Anyone else Upset with the OCT 25 thru NOV 1 cruise?

[tinytink]

FIRST OFF IT DIDNT HAPPEN IN THE ADULT POOL IT HAPPENED IN THE GOOFY POOL WITH KIDS AROUND..

NO FLAMES, PLEASE just trying to lighten up this thread

sorry you had such a terrible time but are you really upset because it took security 30 minutes to find you? I can understand when it takes 29 minutes longer than normal. lol

 

[orlandothebeagle]

NO FLAMES, PLEASE just trying to lighten up this thread

sorry you had such a terrible time but are you really upset because it took security 30 minutes to find you? I can understand when it takes 29 minutes longer than normal. lol

What finding security or ??? very funny tinytink!!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

NO FLAMES, PLEASE just trying to lighten up this thread

sorry you had such a terrible time but are you really upset because it took security 30 minutes to find you? I can understand when it takes 29 minutes longer than normal. lol

I never even saw the Goofy pool without about 200 kids in it, so how the couple in question were able to experience a "private moment" in there totally defeats me!

 

[Sully]

We were not on this cruise,but have been on 9 Disney cruises, 2 of 14 days in length. All have been excellent. For some people the glass is either half full or half empty.

 

[Eric Julie and Hailey]

We were also on this sailing. However, we had a great cruise. Here are my thoughts (which I will also post on a separate thread):

- The ship looks great. I was very worried given the nay-sayers after the dry dock. 90% of the carpets were new when we arrived (according to the ship tour guide). The remaining new carpets were literally being installed while we were there. Public areas were in like-new condition. Our stateroom was not perfect, but certainly in good to very good shape. Our cat. 6 (6612) was clean and comfortable enough for four of us (DDs are 6 and 9). It was also relatively noise-free, despite being close to the aft elevators. The bed was very uncomfortable, but our stateroom attendant brought the eggcrate stuff after the first night, and it was somewhat better.

- The cruise staff was top notch. Dave had more energy than any cruise staff member I've seen. Brent seemed to lead nicely from behind -- always present and watching over major events, but letting his staff handle the logistics. On the first night, during Magic Quest, a teammate accidentally broke our video camera (long story - but, basically overly enthusiastic). The cruise staff got our cabin number and within 24 hours had found a crew member who could fix it (basically a "tinker" fairy!) -- and then paged us when it was ready to return it as good as new. No cost. Talk about above and beyond!

- Our dining room server (Jose) was sweet, but hard to understand. The equally nice asst. server (Ozen) had a sick roommate and was quarantined on day 5. The replacement (Eric) was brand new at being an assistant server. Moreover, the other table in our section was ver large (10 to 12?) and appeared difficult (many small kids). Hence, our dining room service was only so-so. Drinks took a long time to be re-filled. On a few nights, we waited a long time for orders to be taken and food to be brought out (frustrating on the 8:30 seating!). However, the head server helped out - and all were very apologetic and eager to please.

- The 8:30 seating is WAY too late. 8:00 is fine -- but, that extra half-hour really makes it unbearable. We found ourselves watching the clock between 8:00 and 8:30 and trying to fill time with whiny hungry kids.

- Food was up and down -- but, mostly up. Our lobsters were tender and tasty (a first on the Magic for us). The beef was not so good - and fish was usually overcooked in the dining room. Pasta dishes were always good -- as was the shellfish meals. Palo was outstanding as always -- both dinner and brunch. Although, brunch was especially good.

Also, it's worth mentioning that Goofy's was delicious! The paninis were truly special (duck and goat cheese, for example).

- We heard that the dry-dock was monopolized by unexpectedly having to handle structural problems under the pools. Apparently, they discovered the pools were about to collapse due to some poor construction! (source: an officer-type in a dining room)

- We thought the family and adult activities were as good as the first two times we've been on board. We were never bored. In fact, we ran around so much, we found ourselves exhausted from having fun!

- Pools were clean.

- Our daughters (9 and 6) were entertained by the kids clubs. They always seemed to enjoy going - especially once they made some friendship connections. Bless those youth counselors! They are the most under-appreciated group -- and yet, so vital to the Disney Cruise product!

- The artist series was awesome! Trevor Carlson painted Sorcerer Mickey in 30 minutes in the atrium (we bought the limited edition "Making Waves" at what we have since learned is a fair price ($270)). And, John Rowe spent a ton of time talking with my 9 year old (a budding artist), which made her trip very special. Add to that, Stacia Martin (a Disney artist and historian extraordinaire). We were in Disney art heaven!

