We are back!!!

[tecdavidt]

We are back from our March 16th cruise. It was great seeing the faces behind the screen names. Our table mates were DIS board members, KathyTX from Texas. It was like were cruising with old friends!

The trip had a rough start with our plane being delayed in Des Moines for 3 hours. The entire plane missed their connections in St. Louis. Our TA was at our gate in DM and was in touch with DCL and American.(She was leaving on her trip and was surprised our plane was still there!) We ended up flying FIRST CLASS out of St. Louis at 7:00 PM. We told the kids, don't get use to this. We thought that was nice since we spent 7 hours in the St. L airport and had to miss spending our day at Epcot.

We arrived at the Airport Hyatt at 10:30 PM. Our luggage was waiting for us, it was on the 1:30 PM flight out of St. L. The Hyatt is getting more and more cruisers spending the night before sailing. They said they had a record number or rooms of DCL cruisers.

We arrived at the port a little before noon. We were on the ship close to 1:00 PM. Our luggage was close behind. All 7 checked bags were in our possession by 1:45 PM. That was a record. We had a great view of the new Carnival Pride, what a beautiful ship!

The funnel problem did disrupt the first 2 days (Sat. & Sun.) but all was well by Mon. The captain did a great job keeping us all informed of what was going on the entire cruise. We sailed late, 9:30 pm so our children got to experience sailing at night.

The wind, oh that wind. This was my 11th cruise, 4th on Disney but I never experienced gale force winds until this cruise. It was also a lot cooler than I expected. The weather did warm up nicely in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Castaway was great but the weather was not the best. We had overcast skies and a delay in docking because of a nasty storm. I heard one report of waterspouts in the storm so I am glad we were a little bit late. People were on the island just a little after 10:00 AM. The water temp at Castaway was a lot cooler than in August. So if you want warm water at Castaway Cay and warm temps I suggest summer cruising. We also felt the ship didn't feel as packed during this cruise as in August. The ship did have 2500 people but our August cruises felt a lot more crowded. Maybe people spent more time indoors?

I thought the food was the best we ever had. Our serving team was also the best we ever had. Gonzalo head server, Aleksandra server, Dennis her asst.
I can't report back on Palos or the spa area. We never do those and I will not pack our workout clothes since we never did that. And as usual I overpacked but this time of year I was not sure if we needed hot hot clothes, or clothes with sleeves etc.

I did have one small problem with our shower in our room, luke warm water and low water pressure. The handle on the shower control was also loose. I reported it to guest services and it was quickly fixed. I wondered if the previous cruisers just lived with it? If you have a problem report it because it will get fixed. Our room host did a great job. He made sure our small cooler was filled with ice twice a day and that I had lots of the wonderful choc. mints left on my pillow!

My husband and I felt the immigration in St. Thomas was a JOKE. The officials did not even read our passports or the kids birth cert's. Our 9 year old was off schedule the whole day because of the early morning waking. If they are going to do this for security then take it serious or else drop it. I will be sending our congressman a letter about it.

We are looking forword to trip No. 5 next March 15th. We are looking forword to the western cruise for a change of scenery. We even met people who are going again next Spring Break. Hopefully next year we will leave on time and won't have gale force winds! Happy Cruising to all and don't stress yourselves out on trip planning. This trip taught many people to go with the flow! Relax you are on vacation mon:D Kathy

[Tluvs2talk]

Glad to hear you had a good time. Welcome home!!!

[Lisa L from MI]

Hi Kathy!! Glad you made it home safely!! We did....but major turbulence landing in Detroit!!!! And I HATE flying, so it was NOT fun!!!!!

Hope to get that pic up later tonight.....we haven't even gotten our bags out of the car yet!!LOL!!

[stormkrow]

The problems you had with your air flight is exactly why I'll never recommend flying into Orlando the morning of the cruise. Too many things can go wrong.

Glad yours worked out okay. First class - wow! I guess I can dream. Did your TA get it for you, or did the airline do it just because they're great guys?

[tecdavidt]

stormkrow, I don't know how we ended up with the first class seats, it was either the TA, the insurance? or Disney? I have a feeling it was the insurance since we paid for rooms at the Airport Hyatt and they had to get us there. With it being spring break time the planes were all booked up except the few seats in first class. Since we have had problems flying in the past we always fly in one day ahead. It paid off this trip!

Lisa L from MI, I am glad you are also home safe. I have been doing laundry since last night. I still have a lot to do. I thought our flights were a little bumpy during take off and landing. It is cold here how is it there?

