Anyone on the Sept 26, 2004 Wonder??

Well I was the one whose DD was taking a tantrum at the goofy pool Tuesday night.:tongue:
 
Oh well, don't think I was ever near the Goofy pool! lol I don't have kids so I was at the adult pool for 3 days! I have a pretty good sunburn on my shoulders today too. OUCH But at least everyone knows that I have been on vacation! hehe:teeth:
 
Ahhhhhhhhhh..............we walked thru the area of the adult pool and wished for the tranquilty as we walked back to the kids pools.:hyper:
 
What about those paint fumes around the adult pool on the at sea day? I couldn't stay there long -- they were giving me a major headache!

Kris

ps -- who else did the blue lagoon excursion?
 


hmmmmm paint fumes? I didnt notice lol Thinking.......Wednesday was the day at sea right? I think that day I was by the adult pool most of the day and then went to the pool that was in the middle (yeah I don't know the name of it) to listen to the music.

Lisa
 
There was paint fumes on the sea day. And the ESPN club was closed off. Turns out they "started" the rehab for drydock early and were ripping up the club that day (according to a CM). Some people were mad! There was a smell of burning rubber also.
 
power in numbers:

there was a lot of rehabbing going on when we were onboard.

the deck rails were being refinished on deck 4 and were sticky - the paint fumes by the adult pool, the weird "burning" smell in the elevator lobby - I think it was deck 3 or 4....

why don't we all write?

Kris
 


Hi guys... made it there and back and am trying to get into some type of schedule. Between DH being home and the trip - luggage EVERYWHERE.

Well -- I have to add my 2 cents worth here.

The morning of the 27th started off pretty decently - we decided to rent a car and meet Lisa and her family in PC and drive down to PE. Boy were we surprised pulling up to the rental place to find ABOLUTELY NOTHING - no people or electricity - only Lisa and family. So we headed to port - glad we did - buses were pulling in as we were (at 9am). Hmm... 9am - yep - again another bit of misinformation from DCL. I'd have to say that my biggest gripe was DCL not giving us up-to-date information or any constant information (everyone had a different story!). I really thought that DCL did a good job of getting us on the bus (at least ours) and getting us down to PE. We got a bag with some snack food and made a stop about 1/2 there... only complaint was a loud mouth a few rows back - she *****ed and moaned the majority of the way. Lisa got me over it tho... and so did the people around me! Unloading the bus and embarkation was a breaze... I'd say about 10 minutes tops. We were on board by about 3:15. We had our name announced and were on our way. The room was great... everyone LOVED the verandah!

I'm going to condense things now... as I am sleepy.

Food and wait staff : Food in the resturaunts for dinner was great... our wait staff was OK - not bad, not great - very average. They were attentive to our 3 yr old and did remember our preferences after the first night. No glass ever went dry, but there was not alot of personality there. They DID NOT sing for my husband on the 27th for his birthday. It was noted when we booked and our travel agent made sure about a week ago that they would do it - but they didn't. We did lunch in Parrot Cay, at the buffet and had room service - all top notch - loved the chicken tenders and huge peel-and-eat shrimp. Did the buffet in parrot Cay for breakfast ad then in Triton's on the last day - again - GREAT! Chocolate cookies from room service were to-die-for!

Room steward: Very quiet and polite (named Made) room was always spotless and had a swan, peacock and lobster waiting for us - even left extra chocolates after hearing DD loved them. Again nothing extraordinary, but we were pleased.

DD was not too keen on the kid's club, I think she was a bit too young and has spent FAR TOO MUCH time with me lately... Spent about an hour there on Tuesday. The CMs there were TERRIFIC with her tho...

Shows were good - very enjoyable. We looked forward to them every night.

We loved the verandah - when DD napped DH and I sat out there with a few drinks and a good book... VERY VERY relaxing!

Attempted to go into Nassau... DH has never been. Well, we made it to the 'Welcome Area' and that was all he needed to see. Headed back to the ship for the rest of the day... kids pool was jammed every time we went except for one. DD had about an hour to enjoy the water. I was a bit disappointed by that. Did anyone else notice they started stacking chairs at about 4:30 - what was that about?

Finally - I have to agree with everyone that we should have gotten something in addition to the 40%. I think, tho, it's a moot point. They are NOT going to budge. I will shoot off a letter stating that they need to have better equality across the board for all changed/shortened cruises and that they MUST have better communication between the DCL and the effected passengers.

Overall - we had a GREAT time and will probably rebook in a few years when DD is a bit more independant! I only wish we were able to meet some more of you all and had that extra day(s).

DH was ticked ESPN club was closed and YES - I smelled the paint fumes - they were doing rails on deck 4!!!

---------

Lisa - Thanx for the support and sanity check!

~~Mary
 
Another thing --

DH and I attempted to go into the Cadillac Lounge around midnight one night - there was another couple behind us. All of us were dismayed to find out it was closed! And the other couple said that their kid was at a sponsored party and so they were looking for a lounge to go to alone.

We found that the ship closed up too early, that's for sure.

Another very disturbing event:

On our last night, I was getting things together and began looking for our plane tickets. I had them stored inside my Passporter in one of the pockets. Well, the Passporter was nowhere to be found.