- The shows were very good as usual. I was distracted by the Disney Dreams enhancements (why does Peter Pan fly so early now?) -- but, not enough to dislike the show. I cried like a baby at all the usual moments. The farewell show had an awesome variety act. The guy actually balanced a full size A-frame ladder on his chin! He got a standing ovation at that moment -- which I've never seen at a variety act.

- The spa was nice. We enjoyed good massages. A bonus was being massaged side-by-side in the spa villa, but not having to pay for the villa (just the massage) -- simply because it was available.

- We thought the Key West make-up for missing Grand Cayman was a true Disney difference. The weather was not Disney's fault -- yet, they went out of their way to give us another port. By comparison, the Carnival ship that left port with us on 10/25 ended up dumping all of its passengers in Fort Lauderdale for a 3 hour bus ride back to Port Canaveral due to a problem on the ship. Those boarding on Saturday 11/1 had to wait past 4:00 p.m. to board The compensation for all of those lucky passengers: $50.

- Halloween was fine. Our kids got dressed up, got some candy, took some pictures and danced. What more is there to do with Halloween? With all of the junk food on board, I was happy that their bags were not full with more candy. Who needs more candy when there's Mickey Bars , unlimited desserts and ice cream, chocolates on the pillows, etc.? It was moved to 10/30 because 10/31 was the last day -- and a Castaway Cay day. Thank goodness it was moved -- we ran around like crazy on Friday to pack, eat, buy photos, souvenirs, see the show, and say good-byes. If we had to add trick or treating, ferrgetaboutit!

- Castaway Cay was awesome as usual, despite the weather. (When will Disney learn to control mother nature ?)

- We're all a bit sick now (sore throat, cold symptoms, not serious), but who knows how we got it?

Well, there you have it. OUR view of the October double dip. We rebooked a "dummy date". We're seriously contemplating the transatlantic in 2010. That must mean something about how we enjoyed our week!

 

[Indea88]

We were on this cruise as well... a few questions and concerns here too..
The parents are not always at fault, I have a teen son age 14, he will say I am the most overprotective mom on the earth...He had to find things to do, nothing was going on in the stack, the 14-17's made their own agenda's and were told this in the first 411 on embarkation day. I wish there were more organized activities for this age group. My son found new friends and spent most of his time in the pools, the teen beach at CC and some time in the quest. I saw many tweeners running and disruptive in the elevators and stairways. When they are allowed to check out on their own how do their parents know where they are? I didn't allow check out until this year, 14-17 have no check out, they don't check in...
I always had check in times and curfews for my DS.
I promptly heard about the couple in the hot tub, DS14 said "I saw two people naked in the hot tub, "did you hear about that mom?

The weather was tough but it can't be helped, I wore a sweater in the carribean, I just won't cruise again in Oct. It was 79 in Cozumel! The captain stated that he was battling two cold fronts on this cruise, just don't understand why we would head to GC with gale force winds, don't they know that tendering wouldn't happen? Maybe not..We had to turn around and head to Key West, gave us an extra sea day but that night I woke up alittle quesy from the 13 foot seas ( and a pepperoni pizza before bed..never again.
We had a beautiful dolphin swim at Dolphinaris, it didn't matter what the temp was!

Thank you to Suzie for our TOT from our Dis group, we were'nt able to atttend, it's tough for my DS5 to stand in line (he has Autism) and bags for our children were given to us by this wonderful group, thanks so much. Needless to say we didn't participate in the ship's TOT but DS5 had Halloween festivities in the club, he was happy and content..

Just a little note on this cruise..on day 2 or 3 we must have entered the migratory pattern of thousands of small birds, heading to South America? DH woke me up to say look outside! There must have been thousands of birds. Two entered the stateroom, were flying around like parakeets. I called maintenence, room service, couldn't find help at 5:00am. DH caught both birds and set them free from the balcony. It was all good, no harm done!! The kids were happy that's what matters...

The only other issue was concierge, they met with us once at the beginning and visited once the entire week.Last cruise we saw them each day and they called each day. I know how this sounds but why pay extra for concierge if you never see them. We were notified of the concierge party a few hours prior and we already had other plans booked.They booked tea with Alice the same time as beer and wine tasting I agree with some poor planning this trip
I rebooked but not for October!

 

[Amlee]

Is anyone else slightly peeved at the OP's grammar? No offense, or anything... But capitalizing every first letter of every word just makes me a tiny bit upset. And typing in all caps is perceived as yelling, FYI. I don't think we at the DIS have done anything wrong to warrant that...
As for your apparent God-awful time, I'm sorry. Still, I think that a little relaxation would have made the trip all the more enjoyable for you. Next time, buy your kids a bag of candy before embarking (as if 25 pieces are not enough, in addition to all of the rest of the food on board) and tell them to stop complaining. Stay away from chicken fingers. And, intercourse in the hottubs? HAHA! I don't think Disney could've controlled people like that if they tried...

