October 20, 2012, Disney Fantasy, Eastern Caribbean-Who's with us?

[Bear3412]

Funny thing is my wife never read a word on the Disboards, and never wanted to, UNTIL, she returned. She was interested in other Diser's opinion of what occurred. It was fascinating for me. She had always harassed me for spending toooo much time on the boards, yet when we returned home, she was the one asking me where is so and so thread on these boards.

My wife was... well, would have flipped out during the storm. But she couldn't, like I, because our DD 11 was awake and flipping out for us both. So we both had to maintain composure for the duration of the event. It's all good, we calmed her, and ourselves.

The event was short lived thank God.

The whole cruise was wonderful. We had a blast.
More than I can say for that Dream cruise.

I noticed prior to Friday night how I could feel the difference in movement of the ship at different locations. I could even feel the difference in movement from one section of the ship to the next. To me I could feel the differential from each 100 feet of ship. To me it was so obvious if I was fore or aft. Perhaps I'm one of those sensitive guys. It was weird and the exact opposite as all said on theses boards prior. Everyone said you can barely feel the ship move. I could feel the ship pretty much once we left the channel basically. To me on the upper decks the motion felt like mini earthquakes, or mild aircraft turbulence. In all my readings I never recall anyone describing the sensation as such. Perhaps it was Sandy the whole time. Perhaps not.

I do feel our location, upper, forward, magnified the effects though obviously.

As for the delays and storm event we encountered; We desire nothing, we are asking for nothing, we want no sympathy, we require no refunds or discounts, we did not whine, we do not hold the captain liable. etc., etc.
Odds are we won't use our discount for future sailing.
We were thrilled to be on this sailing. This sailing was a once in a lifetime experience. According to my rough #'s, it was a "1 in a 5 million" chance cruise.
It is also now less likely this event will ever occur in the future, IMHO.

We had a blast until two hours into said rogues. I personally enjoyed the first two hours of rogues. I know we experienced something that so few get to, and understand the rarity of that moment, and we embrace that moment.

I'm thankful for such a memorable cruise. Who else but DCL could provide such adventure. Oh, RCCL last year, leaving PC prematurely in a storm, off topic. They were brutalized just of PC.

And as stated previously, I was so satisfied, not to feel depressed disembarking. Now that's a rare moment in itself.

I'll do my best to not speak of said storm again.

[ethanash1]

Originally Posted by onecoolwife

Seriously do you ever listen to me???? I told you all about it and even read things out loud to you when we talked about planning our next one.

Don't worry Kristie.... Totally normal. Ricky also suffers from a husband disease commonly known as "selective hearing". LOL

[sunshine1259]

Originally Posted by motroc

Hope everyone is unscathed for the most part after our topsy-turvy (understatement) of a voyage. It was great meeting some new friends on board. Thanks to Ricky and Family and the rest of the Beer Tasting Crew for sharing their extras with us, they were some tasty brews. Got to meet some great people all around.

We just made it back home on 11/3. This was 17 days after we left and a week later than we had planned or budgeted for and we arrived home at the Jersey Shore to no power, heat or water, entire towns wiped out, and no word from some friends and family. Power finally returned to us on 11/5, only to have to go through a nor'easter yesterday and today where we got 4-6" of snow. DH can't get to his job in NYC due to mass transit being suspended from home and carpooling limits on cars. This trip and the after-effects feel like Twilight Zone/Groundhog Day/The Perfect Storm/The Day After Tommorrow combined, but we will continue to get through it.

Some thoughts...

* Cruise was amazing for the first 5 days. Ship is gorgeous, even better than the Dream. Loved St. Maarten, wish we had more time to explore St. Thomas/St. John (too short of a stay). Naturally missing CC was a downer, would've loved to have actually had two sunny days at sea like PR Shill Rebecca Peddie claimed. The spin control on this is insulting to anyone that went through it.

