The magical WBTA 2022 - Transatlantic from Dover to New York - 18-30 SEP

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Great trip report!

We are taking the Northern European on the Dream in July. It's a 10 night so I was thinking there might be some similarities.

 

[Karin1984]

Great report so far! Looking forward to more!

Do you have a list of the dining menus for each night in the MDRs?

No, don't think I have. They encouraged to use the app. You could get a paper menu if requested. If my memory serves correctly, I think the menus didn't change that much from what you can still find on Disneycruiselineblog.com.

I just found your trip report and it is quite lovely! I hope you will continue!

I think your Palo manager Sasha was my first Palo server on the Wonder. He was amazing!

I will try! Life came in between. Will post more later tonight.

 

[Karin1984]

Great trip report!

We are taking the Northern European on the Dream in July. It's a 10 night so I was thinking there might be some similarities.

I believe that the live entertainment (the musicians) stay on for the European season and then the transatlantic. And I think you can find similarities in the character meets. Because you don't want too many repeats on a 10-night cruise.

 

[Karin1984]

Today it's exactly 6 months since I embarked on my transatlantic cruise, so the perfect time to continue this report ;-)

On the first page, I reported on the shows we saw in the Walt Disney Theater:
- Graffiti Classics (3 violins and a chello + comedy)
- DNA
- The Fly Boys (modern songs in a vintage way)
- Twice Charmed
- Siegfried Tieber (close up magic)
- Jay Rawlings (juggler)
- Once Upon A Song
- John Kimmons (ventroloquist)
- Tangled
- Broadway Guest (Lisa Karlin)
- Crew Talent Show
- Disney Dreams

However, this was not the order originally. On the first day of the cruise I took a picture of the schedule


What do we see:
- We had two shows starting on day 1 and 3 at 7:30 and only one show. On day 2 there was no show due to this being Le Havre / Paris day, and people who decided to go to Paris would be back very late.
- Once Upon a Song and Tangled were switched this due to rough seas. Tangled has a lots of sets and is a technical show. You do not want to try this and compromise the safety of your performers.
- The broadway guest is not on here. The broadway guest was added halfway through the cruise, and instead of 2 performances, the crew only got to perform their show once, and I think this was around 10pm.

Graffiti Classics
3 violins and 1 chello. The chello is played by an Irish comedian who does the talking. There were some fun jokes, like how they had to pay for an Esta for the US and do all the Bermuda covid testing, while they would disembark again before ever going to Bermuda.
It was an okay show, but I have seen better (classical) music / comedy acts. In the Netherlands we have Hans Liberg, Bill Bailey in the UK. I was expecting something like this, and this was a bit underwhelming. Probably next time I would skip this show in the theatre and see their act in the adult only area later at night.

DNA
No idea... I have skipped this show, but I can't find in my diary why I did so.

The Fly Boys
On the evening DNA occupied the WDT, The Fly Boys had the night show in Fathoms for the adults. They do modern numbers in a vintage style. It was incredibly busy and I sat on the floor. It was a nice show, but also this one, it was ok. I decided that after seeing this I didn't need to see the full family-friendly show in the WDT the following day.

One fun thing was that the dance duo (Alex & Kimberly) joined to dance to a couple of songs. They asked if others wanted to join, but after they showed off their excellent dancing skills, no one dared ;-)

Twice Charmed
It's not Disney's best, but it's a fun hour. The play has some issues, like how every problem Cinderella has, is solved immediately. Franco changes her to the size of a mouse, Fairy Godmother comes by and solves it. Prince Charming is bewitched, but one look at Cinderella and he breaks the curse ;-) I know it's only a 1 hour show and it's meant as entertainment, but I think they should have been able to give it a little bit more conflict. And I am missing a scene between the Fairy Godmother and Franco.

One thing that did annoy me was how Jaq and Gus Gus are played like idiots. You can get away with that for Gus Gus, but Jaq is a smart mouse. When I look on Youtube how the show was performed a few years ago, it wasn't that bad.

But overall, I enjoyed myself, the music was nice, the costumes pretty, good sets and transformations. Perfectly fine for a cruise.