I started getting very panicky, dh as well. Our steward had already made up our room for the night.

DH decided to check under our bed and there he found the Passporter, my pj's and our stateroom gift from All Seasons -- all shoved under the bed.

What in the heck????? I was none too happy about that little trick.

BTW, our steward only left candy on the night that the tip instructions/envelopes were left. OK.....

Kris
 
Hey there! I haven't posted much but I have faithfully read this forum and it was a life saver for us since we were 1st time cruisers! My DH and I decided late Friday night that we were going. Calling DCL did not help - the information was vague and inconsistent. The forums is what we used. We live in SC and got earlier flights into Orlando so we could get there before Jeanne and wait it out. We stayed at the Hyatt which was nice. Naturally, we had to stay an extra night since we left a day earlier. We rented a car on Monday and made the drive down (the $$s started to add up). We could have taken the bus, but decided against this with a 4 year old. We called DCL several times and no one could really give us the correct info of when we could board.

Somehow, I got the impression that the 40% off also came with $200 credit and 25% off the next cruise - I cannot remember where I heard that or read it, but I guess I should have confirmed it because it apparently wasn't true. That did not make the DH happy at all. When we got there, the "welcome" wasn't as spectacular as I had heard - they didn't even take a picture (we arrived about 2pm). We made our way to get reservations and then to the pool, which was less crowded. Our servers were wonderful - they kept our DD laughing and were GREAT! So great that we cancelled our Palo's for the last night so that we could spend the last night with them. Everyone also seemed very nice. Our room was always clean with the cutest towel animals. The shows were great! However, my DH was very dissapointed in the ESPN being closed. We didn't embark until sometime after 10 - we were too exhausted by that point to even care and plus it was dark! Not to mention we stayed at Nassau overnight - it felt like we hardly sailed at all!

It was our first time so I don't know that we would have much to compare it to. However, at the end of the day, it did end up costing us much more than what we were refunded due to the extra drive and additional hotel night. I honestly think DCL could have done better than that. We didn't even get to Castaway Cay which in my opinion is one of the biggest highlights. I feel like the 40% compensates for the missing day, but it doesn't cover some of the other things we missed.

All in all, it was indeed magical. The character's farewell brought my DD to tears! I would DEFINITELY go again, and had planned on it. But my DH has to get over the only getting 40% and nothing else :eek:
 
Hi Odomam -

Well, the 9/4 cruisers (whose 4-night cruise also was shortened by one night like ours) were given the 40% discount, the $100 per stateroom credit and the 25% discount off the next cruise.

We were only given the 40% discount.

Kris
 
I think one word can sum it up for me (prior to boarding).. INCONSISTANT!

Oh I forgot to mention - I did the pillowcase for my DD and it came out FANTASTIC!!! I think we got just about everyone's signature! Guest Services was GREAT about helping with that one!
 
Wow! That's a lot of posts to read!!!

I am so sorry that all of you have a less-than-WONDER-ful time. That is really sad...we, too, were under the impression you guys would get the on-board credits and future discounts.

How sad...the only thing I can add to these stories is that while we were busy trying to make up our minds of whether to go or not, DCL told us this...we asked them if we showed up without my brother (who is in the military and who got us a mil. discount) would we be charged full price? And this is what they said, "We have bigger problems to worry about than that. You won't be charged the full fare. That is the least of our problems right now."

After hearing all your stories, I would agree--THEY HAD BIGGER PROBLEMS ON THEIR HANDS!

:)
 
I still loved the cruise and will go back. Consistency is definitely the key to straightening out some of these issues. But watching my 4 yr old with Minnie and Cinderella - there is no other place for us to be.


One positive to add - I purchased one of the group pictures with the characters in front of the boat at Shutters and asked Services if they could get the characters to sign and they did - what a great momento to have!

Everyone was so nice. I also have to say the drive down to the port was surreal - here we are complaining about a less than perfect Bon Voyage and we are passing all of the houses that were damaged from the hurricanes - that certainly put things into perspective for us. I really feel for those of you who live in the Florida area and hope that everyone is ok.

I also want to thank everyone who has contributed to this forum - without you guys we would have been lost! I learned so much from reading this. Hopefully one day I can meet up with some of you!
 
Just got back in this evening and although I loved being on the cruise and had no problem with our servers and stateroom attendant our transportation was awful and the time on the ship was short, and nobody seemed to communicate with anyone. We were told we would leave WDW at 9:45 we left at 3pm and had an OLD bus that was a training bus with no air and static. We got on the boat at almost 8. We missed our dinner and had to rush to our room for the life jackets then onto the 8:45 show. We ate pizza for dinner after the show. I agree that we should have been compensated a little more since we really only got 2 days on the ship. My dd loved the club and never wanted to leave!. We did get off at Nassau but only for 2 hours. My husband is going to call on Monday just to let them know that the transportation was awful and we missed the first day. But we did have fun and want to take another one. Our refund is going into the cruise vacation fund!
 
mcraft17 : Too bad I didn't see that you were from Tampa earlier (we're out near Lutz) - we could have met up or at least kept each other posted on the changes thrown at us from DCL.