Kathy

[WebmasterKathy]

We had a great time on the 3/16 Magic, too. It was a real surprise and a big treat to be seated with the Tecdavidt gang! We've got some great pictures of my DS8 with his new idols, Dave and Kathy's absolutely charming 18 year old sons.

Since this was only our second cruise (the first was a 4 day Wonder in 2000), my experience with on board servers is limited. That said, I simply cannot imagine being treated any better than we were this week by Aleksandra and Dennis! Multiple entrees, extra desserts, lots of CHOCOLATE, a surprise Tiramisu snuck down from Palo, and a little birthday treat for one of our tablemates... (I'm not going to tell who, you'll have to ask!)

I thought the repairs to the fire-damaged funnel were handled well and surprisingly discreetly. We enjoyed St. Maarten and St. Thomas, where we took the Seaborne Seaplane excursion. Came home with a bit of sunburn from Castaway Cay, just enough to make the boss jealous tomorrow. If only the mountain of laundry would "magic"ally disappear, all would be perfect.

DH came home making comments about "next time we sail on the Magic", so I think he had a great time, too! Maybe we'll do it again next Spring Break...
:cool:

[nearlychildless]

Sorry we never meet but we also had a great time on the trip. We signed up for next year's spring break so we may meet then. My husband who does not really care for sand or salt water is even anxious to go again.

[PlutosMom]

We made it back also from the 3/16 7-day and loved meeting the rest of the DIS gang. TecDavidt and I are from the same town and we encountered the same weather-related difficulties going down. On the way back (on Sat) we 'volunteered' to give up out Delta seats and take the early Sun am flight back and received a whooping $3,000 in credit with Delta along with hotel accomodations and meal for our layover. Spring break created quite a travelers fiasco!

I'll reinforce the 'easiness' of the Dave From Marietta plan of renting an AVIS CAR AT MCO and dropping it off at the Avis location attached to the RADISSON HOTEL which is only about 1 mile from the Port. It appeared to us that you could use either the Radison or the Avis shuttles to get yourself to and from the Port. Very slick and convenient. This allowed us to make the much-sought-after trip to Ron Jon's Saturday before we drove to MCO. DD 16 was pleased with her purchases there and DS 14 was prodded into buying sandles ... at least one of the teenagers is not a spend-a-holic!

I agree with the previous posts that the cruise was AWESOME! This is only our 2nd Disney cruise and well worth it. We have #3 booked for next spring break. Here is what I know about the ON SHIP DISCOUNTS:
-- The CRUISE prices quoted to me were EXACTLY the same as the prices I got from Dreams Unlimited the week before departure. I was careful to make an apples-to-apples comparison.
-- The only difference in the 2 quotes were: my DU quote included the Castaway Club on-board-ship-credit of $100 and a $100 rebate; the ON SHIP quote allowed me a Castaway Club on-board-ship credit of $200 but no rebate.
-- The ON SHIP cruise sales manager, Donna, said the Disney is "phasing out" the former Castaway Club on-board-ship-credit for cruises booked AFTER disembarkment. In other words (as I understood her), the Castaway Club on-board-credit will only be gained by booking ON SHIP.

Our most-thankful tip we have acquired from the boards was to BRING EXTRA WIRE HANGERS! Not sure what we would have done without them!

Again, it was great meeting tecDavidt (Kathy T to me!), Lisa from Michigan, Kathy TX and our John Travolta star, also known as JGarrin (sorry if I spelled this wrong, Jim!).

Like most of you, I have piles and piles of laundry I'm working on as I type. (Kathy T -- I'm not finding any t-shirts belonging to the boys!). I'd be glad to answer any questions from those getting ready to cruise. Let us 3/16 cruisers know of your questions. Thanks to all!

[jctwizzer]

Just wondering...what do you think your congressman can do to get your nine year back on schedule?:confused:

[tecdavidt]

Originally posted by jctwizzer
Just wondering...what do you think your congressman can do to get your nine year back on schedule?:confused:

Comments like this are not needed on this board. Of course my wife did not imply that she would write our Congressman to get our nine year old back on schedule.

The point was that the entire ship was inconvenienced for a process that provided no security. We were required to go to the Walt Disney Theater at 7:10 am, asked to walk by an immigration official that had no interest in looking at any of our documents, then had our hands stamped. No one looked for our hand stamp when leaving the ship or returning to the ship.

The last thing any parent wants to see are children crying (there were several in the Theater) because they have been pulled out of bed early while on vacation. Either do something that provides real security for the passengers and crew of the ship or drop the process all together. The security procedures in place before 9/11 probably provide adequate security.

