Is Disney Cruise Line in Australia Worth The Price? An Honest Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 มิ.ย. 2024
- When Disney announced they were bringing the Wonder to Australia for the first time, I knew I had to be on board. Little did I know I was in for an incredible adventure, one that threw me back to the Disney of old and skyrocketed to one of the best vacations I’ve ever had.
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As an Aussie, I ended up going on the Wonder in late January and I had the time of my life. I really hope we get a permanent ship sometime in the future. All the cast and crew were so lovely, we got to know so many of them from our meal servers to character attendants. My Mum and I had the best time.
Definitely the Australian hype. I have been in 5 cruises (including Alaska) and never waited more than 10 min to see a character. Never waited to shop either.
I'd never been on a cruise before and the one thing I wasn't prepared for was US plug sockets, will definitely remember next time!
I went on the first Aussie cruise and the lines for characters got pretty crazy - but the staff were shocked by the lines too. When we spoke to them sounds like it’s not common in the US as most people have been to the parks, whereas this could be the closest a lot of Aussie families ever get to a Disney park. Also for the price Aussies are paying everyone wants to take home a photo with captain Mickey. We didn’t realise that the tip was included, so we double tipped for coffees, snacks etc 😅 but i would 100% go again, i just hope they iron out some of the issues they had this season as i don’t think they were quite prepared for the Aussie market.
Being the first one we had full range of merch but from what I’ve seen by December they’d sold out of a lot of the merch items we had on offer to us.
We were on the Wonder from Hawaii to Vancouver after the Australia season. There was a great deal of talk about how many Australians removed or greatly reduced the tips. The tipped positions staff worked for weeks with very little pay and were very discouraged after providing the best service they were able.
My wife and I will be taking the Alaskan cruise from Vancouver this summer. I don’t think many cruise guest realize how the crew is paid. The Disney Wonder is registered in Nassau. This allows for lower operating costs. The crew relies on gratuities from guests . The crew often works 14 or more hours a day with no overtime pay. A guest review can either make or break a crew member. Generosity from guests, allow Disney crew members to make a decent living. The Disney experience has no equal. I think whatever they make is still underpaid for the service you receive.
You're telling me I was on the same cruise as ReviewTyme 😭😭😭 I would've been so stoked to meet you!
Now to get to tipping, my mum actually asked the servers how much they made, and she said they made about $50 a month, and that is when I doubled down on the several people I met on the ship that were like 'You don't have to tip!' and the amount of shocked faces I got. Disney should have done their research, yes, but so should the guests, since my previous cruise experience has been to tip on board.
"To edge and vibe for those who are to old and cool to hang around with their parents." Lmao Luke, "edge" has taken on a new meaning as of late, you might want to look it up.
I nearly spit out my food when I heard this
Do you know what it means? Tell me, as I don’t know what it means either.
@@joshuaramonmontano1948it means 💦🍆
Glad you enjoyed your trip. Re the thing about queues for characters and the rush for the shops - these really aren't normal for DCL at all, but we did encounter some of this on the shorter UK cruises we did last year and were surprised. I suspect it's down to people new to DCL and not realising how relatively easy it is to meet characters on board, or assuming that shop stock will sell out. The shops usually keep very well stocked. The only exception we ever found to this was on the Magic At Sea cruises in COVID times where supply chains were disrupted.
I need a tshirt that says "I teamed up with reviewtyme for parks trivia and all I got was a cooling cloth" 😂 great review! 😊
Fixing to go on Disney Dream this fall for a trans Atlantic cruise. Thanks for the heads up on coffee, I don’t drink but hubby does.
Hey Luke! I’m so glad to hear you had a good time on your Disney cruise. My family went on our first Disney cruise in September and now we have three!!!! cruises booked. It’s really something special and I 100% agree that it’s the classic Disney experience I have come to know and love. Hope they do solve the issues for the Australian audience and hopefully you will be able to one day make it stateside to experience one to the Bahamas. Love all of your content and hope you are well!
