Themed Cruises

DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hi again! Thanks for all your help yesterday with my initial cruise questions. I have another, related to themed cruises.
My husband and I will be celebrating our 15 year anniversary in December 2023. December is a busy month for us with Christmas and also our daughters birthday. We were hoping to take a cruise in early January. We definitely want 5 nights and really want to visit Castaway Cay. Unfortunately the only cruises available during that time are Marvel themed. Has anyone done one of these themed cruises? How much of an impact does it have on the cruise as a whole? Can we still meet Mickey and Minnie and other characters? Are there still non Marvel shows and live entertainment?
Thanks for any help!
 
ChuckElias

ChuckElias

Well-Known Member
The Marvel Day at Sea cruises are literally ONE day of your sailing. My daughter did it and enjoyed it a lot. I sent you a private message with more information.

Here's my daughter and friends with Iron Man on Marvel day.


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DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
ChuckElias said:
The Marvel Day at Sea cruises are literally ONE day of your sailing. My daughter did it and enjoyed it a lot. I sent you a private message with more information.

Here's my daughter and friends with Iron Man on Marvel day.


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Thanks so much, I saw your message and will listen to podcast later on today!
I am not a Marvel fan so I’m hesitant to have this be my first cruise experience. I’m currently googling to see what other non Marvel fans do on these days. I guess hang by the pool? 😎
 
ChuckElias

ChuckElias

Well-Known Member
DisneyDreamer08 said:
Thanks so much, I saw your message and will listen to podcast later on today!
I am not a Marvel fan so I’m hesitant to have this be my first cruise experience. I’m currently googling to see what other non Marvel fans do on these days. I guess hang by the pool? 😎
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You can hang by the pool, but you will still see Marvel touches. There may be a Marvel movie on the Funnel Vision. There may be Marvel characters walking through the area. The drinks menu will have a Marvel theme. But there won't be big activities like a dance party or anything like that by the pool until the evening show.
 
jme

jme

Well-Known Member
As mentioned by @ChuckElias - the Marvel Day at Sea is only a single-day event during your cruise. The other days will be normal DCL cruise experience, so you'll still get the character meet and greet opportunities each day (you also can do M&G with Disney characters like Mickey, Donald, Chip & Dale etc during the Marvel day, but they will have special attire on).

The Marvel DaS will have a lot of Marvel characters to meet, the movie theater will be showing Marvel movies all day long, drinks and Dinner menu will be Marvel themed, but there is plenty of non-Marvel stuff happening as well. Spa treatments, hanging at the pool, read a book in the adult area, listen to some live music in one of the lounges, etc.

Here is a PDF scan from one of the MDaS sailings in 2020 that shows you the scheduled activities.

Honestly, I think unless you have some deep-rooted hatred for anything Marvel, you'll be able to enjoy your day at sea just fine, and I wouldn't avoid the cruise because of it.
 
DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
jme said:
As mentioned by @ChuckElias - the Marvel Day at Sea is only a single-day event during your cruise. The other days will be normal DCL cruise experience, so you'll still get the character meet and greet opportunities each day (you also can do M&G with Disney characters like Mickey, Donald, Chip & Dale etc during the Marvel day, but they will have special attire on).

The Marvel DaS will have a lot of Marvel characters to meet, the movie theater will be showing Marvel movies all day long, drinks and Dinner menu will be Marvel themed, but there is plenty of non-Marvel stuff happening as well. Spa treatments, hanging at the pool, read a book in the adult area, listen to some live music in one of the lounges, etc.

Here is a PDF scan from one of the MDaS sailings in 2020 that shows you the scheduled activities.

Honestly, I think unless you have some deep-rooted hatred for anything Marvel, you'll be able to enjoy your day at sea just fine, and I wouldn't avoid the cruise because of it.
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Thank you so much, this is super helpful. I don’t necessarily hate Marvel, just not a fan. I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be a waste of my money if I chose not to participate in the Marvel events on that particular day. It sounds like it wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience. Does a Marvel themed dinner replace a “normal” dinner? If I’m remembering correctly, there are 4 table service restaurants and you rotate through them each night. So will we have to have a marvel themed dinner on that particular night?
 
