9/30/06-eastern- Disappointing

[staceymerrill]

**I am StaceyMerrill's DH....she in no way agrees with everything I am about to write.....

After 10 DCL, cruises, I would definitely describe this past one as "the bloom is off the rose".....In addition, like a once great marriage gone bad, the things that endeared you to a former partner are the things that you find most annoying....

My DSs and DW had a great time, and I am exceptionally happy about that...

However...

**Encountered major plumbing problem on formal evening....water in stateroom pee yellow....advised by guest services to turn water on in both bath and faucets....Subsequently,gooey black sludge purcolated through the floor drain of the other 1/2 bath with toilet and sink...utterly disgusting and unacceptable

**toilet had a sewage smell eminating from it entire cruise...had to keep door close...forgot to bring the Lysol

**the times that I called both guest services and room service, I had at least a 10-15 minute wait on-hold

**every scheduled program or event seemed to run 5-15 minutes late....this may seem trivial, but on vacation time is precious....this included pix with characters, as well as the opening at various times of Ocean Quest...

**Lines, lines, lines for everything.....Jack Sparrow photo opp near WD Theatre, off the ship, getting on the ship...

**Twice Charmed IMO a big disappointment....I also think the character "Franco Fortunato" perpetuates an ethnic stereotype....weak plot, although excellent staging...

**No more themed buffet lunches at Parrot Cay....Our waiter and head waiter explained it away as too narrow appeal to have a specific ethnic buffet ...I think that's nonsense.....these buffets offered many great cooked to order stations like stir fry/pastas, and IMO DCL thoght these stations were too labor intensive

**But, the food in the restaurants is definitely better than ever!

**Many of the children's programming seemed to not coincide with adult programs....I have at least 4 examples where DW and I wanted to do something, but were shut out because the club or lab were in transition et al...for example, DW and I were set to go to Kitchen Galley tour at 2:55 pm on Thursday, 2nd sea day, only to find out Flounders was not open at that time for the baby....NICE

**Not once in 7 days did the Vista Spa locker room attendants refill the liquid soap/shampoo dispenser in the shower...

**Rich Purpura, Freddy Fusion, Gary Delena.....Do they have compromising photos of DCL executives?

**debarkation disappointingly long and VERY un-DCL like....waited to get off ship, waited just after we got off ship, waited for a luggage porter, waited on a huge line to go through customs.....

Nevertheless, there were some highlights

**Cove Cafe for morning Espresso and Cap...quiet and comfortable surroundings
**As always, Rainforest Room a delight...great new thirsty thick towels in spa
**Palo....perfection
**Head waiter Aleksandra from the Netherlands.....one of the few restaurant CMs who IMO actually enjoyed speaking to us (go ahead and flame, but I've always thought the the waitstaff to be a tad insincere...especially the fake disappointment when my DSs and baby were in club/Flounders instead of joining us for dinner)
**Elsa, our stateroom host...efficient, very sweet, there when you need her....I tipped her exceptionally well, and she deserved it
**Disney Dreams.....just awesome as always
**Meat dishes at the rotation restaurants great..Lots of tenderloins....very tender(hence the name)
**90% of desserts great too
**Paninis at Goofys Galley.....unbelievably tasty....
**Flying Dutchmen at CC....a nice touch in an otherwise boring 1/2 day....

Will be researching extensively the Freedom of Seas for future cruises, which I think will probably blow away DCL in amenities and value from the reviews I've read....DCL is priced way too high for what you get, and trust me, the overall experience is no where near as good as 2-3 years ago.....

 

[tinkerbellmom1]

Hi Stacey Merrill's DH!

We were on our first DCL vacation last November, in the Roy Suite, and had the same sewage smell. We called the concierge and complained-they sent maintenance, and a plumber, but it NEVER went away. And I brought Lysol! It really was bad. We ended up stuffing towels over the vent and leaving them there during the duration of the cruise. That cut down on the smell, but didn't get rid of it all together.

We are taking our 2nd Disney cruise in January. The Eastern this time. I haven't seen too many trip reports about the Eastern. We are trying Palo for the 1st time, and a couple excursions. Do you have any hints you would be willing to share?

Thanks!

 

[tjeagle]

Thanks for your honesty.....I imagine there was once something special there for you considering it was your 10th cruise!
I hope you are able to find some new magic!!