Glad to hear DCL Service is still elite, even across the globe. I hope you guys in Aussie keep getting more sailings out there each season 🙏🙏
I never thought about the tipping culture in Australia! Yeah I’d be a bit peeved too if I wasn’t expecting it. The 18% added to bills isn’t just an Australia thing. It’s the same across the whole fleet. But I agree Disney does need to make it more clear to everyone on all ships that the 18% is thrown in by default. I do feel bad for the crew on board in those tipped positions because I can only imagine how many guests removed their gratuities for each sailing. That really hurts the crew. Hopefully Disney addresses this and bumps the overall price of Australia sailings to include gratuities by default. Great video! I was wondering if you were going to take advantage while the Wonder was down under!
The crew members rely on tips as a large part of the incomes.
I feel terrible for the cast members who got screwed over. The difference here wass the 18% wasn't added after the fact to the bill, but added directly into the pricing without directly saying so anywhere. However when the bill is printed it still has the blank line for a tip and seeing as they didn't tell you it was already built in it was very easy to double tip.
We definitely had to take advantage while she was in town, can't beat sailing out of one of the most beautiful port cities in the world!
We're loyal Disney Cruisers. Going on our 7th this Fall 😁
Surprised to hear about long queues for character interactions. Ease of access has always been noted as a positive by most on Disney cruises. I hate to hear that passengers are removing the automatic daily gratuity. That charge is not a traditional tip or "extra" $$$. It's how the crew are compensated (for better or for worse). I've seen this happen on US based cruises too. Take care of the hard working crew!
I am glad that overall you enjoyed your cruise. We have been on 19 Disney cruises and currently have five more booked (we have two later this month). You are correct, being from the States we are used to tipping and I did not realize how it was in Australia. The complaint that I have about the cruises down under is that they are too short. We are used to longer cruises, seven days or longer (we have been on a 14 day cruise with Disney). I was excited to hear that the Wonder would be heading down, but when I reviewed the itineraries, we were disappointed to see how short that they all were. I do understand that in Australia, people like the shorter quick getaway cruises. I hope that if Disney makes it back down there, they include some longer cruises.
We've been on a lot of Disney cruises and happy to hear you had a great time! But one note, the 18% autogratuity wasn't just "an Australian thing," and is there on any DCL cruise anywhere. Actually, most cruise lines in the U.S. and Europe have made that pretty standard, unfortunately.
Disney is so bad about coffee. I work sales at a Disney Springs hotel and I tell everyone there's always solid, hot coffee in the lobby every morning on the way to the park buses. It's my favorite perk. Plus the bottomless Keurig pods for the room (always used bottled water making coffee in Orlando!)
I've cruised with Disney a few times. Once from here in the UK, once from Florida and once from San Diego. Like you said, they have to sort the tipping out from the UK just like in Australia as we just don't do it or expect it. In the States yes, keep it as it is as we know it's customary to do. Queues for characters on the UK Cruises are wild but not in the states. Retail merch is the same all over, big queues and they run out very quickly! Best to pre order on the navigator app before boarding. But i do love cruising Disney 😁
I don't think there's anything to change re tipping, it just needs to be made clear how it works on the ship and guests need to accept that. Different environment, different culture.
Love the Wonder.
Totally agree with you regarding the tipping situation. It’s the same for us here in the UK , sadly most ships out of the uk do not include tipping so getting a huge bill at the end is a shock for most people.
We are looking forward to doing out first Disney cruise but it will be in the USA following a week in the world ❤️
We went on the last cruise in February and had a fantastic time. 4 nights as well but agree that there's so much to do and not enough time to do it all!
PS just realised you were on the same cruise!
as kiwis and aussies we are lucky to have such incredible coffee compared to the rest of the world. next time you come to orlando seek out foxtail coffee, it is some of the best i have had in the us and it gets damn close to what we have in aus and nz. i cannot drink the jofferys stuff they serve in the parks
100. DCL is almost the last place for Magic. I'll be on board soon-ish.
And the answer is to get us Americans to give up on the tipping thing.
