From WDW to DL With Love - January 06, 2011 part 5

[orlandothebeagle]

Back at work and wondering..Is it really over?

 

[valbob89]

This photo is available for view and copying in www.flickr.com -- open group Valbob's Disney Wonder Panama Canal. You can see others of ours (coming soon), and if you join Flickr (no charge, no junk mail), you can add photos of your own or comment.

We are not competing with the Smugmug.com photo group, but did not join in time.

 

[DCLCruzVet]

I seriously think our party was in the minority on this cruise, we had incredible service, not a knock anywhere outside of a few indiivdiual incidents. We're not planners on board, so we missed all the hoopla over the event schedules. We had incredible servers and stellar service from everyone. There were a fair amount of staff who didn't know things or about things, but their attitudes and service made up for any minutes lost waiting.
It wasn't all puppy dogs and rainbows on board, we had guest service managers in our room twice to aplogize for things, but the guest recovery more than made up for the initial infraction. Maybe because I was told how bad everything was on board I was pleasently surprised, but everyone in our party was exceptionally happy with the service on board... YMMV

If you are in the minority so am I and so is my DW. We had a blast! Great service through and through. Only bummed about the tropical deck party getting rained out...

 

[aan1701]

It probably was an iPad. I'm pretty sure it was PC because it was in the morning. I had just woke up and walked down in my PJs to do a quick check. I saw you were the only ones in line so I went back to the room to get dressed and then get some breakfast. If I'd known it was you I could have brought you some breakfast or coffee.

LOVE the pics wideeyedwonder!

Oh that's alright. We did not go hungry. Lol

 

[aan1701]

If you are in the minority so am I and so is my DW. We had a blast! Great service through and through. Only bummed about the tropical deck party getting rained out...

When it comes to the deck parties, this is one of the declines I am talking about. The last two PC cruises the deck parties had great deck buffets after them. Not this time.

 

[sak0526]

I seriously think our party was in the minority on this cruise, we had incredible service, not a knock anywhere outside of a few indiivdiual incidents. We're not planners on board, so we missed all the hoopla over the event schedules. We had incredible servers and stellar service from everyone. There were a fair amount of staff who didn't know things or about things, but their attitudes and service made up for any minutes lost waiting.
It wasn't all puppy dogs and rainbows on board, we had guest service managers in our room twice to aplogize for things, but the guest recovery more than made up for the initial infraction. Maybe because I was told how bad everything was on board I was pleasently surprised, but everyone in our party was exceptionally happy with the service on board... YMMV

I am with you there, one hundred percent. I have nary a complaint. All the folks providing service to us went above and beyond in my estimation. Heck, I didn't even have an opportunity to earn an apology...I am pretty low-key and easy going, and I don't sweat much anyway, but honestly, everyone was positively wonderful--and a gazillion times kinder and more cheerful than "the real world"... Every day was a delight :0)

I'm with all of you. I didnt feel like i missed a thing - was very busy doing fun stuff and our servers told us a lot and some special hints too! We had a stellar cruise, other than the creaky room! I agree with Wyndi Mother, i'm low key and had nothing to get an apology for!! (WDW for 5 days before, not so much. if i can get the names of people in charge of technology and reservations, they ARE getting complaint letters from me - so if you have names, please let me know!)

and i agree - Stephanie, we really loved teh pins and stuff! got great pics of y'all! no way would i sell the FEs, yours or anyone elses!!

also, straight from a CM and character greeter, just so you know you didnt miss anything: Alice hasn’t visited the Wonder in several years, so there was no Tea with Alice since she isn’t there! You probably witnessed a Disney
Princess and Friends Tea (NOT with Alice, but with Ariel, Snow White,
Cinderella, and possibly Tiana, and Peter Pan makes an appearance
too!). So don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything that wasn’t
advertised. The guest services member was correct in saying that there
was no Tea with Alice.

Sherri

 

[orlandothebeagle]

We had great service, but I did notice a few things,, smaller cups, smaller shampoos, no cookies around the place, no butter,much much less vegi options at the buffets and wrap counter, just little things, they didint bother me(the butter did) but I did notice, I also wondered if it was a diff between the 2 ships or just in general.
I missed meeting a lot of you and I was a bit peeved and ended up sitting ourselfves away from the group for dinner as someone changed their dining plans last minute. I regret not meeting more of you but It was too late to do anything about it by the time I found out.
I did get GREAT service though, and man, I had the best birthday Ive EVER had, everybody( I mean from the first officer who knocked my door to say happy birthday to the room guy who made me a cake from towels and spa products wrapped up to the waiter at mixology who sany happy birthday and never mind family and dissers) was SO sweet. Even my server brought me a birthday present...............
BUt len said I wasnt allowed him

 

[Pixie Dust II]

We had without a doubt best service ever & I think best menu ever! Loved our tablemates immediately. So enjoyed meeting everyone. Ryan had the time of his life on board & with friends in LA. Still minus a suitcase thank you DCL! I got very sick yesterday, went to Urgent Care & got some meds. Hope to be on the up side soon. We need a reunion cruise! I miss everyone already. How about stopping by for dinner my daughter won't mind!! Jasmine would love to see you!