Siegfried Tieber (close up magic)
My favourite non Disney performer, he's from Austria but grew up in Ecuador. He had a great act, was fun, good interaction with the audience. I regretted that I missed his performance in Fathoms. In my diary I wrote down: Great showman.

Jay Rawlings (juggler)
Also, this was ok. He did some impressive stuff. I'm not sure if he had adjusted his act. As mentioned, at this point in the cruise we had some rocky seas, and that's not the moment to juggle. There was relatively little juggling for a juggling act. There was something weird with this act. It wasn't clear when we had to applaud. Usually with these kind of acts, either in music or how the act is built, you feel you are nearing a climax of the trick and then you applaud. Jay got a little frustrated (or he played to be frustrated) that he got little reaction from the audience, but in my opinion that was partially up to him.

Once Upon a Song
On longer cruises the entertainment crew does a Disney concert. I don't have many notes in my diary about this show. We started 8 minutes late, we had songs from Mary Poppins, Hunchback, You'll be in my heart, Baby Mine.
My notes: '6 singers, 6 dancers, low on sets, lots of projections, glittery dresses. It was fine.'
It apparently didn't make an impression. ;-)

John Kimmons (Ventriloquist)
Taking second spot on my favourite non Disney acts. Also here not a lot of notes. 'I had a great 45 minutes', I know I laughed a lot and it convinced me to go to his show in Fathoms the next day.

Tangled
My favourite show. This is so incredibly well done, I love the new songs. Loved it.

Broadway Guest (Lisa Karlin)
This was weird... As mentioned this act was originally not announced on embarkation day. I was disappointed on day 1, because I love musical theater and when you see who they had on the Transatlantic Cruise before (like Gavin Lee, Josh Strickland and Paige O'Hara), I had been looking forward to this.

Lisa Karlin is an actress who appeared on Broadway, She was in the ensemble of The Addams Family and Ragtime. She had a perfectly fine voice, but she was no where near the caliber of the other guest stars. Also Lisa was on board to play Mother Gothel in Tangled and Lady Tremaine in Twice Charmed. She was basically part of the entertainment crew. And this is all fine, I was just a little disappointed. I have a feeling that maybe there was another Broadway Guest planned, but maybe Covid ruined some plans and they asked Lisa to step in.

Her act was announced to be 45 minutes and in reality it was only 30 minutes. She sang some songs we had heard a few days earlier at Once Upon a Song, where they used the same projections. Like with Baby Mine and He's a Tramp.

Also, why I think she was a last minute addition and there was no time to rehearse: Some of her songs would improve if she had backing vocals. She sang I won't say I'm in Love, from Hercules. This song doesn't work as well when you leave out the Muses.

She also didn't do a Q&A like the other guest stars had. There was a Q&A with the 6 main entertainment crew.

Crew Talent Show
The opening and closing was done by the entertainment crew and was incredibly fun, Hairspray (Nicest Crew in Town) and Anything Goes. The show was hosted by Cruise Director Peter and his assistant (whose name I apparently didn't write down) from the Statler and Waldorf box. There is a lot of talent between the non-entertainment crew. Stephanie from the BBB sang an amazing song: Apartment 14G (originally sung by Kirsten Chenoweth), I see the Light from Tangled in Hungarian (?), next to it we had speedpainting and a song from the musical Six.

Disney Dreams
A great way to end the cruise. We did have a showstop. Before the Aladdin number Peter and Annemarie suddenly ran off and we had an annoucement that we had technical issues. It took a few minutes, and then we could continue. Annemarie said her first line so perfectly, she got extra applause when they continued.

I really like these kind of shows, if I would improve one thing: The Cinderella bit is too long, as we had already seen Twice Charmed, this part could be shorter and maybe a new (short) song added.

The Walt Disney Theatre
Reading back I sound more negative than I was. I saw some great shows, but also a lot of average things. It's fine cruise entertainment. The production value of the 3 Broadway shows is amazing, the singers and dancers are very good.

I do think for the other acts, I would advise to see them in Fathoms if you can, so you can decide if you also want to see them in the WDT, or skip the show and have an evening off. In Fathoms it's easier to leave if you do not like the act. Unless you always make sure you sit somewhere in the back on the aisle.

