A new Disney Cruise Line policy came across my desk today, shared by a friendly CM reader:
"Effective immediately, Guests are prohibited from affixing any magnetic signs that carry any other company name than Disney to their stateroom doors."
This is an interesting development, and I wonder what prompted the new policy. Using magnets to decorate stateroom doors is a longstanding tradition on the Disney Cruise Line. People make custom magnets with their names and hometowns, or to decorate for special events like birthdays or weddings, or to share their favorite characters. Both Disney Vacation Club and the DCL Castaway Club have special door magnets to identify their members. This is so much a part of Disney Cruise Line culture that the company even included a decorated door for Pepe as part of the onboard Muppet detective agency game.
Of course, the magnets also provided a way for various travel agencies and related companies to advertise, and it wasn't unusual to see magnets from one agency or another on the doors as you walked down the hall. One agency even had their hand slapped a few years ago after Disney learned they were paying a stateroom host to place magnets on the doors of their clients each cruise - the company provided the host with a supply of magnets, and e-mailed a list of stateroom numbers before each sailing. I don't think that incident prompted this sudden policy change, but something did.
So now Disney has an outright ban on any non-Disney advertising on the doors, though there is no mention of what will happen if Disney finds such a sign, nor if the ban also extends to logos instead of just company names.
Personally, I'm unhappy about this, because Tony and I need to reprint all of our door signs (like the ones below, created for relatives on the Panama Canal cruise) to remove the MousePlanet logo. Magnetic paper isn't cheap!
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