I was on that cruise and the one after it. I really find it hard to imagine going on a cruise for the first time and not doing a bit of research about the details. The information about tipping is clearly stated on the website before you book. Anyone who stiffed the crew by canceling their gratuities claiming they didn’t know about them is being disingenuous at best. There are also plenty of notices about the 18% gratuity on drinks. I don’t know of any cruise line that doesn’t assess gratuities. Expecting a cruise line to change the standard business model of the entire industry because certain countries don’t have that culture is unrealistic.
And every cab driver we had while in Australia expected a tip. One even flat out demanded it. So tipping definitely isn’t unheard of in Australia.
So excited to sail wonder next week!!
Been on seven Disney cruises (Caribbean and Alaska), some with kids some just as adults. i was interested when I heard Disney was entering the Australian market (and indicators are they expect to be much more active there in the future). Sounds like the first season was fairly successful, though they have some areas to iron out, if history is any indicator they will address these as they become apparent. Their cruises are expensive (though arguably not more so than their US parks) but they don't view themselves as competitors to most of the mainline cruise lines - each person can determine for themselves whether that is appropriate. I have been to Australia twice (most recently in 2022) and while I don't think it is a destination I will cruise in, I am glad to see others enjoy the Disney product.
I wondered if the coffee on the Australian legs would be better than the ones out of the US. Thanks for answering that. We will certainly need to educate them on barista coffee. The long waits for everything is common as far as I could tell from the two we went on. Fantasy out of San Diego and Wish out of Port Canaveral.
My first cruise was on the Wonder back in 2010. I will say this, I have also been on the Dream and the Fanasty during their inaugural sailings, I only thought the Wonder was okay in comparison. It might be different now, but I thought the Wonder was outdated, even 15 years ago
I was on the Auckland to Brisbane cruise. I didn't really feel that I had any real misses with the food. Though some others at my table did make some lackluster choices.
I intentionally chose late dining. The drinks thing I came prepared with an insulated cup and a chonky water bottle. Both of which I put coke no sugar into.
With the lines for character interactions I think the assumed reason is correct but I'm not sure it will change any time soon. Next time I won't be joining those lines, at least most of the time.
Before i got off the ship I purchased a placeholder.
Hi there, I'm doing a cruise in November this year. With tipping did you just use AUD or did you need to bring physical USD?
Love your review! I recently went on the final sailing for the Wonder for the 2023/2024 season, in Sydney Australia and it was amazing. I also vlogged the experience 💖
We would have been on the same ship then! Ours was the Syd > Hobart > Syd sailing right before the Wonder went back to Hawaii! - Luke
@@ReviewTyme yes that’s the one!! Small world!
I’m going on my 14th cruise with Disney in 5 weeks on the fantasy
Went on a sailing out of the UK last year and it was really good. It was towards the end of the school holidays so there were lots of kids/families on board which meant a lot of the lines were huge, even for the merch - so it sounds like that may not just be an Aus thing. But i do agree that soft drinks should be free across the boat. Makes no sense to have to trek to a different area just to save $4, but i suppose they bank on guests' laziness for that extra cash!
Maybe this is a sign that Australia might be getting their own park soon? Could be something that's feasible for Disney to do at this point!
I would not rule it out I never thought the UK would get a universal park but they bought land here and are planning universal great Britain in Bedford
You may of had a good Palo brunch, but not the most amazing Palo brunch. I miss the days when it was all ala cart and you could pick and choose which items you wanted and didn't have to order off a set menu. Maybe one day that will return! You are correct about Tiana's! When the Wonder first set sail it was more of a tropical theme with no show. That's interesting that the tip wasn't shown on your reciepts. I just got off the Fantasy and I had a line item for the 18% gratuity for my daily lattes.
