The GCW Tour, the Frozen Cruise: Final Thoughts on the Disney Cruise

Today's our last day on the Disney Magic. Tomorrow morning we land in Copenhagen and disembark for the last time. Happily, the weather's gotten warm enough that the EYO got to try out some of the water features before the opportunity passed him by...

 

And now that I've completed my first Disney cruise, I can provide some commentary...

It's an impressive operation. We'll land in Copenhagen tomorrow, with clearance to disembark expected to come at about 7:30 am. Everyone's expected to be off the boat by 9:15, and at 11:30 they'll start boarding for the next cruise (the reverse path of the one we were just on). 

I should've been smart enough to figure this out ahead of time, but it appears Disney cruising is primarily part of Disney's time share operation. Ads for vacation packages run constantly on the first few TV channels, and there's a "vacation desk" at the main entrance. Also, it seems that Disney sells magnetic decorations you can put on your stateroom door, many of which are designed to commemorate the number of times one's been on a Disney cruise. The highest number I saw was thirty.

Someday when I have more time I'll have to do some reading on Walt. I'm curious to know how much of the current Walt Disney Company was in place when he died. (My guess is a very small percentage.) Aside from cruises and time shares and whatnot, just turning on the TV onboard is striking. With the exception of the BBC and a sports channel, as far as I can tell every channel is broadcasting Disney created content -- and it's all different (if frequently repeated). They've come a long way from a guy with a mouse.

But they need to hire a better librarian. From the vast quantities of Disney content available, what they choose to broadcast (repeatedly) is actually sort of odd. It's too old to be stuff that kids who are kids fell in love with, but too new to be the stuff that most of their parents remember. As the niece noted, these were her childhood movies, but she's too young to be parenting kids who can travel. Now I'm generally too old to be the parent of appropriately aged children, and the niece is too young, so in terms of targeting typical parents you'd think Disney would be choosing movies released between those generations. Not so much.

And while I'm on the subject, regardless of the fact that I'm too old, you'd think that with thirty channels to fill they could devote just one to all those live action movies Disney released in the sixties and seventies --The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Robinson Crusoe, USN, Gus. I loved those movies. 

And speaking of Disney movies, I didn't notice until I saw a whole run of them one after another, but have you ever noticed that the female leads from all the B-grade animated features of the last ten or so years sound like Jennifer Lopez? 

Ok, back to cruising.

I'd recommend a Disney cruise if you've got kids under eighteen, but absent that, I can't say I'd rush back into this. The people I know who do this sort of thing regularly report abundant adult-oriented activities. I can't say the same for the Disney cruise. The EYO had a lot to keep him busy, the niece not so much. (I'm not a joiner, so i don't count regardless.)

That said, I don't know that I'd recommend the subarctic Disney cruise again. The Disney Magic really does seem to have been designed to float in warmer waters.

Finally, there's the question of food, since cruise people always want to talk about the food. I'd say the quality distributed across a curve, but more of an inchwormy sort of curve than a bell curve. This is to say, there were some very, very good meals, and some pretty bad meals, but those were actually few and far between. Most of the food was just kind of average.

But I got to see Iceland, Norway and, tomorrow, Denmark. And the EYO reports that he had a good time and would do it again. So that's all that matters.