I stopped reading the OP's post when she or he went to that. Not only is it considered rude on the internet to type that way. It makes it hard to read, therefore not worth reading.

 

[Indea88]

This poster has a right to their opinion, they may not know about caps, gentle reminders would be nice, why the harshness in response ......I was able to read it without difficulty.

 

[ForTheLoveOfDCL]

I have to say I don't think it's the caps that matter but the tone of which tings were said. NASTY! I mean I wasn't on the trip but this is a DIS thread and everyone has a right to say how they feel about a situation. It seems like the OP just wanted people to agree with them and when we didn't got rude. No need for it.

I have had some issues on board nothing Disney purposely did wrong but things that happen when u live aboard a floating hotel. I approached them with respect and kindness and my problems were resolved fast & efficiantly. I think it's all in how u handle it. If the OP went at Disney like us DIS people then I see why nothing has been done. U get more bees with Honey.

I have to say after reading this forum I am writing Disney with my concerns about the 11-13 age range having free, unsupervised run of the ship. i think 11 is to young if you have parents who don't know where their kids are and don't teach them right from wrong. Anyone whos kids ran around like that didn't teach their kids manners or how to use them or have respect.

 

[Amlee]

I have to say I don't think it's the caps that matter but the tone of which tings were said. NASTY! I mean I wasn't on the trip but this is a DIS thread and everyone has a right to say how they feel about a situation. It seems like the OP just wanted people to agree with them and when we didn't got rude. No need for it.

I have had some issues on board nothing Disney purposely did wrong but things that happen when u live aboard a floating hotel. I approached them with respect and kindness and my problems were resolved fast & efficiantly. I think it's all in how u handle it. If the OP went at Disney like us DIS people then I see why nothing has been done. U get more bees with Honey.

I have to say after reading this forum I am writing Disney with my concerns about the 11-13 age range having free, unsupervised run of the ship. i think 11 is to young if you have parents who don't know where their kids are and don't teach them right from wrong. Anyone whos kids ran around like that didn't teach their kids manners or how to use them or have respect.

It was the way the post came across that bothered me, the caps just made it worse. Opinions are going to vary and telling people if they didn't sail on that sailing not to post was just the icing on the cake for not to finish reading what the OP had to say.

As for the 11 to 13 year olds being on their on. I have a 13 year old head strong, slightly wild niece that will be sailing with me in Jan on The Wonder. I have already requested that she be put back in one of the clubs and that she NOT have sign out privilege.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

It was the way the post came across that bothered me, the caps just made it worse. Opinions are going to vary and telling people if they didn't sail on that sailing not to post was just the icing on the cake for not to finish reading what the OP had to say.

As for the 11 to 13 year olds being on their on. I have a 13 year old head strong, slightly wild niece that will be sailing with me in Jan on The Wonder. I have already requested that she be put back in one of the clubs and that she NOT have sign out privilege.

Unfortunately, for any kids in Ocean Quest or the teen club, you don't get a choice. They can come and go as they please. You can't ask that they not have sign-out privilege -- at least we weren't given that option for our 13 year-old on our cruise this past August.

We did get a pager for all of our kids and our 13-year old could have a specific message paged to us by the counselors when he entered or left the club. We had him page us frequently so that we knew where he was when he left the club. We also had a very stern discussion with him early in the cruise regarding behavior of some of his new "friends". To avoid getting into trouble, he stopped hanging around with several of them. Fortunately, there were also several good kids for him to hang out with on the cruise. You just can't expect Disney to babysit your kids for you.

 

[Amlee]

Unfortunately, for any kids in Ocean Quest or the teen club, you don't get a choice. They can come and go as they please. You can't ask that they not have sign-out privilege -- at least we weren't given that option for our 13 year-old on our cruise this past August.

We did get a pager for all of our kids and our 13-year old could have a specific message paged to us by the counselors when he entered or left the club. We had him page us frequently so that we knew where he was when he left the club. We also had a very stern discussion with him early in the cruise regarding behavior of some of his new "friends". To avoid getting into trouble, he stopped hanging around with several of them. Fortunately, there were also several good kids for him to hang out with on the cruise. You just can't expect Disney to babysit your kids for you.

I'm not asking DCL to babysit anyone. I'm asking to be know when she wants to leave the clubs. Something they do a 1000 time a day.

