friend and another Disney fan! She works in real estate and always looks forward to our yearly vacations, sometimes packing months in advance! Mom used to cruise a lot and is excited to get back on a boat. She’s also excited to enjoy the Rainforest Room at Senses!

Thomas/Dad (far right): Rounding out the crew is our chief transportation officer, Dad! Dad is Grumpy’s biggest fan and was my travel buddy to Disneyland Resort in 2022. He loves the Polynesian Resort, Cars Land, and he’s ready to experience a Disney Cruise! He’s most excited to visit Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay!

We’re all just a bunch of Disney Adults from NJ who love all things Disney Parks. In 2017, we visited the Polynesian Village Resort and said “Yeah, we want to live here,” so we made it our DVC home resort. Together, we’ve shared some great memories at Walt Disney World, and we’re excited to make some memories with the Disney Cruise Line next August. In the meantime, we've got a family trip coming up in May and I have a solo trip happening in September -- you can read about both of those plans in my other current PTR, which I'll link here.

While I still have a lot to learn, I’ve done enough research to know that one of the itineraries for Summer 2025 released this week is perfect for our family … a 5 night Bahamian Cruise from Port Canaveral on the Disney Magic! I can go into detail more about why we picked this cruise in a later post, but this is the winner for us for August 2025. Because we’re DVC, we’ll have the opportunity to book next week – I’ll be sure to post about my experience there when we get our staterooms booked!

I can’t wait to learn more and share this awesome journey with the DCL boards. I have a lot – I mean, a LOT! – to learn when it comes to booking excursions, preparing for a Cruise, and packing. So if you’re still reading, I hope you enjoy following along and please feel free to jump in with corrections, recommendations, and advice!

Away we go – let’s sail away!

 

[Newsies]

Table of Contents
1. A Booking Experience You'll Probably Never Have

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

So exciting!! Tyler and I LOVED our cruise with DCL - hoping you guys have a great time too

 

[Newsies]

So exciting!! Tyler and I LOVED our cruise with DCL - hoping you guys have a great time too

Thank you Emily!!! Congratulations again on your latest life development -- so excited for you and Tyler!!!

 

[Newsies]

A Booking Experience You'll Probably Never Have
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Yesterday was the big day! We were able to successfully book our cruise... but not without trials, tribulation, and a combined total of 5 hours on hold with Disney Cruise Line.

This is ... a story.

Yesterday (03/21) was the day that Disney Vacation Club members could start booking Summer 2025 itineraries. I woke up early, got to my office an hour early, and prepared to be on hold for the majority of my work day.

So on the early booking windows information that DCL posted for us, the number they gave DVC members to call to book this cruise is the Disney Vacation Club hotline. I called that number at 8:00 AM sharp and I'm immediately put through to a very, very sweet woman who is as excited to help me book this cruise as I am to be booking it. We get everything set up, and then when it comes time to pay, she tells me that I'll need xx amount of points to book the cruise. I say, "wait, we were planning to pay for this vacation on card." She tells me that unfortunately, in order to book through her on the DVC hotline, I have to book at least one of my two staterooms on points, and that I'd have to call the DCL number if I wanted to book both staterooms with a credit card.

I say that's absolutely no problem and thank her for her help, then call the DCL line. Get quoted at a 340-minute long wait. That's not a problem -- I get to work doing a few things I had on my plate for the day, I take a virtual morning meeting where I cheekily apologize for any background music when my mic was on, that I was on a casual 5 hour wait to book a cruise but determined to get it done without letting it disrupt my workday. I do a few more tasks at work. Around 11:00, my immediate team at work (who I adore and who knew I was booking this cruise) head into the office. We're in a meeting together, the vibes are great, and around 11:45, I get connected to an operator.

I immediately tell this woman "___, you are about to be my new best friend, I'm so excited to book my first Disney Cruise!" and I move to a more private conference room to get everything booked, chatting to this woman about how my family and I have been to WDW so many times, we're so excited to book a cruise, we've been waiting so long for this, etc. and she goes, "that's so great. what's your DVC member number?"

I give her my number and she says "great, which cruise are we booking?"

I tell her the cruise and tell her we're four adults looking to split up into two staterooms.

"Um... is everyone a DVC member?" She asks.

"My sister technically isn't, but both of my parents are-- they'll be in one stateroom, my sister and I will be in the other stateroom, so every stateroom will have at least one DVC member." I said.

"Okay, and what's the DVC membership number for the second stateroom?" She asks.

"We're all on the same contract, so it will be the same as mine." I tell her.

"Okay so I can't book two staterooms for you today. Because of how many people are trying to book today, we can only book one stateroom per membership. I can set the four of you up in a Deluxe Family Verandah room if you want some extra space."

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Of course my heart drops -- maybe it was poor planning, lack of research, lack of knowing what questions to look up -- but I had no idea this was the policy, otherwise I wouldn't have called. And that's what I told her.