 

[staceymerrill]

Yes, The Magic was very special to me at one time - especially when it was 1/2 the cost and twice the service - when they cared about promptness and keeping the ship in excellent repair - Unfortunately, success sometimes breeds complacency....for what we paid, i expected far more than what was delivered this time....and believe me, I have a basis for comparison....5 years ago on this board youd almost never read a negative trip report, as opposed to now....

DW and I will find magic on our NJ to Bermuda cruise aboard the Explorer of the Seas next October, followed by a family cruise on Freedom of the Seas....

Tinkerbellmom1, I would recommend a "non-DCL" excursion to St John on the Eastern, from St. Thomas.....do not miss Palo(!), because no matter how much I complain, Palo is perfection.....Have a 'real" coffee drink at Cove Cafe, relax and enjoy the atmosphere there....truly an oasis...the swill that DCL passes off as coffee in the restaurants and bev station is shameful....don't let your servers try to rush you through dinner....this was one more annoyance I forgot to mention in my trip report....shopping is great in St Thomas, but if you are planning to buy a big ticket item like a watch, do your research on the Internet....that way, you get an apples to apples comparison....for me, buying any sort of diamond jewelry for DW proved to be too risky....no basis for comparison and no recourse if I found out later I got less than expected....get to photo opps early, especially the one with Jack Sparrow...even though it will start late like everything else on the cruise, at least you wont have to wait like we did for 30 minutes like cattle....take the Kitchen galley tour on 2nd sea day, really fascinating....

 

[HookedonMagic]

Thanks for sharing. Best wishes for better experiences with your upcoming Royal Caribbean vacations!

 

[BethA]

Sorry to hear the cruise wasn't as magical as previous times. I hope that does not indicate that service on a whole is going down. We have cruised with DCL 6 times and some were better than others in different areas. The last we did have the long phone wait for room service--no excuse for that-they know everyone orders!

We were in the Roy suite in June 2006 and had the same sewage smell----disgusting!!!

Everyone seems to have a diffeerent experience--we were on RCL and not impressed, but others have loved it. Thanks for posting what you experienced.

 

[suzannef]

I love reading trip reports/reviews where there seems to be a balanced point of view and excellent examples when something is not up to paras well as what exactly made something do great. It seems unreal when people say everything was perfect from beginning to end. I feel badly that this experience wasn't as "magical" for you. It certainly makes it hard to justify the hefty costs. I do hope you will post again when you have tried the other cruise lines as I would love to hear your honest opinions. Thanks again for your time posting this it is greatly appreciated.

 

[captchris]

Aleksandra was our head server as well. She was great! She took DS 4 under her wing and teased him about eating vegetables. After a couple of nights, she would bring both DS and DD corn on the cob every night. We had DS hand her her tip for the week. She gave him a huge hug! I made sure I listed her name on the comment card. She was/is great!

 

[cristit14]

Sorry you didn't enjoy your trip as much as in the past. Hopefully, you will love your next cruise.

 

[CaptainJack]

Nevertheless, there were some highlights

**Head waiter Aleksandra from the Netherlands.....one of the few restaurant CMs who IMO actually enjoyed speaking to us
**Elsa, our stateroom host...efficient, very sweet, there when you need her....I tipped her exceptionally well, and she deserved it

I can only say that our experience on the September 2 cruise was much different than your experience, with the exception of these 2 highlights.

We had the same head server and she was wonderful. The September cruise was our third cruise and this was the first one that our head server did ANYTHING or spent any amount of time at our table. The first 2 cruises the head server came to the table once, said hello, and disappeared.

Elsa was also our stateroom host. He is very nice, very efficient and on top of things. My DDs bday was on September 7 while were on the cruise. That night instead of making a towel animal, she made a towel bday cake. Very cool.

 

[ragdoll]

Thank you for taking the time to write a trip report. I appreciate your observations. DH and I were on the Sept. Double Dip and felt the same way. The "magic" was missing. This was our tenth DCL cruise too. Funny thing is we did the Eastern this past May and it was the best DCL cruise of all. What a difference a few months made!

I forgot to put in my trip report that we mentioned our disappointment to one of the CM's and she said that they were in a "transition period". I am hoping that means that things will soon be improving. We will be cruising on the Wonder in May and the Magic next Sept. We have two "fake dates" booked but if things don't improve we will start looking into other cruise lines. I never thought that I would feel that way. But when you are paying more you expect more and should receive more.

