Would love to hear about your story if you are willing to share. If not, I understand. Which ship?
MJ
The Cerveny Family Series of Unfortunate Events
We set sail on October 15th 2016 with connecting 09B staterooms on deck 2. We have 4 young children (currently 2, 3.5, 5, 7) so we felt
DCL was the best bet in getting a little grown-up relaxing time during our trip. Here is a day by day summary of our trip.
(The week prior to sailing) My wife and I had nasty colds early in the week but are starting to feel better by the end of the week. My wife’s grandmother has a fall and is hospitalized. My wife has POA for her grandmother and spends much of the week before our trip on the phone, managing the situation remotely.
Friday - We fly from Newark to Orlando and spend the night in the Hyatt MCO. My wife is complaining of increasing sinus pressure.
Saturday - We woke up and my wife was feeling much worse. Her cold was turning into a sinus infection with a headache that would last nearly all week. She complains of tremendous sinus pain that does not improve with OTC painkillers. We feel it’s okay for her to board as she does not have a fever and sinus infections are not contagious. Once we set sail my wife immediately visits the health center. $174 later she returns with antibiotics and generic NyQuil and DayQuil. We celebrate my son’s 2nd birthday at dinner in Animator's Palate. My wife is feeling so poorly she goes to bed with the kids. I hang around the stateroom for the rest of the evening so she doesn’t have to get up if the kids need assistance.
Sunday – The ship diverts to Miami due to a guest medical emergency. We are close enough to Miami to get a signal on our cell phones. We find out my wife’s grandmother is in the ICU as her conditioned worsened. My wife is still feeling pretty bad and the DayQuil and antibiotics are making her feel dizzy. Due to diversion in Miami the captain had to push the Fantasy hard through the night to make up lost time still arriving at Cozumel a couple hours late. The 3.5 year old has us up couple times through the night and there is a loud vibration/buzzing noise in our staterooms, maybe from the ship traveling faster? We have trouble sleeping due to the noise.
Monday - First of 3 nights in a row dinner is interrupted. My wife is starting to feel better. We drop all the kids off in the morning wife and I can enjoy a little time together. We just start to relax when the nursery texts us that the 2yo is very upset and not calming down. We quickly finish our drinks and retrieve the kids. The afternoon went ok with time at the pool and taking kids trick-or-treating. We drop all the kids off at their respective clubs and head to dinner at the Royal Court. Early in the meal our drink sever spills a glass of red wine all over me and my appetizer. Wine is literally dripping off my arms, my shirt and pants are soaked. I have to run back to our room and get changed. I wasn’t that upset about what happened and was provided with a voucher to get my clothes cleaned and our drinks were comped. A new appetizer is served and we finish dinner without any other incidents.
Tuesday - My wife is feeling a little better but still has that headache. We spend the day with the kids at the pool. We go to Palo’s for dinner. We are enjoying a very nice meal and purchase a bottle of wine and have it decanted. Midway through the main course we are approached by Palo staff that the nursery had called and we need to pick up our 2 year old immediately as he had a “loose” diaper and is now in baby quarantine. My wife talks to them on the phone and learns this was a normal (for him) diaper but the nursery insists he must be picked up immediately. She is extremely upset and starts to cry some as we are told we can’t even finish our meal. We quickly gulp down the wine and pay the $100+ bill and head on our way. The nursery staff tells us that even if this type of diaper is normal for him, he must be cleared by medical before he can come back. We are both very upset by this, and by not getting to finish our meal at Palo’s but there is nothing we can do but wait until morning when medical opens. I go to customer service to complain about our evening. They offered a $70 stateroom credit.
Wednesday - My wife’s sinus infection is worsening and she tell me she wants go home now considering how things had gone so far. We go to medical as soon as it opens. We see the doctor who agrees our son is healthy and “loose” diapers are normal for him. It costs us $152 for the doctor visit and a note clearing him to return to the nursery! Later that day my wife is still not feeling well so she goes to medical again. They give her a steroid shot and Z-Pak since the current antibiotics weren’t working. The doctor says her 4 day long headache is from stress. Another $94 to the medical center.
We get all the kids into their respective clubs and sit down for dinner. Just as our main entrees are placed in front of us we get a call from the nursery that we need to pick our son immediately as he has a 102 fever. We are confused because he was fine when we dropped him off 45 min ago. On the phone they said they took his temp 3 times and it came back 99, 101, and 102. I run up to get him at 6:50pm and they say he can’t come back until he is cleared by medical. I was very angry when speaking the staff saying there must be a problem with your thermometer as you took 3 reading closely together and they were that different. I run my son back to my wife in Enchanted Garden and we both agree by touch that he doesn’t have a fever. I then run my son to medical. The nurse said the temp was fine and then feels my son and said “this kid is not sick.” The nurse suggests that maybe the nursery should calibrate their thermometers?? I get the required clearance and then get the notice one of the other kids wants to be picked up. By the time I make it back to dinner with the kids my meal it is cold. My wife waited for me but we both didn’t finish dinner that night as it was cold and we were very upset.
After dinner I headed to customer service to complain that 2 times I have been pulled from dinner for issues that were false alarms. My wife spoke to the manager of youth services at the nursery. They apologized several times and offered to comp all our nursery time that we had used during the week and what we already had scheduled. The manager also offered to personally stay with our son the next morning while my wife and I attempt to attend Palo brunch. Due to all this our family missed the Pirate deck party at 7:45pm which we all planned to go to. We try to see Stitch at 9:15pm but the line is way too long for our little ones to wait in and we left disappointed. After the way the evening had gone I am ready to go home also. After the kids were in bed I brought plates from the pirate buffet back to our room for dinner.
Thursday - After getting the kids fed and off to their respective clubs my wife and I nervously have brunch at Palo. We are very anxious the nursery will call us but thankfully we are not called during the meal. We pick up our son and tell the nursery we will no longer be using their services the rest of the week as it was just too much stress. I line up snorkel gear, floats, and bikes for the family at Castaway. As we are getting ready for bed we keep hearing chanting and singing in our stateroom. After putting my ear the floor we figure it is the crew down below making all the noise. We are startled awake at 3:30am due to a Brightstar alarm in our stateroom for one of the crew. We lie awake worrying in bed for a while as we can’t remember if Brightstar means fire or medical emergency. After so much drama during the week, the customer services desk is in my dreams.
Friday -
Castaway Cay day and the seas are really rough. Most excursions are cancelled. We can’t find two chairs together on the family beach even though we were off the ship before 9:00. The water is so rough that our floats weren’t safe for the children and the snorkeling gear was no good as the water is super cloudy with all the stirred up sand. We did enjoy a nice family bike ride. I thought about going to customer service once we were back on the ship to ask for some of our money back for the items that we couldn't use due to the rough water. I decided not to go since I had already been there enough during the week. When filling out the surveys my wife and I realized we basically did nothing on our cruise. We didn’t see any shows or entertainment. We didn’t go to any activities. Out of 2 attempts we made it through Palo once.
Saturday - Early wake-up call is tough with the kids. We are in line to debark when there is a short interruption to find a lost cellphone (left in the stateroom) and a misplaced KTTW card (had to get a reprint from customer services). The customs line is very long and we finally make it back to MCO about 11am. The kids are a pain throughout the airport and the wife begs with me that we don’t have to vacation next year. After a short weather delay we have a pretty bumpy flight home with one of those scary landings where everyone cheers because we are still alive.
We had planned a weeklong trip to Disney World next year but after this trip we are going to wait until the kids are a lot bigger.