 

[aan1701]

We had without a doubt best service ever & I think best menu ever! Loved our tablemates immediately. So enjoyed meeting everyone. Ryan had the time of his life on board & with friends in LA. Still minus a suitcase thank you DCL! I got very sick yesterday, went to Urgent Care & got some meds. Hope to be on the up side soon. We need a reunion cruise! I miss everyone already. How about stopping by for dinner my daughter won't mind!! Jasmine would love to see you!

Oh I hope you get better soon. I also hope they find your bag.

 

[WeLuvDCL]

also, straight from a CM and character greeter, just so you know you didnt miss anything: Alice hasn’t visited the Wonder in several years, so there was no Tea with Alice since she isn’t there! You probably witnessed a Disney
Princess and Friends Tea (NOT with Alice, but with Ariel, Snow White,
Cinderella, and possibly Tiana, and Peter Pan makes an appearance
too!). So don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything that wasn’t
advertised. The guest services member was correct in saying that there
was no Tea with Alice.

Sherri

That's funnny because I saw Alice with my own eyes!! I was walking by Studio Sea when the Tea party was going on. Granted, they did not call it "Tea with Alice" but she was there.
We went to the Princess Tea party with my daughter, that is something completely different. My daughter only last about 30 minutes because she only likes Cinderella, she loves Alice for some reason, not sure why as she's never seen the movie.

 

[rotary2808]

We had great service, but I did notice a few things,, smaller cups, smaller shampoos, no cookies around the place, no butter,much much less vegi options at the buffets and wrap counter, just little things, they didint bother me(the butter did) but I did notice, I also wondered if it was a diff between the 2 ships or just in general.
I missed meeting a lot of you and I was a bit peeved and ended up sitting ourselfves away from the group for dinner as someone changed their dining plans last minute. I regret not meeting more of you but It was too late to do anything about it by the time I found out.
I did get GREAT service though, and man, I had the best birthday Ive EVER had, everybody( I mean from the first officer who knocked my door to say happy birthday to the room guy who made me a cake from towels and spa products wrapped up to the waiter at mixology who sany happy birthday and never mind family and dissers) was SO sweet. Even my server brought me a birthday present...............
BUt len said I wasnt allowed him

There was scarce amounts of butter on the ship. You just had to ask your server for it and they had to know where to look for.

 

[3mmm]

Alan - We, too, complained about the scheduling of the boat race and Friendship Rocks at the same time. They were the only two things that were a finale of two weeks worth of activities and I was disappointed that they were at the same time. My three older boys went to the boat race with DH and the other two went to Friendship Rocks. I tried to do both, but ended up missing most of the boat race. I didn't ask Clayton to do anything about it. I just told him that it shouldn't have happened and they need to do a better job next time. I thought he felt bad about it and that he was sincere. A few minutes later I was clearing my lunch tray and Clayton took it from me. He proceeded to spill the soy sauce on his pants. I felt bad about that, but on the side we all laughed and said it was Karma! Hope I made you laugh.

That aside, we had a wonderful trip and enjoyed meeting many of you. The FE gifts were great and so much fun this time. Thank you

We had no problem with service anywhere on the ship. Our servers were absolutely great. It also helped that their second table were some of the performers and they frequently weren't there. I think there were only 2 or 3 nights that they had a full table and half the nights there was no one. I wonder how the tips work in that situation. So they not get tips for that table?

I thought the menus and food in general was much better than our last Magic cruise. That one was right after new menus were rolled out and I am sure that there were not as many choices and several things I did not care for at all and I'm not that fussy. This time everything was great, but I did miss the peanut butter pie!

The kids club was incredible. With so few kids, they got to know my kids well and there were often as many CMs as there were kids. I agree with Jeff that Mike, the concierge, was great.

I thought they were stretching it a bit with the drink of the day by the end of the cruise. They should have just recycled the ones from earlier in the cruise. Maybe it was just me, but I like to try it everyday, but I gave up towards the end.