When I called and talked to DCL they said that I could remove her sign out privilege. But it wouldn't be the first time any of us have been told one thing and got on the ship only to be told something else.

If that is the case and they won't remove it. Stinks to be her! Because she will not be allowed to roam the ship by herself.

 

[SweetSpot]

They don't have the kids in the 11-13 check in or out at all anymore. They just wander in and out all day long. They use to have to check in give their key to the world cards over and then go through the process to get out. There are no more bracelets, etc. You can get a pager and tell your child they must have a CM page when they come and go but that is entirely the responsibility of the child the CM's won't do it on their own even if you request it.

While it wasn't an issue for me with my DD and my middle DS who follow my rules and know better, had this been in place when we began cruising and my oldest DS who is H/F autistic was in that age group. We would never have been able to cruise. My DD did love the new structure, being in the Quest vs. the Lab and not doing the same old activities but I still think that parents should be given an option about signing out privileges. On the repo cruise my DD told me many stores about the unruly kids and we unfortunatley experienced a good deal of kids roaming looking for trouble.

Still baffled by the incident in the hot tub. That's a first, I've never read about any behavior like that before. Feel sorry for the poor CM who had to handle that situation.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

They don't have the kids in the 11-13 check in or out at all anymore. They just wander in and out all day long. They use to have to check in give their key to the world cards over and then go through the process to get out. There are no more bracelets, etc. You can get a pager and tell your child they must have a CM page when they come and go but that is entirely the responsibility of the child the CM's won't do it on their own even if you request it.

That's my understanding as well.

I'm not asking DCL to babysit anyone. I'm asking to be know when she wants to leave the clubs. Something they do a 1000 time a day.

When I called and talked to DCL they said that I could remove her sign out privilege. But it wouldn't be the first time any of us have been told one thing and got on the ship only to be told something else.

If that is the case and they won't remove it. Stinks to be her! Because she will not be allowed to roam the ship by herself.

Unfortunately, unless they've changed it since August, for any kids in Ocean Quest or the Stack (i.e. 11-13's and 14+, respectively), you can't remove sign-out privileges for a 13 year old. If you're on the Wonder and have your 13 year old drop down to the Lab, then you could probably revoke the sign-out privileges.

You can ask for a pager and have your niece page you when she leaves the Quest, but Disney won't enforce it (again unless they've changed it since August). This worked for us, but I think it depends on both the child and the parent. When our youngest is ready for Ocean Quest, I'm not sure we'll be able to trust him. He's our little giver of gray hair!

 

[Amlee]

Well I'm trying to head off any problem to keep my dad from exploding on her for being stupid. She is head strong, naive, has no common sense and just dumb enough to get into trouble.

 

[kvaday]

I too was on this and I can honestly say I will never do it again. We do have some great memories and some good experiences but over all no I would never do it again. When you hear Disney you think the best, and that is not what we had. There were some things that were out of their control like weather but they did do a great job with taking us to Key West. I didnt think the food was top notch but it wasnt the worse either. I would have liked topsiders to have been open a little more but I understand that too.
As far as trick-or-treating goes, the candy was no big deal to us. Its horrible for the teeth and we were lucky enough to have such a wonderful dis group who well made up for it. But i didnt appreciate the older kids running wild and pushing the little kids outta the way just to get candy. They were just putting their hands in the buckets taking what they wanted which wasnt fair to the smaller ones. The parents didnt take as much responsibility for their teens as they could have. I give props to the kids clubs but my youngest one (5) wanted nothing to do with it because of the kids being brought their crying because they did not want to be there, she also had an accident because she was told she couldnt use the bathroom and had to wait.
I'm happy most had a wonderful time and will be going back but Disney just wasnt up to my high Disney standards. I dont mean to be negative because it was not all bad but I am very dissapointed. I'm just happy I was not the only one with a bad experience. I did not appreciate them constantly sending stuff to the room trying to get you to book again or join the vacation club. Personally if people want to book again or join they would have done it on their own. As far as the buttons in the elevators and the knocking of the doors yes we had the pleasure of dealing with that too. I too was very very sick on the last night. I felt fine until after I had dinner then it was all down hill. But again that was out of their control.

Again, sorry for venting but I do have to agree with some of the stuff stated. I hope for all of you who have rebooked or are going that you all have a wonderful experience.

 

[RussN]

I promptly heard about the couple in the hot tub, DS14 said "I saw two people naked in the hot tub, "did you hear about that mom?

Wow, that is horrible to hear. Can't believe people would do this. Was it adults or teens?

I've been concerned about the lack of supervision (and/or activities) with some of the teens and some of these teens don't think clearly enough and may do something they may later regret.

