impact of the Captain and Cruise Director?

We have Darren right now. He's awful. His morning show is so incredibly boring. He even just replayed an old one for the first day. It Waggoner obvious since he said repeatedly that Incredibles releases in a couple weeks.

In addition, he's using his pre-show talks and PA announcements to just say choice, choice, choice. I might try to say something to him about how bad his entertainment schedule is for this cruise, but I may just wait for the comment card. The double shows are bad, but other offerings are pretty sad too.

I really never thought a CD could have such an impact. But Darren seems to hate his job, and it definitely impacts the whole ship.
This should be Darren's last week before break--so that may be why he's so bad right now. I'm sorry that the offerings are so bad! When I looked at the Scott's cruise schedule last week I wasn't happy either. I hope you still have a good cruise despite the offerings!
 
We have Darren right now. He's awful. His morning show is so incredibly boring. He even just replayed an old one for the first day. It Waggoner obvious since he said repeatedly that Incredibles releases in a couple weeks.

In addition, he's using his pre-show talks and PA announcements to just say choice, choice, choice. I might try to say something to him about how bad his entertainment schedule is for this cruise, but I may just wait for the comment card. The double shows are bad, but other offerings are pretty sad too.

I really never thought a CD could have such an impact. But Darren seems to hate his job, and it definitely impacts the whole ship.

It’s sad that sometimes Darren really seems to drop the ball on the entertainment and yet at other times he seems to be other people’s favourite CD.
There were many many complaints about him to DCL after a cruise that I was on.
 
Isn't he on the Dream right now? According to that article none of the ships have a cruise director scheduled this Summer.

To answer the question the cruise director has zero impact on my cruise. The captain finds the good weather so I guess he does.


Clayton was supposed to be on the Dream according to the schedule, but never was. We were on the 6/1 Dream Double Dip and Carly had been the CD for that entire window. It was our first time having Carly and in 11 cruises, honestly haven't had a CD who seemed to care less than she did. When we asked about the Golden Mickeys she gave the impression of not caring and that it wasn't coming back.
 
Last year was the first time we had good interaction with the CD, and we loved Trent and his assistant Carly. I've seen very few positive comments on Darren. I'm hoping he's ok.

Darren's not my favorite. He was CD on my Alaska cruise in 2017 so I have to admit I was a little disappointed when I heard he was scheduled for the EBTA this year. I "get" what's expected of the CD's, but I found it started to get very tiring how he was "always on", if that makes sense. Just very over-the-top personality wise, which to me translates as non-genuine. I also didn't particularly like Clayton, whilst most people on these boards rave about him.

In addition, he's using his pre-show talks and PA announcements to just say choice, choice, choice

Any time I heard the chimes before I PA, I had my eyes set to roll the moment I heard the drawn out "GOOOOOOOOOOOD AFTERNOON!" that he loves to do.
 


on the wonder, Couple years ago we had Peter. Whatever happened to Peter? Last Cruise, we had Natalee and Ashley
 


My DH and I have always enjoyed Natalie's voice over the intercom and her energetic appeal at different events during the cruise. Frankly, that is the only CD I can remember. Capt. Tom (in Oct 2012) sailed us right into Hurricane Sandy.
 
I don't understand people blaming the CD when they don't like the entertainers on board. I seriously doubt they have anything to do with the hiring of any of the entertainers. I'm pretty sure that's done by corporate, not the CDs. I can understand if you don't like someone's style/personality, though. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes.
 
Darren is really taking some hard knocks on here and he is our favorite CD. I'm excited to see he's scheduled on the Magic this fall. Looking forward to sailing with him again. But maybe we are just strange because we never enjoyed the more popular CD's (Brent, Rachel or Clayton).
 
I don't understand people blaming the CD when they don't like the entertainers on board. I seriously doubt they have anything to do with the hiring of any of the entertainers. I'm pretty sure that's done by corporate, not the CDs. I can understand if you don't like someone's style/personality, though. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes.
I don't think that I've ever seen poor entertainers on DCL. Poor and bizarre scheduling on the other hand has been evident on one of the many cruises that I've taken, and that was entirely down to the CD.
 
Slightly OT but I also see a lot of complaints about the double shows. On the Fantasy in November it really was a cutback in guest performers but for Alask I loved the set-up. One night it was the regular two showtimes and one night it was at 7.15pm allowing people from both seatings to join and there was still a guest performer that night. This way people with late excusriosn had a new chance to watch it. It didn't go at the expense of guest performers but we didn't get the all aboard and farewell show. To be honest I really dislike those two so didn't mind AT ALL. Another advantage was way more sets on the first night. Normally pretty much the entire character cast is taken for the all aboard show and you only get to meet like 3 characters that night on the classics, well not this cruise... Every single one of the 8 VIPS was out for meets that first night.
Not sure how much this 'construction' was Nathalies work. I'm not her biggest fan, but this set-up really worked imo, it was like the best of both worlds.
 
It's not the entertainers, it's the scheduling. The job of the CD is to schedule the entertainment.

I don't think that I've ever seen poor entertainers on DCL. Poor and bizarre scheduling on the other hand has been evident on one of the many cruises that I've taken, and that was entirely down to the CD.

I don't get the scheduling critiques. From my experience, isn't it pretty much the same on every cruise - regardless of CD? Let's use a 7-night as an example. You won't have production shows every night. You'll have a couple of nights with an entertainer or movie. There will be entertainers or one of the game show types of events in the nightclub about 10:30. Occasionally there are family-oriented shows in an afternoon by one of the performers. That's the schedule. Or are you referring more to other things like trivia and such?
 
I don't get the scheduling critiques. From my experience, isn't it pretty much the same on every cruise - regardless of CD? Let's use a 7-night as an example. You won't have production shows every night. You'll have a couple of nights with an entertainer or movie. There will be entertainers or one of the game show types of events in the nightclub about 10:30. Occasionally there are family-oriented shows in an afternoon by one of the performers. That's the schedule. Or are you referring more to other things like trivia and such?
This was on one of the several fourteen night cruises that I've taken. I think I posted some of what the issues were earlier on in the thread.
 
We just were on the first 5 night Dream double dip of the year. This was our 11th cruise and I'd say most people were very disappointed in the scheduling. They scrapped the Golden Mickeys, which left us with 2 nights of Believe, 2 nights of BATB and a movie.
 
We just were on the first 5 night Dream double dip of the year. This was our 11th cruise and I'd say most people were very disappointed in the scheduling. They scrapped the Golden Mickeys, which left us with 2 nights of Believe, 2 nights of BATB and a movie.
Yikes! No wonder you were disappointed.
 
Yeah, if any show should be scrapped...it's "Believe". That show has absolutely no re-watchability whatsoever.
 
Yeah, if any show should be scrapped...it's "Believe". That show has absolutely no re-watchability whatsoever.

I absolutely can't stand the storyline, but do enjoy the Princess and the Frog scene a lot ❤
 
Anyone know who's the CD on the Magic now? I read unknown the last time I checked.
 

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