The letter to the Congressman would address the fact that US Immigration is using taxpayer resources and providing no useful service. Our Congressmen need to know these things.

Dave

[dizneykids]

i agree with you completely. we were on the 3/9 magic and our passports barely got a glance, while our boys' birth certs were not even looked at...in fact, the ins guy said "i don't need to see them"...then why on earth did we need to haul our 3yo out of bed so early?

dave, on another note...having been on the 3/9 "fire cruise", i am curious...can you tell us anything else about the fire or clean-up? has the crumple been fixed? the scuttlebutt we'd heard was that it started with the incinerator...have you heard anything to the contrary?

[tecdavidt]

dizneykids,
We never heard the official cause of the fire. The clean up was progressing and they installed a sheet metal piece behind the black grate area on the top to prevent the debris from blowing off into the Mickey Pool. They did that on the day at sea by stopping in the ocean. The workers could not control the metal sheets in the gale force winds. After the sheet metal was in place everything was back to normal except for the appearance of the funnel. It was still buckled when we disembarked. I am curious to find out when the Magic sailed on 3/23, was it on time or late like ours was so that more funnel work could be completed in port? The crane was already in operation when we disembarked and workers were working on repairs.

It was also fun to have the ship stop by Freeport, it was at night, in the middle of the ocean and this large tug like boat pulled up along side the Magic and the workers hopped off onto the tug. They waved good bye to the cruisers and told us to enjoy the rest of our cruise (not much since it was the last night lol) and we all waved good bye and told them thank you for fixing our ship.
Kathy

[tecdavidt]

When we left the ship on Saturday morning (3/23), the funnel was still crumpled. They had cleaned up most of the 4 stacks and it looked like they were preparing to do some more repairs while in port. Perhaps someone who is on the cruise now can update us on the progress. It appeared to me that it would take several weeks with most of the work being done while in Port Canaveral each Saturday.

As far as the cause, this is still a mystery. An officer (assistant engineer) joined us one evening at our dinner table. When asked about the fire, he said that the staff had been instructed not to discuss it. I did tell him that the rumor on the internet was that the incinerator was the cause. His brief response was that this story "was interesting as the incinerator is on the other side".

That is all I know.

Thanks - Dave

[dizneykids]

as it was told to us by the wdw risk manager. anyway, the incinerator is on the other side of what?

[Towncrier]

Welcome home!!! I was under the impression that they had discontinued the early morning wakeup call for the St. Thomas immigration procedure. At least I thought I had read something to that effect here on the DIS. I'm sorry to hear that that isn't the case. We didn't mind getting up that early, but then again, our kids are both a little bit older than your 9yo DD.

Sounds like you all had a successful DCL experience. I just purchased airplane tickets for our October 3rd 3-day cruise. I'm still searching for a bargain for our November 7th 3-day. Perhaps I should look into relocating to Florida. :)

[tecdavidt]

Originally posted by dizneykids
as it was told to us by the wdw risk manager. anyway, the incinerator is on the other side of what?

I do not believe that he said what "the other side" was. He obviously felt that he could not go into detail. I was pushing it to get this much out of him. I assumed that he meant the other side of the funnel, but that is just a guess (although if this were the case, the incinerator could still have been the cause?).

Sorry I cannot be more helpful.

Thanks - Dave

[Hopkins]

I feel we'll never know from Disney what started this fire. I guess they figure, if you want to cruise, and the ship floats and everything is safe, why explain what happened. Pretty soon, people will be saying, "what fire?".

Still curious.
Tina
Magic Western 1/2003

[iluvorlando]

Kathy,

was sad to miss meeting up with you guys, as soon as we walked in, the kids paged us to come get them. We had a fabulous time, even though on Saturday the parking people told us to come back at noon, since the "rules" had changed. Yeah, right...our friends got there at 11:00 and got right on. But, I think maybe the fire had something to do with that. For our first cruise, I think that it was just great! We had great servers, San, Sylvester, and Sid. Our stateroom host was Samuel (do we sense a trend here? LOL). Towel animals every night, lots of chocolates, and fabulous food! Jerry in Palos was excellent. Had no problems getting the spa ressies, palos and kids registered even though we didn't board until around 2pm. We did book the surial for St Thomas day. It worked out great. We were lucky and ended up with the PLA rotation. Went to Palos on 2nd Lumieres night, perfect! The one thing I would definately recommend--if you want to get hair braided - do it on the ship. My DD 6 decided after getting a few braids on the ship, that she wanted cornrows. So at Coki Beach we had that done. Well, hearing that they can last for up to 6 weeks, etc...suprised that they are already coming out. I also feel that since the person used aluminium foil (instead of rubber bands at the ship) the beads fall off quicker. Just IMHO. Well off to do more laundry. I can say that I think it will be hard to top this trip, well maybe until we do the Western! :smooth:

