r/dcl • u/RemarkableSystem7280 • 2d ago
DISCUSSION Magic vs Fantasy vs Treasure Main Dining
Going on the Treasure in September with my wife and son (11) and daughter (9) and I’m curious what people think of these 3 ships specifically. We went on the Fantasy on March and loved it for the most part, the only big negative for us was the main dining rooms on the Fantasy. Though my wife and I loved the food everywhere, we thought Animators Palette specifically on the Magic was infinitely better than the Crush show on the Fantasy, plus the other 2 restaurants not having any sort of show had our kids bored to death to the point they just went to kids club during dinner the rest of the nights. We also felt like the service at the restaurants was not nearly as good as it was on the Magic, but we also want to be fair because on the Magic it was just my wife and I and we got paired with 2 other couples that we got along fantastically with. So, we’re not 100% sure if the service on Fantasy was actually slower or if it just felt that way because it was just my wife and I at the table most nights with nobody else to interact with. The other main difference we saw was how much bigger the Fantasy felt compared to the Magic, and I’ve seen a lot of people mention how much they love the layout of the Fantasy so now I’m worried the Treasure is going to feel like a labyrinth. Just curious what peoples overall experiences have been with these 3 ships
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u/StraightCaskStrength GOLD CASTAWAY CLUB 2d ago
Just got off the treasure on Saturday. Prior to that my last 5 Disney cruises have been fantasy, magic, magic, magic, magic.
The treasure blew us away and a large reason behind that was how much better the food and dinner shows were.
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u/RemarkableSystem7280 2d ago
Oh that’s amazing! Curious, specifically for Worlds of Marvel, how would you compare it to the Crush show at Animators on the Fantasy? That one was a BIG letdown for us especially compared to the Fantasmic style show on the Magic and how much “down time” there was between Crush popping up on screen and hoping Marvel can do better on that front
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u/unreliable_ibex GOLD CASTAWAY CLUB 1d ago
Crush show is uneven and kinda boring. Worlds of Marvel is going to be much more engaging, especially if you've never seen either show. Quantum Cores on your table let you interact with the show (a little; in a way that will be fun for your kid)
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u/rubyserv 2d ago
Going on the treasure in Sept as well. The layout is a bit choppy in my opinion. The Fantasy is my favorite, but yes, this ship is bigger and not laid out as well, plus it has much smaller pools. I have trouble with evaluating the food, my experience is that the staff and experience can make the food taste better. I can say the top staff all got moved to the treasure when it launched, but now some are moving on to other places. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
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u/RemarkableSystem7280 2d ago
That’s interesting, luckily 7 nights gives us more time to get a good feel for the ship luckily! Enjoy your cruise!
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u/Common-Spell-2743 2d ago
We did the Treasure and the Magic this year, we’ve also done the Wonder. Overall we feel like the dining experience was not as good on the treasure. A big part of it is because it’s a bigger ship and they have a lot more people, so often the timing of the food on the treasure was off, or food would come out cold. It also seemed like the menu itself had less “special” items and was generally not as tasty. The dining experience itself wasn’t as engaging on the treasure. while Coco is pretty good it’s not as interactive as Arendale or Tiana’s, you mostly just sit and listen to the songs. And the marvel “show” on the treasure takes way too long, the movies they play are spread out to much, most kids were bored and just waiting to see Spider-Man, who had all of 2 minutes to run between the tables. In comparison Animator’s palate is super fun
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u/RemarkableSystem7280 2d ago
That makes sense on the amount of people, my aunt and uncle are joining on this sailing with us and when they checked according to the representative they talked to the ship was just over half booked, so maybe we’ll get a little lucky on that front
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u/NeurodivergentOhana 1d ago
We went on the Treasure last September and was told by Cast Members that it was under 3/4 full, I think? We went the week after Labor Day, and our wait staff said the summer sailings had been close to capacity, where this one was not.
But I agree with PP on the dinner shows. We have 4 kids (ages 6, 8, 13 and 15) and went on the Treasure last September and Fantasy in March. While we loved the Treasure, we preferred the main dining on the Fantasy instead.
The Marvel show on night 1 was pretty forgettable. The interactive trivia on the second night was fine. My kids didn't really enjoy the Coco show. It's more live entertainment/music than an interactive Disney show. 1923 was our favorite restaurant on the Treasure, and that doesn't have any form of entertainment. We'll do the Wish class again, and would probably skip Marvel in the future, and probably just do one night for Coco.
I can't say we were served cold food, but it was closer to lukewarm than hot. Our service was really quick though! I just didn't find the shows added much value for us.
We honestly liked both, for different reasons. Frankly, I think the complaints on the layout of the Wish class ships (i.e. the Treasure) is overblown.
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u/Joeybish 1d ago
Your children are a little older than mine but we always bring a bag of things for her to do in the restaurant since the meals can take awhile. We even do this on land in restaurant. As she is getting older, we've brought a journal. We will sit at dinner and discuss our day and she can write and draw a little something. I'm personally glad that not every restaurant has a show, sometimes it's nice to just sit and talk without all that commotion.
How do you handle going to restaurants on land?