~~Mary
 
I think the cruise was terrible. I was called on my cell phone on Wed night in WDW and was told about the cruise going out late. The woman told me 40% back, the onboard credit, and 25% the next cruise that I would go on. She also guaranted me Castaway
and Nassau,she said all times and places woud be the same just arriving a day later. I thought I would call the night before to verify and I found out that we were leaving from Fort Lauderdale. Why wouldn't they have called with this change?I have been at Port Canaveral. I parked at Animal Kingdom Lodge and we were bused at 3:00. Why would they not have had buses going earlier? THey knew this was taking place days before. We arrived at almost 8:00 at night. We missed our first night dining so we ate at BB. Our ames weren't called like I heard about, no horn when leaving, no sail away party- even though we left at 11:00 at night so they could have had it later so everyone could be apart of it, no room attendant with animal towels the first night, servers were horrible, the smells of rubber unbearable and wet paint. Why not wait til drydock to do them things? The second night on board we went to the dining place on my tickets and were told we had the wrong place and then we went to the next place and they told us we were in the wrong place again so they finally figured it out and we were right in the first place so we got to eat very fast on our second night so the next sitting could eat. We missed Animator's due to their screw up with where we should be and I have four young kids who didn't care about Triton's. The list goes on and on. I went to bed the first night crying because I thought I made the worst mistake going on this cruise. It took a loog time to start feeling good about it again and by then the cruise was over. I only had one day on the cruise because the day of Nassau I had the Dolphin Encounter that took all day. I was so upset the first night that I couldn't get myself togehter to do anything because I was so upset by all of the events. It is not the Hurricane that did all of this. If the lady that called us about the Hurrricane in WDW would have told us we would not have gotten into Fort LAuderdale so late we would have driven our renal van down ourselves and had an extra day on the ship, the misinformation and the lies were unbelievable. They should all learn to get their informaion straight before giving it out to all of the cruisers. If they weren't sure about Castawy (which I would have understood because of the Huuricane) they should not have assured us we were going. I wanted to make an informed decision on whether to go or not on correct information and not on assumptions. This was our trip of as lifetime, not me, my husband, or my four kids have ever gone to Florida, on an airplane, or on a cruise before so I wanted to give everyone the best experience possible. I will never forget being on that ship the first night wondering if I should get off right away and come back some other time. I am glad that others had a great time but this is my experience so please don't tell me aboput Sept. and being Hurricane season because I have had enough of that. It doesn't matter when you go, you should still get to have most of the same great experinces that everyone else has when they go. I wouldn't have cared where we sailed but give me the right information and not lie after lie. Thank God we had the times of our lives the week before at WDW. Shame on Disney! Moey, money, money and screw our guests. By the way, I called Disney about the 25% and the onboard credit that he said I would get, they told me that she must have given me the Magic info. by accident. That is not right, they should do what they say they will do for you because it was their fault on that one.

Shmora P.S. Sorry for the bad spelling and grammer, my computer is acting up, it won't let me go back and correct things or it erases whole words and sentences.
 
Shmora -

I'm with you.

Our problems had more to do with DCL than the hurricane.

Why was our cruise used to ship supplies to CC? I hated being in port all night.

We definitely should have received more than the 40% which, by the way, is not really 40% as it doesn't include the port charges that we paid for CC - a port we didn't even go to.

I'm done with DCL.

Kris
 
I was just reading the lastest posts and got so sad. Just a few weeks ago we were all posting here full of excitement and expectations.

I must agree with all of the complaints. The bad stuff (fumes, rehab, bad beds, crappy itinerary etc) happened and they happened to most of us. I wrote a letter to Disney which I am going to send on Monday. I would post it here but it seems that when you complain about DCL on these boards people get very, very angry and defensive. The bickering begins and then they lock or remove the threads. I dont' want that to happen. So if any of you are interested in reading my text pm me and I will email it to you.

For me, I will continue to be honest and polite. No rose colored glasses for this girl! Just my true feelings ;)
 
Like I've stated before - I really think the tone for the cruise was set for many by the way DCL handled things prior to leaving. For a company that is so technologically advanced it amazes me that all of their operators are not on the same page and advised of the same information (Yes, I understand things were changing, but that is no excuse for them not to have the info or have BAD info). I did get lucky tho - if you can call it that - as 5 of my calls were answered by 2 people who seemed to have their act together - they stressed to me to keep calling DCL until the last minute possible for updates. Of course, we would not have known anything had I not called them (no less than 10 times for me), so that still irritates me. Once on board tho - we did have a nice vacation.

I am truly sorry that everyone could not enjoy themselves and did not have the vacation they deserved and anticipated. And hearing that "it is hurricane season and we chose to sail" is getting old. Brings to mind the old addage - "Walk a mile in my shoes...."

Stick to your convictions and feelings and fire the letters off to DCL, not sure what (if anything) they will do, but they should know what happened (and if you have names of people you talked to and times you called, put that in there). This is obviously not the place to go into depth - way too many slams and arguments by those NOT THERE.

Best of Luck!

~~Mary
 

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