Grand California is a wonderful hotel and what a location. DD got scared at one point and had an accident and I just took her over to the hotel and changed her - well worth the cost for just that! Turns out we could have seen WOC from our balcony.

Kids are slowly adjusting back to school. Didn't help that I came down with a terrible cold on Saturday and despite my efforts, the kids have it too.

I have the DVD from Ziplining. If anyone wants a copy, just let me know and I will try to figure out how to do it. And thanks Dawn for doing that

Well, I'm off to finish unpacking. The clothes are okay, it's all the other stuff that kills me.

 

[TxMermaid1]

We had without a doubt best service ever & I think best menu ever! Loved our tablemates immediately. So enjoyed meeting everyone. Ryan had the time of his life on board & with friends in LA. Still minus a suitcase thank you DCL! I got very sick yesterday, went to Urgent Care & got some meds. Hope to be on the up side soon. We need a reunion cruise! I miss everyone already. How about stopping by for dinner my daughter won't mind!! Jasmine would love to see you!

Another sick one? There seems to be a pattern here of sick people. I am just beginning to get my voice back.
I hope you feel better soon.

 

[Tracyvp]

We had no problem with service anywhere on the ship. Our servers were absolutely great. It also helped that their second table were some of the performers and they frequently weren't there. I think there were only 2 or 3 nights that they had a full table and half the nights there was no one. I wonder how the tips work in that situation. So they not get tips for that table?

I thought they were stretching it a bit with the drink of the day by the end of the cruise. They should have just recycled the ones from earlier in the cruise. Maybe it was just me, but I like to try it everyday, but I gave up towards the end.


Kids are slowly adjusting back to school. Didn't help that I came down with a terrible cold on Saturday and despite my efforts, the kids have it too.

Well, I'm off to finish unpacking. The clothes are okay, it's all the other stuff that kills me.

I personally saw Susan Egan deliver envelopes to the servers on the last night, so I believer they still tip. Of course she was there with her whole family for the whole cruise so that may have been an exception. I don't know what happens in the case of the performers who are only on the ship for a few days.

I felt exactly the same way about the Drinks of the Day. All of them after the crossing were pretty lame. I don't care for pineapple or banana and virtually every one of them had one or both so I didn't even try them after awhile!

I think a LOT of people get sick on this particular cruise. We all got sick in '08 and dd and I both got sick this time around. Doesn't help that we're having Santa Ana conditions right now. Something about the change in climate just seems to get to a lot of people (along with being in a confined space with a lot of sick people, despite all the hand cleansing!)

I FINALLY finished all the laundry, but I ended up giving up and purchasing a plastic tote box to store all the wonderful mementos and FE gifts. I just can't deal with sorting through them all right now, especially since we came back and IMMEDIATELY went into "Hell Week" for a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in which Alison is playing the Narrator and I'm the Stage Manager! There's just not time or emotional energy to think about it all right now. Something tells me that box will end up shoved under the bed and I'll finally dig it out next winter sometime!!

I'm all for a reunion cruise! Who's in???

 

[Love_to_travel]

This photo is available for view and copying in www.flickr.com -- open group Valbob's Disney Wonder Panama Canal. You can see others of ours (coming soon), and if you join Flickr (no charge, no junk mail), you can add photos of your own or comment.

We are not competing with the Smugmug.com photo group, but did not join in time.

Thank You Val and Bob for all the organizing and the Photos.

Beth and Family

 

[orlandothebeagle]

Alan - We, too, complained about the scheduling of the boat race and Friendship Rocks at the same time. They were the only two things that were a finale of two weeks worth of activities and I was disappointed that they were at the same time. My three older boys went to the boat race with DH and the other two went to Friendship Rocks. I tried to do both, but ended up missing most of the boat race. I didn't ask Clayton to do anything about it. I just told him that it shouldn't have happened and they need to do a better job next time. I thought he felt bad about it and that he was sincere. A few minutes later I was clearing my lunch tray and Clayton took it from me. He proceeded to spill the soy sauce on his pants. I felt bad about that, but on the side we all laughed and said it was Karma! Hope I made you laugh.

That aside, we had a wonderful trip and enjoyed meeting many of you. The FE gifts were great and so much fun this time. Thank you

We had no problem with service anywhere on the ship. Our servers were absolutely great. It also helped that their second table were some of the performers and they frequently weren't there. I think there were only 2 or 3 nights that they had a full table and half the nights there was no one. I wonder how the tips work in that situation. So they not get tips for that table?