Loved this review. We just booked our first disney cruise for October a couple days ago. I am still confused by what u said about the tipping. We have already pre-paid the gratituties. But are u referring to the tipping for anything extra you buy on board, like coffees or alcohol or the beignets or Palo meal. Are you saying you don't need to tip for these extras as they automatically add that to the cost of those extra items? Also, as you had the later seating time for dinner, were you still able to make it for the deck marvel and pirate shows ie what time do these 2 shows start. Finally, im hearing different things regarding the restaurant meals. Some people are saying you can order more than 1 item from the entree/mains/dessert. Whereas most vlogs only show people ordering 1 item from each? Thanks for the thorough review.
There is a per day gratuity that you can prepay and the covers the head waiter, server, assistant server, and stateroom attendant. At the end of the cruise you'll receive envelopes which you can use (or not) to give an additional gratuity to these people; you can also go to Guest Services to add additional money. The double tipping he's referring to is when you buy food or drink that has an additional cost. There is an included tip (I didn't know this my first DCL cruise); you'll see it on the receipt. You can add extra if you like; I usually bring $1 and $5 bills for this. I tipped a bartender extra when he went out of his way to find me a can of root beer when I needed it for a sick stomach (rough seas); I think he had to search bars on three decks.
@@CharleneCTX thanks so much. I think I understand now. Does the same apply for someone who delivers food to the room, or do we need cash on hand to tip for that?
Hey Karen, yep Charlene here is pretty much correct. The only difference is here in Aus the tip on things like drinks is already baked into the price and won't show up as as an automatic 18% gratuity on the reciept. We tipped $1 per plate for room service too but you can aadd that to your bill when they deliver the food if you don't want to carry US Cash aboard :) - Luke
I my cruise,
Tips were included
And
We only had to wait most 30 mins for characters. B/c there was bad weather and could not get on lido deck. Normally the wait was 0 to 15 mins
Great video! I hope to sail on DCL in Australia at some point. Did you guys do the 10% off deposit on this sailing to apply to the next one you mentioned you booked?
Thankyou! Yep we did the $250 deposit onboard to take 10% off our next cruise, a good way to lock us in! - Luke
Few Questions:
How was Animator's Palate?
Does Australia have a Castaway Cay?
Thumbs Up for Drinking Coke Zero!
Animator's Palate is fine - if you've ever experienced it before, it is the same. If you've never experienced it before, it's a lot of fun and interactive for the families
No, there is no analog of Castaway Cay in most non-US destinations
Hello CaptainLazerGuns
Valeu!
Unfortunately, Australia does not have a local population since COVID-19 Does not have the level of international tourism to sustain a permanent Disney attraction other than the cruise ship industry. This is such a shame. A permanent Disneyland Downunder would be such a great idea. The only way this could be possible would be an extreme uplift in either China or South asain tourism to Australia.
Disney theme parks are destination attractions. People will come to them and in many cases not even venture out to see anything else. Or, to put it another way, “if you build it, they will come”.
@@derradune6722 "EuroDisney has entered the chat."
I agree the coffee on DCL is just awful!
I saw this video posted originally with a much more critical title / thumbnail. Did Disney ask you to change it?
Tipping culture is terrible, and gets worse and worse as companies pay their staff less and less. Disney should pay their staff, not the guests!
Disney Cruiselines should test out a ADULTS only Disney cruise. Maybe some people who wouldn't consider a Disney cruise would try it out? 🤔
You didn't like the salted caramel coconut latte??!?!?!!??!!?!?!??!!?!
It might be contentious, but I'm not a fan of Salted Caramel, give me regular caramel instead anyday! - Luke
Unfortunately, an experience on DCL is something that as a solo traveler I will probably never experience as it is not worth being financially penalized because I am alone. #realtalk
5 out of my 7 Disney cruises have been solo. I don’t care about the money as I get the whole full sized cabin to myself and the experience was definitely worth it to me.