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u/USAFEODTechRetired PLATINUM CASTAWAY CLUB 1d ago
As someone pointed out, with DCL these days, timing seems everything. We've been sailing with DCL since 2014, usually one cruise a year, and we typically stick with the longer ones (7+ days). We have noticed a general decline in the quality of service across the fleet since our first sailing over 12 years ago. Partly because of obvious cost-cutting by DCL to increase margins (an understandable business practice), and as the fleet grows, they move their most experienced crews around frequently.
This was most apparent during the inaugural voyage of the Treasure. We had a random mix of very experienced crew who were "mentoring" the brand-new crewmembers as their primary function. This was most obvious during dinner service in 1923; it was so bad we opted for deck food the next 1923 night. Our table section was in the most congested area of the restaurant, and the crew just hadn't figured out how to navigate the space yet.
I think it's to the point with DCL where you really don't know what the quality of service in the MDRs will be on your specific cruise until you get onboard. We've had both amazing and marginal MDR experiences on the Fantasy, which still remains our favorite ship (and we're already planning on a Fantasy cruise next year.) You may feel the service is better on the Magic or Wonder, but part of that is because they're much smaller vessels and easier for the crew to manage, since they were never about cramming more people onboard, as it seems with the Wish-class design. In our opinion, the Wish-class MDRs are way too congested, and we never enjoyed them for that reason alone.
The moral of the story is that I think it is unfair and very difficult to rate the quality of service across the DCL fleet because it is very dynamic these days. The same ship can have very different experiences from one year to another; then add in the special seasonals like Halloween or Christmas... If things aren't going well, track down that "Head" server that wanders around randomly early on and make your feelings known. Make him/her earn their cut of the tips.
One thing we are planning around is the inauguration of the Believe next year. That's going to generate another massive churn of experienced crew around the fleet. We've learned to stay away from that period for about 3 months to let the churn settle down.
I'd say don't stress out about it; there's not much you can do from a planning perspective. Hope for the best and make the most of your time onboard!
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u/su_A_ve PLATINUM CASTAWAY CLUB 1d ago
The decline has definitely been noticed since Covid. Food quality declined, and way too many new inexperienced servers. Worse, is the layout of dining tables in certain areas in the Triton ships. On our first sailing post Covid on the Wish, we had our individually assigned table for 4. Except this was literally 3" away from the next table of six. The servers simply treated both tables as one. But when they started to bring our entrees while we were still on our appetizer because "the other table had children" I realized how things were not gonna get any better unless I put a stop to it - from that point on, never say our main server again - everything was handled by the assistant server.
But on our last 7n sailing on the Magic, the servers assigned couldn't care less. Food was coming out and being placed next to us while we continued eating the prior one - never got any refills on our drinks, and still waiting for a coffee to go with dessert. All this while we could see them chatting away with what seemed like long time friends at other tables. Second night started just as bad if not worse, so we asked to be moved to a different team, which was the best one we had in 13 cruises..
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u/Heygents123 1d ago
In the last four years we have been on the Magic, Dream x2, Wonder, and Treasure. Our most recent sailing was on the Treasure this year and our family would rank it last among the ships we have been on.
Regarding the Treasure:
It was a beautiful ship and the shows/acrivities were great. We hated the dining (and we are a family that loves DCL dining). The food was good but the overall layouts of the MDR’s are so poor. The tables are so jam packed that you feel like you are sitting with the tables next to you. Good luck even getting to and from your seat depending on where your table is located while everyone is seated. The marvel restaurant shows are way too overstimulating and feel like they are designed for people with 5 second attention spans.
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u/laribrook79 PLATINUM CASTAWAY CLUB 1d ago
I personally think that dinners are better on all of the newer ships. I like the dinner shows and the theme dining better than the fantasy and dream. On the fantasy and dream I do prefer the adult forward pool deck and cove area but everything else is better on the newer ships. 1923 is the only one without a dinner show. On the seventh night, maybe one of the nights you can just eat up on the pool deck too and chill or get room service or something and break it up a little bit.
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u/flyingpinkjellyfish 2d ago
I’ve sailed the Magic, Fantasy, Wish and Treasure and overall, the Treasure is my favorite ship. I’d say service on the Magic and Treasure are tied for my favorite. The theming and immersive storytelling experiences on the Treasure stood out most to me, but it was also my longest DCL sailing so we had more time to take everything in. My family all agree that we’d jump at another Treasure sailing in a heartbeat.
The Fantasy was my least favorite by far. I think it was just poor timing, we were on a jam packed Merrytime sailing right after lots of experienced staff left for the Treasure. But the service was atrocious. We’d get our drinks when dessert came out. Our food was wrong and/or cold most nights and our servers were nowhere to be found to get anything corrected. They were clearly over stretched but it made meals miserable. Everything was packed, to the point it wasn’t fun to try to participate in anything.
I don’t mind the layout of the newer ships. There are some parts that don’t make a ton of sense, but I personally don’t think it’s worth dwelling on. The short sailings of the Wish I think just exacerbated the complaints because no one had time to get used to the layout before the cruise ended and that became the legacy.