Disney Cruises Fail Beer Lovers
I just returned from a fantastic cruise on one of Disney’s newest boats, the Magic; it was a magical vacation in every respect EXCEPT the beer. On a vacation where the liquor was flowing, great wine and spirits, Disney fell on its Mickey ears with the selection of beer on this boat. Let me give you a run down of the selections on the boat.
- Budweiser
- Bud Light
- Bud Light Lime
- Miller Lite
- Michelob Ultra
- Coors Light
- Corona
- Heineken
- Boddingtons Pub Ale
- Guinness
- Sam Adams Lager
I understand that a cruise has to cater to the masses, but with all the specialty spirits and wines that are way past what I can afford, I’d like to see Disney also start catering to the Craft Beer market. I’d like to know why they don’t try to appeal to the growing market segment of craft beer drinkers. Does it have to do with brand licensing in the ports of call of the ship? Please someone make sense of this for me!
Lucky for me I brought some large bottles of Lost Abbey, Bruery, and Goose Island which pacified me after dinner, but I would rather not have had to travel with the bottles knowing I could have purchased quality draft or bottled beer on this very expensive cruise.
Come one, Disney get this right, everything else is on the boat!
At least you were on A Disney boat where you could bring your own beer. Most cruises don’t allow bringing your own. My guess is the profit margin isn’t there, nor is the demand for craft beer. But I of course agree with you completely
that is true, the Disney Travel agent suggested it, otherwise I never would have and would have been very disappointed.
Liquor keeps well. Craft beer has a short shelf life which would result in a recurring loss for the fleet. And as you found out this is not a real issue when you can bring your own without paying a premium.
Thanks for the comment Scott, but I have to disagree. the food they serve has a much shorter shelf life then beer, both marco and craft and that comes with the purchase of your cabin where as the craft beer would have to be purchased separately, another income stream. Furthermore I’m sure the people who run the bars would be able to quickly figure out consumption rates that would make purchasing the optimum quantity fairly easy. And finally the shelf life of any beer is a correlation of how it is stored, macro or craft. In fact there are numerous craft beers which can age nicely for years like wine.
Thats a shame. As for the theme parks, Disneyland itself doesn’t carry beer. It should, especially in the Fantasyland restaurant near the Dumbo ride that is “German” themed.
But Disney California Adventure (DCA) does. The have a Karl Strauss Truck set up in the main food court area, and also sell beer near the giant swings. They serve Blue Moon & Sierra Nevada & a few others…
As far as Tokyo Disneyland & Disneyland Paris… It’s been more than 15 years since my last visit….
Cheers!
I have the same feeling towards pro sporting events!
I must agree with the post saying they still bring food that get bad way faster then craft beer. well some good stouts can sit for 25+ year, and a Imperial Stout that cant last 5 years is rare. Must agree they should try, and if they would get the right bartender/bar chief, they would do it as well because it comes often comes down to the guy buying the stuff and his/her interest.
Glad you where able to bring your own at least so you got some good beer during your trip.
Cheers
Chris.
Holy cow, that’s quite the crappy selection. Especially when you’re paying the kind of money that cruises cost.
I hope corporate America starts realizing when you want quality, like every other aspect of this type of cruise, that they will apply it to ALL aspects of their service. They have some super expensive bottles of wine, I’m sure they are not sitting on several dozen cases of it. I’m sure the beverage manager bought only what would sell in a short period of time because the space is limited. Why can’t they apply it to beer?
Why? Because Disney are the Anheuser-Busch of holidays.
They will have contracts set up with those corporations to sell their beer. At that, craft brewers wouldn’t get a look in; and even if they did, what are the odds they’d be told to brew something supposedly inoffensive, like, er, Coors Lite? Pretty high.
It’s no surprise Disney’s food product suppliers are also corporate behemoths!
I was on the same boat and same cruise dates. Agree it was not anywhere near a killer selection but you def missed some. I think it varied from each venue on the ship which made it a bit of a hunt. I had or saw Yuengling, Stella, Blue Moon, Lucky Stripe, Harp, and Newcastle in addition to the ones you listed. Some of them were not listed either… i.e. our Jamaican water told me about the Lucky Stripe.
I don’t think you can look at Disney in general terms. I think depending on the park, venue, restaurant, or event you either get nothing, generic, or pretty good.
Check this out:
http://beersandears.net/2012/09/the-2012-epcot-international-food-and-wine-festival-beer-survival-guide/
So DCL needs to catch up to Epcot! but it shows it is possible in the Diey Universe… lol
That’s Red Stripe and Disney… see where my head is out this afternoon…lol
Not surprised by the selection on the boat; it’s similar to WDW’s standard beer list. That’s not to say that there are other beers all over WDW (there are ~190 beers spread out over the entire resort) but the standard menu where they also have the various mixed drinks and such.
I’ve heard the Disney Dream has a rebranded Widmer Drifter at one of its bars, but the majority is probably the same.
My personal opinion is that this is DCL not making an effort, as both Walt Disney World and Disneyland have a number of craft and international beers besides the standard pale lagers.
We were on the Magic and I didn’t see any Widmer beer or DLC branded beer. I hope they bring some craft beer on board before we take our next trip with the Mickey Mafia 🙂
Thanks for the tip. Bring your own craft beer. I dont want to bring on my airline luggage. Is there a good beer store by the port to purchase before you board the boat??
There was a grocery store about 1/2 mile away, but I don’t know the selection. I took my beer and wine through the luggage opting for less clothes since each floor on the boat had laundry facilities.