@@mindyschocolate In a world where over 20 cruise lines offer accomodations for solo cruisers on their ships, why would I volunteer to be accessed a monetary penalty on a Disney ship? Maybe in the future DCL will embrace as many of their competitors have done that not only are marriage and birth rates (in the US) have been steadily on the decrease, but many solo travelers have access to greater levels of disposable income (as you post demonstrated)? But for the foreseeable future, I will take my business to companies that appreciate me as a client.
Would be sad if the staff was getting American cruise wages.. cuz if you don't tip, they lose a huge chunk of money.. and in the future, they might give poorer service
especially cuz American cruise ships pay way less for their employees (as their often recruited from islands where wages are very low so Americans take advantage of foreign staff for cost cutting..)
Like their still getting more than they would if they stayed home but they often become the bread winner of their family (so their expectations are more.. especially with how much you work on the cruise ship.. long days and months between any kind of day off)
You can keep giving corporate disney your money, while they laugh at you and don't really want you. They only want the whales. The cast members on ship. while not horrible, aren't good either. Our "service team" was pushy, obnoxious, and grating. Always pushing for review forms and not once did we get a hot meal, the chicken fingers were hard as a rock, and only ONE of the soda fountains worked completely. Every single one of the shows failed and had to stop due to technical issues and one even was canceled. The ship (Dream) had a busted pipe and flooded the staircase and floor, Had such a bad HVAC in the buffet that the ceiling visibly rattled and was noisy. The cabin crew was so bad, I told them not to come back and took care of my room myself. The 2nd bed was so hard I had to ask for an additional mattress. What I got instead was a smelly, too short piece of foam. The only good food and service we had to pay extra for and that was at Remy and especially Palo. It's not worth the money, when they charge 3 to 6 TIMES the same itinerary from other cruise lines. There were bugs all over the back of the top deck, Items in the room didn't work well and NOBODY came to fix it. Those are just SOME of the issues, there were more. If you're a brain dead pixie duster, then give corporate disney your money. Otherwise, go on another cruise line. You'll get more for your money. If you want REAL luxury, you can go on other lines that REALLY do luxury and will still be less expensive or at worse the same price. If you value your money, STAY AWAY FROM DCL!!!
My partner, her? Omg dude this whole time watching your videos I thought you were gay. Soz 😂
As someone who's family had a significant level of service in the RCNR, including myself briefly, cruise ships horrify me as a concept and it's genuinely amazing that despite the odds its been over a century since a disaster on the scale of the Titanic. Even ignoring the costs being exorbitant compared to the same type of entertainment on land, those things are floating deathtraps which so far have somehow beaten the odds.
I am kind of finding the AUS complaint about listing "US dollars" everywhere (which the DCL standard, and the STANDARD for most travel & most cruise lines) instead of pandering to expensively reprint *everything* on board to list "AUS dollars" for a very few cruises, pretty... specious.
A cruise is TRAVEL.
You EXPECT to see other currencies when travelling.
Canadians NEVER see "Canadian dollars" listed.
Do we whine? No.
Often we don't even see "CDN dollars" listed in our own CANADIAN port cities near ports, it's USD instead.
(And no, we are NOT "the same" as the US, only the ignorant say that.)
We have multiple Canadian ports DCL & other cruise lines visit or depart from.
We can easily take a cruise from Vancouver to Mexico or Panama... and have to calculate costs based on all kinds of other currencies.
And? 🤷🏻♀️
Canadians simply learn to do the math. 🤷🏻♀️
Also, AUS passengers maliciously removing tips from tips only staff? That's absolutely REVOLTING, abusive, cheapskate behaviour.
NO WONDER the long term, highly skilled DCL staff we know who are regular staff on the Wonder were "taking a break" while the Wonder was in AUS, and no wonder they are *very* anti-AUS sailings.