ChuckElias

ChuckElias

Well-Known Member
DisneyDreamer08 said:
Thank you so much, this is super helpful. I don’t necessarily hate Marvel, just not a fan. I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be a waste of my money if I chose not to participate in the Marvel events on that particular day.
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You will still be able to have a quiet day at sea for the most part. So you'll have a normal cruise experience by the pool. I don't think that you're going to have to hide in your room to escape the Marvel activities. Your day by the pool will be pretty much what it would be on a normal sailing.
DisneyDreamer08 said:
It sounds like it wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience. Does a Marvel themed dinner replace a “normal” dinner? If I’m remembering correctly, there are 4 table service restaurants and you rotate through them each night. So will we have to have a marvel themed dinner on that particular night?
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First things first. There are only 3 rotational restaurants on board. You'll repeat some of them if you're on a sailing of 4 nights or more. Having said that. . .

Yes, there's a Marvel dinner on that night. The menus are transformed and you'll actually have a MUCH wider selection of entrees, deserts, etc. than you would on a regular DCL cruise. But you will also have a second night in that restaurant so that you can experience its usual menu. (This is also what happens on Pirate Night, when there is no Pixar or Marvel night.) And there's not a Marvel "show" in the restaurant to interrupt your meal. It's just a Marvel-themed menu, with lots of extra things to choose from!
 
DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
ChuckElias said:
You will still be able to have a quiet day at sea for the most part. So you'll have a normal cruise experience by the pool. I don't think that you're going to have to hide in your room to escape the Marvel activities. Your day by the pool will be pretty much what it would be on a normal sailing.


First things first. There are only 3 rotational restaurants on board. You'll repeat some of them if you're on a sailing of 4 nights or more. Having said that. . .

Yes, there's a Marvel dinner on that night. The menus are transformed and you'll actually have a MUCH wider selection of entrees, deserts, etc. than you would on a regular DCL cruise. But you will also have a second night in that restaurant so that you can experience its usual menu. (This is also what happens on Pirate Night, when there is no Pixar or Marvel night.) And there's not a Marvel "show" in the restaurant to interrupt your meal. It's just a Marvel-themed menu, with lots of extra things to choose from!
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Thank you. Right after I typed that, I was like maybe it’s three restaurants 🤔 So thank you for clarifying. Maybe it’s just because it’s completely new to me, but all this cruise info is overwhelming 🤪
 
Tiggerish

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
DisneyDreamer08 said:
Thanks so much, I saw your message and will listen to podcast later on today!
I am not a Marvel fan so I’m hesitant to have this be my first cruise experience. I’m currently googling to see what other non Marvel fans do on these days. I guess hang by the pool? 😎
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Looks like both January MDaS cruises are on the Dream. The Dream was my first DCL ship, and I love it!

You can hang by the pool (highly recommend the adult-only area near Cove Cafe--you can take a deck chair looking out over the ocean instead of the pool!) or on the promenade deck, you can catch the musical acts in any of the lounges (all at no additional cost, and unaffected by Marvel). I'm guessing that the trivia contests will be Marvel-influenced, so you'll probably skip those.

If you're up for some additional fees, you could do a spa treatment, have brunch at Palo or Remy, or book a mixology seminar or beverage tasting. If you really want to avoid the Marvel-themed dinner, you could have dinner at whichever upcharge restaurant you didn't have brunch in. I highly recommend Remy brunch and Palo dinner. :)
 
jme

jme

Well-Known Member
Here's the MDaS Dinner Menu from January this year (it usually changes each year slightly but it will give you an idea). It's mostly just a lot more entree options that are lightly themed around the characters they are meant to represent. Nothing over the top that only marvel-fans would enjoy.
 
HauntedPirate

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
jme said:
Here's the MDaS Dinner Menu from January this year (it usually changes each year slightly but it will give you an idea). It's mostly just a lot more entree options that are lightly themed around the characters they are meant to represent. Nothing over the top that only marvel-fans would enjoy.
Click to expand...
The MDaS dinner menu is actually a nice change.

We were on the Dream in Feb/March with a Marvel Day at Sea and I can tell you first-hand that the Marvel activities around the ship are easily ignored if you want to ignore them. Most of the character greets are in the Grand Hall, and you do have Marvel movies on Funnel Vision and in the theaters but otherwise, it's just a day at sea.

And I would highly recommend Satellite Falls that day. Or any day, for that matter. :)
 

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