When are you doing DCL?
At this point, it isn’t a definite…but we are looking at possibly modifying our 30th anniversary trip from being like 9 days at Disney, in December 2025, to 5 days at Disney and then a 4 night DCL cruise.
I guess the short answer is early-to-mid-December, 2025.
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That sounds like fun. The 4 and 5 night voyages are my sweet spot. I hope it works out for you! DCL is a unique line and you would enjoy the shows!
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It happens so fast you kinda miss it. It’s a constant line of people and they say your name. My kids (ages 26 and 15) didn’t even know it happened.
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The CMs who do the announcing will announce whatever name you tell them to as you approach them. Other than what you tell them in that exchange, they have no way to see or know who you are. And I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t see why you couldn’t just let them know at that point you don’t wish to be announced and I’m sure they’ll respect that.
Another alternative is just to hurry along with the group ahead and say oh we’re with them and keep moving on in. I’ve heard they do stop announcing names as it gets closer to the all aboard so you could go super late (although that would be really late because our first cruise we didn’t board until 2:30pm and they were still announcing names & I wouldn’t choose to board late since you’ll want that time to explore/eat/settle in).
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I was at the back of our family with a toddling 3 yr old coming up the gangway and so we were some paces behind the rest of the family & whoever was at the front was just so excited they didn’t check to make sure we had caught up and I was also so caught up trying to get her to keep up while I rolled the heavier case we had with the bottled waters & totally missed it too.
Once my DH realized that though he felt really bad & every cruise we’ve done since it’s been someone’s job to make sure mom has help at the back-end so we all get to hear the announcement.
Yeah. That’s pretty late. We liked having that 12:30 board time.
It’s probably no big deal, and maybe just me…but I just don’t like that kind of attention, even if it is rather meaningless. Just let us board. No muss, no fuss.
It seems no one is even paying attention, at least in the vlogs that I’ve watched, so I’m not really sure why they even do it.
I am sure glad you gave this type of info about the “announcing” of you. I remember, way back when it was our very first ever cruise, and they did it. At first, it seemed like a very special thing to do, to make you feel important. So I told them our last name, and even spelled it with comments of how to say it, and then the bored CM said it and - just like that - the moment was over, and we were aboard. DH gave me “the look” and I was soooo embarrassed for what I did. Now I know, I’ll treat it like Dragnet - “Just the facts, ma’am.”
ETA: You gotta remember, no one else on board knows you or cares, or will ever see you again. You’re in a sea of strangers.
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The only ones paying attention are your very own selves. Maybe a set of seasoned cruisers off in a corner who enjoy a people watching aspect of people boarding and don’t want to be anywhere else on the ship. But 99.9% of people are either soaking in their own entrance to the atrium or off exploring the ship/eating/settling in. But I’m also very sure the CM won’t mind just letting you on, no muss, no fuss, just like you want.
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Right, in my head I built it like this big old thing where we were announced and then came down some kind of walkway/grand staircase to an enraptured audience clapping, cheering, whatnot. It was very much not that, and very much an assembly line of names. But the atrium is breathtakingly beautiful that you don’t really need more than that to enjoy.
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Also, I just looked down at the date and put together that, the boarding on our first cruise (where I missed hearing our name) was exactly almost to the hour, one year ago today. It feels like it was both a lifetime ago & just a few weeks ago.
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DCL just released the summer (up to end of September) 2025 sailings so next up will be end of year. They are launching two new ships by the end of 2025 so I would not be one bit surprised if they have some delay in releasing the late 2025 itineraries. I like to use disneycruiselineblog.com for detailed cruise info and according to their itinerary announcement history they expect the itineraries to be released “Spring 2024” but that could mean up to mid-June. My guess is that’s on the early end of when we’d find out what’s next, but I could be totally wrong.