* Felt that DCL and/or Captain Tom erred by sailing us directly into the SW bands of the hurricane. It was a Cat 2 on Thurs and a Cat 1 on Friday. Yes we know we all took a risk sailing in Hurricane season, but they don't just magically form around the boat. Just because the ship can handle a hurricane, doesn't mean it should be sailed directly into one. All other cruise lines either went east of the storm, stayed in port, never left port, or found the first safe port to ride it out. We've been through high seas, but never to that extent, and would not want to do it again. The mess in our cabin was shocking as well as the damage to the common areas of the ship. The free falls and slamming as we went over the swells (being deck 10 aft) were truly frightening. We were in Skyline when the first rogue wave hit as all the bottles off the bar came flying forward as the bar staff used their bodies as a barrier to prevent any others from falling. When we returned, our cabin looked like it was turned upside down and shaken with broken glass, destroyed personal effects, etc. Good thing we weren't there at the time, or we would've been cut up. Captain Tom's shaky voice in the middle of the night did nothing to instill any confidence in us. "E-eh-eh-everything is ah okay...." It spoke to the fact he knew he made a mistake but could do nothing but continue forward. The decision was made and to turn around at that point would have run the risk of more damage and even capsizing the ship. This was definitely a monetary consideration in our opinion. There's no other reason to race back to try and make it back to port on time. With passenger safety such a hot-button issue this year with Concordia, ships adrift at sea requiring airdrops, passengers being mugged while on excursions, and the 100th anniversary of the Titantic, you would think the cruise industry as a whole would err on the side of caution, especially DCL. The fact that they risked a $1 billion ship, it's passengers, and it's crew is disturbing and has really left a bad taste for cruising in general.

* Even as Gold members we are seriously considering never cruising with DCL again, which is unfortunate because we love it so much. The 25% off, is a slap in the face considering Canadian residents are getting that right now online and we can already get 10% when onboard. Does that mean the premium is only 15% additional, or do we get the 10% + the 25%? We saw previous posts stating this, but have yet to get confirmation from DCL. Even with 35% off, it will still be a difficult decision for us to make because of the handling of the situation, the lack of communication throughout and especially during debarkation, and our unscheduled and unbudgeted post stay.

* Speaking of post stays, DCL put us up at Caribbean beach for one night as we missed our flight, but when we had to extend our stay due to more flight cancellations, it was all on our dime. The resort did give us a Fantasy/Hurricane rate as well as over $700 in park hopper passes, but food is certainly not cheap. We inquired about swapping the PH passes for a meal plan, but the Resort kept passing the buck to DCL, and DCL basically left us high and dry stating to put it through insurance, you already got what we offered. The travel delay benefit through insurance is limited to $150 pp/pd up to $500 pp/per incident. Totaling up our post-cruise stay expenses which included hotel, food, medicine warmer clothing as it was dropping into the 40s at night, plus additional transportation costs, netted out at just under $2000. As everyone knows, eating even quick service food at the resort or parks is not cheap. They had no problem giving our PH passes like it was free candy, but when inquiring about a basic meal plan, they didn't even offer it up at a discount. All we got were fake plastic smiles and a sorry, our hands are tied, contact the cruise line. We can't even tell you the attitude we received from DCL as we tried to work our way up the food chain. We were basically told that we made it back safely, and that's it.

* Have already filed two insurance claims, 1 for the DCL part, the other for the air carrier, hopefully we'll get most of the extended trip expenses back, but that could take a while.

* Have already written a scathing letter to both Guest Comms departments at both DCL and WDW for their handling of the situation.

* To all the Monday Morning Quarterbacks out there that we saw post comments about how not so bad it was, please shut up. We certainly appreciate those who have come forward with words of empathy and encouragement. But unless you were there, you have NO right to say how it was or to say what we deserve or don't deserve as compensation.

BTW... Love the T-Shirts, but we're thinking of doing one as well, using our photo of Captain Tom from formal night, photoshopped with devil horns, tail, pitchfork and sinister grin.

Just glad there were no serious injuries, although we've read reports that crew members were.

Tommy & Corinne

I am so sorry to hear the Hurricane Sandy not only affected your cruise but your home as well. Here's a for everyone who has gone though all of this.

I was one of the few fortunate ones, who up until recently, had not suffered was too put out by either the last night of our sailing or getting home. We had a late flight, so that wasn't much of a problem. Although, even as late as our flight was, we still only made it to the airport 2 1/2 hours before our 5:15 flight.