[plutospup]

We also had Sylvester, and Sid, as well as Jerry at Palo. (Feliz, the Asst Server was going home to Turkey on 3/16). As a Head waiter I was impressed that Sid came around to our table every evening. Jerry, was very good also. Did Sylvester perform the "vanishing butter trick"? He pulled that on DW! It was a highlight of MY cruise! How was your dinner service? Slow?

[pgesler]

There is reference in the posts to how bad the winds were. Were the seas rough? I've been watching daily the wave report on:

http://www.oceanweather.com/data/index.html

and always saw calm seas. How bad were they?

[tecdavidt]

pgesler,

We had gale force winds but the seas were not rough. It appeared that the winds were above the water and the ship is tall enough that they were whipping the ship around. The waves really were not bad.

Iluvorando,

Where were you? We all were looking for you. It is nice to hear that you did not stay behind like VondaP. I hope she is doing better.

I think we all had a great time even considering the funnel stuff. We are already booked for next spring break on the Western. So how about it everyone, who is joining us next March 15th? I can hear the music now, hot hot hot!!! Kathy

[iluvorlando]

Plutospup, where were you sitting? Yes, I found that service was slow, but you know we were on vacation, and Sylvester kept the kids occupied. We were table 36. In Animators we were right in front of the big screen at a table for 4 only.

Kathy,
I looked for you guys all week too, its hard to put faces with only names though. I didn't know VondaP stayed behind. How come?

We did the golden eagle catamaran, the girls didn't like the ride over but, on the way back the captain let them both "drive". St Thomas we did Coral world and Coki beach, kids loved playing in the sand. Castaway Cay was just beautiful! I think a resort would be great, especially if you had to take the ship there and back! But what about the bugs?

Well off to work and school. Talk to you all soon!:)

[tecdavidt]

Iluvorando,
VondaP had a post on the board about why she missed the ship. She had a reaction to a drug she was given. Find her post and read it. I do hope whe is recovered.

We enjoyed the beach right by the ship in St. Maarten and did shopping. In St. Thomas we did more shopping, my husband was in a buying mode this cruise, and then we spent a lot of time up on Paradise Point enjoying the view and warm temps.

I love Castaway but I preferred the temps we have had in August verses this March cruise. I only walked a little in the water. Oh well, Dave has booked us in a Cat. 3 next year for the March 15th western sailing. It will be our first cruise with only our daughter in tow. I wish I was back on the ship right now! Kathy

[iluvorlando]

Kathy,

When we walked by the lounge, there were a bunch of people sitting by the bar, was that everyone? I was really bummed not to meet everyone.

Plutospup,
Did you have early seating?

Gosh, I hope Vonda is all right. Medicine is so unpredictable! I am going to search for her thread now.

Michele

[plutospup]

We had early seating at table 38 (Animator's), a table for eight. Sylvester certainly entertained the children...and adults, too! I was surprised though, that several people at our table were almost finished with their entree, before another person even received his yet!

[iluvorlando]

Plutospup, In Parrot Cay, were you closest to the wall? There was a really cute family Dh, Dw and 3 adorable boys beside us, then a table for 8 behind us! We were at the table for 4 only, we had 2 girls. You might have heard me yelling Rachel, stop that! She really was a pistol during dining times! What a bummer to be so close and not meet! My hubby said that he thought it was great that they brought the kids food out first, but like you I thought sometimes it took forever!!! We got out of Palo's quicker than out of rotation dining. Do you think it was becuase we were so far from the kitchens?

Kathy, I just read Vonda's post and emailed her. How sad! I am glad that she is taking care of herself though!

If LisaL from MI is reading this, were you on the golden eagle? I heard a lady saying she was from MI wearing a bright coral bathing suit. Was that you? If it was, you spoke to my husband on the way back. We were the wimps sitting facing the girl on the boat. You know the ones with the sick little girl?

Michele

[Lisa L from MI]

Michele....Yep that was me!! My DD Madison was the little girl sitting in the middle of the "trampoline" thing practically falling asleep!! I thought that was the best time!!! I really enjoyed the ride BUT wish there was more time on the beach. I didn't get to snorkled, instead, I had to control my 2 fighting DD's on the beach while everyone else snorkled. I have some pics as well as some good video from the excursion. I think I remember your DH.....what were you guys wearing....so I can go through my pics again.