 

[Stinasmom]

We also had to deal with plumbing problems and a horrible smell for a couple days. Wasn't just our room, however--- Here's the story:

We were on a West Coast sailing (to Mexico) in 6/05 staying on Deck 2. When we were leaving Cabo San Lucas the winds were so strong the ship listed for a few hours as we rounded the tip of Baja (turning). We were amused by all the water sloshing out of the pools and onto the deck but were NOT amused to find that our bathrooms (split) were flooding with VERY stinky water. Made me wonder what happened to Deck 1 rooms!
We were fortunate that the water never crested the lip between the bathroom and carpeted floor of the stateroom, but nearby staterooms were not so lucky. The water was coming up from the floor drain and from the shower/bath drain. They had those big blowers going for hours to dry carpets in rooms and the halls.
Our stateroom attendent cleaned our bathrooms but the smell eminating from the floor drain was there for the rest of the trip (1 1/2 days). I couldn't have imagined that I would be happy to disembark, but I was very sick of the smell.

This may have been an isolated incident but I doubt it happened to the cabins on the upper decks. What deck were you on?

That being said, we are sailing again this December and did rebook Cat. 9 on Deck 2. Fingers crossed!

 

[dursin]

**I am StaceyMerrill's DH....she in no way agrees with everything I am about to write.....

After 10 DCL, cruises, I would definitely describe this past one as "the bloom is off the rose".....In addition, like a once great marriage gone bad, the things that endeared you to a former partner are the things that you find most annoying....

My DSs and DW had a great time, and I am exceptionally happy about that...

However...

We were on the same cruise...however...

**Encountered major plumbing problem on formal evening....water in stateroom pee yellow....advised by guest services to turn water on in both bath and faucets....Subsequently,gooey black sludge purcolated through the floor drain of the other 1/2 bath with toilet and sink...utterly disgusting and unacceptable

We had the exact same problem...and I agree...100% unacceptable. I heard that their main water tank failed and they had to switch over to a backup and the brown water was caused by residue in that tank, but still....that's absolutely no excuse. If you know that your reserve tank is going to have residue, purge it before allowing it to flow into the entire ships plumbing system.

**toilet had a sewage smell eminating from it entire cruise...had to keep door close...forgot to bring the Lysol

We had the exact same problem as well, but in only one of our two connecting staterooms. I noticed that the bathroom that did NOT have the problem had the floor drain covered up. The bathroom with the over had an open grating over the floordrain with water visible in it. I mentioned it and nothing was ever done. Another inexcusable problem. Just out of curiousity, what stateroom or area of the ship were you in?

**the times that I called both guest services and room service, I had at least a 10-15 minute wait on-hold

Usually I got thru in a minute or two, except for the 'brown water incident'. Since that effected the entire ship I can imagine that everyone would have been calling.

**Twice Charmed IMO a big disappointment....I also think the character "Franco Fortunato" perpetuates an ethnic stereotype....weak plot, although excellent staging...

My entire family agrees here. This show was one big waste of time from start to finish. I can't believe they replaced Hercules with such a poor quality show. We'll likely never see it again. On my comment card, I marked the other two big shows as "Excellent" and this one as "Just Okay".

**But, the food in the restaurants is definitely better than ever!

Agree! Food was really good, though I was disappointed in the lobster served on captain's gala night. Seemed over-cooked and not that good.

**Many of the children's programming seemed to not coincide with adult programs....I have at least 4 examples where DW and I wanted to do something, but were shut out because the club or lab were in transition et al...for example, DW and I were set to go to Kitchen Galley tour at 2:55 pm on Thursday, 2nd sea day, only to find out Flounders was not open at that time for the baby....NICE

Noticed this as well. Whoever put the schedule together for this cruise really did a poor job. Probably the worst example was scheduling the final "Til we Meet Again" event from 10:15 to 10:45 on Friday night....after a full day at Castaway Cay and when luggage needed to be outside your door by 11:00pm. They really needed to give people until at least 11:30 or even midnight to get the luggage out or move "Til we Meet Again" up to 9:45 or so.

**Rich Purpura, Freddy Fusion, Gary Delena.....Do they have compromising photos of DCL executives?

You didn't like them? I thought all three were great and would love to see any of the three again on a future cruise.

**debarkation disappointingly long and VERY un-DCL like....waited to get off ship, waited just after we got off ship, waited for a luggage porter, waited on a huge line to go through customs.....

Had the same problems. Only been on one DCL cruise prior to this, but debarkation was much smoother on that one!