"This is so disappointing. I can understand why this rule would be in place, but where would I have found this information out before calling this morning and being on hold for three and a half hours? Was this in writing anywhere online?" I asked.

"I understand the frustration. There's nothing I can do. I can book you one stateroom today and you can book another tomorrow." She told me.

"Well, let me ask you something -- if I book a stateroom today, is it possible that the same category of stateroom will be sold out by tomorrow afternoon?" I asked.

"Anything is possible. This is a very competitive booking window." She curtly told me.

I'm an ex-Cast Member, an ex-customer service phone agent, and a current associate under a branch of our customer experience operations team. I have a lot of empathy for call agents, but I was really upset by how I was being spoken to by this woman. Obviously policy is policy, there's nothing she can do to change that, and she did offer an option or two, but the tone of her voice was extremely short, curt, a little condescending, and not diffusing my disappointment. I wasn't going to get the resolution I needed on the phone with her, so I just thanked her for taking my call and hung up. I was really sad. Again, I used to take retail calls on Black Friday, so I've been in her shoes on busy days like this -- frazzled, frustrated, tired, in need of a break and an espresso martini and a good cry-- so I really feel for her at the end of the day. But as the customer on the other end of the line, it was just a sad moment for me.

I proceeded to have a very sad rest of my day at work and went home, prepared to book our staterooms during this morning's general sale. As I was recalling the conversation with my parents later that evening, my mom declared that she was going to call. Before I can stop her and tell her I didn't want to ask for something I had already been told "no" to, she was already calling, and the estimated wait time was 75 minutes.

As we sat in the living room on this fine Thursday night, I thought to myself, "you know... maybe it'll be different now that it's late at night and things are cooling down." We have moments in our company where our team leads change course and say "you know what, we talked a few things over, we changed our minds and if people who ordered yesterday call and ask for today's gift with purchase, we can send it out to them." So I had a glimmer of hope in me that maybe -- just maybe -- we'd be able to book what we needed if I asked from the get-go if it would be possible to book two staterooms.

75 minutes later, an angel answers the phone. We'll call her Rose. I asked Rose if it had been a long day, she said yes, but that she was still really excited to take my call and help me book my cruise.

"Listen, Rose, I have a question before I give you any more information -- would it be at all possible for me to book two staterooms for four adults with you? We all have the same membership number." I said.

"You know what, that's a great question actually. I'm going to put you on hold and ask my supervisor if that's okay with you." She said.

After a brief hold, she comes back and tells me that yes, this is possible!

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The next 25 minutes or so of this call are amazing. Rose is just so sweet, she's as excited as I am to make this cruise possible, and she's a wealth of information who helps us book -- I kid you not -- what I believe are the two most perfect staterooms on the ship, exactly what we were looking for. Did you know that you can see Castaway Cay perfectly from your Verandah if your room is Starboard side? I didn't -- but Rose did, and that's what she recommended for us. We talked and laughed and had fun together while we booked the cruise, and then she said she needed to put me on another hold while she pulled up the payment form. I said no problem.

10 minutes go by.

15 minutes.

20 minutes pass and I'm starting to get concerned. I can still hear hold music, so we're still connected, but she's been gone for a while.

30 minutes on hold and I actually call the DCL hotline from my phone versus my mom to see if I can get to an operator to make sure Rose is okay.

40 minutes later, Rose comes back and she is extremely apologetic. "I'm so sorry for the hold, I was just talking to my supervisor -- our payment system was down because of a technical error and I was trying to get it resolved so we could complete the booking!"

I actually got a little emotional. Like I said earlier, I've been in Rose's shoes before -- this is now after 10 PM on what was one of her longest, busiest days of the year, she's at the bitter end of this long shift, and she spent 40 minutes with a supervisor to make sure I could get this vacation booked tonight, even though we're now technically outside of the hours these phones are supposed to be off. She gets a gold star from me. She actually inspired me to put a little more love into my interactions with customers in my own role today. I actually wrote about this woman in a Slack channel with our CX agents today just to talk about the power a good customer service experience can hold.

I thanked her profusely once everything was done, told her about what an amazing agent she is, and emailed DCL this afternoon to share a few words about the impact Rose left on me.

All of this is to say that yesterday, we booked our first ever Disney Cruise. We will officially be on the Disney Magic next August headed to the Bahamas, Castaway Cay, and Lookout Cay!

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I recognize that this has been a very long, wordy post to say very little (called in the morning, didn't book a cruise, called in the evening, booked a cruise) so I'll save more details about what we have booked so far for a different post. But I hope anyone reading this post enjoyed hearing my thoughts, and if you're ever wondering if you're prepared to book your first ever Disney Cruise... I guarantee that you are more prepared than I was yesterday.

 

[Disney102015]

Yayyyy I love your trip reports and am so excited to follow along! We just did our first Disney cruise a few weeks ago and we are HOOKED! I am already scoping out the next one. Sorry you had such an eventful booking day but glad it all got squared away eventually. Looking forward to reading more!!