 

[Karin1984]

My room

I had a guaranteed room and was assigned room 2134 short before the cruise. Last time I stayed on deck 2 midship, now it was closer to aft. The location is really nice, close to deck 3 and 4 where a lot of the action is. You are already on the right side for Cabanas.

There wasn’t a lot of vibration, it didn’t disturb me. However, the sound of the engines was a different story. On day 2 I woke up at 5 because we had arrived at Le Havre. The sound lasted about 20 minutes and it was too loud to shut out. The same happened on day 3, but because I was already awake before the sound started, it wasn’t as bad.

I did go to Guest Services to see if I could get another room. However, due to Covid and isolation staterooms this was complicated. As we only had 2 ports to go after this day, I decided to leave it like this.

I like having a cabin to myself and not to share. It's nice to leave the sofa as a sofa, so you have a place to lounge around. Having a split bathroom is still nice. One room to shower and do your morning hygiene, and one room for the toilet.

 

[Karin1984]

Some more entertainment:
On this cruise they let the entertainment cast do a show in Azure. They had done everything themselves and it was honestly a better Disney concert than Once Upon A Song. You could see they enjoyed it so much more, they picked numbers they would normally wouldn't perform, songs they like. Because we were nearing Halloween season, and because Villain songs are awesome, it was all Villain songs I saw both performances. And it was truly a highlight of the cruise.

(Don't miss Ursula at 8:05)

 

[Karin1984]

I don't remember the exact reason at the moment, but our departure got delayed. So, the welcome show was extended with some extra dances by the entertainment crew with the kids. People wanted to see the sail away, so kept waiting on deck 9 and 10. However, the crew of course had to keep going and clean up.

If you want to see something sad on your cruise, stay outside while the crew deflates the Mickey hands. ;-)
You hear me speaking Dutch with one of the other Dutch passengers, basically saying it's such a sad sight, I had to record it.

 

[Voguevamp]

How was the food in the main dining rooms for you? Any can't miss dishes?

Loved the mocktail coverage!

 

[Karin1984]

**

 

[Karin1984]

How was the food in the main dining rooms for you? Any can't miss dishes?

Loved the mocktail coverage!

I would have to go through my pictures, but overall I thought the food in the MDR was ok. Nothing spectacular comes to mind, overall acceptable.

Only really 'bad' dish was the chicken on the light offerings. There was nothing on the menu that night that really appealed to me, so I went for the lighter option. Hadn't realized that meant absolutely no seasoning whatsover.

Main issue on vacation is to get enough vegetables. The regular entrées rarily have more than 100 grammes of vegetables (300-500 grammes is advised where I live), so if you want to try to eat healthy, order an extra side dish of steamed vegetables at lunch and dinner.

 

[Karin1984]

How was the food in the main dining rooms for you? Any can't miss dishes?

Loved the mocktail coverage!

I went through my pictures and diary. Not main dining room, but I had chicken tenders from Cabana's several times and they were often the best on my plate.

The couple at my table were Platinum members and they knew about ordering Indian food in advance. They announced it the evening before and asked if we wanted to join. I said yes, and then forgot about it. They only didn't mention, and neither did our servers, that this is not instead of your dinner. It's additional. So I order my main and my entrée, and as soon as the first course is brought, they also bring 5 or 6 plates with 3 different Indian dishes, rice and naan bread. I was so full... and it all tasted good.

On day 2 I was at Lumières for dinner. There was a cheese soufflé starter. I ordered another one. And that was basically the end of my plan to pay attention to what I eat ;-)



On day 6, below was the lunch menu in Rapunzel's. Braised Italian meatballs, pretty good. But the tomato choriza chickpea soup was amazing. Also ordered a second serving of the soup.
One thing about this visit. The bread I got was stale. I don't know how this happened, but it was very noticeable.







On day 8 in Lumières we have a pizza/flatbread option as an entree. I do not remember what's on there, but it's delicious (according to my notes ) It looks like pear, blue cheese (gorgonzola probably) walnuts, caramelized onions.


Also according to my diary, I enjoyed the samosas and the falafel on pirate night. Sorry for the blue filter, it's the light in Animator's.

 

[Voguevamp]

that's so helpful thank you! That cheese souffle looked amazing!

