Bring Them Back: The Sadly Missed Disney Cruise Features We’re Longing to Experience Again!

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Over the years, Disney Cruises has seen a variety of unique features come and go, leaving some of us nostalgic for the past. 

Let’s look back at some of the much-missed features of a Disney Cruise that we wish they would bring back again.

Palo Brunch Buffet

It isn’t so long ago, but it feels like it.

Those glorious Palo Brunch days when your server explained the process. Here is a menu, but let’s go and look at the Buffet first.

Then you had to choose just how many thousands of calories you were going to consume. But it didn’t matter because you are on vacation and that doesn’t count.

Although Palo Brunch is still fabulous it isn’t the same. And I so miss those crab legs. And the cheese. And the salmon pate. And those amazing individual deserts.

Palo Brunch is still a great experience and I do it every time. But it just isn’t the same.

Related: Is Palo Brunch Still Worth it?

Kid’s Sail Free

Yes, that was a thing!

Difficult to believe now, as the chances of this one coming back seem like slim to absolute zero.

I remember sailing on one of these cruises which was a 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise way back in 2012.

I looked back on the blog to see when I could find the first time I wrote about this and it was way back in 2011.

Yes, I really have been doing this for that long.

I believe the last time this offer was available was in 2013. That one was for cruises from Galveston.

They even had a cruise sail free for Alaska Cruises! Can you imagine how fast that would book now?

I so wish I had started publishing the prices of Disney cruises as far back as this as it would be very interesting to see what the rates were then. And probably rather upsetting!

Related: How Much Does a Disney Cruise for a Family of 4 Cost?

Disney Cruise Placeholder On Board Credit

Who remembers this?

The Placeholder is still a good offer. Many people miss it, but it is still worth booking a placeholder on your cruise as it gets you a 10% discount on a future cruise.

It doesn’t work for all dates and cruises, and it doesn’t work for concierge bookings, but it is still a nice 10% off for the majority of sailings.

But who remembers the On Board Credit?

This valuable perk disappeared in September 2019.

Before that, if you booked with a Placeholder you got a $200 OBC if you booked 7 nights or more, and $100 OBC for 3 to 6 nights.

Related: How the Disney Cruise Placeholder Can Save You Money

Platinum Cruisers Have Priority Boarding

I remember when I first qualified for this perk, I thought it was just such a great way of recognizing guests who had already shown a lot of loyalty to Disney Cruise Line.

To qualify you had to have sailed 15 cruises with Disney.

So let’s not think about how much you have probably spent with Disney Cruise Line at that point. Spoiler alert – it’s way more than you will want to think about.

I know that I am fine now because they gave this to Pearl Castaway Cay members. But what about all those Platinum guests? How big of a deal would it be to give them this perk back?

And talking of perks, who thinks the whole Castaway Club Benefits system needs a serious overhaul?

The Pirate Night Buffet

So this is going to seem a little as though I am obsessed with buffets but another thing that has disappeared is the Pirate Night Buffet.

The hugely popular Pirate Night is still one of the most fabulously well-done and unique features of a Disney Cruise.

But for years following the fireworks you had the option of eating even more food at 10.30 pm! The experts knew that unless you wanted to end up in a huge buffet line you made sure you quickly went to line up for the (almost) midnight feast.

One feature that many people loved was the Turkey Legs – not sure how advisable it was to consume almost a day’s worth of calories just before bedtime, but the line for those was always really long.

I always said I was just going to look at the amazing fruit sculptures and not actually eat anything. I probably didn’t ever stick to that resolution.

Really, I don’t think they should bring the Pirate Buffet back.

I am sure that it was an enormous amount of waste, and more importantly, I am pretty sure it meant that the very hard-working Servers had to do even more hours.

But the point is that it is another example of things that have gone away.

Related: Disney Cruise Pirate Night

Is there anything you miss from past Disney Cruises? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.