Page 16 - AAA Now! – AAA Akron Auto Club – Fall 2019

TRAVEL MATTERS
TRAVEL
It’s Time to Take a Disney
CruiseBy John T. Garcia
On
the rental car shuttle bus to the
Disney Cruise Line was top among the 423 companies that U.S. consumers would recommend.
My recommendation would be to decide first where you would like to cruise. Disney offers a variety of destinations, but two of its ships are dedicated to the Caribbean and Bahamas. It also offers cruises in Europe and Alaska, and cruises to get there, including transatlantic and Panama Canal cruises. There also are cruises to Canada, Mexico and Hawaii, as well as specialty cruises such as holiday-themed and Marvel and Star Wars cruises.
I have been a few Halloween-themed cruises
and, as expected, Disney goes all out. There are costume contests for the adults, trick-or-treating for everyone with stations throughout the ship and movies and entertain to mark the holiday. And
it’s not just the cruise that is sailing during the holiday but for the weeks leading up to it as well.
A majority of Disney cruises
depart from Port
Canaveral, Florida, but there
are some cruises in the fall
which leave from New York.
Based on the cruise you pick will determine the ship you sail on. Disney has two classes of ships, the classics, the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, and the Dream- class, Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. The classic ships have 875 staterooms and can hold 2,700 guests while the Dream-class ships can
As to Disney artwork, logos and properties: ©Disney Ships’ Registry: The Bahamas
hold 4,000 guests in their 1,250 staterooms. Knowing that it caters to families, the staterooms on Disney are slightly larger than other cruise ships and most of the bathrooms in the staterooms were
a first in the industry. Disney split the bath with a sink and tub or shower in one room and a sink
and toilet in another room, allowing for added convenience. Many of the rooms come with a convertible sofa and/or a pull-down bunk so that the room can sleep four without having to bring in a rollaway bed or cot.
DINING IN ROTATION
When it comes time to eat, Disney also innovated your dining. Your party (since you can link with friends who are cruising with you) will be assigned one of the three themed restaurants. Then, you will
cruise ship terminal, I started chatting with an older couple. They were
boarding a different cruise line and telling me that they had taken about 50 cruises the previous year on various lines. I told them I was taking my first cruise, a 15-night Panama Canal cruise, on Disney Cruise Line. The husband said, “We’ve never done Disney because we don’t have kids.” “Neither do we,” I replied.
His response, and our interaction, should be part of a DCL commercial. Turning to his wife, he said, “That, right there, is why we should consider Disney.”
And, if you are reading this far, you have either cruised with Disney or are considering it. I’ve done more than consider it: I have taken more than 20 Disney cruises, sailed on all four ships and have spent more than 150 nights aboard the DCL fleet.
People ask me why I keep returning to Disney even though my wife and I don’t have children and we could get better deals on other cruise lines.
The No. 1 reason is the same thing Disney Cruise Line was recently ranked No. 1 among various companies, not just in the travel industry: customer service. In Newsweek’s inaugural listing of America’s Best Companies for Customer Service,
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