Nevertheless, there were some highlights

**Head waiter Aleksandra from the Netherlands.....one of the few restaurant CMs who IMO actually enjoyed speaking to us (go ahead and flame, but I've always thought the the waitstaff to be a tad insincere...especially the fake disappointment when my DSs and baby were in club/Flounders instead of joining us for dinner)

lol...we had the opposite. Our head waiter was about as useless as they come and made me feel stupid for even handing him a tip. If there was a way to call DCL and take his tip back I would! Our server and assistant servers were great though....as was our stateroom host.

**Flying Dutchmen at CC....a nice touch in an otherwise boring 1/2 day....

We though this was cool as well, but went parasailing, snorkling, etc... so had a far from boring day at CC. For us the St. Thomas was incredible boring....at least Magen's Bay was which is where we decided to go for the afternoon.

Will be researching extensively the Freedom of Seas for future cruises, which I think will probably blow away DCL in amenities and value from the reviews I've read....DCL is priced way too high for what you get, and trust me, the overall experience is no where near as good as 2-3 years ago.....

We already booked a 4 day on the Wonder for next year....I'm hoping it doesn't have the same 'stinky bathroom' problem as the Magic did!

 

[pgfour]

Very interesting report. We're going on the Eastern cruise in November; hopefully your experience was an exception, not the rule.

Nevertheless, it's good to go into something with realistic expectations, so we won't be expecting perfection! That being said, smells, rudeness, and poor service are unacceptable.

Hope your experiences with other lines will be better!

Cheri

 

[DISNEYMOMTO1]

So sorry you had such an "un" magical trip. I was on the same cruise and DD8 and I had a fabulous time. So much so, we are booking a Western for 2008 when the dates come out. Didn't notice any problems with the sewer, except sometimes making noise. Didn't have any kind of smell in our room, either. Maybe it was just that side of the ship? I don't know. I will say we were hardly ever in our room, so we didn't notice.

I don't have anything to compare our trip with; however, this was our first cruise with any cruise line. I will agree about the debarkation process, though. What a nightmare! Character lines went fast for us, and my DD "chased" characters to get in the front of the line. She always knew who was going to be where, LOL.

Our Server, Densak from Thailand, left alot to be desired and our head server was hardly ever around. He didn't even show up for the last night or the morning, so OH WELL, he didn't get a tip from us. Our assistant server Paz from Chile was WONDERFUL and bonded with DD. DD cried and was sad to leave.

We enjoyed all our excursions through Disney. However, Coral World is a little run down. I guess it is what you are used to. DD got seasick on the Sea and See Island Tour, but had a good time anyways. The stingray feeding at Castaway Cay was outstanding, and we spent the day at the beach and it was wonderful. Did anyone see the coast guard come onto Castaway Cay? I wonder what that was about. The food was great, and I loved all the shows. I thought Gary and Rich were funny. DD absolutely loved all three production shows. I agree with you on Twice Charmed.

Mickey pool being closed for a couple hours on at sea day really sucked, but there is nothing you can do when you have kids who have accidents in pools, nothing Disney can do either.

IMHO, I went on this cruise for DD's birthday and she enjoyed every single minute of it and I wouldn't change it for the world. Everyone made her birthday a special day, beginning with room service BD cake. That is really all that mattered to me.

Hope you enjoy your future cruises!

 

[SweetSpot]

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise. We found the same disappointing experience last year on our 4th cruise and are hoping things have changed this year. We were in a transition in staff last year and all the CM's seemed to be still getting use to their time on the ship. One piece of advice, go into the Explorer cruise with an open mind. We were comparing the two when we went in June and there really is no comparison. We came away understanding why DCL costs more but in the end both were very good cruises.

What have they replaced the themed lunch buffets with? Does this mean there are no seafood, Italian, Chinese...? It would be horrible if lunch became the same thing day in and day out like breakfast.

 

[Stinasmom]

You know, after thinking about your "un-magical" cruise... I remembered that you said this was your 10th (!!) DCL cruise. Did this last experience really cancel out all of your previous experiences? To rebook 9 times (!!) after a first DCL cruise must have meant you thought this was a really good use of a lot of vacation dollars!
I would be VERY curious to hear your comparison of your future cruises on a different cruise line to the reality of your overall experience on DCL (not just the last one). Has DCL really "lost it" over the years or was this an isolated set of incidences?

Also you mentioned having a child young enough to need the services of Flounders. I wonder how satisfying the child care services will be on the "other" cruise line? (Although, I have to say, I can't believe Flounders has certain hours and isn't staffed all day like the other kids clubs on DCL. That makes no sense).
Sorry, again that your most recent trip was so sub par. I hope Disney has heard about your dissatisfactions too!