Although there were some moments during that last night that were very rocky, all of my family seem to come through it very well. Even my poor 76-year-old mother, who I drug kicking and screaming on this cruise, while scared at times, had no real complaints about what happened. Just for reference were in connecting cabins 7682-7684 aft.

I hope that everyone will retain the wonderful memories they had from the cruise before that last night. The cruise was wonderful and the ship lived up to all of the Fantasies that I had heard about her.

I hope that both DCL and WDW will offer you something adequate to help take the bad taste from you. I do think that for WDW/DCL not to cover at least a couple of meals was deplorable. At least the first day should have all been comped. But like I said, hopefully, they will come through in the end.

Again, I am so sorry for all that you all have gone through.

[sunshine1259]

So, last Sunday I woke to the most excruiating pain in my neck on my left side. For some reason I knew that it was not simply due to that fact that I have slept wrong.

Over the course of the week, there just was no change. Well, I finally went to the doctor on Friday. It seems that I have a case of whiplash, curstesy of the Disney Fantasy. I guess that tumble that I took, tweaked my neck but took a few days to manifest. And now, along with the whiplash, I have also started experiencing severe dizziness when I go to lie down or get up. That is a very icky feeling.

Mind you, I did not experience the least bit of sea-sickness trhough the worst of Hurricane Sandy. So, I can only imagine that my sudden dizzy spells are equivalent to what sea-sickness feels like.

However, today, I am finally starting to feel like I'm on the mend. Let's see how long it takes for this to completely pass.

[onecoolpilot]

Originally Posted by sunshine1259

.. And now, along with the whiplash, I have also started experiencing severe dizziness when I go to lie down or get up. That is a very icky feeling... However, today, I am finally starting to feel like I'm on the mend. Let's see how long it takes for this to completely pass.

That stinks. Glad to hear that you're starting to feel better though.

[motroc]

@Sunshine... thank you so much. We're moving forward, the entire Tri-State area is, but it's going to take a lot of time. So many places from our childhood will be totally different in the end, they already are.

Sorry to hear about your whiplash, but glad it's on the mend.

Our beef is really their decision making process in sailing us through and then how they managed the aftermath. We love DCL, and the Fantasy is their best ship by far. The stacking discount certainly helps, but there is a concern that unless they make a change in protocol, it could happen again in the future.

They've taken a hit on their reputation on this, time will tell on how things eventually play out.

[glenpreece]

Originally Posted by onecoolpilot

Where is this blog? Unless you're talking about the post on the disboards, I haven't seen it. Do you have a link?

Are people really talking about suing DCL? I can't say that this really surprised me these days, but, just....really?

Do a Google search for Disney cruise line blog you can't miss it

[onecoolpilot]

Originally Posted by glenpreece

Do a Google search for Disney cruise line blog you can't miss it

Gah! Found it, thank you.

[mrkyyyle]

Yay just got word our travel insurance covered the cost of having to buy 2 new plane tickets to get home on that Saturday due to us coming in late

[ethanash1]

Originally Posted by mrkyyyle

Yay just got word our travel insurance covered the cost of having to buy 2 new plane tickets to get home on that Saturday due to us coming in late

That's Awesome! Great news.... More Christmas money. LOL

[onecoolpilot]

Originally Posted by mrkyyyle

Yay just got word our travel insurance covered the cost of having to buy 2 new plane tickets to get home on that Saturday due to us coming in late

That is really good news! I'm sure that takes a bit of a load off your shoulders.

[mrkyyyle]

Yes it was very good news for us! Thanks

Disney was actually pretty helpful with that as within 2 days of getting off the boat we had a signed letter from DCL emailed to us stating the delay into port due to weather and detailing the travel time between the port and the airport.

Now onto planning our next one

[onecoolpilot]

Originally Posted by mrkyyyle

...Now onto planning our next one

Heck yeah! Go get that 25% discount.

[oybolshoi]

Originally Posted by mrkyyyle

Yay just got word our travel insurance covered the cost of having to buy 2 new plane tickets to get home on that Saturday due to us coming in late

terrific news!

[glenpreece]

So I talked with somebody from Guest Relations yesterday about my email concerning the hassles at Caribbean Beach Resort and nothing happened. I rehashed everything for her and that was it. She apologized and the conversation was over. Really??? I paid long distance for that??? Oh well.