I have found most of the food in the MDRs to be mediocre. (at least on the Dream and on the Wonder)

 

[Karin1984]

that's so helpful thank you! That cheese souffle looked amazing!

I have found most of the food in the MDRs to be mediocre. (at least on the Dream and on the Wonder)

I think it all depends what you are used to. At home, in restaurants you normally eat at or at a themepark. I think the food on DCL is really overhyped.

However, if you think about how many people they need to feed in a short amount of time, the amount of options they offer per course, they do a decent job. Is it the best food ever? No. I do think it's fine. It's not inedible. It's more varied than what I would make myself, and I do not have to cook or do the dishes.
What I can tell from other cruise vloggers I follow it's on par with other cruiselines.

If you want better food each night, probably try to get as many reservations at Palo as you can with less guests (and maybe better produce) the chefs have more time per dish per guest and that always influence the quality.

If you are into food, and you are taking a transatlantic cruise (or any cruise really), I have a fun thing to do.
- Our first stop was Lehavre, and I had an excursion to Etretat booked. During the drive over the guide told us what this region is famous for, one of the things she mentioned was camembert. I love cheese, especially camembert. We had some time to explore the city and I found myself a cheese store. Great quality and cheap! For 12 euro I had 4 different cheeses.
- Next stop Portland, I did the same and found some English cheddar and crackers.
- In Vigo, picked up some more cheese. The girl behind the counter also sold me some jelly to accompany the cheese.

And for the rest of the cruise I had an amazing cheese plate in my fridge. I have never ordered the cheese plate on board DCL, but by the looks of it, it's a lot of money, for not a lot of cheese, let alone good quality ;-)

So, pro tip! What kind of food you love and is there a local equivalent. I tried to look for teas to bring home to a friend, but that plan was ruined when it turned out: the Spanish do not have local teas.

A picture of my cheese plate, on the left in the paper is the camembert, in the box on the right is gorgonzola, the two at 6 o'clock are two types of cheddar, the jelly is in the middel. And the others I would have to look up.

 

[Voguevamp]

I think it all depends what you are used to. At home, in restaurants you normally eat at or at a themepark. I think the food on DCL is really overhyped.

However, if you think about how many people they need to feed in a short amount of time, the amount of options they offer per course, they do a decent job. Is it the best food ever? No. I do think it's fine. It's not inedible. It's more varied than what I would make myself, and I do not have to cook or do the dishes.
What I can tell from other cruise vloggers I follow it's on par with other cruiselines.

If you want better food each night, probably try to get as many reservations at Palo as you can with less guests (and maybe better produce) the chefs have more time per dish per guest and that always influence the quality.

If you are into food, and you are taking a transatlantic cruise (or any cruise really), I have a fun thing to do.
- Our first stop was Lehavre, and I had an excursion to Etretat booked. During the drive over the guide told us what this region is famous for, one of the things she mentioned was camembert. I love cheese, especially camembert. We had some time to explore the city and I found myself a cheese store. Great quality and cheap! For 12 euro I had 4 different cheeses.
- Next stop Portland, I did the same and found some English cheddar and crackers.
- In Vigo, picked up some more cheese. The girl behind the counter also sold me some jelly to accompany the cheese.

And for the rest of the cruise I had an amazing cheese plate in my fridge. I have never ordered the cheese plate on board DCL, but by the looks of it, it's a lot of money, for not a lot of cheese, let alone good quality ;-)

So, pro tip! What kind of food you love and is there a local equivalent. I tried to look for teas to bring home to a friend, but that plan was ruined when it turned out: the Spanish do not have local teas.

A picture of my cheese plate, on the left in the paper is the camembert, in the box on the right is gorgonzola, the two at 6 o'clock are two types of cheddar, the jelly is in the middel. And the others I would have to look up.

View attachment 754507

I love that! What a creative idea! I love a good cheese plate and I guarantee yours is better than the one you have to pay for on DCL!

 

[Karin1984]

Apparently I forgot a mocktail. This was called a Princess Delight, I got it in Fathoms for during Villain Quote Trivia (That was hard!)



And from these two I have no notes. I think the first is from the bar on deck and the other probably Keys.
No idea what in them or what I thought about them. On my last day I forgot to write in my diary.