 

[staceymerrill]

stinasmom:

Up until this recent cruise, I was a huge DCL fan.....my oldest 2 DSs grew up on DCL cruises since they were babies.....LOL - my dentist became a DCL fanatic based on my original recommendation .....

I think the genesis of of my dissatisfaction with this cruise began with the cost....as we now have a baby, 11 months, our party of 5 required me to book connecting cat. 9 staterooms....although I booked a year ago onboard , and received a $400 stateroom credit, I wound up spending at least $1500 more for this cruise than any previous 7-day....Thus, my expectations for this cruise were elevated, yet ultimately unfulfilled....Moreover, I think DCL has gone way overboard (pun intended) , restricting FL res rates, and IMO fostering OPEC-Like pricing ....restricting supply (no new ships) to get maximum $.....why is it that every mass market cruise line introduces new and better ships, yet an entertainment giant like Disney hasn't? makes you wonder.....The Disney trivia expert onboard (forgot his name) could only give the "little thing called 9/11" excuse....

Unfortunately, I don't think my negative experience was isolated....one thing that I didnt even mention in my report that bothered me - I think the ship is really starting to show wear.....again, 5-15 minute late starts of certain programming, corners cut IMO with respect to labor (they cut out ethnic buffets IMO so they wouldnt have to man 'cook to order" stations)

As for the child care services i.e. Flounders, I am aware that DCL is unique in this offering....the next family cruise we take, our baby will be old enough to partake in regular childrens programming aboard RCCL FOS....note also that Flounders is open far less than Oceaneers...on 2nd sea day, hours were 10-2 during the day, so DW and I couldnt go together to 2:55 galley tour

dursin, I am glad that you commiserate with me on some of my complaints , as IMO I thought they were legit and not nitpicky.....although, even on our best DCL cruises, I never bought into the "Castaway Cay" is paradise sensibility.....it is , and always will be IMO, a very clean, nice beach and island with a DJ that needs to buy some new CDs that don't skip.....I figure those who live in Hawaii who would take a DCL cruise would agree with me....we have some pretty nice beaches here in S. FL as well....

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

Hey Stacey and DH!! (betsy from WPB)

We had Alexsandra last year and we even went to AP to say hello on embarkment...she was so great!! Loved her...

We never had a smell, but the water tasted salty and we had to switch to bottled after a few days

ps...remember FOTS holds something like 4k people...they did a article about the passengers standing in line for long periods because the amount of people that were onboard..also..the ship kinda floods an island with all the passengers when it docks and some islands are having a hard time with it.
At least..that is what I was reading when she first started sailing

 

[stretch]

I was on the same cruise and would like to share some of my observations both good and bad.

1. My family liked Twiced Charmed (are we the only ones)! The real waste of time was that silly show (if you can call it that) on the last night, can't remember it's name.

2. Kids clubs were awsome. Big problem though, unlike before, on the first night it's open house to all. I know this is to make some kids more comfortable but it had the opposite effect on ours. They said it was so niosy and crowded that they couldn't have fun. They had no desire to go back! Once we convinced them to try it again they loved it. If they had not been on a previous Disney cruise I doubt they would have gone back.

3. Food in the dining rooms much improved from last years cruise!

4. Had the brown stuff come out in our water too. YUK!

5. Servers in restaurants not as good. Just like the orginal poster said they acted like they were disappointed when we chose not to bring our kids. I believe it had more to do with their being afraid that we would not tip them their amount if we didn't bring them.

6. Server seemed "put out" by any type of special request, no matter how minor.

7. Getting off the ship was a nighmare!

8. Agree on the long lines everywhere. You would think that the amount Disney charges there should be numerous character appearances all over the ship. I have to laugh everytime I see the promo video showing the kids and the characters with no one else around! Like that really happens!

9. Topsiders buffet food quality has gone down.

10. First trip to Palo's. Wonderful!

11. BBQ had Castaway Cay was AWFUL. Also, nothing like sitting on a WOODEN table that is being used over and over again! Not very sanitary.

12. Castaway Cay was beautiful. Thanks for the tip about walking to the far side. Smaller crowd made it a more enjoyable experience than last trip.

13. Wasn't the weather beautiful!!

14. Boarding by numbers? HA! Nobody checked or seem to care what number you had when you boarded.

15. Castaway Club get together was boring and overcrowded. Left after 5 minutes.