 

[Aneille]

I was on the cruise too.

I also saw the family of 5 running for the boat. I was confused as well about the sailaway party ending before we left port and we were hanging out looking at the dock when we saw them running in with an escort. As soon as they were on board we left. I was so happy for the family. I couldn't imagine seeing the ship pull away if you were that close!

My 5 year old and almost 7 year old loved it. That certaintly enjoyed Halloween and the trick or treating and I must be a really bad parent because I allowed 3 stops! We had tons of candy already from the DIS Trick or Treating that Suzie ran earlier in the week.

We never heard the kids running down our halls at all. We never heard a knock either. I saw kids in the elevators but maybe I was lucky they were all very well behaved. We were on the 8th deck.

The good things:

1. My head server was great, although once he found out we loved wine and he did too, he cost us much more than we would have liked but we enjoyed every minute of it!

2. Our stateroom attendents were faboulous too.

3. My kids had fun and enjoyed the kids club until the end of the week. They realised maybe Mommy and Daddy were more fun!

The things I didn't think were top notch:

1. I think they could have done more for Halloween. I was expecting a bit more for the kids. I didn't like the timing at all but I chalked that up to us losing Grand Cayman.

2. The food was good, a few times it was excellent but overall I would give it a B+.

3. I also wish the Pizza place was open more hours. It seemed everytime we needed a pizza for the kiddo's it was closed.



Indea88 - We cruised Concierge as well and we had great help. They called every day and came up a few times during the week. We had concierge last cruise on a 4 day and it wasn't near as good as this time.

We did rebook a dummy date. My kids love crusing with Disney but we are considering something else instead. But I would love to cruise Disney again as well. I was thinking of just trying something new not necessarily better.

 

[dizzi]

I tried in May to put a warnign ut on the boards about thsi very thing.

I even started the threa from the cruiseline.

I got very HORRIBLE responses from so many that i asked the moderators to end the thread.

Responses like i was a bad mother for not teaching my DD to be mature and be responsible.
That i was over reacting
That other cruiselines do it.
That DISNEy is not a babysitting service.


I AM SOOO SOOO SORRY you gus had to experince this!!! As it was horrible for us, I did go to the head man on the ship over the kids clubs and expressed my concern. And he helped us out as much as he could, but most;y the whole cruise i was left being concerned about where my DD was and who she was with in turn we decided to wait 2 years until she is in the teen club to go again.

AGAIN i am sorry for this and wish you had caught my thread.

 

[dvc4life]

I have been reading this post throughout the day and I have to say that I am amazed and shocked at what I am reading. We were on this cruise and saw none of the problems that were mentioned. We had a great time and will be cruising again on the DVC members cruise in Sept 09.

We have done a Halloween cruise with DCL before and I can say that they were pretty comparable. In fact, the TOT was better this time than the other. Our girls got more candy this time than last. And they don't need alot of candy.

We had no problems with the kids on the ship. One day while we were getting ready to go to the pool we heard a bunch of kids yelling/singing/screaming so we looked out and it was a group of kids from the Oceaneer Club with the counselors. They were having fun and not hurting anything. They were loud, but we thought it was cute.

The weather was not the best. But bad weather there is better than home. Disney has no control over that and we all know that when we board. I wish it could have been better but I still came home with a tan!

The ports were wonderful! Our favorite wasn't even the one we were to go to. Key West!!! We want to go back on our own. We had such a good time. Castaway Cay was wonderful as always and Cozumel was very pretty.

As for the couple in the pool, I wasn't even aware. They really should have known better. How rude. We did have two bad experiences on this cruise and they were both at Rockin' Bar D. We went to two different shows and had very rude people at both. The night at the ventriliquist there was a heckler in the audience who was loud and obnoxious (sp). The cruise staff came and escorted him out with no incidence. I felt sorry for the poor entertainer. Then the next night we went to see the comedian, we were sitting at the bar and had a group of people come in right beside us and they talked very loud. Not giving a hoot about the show going on. We ended up leaving early because we couldn't hear the show. So, maybe all the rude kids on board were just acting like their parents who were in the clubs at night. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. So those are two bad memories for us, but we are not focusing on them. We have wonderful memories of this cruise. The family we ate dinner with, our servers at dinner, Yelena the bartender at Sessions and just seeing our kids so happy.

I'm sorry the OP did not have a good experience on this cruise. I can't say it was our best cruise ever, but it was 100 times better than the Carnival cruise we went on. And after reading the posts, I really didn't appreciate the tone in the OP's writings. I hope she/he finds happiness in life. Like someone said earlier, look for the positive, not the negative.