 

[Karin1984]

Towel animals! I also had a penguin and a bear, but only 10 files per post.

The shark



A bunny?


Or this is a bunny? Could also be a doggy.



I have no idea... Let's go ant eater!



A mouse



That's a ram



A pirate, chocolate overload



You can't really see it from this angle, but it's most definitely a turtle.



And a bat! That's a wrap ;-)

 

[Aquamom]

I am right of the Disney Magic's Transatlantic. Currently waiting for the plane to bring me back home to Europe.

We had quite some adventures, we got rerouted from Plymouth to Portland/Weymouth because of fuelling issues, we had a medical emergency going to the Azores for a helicopter pick up and we were going to Bermuda, which meant lots of fun with paying $40, getting a test before and during the cruise (aka 'the disappearing guests, or, the lack of isolation rooms'), but we could also hug characters again!

The cruise was amazing, the guests and the cast members were wonderful and the atmosphere on board was the best.

There were 1.538 passengers, this was about 55% capacity.

I have a list of the activities and tastings etc on my laptop, that will follow in a next post

This was my second cruise. First was a 4 night on the Magic out of Miami to the Bahamas. I liked it. So, I have been looking to book a next cruise. Covid delayed a few things.

Why this WBTA cruise?
- price, it is reasonably affordable when you calculate the price per night and what you get in return.
- more entertainment, more character costumes, more shows.
- you can't do it all, not even on a transatlantic. But you do have a chance to do and try more.
- why wbta, 1 hour time back each night. Except when hopping between mainland and the UK. But also it is port heavy in the beginning and then it gets into relax mode.
- not a reason up front, but it was very nice to get to know guests and CMs better than you do on a shorter cruise. There was a small group of guests who went to all the characters and standing line with the same people, you bond. Same with photographers, servers, cruise directors, character handlers and who else came by.

I was travelling solo which I absolutely love. I love having the stateroom to myself and just do as I please. Sometimes I kept going, changing my mind a dozen times an hour. Sometimes I went back to my room to take a nap.

I had sent Disney a message about table mates. I was fine with other adults or by myself but preferably not sit me with a family with children, because then you are usually a fifth wheel.

I ended up at a table for 6, we were 4 solo travellers and 1 couple. The others were all from the US. We connected well, the couple shared a bottle of wine several times with the table. We found each other on the ship several times and did some activities together, either a show, trivia, anyone can cook.

Our server team was head server Talita from Brazil, on my first cruise the head server never came by. I think i only saw him once. Talita came by several times. For 3 nights she was replaced by Joel (Phillipines) due to her having back issues. One night I wasnt feeling well and she noticed, and came by the table to check on me. Artha from Indonesia (Bali) and Maxime from France (Bordeaux). Both were wonderful and definitely wouldnt mind having them again.

Other great among the server CMs, Goncalo from Portugal, Jojo from Portugal, Tierney (T) from Wales, Ross from Scotland.

My host was Kristina from Phillipines, she was on her first contract, and our entire hallway was raving about her. If there was a grade above 'excellent', she got it. 11 out of 10. A++++. We were almost fighting over who got to take her home she had the perfect bubbly Disney personality, she was very friendly, helpful and managed to exceed expectations and surprise each and everyone of us.

I did 2 brunches at Palo (both booked on board), both times my server was Srdjan from Montenegro. He and manager Sacha (Croatia) were absolute perfection.

More will follow, but please: Bring on your questions!

Were the Palo brunches buffet style or a la carte for the WBTA cruise? I know the regular cruises are a la carte since the pandemic.
We are so excited to be going Sept 17-28, 2023

 

[Karin1984]

Were the Palo brunches buffet style or a la carte for the WBTA cruise? I know the regular cruises are a la carte since the pandemic.
We are so excited to be going Sept 17-28, 2023

It was a la carte, but that was fine for me. There was so much food

Btw, Manager Sacha has transferred to the Wonder. Met him again on my Cruise this week, he still remembered me.

Also one of the Entertainment Crew of the transatlantic was on the Wonder as a guest and sat next to me in the theater. We started talking and he also remembered me.

Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing