Disney Perhaps Losing it's Magic?

This was our 7th Disney cruise, our second two week cruise, but our first transatlantic. While we enjoyed the trip, I wouldn't say we loved it. We specifically chose this trip, because of the large number of seas days, and the ports that we hadn't visited before.

Disney has some things they do well, and continue to do well.  Rotational dining with your servers following you from restaurant to restaurant has always been a hit with us.  Meeting the characters is always fun, and you're never too old to hug Mickey! However, we found the entertainment lacking this time, and particularly on sea days. Every day was too similar to the next, and consisted mostly of movies, a quiz (or two), and the adult show at night; there was nothing unique or even new. Many of the acts that we enjoy, like John Charles, have over the years become stale.  The jokes are the same and the show's format never varies.  Disney is well known for it's Broadway style shows, but after having seen most of them numerous times before we didn't even attend some performances.  We also found the food was hit or miss this time, and there were nights we struggled to find something to eat.  Menus that advertised regional foods were also apparently confused at to what region we were in (Russian Honey Cake in England...) The kids were in Vibe (the teen club) this trip, and for the first time they kept saying "nothing was going on." They spent a considerable amount of time in the cabin watching TV, which was unusual for them.

Also unusual this time were the port excursions.  Ponta Delgada's excursion was not as advertised.  The guide in Amsterdam walked so fast we couldn't take pictures (tourist here people!).  The excursion to Leeds Castle didn't allow enough time to actually see the castle properly.  In Portland we didn't do an excursion (we met up with family), and being familiar with Copenhagen we didn't need a tour either.  Surprisingly in Copenhagen, Disney only provided a shuttle to the town center, and nothing to Tivoli.  The walk to Tivoli was only 20-30 minutes, but late at night it wasn't a comfortable walk. We let Disney know our issues, and they said some of the tour companies were new this time...it felt like we were experimental guinea pigs.

We love DCL, but we didn't book another cruise onboard (also a first for us).  I think we're going to try Royal next year.