[iluvorlando]

Lisa,

I was wearing a black cover up, dh was wearing I think yellow swim trunks and a blue shirt? DD's were in green one pieces? But think about getting drinks from the girl, I was the one facing her holding my little one (Rachel). I think you even asked me if she was feeling better. My oldest would have been sitting beside me. My DH was also very disappointed about the time for snorkeling. (Yes, dear I will be right back so that you can go-Dont think so!) I wish I had known it took an hour to get there! It was great though! I felt the crew was just spectacular! I also saw you a few more times, Castaway Cay for sure and I think after dinner that night too. Heading away from the elevators, I was behind you.
It is good to put a name with a face. Sorry we didn't actually meet!

Kathy, I keep meaning to say that I thought the water at CC was chilly!!!!!!BRRRR. But the weather was just great the entire time, don't you think? Do you think I could still call and book a deal even though I didn't do it on the ship?




Michele:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[tecdavidt]

Iluvorlando,
We had our room for next year booked before this cruise. So I don't know about the cruise deals from on board booking. I do believe our TA said since we booked two cruises at once, the one we just took and next years that we did get the room credit. It was only $100 per room not the $200 per room we got the year before. We are in a Cat. 3 for next year since our daughter is really too young to be in a room by herself, even if it is connecting. We are just to use to having 2 bathrooms. It will be a different experience for us since we have always been in 2 Cat. 6.

Lisa,
I couldn't open the picture but I need to have Dave open it up on his computer. I have a G3 MAC and he has a PC and sometimes the email from a PC does not work on my computer. You could also try sending it directly to my email address: kathyt@raccoon.com I seem to have a lot of trouble with the new dreams site since they changed it.

We were sitting toward the midship end of the lounge during the Dis meet. It was not a huge crowd but about 6 families in all. What was interesting was during the cruise we would run into other Diser's! This board is great. Kathy:cool:

[plutospup]

We were on the 3/9 Magic. DW, DD4, and myself. We were fortunate, the other family at our table also had a DD4! They kept themselves occupied during dinner, and played together at the Club.

Re: Onboard booking rates...I posted some of the current rates a few pages back. Currently they are offering a $200 stateroom credit for the 7 nt cruise (Eastern or Western).

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Originally posted by tecdavidt

My husband and I felt the immigration in St. Thomas was a JOKE. The officials did not even read our passports or the kids birth cert's. Our 9 year old was off schedule the whole day because of the early morning waking. If they are going to do this for security then take it serious or else drop it. I will be sending our congressman a letter about it.Originally posted by jctwizzer

Just wondering...what do you think your congressman can do to get your nine year back on schedule?Originally posted by tecdavidt

Comments like this are not needed on this board. Of course my wife did not imply that she would write our Congressman to get our nine year old back on schedule.

The point was that the entire ship was inconvenienced for a process that provided no security...

There's no question in my mind that this procedure in St Thomas is nothing but window-dressing. They aren't getting any value-added benefit from this exercise that they didn't already get by checking DCL's manifest and other records as they did prior to 9/11 (or during that brief recent period where they suspended this charade). That said, I don't think jtcwizzer's comment had any implied judgement... probably they thought they were being clever... I even chuckled. We're all intelligent folks here. I'm sure nobody thought your pledge to write your congressmen was due to selfish concerns over your personal inconvenience.

[kcand sunshine]

Just back TODAY from the 3/23 Magic trip!What a great week we had. I totally agree with the problem in St. Thomas. They didn't look at anything just waved us by to get our stamp. As for the fire,noone would tell us what happened but they worked continuously all week. Lots of banging and noise out by the pool. Alot of people didn't even know about it until they read the letter from Disney at check-in.

[stormkrow]

I didn't know that Disney was giving the passengers a letter about the fire. Can you post it?

I would be curious to see what they have to say.

Thanks!

[kcand sunshine]

Sorry I didn't save it and don't really recall what it said exactly. Just a memo stating the fire had happened and what they are doing to fix it.

[iluvorlando]

Stormkrow,

The letter was no big deal. Very brief, not a lot of info. I will try to hunt it up, but all it really said was there was a fire, rooms will be available at 1:30 and departure maybe delayed. Oh, and it did go into the fact that the ship was inspected by the coast guard and other agencies to determine that it could still sail.

Michele