I thought the menus and food in general was much better than our last Magic cruise. That one was right after new menus were rolled out and I am sure that there were not as many choices and several things I did not care for at all and I'm not that fussy. This time everything was great, but I did miss the peanut butter pie!

The kids club was incredible. With so few kids, they got to know my kids well and there were often as many CMs as there were kids. I agree with Jeff that Mike, the concierge, was great.

I thought they were stretching it a bit with the drink of the day by the end of the cruise. They should have just recycled the ones from earlier in the cruise. Maybe it was just me, but I like to try it everyday, but I gave up towards the end.

Grand California is a wonderful hotel and what a location. DD got scared at one point and had an accident and I just took her over to the hotel and changed her - well worth the cost for just that! Turns out we could have seen WOC from our balcony.

Kids are slowly adjusting back to school. Didn't help that I came down with a terrible cold on Saturday and despite my efforts, the kids have it too.

I have the DVD from Ziplining. If anyone wants a copy, just let me know and I will try to figure out how to do it. And thanks Dawn for doing that

Well, I'm off to finish unpacking. The clothes are okay, it's all the other stuff that kills me.

Def, dinner time food was better than the magic, I agree,

Suzane whats her name was on a spinning bike next to me one am, she was very nice, I didnt realise it was her til later.

 

[disneywondergirl22]

That's funnny because I saw Alice with my own eyes!! I was walking by Studio Sea when the Tea party was going on. Granted, they did not call it "Tea with Alice" but she was there.
We went to the Princess Tea party with my daughter, that is something completely different. My daughter only last about 30 minutes because she only likes Cinderella, she loves Alice for some reason, not sure why as she's never seen the movie.

sent you a PM.

 

[izma]

That is just one example of poor planing. Also did anyone else notice the spell checker for the navigators did not work well?

Ha! Yes!

Just have to vent....
To "You know who you are" - Very upsetting to see people trying to make a profit from FE gifts received!

That is nasty! We did not participate in the FE but got a few things anyway...thanks! We did give out anything we had doubles of, along with some pencils we had purchased, to the orphans who greeted the ship in Manzanillo. I hope this is OK. Does anyone know if they sent the characters out or anything? That would have been very Walt. We certainly didn't sell any FE's!

I wanna go back!! Who is with me!!

OK

And Corinna - we saw the Mexican Army ? load up those trucks with the machine guns!! Freaked my DD11 out! As did the soliders with guns when we got off in PV. Some of this is why some of us CA'ers don't travel to Mexico much.

Alaska...Alaska anyone?? I really wanna go back.

The Mexican Army is always running around everywhere with weapons. This is not new or unusual.

Sadly the stamp act makes Hawaii impossible without adding 4 days to a cruise for a trip to Fanning island and back. Also, Fanning requires self tendering and none of the current life boats on Disney Cruise line are designed as such.

I expect we'll see DCL in Hawaii, but only as a stop on a trans-pacific repositioning.

I bet they work this out.

Back at work and wondering..Is it really over?

YUP...and so is the -40 weather we missed!!!!!!

We had great service, but I did notice a few things,, smaller cups, smaller shampoos, no cookies around the place, no butter,much much less vegi options at the buffets and wrap counter, just little things, they didint bother me(the butter did) but I did notice, I also wondered if it was a diff between the 2 ships or just in general.
I missed meeting a lot of you and I was a bit peeved and ended up sitting ourselfves away from the group for dinner as someone changed their dining plans last minute. I regret not meeting more of you but It was too late to do anything about it by the time I found out.
I did get GREAT service though, and man, I had the best birthday Ive EVER had, everybody( I mean from the first officer who knocked my door to say happy birthday to the room guy who made me a cake from towels and spa products wrapped up to the waiter at mixology who sany happy birthday and never mind family and dissers) was SO sweet. Even my server brought me a birthday present...............
BUt len said I wasnt allowed him

Rumour has it that it was a rather NICE birthday present. Len is such a party pooper. You should have jst sent him off for a run . Oh I am kidding of course, Len's a peach.

Oh and I did notice the lack of cookies....I love cookies.

There was scarce amounts of butter on the ship. You just had to ask your server for it and they had to know where to look for.

This is why I lost weight! I was really perplexed.

Jeff and Jen...sorry I didn't meet you. I know I saw you a few times the timing just didn't seem right.

Corinna...I have had a number of people comment on the items I made in your jewellry workshop. I LOVE THEM!!! I so enjoyed our visit as well. I have a feeling our paths will cross again.

 

[valbob89]

 

[Tracyvp]

Thanks, Val, for the fun pix and also for organizing everything! We had SO MUCH FUN!!