I would be too if I knew a group of certain customers behaved like that, refused to do ANY research, whined about the behaviour of their fellow AUS citizens as if the ship was to blame, and then flat out refused to pay staff but demanded luxury service.
Staff was not better then RCL, both staff work very hard
BUT
Disney American Staff. I could get them to say they hate their job in 3 mins
Disney food and show are better
RCL waiters are nicer. They never ask for you sign a paper to giving them perfect score
Glad you had a good time on the Wonder, considering IMO it’s the worst ship in the fleet, which I’m assuming is why Disney sent it here in the first place.
When DCL becomes permanent in the APAC region next year, the Disney Treasure is roughly over double the size of the wonder and will, from the look of it, be an epic time at sea.
As for me, the Disney Dream classare currently my go to ships. But I am looking forward to sailing through Pacific on the Treasure real soon!
That’s sad.. no one knows Filipinos are pause way less then Merchant Marine and Navy? Who would of guessed? See my problem is I worked in the deck department in the US flagged cruise industry. I was on a transatlantic crossing on the QM2 as a passenger. I didn’t appreciate the added on gratuities because some people didn’t do anything so I fought the charges and the purser asked why? I’m like the waiter isn’t suitable for carnival let alone working on a Cunard liner and the bus boy does the most work, while he’s getting yelled at by the waiter. Then the head waiter was as useless as a box of rocks. I fight tipping on all cruises and only give who deserves it.. I’ll even give a 100 bucks till seaman just painting because they actually need it.. and are actually in a trade.
You’ll NEVER go hungry?? Yeah you will! They can charge THREE TIMES as much as the competition and they have quite a few times when NOTHING is available outside of room service…all for a tiny cramped very old looking ship (The Wonder usually serves my home port of San Diego) and I HATED my experience…the ship is easily the Least favorite one I’ve been on…I LOVE THE PARKS AND THE DISNEY AESTHETIC, but I just was NOT feeling “any Magic “ on our one and only Disney cruise …only ripped off!
Really? Weird, I always had something to eat until 10pm, and if I wanted room service at 2am, it was free so idk about paying three times more when the other cruise lines charge for room service and even something as basic as soda. Disney doesn’t charge for a soda package.
Hmm… that's weird, my 10 day cruise on the wonder was magical and food was everywhere and anytime
Cruise ship? I will never accept any explanation for why Disney didn't open a park in Australia. Australia deserves better. Our two countries have partnered in global conflicts for over a century. You'd think we'd build in the land down under, not China. Let the Chinese travelers bring their money to Oz, not the other way around. That having been said, I still hope that Australia gets a Disney attraction someday, not an oil tanker converted into a floating theme park or whatever that seafront Disney shopping park was supposed to be. It feels like Australia gets a lot of "close but no" experiences. Australia deserves better.
A park of Disney's scale probably wouldn't be profitable in Australia, just look at Hong Kong and Paris and remember that both where disasters from a financial perspective.
"I will never accept any explanation"
Yup sounds like someone on the Internet. In case you change your mind the obvious explanation is basic economics. Check it out!
We don't have the population. It's that simple.
@@Lilducktatorexcept that Hong Kong was/still is on a smaller scale .
For it to be small enough to work it could never have the Disney Difference.
A profitable Disney park needs roughly more than 10 million visitors a year, that’s almost half the population of Oz visiting every year, and as much as the Ouzzies love Disney I don’t think that’s realistic.
@@Lilducktator I can see what you’re saying, but attendance is the same issue.
Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon get about 2 million visitors, Wet N Wild Gold Coast about half that.
So you’d they’d have to build a water park half the size of BL or TL and get hope to get the same attendance as WnW,
But then they’re in the Catch 22 situation of Hong Kong or Paris, it’s not big enough to attract guests so it doesn’t expand, it doesn’t expand because it doesn’t get enough guests.
Any water park that’s viable would not be a “Disney Waterpark” but a “Disney themed waterpark”